Christians must follow Jesus and take up his Cross today, the Holy Father said on Wednesday.In his traditional Lenten address, Pope Benedict said that the season of Lent should be “characterized by an intense spirit of recollection and reflection”.
Emphasising the fact that we are created to love God, Pope Benedict pointed out that “the love with which God surrounds us is undoubtedly agape”, the self giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other.
“Indeed, can the human person give to God some good that He does not already possess?” he asked
“All that the human creature is and has is divine gift. It is the creature then, who is in need of God in everything.”
Lent, the Pope continued, was a time to reflect especially on Christ's suffering on the Cross, where “the overwhelming power of the heavenly Father's mercy is revealed in all of its fullness.”
Calling on Christians to reflect on the biblical theme, "they shall look on Him whom they have pierced" (Jn 19:37), he reminded people that “It is in the mystery of the Cross that In order to win back the love of His creature, He accepted to pay a very high price: the blood of His only begotten Son”.
“Death, which for the first Adam was an extreme sign of loneliness and powerlessness, was thus transformed in the supreme act of love and freedom of the new Adam,” he continued.
“Contemplating 'Him whom they have pierced' moves us in this way to open our hearts to others, recognizing the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person; it moves us, in particular, to fight every form of contempt for life and human exploitation and to alleviate the tragedies of loneliness and abandonment of so many people,” Pope Benedict said.
Meanwhile, Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop of All Ireland, Dr Sean Brady, echoed Pope Benedict's call “to recognise the wounds inflicted upon the dignity of the human person”.
In his own Lenten message, he remarked that “the beginning of Lent certainly seems an appropriate moment to face the challenge” of alcohol abuse in Ireland.
Referring to the Bishops’ Conference pastoral letter: Alcohol – the Challenge of Moderation he said that “a beacon of hope had been lit regarding the issue, and that a useful discussion started.
“What Ireland now needs is people who model moderation and embody the values of temperance in every aspect of life,” he said. “We need to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk.
That is what Jesus did. He never asked others to do something which he himself was not prepared to do.”
Furthermore, Archbishop Brady added, it was important not to surrender to the kind of fatalism that leads to despair.
“Faith, not fate, is what directs our lives,” he went on.
“Has the time not come for us to ditch, once and for all, the caricature of the drunken Irish and to consign it to the realm of history along with the slur of the Fighting Irish?” Archbishop Brady asked.
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