Pope: Lent is a time to rekindle hope
Card De Donatis led the imposition of ashes, reading the Pope’s homily sent from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. In it the pontiff warns against conflicts, identity politics, exploitation of the land and violence, which are “fine dust” that pollute the world. Instead, the hope of Easter allows us not to “fall into sadness and desolation.” Meanwhile, the pontiff's health conditions remain stable but critical.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – From the Gemelli Hospital, where he is still in critical condition, Pope Francis called on the faithful to look at Lent, which begins today.
In the homily prepared for Ash Wednesday Mass, he writes that, “The ashes remind us that we are dust, but they also set us on a journey towards the hope to which we are called. For Jesus descended to the dust of the earth and, by his Resurrection, has drawn us with himself into the Father’s heart.”
Per tradition, the Mass with the imposition of ashes was held this afternoon in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Sabina, on the Aventine Hill. Card Angelo De Donatis, Major Penitentiary, led the celebration in lieu of the Pope. After reading the Gospel, he read the pontiff's meditation.
In it, the Holy Father emphasises the fragility that comes to mind with the sign of ashes at the beginning of Lent, which “we experience fragility through illness, poverty, and the hardships that can suddenly befall us and our families.”
We realise that we are fragile, when “we find ourselves exposed to the ‘fine dust’ that pollutes our world: ideological opposition, the abuse of power, the re-emergence of old ideologies based on identity that advocate exclusion, the exploitation of the earth’s resources, violence in all its forms and war between peoples.”
Yet, “the condition of fragility reminds us of the tragedy of death. In many ways, we try to banish death from our societies, so dependent on appearances, and even remove it from our language. Death, however, imposes itself as a reality with which we have to reckon, a sign of the precariousness and brevity of our lives.”
For Francis, “the ashes remind us of who we are. This is good for us. It reshapes us, reduces the severity of our narcissism, brings us back to reality and makes us more humble and open to one another: none of us is God; we are all on a journey.” This is the other face of the ashes, a sign to “rekindle our hope”.
“[T]he Lenten season does not end there. On the contrary, we are invited to lift our eyes to the One who rises from the depths of death and brings us from the ashes of sin and death to the glory of eternal life.”
“Without such hope, we are doomed passively to endure the fragility of our human condition. Particularly when faced with the experience of death, a lack of hope can lead us to fall into sadness and desolation”.
By contrast, “the hope of Easter that we journey towards reassures us of God’s forgiveness. Even while submerged in the ashes of sin, hope opens us up to the joyful acknowledgment of life: ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth’ (Job 19:25).”
Francis calls on everyone to make Lent a time to turn our lives towards God, “becoming a sign of hope for the world. Let us learn from almsgiving to go beyond ourselves, sharing each other’s needs and nurturing the hope of a fairer world.
“Let us learn from prayer to discover our need for God or, as Jacques Maritain put it, that we are ‘beggars for heaven’, and so foster the hope that beyond our frailties there is a Father waiting for us with open arms at the end of our earthly pilgrimage.
“Finally, let us learn from fasting that we do not live merely to satisfy our needs, but that, hungry for love and truth, only the love of God and of one another can truly satisfy us and give us hope for a better future.”
Today Pope Francis also sent a message to the Catholics of Brazil for the beginning of the Fraternity Campaign, the annual Lenten initiative promoted by the country’s Bishops' Conference whose theme this year is "Fraternity and integral ecology".
This marks the tenth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato Si', which is also set to be the Church's contribution to COP 30, the world climate conference to be held in Belem, the gateway to the Amazon, in November.
“I hope that this Lenten journey will bear much fruit and fill all of us with the hope which we carry as pilgrims during this Jubilee. I hope that the Fraternity Campaign will once again provide great help for the people and communities of this beloved country in their process of conversion to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and actual commitment to integral ecology."
This morning, the catechesis that Francis prepared for today's catechesis for the Wednesday audience was also released. Concluding the part on the Infancy Gospels in the Jubilee cycle dedicated to "Jesus Christ our hope”, the pope turns to the episode of the discovery of the 12-year-old Jesus who remained in the Temple without his parents during the pilgrimage (Lk 2:46-50).
In his commentary, Francis observes how the Infancy Gospels close “with Mary’s final words, which recall Joseph’s paternity towards Jesus, and with Jesus’ first words, which recognize that this paternity traces His origins from that of His heavenly Father, whose undisputed primacy He acknowledges.”
“Dear brothers and sisters, like Mary and Joseph, full of hope, let us also set out in the footsteps of the Lord, who does not allow Himself to be contained by our precepts, and allows Himself to be found not so much in a place, but in the response of love to the tender divine paternity, a response of love that is filial life.”
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