As is customary, the Holy Father has issued his annual message for Lent. This year’s message, which was released on 7 February, has as its theme a quotation from the letter to the Hebrews: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (Heb 10, 24).
Pope Benedict XVI knows all too well the devastating effects of the contemporary society we are living in. Its façade promotes technological progress and innovation. However, its soul is sick due to the awful malady of “indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and masked as a respect for ‘privacy’” (§ 1). The humane and loving look we are capable of giving freely to our brothers and sisters precisely because we have been created as beloved children of God is often choked by “the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, [and by] the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else” (§ 1). The time has come not just to call a spade a spade but also to provide a much-needed solution to remedy this disastrous approach to life! Thus, our first responsibility as Christians should be “to be concerned for each other”.
How? By re-learning how to be “concerned”. The Greek verb used in the Letter to the Hebrews is ‘katanoein.’ It means “to look at others, first of all at Jesus, to be concerned for one another” (§ 1). Being concerned for one another entails mutual guardianship. It implies “establish[ing] relationships based on mutual consideration and attentiveness to … the integral well-being of others. The great commandment of love for one another demands that we acknowledge our responsibility towards those who, like ourselves, are creatures and children of God. Being brothers and sisters in humanity and, in many cases, also in the faith, should help us to recognise in others a true alter ego, infinitely loved by the Lord. If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts.” (§ 1).
Cain’s protest after killing his innocent brother Abel: “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4, 9) can easily become ours if we keep neglecting each other! No wonder that Pope Paul VI, utterly horrified by the lack of brotherhood shown in the international affairs of his days, said in his encyclical Populorum Progressio: “Human society is sorely ill. The cause is not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations” (§ 66).
Since “contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil, … there is a real need to reaffirm that good does exist and will prevail, because God is ‘generous and acts generously’ (Ps 119:68)” (§ 1). In order that this current moral vacuum is once again filled with “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12, 2), fraternal correction which leads to eternal salvation is urgently needed. Saint Paul reminds us of this serious responsibility incumbent on our Christian vocation. “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal 6, 1).
In the Pope’s view, fraternal correction “is a great service, … to help others and allow them to help us, so that we can be open to the whole truth about ourselves, improve our lives and walk more uprightly in the Lord’s ways” (§ 1).
Mutual concern for each other makes us aware that we are a Church, a community in which we are to “please [our] neighbour for his good, to edify him” (Rom 15, 2). In the time granted to us let us spend it in “discerning and performing good works in the love of God.” (§ 3). Only through such a path can we grow together in holiness!
Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann