A year after the start of the war, Francis’ warning in the general audience: “There can be no victory over the rubble.” On the first day of Lent, the invitation to the faithful: “During this period let us intensify prayer, meditation on the Word of God and service to the brothers”. The rite of the Ashes, today in Santa Sabina.
Vatican City () – “Will the Lord forgive so many crimes and so much violence? He is the God of peace, let us stand together with the martyred Ukrainian people who continue to suffer and ask ourselves: has everything been done to stop the war?” . On the first day of Lent, which falls just a few hours from the “sad anniversary” of the start of the “absurd, sad and cruel” war in Ukraine, Pope Francis used these words to once again raise his cry for silence the guns He did so at the end of the general audience in the Paul VI Hall, renewing his call to “those who have authority over nations, to make a concrete commitment to end the conflict, to reach a ceasefire and start peace negotiations.” What “is built on rubble,” he added, “will never be a true victory.”
“Today Lent begins – he recalled – a privileged time of conversion and penance for our spirit. I would like to ask everyone to intensify prayer, meditation on the word of God and service to the brothers during this period”. This afternoon, as usual, the Pope will preside over the Rite of Ashes in the Basilica of Santa Sabina, on the Aventine Hill, in Rome.
Returning to the general audience, in his weekly catechesis the pontiff continued the cycle of reflections on apostolic zeal in evangelization. The Risen One, the Pope observed, exhorts us to go “not to indoctrinate or proselytize, but to make disciples, that is, to give everyone the chance to come into contact with Jesus, to know and love him.” The same invitation to baptize “before indicating a liturgical action, expresses a vital action: immersing one’s life in the Father, in the Son, in the Holy Spirit; experiencing every day the joy of the presence of God who is close to us like Father, like Brother, like Spirit that acts in us, in our same spirit”.
It is the Holy Spirit, in fact, “the engine of evangelization.” And to explain how he works, Francis referred to the account in the Acts of the Apostles about the first Council of Jerusalem, that of the decision on how to treat pagans who came to faith without belonging to the Jewish people. A question on which even within the first community there were different opinions. “A good compromise between tradition and innovation could have been sought – observed the Pontiff -: some rules are respected, others are omitted. However, the Apostles did not follow this human wisdom, but adapted to the work of the Spirit, who had anticipated them by descending both on the pagans and on them. It was a choice in obedience to the “principle of the proclamation: everything in the Church must adjust to the demands of the proclamation of the Gospel; not to the opinions of conservatives or progressives, but to the fact that Jesus comes into people’s lives. Therefore , every choice, use, structure and tradition must be evaluated to the extent that they favor the proclamation of Christ”.
The Holy Spirit is, therefore, “the light that guides the Church: it gives clarity, it helps to distinguish, to discern”. “That is why it is necessary to invoke it frequently – added the Pope -; let us also do it today, at the beginning of Lent. Because, as a Church, we can have well-defined times and spaces, well-organized communities, institutes, and movements, but without the Spirit, everything remains soulless. The Church, if she does not pray to him and invoke him, closes in on herself, in sterile and exhausting debates, in tiring polarizations, while the flame of the mission goes out. The Spirit, instead, makes us go out, impels us to announce the faith to confirm ourselves in it, to go on mission to rediscover who we are “.
