By Paschal Norbert
NAIROBI, MARCH 1, 2023 (CISA) – Robert Cardinal Sarah has appealed to Catholics to deepen their Christian faith and witness in God in the face of a pattern of ambiguity in the teaching of Christian faith and morals that seek to sow confusion within the Church and among the faithful.
In his homily at the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi on February 25, the former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments warned that the faithful need to be aware that their faith could also be undermined by individuals in the Church’s’ hierarchy who seek to create ‘confusion’ that can ultimately breed divisions and conflict, and undermine confidence in the Word of God.
He said, “Our faith can be rocked by those even within the Church who seek to change God’s revealed truth, sowing confusion rather than fostering clarity and conforming the faith. Such confusions in teaching threaten our Christian foundation and the very fabric of society.”
The 78-year-old Guinean prelate observed that the greatest challenge of Christians today is the lack of faith. In his teachings, he said the faithful need to sustain each other to grow in faith, avowing that “The great poverty of our time today is the lack of faith.”
Referencing the readings of the Second Sunday of Lent, the cardinal urged the faithful to be touched by the obscurity of faith, one that trusts God beyond the understating of natural psychology and the daily sufferings and trials in the world.
“On a personal level some of us are struck by bodily sufferings and at the global level we can wonder at God’s patience in the face of wars, and such great violence and human destruction. Lest we forget there exist also a great sinister, yet very great battles of Satan against the salvation of the soul waged, especially against God, given the nature of the sanctity of the human person. From the first moment of conception to its natural end. Against marriage, against family and against our ultimate end,” he noted.
“Pope Benedict XIV tells us that faith is not a triumphal match but a journey marked daily by suffering and love, trials and faithfulness,” said the Cardinal, adding “The obedience of faith is to be given to God who reveals an obedience by which a man commits his whole self, freely to God. Mary touched the obscurity of faith. From the first fiat in Nazareth to her final fiat at the foot of the cross in Mt. Calvary.”
Cardinal Sarah charged the faithful to work relentlessly for the salvation of the world and to defend their faith in the face of adversity.
“This second Sunday of Lent calls on us not to turn our back on the Cross and flee our responsibility, whatever the cost. Let’s work tirelessly to the end for the salvation of the world. We can climb the mountains of crucifixions and wait for the resurrection,” he stated.
