"A merciful heart does not mean a weak
heart"
Here is the text of Pope Francis' Lenten Message
for 2015, which reflects on the theme: "Make your hearts firm" (James
5:8).
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for
each communities and every believer. Above all it is a "time of
grace" (2Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he
himself has not first given us. "We love because he first has loved
us" (1Jn 4:19). 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 don’t 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 globalization 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 globalization 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 (cf. Gal 5:6). 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" (1 Cor 12:26) – 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 realize 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 (Jn 13:8) 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" (1 Cor 12:26).
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?" (Gen 4:9)
– 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 (Lk 16:19-31)?
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" (Letter 254, July 14, 1897).
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 (cf. Acts 1:8). 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!" (James 5:8)
– 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
organizations. 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
(cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). 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 realizes 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 globalization 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.
From the Vatican, 4 October 2014
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi
FRANCISCUS PP.
