Man Singing In Lodge With Animals

Letter for Lent 2010

Archbishop Archbishop Salvatore Ligorio

My dear priests, deacons, seminarians, sisters and brothers all,

the annual meeting of Lent allows me to express to each of

you the deepest expression of my episcopal fatherhood with the offer, before

to Paschale sacramentum that we prepare to celebrate the end of this time

favorable, some thoughts that I hope to solicit a more accountable and

awareness of Christian life.

1. The mystery of lawlessness is revealed in the light of the Mystery piety.

The pastoral invites me to be vigilant in the midst of the people God I

entrusted, especially because no one is lost before the time of particular anxiety

which we live. On the one hand we acknowledge that the hope of those who had bet

everything in their lives on the economy, still struggling to recover, left

not only confusing but also bewildered at the lack of employment and working

result of the difficulty of everyday life. Secondly we see how nature

has another sudden surprises of the sad, the unforgettable earthquake

Abruzzo that Haiti's tragic, natural disasters that leave humanely stunned

and mourning. Added to this are the disasters that people do with wars,

terrorism, racial hatred and lack of adequate laws for the protection of

created.

The social life then, if you look closely, it gives us less apprehension

for such sudden changes in lifestyle and common thinking. I fear,

also that the individual and society not involving more in most cases

with the Word of God, but they have other reference points that sometimes are not even in

harmony with natural law. Met many people in my life as a priest and bishop

, I felt put prominently these questions: If God is infinitely good and

all his works are good, because no one can escape the experience

of suffering or the evils in nature and especially the problem of evil

moral? Where does it hurt? What is original sin? The Catechism of the Church

Catholic says, "the reality of sin, and particularly of the sin of

origins, it is clarified only in the light of divine revelation. Without the knowledge of God

that it gives us, we can clearly recognize sin, and you tried to

explain it as merely a development flaw, a psychological weakness, a

error, as the inevitable consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc..

Only by knowing God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse

of freedom that God gives to created persons so that they can love him and love

each other "(CCC 387). The mystery of iniquity (2 Thess 2:7) is revealed only in the light

the Mystery of godliness (1 Tim 3:16) and enables the Christian who wants to reach the

fullness of life in Christ, understand the meaning and especially the importance

of the liturgical season of Lent.

2. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ

all be made alive " (1 Cor 15:22)

The book of Genesis, in the pages initial stresses with its language and its

images that creation is a great act of love of God is the ultimate expression

of his infinite goodness and extraordinary is most evident in the creation

man: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness "(Gen

1.26). It is well established a friendship with him, only in creation, so as to place

summit of creation, "dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds

of heaven, the cattle, over all wild animals over every creeping thing that creeps on

earth "(Gen 1:26). "Spiritual creature, man can not live this friendship as

free submission to God This is the meaning of the prohibition of eating man

tree the knowledge of good and evil, because - says the Lord - the day

when you eat of it you shall die (Genesis 2:17) "(CCC 396). We can thus

establish that the source from which comes all creation is good, God-creator is without a shadow

of evil, "so life is good, it is good to be a man and a woman, is

good life. The evil is not the source of being itself, is not as original.

Evil is created by a freedom, a freedom to be used (...). The Evil comes from a

source alternative. God with his light is stronger. And so the evil can be overcome.

So the creature, man, is curable "(Benedict XVI, General Audience, 3.12.2008).

2.1. The story of the fall.

The story of the fall, the third chapter of Genesis, we can understand

behind the disobedient choice of Adam and Eve is a seductive voice that opposed

to God (cf. Gen 3, 1-5). God is infinite goodness, absolute good. Evil does not come from Him,

but by a subordinate source and created for good, turned into a concrete reality

evil that has rejected God and His kingdom (cf. 2 Pt 2:4). "Scripture and the Tradition of the Church

see this being a fallen angel called Satan or the devil"

(CCC 391) that did not prevail and there was no place for him in heaven (cf. Rev 12 8). The seductive voice

convince Adam and Eve to eat from the tree into believing themselves

to overcome the insurmountable limit the knowledge of good and evil, that man

as a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust (cf. CCC 396).

"This man's first sin consisted of. Thereafter, every sin will be a

disobedience to God and a lack of trust in his goodness "(CCC 397).

2.2. The consequences of original sin.

The consequence for Adam and Eve, of this first disobedience is the loss of

grace of original holiness: "The Lord called the man and said," Where are you? ".

said, "I heard your voice in the garden, I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid

'" (Genesis 3:9-10). Comes the fear of God in that they had made a false

picture: "The serpent said to the woman:" You will not die! God knows that the day

where they eat would open your eyes and you'd be like God, knowing the

good and evil "(Genesis 3.4 to 5). It destroyed the harmony which had been set: "So

opened the eyes of both and knew they were naked; intertwined leaves

cool and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 3.7 ). It is subjected to stress unity between man and

woman (cf. Gen 3.11 to 13). It shattered the harmony with the creation that becomes hostile.

God said to the man "Because you listened to the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree

of which I commanded you: You must not eat, cursed the ground because of you! With

toil for food every day of your life. Will produce thorns and thistles for you and

eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till you return

the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are and to dust you shall return! "

(Genesis 3:17-19). Log in human history the death as a result of one man

sin entered the world and through sin, death, and so all men

has spread death, because all sinned ... "(Rom 5:12). Man, created in a

original state of holiness, was to be fully deified by God in

glory, but becoming seduced by the enticements of the devil and wanting to become like God

(cf. Gen 3.5), we put before God and became without God and not according to God (cf. CCC

398).

Holy Scripture, after this first sin, testifies in the following concrete

consequences ranging from fratricide of Cain against Abel to all infidelity of

individual and the people of Israel to the God of the Covenant. St. Paul clearly illustrates

this real situation "for one man's disobedience many were made sinners

" (Rom 5:19). But with the same certainty as the Apostle says, "so as to

only a drop has affected all people the conviction, so also for the work

right to a just pouring throughout Men justification, that gives life "(Rom 5:18).

"yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this

sin affects the human nature that they transmit in a fallen state. It

is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, with

the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and justice "

(CCC 404).

2.3. The relationship between Adam and Christ.

St. Paul describes in the pages of the Epistle to the Romans (5:12-21) the relationship

between Adam and Christ: a comparison between the act of disobedience of the first introducing

sin and its consequences for humanity, the act of obedience to Christ

who brings salvation and liberation. The knowledge gained in the faith of the Church of the dogma of original sin, is inextricably linked to that

the Redemption accomplished by Christ, by the grace Baptism, cancels

original sin and turns a man back to God will mean, however, sin

original nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him

to spiritual warfare (cf. CCC 405)

2.4. The contradiction that endures in humans.

This contradiction, which remains despite our being in the grace of the Redemption, I want to clarify

taking the thought that Benedict XVI has expressed in

a General Audience catechesis "on one hand everyone knows to do good

intimately and wants to do. But, at the same time, he also feels the other impulse

do the opposite, to follow the path of selfishness, violence, to do only what

also like knowing that they act against the good , against God and neighbor. San

Paul in his Epistle to the Romans expressed this contradiction in our

be so: there is in me the desire for good, but I do not have the capacity to implement it, because I do not

do the good I want, but the evil I do not want (Rm 7 0.18 to 19). This contradiction

of our inner being is not a theory. Each of us experiences every day. And

especially we always see around us the prevalence of this second will. Just

think the daily news of injustice, violence, deceit, lust. Each

day we see it is a fact "(General Audience 3.12.2008).

This division present in the human conscience, which Benedict XVI calls contradiction

we must always keep in mind, especially our pastors in pastoral

of our Church of Matera-Irsina. As "stewards of the mysteries of Christ"

(1 Cor 4:1), we have to have a lucid insight on the situation of man and his

act in the world, to be able to direct towards the redemption and liberation wrought

by Christ, the New Adam (cf. 1 Cor 15:45), with its death-resurrection-ascension to

sky. "Ignore that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors

in the field of education, politics, social action and morals" (CCC 407).

This clear vision of man and the context in which they live has been made clear

focus on a page of Gaudium et Spes, "the whole history of human

is indeed pervaded by a struggle awful against the powers of darkness fight began early

origin of the world, that will last, as the Lord says, until the last day. Added

in this battle, the man has to struggle continuously to be allied to goodness,

nor can he achieve his own integrity, if not at the cost of great efforts and the help

the grace of God "(GS 37).

3. "Repent and believe the Gospel" (Mk 1:15)

On Wednesday Ash Wednesday begins the Lenten season. It with the imposition of ashes

and the words: "Repent and believe the Gospel," allows the wounded nature

man to walk towards the conversion. It is necessary that the believer takes the

staring at the sacrifice of salvation accomplished by Christ Jesus, who, by his obedience to the Father, restores what sin had deteriorated to leave "a trace

deep in human life "(Collect, Monday 1 st week. of Lent).

Whoever believes and lives in Jesus Christ becomes a child of God "This filial adoption transforms

giving it the ability to follow the example of Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly

and do good. In union with his Savior, the disciple attains the

perfection of charity which is holiness. The moral life, matured in grace,

blossoms into eternal life in the glory of heaven "(CCC 1709). In Christ Jesus, with his Easter

Redemption and Salvation, is fully realized the project of merciful love of God

-maker who, after the fall, not has left the man, but otherwise

initiated the whole history of salvation reaches out to victory over evil: "I will put enmity between you

and woman, between your seed and her seed; It will crush your head and you

shall bruise his heel "(Gen 3:15). "O happy fault that merited such and so great

Redeemer" (Exultet), and with St. Paul we too can exclaim, "Where abounds

sin abounds grace" (Rom 5.20 ).

3.1. "Be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The sacramental time of Lent is a journey of true conversion

to deal successfully with the weapons of penance, the battle against the spirit of

evil "(Colletta, Wednesday Ash). The Lenten period of penance,

marked externally with the austere symbol of ashes and lived in the forty days

received a gift from the liturgy, obtain for us "the forgiveness of sins and a renewed life in the image

of the Risen Lord" to come "completely renewed to celebrate Easter"

(Prayer of Blessing Ash). We are invited to respond to the invitation that there is

by the Apostle Paul: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"

(2 Corinthians 5:20). The Gospel passage of Ash Wednesday (Mt 6,1-6.16-18) shows us the

movements to be made to return to God in truth and depth of the heart, and tone

our inner life, fasting, prayer and charity. The man, mortifying the body

Lenten fasting, abstaining from food, not only excessive but also

all that distracts from the love of God, "is renewed in the spirit of good fruit

works "(Colletta, Wednesday 1 st week. of Lent). Compliance with external, that characterizes

this attitude of detachment that leads away from God, "corresponds to a deep

renewal of the spirit" (Colletta, Friday After the ashes), with a prayer more

deep and constant that we open ourselves totally to God in praise for the ability to

observe the commandment of love of neighbor.

3.2. "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word coming out mouth of God" (Mt 4:4).

this liturgical journey to Easter begins with two phases qualifying life

and mission of Jesus, the temptations (1st Sunday of Lent) and the Transfiguration (2 ^

Sunday of Lent). The temptation of the devil belongs to human experience, Jesus

undergoing temptation in the desert shows that you can overcome it without succumbing to

his praises, not relying on human strength, but only to God for Jesus

tempter said: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from

mouth of God" (Mt 4:4). The Transfiguration premature display of the glory of the Risen

. For us, we walk the journey of Lent with a careful review

of our lives, we hear the daily urgent call to let us transform

the Transfigured Christ. "Father, you call us to listen to your beloved Son, nourish

our faith with your word and cleanses the eyes of our spirit, that we

enjoy the vision of your glory" (Colletta, 2nd Sunday of Lent).

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a good gift of the Father (4th Sunday of Lent)

that we must rediscover and intensify during Lent, following the example of

holy Cure d'Ars, to experience the mercy bestowed by God through His Son Jesus

" good father and great forgiveness, accept the embrace of your love

all the children who come back to you with a repentant heart, cover it with the splendor of the robes of

salvation, that they may taste the joy of the Easter dinner 'Lamb "(Colletta,

4 th Sunday of Lent). The Christian who experiences love Father's merciful

good, is no longer a prisoner of his past (5th Sunday of Lent) and even paralyzed

from evil, in fact, the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus is not only a source

the true liberation of man, but also a new life that comes from forgiveness

received "Neither do I condemn you: go from now on sin no more" (Jn 8:11).

4. We walk together to grow in holiness

Dearly beloved, I leave you with these thoughts my simple offer to your attention,

for you to be close to us in the days Lenten

donated by the Church to prepare carefully to the Lord's Passover. We arrived at the half year

Pastoral, a small piece of the history of salvation embodied in the territory

of our local Church. As we continue to involve families as subject

not occasional but vital in the itinerary of faith, to make the parish

a large family, outlining the need for our diocesan community of my

first Pastoral Visit. It will require a commitment of shared responsibility by all

. So I think it is essential to turn our gaze to God the Father; fill

the heart of the Word of His Son Jesus Christ, let the Holy Spirit to act

deeply in our being, our families, our diocesan Church,

to truly be witnesses of the Risen Christ, the hope of humanity.

Maria, the Brown Virgin, patroness of our diocesan community, I commend the way

conversion and spiritual growth in holiness.

good Lent

Matera, February 11, 2010 - Our Lady of Lourdes

+ Salvatore Ligorio

Archbishop of Matera-Irsina