Pope Francis' special Lenten message on Ash Wednesday

'Our salvation is certainly his fight, but, because it's a story of love...'

Pope Francis celebrated the first day of the Lenten season with pilgrims during his general audience on March first.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In his Lenten message, Pope Francis stated: "Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin our Lenten journey towards Easter. Lent is essentially a pilgrimage of hope, a season of penance and spiritual renewal that prepares us to share more fully in the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.

"We relive the experience of the Exodus, in which the Chosen People journeyed toward the Promised Land and, through spiritual, discipline and the gift of the Law, learned the love of God and neighbor."

According to CNA, the Pontiff took a moment to share the parallels between the Israelites' journey following their "exodus" from slavery and Christ's own version of an "exodus," when he suffered, died and made available to us the path to heaven.

"...those 40 days are also for each of us an exit from slavery, from sin, to freedom, to a meeting with the Resurrected Christ," the Pope explained.

"A path that's a bit challenging, as is just, because love is challenging, but it's a path full of hope. In fact,I would say more: the Lenten exodus is the path in which hope itself is formed."

As the Israelites journeyed through hardships for those four decades, the Lord never forgot them, nor did he fail to lead them to the Promised Land.

"All of us known the temptation to go backwards, right?" His Holiness asked. "We all know it. But the Lord remains faithful and that poor people, guided by Moses, arrived to the Promised Land. This whole journey is made in hope."

The journey of the people is not too dissimilar to Christ's journey to open heaven's gates to those who believe.

"To open this road, this passageway, Jesus had to shed his glory, humble himself, make himself obedient to death and to death on the cross. Opening to us the path to eternal life cost him all of his blood, and thanks to him we have been saved from slavery and sin."

But be warned, the Pope explained, because "Our salvation is certainly his fight, but, because it's a story of love, it requires our 'yes' and our participation as shown to us by our Mother Mary and after her all of the Saints.

"The fatigue of crossing the desert - all the trials, temptations, illusions, mirages - all this is to forge a strong, steadfast hope, on the model of the Virgin Mary, who in the midst of the darkness of the Passion and death of her son continued to believe and hope in his resurrection, in the victory of God's love."

Lent "takes light from the Paschal mystery toward which it is oriented," as preparation for Easter, the Pontiff explained, adding Christ has gone before us and has shown us to reject the temptations of the enemy, teaching us to do the same.

"Each step, each fatigue, each fall and each round, everything has meaning only inside the design of the salvation of God, who wants for his  people life and not death, joy and not pain.

"With a heart open to this horizon, we enter Lent. Feeling that we are part of the holy people of God, we begin with joy this path of hope."

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