Look at "the other" with love

Being concerned for one another and fraternal correction were the focus of Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for Lent presented Tuesday at the Vatican by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

The title of the message is " Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works ".

The Pope says “contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil, yet there is a real need to reaffirm that good does exist and will prevail”.

To help resolve this Pope Benedict points to an aspect of Christian life, which has been quite forgotten: fraternal correction.

Father Robert Gahl is Professor of Ethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He said the Holy Father is not calling on people to judge one another.

“The Holy Father says [you need to] look at ‘the other’ with love - not with reprobation, not with condemnation, or simply accusation - but trying to life them up,” he told Vatican Radio. “We need to get out of ourselves, and see how we can help those who are around us, without in any way implying…that ‘I am holier than thou’ or ‘I am better than you’.”

Father Gahl brought up the situation of a person who has a good friend who has not been to Confession in a long time.

“They bring this up with a friend, and say ‘I go to confession because I sin… when I come out of the confessional after receiving absolution from Jesus Christ through the sacrament I feel a deep joy and peace in my heat. Why don’t you come along with me and you can enjoy this?’,” he explained.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Father Gahl: