Benedict Holy Week 2012
Pope's Holy Saturday Homily
"With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 8, 2012 - Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's
homily at the Easter Vigil.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Easter is the feast of the new creation. Jesus is risen and dies no more. He has
opened the door to a new life, one that no longer knows illness and death. He
has taken mankind up into God himself. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God", as Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians
(15:50). On the subject of Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection, the
Church writer Tertullian in the third century was bold enough to write: "Rest
assured, flesh and blood, through Christ you have gained your place in heaven
and in the Kingdom of God" (CCL II, 994). A new dimension has opened up for
mankind. Creation has become greater and broader. Easter Day ushers in a new
creation, but that is precisely why the Church starts the liturgy on this day
with the old creation, so that we can learn to understand the new one aright. At
the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word on Easter night, then, comes the
account of the creation of the world. Two things are particularly important here
in connection with this liturgy. On the one hand, creation is presented as a
whole that includes the phenomenon of time. The seven days are an image of
completeness, unfolding in time. They are ordered towards the seventh day, the
day of the freedom of all creatures for God and for one another. Creation is
therefore directed towards the coming together of God and his creatures; it
exists so as to open up a space for the response to God’s great glory, an
encounter between love and freedom. On the other hand, what the Church hears on
Easter night is above all the first element of the creation account: "God said,
‘let there be light!’" (Gen 1:3). The creation account begins symbolically with
the creation of light. The sun and the moon are created only on the fourth day.
The creation account calls them lights, set by God in the firmament of heaven.
In this way he deliberately takes away the divine character that the great
religions had assigned to them. No, they are not gods. They are shining bodies
created by the one God. But they are preceded by the light through which God’s
glory is reflected in the essence of the created being.
What is the creation account saying here? Light makes life possible. It makes
encounter possible. It makes communication possible. It makes knowledge, access
to reality and to truth, possible. And insofar as it makes knowledge possible,
it makes freedom and progress possible. Evil hides. Light, then, is also an
expression of the good that both is and creates brightness. It is daylight,
which makes it possible for us to act. To say that God created light means that
God created the world as a space for knowledge and truth, as a space for
encounter and freedom, as a space for good and for love. Matter is fundamentally
good, being itself is good. And evil does not come from God-made being, rather,
it comes into existence only through denial. It is a "no".
At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again:
"Let there be light". The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of
Jesus’ passion and death, the night of the grave had all passed. Now it is the
first day once again – creation is beginning anew. "Let there be light", says
God, "and there was light": Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than
death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger
than lies. The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus
rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light. But this applies not
only to him, not only to the darkness of those days. With the resurrection of
Jesus, light itself is created anew. He draws all of us after him into the new
light of the resurrection and he conquers all darkness. He is God’s new day, new
for all of us.
But how is this to come about? How does all this affect us so that instead of
remaining word it becomes a reality that draws us in? Through the sacrament of
baptism and the profession of faith, the Lord has built a bridge across to us,
through which the new day reaches us. The Lord says to the newly-baptized: Fiat
lux – let there be light. God’s new day – the day of indestructible life, comes
also to us. Christ takes you by the hand. From now on you are held by him and
walk with him into the light, into real life. For this reason the early Church
called baptism photismos – illumination.
Why was this? The darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is
the fact that he can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot
see where the world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going,
what is good and what is evil. The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values
is the real threat to our existence and to the world in general. If God and
moral values, the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all
other "lights", that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are
not only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk. Today we
can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer
visible. Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of
enlightenment? With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical
accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the
question of good, we can no longer identify. Faith, then, which reveals God’s
light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God’s light to break into our
world, opening our eyes to the true light.
Dear friends, as I conclude, I would like to add one more thought about light
and illumination. On Easter night, the night of the new creation, the Church
presents the mystery of light using a unique and very humble symbol: the Paschal
candle. This is a light that lives from sacrifice. The candle shines inasmuch as
it is burnt up. It gives light, inasmuch as it gives itself. Thus the Church
presents most beautifully the paschal mystery of Christ, who gives himself and
so bestows the great light. Secondly, we should remember that the light of the
candle is a fire. Fire is the power that shapes the world, the force of
transformation. And fire gives warmth. Here too the mystery of Christ is made
newly visible. Christ, the light, is fire, flame, burning up evil and so
reshaping both the world and ourselves. "Whoever is close to me is close to the
fire," as Jesus is reported by Origen to have said. And this fire is both heat
and light: not a cold light, but one through which God’s warmth and goodness
reach down to us.
The great hymn of the Exsultet, which the deacon sings at the beginning of the
Easter liturgy, points us quite gently towards a further aspect. It reminds us
that this object, the candle, has its origin in the work of bees. So the whole
of creation plays its part. In the candle, creation becomes a bearer of light.
But in the mind of the Fathers, the candle also in some sense contains a silent
reference to the Church,. The cooperation of the living community of believers
in the Church in some way resembles the activity of bees. It builds up the
community of light. So the candle serves as a summons to us to become involved
in the community of the Church, whoseraison d’être is to let the light of Christ
shine upon the world.
Let us pray to the Lord at this time that he may grant us to experience the joy
of his light; let us pray that we ourselves may become bearers of his light, and
that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may enter our world (cf. LG
1).Amen.
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Pontiff's Urbi et Orbi Greeting
"With him I can hope for a life that is good, full and eternal"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 8, 2012 - Here is a Vatican translation of the message
Benedict XVI gave today at noon when he gave the solemn blessing "urbi et orbi"
(to the city [of Rome] and the world).
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world!
"Surrexit Christus, spes mea" – "Christ, my hope, has risen" (Easter Sequence).
May the jubilant voice of the Church reach all of you with the words which the
ancient hymn puts on the lips of Mary Magdalene, the first to encounter the
risen Jesus on Easter morning. She ran to the other disciples and breathlessly
announced: "I have seen the Lord!" (Jn 20:18). We too, who have journeyed
through the desert of Lent and the sorrowful days of the Passion, today raise
the cry of victory: "He has risen! He has truly risen!"
Every Christian relives the experience of Mary Magdalene. It involves an
encounter which changes our lives: the encounter with a unique Man who lets us
experience all God’s goodness and truth, who frees us from evil not in a
superficial and fleeting way, but sets us free radically, heals us completely
and restores our dignity. This is why Mary Magdalene calls Jesus "my hope": he
was the one who allowed her to be reborn, who gave her a new future, a life of
goodness and freedom from evil. "Christ my hope" means that all my yearnings for
goodness find in him a real possibility of fulfilment: with him I can hope for a
life that is good, full and eternal, for God himself has drawn near to us, even
sharing our humanity.
But Mary Magdalene, like the other disciples, was to see Jesus rejected by the
leaders of the people, arrested, scourged, condemned to death and crucified. It
must have been unbearable to see Goodness in person subjected to human malice,
truth derided by falsehood, mercy abused by vengeance. With Jesus’ death, the
hope of all those who had put their trust in him seemed doomed. But that faith
never completely failed: especially in the heart of the Virgin Mary, Jesus’
Mother, its flame burned even in the dark of night. In this world, hope can not
avoid confronting the harshness of evil. It is not thwarted by the wall of death
alone, but even more by the barbs of envy and pride, falsehood and violence.
Jesus passed through this mortal mesh in order to open a path to the kingdom of
life. For a moment Jesus seemed vanquished: darkness had invaded the land, the
silence of God was complete, hope a seemingly empty word.
And lo, on the dawn of the day after the Sabbath, the tomb is found empty. Jesus
then shows himself to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to his disciples.
Faith is born anew, more alive and strong than ever, now invincible since it is
based on a decisive experience: "Death with life contended: combat strangely
ended! Life’s own champion, slain, now lives to reign". The signs of the
resurrection testify to the victory of life over death, love over hatred, mercy
over vengeance: "The tomb the living did enclose, I saw Christ’s glory as he
rose! The angels there attesting, shroud with grave-clothes resting".
Dear brothers and sisters! If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has
something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and
the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can put absolute trust; we can
put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus himself, for the Risen One
does not belong to the past, but is present today, alive. Christ is hope and
comfort in a particular way for those Christian communities suffering most for
their faith on account of discrimination and persecution. And he is present as a
force of hope through his Church, which is close to all human situations of
suffering and injustice.
May the risen Christ grant hope to the Middle East and enable all the ethnic,
cultural and religious groups in that region to work together to advance the
common good and respect for human rights. Particularly in Syria, may there be an
end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue
and reconciliation, as called for by the international community. May the many
refugees from that country who are in need of humanitarian assistance find the
acceptance and solidarity capable of relieving their dreadful sufferings. May
the paschal victory encourage the Iraqi people to spare no effort in pursuing
the path of stability and development. In the Holy Land, may Israelis and
Palestinians courageously take up anew the peace process.
May the Lord, the victor over evil and death, sustain the Christian communities
of the African continent; may he grant them hope in facing their difficulties,
and make them peacemakers and agents of development in the societies to which
they belong.
May the risen Jesus comfort the suffering populations of the Horn of Africa and
favour their reconciliation; may he help the Great Lakes Region, Sudan and South
Sudan, and grant their inhabitants the power of forgiveness. In Mali, now
experiencing delicate political developments, may the glorious Christ grant
peace and stability. To Nigeria, which in recent times has experienced savage
terrorist attacks, may the joy of Easter grant the strength needed to take up
anew the building of a society which is peaceful and respectful of the religious
freedom of all its citizens.
Happy Easter to all!
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On Palm Sunday
"May we be moved again by Christ's passion and death, (and) put our sins behind
us"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2012 - Immediately after concluding the Holy Mass for
Palm Sunday, Benedict XVI recited the Angelus with those present in St. Peter’s
Square. Here is a translation of his remarks prior to the Angelus.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,
At the conclusion of this celebration I would like to address a greeting to all
of those present: to the lord cardinals, to my brother bishops, to the priests,
to the religious and to all of the faithful. I address a special greeting to the
organizing committee of the last Word Youth Day in Madrid and to the committee
that is organizing the next one in Rio de Janeiro; and to the delegates to the
international meeting on World Youth Days sponsored by the Pontifical Council
for the Laity, here represented by its president, Cardinale Ri?ko, and by its
secretary Monsignor Clemens.
[Following these opening remarks in Italian, the Holy Father greeted those
present in various languages. In English he said:]
Dear brothers and sisters, today is Palm Sunday: as we remember Our Lord’s
welcome into Jerusalem, I am pleased to greet all of you, especially the many
young people who have come here to pray with me. This Holy Week, may we be moved
again by Christ’s passion and death, put our sins behind us and, with God’s
grace, choose a life of love and service to our brethren. God’s blessings upon
you!
[He finished his pre-Angelus remarks in Italian saying:]
Dear friends, I pray that the true joy inhabit your hearts, that joy that comes
from love and that does not disappear in the hour of sacrifice. I wish everyone
a good Holy Week and a good Easter! Thank you.
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Pope's Message to Prisoners for Way of the Cross
"3 times Jesus got back up and continued on the way to Calvary"
ROME, APRIL 2, 2012 - Here is a translation of the message Benedict XVI sent to
prisoners detained in Rome's Rebibbia prison for the Way of the Cross they
celebrated there last Friday, led by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general
for the Diocese of Rome.
Some 300 prisoners, the chaplain, Caritas volunteers, seminarians who offer
daily service inside the prison and numerous faithful from various parishes
attended the Way of the Cross. The Pope made a pastoral visit to the jail last
Dec. 18.
* * *
Dear brothers!
I was happy to hear that, in preparation for Easter, you will be conducting a
Via Crucis at the prison of Rebibbia that will be presided over by my Vicar for
Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, with the participation of the prisoners, the
prison workers and the faithful from various parishes of the city. I feel
particularly close to this event because there is always alive in my soul the
memory of the visit I made to the prison of Rebibbia shortly before last
Christmas; I remember the faces that I met and the words that I listened to, and
they left a deep mark in me. So, I join spiritually in your prayer, and thus I
can give continuity to my presence with you and for this I thank your chaplains
in particular.
I know that this Via Crucis also intends to be a sign of reconciliation. In
effect, as one of the prisoners said during our meeting, prison serves to pick
oneself up after having fallen, to be reconciled with oneself, with others and
with God. One can then enter again into society. When, in the Via Crucis, we see
Jesus who falls to the ground – 1, 2, 3 times – we understand that he shared our
human condition, the weight of our sins made him fall; but 3 times Jesus got
back up and continued on the way to Calvary; and so, with his help, we too can
get back up from our falls, and maybe help another, a brother, to get back to
his feet.
But what gave Jesus the strength to go forward? It was the certainty that the
Father was with him. Even if in his heart that was all the bitterness of
abandonment, Jesus knew that the Father loved him, and precisely this immense
love, this infinite mercy of the heavenly Father and was greater than the
violence and the injuries that he endured. Even if everyone despised him and no
longer treated him as a man, Jesus, in his heart, had the firm certainty of
always being a son, the Son loved by God the Father.
This, dear friends, is the great gift that Jesus bestowed upon us in his Via
Crucis: he revealed to us that God is infinite love, he is mercy, and he bore
completely the weight of our sins so that we might get up again and reconcile
and rediscover peace. Therefore we too are not afraid to walk our “via crucis,”
to carry our cross together with Jesus. He is with us. And Mary is with us too,
his and our mother. She remains faithful, at the foot of our own cross also, and
she prays for our resurrection, that we might firmly believe that, even in the
blackest night, the light of God’s love is the last word.
With this hope, based on faith, my wish for all of you is that you live Easter
in the peace and in the joy that Christ has obtained for us with his blood, and
with great affection I impart to you the apostolic benediction, extending it
from my heart to your families and your loved ones.
From the Vatican, March 22, 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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Benedict XVI's Palm Sunday Homily
"The look that the believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2012 - Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's
homily from Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord
Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes up
to Jerusalem in order to fulfil the Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of
the Cross, the throne from which he will reign for ever, drawing to himself
humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption. We know from
the Gospels that Jesus had set out towards Jerusalem in company with the Twelve,
and that little by little a growing crowd of pilgrims had joined them. Saint
Mark tells us that as they were leaving Jericho, there was a "great multitude"
following Jesus (cf. 10:46).
On the final stage of the journey, a particular event stands out, one which
heightens the sense of expectation of what is about to unfold and focuses
attention even more sharply upon Jesus. Along the way, as they were leaving
Jericho, a blind man was sitting begging, Bartimaeus by name. As soon as he
heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he began to cry out: "Jesus, Son of
David, have mercy on me!" (Mk 10:47). People tried to silence him, but to no
avail; until Jesus had them call him over and invited him to approach. "What do
you want me to do for you?", he asked. And the reply: "Master, let me receive my
sight" (v. 51). Jesus said: "Go your way, your faith has made you well."
Bartimaeus regained his sight and began to follow Jesus along the way (cf. v.
52). And so it was that, after this miraculous sign, accompanied by the cry "Son
of David", a tremor of Messianic hope spread through the crowd, causing many of
them to ask: this Jesus, going ahead of us towards Jerusalem, could he be the
Messiah, the new David? And as he was about to enter the Holy City, had the
moment come when God would finally restore the Davidic kingdom?
The preparations made by Jesus, with the help of his disciples, serve to
increase this hope. As we heard in today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 11:1-10), Jesus
arrives in Jerusalem from Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, that is, the route
by which the Messiah was supposed to come. From there, he sent two disciples
ahead of him, telling them to bring him a young donkey that they would find
along the way. They did indeed find the donkey, they untied it and brought it to
Jesus. At this point, the spirits of the disciples and of the other pilgrims
were swept up with excitement: they took their coats and placed them on the
colt; others spread them out on the street in Jesus’ path as he approached,
riding on the donkey. Then they cut branches from the trees and began to shout
phrases from Psalm 118, ancient pilgrim blessings, which in that setting took on
the character of messianic proclamation: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!
Hosanna in the highest!" (v. 9-10). This festive acclamation, reported by all
four evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the
unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the
longed-for Messiah has finally come. And everyone is there, growing in
expectation of the work that Christ will accomplish once he has entered the
city.
But what is the content, the inner resonance of this cry of jubilation? The
answer is found throughout the Scripture, which reminds us that the Messiah
fulfils the promise of God’s blessing, God’s original promise to Abraham, father
of all believers: "I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you ...
and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves" (Gen 12:2-3).
It is the promise that Israel had always kept alive in prayer, especially the
prayer of the Psalms. Hence he whom the crowd acclaims as the blessed one is
also he in whom the whole of humanity will be blessed. Thus, in the light of
Christ, humanity sees itself profoundly united and, as it were, enfolded within
the cloak of divine blessing, a blessing that permeates, sustains, redeems and
sanctifies all things.
Here we find the first great message that today’s feast brings us: the
invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make
up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations. The look that the
believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing: a wise and loving look,
capable of grasping the world’s beauty and having compassion on its fragility.
Shining through this look is God’s own look upon those he loves and upon
Creation, the work of his hands. We read in the Book of Wisdom: "But thou art
merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men’s
sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest all things that exist and hast
loathing for none of the things which thou hast made ... thou sparest all
things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living" (11:23-24, 26).
Let us return to today’s Gospel passage and ask ourselves: what is really
happening in the hearts of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel? Clearly,
they had their own idea of the Messiah, an idea of how the long-awaited King
promised by the prophets should act. Not by chance, a few days later, instead of
acclaiming Jesus, the Jerusalem crowd will cry out to Pilate: "Crucify him!",
while the disciples, together with others who had seen him and listened to him,
will be struck dumb and will disperse. The majority, in fact, was disappointed
by the way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. This is
the heart of today’s feast, for us too. Who is Jesus of Nazareth for us? What
idea do we have of the Messiah, what idea do we have of God? It is a crucial
question, one we cannot avoid, not least because during this very week we are
called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne. We are called to
follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness, but the
happiness of heaven, divine beatitude. So we must ask ourselves: what are our
true expectations? What are our deepest desires, with which we have come here
today to celebrate Palm Sunday and to begin our celebration of Holy Week?
Dear young people, present here today, this, in a particular way, is your Day,
wherever the Church is present throughout the world. So I greet you with great
affection! May Palm Sunday be a day of decision for you, the decision to say yes
to the Lord and to follow him all the way, the decision to make his Passover,
his death and resurrection, the very focus of your Christian lives. It is the
decision that leads to true joy, as I reminded you in this year’s World Youth
Day Message – "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4). So it was for Saint Clare
of Assisi when, on Palm Sunday 800 years ago, inspired by the example of Saint
Francis and his first companions, she left her father’s house to consecrate
herself totally to the Lord. She was eighteen years old and she had the courage
of faith and love to decide for Christ, finding in him true joy and peace.
Dear brothers and sisters, may these days call forth two sentiments in
particular: praise, after the example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem
with their "Hosanna!", and thanksgiving, because in this Holy Week the Lord
Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us
his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so
great a gift, that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer,
our entering into a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died
and rose for us. The early Church Fathers saw a symbol of all this in the
gesture of the people who followed Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem, the
gesture of spreading out their coats before the Lord. Before Christ – the
Fathers said – we must spread out our lives, ourselves, in an attitude of
gratitude and adoration. As we conclude, let us listen once again to the words
of one of these early Fathers, Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete: "So it is
ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless
branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye only
for a few brief hours. But we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or
with the whole Christ ... so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet
... let us offer not palm branches but the prizes of victory to the conqueror of
death. Today let us too give voice with the children to that sacred chant, as we
wave the spiritual branches of our soul: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of
the Lord, the King of Israel’" (PG 97, 994). Amen!
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Papal Message for Palm Sunday World Youth
Day 2012
"Joy is at the heart of Christian experience"
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 27, 2012 Here is the text of Benedict XVI's message for the
diocesan-level World Youth Day, traditionally celebrated each Palm Sunday, and
thus to be held this Sunday. The Vatican released the message today.
* * *
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WORLD YOUTH DAY
2012
“Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4)
Dear young friends,
I am happy to address you once more on the occasion of the 27th World Youth Day.
The memory of our meeting in Madrid last August remains close to my heart. It
was a time of extraordinary grace when God showered his blessings on the young
people gathered from all over the world. I give thanks to God for all the fruits
which that event bore, fruits which will surely multiply for young people and
their communities in the future. Now we are looking forward to our next meeting
in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, whose theme will be: “Go and make disciples of all
nations!” (cf. Mt 28:19).
This year’s World Youth Day theme comes from Saint Paul’s exhortation in his
Letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (4:4). Joy is at the
heart of Christian experience. At each World Youth Day we experience immense
joy, the joy of communion, the joy of being Christian, the joy of faith. This is
one of the marks of these gatherings. We can see the great attraction that joy
exercises. In a world of sorrow and anxiety, joy is an important witness to the
beauty and reliability of the Christian faith.
The Church’s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and
enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus
was born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only did God speak, not only did he accomplish great
signs throughout the history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he
became one of us and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so
many young people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a
message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy and on how
to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and bring it to everyone
you meet.
1. Our hearts are made for joy
A yearning for joy lurks within the heart of every man and woman. Far more than
immediate and fleeting feelings of satisfaction, our hearts seek a perfect, full
and lasting joy capable of giving “flavour” to our existence. This is
particularly true for you, because youth is a time of continuous discovery of
life, of the world, of others and of ourselves. It is a time of openness to the
future and of great longing for happiness, friendship, sharing and truth, a time
when we are moved by high ideals and make great plans.
Each day is filled with countless simple joys which are the Lord’s gift: the joy
of living, the joy of seeing nature’s beauty, the joy of a job well done, the
joy of helping others, the joy of sincere and pure love. If we look carefully,
we can see many other reasons to rejoice. There are the happy times in family
life, shared friendship, the discovery of our talents, our successes, the
compliments we receive from others, the ability to express ourselves and to know
that we are understood, and the feeling of being of help to others. There is
also the excitement of learning new things, seeing new and broader horizons open
up through our travels and encounters, and realizing the possibilities we have
for charting our future. We might also mention the experience of reading a great
work of literature, of admiring a masterpiece of art, of listening to or playing
music, or of watching a film. All these things can bring us real joy.
Yet each day we also face any number of difficulties. Deep down we also worry
about the future; we begin to wonder if the full and lasting joy for which we
long might be an illusion and an escape from reality. Many young people ask
themselves: is perfect joy really possible? The quest for joy can follow various
paths, and some of these turn out to be mistaken, if not dangerous. How can we
distinguish things that give real and lasting joy from immediate and illusory
pleasures? How can we find true joy in life, a joy that endures and does not
forsake us at moments of difficulty?
2. God is the source of true joy
Whatever brings us true joy, whether the small joys of each day or the greatest
joys in life, has its source in God, even if this does not seem immediately
obvious. This is because God is a communion of eternal love, he is infinite joy
that does not remain closed in on itself, but expands to embrace all whom God
loves and who love him. God created us in his image out of love, in order to
shower his love upon us and to fill us with his presence and grace. God wants us
to share in his own divine and eternal joy, and he helps us to see that the
deepest meaning and value of our lives lie in being accepted, welcomed and loved
by him. Whereas we sometimes find it hard to accept others, God offers us an
unconditional acceptance which enables us to say: “I am loved; I have a place in
the world and in history; I am personally loved by God. If God accepts me and
loves me and I am sure of this, then I know clearly and with certainty that it
is a good thing that I am alive”.
God’s infinite love for each of us is fully seen in Jesus Christ. The joy we are
searching for is to be found in him. We see in the Gospel how the events at the
beginning of Jesus’ life are marked by joy. When the Archangel Gabriel tells the
Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of the Saviour, his first word is
“Rejoice!” (Lk 1:28). When Jesus is born, the angel of the Lord says to the
shepherds: “Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for
all the people. For today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you,
who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). When the Magi came in search of the
child, “they were overjoyed at seeing the star” (Mt 2:10). The cause of all this
joy is the closeness of God who became one of us. This is what Saint Paul means
when he writes to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it
again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near” (Phil
4:4-5). Our first reason for joy is the closeness of the Lord, who welcomes me
and loves me.
An encounter with Jesus always gives rise to immense inner joy. We can see this
in many of the Gospel stories. We recall when Jesus visited Zacchaeus, a
dishonest tax collector and public sinner, he said to him: “Today I must stay at
your house”. Then, Saint Luke tells us, Zacchaeus “received him with joy” (Lk
19:5-6). This is the joy of meeting the Lord. It is the joy of feeling God’s
love, a love that can transform our whole life and bring salvation. Zacchaeus
decides to change his life and to give half of his possessions to the poor.
At the hour of Jesus’ passion, this love can be seen in all its power. At the
end of his earthly life, while at supper with his friends, Jesus said: “As the
Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love... I have told you this
so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:9,11). Jesus
wants to lead his disciples and each one of us into the fullness of joy that he
shares with the Father, so that the Father’s love for him might abide in us (cf.
Jn17:26). Christian joy consists in being open to God’s love and belonging to
him.
The Gospels recount that Mary Magdalene and other women went to visit the tomb
where Jesus had been laid after his death. An angel told them the astonishing
news of Jesus’ resurrection. Then, the Evangelist tells us, they ran from the
sepulchre, “fearful yet overjoyed” to share the good news with the disciples.
Jesus met them on the way and said: “Peace!” (Mt28:8-9). They were being offered
the joy of salvation. Christ is the One who lives and who overcame evil, sin and
death. He is present among us as the Risen One and he will remain with us until
the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). Evil does not have the last word in our
lives; rather, faith in Christ the Saviour tells us that God’s love is
victorious.
This deep joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who makes us God’s sons and
daughters, capable of experiencing and savouring his goodness, and calling him
“Abba”, Father (cf. Rm 8:15). Joy is the sign of God’s presence and action
within us.
3. Preserving Christian joy in our hearts
At this point we wonder: “How do we receive and maintain this gift of deep,
spiritual joy?”
One of the Psalms tells us: “Find your delight in the Lord who will give you
your heart's desire” (Ps 37:4). Jesus told us that “the kingdom of heaven is
like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out
of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44). The
discovery and preservation of spiritual joy is the fruit of an encounter with
the Lord. Jesus asks us to follow him and to stake our whole life on him. Dear
young people, do not be afraid to risk your lives by making space for Jesus
Christ and his Gospel. This is the way to find inner peace and true happiness.
It is the way to live fully as children of God, created in his image and
likeness.
Seek joy in the Lord: for joy is the fruit of faith. It is being aware of his
presence and friendship every day: “the Lord is near!” (Phil 4:5). It is putting
our trust in God, and growing in his knowledge and love. Shortly we shall begin
the “Year of Faith”, and this will help and encourage us. Dear friends, learn to
see how God is working in your lives and discover him hidden within the events
of daily life. Believe that he is always faithful to the covenant which he made
with you on the day of your Baptism. Know that God will never abandon you. Turn
your eyes to him often. He gave his life for you on the cross because he loves
you. Contemplation of this great love brings a hope and joy to our hearts that
nothing can destroy. Christians can never be sad, for they have met Christ, who
gave his life for them.
To seek the Lord and find him in our lives also means accepting his word, which
is joy for our hearts. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: “When I found your words, I
devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart” (Jer 15:16).
Learn to read and meditate on the sacred Scriptures. There you will find an
answer to your deepest questions about truth. God’s word reveals the wonders
that he has accomplished throughout human history, it fills us with joy, and it
leads us to praise and adoration: “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let
us kneel before the Lord who made us” (Ps 95:1,6).
The liturgy is a special place where the Church expresses the joy which she
receives from the Lord and transmits it to the world. Each Sunday at Mass the
Christian community celebrates the central mystery of salvation, which is the
death and resurrection of Christ. This is a very important moment for all the
Lord’s disciples because his sacrifice of love is made present. Sunday is the
day when we meet the risen Christ, listen to his word, and are nourished by his
body and blood. As we hear in one of the Psalms: “This is the day the Lord has
made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” (Ps 118:24). At the Easter Vigil, the
Church sings the Exultet, a hymn of joy for the victory of Jesus Christ over sin
and death: “Sing, choirs of angels! ... Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour
... Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s
people!” Christian joy is born of this awareness of being loved by God who
became man, gave his life for us and overcame evil and death. It means living a
life of love for him. As Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a young Carmelite,
wrote: “Jesus, my joy is loving you” (P 45, 21 January 1897).
4. The joy of love
Dear friends, joy is intimately linked to love. They are inseparable gifts of
the Holy Spirit (cf.Gal 5:23). Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of
love. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta drew on Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to
give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) when she said: “Joy is a net of love by which
you can catch souls; God loves a cheerful giver. Whoever gives with joy gives
more”. As the Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “In God himself, all is joy because
all is giving” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975).
In every area of your life, you should know that to love means to be steadfast,
reliable and faithful to commitments. This applies most of all to friendship.
Our friends expect us to be sincere, loyal and faithful because true love
perseveres even in times of difficulty. The same thing can be said about your
work and studies and the services you carry out. Fidelity and perseverance in
doing good brings joy, even if not always immediately.
If we are to experience the joy of love, we must also be generous. We cannot be
content to give the minimum. We need to be fully committed in life and to pay
particular attention to those in need. The world needs men and women who are
competent and generous, willing to be at the service of the common good. Make
every effort to study conscientiously, to develop your talents and to put them
at the service of others even now. Find ways to help make society more just and
humane wherever you happen to be. May your entire life be guided by a spirit of
service and not by the pursuit of power, material success and money.
Speaking of generosity, I would like to mention one particular joy. It is the
joy we feel when we respond to the vocation to give our whole life to the Lord.
Dear young people, do not be afraid if Christ is calling you to the religious,
monastic or missionary life or to the priesthood. Be assured that he fills with
joy all those who respond to his invitation to leave everything to be with him
and to devote themselves with undivided heart to the service of others. In the
same way, God gives great joy to men and women who give themselves totally to
one another in marriage in order to build a family and to be signs of Christ’s
love for the Church.
Let me remind you of a third element that will lead you to the joy of love. It
is allowing fraternal love to grow in your lives and in those of your
communities. There is a close bond between communion and joy. It is not by
chance that Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4) is
written in the plural, addressing the community as a whole, rather than its
individual members. Only when we are together in the communion of fellowship do
we experience this joy. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christian
community is described in these words: “Breaking bread in their homes, they ate
their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:46). I ask you to
make every effort to help our Christian communities to be special places of
sharing, attention and concern for one another.
5. The joy of conversion
Dear friends, experiencing real joy also means recognizing the temptations that
lead us away from it. Our present-day culture often pressures us to seek
immediate goals, achievements and pleasures. It fosters fickleness more than
perseverance, hard work and fidelity to commitments. The messages it sends push
a consumerist mentality and promise false happiness. Experience teaches us that
possessions do not ensure happiness. How many people are surrounded by material
possessions yet their lives are filled with despair, sadness and emptiness! To
have lasting joy we need to live in love and truth. We need to live in God.
God wants us to be happy. That is why he gave us specific directions for the
journey of life: the commandments. If we observe them, we will find the path to
life and happiness. At first glance, they might seem to be a list of
prohibitions and an obstacle to our freedom. But if we study them more closely,
we see in the light of Christ’s message that the commandments are a set of
essential and valuable rules leading to a happy life in accordance with God’s
plan. How often, on the other hand, do we see that choosing to build our lives
apart from God and his will brings disappointment, sadness and a sense of
failure. The experience of sin, which is the refusal to follow God and an
affront to his friendship, brings gloom into our hearts.
At times the path of the Christian life is not easy, and being faithful to the
Lord’s love presents obstacles; occasionally we fall. Yet God in his mercy never
abandons us; he always offers us the possibility of returning to him, being
reconciled with him and experiencing the joy of his love which forgives and
welcomes us back.
Dear young people, have frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance and
Reconciliation! It is the sacrament of joy rediscovered. Ask the Holy Spirit for
the light needed to acknowledge your sinfulness and to ask for God’s
forgiveness. Celebrate this sacrament regularly, with serenity and trust. The
Lord will always open his arms to you. He will purify you and bring you into his
joy: for there is joy in heaven even for one sinner who repents (cf. Lk 15:7).
6. Joy at times of trial
In the end, though, we might still wonder in our hearts whether it is really
possible to live joyfully amid all life’s trials, especially those which are
most tragic and mysterious. We wonder whether following the Lord and putting our
trust in him will always bring happiness.
We can find an answer in some of the experiences of young people like yourselves
who have found in Christ the light that can give strength and hope even in
difficult situations. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) experienced many
trials during his short life, including a romantic experience that left him
deeply hurt. In the midst of this situation he wrote to his sister: “You ask me
if I am happy. How could I not be? As long as faith gives me strength, I am
happy. A Catholic could not be other than happy... The goal for which we were
created involves a path which has its thorns, but it is not a sad path. It is
joy, even when it involves pain” (Letter to his sister Luciana, Turin, 14
February 1925). When Blessed John Paul IIpresented Blessed Pier Giorgio as a
model for young people, he described him as “a young person with infectious joy,
the joy that overcame many difficulties in his life” (Address to Young People,
Turin, 13 April 1980).
Closer to us in time is Chiara Badano (1971-1990), who was recently beatified.
She experienced how pain could be transfigured by love and mysteriously steeped
in joy. At the age of eighteen, while suffering greatly from cancer, Chiara
prayed to the Holy Spirit and interceded for the young people of the movement to
which she belonged. As well as praying for her own cure, she asked God to
enlighten all those young people by his Spirit and to give them wisdom and
light. “It was really a moment of God’s presence. I was suffering physically,
but my soul was singing” (Letter to Chiara Lubich, Sassello, 20 December 1989).
The key to her peace and joy was her complete trust in the Lord and the
acceptance of her illness as a mysterious expression of his will for her sake
and that of everyone. She often said: “Jesus, if you desire it, then I desire it
too”.
These are just two testimonies taken from any number of others which show that
authentic Christians are never despairing or sad, not even when faced with
difficult trials. They show that Christian joy is not a flight from reality, but
a supernatural power that helps us to deal with the challenges of daily life. We
know that the crucified and risen Christ is here with us and that he is a
faithful friend always. When we share in his sufferings, we also share in his
glory. With him and in him, suffering is transformed into love. And there we
find joy (cf. Col 1:24).
7. Witnesses of joy
Dear friends, to conclude I would encourage you to be missionaries of joy. We
cannot be happy if others are not. Joy has to be shared. Go and tell other young
people about your joy at finding the precious treasure which is Jesus himself.
We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give
it away. Saint John said: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us; we are writing this so that our joy
may be complete” (1 Jn 1:3-4).
Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and
goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth.
Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are
not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to
you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness
and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times
appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy
side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of
us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!
Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are
suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to
bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your
workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is
contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves,
and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you
go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: “Well done, my good
and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:21).
May the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany you on this journey. She welcomed the Lord
within herself and proclaimed this in a song of praise and joy, the Magnificat:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my
Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). Mary responded fully to God’s love by devoting her life
to him in humble and complete service. She is invoked as “Cause of our Joy”
because she gave us Jesus. May she lead you to that joy which no one will ever
be able to take away from you!
From the Vatican, 15 March 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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Benedict XVI's Homily at the morning Chrism
Mass
"A priest never belongs to himself"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 5, 2012 - Here is a Vatican translation of the homily
Benedict XVI gave at the Holy Thursday chrism Mass.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
At this Holy Mass our thoughts go back to that moment when, through prayer and
the laying on of hands, the bishop made us sharers in the priesthood of Jesus
Christ, so that we might be "consecrated in truth" (Jn 17:19), as Jesus besought
the Father for us in his high-priestly prayer. He himself is the truth. He has
consecrated us, that is to say, handed us over to God for ever, so that we can
offer men and women a service that comes from God and leads to him. But does our
consecration extend to the daily reality of our lives – do we operate as men of
God in fellowship with Jesus Christ? This question places the Lord before us and
us before him. "Are you resolved to be more united with the Lord Jesus and more
closely conformed to him, denying yourselves and confirming those promises about
sacred duties towards Christ’s Church which, prompted by love of him, you
willingly and joyfully pledged on the day of your priestly ordination?" After
this homily, I shall be addressing that question to each of you here and to
myself as well. Two things, above all, are asked of us: there is a need for an
interior bond, a configuration to Christ, and at the same time there has to be a
transcending of ourselves, a renunciation of what is simply our own, of the
much-vaunted self-fulfilment. We need, I need, not to claim my life as my own,
but to place it at the disposal of another – of Christ. I should be asking not
what I stand to gain, but what I can give for him and so for others. Or to put
it more specifically, this configuration to Christ, who came not to be served
but to serve, who does not take, but rather gives – what form does it take in
the often dramatic situation of the Church today? Recently a group of priests
from a European country issued a summons to disobedience, and at the same time
gave concrete examples of the forms this disobedience might take, even to the
point of disregarding definitive decisions of the Church’s Magisterium, such as
the question of women’s ordination, for which Blessed Pope John Paul II stated
irrevocably that the Church has received no authority from the Lord. Is
disobedience a path of renewal for the Church? We would like to believe that the
authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the Church, that they are
convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic
measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date. But
is disobedience really a way to do this? Do we sense here anything of that
configuration to Christ which is the precondition for all true renewal, or do we
merely sense a desperate push to do something to change the Church in accordance
with one’s own preferences and ideas?
But let us not oversimplify matters. Surely Christ himself corrected human
traditions which threatened to stifle the word and the will of God? Indeed he
did, so as to rekindle obedience to the true will of God, to his ever enduring
word. His concern was for true obedience, as opposed to human caprice. Nor must
we forget: he was the Son, possessed of singular authority and responsibility to
reveal the authentic will of God, so as to open up the path for God’s word to
the world of the nations. And finally: he lived out his task with obedience and
humility all the way to the Cross, and so gave credibility to his mission. Not
my will, but thine be done: these words reveal to us the Son, in his humility
and his divinity, and they show us the true path.
Let us ask again: do not such reflections serve simply to defend inertia, the
fossilization of traditions? No. Anyone who considers the history of the post-conciliar
era can recognize the process of true renewal, which often took unexpected forms
in living movements and made almost tangible the inexhaustible vitality of holy
Church, the presence and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. And if we look at the
people from whom these fresh currents of life burst forth and continue to burst
forth, then we see that this new fruitfulness requires being filled with the joy
of faith, the radicalism of obedience, the dynamic of hope and the power of
love.
Dear friends, it is clear that configuration to Christ is the precondition and
the basis for all renewal. But perhaps at times the figure of Jesus Christ seems
too lofty and too great for us to dare to measure ourselves by him. The Lord
knows this. So he has provided "translations" on a scale that is more accessible
and closer to us. For this same reason, Saint Paul did not hesitate to say to
his communities: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. For his disciples, he
was a "translation" of Christ’s manner of life that they could see and identify
with. Ever since Paul’s time, history has furnished a constant flow of other
such "translations" of Jesus’ way into historical figures. We priests can call
to mind a great throng of holy priests who have gone before us and shown us the
way: from Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch, from the great pastors
Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great, through to Ignatius of Loyola, Charles
Borromeo, John Mary Vianney and the priest-martyrs of the 20th century, and
finally Pope John Paul II, who gave us an example, through his activity and his
suffering, of configuration to Christ as "gift and mystery". The saints show us
how renewal works and how we can place ourselves at its service. And they help
us realize that God is not concerned so much with great numbers and with outward
successes, but achieves his victories under the humble sign of the mustard seed.
Dear friends, I would like briefly to touch on two more key phrases from the
renewal of ordination promises, which should cause us to reflect at this time in
the Church’s life and in our own lives. Firstly, the reminder that – as Saint
Paul put it – we are "stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor 4:1) and we are
charged with the ministry of teaching, the munus docendi, which forms a part of
this stewardship of God’s mysteries, through which he shows us his face and his
heart, in order to give us himself. At the meeting of Cardinals on the occasion
of the recent Consistory, several of the pastors of the Church spoke, from
experience, of the growing religious illiteracy found in the midst of our
sophisticated society. The foundations of faith, which at one time every child
knew, are now known less and less. But if we are to live and love our faith, if
we are to love God and to hear him aright, we need to know what God has said to
us – our minds and hearts must be touched by his word. The Year of Faith,
commemorating the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago, should
provide us with an occasion to proclaim the message of faith with new enthusiasm
and new joy. We find it of course first and foremost in sacred Scripture, which
we can never read and ponder enough. Yet at the same time we all experience the
need for help in accurately expounding it in the present day, if it is truly to
touch our hearts. This help we find first of all in the words of the teaching
Church: the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the
Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what
the Church believes on the basis of God’s word. And of course this also includes
the whole wealth of documents given to us by Pope John Paul II, still far from
being fully explored.
All our preaching must measure itself against the saying of Jesus Christ: "My
teaching is not mine" (Jn 7:16). We preach not private theories and opinions,
but the faith of the Church, whose servants we are. Naturally this should not be
taken to mean that I am not completely supportive of this teaching, or solidly
anchored in it. In this regard I am always reminded of the words of Saint
Augustine: what is so much mine as myself? And what is so little mine as myself?
I do not own myself, and I become myself by the very fact that I transcend
myself, and thereby become a part of Christ, a part of his body the Church. If
we do not preach ourselves, and if we are inwardly so completely one with him
who called us to be his ambassadors, that we are shaped by faith and live it,
then our preaching will be credible. I do not seek to win people for myself, but
I give myself. The Curé of Ars was no scholar, no intellectual, we know that.
But his preaching touched people’s hearts because his own heart had been
touched.
The last keyword that I should like to consider is "zeal for souls": animarum
zelus. It is an old-fashioned expression, not much used these days. In some
circles, the word "soul" is virtually banned because – ostensibly – it expresses
a body-soul dualism that wrongly compartmentalizes the human being. Of course
the human person is a unity, destined for eternity as body and soul. And yet
that cannot mean that we no longer have a soul, a constituent principle
guaranteeing our unity in this life and beyond earthly death. And as priests, of
course, we are concerned for the whole person, including his or her physical
needs – we care for the hungry, the sick, the homeless. And yet we are concerned
not only with the body, but also with the needs of the soul: with those who
suffer from the violation of their rights or from destroyed love, with those
unable to perceive the truth, those who suffer for lack of truth and love. We
are concerned with the salvation of men and women in body and soul. And as
priests of Jesus Christ we carry out our task with enthusiasm. No one should
ever have the impression that we work conscientiously when on duty, but before
and after hours we belong only to ourselves. A priest never belongs to himself.
People must sense our zeal, through which we bear credible witness to the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Lord to fill us with joy in his message, so that
we may serve his truth and his love with joyful zeal. Amen.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Benedict XVI's Last Supper Homily
"Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles
for us"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2012 .- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's
homily at the Mass of the Lord's Supper, held in St. John Lateran on Thursday
evening.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Holy Thursday is not only the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist,
whose splendour bathes all else and in some ways draws it to itself. To Holy
Thursday also belongs the dark night of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus goes
with his disciples; the solitude and abandonment of Jesus, who in prayer goes
forth to encounter the darkness of death; the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ arrest
and his denial by Peter; his indictment before the Sanhedrin and his being
handed over to the Gentiles, to Pilate. Let us try at this hour to understand
more deeply something of these events, for in them the mystery of our redemption
takes place.
Jesus goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communication, a
situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of
incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth. It is the place where evil, which
has to hide before the light, can grow. Jesus himself is light and truth,
communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is
ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus
enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of
God in the history of humanity.
On the way, he sang with his apostles Israel’s psalms of liberation and
redemption, which evoked the first Passover in Egypt, the night of liberation.
Now he goes, as was his custom, to pray in solitude and, as Son, to speak with
the Father. But, unusually, he wants to have close to him three disciples:
Peter, James and John. These are the three who had experienced his
Transfiguration – when the light of God’s glory shone through his human figure –
and had seen him standing between the Law and the Prophets, between Moses and
Elijah. They had heard him speaking to both of them about his "exodus" to
Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus to Jerusalem – how mysterious are these words! Israel’s
exodus from Egypt had been the event of escape and liberation for God’s People.
What would be the form taken by the exodus of Jesus, in whom the meaning of that
historic drama was to be definitively fulfilled? The disciples were now
witnessing the first stage of that exodus – the utter abasement which was
nonetheless the essential step of the going forth to the freedom and new life
which was the goal of the exodus. The disciples, whom Jesus wanted to have close
to him as an element of human support in that hour of extreme distress, quickly
fell asleep. Yet they heard some fragments of the words of Jesus’ prayer and
they witnessed his way of acting. Both were deeply impressed on their hearts and
they transmitted them to Christians for all time. Jesus called God "Abba". The
word means – as they add – "Father". Yet it is not the usual form of the word
"father", but rather a children’s word – an affectionate name which one would
not have dared to use in speaking to God. It is the language of the one who is
truly a "child", the Son of the Father, the one who is conscious of being in
communion with God, in deepest union with him.
If we ask ourselves what is most characteristic of the figure of Jesus in the
Gospels, we have to say that it is his relationship with God. He is constantly
in communion with God. Being with the Father is the core of his personality.
Through Christ we know God truly. "No one has ever seen God", says Saint John.
The one "who is close to the Father’s heart … has made him known" (1:18). Now we
know God as he truly is. He is Father, and this in an absolute goodness to which
we can entrust ourselves. The evangelist Mark, who has preserved the memories of
Saint Peter, relates that Jesus, after calling God "Abba", went on to say:
"Everything is possible for you. You can do all things" (cf. 14:36). The one who
is Goodness is at the same time Power; he is all-powerful. Power is goodness and
goodness is power. We can learn this trust from Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of
Olives.
Before reflecting on the content of Jesus’ petition, we must still consider what
the evangelists tell us about Jesus’ posture during his prayer. Matthew and Mark
tell us that he "threw himself on the ground" (Mt 26:39; cf. Mk14:35), thus
assuming a posture of complete submission, as is preserved in the Roman liturgy
of Good Friday. Luke, on the other hand, tells us that Jesus prayed on his
knees. In the Acts of the Apostles, he speaks of the saints praying on their
knees: Stephen during his stoning, Peter at the raising of someone who had died,
Paul on his way to martyrdom. In this way Luke has sketched a brief history of
prayer on one’s knees in the early Church. Christians, in kneeling, enter into
Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. When menaced by the power of evil, as they
kneel, they are upright before the world, while as sons and daughters, they
kneel before the Father. Before God’s glory we Christians kneel and acknowledge
his divinity; by that posture we also express our confidence that he will
prevail.
Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles for
us. He experiences anguish before the power of death. First and foremost this is
simply the dread natural to every living creature in the face of death. In
Jesus, however, something more is at work. His gaze peers deeper, into the
nights of evil. He sees the filthy flood of all the lies and all the disgrace
which he will encounter in that chalice from which he must drink. His is the
dread of one who is completely pure and holy as he sees the entire flood of this
world’s evil bursting upon him. He also sees me, and he prays for me. This
moment of Jesus’ mortal anguish is thus an essential part of the process of
redemption. Consequently, the Letter to the Hebrews describes the struggle of
Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a priestly event. In this prayer of Jesus,
pervaded by mortal anguish, the Lord performs the office of a priest: he takes
upon himself the sins of humanity, of us all, and he brings us before the
Father.
Lastly, we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount
of Olives. Jesus says: "Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup
from me; yet not what I want, but what you want" (Mk 14:36). The natural will of
the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be
spared. Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I,
but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human
sin, and thus heals humanity. The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have
desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of
sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will.
God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we
think – and only then will we be free. This is the fundamental rebellion present
throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. When human
beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of
their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from
themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are
united to God. Then we become truly "like God" – not by resisting God,
eliminating him, or denying him. In his anguished prayer on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom, and opened
the path to freedom. Let us ask the Lord to draw us into this "yes" to God’s
will, and in this way to make us truly free. Amen.
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Pontiff's Address at End of Via Crucis
"At times of trouble, when our families have to face pain and adversity, let us
look to Christs cross"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2012 - Here is a Vatican translation of the address
Benedict XVI gave today at the end of the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum. The
meditations this year were written by a married couple and focused on the
family.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Once more in meditation, prayer and song, we have recalled Jesus’s journey along
the way of the cross: a journey seemingly hopeless, yet one that changed human
life and history, and opened the way to “new heavens and a new earth” (cf. Rev
21:1). Especially today, Good Friday, the Church commemorates with deep
spiritual union the death of the Son of God on the cross; in his cross she sees
the tree of life, which blossoms in new hope.
The experience of suffering and of the cross touches all mankind; it touches the
family too. How often does the journey become wearisome and difficult!
Misunderstandings, conflicts, worry for the future of our children, sickness and
problems of every kind. These days too, the situation of many families is made
worse by the threat of unemployment and other negative effects of the economic
crisis. The Way of the Cross which we have spiritually retraced this evening
invites all of us, and families in particular, to contemplate Christ crucified
in order to have the force to overcome difficulties. The cross of Christ is the
supreme sign of God’s love for every man and woman, the superabundant response
to every person’s need for love. At times of trouble, when our families have to
face pain and adversity, let us look to Christ’s cross. There we can find the
courage and strength to press on; there we can repeat with firm hope the words
of Saint Paul: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom
8:35,37).
In times of trial and tribulation, we are not alone; the family is not alone.
Jesus is present with his love, he sustains them by his grace and grants the
strength needed to carry on, to make sacrifices and to overcome every obstacle.
And it is to this love of Christ that we must turn when human turmoil and
difficulties threaten the unity of our lives and our families. The mystery of
Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection inspires us to go on in hope: times
of trouble and testing, when endured with Christ, with faith in him, already
contain the light of the resurrection, the new life of a world reborn, the
passover of all those who believe in his word.
In that crucified Man who is the Son of God, even death itself takes on new
meaning and purpose: it is redeemed and overcome, it becomes a passage to new
life. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a
single grain; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24). Let us entrust
ourselves to the Mother of Christ. May Mary, who accompanied her Son along his
way of sorrows, who stood beneath the cross at the hour of his death, and who
inspired the Church at its birth to live in God’s presence, lead our hearts and
the hearts of every family through the vast mysterium passionis towards the
mysterium paschale, towards that light which breaks forth from Christ’s
resurrection and reveals the definitive victory of love, joy and life over evil,
suffering and death. Amen.
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April 11 Audience: On Easter's Spiritual
Joy
"Sadness and the wounds themselves become sources of joy"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 16, 2012 - Here is a translation of the Italian-language
catechesis Benedict XVI gave during the general audience held in St. Peter’s
Square on Wednesday, April 11.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,
After the solemn celebrations of Easter, our meeting today is pervaded by
spiritual joy; even if the skies above are grey, in our hearts we carry the joy
of Easter and the certainty of the Resurrection of Christ, who has definitively
triumphed over death. First, I wish to renew my cordial Easter greetings to each
one of you: in every home and heart, may the joyous announcement of Christ’s
Resurrection resound, bringing new hope.
In this catechesis, I would like to show the transformation that Easter brought
about in Jesus’ disciples. Let us begin with the evening of the day of the
Resurrection. The disciples are locked in the house where they are staying for
fear of the Jews (cf. John 20:19). Fear grips their hearts and prevents them
from going out to encounter others, to encounter life. The Master is gone. The
memory of His Passion fuels their uncertainty. However, Jesus has at heart those
who are His own, and He is about to fulfill the promise He had made during the
Last Supper: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18);
and He says this also to us, even when times are grey: “I will not leave you
orphans”.
The disciple’s anxious situation changes radically with Jesus’ arrival. He
enters in through closed doors, He stands in their midst and He gives them the
peace that puts them at ease: “Peace be with you” (John 20:19b). It is a common
greeting, yet now it acquires a new meaning, for it effects an interior
transformation; it is the Easter greeting, which overcomes all of the disciples’
fears. The peace that Jesus brings is the gift of salvation, which He had
promised during His farewell discourse: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John
14:27). On this day of Resurrection, He gives it in full, and for the community
it becomes a source of joy, certainty of victory and security in relying on God.
“Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27b), He
says also to us.
After this greeting, Jesus shows His disciples the wounds in His hands and His
side (John 20:20), the signs of what had gone before and what shall never be
erased: His glorious humanity will be forever “wounded”. This act is intended to
confirm the new reality of Christ’s Resurrection: the Christ who now stands in
the midst of His disciples is a real person, the same Jesus who just three days
prior was nailed to the Cross. Thus it is that, in the brilliant light of the
Resurrection, in the encounter with the Risen One, the disciples grasp the
salvific meaning of His passion and death. Then do they pass from sadness and
fear to the fullness of joy. Sadness and the wounds themselves become sources of
joy. The joy born in their hearts comes from “seeing the Lord” (John 20:20). He
again says to them: “Peace be with you” (verse 21).
At this point, it is evident that it is not only a greeting. It is a gift, the
gift that the Risen One wills to make to His friends, and at the same time it is
a handing on: this peace, which Christ obtained by His blood, is for them but it
is also for everyone, and the disciples will have to carry it throughout the
world. In fact, He adds: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”
(ibid.).
The Risen Jesus returned among His disciples in order to send them out. He
completed His work in the world; now it is their turn to sow faith in hearts, so
that the Father -- known and loved -- may gather together all of His scattered
children. However, Jesus knows that His followers are still very much afraid,
always. Therefore, He breathes on them and regenerates them in His Spirit (cf.
John 20:22); this act is the sign of the new creation. Indeed, a new world
begins by the gift of the Holy Spirit, which comes from the Risen Christ. With
the sending out of the disciples on mission, the journey of the people of the
new covenant is inaugurated, the people who believe in Him and in His work of
salvation, the people who bear witness to the truth of His Resurrection. This
newness of a life that never dies -- which Easter brings -- is intended to be
spread everywhere, so that the thorns of sin that wound man’s heart may give way
to the buds of Grace, to the presence of God and of His love, which conquers sin
and death.
Dear friends, today too the Risen One enters into our homes and into our hearts,
even though at times the doors are shut. He enters, bestowing joy and peace,
life and hope, gifts that we need for our human and spiritual rebirth. Only He
can roll back those sepulchral stones that we often place over our sentiments,
our relationships and our behavior; stones that sanction death: divisions,
hatred, resentments, jealousies, mistrust and indifference. He alone, the Living
One, can give life meaning and enable the one who is weary and sad, discouraged
and deprived of hope, to continue on the journey.
This is what the two disciples experienced, who were making their way on Easter
day from Jerusalem to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35). They talk about Jesus, but
their “saddened faces” (cf. Verse 17) express disappointed hopes, uncertainty
and melancholy. They had left their native land to follow Jesus with His
friends, and they had discovered a new reality, where forgiveness and love were
no longer merely words but concretely touched their lives. Jesus of Nazareth had
made all things new; He had transformed their lives. But now He was dead and
everything seemed to have come to and end.
Suddenly, however, there were no longer two but rather three persons walking.
Jesus draws near to the two disciples and walks with them, but they are unable
to recognize Him. Certainly, they had heard rumors of His Resurrection; in fact,
they refer to it: “Some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb
early in the morning and did not find His body; and they came back saying that
they had even seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive” (verses 22-23).
And yet, this had not been enough to convince them, since “Him they did not see”
(verse 24). Then Jesus, patiently, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (verse
27). The Risen One explains Sacred Scripture to the disciples, offering the
fundamental key to their reading; namely, He himself and His paschal mystery: to
Him do the scriptures testify (cf. John 5:39-47). The meaning of everything --
of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms -- suddenly is opened and made clear
before their eyes. Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (cf.
Luke 24:45).
In the meantime, they reached the village, probably the home one of the two. The
wayfaring stranger “appeared to be going further” (verse 28), but then he
stopped, for they ardently asked him, “Stay with us” (verse 29). We too, again
and again, should ardently ask the Lord: “Stay with us”.
“When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed, and broke it,
and gave it to them” (verse 30). The reference to the actions performed by Jesus
at the Last Supper is evident: “And their eyes were opened and they recognized
him” (verse 31). The presence of Jesus -- first by His words, then by the act of
the breaking of the bread -- enables the disciples to recognize Him, and they
are able to hear in a new way all that they had already experienced on their
walk with Him: “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the
road, while He opened to us the scriptures?” (verse 32). This episode indicates
to us two privileged “places” where we can encounter the Risen One, who
transforms our lives: the hearing of the Word in communion with Christ, and the
breaking of the Bread; two “places” that are profoundly united since “Word and
Eucharist are so deeply bound together that we cannot understand one without the
other: the Word of God sacramentally takes flesh in the event of the Eucharist”
(Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, 54-55).
Following this encounter, the two disciples “rose that same hour and returned to
Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with
them, who said: ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’” (verses
33-34). In Jerusalem they hear the news of Jesus’ Resurrection, and in turn they
recount their own experience, inflamed by love for the Risen One, who opened
their hearts to an uncontainable joy. They were -- as St. Peter says -- “born
anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1
Peter 1:3). Indeed, enthusiasm for the faith, love for the community and the
need to announce the good news were reborn in them. The Master is risen, and
with Him all of life flourishes; to bear witness to this event becomes for them
an insuppressible need.
Dear friends, may the Easter season be for us all the propitious occasion to
joyously and enthusiastically rediscover the sources of faith, the presence of
the Risen One among us. It means following the same path along which Jesus had
the two disciples of Emmaus walk, through the rediscovery of the Word of God and
the Eucharist; in other words, it means walking with the Lord and allowing Him
to open our eyes to the true meaning of the Scripture and to His presence in the
breaking of the bread. The summit of this journey, today as it was then, is
Eucharistic Communion: in Holy Communion, Jesus feeds us with His Body and His
Blood in order to be present in our lives, to make us new, enlivened by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, the experience of the disciples invites us to reflect on Easter’s
meaning for us. Let us allow ourselves to be encountered by the Risen Jesus! He,
living and true, is always present among us; He walks with us in order to guide
our lives and to open our eyes. Let us trust in the Risen One, who has the power
to give life, and to give us rebirth as children of God, capable of believing
and of loving. Faith in Him transforms our lives; it frees them from fear, gives
them sure hope and enlivens them by what gives full meaning to life, God’s love.
Thank you.
[Translation by Diane Montagna]
[The Holy Father then greeted the people in several languages. In English, he
said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our General Audience today is marked by the spiritual joy of Easter, born of the
Christ’s victory over sin and death. When the risen Lord appeared to the
disciples in the Upper Room and showed them his saving wounds, their lives were
changed. With the gift of the Holy Spirit, Christ gave them the peace which the
world cannot give (cf. Jn 14:27) and sent them forth to bring that peace to the
world. The mission of the disciples inaugurates the journey of the Church, the
People of the New Covenant, called to bear witness in every age to the truth of
the resurrection and the new life which it brings. Today too, the Lord enters
our hearts and our homes with his gifts of joy and peace, life and hope. Like
the disciples on the way to Emmaus, may we recognize his presence among us in
his word and in the breaking of the bread. During this Easter season, let us
resolve to walk in the company of the risen Christ and allow our lives to be
transformed by faith in him and by the power of his resurrection.
* * *
I offer a warm welcome to the newly-ordained deacons from the Pontifical Irish
College, together with their families and friends. Dear young deacons, may you
conform your lives ever more fully to the Lord and work generously for the
building up of the Church in your country. I also welcome the distinguished
delegation from the NATO Defense College, with prayerful good wishes for their
service to the cause of peace. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at
today’s Audience, especially those from England, Ireland, Sweden, Australia,
Canada and the United States, I invoke the joy and peace of the Risen Lord.
Happy Easter!
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[In Italian, he said:]
Lastly, my thoughts go to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. Dear young
people, especially you who have come from the diocese of Cremona, may you be
increasingly more aware that only the Lord Jesus can respond completely to your
desire for happiness and to your search for what is truly good for your lives;
dear sick, especially you who belong to UNITALSI of Teano-Calvi, there is
greater comfort in your suffering than the Resurrection of Christ; and you, dear
newlyweds, may you live your marriage in concrete adherence to Christ and to the
teachings of the Gospel.
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