First Lenten meditation: Called to remain anchored in Christ

By Christopher Wells

“In this Lent of the Holy Year of the Jubilee, we are called to remain anchored in Christ, certain of finding in Him a firm and secure reference point for our lives,” said Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, in the first of his meditations for Lent 2025 on Friday morning.

However, the new Preacher of the Papal Household said, as reassuring as this perspective is, “we are aware that in order to be intimately united with Him… we must welcome the dynamism of conversion to the Gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to redefine the contours and the boundaries of our humanity.”

To do so, he explained, we must place ourselves as disciples of Christ, to learn from His life “what attitudes are essential” for our journey to eternity.

Christ's Baptism: a sign illuminating our journey

For his first Lenten meditation, Fr Pasolini focused on the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, starting with the Baptism in the Jordan and the temptation in the desert. “Christ’s Baptism,” he said, “is not just an event in His life, but a sign that illuminates the journey of every believer, showing certain existential movements that we, too, are called to make.”

The first of these, said Fr Pasolini, is the ability to go outside ourselves in order to make room for others. Jesus did this in His Baptism, in which He “fully immerses Himself in the human condition, fully sharing the fragility and history of every human being.”

This is followed by conversion, the second movement, which for the Papal Preacher involves “a continuous exercise of inner verification” in which we ask ourselves if we have “truly assimilated the logic of the Gospel.” Conversion, he said, “is not just a moral change, but a profound transformation of our way of seeing, judging, and loving.”

Finally, Fr Pasolini said, we are called “to remain within reality without fleeing from it or sublimating it.” In His earthly life, Jesus did not attempt to escape “the tensions, trials, and contradictions of the world.”

Father Pasolini concluded by saying, “We, too, are called to remain steadfast in our own time, with its complexities and challenges, without escaping or seeking artificial refuge.” It is only in this way, he said, that we can recognize that “our path is inhabited” by the presence of God, “Who does not abandon us, but remains with us always.”