On the opportunity to exchange Christmas greetings with the heads of the various ministries of the Holy See, Pope Francis talked about the need to be vigilant against the “devil of politeness” who will lead those who serve the Church astray and make them think that they do not need to be converted.
(Vatican News Network) On the morning of December 22, Pope Francis received cardinals, bishops and members of various ministries of the Holy See in the Blessing Hall of the Apostolic Building, and exchanged Christmas greetings with them according to tradition. In his speech, the Pope invited them to be “vigilant” and not to think that they had avoided evil and did not need to “convert”. The Pope said that “a person can get lost at home”, where there seems to be order on the surface, but the devil knows how to make people lose their heart to serve the Gospel.
The Pope pointed out that we must therefore “return to the basics”, know how to constantly thank God for the blessings we have received, and at the same time need to “return”. Refuge is not only “staying away from evil”, but also “doing good to the best of your ability”. The celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council this year and the parallel process of the Church today are opportunities for conversion. For Christians, conversion is an unavoidable attitude.
“It’s not enough to condemn evil, not even the evil that pervades us. What should be done is to decide to change in the face of it. Simply condemning makes us think that the problem is solved, but in fact it is important to make Change so that we are no longer imprisoned by the evil logic, which is often born of worldliness.”
It can be seen that those who serve God especially need to be “vigilant”, because their greatest danger is “being static”, that is, “secretly thinking that there is no need for any new understanding of the Gospel”. This, the Pope said, was a mistake “to try to keep the message of Jesus in a unique formula that will always be valid” instead of continuing to “make it manifest in the language and manner of the moment”.
According to the Pope, this rigidity fails to recognize that evil evolves and that temptations that were once driven away are more sinister than before, but reappear in a more graceful form. (cf. Lk. 11:24-26) “These are ‘polite devils’: come in well, and don’t let me see them. They can only be realized by a daily examination of conscience”.
This is why it is “possible to get lost at home,” like the eldest son in the parable of the prodigal son. (Luke 15) The Pope exhorts, “within the walls of the institutions that serve the Holy See, in the heart of the ecclesiastical community”, that “we are safe, we are the best, we do not have to convert”, which is a kind of mistake. The Pope thus explained why some of his words were sometimes harsh.
“We are more dangerous than others because we fall into the temptation of the ‘devil of manners’, which comes quietly and carries flowers. If sometimes what I say sounds harsh and tough, it’s not because I don’t believe in kindness and the value of tenderness, but because it is better to leave consolation to the weary and oppressed, and to find the courage to distress the ‘comforted’, as Tonino Bello, Servant of God, used to say, because sometimes Their consolation is a deception of the devil, not the grace of the Holy Spirit.”
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