BENEDict XVI

The “Other” is Part of Me. His Salvation Concerns Mine
MESSAGE FOR LENT 2012. From the Vatican, November 3, 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters: The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity.... This year, I would like to propose a few thoughts in light of a brief biblical passage drawn from the Letter to the Hebrews:“Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.” These words are part of a passage in which the sacred author exhorts us to trust in Jesus Christ as the High Priest who has won us forgiveness and opened up a pathway to God. Embracing Christ bears fruit in a life structured by the three theological virtues: it means approaching the Lord “sincere in heart and filled with faith” (v. 22), keeping firm “in the hope we profess” (v. 23) and ever mindful of living a life of “love and good works” (v. 24).... Here I would like to reflect on verse 24, which offers a succinct, valuable, and ever timely teaching on the three aspects of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity, and personal holiness.
This first aspect is an invitation to be “concerned”: the Greek verb used here is katanoein, which means to scrutinize, to be attentive, to observe carefully and take stock of something. We come across this word in the Gospel when Jesus invites the disciples to “think of” the ravens that, without striving, are at the center of the solicitous and caring Divine Providence (cf. Lk 12:24), and to “observe” the plank in our own eye before looking at the splinter in that of our brother (cf. Lk 6:41). In another verse of the Letter to the Hebrews, we find the encouragement to “turn your minds to Jesus” (3:1), the Apostle and High Priest of our faith. So the verb which introduces our exhortation tells us to look at others, first of all at Jesus, to be concerned for one another, and not to remain isolated and indifferent to the fate of our brothers and sisters. All too often, however, our attitude is just the opposite: an indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and masked as a respect for “privacy.” Today, too, the Lord’s voice summons all of us to be concerned for one another. Even today, God asks us to be “guardians” of our brothers and sisters (Gen 4:9), to establish relationships based on mutual consideration and attentiveness to the well-being–the integral well-being–of others. The great commandment of love for one another demands that we acknowledge our responsibility toward those who, like ourselves, are creatures and children of God. Being brothers and sisters in humanity and, in many cases, also in the faith, should help us to recognize in others a true alter ego, infinitely loved by the Lord. If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy, and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts....

Concern for others entails desiring what is good for them from every point of view: physical, moral, and spiritual. Contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil, yet there is a real need to reaffirm that good does exist and will prevail, because God is “generous and acts generously” (Ps 119:68). The good is whatever gives, protects, and promotes life, brotherhood, and communion. Responsibility toward others thus means desiring and working for the good of others, in the hope that they too will become receptive to goodness and its demands. Concern for others means being aware of their needs. Sacred Scripture warns us of the danger that our hearts can become hardened by a sort of “spiritual anesthesia” which numbs us to the suffering of others... What hinders this humane and loving gaze toward our brothers and sisters? Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else. We should never be incapable of “showing mercy” toward those who suffer. Our hearts should never be so wrapped up in our affairs and problems that they fail to hear the cry of the poor. Humbleness of heart and the personal experience of suffering can awaken within us a sense of compassion... We can then understand the beatitude of “those who mourn” (Mt 5:5), those who, in effect, are capable of looking beyond themselves and feeling compassion for the suffering of others....

“Being concerned for each other” also entails being concerned for their spiritual wellbeing. Here I would like to mention an aspect of the Christian life that I believe has been quite forgotten: fraternal correction in view of eternal salvation. Today, in general, we are very sensitive to the idea of charity and caring about the physical and material wellbeing of others, but almost completely silent about our spiritual responsibility toward our brothers and sisters.... Christ Himself commands us to admonish a brother who is committing a sin (cf. Mt 18:15). The verb used to express fraternal correction–elenchein–is the same used to indicate the prophetic mission of Christians to speak out against a generation indulging in evil (cf. Eph 5:11).... It is important to recover this dimension of Christian charity. We must not remain silent before evil.... Christian admonishment, for its part, is never motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other.... It is a great service, then, to help others and allow them to help us, so that we can be open to the whole truth about ourselves, improve our lives, and walk more uprightly in the Lord’s ways. There will always be a need for a gaze which loves and admonishes, which knows and understands, which discerns and forgives (cf. Lk 22:61), as God has done and continues to do with each of us.
This “custody” of others is in contrast to a mentality that, by reducing life exclusively to its earthly dimension, fails to see it in an eschatological perspective and accepts any moral choice in the name of personal freedom. A society like ours can become blind to physical sufferings and to the spiritual and moral demands of life. This must not be the case in the Christian community! ...The Lord’s disciples, united with Him through the Eucharist, live in a fellowship that binds them one to another as members of a single body. This means that the other is part of me, and that his or her life, his or her salvation, concern my own life and salvation. Here we touch upon a profound aspect of communion: our existence is related to that of others, for better or for worse. Both our sins and our acts of love have a social dimension. This reciprocity is seen in the Church, the mystical body of Christ.... “Each part should be equally concerned for all the others” (1 Cor 12:25), for we all form one body.... Being concerned for one another should spur us to an increasingly effective love which, “like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day” (Prov 4:18), makes us live each day as an anticipation of the eternal day awaiting us in God. The time granted us in this life is precious for discerning and performing good works in the love of God. In this way, the Church herself continuously grows toward the full maturity of Christ (cf. Eph 4:13)... Sadly, there is always the temptation to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest the talents we have received, for our own good and for the good of others (cf. Mt 25:25ff.). All of us have received spiritual or material riches meant to be used for the fulfillment of God’s plan, for the good of the Church, and for our personal salvation (cf. Lk 12:21b; 1 Tim 6:18)... Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation, today as timely as ever, to aim for the “high standard of ordinary Christian living” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). The wisdom of the Church in recognizing and proclaiming certain outstanding Christians as Blessed and as Saints is also meant to inspire others to imitate their virtues. Saint Paul exhorts us to “anticipate one another in showing honor” (Rom 12:10)....