“Charity has always been, in the tradition of the Bible, in both the New and Old Testament, a touchstone of justice". "Jesus advises us this: 'Do not sound your own trumpet.' The second piece of advice: 'Do not give only what's left over.' He speaks to us of the old woman who gave everything she had to live. And praises that woman for doing this . She even did it a little 'hidden, perhaps because she was ashamed of not being able to give more. "

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Christian life is not "cosmetic", "in appearance only", "it is not only reciting the Creed," but "faith active in charity" said Pope Francis in his homily at Mass celebrated at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the passage in the Gospel - that of the Pharisee surprised  by the Master who does not fulfill the prescribed ablutions before eating - a reminder that Jesus' condemnation of that kind of certainty centered in the "fulfillment of the law".

"Jesus condemns this cosmetic spirituality, [which attempts to] look good, beautiful - but the truth inside is something else. Jesus condemns the people of good manners but of bad habits, those habits that are not seen, but practice in secret. Everything seems in place: these people who liked to walk in the streets, to be seen praying, to 'make themselves with a little 'weakness when fasting. Is the Lord perhaps like this? You see that there are two  adjectives he uses here, [distinct], but related: greed and wickedness."

Jesus will call these Pharisees "whitewashed sepulchres" in the Gospel according to Matthew. Here, he invites them rather to give alms, which in Biblical tradition - in both the Old Testament and the New - a touchstone and paragon of justice. Such works of charity are essential, he explained, for, howsoever important it might be, "the law on its own does not save":

"That, which avails, is faith - which faith? That, 'which worketh by love' - [this is] the same thing Jesus said to the Pharisee: a faith that is not merely reciting the Creed - we all believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, eternal life. We all believe! This, however, is a [static] faith, not one that is 'at work'. That, which in Christ Jesus avails, is the hard work that comes from faith, or rather the faith that works through charity - that is, the faith that returns to almsgiving - almsgiving in the broadest sense of the word: of detaching oneself from the dictatorship of money, from the idolatry of lucre. Every disordered desire distances us from Jesus Christ."

Pope Francis went on to recall an episode in the life of his late confrére, Father Arrupe, SJ Superior General of the Jesuits from the sixties to the eighties. One day, explained the Holy Father, a rich lady invited him someplace to give him money for the missions in Japan, to which Fr. Arrupe was committed. She handed over the envelope on the doorstep of a building, right on the street, before reporters and photographers, and Fr. Arrupe said he had suffered a "great humiliation," but he had accepted the money, "for the poor people of Japan." When he opened the envelope, there were ten dollars inside. "Let us ask ourselves," said Pope Francis, "whether is a cosmetically Christian life, of [mere] appearance of a Christian life, or  whether it is a Christian life of faith that is industrious in loving":  

"Jesus offers us this advice: 'Do not sound the trumpet'. The second piece of advice: 'Do not give only of your excess' - and He is speaking to us of that old woman who gave everything she had to live on, and He praises that woman for having done it - and she did it half-secretly, for she was ashamed not to be able to give more."

 

 

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