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MESSAGE OF HIS
HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
FOR LENT 2008
“Christ
made Himself poor for you” (2 Cor 8,9)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
1. Each year, Lent offers us a
providential opportunity to deepen the meaning and
value of our Christian lives, and it stimulates us
to rediscover the mercy of God so that we, in turn,
become more merciful toward our brothers and
sisters. In the Lenten period, the Church makes it
her duty to propose some specific tasks that
accompany the faithful concretely in this process of
interior renewal: these are prayer,
fasting and almsgiving. For this year’s
Lenten Message, I wish to spend some time reflecting
on the practice of almsgiving, which represents a
specific way to assist those in need and, at the
same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us
from attachment to worldly goods. The force of
attraction to material riches and just how
categorical our decision must be not to make of them
an idol, Jesus confirms in a resolute way: “You
cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16,13).
Almsgiving helps us to overcome this constant
temptation, teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s
needs and to share with others whatever we possess
through divine goodness. This is the aim of the
special collections in favor of the poor, which are
promoted during Lent in many parts of the world. In
this way, inward cleansing is accompanied by a
gesture of ecclesial communion, mirroring what
already took place in the early Church. In his
Letters, Saint Paul speaks of this in regard to the
collection for the Jerusalem community (cf. 2 Cor
8-9; Rm 15, 25-27).
2. According to the teaching of
the Gospel, we are not owners but rather
administrators of the goods we possess: these, then,
are not to be considered as our exclusive
possession, but means through which the Lord calls
each one of us to act as a steward of His providence
for our neighbor. As the
Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us,
material goods bear a social value, according to the
principle of their universal destination (cf.
n. 2404)
In the Gospel, Jesus explicitly
admonishes the one who possesses and uses earthly
riches only for self. In the face of the multitudes,
who, lacking everything, suffer hunger, the words of
Saint John acquire the tone of a ringing rebuke:
“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the
world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need
and yet refuses to help?” (1 Jn 3,17). In
those countries whose population is majority
Christian, the call to share is even more urgent,
since their responsibility toward the many who
suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To
come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to
being an act of charity.
3. The Gospel highlights a
typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must be
hidden: “Do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing,” Jesus asserts, “so that your
alms may be done in secret” (Mt 6,3-4). Just
a short while before, He said not to boast of one’s
own good works so as not to risk being deprived of
the heavenly reward (cf. Mt 6,1-2). The
disciple is to be concerned with God’s greater
glory. Jesus warns: “In this way, let your light
shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt
5,16). Everything, then, must be done for God’s
glory and not our own. This understanding, dear
brothers and sisters, must accompany every gesture
of help to our neighbor, avoiding that it becomes a
means to make ourselves the center of attention. If,
in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our
goal God’s glory and the real well being of our
brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of
personal interest or simply of applause, we place
ourselves outside of the Gospel vision. In today’s
world of images, attentive vigilance is required,
since this temptation is great. Almsgiving,
according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy:
rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a
theological virtue that demands interior conversion
to love of God and neighbor, in imitation of Jesus
Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire
self for us. How could we not thank God for the many
people who silently, far from the gaze of the media
world, fulfill, with this spirit, generous actions
in support of one’s neighbor in difficulty? There is
little use in giving one’s personal goods to others
if it leads to a heart puffed up in vainglory: for
this reason, the one, who knows that God “sees in
secret” and in secret will reward, does not seek
human recognition for works of mercy.
4. In inviting us to consider
almsgiving with a more profound gaze that transcends
the purely material dimension, Scripture teaches us
that there is more joy in giving than in receiving
(cf. Acts 20,35). When we do things out of
love, we express the truth of our being; indeed, we
have been created not for ourselves but for God and
our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5,15).
Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods
with our neighbor in need, we discover that the
fullness of life comes from love and all is returned
to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner
satisfaction and joy. Our Father in heaven rewards
our almsgiving with His joy. What is more: Saint
Peter includes among the spiritual fruits of
almsgiving the forgiveness of sins: “Charity,” he
writes, “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt
4,8). As the Lenten liturgy frequently repeats, God
offers to us sinners the possibility of being
forgiven. The fact of sharing with the poor what we
possess disposes us to receive such a gift. In this
moment, my thought turns to those who realize the
weight of the evil they have committed and,
precisely for this reason, feel far from God,
fearful and almost incapable of turning to Him. By
drawing close to others through almsgiving, we draw
close to God; it can become an instrument for
authentic conversion and reconciliation with Him and
our brothers.
5. Almsgiving teaches us the
generosity of love. Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo
forthrightly recommends: “Never keep an account of
the coins you give, since this is what I always say:
if, in giving alms, the left hand is not to know
what the right hand is doing, then the right hand,
too, should not know what it does itself” (Detti
e pensieri, Edilibri, n. 201). In this regard,
all the more significant is the Gospel story of the
widow who, out of her poverty, cast into the Temple
treasury “all she had to live on” (Mk 12,44).
Her tiny and insignificant coin becomes an eloquent
symbol: this widow gives to God not out of her
abundance, not so much what she has, but what she
is. Her entire self.
We find this moving passage
inserted in the description of the days that
immediately precede Jesus’ passion and death, who,
as Saint Paul writes, made Himself poor to enrich us
out of His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8,9); He gave
His entire self for us. Lent, also through the
practice of almsgiving, inspires us to follow His
example. In His school, we can learn to make of our
lives a total gift; imitating Him, we are able to
make ourselves available, not so much in giving a
part of what we possess, but our very selves. Cannot
the entire Gospel be summarized perhaps in the one
commandment of love? The Lenten practice of
almsgiving thus becomes a means to deepen our
Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering
himself, the Christian bears witness that it is love
and not material richness that determines the laws
of his existence. Love, then, gives almsgiving its
value; it inspires various forms of giving,
according to the possibilities and conditions of
each person.
6. Dear brothers and sisters,
Lent invites us to “train ourselves” spiritually,
also through the practice of almsgiving, in order to
grow in charity and recognize in the poor Christ
Himself. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that
the Apostle Peter said to the cripple who was
begging alms at the Temple gate: “I have no silver
or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of
Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk” (Acts 3,6).
In giving alms, we offer something material, a sign
of the greater gift that we can impart to others
through the announcement and witness of Christ, in
whose name is found true life. Let this time, then,
be marked by a personal and community effort of
attachment to Christ in order that we may be
witnesses of His love. May Mary, Mother and faithful
Servant of the Lord, help believers to enter the
“spiritual battle” of Lent, armed with prayer,
fasting and the practice of almsgiving, so as to
arrive at the celebration of the Easter Feasts,
renewed in spirit. With these wishes, I willingly
impart to all my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 October
2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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