First Lenten Sermon: Peace comes from the courage to be small
By Benedetta Capelli
On March 6, Fr. Roberto Pasolini, the Preacher of the Papal Household, gave the first of his Lenten Sermons, which will take place every Friday until March 27 in the Paul VI Audience Hall, with Pope Leo XIV present.
The series is centered around the theme: “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). Conversion to the Gospel according to Saint Francis.”
This first meditation’s topic was "Conversion: Following the Lord Jesus on the Path of Humility." The Capuchin friar recounted how "in the days that are once again marked by pain and violence, to speak of smallness might seem to be an abstract discourse, almost a spiritual luxury. In reality, it is a practical responsibility, linked to the destiny of the world."
Peace, he explained, is not only born from political agreements or diplomatic or military strategies, but from men and women who find the courage to be small. This happens when people step back, renounce violence in all its forms, refuse to give in to the temptation of revenge and dominance, and choose dialogue even when circumstances seem to deny its possibility.
Awakening of the image of God
Fr. Pasolini called it “a demanding and daily task,” one that concerns everyone who sees themselves as children of God and knows that “this conversion of the heart” is their responsibility.
Introducing his reflection—related to the life of St. Francis—Fr. Pasolini described him as a "man traversed by the fire of the Gospel, capable of rekindling in each of us the longing for a new life in the Spirit."
But what exactly does "conversion" mean? This is a question we must ask because "if we get the starting point wrong, we risk building on fragile foundations," he said.
"Evangelical conversion," the preacher said, "is first and foremost God’s initiative, in which man is called to participate in full freedom." It happens "in the most intimate point of our nature, where the image of God impressed upon us waits to be reawakened."
The response to grace
St. Francis speaks of "doing penance" when he enters the path of conversion. He refers to a “change of sensitivity,” a way of seeing others with mercy and through the light of the Gospel, sweeping away "the bitterness of a life filled with many things but still empty of its essential value."
Doing penance marks the beginning of a fight to defend the "new taste of things," while faithfully nourishing the seed that God has placed in each person's heart.
Conversion is no longer the attempt to straighten life out with one's own strength, but a response to a grace that has redefined the parameters of our way of perceiving, judging, and desiring.
Recognizing sin
Conversion is connected to "the depth of the furrow that sin has etched in us," the Capuchin friar explained, but sin is a word that today seems to have disappeared.
"In the collective consciousness – and sometimes even in the life of the Church – everything is explained as fragility, wound, limitation, conditioning. When sin is still mentioned, it is often reduced to a small mistake or weakness." "If every sin becomes just a symptom," he pointed out, we risk losing something essential: "the greatness of human freedom and its responsibility."
If there is no longer the possibility of true evil, we cannot believe in the possibility of true good. If sin disappears, holiness too becomes an abstract and incomprehensible destiny.
In sin, man recognizes that "his freedom is real, and that with it he can build or destroy himself, others, the world." A "deep healing" is therefore necessary to recover a relationship with God—repeatedly choosing to live in love and freedom, even enduring hardships that are not "sterile" but are expressions of "fidelity of those who have already glimpsed the meaning and value of what they are living".
Returning to humility
St. Francis is seen as the saint of poverty. But it is also impossible to separate him from humility. Both spring from the mystery of the Incarnation. They are the very traits of God that man is invited to live in order to resemble Him.
"Humility," Fr. Pasolini highlighted, "is a path that every baptized person is called to follow if they want to fully embrace the grace of life in Christ." It is "a way of inhabiting the world and relationships" to reduce the "the inflated image we have of ourselves" and to return to truth. He called it "a gift of the Spirit even before it is an ascetic exercise."
However, humility does not impoverish man. Rather, it returns him to himself. It does not lessen him but restores him to his true greatness. For this reason, it is so closely linked to conversion. Original sin arises precisely from a rejection of humility: from not wanting to accept ourselves as human beings, finite and dependent on God. Conversion, then, must also be understood as a return to humility.
The face of the new man
The greatness of man, the preacher explained, comes through his smallness. The saint of Assisi—by embracing the smallest—understood that this is "the privileged place" chosen by the Lord. "In them that the 'power' spoken of in the Gospel is manifested, that of becoming children of God."
A child who is not ashamed to ask the Father for things experiences "a particular strength: the ability to inspire goodness in others." "The little ones, with their fragility, awaken mercy," Fr. Pasolini continued, "which is perhaps the most precious energy in the world." It is a radical openness that requires the hospitality of the other; "becoming small is an essential dimension of being Christians."
When we choose to become—not remain—small because we have recognized God's smallness and have felt welcomed and loved by Him, then this choice is not a form of regression or renunciation. It is the face of the new man that Baptism restores to us.
Constant conversion
The final step is to recognize that conversion never ends. We remain sinners, always asking to be sanctified by the Spirit. "To convert means to continually begin again this movement of the heart, through which our poverty opens itself to God’s grace," even in our reluctance to diminish our self-image, by doing ongoing inner work that places us "at service, freely and concretely."
Fr. Pasolini recalled St. Paul, who understood that ": weakness is not a phase to be overcome, but the very form of his life in Christ," "the form of baptismal life."
However, we often think that evangelical smallness is only possible when everything is going well. In reality, the opposite is true. It is precisely in conflicts and difficulties that this littleness is even more necessary. When the instinct is to defend oneself or impose oneself, that is where we see if we have truly learned the Gospel of the cross. Light, in fact, shows its strength not when everything is clear, but when darkness reigns.
The meditation ended with a prayer from St. Francis and an invocation to "follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ."
No comments:
Post a Comment