Entry 0291: Reflections on the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
by Pope Benedict XVI
On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Eighteenth Sunday of
Ordinary Time, on 31 July 2005,
6 August 2006, 5 August 2007, 3 August 2008, 2 August 2009, 1 August 2010, 31
July 2011, and 5 August 2012. Here are
the texts of eight reflections prior to the recitation of the Angelus that the
Pope delivered on these occasions.
Castel Gandolfo , Sunday, 31 July 2005
Castel Gandolfo , Sunday, 6 August 2006
Castel Gandolfo , Sunday, 5 August 2012
Dear friends, on days that are busy and full of
problems, but also on days of rest and relaxation, the Lord asks us not to
forget that if it is necessary to be concerned about material bread and to
replenish our strength, it is even more fundamental to develop our relationship
with him, to reinforce our faith in the One who is the “bread of life” which
satisfies our desire for truth and love. May the Virgin Mary, on the day on
which we recall the dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
After the days I spent in the mountains in the Aosta Valley ,
I am glad to be with you today, dear people of Castel
Gandolfo , who are always so hospitable to the Pope. I greet you
all with affection, starting with the Bishop of Albano, the Parish Priests and
the other Priests of Castel Gandolfo. I greet the Mayor, the Municipal Board
and the other Authorities present, and extend my affectionate thoughts to the
Director and Staff of the Pontifical Villas, as well as to the entire
population of this delightful and peaceful little town.
I offer an especially warm greeting to the pilgrims from so
many places who have come to pay me a visit. It is my first summer stay here in
Castel Gandolfo : I thank you for your
festive welcome last Thursday, which you are repeating today.
The 20th World Youth Day is approaching, and we are already
on our way. This Day, as we know, will be held in Cologne, and, please God, I
shall be taking part in it - even if I am not young, but my heart is young - from
Thursday to Sunday, 18 to 21 August. In the upcoming days, groups of young men
and women will be setting out for Germany
from every corner of Europe and of the world,
following the example of the Holy Magi, as the theme suggests: “We
have come to worship him” (Mt 2: 2).
I would like to invite young believers from all over the
world, also those who will be unable to take part in this extraordinary
ecclesial event, to join forces in a common spiritual pilgrimage to the
wellsprings of our faith. In accordance with a felicitous intuition of our
beloved Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day is a privileged encounter with
Christ, in the firm awareness that he alone offers human beings fullness of
life, joy and love.
Every Christian is called to enter into profound communion
with the Crucified and Risen Lord, to adore him in prayer, meditation and above
all, in devout participation in the Eucharist, at least on Sunday, the little “weekly
Easter”. In this way one truly becomes his disciple, ready to proclaim and to
witness at every moment to the Gospel’s beauty and power of renewal.
May the Virgin Mother of the Redeemer, whose Assumption
into Heaven we commemorate in the month of August, watch over all who are
preparing to take part in World Youth Day. May she who always goes before us on
the pilgrimage of faith, guide young people in a special way in their search
for true good and authentic joy.
As you know, in these past days the Irish Republic Army
(IRA) of Northern Ireland
has announced that it has formally ordered the end of armed conflict in favour
of the exclusive use of peaceful negotiations. This is wonderful news, which
contrasts with the sorrowful events in many parts of the world that we are
witnessing daily, and has rightly given rise to pleasure and hope in that Island and the entire International Community.
For my part, I am particularly glad to join in these
sentiments. In addition, I encourage everyone, without exception, to continue
to walk courageously on the path marked out and to take further steps that will
make it possible to strengthen mutual trust, promote reconciliation and consolidate
the negotiations for a just and lasting peace.
I do so as vigorously as my venerable Predecessor, John
Paul II when, in Drogheda in September 1979,
he implored people to desert the paths of violence and return to the ways of
peace. Let us entrust our common prayer for this intention to the intercession
of Mary Most Holy, to St Patrick and all the Saints of Ireland.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
This Sunday, Mark the Evangelist recounts that Jesus took
Peter, James and John with him up a high mountain and was transfigured before
them, becoming so dazzlingly bright that they were “whiter than the work of any
bleacher could make them” (Mk 9: 2-10).
Today, the liturgy invites us to focus our gaze on this
mystery of light. On the transfigured face of Jesus a ray of light which he
held within shines forth. This same light was to shine on Christ’s face on the
day of the Resurrection. In this sense, the Transfiguration appears as a
foretaste of the Paschal Mystery.
The Transfiguration invites us to open the eyes of our
hearts to the mystery of God’s light, present throughout salvation history. At
the beginning of creation, the Almighty had already said: “Fiat lux -
let there be light!” (Gn 1: 2), and the light was separated from the
darkness. Like the other created things, light is a sign that reveals something
of God: it is, as it were, a reflection of his glory which accompanies its
manifestations. When God appears, “his brightness was like the light, rays
flashed from his hand” (Heb 3: 3ff.).
Light, it is said in the Psalms, is the mantle with which
God covers himself (see Ps 104[103]: 2). In the Book of Wisdom, the
symbolism of light is used to describe the very essence of God: wisdom, an
outpouring of his glory, is “a reflection of eternal light” superior to any
created light (see Wis
7: 27, 29ff.).
In the New Testament, it is Christ who constitutes the full
manifestation of God’s light. His Resurrection defeated the power of the
darkness of evil forever. With the Risen Christ, truth and love triumph over
deceit and sin. In him, God’s light henceforth illumines definitively human
life and the course of history: “I am the light of the world”, he says in the
Gospel, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light
of life” (Jn 8: 12).
In our time too, we urgently need to emerge from the
darkness of evil, to experience the joy of the children of light! May Mary,
whom we commemorated yesterday with special devotion on the annual Memorial of
the Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, obtain this gift for us. May
the Blessed Virgin also obtain peace for the peoples of the Middle
East , overwhelmed by fratricidal fighting! We know well that peace
is first and foremost God’s gift to be implored insistently in prayer, but at
this time let us also remember that it is a commitment for all people of good
will. May no one shirk this duty!
Thus, in the face of the bitter observation that so far the
voices asking for an immediate ceasefire in that tormented region have gone
unheard, I feel the urgent need to renew my pressing appeal in this regard,
asking everyone to make an effective contribution to build a just and lasting
peace. I entrust this renewed appeal to the intercession of the Most Holy
Virgin.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Papal Summer Residence, Castel
Gandolfo , Sunday, 5 August 2007
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Word of God
spurs us to reflect on what our relationship with material things should be.
Although wealth is a good in itself, it should not be
considered an absolute good. Above all, it does not guarantee salvation; on the
contrary, it may even seriously jeopardize it.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus puts his disciples on guard
precisely against this risk. It is wisdom and virtue not to set one’s heart on
the goods of this world for all things are transient, all things can suddenly
end.
For us Christians, the real treasure that we must
ceaselessly seek consists in the “things above... where Christ is seated at God’s
right hand”; St Paul reminds us of this today in his Letter to the Colossians,
adding that our life “is hid with Christ in God” (see 3: 1-3).
The Solemnity of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which we
shall be celebrating tomorrow, invites us to turn our gaze “above”, to Heaven.
In the Gospel account of the Transfiguration on the mountain, we are given a
premonitory sign that allows us a fleeting glimpse of the Kingdom of the
Saints, where we too at the end of our earthly life will be able to share in
Christ’s glory, which will be complete, total and definitive. The whole
universe will then be transfigured and the divine plan of salvation will at
last be fulfilled.
The day of the Solemnity of the Transfiguration remains
linked to the memory of my venerable Predecessor, Servant of God Paul VI, who
in 1978 completed his mission in this very place, here at Castel
Gandolfo , and was called to enter the house of the Heavenly
Father. May his commemoration be an invitation to us to look on high and to
serve the Lord and the Church faithfully, as he did in the far-from-easy years
of the last century.
May the Virgin Mary, whom we remember today in particular
while we celebrate the liturgical Memorial of the Basilica of St Mary Major,
obtain this grace for us. As is well known, this is the first Western Basilica
to have been built in honour of Mary; it was rebuilt in 432 by Pope Sixtus III
to celebrate the divine motherhood of the Virgin, a Dogma that had been
solemnly proclaimed the previous year at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus.
May the Virgin, who was more closely involved in Christ’s
mystery than any other creature, sustain us on our pilgrimage of faith so that,
as the liturgy invites us to pray today, “we do not let ourselves be dominated
by greed or selfishness as we toil with our efforts to subdue the earth but
seek always what is worthwhile in God’s eyes” (see Entrance Antiphon).
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Piazza Duomo, Bressanone, Sunday, 3 August 2008
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
A cordial welcome to you all! I would first like to say a
word of profound thanks to you, dear Bishop Egger: you have made possible here
this celebration of faith. You have ensured that once again I could, as it
were, return to my past and at the same time advance into my future; and once
again spend my vacation in beautiful Bressanone, this land where art and
culture and the goodness of the people are interconnected: a heartfelt “thank
you” for all of this! And of course, I thank all who, together with you, have
contributed to ensuring that I could spend peaceful and serene days here: my
thanks to all those who shared in the organization of this celebration! I
cordially thank all the Authorities of the City, of the Region and of the
State, for all they have done by way of organization, the volunteers who are
offering their help, the doctors, so many people who have been necessary,
especially the Police Force; I am grateful for everyone’s collaboration... I am
sure I have left out many people! May the Lord reward you all for it: you are
all in my prayers. This is the only way in which I can thank you. And,
naturally, above all let us thank the good Lord who has given us this earth and
has also given us this Sunday bathed in sunshine. Thus we arrive at the Liturgy
of the day. The first Reading reminds us that the greatest things in this life
of ours can neither be purchased nor paid for because the most important and
elementary things in our life can only be given: the sun and its light, the air
that we breathe, water, the earth’s beauty, love, friendship, life itself. We
cannot buy any of these essential and central goods but they are given to us.
The Second Reading then adds that this means they are also things that no one
can take from us, of which no dictatorship, no destructive force can rob us.
Being loved by God who knows and loves each one of us in Christ; no one can
take this away and, while we have this, we are not poor but rich. The Gospel
adds a third consideration. If we receive such great gifts from God, we in turn
must give them: in a spiritual context giving kindness, friendship and love,
but also in a material context - the Gospel speaks of the multiplication of the
loaves. These two things must penetrate our souls today: we must be people who
give, because we are people who receive; we must pass on to others the gifts of
goodness and love and friendship, but at the same time we must also give
material gifts to all who have need of us, whom we can help, and thus seek to
make the earth more human, that is, closer to God.
Now, dear friends, I ask you to join me in a devout and
filial commemoration of the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, the 30th anniversary
of whose death we shall be celebrating in a few days. Indeed, he gave up his
spirit to God on the evening of 6 August 1978, the evening of the Feast of the
Transfiguration of Jesus, a mystery of divine light that always exercised a
remarkable fascination upon his soul. As Supreme Pastor of the Church, Paul VI
guided the People of God to contemplation of the Face of Christ, the Redeemer
of man and Lord of history. And it was precisely this loving orientation of his
mind and heart toward Christ that served as a cornerstone of the Second Vatican
Council, a fundamental attitude that my venerable Predecessor John Paul II
inherited and relaunched during the great Jubilee of the Year 2000. At the
centre of everything, always and only Christ: at the centre of the Sacred
Scriptures and of Tradition, in the heart of the Church, of the world and of
the entire universe. Divine Providence summoned
Giovanni Battista Montini from the See of Milan to that of Rome during the most sensitive moment of the
Council - when there was a risk that Blessed John XXIII’s intuition might not
materialize. How can we fail to thank the Lord for his fruitful and courageous
pastoral action? As our gaze on the past grows gradually broader and more
aware, Paul VI’s merit in presiding over the Council Sessions, in bringing it
successfully to conclusion and in governing the eventful post-conciliar period
appears ever greater, I should say almost superhuman. We can truly say, with
the Apostle Paul, that the grace of God in him “was not in vain” (see 1 Cor 15:
10): it made the most of his outstanding gifts of intelligence and passionate
love for the Church and for humankind. As we thank God for the gift of this
great Pope, let us commit ourselves to treasure his teachings.
In the last period of the Council, Paul VI wanted to pay a
special tribute to the Mother of God and solemnly proclaimed her “Mother
of the Church”. Let us now address the prayer of the Angelus to her, the Mother
of Christ, the Mother of the Church, our Mother.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Courtyard of the Papal Summer Residence, Castel
Gandolfo , Sunday, 2 August 2009
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
I returned a few days ago from the Val d’Aosta and it is
with great pleasure that I am with you once again, dear friends of Castel Gandolfo . To the Bishop, the parish priest and the
parish community, to the civil Authorities and the entire population of Castel Gandolfo , along with the pilgrims as well as the
holiday-makers, I renew my affectionate greeting together with a heartfelt “thank
you” for your ever cordial welcome. I also thank you for the spiritual
closeness that many people expressed to me in Les Combes at the time of the
small accident to my right wrist.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Year for Priests that we are
celebrating is a precious opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the value of
the mission of priests in the Church and in the world. In this regard, useful
ideas for reflection can be found in remembering the saints whom the Church
holds up to us daily. In these first days of the month of August, for example,
we commemorate some who are real models of spirituality and priestly devotion.
Yesterday was the liturgical Memorial of St Alphonsus Mary de’ Liguori, a
Bishop and Doctor of the Church, a great teacher of moral theology and a model
of Christian and pastoral virtues who was ever attentive to the religious needs
of the people. Today we are contemplating St Francis of Assisi ’s ardent love for the salvation of
souls which every priest must always foster. In fact today is the feast of the “Pardon
of Assisi”, which St Francis obtained from Pope Honorious III in the year 1216,
after having a vision while he was praying in the little church of the
Portiuncula. Jesus appeared to him in his glory, with the Virgin Mary on his
right and surrounded by many Angels. They asked him to express a wish and
Francis implored a “full and generous pardon” for all those who would visit
that church who “repented and confessed their sins”. Having received papal
approval, the Saint did not wait for any written document but hastened to Assisi and when he reached
the Portiuncula announced the good news: “Friends, the Lord wants to have us
all in Heaven!”. Since then, from noon on 1 August to midnight on the second,
it has been possible to obtain, on the usual conditions, a Plenary Indulgence,
also for the dead, on visiting a parish church or a Franciscan one.
What can be said of St John Mary Vianney whom we shall
commemorate on 4 August? It was precisely to commemorate the 150th anniversary
of his death that I announced the Year for Priests. I promise to speak again of
this humble parish priest who constitutes a model of priestly life not only for
parish priests but for all priests at the Catechesis of the General Audience
next Wednesday. Then on 7 August it will be the Memorial of St Cajetan da
Thiene, who used to like to say: “it is not with sentimental love but rather
with loving actions that souls are purified”. And the following day, 8 August,
the Church will point out as a model St Dominic, of whom it has been written
that he only “opened his mouth either to speak to God in prayer or to speak of
God”. Lastly, I cannot forget to mention the great figure of Pope Montini, Paul
VI, the 31st anniversary of whose death, here in Castel
Gandolfo , occurs on 6 August. His life, so profoundly priestly and
so rich in humanity, continues to be a gift to the Church for which we thank
God. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, help priests to be totally in
love with Christ, after the example of these models of priestly holiness.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Courtyard of the Papal Residence, Castel
Gandolfo , Sunday, 1st August 2010
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
The liturgical commemorations of several Saints occurs in
these days. Yesterday we commemorated St Ignatius of Loyola, the Founder of the
Society of Jesus. He lived in the 16th century and was converted after reading
the life of Jesus and the Saints, during a long convalescence, while recovering
from a wound received in battle. He was so impressed by one of the passages he
read that he decided to follow the Lord. Today we are commemorating St
Alphonsus Mary Liguori, the Founder of the Redemptorists, who lived in the 17th
century and was proclaimed Patron of confessors by Venerable Pius XII. He was
aware that God wants everyone to be holy, each one in accordance with his own
state, of course. Then this week the liturgy proposes St Eusebius, the first
Bishop of Piedmont, a strenuous defender of Christ’s divinity, and, lastly, the
figure of St John Mary Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, who guided the Year for Priests
that has just ended with his example and to whose intercession I once again
entrust all the Pastors of the Church. A common commitment of these Saints was
to save souls and to serve the Church with their respective charisms,
contributing to renew and enrich her. These men acquired “a heart of wisdom”
(Ps 90 [89]: 12), setting store by what is incorruptible and discarding what is
irremediably changeable in time: power, riches and transient pleasures. By
choosing God they possessed everything they needed, with a foretaste of
eternity even in life on earth (see Eccles 1-5).
In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus’ teaching concerns, precisely,
true wisdom and is introduced by one of the crowd: “Teacher, bid my brother
divide the inheritance with me” (Lk 12: 13). In answering, Jesus puts him on
guard against those who are influenced by the desire for earthly goods with the
Parable of the Rich Fool who having put away for himself an abundant harvest
stops working, uses up all he possesses, enjoying himself and even deceives
himself into thinking he can keep death at an arm’s length. However God says to
him “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have
prepared, whose will they be?” (Lk 12: 20). The fool in the Bible, the one who
does not want to learn from the experience of visible things, that nothing
lasts for ever but that all things pass away, youth and physical strength,
amenities and important roles. Making one’s life depend on such an ephemeral
reality is therefore foolishness. The person who trusts in the Lord, on the
other hand, does not fear the adversities of life, nor the inevitable reality
of death: he is the person who has acquired a wise heart, like the Saints.
In addressing our prayer to Mary Most Holy, I would like to
remember other important occasions: tomorrow it will be possible to profit from
the Indulgence known as the Portiuncola Indulgence or the “Pardon of Assisi”
that St Francis obtained in 1216 from Pope Honorius III; Thursday, 5 August, in
commemorating the Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, we will honour
the Mother of God, acclaimed with this title at the Council of Ephesus in 431,
and next Friday, the anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s death, we will celebrate the
Feast of the Transfiguration. The date of 6 August, seen as crowned by summer
light, was chosen to mean that the splendour of Christ’s Face illuminates the
whole world.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Courtyard of the Papal Summer Residence, Castel
Gandolfo , Sunday, 31 July 2011
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
This Sunday’s Gospel describes the miracle of the
multiplication of the loaves that Jesus worked for a great throng of people who
had followed him to listen to him and to be healed of various illnesses (see Mt
14:14).
As evening fell the disciples suggested to Jesus that he
send the crowds away so that they might take some refreshment. But the Lord had
something else in mind: “You give them something to eat” (Mt 14:16). However
they had “only five loaves... and two fish”. Jesus’ subsequent action evokes
the sacrament of the Eucharist: “He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke
and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds”
(Mt 14:19).
The miracle consists in the brotherly sharing of a few
loaves which, entrusted to the power of God, not only sufficed for everyone but
enough was left over to fill 12 baskets. The Lord asked this of the disciples
so that it would be they who distributed the bread to the multitude; in this
way he taught and prepared them for their future apostolic mission: in fact,
they were to bring to all the nourishment of the Word of life and of the
sacraments.
In this miraculous sign the incarnation of God and the work
of redemption are interwoven. Jesus, in fact, “went ashore” from the
boat to meet the men and women (see Mt 14:14). St Maximus the Confessor said
that the Word of God made himself present for our sake, by taking flesh,
derived from us and conformed to us in all things save sin, in order to expose
us to his teaching with words and examples suitable for us” (Ambigua 33:
PG 91, 1285 C).
Here the Lord offers us an eloquent example of his
compassion for people. We are reminded of all our brothers and sisters in the
Horn of Africa who in these days are suffering the dramatic consequences of
famine, exacerbated by war and by the lack of solid institutions. Christ is
attentive to material needs but he wished to give more, because man always “hungers
for more, he needs more” (Jesus of Nazareth, Doubleday , New York
Dear friends. “in the Eucharist Jesus also makes us
witnesses of God’s compassion towards all our brothers and sisters. The
Eucharistic mystery thus gives rise to a service of charity towards neighbour”
(Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, no. 88). St
Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus whom the Church is
commemorating today, also bore witness to this. Indeed Ignatius chose to live “finding
God in all things, loving him in all creatures” (see Constitutions of the
Society of Jesus, III, 1, 26).
Let us entrust our prayers to the Virgin Mary, so that she
may open our hearts to compassion for our neighbour and to fraternal sharing.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
The Reading
of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel continues in the Liturgy of the Word of
this Sunday. We are in the synagogue of Capharnaum where Jesus was giving his
well-known discourse after the multiplication of the loaves. The people had
sought to make him king but Jesus had withdrawn, first, to the mountain with
God, with the Father, and then to Capharnaum. Since they could not see him,
they began to look for him, they boarded the boats in order to cross the lake
to the other shore and had found him at last. However, Jesus was well aware of
the reason for this great enthusiasm in following him and he says so, even
clearly: “you seek me, not because you saw signs, [because you were deeply
impressed] but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (v. 26).
Jesus wants to help the people go beyond the immediate
satisfaction — albeit important — of their own material needs. He wants to open
them to a horizon of existence that does not consist merely of the daily
concerns of eating, of being clothed, of a career. Jesus speaks of a food that
does not perish, which it is important to seek and to receive. He says: “do not
labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal
life, which the Son of man will give to you” (v. 27).
The crowd does not understand, it believes that Jesus is
asking for the observance of precepts in order to obtain the continuation of
that miracle, and asks: “what must we do, to be dong the works of God?” (v.
28). Jesus’ answer is unequivocal: “This is the work of God, that you believe
in him whom he has sent” (v. 29). The centre of existence — which is what gives
meaning and certain hope in the all too often difficult journey of life — is
faith in Jesus, it is the encounter with Christ.
We too ask: “what must we do to have eternal life?”. And
Jesus says: “believe in me”. Faith is the fundamental thing. It is not a matter
here of following an idea or a project, but of encountering Jesus as a living
Person, of letting ourselves be totally involved by him and by his Gospel.
Jesus invites us not to stop at the purely human horizon and to open ourselves
to the horizon of God, to the horizon of faith. He demands a single act: to
accept God’s plan, namely, to “believe in him whom he has sent” (v. 29).
Moses had given Israel manna, the bread from heaven
with which God himself had nourished his people. Jesus does not give some
thing, he gives himself: he is the “true bread that which comes down from
heaven”. He is the living Word of the Father; in the encounter with him we meet
the living God.
“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28),
the crowd asks, ready to act in order to perpetuate the miracle of the loaves.
But Jesus, the true bread of life that satisfies our hunger for meaning and for
truth, cannot be “earned” with human work; he comes to us only as a gift of God’s
love, as a work of God to be asked for and received.
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