Posted on 09/07/2013 5:48:38 AM PDT by markomalley
Christians must never forget that the centre of their life is Jesus Christ. That was the message of Pope Francis at Mass this morning at the Casa Santa Marta. The Pope emphasised that we must overcome the temptation to be “Christians without Jesus” or Christians that seek only devotions, without Jesus.
Pope Francis dedicated his whole homily to the centrality of Jesus in the life of the Christian. “Jesus,” he said, “is the centre. Jesus is the Lord. And yet, he maintained, this is not always understood well, “it is not easily understood.” Jesus is not a lord of this or that, but is “the Lord, the only Lord.” He is the centre that “regenerates us, grounds us”: this is the Lord, “the centre.” The Pharisees of today’s Gospel, Pope Francis noted, “make so many commandments the centre of their religiosity.” Even today, “if Jesus is not at the centre, there will be many other things,” so that “we meet many Christians without Christ, without Jesus:
“For example, those who have the sickness of the Pharisees and are Christians that put their faith, their religiosity in so many commandments, so many. ‘Ah, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this. Christians of this attitude . . . ‘But why do you do this?’ – ‘No, it must be done!’ – ‘But why?’ – ‘Ah, I don’t know, but it must be done.’ And Jesus – where is He? A commandment is valid if it comes from Jesus: I do this because the Lord wants me to do this. But if I am a Christian without Christ, I do this and I don’t know why I have to do it.”
There are, he added, “other Christians without Christ: those who only seek devotions . . . But Jesus is not there. If your devotions bring you to Christ, that works. But if you remain there, something’s wrong.” There’s another kind of Christian without Christ, he continued, “those who seek things that are a little uncommon, a little special, that go back to private revelations,” while the Revelation concluded with the New Testament. Pope Francis warned about the desire of these Christians to go to “a spectacle of revelation, to hear new things.” But, the Pope exhorted them, “take the Gospel!”:
“‘But Father, what is the rule for being a Christian with Christ, and not becoming a Christian without Christ. What is the sign of a person that is a Christian with Christ?’ The rule is simple: only that which brings you to Jesus is valid, and only that is valid that comes from Jesus. Jesus is the centre, the Lord, as He Himself says. Does this bring you to Jesus? Go ahead. Does this commandment, this attitude, come from Jesus? Go ahead. But if it doesn’t bring you to Jesus, and if it doesn’t come from Jesus, but . . . if you don’t know, it’s a bit dangerous.”
And again the Pope asks, “What is the sign that I am a Christian with Jesus?” The sign, he said, is simple. It is the sign of the one born blind that prostrated himself before Jesus to adore Him:
“But if you aren’t able to adore Jesus, you’re missing something. A rule, a sign. The sign is: I am a good Christian, I am on the path of a good Christian if I do that which comes from Jesus and if I do that which leads me to Jesus, because he is the centre. The sign is: I am capable of adoring, the adoration. This prayer of adoration of Jesus. The Lord makes us understand that He alone is the Lord, the unique Lord. And He gives us, too, the grace of loving Him so much, of following Him, of going along the path that He has shown us.”
The CCC states this about Mary.....
From the Catechism of the Catholic church....
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p6.htm
969 “This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”510
Which is blasphemy, giving her titles and thereby assigning her characteristics of God Himself.
Names of God from the Bible. Compare them to the names given to Mary.
Jesus
Advocate - 1 John 2:1
Mediator - 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15, Hebrews 12:24
Holy Spirit
Helper - John 14:16
This is worship of Mary if ever there was.....Attributing to her the attributes of God is idolatry.
John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Scripture is clear in calling her *mother of Jesus* not *mother of God*.
You said: “The Pope is addressing those who claim the title of Christian but live without Christ. Anyone who is not filled with anti-Catholic prejudice would understand that he is condemning this.”
And in these weekly addresses the Pope is speaking not just to Catholics, but to all Christians, and/or profess to follow Christ, whether or not that person meets our individual and personal definition of being a Christian. Only Jesus knows the answer to that, not us.
oooh! A picture of a graven image. God ain’t gonna like that.
When we see error, it is our duty to point it out. Whoa!! Is that a beam in your eye? That must hurt.
And then there are some who say that if you read Paul’s letters (& the Book of Acts) and follow them, you are not a Christian. This is because “Saul (aka Paul) persecuted Christ and early Christians and wrote those letters only to corrupt the teachings of Jesus. I don’t now if this group has a name, or if I just found a couple of isolated individuals in a religious chat room more than a decade ago. I guess they could be called “Four Gospels Only Christians + Revelation.”
Your post “He is the cornerstone the builders (that’s past and present day church leaders) rejected.” The gospel is stating that it was the Jewish leadership of the day that rejected Jesus as the cornerstone.
I apologize for not noting the “tag” you have selected to use after your name earlier.
true dat. But He and His teachings are still being rejected today.
Just because the Jews rejected Him as the cornerstone, doesn’t mean He isn’t.
HE is still the rock on which the church, His body, is built.
Jesus Christ is both human and Divine. As the first fruits, He still has a body, but now it is a resurrected body.
Recall after the resurrection, he asked for a bit of fish/meat to consume.
You can't see the one, true church...
Yeah, and it's coming from all the anti-Prots, the Prot haters.....
See, two can play that game.....
HE is still the rock on which the church, His body, is built.,p>
Amen.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
I'll stick with God's theology instead of yours...
I think we all realize that. It’s that he felt there was that great a problem that had to be addressed. In a truly Spirit filled assembly of believers I can’t imagine that thought ever crossing the mind of either the leadership or the lay. Jesus is not just the “center point” of our salvation. He is our only salvation and our only hope.
Absolutely...They demand that Mary be given the attributes of a Deity...
It’s stunning that one even need to make that statement. That fact that the leader of the worlds largest religion makes a statement like “Christians without Jesus” is telling.
Amen!
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