This year’s pastoral letter for Lent by Archbishop Paul Cremona and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech, centres on an actual and intriguing topic: the exile. A careful reading of the text unravels the novelty that both God and man embraced, and still do, the experience of exile.

God himself underwent this dreadful experience. The prologue of John’s Gospel tells us that He who “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” had to come into “the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (John 1, 1. 10-11). Although He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” up to the point of “humbl[ing] himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2, 7-8), he ended up being rejected by those who were supposed to accept him.

Jesus’ anguish due to his people’s refusal of him can be clearly seen in his prayer to the Father from the Cross: “Eli, Eli, la’ma sabach-tha’ni?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27, 46). However, at that crucial moment, Jesus’ word: “I and the Father are one” (John 10, 30) becomes all the more veritable and resplendent. As Pope Benedict XVI explained in his weekly catechesis of 8 February: “Repeating from the Cross the first words of Psalm 22[21] “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” – “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46); uttering the words Jesus prayed at the moment of his ultimate rejection by men, at the moment of abandonment; yet he prays in the awareness of God’s presence, even in that hour when he is feeling the human drama of death. In this prayer of Jesus are contained his extreme trust and his abandonment into God’s hands, even when God seems absent, even when he seems to be silent, complying with a plan incomprehensible to us”.

On the other hand, in the second volume of his celebrated opus “Jesus of Nazareth”, the German Pontiff explains that “the cry of extreme anguish is at the same time the certainty of an answer from God, the certainty of salvation – not only for Jesus himself, but for ‘many’.”

This salvific response from the Father became clear in Jesus’ life when, as the Bishops portray, he “chose the Apostles and other disciples to live in communion with him”. During his temporary exile from the right hand of the Father, Jesus built his community by “speak[ing] to them about the Father and about the path which leads us to Him”.

Jesus’ exile was voluntary and the pure result of grace. Ours is self-inflicted and the sheer consequence of sin. Through Jesus’ exile a community was built whereas our exile creates division and brokenness since we become separated from God. The pastoral letter mentions tangible examples: “When we are under the impression that whatever we decide is right or wrong without considering our decision in the light of the Word of God; when we feel that in our life we have no need for Jesus or the Church which he bequeathed to us, except in times of emergency (illness, death, problems); when we become totally consumed by materialism to such an extent that we ignore ethical principles and measures for justice. In general, we may say that we are in a spiritual exile when we set aside God’s commandments”.

Lent is a splendid opportunity for us all to be freed from our exile.

The Bishops show us the way: “More time spent in prayer; restraint from purely material things (this includes fasting from anything which tends towards materialism); reading the Word of God which illustrates the way to the promised land; the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) which helps us to discern better what is right and what is wrong in our lives; closer communion with the Sacrament of the Eucharist”.

Thus, welcome back to our homeland, the Father’s House!

Mario Attard OFM Cap

SAN GWANN