The following comes from Zenit:
Pope Francis today at his morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta recalled that a Christian should always discern what God is doing and asking in a situation, since the Evil One is always present as well, and trying to deceive.
Vatican Radio reported that the Holy Father drew his homily from today’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus is accused of driving out a demon by the "power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons."
There was a group, the Holy Father said, “that did not appreciate him and sought to interpret Jesus’ words and actions in a different way, against Jesus. Some, for envy, others for doctrinal rigidity, others because they were afraid that the Romans would come and massacre them; for many reasons they sought to distance Jesus’ authority from the people, even with slander as in this case.”
Against such misinterpretations of a situation, Pope Francis invited Christians to discern the roots of any given situation, because in the life of faith “temptations always return, the Evil Spirit never tires."
“The Evil One is hidden,” the Pope said, “he comes with his very educated friends, knocks at the door, asks for permission, comes in, and lives with that person. Drop by drop, he gives him instructions” on how to “do things with relativism."
The Holy Father warned against allowing the conscience to be anesthetized.
"This is a great evil," he said. "When the Evil Spirit succeeds in anesthetizing the conscience, it is then he can claim a true victory, for he has become the master of that conscience.”
To combat this, the Pope called for watchfulness, explaining:
“The Church counsels us to always make an examination of conscience: What happened today in my heart because of this?"
“Discernment: From where do these comments, words, teachings come? Who says this?
"Let us ask the Lord for this grace: the grace of discernment and of watchfulness.”
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