LENT: A TIME TO REGAIN GOD'S FRIENDSHIP AND GRACE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 21, 1999 (VIS) - At today's angelus, the Pope spoke of the liturgical season of Lent, calling it a time which helps man "to recover what he could never attain by his own strength: God's friendship and grace, the supernatural life which alone can bring fulfillment to the deepest aspirations of the human heart."

He referred to today's Gospel in which Christ, "in the desert, faces the tempter and, at the end of forty days of fasting and prayer, overcomes him through firm submission to the will of God the Father. In this way, Jesus shows the path for defeating sin: the path of penance."

"Jesus precedes us," the Holy Father went on, "but he also calls us to follow him. 'Repent' is the first word of his preaching. And his call resonates with particular force and urgency this year, which is the last before the Great Jubilee."

"I make the appeal of the Apostle Paul my own," stated the Pope. "'Be reconciled to God', don't allow this favorable time to pass you by. We must shake off the indifference and distractions of the world and listen to the voice of God, which resonates in the Church, and before that, in every person's conscience."

Turning then to the examination of conscience, John Paul II observed that this "is therefore one of the most decisive moments of life. It places each individual before the truth of his own life. Thus he discovers the distance which separates his deeds from the ideal which he has set himself."

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