VATICAN CITY — Lent is a time to remove all distractions and
bitterness from one's life in order to better hear God and those who suffer
silently and need help, Pope Francis said.
"It is the right time to turn off the television and open
the Bible. It is the time to disconnect from cellphones and connect ourselves
to the Gospel," the pope said at his weekly general audience Feb. 26, Ash
Wednesday and the beginning of Lent for Latin-rite Catholics.
"It's a time to give up useless words, idle chatter, rumors,
gossip" and speak intimately with the Lord, he said.
It was the first general audience of the year held outside in St.
Peter's Square given the mild temperatures.
However, given increased concern in Italy about the spread of the
coronavirus, the pope reduced his contact with people in the square, shaking
hands with only a few people before beginning his talk. In the popemobile, the
pope circled the square, waving and blessing people from afar, and the driver
and the pope's security detail did not stop to pick up any children as is
customary.
In fact, at the end of his audience, the pope assured all those
affected by the virus of his closeness and prayers. He said his prayers were
also with the health care professionals and public officials who were working
hard to help patients and stop the spread of the disease.
In his main audience talk, the pope explained "the spiritual
significance" of the desert, where Jesus spent 40 days praying and fasting
to prepare for his public ministry.
Jesus often headed off to "deserted" places to pray,
"teaching us how to seek the Father who speaks to us in silence," the
pope said.
"The desert is a place to get away from the racket that
surrounds us. It is the absence of words in order to make room for another
word, the Word of God, who like a light breeze, caresses the heart," he
said.
Just as Jesus spent time in the desert, he said Catholics must
spend Lent creating similarly sparse surroundings and a "healthy
environment of the heart."
These places need a thorough "cleaning," he said,
because "we live in an environment polluted by too much verbal violence,
by so many offensive and harmful words, which the internet amplifies."
People today lob insults with the same frequency and nonchalance
as if they were saying "hello," he said.
"We are buried under empty words, advertisements, devious messages,"
the pope said. "We are used to hearing everything about everybody and we
risk slipping into a worldliness that atrophies the heart. And there is no
bypass (surgery) to fix that, only silence."
For Christians, the desert isn't a place of death, but of life,
"because being in silence, in dialogue with the Lord, gives us life
again," he said.
Pope Francis asked that people strip away the superfluous and
unnecessary in their lives so they could find what really counts, what is
essential and even rediscover the people already by their side.
Fasting is part of that process, he said, because it exercises
the ability to go without things that are excessive or frivolous.
Making time for silence and solitude will also help the faithful
become more aware of those who suffer silently around them, the pope said.
Lent is a time to draw near to those who are alone, abandoned,
poor or elderly and anyone else in need of help, he said.
"Prayer, fasting and acts of mercy — this is the path of the
Lenten desert," because it is only in the desert that one finds the way
from death to life, the pope said. "Let us follow Jesus in the desert and
with him our deserts will bloom."
At the end of the general audience, the pope gave special
greetings to visitors from Iraq, emphasizing how his prayers were with them and
all people in the nation, which is "a battleground" of war and
conflict.
"I pray for you and pray for peace in your country, which I
had been scheduled to visit this year," he said. It would have been the
first visit by a pope to Iraq, where tradition holds Abraham was born.