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Here
is a translation of the address Pope Francis gave today before and
after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s
Square.
* * *
Before the Angelus
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
In this first Sunday
of Lent, the Gospel introduces us on the path towards Easter, showing
Jesus, who stays forty days in the desert, subjected to the devil’s
temptations (cf. Matthew 4:1-11).
This episode is placed in a specific moment of Jesus’ life: immediately
after His Baptism in the river Jordan and before His public ministry.
He has just received His solemn investiture: the Spirit of God descended
on Him, the Father of heaven declared Him: ”This is my beloved Son” (Matthew
3:17).
Jesus is now ready to begin His mission; and because it has a declared
enemy, namely Satan, He confronts him immediately, body to body.” In
fact, the devil appeals to His title of “Son of God,” to dissuade Jesus
from carrying out His mission: “If you are the Son of God . . .”, he
repeats to Him (vv. 3.6), and he suggests that He engage miraculous
gestures — to be a “magician” — such as transforming the stones into
bread to satiate His hunger, and throwing Himself from the wall of the
Temple, having the Angels rescue Him. These two temptations are followed
by a third: to adore him, the devil, to have dominion over the world
(cf. v. 9).
Through
this threefold temptation, Satan wants to divert Jesus from the way of
obedience and humiliation – because he knows that, through this way,
evil will thus be defeated – and lead Him on the false shortcut of
success and glory. However, the devil’s poisonous arrows are all
“stopped” with the shield of the Word of God (vv. 4.7.10), which
expresses the Father’s will. Jesus does not say a single word of his
own: He responds only with the Word of God. And thus the Son, full of
the strength of the Holy Spirit, comes out victorious from the desert.
As
Christians we are invited, during the forty days of Lent, to follow in
Jesus steps and face the spiritual combat against the Evil One with the
strength of the Word of God. Not with our word, which is useless. The
Word of God: that which has the strength to defeat Satan. Therefore, it
is necessary to draw confidence from the Bible: to read it often,
meditate on it and assimilate it. The Bible contains the World of God,
which is always timely and effective. Someone said: what would happen if
we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone? If we always carried
it with us, or at least a small pocket Bible, what would happen? If we
went back when we forgot it: you forgot your mobile phone – O, I don’t
have it, I’ll go back to find it; if we opened it several times a day;
what would happen if we read God’s
messages contained in the Bible as we read our phone messages? The
paragon is clearly paradoxical, but it makes us reflect. In fact, if we
had the Word of God always in the heart, no temptation would be able to
estrange us from God and no obstacle would be able to make us deviate
from the path of goodness; we would be able to overcome the daily
suggestions of evil that are in us and outside of us; we would be more
capable of living a resurrected life according to the Spirit, receiving
and loving our brothers, especially the weakest and neediest, and also
our enemies.
May
the Virgin Mary, perfect icon of obedience to God and of unconditional
trust in His will, sustain us on our Lenten journey, so that we place
ourselves in docile listening to the Word of God, to undertake a true
conversion of the heart.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
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