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March 10, 2025Dearest faithful,
We begin the pastoral visit with the celebration of the Eucharist, the sacrament of unity among all the faithful. We live this pastoral visit in a very particular time of the year: Lent, is a time of conversion and change, a time of grace and mercy. The time of Lent is to be pilgrims of hope: a people on a journey together, united in the hope placed in the crucified and risen Lord. We live this journey anchored in hope, in Christ.
The word of God helps us understand two fundamental values of Lent. First of all, the first reading reminds us of the meaning of our sin, the meaning of penance. Lent helps us understand that we need God's forgiveness.
Sometimes we are tempted to think that we have no great sins and that we do not need God's grace. This is a very dangerous position because it makes us proud and shut us off from the true relationship with God. Think about the fact that every Eucharistic celebration always begins by making us ask for forgiveness for our sins. We are all sinners, and we all need God's forgiveness.
The real problem is not that we are sinners but that we are tempted not to admit our sins and, therefore, do not ask for forgiveness. This makes our life inauthentic, we become arrogant before God and before others. The first step of the Lenten journey is therefore to repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness. Let us all approach the sacrament of confession which is a great medicine for our souls.
The second value that we find in the word of God comes to us from the Gospel: Jesus is rebuked because his disciples do not fast. But Jesus responds that those invited to the wedding cannot fast when the groom is with them, but a time will come when the groom will be taken away from them and then they will fast.
Dear faithful the time of Lent is a time in which we are called to fast to remember that the groom has been taken away from us. More profoundly we must say that the forgiveness of our sins passes through the scandal of the cross. This groom gave his life for us, for the Church is the bride of Christ. Fasting in Lent helps us to live in a penitential spirit, to ask for forgiveness and to look to the cross of Christ, to his sacrifice that saved the world. By following this path of hope and reconciliation we will arrive at Holy Easter purified, ready to celebrate the triumph of Christ.
May Mary, Mother of Hope, accompany us on the Lenten journey towards Easter joy
