"The greatest sin today is that people have lost the sense of sin" and therefore "the meaning of the kingdom of God" and in its place a "supernatural anthropological vision" has emerged according to which "I can do anything." This was the lesson that Pope Francis drew in his homily at Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta from the biblical episode in which King David falls in love with Bathsheba and sends her husband, general Uriah, to fight in the front line and thus to certain death. It is in fact a murder.
As Vatican Radio reports, the Pope noted that "David is faced with a great sin, but he does not see it as a sin" says the Pope, "He doesn't even think of asking for forgiveness. Instead all he thinks about is: 'How can I resolve this?'".
"This can happen to us all. We are all sinners and we are all tempted and the temptation is our daily bread. If anyone ever said: 'I've never been tempted', either you are a cherub or a bit ' stupid, right? It's understandable ...its part of life's normal struggle, and the devil is never quiet, he wants his victory.
But the problem - the most serious problem in this passage - is not so much temptation and sin against the ninth commandment, but David's behavior.
Here, David does not speak about sin, but about a problem that needs solving. This is a sign! When the Kingdom of God is forgotten, when the Kingdom of God diminishes, one of the signs is a lose of the sense of sin".
Every day, reciting the "Our Father", we ask God, "Thy kingdom come ...", which - says Pope Francis - means "that your Kingdom may grow". But when you lose the sense of sin, you also lose the "sense of the Kingdom of God" and in its place - the Pope said - there emerges an "anthropological vision" according to which "I can do anything".
"The power of man instead of God's glory! This is the daily bread. This is why we pray every day to God ' Thy kingdom come , Thy kingdom grow ', because salvation will not come from our cunning, our cleverness , our intelligence in doing business. Salvation comes from God's grace and how we train ever day of our Christian life for this grace".
Pope Francis quoted the famous phrase of Pope Pius XII: "The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin". H then went on to look at Uriah the innocent man put to death because of his king's guilt. Uriah , the Pope says, becomes the emblem of all the victims of our inadmissible pride.
"I confess to you, when I see these injustices, this human pride, even when I see the danger that this will happen to me, the danger of losing the sense of sin, it makes me think of the many good Uriahs down through history, of the many Uriahs who today suffer our Christian mediocrity, when we lose the sense of sin, when we diminish God's kingdom ... These are the unrecognized martyrs of our sins. It would do us well to pray for ourselves today, that the Lord give us the grace to never loose the sense of sin, that His Kingdom is not diminished in us. We should also bring a spiritual flower to the graves of these contemporary Uriahs, who pay the bill for the feast of the secure, of those Christians who feel secure".
