Cardinal Bo’s Lenten message: Keep doing good, don’t worry about the harvest

On Ash Wednesday, Cardinal Charles Bo echoed the words of Pope Francis and quoted the Galatians: Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6: 9-10).

Cardinal Bo, the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), invited faithful to encourage discouraged people.

The prelate urged Christians not to give up or cling to feelings amid challenging situations. “We are to take God seriously and keep on doing good and one day we will reap the harvest,” the cardinal said.

“Amid our weakness, failures, and discouragement, we are to look out further. After having the lessons from our faults, praying for a long time can be another hardship in which we can find ourselves tiresome and worn-out …Don’t be deceived by discouraging feelings- Don’t be deceived by an overwhelming situation,” added Cardinal Bo.

Cardinal Bo advised people to stop worrying “about what looks good, of persecution, or criticism from others. We need to do the right things and we are to keep on doing it.”

“Lent invites us to conversion - to change our mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possession as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sharing and sowing goodness,” said Cardinal Bo recalling Pope Francis words.

The cardinal stated that part of the conversion that lent calls Christians is the willingness to sow goodness in the life of others, even when we do not see the fruits of what we sow.  No act of love, no matter how small, will be lost in the eyes of God.

“The endurance we are called to is not a matter of human effort alone. It is the result of God’s grace, which strengthens the weak and gives youthfulness to the old. Faith does not release us from the storms of life but instead allows us to face them in union with Jesus,” the cardinal said.

“Pope Francis points to several things we should not grow tired of: prayer, uprooting evil from our lives, asking for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance, fighting concupiscence, and doing good in active charity towards our neighbors,” Charles Bo said.  

“In this season of conversion, the soil of our hearts is prepared by fasting, watered by prayer and enriched by charity. And though we stumble and fall,  let us not hesitate to return to God who is generous and forgiving,” Cardinal Bo said in the concluding words.