VATICAN CITY, FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).-
Here is Benedict XVI's message for Lent, which was published today by the
Vatican press office. The message has as its theme: "The Justice of God Has
Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ."
Lent begins Feb. 17.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review
of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like
to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from
the Pauline affirmation: "The justice of God has been manifested through faith
in Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).
Justice: "dare cuique suum"
First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term "justice," which in
common usage implies "to render to every man his due," according to the famous
expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality,
however, this classical definition does not specify what "due" is to be
rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by
law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary
that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love
which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image
and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus
Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and
surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions
into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet "distributive"
justice does not render to the human being the totality of his "due." Just as
man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine
notes: if "justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where,
then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?" (De civitate Dei,
XIX, 21).
What is the Cause of Injustice?
The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted
within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: "There is
nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things
which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man is what
defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts"
(Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can
detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to
situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep
down have this presupposition: since injustice comes "from outside," in order
for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that
prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking – Jesus warns – is ingenuous
and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively
external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found
of a mysterious cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises
this: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me" (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which
wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other.
By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange
force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against
others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by
Satan’s lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command,
replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition;
the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously
seizing and doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6), experiencing, as a
consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself
from this selfish influence and open himself to love?
Justice and Sedaqah
At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in
God who "lifts the needy from the ash heap" (Ps 113,7) and justice towards
one’s neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice,
sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one hand full
acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in
relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the
stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings
are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than
restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It
was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount
Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law
presupposes faith in God who first "heard the cry" of His people and "came
down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians" (cf. Ex 3,8). God is
attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks
for justice towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex
22,20), the slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is
thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state
of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is
needed is an even deeper "exodus" than that accomplished by God with Moses, a
liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize.
Does man have any hope of justice then?
Christ, the Justice of God
The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as
Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: "But now the justice of God
has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an
expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (3, 21-25).
What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes
from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others.
The fact that "expiation" flows from the "blood" of Christ signifies that it
is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the
loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of
bearing in Himself the "curse" due to man so as to give in return the
"blessing" due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate
objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty
and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this
not mean that each one receives the contrary of his "due"? In reality, here we
discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human
counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price
that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for
this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in
order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel,
ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to
discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of
His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether
different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to
accept that I need Another to free me from "what is mine," to give me
gratuitously "what is His." This happens especially in the sacraments of
Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into
the "greatest" justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice
that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it
has received more than could ever have been expected.
Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to
creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according
to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by
love.
Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which
this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice – the fullness of charity,
gift, salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of
authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came
to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of
you my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 October 2009
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2010 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana