Lent is a time to start ‘breathing again,’ Pope says in Ash Wednesday homily
March 02, 2017
Pope Francis took part in a penitential procession from the Church of Sant’Anselmo all’Aventino to the Basilica of Saint Sabina, where he celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass.
During his homily, the Pope preached that God “wants to keep giving us that breath of life that saves us from every other type of breath: the stifling asphyxia brought on by our selfishness, the stifling asphyxia generated by petty ambition and silent indifference—an asphyxia that smothers the spirit, narrows our horizons and slows the beating of our hearts.”
The Pope continued:
Lent is the time for saying no. No to the spiritual asphyxia born of the pollution caused by indifference, by thinking that other people’s lives are not my concern, and by every attempt to trivialize life, especially the lives of those whose flesh is burdened by so much superficiality. Lent means saying no to the toxic pollution of empty and meaningless words, of harsh and hasty criticism, of simplistic analyses that fail to grasp the complexity of problems, especially the problems of those who suffer the most.
Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia of a prayer that soothes our conscience, of an almsgiving that leaves us self-satisfied, of a fasting that makes us feel good. Lent is the time to say no to the asphyxia born of relationships that exclude, that try to find God while avoiding the wounds of Christ present in the wounds of his brothers and sisters: in a word, all those forms of spirituality that reduce the faith to a ghetto culture, a culture of exclusion.
“Lent is the time to start breathing again,” the Pope concluded. “It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us.”
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Further information:
- 2017.03.01 Procession and Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday (YouTube Vatican)
- «Stazione» quaresimale presieduta dal Santo Padre nella Basilica di Santa Sabina all’Aventino (Holy See Press Office)
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