CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Days after declaring that a decision on the Medjugorje apparitions would be coming soon, Pope Francis cautioned against basing one\u2019s faith solely on predicted visions or anything other than Christ himself.<\/p>\n\tIn his June 9 daily Mass at the Vatican\u2019s Saint Martha Guesthouse, Pope Francis cautioned against those who look for God \u201cwith these Christian spiritualties that are a little ethereal,\u201d calling them \u201cmodern Gnostics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThese people, he said, \u201ctell you this or that: no, the last word of God is Jesus Christ, there is no other!\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe also warned against those \u201cwho always need novelty of Christian identity. They\u2019ve forgotten that they were chosen, anointed, that they have the guarantee of the Spirit, and they seek.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFrancis observed that there are those who might ask, \u201cBut where are the seers who tell us today, \u2018the letter that the Madonna will send us at four in the afternoon\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe cited this type of predicted vision as an example of those who base their faith on novelties, explaining that these people \u201clive from this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHowever \u201cthis isn\u2019t Christian identity. The ultimate word of God is named \u2018Jesus,\u2019 nothing more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tThe alleged Marian apparitions of Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina are the only apparitions said to still happen almost daily since their first occurrence in 1981.<\/p>\n
\tOut of the original six children, known as \u201cseers,\u201d who began to experience phenomena which they have claimed to be apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1981, three claim that they continue to receive visions every afternoon because not all of the secrets intended for them have been revealed.<\/p>\n
\tPope Francis\u2019 reference to predictable visions comes just days after he disclosed to journalists that a decision on the authenticity of the alleged Medjugorje apparitions could be coming soon.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe\u2019re at this point of making decisions \u2026 and then they will be announced,\u201d the Pope told journalists during a brief in-flight news conference June 6 while on his way back from the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. He also revealed that \u201csome guidelines will be given to bishops on the lines they will take.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn his daily homily Nov. 14, 2013, Francis cautioned against a misguided \u201cspirit of curiosity\u201d that can also take our vision off Christ, focusing instead on such predictable visions.<\/p>\n
\tOne might be tempted to say \u201cBut I know a visionary, who receives letters from Our Lady, messages from Our Lady,\u201d he said on that occasion. Our Lady, he stressed, \u201cis the Mother of everyone! And she loves all of us. She is not a postmaster, sending messages every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIn his June 9 remarks, the Pope also cautioned against broadening one\u2019s conscience \u201cso much that everything enters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWorldliness is something human, he said, noting that when it seeps into one\u2019s morals and leads one to accept some of Christ\u2019s teachings while rejecting others, this is how \u201csalt loses its flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe see Christian communities, including Christians, who say they are Christians, but they cannot and are not giving witness to Jesus Christ. So (like this) identity goes backwards, backwards and you lose yourself, and this is the worldly nominalism that we see every day,\u201d the Pope observed.<\/p>\n
\tChristian identity is \u201ca beautiful identity which can be seen through witness,\u201d which is the reason Jesus so frequently speaks about it, Francis continued.<\/p>\n
\tHe cautioned against \u201cwatering down\u201d one\u2019s witness by reducing Christianity to a mere idea. Instead, Christian identity, which comes from Christ, \u201cis concrete,\u201d he said, explaining that this can be seen in the Beatitudes.<\/p>\n
\tFrom what Jesus outlines in the Beatitudes \u201cwe pass from this religion that\u2019s a bit soft, in the air and on the road of the Gnostics,\u201d the Pope noted. But behind true Christian identity \u201cthere is scandal. This Christian identity is scandalous,\u201d he said, referring to Jesus\u2019 death on the Cross.<\/p>\n
\tIn the history of salvation God, \u201cwith his patience of Father, has brought us from ambiguity to certainty, to the concreteness of the incarnation and the redemptive death of his Son. This is our identity.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Vatican City, Jun 9, 2015 \/ 07:59 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Days after declaring that a decision on the Medjugorje apparitions would be coming soon, Pope Francis cautioned against basing one’s faith solely on predicted visions or anything other than C…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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