In what appears to be another jab at teaching the followers and devotees of the Catholic Church the true essence of the sacrifices needed from them this season of Lent in the context of today's modern world, Pope Francis urged the public to not only confine themselves in fasting from the conventional indulgent sweets and dishes but also from the indifference that now fills the lives of virtually everyone with respect to the plight of others, according to the Time.
As the Lenten season begins following the celebration of Ash Wednesday, it has been customary for the members of the Catholic Church to undergo the practice of fasting, or refraining from consuming certain dishes.
However, the Pontiff appears to have another idea set to allow not only the older and more experienced generation from viewing this celebration with a different perspective but to provide the youth of today a better understanding of this age-old tradition.
In his message to the followers of the Church, Pope Francis reminded everyone that fasting must not be done superficially only. That is, he urged the people to look deeper into the meaning and essence of this particular sacrifice and go beyond the call of prohibiting oneself from indulging.
"No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others," the Pontiff shared, referencing once again the words of Saint John Chrysostom. "So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great," he explained.
To simply put, the Twitter post of the Pontifex perfectly sums up his message to the devotees. "During Lent, let us find concrete ways to overcome our indifference," Pope Francis shared.
"Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience," he further explained in his annual Lenten message.
Moreover, his message pointed out that this trend could be dubbed as the "globalization of indifference." Pope Francis remarked that "whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor." Consequently, the Pontiff noted that God's voice gets drowned in all these other inconsequential matters. In addition, he said that the people now fail to feel love and the need to do good things for the world.
"We end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people's pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else's responsibility and not our own," he shared.
With this message, the Pontiff fervently hopes that the public will start reflecting on their character and contribute to the betterment of society as well as to the lives of the less fortunate brothers and sisters around them.
