Vatican City, Mar 18, 2012 / 10:52 am
Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Christians to walk with Jesus across the desert of Lent, to “listen more closely to the voice of God, and to unmask the temptations that speak within each of us.”
Before praying the traditional Sunday Angelus prayer at noon, Pope Benedict offered those pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square a reflection on how Lent is a “journey with Jesus through the desert.”
“On the horizon of the desert looms the Cross,” he said. “Jesus knows that it is the culmination of his mission: in fact, the Cross of Christ is the height of love, which gives us salvation.
“He himself says in today's Gospel: ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life,’” the Pope recalled.