Mexico City, Mexico, Feb 27, 2009 / 20:55 pm
The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass at the archdiocesan Cathedral and said, “Lent reminds us that the Christian life is a relentless battle in which we must use the weapons of prayer, fasting and penance.”
As he distributed the ashes, he explained, “Lent is not mere ritualism, but rather a time of reflection and conversion.” Conversion, the cardinal said, “is a spiritual battle that involves the entire person “against sin, and ultimately, against Satan.”
Cardinal Rivera also called on Mexicans to fight against “every kind of selfishness and hatred.” “Dying to oneself to live in God is the aesthetic path that all the disciples of Jesus are called to take with humility and patience, with generosity and perseverance.”
Likewise, he invited the faithful to translate “concrete gestures towards one’s neighbor” into love, especially towards the poor and those in need. Christians should respond to evil in the world not with vengeance or hatred, or by “fleeing towards a false spiritualism,” but rather “by opposing evil with good, lies with the truth, hatred with love,” he said.