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Lents Pope Sues for Authentic Conversion and Justice
Church's Care For Sick Is An Invaluable
Lents
Pope Sues for Authentic Conversion and Justice
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has charged all Christians to true
Conversion and Justice. The Holy Father made this admonition in His 2010 Lenten
Message stating that the six weeks period of fasting, prayer and almsgiving
should challenge Christians of all walks of life to true conversion by exiting
all illusions of self sufficiency whose profound state of closure remains the
very origin of all forms of injustice. According to him, injustice is the fruit
of evil which has no exclusive external root but whose origin lies in the human
heart where the seeds are found of a mysterious co-operation with evil. All
Christians therefore, should in this great period of Lent enter into the greatest
Justice which exists in true love and which recognizes itself in every case
more a debtor than could ever have been expected, the Pope advised.
Message Of His Holiness
Benedict XVI For Lent 2010
“The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ”
(cf. Rm 3, 21-22)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review
of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like
to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from
the Pauline affirmation: “The justice of God has been manifested through
faith in Jesus Christ” (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).
Justice: “dare cuique suum”
First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term “justice,”
which in common usage implies “to render to every man his due,”
according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century.
In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what “due”
is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to
him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary
that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love
which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image
and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required indeed Jesus
Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and
surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions
into death through lack of food, water and medicine yet “distributive”
justice does not render to the human being the totality of his “due.”
Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine
notes: if “justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where,
then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?” (Decivitate
Dei, XIX, 21).
What is the Cause of Injustice?
The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted
within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: “There
is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things
which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man
is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts”
(Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can
detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to
situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep
down have this presupposition: since injustice comes “from outside,”
in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes
that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking Jesus warns is ingenuous
and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external
roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious
cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognizes this: “Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”
(Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his
capacity to enter into communion with the other. By nature, he is open to sharing
freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him
turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result
of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan's lie, snatching the mysterious
fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with
that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting
from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one's own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6),
experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can
man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?
Justice and Sedaqah
At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith
in God who “lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Ps 113,7) and justice
towards one's neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of
justice, sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one
hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity
in relation to one's neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the
stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings
are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring
what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by
chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took
place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith
in God who first “heard the cry” of His people and “came down
to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians” (cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive
to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice
towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the slave
(cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to
leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which
is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper
“exodus” than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation
of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have
any hope of justice then?
Christ, the Justice of God
The Christian Good News responds positively to man's thirst for justice, as
Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: “But now the justice of
God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith
in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace
as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward
as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3, 21-25). What
then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from
grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact
that “expiation” flows from the “blood” of Christ signifies
that it is not man's sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults,
but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point
of bearing in Himself the “curse” due to man so as to give in return
the “blessing” due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an
immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for
the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one?
Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his “due”?
In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different
from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in
His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross,
man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in
need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing
in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency
in order to discover and accept one's own need the need of others and God, the
need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether
different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to
accept that I need Another to free me from “what is mine,” to give
me gratuitously “what is His.” This happens especially in the sacraments
of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ's action, we may enter
into the “greatest” justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10),
the justice that recognizes itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor,
because it has received more than could ever have been expected. Strengthened
by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just
societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity
proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.
Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which
this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice the fullness of charity, gift,
salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic
conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill
every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic
Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 October 2009.
Church's
Care For Sick Is An Invaluable
Gift To The World, Pope Says.
The pastoral care of the sick and infirm is a priceless gift the church offers
to those who suffer, to their families and to the world, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Accepting and offering up one's suffering along with sincerely and selflessly
participating in the suffering of others are all "miracles of love"
--- signs of God's love operating within the church, "performing great
things through humble and simple people," the pope said Feb. 11 as he marked
World Day of the Sick on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Meeting and blessing sick people and their caregivers during a Mass in St. Peter's
Basilica, the pope said another miracle at work was the presence of God's grace
in the many people who care for those who suffer, offering them the courage
to face pain and illness "with just the strength of faith and of hope in
the Lord." "We live a joy that does not forget suffering, but understands
it," he said in his homily. "In this way the ill and those who suffer
are, within the church, not just the recipients of care and concern, but first
and foremost protagonists in the pilgrimage of faith and hope" embarked
upon by all Christians, he added. Before the Mass, a few hundred people -- including
many using wheelchairs -- processed down the broad boulevard leading to St.
Peter's Basilica. Led by flag twirlers in medieval costume, the procession followed
a truck carrying the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous -- the 19th-century
saint who witnessed a number of apparitions of Mary at a grotto outside Lourdes,
France.
The relics were carried by ushers up the main aisle of St. Peter's Basilica
and placed in front of the altar. The Mass was broadcast live to pilgrims gathered
at several Marian shrines around the world, including Lourdes, Fatima in Portugal,
and Czestochowa in Poland. The Mass also marked the 25th anniversary of the
institution of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry. Pope Benedict
said the council was created to help promote "a world better capable of
welcoming and healing the sick as people" whose dignity must be respected.
Through the council's work, the church wants to help sick people "live
the experience of illness in a more human way, not denying (their infirmity),
but giving it meaning," he said. In his homily, the pope also stressed
the important role priests play in carrying out the church's mission of healing
and evangelization.
Priests and those who are ill must work together, forming
a kind of alliance, he said, in which the sick call out for God and the priests
quickly respond with God's loving and saving grace. “Here we can see the
importance of the pastoral care of sick people, which is of an inestimable value,
and the immense benefit that it offers first of all to the ill and to the priest,
but also to family members, loved ones, the community and, through unknown and
mysterious ways, the whole church and the world," said the pope. In his
written message for World Sick Day, the pope highlighted the church's role in
bringing Christ's love and healing to all those who suffer, whether from poverty,
oppression, remorse or illness. He wrote that the church must increase its presence
among the sick and in society so it can better help defend human life from conception
to its natural end.