Pope Francis asks in Lent to confront the concrete reality of an immigrant

In his message for Lent, which begins on March 5 with Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis invites the faithful to “confront the concrete reality of some immigrant or pilgrim” letting that experience question them.

In the text, written on February 6, 2025, eight days before his hospitalization, but published on Tuesday by the Vatican, Pope Francis points out that he can be a “good exercise” to help discover what God asks each.

In this context, the Holy Father recalls that the subject of the jubilee is Pilgrims of hopewhich evokes “the long journey of the people of Israel to the promised land, narrated in the book of the exodus.”

And he points out that “we cannot remember the biblical exodus without thinking of so many brothers and sisters who today flee from misery and violence, looking for a better life for them and their loved ones.”

Therefore, he calls for conversion and invites himself to ask: “How do I let me challenge for this reality? Am I really on the way or, on the contrary, I am paralyzed, static, caught by fear and lack of hope? I live satisfied in my comfort zone? I look for roads of liberation from situations of sin and lack of dignity?

Pope Francis offers some reflections on the meaning of the motto of the Jubilee Year, remembering that with the penitential sign of the ashes the annual pilgrimage of Lent “in faith and hope” begins.

“The Church, mother and teacher, invites us to prepare our hearts and to open ourselves to the grace of God to be able to celebrate with great joy the Easter triumph of Christ over sin and death. As St. Paul exclaimed: ‘Death has been defeated. Where is, death, your victory? Where is your sting? ‘ (1 CO 15,54-55). Jesus Christ, dead and risen, is the center of our faith and the guarantor of our hope in the great promise of the Father: eternal life, who already made in him, his beloved Son (cf. Jn 10,28; 17,3) ”, He points out in the message.

The pontiff emphasizes that Christians are called to walk together, “never as lonely travelers.” “The Holy Spirit drives us to get out of ourselves to go to God and the brothers, and never to lock ourselves,” he emphasizes.

Advance together without mastering the other and without envy or hypocrisy

It also makes it clear that walking together is “advancing side by side, without trampling or dominating the other, without hosting envy or hypocrisy, without letting anyone stay behind or feel excluded.”

“We are in the same direction, towards the same goal, listening to each other with love and patience,” he adds.

Under this perspective, the Pontiff urges the faithful to examine whether in his life, in his family and in his work environment they are able to walk alongside others, to listen and defeat the temptation to “locate themselves”, worrying only for your own needs.

Therefore, calls bishops, presbyters, consecrated and laity to question if they have “an attitude of reception with concrete gestures towards those who approach us and those who are far away.” “Do we make people feel part of the community or, on the contrary, we marginalize them?”, Invites themselves to wonder during Lent.

In the message, Pope Francis, who quotes the encyclical Spe salvi of Benedict XVI, also makes a special call for conversion to synodality, that is, to live faith in communion and participation within the Church.

In this way, he reflects on the meaning of hope in the promise of God and specifically urges the central message of the jubilee, which will conclude on January 6, 2026 “The hope that does not disappoint”, is the horizon of the Lentenly Road towards Easter.

Finally, the Holy Father invites the following questions to ask again: “Do I have the certainty that God forgives my sins or act as if I could save me alone? Do I long for salvation and invite God’s help to receive it? Live specifically the hope that helps me interpret the events of history and drives me to commit to justice, fraternity and care of the common house, acting so that no one is behind? ”

The message concludes with this quote from Sta Teresa de Jesus: “Wait, wait, you don’t know when the day or time will come. It watches carefully, that everything spends shortly, although your desire makes the true doubtful, and the long short time. ”