Evil locks us in the cycle of destruction

Feb 19, 2016

By Joshua J. McElwee
Pope Francis continued his six-day Mexican tour with a visit to this crime-plagued Mexico City suburb to launch a blistering critique against the tripartite temptations of wealth, vanity and pride — which, he said, “lock us into a cycle of destruction and sin.”

Travelling about 20 miles north of the modern downtown of the country's capital, the pontiff celebrated a Mass amid simple homes and small street shops in an area of the country that has been suffering from staggering violence, especially against women.

In a homily to a crowd of an estimated 1.5 million who live in the area, many of whom commute each day to the capital for work, Francis seemed to be speaking less to them than to those in Mexico City who maintain a market system that leaves many without what they need.

Saying that the three temptations “seek to destroy what we have been called to be,” the pontiff was particularly harsh towards wealth, which he said is “seizing hold of goods destined for all, and using them only for ‘my own people.’”

It is “‘taking the ‘bread’ based on the toil of others, or even at the expense of their very lives,” said the Pope. “That wealth which tastes of pain, bitterness and suffering — this is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children.”

Vanity, he said, is “the futile chasing of those five minutes of fame that do not forgive the ‘reputation’ of others.” And pride: “Putting oneself on a higher level than one truly is on, feeling that one does not share the life of ‘mere mortals.’”

Francis was speaking Sunday, Feb 14, in an overwhelmingly crowded outdoor Mass on the grounds of Ecatepec’s University of Higher Studies. Some 300,000 were estimated to be at the Mass site, with at least a million more lining the route from there to the local airport, where the Pope arrived by helicopter.

Many inside the university space had slept overnight in near-freezing temperatures to secure their spot for the celebration, with some traveling long distances for the opportunity. One woman, carrying a small child, said she had travelled 20 hours by bus from Yucatan, some 900 miles to the southwest. --NCR