Vatican City, Mar 28, 2018 / 05:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Wednesday Pope Francis said the Easter Triduum is the most important time of year for Christians, and stressed that those who truly allows themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ resurrection, while still being sinners, cannot be corrupt.
“A Christian, if he truly allows himself to be washed by Christ, if he truly lets himself be stripped of the ‘old man’ to walk in a new life, even while remaining a sinner, he cannot be corrupt,” the Pope said March 28. “He can no longer live with death in the soul, nor can he be the cause of death.”
The justification Jesus offered by dying on the cross “saves us from corruption,” he said, stressing, as he often has, that while everyone is a sinner, Christians must never be corrupt.
Francis said it is “sad and painful” to see “fake Christians” who claim to be walking according to the path given by Jesus after his resurrection, but who, in reality, are living a corrupt life.
“These fake-Christians will end poorly,” he said, adding that “a Christian, I repeat, is a sinner, we all are, I am, but we have the certainty that when we ask for forgiveness the Lord will forgive us. The fake Christian pretends to ask for forgiveness, but in their heart is rotten.”
He then asked pilgrims to join him in praying for these “mafia-Christians,” who say they follow Christ, but in reality harm themselves and others. “Let us pray for them,” he said, “that the Lord would touch their heart and soul.”
Pope Francis spoke to pilgrims gathered for his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square. He dedicated his catechesis to the Easter Triduum, which he said are “the most important days in the liturgical year,” and signify “the fundamental phases of our faith and of our vocation in the world.”
All Christians, he said, “are called to live the three holy days as, so to speak, the ‘matrix’ of their personal and community lives.”
He pointed to St. Paul’s assertion in the Second Book of Corinthians that “the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” Later, in his letter to the Romans, Paul describes the Easter transformation in a different way, saying Christ “was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
“The only, the only one that justifies you, the only one that makes you born again is Jesus Christ, no one else!” the Pope said in off-the-cuff remarks, adding that “this is the greatness of the love of Jesus: he gave his life to make us holy, to renew us, to forgive us. And this is precisely the core of the paschal mystery.”
In the Triduum, the memory of Christ’s death and resurrection is celebrated and at the same time renews in those who are baptized during the liturgy “the meaning of their new condition,” he said.
This is why there are always people who are baptized during the Easter vigil, Francis explained, noting that during this week’s vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica he will baptize eight people “who will begin their Christian life” in the Church.
Easter is also a time for solidarity with those who suffer, he said, noting that Christians can see the face of Christ in the vulnerable and those experiencing pain, and are able to love them with the same love Jesus offered through his sacrifice on the cross.
In another aside, Francis noted how in many countries, including Argentina, mothers will take their children to wash their face and eyes on Easter morning as a symbol of being able to see “in a new way, to see things in the way of Jesus.”
He encouraged everyone with children to try this, seeing it as a concrete “sign of how to see Jesus risen.”
Pope Francis closed his speech by asking that Mary would accompany everyone as the Triduum begins, that they may be “more deeply inserted into the mystery of Christ, his death and resurrection for us.”
Mary “followed Jesus in his Passion, was present and united to him on the Cross, and received in her maternal heart the immense joy of the resurrection,” he said, and prayed that she would obtain for all “the grace of being internally moved by the celebrations of the coming days, so that our heart and our lives will truly be transformed.”
After his speech, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims in different languages from around the world. In his greeting to Spanish-speaking pilgrims, he encouraged them to “have the courage to go to confession in these days, make a good confession!”
[…]
So they are meeting on a problem that currently has good stats but not meeting on the presence of active gays in the clergy like the orgy incident in Rome and the two priests caught in a sexual act in Miami with each other last week and the male prostitute in the Milan area two months ago who avers having had sinful contact with 36 priests. But the meeting is about the largely gay area that is currently quiet…abuse of minors. Well that sounds like we don’t need consultancy help.
Does anybody have any information about what is happening to Cardinal Pell? There’s been blank silence for quite some time, and considering that there seems to be a fair amount of evidence that he is being railroaded, I’m concerned.
I wish I could help you out there Leslie. It seems that for some reason things have stalled. As far as I know though: the trial is still going ahead. I have heard him speak a few times and met him once. I have always had grave fears as to there being a fair trial. He said himself once that he doesn’t go making things up. He simply upholds what the Church teaches, come fair weather or foul. There are those who hate him for it.
Stephen in Australia.
I should have mentioned. There is an Australian journal of conservative opinion. The name of it is Quadrant. When in a newsagents; I was amazed to see an essay in it, written very recently by Cardinal Pell. The essay is titled – The Church in a Post Christian World. It is dated: September 12Th 2018. Search Quadrant and you will be able to see it. However, unless you subscribe, you won’t be able to read it in full just yet. The whole matter is of great concern. Hope this has been some help.
Stephen.
39 mnutes ago..ny times…Di Nardo, president of Bishops facing accusation of transferring molestor…..
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/12/us/ap-us-clergy-abuse-dinardo.html
Bergoglio’s synod on “the protection of minors” is a sham. As we all know, the problem is not pedophilia but massive homosexuality among 50% to 70% of all priests and the priest-bishop-Cardinal homosexual networks that are strangling the Church. Still less does the Church need another synod to talk rather than to act. Again, as everyone should know, it was Bergoglio who unilaterally destroyed the bishop sexual abuse investigation-and-trial proceeding that his own sexual abuse commission had strongly recommended. Since Bergoglio has doubled down on his delay-deflect-and-deny strategy with this cynical synod announcement, it is time for the DOJ and the Attorney-Generals in all 50 states to treat him and the American PervChurch for what they are: criminals and moral degenerates.
Paul, I don’t doubt that there are men who are priests and who are gay. There are a few I’ve met that I suspect lean that way. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they are faithful to their vow of chastity. You claim that 50 – 70% of priests are gay. From where do you get that statistic? I’ve been around priests all my life. My closest friend is a priest. I know he’s not gay and neither are the men I’ve known who are priests. Please tell me from where you get this statistic.
It might come from this much discussed and cited 2003 essay by Fr. Paul Mankowski, in which he states: “I would estimate that between 50 and 60 percent of the men who entered religious life with me in the mid-70s were homosexuals who had no particular interest in the Church, but who were using the celibacy requirement of the priesthood as a way of camouflaging the real reason for the fact that they would never marry.” Or perhaps from Sipes.
I think you are quite correct. The Bishop’s Conferences have no canonical authority at all. This is like a high school principal asking the Student Council to address the problem of incompetent teachers. Except that it doesn’t sound so obviously stupid.