Our Reporter
HOPE Francis has urged Catholics to, in the next 40 days, make good room for the Word of God by shunning the social media and disconnecting their televisions.
He spoke on Wednesday during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square as part of the Ash Wednesday.
“Lent,” Pope Francis said to some 12,000 pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, “is a time in which to turn off the television and open the Bible.”
During his catechesis for the weekly General Audience, the Pope reflected on the 40 days spent by Jesus in the desert as he prepared for his public ministry, saying that, in a sense, it is a time for Catholics “to imitate Jesus and seek a place of silence, where we are free to hear the Lord’s word and experience His call”.
The Pope said: “In the desert, one hears the Word of God; one finds intimacy with God and the love of the Lord,” noting that Jesus taught us how to seek the Father, who speaks to us in silence.
He remarked on the fact that, for many Christians, “it is not easy to be in silence as we live in an environment that is polluted by too much verbal violence” by so many “offensive and harmful words” which are amplified by the internet.
“Lent is a time to disconnect from cell phones and connect to the Gospel,” he said, recalling that when he was a child there was no television, but his family would make a point of not listening to the radio.
“It is the time to give up useless words, chatter, rumours, gossip, and talk and to speak directly to the Lord,” he said.
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In a world in which we often struggle to distinguish the voice of the Lord, Jesus calls us into the desert and invites us to listen to what matters, Pope Francis explained. And he recalled that when the devil tempted him, Jesus replied: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
Thus the desert, represented by the journey of Lent, he continued, is a place of life, a place in which to dialogue in silence with the Lord who gives us life.
The Pope also reflected on how an important part of the Lenten desert experience is the practice of fasting, “which trains us to recognise, in simplicity of heart, how often our lives are spent in empty and superficial pursuits.
“Fasting is being capable of giving up the superfluous and going to the essential. Fasting is not only losing weight, it is seeking the beauty of a simpler life,” he said.
The Pope also noted that the solitude of the desert increases our sensitivity to those who quietly cry out for help.
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