The
Holy Father Speaks
Pope
Benedict’s Last Homily
Venerable Brothers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Today, Ash Wednesday, we
begin a new Lenten journey,
a journey that extends over forty days and leads us towards the joy of Easter,
to victory of Life over death. Following the ancient Roman tradition of Lenten
stations, we are gathered for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The
tradition says that the first statio took
place in the Basilica of Saint Sabina on the Aventine Hill. Circumstances
suggested we gather in St. Peter’s Basilica. Tonight there are many of us
gathered around the tomb of the Apostle Peter, to also ask him to pray for the
path of the Church going forward at this particular moment in time, to renew
our faith in the Supreme Pastor, Christ the Lord. For me it is also a good
opportunity to thank everyone, especially the faithful of the Diocese of Rome,
as I prepare to conclude the Petrine ministry, and I ask you for a special
remembrance in your prayer.
The readings that have just been proclaimed offer
us ideas which, by the grace of God, we are called to transform into a concrete
attitude and behaviour during Lent. First of all the Church proposes the
powerful appeal which the prophet Joel addresses to the people of Israel, “Thus
says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping,
and with mourning” (2.12). Please note the phrase “with all your heart,” which
means from the very core of our thoughts and feelings, from the roots of our
decisions, choices and actions, with a gesture of total and radical freedom.
But is this return to God possible? Yes, because there is a force that does not
reside in our hearts, but that emanates from the heart of God and the power of
His mercy. The prophet says: “return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in
punishment” (v. 13). It is possible to return to the Lord, it is a ‘grace’,
because it is the work of God and the fruit of faith that we entrust to His
mercy. But this return to God becomes a reality in our lives only when the
grace of God penetrates and moves our innermost core, gifting us the power that
“rends the heart”. Once again the prophet proclaims these words from God: “Rend
your hearts and not your garments” (v. 13). Today, in fact, many are ready to
“rend their garments” over scandals and injustices – which are of course caused
by others – but few seem willing to act according to their own “heart”, their
own conscience and their own intentions, by allowing the Lord transform, renew and
convert them.
This “return to me with all your heart,” then, is a
reminder that not only involves the individual but the entire community. Again
we heard in the first reading: “Blow the horn in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an
assembly! Gather the people, sanctify the congregation; Assemble the elderly;
gather the children, even infants nursing at the breast; Let the bridegroom
leave his room, and the bride her bridal tent (vv.15-16). The community
dimension is an essential element in faith and Christian life. Christ came “to
gather the children of God who are scattered into one” (Jn 11:52). The “we” of
the Church is the community in which Jesus brings us together (cf. Jn 12:32),
faith is necessarily ecclesial. And it is important to remember and to live this
during Lent: each person must be aware that the penitential journey cannot be
faced alone, but together with many brothers and sisters in the Church.
Finally, the prophet focuses on the prayers of
priests, who, with tears in their eyes, turn to God, saying: ” Between the
porch and the altar let the priests weep, let the ministers of the LORD weep
and say: “Spare your people, Lord! Do not let your heritage become a disgrace,
a byword among the nations! Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their
God?’”(V.17). This prayer leads us to reflect on the importance of witnessing
to faith and Christian life, for each of us and our community, so that we can
reveal the face of the Church and how this face is, at times, disfigured. I am
thinking in particular of the sins against the unity of the Church, of the
divisions in the body of the Church. Living Lent in a more intense and evident
ecclesial communion, overcoming individualism and rivalry is a humble and
precious sign for those who have distanced themselves from the faith or who are
indifferent.
“Well, now is the
favourable time, this is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). The words of the Apostle Paul to the
Christians of Corinth resonate for us with an urgency that does not permit
absences or inertia. The term “now” is repeated and can not be missed, it is
offered to us as a unique opportunity. And the Apostle’s gaze focuses on
sharing with which Christ chose to characterize his life, taking on everything
human to the point of taking on all of man’s sins. The words of St. Paul are
very strong: “God made him sin for our sake.” Jesus, the innocent, the Holy
One, “He who knew no sin” (2 Cor 5:21), bears the burden of sin sharing the
outcome of death, and death of the Cross with humanity. The reconciliation we
are offered came at a very high price, that of the Cross raised on Golgotha, on
which the Son of God made man was hung. In this, in God’s immersion in human
suffering and the abyss of evil, is the root of our justification. The “return
to God with all your heart” in our Lenten journey passes through the Cross, in
following Christ on the road to Calvary, to the total gift of self. It is a
journey on which each and every day we learn to leave behind our selfishness
and our being closed in on ourselves, to make room for God who opens and
transforms our hearts. And as St. Paul reminds us, the proclamation of the
Cross resonates within us thanks to the preaching of the Word, of which the
Apostle himself is an ambassador. It is a call to us so that this Lenten
journey be characterized by a more careful and assiduous listening to the Word
of God, the light that illuminates our steps.
In the Gospel passage according of Matthew, to whom
belongs to the so-called Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to three fundamental
practices required by the Mosaic Law: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. These are
also traditional indications on the Lenten journey to respond to the invitation
to «return to God with all your heart.” But he points out that both the quality
and the truth of our relationship with God is what qualifies the authenticity
of every religious act. For this reason he denounces religious hypocrisy, a
behaviour that seeks applause and approval. The true disciple does not serve
himself or the “public”, but his Lord, in simplicity and generosity: “And your
Father who sees everything in secret will reward you” (Mt 6,4.6.18). Our
fitness will always be more effective the less we seek our own glory and the
more we are aware that the reward of the righteous is God Himself, to be united
to Him, here, on a journey of faith, and at the end of life, in the peace light
of coming face to face with Him forever (cf. 1 Cor 13:12).
Dear brothers and
sisters, we begin our Lenten journey with trust and joy. May the invitation to conversion , to “return to
God with all our heart”, resonate strongly in us, accepting His grace that
makes us new men and women, with the surprising news that is participating in
the very life of Jesus. May none of us, therefore, be deaf to this appeal, also
addressed in the austere rite, so simple and yet so beautiful, of the
imposition of ashes, which we will shortly carry out. May the Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church and model of every true disciple of the Lord accompany us
in this time. Amen!
