Lent, the Church teaches, is a time of grace for all. This understanding springs from the opportunity the season offers for re-centring our lives on God, for repentance and conversion.

But, the season also offers the Church a special teaching moment, when by word and ritual it helps its members to listen more attentively to the voice of God.

Lent which began last week on Ash Wednesday with a reminder of our nothingness, that we are “dust”, and which will end at Easter in the celebration of the paschal mystery, the death and resurrection of Jesus, prepares us for living in new ways; for living the life of God.

By its call of self-denial, the season points us away from the materialism and the self-centredness to which human nature is prone to a concern for others. The throes of economic recession which began in the US, but which threaten all nations, arise from this self-centredness. Pope Benedict XVI has indicated in various ways that at the heart of the economic crisis is a political and social crisis.

In his Christmas message the Pope warned that if people only looked after “their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart”. Speaking at the opening of the synod of bishops, in October last year, Pope Benedict referred to the parable at the end of Matthew 7 about the “sensible man” and the “stupid man”.

One built on rock; the other on sand. He said “those who build their lives …on the material, on success, on all that which is visible, build on the sand. Only the word of God is the foundation of all reality, enduring like the sky, and even more than the sky is reality”.

The things that may appear to be reality, on which the world places so much store, the Pope said, will pass away one day. “We see this today in the collapse of the major banks: this money is disappearing, it is nothing,” he said.

In these troubled times in our world the Church must speak unambiguously about right and wrong, about the things that bring life and those that court death. Lent for our archdiocese comes after Synod 2009, a process which must embolden us to speak. The Church has been mandated to take steps towards regenerating the moral and spiritual values of the society, as part of its thrust towards the New Evangelisation.

Through the Synod, the mission of the local Church at this time in its history has been made clear, but it needs the other institutions of society to play their part.

In this regard, we commend the messages of the Minister of Education and the President of the National Council of Parent Teacher Associations. Minister Esther Le Gendre called on parents and guardians to ensure that their children attend school on the days after Carnival, urging them to see it as an important opportunity to “teach our children responsibility, restraint and discipline”.

The present state of the world globally and locally suggests an urgent need for all institutions of society to be prophetic, realistic and dynamic.

In the Responsorial Psalm for today’s Liturgy, the Church prays:

Lord, make me know your ways.

Lord, teach me your paths.

Make me walk in your truth, and teach me:

For you are God my saviour (Psalm 24: 1).

It is a prayer that needs to be echoed in each heart.