Vatican City, 27 January 2015 (VIS) –
The following is the full text of the Holy Father Francis' message
for Lent 2015, entitled “Make your hearts firm”. The document was
signed in the Vatican on 4 October 2014, the festivity of St. Francis
of Assisi.
“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 do not 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
globalisation 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 globalisation of
indifference.
Indifference to our neighbour 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. But
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' – 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 realise 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 favourable 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 honoured, 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. 'Where is your brother?' –
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 fulfilment 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. In each
of our neighbours, 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!' –
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! The '24 Hours for the Lord'
initiative, which I hope will be observed on 13-14 March throughout
the Church, also at the diocesan level, is meant to be a sign of this
need for prayer.
Second, we can help by acts of charity,
reaching out to both those near and far through the Church’s many
charitable organisations. Lent is a favourable 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 realises its own poverty and gives itself freely for
others.
During this Lent, then, brothers and
sisters, let us all ask the Lord: 'Fac cor nostrum secundum cor
tuum': 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 globalisation 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 keep you”.