A visiting Vatican official in January urged Filipino Catholics to resist the temptation of seeking false power and to place their trust solely in God.
Archbishop Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, emphasized that true sin lies not in seeking power, but in seeking it from the wrong sources.
“The sin is not to seek power, but rather to seek it where it is not, to ask for it from one who does not have it, to hope to obtain it from one who is, in reality, powerless,” Archbishop Pagazzi said.
He challenged the faithful to reflect on where they place their trust for strength and success, warning that anything or anyone other than God ultimately becomes an idol.
“If it is not God, it is only an idol— something that has eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear,” Pagazzi said.
He made the statement in his homily during Mass at the last day of the 129th plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
The archbishop also linked sin to a lack of belief in God’s power, saying that every sin is, at its core, a form of not trusting in God’s ability to protect and provide.
Addressing the forces of evil, Archbishop Pagazzi said that while the forces of Satan manifest in injustice and violence, this power only leads to destruction.
“The devil does not want us to live at the height of our power as children of the All-Powerful,” he said. “He wants to extinguish our courage, silence the great energy, the great power of hope.”
Archbishop Pagazzi urged the faithful to embrace the Jubilee Year and to preserve the life-giving power of hope.
He encouraged Catholics to safeguard joy in their hearts and resist the temptation of sadness, which he said weakens spiritual strength.
“Joy increases the strength and courage of faith,” he affirmed, urging the faithful to focus on the power Christ offers to renew and restore them.
“Let us seek to safeguard joy in our thoughts and affections. Let us seek not to open the doors to sadness because it weakens that power which Christ never ceases to give to us and to restore to us,” he said.
Archbishop Pagazzi is currently in Manila to participate in the celebration of the Loyola School of Theology’s silver jubilee as an Ecclesiastical Faculty.
