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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father Benedict XVI sent a message to Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Roch of Mariana, President of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB), upon the occasion of the annual Fraternity Campaign that began on Ash Wednesday at the Shrine of Aparecida and whose theme this year is: “Peace is the fruit of justice.”
Lent “is a time of conversion and reconciliation for all Christians, so that the most noble aspirations of the human heart may be satisfied and that true peace may reign among peoples and communities,” the Holy Father wrote, quoting the Message of Pope John Paul II on World Day for Peace 2002, in which he mentioned that “true peace is the fruit of justice” and the Final Document of Aparecida, which refers to the Kingdom of God and the promotion of human dignity, says that “the evident signs of the presence of the Kingdom in our personal and community living out of the Beatitudes, in the evangelization of the poor, in the knowledge and fulfillment of God's will, in martyrdom for the cause of the faith, in our access to the goods of creation, in mutual, sincere, and fraternal forgiveness, accepting and respecting the wealth of plurality, and the fight not to give into the temptation to become slaves of evil.”
“Lent calls us to an unfailing struggle to do good, precisely because we know how difficult it is for us, as human beings, to dedicate ourselves seriously to the practice of justice, a justice more than ever necessary for a coexistence based on peace and love and not on hatred and indifference. Yet we know that, even if we achieve a reasonable distribution of wealth and a harmonious organisation of society, nothing can remove the pain of sickness, misunderstanding, solitude, the death of people we love, or an awareness of our own limitations".
The Pope then pointed out that: “Our Lord abhors injustice and condemns those who practice it; yet He respects individual liberty and for this reason allows it to exist, because it forms part of the human condition after original sin. Despite this His heart, full of love for human beings, brought Him to shoulder, along with the cross, all our torments: our suffering, our sadness, our hunger, our thirst for justice. Let us ask him for the strength to bear witness to the same feelings of peace and reconciliation that inspired Him on the Sermon on the Mount, in order to achieve eternal Beatitude.” He concluded by invoking the Almighty, “that His helping hand may be extended throughout Brazil and that all people may reach new life in Christ in their personal, family, social, and cultural contexts. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 26/2/2009)
