It's the revolution from below, that of the small daily gestures by the great masses that Pope Francis expects. This time, he has turned to the Catholic people of the whole world with an invitation to make strategic conscious choices for the next forty days and thus begin to change the global development model based on consumerism, the destruction of the earth, the rapacity of resources for the benefit of a few and at the expense of many. This year's Lent message seems like a manifesto for collective action. "The Lenten journey will be concrete if we confess that we are still under the dominion of Pharaoh. It is a dominion that makes us tired and insensitive. It is a growth model that divides us and steals our future. The earth, air and water are polluted, but also our souls are contaminated".
Francis refers to thinking freely and that it is now "time for community decisions, small and large choices against the current, capable of changing the daily lives of people and the life of a neighborhood: shopping habits, care for creation, inclusion of those who are not seen or despised". Hence the invitation to every Christian community "to offer its faithful moments in which to rethink lifestyles; give yourself time to verify your presence in the territory and the contribution to make it better (...) It is an old road. We can cling to money, certain projects, ideas, goals, our position, a tradition, even some people. Instead of moving us, they will paralyze us. Instead of making us meet, they will oppose us. However, there is a new humanity, the people of the small and the humble who have not succumbed to the charm of the lie".
In the long text of the Lenten Message, the Pope cites the biblical episode of Pharaoh, a symbol of blind power. "In fact, it also extinguishes dreams, steals the sky, makes a world in which dignity is trampled and authentic bonds are denied seem immutable. That is, it manages to bind to itself. Let's ask ourselves: do I want a new world? Am I willing to get out of compromises with the old?"
This is not the first time that Pope Francis speaks of the need to start conscious choices to save the planet and change the framework of the economic system based on exploitation. In the encyclical Laudato Si, promulgated in 2015 to warn of the risk of terrestrial collapse, he identifies daily decisions starting from the use of public transport, ethical investments, recycling of clothes and food, the spread of cooperative systems, solidarity purchases and zero kilometer and attention not to waste energy resources.
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