The Pope's words at today's Angelus. Dear brothers and sisters!
Last Wednesday, with the penitential rite of Ash Wednesday, we started Lent, a time of spiritual renewal in preparation for the annual celebration of Easter .
But what it means to enter the Lenten ? Introduced him to the Gospel for this first Sunday, with the story of Jesus' temptations in the desert. St. Luke the Evangelist tells us that Jesus, after having received the baptism of John, "filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, tempted by the devil" (Lk 4:1 - 2). Clearly, the insistence that the temptations were not a hiccup, but the consequence of Jesus' choice to follow the mission entrusted by the Father, to live fully the reality of his beloved Son, who trusts completely in Him Christ came into the world to free us from sin and its ambiguous plan our life apart from God He did not with high-sounding proclamations, but in fighting against the first Tempter, to the Cross. This example applies to all: the world is beginning to improve themselves, changing, with the grace of God, what's wrong in their lives.
Of the three temptations that Satan shall Jesus, the first originates from hunger, that the material needs: "If you are the Son of God, 'this stone to become bread. "Jesus responds with Scripture:" I do not live by bread alone man "(Lk 4.3 to 4, see Deuteronomy 8:3). Then the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth and says everything will be yours if you, fall down and worship me. of power and deception, and Jesus unmasks and rejects this attempt: "The Lord your God, you'll love: he only shall you serve "(cf. Lk 4.5 to 8; Dt 6:13). Do not worship of power, but only of God, truth and love. Finally, the Tempter offers Jesus to perform a spectacular miracle: jump by the high walls of the Temple and be saved by the angels, so that everyone would
believed in Him But Jesus says that God should never be put to the test (cf. Deut 6:16). We can not "do an experiment" in which God must answer and show God we believe in Him! We must not make God "material" of "our experiment! Referring to Sacred Scripture, Jesus puts the sole criterion for the criteria in human authentic: obedience, conformity with the will of God, which is the foundation of our being . This is also a key lesson for us: if we bear in mind and heart the Word of God, if it enters into our lives, if we trust in God, we reject any kind of deception the tempter. In addition, the story is clear from all the image of Christ as the new Adam, the Son of God, humble and obedient to the Father, unlike Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that had succumbed to the seductions of the evil spirit to be immortal without God
The Lent is like a long "retreat ", during which return to themselves and listen to the voice of God, to overcome the temptations of evil and find the truth of our being. One time, we can say, " competitiveness" spiritual to live with Jesus, not with pride and presumption, but using the weapons of faith, the prayer, listening the Word of God and penance . In this way we get to celebrate Easter in truth, ready to renew the promises of our Baptism.
help us ensure that the Virgin Mary, led by the Holy Spirit, we live with joy and the fruit this time of grace. Intercede especially for me and my collaborators of the Roman Curia, who will start tonight's Spiritual Exercises.
Happy Lent to all.
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