The Christians in the West should not take freedom of religion and worship for granted said Cardinal Robert Sarah in an interview with EWTN.
“Threats against religious freedom take many forms. Countless martyrs continue to die for the faith throughout the world,” said the Emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The Cardinal explained that “it is not an open threat, nor hatred of the faith, but rather an implicit bias against Christianity.”
The Guinean cardinal said that the Book of Exodus, which narrates the 10 plagues, the departure of the Hebrews, and the destruction of Egypt, occurred ” so that God’s people might be free to worship Him properly .”
Therefore, he said that “religious freedom should not be taken for granted, compromised, or neglected.”
In addition, he explained that being Prefect of the Vatican Office of Divine Worship made him understand the importance of the liturgy being a great and unique moment “to meet God face to face and be transformed by him as a child of God and as a true worshiper.” of God”.
“The liturgy”, he added, “ must be beautiful, it must be sacred and it must be silent ”.
He also warned of the danger of turning the Mass into a “show” or a mere gathering of friends, diverting the focus from worshiping God.
“I will encourage the liturgy to be ever more sacred, holier, more silent, because God is silent, and we meet God in silence, in adoration,” he said.
“I believe that the formation of the people of God in the liturgy is very important. We can show people the beauty, be reverent and keep silent in the liturgy, in which our encounter with Christ is deepened, ”he noted.
The Cardinal also defined silent Eucharistic adoration as an opportunity to encounter Christ in a way that can “really change our lives.”
However, speaking of modern society, the Cardinal lamented that “God has been forgotten”.
“We all live as if God did not exist. Confusion reigns everywhere. Too many would reduce our lives, the very meaning of our lives, to absolute individualism and the search for fleeting pleasure”, he added.
Given this, he defended that “Christians must respond by returning to the fundamentals of faith.
We require a retreat from the world, retreat to the desert, where we can relearn the fundamentals, the basics: monotheism, the revelation of Jesus Christ, us and God, his word, our sin, our dependence on and need for his mercy,” he explained.
Cardinal Sarah said that God, through his Church and the sacraments, “ leads us into an ever deeper relationship with him. And we all need to rediscover his deep gift, which is his love.
He pointed out that “faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Church, without which it loses the meaning of its existence.”
“If Christ does not dwell within the Church, in a tangible, visible, sacramental way, then what good news do we have to offer the world? What is the meaning of evangelization?” he asked himself next.
“When Christians forget why they are Christians, the community goes into decline. They forget the Gospel and lose sight of their purpose,” he noted.
Furthermore, Cardinal Sarah said that spiritual warfare is the same as always, even though many bishops and priests have stopped reminding Catholics of its reality. “Our weapon in this war is the word of God,” he explained.
“It is necessary to turn to God every day, not only for comfort in the midst of mundane adversities but also because we totally depend on him in the cosmic struggle. We are all at war, whether we recognize it or not. It is good that we all become aware of that fact, and make sure every day to fight on the side of God”, said the Cardinal.