Skip to content
Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Simplicity: St Augustines Sermons to Pastors and the Message of Pope Francis Cut to the Chase

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
We are all called, in accordance with our own state in life, to live in gospel simplicity. That includes having a right relationship with the goods of the earth.

Since he said 'yes' to the invitation and call to become the successor of St. Peter, this Pope who took the name Francis has, as we say, 'cut to the chase'. The expression means dealing with the major points and leaving out less important matters or words. He has done so with love which is laced with bluntness at times. One area in which he has repeatedly done this is in his messages to the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church.  He has asked them, in both his words as well as the witness of his simple life, to live their own vocation in simplicity and holiness.

P>CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Since he said 'yes' to the invitation and call to become the successor of St. Peter, this Pope who took the name Francis has, as we say, 'cut to the chase'. The expression means dealing with the major points and leaving out less important matters or words. He has done so with love which is laced with bluntness at times.

One area in which he has repeatedly done this is in his messages to the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church.  He has asked them, in both his words as well as the witness of his simple life, to live their own vocation in simplicity and holiness. He has called them to live radically live for the Lord. The word radical means getting to the root. He invites them to live totally for Jesus Christ by living at the heart of the Church, for the sake of the world.  He asks them to examine every aspect of their lives; even to the point of the kind of automobile they drive.

The principles, insights and pastoral directions he has offered priests and bishops in his homilies, allocutions, spontaneous remarks and lifestyle choices are also applicable to deacons and all consecrated religious. In fact, they are applicable to all the faithful of the Church who in any way participate in the leadership of the Church. We are all called, in accordance with our own state in life, to live in gospel simplicity. That includes having a right relationship with the goods of the earth.

During this 24th week in Ordinary Time in our Liturgical cycle, the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, or breviary, has offered us all reflections from St Augustine which the good Bishop addressed to pastors and leaders in his time. Lest we think that Pope Francis is unusual in the way which he 'cuts to the chase', I offer below an excerpt from todays Office of Readings from Augustine's sermons to Pastors.  

*****
St. Augustine on the Example of St. Paul
From His Sermons to Pastors

Once upon a time, when Paul was in great poverty and shut up in prison for proclaiming the truth, the brethren sent him what was necessary to relieve his poverty and meet his needs. He wrote to thank them:

It was kind of you to share in my troubles. I have learnt to manage on whatever I have. I know how to live in plenty and how to live in want. There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength. All the same, it was good of you to share with me in my hardships.
 
He rejoices, not so much at having his wants relieved as at the generosity of his friends. Thus he shows them what is truly good about their action; for he does not want there to be shepherds among them who feed themselves rather than their sheep.

What, then, was he asking for? It is not that I wish for your gifts, but that I demand that you should be fruitful. Not, in other words, that I should be filled, but that you should be not empty but abundant.

If you cannot, like Paul, earn your living by the work of your own hands, then by all means relieve your wants by accepting the milk that your sheep provide; but never neglect the weaknesses and needs of your flock. Do not seek to do well out of it, so that you appear to be proclaiming the Gospel only because you need the money.

Give the light of the Word to the people who need illumination. For you are like lamps, as Scripture says: Let your loins be girded and your lamps lit, and No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.

Now then, if a lamp is lit for you in your house, you add oil to make sure it doesn't go out. On the other hand, if a lamp full of oil fails to shine then it does not deserve to be put on the lamp-stand: it may as well be smashed at once. So the means of living must be offered only as an act of charity and accepted only out of necessity.

The Gospel must not be like something that is bought and sold, the price being the preachers' livelihood. If you do sell it like that then you are cheapening a thing of great value. Accept the relief of your wants from the people, but receive the reward of your preaching from the Lord; for it is not right for the people to reward their pastors for serving them in the gospel of love. Let the pastors look for reward from the same source that the people look to for salvation.
 
Why are these pastors being rebuked? What is the charge against them? It is that they take the milk and clothe themselves with the wool but neglect the sheep from which these things come. They care not about Christ's interests, but their own.

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.