"A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart."
Lent is a time of renewal for the
whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all, it is a
"time of grace." God does not
ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. "We love
because he first has loved us." He is not aloof from us. Each one of us
has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us
out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love
does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we
are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father
never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the
injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively
healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this
selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent
that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem, which
we, as Christians, need to confront.
When the people of God are converted
to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually
raises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this
Message is precisely the globalization of indifference. Indifference to our
neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each
year during Lent, we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry
out and trouble our conscience.
God is not indifferent to our world;
he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in
the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between
God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like
the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her
celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through
love. However, the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door
through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the
hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed
and wounded. God’s people, then, need this interior renewal, lest we become
indifferent and withdraw into ourselves. To further this renewal, I would like
to propose for our reflection three biblical texts.
1. "IF
ONE MEMBER SUFFERS, ALL SUFFER TOGETHER" (1 CORINTHIANS 12:26)
– THE CHURCH
The love of God breaks through that
fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us
this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only
bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who
let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like
Christ, servants of God and others. This is clearly seen in the liturgy of Holy
Thursday, with its rite of the washing of feet. Peter did not want Jesus to
wash his feet, but he came to realize that Jesus does not wish to be just an
example of how we should wash one another’s feet. Only those who have first
allowed Jesus to wash their own feet can then offer this service to others.
Only they have "a part" with him and thus can serve others. Lent is a
favorable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more
like him. This happens whenever we hear the word of God and receive the
sacraments, especially the Eucharist. There we become what we receive: the Body
of Christ. In this body there is no room for the indifference which so often
seems to possess our hearts. For whoever is of Christ, belongs to one body, and
in him, we cannot be indifferent to one another. "If one part suffers, all
the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy."
The Church is the communio sanctorum not only because of her
saints, but also because she is a communion in holy things: the love of God
revealed to us in Christ and all his gifts. Among these gifts there is also the
response of those who let themselves be touched by this love. In this communion
of saints, in this sharing in holy things, no one possesses anything alone, but
shares everything with others. And since we are united in God, we can do
something for those who are far distant, those whom we could never reach on our
own, because with them and for them, we ask God that all of us may be open to
his plan of salvation.
2 2. "WHERE
IS YOUR BROTHER?" (GENESIS
4:9) – PARISHES AND COMMUNITIES
All that we have been saying about
the universal Church must now be applied to the life of our parishes and
communities. Do these ecclesial structures enable us to experience being part
of one body? A body which receives and shares what God wishes to give? A body
which acknowledges and cares for its weakest, poorest and most insignificant
members? Or do we take refuge in a universal love that would embrace the whole
world, while failing to see the Lazarus sitting before our closed doors ? In
order to receive what God gives us and to make it bear abundant fruit, we need
to press beyond the boundaries of the visible Church in two ways.
In the first place, by uniting
ourselves in prayer with the Church in heaven. The prayers of the Church on
earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up
into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their
fulfillment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is
conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has
turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid
isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that,
through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all
over indifference, hardness of heart and hatred. Until this victory of love
penetrates the whole world, the saints continue to accompany us on our pilgrim
way. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, expressed her conviction
that the joy in heaven for the victory of crucified love remains incomplete as
long as there is still a single man or woman on earth who suffers and cries out
in pain: "I trust fully that I shall not remain idle in heaven; my desire
is to continue to work for the Church and for souls."
We share in the merits and joy of
the saints, even as they share in our struggles and our longing for peace and
reconciliation. Their joy in the victory of the Risen Christ gives us strength
as we strive to overcome our indifference and hardness of heart. In the second
place, every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be
engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially
with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very
nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.
Her mission is to bear patient
witness to the One who desires to draw all creation and every man and woman to
the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love which cannot remain silent.
The Church follows Jesus Christ along the paths that lead to every man and
woman, to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). In each
of our neighbors, then, we must see a brother or sister for whom Christ died
and rose again. What we ourselves have received, we have received for them as
well. Similarly, all that our brothers and sisters possess is a gift for the
Church and for all humanity. Dear brothers and sisters, how greatly I desire
that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and
our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of
indifference!
3. "MAKE YOUR HEARTS FIRM!" (JAMES 5:8) – INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS
As individuals too, we have are
tempted by indifference. Flooded with news reports and troubling images of
human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help. What can we do
to avoid being caught up in this spiral of distress and powerlessness?
First, we can pray in communion with
the Church on earth and in heaven. Let us not underestimate the power of so
many voices united in prayer! Second, we
can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far through
the Church’s many charitable organizations. Lent is a favorable time for
showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to
the one human family. Third, the suffering of others is a call to conversion,
since their need reminds me of the uncertainty of my own life and my dependence
on God and my brothers and sisters. If we humbly implore God’s grace and accept
our own limitations, we will trust in the infinite possibilities which God’s
love holds out to us. We will also be able to resist the diabolical temptation
of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves.
As a way of overcoming indifference
and our pretensions to self-sufficiency, I would invite everyone to live this
Lent as an opportunity for engaging in what Benedict XVI called a formation of
the heart. A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be
merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open
to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love
along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor
heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.
During this Lent, then, brothers and
sisters, let us all ask the Lord: Make our hearts like yours (Litany
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is
firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed,
indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference. It is my prayerful
hope that this Lent will prove spiritually fruitful for each believer and every
ecclesial community. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless you
and Our Lady may keep you!
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