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The Lenten Journey

February 19, 2010

We have begun the season of Lent, a time of reflection, penance and prayer. The Holy Father Pope Benedict has exhorted us to reflect this year on the theme of justice, in the light of the teachings of the Gospel. He bases his reflection on the text from St Paul’s letter to the Romans: The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 3, 21-22).

What does the term ‘justice’ mean to you? Some may say that it means giving ‘each one their due’. But what is the ‘due’ to be rendered? People need such different things. As St Augustine points out: if “justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?” (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).

Pope Benedict goes on to quote from Romans again:

But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3, 21-25).

The justice that Christ brings is the justice that comes from grace, so that we do not heal ourselves or mend our broken lives, but we are healed and made whole in the blood of Christ.

Read the Holy Father's Lenten message