Catholic Bishops Conference of Honduras
Lent: Path of conversion
As we conclude the ordinary
meeting of the [Honduran] Bishops Conference, we, the bishops of Honduras, wish
to share with the People of God the fruit of our reflection and, at the same
time, call them to live the path of Lent with renewed faithfulness to the Lord.
Following Jesus in his path
toward Easter, Lent offers us the opportunity to renew our mind and our
attitudes, guided by the values which moved Jesus to fulfill his Mission of
offering salvation to all humanity.
The Lord Jesus invites us to
be converted to the Truth; he himself came to the world to be the witness to
the Truth, as he affirmed before Pilate, adding: “Everyone who belongs to
the truth hears my voice” (John 18:37). Conversion to Truth means accepting
that only in the Lord is the full truth; to accept that none of us possess it
completely; and that in others there is part of the Truth. That conversion
moves us to accept that by means of dialogue we can gain access to new horizons
of mutual understanding.
Lent is a path of conversion
to social justice, by which we go forward constructing the Reign of God and
which demands that society and the state struggle against corruption and
impunity and reject every violation of Human Rights, especially the right to
life. We unite ourselves to the complaint/protest [reclamo] of the
people of Honduras for the more than 30 victims killed in the protest
demonstrations caused by the present political crisis, which is justly added to
so many complaints/protests [reclamos] for the negligence and lack of
will of the state's justice system to fulfill its obligations.
Lent is, above all, a way of
conversion to the love that is Charity, which makes us see the neighbor as
brother [or sister], to love enemies and pray for those who persecute us, as
Jesus says in Matthew 6:44. Conversion to Charity puts us in solidarity [nos
hace solidarios] with the necessities of the poor and the pain of the
families of all the victims of violence. Charity which also converts us into builders
of a new society, for “It is love which builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:2). And it
is about building a future where Charity gets in the way of/blocks [impida]
the increase of evil. Or, as Jesus says and which Pope Francis recognizes in
his Lenten message for this year, “As evil grows, love gets cold in most all
the people” (Matthew 24: 12).
This is a warning which we
ought to take seriously and that should move us to respond to the questions
which Pope Francis gives us: “How is charity growing cold in us? What are the
signs that show us that love runs the risk of being turned off in us?” Among
the many serious effects which we can recognize when love grows cold, Pope Francis
considers the ecological crisis. Therefore he affirms in Laudato si’, number
217: “The ecological crisis is a call to a profound interior
conversion.” That is to say, we also
need an ecological conversion to save the planet. Therefore, the care of our
common home will be a priority theme for reflection in the pastoral life of our
Church this year.
We ask our Lord that the Lenten
path may be full of blessings and enriching experiences and that the
traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will serve us not
only to prevent [impedir] our love growing cold but also to inflame it [our
love] with the passion [ardor] which lets us produce the fruit of the
Holy Spirit which is “charity, joy, peace, understanding of others, generosity,
kindliness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control” (Galatians 5: 22-23a).
May Mary, Our Lady of Suyapa,
who every year continues to inflame the hearts full of love [for her] of all
those who gather to venerate her, accompany us also in the Lenten journey so
that we may be, with her, at the foot of the Cross, when it is needed.
Tegucigalpa, 9 February 2018
[Catholic] Bishops Conference
of Honduras
[Conferencia Episcopal de
Honduras]
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