First of all, the Pope warned against the temptation of self-complacency: "We are not God's people on our own initiative, by our merit; we are and will always be the fruit of God's merciful action ... Never forget it, the Lord told us: 'apart from me you can do nothing!'"
This is why the Pope praises "the grace of tears", that is, the grace of that moment when an individual realizes that he has slowly ousted God from his or her life: it also happens to priests and religious when they rely too much on themselves, on their own resources, "when you make your decisions and rely on worldly and non-evangelical criteria." But in the grace of weeping, there is the beginning of the journey of conversion.
Referring to the experience of the people of Israel in Exodus, the Holy Father emphasizes that in the "game of love" brought forth by God, "made of threatened absence and re-donated presence", reconciliation with his people is fulfilled, and from this comes a new maturity in the relationship with God.
"Dear brothers, this is the meaning of Lent that we will live," the Pope explained. "In the spiritual exercises that you will preach to the people of your communities, in the penitential liturgies that you will celebrate, have the courage to propose the reconciliation of the Lord, to propose His passionate and jealous love."
Continuing, the Pope indicated to the priests the courage of Moses, who reminds God that it is He who is responsible for his people: "We must speak as men, not as the faint-hearted!"
Finally, he recalled that "sin spoils us" and he also cited the scourge of abuses in the Church as an evident example of the evil that even the religious are capable of. And yet, he continued: "God takes us to intercede for our brothers and to distribute to the men, through our not innocent hands, the salvation that regenerates"; for this, he invited the priests not to be afraid to live and play out their lives to "the service of reconciliation between God and men."
