VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI at the ancient Basilica of Santa Sabina: “The Christian response to the violence which threatens the world is to tread the path chosen by the One who, in the face of the evil of his time and all times, resolutely embraced the Cross taking the longer but more effective way of love”

Thursday, 2 March 2006

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the afternoon of Ash Wednesday, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI presided the first traditional Lenten “station” mass on the Aventine Hill. After a moment of prayer at the Church of S. Anselmo the Pope with various cardinals and bishops, Benedictine monks from S. Anselmo and Dominican Friars from S. Sabina took part in a penitential procession to the Basilica of Santa Sabina where he presided Mass and distributed the blessed ashes to about a hundred of the few hundred fortunate people who managed to find place inside the Basilica while crowds of others watched the liturgy on a giant screen in the church courtyard.
In his homily the Pope said the Ash Wednesday procession helps to create the spirit of the Season of Lent “a personal and shared pilgrimage of spiritual conversion and renewal”. “It is an ancient tradition for Romans and pilgrims to make the ‘Lenten stations’, that is to go every day during Lent to ‘stay’ a while, make a ‘statio’ at one of the many “memorials” of the Roman Martyrs who were the foundation of the Church of Rome … despite the passing centuries these rites have retained all their value because they are a reminder that it is important, also in our day, to heed without compromise the words of Jesus who said: "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me " (Lk 9,23).”
The traditional rite of placing ashes on the head on the first day of Lent, “makes us realise the timeliness of the warning issued by the prophet Joel which we heard in the first Reading, a warning which for us too retains all its beneficial validity: exterior actions must always correspond to sincerity of heart and coherent works”. Another aspect of Lenten spirituality is "the battle" against the spirit of evil. “Every day, particularly in Lent, the Christian faces a battle, like the one fought by Christ in the desert of Judea, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days and then in the Garden of Olives when he overcame the final temptation and accepted the will of God to the very end. This is a spiritual battle against sin and ultimately against Satan. It is a struggle which involves the whole person and requires attentive and constant vigilance … Lent reminds us therefore that the life of the Christian is a constant battle in which we use the ‘weapons’ of prayer, fasting and penance”.
The ascetic pilgrimage which every disciple of Christ is called to undertake “with humility, patience, generosity and perseverance” as followers of the divine Master, helps Christians become witnesses and apostle of peace. “We could say - the Holy Father continued - that this interior attitude helps us to identify more easily what should be the Christian response to the violence which threatens peace in the world. Certainly not revenge, or hatred, or escape in some sort of false spiritualism. Instead the response of those who follow Christ should be to tread the path chosen by the One who, in the face of the evil of his time and all times, resolutely embraced the Cross taking the longer but more effective way of love. Following in his footsteps and united to him we must all strive to counter evil with good, falsehood with the truth, hatred with love”.
Pope Benedict XVI then recalled that love must lead to concrete deeds to help the poor and the needy: “Concrete acts of love are one of the essential elements of the life of Christians who are encouraged by Jesus to be the light of the world so that seeing their ‘good works’ people will render glory to God (cfr Mt 5,16). This recommendation is most opportune at the beginning of Lent, that we may be ever more deeply aware that "for the Church charity is not a kind of welfare activity... it is part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being" (Deus caritas est, 25, a)”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 2/3/2006 - righe 46, parole 648)


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