IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Carol Glatz
CAIRO
(CNS) — The only kind of fanaticism that is acceptable to God is being
fanatical about loving and helping others, Pope Francis said on his final day
in Egypt.
“True
faith,” he told Catholics, “makes us more charitable, more merciful,
more honest and more humane. It moves our hearts to love everyone without
counting the cost.”
The
pope celebrated an open-air Mass April 29 in Cairo’s Air Defense Stadium, built
by the anti-aircraft branch of the Egyptian armed forces. The pope
concelebrated with Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak of Alexandria
and leaders of the other Catholic rites in Egypt.
After
spending the first day of his visit in meetings with Muslim leaders, government
officials, diplomats and members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the pope
dedicated the second day of his trip to Egypt’s minority Catholic community.
Arriving
at the stadium in a blue Fiat, the pope was slowly driven around the stadium’s
red running track in a small and low golf cart, far from the thousands seated
in the stands high above. Yellow balloons and a long chain of blue balloons
tied together like a rosary were released into the sky as a military helicopter
circled high above the venue.
Surrounded
by security, the pope managed to personally greet only one small group of
children who were dressed as pharaohs and other traditional figures. They
hugged the pope affectionately as security tightly closed in on the group.
In
his homily, the pope used the day’s Gospel reading of the two disciples’
journey to Emmaus to highlight how easy it is to feel disappointment, despair
and defeat when one is trapped by a false notion of who God really is.
The
disciples could not believe that the one who could raise others from the dead
and heal the sick could “end up on hanging on the cross of shame,”
the pope said. Believing Jesus was dead, all their dreams died with him on the
cross and were buried in the tomb.
“How
often do we paralyze ourselves by refusing to transcend our own ideas about
God, a god created in the image and likeness of man,” he said. “How
often do we despair by refusing to believe that God’s omnipotence is not one of
power and authority, but rather of love, forgiveness and life.”
Like
the disciples, he said, Christians will never recognize the true face of God
until they let their mistaken ideas die on the cross, rise up from the tomb of
their limited understanding and shatter their hardened hearts like the
“breaking of the bread” in the Eucharist.
“We
cannot encounter God without first crucifying our narrow notions of a god who
reflects only our own understanding of omnipotence and power,” the pope
said.
True
faith “makes us see the other not as an enemy to be overcome, but a
brother or sister to be loved, served and helped,” he said, and it leads
to dialogue and respect and the courage to defend the rights and dignity of
everyone, not just oneself.
“God
is pleased only by a faith that is proclaimed by our lives, for the only
fanaticism believers can have is that of charity. Any other fanaticism does not
come from God and is not pleasing to him,” he said.
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