Be concerned!

THAT, in gist, is the message of Pope Benedict for this year’s Lenten season that will start on Ash Wednesday, February 22.

It’s taken from a passage in the Letter to the Hebrews 10,24: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.”

From this, the Pope wants us to see the connection between our concern for the others, on the one hand, and its consequence and requirement of reciprocity (mutual cooperation) and personal holiness, on the other. These three elements should go together as an organic whole.

It’s a message directed to the growing apathy that traces its roots in a creeping Godlessness we can observe in the world today. These are some of the Pope’s words describing this unfortunate situation:

“Contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil...What hinders this humane and loving gaze towards our brothers and sisters? Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else...”

He also laments about individualism that seems to pervade the world now and that makes it “blind to the physical sufferings and to the spiritual and moral demands of life.”

He warns us of what he terms as “spiritual anaesthesia which numbs us to the sufferings of others,” as well as the usual temptation “to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest the talents we have received...”

To all these negative situations, the Holy Father proposes a genuine and thorough concern for others that should have the following characteristics:

--Desiring what is good for others from every point of view: physical, moral and spiritual. He defines good as “whatever gives, protects and promotes life, brotherhood and communion.”

--Being aware of the needs of others, and especially being concerned for their spiritual well-being. At this point, the Pope talks about the long forgotten gospel practice of “fraternal correction in view of eternal salvation.”

It’s a message that certainly needs to be digested slowly and persistently. Its rich theological underpinnings actually offer a splendid view of today’s situation and challenge.

Very often, we get contented only with some socio-economic and political analysis of the situation that can only cover and fathom so much. We should correct or at least enrich this attitude with a deeper dimension offered by theology.

The message calls us to get out of our shell and to actively enter into the dynamics of a life of communion, marked precisely by love and concern for one another, to which we are called.

The Pope offers an elaborate description of this life of communion that we should try to be familiar about, since very often we take it for granted or reduce it to merely social categories.

In his words, our life of communion is based on the fact that “our existence is related to that of others, for better or for worse. Both our sins and our acts of love have a social dimension.

“This reciprocity is seen in the Church, the mystical body of Christ. The community constantly does penance and asks for the forgiveness of the sins of its members, and also unfailingly rejoices in the example of virtue and charity present in her midst.

“As St. Paul says: ‘Each part should be equally concerned for all the others’ (1 Cor 12,25), for we all form one body. Acts of charity towards our brothers and sisters—as expressed by almsgiving, a practice which, together with prayer and fasting, is typical of Lent—is rooted in this common belonging.

“Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children.”

We certainly need to deepen and strengthen our sense of communion. It’s definitely not an easy thing to do, but neither is it impossible. We just have to realize that we need to constantly ask for grace for it and be as unsparing as we can in exerting the necessary effort.

Truth is there is a lot of needs to be attended to, not only human, but also and most specially the moral and spiritual needs. There’s a lot of poverty and injustice to be resolved as well as ignorance and confusion that need to be dispelled.