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MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR LENT 2020
“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God”
(2 Cor 5:20)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This year the Lord grants us, once again, a
favourable time to prepare to celebrate with
renewed hearts the great mystery of the death
and resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of
our personal and communal Christian life. We
must continually return to this mystery in mind
and heart, for it will continue to grow within
us in the measure that we are open to its
spiritual power and respond with freedom and
generosity.
1. The paschal mystery as the basis of
conversion
Christian joy flows from listening to, and
accepting, the Good News of the death and
resurrection of Jesus. This kerygma sums up the
mystery of a love “so real, so true, so
concrete, that it invites us to a relationship
of openness and fruitful dialogue” (Christus
Vivit, 117). Whoever believes this message
rejects the lie that our life is ours to do with
as we will. Rather, life is born of the love of
God our Father, from his desire to grant us life
in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). If we listen
instead to the tempting voice of the “father of
lies” (Jn 8:44), we risk sinking into the abyss
of absurdity, and experiencing hell here on
earth, as all too many tragic events in the
personal and collective human experience sadly
bear witness.
In this Lent of 2020, I would like to share with
every Christian what I wrote to young people in
the Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit: “Keep
your eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of
Christ crucified, let yourself be saved over and
over again. And when you go to confess your
sins, believe firmly in his mercy which frees
you of your guilt. Contemplate his blood poured
out with such great love, and let yourself be
cleansed by it. In this way, you can be reborn
ever anew” (No. 123). Jesus’ Pasch is not a past
event; rather, through the power of the Holy
Spirit it is ever present, enabling us to see
and touch with faith the flesh of Christ in
those who suffer.
2. The urgency of conversion
It is good to contemplate more deeply the
paschal mystery through which God’s mercy has
been bestowed upon us. Indeed, the experience of
mercy is only possible in a “face to face”
relationship with the crucified and risen Lord
“who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal
2:20), in a heartfelt dialogue between friends.
That is why prayer is so important in Lent. Even
more than a duty, prayer is an expression of our
need to respond to God’s love which always
precedes and sustains us. Christians pray in the
knowledge that, although unworthy, we are still
loved. Prayer can take any number of different
forms, but what truly matters in God’s eyes is
that it penetrates deep within us and chips away
at our hardness of heart, in order to convert us
ever more fully to God and to his will.
In this favourable season, then, may we allow
ourselves to be led like Israel into the desert
(cf. Hos 2:14), so that we can at last hear our
Spouse’s voice and allow it to resound ever more
deeply within us. The more fully we are engaged
with his word, the more we will experience the
mercy he freely gives us. May we not let this
time of grace pass in vain, in the foolish
illusion that we can control the times and means
of our conversion to him.
3. God’s passionate will to dialogue with his
children
The fact that the Lord once again offers us a
favourable time for our conversion should never
be taken for granted. This new opportunity ought
to awaken in us a sense of gratitude and stir us
from our sloth. Despite the sometimes tragic
presence of evil in our lives, and in the life
of the Church and the world, this opportunity to
change our course expresses God’s unwavering
will not to interrupt his dialogue of salvation
with us. In the crucified Jesus, who knew no
sin, yet for our sake was made to be sin (cf. 2
Cor 5:21), this saving will led the Father to
burden his Son with the weight of our sins,
thus, in the expression of Pope Benedict XVI,
“turning of God against himself” (Deus Caritas
Est, 12). For God also loves his enemies (cf. Mt
5:43-48).
The dialogue that God wishes to establish with
each of us through the paschal mystery of his
Son has nothing to do with empty chatter, like
that attributed to the ancient inhabitants of
Athens, who “spent their time in nothing except
telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21).
Such chatter, determined by an empty and
superficial curiosity, characterizes worldliness
in every age; in our own day, it can also result
in improper use of the media.
4. A richness to be shared, not kept for oneself
Putting the paschal mystery at the centre of our
lives means feeling compassion towards the
wounds of the crucified Christ present in the
many innocent victims of wars, in attacks on
life, from that of the unborn to that of the
elderly, and various forms of violence. They are
likewise present in environmental disasters, the
unequal distribution of the earth’s goods, human
trafficking in all its forms, and the unbridled
thirst for profit, which is a form of idolatry.
Today too, there is a need to appeal to men and
women of good will to share, by almsgiving,
their goods with those most in need, as a means
of personally participating in the building of a
better world. Charitable giving makes us more
human, whereas hoarding risks making us less
human, imprisoned by our own selfishness. We can
and must go even further, and consider the
structural aspects of our economic life. For
this reason, in the midst of Lent this year,
from 26 to 28 March, I have convened a meeting
in Assisi with young economists, entrepreneurs
and change-makers, with the aim of shaping a
more just and inclusive economy. As the Church’s
magisterium has often repeated, political life
represents an eminent form of charity (cf. Pius
XI, Address to the Italian Federation of
Catholic University Students, 18 December 1927).
The same holds true for economic life, which can
be approached in the same evangelical spirit,
the spirit of the Beatitudes.
I ask Mary Most Holy to pray that our Lenten
celebration will open our hearts to hear God’s
call to be reconciled to himself, to fix our
gaze on the paschal mystery, and to be converted
to an open and sincere dialogue with him. In
this way, we will become what Christ asks his
disciples to be: the salt of the earth and the
light of the world (cf. Mt 5:13-14).
Francis
Rome, at Saint John Lateran, 7 October 2019
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
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