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By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People who don't give money to the homeless because they think it will be spent on alcohol and not food should ask themselves what guilty pleasures they are secretly spending money on, Pope Francis said.

"There are many excuses" to justify why one doesn't lend a hand when asked by a person begging on the street, he said in an interview published the day before the beginning of Lent.

But giving something to someone in need "is always right," and it should be done with respect and compassion because "tossing money and not looking in (their) eyes is not a Christian" way of behaving, he said.

The interview, published Feb. 28, was conducted by the monthly magazine, "Scarp de' Tenis" (Tennis Shoes), which serves homeless and marginalized people in Milan and is run by the local and national Caritas branches. The pope was scheduled to visit Milan March 25.

Of the several questions the pope was asked, one focused on whether he thought giving money to people begging on the street was the right thing to do.

One thing people may tell themselves to feel better about not giving anything, the pope said, is "I give money and then he spends it on drinking a glass of wine."

But, the pope said, if "a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that's OK. Instead, ask yourself what do you do on the sly? What 'happiness' do you seek in secret?"

Or, another way to look at it, the pope said, is recognize how "you are luckier, with a house, a wife, children" and then ask why should the responsibility to help be pushed onto someone else.

The way one reaches out to the person asking for help is important, he said, and must be done "by looking them in the eyes and touching their hands."

When encountering people who live on the street, the pope said he always greets them and sometimes inquires about their lives and background.

He always chatted with a homeless family and couple that lived next to the archbishop's residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he said, and never considered getting rid of them.

When "Someone told me, 'They're making the chancery filthy,' Well, the filth is within" one's heart, he said.

It's important to be sincere because "people who live on the streets understand right away when the other person is really interested" in them as a person or when they just feel pity, he said.

"One can look at a homeless person and see him as a person or else as if he were a dog, and they notice this different way of looking" at them, he said.

When the interviewer asked why the pope thought the poor were capable of changing the world, he said that in his experience in Buenos Aires, he saw more solidarity in the slums than in less poor neighborhoods, where "I encountered more selfishness."

While there are many more problems in the shantytowns, "often the poor are more supportive of each other because they feel they need each other."

Also, he said, problems are more starkly evident in the poor neighborhoods, for example with substance abuse, "you see more drugs, but only because it's more 'covered up' in other neighborhoods" where users are "white-collar" abusers.

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Bishop Gabriel A. A. Mante, the Bishop of Jasikan Diocese has urged Catholics in all Dioceses of Ghana to organise local events to raise awareness on the upcoming Fourth National Eucharistic Congress scheduled to take place from August 7 to 13 at Jasikan.

Bishop Mante said, “while we wait with interior preparation and in great expectation for the national event, the various Dioceses will organise events locally to mark, celebrate and raise awareness on the 4th National Eucharistic Congress.”

During the national launch at Jasikan’ St. Peter Claver Cathedralm, last Sunday, on behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Bishop stated that over 10,000 Catholics were expected to participate in the Congress on the theme: “The Eucharist and New Evangelization.”

He said participants at the Congress would take part in a series of Catechism sessions, which would focus on different dimensions of the Eucharist, the daily celebration and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of the Reconciliation, Eucharistic Processions and Durbars.

He further noted that the event would also have a Study-session for 250 National Delegates, made up of Priests, Religious, youth, men and women, from all the 20 Dioceses which are expected to sponsor ten persons each for the study session.

Topics for the Study Session include: The Eucharist and our Care of the Environment; the Eucharist and Social Media; the Eucharist and the Church’s Dialogue with the Youth; the Eucharist and the Church’s Dialogue with the Poor;  the Sick and the Suffering; the Eucharist and the Family; the Eucharist makes the Church, and the Church makes the Eucharist.

Bishop Mante stated that the primary object of the Congress was to take advantage of the context of the 60th Independence Anniversary of Ghana and to use the Congress to rededicate the Republic of Ghana and her citizens to the Eucharistic Love of Jesus Christ.

 “The wish of the Bishops is that the Congress will support a deeper understanding of the meaningful celebration of the Mass; Extend the worship and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside the Mass itself,” he added.

It is also to pray and adore the Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, help and improve understanding of the celebration of the Eucharist, draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist, and use the centrality of the Eucharist to effect integral transformation.

Bishop Mante thanked Priests and Religious, the lay men, women and the youth of the Diocese for accepting the onerous task to host the Congress and acknowledged the tremendous efforts of the Local Organizing Committee so far.

He added that, “As hosts, my Dear Catholics of Jasikan, you will prepare the ground for our brothers and sisters who are coming to pray and study with us. You will make your homes and other facilities available to them and express your generosity to them. We trust you will do very well in these endeavours,” Bishop Mante exhorted.

(Damian Avevor in Ghana)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11

In Greek mythology the sirens are creatures with the heads of beautiful women and the bodies of attractive birds.  They lived on an island and, with the irresistible charm of their song, they lured mariners to their destruction on the rocks surrounding their island. They sang so sweetly that all who sailed near their home in the sea were fascinated and drawn to the shore only to be destroyed.  When Odysseus, the hero in the Odyssey, passed that enchanted spot he had himself tied to the mast and put wax in the ears of his comrades, so that they might not hear the luring and bewitching strains. But King Tharsius chose a better way. He took the great Greek singer and lyrist Orpheus along with him. Orpheus took out his lyre and sang a song so clear and ringing that it drowned the sound of those lovely, fatal voices of sirens. The best way to break the charm of this world’s alluring voices during Lent is not trying to shut out the music by plugging our ears, but to have our hearts and lives filled with the sweeter music of prayer, penance, word of God, self control, and acts of charity.  Then temptations will have no power over us.

Introduction: Ours is a vibrant culture, always in pursuit of happiness.  Death is an obscenity, hidden by cascades of flowers and relegated to remote burial lawns on the edge of town.  Sin is denied, camouflaged, psychoanalyzed, and repressed—not confessed.  We don’t really sin.  We make mistakes of judgment.  If a popular politician lies, he or she is only being human.  Lent is a time to look at such temptations, sin and the consequences.  Originally Lent was the season when those about to be baptized repented of their sins and sought to know the Lord Jesus more intimately.  Then it became a season for the baptized to do the same.  We are challenged to die to sin so that we may rise again to the new life in Christ.  Since the Church begins the season with a reflection on the origins of sin among us, the main themes in today’s readings are temptation, sin, guilt and forgiveness.  We are told of the temptations offered to our Lord, submission to which would have destroyed his mission.  Today’s readings give us the notion that testing comes to us by an agency apart from and in opposition to God.  But the truth is that, while testing comes from the outside, temptation comes from within ourselves.  However, the good news is that, though we are tempted and often succumb, God’s grace provides the way of salvation for us. The ultimate temptations in life are NOT those that push us to “do” things we aren’t supposed to “do,” but to “be” persons we weren’t made to be.

The first reading from the book of Genesis describes the “Original Temptation" – "You will be like gods, knowing what is good and what is evil."  This is the story of the first sin, symbolized by the eating of the forbidden fruit. It tells us that Adam and Eve were given the possibility of making a choice. The fundamental choice was to live for God, dependent upon and obedient to His will, or to say no to God. Like Adam and Eve, we are all tempted to put ourselves in God's place.  Consequently, we resent every limit on our freedom, and we don't want to be held responsible for the consequences of our choices.  In Genesis, we witness how temptation to evil led Adam and Eve to an act of faithlessness and sin.  In contrast, today’s Gospel from St. Matthew shows us how Jesus Christ conquered temptation by relying on faith in God's Word and authority.

The second reading: St. Paul describes how the disobedience of Adam who fell to Satan’s Original Temptation brought him and us death and a broken relationship with God. Paul reminds us of the social consequences of sin. Sin is never a private affair, affecting only myself. When we sin, all our relationships are affected: our relationship with our inner self, our relationships with our brothers and sisters, our relationship with our God and our relationship with nature and the world in which we live. Paul says that just as sin and death came through Adam, salvation and life come through Christ.  Christ regained for us the right relationship with God that Paul calls justification, which comes to us as undeserved grace.

Today’s Gospel teaches us how the "desert experience" of fasting, praying, and soul-strengthening was a kind of spiritual “training camp” for Jesus which enabled him to confront his temptations successfully and then to preach the Good News of salvation.  The Gospel also prescribes a dual action plan for Lent: (1) We should confront our temptations and conquer them as Jesus did, by fasting, prayer and the Word of God.  (2) We should renew our lives by true repentance and live the Good News of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness.

Exegetical notes: A) Forty days of fasting and prayer: “Forty days” was a Hebrew expression meaning a considerable period of time, as seen in various incidents in Jewish history:  a) the 40 days of rain in Noah’s time which he spent in the ark in prayer;  b) the 40 days which Moses spent on the mountain with God (Ex. 24:18); c) the 40 days the prophet Elijah traveled on the strength of the meal which the angel had given him (II Kg. 19:8).

B) The temptations: The graphic descriptions of the temptations of Jesus given in Matthew and Luke are sometimes interpreted as the dramatic presentation of a single temptation Jesus experienced throughout his public life.  The devil was trying to entice Jesus away from his mission, instead becoming a political messiah of power and fame according to the Jewish expectation and using His Divine power to avoid suffering and death.  In this account, we are given a glimpse of the inner struggle of Jesus as he faced the question of how to accomplish his ministry.  Matthew presents Jesus as conquering the tempter and beginning his preaching in Galilee.  The first temptation has to do with Jesus’ own need for food.  The second temptation involves a wider circle in Jerusalem and the Temple.  Finally, the third temptation takes in the whole world.  Matthew saw the sequence of the three temptations as significant in that they moved to greater heights, from stones on ground level, to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, and finally to a mountain top from which all the kingdoms of the earth could be surveyed.  The progression was also greater intensity and scope, from personal food to power in Israel and then to rule of the whole world.

The gradation in temptations: The three temptations - turn stones into bread (4:3); jump off the Temple pinnacle (4:6); worship Satan (4:9) - demonstrate three kinds of control: material, spiritual and civil.  They correspond to three wrong evaluations: 1) those who have material resources are blessed by God; 2) those who have spiritual powers are blessed by God; 3) those who have national power are blessed by God.  These, in turn, correspond to three human-divine bargains: 1) I will worship You if you make me rich; 2) I will worship You if You endow me with magical powers; and 3) I will worship You if You give me political power.  These temptations of Jesus are traditionally treated as archetypes of the temptations we experience: the temptation to satisfy personal needs by material possessions, the temptation to perform miraculous deeds by spiritual power and the temptation to seek political power and social influence. But Jesus dismisses the temptations using the Word of God.  He quotes the Law from Scripture itself: “One does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3); “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (6:16); “Worship the Lord, your God” (6:13).

The first temptation could not have been better timed.  Jesus had been fasting for forty days.  He was entitled to eat.  Even Israel in the Old Testament was miraculously fed with manna.  Why not the Son of God?  "Turn these stones into loaves of bread.  Use your power to satisfy your physical need.  You are entitled to food after a forty-day fast."  The temptation was that Jesus use the miraculous powers God gave Him to use for His mission to provide for himself.  This first temptation of Jesus was not merely the urge to satisfy his hunger by some miraculous deed.  It also had implications as to how Jesus would respond to the physical needs of others, especially their need for food.  Matthew tells us, for example, that Jesus miraculously fed a multitude of people (14:13-21 and 15:32-39).  Jesus would be seen as the Messiah who provided for their pressing needs.

The very seat of religious life, namely, the sacred precincts of the Temple itself became the scene of the second temptation.  The devil was suggesting that, on the basis of Scripture, Jesus must believe in and insist on divine protection: if He were the Son of God He had the right to expect safety and protection from His heavenly Father.  Here Jesus is pressured either to identify Himself as God’s Son and Messiah, or to discredit His mission by apparently either denying His trust in God, the truth of Scripture or His own right to speak in God's Name.  An additional temptation for Jesus was to use his miraculous powers to amaze people and thereby attract followers.

In the third temptation, the devil wanted Jesus to enter the world of political power to establish his kingdom of God instead of choosing the path that might lead to suffering, humiliation and death.  It was a temptation to do the right thing using the wrong means.  Jesus was being tempted to win the world by worshipping the devil.  Why not compromise a bit?  Why not strike a deal with the evil powers.  Spirit-filled, sanctified, spiritually vibrant Christians are still subject to the same temptation.  We need companionship, acceptance, the approval of others, love and appreciation.  We are tempted to fulfill these legitimate needs using the wrong means.

C) The preaching: The Greek word used for preaching is kerussein meaning a herald’s proclamation of his king’s message. Jesus’ preaching bore the note of authority, certainty and reliability – as coming from God his Father.

D) Call to repentance: Metánoia the Greek word used in Matthew for repentance, meant a change of mind which included being sorry for sin and its consequences, and turning away from sinful thoughts, words and deeds, thus reversing our life-direction from ourselves to God.

E) The message: believe in the Good News: “Believe” meant accept Jesus’ words as truth, based on his authority as the Son of God.  The content of Jesus’ message was called Good News because it corrected the incorrect Jewish belief (and the bad news) that God was an angry, demanding and punishing judge, and taught the Good News that God is a loving, merciful and forgiving Father who wants to save every one from the bondage of sin through His Son.  Hence, St. Paul calls it Good News of hope (Col.1: 23), peace (Eph.6: 15), promise (Eph.3: 6), immortality (Tim.1: 10) and salvation (Eph.1: 13).

Life messages: 1) We are to confront and conquer temptations as Jesus did, using the means he employed.  Every one of us is tempted to seek sinful pleasures, easy wealth and a position of authority, power and glory, and to use any means, even unjust or sinful ones to gain these things.  Jesus serves as a model for us in conquering temptations by strengthening himself through prayer, penance and the active use of the Word of God. Temptations make us more powerful warriors of God by strengthening our minds and hearts. By constantly struggling against temptations, we become stronger. Each time one is tempted to do evil but does good, one becomes stronger.  Further, we are never tempted beyond our power.  In his first letter, St. John assures us: “Greater is the one who is in us, than the one who is in the world (1 John 4: 4). We may be strengthened by St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No testing has overtaken you, that is not common to everyone.  God is faithful, and [God] will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing [God] will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it." Hence, during this Lent, let us confront our evil tendencies by prayer (especially by participating in the holy Mass), by penance and by meditative reading of the Bible.

2) We are to grow in holiness by prayer, reconciliation and sharing during Lent:    a) by finding time to be with God every day of Lent, speaking to Him in fervent prayer and listening to Him through the meditative reading of the Bible; "Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."  b) by repenting of our sins daily and asking God’s forgiveness every night at bedtime; c) by being reconciled with God through the sacrament of reconciliation; d)  by being reconciled with others, forgiving them the hurts they have caused us and asking their pardon for the hurts we have inflicted on them; e) by sharing our love with others through selfless and humble service, almsgiving and helping those in need; f) by living the Gospel or the Good News of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness in our lives, thus bearing true Christian witness.

3) Lent is the time for the desert experience. We can set aside a place and time to be alone daily with God, a time to distance ourselves from the many noises that bombard our lives every day, a time to hear God’s word, a time to rediscover who we are before God and a time to say yes to God and no to Satan as Jesus did.  

An Arab fable tells of a miller who was startled by seeing a camel’s nose thrust in at the door of the tent where he was sleeping.  “It’s very cold outside,” said the camel, “I only want to get my nose in.” The nose was allowed in, then the neck, finally the whole body.  Soon the miller began to be inconvenienced by such an ungainly companion in a room not large enough for both.  “If you are inconvenienced,” said the camel, “you may leave; as for myself I shall stay where I am.”  “Give but an inch,” says Lancelot Andrews, “and the devil will take an ell; if he can get in an arm, he will make shift to shove in his whole body.”

(Source: Homilies of Fr. Tony Kadavil) 

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Vatican City, Feb 28, 2017 / 09:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an interview published Tuesday, Pope Francis spoke about what it means to care for and be present to the people in our communities – whether they are widows, orphans, migrants, or the homeless – and why this is important.

“It is very tiring to wear the shoes of others,” he said, “because often we are slaves of our selfishness. On one level we can say that people prefer to mind their own problems without wanting to see the suffering or the difficulty of another.”

“There is another level, however. To wear the shoes of others means to have a great capacity to comprehend, to understand the circumstance and difficult situations.”

The Pope’s latest interview was published Feb. 28 in “Scarp de tenis,” a monthly periodical supported by Caritas Ambrosiana and Caritas Italiana. Based out of Milan, Italy, Caritas Ambrosiana interviewed Francis ahead of his planned trip to the diocese on March 25.

We all need understanding, companionship, and advice, the Pope noted. This is why even though it is difficult, we should try to put ourselves in another’s place and to understand what they are going through. To do so means to perform acts of service with humility and magnanimity.

In the case of migrants and refugees, Francis said that they are fleeing wars or famines that are often in part our fault, because we have exploited their land but not invested in it in a helpful way.

“They have the right to emigrate and are entitled to be welcomed and helped,” he said.

Regarding how many migrants a country should accept, he said that governmental leaders should practice the virtue of prudence: accommodating, in regards to numbers, however many they reasonably can.

It can be even more important, however, to not just reflect on how many we can accept, but how we will help them integrate into their new country, the Pope said, continuing his recent emphasis on the importance of integration for migrants.

“To integrate means to enter the life of the country, respect the law of the country, respect the culture of the country but also to enforce their own culture and their own cultural riches,” he said. “Integration is a very difficult job.”

“Each country then has to see what number it can accommodate. It cannot be upheld if there is no possibility of integration.”

Like migrants, “integration” is something we should also try to achieve for the poor and homeless, he said. This is why we must do more than simply “toss the poor only some change.”

“Certainly it is not easy to integrate a homeless person, because each of them has a special story. For this we have to get close to each other, find ways to help them and give them a hand.”

It is always right to help, even more so to look into the person’s eyes and touch their hands while we do so, he said.

“There are many arguments to justify yourself when you do not give alms,” he acknowledged, such as the question of whether the person will spend the money on alcohol.  

Rather than worrying about this, the Pope advised, “ask yourself what you do in secret? What ‘happiness’ do you search for in secret?”  

“Unlike him, you are more fortunate, with a house, a wife, children, that tells you ‘Take care of him.’”

Pope Francis told a story about how while he was an archbishop in Buenos Aires, there was a family and a couple who lived on the streets outside of his office. “Someone said to me: ‘They soil the Curia,’ but the dirt is inside.”

“I think you have to talk to people with great humanity, not as if they had to repay a debt and not treating them as if they were poor dogs,” he said.

Francis said that among the poor, he has seen much greater solidarity than in other areas of cities. Even though there are more problems, “often the poor are more loyal to each other, because they feel that they need each other.”

“I found more selfishness in other neighborhoods,” he continued.

Asked what he expects to see in Milan when he goes to visit, Francis said he wasn’t sure, since he’s only been to the city once, and only for a few hours, back in the 1970s. “I expect to meet so many people. This is my greatest expectation,” he said, “Yes, I expect to find so many people.”

He said that is the only thing that he misses greatly from being in Buenos Aires: “the ability to go out and go through the street. I like to go on a visit to the parishes and meet people.”  

 

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "The Virgin Mary has not appeared in Medjugorje," said Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, the diocese in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which includes Medjugorje.

Two weeks after the Vatican announced Pope Francis was sending a Polish archbishop to study the pastoral needs of the townspeople and the thousands of pilgrims who flock to Medjugorje each year, Bishop Peric posted his statement Feb. 26 on his diocesan website.

Three of the six young people who originally claimed to have seen Mary in Medjugorje in June 1981 say she continues to appear to them each day; the other three say Mary appears to them once a year now.

Bishop Peric noted that a diocesan commission studied the alleged apparitions in 1982-1984 and again in 1984-1986 with more members; and the then-Yugoslavian bishops' conference studied them from 1987 to 1990. All three commissions concluded that it could not be affirmed that a supernatural event was occurring in the town.

The six young people continued to claim to see Mary and receive messages from her and tens of thousands of pilgrims visited the town -- and the alleged visionaries -- each year. Pope Benedict XVI established a commission that worked from 2010 to 2014; and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith began looking at that commission's report in 2014.

Many observers believe Pope Francis appointed his envoy in February to study the pastoral needs of the town and the pilgrims in preparation for releasing a judgment on the alleged apparitions.

The position of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno "for this entire period has been clear and resolute: these are not real apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary," Bishop Peric wrote in his statement, which was posted in Croatian and Italian.

Some people, he said, believe the apparitions were real at least at the beginning -- perhaps for the first week -- but that the young people continued to claim to see and hear Mary "for other reasons, most of which are not religious."

Bishop Peric said a study of the transcripts of interviews with the six alleged visionaries from that first week give several motives for suspicion if not total doubt about the supernatural nature of events.

First, he said, the Mary of Medjugorje usually speaks only when spoken to, "she laughs in a strange way, in response to certain questions she disappears and then returns, and she obeyed the 'seers' and the pastor who made her come down from the hill into the church even against her will. She does not know with certainty how long she will appear, she allows some of those present to step on her veil lying on the ground, to touch her clothes and her body. This is not the Gospel Mary."

The seventh time Mary allegedly appeared, June 30, 1981, five of the youngsters were in a nearby town called Cerno and claimed to have seen Mary there. Bishop Peric said that in the recorded interviews all five reported that the apparitions would continue only three more days, July 1-3, 1981.

"Then she changed her mind and still 'appears,'" the bishop wrote.

"Taking into account all that was examined and studied by this diocesan curia, including the study of the first seven days of the presumed apparitions, one calmly can affirm: The Virgin Mary has not appeared in Medjugorje. This is the truth that we uphold, and we believe in the word of Jesus who said the truth will set you free."

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