‘Excess enslaves you,’ Pope Francis warns Christians

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday urged Christians to be an example to others of how to live a sober, nonmaterialistic lifestyle in peace with one’s community.

“It is important to know how to guard sobriety, to know how to be sober in the use of things – sharing resources, skills and gifts, and doing without excess. Why? To be free: Excess enslaves you,” the pope said in his Angelus address on July 14.

The pope addressed the problems of materialism in his comments before praying the Angelus, a Marian prayer he leads every week on Sundays.

Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he reflected on the Sunday Gospel, from Mark 6, focusing on Jesus’ instructions to his apostles to “take nothing for the journey” as he sent them forth to preach.

“Let’s pause for a moment on this image,” he said. “The disciples are sent together, and they are to take only what is necessary with them.”

A large crowd attended the Angelus despite the powerful noon sun raising temperatures in the stone-paved square well into the 90s.

Many people wore hats or held umbrellas to shade themselves from the rays, and despite the heat, still gave an enthusiastic welcome to the pope when he appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Francis invited those present to reflect on “what happens in our families or communities when we make do with what is necessary, even with little …”

“Indeed, a family or a community that lives in this way creates around it an environment rich in love, in which it is easier to open oneself to faith and the newness of the Gospel, and from which one leaves better, one leaves more serene,” he said.

“If, on the other hand,” he pointed out, “everyone goes his or her own way, if what counts are only things – which are never enough – if we do not listen to each other, if individualism and envy prevail … the air becomes heavy, life difficult, and encounters become more an occasion of restlessness, sadness and discouragement, than an occasion for joy.”

“Envy is a deadly thing, a poison,” the pope added, while noting that “communion, harmony among us, and sobriety are important values, indispensable values, for a Church to be missionary at all levels.”

After praying the Angelus in Latin, Pope Francis spoke about Sea Sunday, which the Church is commemorating July 14.Sea Sunday is the day the Church remembers and prays for all those who work at sea, often in dangerous and lonely conditions.