Pope Francis Talks about Faithfulness and Idols 14.04.20

There is a passage from the Second Book of Chronicles that strikes me so much. It's in Chapter XII at the beginning. "When the kingdom was consolidated," it says, "King Rehoboam felt safe and walked away from the law of the Lord, and all Israel followed him" (cf. 2 Chron. 12:1). That's what the Bible says. It is a historical fact, but it is a universal fact. Many times, when we feel safe and secure, we begin to make our own plans and slowly move away from the Lord; we do not remain faithful. And my security is not what the Lord gives me. It's an idol. This is what happened to Rehoboam and the people of Israel. He felt safe - a consolidated kingdom - he distanced himself from the law and began to worship idols. Yes, we can say, "Father, I do not kneel in front of idols." No, maybe you don't kneel, but you look for them and so many times in your heart you love idols, it's true. So many times. Your own security opens the door to idols.

But is your own security bad? No, it's a grace. Be sure, but also be sure that the Lord is with you. But when there is security and I am at the centre, and I distance myself from the Lord, like King Rehoboam, I become unfaithful. It is so difficult to maintain faithfulness. The whole history of Israel, and then the whole history of the Church, is full of infidelity. Full. Full of selfishness, of self assuredness that make the people of God move away from the Lord, faithfulness is lost, the grace of being faithful. And even among us, among people, faithfulness is certainly not a cheap virtue. One is not faithful to the other, to the other ... "Repent, return to being faithful to the Lord" (cf. Acts . 2:38).

And in the Gospel, the icon of fidelity: that faithful woman who had never forgotten all that the Lord had done for her. She was there, faithful, before the impossible, in the face of tragedy, a fidelity that also makes her think that she is capable of carrying the body from one place to another (cf. John. 20:15) A weak but faithful woman. The icon of the fidelity of this Mary of Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles.

Let us pray today to the Lord for the grace of being faithful: of thanking Him when he gives us security, but never thinking that it's my own security and always to look beyond my own security; the grace to be faithful even before the tomb, in the face of the collapse of so many illusions. To remain faithful, but it is not easy to maintain it. May He, the Lord, preserve it.