Homily of Bishop Julian Ruiz Martorell
Bishop of Huesca and Jaca
SI Huesca Cathedral
March 9, 2011
St. Paul said in the second reading: "In Christ's name we ask be reconciled to God. (...) I urge you not to take on deaf ears the grace of God, for he says: "In time I have heard you on the day of salvation came to your aid ', for behold, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation."
Lent is the time preceding and has the celebration of Easter. Time listening to the Word of God and conversion, report preparation and baptism, reconciliation with God and with brothers, more frequent recourse to prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
start these forty days of penance, with the austere symbol of ashes. Own ancient rites with which converted sinners undergoing to canonical penance, gesture filled with ash has the sense to recognize the fragility and mortality, which needs to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a purely external gesture is a sign of the attitude of a penitent heart that every baptized person is called to have during Lent, with an inner meaning that is open to conversion and renewal effort Easter.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has written a "Message for Lent" in which he presents this liturgical period as a very valuable and important in the "ecclesial community, assiduous in prayer and charity operational her (...) intensifies their way to purify the spirit, more wealth for the mystery of redemption new life in Christ the Lord. " He added: "This same life as we passed the day of baptism, when 'to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ' began for us 'joyful and exciting adventure of the disciple'." "Baptism (...) is not a rite of the past, but the encounter with Christ that makes up the entire existence of baptism, God gives life and calls him a sincere conversion, initiated and sustained by grace, to take you to reach adult height of Christ. " "A direct link with links to Baptism Lent as a favorable time to experience the grace that saves. "
claims the Pope: "To take seriously the way to prepare to celebrate Easter and the Resurrection of the Lord most joyous and solemn celebration of the entire liturgical year," what could be more appropriate to be guided by Word of God? "
" Our dive into the death and resurrection of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, drives us every day to free our heart the weight of material things, a selfish link with the "earth" impoverishes us and prevents us from being available and open to God and neighbor. In Christ, God has revealed himself as Love (cf. 1 Jn 4.7 to 10). The Cross of Christ, the "word of the Cross expresses the saving power of God (cf. 1 Cor 1, 18), which is given to man up and bring salvation: love in its most radical (cf. Enc . Deus Caritas Est, 12). By traditional practices of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, expressions of commitment to conversion, educates Lent live ever more radical love of Christ. "
1 º) FASTING "acquired for the deeply religious Christian meaning: becoming poorer our table we learn to overcome selfishness to live in the logic of the gift and love, enduring the deprivation of something - not only superfluous, we learn to look away from our "self" to discover anyone on our side and acknowledge God in the faces of many of our brothers. For the Christian fasting is nothing intimate, but mostly open to God and the needs of men, and makes love to God is also love of neighbor (cf. Mk 12, 31.
2 º ) charity. "On our way we also found the temptation of having, of greed for money, which snare the primacy of God in our lives. The desire to possess provokes violence, transgression and death is why the Church, especially in the Lenten season, recalls the practice of almsgiving, that is, the ability to share. The idolatry of the goods, however, not only away from the other, but deprives man, what makes you unhappy, is cheating, what disappoints without realizing what it promises, because it puts material things in the place of God, the only source of life. How to understand the paternal goodness of God if the heart is full of oneself and one's own projects, with which we have no illusions that we can secure the future? (...). The practice of almsgiving, reminds us of the primacy of God and care for others, to rediscover our good Father and receive his mercy. "
3 º) PRAYER. "Throughout the period of Lent, the Church offers us a particular abundance of God's Word. Meditating and internalising to live every day, learn a precious and irreplaceable form of prayer, for the attentive ear of God who still speaks to our hearts, nourish the faith journey that began on the day of Baptism. Prayer enables us to also acquire a new conception of time: indeed, without the prospect of eternity and transcendence, just check our steps toward a horizon that has no future. In prayer we find, however, time to God, to know that "their words will not pass" (Mk 13, 31), to enter into intimate communion with him that "no one can take away" (cf. Jn 16, 22) and that opens us to the hope that never fails to eternal life. "
"In short, during Lent, which invites us to contemplate the mystery of the cross is" becoming like him in his death "(Phil 3, 10), to carry out a deep conversion of our lives: let us be transformed by the action of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul on the road to Damascus decisively orient our existence by the will of God, free us from our selfishness, overcoming the instinct to dominate others and looking forward to the charity of Christ. The Lenten season is the favorable moment to recognize our weaknesses, accept, with a sincere examination of life, renewing grace of the Sacrament of Penance and walk resolutely towards Christ. "
Jesus has warned us in the Gospel: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be seen by them, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven." And he stressed the value of the secret:
1) "When you give alms, do not let your left hand what your right, so that your alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay you. "
2) "When you go to pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay you."
3) "When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting will note, not people, but your Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward. "
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