Mar 20, 2025 Written by 
Angolo dell'apripista

You know the theory

You know the theory

It is an invitation to discover "the idols hidden in the many folds that we have in our personality", to "chase away the idol of worldliness, which leads us to become enemies of God" that Pope Francis addressed during mass this morning, Thursday 6 June, in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae [...] The exhortation to undertake "the path of love to God", to set out on "the way to arrive" to his kingdom was the crowning of a reflection centred on the passage from Mark's Gospel (12:28-34), in which Jesus responds to the scribe who questions him on which is the most important of all the commandments. The Pontiff's first remark is that Jesus does not answer with an explanation but using the word of God: "Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord'. These, he said, "are not Jesus' words". In fact, he addresses the scribe as he had addressed Satan in the temptations, 'with the word of God; not with his words'. And he does so using "the creed of Israel, that which the Jews every day, and several times a day, say: Shemà Israel! Remember Israel, to love only God'.

In this regard, the Pontiff confided that he believed that the scribe in question perhaps "was not a saint, and was going a little to test Jesus or even to make him fall into a trap". In short, his intentions were not the best, because "when Jesus responds with the word of God" it means that there is a temptation involved. "And this is also seen when the scribe says to him: you have said well master," giving the impression of approving his answer. That is why Jesus replies to him "you are not far from the Kingdom of God. You know well the theory, you know well that this is so, but you are not far off. You still lack something to get to the Kingdom of God'. This means that there is "a path to get to the Kingdom of God"; one must "put this commandment into practice".

Consequently, "the confession of God is made in life, in the journey of life; it is not enough," the Pope warned, "to say: I believe in God, the only one"; but one must ask oneself how one lives this commandment. In fact, we often continue to "live as if he were not the only God" and as if there were "other divinities at our disposal". This is what Pope Francis calls "the danger of idolatry", which "is brought to us with the spirit of the world". And Jesus was always clear on this: 'The spirit of the world no'. So much so that at the Last Supper he "asks the Father to defend us from the spirit of the world, because it leads us to idolatry". The Apostle James, in the fourth chapter of his letter, also has very clear ideas: he who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. There is no other option. Jesus himself had used similar words, the Holy Father recalled: 'Either God or money; one cannot serve money and God'.

For Pope Francis, it is the spirit of the world that leads us to idolatry and does so with cunning. "I am sure," he said, "that none of us go in front of a tree to worship it as an idol"; that "none of us have statues to worship in our homes". But, he warned, 'idolatry is subtle; we have our hidden idols, and the road of life to get there, to not be far from the Kingdom of God, is a road that involves discovering hidden idols'. And it is a challenging task, since we often keep them 'well hidden'. As Rachel did when she fled with her husband Jacob from her father Laban's house, and having taken the idols from him, she hid them under the horse on which she sat. So when her father invited her to get up, she replied 'with excuses, with arguments' to hide the idols. We do the same, according to the Pope, who keep our idols 'hidden in our mounts'. That is why 'we must seek them out and we must destroy them, as Moses destroyed the golden idol in the desert'.

But how do we unmask these idols? The Holy Father offered a criterion for evaluation: they are those who make people do the opposite of the commandment: "Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord'. Therefore "the way of love to God - you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul - is a way of love; it is a way of faithfulness". So much so that "the Lord likes to compare this road with nuptial love. The Lord calls his Church, bride; our soul, bride'. That is to say, he speaks of "a love that so closely resembles nuptial love, the love of fidelity". And the latter requires us "to cast out idols, to discover them", because they are there and they are well "hidden, in our personality, in our way of life"; and they make us unfaithful in love. In fact, it is no coincidence that the Apostle James, when he admonishes: 'he who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God', begins by rebuking us and using the term 'adulterers', because 'he who is a friend of the world is an idolater and is not faithful to the love of God'. 

Jesus therefore proposes "a way of faithfulness", according to an expression that Pope Francis finds in one of the Apostle Paul's letters to Timothy: "If you are not faithful to the Lord, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself. He is full fidelity. He cannot be unfaithful. So much love he has for us". Whereas we, 'with the little or not so little idolatries we have, with our love for the spirit of the world', can become unfaithful. Faithfulness is the essence of God who loves us. Hence the concluding invitation to pray like this: 'Lord, you are so good, teach me this way to be each day less distant from the kingdom of God; this way to cast out all idols. It is difficult," the Pontiff admitted, "but we must begin".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 07/06/2013]

72 Last modified on Thursday, 20 March 2025 04:10
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don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

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