Pope Francis: Faith in the word of God leads to salvation

(Vatican Radio) Believers can lose their faith because of passion and vanity, while a pagan can become a believer through his or her humility. Those were the Pope’s comments during his Homily at morning Mass Thursday at the Casa Santa Marta.

In his Homily at the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis, referring to Thursday’s readings recalled a courageous woman, a pagan, who asks Jesus to free her daughter from the devil. Jesus , recounted the pope, says to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replies“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
The Holy Father explained that this woman was “not ashamed” of having faith in Jesus and, therefore, he grants her a miracle and drives the demon out of her daughter.On the other hand, continued Pope Francis, there are people like Solomon from today’s reading that are wise and receive great blessings from God. But, said the Pope, he surrounds himself with pagan concubines and his faith is weakened and his heart is corrupted by the life he is living. The Holy Father noted that, yes, Solomon is able to recite the Creed, but one can do this and still have a lack of faith.
The bad seed of his passions led Solomon to idolatry, but the Pope underlined that we should follow the path of the pagan women who accepted the Word of God, the Word that leads us to salvation.