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Vatican City, 27th February 2006 (CNA)
- Reflecting Sunday on the upcoming
liturgical season of Lent, Pope Benedict XVI
challenged faithful to approach the period with a
new spirit; not one that is heavy and burdened,
but one that sees Jesus, and his Life, offered
through the cross.
He spoke particularly on Sunday’s Gospel of
St. Mark which, he said, "offers a
catechumenal itinerary guiding the disciple to
recognize in Jesus the Son of God.
"By a happy coincidence," he said, "today's
Gospel text touches on the subject of fasting.” He
explained that “As Jesus was sitting at table in
the house of Levi the publican, the Pharisees and
the followers of John the Baptist asked Him why
His disciples were not fasting like them.”
In the familiar account, “Jesus replied
that the wedding guests cannot fast while the
bridegroom is with them; when the bridegroom is
taken from them, then they will fast.”
"With these words,” the Pope pointed out,
“Christ reveals His identity as the Messiah,
Bridegroom of Israel, Who has come for the wedding
with His people. Those who recognize Him and
welcome Him with faith celebrate.”
The major theme of Lent comes, he said, in
that the Christ “must be rejected and killed by
His own people: at that moment, during His passion
and His death, will come the time of mourning and
fasting."
Benedict stressed that this episode, which
anticipates Lent’s significance, "constitutes a
great memorial of the Lord's passion, in
preparation for the Easter of Resurrection.”
“The period of Lent”, he warned, “must not
be approached with an 'old' spirit, as if it were
a heavy and troublesome burden, but with the new
spirit of one has found in Jesus and in His
mystery the meaning of life, and is aware that
everything must now refer to Him."
"On our Lenten journey, may our guide and
teacher be Most Holy Mary who, when Jesus set out
for Jerusalem to suffer His passion, followed Him
with total faith. Like a 'new wineskin,' she
received the 'new wine' brought by the Son for the
messianic wedding." |
