Vatican
City, 13 February 2013
(VIS) – Benedict XVI dedicated the catechesis of today's General
Audience to the season of Lent, which begins today, Ash Wednesday.
"Forty days," he said, "that prepare us for the
celebration of Easter. It is a time of particular commitment in our
spiritual journey. … Forty days was also the period that Jesus
spent in the desert before beginning his public life, when he was
tempted by the devil."
Reflecting
on Jesus' temptations in the desert, is "an invitation to each
of us to respond to a fundamental question: What is truly important
in our lives? … The core of the three temptations that Jesus faced
is the proposal to instrumentalize God, to use Him for personal
interests, for self-glory and success. In essence, it is putting
oneself in God's place, eliminating Him from our existence and making
Him seem superfluous. … Giving God the first place is a path that
each Christian has to undertake. 'Conversion' … means following
Jesus, so that His Gospel becomes the practical guide of our lives. …
It means recognizing that we are creatures who depend on God, on His
love ...This requires us to make our decisions in light of the Word
of God. Today it is no longer possible to be a Christian as a simple
consequence of living in a society that has Christian roots. Even
those who come from a Christian family … must renew daily their
decision to be Christian, to give God the first place in the face of
the temptations continuously suggested by a secularized culture, in
the face of the criticism of many of their contemporaries."
"The
tests that Christians are subjected to by society today are numerous
and affect our personal and social life. It is not easy to be
faithful to Christian marriage, to practice mercy in our everyday
lives, or to leave space for prayer and inner silence. It is not easy
to publicly oppose the decisions that many consider to be obvious,
such as abortion in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, euthanasia in
the case of serious illness, or the selection of embryos to avoid
hereditary diseases. The temptation to set one's faith aside is
always present and conversion becomes a response to God that must be
confirmed at various times throughout our lives."
The
Holy Father recalled that in history there have been "great
conversions such as St. Paul's on the road to Damascus or St.
Augustine's. But also in our age, when the sense of the sacred is
eclipsed, God's grace acts and works wonders in the lives of many
people … as was the case for the Orthodox Russian scientist Pavel
Florensky who, after a completely agnostic education … found
himself exclaiming, 'It's impossible without God.' He completely
changed his life, even becoming a monk." The Pope also cited the
case of the intellectual Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), "a young
Dutch woman of Jewish origin, who died in Auschwitz. Initially far
from God, she discovered Him by looking deep within herself, writing:
'There is a well deep within me. And God is that well.' … In her
scattered and restless life, she rediscovered God in the midst of the
great tragedy of the twentieth century, the Shoah."
"In
our age, there are more than a few conversions that are seen as the
return of those who, after a Christian education, perhaps a
superficial one, have turned away from the faith for years, then
later rediscover Christ and His Gospel. … In this time of Lent, in
the Year of Faith, we renew our commitment to the path of conversion,
overcoming the tendency to be wrapped up in ourselves and to make
room for God, seeing our everyday reality with His eyes. Conversion
means not being wrapped up in ourselves in the search for success,
prestige, or social position, but rather of making each day, in the
small things, truth, faith in God, and love, become what is most
important," the Pope concluded.
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