St. Peter did not have a bank account...
"Freely you have received, freely give." Pope Francis said everything is grace and when we leave grace “a little to one side” in our proclamation, the Gospel “is not effective".
"Evangelical preaching flows from gratuitousness, from the wonder of the salvation that comes and that which I have freely received I must freely give. This is what they were like at the beginning. St. Peter did not have a bank account, and when he had to pay taxes, the Lord sent him to the sea to catch fish and find the money in the fish, to pay. Philip, when he meet Queen Candace’s finance minister, did not think, 'Ah, good, let’s set up an organization to support the Gospel ...' No! He did not strike a ‘deal’ with him: he preached, baptized and left".
Pope Francis said the Kingdom of God, "is a free gift”, but he also added that from the beginning of the Christian community, this attitude has been subjected to temptation. "There is the temptation to seek strength", he said, “ elsewhere than in gratuity”. This temptation creates "a little 'confusion," he warned, where “proclamation becomes proselytizing”. Instead "our strength is the gratuitousness of the Gospel." The Lord, "has invited us to preach, not to proselytize." Citing Benedict XVI, Pope Francis stated that "the Church does not grow through proselytizing but by drawing people to her". And this attraction, he said, comes from the testimony of "those who freely proclaim the gratuity of salvation".
"Everything is grace. Everything." - Homily 6/11/13
St. Therese said the same thing.
Francis is a 'little' Pope.
H/T Jackie
Very nice Terry and so true...we have been given a gift and we should be filled with joy and pass it on with joy. Hard to remember and do when burdened with everyday work and frustrations to remember that we to use a cliche, lead by example and not nagging or standing on a soapbox,which I have a really bad habit of doing! Francis is just what the Church and all of us needed right now, another gift of God's grace.
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful words about Pope Francis but Terry I don't understand what your issues are with the donate button. It really is not good to judge people who perhaps have been forced by economic circumstances to beg. Do people have to make their private financial matters public before it becomes acceptable to have a donate button? Perhaps the person with a donate button is a mother whose child's father is not able to support either of them and their situation is indeed dire. The world can be a scary place when one is trying to bring up a child on very little money and guess what, some of us are not too proud to beg.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elena - I was in error - again! Forgive me - I took it down.
DeleteYou are so right.
Thank you Terry for reminding us again of our dear sister St. Therese. Today she was particularly present and seemed to lead me to the words of her beloved sister in Christ Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity,"I am not afraid of my weakness, for within me is the Strong One, and His Power is Almighty." Pope Francis in his wisdom quotes Pope Benedict"the Church does not grow through proselytizing but by drawing people to her"." Perhaps Therese would say simply- through love of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteAnd Terry, I think you are usually right about most things and you have amazing insights which you present with wisdom and humor. But oh boy when you are wrong, you are very wrong.
ReplyDeleteThanks Elena - I don't know about the wisdom and insight - the silliness maybe - the being wrong - that is for sure. Which is why it is better for people not to read me, and if they do, only for entertainment.
DeleteThis blog is truly entertaining.
ReplyDelete