Pope: In deserts of poverty, volunteers offer signs of hope

By Tiziana Campisi

The fluorescent uniforms of thousands of volunteers in Rome for the Jubilee of the World of Volunteering stood out in Saint Peter's Square during the Sunday Mass presided over by Cardinal Michael Czerny. Thirty thousand people participate in the Mass on the first Sunday of Lent, and their colorful jackets created a chromatic spectacle, along with the purple liturgical vestments worn for the season of Lent.

Over a hundred concelebrants – including cardinals, bishops, and priests – came for the liturgy presided over by Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Pope Francis delegated Cardinal Czerny to preside since he has been in hospital since 14 February. But the Pope’s spiritual presence among them in the celebration was symbolized in the papal banner with the papal crest displayed on the central loggia of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Thanks to the volunteers

In the homily prepared by Pope Francis, and read by Cardinal Czerny, the Pope focused on the beginning of the Lenten journey, but with special words for the volunteers from around the world visiting Rome on pilgrimage. The Pope recalled their service and commitment alongside so many people, “all those small gestures” that “in the deserts of poverty and loneliness” help “a new humanity blossom in the garden that is God’s dream, always and everywhere, for all of us.”

Jesus shows the way through the desert 

Commenting on the Sunday Gospel, the Pope recalled the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, where He is “led by the Spirit.” And our Lenten journey begins here, “by following the Lord there and sharing in that experience, which he transformed for our benefit.”  Because in that “place of silence,” which becomes “a place of listening,” the ability to listen is “put to the test,” and then we must choose “between two completely different voices.” In the desert, Jesus experiences hunger and is tempted by the devil's words, but He rejects them.

Three characteristics of temptation 

In his homily, Pope Francis explains the three aspects of Jesus’ temptation and of our own: “its beginning, the way it takes place and its result,” and invites everyone to compare these two experiences to find support in one’s own “journey of conversion.” He then explains, regarding the beginning of the temptation, “the Lord does not go into the desert to show the strength of his will, but out of filial openness to the Spirit of the Father, whose guidance he readily and freely accepts.” On the other hand, our temptation “is not intentional: evil is prior to our freedom, attacking it from within, like an inner shadow and a constant threat.”

The latter is “the father of lies, perverse and perversive,” the Pope clarifies, “for he knows God’s word without understanding it. Quite the opposite: just as he had done since the days of Adam in the Garden of Eden, so he does now in the case of Jesus, the new Adam, in the desert.”

Christ unites God and humanity

As for the way Christ is tempted, the Pope explained that it is “through His relationship with God, His Father.” He went on to say how “the devil is the one who separates and divides, whereas Jesus is the one who unites God and man, the mediator.” And if “in his perversion, the devil wants to destroy that bond,” Jesus makes it “a relationship that embraces everyone, without excluding anyone” and “a gift that he shares with the world for our salvation.”

Jesus defeats evil and redeems us

Jesus “vanquishes evil,” this is “the result of these temptations,” concluded Pope Francis, “He drives away the devil,” who will however, as the Gospel says, “return to tempt Him, waiting for ‘another opportunity,’” that is, when “on Golgotha, Jesus is tempted again: ‘If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross’” But “in the paschal mystery of His death and resurrection” Christ definitively defeats “the tempter.” We, on the other hand, are not always capable of defeating temptations.

In conclusion, the Pope underscored how “Jesus himself opens up before us this new path of liberation and redemption” and by following Him in faith “from drifters we become pilgrims.”