FINDING ANSWERS

As we slow down in our hectic activities this Holy Tuesday and take time to deepen our faith, contemplating what Pope Francis had been telling us through the years helps with our Lenten reflections.
Lent is all about God’s love for us and His mercy. The Holy Father said mercy “expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe” and, thus, restore the relationship between God and man. “In Jesus crucified, God shows his desire to draw near to sinners, however far they may have strayed from Him,” he said.
Pope Francis explained that God’s mercy transforms human hearts, enables us to become merciful in turn, and inspires each of us to love our neighbor through “concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbors in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them [because] on such things will we be judged.”
He expressed hope that Christians will “reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy.”
Amid all the poverty, inequality, and destitution all around, Lent is indeed an opportune time to strengthen our commitment to the unending task of bringing about God’s Kingdom in this world. If true followers of Christ act on His basic teachings to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, take care of the sick, and perform other acts of mercy, these would help bring forth His Kingdom here on earth.
Pope Francis reminds us that during Lent, Christians are called upon to practice the three elements for spiritual growth as laid out in the Gospel — prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
“When we pray we are in tune with God’s mercy; having mercy regarding our sins, being merciful with ourselves, but also merciful with all those who have asked to be prayed for, those for whom we want to pray in tune with God’s heart. This is true prayer: in tune with God’s mercy, with His merciful heart,” the Pontiff said.
On fasting, the Pope said we are not to just follow the rules for Lenten fasting and abstinence, for that might lead to self-satisfaction. “Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him.”
The giving of alms should help free the faithful “from the obsession of possession, from the fear of losing what they have, and from the sadness of not sharing their well-being with others,” he said.
The Holy Father also said Christians are called upon to help those facing the three types of destitution — material, moral, and spiritual. He described material destitution as those “living in conditions opposed to human dignity: those who lack basic rights and needs such as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity to develop and grow culturally.”
We must also be concerned for those suffering from moral destitution — slavery to vices like drugs, alcohol, and gambling. “How many people no longer see meaning in life or prospects for the future, how many have lost hope! And how many are plunged into this destitution by unjust social conditions, by unemployment, which takes away their dignity as breadwinners, and by lack of equal access to education and health care,” the Pope lamented.
The Holy Father explained moral destitution “causes financial ruin, is invariably linked to the spiritual destitution which we experience when we turn away from God and reject His love. If we think we don’t need God who reaches out to us through Christ, because we believe we can make do on our own, we are headed for a fall. God alone can truly save and free us.”
The real antidote to spiritual destitution is the Gospel, he said. “Wherever we go, we are called as Christians to proclaim the liberating news that forgiveness for sins committed is possible, that God is greater than our sinfulness, that he freely loves us at all times and that we were made for communion and eternal life. The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds of this message of mercy and hope!” the Pope exclaimed.
May this Lenten season give all of us the chance to experience God’s love and find deeper meaning in Christ’s teachings thru Pope Francis! E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])