WHEN A POPE LIES, THE SAINTS REBUTTAL

WHEN A POLITICAL POPE DISTORTS THE TEACHING OF JESUS, WHO CAN RESPOND?

Mercy Without Madness: Why the Gospel Does Not Command National Suicide

When Pope Francis recently said that, at the end of the world, Jesus will ask, “How did you receive the foreigner?” he was paraphrasing a familiar line from Matthew 25. Yet the remark, widely circulated in headlines and speeches, carried a clear political subtext: that welcoming the modern migrant—even one who violates just laws or endangers communities—is a moral absolute demanded by Christ Himself.That reading is emotionally powerful, but theologically shallow. Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the doctors of the faith teach something richer and far more balanced: mercy guided by truth, charity ordered by reason, and compassion tempered by justice.

The Context of Christ’s Words

Matthew 25:31–46 is not a social manifesto but a vision of the Final Judgment. Christ speaks of separating the “sheep” and the “goats” according to how they treated “the least of these.” The “stranger” (Greek xenos) represents anyone in need, not a class of political migrants. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus commands prudence—“Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16)—and warns against naïve charity: “Do not give dogs what is holy” (Matt. 7:6). The full Gospel therefore calls for compassion and discernment. Mercy divorced from wisdom becomes self-destruction, not sanctity.

Augustine: Truth Governs Love

St. Augustine of Hippo understood that the devil’s favorite weapon is the half-truth.

“He who speaks love without truth tears down the house of God,”he wrote in Sermon 23.

For Augustine, real charity (caritas) always seeks the eternal good of the other, which means opposing—not enabling—evil. In Contra Mendacium he warned that even a “pious lie” undermines the Gospel. Quoting only the “welcome the stranger” line while omitting its moral framework risks turning divine revelation into political marketing. Love divorced from truth, Augustine said, becomes sentimentality serving falsehood.

Aquinas: Mercy Must Obey Reason

Eight centuries later, St. Thomas Aquinas systematized this teaching. In the Summa Theologiae he defined prudence as “right reason applied to action” and insisted that every virtue—including mercy—depends on it.

“Mercy without justice,” he wrote, “is the mother of dissolution; justice without mercy is cruelty.”

Aquinas ranked our obligations in an order of charity: first to God, then to self, family, and community, and only then to the stranger. Protecting one’s household or nation is therefore not selfishness but moral duty. To show compassion in a way that destroys the innocent or destabilizes the common good is not virtue—it is disordered mercy.

Scripture Against Enabling Evil

The Bible repeatedly warns believers not to cooperate with wrongdoing.

• Ephesians 5:11: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

• Proverbs 17:15: “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.”

• Romans 1:32: Condemns those who “approve” of evil acts.

Helping the needy is holy; helping the wicked to harm others is sin. The moral difference lies in discernment—an idea lost when mercy is preached as an unconditional command divorced from responsibility.

The Modern Confusion

The Pope’s selective use of Matthew 25 reflects a modern temptation: to translate eternal truths into sentimental slogans. In doing so, we risk turning the Gospel into a borderless ideology where compassion is measured by how quickly a society can dismantle its own defenses.Yet even Pope Benedict XVI, Francis’s predecessor, warned in Caritas in Veritate that “the right to migrate must be balanced by the right of nations to regulate migration with a view to the common good.” Mercy does not abolish order; it perfects it.

The Moral Balance

Christian charity has never meant abandoning wisdom or self-preservation.

• Forgive your enemies, yes—but guard your family.

• Feed the hungry—but not the criminal plotting harm.

• Welcome the stranger—but discern the difference between refugee and invader.

Scripture calls believers to mercy that uplifts, not to naiveté that destroys. “Grace perfects nature,” Aquinas said; it does not erase it. The natural instinct to preserve life and defend one’s community is sanctified, not condemned, by divine grace.

Conclusion

The real Gospel is not a suicide pact.It is a call to holiness that unites love with truth, mercy with prudence, and compassion with justice. To preach only half of Christ’s message—welcoming the stranger while ignoring the duty to protect the flock—is to turn the Shepherd’s voice into a political echo.A faithful reading of Scripture reminds us: Christ commands mercy, not madness. The Christian must love the stranger, but never at the expense of truth, justice, or the survival of the good.