Dear Friends,
Pope Francis wrote a letter to you about Lent. You can read the whole thing at the Vatican website, but I
thought I would highlight a few paragraphs for you:
When our God reveals himself, his message is always one of freedom: “I am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” These are the first words of the
Decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Those who heard them were quite familiar with the exodus of
which God spoke: the experience of their bondage still weighed heavily upon them. In the desert, they
received the “Ten Words” as a thoroughfare to freedom. We call them “commandments”, in order to
emphasize the strength of the love by which God shapes his people. The call to freedom is a demanding
one. It is not answered straightaway; it has to mature as part of a journey. Just as Israel in the desert still
clung to Egypt – often longing for the past and grumbling against the Lord and Moses – today too, God’s
people can cling to an oppressive bondage that it is called to leave behind. We realize how true this is at
those moments when we feel hopeless, wandering through life like a desert and lacking a promised land
as our destination. Lent is the season of grace in which the desert can become once more – in the words
of the prophet Hosea – the place of our first love. God shapes his people, he enables us to leave our
slavery behind and experience a Passover from death to life. Like a bridegroom, the Lord draws us once
more to himself, whispering words of love to our hearts…
God has not grown weary of us. Let us welcome Lent as the great season in which he reminds us: “I am
the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Lent is a
season of conversion, a time of freedom. Jesus himself, as we recall each year on the first Sunday of Lent,
was driven into the desert by the Spirit in order to be tempted in freedom. For forty days, he will stand
before us and with us: the incarnate Son. Unlike Pharaoh, God does not want subjects, but sons and
daughters. The desert is the place where our freedom can mature in a personal decision not to fall back
into slavery. In Lent, we find new criteria of justice and a community with which we can press forward on
a road not yet taken.
This, however, entails a struggle, as the book of Exodus and the temptations of Jesus in the desert make
clear to us. The voice of God, who says, “You are my Son, the Beloved”, and “You shall have no other
gods before me” is opposed by the enemy and his lies. Even more to be feared than Pharaoh are the
idols that we set up for ourselves; we can consider them as his voice speaking within us. To be all-
powerful, to be looked up to by all, to domineer over others: every human being is aware of how deeply
seductive that lie can be. It is a road well-travelled. We can become attached to money, to certain
projects, ideas or goals, to our position, to a tradition, even to certain individuals. Instead of making us
move forward, they paralyze us. Instead of encounter, they create conflict. Yet there is also a new
humanity, a people of the little ones and of the humble who have not yielded to the allure of the lie.
Whereas those who serve idols become like them, mute, blind, deaf and immobile, the poor of spirit are
open and ready: a silent force of good that heals and sustains the world…
It is time to act, and in Lent, to act also means to pause. To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word
of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister. Love of God and love
of neighbor are one love. Not to have other gods is to pause in the presence of God beside the flesh of
our neighbor. For this reason, prayer, almsgiving and fasting are not three unrelated acts, but a single
movement of openness and self-emptying, in which we cast out the idols that weigh us down, the
attachments that imprison us. Then the atrophied and isolated heart will revive. Slow down, then, and pause! The contemplative dimension of life that Lent helps us to rediscover will release new energies. In
the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another: in place of threats
and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers. This is God’s dream, the promised land to
which we journey once we have left our slavery behind…
Lent begins on Wednesday! Happy Lent.
Peace,
Fr. Damian