Pope Leo XIV: It is not by showing off our merits that we are saved

During the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Leo

“It is not by showing off our merits that we are saved,” said the Pontiff, leaning out of the window of his private study in the Apostolic Library.

The Pope commented on the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, in which Jesus teaches that it is not by “hiding our errors” that salvation is obtained, “but by presenting ourselves honestly, just as we are, before God, before ourselves and before others, asking for forgiveness and trusting in the grace of the Lord.”

Regarding the Pharisee, Leo XIV explained that “he boasts of a long list of merits.” “The good works he does are many, and that is why he feels better than others, whom he judges with contempt,” he said.

For the Pope, his attitude is clearly “presumptuous” because “it denotes an exact observance of the Law, yes, but poor in love, made up of ‘having’ and ‘having’, of debts and credits, lacking mercy.”

In contrast, he added, Jesus tells us that, of the two, it is precisely the publican “who returns home ‘justified’, that is, forgiven and renewed by the encounter with God.”

Thus, he praised the attitude of the publican who has the courage and humility to present himself before God. “He does not close himself in his world, he does not resign himself to the evil he has done,” the Pope commented.

Leo

Finally, the Pope exhorted: “Let us not be afraid to recognize our errors, to expose them, assuming our responsibility and entrusting them to the mercy of God.”

Finally, he assured that the Kingdom of God “does not belong to the proud, but to the humble, and that it is cultivated, in prayer and in life, through honesty, forgiveness and gratitude.”