Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
This year the Lord
grants us, once
again, a favourable time to prepare
to celebrate with renewed hearts the
great mystery of the death and res-
urrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of
our personal and communal Chris-
tian life. We must continually return
to this mystery in mind and heart,
for it will continue to grow within us
in the measure that we are open to
its spiritual power and respond with
freedom and generosity.
- The paschal mystery as the
basis of conversion
Christian joy flows from listening
to, and accepting, the Good News of
the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This kerygma sums up the mystery
of a love “so real, so true, so concrete,
that it invites us to a relationship
of openness and fruitful dialogue”
(Christus Vivit, 117). Whoever be-
lieves this message rejects the lie that
our life is ours to do with as we will.
Rather, life is born of the love of God
our Father, from his desire to grant us
life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). If we
listen instead to the tempting voice of
the “father of lies” (Jn 8:44), we risk
sinking into the abyss of absurdity,
and experiencing hell here on earth,
as all too many tragic events in the
personal and collective human expe-
rience sadly bear witness.
In this Lent of 2020, I would like
to share with every Christian what I
wrote to young people in the Apostol-
ic Exhortation Christus Vivit: “Keep
your eyes fixed on the outstretched
arms of Christ crucified, let yourself
be saved over and over again. And
when you go to confess your sins,
believe firmly in his mercy which
frees you of your guilt. Contemplate
his blood poured out with such great
love, and let yourself be cleansed by
it. In this way, you can be reborn ever
anew” (No. 123). Jesus’ Pasch is not a
past event; rather, through the power
of the Holy Spirit it is ever present,
enabling us to see and touch with
faith the flesh of Christ in those who
suffer.
- The urgency of conversion
It is good to contemplate more
deeply the paschal mystery through
which God’s mercy has been be-
stowed upon us. Indeed, the expe-
rience of mercy is only possible in
a “face to face” relationship with
the crucified and risen Lord “who
loved me and gave himself for me”
(Gal 2:20), in a heartfelt dialogue
between friends. That is why prayer
is so important in Lent. Even more
than a duty, prayer is an expression
of our need to respond to God’s love
which always precedes and sustains
us. Christians pray in the knowledge
that, although unworthy, we are still
loved. Prayer can take any number
of different forms, but what truly mat-
ters in God’s eyes is that it penetrates
deep within us and chips away at our
hardness of heart, in order to convert
us ever more fully to God and to his
will.
In this favourable season, then, may
we allow ourselves to be led like Israel
into the desert (cf. Hos 2:14), so that
we can at last hear our Spouse’s voice
and allow it to resound ever more
deeply within us. The more fully we
are engaged with his word, the more
we will experience the mercy he freely
gives us. May we not let this time of
grace pass in vain, in the foolish illu-
sion that we can control the times and
means of our conversion to him.
- God’s passionate will to dia-
logue with his children
The fact that the Lord once again
offers us a favourable time for our
conversion should never be taken for
granted. This new opportunity ought
to awaken in us a sense of gratitude
and stir us from our sloth. Despite the
sometimes tragic presence of evil in
our lives, and in the life of the Church
and the world, this opportunity to
change our course expresses God’s
unwavering will not to interrupt his
dialogue of salvation with us. In the
crucified Jesus, who knew no sin,
yet for our sake was made to be sin
(cf. 2 Cor 5:21), this saving will led
the Father to burden his Son with
the weight of our sins, thus, in the
expression of Pope Benedict XVI,
“turning of God against himself ”
(Deus Caritas Est, 12). For God also
loves his enemies (cf. Mt 5:43-48).
The dialogue that God wishes to
establish with each of us through
the paschal mystery of his Son has
nothing to do with empty chatter,
like that attributed to the ancient
inhabitants of Athens, who “spent
their time in nothing except telling or
hearing something new” (Acts 17:21).
Such chatter, determined by an empty
and superficial curiosity, characterizes
worldliness in every age; in our own
day, it can also result in improper use
of the media.
- A richness to be shared, not
kept for oneself
Putting the paschal mystery at the
centre of our lives means feeling com-
passion towards the wounds of the
crucified Christ present in the many
innocent victims of wars, in attacks
on life, from that of the unborn to
that of the elderly, and various forms
of violence. They are likewise present
in environmental disasters, the une-
qual distribution of the earth’s goods,
human trafficking in all its forms, and
the unbridled thirst for profit, which
is a form of idolatry.
Today too, there is a need to appeal
to men and women of good will to
share, by almsgiving, their goods with
those most in need, as a means of per-
sonally participating in the building
of a better world. Charitable giving
makes us more human, whereas
hoarding risks making us less human,
imprisoned by our own selfishness.
We can and must go even further, and
consider the structural aspects of our
economic life. For this reason, in the
midst of Lent this year, from 26 to 28
March, I have convened a meeting in
Assisi with young economists, entre-
preneurs and change-makers, with
the aim of shaping a more just and
inclusive economy. As the Church’s
magisterium has often repeated, polit-
ical life represents an eminent form
of charity (cf. Pius XI, Address to the
Italian Federation of Catholic Uni-
versity Students, 18 December 1927).
The same holds true for economic
life, which can be approached in the
same evangelical spirit, the spirit of
the Beatitudes.
I ask Mary Most Holy to pray that
our Lenten celebration will open our
hearts to hear God’s call to be recon-
ciled to himself, to fix our gaze on the
paschal mystery, and to be converted
to an open and sincere dialogue with
him. In this way, we will become what
Christ asks his disciples to be: the salt
of the earth and the light of the world
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).
Francis
Rome, at Saint John Lateran, 7
October 2019
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
