In his recent message for Lent, Pope Francis invites us to walk together in hope: “Walking together means being artisans of unity, starting from the common dignity of children of God (cf. Gal 3:26-28); it means walking side by side, without trampling on or dominating others, without harboring envy or hypocrisy, without letting anyone fall behind or feel excluded. We are going in the same direction, toward the same goal, listening to each other with love and patience.”

With these beautiful purposes, Pope Francis synthesizes the DNA of leadership. For Christians, leading is the art of walking without losing awareness of the intrinsic dignity of each of the walkers, recognizing the uniqueness of the mark of each member of the team, of the organization, of the company.

With an eye on everyone, leadership lived as a vocation demands special attention to the weakest. And not only for everything that a leader can do for people in need but for the good that people in need do for the leader. The Pope reminds us of this in his message: «It would be a good Lenten exercise to confront the concrete reality of some immigrant or pilgrim, allowing it to challenge us, to discover what God asks of us, to be better walkers towards the Father’s house. This is a good “test” for the wayfarer».

This Lent, in this jubilee year, allows us to direct our companies and projects on the path of hope. Through three proposals we are invited, as Christian businessmen and managers, to materialize some objectives in a time that is, mainly, of transformation (and, therefore, of hope):

• Companies at the service of a just society. It is urgent to recover the awareness of the deep reason for being of a company: to offer goods and/or services necessary for the full development of the human being in society. And, in addition, the fair redistribution of the goods generated.
• Companies committed to fraternity, peace and the common home. In these turbulent times when the business of war (and peace) is on the rise, companies are called to “conscientious objection” in order to be instruments of peace and harmony. Pope Francis invites us to ask ourselves: “Do I live in a concrete way the hope that helps me to read the events of history and drives me to commit myself to justice, fraternity and the care of the common home, acting in such a way that no one is left behind?”
• Companies – hope: the actions that a company carries out in favor of the common good, in favor of the development of all men and of the whole man, are the incentive to recover hope in times of suffering, the necessary hope that does not disappoint (Rom 5:5).

And Lent invites us Christian leaders to be a reason for hope. Because we are convinced that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor present, nor future nor powers nor height, nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8, 38-39).

Dionisio Blasco España is Territorial Delegate in the Diocese of Malaga and member of the Executive Committee of Corporate Social Action