To all the Brothers and Sisters
of the First, Second and Third Orders

Rome, Lent 1999

Lent has already begun, a season of grace for the whole Church, an appropriate time and a special opportunity to return to our Father’s house.

The parable of the merciful father (Lk 15, 11-32), called "the Gospel of the Gospel", encourages us to go on a journey in order to rediscover our true relationship with God and others. We know only too well that this is not easy. The seductive paths of independence which distance us from the father’s house are many: possessions, the delusion of power, success, pleasure, self-centredness, aimless adventure, change without interior stability… also the desire to remain attached, at any cost, to structures that guarantee and host lifeless traditions, to types of activity which reflect "what has always been done", rather than to those which should be put into practice or devised in a prophetic way. Despite the fact that we feel lost and dissatisfied we are afraid, unfortunately, to take the path back again; our instinct for survival pushes us homeward, but, because we are so turned in on ourselves, we doubt the kind of welcome that awaits us there.

And to think that the Father is waiting for us in order to embrace us yet again and to celebrate, without caring about possible accounts, rebukes, punishments, or promises on our part! We belong to him, we are his "first love" (cf. 1Jn 4, 19-20). He well knows the price we have paid in the deceptive search for our independence. Now he waits for us. Lenten conversion will always imply eyes focused on the love of God rather than on the "I": only then will we find the courage to retrace our steps. Penances, fasts, privations, must express a desire for liberation so that we might reorient our hearts towards a relationship with Him that is pure, personal and profound. St. Francis puts us well on our guard in this matter: "There are many who, applying themselves insistently to prayers and good deeds, engage in much abstinence and many mortifications of their bodies, but they are scandalised and quickly roused to anger by a single word which seems injurious to their person, or by some other things which might be taken from them" (Admon.XIV).

The elder son… was indignant and did not want to go in (Lk 15, 28). The path of conversion is an urgent one not only for those who are aware that they are far away, but also and above all for those who think that they have never abandoned the Father’s house. In other words: one can be close to God and refuse to cross the threshold that leads to a true encounter of communion and love. One can be precise in service, even religious, but without understanding or experiencing the love of the Father. This interior attitude of refusal shows itself externally in resentments, grudges, jealousies, competitiveness and in confrontations with others who are regarded more as rivals than as brothers and sisters.

The Father loves everyone, and he loves us personally in the measure to which we allow ourselves to be loved: we will know how to love truly only if we start from this principle.

Brothers and sisters, every Easter Resurrection is a "passage", an exodus from our self-centredness and isolation towards a genuine relationship of communion with the Father and with our brothers and sisters. I am speaking about a path of conversion that involves a radical change of outlook, heart and life, in order to rediscover ourselves and celebrate with Him who is always waiting for us at our and His interior dwelling place, but who cannot enter without our consent, and who does not even wish to oblige us to remain with Him.

Invited to this feast, for which everything is already prepared, we can enter without fear. "If anyone hears my call and opens the door, I will come into him and have supper with him, and he with me" (Rev 3,20).

Best wishes for a holy and joyous Easter Resurrection!

Fra Giacomo Bini, ofm
Minister General

Prot. n. 088019