MANILA, Feb. 19, 2015—Manila’s highest Church official has decried the “culture of indifference” which he believes has unfortunately taken over many of the faithful, reminding them to strive to create a culture centered on God.
In the Ash Wednesday homily he gave at the Arzobispado Chapel in Intramuros, Manila Archbishop Luís Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle agreed with the Holy Father in his assessment that today’s culture has numbed countless people, making them unconcerned with the pain of others.
A deacon imposes ashes on members of the faithful on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season, Feb. 18, 2015. (Photo: Natalie Hazel Quimlat)
For his part, Tagle asserted that the only way the faithful can defeat insensitivity, injustice, and other problems society faces that are ultimately rooted in indifference, is to change the culture into one that puts God in the center.
Dedicated
“Pope Francis noted indifference is fast becoming a culture in itself. It means it is spontaneous. It has become second nature that people become oblivious to God and their neighbors,” he explained.
The Holy Father, however, expressed hope that when the people of God are converted to His love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises
Christ is never indifferent
Tagle pointed out Jesus would have none of man’s indifference to man.
“Jesus is never the callous type. His whole Being is dedicated to God and to us,” he said.
In his Lenten message, Pope Francis stressed that God is not indifferent to the world, loving it so much that He gave His Son for man’s salvation.
“In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and Resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all,” the prelate said.
Rejected, crushed
The Argentine pontiff lamented, however, that the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut the door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to Him.
“The hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded,” he said. (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)
