We must develop without
fear, without false modesty or shyness, all the talents that the Lord
has given us, put our energies into making society progress and making
it ever more human, so that the conditions are in place for everyone to
lead a life of dignity, as befits children of God. We must learn to give
of our own, to foster and help, according to our circumstances,
institutions and foundations that will elevate and redeem man from his
uneducation or from his less human conditions. We must try, as far as we
are concerned, to ensure that there are no more of those inequalities
and social differences that cry out to Heaven: on the one hand, people
who struggle every day to survive; on the other, wastefulness that
offends the creature and the Creator.
We encounter many
difficulties, both internal - in our hearts, where the roots of
selfishness, of disordered possession, subsist - and external - those of
an environment thrown unrestrainedly towards consumer goods. This
external environment, which often carries with it a heavy burden of
sensuality, is "the most suitable setting for the proliferation of moral
deviations of all kinds: eroticism, the exaltation of self-esteemed and
cultivated pleasure, degradation through alcohol and drug abuse, etc.
It is evident that such excesses appear as a consequence of the deep
dissatisfaction that man suffers when he turns away from God... The
result is obvious: men and women - already countless - lacking ideals,
without clear criteria or sense of things and life ", who rise up
against the Lord and against Christ.
For the majority of
Christians, for those who have to sanctify themselves in the midst of
temporal realities, following Christ will mean developing their
capacity-also in terms of creating and longing for material goods-for
the good of all society, beginning with the family, which has to have
the necessary means, helping those who are most in need, creating
jobs... But the Christian's aim in life cannot be to become rich, to
accumulate goods, to possess as much as possible. This would lead to the
further impoverishment of his person. Temperance in the possession and
use of goods gives the Christian a human and supernatural maturity that
allows him to follow Christ closely and carry out a great apostolate in
the world. Our Lady, who knew how to live this virtue of poverty more
than anyone else, will help us today to formulate a resolution, perhaps a
small one, but a very concrete one.