Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Vatican City, 13 February 2013 (VIS) – Benedict XVI
dedicated the catechesis of today's General Audience to the season of Lent,
which begins today, Ash Wednesday. "Forty days," he said, "that prepare
us for the celebration of Easter. It is a time of particular commitment in our
spiritual journey. … Forty days was also the period that Jesus spent in the
desert before beginning his public life, when he was tempted by the
devil."
Reflecting on Jesus' temptations in the desert, is "an
invitation to each of us to respond to a fundamental question: What is truly
important in our lives? … The core of the three temptations that Jesus faced is
the proposal to instrumentalize God, to use Him for personal interests, for
self-glory and success. In essence, it is putting oneself in God's place,
eliminating Him from our existence and making Him seem superfluous. … Giving
God the first place is a path that each Christian has to undertake.
'Conversion' … means following Jesus, so that His Gospel becomes the practical
guide of our lives. … It means recognizing that we are creatures who depend on
God, on His love ...This requires us to make our decisions in light of the Word
of God. Today it is no longer possible to be a Christian as a simple
consequence of living in a society that has Christian roots. Even those who
come from a Christian family … must renew daily their decision to be Christian,
to give God the first place in the face of the temptations continuously
suggested by a secularized culture, in the face of the criticism of many of
their contemporaries."
"The tests that Christians are subjected to by society
today are numerous and affect our personal and social life. It is not easy to
be faithful to Christian marriage, to practice mercy in our everyday lives, or
to leave space for prayer and inner silence. It is not easy to publicly oppose
the decisions that many consider to be obvious, such as abortion in the case of
an unwanted pregnancy, euthanasia in the case of serious illness, or the
selection of embryos to avoid hereditary diseases. The temptation to set one's
faith aside is always present and conversion becomes a response to God that
must be confirmed at various times throughout our lives."
The Holy Father recalled that in history there have been
"great conversions such as St. Paul's on the road to Damascus or St.
Augustine's. But also in our age, when the sense of the sacred is eclipsed,
God's grace acts and works wonders in the lives of many people … as was the
case for the Orthodox Russian scientist Pavel Florensky who, after a completely
agnostic education … found himself exclaiming, 'It's impossible without God.'
He completely changed his life, even becoming a monk." The Pope also cited
the case of the intellectual Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), "a young Dutch
woman of Jewish origin, who died in Auschwitz. Initially far from God, she
discovered Him by looking deep within herself, writing: 'There is a well deep
within me. And God is that well.' … In her scattered and restless life, she
rediscovered God in the midst of the great tragedy of the twentieth century,
the Shoah."
"In our age, there are more than a few conversions that
are seen as the return of those who, after a Christian education, perhaps a
superficial one, have turned away from the faith for years, then later
rediscover Christ and His Gospel. … In this time of Lent, in the Year of Faith,
we renew our commitment to the path of conversion, overcoming the tendency to
be wrapped up in ourselves and to make room for God, seeing our everyday
reality with His eyes. Conversion means not being wrapped up in ourselves in
the search for success, prestige, or social position, but rather of making each
day, in the small things, truth, faith in God, and love, become what is most
important," the Pope concluded.
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