1.
To speak of reconciliation and penance
is for the men and women of our time an invitation to rediscover, translated into
their own way of speaking, the very words with which our savior and teacher
Jesus Christ began his preaching: "Repent, and believe in the
Gospel,"(1) that is to say, accept the good news of love, of
adoption as children of God and hence of brotherhood.
Why does the church put forward once more
this subject and this invitation?
The concern to know better and to understand
modern man and the contemporary world, to solve their puzzle and reveal their
mystery, to discern the ferments of good and evil within them, has long caused
many people to direct at man and the world a questioning gaze. It is the gaze
of the historian and sociologist, philosopher and theologian, psychologist and
humanist, poet and mystic: Above all, it is the gaze, anxious yet full of hope,
of the pastor.
In an exemplary fashion this is shown on
every page of the important pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council
Gaudium et Spes on the church in the modern world, particularly in its
wide-ranging and penetrating introduction. It is likewise shown in certain
documents issued through the wisdom and charity of my esteemed predecessors,
whose admirable pontificates were marked by the historic and prophetic event of
that ecumenical council.
In common with others, the pastor too can
discern among the various unfortunate characteristics of the world and of
humanity in our time the existence of many deep and painful divisions.
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