Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “Everyone can open themselves to the action of God, to His love; with our evangelical testimony, we Christians must be a living message; indeed, in many cases, we are the only Gospel that the men and women of today still read.” This is the exhortation that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI made to the faithful present at the Eucharistic Celebration for Ash Wednesday in the late afternoon of 9 March at the Basilica of St Sabina. “Here is our responsibility in the footsteps of St Paul,” said the Pope. “One further reason to live Lent properly is to offer a witness of lived faith to a world in difficulty, a world which needs to return to God, a world which needs conversion.”
In common thinking, the season of Lent “risks being characterised by sadness, by the greyness of life,” said the Pope. “Instead it is a precious gift from God. It is an extremely meaningful time in the journey of the Church. It is the route to the Passover of the Lord.”
Taking his cue from the first Reading from the Book of the Prophet Joel, in which God invites the Jewish people to a sincere and private repentance, the Holy Father emphasised that “this is not some superficial or transitory conversion, but a spiritual itinerary which has a profound effect on our conscience and involves a sincere intention to amend our lives.... Such conversion is possible because God is rich in mercy and great in love.” In the Gospel, Jesus warns that “when you do something good, almost instinctively comes the desire to be respected and admired for the good deed, to have that satisfaction.” However, “the Lord Jesus does not ask for formal respect to be shown to a law that is foreign to man; ... on the contrary, He invites us to rediscover...” - alms, prayer and fasting - “these three works of piety, and to experience them more profoundly, not for love of self but for love of God, as a means on the journey of conversion to Him.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 10/03/2011)
