Anxious or Depressed? Free coaching: info@wamkuipers.nl

THE GREAT CRITERION 21 Oct 2019

Criterion's can be very obvious. Just taste Millet's apple sauce and mine. The winner is clear.
When it comes to holiness, according to Pope Francis there is a clear criterion as well.
God asks me to open my heart and to care for the poor. I find myself being a coward. I am not fearless. Come Holy Spirit, give me a new heart.

Rejoice and be Glad (Gaudete et Exsultate)

95. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel (vv. 31-46), Jesus expands on the Beatitude that calls the merciful blessed. If we seek the holiness pleasing to God's eyes, this text offers us one clear criterion on which we will be judged. "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me" (vv. 35-36).
In fidelity to the Master
96. Holiness, then, is not about swooning in mystic rapture. As Saint John Paul II said: "If we truly start out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified". The text of Matthew 25:35-36 is "not a simple invitation to charity: it is a page of Christology which sheds a ray of light on the mystery of Christ". In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.
97. Given these uncompromising demands of Jesus, it is my duty to ask Christians to acknowledge and accept them in a spirit of genuine openness, sine glossa. In other words, without any "ifs or buts" that could lessen their force. Our Lord made it very clear that holiness cannot be understood or lived apart from these demands, for mercy is "the beating heart of the Gospel".

Apple sauce cooked by William (L) and Millet (R).