A Penitent Blogger
Yesterday, when he was a Cardinal...
the Pope-to-be gave the following homily just before the conclave. It is complex but heartfelt. The media, eager for controversy, focused on one narrow section, but the soon-to-be Pope Benedict XVI's expressions of humility, awe, and love for the Lord resonate powerfully in light of today's events.
* * * * * * *
"At this hour of great responsibility, we listen with particular attention what the Lord says to us in his own words. From the three readings I would like to examine just a few passages which concern us directly at this time.
"The first reading gives us a prophetic depiction of the person of the Messiah - a depiction that takes all its significance from the moment Jesus reads this text in the synagogue at Nazareth, when he says:
"'Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing'
(Lk 4,21).
"At the core of the prophetic text we find a word that - at least at first glance - seems contradictory. The Messiah, speaking of himself, says that he was sent
"to declare a year of mercy from the Lord
and a day of vindication (ed. - in Italian, "vendetta")
by our God" (Is 61,2).
"We hear with joy the announcement of a year of mercy: divine mercy puts a limit to evil - as the Holy Father told us. Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: to meet Christ means to meet the mercy of God.
"The mandate of Christ has become our mandate through the anointing of priesthood. We are called to declare - not only in word but in life, and through the efficacious signs of the Sacraments - the 'year of mercy from the Lord.'
"But what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he announces the 'day of vindication (vendetta) by our God?'
"In Nazareth, in his reading aloud of the prophet's text, Jesus did not pronounce these words - he concluded with announcing the year of mercy. Was this perhaps the reason for the scandalized reaction to his preaching? We do not know.
"In any case, the Lord offered his authentic comment on these words by being put to death on the cross.
"'He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,' says St. Peter (1 Pe 2,24).
"And Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians:
"'Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree," that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' (Gal 3, 13s).
"The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a banalization of evil.
"Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, through the fire of his suffering love.
"The day of vindication (vendetta) and the year of favor come together in the paschal mystery, in Christ dead and risen.
"This is the 'vendetta' of God:
he himself, in the person of the Son,
suffers for us.
"The more we are touched by the mercy of the Lord, the more we draw closer in solidarity with his suffering - and become disposed to fill up in our flesh 'what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ' (Col 1, 24).
* * * * * * *
"We pass to the second reading, the letter to the Ephesians, which basically deals with three things: first, with the ministries and charisms in the Church - as gifts of the Lord risen and ascended into heaven; then with the maturing of faith and of knowledge of the Son of God as a condition and the essence of unity in the body of Christ; and, finally, with the common participation in the growth of the body of Christ - that is, of the transformation of the world into communion with the Lord.
"Let us dwell on only two points.
"The first is the journey towards "the maturity of Christ" as it is said - simplifying it a bit - in the Italian text.
"More precisely, according to the Greek text, we should speak of the 'measure of the fullness of Christ,' to which we are called to reach in order to be true adults in the faith.
"We should not remain small children in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be a small child in faith?
"Saint Paul answers: it means 'tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery' (Eph 4, 14). A very apt description today!
"How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking... The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to (classical) Liberalism, even to libertarianism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14).
"Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today's standards.
"We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.
"We, however, have a different measure: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism.
"Being an 'adult' means having a faith which does not follow the waves of fashion or the latest new thing.
"A faith that is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature.
"It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the criteria to discern between the true and the false, between deceit and truth.
"We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and that takes form in love.
"On this theme, Saint Paul offers us some beautiful words - in contrast to the continual ups and downs of those were are like small children, tossed about by the waves: (he says) make truth in love as the basic formula of Christian existence.
"In Christ, truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge.
"Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13,1).
* * * * * * *
"We come now to the Gospel. Out of its richness I would like to make only two small observations.
"The Lord addresses to us these marvelous words:
"'I no longer call you slaves...I have called you friends'
(Jn 15,15).
"So many times we feel like
(and it is true)
that we are only useless servants. (cf Lk 17,10).
"And despite this, the Lord calls us friends,
he makes us his friends,
he gives us his friendship.
"The Lord defines friendship in a dual way.
"There are no secrets among friends: Christ tells us all everything he hears from the Father; he gives us his full trust, and with that, also knowledge. He reveals his face and his heart to us. He shows us his tenderness for us, his passionate love that goes to the madness of the cross. He entrusts us, he gives us (as priests) power to speak in his name: 'this is my body...,' "I absolve you....'
"He entrusts his body, the Church, to us.
"He entrusts our weak minds and our weak hands with his Truth: the mystery of God Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the mystery of God who 'so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son' (Jn 3, 16).
"The second element with which Jesus defines friendship is the communion of will.
"For the Romans "Idem velle - idem nolle," (same desires, same dislikes) was also the definition of friendship.
"'You are my friends if you do what I command you.'
(Jn 15, 14).
"Friendship with Christ coincides with what is said in the third request of the Our Father:
"'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'
"During the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will into a will shaped and united to the divine will. He suffered the whole drama of our autonomy - and placing rightly our will in the hands of God, he gave us true freedom:
"'Not my will, but your will be done.'
"In this communion of will, our redemption takes place: being friends of Jesus to become friends of God.
"How much more we love Jesus,
how much more we know him,
how much more our true freedom grows
as well as our joy in being redeemed.
"Thank you, Jesus, for your friendship!
"The other element of the Gospel to which I would like to refer is the teaching of Jesus on bearing fruit:
"'I who chose you and appointed you
to go and bear fruit that will remain'
(Jn 15, 16).
"It is here that is expressed the dynamic existence of the Christian, of the apostle: 'I chose you to go and bear fruit....'
"We must be inspired by a holy restlessness: restlessness to bring to everyone the gift of faith, of friendship with Christ.
"In truth, the love and friendship of God was given to us so that it would also be shared with others. We have received the faith to give it to others - we are priests meant to serve others. And we must bring a fruit that will remain.
"All people want to leave a mark which lasts. But what remains? Money does not. Buildings do not, nor books. After a certain amount of time, whether long or short, all these things disappear.
"The only thing which remains forever is the human soul: the human person created by God for eternity.
"The fruit which remains then is that which we have sowed in human souls: love, knowledge, a gesture capable of touching the heart, words which open the soul to joy in the Lord.
"Let us then go to the Lord and pray to him, so that he may help us bear fruit which remains. Only in this way will the earth be changed from a valley of tears to a garden of God.
"In conclusion, returning again to the letter to the Ephesians, which says (with words from Psalm 68) that Christ, ascending into heaven, "gave gifts to men" (Eph 4,8).
"The victor offers gifts. And these gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
"Our ministry is a gift of Christ to humankind, to build up his body - the new world. We live out our ministry in this way, as a gift of Christ to humanity!
"But at this time, above all, we pray with insistence to the Lord, so that after the great gift of Pope John Paul II, he again gives us a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his love and to true joy.
"Amen."
* * * * * * *
"At this hour of great responsibility, we listen with particular attention what the Lord says to us in his own words. From the three readings I would like to examine just a few passages which concern us directly at this time.
"The first reading gives us a prophetic depiction of the person of the Messiah - a depiction that takes all its significance from the moment Jesus reads this text in the synagogue at Nazareth, when he says:
"'Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing'
(Lk 4,21).
"At the core of the prophetic text we find a word that - at least at first glance - seems contradictory. The Messiah, speaking of himself, says that he was sent
"to declare a year of mercy from the Lord
and a day of vindication (ed. - in Italian, "vendetta")
by our God" (Is 61,2).
"We hear with joy the announcement of a year of mercy: divine mercy puts a limit to evil - as the Holy Father told us. Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: to meet Christ means to meet the mercy of God.
"The mandate of Christ has become our mandate through the anointing of priesthood. We are called to declare - not only in word but in life, and through the efficacious signs of the Sacraments - the 'year of mercy from the Lord.'
"But what does the prophet Isaiah mean when he announces the 'day of vindication (vendetta) by our God?'
"In Nazareth, in his reading aloud of the prophet's text, Jesus did not pronounce these words - he concluded with announcing the year of mercy. Was this perhaps the reason for the scandalized reaction to his preaching? We do not know.
"In any case, the Lord offered his authentic comment on these words by being put to death on the cross.
"'He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,' says St. Peter (1 Pe 2,24).
"And Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians:
"'Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree," that the blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' (Gal 3, 13s).
"The mercy of Christ is not a cheap grace; it does not presume a banalization of evil.
"Christ carries in his body and on his soul all the weight of evil, all its destructive force. He burns and transforms evil through suffering, through the fire of his suffering love.
"The day of vindication (vendetta) and the year of favor come together in the paschal mystery, in Christ dead and risen.
"This is the 'vendetta' of God:
he himself, in the person of the Son,
suffers for us.
"The more we are touched by the mercy of the Lord, the more we draw closer in solidarity with his suffering - and become disposed to fill up in our flesh 'what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ' (Col 1, 24).
* * * * * * *
"We pass to the second reading, the letter to the Ephesians, which basically deals with three things: first, with the ministries and charisms in the Church - as gifts of the Lord risen and ascended into heaven; then with the maturing of faith and of knowledge of the Son of God as a condition and the essence of unity in the body of Christ; and, finally, with the common participation in the growth of the body of Christ - that is, of the transformation of the world into communion with the Lord.
"Let us dwell on only two points.
"The first is the journey towards "the maturity of Christ" as it is said - simplifying it a bit - in the Italian text.
"More precisely, according to the Greek text, we should speak of the 'measure of the fullness of Christ,' to which we are called to reach in order to be true adults in the faith.
"We should not remain small children in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be a small child in faith?
"Saint Paul answers: it means 'tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery' (Eph 4, 14). A very apt description today!
"How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking... The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to (classical) Liberalism, even to libertarianism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14).
"Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today's standards.
"We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.
"We, however, have a different measure: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism.
"Being an 'adult' means having a faith which does not follow the waves of fashion or the latest new thing.
"A faith that is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature.
"It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the criteria to discern between the true and the false, between deceit and truth.
"We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith - only faith - that creates unity and that takes form in love.
"On this theme, Saint Paul offers us some beautiful words - in contrast to the continual ups and downs of those were are like small children, tossed about by the waves: (he says) make truth in love as the basic formula of Christian existence.
"In Christ, truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge.
"Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13,1).
* * * * * * *
"We come now to the Gospel. Out of its richness I would like to make only two small observations.
"The Lord addresses to us these marvelous words:
"'I no longer call you slaves...I have called you friends'
(Jn 15,15).
"So many times we feel like
(and it is true)
that we are only useless servants. (cf Lk 17,10).
"And despite this, the Lord calls us friends,
he makes us his friends,
he gives us his friendship.
"The Lord defines friendship in a dual way.
"There are no secrets among friends: Christ tells us all everything he hears from the Father; he gives us his full trust, and with that, also knowledge. He reveals his face and his heart to us. He shows us his tenderness for us, his passionate love that goes to the madness of the cross. He entrusts us, he gives us (as priests) power to speak in his name: 'this is my body...,' "I absolve you....'
"He entrusts his body, the Church, to us.
"He entrusts our weak minds and our weak hands with his Truth: the mystery of God Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the mystery of God who 'so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son' (Jn 3, 16).
"He made us his friends - and how do we respond?
"The second element with which Jesus defines friendship is the communion of will.
"For the Romans "Idem velle - idem nolle," (same desires, same dislikes) was also the definition of friendship.
"'You are my friends if you do what I command you.'
(Jn 15, 14).
"Friendship with Christ coincides with what is said in the third request of the Our Father:
"'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'
"During the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will into a will shaped and united to the divine will. He suffered the whole drama of our autonomy - and placing rightly our will in the hands of God, he gave us true freedom:
"'Not my will, but your will be done.'
"In this communion of will, our redemption takes place: being friends of Jesus to become friends of God.
"How much more we love Jesus,
how much more we know him,
how much more our true freedom grows
as well as our joy in being redeemed.
"Thank you, Jesus, for your friendship!
"The other element of the Gospel to which I would like to refer is the teaching of Jesus on bearing fruit:
"'I who chose you and appointed you
to go and bear fruit that will remain'
(Jn 15, 16).
"It is here that is expressed the dynamic existence of the Christian, of the apostle: 'I chose you to go and bear fruit....'
"We must be inspired by a holy restlessness: restlessness to bring to everyone the gift of faith, of friendship with Christ.
"In truth, the love and friendship of God was given to us so that it would also be shared with others. We have received the faith to give it to others - we are priests meant to serve others. And we must bring a fruit that will remain.
"All people want to leave a mark which lasts. But what remains? Money does not. Buildings do not, nor books. After a certain amount of time, whether long or short, all these things disappear.
"The only thing which remains forever is the human soul: the human person created by God for eternity.
"The fruit which remains then is that which we have sowed in human souls: love, knowledge, a gesture capable of touching the heart, words which open the soul to joy in the Lord.
"Let us then go to the Lord and pray to him, so that he may help us bear fruit which remains. Only in this way will the earth be changed from a valley of tears to a garden of God.
"In conclusion, returning again to the letter to the Ephesians, which says (with words from Psalm 68) that Christ, ascending into heaven, "gave gifts to men" (Eph 4,8).
"The victor offers gifts. And these gifts are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
"Our ministry is a gift of Christ to humankind, to build up his body - the new world. We live out our ministry in this way, as a gift of Christ to humanity!
"But at this time, above all, we pray with insistence to the Lord, so that after the great gift of Pope John Paul II, he again gives us a pastor according to his own heart, a pastor who guides us to knowledge in Christ, to his love and to true joy.
"Amen."
posted by Penitens | 3:42 PM
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