The Church is not for spiritual tourism but to live as brothers

Vatican City (AICA): Christian solidarity is not a "social badistance" but an "inalienable expression of the nature of the Church, the tender mother of all, especially the poorest," concluded her catechesis today, Wednesday, August 21 in the Paul VI Clbadroom, devoted to the question of communion and fraternal union within the community of believers, referring to the pbadage of the Acts of the Apostles: "Among them everything was in common."

Christian solidarity is not a "social badistance" but an "inalienable expression of the nature of the Church, the tender mother of all, especially the poorest," concluded her catechesis today, Wednesday, August 21 in the Paul VI Clbadroom, devoted to the question of communion and fraternal union within the community of believers, referring to the pbadage of the Acts of the Apostles: "Among them everything was in common."

"Dear brothers, the Christian community is born from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and grows up when it shares with others what it has. The Greek term Koinonia, which means "sharing," has an important dimension since the origins of the Church. From participation in the Body and Blood of Christ, the fraternal union that led to sharing all that they possessed ", began by explaining the pontiff by continuing his cycle of catechesis devoted to the reflection on evangelization from from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in preparation for the Extraordinary Missionary Month in October.

The pontiff emphasized how spiritual communion among Christians was expressed by "pooling" property and helping people.

Francisco repeatedly interrupted the reading of the text that he had prepared to add, for example, "conversion is a true conversion if it reaches the pockets"; "When the conversion touches his own interests, it is a true conversion," repeated the pope.

"The Eucharistic life, the prayers, the preaching of the apostles and the experience of communion – explained the pope – make believers a multitude of people who have" a heart and a soul "and do not consider their property this that they own, but they have everything in common, and for this reason, "no one among them had any needs, because those who owned fields or houses sold them, wore what they had." acquired and deposited at the feet of the apostles, and then distributed to each according to their needs. "This practice was aimed at removing the scourge of poverty, the commitment of the Church of yesterday and all time.

Referring to the gesture of the Christians who threw away their badets to give them to the needy, the bishop of Rome declared that it was not only material things, but also time, volunteering, since I share my time with others It's communion.

Thus, stressed the Holy Father, koinonia or communion becomes the new form of relationship between the disciples of the Lord, a new way to be among us, is the mode of love, but not a love of words, concrete love

"The bond with Christ," said the pontiff, "establishes a bond between brethren who converge and express Himself also in the communion of material goods.As members of the Body of Christ, believers are co-responsible for one another. to others As believers of Jesus, we are all responsible for each other, we can not be indifferent to the problems of others, we must pray and help, that is to say to be a Christian, that is why the strong support of the weak and nobody lives the poverty that humiliates and disfigures the human dignity, because they live in this community: to have the heart in common. like it's the signal: concrete love. "

Francis quotes the decision of the Jerusalem Council, in which Paul and Barnabas are entrusted with the mandate to evangelize the Gentiles and "ask them to remember only the poor".

The pope cited the example of Barnabas, quoted in the book of Acts, who "owns a field and sells it to record the entrance to the Apostles. But there is also a "negative example": "Ananias and his wife Sapphira, after selling a piece of land, decide to give only a portion to the apostles and keep the other for themselves This deception interrupts the chain of free, serene and disinterested sharing and the consequences are tragic and fatal. "

"This attitude, which St. John Chrysostom defines as a true" sacrilege ", causes both to die." To have the sincerity to share less, in fact, means to cultivate hypocrisy, to distance oneself from the truth, to become selfish, extinguish the fire of communion and go on the ice of inner death.

Anyone who behaves in this way travels to the church as a tourist who stays in a hotel, does not see it as a house or a family. A life built solely by taking advantage of situations to the detriment of others inevitably leads to inner death. In fact, a separate branch of the trunk and other branches dries and dies. "

"The Lord," he concluded, "pour out on us his Spirit of tenderness, which overcomes all hypocrisy and surrounds this truth that nourishes Christian solidarity, which, far from being an activity of well-being, is the essential expression of the nature of the Church ". , tender mother of all, especially the poorest. "+