Subject: VISnews 110309
Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 46
ENGLISH
WEDNESDAY, 9 MARCH 2011
SUMMARY:
- Lent: Rediscovering Our Baptism
- Brazil Fraternity Campaign: Defending Human Ecology
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LENT: REDISCOVERING OUR BAPTISM
VATICAN CITY, 9 MAR 2011 (VIS) - "Today, with the austere symbol of the
ashes, we enter the period of Lent, beginning a spiritual journey which
prepares for a worthy celebration of the Paschal mysteries. The ashes ...
are a sign reminding us of our status as created beings and inviting us to
penance, to intensify our commitment to conversion so as to continue
following the Lord", said the Pope in his general audience today, held in
the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 7,000 faithful.
"Lent is a journey, it means accompanying Jesus as He travels to
Jerusalem, the place where the mystery of His Passion, Death and
Resurrection is to be fulfilled. It reminds us that Christian life is a
'road' to be travelled, consisting not so much in a law to be observed as in
the person of Christ Himself, Who must be encountered, welcomed and
followed".
"It is above all in the liturgy, in participation in the holy mysteries,
that we are drawn into following this path with the Lord, ... reliving the
events that have led us to salvation; but not as a simple commemoration, a
recollection of things past", the Holy Father explained. "There is", he
said, "a keyword to indicate this, which is often repeated in the liturgy:
the word 'today', which must be understood not metaphorically but in its
original concrete sense. Today God reveals His law and we have the
opportunity to chose between good and evil, between life and death".
On Sundays during Lent we experience "a baptismal itinerary" which helps
to conform "our lives to the requirements and duties of that Sacrament,
which lies at the foundation of our Christian life".
"The first Sunday [of Lent], called the Sunday of temptation because it
presents us with the temptation of Jesus in the desert, invites is to renew
our definitive choice for God, and courageously to face the struggle that
awaits us in remaining faithful to Him". The second Sunday is the Sunday of
Abraham and the Transfiguration and, "like Abraham, father of believers, we
too are invited to depart, to leave our own land, to abandon the certainties
we have constructed and place our faith in God. We may glimpse our goal in
the transfiguration of Christ, the beloved Son, in Whom we too become
'children of God'".
On the third Sunday we encounter the Samaritan woman. "Like Israel in the
Exodus, in Baptism we too received the water that saves. Jesus, as He tells
the Samaritan woman, has the water of life which satisfies every thirst;
this water is His Spirit. ... The fourth Sunday leads us to reflect on the
experience of the man 'blind from birth'. In Baptism we are freed from the
shades of evil and receive the light of Christ in order to live as children
of light. ... Finally, the fifth Sunday presents us with the raising of
Lazarus. In Baptism we pass from death to life and become capable of
pleasing God, of causing the old man to die so as to live in the spirit of
the Risen One".
In Church tradition the period of Lent is characterised by practices such
as fasting, almsgiving and prayer, said Pope Benedict, explaining how
fasting "means abstaining from food, but it also includes other forms of
privation for a more abstemious life". It "is closely linked to almsgiving
... which under the one name of 'mercy' embraces many good works". Moreover,
during this period the Church "invites us to a more trusting and intense
prayer, and to prolonged meditation on the Word of God".
"On this Lenten journey", the Pope concluded, "let us be attentive to
welcoming Christ's invitation to follow Him more decisively and coherently,
renewing the grace and commitments of our Baptism, so as to abandon the old
man who is in us and clothe ourselves in Christ, thus reaching Easter
renewed and being able to say with St. Paul 'it is no longer I who live, but
it is Christ who lives in me'".
AG/ VIS 20110309
(680)
BRAZIL FRATERNITY CAMPAIGN: DEFENDING HUMAN ECOLOGY
VATICAN CITY, 9 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father sent a Message to
Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, president of the National
Conference of Bishops of Brazil, for the Fraternity Campaign traditionally
promoted by the Brazilian Church during Lent.
The theme of the 2011 campaign is: "Fraternity and life on the planet",
and its motto is: "the creation groans with labour pains. This, the Pope
writes, "is an echo of the words used by St. Paul in his Letter to the
Romans. One of the reasons for these groans is the damage caused to creation
by human selfishness", he says.
Benedict XVI affirms that "the first step towards a correct relationship
with the world around us is the recognition by humans of their status as
created beings. Man is not God; he is His image. For this reason he must
seek to be more sensitive to the presence of God in his surroundings. In all
creatures, and especially in human beings, there is an epiphany, or
manifestation, of God".
"The human being will be capable of respecting other creatures only if he
keeps the full meaning of life in his own heart. Otherwise he will come to
despise himself and his surroundings, and to disrespect the environment, the
creation, in which he lives. For this reason, the first ecology to be
defended is 'human ecology'. This is to say that, without a clear defence of
human life from conception until natural death; without a defence of the
family founded on marriage between a man and a woman; without an authentic
defence of those excluded and marginalised by society, not overlooking, in
this context, those who have lost everything in natural calamities, we will
never be able to speak of authentic protection of the environment".
MESS/ VIS 20110309 (310)
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