IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring
By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Hurling insults and being indifferent
to other people’s lives is the first step along the winding path that leads to
killing them, at least
figuratively, Pope Francis said.
By warning that “whoever is angry with his brother will
be liable to judgment,” Jesus equates hatred with murder, the pope said
Oct. 17 during his weekly general audience.
“Indifference kills. It’s like telling someone, ‘You’re
dead to me,’ because you’ve killed them in your heart. Not loving is the first
step to killing; and not killing is the first step to loving,” he told
thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.
Continuing his series of talks on the Ten Commandments, the
pope reflected on Christ’s explanation of the Fifth Commandment, “Thou shall not kill.”
“Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and
there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there
at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and
offer your gift,” Jesus said according to St. Matthew’s Gospel.
Although Christians should have “an attitude of
reconciliation with people who we have had problems with,” Pope Francis said that sometimes,
even while waiting for Mass to begin, “we gossip a bit and speak bad about
others.”
“This can’t be done!” he exclaimed. “Let’s think about the gravity of insults, the gravity of despising
someone, the seriousness
of hatred. Jesus places them
along the lines of murder.”
By expanding on the definition of murder, the pope
explained, Jesus emphasized
that every person, carrying
within them the image of God, “possesses a hidden self that is no less
important than their physical being,” and both easily can be destroyed.
“To offend the innocence of a child, an inappropriate
phrase is enough,” he
said. “To hurt a woman, a gesture of coldness is enough. To break a
young man’s heart, it is enough to deny him trust. To annihilate a man, it is
enough to ignore him.”
Through his life and death, Christ taught that forgiveness and mercy are “the love we
cannot do without.”
In Jesus, Pope Francis said, “in his love which is
stronger than death and through the power of the Spirit that the Father gives
us, we can accept this (commandment) — ‘Thou shall not kill’ — as the most
important and essential appeal: the call to love.”
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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju
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