Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ” (Rm 3, 21-22) is the theme for the Message of the Holy Father for Lent 2010. Benedict XVI focuses on the meaning of “justice.” “What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law...Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet 'distributive' justice does not render to the human being the totality of his 'due.' Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God.”
In examining the cause of injustice, the Pope affirms that it is the fruit of evil and “does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil...man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other. By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin.”
The “profound link” between God and justice towards our neighbor is also indicated in the Hebrew word for the virtue of justice: “sedaqah,” which in fact means “on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbor (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow...In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice.”
“The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice,” the Holy Father affirms, in that the justice of Christ is above all “the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others...God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship.”
The Message concludes by recalling that “strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love,” and expresses his hope that the penitential time of Lent may be “a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 5/02/2010)
