Confront indifference to God and neighbor, Pope says in 2015 Lenten message
January 27, 2015
The Holy See Press Office has released the text of Pope Francis’s 2015 Lenten message.
Entitled “Make Your Hearts Firm”-- a reference to a verse in the Letter of St. James-- the message, dated October 4, calls upon Christians to confront “the globalization of indifference.”
“Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians,” the Pope wrote. “Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.”
He added:
In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through love. But the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded.
After recommending reflection on three verses of Sacred Scripture, the Pope concluded, “Let us all ask the Lord: ‘Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum’: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.”
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