“Unity in necessary things, freedom in doubtful things and charity in all things”: This is a time-honored principle of moral theology that will help you to understand the thinking of Pope Francis, who is very wise.
A relatively small number of Catholics have taken issue with Pope Francis in his attempt to bring more compassion and less legalism to the church and its members. Most Catholics find him refreshing and in perfect harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are always those who claim to be more Catholic than the pope; they instinctively conclude that mercy is a sign of weakness and not something to be practiced. They live by a moral rigidity that borders on self-righteousness, which Pope Francis says leads to “hostile inflexibility.” Their opinions are inspired more by shortsightedness than the mercy the Gospel calls us to.
God’s love is his mercy. Legalism was the sin of the Pharisees; they applied the letter of the law, not the spirit. The teachings of Jesus Christ are filled with the spirit of compassion. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because of their insensitivity and rigidity.
Stop and think about this: Did Jesus come to save only the morally upright? Or, as in the parable of the lost sheep, did he leave the 99 to find the one lost sheep? I hesitate to call all of the lost sheep sinners because some of them are holy, living in good conscience.
Yet some of our brothers and sisters who are “lost sheep” feel rejected by the church and its people and are negatively affected by the snap judgment of others who may not know the particular circumstances of the position they find themselves in. Only God knows who the real sinners are. We do not.
Yet have we, at one time or another, been in a rush to judgment that often does others more harm than good?
Pope Francis is a true Christ figure among us. At the end of the recent synod on the family, he warned that a few of the cardinals who were opposed to some of what he proposed should be careful not succumb to “inflexibility.”
Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and known for her lifelong service to the poor, once said that what she loved about the Catholic Church is the freedom it allows the people of God.
