Dear Brothers and Sisters!
1. Today we have celebrated the Day of Forgiveness in the framework of
faith of the Great Jubilee. This morning in St. Peter's Basilica, I
presided over a moving and solemn penitential act. On this first Sunday
of Lent, in the name of all the Christian people, Bishops and ecclesial
communities in different parts of the world have knelt before God to
implore his forgiveness.
The Holy Year is a time of purification: The Church is Holy because
Christ is her Head and Spouse, the Spirit her vivifying soul and the
Blessed Virgin and the saints her most authentic expression. However,
the children of the Church know the reality of sin, whose shadows are
reflected in her, darkening her beauty. For this reason, the Church does
not cease to implore God's forgiveness for the sins of her members.
2. This is not a judgment on the subjective responsibility of brothers
who preceded us: this is something that corresponds only to God Who,
unlike us human beings, is capable of "scrutinizing the heart and mind."
Today's act is a sincere acknowledgement of the faults committed by the
children of the Church in the remote and recent past, and a humble
supplication for God's forgiveness. This will undoubtedly awaken
consciences, enabling Christians to enter the third millennium more open
to God and his plan of love.
As we ask for forgiveness, we forgive. This is what we say every day
when we pray the prayer Christ taught us: "Our Father... forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." May this
Jubilee Day bring all believers the fruit of reciprocal forgiveness
given and received!
From forgiveness reconciliation flowers. This is what we desire for the
whole ecclesial community, for the ensemble of all believers in Christ,
and for the whole world.
3. Forgiven and ready to forgive, Christians enter the third millennium
as more credible witnesses of hope. After centuries characterized by
violence and destruction, and after this particularly dramatic one, the
Church presents to humanity, which crosses the threshold of the third
millennium, the Gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation, as the premise
to construct an authentic peace.
Be witnesses of hope! This is also the theme of the Spiritual Exercises
that I will begin this afternoon with my collaborators in the Roman
Curia. Beginning now, I thank those who will accompany me in these days
of prayer and I invoke the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Divine Mercy, to
help all of us to live fruitfully the time of Lent.
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