Spiritual Exercises of the Curia: Embracing transformation

By Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap

Life, with its beauty and difficulties, presents us with a crucial question: what is the meaning of our journey in this world when everything is destined to end?

Without hope in eternity, the weight of reality can crush us or make us cynical, leading us to resignation. Saint Paul urges us to fix our gaze on the invisible things, which are eternal.

Humanity is marked by physical decline, yet there is an inner renewal that takes place day by day. Everything that seems to dissolve actually has a greater destiny: God has created us for resurrection, and this is not a utopian dream but the natural logic of an existence called to fullness.

In the mystery of the cross and resurrection of Christ, God has fulfilled His plan of love. The apparent defeat of the Crucified One is, in reality, the revelation of a Father who does not abandon His children. This means that our life is not left to chance but is part of a plan of adoption and redemption that makes us beloved children destined for eternity.

Everything we experience—joys, sorrows, achievements, and failures—is part of a continuous transformation, like that of a seed that, by dying, generates new life. In the same way, though we pass through the threshold of death, we are destined for a new and glorious life.

This transformation is not only in the future but begins even now. In the Eucharist, a mysterious exchange takes place: we offer our lives to God and receive Christ Himself in return, who transforms us in His love.

In every Mass we celebrate, everything we are is taken up into the life of Christ, who presents it before the Father. It is not a symbolic ritual but a real process of transformation of our being, making us participants in eternal life even in the present.

We do not know exactly how things will unfold in the end, but we do know that what we will become is already in seed form within us. We are not destined for nothingness but for a future full of hope. This certainty changes everything: our life is not a meaningless film but a work written and directed by an extraordinary Author, who invites us to fix our gaze on eternity and walk toward Him with confidence.

It is a real fact: God has begotten children, and we are included among these children. The future stands before us as a design of love only partially revealed. Yet what we see today is already marvelous: we are beloved children, citizens of heaven, living for God and forever.

The Hope of Eternal Life
Spiritual Exercises 2025 of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia
10. Embracing transformation
(Friday, March 14, 9:00 AM)