09 Mar Going Beyond Where We Are

by Pope Francis

Rend your hearts and not your garments (Joel 2:13).

With these penetrating words of the Prophet Joel, the liturgy of Ash Wednesday leads us into Lent, pointing to conversion of heart as the chief characteristic of this season of grace.

We are invited to embark on a journey on which, by changing our routine, we strive to open our eyes and ears but especially our hearts, in order to go beyond where we are—opening oneself to God and neighbor.

We know that this increasingly artificial world would have us live in a culture of “doing,” of the useful, where we exclude God without realizing it.

Lent beckons us to “rouse ourselves,” to remind us that we are not God.

The first element [of Lent] is prayer. Prayer is the strength of the Christian and of every person who believes. In the weakness and frailty of our lives, we can turn to God with the confidence of children and enter into communion with him.

In the face of so many wounds that hurt us and could harden our hearts, we are called to dive into the sea of prayer, which is the sea of God’s boundless love, to taste his tenderness.

Lent is a time of prayer, of more intense prayer, more prolonged, more assiduous, more able to take on the needs of the brethren; intercessory prayer, to intercede before God for the many situations of poverty and suffering. …

With its invitations to conversion, Lent comes providentially to awaken us, to rouse us from torpor, from the risk of moving forward only by inertia.

The exhortation which the Lord addresses to us through the prophet Joel is strong and clear: Return to me with all your heart ( Joel 2:12).

Why must we return to God? Because something is not right in us, not right in society, in the Church, and we need to change and give it a new direction. This is called needing to convert!

Once again, Lent comes to make its prophetic appeal, to remind us that it is possible to create something new within ourselves and around us, simply because God is faithful, always faithful, for he cannot deny himself. He continues to be rich in goodness and mercy, and he is always ready to forgive and enable us to start afresh.

So, with this filial confidence, let us set out on the journey.

Excerpted from the homily at the pope’s Ash Wednesday Mass on March 5, 2014 at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome