Holy Mass, Blessing and imposition of ashes
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Basilica of Santa Sabina
Ash Wednesday, March 9, 2011
[Francese, Inglese, Italiano , Portoghese, Spagnolo, Tedesco]
Cari fratelli e sorelle,
iniziamo oggi il tempo liturgico della Quaresima con il suggestivo rito dell’imposizione delle ceneri, attraverso il quale vogliamo assumere l'impegno di convertire il nostro cuore verso gli orizzonti della Grazia. In genere, nell’opinione comune, questo tempo rischia di essere connotato dalla tristezza, dal grigiore della vita. Invece esso è dono prezioso di Dio, è tempo forte e denso di significati nel cammino della Chiesa, è l’itinerario verso la Pasqua del Signore. Le Letture bibliche dell’odierna celebrazione offer us to fully live this spiritual experience.
"Come back to me with all your heart" ( Gl 2:12). In the first reading from the book of the prophet Joel, we heard these words with which God invites the Jewish people to a sincere repentance and not apparent. This is not a conversion superficial and transient, but a spiritual journey that covers in depth the attitudes of conscience and presupposes a sincere about repentance. The prophet is inspired by the plight of the invasion of locusts that had befallen on the people by destroying their crops, to invite an interior penance, to tear the heart and not the clothes (cf. 2.13). It is, to implement an attitude of genuine conversion to God - to return to Him - by recognizing his holiness, his power, his majesty. And this conversion is possible because God is rich in mercy and love. His mercy is a regenerative, which creates in us a clean heart, renew a spirit still in the depths, giving us the joy of salvation (cf. Ps 50.14). In fact, God - as the prophet says - do not want the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (cf. Ez 33:11). The prophet Joel orders on behalf of the Lord, the creation of a conducive environment penitential must play the trumpet, convene the meeting, to awaken consciences. The Lenten season offers us that the liturgical and penitential: a journey of forty days in which to experiment effectively the merciful love of God for us today echoes the call "Come back to me with all your heart" and today we are to be called to convert our hearts to God, always conscious of not being able to fulfill our conversion yourself, with our forces, because it is God who converts. He still offers us his forgiveness and invited him to come back to give us a new heart, purified from the evil that oppresses him, for us to share in his joy. Our world needs to be converted by God, he need his forgiveness, his love, needs a new heart.
"Be reconciled to God" (2 Cor 5.20). In the second reading St. Paul gives us another element in the path of conversion. The Apostle calls keep my eyes on him and instead pay attention to those who have sent and the content of the message he brings: "In the name of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors through us is God himself who urges . We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God "(ibid.). An ambassador repeats what he heard spoken by her Lord and speaks with the authority and within the limits that received. Who has held the position of ambassador to attract the interest on itself, but must serve the message to be sent and who sent him. So does St. Paul in carrying out his ministry as a preacher of the Word of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. He does not flinch in the face of received task, but acquitted him with complete dedication and invited to be open to grace, to let God convert us, "For we are his colleagues - he writes - we urge you not to neglect the grace of God "(2 Cor 6.1). "Christ's call to conversion - says the Catechism of the Catholic Church - continues to resonate in the lives of Christians. [...] is a continued commitment to the whole Church "includes in its bosom sinners" and that "at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." This endeavor of conversion is not just a human. It is the movement of "contrite heart" (Ps 51 , 19), attracted and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first "(No. 1428). St. Paul speaks to Christians of Corinth, but through their duty to reach all people. For all have need of God's grace, to enlighten their minds and hearts. And the Apostle insisted: "Now is the time, now is the day of salvation!" ( 2Cor 6,2). Tutti possono aprirsi all’azione di Dio, al suo amore; con la nostra testimonianza evangelica, noi cristiani dobbiamo essere un messaggio vivente, anzi, in molti casi siamo l’unico Vangelo che gli uomini di oggi leggono ancora. Ecco la nostra responsabilità sulle orme di san Paolo, ecco un motivo in più per vivere bene la Quaresima : offrire la testimonianza della fede vissuta ad un mondo in difficoltà che ha bisogno di ritornare a Dio, che ha bisogno di conversione.
«Guardatevi dal praticare la vostra giustizia davanti agli uomini per essere ammirati da loro» ( Mt 6,1). Gesù, nel Vangelo di oggi, rilegge le three major works of piety provided by the Mosaic law. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting characterize the jew according to the law. Over time, these provisions had been eroded by rust external formalism, or even had mutated into a sign of superiority. Jesus highlights in these three works of mercy a common temptation. When you do something good, almost instinctively comes the desire to be respected and admired for the good deed, to have that satisfaction. And this, on the one hand locked up in themselves, the other door outside of themselves, because it is completely directed towards what others think of us and admire us. In proposing these requirements, the Lord Jesus did not require a formal compliance with a law alien to man, imposed by a legislature as severe heavy burden, but invites us to rediscover these three works of piety living them in a deeper way, not just for love but to love of God, as a means in the path of conversion to him alms, fasting and prayer: it is the path of the divine pedagogy that accompanies us, not only in Lent, leading to an encounter with the Risen Lord, to follow a path without ostentation in the knowledge that Heavenly Father knows how to read and see in the seclusion of our hearts.
Dear brothers and sisters, we start trusting and joyful route quaresimale. Quaranta giorni ci separano dalla Pasqua; questo tempo «forte» dell’anno liturgico è un tempo propizio che ci è donato per attendere, con maggiore impegno, alla nostra conversione, per intensificare l’ascolto della Parola di Dio, la preghiera e la penitenza, aprendo il cuore alla docile accoglienza della volontà divina, per una pratica più generosa della mortificazione, grazie alla quale andare più largamente in aiuto del prossimo bisognoso: un itinerario spirituale che ci prepara a rivivere il Mistero Pasquale.
Maria, nostra guida nel cammino quaresimale, ci conduca ad una conoscenza sempre più profonda di Cristo, morto e risorto, ci aid in the spiritual battle against sin, support us in calling loudly: "Converts nos, Deus salutaris noster " - "converted unto thee, O God, our salvation." Amen!
© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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