Før Angelus-bønna i går snakket pave Bendikt om søndagens evangelium, og han kommenterer den første (og vanskeligste) delen av teksten; om mennesker som døde pga ulykker eller urettferdig behandling. Var dette pga deres egne synder? Nei, svarer Jesus. (Se mine egne tanker om gårsdagens tekster HER.)
Paven snakket om hvor viktig det var både for enkeltpersoner og for samfunn å sette et kritisk blikk på handlinger og holdninger; ellers vil vil man ikke klare seg lenge.
In the face of certain misfortunes, he advises, it is no good to blame the victims. What is truly wise, rather, consists in allowing oneself to be questioned by the precariousness of existence and to adopt an attitude of responsibility: to do penance and improve our lives.
This is wisdom, this is the most effective response to evil, at all levels, interpersonal, social and international. Christ invites us to respond to evil first of all through a serious examination of conscience and with the commitment to purify our lives. Otherwise, we will perish, he says, we will perish in the same way. In fact, people and societies that live without questioning themselves have ruin as their only final end. Conversion, on the contrary, despite the fact it does not preserve us from problems and adversities, enables us to address them in a different «way.»
Above all it helps to prevent evil, and to neutralize some of its threats. And, in any case, it enables us to overcome evil with good, though not always at the level of events, which at times are independent of our will, certainly always at the spiritual level.
In short, conversion overcomes evil at its root, which is sin, though it cannot always avoid its consequences. … let us be helped to understand that to do penance and correct our conduct is not simply moralism, but the most effective way to improve both ourselves as well as society. An apt maxim explains it very well: It is better to light a match than to curse the darkness.