|
Pope Benedict XVI- Message- Lent |
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2009
February 3, 2009
"Fasting Is a Great Help to Avoid Sin and All That Leads to It"
Dear
Brothers and Sisters!
At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more
intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three
penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and
Christian tradition -- prayer, almsgiving, fasting -- to prepare us
to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God's power that, as
we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, "dispels all evil, washes guilt
away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out
hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride" (Paschal
Præconium). For this year's Lenten Message, I wish to focus my
reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed,
Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord's fasting in the desert,
which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read
in the Gospel: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty
nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who
fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and
Elijah's fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings
19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for
the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious
battle with the tempter.
We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in
depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful
for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire
Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin
and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation
is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first
pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from
partaking of the prohibited fruit: "You may freely eat of every tree
of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gn
2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes
that "fasting was ordained in Paradise," and "the first commandment
in this sense was delivered to Adam." He thus concludes: "'You shall
not eat' is a law of fasting and abstinence" (cf. Sermo de jejunio:
PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its
consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore
friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in
preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land,
calls upon the assembled people to fast so that "we might humble
ourselves before our God" (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer
and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the
people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah's call to repentance,
proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: "Who knows,
God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish
not?" (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared
them.
In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for
fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously
observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far
from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is
rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who "sees in secret,
and will reward you" (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example,
answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert
that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus
directed to eating the "true food," which is to do the Father's will
(cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord's command "of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat," the
believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God,
trusting in His goodness and mercy.
The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian
community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church
Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin,
especially the lusts of the "old Adam," and open in the heart of the
believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is
encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age.
Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: "Fasting is the soul of prayer,
mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you
fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the
petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open
God's ear to yourself" (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).
In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its
spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by
the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care
of one's body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical
well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a
"therapy" to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will
of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the
Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the
call of every Christian to "no longer live for himself, but for Him
who loves him and gave himself for him, he will also have to live
for his brethren" (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to
present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so
that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held
practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our
egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and
greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire
Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).
The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to
conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to
avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who
knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as
"twisted and tangled knottiness" (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes:
"I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will
forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his
delightfulness" (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material
food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to
listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and
praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we
experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for
God.
At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the
situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his
First Letter, Saint John admonishes: "If anyone has the world's
goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of
compassion from him -- how does the love of God abide in him?"
(3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the
Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering
brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing
an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement
that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is
precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude
towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and
every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and
communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and
almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the
Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf.
2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the
poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V,
20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again
in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.
From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that
fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm
to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to
ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and
other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the
appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative
effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an
ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: "Utamur ergo parcius, /
verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in
custodia" (Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and
amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses).
Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal
of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope
John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf.
Encyclical "Veritatis splendor," 21). May every family and Christian
community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast
aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes
the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking
especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina,
recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation
in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this
interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, "Causa nostrae laetitiae," accompany
and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin,
making it evermore a "living tabernacle of God." With these wishes,
while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer
for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my
Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 11 December 2008
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2009 -- 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
