It is a hard complaint against exploitation and indifference. The homily of Pope Leo, in the mass celebrated in the church of Sant’Anna in the Vatican, addresses the theme of wealth and peoples crushed by violence. After thanking the Augustinian religious who carry out their service in this parish and having remembered the many who, “for work, who as a guest or pilgrim, who in a hurry, who with trepidation or serenity” pass in front of this church on the border between the Vatican and the city of Rome, hoping that they can find “doors and hearts open to prayer, listening to the pope explains day. In the pages of Luca “Jesus places a very clear alternative between God and wealth, asking us to take a clear and coherent position” between God and wealth why “No servant can serve two masters”, therefore “you cannot serve God and wealth”. It is a question of deciding your lifestyle, to “choose where to put our heart, To clarify who we sincerely love, who we serve with dedication and what is truly our good ».
Jesus contrasts Jesus to wealth because «The thirst for wealth is likely to take the place of God in our heart, when we believe it is to save our life, As the dishonest administrator of the parable thinks. The temptation is this: to think that without God we could still live well, while without wealth we would be sad and afflicted by a thousand needs. In front of the test of need we feel threatened, but instead of asking for help with confidence and sharing with fraternity, we are led to calculate, to accumulate, becoming suspicious and wary of others ».
All this transforms “Next in a competitor, in a rival, or someone from whom to take advantage”. So, it is the hard warning of the prophet Amos, “Those who want to make wealth an instrument of domination cannot wait to” buy the indigent ones with money “, exploiting poverty”. But, underlines the Pope, “God allocates the assets of the creation to everyone” and, as the psalmist says “he bends to look at heaven and on earth”; “The weak raises the weak from dust, the poor raises.” God bends towards the poor materials, spiritual, moral. “The word of the Lord,” says the Pontiff, “does not contrast men in rival classes, but spurs everyone to an inner revolution, a conversion that starts from the heart”.
The Pope asks, in particular, to pray “why The rulers of nations are free from the temptation to use wealth against man, transforming it into arms that destroy peoples and monopolies that humiliate workers. Whoever serves God becomes free from wealth, but those who serve wealth remains slave to it! Those looking for justice transforms wealth into common good; Those looking for dominion transforms the common good into the prey of their greed ». And finally, it encourages to pray and testify, “to persevere with hope in a time seriously threatened by the war. Indeer peoples are now crushed by violence and even more by shameless indifference, which abandons them to a fate of misery. In front of these dramas, we do not want to be submissive, but announce with the word and with the works that Jesus is the savior of the world, the one who frees us from all evil ». Thus, converted, “we can become witnesses of charity and peace”.
