Pope warns that worldliness is a 'slide into sin'

Pope Francis speaking at Casa Santa Marta

Source: Vatican News Service

The Pope has warned Catholics against succumbing to a spirit of "worldliness," that deadens our awareness of our sins.

At the morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta on 31 January, the Pope reflected on the first reading, and how even the once holy King David had been tempted into sin. He observed that David had forgotten he had been chosen by God, and had slid into a comfortable life where, deadened to evil, he sinned by murdering Uriah, after committing the sin of adultery with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba.

How, asked the Pope, had the great David, who was holy and who had done so many good things and who was so united with God, have done that? This change in him did not occur overnight - David's slide into sin was gradual, noted the Pope.

He said that we are all sinners, but sometimes we commit "sins of the [present] moment" which we struggle to control - like outbursts of anger - and of which we repent afterwards. At other times, we slip slowly into a spirit of worldliness and commit sins such as paying our employees half what they are due.

Some Sunday-Mass going Catholics commit such sins because they have slid into a state where they have lost awareness of sin - a state Pope Pius XII described as one of the evils of our time. This mentality - of anything goes - is nothing new, he observed.

The Pope spoke of our need for "prophet" figures - or people sent into our lives by God - to show us where we are going wrong. In the case of David, it took the prophet Nathan to show David his mistake.

He urged God to send each of us a "prophet" - whether our children, spouses, confessors or neighbours - to rebuke us and help us to see when we are slipping into this spirit of worldliness. He added: "I am careful and always need someone to tell me the truth," urging Catholics to be vigilant about the "spiritual atmosphere," in which we live.