During a morning Mass celebrated in Santa Marta this week, Pope Francis warned the faithful to avoid becoming a mummified, vagabond, half-way, or stubborn Christian who gets lost along the way of following Christ.
Vatican Radio is reporting on the homily in which the pope reflects on the gospel reading where Jesus tells the Apostles that “I am the way.” He spoke about the need for Christians to consistently follow Jesus and not allow themselves to be waylaid or blocked on the journey of faith. He cited several types of Christians who fall prey to these dangers; the mummified Christian, the vagabond Christian, the stubborn Christian and the half way Christian.
“Christians who stay still, who don’t go forward, are non-Christian Christians. We don’t know exactly what they are. They are slightly ‘paganized’ Christians: who are there, who stay still and don’t go forward in their Christian lives, who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives, who don’t do Works of mercy… they are motionless. Excuse me for saying it, but they are like an (embalmed) mummy, a spiritual mummy. There are Christians who are ‘spiritual mummies,’ motionless, there. They don’t do evil but they don’t do good deeds.”
The stubborn Christian is one who realizes that they’re going in the wrong direction but stubbornly insist that they’re on the right path. The refuse to heed the Lord’s voice telling them to turn around and take the right path.
Then there are the vagabond Christians who wander all around with no idea of where they’re going.
“They are wanderers in the Christian life, vagabonds.” the pope described. “During their life they turn here and there and thus lose the beauty of drawing close to Jesus in Jesus’ life. They lose their way because they are constantly turning and often this turning is wrong and takes them to a dead end. Turning so many times, (the road) becomes a labyrinth and then they don’t know how to get out. They have lost that call from Jesus. They don’t have a compass to get out and they keep on turning and searching.”
The half-way Christian sets out on the journey but becomes fascinated by the attractions of the world which causes them to stop half-way.
“Christian life is not a fascination,” the pope said. “It’s the truth! It’s Jesus Christ!”
Francis advised that we all take a moment to examine our own life and question whether we may have stopped or lost our way.
“Today let us ponder this question just for five minutes… How am I doing on this Christian journey? Am I standing still, making mistakes, turning here and there, stopping in front of the things that I like, or (am I following) Jesus who said “I who am the Way.’? And let us implore the Holy Spirit to teach us to journey along the right road, forever! And when we get tired, a little refreshment and then we carry on our journey. Let us ask for this grace.”
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