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Pope Benedict XVI- Message- Lent |
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2007
February 13, 2007
“They shall look on
Him
whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37)
Dear
Brothers and Sisters!
“They
shall look on Him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37).
This is the biblical theme that this year guides our Lenten
reflection. Lent is a favourable time to learn to stay with Mary and
John, the beloved disciple, close to Him who on the Cross,
consummated for all mankind the sacrifice of His life (cf. Jn
19:25). With a more fervent participation let us direct our gaze,
therefore, in this time of penance and prayer, at Christ crucified
who, dying on Calvary, revealed fully for us the love of God. In the
Encyclical Deus caritas est, I dwelt upon this theme
of love, highlighting its two fundamental forms: agape and
eros.
God’s love: agape and eros
The term
agape, which appears many times in the New Testament,
indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the
good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes
the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and
yearns for union with the beloved. The love with which God surrounds
us is undoubtedly agape. Indeed, can man give to God some
good that He does not already possess? All that the human creature
is and has is divine gift. It is the creature then, who is in need
of God in everything. But God’s love is also eros. In the Old
Testament, the Creator of the universe manifests toward the people
whom He has chosen as His own a predilection that transcends every
human motivation. The prophet Hosea expresses this divine passion
with daring images such as the love of a man for an adulterous woman
(cf. 3:1-3). For his part, Ezekiel, speaking of God’s relationship
with the people of Israel, is not afraid to use strong and
passionate language (cf. 16:1-22). These biblical texts indicate
that eros is part of God’s very heart: the Almighty awaits
the “yes” of His creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride.
Unfortunately, from its very origins, mankind, seduced by the lies
of the Evil One, rejected God’s love in the illusion of a
self-sufficiency that is impossible (cf. Gn 3:1-7). Turning
in on himself, Adam withdrew from that source of life who is God
Himself, and became the first of “those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb 2:15). God, however,
did not give up. On the contrary, man’s “no” was the decisive
impulse that moved Him to manifest His love in all of its redeeming
strength.
The Cross reveals the fullness of God’s love
It is in
the mystery of the Cross that the overwhelming power of the heavenly
Father’s mercy is revealed in all of its fullness. In order to win
back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price:
the blood of His only begotten Son. Death, which for the first Adam
was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus
transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam.
One could very well assert, therefore, together with Saint Maximus
the Confessor, that Christ “died, if one could say so, divinely,
because He died freely” (Ambigua, 91, 1956) On the Cross,
God’s eros for us is made manifest. Eros is indeed –
as Pseudo-Dionysius expresses it – that force “that does not allow
the lover to remain in himself but moves him to become one with the
beloved” (De divinis nominibus, IV, 13: PG 3, 712). Is there
more “mad eros” (N. Cabasilas, Vita in Cristo, 648)
than that which led the Son of God to make Himself one with us even
to the point of suffering as His own the consequences of our
offences?
“Him whom they have pierced”
Dear
brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced on the Cross! He
is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love, a love in which
eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each
other. On the Cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His
creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. The Apostle
Thomas recognized Jesus as “Lord and God” when he put his hand into
the wound of His side. Not surprisingly, many of the saints found in
the Heart of Jesus the deepest expression of this mystery of love.
One could rightly say that the revelation of God’s eros
toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape.
In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself
with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy, which
eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from
the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The
response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we
welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him. Accepting
His love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love
and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me
to Himself” in order to unite Himself to me, so that I learn to love
the brothers with His own love.
Blood and water
“They
shall look on Him whom they have pierced.” Let us look with
trust at the pierced side of Jesus from which flow “blood and water”
(Jn 19:34)! The Fathers of the Church considered these
elements as symbols of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist.
Through the water of Baptism, thanks to the action of the Holy
Spirit, we are given access to the intimacy of Trinitarian love. In
the Lenten journey, memorial of our Baptism, we are exhorted to come
out of ourselves in order to open ourselves, in trustful
abandonment, to the merciful embrace of the Father (cf. Saint John
Chrysostom, Catecheses, 3,14ff). Blood, symbol of the love of
the Good Shepherd, flows into us especially in the Eucharistic
mystery: “The Eucharist draws us into Jesus’ act of self-oblation …
we enter into the very dynamic of His self-giving” (Encyclical
Deus caritas est, 13). Let us live Lent then, as a
“Eucharistic” time in which, welcoming the love of Jesus, we learn
to spread it around us with every word and deed. Contemplating “Him
whom they have pierced” moves us in this way to open our hearts to
others, recognizing the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the
human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of
contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the
tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people. May Lent
be for every Christian a renewed experience of God’s love given to
us in Christ, a love that each day we, in turn, must “regive” to our
neighbour, especially to the one who suffers most and is in need.
Only in this way will we be able to participate fully in the joy of
Easter. May Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love, guide us in this Lenten
journey, a journey of authentic conversion to the love of Christ. I
wish you, dear brothers and sisters, a fruitful Lenten journey,
imparting with affection to all of you, a special Apostolic
Blessing.
From
the Vatican, 21 November 2006.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
©
Copyright 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Look at the One they
Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
