Pope Francis: ‘if the heart doesn’t change, we are not true Christians’

August 31, 2015

Reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading at Mass, Pope Francis said in his August 30 Sunday Angelus address that Jesus “emphasizes the primacy of the interior of the ‘heart.’”

“Exterior things are not what makes us holy or not holy, but rather the heart that expresses our intentions, our desires and the desire to do everything for love of God,” the Pope told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“Exterior expressions are the consequence of what we have decided in the heart, and not the other way around,” he continued. “With exterior expressions, if the heart doesn’t change, we are not true Christians. The border between good and evil does not lie outside of us, but rather within us, in our conscience.”

The Pontiff added:

We can ask ourselves: Where is my heart? Jesus said, your treasure is where your heart is. What is my treasure? Is it Jesus and his doctrine? My heart is good or my treasure is another thing? Thus, it is the heart that we must purify and convert. Without a purified heart, we can never have truly clean hands and lips that speak sincere words of love, mercy and forgiveness.

Let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, to give us a pure heart, free of all hypocrisy — that’s the adjective that Jesus used with the Pharisees: hypocrites, because they say one thing and do another. Free from all hypocrisy so that in this way we are able to live according to the spirit of the law and reach its goal, which is love.

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Le parole del Papa alla recita dell’Angelus (Holy See Press Office)
• Zenit translation
• Pope Francis at Angelus: pray for pure, whole hearts (Vatican Radio)
• Angelus Domini 2015.08.30 (Vatican YouTube)