On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the First Sunday of Advent, on 27 November 2005, 3 December
2006, 2 December 2007, 30 November 2008, 29 November 2009, 28 November 2010, 27
November 2011, and 2 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the Angelus
and nine homilies delivered on these occasions.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 November 2005
First
Sunday of Advent
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Advent begins
this Sunday. It is a very evocative religious season because it is interwoven
with hope and spiritual expectation: every time the Christian community
prepares to commemorate the Redeemer’s birth, it feels a quiver of joy which to
a certain extent it communicates to the whole of society.
In Advent,
Christians relive a dual impulse of the spirit: on the one hand, they raise
their eyes towards the final destination of their pilgrimage through history,
which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with
emotion his birth in Bethlehem,
they kneel before the Crib.
The hope of
Christians is turned to the future but remains firmly rooted in an event of the
past. In the fullness of time, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary: “Born
of a woman, born under the law”, as the Apostle Paul writes (Gal 4:4).
Today’s Gospel
invites us to stay on guard as we await the final coming of Christ. “Look
around you!”, Jesus says. “You do not know when the master of the house is
coming” (Mk 13:35). The short parable of the master who went on a journey and
the servants responsible for acting in his place highlights how important it is
to be ready to welcome the Lord when he suddenly returns.
The Christian
community waits anxiously for his “manifestation”, and the Apostle Paul,
writing to the Corinthians, urges them to trust in God’s fidelity and to live
so as to be found “blameless” (see 1 Cor 1:7-9) on the day of the Lord. Most
appropriately, therefore, the liturgy at the beginning of Advent puts on our
lips the Psalm: “Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your salvation” (see
Ps 85[84]:8).
We might say
that Advent is the season in which Christians must rekindle in their hearts the
hope that they will be able with God’s help to renew the world.
In this regard I
would also like to remember today the Constitution of the Second Vatican
Council, Gaudium et Spes, on the Church in the Modern World: it is a
text deeply imbued with Christian hope.
I am referring
in particular to no. 39, entitled “New Heavens and a New Earth”. In it we read:
“We are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells (see 2 Cor 5:2; II Pt 3:13).... Far from diminishing our
concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on,
for it is here that the body of a new human family grows”.
Indeed, we will
find the good fruits of our hard work when Christ delivers to the Father his
eternal and universal Kingdom. May Mary Most Holy, Virgin of Advent, obtain
that we live this time of grace in a watchful and hardworking way while we
await the Lord.
FIRST
VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 26 November 2005
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With the
celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent we are beginning a
new liturgical year. In singing the Psalms together, we have raised our hearts
to God, placing ourselves in the spiritual attitude that marks this season of
grace: “vigilance in prayer” and “exultation in praise” (see Roman
Missal, Advent Preface, II/A).
Taking as our model
Mary Most Holy, who teaches us to live by devoutly listening to the Word of
God, let us reflect on the short Bible Reading just proclaimed.
It consists of
two verses contained in the concluding part of the First Letter of St Paul to
the Thessalonians (I Thes 5: 23-24). The first expresses the Apostle’s
greeting to the community: the second
offers, as it were, the guarantee of its fulfilment.
The hope expressed
is that each one may be made holy by God and preserved irreproachable in his
entire person - “spirit, soul and body” - for the final coming of the Lord
Jesus; the guarantee that this can happen is offered by the faithfulness of God
himself, who will not fail to bring to completion the work he has begun in
believers.
This First
Letter to the Thessalonians is the first of all St Paul’s Letters, written probably in the
year 51. In this first Letter we can feel, more than in the others, the Apostle’s
pulsating heart, his paternal, indeed we can say maternal, love for this new
community. And we also feel his anxious concern that the faith of this new
Church not die, surrounded as she was by a cultural context in many regards in
opposition to the faith.
Thus, Paul ends
his Letter with a hope, or we might almost say with a prayer. The content of
the prayer we have heard is that they [the Thessalonians] should be holy and
irreproachable to the moment of the Lord’s coming. The central word of this
prayer is “coming”. We should ask ourselves what does “coming of the Lord”
mean? In Greek it is “parousia”, in Latin “adventus”, “advent”, “coming”. What
is this “coming”? Does it involve us or not?
To understand
the meaning of this word, hence, of the Apostle’s prayer for this community and
for communities of all times - also for us - we must look at the person through
whom the coming of the Lord was uniquely brought about: the Virgin Mary.
Mary belonged to
that part of the People of Israel who in Jesus’ time were waiting with
heartfelt expectation for the Saviour’s coming. And from the words and acts
recounted in the Gospel, we can see how she truly lived steeped in the Prophets’
words; she entirely expected the Lord’s coming.
She could not,
however, have imagined how this coming would be brought about. Perhaps she
expected a coming in glory. The moment when the Archangel Gabriel entered her
house and told her that the Lord, the Saviour, wanted to take flesh in her,
wanted to bring about his coming through her, must have been all the more
surprising to her.
We can imagine
the Virgin’s apprehension. Mary, with a tremendous act of faith and obedience,
said “yes”: “I am the servant of the Lord”. And so it was that she became
the “dwelling place” of the Lord, a true “temple” in the world and a “door”
through which the Lord entered upon the earth.
We have said
that this coming was unique: “the” coming of the Lord. Yet there is not
only the final coming at the end of time: in a certain sense the Lord
always wants to come through us. And he knocks at the door of our hearts:
are you willing to give me your flesh, your time, your life?
This is the
voice of the Lord who also wants to enter our epoch, he wants to enter human
life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling place in our personal lives.
This is the coming of the Lord. Let us once again learn this in the season of
Advent: the Lord can also come among us.
Therefore we can
say that this prayer, this hope, expressed by the Apostle, contains a fundamental
truth that he seeks to inculcate in the faithful of the community he founded
and that we can sum up as follows: God calls us to communion with him,
which will be completely fulfilled in the return of Christ, and he himself
strives to ensure that we will arrive prepared for this final and decisive
encounter. The future is, so to speak, contained in the present, or better, in
the presence of God himself, who in his unfailing love does not leave us on our
own or abandon us even for an instant, just as a father and mother never stop
caring for their children while they are growing up.
Before Christ
who comes, men and women are defined in the whole of their being, which the
Apostle sums up in the words “spirit, soul and body”, thereby indicating the
whole of the human person as a unit with somatic, psychic and spiritual
dimensions. Sanctification is God’s gift and his project, but human beings are
called to respond with their entire being without excluding any part of
themselves.
It is the Holy
Spirit himself who formed in the Virgin’s womb Jesus, the perfect Man, who
brings God’s marvellous plan to completion in the human person, first of all by
transforming the heart and from this centre, all the rest.
Thus, the entire
work of creation and redemption which God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
continues to bring about, from the beginning to the end of the cosmos and of
history, is summed up in every individual person. And since the first coming of
Christ is at the centre of the history of humanity and at its end, his glorious
return, so every personal existence is called to be measured against him - in a
mysterious and multiform way - during the earthly pilgrimage, in order to be
found “in him” at the moment of his return.
May Mary Most
Holy, the faithful Virgin, guide us to make this time of Advent and of the
whole new liturgical year a path of genuine sanctification, to the praise and
glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 3 December 2006
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
I would like
once again to thank the Lord, together with you, for the Apostolic Journey
which I made to Turkey
in these past few days: I felt accompanied and sustained by the prayer of the
entire Christian community. My cordial thanks to all!
Next Wednesday,
at the General Audience, I will have the opportunity to speak more expansively
about this unforgettable spiritual and pastoral experience, which I hope will
bear fruits of good for an ever more sincere cooperation among all Christ’s
disciples and a profitable dialogue with Muslim believers.
I am now eager
to renew my gratitude to all those who organized the Visit and helped in
various ways to ensure that it went peacefully and fruitfully. I address a special
thought to the Turkish Authorities and to the friendly Turkish People who gave
me a welcome worthy of their traditional spirit of hospitality.
I would like
here to recall above all the beloved Catholic community which lives on Turkish
territory. I am thinking of it this Sunday as we enter the Season of Advent.
I was able to
meet and celebrate Holy Mass with these brothers and sisters of ours who live
in conditions that are frequently difficult. It is truly a small flock,
variegated, rich in enthusiasm and faith, which we might say lives the Advent
experience constantly and vividly, sustained by hope.
In Advent, the
liturgy frequently repeats and assures us, as if to overcome our natural
diffidence, that God “comes”: he comes to be with us in every situation
of ours, he comes to dwell among us, to live with us and within us; he comes to
fill the gaps that divide and separate us; he comes to reconcile us with him
and with one another.
He comes into
human history to knock at the door of every man and every woman of good will,
to bring to individuals, families and peoples the gifts of brotherhood, harmony
and peace.
This is why
Advent is par excellence the season of hope in which believers in Christ are
invited to remain in watchful and active waiting, nourished by prayer and by
the effective commitment to love. May the approaching Nativity of Christ fill
the hearts of all Christians with joy, serenity and peace!
To live this
Advent period more authentically and fruitfully, the liturgy urges us to look
at Mary Most Holy and to set out in spirit together with her towards the
Bethlehem Grotto. When God knocked at the door of her young life, she welcomed
him with faith and love.
In a few days we
will contemplate her in the luminous mystery of her Immaculate Conception. Let
us allow ourselves to be attracted by her beauty, a reflection of divine glory,
so that “the God who comes” will find in each one of us a good and open heart
that he can fill with his gifts.
CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Vatican Basilica, Saturday, 2 December 2006
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
The first
antiphon of this evening’s celebration is presented as the opening of the
Advent Season and re-echoes as the antiphon of the entire liturgical year. Let
us listen to it again: “Proclaim to the peoples: God our Saviour is
coming”.
At the beginning
of a new yearly cycle, the liturgy invites the Church to renew her proclamation
to all the peoples and sums it up in two words “God comes”. These words,
so concise, contain an ever new evocative power.
Let us pause a
moment to reflect: it is not used in the past tense - God has come, - nor in
the future - God will come, - but in the present: “God comes”.
At a closer look,
this is a continuous present, that is, an ever-continuous action: it happened,
it is happening now and it will happen again. In whichever moment, “God comes”.
The verb “to
come” appears here as a theological verb, indeed theological, since it says something
about God’s very nature.
Proclaiming that
“God comes” is equivalent, therefore, to simply announcing God himself, through
one of his essential and qualifying features: his being the God-who-comes.
Advent calls
believers to become aware of this truth and to act accordingly. It rings out as
a salutary appeal in the days, weeks and months that repeat: Awaken! Remember
that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now!
The one true
God, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, is not a God who is there in
Heaven, unconcerned with us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes.
He is a Father
who never stops thinking of us and, in the extreme respect of our freedom,
desires to meet us and visit us; he wants to come, to dwell among us, to stay
with us.
His “coming” is
motivated by the desire to free us from evil and death, from all that prevents
our true happiness. God comes to save us.
The Fathers of
the Church observe that the “coming” of God - continuous and, as it were,
co-natural with his very being - is centred in the two principal comings of
Christ: his Incarnation and his glorious return at the end of time (see
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 15,1: PG 33, 870).
The Advent
Season lives the whole of this polarity.
In the first days,
the accent falls on the expectation of the Lord’s Final Coming, as the texts of
this evening’s celebration demonstrate.
With Christmas
approaching, the dominant note instead is on the commemoration of the event at Bethlehem, so that we may
recognize it as the “fullness of time”.
Between these
two “manifested” comings it is possible to identify a third, which St Bernard
calls “intermediate” and “hidden”, and which occurs in the souls of believers
and, as it were, builds a “bridge” between the first and the last coming.
“In the first”,
St Bernard wrote, “Christ was our redemption; in the last coming he will reveal
himself to us as our life: in this lies our repose and consolation” (Discourse
5 on Advent, 1).
The archetype
for that coming of Christ, which we might call a “spiritual incarnation”, is
always Mary. Just as the Virgin Mother pondered in her heart on the Word made
flesh, so every individual soul and the entire Church are called during their
earthly pilgrimage to wait for Christ who comes and to welcome him with faith
and love ever new.
The liturgy of
Advent thus casts light on how the Church gives voice to our expectation of
God, deeply inscribed in the history of humanity; unfortunately, this
expectation is often suffocated or is deviated in false directions.
As a Body
mystically united to Christ the Head, the Church is a sacrament, that is, a
sign and an effective instrument of this waiting for God.
To an extent
known to him alone, the Christian community can hasten his Final Coming,
helping humanity to go forth to meet the Lord who comes.
And she does
this first of all, but not exclusively, with prayer.
Next, essential
and inseparable from prayer are “good works”, as the prayer for this First
Sunday of Advent declares, and in which we ask the Heavenly Father to inspire
in us “the desire to go with good works” to Christ who comes.
In this
perspective, Advent is particularly suited to being a season lived in communion
with all those who - and thanks be to God they are numerous - hope for a more
just and a more fraternal world.
In this
commitment to justice, people of every nationality and culture, believers and
non-believers, can to a certain extent meet. Indeed, they are all inspired by a
common desire, even if their motivations are different, for a future of justice
and peace.
Peace is the
goal to which the whole of humanity aspires! For believers “peace” is one of
the most beautiful names of God, who wants all his children to agree with one
another, as I also had the opportunity to recall on my Pilgrimage in Turkey
in the past few days.
A hymn of peace
rang out in Heaven when God became man and was born of a woman in the fullness
of time (see Gal 4: 4).
Let us therefore
begin this new Advent - a time granted to us by the Lord of time - by
reawakening in our hearts the expectation of the God-who-comes and the hope
that his Name will be hallowed, that his Kingdom of justice and peace will
come, that his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Let us allow the
Virgin Mary, Mother of the God-who-comes and Mother of Hope, to guide us in
this waiting.
May she whom we
will celebrate as Immaculate in a few days obtain for us that we be found holy
and immaculate in love at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom,
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be praise and glory for ever and
ever. Amen.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With this first
Sunday of Advent a new liturgical year begins: the People of God begin again on
the way to living the mystery of Christ in history. Christ is the same
yesterday, today and for ever (see Heb 13: 8); history, instead, changes and
requires constant evangelization; it needs to be renewed from within and the
only true novelty is Christ: he is its fulfilment, the luminous future of
humanity and of the world. Risen from the dead, Jesus is the Lord to whom God
subjects all enemies, including death itself (see 1 Cor 15: 25-28). Advent is
therefore the propitious time to awaken in our hearts the expectation of he “who
is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1: 8). The Son of God has already come
to Bethlehem
about 20 centuries ago, he comes in each moment in the soul and in the
community disposed to receive him, he will come again at the end of time “to
judge the living and the dead”. The believer is therefore always vigilant,
inspired by the intimate hope of encountering the Lord, as the Psalm says: “I
wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the
Lord more than watchmen for the morning” (Ps 130[129]: 5-6).
This Sunday is
therefore a day specially suited to offering the entire Church and to all men
and women of good will my second Encyclical, which I wanted to dedicate
precisely to the theme of Christian hope. It is entitled Spe Salvi, because
it opens with the expression “Spe salvi facti sumus - in hope we were
saved” (Rm 8: 24). In this, as in other passages of the New Testament, the word
“hope” is strictly connected with the word “faith”. It is a gift that changes
the life of the one who receives it, as the experience of so many men and women
saints demonstrates. In what does this hope consist, so great and so “trustworthy”,
to make us say that in it we have “salvation”? In essence it consists in
the knowledge of God, in the discovery of the heart of the good and merciful
Father. Jesus, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has revealed
his Face to us, the face of a God so great in love as to communicate to us an uncrushable
hope that not even death can break, because the life of the one who entrusts
himself to this Father opens itself to the prospect of eternal beatitude.
The development
of modern science has always confined faith and hope to the private and individual
sphere, so that today it appears in a clear and sometimes dramatic way that man
and the world need God - the true God! - otherwise, they remain deprived of
hope. Science contributes much to the good of humanity, but it is not able to
redeem it. Man is redeemed by love, which makes one’s personal and social life
good and beautiful. This is why the great hope, the full and definitive one, is
guaranteed by God who is love, by God who has visited us and has given us life
in Jesus, and who will return at the end of time. We hope in Christ, we await
him! With Mary, his Mother, the Church goes to meet her Spouse: she does so
with works of charity, because hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love.
A good Advent to
all!
CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 1st December 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Advent is, par
excellence, the season of hope. Every year this basic spiritual attitude is
reawakened in the hearts of Christians, who, while they prepare to celebrate
the great Feast of Christ the Saviour’s Birth, revive the expectation of his
glorious second coming at the end of time. The first part of Advent insists
precisely on the parousia, the final coming of the Lord. The antiphons
of these First Vespers are all oriented, with different nuances, to this
perspective. The short Reading
from the First Letter to the Thessalonians (5: 23-34) refers explicitly
to the final coming of Christ using precisely the Greek term parousia (see
v. 23). The Apostle urges Christians to keep themselves sound and blameless,
but above all encourages them to trust in God, who “is faithful” (v. 24) and
will not fail to bring about this sanctification in all who respond to his
grace.
This entire
Vespers liturgy is an invitation to hope, pointing on the horizon of history to
the light of the Saviour who comes: “on that day a great light will appear”
(Antiphon 2); “the Lord will come with great might” (Antiphon 3); “his
splendour fills the whole world” (Magnificat Antiphon). This light,
which shines from the future of God, was already manifest in the fullness of
time; therefore, our hope does not lack a foundation but is supported by an
event situated in history, which at the same time exceeds history: the event
constituted by Jesus of Nazareth. The Evangelist John applies to Jesus the
title of “light”: it is a title that belongs to God. Indeed, in the Creed we
profess that Jesus Christ is “God from God, Light from Light”.
I wanted to dedicate
my second Encyclical, which was published yesterday, to the theme of hope. I am
pleased to offer it in spirit to the entire Church on this First Sunday of
Advent, so that, during preparation for Holy Christmas, the communities and
individual faithful can read and meditate upon it to rediscover the beauty
and depth of Christian hope. This, in fact, is inseparably bound to
knowledge of the Face of God, the Face which Jesus, the Only-Begotten Son,
revealed to us with his Incarnation, his earthly life and his preaching, and
especially with his death and Resurrection. True and steadfast hope is founded
on faith in God Love, the Merciful Father who “so loved the world that he gave
his Only Son” (Jn 3: 16), so that men and women and with them all creatures might
have life in abundance (see Jn 10: 10). Advent, therefore, is a favourable time
for the rediscovery of a hope that is not vague and deceptive but certain and
reliable, because it is “anchored” in Christ, God made man, the rock of our
salvation.
From the outset,
as becomes clear in the New Testament and especially in the Letters of the
Apostles, a new hope distinguishes Christians from those who live in pagan
religiosity. In writing to the Ephesians, St
Paul reminds them that before embracing faith in
Christ, they had “no hope and [were] without God in the world” (2: 12). This
appears an especially apt description for the paganism of our day: in
particular, we might compare it with the contemporary nihilism that corrodes
the hope in man’s heart, inducing him to think that within and around him
nothingness prevails: nothing before birth and nothing after death. In fact, if
God is lacking, hope is lacking. Everything loses its “substance”. It is as if
the dimension of depth were missing and everything were flattened out and
deprived of its symbolic relief, its “projection” in comparison with mere
materiality. At stake is the relationship between existence here and now and
what we call the “hereafter”: this is not a place in which we end up after
death; on the contrary, it is the reality of God, the fullness of life towards
which every human being is, as it were, leaning. God responded to this human
expectation in Christ with the gift of hope.
Man is the one
creature free to say “yes” or “no” to eternity, that is, to God. The human
being is able to extinguish hope within him, eliminating God from his life. How
can this be? How can it happen that the creature “made for God”, intimately
oriented to him, the creature closest to the Eternal One, can deprive himself
of this richness? God knows the human heart. He knows that those who reject him
have not recognized his true Face, and so he never ceases to knock at our door
like a humble pilgrim in search of hospitality. This is why the Lord grants
humanity new time: so that everyone may manage to know him! This is also the
meaning of a new liturgical year which is beginning: it is a gift of God, who
once again wishes to reveal himself to us in the mystery of Christ, through the
Word and the Sacraments. He wants to speak to humanity and to save the people
of today through the Church. And he does so by going out to meet them in order “to
seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19: 10). In this perspective, the celebration of
Advent is the answer of the Church-Bride to the ever new initiative of God the
Bridegroom, “who is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1: 8). God offers to
humanity, which no longer has time for him, further time, a new space in which
to withdraw into itself in order to set out anew on a journey to rediscover the
meaning of hope.
Here, then, is
the surprising discovery: my, our hope is preceded by the expectation which God
cultivates in our regard! Yes, God loves us and for this very reason expects
that we return to him, that we open our hearts to his love, that we place our
hands in his and remember that we are his children. This attitude of God always
precedes our hope, exactly as his love always reaches us first (see I Jn 4:
10). In this sense Christian hope is called “theological”: God is its source,
support and end. What a great consolation there is in this mystery! My Creator
has instilled in my spirit a reflection of his desire of life for all. Every
person is called to hope, responding to the expectations that God has of him.
Moreover, experience shows us that it is exactly like this. What keeps the
world going other than God’s trust in humankind? It is a trust reflected in the
hearts of the lowly, the humble, when they strive daily to do their best
through difficulties and labours, to do that little bit of good which is
nonetheless great in God’s eyes: in the family, in the work place, at school,
in the various social contexts. Hope is indelibly engraved in the human heart
because God our Father is life, and for eternal life and beatitude we are made.
Every child born
is a sign of trust in God and man and a confirmation, at least implicit, of the
hope in a future open to God’s eternity that is nourished by men and women. God
has responded to this human hope, concealing himself in time as a tiny human
being. St Augustine
wrote: “We might have thought that your Word was far distant from union with
man, if this Word had not become flesh and dwelt among us” (Conf. X, 43, 69,
cited in Spe Salvi, no. 29). Thus, let us allow ourselves to be guided
by the One who in her heart and in her womb bore the Incarnate Word. O Mary,
Virgin of expectation and Mother of hope, revive the spirit of Advent in your
entire Church, so that all humanity may start out anew on the journey towards
Bethlehem, from which it came, and that the Sun that dawns upon us from on high
will come once again to visit us (see Lk 1: 78), Christ our God. Amen.
PASTORAL
VISIT OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
TO “ST JOHN THE BAPTIST” ROMAN HOSPITAL
OF
THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF MALTA
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
First
Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
“Let us go to
the house of the Lord!”. These words that we repeated in the response of
the Responsorial Psalm clearly express the feelings that fill our hearts today,
the First Sunday of Advent. The reason why we can go ahead joyfully, as the
Apostle Paul has exhorted us, lies in the fact that our salvation is now at
hand. The Lord is coming! With this knowledge we set out on the journey of Advent,
preparing ourselves to celebrate with faith the extraordinary event of the Lord’s
birth. In the coming weeks, day after day the liturgy will offer for our
reflection Old Testament texts that recall the lively, constant desire that
kept alive in the Jewish people the expectation of the Messiah’s coming.
Watchful in prayer, let us too seek to prepare our hearts to receive the Lord,
who will come to show us his mercy and give us his salvation.
Precisely during
this time of waiting, Advent is a season of hope, and it is to Christian hope
that I wished to dedicate my second Encyclical, officially presented the day
before yesterday; it begins with the words St Paul addressed to the Christians
of Rome: “Spe salvi facti sumus - in hope we were saved” (Rom 8: 24). In
the Encyclical, I write among other things that “we need the greater and lesser
hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great
hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who
encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by
ourselves, cannot attain” (no. 31). May the certainty that God alone can be our
steadfast hope enliven us all, gathered here this morning in this house where
illness is combated with the support of solidarity. And I would like to make
the most of my Visit to your hospital, managed by the Association of the
Italian Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to present the
Encyclical in spirit to the Christian community of Rome, and especially to
those who, like you, are in direct contact with suffering and illness, for
precisely through suffering like the sick do we have need of hope, the
certainty that God exists and does not abandon us, that he lovingly takes us by
the hand and accompanies us. It is a text I invite you to examine deeply, to
find in it the reasons for this “trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can
face our present: the present, even if it is arduous” (no. 1).
Dear brothers
and sisters, “May the God of hope who fills us with all joy and peace in faith
through the power of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”. With this wish which
the priest addresses to the assembly at the beginning of Holy Mass, I offer you
my cordial greeting. I greet first of all the Cardinal Vicar, Camillo Ruini,
and Cardinal Pio Laghi, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the
Prelates and priests present and the chaplains and Sisters who serve here. I
greet with respect His Most Eminent Highness Fra Andrew Bertie, Prince and
Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, whom I thank for the
sentiments he has expressed on behalf of the management, the administrative,
health-care and nursing staffs and all those who in their various capacities
work in this hospital. I extend my greeting to the distinguished Authorities,
with a special thought for the Health-care Director as well as the Patients’
Representative, whom I thank for the words they addressed to me at the
beginning of the Celebration.
But my most
affectionate greeting is for you, dear sick people, and for your relatives who
share your anxieties and hopes. The Pope is spiritually close to you and
assures you of his daily prayers; he invites you to find support and comfort in
Jesus and never to lose trust. The Advent liturgy will repeat to us throughout
the coming weeks not to tire of calling on him; it will exhort us to go forth
to meet him, knowing that he himself comes constantly to visit us. In trial and
in sickness, God mysteriously visits us, and if we abandon ourselves to his
will, we can experience the power of his love. Precisely because they are
inhabited by people troubled by suffering, hospitals and clinics can become
privileged places to witness to Christian love, which nourishes hope and
inspires resolutions of fraternal solidarity. In the Collect we prayed: “O God,
inspire in us the determination to meet with good works your Christ who comes”.
Yes! Let us open our hearts to every person, especially if he or she is in
difficulty, because by doing good to those in need we prepare to welcome Jesus,
who, in them, comes to visit us.
Dear brothers
and sisters, this is what you seek to do in this hospital, where everyone’s
concern focuses on the professional and loving acceptance of the patients, the
preservation of their dignity and the commitment to improve the quality of
their life. Down the centuries the Church has made herself particularly “close”
to the suffering. Your praiseworthy Sovereign Military Order of Malta has
chosen to share in this spirit: from the very outset it was dedicated to the
assistance of pilgrims in the Holy Land with a
Hospice-Infirmary. While it pursued its aim of the defence of Christianity, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta spared no effort in treating the sick,
especially the poor and the outcast. This hospital is also a testimony of this
fraternal love. Having come into existence in the 1970s, it has today become a
stronghold with a high standard of technology and a home of solidarity, where
side by side with the health-care staff numerous volunteers work with generous
dedication.
Dear Knights of
the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, dear doctors, nurses and all who work
here, you are all called to carry out an important service to the sick and to
society, a service that demands self-denial and a spirit of sacrifice. In every
sick person, whoever he or she may be, may you be able to recognize and serve
Christ himself; make them perceive with your acts and words the signs of his
merciful love. To carry out this “mission” well, endeavour, as St Paul
instructs us in the Second Reading, to “put on the armour of light” (Rom 13:
12), which consists in the Word of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the grace of
the Sacraments, the theological and cardinal virtues; fight evil and abandon
sin that darkens our life. At the beginning of a new liturgical year, let us
renew our good resolutions of evangelical life. “It is full time now for you to
wake from sleep” (Rom 13: 11), the Apostle urges; it is time to convert, to
throw off the lethargy of sin, to prepare ourselves confidently to welcome “the
Lord who comes”. It is for this reason that Advent is a season of prayer and
watchful waiting.
The Gospel
passage that has just been proclaimed exhorts us to be “watchful”, which is
among other things the key word of the whole of this liturgical period: “Watch,
therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Mt 24: 42).
Jesus, who came among us at Christmas and will return in glory at the end of
time, does not tire of visiting us continuously in everyday events. He asks us
to be alert to perceive his presence, his advent, and recommends that we watch
and wait for him since his coming is not programmed or foretold but will be
sudden and unexpected. Only those who are alert are not taken by surprise. He
warns: may it not happen to you as in Noah’s day, when men ate and drank
heedlessly and were swept away unprepared by the flood (see Mt 24: 37-38). What
does the Lord want to make us understand with this warning, other than we must
not let ourselves be absorbed by material realities and concerns to the point
of being ensnared by them? We must live in the eyes of the Lord with the
conviction that he can make himself present. If we live in this way, the world
will become better.
“Watch,
therefore”. Let us listen to Jesus’ Gospel invitation and prepare ourselves to
relive with faith the mystery of the Redeemer’s birth, which filled all the
world with joy; let us prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord in his constant
coming to us in the events of life, in joy and in pain, in health and in
sickness; let us prepare ourselves to meet him at his definitive coming. His
nearness is always a source of peace, and if suffering, a legacy of human
nature, sometimes becomes unbearable, with the Saviour’s advent “suffering -
without ceasing to be suffering - becomes, despite everything, a hymn of praise”
(Spe Salvi, no. 37). Comforted by these words, let us continue the
Eucharistic Celebration, invoking upon the sick, their relatives and all who
work in this hospital and in the entire Order of the Knights of Malta the
motherly protection of Mary, the Virgin of waiting and hope, as also of the joy
which already exists in this world, because when we feel the closeness of the
living Christ, there the remedy to suffering and his joy is already present.
Amen.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 30 November 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, with the
First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. This season invites us
to reflect on the dimension of time, which always exerts great fascination over
us. However, after the example of what Jesus loved to do, I wish to start with
a very concrete observation: we all say that we do not have enough time,
because the pace of daily life has become frenetic for everyone. In this regard
too, the Church has “good news” to bring: God gives us his time. We
always have little time; especially for the Lord, we do not know how or,
sometimes, we do not want to find it. Well, God has time for us! This is
the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover
with ever new amazement. Yes, God gives us his time, because he entered history
with his Word and his works of salvation to open it to eternity, to make it
become a covenantal history. In this prospective, already in itself time is a
fundamental sign of God’s love: a gift that man, as with everything else, is
able to make the most of or, on the contrary, to waste; to take in its
significance or to neglect with obtuse superficiality.
Then there are
the three great “points” in time, which delineate the history of salvation: at
the beginning, Creation; the Incarnation-Redemption at the centre and at the
end the “parousia”, the final coming that also includes the Last Judgment. However,
these three moments should not be viewed merely in chronological succession. In
fact, Creation is at the origin of all things but it also continues and is
actuated through the whole span of cosmic becoming, until the end of time. So
too, although the Incarnation-Redemption occurred at a specific moment in
history the period of Jesus’ journey on earth it nevertheless extends its
radius of action to all the preceding time and all that is to come. And in
their turn, the final coming and the Last Judgment, which were decisively
anticipated precisely in the Cross of Christ, exercise their influence on the
conduct of the people of every age.
The liturgical
season of Advent celebrates the coming of God in its two moments: it first
invites us to reawaken our expectation of Christ’s glorious return, then, as
Christmas approaches, it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our
salvation. Yet the Lord comes into our lives continually. How timely then, is
Jesus’ call, which on this First Sunday is powerfully proposed to us: “Watch!”
(Mk 13: 33, 35, 37). It is addressed to the disciples but also to everyone,
because each one, at a time known to God alone, will be called to account for
his life. This involves a proper detachment from earthly goods, sincere repentance
for one’s errors, active charity to one’s neighbour and above all a humble and
confident entrustment to the hands of God, our tender and merciful Father. The
icon of Advent is the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus. Let us invoke her so that
she may help us also to become an extension of humanity for the Lord who comes.
CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 29 November 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With this evening
liturgy, we begin the itinerary of a new liturgical year, entering into the
first of its seasons: Advent. In the biblical reading that we have just heard,
taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul uses
precisely this word: “coming”, which in Greek is parusia and adventus
in Latin (1 Thes 5: 23). According to the common tradition of this text,
Paul urges the Christians of Thessalonica to keep themselves blameless “for
the coming” of the Lord. However, in the original text one reads “in the
coming” (εν τη παρουσια), almost as if the advent of the Lord were more so than
a future point in time a spiritual place in which to walk already in the
present, while waiting, and in which one is indeed perfectly preserved in every
personal dimension. In fact, it is exactly this that we live out in the
liturgy. By celebrating the liturgical seasons we actualize the mystery in this
case the Lord’s coming as it were “walking in it” towards its full realization
at the end of time, but already drawing sanctifying virtue from it, since the
last times have already begun with Christ’s death and Resurrection.
The word that
sums up this particular state, in which one awaits something that is to be
manifested but of which one also already has a glimpse and a foretaste, is “hope”.
Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in it the whole
Church is called to become hope, for herself and for the world. The whole
organism of the Mystical Body acquires, so to speak, the “colour” of hope. The
whole People of God continue on their journey, attracted by this mystery: that
our God is “the God who comes” and calls us to go to meet him. How? In the
first place in that universal form of hope and expectation which is prayer,
which is eminently expressed in the Psalms, human words in which God himself
has placed and continually places the invocation of his coming on the lips and
in the hearts of believers. Let us therefore reflect for a few moments on two
of his Psalms which we have just prayed and which are consecutive in the
biblical Book: Psalms 141 and 142, according to the Jewish numbering.
“I have called
to you, Lord; make hasten to help me! / Hear my voice, when I cry to you. / Let
my prayer arise before you like incense, / the raising of my hands like an
evening oblation” (Ps 141[140]: 1-2). Thus begins the first Psalm of the First
Vespers for the first week of the Psalter: words which, at the beginning of
Advent, acquire a new “colour”, because the Holy Spirit makes them resound ever
anew within us in the Church on her way between the time of God and human
times. “Lord, hasten to help me!”. It is the cry of someone who feels he is in
grave danger but it is also the cry of the Church amid the many threats that
surround her, that threaten her holiness, the irreproachable integrity of which
the Apostle Paul speaks which instead must be preserved for the Lord’s coming.
And in this invocation the cry of all the just also resounds, of all those who
want to resist evil, the seduction of an iniquitous well-being, of pleasures
offensive to human dignity and to the condition of the poor. At the beginning
of Advent the Church’s liturgy once again makes this cry her own, and raises it
to God “like incense” (v. 2). The evening offering of incense is in fact a
symbol of prayer, of the outpouring of hearts turned to God, to the Most High,
as well as “the raising of... hands like an evening oblation” (v. 2). Material
sacrifices, as it also took place in the Jewish temple, are no longer offered
in the Church, but the spiritual offering of prayer is raised, joined to that
of Jesus Christ who is at the same time Sacrifice and Priest of the new and
eternal covenant. In the cry of the Mystical Body we recognize the very voice
of the Head: the Son of God who has taken upon himself our trials and our
temptations, to give us the grace of his victory.
This
identification of Christ with the Psalmist is particularly evident in the
second Psalm (142). Here, every word, every invocation, makes one think of
Jesus in his passion, and in particular of his prayer to the Father in Gethsemane. In his first coming, with the Incarnation,
the Son of God wanted to share fully in our human condition. Of course, he did
not share in sin, but for our salvation suffered all its consequences. In
praying Psalm 142 the Church relives every time the grace of this compassion,
of this “coming” of the Son of God in human anguish so deeply as to plumb its
depths. The Advent cry of hope then expresses from the outset and very
powerfully, the full gravity of our state, of our extreme need of salvation. It
is as if to say: we await the Lord not in the same way as a beautiful
decoration upon a world already saved, but as the only way of liberation from a
mortal danger and we know that he himself, the Liberator, had to suffer and die
to bring us out of this prison (see v. 8).
In short, these
two Psalms shelter us from any temptation to escape or flee from reality; they
preserve us from a false hope that might desire to enter Advent and move
towards Christmas forgetting the tragedy of our personal and collective
existence. In fact, a trustworthy hope that is not deceptive, can only be a “Paschal”
hope, as the canticle of the Letter to the Philippians reminds us every
Saturday evening, with which we praise the Incarnate Christ, crucified, Risen
and our universal Lord. Let us turn our gaze and our heart to him, in spiritual
union with the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Advent. Let us place our hand in hers
and enter joyfully into this new time of grace that God gives as a gift to his
Church for the good of all humanity. Like Mary and with her maternal help, let
us make ourselves docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that the God of
peace may sanctify us totally, and the Church become a sign and instrument of hope
for all men. Amen.
PASTORAL
VISIT
TO
THE BASILICA OF SAINT LAWRENCE OUTSIDE THE WALLS
ON
THE OCCASION OF THE 1750th ANNIVERSARY
OF
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY DEACON
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
First
Sunday of Advent, 30 November 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today on the
First Sunday of Advent, we enter that four-week Season with which a new
liturgical year begins and that immediately prepares us for the Feast of
Christmas, the memorial of the Incarnation of Christ in history. Yet, the
spiritual message of Advent is more profound and already orients us
to the glorious return of the Lord at the end of our history. Adventus is the
Latin word that could be translated by “arrival”, “coming” or “presence”. In
the language of the ancient world it was a technical term that indicated the
arrival of an official, and especially the visit of kings or emperors to the
provinces, but it could also be used for the appearance of a divinity, which
emerged from its hidden dwelling-place and thus manifested its divine power;
its presence was solemnly celebrated with worship.
By using this
term, “Advent”, Christians wanted to express the special relationship that bound
them to the Crucified and Risen Christ. He is a King who, having entered this
poor province called earth, made us the gift of his visit and after his
Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven desired in any case to stay with us; we
perceive his mysterious presence in the liturgical assembly. Indeed, in
celebrating the Eucharist, we proclaim that he did not withdraw from the world,
that he did not leave us alone and, even though we cannot see and touch him as
with material and tangible realities, he is in any case with us and among us.
Indeed, he is in us, because he can attract to himself and communicate his life
to every believer who opens his/her heart to him. Thus, Advent means
commemorating the first coming of the Lord in the flesh, with his definitive return
already in mind, and, at the same time, it means recognizing that Christ
present in our midst makes himself our travelling companion in the life of the
Church who celebrates his mystery. This knowledge, dear brothers and sisters,
nourished by listening to the Word of God, must help us to see the world with
different eyes, to interpret the individual events of life and history as words
that God addresses to us, as signs of his love that assure us of his closeness
in every situation; this awareness, in particular, should prepare us to welcome
him when “he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his
kingdom will have no end”, as in a little while we shall repeat in the Creed.
In this perspective, Advent becomes for all Christians a time of expectation
and hope, a privileged time for listening and reflection, as long as we let
ourselves be guided by the liturgy, which invites us to advance to meet the
Lord who comes.
“Come, Lord
Jesus”: dear friends, this ardent invocation of the Christian community of the
early days must also become our constant aspiration, the aspiration of the
Church in every epoch, which longs for and prepares herself for the encounter
with her Lord. Come today, Lord; enlighten us, give us peace, help us triumph over
violence. Come Lord, we pray precisely in these weeks: “Lord... let us see your
face and will shall be saved” (Ps 80[79]: 3), we have just prayed with the
words of the Responsorial Psalm. And the Prophet Isaiah revealed to us in the
First Reading that the Face of Our Saviour is that of a tender and merciful
father who cares for us in all circumstances because we are the work of his
hands: “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name”
(63: 16). Our God is a father prepared to forgive repentant sinners and to
welcome those who trust in his mercy (see Is 64: 4). We had drifted away from
him because of sin, falling under the dominion of death, but he took pity on us
and, on his own initiative, without any merit on our part, decided to meet our
needs, sending his only Son as our Redeemer. As we face such a great mystery of
love, our thanksgiving rises spontaneously and our invocation becomes more
trusting: Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, today, in our time, in every
part of the world, let us feel your presence and grant us your salvation (see
Gospel acclamation).
Dear brothers
and sisters, the thought of Christ’s presence and his return at the end of time
is particularly significant in this Basilica of yours beside the monumental cemetery of Verano where so many of our beloved
deceased rest while they await resurrection. How often are funerals celebrated
in this temple; how often do the works of the liturgy ring out full of comfort:
“In him who rose from the dead, our hope of resurrection dawned. The sadness of
death gives way to the bright promise of immortality” (see Preface for
Christian Death I).
Yet your
monumental Basilica, which makes us think back to the primitive Basilica built
by the Emperor Constantine and later transformed to acquire its present
appearance, speaks above all of the glorious martyrdom of St Lawrence,
Archdeacon of Pope St Sixtus II and his reliable steward in the administration
of the community’s goods. Today I have come to celebrate the Blessed Eucharist
to join you in paying homage to him in a most unusual circumstance, on the
occasion of the Jubilee Year of Lawrence, established to commemorate the
1,750th anniversary of holy Deacon’s birth in Heaven. History confirms to us
how glorious is the name of this Saint, by whose sepulchre we have gathered.
His concern for the poor, the generous service that he rendered to the Church
of Rome in the context of assistance and charity, his fidelity to the Pope
which he took to the point of desiring to follow him in the supreme trial of
martyrdom and the heroic witness of pouring out his blood, which he suffered
only a few days later, are facts well known to all. St Leo the Great, in a
beautiful homily, thus comments on the atrocious martyrdom of this “illustrious
hero”: “The flames could not overcome Christ’s love and the fire that burned
outside was less keen than that which blazed within”. And he adds: “The Lord
desired to spread abroad his glory throughout the world, so that from the East
to the West the dazzling brightness of his deacon’s light does shine, and Rome
is become as famous through Lawrence as Jerusalem was ennobled by Stephen”
(Homily 85, 4: PL 54, 486).
The 50th
anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Pope Pius XII falls this year
and this reminds us of a particularly dramatic event in the centuries-old
history of your Basilica. It took place during the Second World War, when,
exactly on 19 July 1943, a violent bombardment caused severe damage to the
building and to the whole neighbourhood, sowing death and destruction. The
generous gesture made by my venerable Predecessor can never be eradicated from
the memory of history: he hastened here immediately to help and to comfort the
people so badly hit, among the still smouldering ruins. Nor have I forgotten
that this same Basilica also contains the urns of two other great people: in
the hypogeum in fact, are placed for the veneration of the faithful the mortal
remains of Bl. Pius IX, while in the atrium is the tomb of Alcide De Gasperi,
who was a wise and balanced guide for Italy during the difficult years of the
post-war reconstruction and, at the same time, a distinguished statesman
capable of looking to Europe with a broad Christian vision.
While we are
gathered here in prayer, I would like to greet you all with affection, starting
with the Cardinal Vicar, with Monsignor Vicegerent, who is also Commendatory
Abbot of the Basilica, with the Auxiliary Bishop of the Northern Sector of Rome
and with your Parish Priest, Fr Bruno Mustacchio, whom I thank for his kind
words at the beginning of the liturgical celebration. I greet the Minister
General of the Order of Capuchins and the Friars of the Community who carry out
their service with zeal and dedication, welcoming the many pilgrims, assisting
the poor with charity and witnessing to hope in the Risen Christ to all those
who visit the Cemetery of Verano. I would like to assure you of my
appreciation, and, above all, of my remembrance in prayer. I also greet the
various groups who are involved in the animation of the catechesis, the
liturgy, charity, the members of the two polyphonic choirs, the Franciscan
Third Order, local and regional. Then I have learned with pleasure that for
some years the “diocesan missionary laboratory” has been housed here, to inculcate
in the parish communities a missionary awareness, and I willingly join you in
expressing the hope that this initiative of our Diocese will help to inspire a
courageous missionary pastoral action that will bring the proclamation of God’s
merciful love to every corner of Rome, involving mainly young people and
families. Lastly, I would like to extend my thoughts to the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, especially to the elderly, the sick and people who are lonely
and in difficulty. I remember all and each one at this Holy Mass.
Dear brothers
and sisters, at the beginning of this Advent what better message can we glean
from St Lawrence than that of holiness? He repeats to us that holiness, that
is, going to meet Christ who comes ceaselessly to visit us, does not go out of
fashion, on the contrary as time passes it shines brightly and expresses the
perennial striving for God of humankind. May this Jubilee event therefore be an
occasion for your parish community of a renewed adherence to Christ, a further
deepening of the sense of belonging to his Mystical Body which is the Church,
and a constant commitment of evangelization through charity. May Lawrence, a
heroic witness of the Crucified and Risen Christ be for each person an example
of docile adherence to the divine will, so that, as we heard the Apostle Paul
remind the Corinthians, we too may live in such a way as to be found “guiltless”
in the day of Our Lord (see 1 Cor 1: 7-9).
To prepare
ourselves for Christ’s coming is also the exhortation we hear in today’s
Gospel: “Watch”, Jesus tells us in Luke’s short parable about the master of the
house who goes on a journey but the date of whose return is unknown (see Mk 13:
33-37). Watching means following the Lord, choosing what Christ chose, loving
what he loved, conforming one’s own life to his; watching means passing every
instant of our time in the sphere of his love without letting oneself be
disheartened by the inevitable difficulties and problems of daily life. This is
what St Lawrence did, this is what we must do and let us ask the Lord to grant
us his grace so that Advent may be an incentive for all to walk in this
direction. May Mary, the humble Virgin of Nazareth chosen by God to become
Mother of the Redeemer, St Andrew whose feast we are celebrating today, and St
Lawrence, an example of fearless Christian faithfulness to the point of
martyrdom, guide us and go with us. Amen!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2009
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
This Sunday, by
the grace of God, a new Liturgical Year opens, of course, with Advent, a Season
of preparation for the birth of the Lord. The Second Vatican Council, in the
Constitution on the Liturgy, affirms that the Church “in the course of the
year... unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from the Incarnation and Nativity
to the Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the
Coming of the Lord”. In this way, “recalling the mysteries of the redemption,
she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so
that these are in some way made present for all time; the faithful lay hold of
them and are filled with saving grace” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no.
102). The Council insists on the fact that the centre of the Liturgy is Christ,
around whom the Blessed Virgin Mary, closest to him, and then the martyrs and
the other saints who “sing God’s perfect praise in Heaven and intercede for us”
(ibid., no. 104) revolve like the planets around the sun.
This is the
reality of the Liturgical Year seen, so to speak, “from God’s perspective”. And
from the perspective, let us say, of humankind, of history and of society what
importance can it have? The answer is suggested to us precisely by the journey
through Advent on which we are setting out today. The contemporary world above
all needs hope; the developing peoples need it, but so do those that are
economically advanced. We are becoming increasingly aware that we are all on
one boat and together must save each other. Seeing so much false security
collapse, we realize that what we need most is a trustworthy hope. This is
found in Christ alone. As the Letter to the Hebrews says, he “is the same
yesterday and today and for ever (Heb 13: 8). The Lord Jesus came in the past,
comes in the present and will come in the future. He embraces all the
dimensions of time, because he died and rose; he is “the Living One”. While he
shares our human precariousness, he remains forever and offers us the stability
of God himself. He is “flesh” like us and “rock” like God. Whoever yearns for
freedom, justice, and peace may rise again and raise his head, for in Christ
liberation is drawing near (see Lk 21: 28) as we read in today’s Gospel. We can
therefore say that Jesus Christ is not only relevant to Christians, or only to
believers, but to all men and women, for Christ, who is the centre of faith, is
also the foundation of hope. And every human being is constantly in need of
hope.
Dear brothers
and sisters, the Virgin Mary fully embodies a humanity that lives in hope based
on faith in the living God. She is the Virgin of Advent: she is firmly
established in the present, in the “today” of salvation. In her heart she
gathers up all past promises, and encompasses the future. Let us learn from her
in order to truly enter this Season of grace and to accept, with joy and
responsibility, the coming of God in our personal and social lives.
CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF ADVENT
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Vatican Basilica, Saturday, 28 November 2009
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With this
celebration we are entering the liturgical season of Advent. In the biblical
Reading we have just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians,
the Apostle Paul invites us to prepare for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(5: 23), with God’s grace keeping ourselves blameless. The exact word Paul uses
is “coming”, in Latin adventus, from which the term “Advent” derives.
Let us reflect
briefly on the meaning of this word, which can be rendered with “presence”, “arrival”
or “coming”. In the language of the ancient world it was a technical term used
to indicate the arrival of an official or the visit of the king or emperor to a
province. However, it could also mean the coming of the divinity that emerges
from concealment to manifest himself forcefully or that was celebrated as being
present in worship. Christians used the word “advent” to express their
relationship with Jesus Christ: Jesus is the King who entered this poor “province”
called “earth” to pay everyone a visit; he makes all those who believe in him
participate in his Coming, all who believe in his presence in the liturgical
assembly. The essential meaning of the word adventus was: God is here,
he has not withdrawn from the world, he has not deserted us. Even if we cannot
see and touch him as we can tangible realities, he is here and comes to visit
us in many ways.
The meaning of
the expression “advent” therefore includes that of visitatio, which
simply and specifically means “visit”; in this case it is a question of a visit
from God: he enters my life and wishes to speak to me. In our daily lives we
all experience having little time for the Lord and also little time for
ourselves. We end by being absorbed in “doing”. Is it not true that activities
often absorb us and that society with its multiple interests monopolizes our
attention? Is it not true that we devote a lot of time to entertainment and to
various kinds of amusement? At times we get carried away. Advent, this powerful
liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to
understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual
events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he
has for each one of us. How often does God give us a glimpse of his love! To
keep, as it were, an “interior journal” of this love would be a beautiful and
salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the
Lord present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us see the world
with different eyes? Should it not help us to consider the whole of our life as
a “visit”, as a way in which he can come to us and become close to us in every
situation?
Another
fundamental element of Advent is expectation, an expectation which is at the
same time hope. Advent impels us to understand the meaning of time and of
history as a kairós, as a favourable opportunity for our salvation. Jesus
illustrated this mysterious reality in many parables: in the story of the
servants sent to await the return of their master; in the parable of the
virgins who await the bridegroom; and in those of the sower and of the harvest.
In their lives human beings are constantly waiting: when they are children they
want to grow up, as adults they are striving for fulfilment and success and, as
they advance in age, they look forward to the rest they deserve. However, the
time comes when they find they have hoped too little if, over and above their
profession or social position, there is nothing left to hope for. Hope marks
humanity’s journey but for Christians it is enlivened by a certainty: the Lord
is present in the passage of our lives, he accompanies us and will one day also
dry our tears. One day, not far off, everything will find its fulfilment in the
Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of justice and peace.
However there
are many different ways of waiting. If time is not filled by a present endowed
with meaning expectation risks becoming unbearable; if one expects something
but at a given moment there is nothing, in other words if the present remains
empty, every instant that passes appears extremely long and waiting becomes too
heavy a burden because the future remains completely uncertain. On the other
hand, when time is endowed with meaning and at every instant we perceive
something specific and worthwhile, it is then that the joy of expectation makes
the present more precious. Dear brothers and sisters, let us experience
intensely the present in which we already receive the gifts of the Lord, let us
live it focused on the future, a future charged with hope. In this manner
Christian Advent becomes an opportunity to reawaken within ourselves the true
meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of
Christ, the Messiah who was expected for long centuries and was born in
poverty, in Bethlehem.
In coming among us, he brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his
love and his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in
Sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily
life, in the whole of the creation whose aspect changes according to whether
Christ is behind it or whether he is obscured by the fog of an uncertain origin
and an uncertain future. We in turn may speak to him, presenting to him the
suffering that afflicts us, our impatience, the questions that well up in our
hearts. We may be sure that he always listens to us! And if Jesus is present,
there is no longer any time that lacks meaning or is empty. If he is present,
we may continue to hope, even when others can no longer assure us of any
support, even when the present becomes trying.
Dear friends,
Advent is the season of the presence and expectation of the eternal. For this
very reason, it is in a particular way a period of joy, an interiorized joy
that no suffering can diminish. It is joy in the fact that God made himself a
Child. This joy, invisibly present within us, encourages us to journey on with
confidence. A model and support of this deep joy is the Virgin Mary, through
whom we were given the Infant Jesus. May she, a faithful disciple of her Son,
obtain for us the grace of living this liturgical season alert and hardworking,
while we wait. Amen!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 28 November 2010
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, the first
Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new Liturgical Year, a new journey of
faith that on the one hand commemorates the event of Jesus Christ and, on the
other, opens to its ultimate fulfilment. It is precisely in this double
perspective that she lives the Season of Advent, looking both to the first
coming of the Son of God, when he was born of the Virgin Mary, and to his
glorious return, when he will come “to judge the living and the dead”, as we
say in the Creed. I would now like to focus briefly on this evocative theme of “waiting”,
for it touches upon a profoundly human aspect in which the faith becomes, so to
speak, completely one with our flesh and our heart.
Expectation or
waiting is a dimension that flows through our whole personal, family and social
existence. Expectation is present in thousands of situations, from the smallest
and most banal to the most important that involve us completely and in our
depths. Among these, let us think of waiting for a child, on the part of a
husband and wife; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far
away to visit us; let us think, for a young person, of waiting to know his
results in a crucially important examination or of the outcome of a job interview;
in emotional relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved, of waiting for the
answer to a letter, or for the acceptance of forgiveness.... One could say that
man is alive as long as he waits, as long as hope is alive in his heart. And
from his expectations man recognizes himself: our moral and spiritual “stature”
can be measured by what we wait for, by what we hope for.
Every one of us,
therefore, especially in this Season which prepares us for Christmas, can ask
himself: What am I waiting for? What, at this moment of my life, does my heart
long for? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of
the community, of the nation. What are we waiting for together? What unites our
aspirations, what brings them together? In the time before Jesus’ birth the
expectation of the Messiah was very strong in Israel
– that is, the expectation of an Anointed one, a descendent of King David, who
would at last set the people free from every form of moral and political
slavery and find the Kingdom
of God. But no one would
ever have imagined that the Messiah could be born of a humble girl like Mary,
the betrothed of a righteous man, Joseph. Nor would she have ever thought of
it, and yet in her heart the expectation of the Savior was so great, her faith
and hope were so ardent, that he was able to find in her a worthy mother.
Moreover, God himself had prepared her before time. There is a mysterious
correspondence between the waiting of God and that of Mary, the creature “full
of grace”, totally transparent to the loving plan of the Most High. Let us
learn from her, the Woman of Advent, how to live our daily actions with a new
spirit, with the feeling of profound expectation that only the coming of God
can fulfil.
CELEBRATION OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF
ADVENT
FOR UNBORN LIFE
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Vatican Basilica, Saturday, 27 November 2010
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With this
evening celebration the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new
Liturgical Year, starting with its first season: Advent, the period that
commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special
grace, because it is blessed by the Lord.
In this Advent
Season we shall be granted once again to experience the closeness of the One
who created the world, who guides history and who cared for us to the point of
deigning to become a man.
This great and
fascinating mystery of the God-with-us, indeed, of the God who becomes one of
us, is what we shall celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy
Christmas. During the Season of Advent we shall feel the Church which takes us
by the hand and — in the image of Mary Most Holy, expresses her motherhood,
enabling us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who
embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.
While our hearts
look forward to the annual celebration of Christ’s Birth, the Church’s Liturgy
directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord who will come
in the splendour of glory. For this reason in every Eucharist we “announce his
death, proclaim his Resurrection until he comes again”, we watch in prayer.
The Liturgy does
not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of
Advent, the cry with which the whole of Sacred Scripture ends, on the last page
of the Revelation to St John: “Come, Lord Jesus” (22:20).
Dear brothers
and sisters, our gathering this evening for the beginning of the journey
through Advent is enriched by another important reason: together with the whole
Church we wish to celebrate a solemn prayer vigil for unborn life. I would like
to express my gratitude to all those who have accepted this invitation and to
those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in
its various situations of frailty, especially when it is newly conceived and in
its early stages.
Precisely, the
beginning of the Liturgical Year helps us live anew the expectation of God who
took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself little, who
becomes a child; it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is close, who chose
to experience human life from the very beginning in order to save it totally,
in its fullness. And so the mystery of Lord’s Incarnation and the beginning of
human life are closely and harmoniously connected and in tune with each other
in the one saving plan of God, the Lord of the life of each and everyone.
The Incarnation
reveals to us, with intense light and in a surprising way, that every human
life has a very lofty and incomparable dignity.
In comparison
with all the other living beings that populate the earth man has an
unmistakable originality. He is presented as the one unique being, endowed with
intelligence and free will, as well as consisting of material reality. He lives
simultaneously and inseparably in both the spiritual and the corporal
dimension.
This is also
suggested in the text of the First Letter to the Thessalonians that has just
been proclaimed: “May the God of peace himself”, St Paul writes, “sanctify you wholly; and may
your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23).
We are therefore
spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and
limitations of our material condition, while at the same time we are open to an
infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome him within us. We
are active in earthly realities and through them we are able to perceive God’s
presence and to reach out to him, Truth, Goodness and absolute Beauty. We
savour fragments of life and happiness and yearn for complete fulfilment.
God loves us
deeply, totally and without making distinctions. He calls us to friendship with
him, he makes us part of a reality beyond every imagination and every thought
and word: his divine life itself.
With feeling and
gratitude, let us be aware of the value of every human person’s incomparable
dignity and of our great responsibility to all. “Christ, the final Adam”, the
Second Vatican Council states, “by the revelation of the mystery of the Father
and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling
clear… by his Incarnation, the Son of God has in a certain way united himself
with each man” (Gaudium et Spes, no. 22).
Believing in
Jesus Christ also means seeing man in a new way, with trust and hope. Moreover,
experience itself and right reason testify that the human being is capable of
understanding and of wanting, conscious of himself and free, unrepeatable and
irreplaceable, the summit of all earthly realities, and who demands to be
recognized as a value in himself and deserves always to be accepted with
respect and love. He is entitled not to be treated as an object to be possessed
or a thing to be manipulated at will, and not to be exploited as a means for
the benefit of others and their interests.
The human person
is a good in himself and his integral development must always be sought. Love
for all, moreover, if it is sincere, tends spontaneously to become preferential
attention to the weakest and poorest. This explains the Church’s concern for
the unborn, the frailest, those most threatened by the selfishness of adults
and the clouding of consciences.
The Church
continually reasserts what the Second Vatican Council declared against abortion
and against every violation of unborn life: “from the moment of its conception
life must be guarded with the greatest care” (ibid., no. 51).
Cultural trends
exist that seek to anaesthetize consciences with spurious arguments. With
regard to the embryo in the mother’s womb, science itself highlights its
autonomy, its capacity for interaction with the mother, the coordination of
biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of
the organism.
It is not an
accumulation of biological material but rather of a new living being, dynamic
and marvelously ordered, a new individual of the human species. This is what
Jesus was in Mary’s womb; this is what we all were in our mother’s womb. We may
say with Tertullian, an ancient Christian writer: “the one who will be a man is
one already” (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider
him a person from conception.
Unfortunately,
even after birth, the lives of children continue to be exposed to neglect, hunger,
poverty, disease, abuse, violence and exploitation. The many violations of
their rights sorrowfully wound the conscience of every person of good will.
In the face of
the sad view of injustices committed against human life, before and after
birth, I make my own Pope John Paul II’s passionate appeal to the
responsibility of each and every individual: “respect, protect, love and serve
life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice,
development, true freedom, peace and happiness!” (Encyclical Evangelium
vitae, no. 5).
I urge
politicians, leaders of the economy and of social communications to do
everything in their power to promote a culture ever respectful of human life,
to obtain favourable conditions and support networks for the acceptance and
development of life.
Let us entrust
our prayers and our commitment to unborn life to the Virgin Mary, who welcomed
the Son of God made man with her faith, with her maternal womb, with her
attentive care, with her nurturing support, vibrant with love.
Let us do so in
the Liturgy — which is the place where we live the truth and where truth lives
with us — adoring the divine Eucharist in which we contemplate Christ’s Body,
that Body which took flesh from Mary through the action of the Holy Spirit, and
was born of her in Bethlehem
for our salvation. Ave, verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 November 2011
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today,
together with the Church, we are beginning the new liturgical year: a new
journey of faith to experience together in Christian communities but, as
always, also to be taken within world history so as to open it to God’s
mystery, to the salvation that comes from his love. The liturgical year begins
with the Season of Advent. It is a marvellous period in which the expectation
of Christ’s return and the memory of his first Coming — when
he emptied himself of his divine glory to take on our mortal flesh — reawakens in hearts.
“Watch!”
This is Jesus’ call in today’s Gospel. He does not only address it to his
disciples but to everyone: “Watch!” (Mk 13:37). It is a salutary reminder to
us that life does not only have an earthly dimension but reaches towards a “beyond”,
like a plantlet that sprouts from the ground and opens towards the sky. A
thinking plantlet, man, endowed with freedom and responsibility, which is why
each one of us will be called to account for how he/she has lived, how each one
has used the talents with which each is endowed: whether one has kept them to
oneself or has made them productive for the good of one’s brethren too.
Today,
Isaiah, too, the prophet of Advent, with a heartfelt entreaty addressed to God
on behalf of the people, gives us food for thought. He recognized the
shortcomings of his people and said at a certain point: “There is no one who
calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; for you have hidden
your face from us and have delivered us up to our iniquities” (see Is 64:6).
How
can we fail to find this description striking? It seems to reflect certain
panoramas of the post-modern world: cities where life becomes anonymous and
horizontal, where God seems absent and man the only master, as if he were the
architect and director of all things: construction, work, the economy,
transport, the branches of knowledge, technology, everything seems to depend on
man alone. And in this world that appears almost perfect at times disturbing
things happen, either in nature or in society, which is why we think that God
has, as it were, withdrawn and has, so to speak, left us to ourselves.
In
fact, the true “master” of the world is not the human being but God. The
Gospel says: “Watch therefore — for you do not know
when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly
and find you asleep” (Mk 13:35-36).
The
Season of Advent returns every year to remind us of this in order that our life
may find its proper orientation, turned to the face of God. The face is not
that of a “master” but of a Father and a Friend. Let us make the Prophet’s
words our own, together with the Virgin Mary who guides us on our Advent
journey.”O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter: we
are all the work of your hand” (Is 64:8).
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2012
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today the Church
begins a new Liturgical Year, a journey which, 50 years after the opening of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, is further enriched by the Year of
Faith. The first Season on this itinerary is Advent, formed — in the Roman Rite
— of the four weeks preceding the Nativity of Our Lord, that is, the mystery of
the Incarnation.
The word “advent”
means “coming” or “presence”. In the ancient world it meant the visit of the
king or emperor to a province; in the Christian language it refers to the
Coming of God, to his presence in the world; a mystery that embraces the entire
cosmos and history, but that has two culminating events: the First and the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The first is, precisely, the Incarnation. The
second is his glorious return at the end of time. These two events that are
chronologically distant — and we are not given to know by how long — are deeply
connected, because with his death and Resurrection Jesus fulfilled that
transformation of man and of the cosmos which is the final goal of Creation.
However, before the end, the Gospel must be proclaimed to all the nations, as Jesus
says in the Gospel according to St Mark (see Mk 13:10). The Lord’s Coming
continues, the world must be penetrated by his presence and this ongoing Coming
of the Lord in the proclamation of the Gospel requires our continuous
collaboration. Moreover the Church, who is, as it were, the Betrothed, the
promised Bride of the Lamb of the Crucified and Risen God (see Rev 21:9), in
communion with her Lord, collaborates in this Coming of the Lord, in which his
glorious return has already begun.
Today the word of
God calls us to this, outlining the lines of conduct we should follow to be
ready for the Lord’s Coming. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says to the disciples: “take
heed... lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and
cares of this life... at all times, praying” (Lk 21:34, 36). Therefore,
moderation and prayer. And the Apostle Paul adds the invitation to “increase
and abound in love” among ourselves and for everyone, to make our hearts
blameless in holiness (see 1 Thess 3:12-13).
In the midst of
the upheavals of the world or in the deserts of indifference and materialism,
may Christians accept salvation from God and bear witness to it with a
different way of life, like a city set upon a hill. “In those days”, the
Prophet Jeremiah announced, “Jerusalem
will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: The Lord
is our righteousness” (33:16). The community of believers is a sign of God’s
love, of his justice which is already present and active in history but is
not yet completely fulfilled and must therefore always be awaited, invoked
and sought with patience and courage.
The Virgin Mary
perfectly embodies the spirit of Advent that consists in listening to God, with
a profound desire to do his will and to serve our neighbour joyfully. Let us
allow ourselves to be guided by her, so that God who comes may not find us
closed or distracted but rather may extend a little of his kingdom of love,
justice and peace in each of us.
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
FIRST VESPERS
PRESIDED BY HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
MEETING WITH STUDENTS OF ROME’S UNIVERSITIES AND ATHENEUMS
HOMILY
Vatican Basilica, Saturday, 1 December 2012
“He who calls
you is faithful” (1 Thess 5:24).
Dear University Students,
The Apostle Paul’s
words guide us to understanding the true meaning of the Liturgical Year which
we are beginning this evening with the recitation of First Vespers of Advent.
The whole journey of the Church Year is orientated to discovering and living
fidelity to the God of Jesus Christ who will be presented to us once again, in
the Grotto of Bethlehem, in the face of a Child. The entire history of
salvation is a journey of love, mercy and benevolence: from Creation to the
liberation of the People of Israel from slavery in Egypt, to the gift of the Law on
Sinai, to the return to the homeland from the Babylonian captivity. The God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was always the close God who never abandoned his
People. On several occasions he suffered their infidelity with sadness and
patiently awaited their return, ever with the freedom of a love that precedes
and sustains the beloved, attentive to his or her dignity and deepest
expectations.
God did not
withdraw into his heaven but lowered himself to man’s experience: a great
mystery that succeeds in surpassing every possible expectation. God entered
human time in the most unthinkable way: by making himself a child and going
through the stages of human life, so that our whole existence, spirit, soul and
body — as St Paul has reminded us — might be kept blameless and be raised to
God’s heights. And he did all this out of his faithful love for humanity. When
love is true, by its nature it strives for the good of others, for their
greatest possible good. It is not limited merely to respecting the commitments
of friendship that have been taken on, but goes further, without calculation or
measure. This is precisely what the living, true God did, whose profound
mystery is revealed to us in St John’s words: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). In
Jesus of Nazareth this God takes upon himself the whole of humanity, the whole
history of man, and he gives it a decisive reorientation toward a new manner of
human existence, characterized by having been generated by God and by aspiring
to him (see Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 3, The Infancy
Narratives).
Dear young
people, distinguished rectors and professors, it is a cause of great joy to me
to share these reflections with you who represent Rome’s university world. In this world, while
retaining their own specific identities, converge Rome’s state and private universities and the
pontifical institutions that have developed together for so many years, bearing
a lively witness to a fertile dialogue and cooperation among the different
branches of knowledge and theology. I greet and thank the Cardinal Prefect of
the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Rector of the Foro Italico
University of Rome and your representative, for his words to me on behalf of
all. I greet with deep cordiality the Cardinal Vicar and the Minister of
Education, Universities and Research, as well as the various academic
authorities present.
I greet you with
special affection, dear young university students of the Roman Athenaeums, who
have renewed your profession of faith at the Apostle Peter’s Tomb. In this
period you are preparing for the great decisions of your life and for service
in the Church and in society. This evening you can feel that you are not alone.
With you are the university teachers and chaplains, as well as the animators of
the colleges. The Pope is with you! And, above all you are integrated into the
great academic community of Rome,
in which it is possible to proceed in prayer, research, exchanges, and in
bearing witness to the Gospel. It is a precious gift for your life; may you be able
to see it as a sign of fidelity to God, who offers you opportunities to conform
your existence to that of Christ, to let yourselves be sanctified by him to the
point of perfection (see 1 Thess 5:23).
The liturgical
year that we are beginning with these Vespers also represents for you the
journey to live once again the mystery of this faithfulness of God, on which
you are called to found your lives, as on a firm rock. In celebrating and
living this itinerary of faith with the whole Church, you will experience that
Jesus Christ is the one Lord of the cosmos and of history, without whom every
human project risks coming to nothing. The liturgy, lived in its true spirit,
is always the fundamental school for living the Christian faith, a “theological”
faith which involves you in your whole being — spirit, soul and body — to make
you living stones in the edifice of the Church and collaborators of the New
Evangelization. Especially in the Eucharist the living God makes himself so
close that he becomes food that supports us on the journey, a presence that
transforms us with the fire of his love.
Dear friends, we
are living in a context in which we often come across indifference to God.
However, I think that in the inner depths of all those who live far from God —
also among your peers — there is an inner longing for the infinite, for
transcendence. It is your task to witness in the university halls to the close
God who also shows himself in the search for the truth, the soul of all
intellectual commitment.
In this regard,
I express my pleasure and encouragement at seeing the university pastoral
programme entitled: “The Father saw him from afar. The today of man, the today
of God”, proposed by the Vicariate of Rome’s Office for Campus Ministry. Faith
is the door that God opens in our lives to lead us to the encounter with
Christ, in which the presence of the human meets the today of God. The
Christian faith is not adherence to a generic or indefinite God but to the
living God who in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, entered our history and
revealed himself as the Redeemer of man. Believing means entrusting one’s life
to the One who alone can give it fullness in time and open it to a hope beyond
time.
In this Year of
Faith the invitation, that I wish to address to the entire academic community
of Rome, is to
reflect on faith. The continuous dialogue between the State or private
universities and the Pontifical universities promises hope for an ever more
meaningful presence of the Church in the context of a culture that is not only
Roman but also Italian and international. The Cultural Weeks and the
International Symposium of Teachers which will be held next June will be an
example of this experience, which I hope it will be possible to repeat in all
the university towns with State, private and Pontifical athenaeums.
Dear friends, “He
who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess 5:24); he will make you
heralds of his presence. In this evening’s prayer let us set out in spirit
toward the Bethlehem Grotto in order to taste the true joy of Christmas: the
joy of welcoming at the centre of our life, after the example of the Virgin
Mary and of St Joseph, that Child who reminds us that God’s eyes are open on
the world and on every man and woman (see Zech 12:4). God’s gaze is focused on
us because he is faithful to his love! Only this certainty can lead humanity
towards goals of peace and prosperity, in this delicate and complex period of
history.
Moreover the
next World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro
will be a great opportunity for you young university students to demonstrate
the historical fruitfulness of God’s fidelity, offering your witness and
commitment for the moral and social renewal of the world.
The handing over
of the Icon of Mary Sedes Sapientiae to the Brazilian University
Delegation by the university chaplaincy of Roma Tre that is celebrating its
20th anniversary this year is a sign of this common commitment of yours as
young university students of Rome.
I entrust to Mary, Seat of Wisdom, all of you and your
loved ones; the studies, teaching and life of the athenaeums; and, especially,
the itinerary of formation and of witness in this Year of Faith. May the lamps
you will carry in your chaplaincies always be fed by your faith that is humble
but full of reverence so that each one of you may be a light of hope and peace
in the university environment. Amen.