Today is the First Sunday of Lent, the liturgical Season of 40 days which constitutes a spiritual journey in the Church of preparation for Easter. Essentially it is a matter of following Jesus who is walking with determination towards the Cross, the culmination of His mission of salvation.

Why the Cross? Because evil exists, indeed sin, which according to the Scriptures is the profound cause of all evil. However the very word “sin” is not accepted by many because it implies a religious vision of the world and of the human being: if God is eliminated from the world’s horizon, one cannot speak of sin. As when the sun is hidden, shadows disappear. Hence the eclipse of God necessarily entails the eclipse of sin.

—God is determined to deliver His children from slavery in order to lead them to freedom. And the most serious and profound slavery is precisely that of sin. For this reason God sent His Son into the world: to set men and women free from the domination of Satan, dying for us on the Cross.