Like his father David, Solomon fell into grave sin little by little, as we do, “letting ourselves slide slowly, because it is an anesthetized fall. You don’t even realize it, but slowly you slip. Things get relativized, and faithfulness to God is lost.”
Pope Francis made this warning at morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta, reflecting on the daily reading which reports, “When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God.”
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Pope Francis: One of the evils of our day is the loss of a sense of sin
Solomon’s wives were from other peoples and had their own gods, the pope explained, “and how often do we forget the Lord and begin to deal with other gods: money, vanity, pride. But this is done slowly, and without the grace of God everything is lost.”
Pope Francis recalled Psalm 106, to underline how “mingling with the nations” and serving their idols means becoming worldly and pagan.
For us this slippery slide in life is directed toward worldliness. This is the grave sin: “Everyone is doing it. Don’t worry about it; obviously it’s not ideal, but…” We justify ourselves with these words, at the price of losing our faithfulness to the one and only God. They are modern idols. Let us consider this sin of worldliness, of losing the authenticity of the Gospel, the authenticity of the Word of God, and the love of God who gave His life for us. There is no way to maintain a good relationship with God and with the devil.
Pope Francis invited us to ask the Lord for the grace to stop ourselves when we notice that our heart has begun to slip away from Him.
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to understand when our heart begins to weaken and to slide, so that we can stop. His grace and love will stop that slide if we ask in prayer.
And today we celebrate...