Pope Francis on doing good...

"Let us go to him then, outside the gate, to bear his shame..."

I write that from memory - I think it is Hebrews 13.  I thought of that verse after reading the Holy Father's homily today.  The Pope said, "We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”  On a personal level, I understood it to mean even 'outside the gate' - hence my reflection upon the verse from Hebrews.

The good we do must be good however.

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.” - Finish reading here.

Sadly, I'm reminded of Obama asking God's blessing upon Planned Parenthood... something George Weigel said "is nothing short of blasphemy".

Blasphemy is a grave sin - be careful never to take the Name of God in vain.  The commandment is not simply limited to banning the Holy Name as a swear word.