His Holiness Pope Francis at Angelus: Journey through Lent listening to voice of God

As Christians take our first steps on the Lenten path, His Holiness Pope Francis invites us to confront our inner struggles and to allow the voice of God to speak to our hearts.

By Linda Bordoni

On the first Sunday of Lent, His Holiness Pope Francis took his cue from the Gospel of Mark that presents us with Jesus tempted in the desert (Mk 1:12-15).

Speaking during the Angelus address, the Pope reflected on the symbolic significance of the wilderness, urging Christians to "enter the wilderness, that is, silence, the inner world, listening to the heart, in contact with the truth."

In the desert, he continued, Christ “was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to Him. Wild beasts and angels were His company.”

But, in a symbolic sense, he explained, “they are our company too: indeed, when we enter the inner wildness, we can encounter wild beasts and angels there."

Beasts of the soul

“In the spiritual life, we can think of them [wild beasts] as the disordered passions that divide our heart, trying to take possession of it.”

Warning that they “entice us; they seem seductive,” the Pope said. “If we are not careful, we risk being torn apart by them.”

And giving a name to these “beasts” of the soul, he described them as “the lust for wealth, which imprisons us in connivance and dissatisfaction, the vanity of pleasure, which condemns us to restlessness and solitude, and the craving for fame, which gives rise to insecurity and a continuous need for confirmation and prominence.”

They are “wild” beasts, the Holy Father said, and as such, they must be tamed and fought; otherwise, they will devour our freedom.

“We need to go into the wilderness to become aware of their presence and to face them,” he stated…

This report was originally published on the website of Vatican News. Please click here to read the full text.