Pope Francis: ‘The rule of measure is Jesus and his Gospel’

Christians are measured by how well they follow Jesus Christ and the Gospel, not by their own ideas and self-sufficiency, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

In his Angelus message Aug. 21, the pope reflected on Jesus’ words as recounted in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

“The Christian gate is a life whose ‘measure is Christ,’ founded and modeled on him,” Francis said. “This means that the rule of measure is Jesus and his Gospel — not what we think, but what he says to us.”

In his address before the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer, Pope Francis also pointed to Jesus’ teaching in John 10:9: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”

Jesus, the pope said, “wants to tell us that to enter into God’s life, into salvation, we need to pass through him, not through another one, through him; to welcome him and his Word.”

The day’s Gospel describes a “narrow gate,” Francis said, “not because only a few are destined to go through it, no, but because to belong to Christ means to follow him, to live one’s life in love, in service, and in giving oneself as he did, who passed through the narrow door of the cross.”

To do this requires less egoism, reducing our presumption of self-sufficiency, lowering our pride and arrogance, and overcoming laziness, he said.

This, he noted, is how Christians can “traverse the risk of love, even when it involves the cross.”

Pope Francis described some of the concrete times people may struggle to choose “daily acts of love:” such as “parents who dedicate themselves to their children, making sacrifices and renouncing time for themselves” or people who serve the elderly, the poor, and the vulnerable.