Pope Benedict XVI’s Lenten Message

(February 4, 2010) In his message for Lent this year 2010 Pope Benedict XVI illuminates for the Universal Church the spiritual context of the Lenten Season. The Pope gives the theme of justice, beginning from the Pauline affirmation: “The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ.” The Holy Father says that first of all, he wants to consider the meaning of the term “justice,” which in common usage implies “to render to every man his due.” In order to live life to the full something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Speaking on the term injustice the Pope says that injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil. Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other. Further speaking on Justice, the Pontiff says that this topic is at the heart of the wisdom of Israel, with a close link between faith in God and justice towards one’s neighbour. The word expresses in fact on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour, especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow. But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people, says the Pontiff. Finally the Pope says that the Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: “But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The Christian then is called upon to creating just societies, and to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.