“Even while being above all sovereigns, he draws no dividing line between himself and others. Instead, he wants to have brothers and sisters with whom to share his joy.”
He went on: “We do not lose anything in following him — nothing is lost, no — but we acquire dignity because Christ does not want servility around him, but people who are free.”
The pope emphasized that truth is the bedrock of Christian freedom.
“Being with Jesus, we become true,” he said. “The life of a Christian is not a play in which you can don the mask that best suits you. For when Jesus reigns in the heart, he frees it from hypocrisy, he frees it from subterfuge, from duplicity.”
“The best proof that Christ is our king is detachment from what pollutes life, makes it ambiguous, opaque, sad. When life is ambiguous — a bit here and there — it is sad, very sad.”
Pope Francis noted that all Christians were sinners, but said that Christ’s kingship saved them from falling into corruption.
“But when we live under the lordship of Jesus, we do not become corrupt, we do not become false, inclined to cover up the truth. We do not live double lives,” he said.
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“Remember this well: all of us are sinners, yes; corrupt, never, never. Sinners, yes; corrupt, never. May the Madonna help us to seek every day the truth of Jesus, King of the Universe, who liberates us from earthly slavery and teaches us to govern our vices.”
After praying the Angelus, Pope Francis said that Sunday marked the first time that World Youth Day was being celebrated in dioceses on the Solemnity of Christ the King. The annual event was previously observed on Palm Sunday.
He marked the occasion by celebrating a morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“I cordially greet the young boys and girls from our diocese, and I hope that all the young people in the world might feel that they are a living part of the Church, protagonists of her mission,” he said.
He invited the young people beside him to offer a greeting. After the young woman wished pilgrims a happy World Youth Day, the pope urged the young man to his left to “say something creative.”
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