Pope Francis says Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, Oct. 4, 2015. Credit: L'Osservatore Romano.
Posted on 10/10/2015 3:20:07 PM PDT by NYer
.- In his homily on Friday Pope Francis focused on the importance of knowing how to discern whether something comes from God or the devil, who seduces and leads us to either become too rigid or relativistic.
“The Evil Spirit never tires...the Christian can never be assured that all is well, he must discern things and be well aware of where they come from, of what their roots are,” the Pope said Oct. 9 during his Mass in the chapel of the Vatican's Saint Martha guesthouse.
In his homily, the Pope centered on the day’s Gospel passage from Luke, in which after casting out a demon from a man, Christ is accused by the crowd of collaborating with the demon Beelzebul.
The group, Pope Francis said, “did not appreciate him and sought to interpret Jesus’ words and actions in a different way, against Jesus.”
While some did this out of envy, others had a “doctrinal rigidity” they couldn’t let go of, he said. Still others were afraid that the Romans would come to massacre them.
“For many reasons they sought to distance Jesus’ authority from the people, even with slander as in this case...they continually put him to the test, put a trap in front of him, to see if he fell.”
Francis cautioned that such misinterpretations of the situation come from the evil spirit, who stealthily enters a person and “drop by drop” gives them instructions on how to “do things with relativism.”
In order to guard against the evil spirit, one must discern the roots of any given situation, because “temptations always return.”
He emphasized the importance of being watchful and vigilant, because “the bad spirit never tires,” but enters and makes us fall into an even worse situation.
The devil “is hidden, he comes with his very polite friends, knocks at the door, asks for permission, comes in, and lives with that person,” Francis said, explaining that little by little the devil leads the person away from God.
When relativism enters its like “soothing the conscience (or) anaesthetizing the conscience,” he said.
Pope Francis stressed that “when the evil spirit succeeds in anaesthetizing the conscience, it is then he can claim a true victory, for he has become the master of that conscience.”
This can lead one to take on attitudes that say “everyone has problems, everyone sins,” he said, but cautioned that inside the ‘everyone’ is really ‘no one,’ meaning 'everyone yes, but me no.’
Francis said that watchfulness and discernment are both key remedies for such attacks, and encouraged attendees to follow the Church’s counsel in making a daily examination of conscience.
“What happened today in my heart because of this? From where do these comments, words, teachings come? Who says this?”
Both are needed “in order to not allow the one who deceives, seduces and fascinates enter,” he said, and prayed that the Lord would give them the grace to both discern well and be watchful.
Ping!
doctrinal rigidity ... doctrinal rigidity ... doctrinal rigidity ...
Seems to be a recurring theme, a great concern. Because Catholic churches the world over are plagued with doctrinal rigidity. The worst problem since loneliness and CO2.
It gets old early these days.
Is the pope Catholic?
Yet Francis is doing his best to deny Jesus' authority with his evil synod.
“relativistic.” I remember when “moral relativalism” began in the late 1960s. It was being talked about by students and slowly crept into the theology and philosophy course of the men’s Catholic college I attended. I had an innate bad sensing about it and where it would lead. My fears have been shown to be more than fulfilled these last 45 years since graduation.
This pope is not of God and does not follow the bible so who is he to talk.
A beguiling deceiver.
A charismatic, evil charmer to lead you and the world astray.
A DEVIL POPE, well-loved by his friend, Obama.
i would’say that relativism/rationalization is a far worse thing to fall into that rigidity, when discussing the way christians should live.
some call rigidity good habits. or strong moral character. or walking the walk. living their faith/values.
he is trying to paint rigidity as some kind of ideological non-think i believe this because its what i have been taught, like rigid christians are like radical muslims.
People decide on their OWN moral absolutes. Talk about arrogance.
Arrogance/pride IS the first of the seven deadly sins.
.
.
Seven deadly sins: PALEGGS = PRIDE, anger, lust, envy, greed, gluttony and sloth
Then you do remember Pope Benedict's (Panzer Pope) warning about moral relativism--that it's the scourge of our century.
It was said of him that he has a TOWERING intellect and a backbone of TEMPERED STEEL.
Your innate bad sensing about relative morality was that knot and sinking sensation in your stomach and that cramp in your brain.
I do believe the Pope is into relativism and is a trickster - liar. This summation comes from observation of the globalist sodomite pervert. He’s trouble. Don’t follow him. Stay true to what you know is right and wrong from tradition or from reading the Bible. This is not the time to be a blind follower.
Must have missed that news story. Would appreciate a link to the pope as a globalist sodomite pervert. Many thanks.
Read the articles posted on the sodomite pope’s leader of the synod and his passing out of pro-homo literature.
You have to do your own homework and not be a blind follower, now more than ever, NYer. You know I am not anti-Catholic. Read. Even the things you would rather not know or think about. This pope is a problem and can not be blindly trusted and followed.
Not a catholic, but he seems to be saying that he’s a wishy-washy moderate.
Not surprising from a Jesuit.
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