The complete text of his last public homily is below:
Venerable Brothers, Dear Brothers and Sisters!
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 cannot 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!
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