Pope Francis: The Good Samaritan manifests the mystery of Christ

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Pope Francis preaching a homily at Mass
in the chapel of Santa Marta in the Vatican, Oct 9, 2017.

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Monday urged Christians to emulate the figure of the Good Samaritan and help those in need to get up, like Christ who “continues to pay” for us.   Delivering a homily at the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, he reflected on the attitude of the various actors in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel, which, he said, was an answer to the doctor of the Law on who his neighbour was.
Actors in the parable 
Commenting on the robbers, the priest who is “a man of God”, and the Levite who is “close to the law”, all of whom passed by the wounded and half-dead man, the Pope said this is a very common habit among us.  We see an ugly calamity and pass by and later read about it, painted with a bit of “scandal and sensation’, in the newspapers.  Instead the Samaritan, a pagan and sinner “saw and did not pass by”, the Pope said, drawing attention to the words of Luke - “he had compassion.”  Making the wounded man his neighbour, the Samaritan approached him, bandaged his wounds pouring in oil and wine.  Neither did he leave him there and go his way.  He carried him on his animal to the innkeeper, whom he paid to look after him and promised to pay the extra expenses on his return.
Mystery of Christ
“This,” the Pope said “is the mystery of Christ who became a servant, humbled and annihilated himself and died for us.”  Jesus, the Pope said, is the Good Samaritan who invited the doctor of the law to do the same.  The mystery of Jesus Christ is not a children’s tale, the Pope pointed out adding, the parable reveals the depth and breadth of the mystery of Jesus Christ.  The doctor of the law did not understand the mystery of Christ but he surely understood the human principle behind it - that every man who looks from above at another man down below, does so only to help him get up.  One who does this, the Pope stressed, is on the right path to Jesus.
Self examination
Pope Francis said the innkeeper understood nothing of this, bewildered at meeting someone who did things he never heard before.  This, the Pope said is what happens when one meets Jesus.  The Holy Father urged Christians to re-read this parable and examine themselves on their attitude – a robber, a cheater, a corrupt man, a priest, a Catholic manager, or a sinner.  "Do I approach and make myself a neighbour and servant to those in need like Jesus," the Pope asked, concluding his homily.


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Taken from; http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/10/09/pope_mass_samaritan_neighbour_mystery_of_christ_%E2%80%8E/1341756

Pope Francis Blasts Gender Ideology

by Rodney Pelletier  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  October 6, 2017                                                  

Reinforces Church teaching that the family is the pillar of society

               

VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis is condemning gender ideology by declaring that man and woman, through marriage and fruitfulness, are called to guide and save society, and that ideologies that seek to wipe out differences between sexes are wrong.

In an address to the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life at the Vatican on October 5, the Holy Father slammed the move towards confusing or eliminating differences between men and women, claiming that "radically neutralizing sexual difference and, therefore, the understanding between man and woman, is not right."
He explained that this approach "seeks in effect to cancel out such difference, proposing techniques and practices that make it irrelevant for the development of the person and for human relationships."
After dismissing the "utopia of 'neutral,'" the pope went on to criticize the use of science or psychology to further confusion over gender:

The biological and psychical manipulation of sexual difference, which biomedical technology allows us to perceive as completely available to free choice — which it is not! — thus risks dismantling the source of energy that nurtures the alliance between man and woman and which renders it creative and fruitful.

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The Holy Father in his speech also reinforced the necessity of marriage and the family in society.
He noted that in the book of Genesis, God "entrusts creation and the history of the world" to the "alliance of man and woman" in the family and that his "covenant is certainly sealed by the union of love, personal and fruitful, that marks the way of the transmission of life through marriage and the family."
Asserting the grave importance of the family, the pope continued, "The alliance of man and woman is called to take into its hands the guidance of all society," and added, "The generative alliance of man and woman is a safeguard for the global humanism of men and women, not a handicap. Our history will not be renewed if we deny this truth."
He went on to note that man and woman were created "in their blessed difference" and although Adam and Eve sinned "for their presumption to supplant God," now it is the role of man and woman united in marriage "to honor the care of the world and of history that He entrusted to them."
The Holy Father then spoke of both children and the elderly, saying "All that is in them that is delicate and fragile, vulnerable and corruptible, is not a matter that ought to concern exclusively the fields of medicine and wellbeing."
He continued:

There are at stake parts of the soul and of human sensibility that demand to be listened to and recognized, conserved and appreciated, by individuals and community alike. A society in which all of this can only be bought and sold, bureaucratically regulated and technically predisposed, is a society that has already lost the meaning of life. It will not transmit it to young children, nor will it accord it to elderly parents.

Pope Francis' comment is timely with nearly universal access to abortion in the West and one nation after another legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

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Taken from: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/pope-francis-blasts-gender-ideology