Christ the Cornerstone

Lent helps us open our hearts to the needs of others

Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice. (“Dilexit Nos,” #27)

As we begin the holy season of Lent, we are challenged to open our hearts, as Jesus did, to the needs of others. We are challenged to overcome the sin of indifference and to turn away from self-centered pursuits that prevent us from being women and men for others.

Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. It is an opportunity to pause, as Pope Francis reminds us repeatedly in his Lenten messages, “to pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Good Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister,” and to reflect on what it means to be loved by God beyond all measure.

Pope Francis identifies three actions that we can take to root out the sin of indifference. First, the Holy Father says, we can pray. As people of faith, we dare not underestimate the power of prayer which is so essential to our communion with Christ and his Church.

Secondly, we can deny ourselves the worldly pleasures and comfort that cause us to forget about others and think only of ourselves.

Third, the pope says, “we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far through the Church’s many charitable organizations.”

These three actions are an expression of spiritual conversion, a change of heart. They are outward signs of the inner disposition to care about much more than our personal needs, wants and desires. These three actions are the traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. They are not unrelated to one another but are united as expressions of selfless love of God and neighbor.

We pray to be in communion with the triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We fast because we know that true happiness can never be found in simply satisfying our appetites. And we share generously with others all the gifts we have received from God because we know that we are all one in Christ. The three disciplines work together to help us open our hearts in love.

As individuals, we are too often tempted by indifference. “Flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help,” the pope says. During Lent, we are challenged to ask ourselves what we can do to avoid being caught up in hopelessness and fear.

Pope Francis teaches us that prayer, fasting and almsgiving are especially effective during this penitential season to help us “cast out the idols that weigh us down, the attachments that imprison us.” These spiritual disciplines free us from the burdens of selfishness and sin. Then, the Holy Father says:

The atrophied and isolated heart will revive. Slow down, then, and pause! The contemplative dimension of life that Lent helps us to rediscover will release new energies. In the presence of God, we become brothers and sisters, more sensitive to one another; in place of threats and enemies, we discover companions and fellow travelers.

In his recent encyclical “Dilexit Nos” (“On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ”), Pope Francis offers a sustained reflection on the love that overcomes selfishness and indifference to the needs of others. The Sacred Heart of Jesus provides us with an image of love that is “firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.”

Lent is a favorable time for showing our love for God and our neighbor by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family. As Pope Francis teaches:

A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.

During the next six weeks of Lent, the Church provides us with many different opportunities to practice the spiritual disciplines that will help us develop the heart muscles that will allow us to love others as God loves us.

Let’s take full advantage of this season of grace so that our prayer, fasting and almsgiving can strengthen our hearts and allow us to serve God and our neighbor with hearts overflowing with love. †