Vatican: Pope Leo XIV invites you to choose between God or money

This Saturday, October 4, the day when the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of San Francisco de Asís, founder of the Franciscan Order, Patron of Animals and the Environment, Pope Leo XIV He directed a catechesis Focused on the topic “waiting is choosing”, proposing as an example the life of Santa Clara de Asís.

In a Plaza de San Pedro crowded by thousands of faithful, the Holy Father pointed out that the Jubileo de la Esperanza “is a time of concrete hope” in which the heart of man “can find forgiveness and mercy.”

Specifically, the Pope commented that the jubilee year also presents the opportunity of a “different distribution of wealth, to the possibility that the earth is everyone, because it is not really the case.”

“In this year we must choose who to serve, if justice or injustice, whether to God or money,” said the Pope.

“Waiting is choosing”

Leo XIV explained that “waiting is choosing” means at least two things. The first, he said, is to understand that the world will not change if a personal choice is not made. “The pilgrimage is done for this, it is a choice. The Holy Door goes through to enter a new time,” he said.

“The second meaning is deeper and more subtle: to wait is to choose because who does not choose to despair. One of the most common consequences of spiritual sadness, that is, of stretching, is not choosing anything. Then, who experiences it is invaded by an inner laziness that is worse than death. Waiting, instead, is choosing,” added the Holy Father.

The example of Santa Clara de Asís

The Pope proposed the example of Santa Clara that, with the help of God’s grace, “knew how to choose.” She was a young “brave and countercurrent” who chose to live as San Francisco.

“We know that Francisco, when choosing evangelical poverty, had to break with his own family. But he was a man: the scandal existed, but was less. Clara’s choice was even more impressive: a young woman who wanted to be like Francisco, who wanted to live, as a woman, free as those brothers!” Said Pope León.

Santa Clara, the Holy Father continued, knew how to understand the message of the Gospel and chose to put it into practice. “But even in a city that is believed Christian, the gospel taken seriously may seem like a revolution. So, as today, you have to choose! Clara chose, and this gives us great hope,” he said.

He also reflected on two consequences of the brave choice of Santa Clara: the first, that many other young people in that area “found the same courage and chose the poverty of Jesus, the life of the beatitudes”; And the second, that this choice was not ephemeral, but endured in time, to the present day.

“Clara’s choice has inspired vocational elections worldwide and he continues to do so until today,” he added.

The example of Santa Clara, said Pope León, continues to attract young people because the testimony of people “who have chosen and assume the consequences of their choices” question them and invites them to imitate him. “And this makes others wish to choose. It is a holy imitation,” said the Holy Father. When choosing the Gospel, the man “chooses himself.”

“We pray, then, for young people; and pray to be a church that does not serve money or herself, but to the kingdom of God and his justice. A church that, like Santa Clara de Asís, has the courage to inhabit the city differently. This gives hope!”, The Pope concluded.

Within the framework of the party of San Francisco de Asís, who made a clear option for poverty, Leo XIV signed this Saturday The first apostolic exhortation of his papacy: Loved you About the love of the poor.