Humility, not showing off, is the Christian way of life, says Pope Francis

Christians are called to follow the same path of humiliation that Jesus followed on the cross and they should not show off their piety or position in the Church, said Pope Francis.

Everyone, including members of the clergy, may be tempted to take the "way of the world" and try to avoid humiliation by climbing the proverbial ladder of success, the pope said in his homily on February 7 during the morning mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

"This temptation to climb can also happen to shepherds," he said. “But if a shepherd does not follow this path (of humility), he is not a disciple of Jesus: he is a climber in a cassock. There is no humility without humiliation. "

The pope reflected on the Gospel reading of St. Mark's day, which recounted the imprisonment and death of St. John the Baptist.

St. John's mission was not only to announce the coming of the Messiah, but also "to bear witness to Jesus Christ and to give him with his life," he said.

"It means witnessing to the path chosen by God for our salvation: the path of humiliation," said the pope. The "death on the cross of Jesus, this way of annihilation, of humiliation, is also our way, the way in which God shows Christians to move forward".

Both Jesus and John the Baptist faced temptations of vanity and pride: Christ faced them in the desert while John humiliated himself before the scribes when asked if he was the Messiah, explained the pope.

Francis said that although both died "in the most humiliating way", Jesus and John the Baptist underlined with their example that the true "path is that of humility".

"The prophet, the great prophet, the greatest man born of a woman - this is how Jesus describes him - and the Son of God has chosen the way of humiliation," said the pope. "It is the path that they show us and that we Christians must follow"