POPE'S MESSAGE FOR LENT 2012
"We Must Not
Remain Silent Before Evil"
Ash Wednesday falls
this year on Feb. 22.
* * *
"Let us be
concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works"
(Heb 10:24)
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
The Lenten season
offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian
life: charity. This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as
individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the
sacraments. This journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence and fasting,
in anticipation of the joy of Easter.
This year I would like
to propose a few thoughts in the light of a brief biblical passage drawn from
the Letter to the Hebrews:
"Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good
works". These words are part of a passage in which the sacred author
exhorts us to trust in Jesus Christ as the High Priest who has won us
forgiveness and opened up a pathway to God. Embracing Christ bears fruit in a
life structured by the three theological virtues: it means approaching the Lord
"sincere in heart and filled with faith"
(v. 22), keeping firm "in the hope we
profess" (v. 23) and ever mindful of living a life of "love and good works" (v. 24)
together with our brothers and sisters. The author states that to sustain this
life shaped by the Gospel it is important to participate in the liturgy and
community prayer, mindful of the eschatological goal of full communion in God
(v. 25). Here I would like to reflect on verse 24, which offers a succinct,
valuable and ever timely teaching on the three aspects of Christian life:
concern for others, reciprocity and personal holiness.
1. "Let us be concerned for each other":
responsibility towards our brothers and sisters.
This first aspect is an
invitation to be "concerned": the Greek verb used here is katanoein, which means to scrutinize,
to be attentive, to observe carefully and take stock of something. We come
across this word in the Gospel when Jesus invites the disciples to "think
of" the ravens that, without striving, are at the centre of the solicitous
and caring Divine Providence (cf. Lk 12:24),
and to "observe" the plank in our own eye before looking at the
splinter in that of our brother (cf. Lk 6:41).
In another verse of the Letter to
the Hebrews, we find the encouragement to "turn your minds to
Jesus" (3:1), the Apostle and High Priest of our faith. So the verb which
introduces our exhortation tells us to look at others, first of all at Jesus,
to be concerned for one another, and not to remain isolated and indifferent to
the fate of our brothers and sisters. All too often, however, our attitude is
just the opposite: an indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and
masked as a respect for "privacy". Today too, the Lord’s voice
summons all of us to be concerned for one another. Even today God asks us to be
"guardians" of our brothers and sisters (Gen 4:9), to establish relationships based on mutual
consideration and attentiveness to the well-being,
the integral well-being
of others. The great commandment of love for one another demands that we
acknowledge our responsibility towards those who, like ourselves, are creatures
and children of God. Being brothers and sisters in humanity and, in many cases,
also in the faith, should help us to recognize in others a true alter ego, infinitely loved by the
Lord. If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters,
solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts.
The Servant of God Pope Paul VI stated that the world today is suffering above
all from a lack of brotherhood: "Human society is sorely ill. The cause is
not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control
by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between
individuals and nations" (Populorum
Progressio, 66).
Concern for others
entails desiring what is good for them from every point of view: physical,
moral and spiritual. Contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good
and evil, yet there is a real need to reaffirm that good does exist and will
prevail, because God is "generous and acts generously" (Ps 119:68). The good is whatever
gives, protects and promotes life, brotherhood and communion. Responsibility
towards others thus means desiring and working for the good of others, in the
hope that they too will become receptive to goodness and its demands. Concern
for others means being aware of their needs. Sacred Scripture warns us of the
danger that our hearts can become hardened by a sort of "spiritual anesthesia"
which numbs us to the suffering of others. The Evangelist Luke relates two of
Jesus’ parables by way of example. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the
priest and the Levite "pass by", indifferent to the presence of the
man stripped and beaten by the robbers (cf.Lk 10:30-32).
In that of Dives and Lazarus, the rich man is heedless of the poverty of
Lazarus, who is starving to death at his very door (cf. Lk 16:19). Both parables show
examples of the opposite of "being concerned", of looking upon others
with love and compassion. What hinders this humane and loving gaze towards our
brothers and sisters? Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense
of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and
problems above all else. We should never be incapable of "showing
mercy" towards those who suffer. Our hearts should never be so wrapped up
in our affairs and problems that they fail to hear the cry of the poor.
Humbleness of heart and the personal experience of suffering can awaken within
us a sense of compassion and empathy. "The upright understands the cause
of the weak, the wicked has not the wit to understand it" (Prov 29:7). We can then understand
the beatitude of "those who mourn" (Mt 5:5), those who in effect are capable of looking
beyond themselves and feeling compassion for the suffering of others. Reaching
out to others and opening our hearts to their needs can become an opportunity
for salvation and blessedness.
"Being concerned
for each other" also entails being concerned for their spiritual
well-being. Here I would like to mention an aspect of the Christian life, which
I believe has been quite forgotten:fraternal
correction in view of eternal salvation. Today, in general, we are
very sensitive to the idea of charity and caring about the physical and
material well-being of others, but almost completely silent about our spiritual
responsibility towards our brothers and sisters. This was not the case in the
early Church or in those communities that are truly mature in faith, those
which are concerned not only for the physical health of their brothers and
sisters, but also for their spiritual health and ultimate destiny. The
Scriptures tell us: "Rebuke the wise and he will love you for it. Be open
with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach the upright, he will gain yet
more" (Prov 9:8ff).
Christ himself commands us to admonish a brother who is committing a sin
(cf. Mt 18:15). The
verb used to express fraternal correction - elenchein – is the same used to indicate the
prophetic mission of Christians to speak out against a generation indulging in
evil (cf. Eph 5:11).
The Church’s tradition has included "admonishing sinners" among the
spiritual works of mercy. It is important to recover this dimension of
Christian charity. We must not remain silent before evil. I am thinking of all
those Christians who, out of human regard or purely personal convenience, adapt
to the prevailing mentality, rather than warning their brothers and sisters
against ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to the truth and that do
not follow the path of goodness. Christian admonishment, for its part, is never
motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by
love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other. As
the Apostle Paul says: "If one of you is caught doing something wrong,
those of you who are spiritual should set that person right in a spirit of
gentleness; and watch yourselves that you are not put to the test in the same
way" (Gal 6:1). In
a world pervaded by individualism, it is essential to rediscover the importance
of fraternal correction, so that together we may journey towards holiness.
Scripture tells us that even "the upright falls seven times" (Prov 24:16); all of us are weak
and imperfect (cf. 1 Jn 1:8).
It is a great service, then, to help others and allow them to help us, so that
we can be open to the whole truth about ourselves, improve our lives and walk
more uprightly in the Lord’s ways. There will always be a need for a gaze which
loves and admonishes, which knows and understands, which discerns and forgives
(cf. Lk 22:61), as
God has done and continues to do with each of us.
2. "Being concerned for each other":
the gift of reciprocity.
This
"custody" of others is in contrast to a mentality that, by reducing
life exclusively to its earthly dimension, fails to see it in an eschatological
perspective and accepts any moral choice in the name of personal freedom. A
society like ours can become blind to physical sufferings and to the spiritual
and moral demands of life. This must not be the case in the Christian
community! The Apostle Paul encourages us to seek "the ways which lead to
peace and the ways in which we can support one another" (Rom 14:19) for our neighbour’s
good, "so that we support one another" (15:2), seeking not personal
gain but rather "the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be
saved" (1 Cor 10:33).
This mutual correction and encouragement in a spirit of humility and charity
must be part of the life of the Christian community.
The Lord’s disciples,
united with him through the Eucharist, live in a fellowship that binds them one
to another as members of a single body. This means that the other is part of
me, and that his or her life, his or her salvation, concern my own life and
salvation. Here we touch upon a profound aspect of communion: our existence is
related to that of others, for better or for worse. Both our sins and our acts
of love have a social dimension. This reciprocity is seen in the Church, the
mystical body of Christ: the community constantly does penance and asks for the
forgiveness of the sins of its members, but also unfailingly rejoices in the
examples of virtue and charity present in her midst. As Saint Paul says:
"Each part should be equally concerned for all the others" (1 Cor 12:25), for we all form one
body. Acts of charity towards our brothers and sisters – as expressed by
almsgiving, a practice which, together with prayer and fasting, is typical of
Lent – is rooted in this common belonging. Christians can also express their
membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the
poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the
good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of
grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his
children. When Christians perceive the Holy Spirit at work in others, they
cannot but rejoice and give glory to the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:16).
3. "To stir a response in love and good works":
walking together in holiness.
These words of
the Letter to the Hebrews (10:24)
urge us to reflect on the universal call to holiness, the continuing journey of
the spiritual life as we aspire to the greater spiritual gifts and to an ever
more sublime and fruitful charity (cf. 1
Cor 12:31-13:13). Being concerned for one another should spur
us to an increasingly effective love which, "like the light of dawn, its
brightness growing to the fullness of day" (Prov 4:18), makes us live each day as an anticipation
of the eternal day awaiting us in God. The time granted us in this life is
precious for discerning and performing good works in the love of God. In this
way the Church herself continuously grows towards the full maturity of Christ
(cf. Eph 4:13). Our
exhortation to encourage one another to attain the fullness of love and good
works is situated in this dynamic prospect of growth.
Sadly, there is always
the temptation to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest
the talents we have received, for our own good and for the good of others
(cf. Mt 25:25ff.).
All of us have received spiritual or material riches meant to be used for the
fulfilment of God’s plan, for the good of the Church and for our personal
salvation (cf. Lk 12:21b; 1 Tim 6:18). The spiritual masters
remind us that in the life of faith those who do not advance inevitably
regress. Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation, today as
timely as ever, to aim for the "high standard of ordinary Christian
living" (Novo Millennio Ineunte,
31). The wisdom of the Church in recognizing and proclaiming certain
outstanding Christians as Blessed and as Saints is also meant to inspire others
to imitate their virtues. Saint Paul
In a world which
demands of Christians a renewed witness of love and fidelity to the Lord, may
all of us feel the urgent need to anticipate one another in charity, service
and good works (cf. Heb 6:10).
This appeal is particularly pressing in this holy season of preparation for
Easter. As I offer my prayerful good wishes for a blessed and fruitful Lenten
period, I entrust all of you to the intercession of the Mary Ever Virgin and
cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét