Pope Francis invites Christians to give of themselves totally and love God without reserve in order to fulfil their faith.
How to be fulfilled in faith and reciprocate God’s love was the message at the heart of the Pope’s reflection last Sunday as he addressed believers gathered for the recitation of the Angelus.
Reflecting on the Gospel of the day, Pope Francis said Jesus “makes us understand that religious rules are necessary, they are good, but they are only the beginning: to fulfil them, it is necessary to go beyond the letter and live their meaning.”
Taking his cue from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfil” (Mt 5:17), he explained that To fulfil is a keyword to understand Jesus and his message.
Ritualistic observance is pointless
It is not enough to lead a life respecting the laws, he said, to refrain from killing but hurting with words, to refrain from committing adultery but living a love “tainted by duplicity and falsehood,” to take a solemn oath “if one then acts with hypocrisy. “This,” he underscored, “is not fulfilment.”
The Holy Father explained that “Making an offering to God reciprocates the gratuity of his gifts.”
The message is clear, he said: “God loves us first, freely, taking the first step towards us, without us deserving it.”
“We cannot celebrate His love without in our turn taking the first step towards reconciliation with those who have hurt us.”
“In this way, there is fulfilment in God’s eyes,” the Pope continued, “otherwise external, purely ritualistic observance is pointless.”
He said that “religious rules are necessary, they are good, but they are only the beginning: to fulfil them, it is necessary to go beyond the letter and live their meaning.”
“The commandments that God has given us must not be locked up in the airless vaults of formal observance.”
Aspire to the maximum
Pope Francis said that this is a timeless issue and reminded believers that faith is not “a formal observance, which is satisfied with the bare minimum, whereas Jesus invites us to aspire to the maximum possible.”
“God does not reason with calculations and tables; he loves us as one who is enamoured: not to the minimum, but to the maximum! He does not say, ‘I love you up to a certain point’.”
True love, the Pope continued, “is never up to a certain point, and is never satisfied; love goes beyond, one cannot do without.”
He said the Lord showed us this “by giving his life on the cross and forgiving his murderers, and he entrusted to us the commandment most dear to him: that we love each other like he loved us.
“This is the love that gives fulfilment to the Law, to faith, to life!”
Pope Francis concluded by encouraging Christians to ask themselves how they live their faith: “Is it a matter of calculations, formalism, or a love story with God? Am I content with not doing harm, of keeping the ‘façade’ in good order, or do I try to grow in love for God and others?”
Every now and then, he said, check yourself on Jesus’ great commandment, asking whether “I love my neighbour as He loves me?”
“Because perhaps we are inflexible in judging others and forget to be merciful, as God is with us.”
With thanks to Vatican News and Linda Bordoni, where this article originally appeared.
