Editorial

Pope Francis tells us how to get to heaven

Pope Francis is only the latest person to tell us that we must all strive for holiness. He does so in his apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and be glad”). St. Peter, the first pope wrote, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, ‘Be holy because I am holy’ ” (1 Pt 1:15-16).

In his new document, Pope Francis tries to help us find holiness in the ordinary circumstances of our lives. St. Francis de Sales did that, too, back in the 17th century, in his Introduction to the Devout Life, when he wrote, “I say that devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman. But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.”

Pope Francis quotes his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who said, “Holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the full.” Pope Francis puts it this way: “We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do: wherever we find ourselves” (#14).

The pope writes that Jesus taught us what it means to be holy when he preached the Beatitudes found in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 5:3-11). The same Gospel tells us that to get to heaven, we should feed the sick, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the prisoner (Mt 25:31-46).

Our Holy Father writes that prayer is essential for holiness even if that prayer need not be lengthy or involve intense emotion. He also recommends a daily examination of conscience and the development of discernment to determine when we are truly following the will of God rather than the ways of the world.

With all this exhortation says about ways that all of us can become saints, it’s too bad that it was met with controversy when it was released on April 9. The headline in The Washington Post read “Pope Francis’s new major document: Caring for migrants and the poor is just as important as preventing abortion.”

This is because of this passage in the exhortation: “Our defense of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection” (#101).

In other words, it should never be a matter of either defense of the unborn or care for those other categories. As Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson continues to point out, it’s both a defense of the unborn and care for all other human life.

In his recent pastoral letter, “We Are One in Christ,” Archbishop Thompson wrote that the Catholic Church’s social teachings are based on an anthropology that emphasizes the equal dignity of all people as being created in the image and likeness of God, and favors helping those on the margins of society as “the least of these my brothers and sisters,” with whom Jesus identified himself (Mt 25:40, 45).

Pope Francis and Archbishop Thompson clearly believe that the defense of the innocent unborn must be, in the words of the pope, “clear, firm and passionate.” But we must also be clear, firm and passionate about all human beings, including migrants and refugees who come to the U.S. seeking relief from economic, political and religious strife.

We hope that many of our readers will get a copy of this exhortation, for the good of their souls. The document can be accessed online at bit.ly/2qm6f4C.

The Holy Father is doing nothing less than telling us the best way to heaven.

—John F. Fink