The text is dated September 29th, 2005, and
takes its title from the Gospel of Mark: "Jesus,
at the sight of the crowds, was moved with
pity."
At the outset of the message, the Holy
Father affirmed that "Lent is a privileged time of
interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount
of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself
accompanies us through the desert of our poverty,
sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy
of Easter.”
The Pope assured that, in a world which in
some ways grows darker every day and “even in the
desolation of misery, loneliness, violence and
hunger that indiscriminately afflict children,
adults, and the elderly, God does not allow
darkness to prevail.”
“Even today”, he said, “the Lord hears the
cry of the multitudes longing for joy, peace, and
love. As in every age, they feel
abandoned.”
He cited his predecessor, the late John
Paul II, who said that “there is a 'divine limit
imposed upon evil,' namely, mercy,” saying that
this idea helped prompt his chosen theme.
Benedict then turned to his major theme:
the much-debated question of development. He said
that the Church, enlightened by the Paschal truth,
“knows that if we are to promote development in
its fullness, our own 'gaze' upon mankind has to
be measured against that of Christ.”
“…It is quite impossible”, he stressed, “to
separate the response to people's material and
social needs from the fulfillment of the profound
desires of their hearts.”
“This”, he said, “has to be emphasized all
the more in today's rapidly changing world, in
which our responsibility towards the poor emerges
with ever greater clarity and urgency.”
Here, he cited Pope Paul VI, who called the
“scandal of underdevelopment…an outrage against
humanity.”
"As the antidote to such evil,” he said,
“Paul VI suggested not only 'increased esteem for
the dignity of others, the turning towards the
spirit of poverty, cooperation for the common
good, the will and desire for peace,' but also
'the acknowledgement by man of supreme values, and
of God, their source and their
finality.'“
"In the face of the terrible challenge of
poverty afflicting so much of the world's
population, indifference and self-centered
isolation stand in stark contrast to the 'gaze' of
Christ.
In what was perhaps the heart of his
message, Pope Benedict said that “the primary
contribution that the Church offers to the
development of mankind and peoples does not
consist merely in material means or technical
solutions. Rather, it involves the proclamation of
the truth of Christ, Who educates consciences and
teaches the authentic dignity of the person and of
work; it means the promotion of a culture that
truly responds to all the questions of
humanity.”
Through fasting, almsgiving and prayer, he
said that “the Church proposes in a special way
during the Lenten Season…suitable means for us to
become conformed to this 'gaze.'“
The Pope likewise pointed to the “examples
of the saints and the long history of the Church's
missionary activity provide invaluable indications
of the most effective ways to support
development.”
Integral Salvation
Pope Benedict exhorted faithful to live in
solidarity with the poor and oppressed, pointing
out that there is a potential for disintegration
of charity in the current culture.
He said that charitable, social actions,
“have to include a recognition of the central role
of authentic religious values in responding to
man's deepest concerns, and in supplying the
ethical motivation for his personal and social
responsibilities.”
“These are the criteria”, he said, “by
which Christians should assess the political
programs of their leaders.”
“Very often,” the Pope pointed out, “when
having to address grave problems, they have
thought that they should first improve this world
and only afterwards turn their minds to the next.
The temptation was to believe that, in the face of
urgent needs, the first imperative was to change
external structures. The consequence, for some,
was that Christianity became a kind of moralism,
'believing' was replaced with 'doing.'“
He again turned to the words of John Paul
II, who said that “The temptation today is to
reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a
pseudo-science of well-being. In our heavily
secularized world, a gradual secularization of
salvation has taken place, so that people strive
for the good of man, but man who is truncated...We
know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral
salvation.”
"It is this integral salvation”, Benedict
wrote, “that Lent puts before us, pointing towards
the victory of Christ over every evil that
oppresses us.”
Ultimately, the Pope told faithful that in
an era of widespread poverty as well as
unprecedented global interdependence, “it is clear
that no economic, social, or political project can
replace that gift of self to another through which
charity is expressed.”
