The hope of eternal life

From Sunday, 9 March, to Friday, 14 March, the Spiritual Exercises of the Roman Curia, in spiritual communion with the Holy Father, took place in the Paul vi Hall at the Vatican. The meditations were offered by 53-year-old Father Roberto Pasolini, o.f.m. cap., biblical scholar, and since November 2024, the new Preacher of the Papal Household, on the theme: “The hope of eternal life”.

While continuing his treatment at the Gemelli Hospital, the Pope was able to join the Spiritual Exercises of the Roman Curia via video link. This year the Lenten retreat was also open to lay employees and officials of the Curia.

In an interview, Fr Pasolini said, “The absence of the Pope will not be a complete absence, first of all because we will gather in prayer for him with greater intensity. And then, because his absence itself will offer a word for us”.

He said the Pope’s “suffering is profoundly evocative”, as it recalls the suffering of so many people today who are victims of suffering or violence. “With the Holy Father, we will live a spiritual communion”.

To one of the questions on the meaning of the theme chosen for the spiritual exercises for Lent, he said, “The heart of it all is certainly eternal life, which is also one of the articles of the Nicene Creed, a central statement of faith for us Christians, and this year marks the 1,700th anniversary of its formulation. The expression, ‘The hope of eternal life’, I have taken from the New Testament, and it is itself a bit the heart of Christian hope, that is, the fact that the life God has already given us in this world is a good, something that only makes sense within the framework of earthly life but points to an eternity of which we already have signs and hints that allow us to grasp it fully”.