The text below is an extract from Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel by Pope Francis.
This pope knows something about the divisions that are happening across the world, within religious communities.
What at all is happening in societies, in communities and countries around the world.
Is Trump, is Trumpism causing it or is he/it a symptom of what's going on?
The vitriol that is loaded on Pope Francis by right-wing Catholic media is also manifest in religious communities.
We are living n scary times. Something has to give.
How many wars take place within the people of God and in our different communities! In our neighbourhoods and in the workplace, how many wars are caused by envy and jealousy, even among Christians! Spiritual worldliness leads some Christians to war with other Christians who stand in the way of their quest for power, prestige, pleasure and economic security.
Some are even no longer content to live as part of the greater Church community but stoke a spirit of exclusivity, creating an “inner circle”. Instead of belonging to the whole Church in all its rich variety, they belong to this or that group which thinks itself different or special.
Our world is being torn apart by wars and violence, and wounded by a widespread individualism which divides human beings, setting them against one another as they pursue their own well-being. In various countries, conflicts and old divisions from the past are re-emerging.
I especially ask Christians in communities throughout the world to offer a radiant and attractive witness of fraternal communion.
Let everyone admire how you care for one another, and how you encourage and accompany one another: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). This was Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to the Father: “That they may all be one... in us... so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). Beware of the temptation of jealousy!
We are all in the same boat and headed to the same port! Let us ask for the grace to rejoice in the gifts of each, which belong to all.
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1 comment:
I think individualism is the wrong thing to blame for all that mess which was described above. Think about an artist who expresses himself through his art on a way nobody else can do it - what's bad about that?
"He alone is great and happy who requires neither to command nor to obey in order to secure his being of some importance in the world. "
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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