Entry 0301: Reflections on the Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary
Time by Pope Benedict XVI
On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 2 October 2005, 8 October 2006, 7 October 2007, 5 October 2008, 4 October 2009, 3 October 2010, 2 October 2011, and 7 October 2012. Here are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the Angelus and five homilies delivered on these occasions.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 2 October 2005
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Only a little
while ago in St Peter’s Basilica, we concluded the Eucharistic celebration at
which we inaugurated the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
The Synod
Fathers, coming from every part of the world with experts and other delegates,
will live for the next three weeks, together with the Successor of Peter, a
privileged time of prayer, reflecting on the theme: The Eucharist: Source
and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.
Why this theme?
Is it not an already taken-for-granted topic that is fully understood?
In reality, the
Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, authoritatively defined at the Council of
Trent, needs to be received, experienced and transmitted by the Ecclesial
Community ever anew and adapted to the times.
The Eucharist
can also be considered as a “lens” through which to verify continually the face
and the road of the Church, which Christ founded so that every person can know
the love of God and find in him fullness of life.
For this reason,
the beloved Pope John Paul II wished to dedicate an entire year to the
Eucharist, which will close after three weeks with the end of the Synodal
Assembly on Sunday, 23 October, when we will celebrate World Mission Sunday.
Such a
coincidence helps us to contemplate the Eucharistic mystery from a missionary
perspective. The Eucharist, in effect, is the driving force of the Church’s
entire evangelizing action, a little like the heart in the human body.
Christian
communities without the Eucharistic celebration, in which one is nourished at
the double table of the Word and the Body of Christ, would lose their authentic
nature: only those that are “eucharistic” can transmit Christ to humanity, and
not only ideas or values which are also noble and important.
The Eucharist
has shaped famous apostolic missionaries in every state of life: Bishops, priests,
Religious, laity, saints in active and in contemplative life.
Let us think, on
the one hand, of St Francis Xavier, who was impelled by Christ’s love to go out
to the Far East in order to proclaim the
Gospel; and on the other, of St Teresa of Lisieux, the young Carmelite who we
remembered just yesterday. She experienced in the cloister an ardent apostolic
spirit, meriting her to be proclaimed together with St Francis Xavier as patron
of the Church’s missionary activity.
Let us invoke
their protection on the Synod Fathers as well as that of the Guardian Angels,
whom we remember today.
We confidently
pray above all to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we will honour on 7 October as
Our Lady of the Rosary.
The month of
October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, the unique contemplative prayer
through which, guided by the Lord’s Heavenly Mother, we fix our gaze on the
face of the Redeemer in order to be conformed to his joyful, light-filled,
sorrowful and glorious mysteries.
This ancient
prayer is having a providential revival, thanks also to the example and
teaching of the beloved Pope John Paul II. I invite you to reread his Apostolic
Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae and to put into practice its
directions on the personal, family and community levels.
We entrust the
work of the Synod to Mary: may she lead the entire Church to an ever clearer
knowledge of the proper mission of service to the Redeemer truly present in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist.
OPENING
MASS OF THE 11TH ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE
SYNOD OF BISHOPS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Brothers in the Episcopate and
in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The reading from
the Prophet Isaiah and today’s Gospel set before our eyes one of the great
images of Sacred Scripture: the image of the vine. In Sacred Scripture, bread
represents all that human beings need for their daily life. Water makes the
earth fertile: it is the fundamental gift that makes life possible. Wine, on
the other hand, expresses the excellence of creation and gives us the feast in
which we go beyond the limits of our daily routine: wine, the Psalm says, “gladdens
the heart”. So it is that wine and with it the vine have also become images of
the gift of love in which we can taste the savour of the Divine. Thus, the
reading from the Prophet that we have just heard begins like a canticle of
love: God created a vineyard for himself - this is an image of the history of
love for humanity, of his love for Israel which he chose. This is
therefore the first thought in today’s readings: God instilled in men and
women, created in his image, the capacity for love, hence also the capacity for
loving him, their Creator. With the Prophet Isaiah’s canticle of love God wants
to speak to the hearts of his people - and to each one of us. “I have created
you in my image and likeness”, he says to us. “I myself am love and you are my
image to the extent that the splendour of love shines out in you, to the extent
that you respond lovingly to me”. God is waiting for us. He wants us to love
him: should not our hearts be moved by this appeal? At this very moment when we
are celebrating the Eucharist, in which we are opening the Synod on the
Eucharist, he comes to meet us, he comes to meet me. Will he find a response?
Or will what happened to the vine of which God says in Isaiah: “He waited for
it to produce grapes but it yielded wild grapes”, also happen to us? Is not our
Christian life often far more like vinegar than wine? Self-pity, conflict,
indifference?
With this we
have automatically come to the second fundamental thought in today’s readings.
As we have
heard, they speak first of all of the goodness of God’s creation and of the
greatness of the choice by which he seeks us out and loves us. But they then
also speak of the story that was successively lived out - of the “fall” of man.
God had planted the very best vines, yet they yielded wild grapes. Let us ask
ourselves: what do wild grapes consist of? The good grapes that God was hoping
for, the Prophet sings, would have been justice and righteousness. Wild grapes
instead bring violence, bloodshed and oppression that make people groan under
the yoke of injustice. In the Gospel, the image changes: the vine produces good
grapes, but the tenants keep them for themselves. They are not willing to hand
them over to the owner of the vineyard. They beat and kill his messengers and
kill his son. Their motive is simple: they themselves want to become owners;
they take possession of what does not belong to them. In the foreground of the
Old Testament is the accusation of the violation of social justice, of contempt
for human beings by human beings. In the background, however, it appears that
with contempt for the Torah, for the law given by God, it is God himself who is
despised. All people want is to enjoy their own power. This aspect is fully
highlighted in Jesus’ Parable: the tenants do not want to have a master - and
these tenants are also a mirror of ourselves. We men and women, to whom creation
is as it were entrusted for its management, have usurped it. We ourselves want
to dominate it in the first person and by ourselves. We want unlimited
possession of the world and of our own lives. God is in our way. Either he is
reduced merely to a few devout words, or he is denied in everything and banned
from public life so as to lose all meaning. The tolerance that admits God as it
were as a private opinion but refuses him the public domain, the reality of the
world and of our lives, is not tolerance but hypocrisy. But nowhere that the
human being makes himself the one lord of the world and owner of himself can
justice exist. There, it is only the desire for power and private interests
that can prevail. Of course, one can chase the Son out of the vineyard and kill
him, in order selfishly to taste the fruits of the earth alone. However, in no
time at all the vineyard then reverts to being an uncultivated piece of land,
trampled by wild boar as the Responsorial Psalm tells us (see Ps 80[79]: 14).
Thus, we reach a
third element of today’s readings. In the Old and New Testaments, the Lord
proclaims judgment on the unfaithful vineyard. The judgment that Isaiah foresaw
is brought about in the great wars and exiles for which the Assyrians and
Babylonians were responsible. The judgment announced by the Lord Jesus refers
above all to the destruction of Jerusalem
in the year 70. Yet the threat of judgment also concerns us, the Church in
Europe, Europe and the West in general. With
this Gospel, the Lord is also crying out to our ears the words that in the Book
of Revelation he addresses to the Church
of Ephesus
At this point,
however, we ask ourselves: “But is there no promise, no word of comfort in
today’s readings and Gospel? Is the threat the last word?”. No! There is a
promise, and this is the last, the essential word. We hear it in the Alleluia
verse from John’s Gospel: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who lives in
me and I in him will produce abundantly” (Jn 15: 5). With these words of the
Lord, John illustrates for us the final, true outcome of the history of God’s
vineyard. God does not fail. In the end he wins, love wins. A veiled allusion
to this can already be found in the Parable of the Tenants presented by today’s
Gospel and in the concluding words. There too, the death of the Son is not the
end of history, even if the rest of the story is not directly recounted. But
Jesus expresses this death through a new image taken from the Psalm: “The stone
which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone...” (see Mt 21:
42; Ps 118[117]: 22). From the Son’s death springs life, a new building
is raised, a new vineyard. He, who at Cana
changed water into wine, has transformed his Blood into the wine of true love
and thus transforms the wine into his Blood. In the Upper Room he anticipated
his death and transformed it into the gift of himself in an act of radical
love. His Blood is a gift, it is love, and consequently it is the true wine
that the Creator was expecting. In this way, Christ himself became the vine,
and this vine always bears good fruit: the presence of his love for us which is
indestructible.
These parables
thus lead at the end to the mystery of the Eucharist, in which the Lord gives
us the bread of life and the wine of his love and invites us to the banquet of
his eternal love. We celebrate the Eucharist in the awareness that its price
was the death of the Son - the sacrifice of his life that remains present in
it. Every time we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the death of
the Lord until he comes, St Paul
says (see I Cor 11: 26). But we also know that from this death springs
life, because Jesus transformed it into a sacrificial gesture, an act of love,
thereby profoundly changing it: love has overcome death. In the Holy Eucharist,
from the Cross, he draws us all to himself (see Jn 12: 32) and makes us
branches of the Vine that is Christ himself. If we abide in him, we will also
bear fruit, and then from us will no longer come the vinegar of
self-sufficiency, of dissatisfaction with God and his creation, but the good
wine of joy in God and of love for our neighbour. Let us pray to the Lord to
give us his grace, so that in the three weeks of the Synod which we are about
to begin, not only will we say beautiful things about the Eucharist but above
all, we will live from its power. Let us invoke this gift through Mary, dear
Synod Fathers whom I greet with deep affection as well as the various
Communities from which you come and which you represent here, so that, docile
to the action of the Holy Spirit, we may help the world become in Christ and
with Christ the fruitful vine of God. Amen.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 8 October 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This Sunday, the
Gospel presents to us Jesus’ words on marriage. He answered those who asked him
whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, as provided by a decree in
Mosaic law (see Dt 24: 1), that this was a concession made to Moses
because of man’s “hardness of heart”, whereas the truth about marriage dated
back to “the beginning of creation” when, as is written of God in the Book of
Genesis, “male and female he created them; for this reason a man shall leave
his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one”
(Mk 10: 6-7; see Gn 1: 27; 2: 24).
And Jesus added:
“So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let
not man put asunder” (Mk 10: 8-9). This is God’s original plan, as the
Second Vatican Council also recalled in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes: ”The
intimate partnership of life and love which constitutes the married state has
been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper
laws: it is rooted in the contract of its partners... God himself is the
author of marriage” (no. 48).
My thoughts now
go to all Christian spouses: I thank the Lord with them for the gift of the
Sacrament of Marriage, and I urge them to remain faithful to their vocation in
every season of life, “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health”, as
they promised in the sacramental rite.
Conscious of the
grace they have received, may Christian husbands and wives build a family open
to life and capable of facing united the many complex challenges of our time.
Today, there is
a special need for their witness. There is a need for families that do not let
themselves be swept away by modern cultural currents inspired by hedonism and
relativism, and which are ready instead to carry out their mission in the
Church and in society with generous dedication.
In the Apostolic
Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, the Servant of God John Paul II wrote
that “the sacrament of marriage makes Christian couples and parents witnesses
of Christ “to the end of the earth’, missionaries, in the true and proper
sense, of love and life” (see no. 54). Their mission is directed both to inside
the family - especially in reciprocal service and the education of the children
- and to outside it. Indeed, the domestic community is called to be a sign of
God’s love for all.
The Christian
family can only fulfil this mission if it is supported by divine grace. It is
therefore necessary for Christian couples to pray tirelessly and to persevere
in their daily efforts to maintain the commitments they assumed on their
wedding day.
I invoke upon
all families, especially those in difficulty, the motherly protection of Our
Lady and of her husband Joseph. Mary, Queen of the family, pray for us!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 7 October 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This first
Sunday of October offers us two reasons for prayer and reflection: the
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is celebrated precisely today,
and missionary commitment, to which this month is especially dedicated.
The traditional image of Our Lady of the Rosary portrays Mary who with one arm
supports the Child Jesus and with the other is offering the rosary beads to St
Dominic. This important iconography shows that the Rosary is a means given by
the Virgin to contemplate Jesus and, in meditating on his life, to love him and
follow him ever more faithfully. It is this message that Our Lady has also
bequeathed to us in her various apparitions. I am thinking in particular of the
apparition in Fatima that occurred 90 years
ago. Presenting herself as “Our Lady of the Rosary”, she insistently
recommended the daily recitation of the Rosary to the three little shepherd
children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, in order to obtain the end of the war.
Let us also accept the Virgin’s motherly request, pledging to recite the Rosary
with faith for peace in families, nations and throughout world.
We know,
however, that true peace spreads wherever people and institutions are open to
the Gospel. The month of October helps us to remember this fundamental truth by
means of a special animation that endeavours to keep the missionary desire
alive in every community and to support the work of all those who work on the
front lines of the Church’s mission - priests, men and women religious and lay
people. Let us prepare ourselves with special care to celebrate World Mission
Day this 21 October. Its theme will be: “All the Churches for all the world”.
The Gospel proclamation remains the first service that the Church owes to
humanity in order to offer Christ’s salvation to the people of our time, in so
many ways humiliated and oppressed, and to give a Christian orientation to the
cultural, social and ethical changes that are taking place in the world. This
year, a further motive impels us to renewed missionary commitment: the 50th
anniversary of the Encyclical Fidei Donum of the Servant of God Pius
XII, which prompted and encouraged cooperation between the Churches for the
mission ad gentes. I am also pleased to recall that 150 years ago five
priests and a layman from Fr Mazza’s Institute in Verona
[Italy ] set out for Africa,
precisely to the present-day Sudan .
One of them was St Daniel Comboni, future Bishop of Central Africa and Patron
of those peoples, whose liturgical memorial is celebrated this 10 October.
Let us entrust
all men and women missionaries to the intercession of this Gospel pioneer and
to the numerous Missionary Saints and Blesseds, and in particular to the
motherly protection of the Queen of the Holy Rosary. May Mary help to remind us
that all Christians are called to be heralds of the Gospel with their words and
with their life.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 5 October 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This morning,
the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops began with Holy Mass
at the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls. It will be taking place in the Vatican
during the next three weeks on the theme: “The Word of God in the life and
mission of the Church”. You are familiar with the value and function of this
particular Assembly of Bishops, who are chosen in such a way as to represent
the entire Episcopate and are convoked to bring more effective aid to the
Successor of Peter, while at the same time manifesting and consolidating
ecclesial communion. The Synod is an important body, established in September
of 1965 by my Venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI (see Apostolic
Letter motu proprio data “Apostolica sollicitudo”), in the last phase of
the Second Vatican Council, to implement a directive contained in the Decree on
the ministry of Bishops (see Christus Dominus, no. 5). These are the
purposes of the Synod of Bishops: to promote a closer union and greater
collaboration between the Supreme Pontiff and the Bishops worldwide, to provide
accurate and direct information concerning the Church’s circumstances and
problems, to facilitate agreement on matters of doctrine and pastoral action
and to address themes of great importance and topicality. These different tasks
are coordinated by a permanent Secretary who works in direct and immediate
dependence on the Bishop of Rome’s authority.
The synodal
dimension is constitutive of the Church; it consists of a coming together of
every people and culture in order that they become one in Christ and walk
together, following him, who said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”
(Jn 14: 6). In fact, the Greek work sýnodos, which is composed of the
preposition syn, or “with”, and odòs, which means “path, road”,
suggests the idea of “walking on a path together”, and this is truly the
experience of the People of God within salvation history. For the Ordinary
Synodal Assembly that begins today I have chosen, welcoming authoritative
advice in doing so, to examine deeply, in a pastoral perspective, the theme of The
Word of God in the life and mission of the Church. A considerable number of
particular Churches throughout the world took part in the preparatory phase.
They sent their contributions to the Secretariat of the Synod which in turn
drafted the Instrumentum laboris, a document that will be discussed by
the 253 Synod Fathers: 51 from Africa, 62 from America ,
41 from Asia, 90 from Europe and 9 from Oceania .
In addition, there are the numerous experts and auditors, men and women, as
well as fraternal delegates of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, and
some as special guests.
Dear brothers
and sisters, I invite you all to sustain the work of the Synod with your
prayers, invoking especially the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary,
perfect Disciple of the Divine Word.
CAPPELLA
PAPALE FOR THE OPENING
OF
THE 12th ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF
THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Basilica
of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, Sunday, 5 October 2008
Venerable Brothers in the
Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The First
Reading, taken from the Book of Isaiah, as well as the passage from the Gospel
according to Matthew, have presented to our liturgical assembly an evocative
allegorical image of Sacred Scripture: the image of the vineyard which we have
heard mentioned on the preceding Sundays. The initial passage of the Gospel
account refers to the “canticle of the vineyard” which we find in Isaiah. This
is a canticle set in the autumnal context of the grape harvest: a miniature
masterpiece of Hebrew poetry which must have been very familiar to those
listening to Jesus and from which, as from other references by the prophets
(see Hos 10: 1; Jer 2: 21; Ez 17: 3-10; 19: 10-14; Ps 79: 9-17), it was easy to
understand that the vineyard symbolized Israel. God bestowed the same care upon
his vineyard, upon the People he had chosen, that a faithful husband lavishes
upon his wife (see Ez 16: 1-14; Eph 5: 25-33).
Therefore the
image of the vineyard, together with that of the wedding feast, describes the
divine project of salvation and is presented as a moving allegory of God’s
Covenant with his People. In the Gospel, Jesus takes up the canticle of Isaiah
but adapts it to his listeners and to the new period in salvation history. The
emphasis is not so much on the vineyard as on the workers in it, from whom the
landowner’s “servants” ask for rent on his behalf. However, the servants are
abused and even murdered. How is it possible not to think of the vicissitudes
of the Chosen People and of the destiny reserved for the prophets sent by God?
In the end, the owner of the vineyard makes a final attempt: he sends his own
son, convinced that at least they will listen to him. Instead the opposite
happens: the labourers in the vineyard murder him precisely because he is the
landowner’s son, that is, his heir, convinced that this will enable them to
take possession of the vineyard more easily. We are therefore witnessing a leap
in quality with regard to the accusation of the violation of social justice as
it emerges from Isaiah’s canticle. Here we clearly see that contempt for the
master’s order becomes contempt for the master: it is not mere disobedience to
a divine precept, it is a true and proper rejection of God: the mystery of the
Cross appears.
What the Gospel
passage reports challenges our way of thinking and acting. It does not only
speak of Christ’s “hour”, of the mystery of the Cross at that moment, but also
of the presence of the Cross in all epochs. It challenges in a special way the
people who have received the Gospel proclamation. If we look at history, we are
often obliged to register the coldness and rebellion of inconsistent
Christians. As a result of this, although God never failed to keep his promise
of salvation, he often had to resort to punishment. In this context it comes
naturally to think of the first proclamation of the Gospel from which sprang
Christian communities that initially flourished but then disappeared and today
are remembered only in history books. Might not the same thing happen in our
time? Nations once rich in faith and vocations are now losing their identity
under the harmful and destructive influence of a certain modern culture. There
are some who, having decided that “God is dead”, declare themselves to be “god”,
considering themselves the only architect of their own destiny, the absolute
owner of the world. By ridding himself of God and not expecting salvation from
him, man believes he can do as he pleases and that he can make himself the sole
judge of himself and his actions. However, when man eliminates God from his
horizon, declares God “dead”, is he really happy? Does he really become freer?
When men proclaim themselves the absolute proprietors of themselves and the
sole masters of creation, can they truly build a society where freedom, justice
and peace prevail? Does it not happen instead - as the daily news amply
illustrates - that arbitrary power, selfish interests, injustice and
exploitation and violence in all its forms are extended? In the end, man
reaches the point of finding himself lonelier and society is more divided and
bewildered.
Yet there is a
promise in Jesus’ words: the vineyard will not be destroyed. While the
unfaithful labourers abandon their destiny, the owner of the vineyard does not
lose interest in his vineyard and entrusts it to other faithful servants. This
means that, although in certain regions faith is dwindling to the point of
dying out, there will always be other peoples ready to accept it. For this very
reason, while Jesus cites Psalm 118[117], “The stone which the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone” (v. 22), he gives the assurance that his
death will not mean God’s defeat. After being killed, he will not remain in the
tomb, on the contrary, precisely what seems to be a total defeat will mark the
beginning of a definitive victory. His painful Passion and death on the Cross
will be followed by the glory of his Resurrection. The vineyard, therefore,
will continue to produce grapes and will be rented by the owner of the
vineyard: “to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Mt
21: 41).
The image of the
vineyard with its moral, doctrinal and spiritual implications was to recur in
the discourse at the Last Supper when, taking his leave of the Apostles, the
Lord said: “I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch
of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit” (Jn 15: 1-2). Thus, starting from
the Paschal event, the history of salvation was to reach a decisive turning
point and those “other tenants” were to play the lead as chosen shoots grafted
on Christ, the true vine, and yield abundant fruits of eternal life (see
Collect). We too are among these “tenants”, grafted on Christ who desired to
become the “true vine” himself. Let us pray the Lord that in the Eucharist he
will give us his Blood, himself, that he will help us to “bear fruit” for
eternal life and for our time.
The comforting
message that we gather from these biblical texts is the certainty that evil and
death do not have the last word but that it is Christ who wins in the end.
Always! The Church never tires of proclaiming this Good News, as is also
happening today, in this Basilica, dedicated to the Apostle to the Gentiles who
was the first to spread the Gospel in vast regions of Asia Minor and Europe . We shall meaningfully renew this proclamation at
the 12th General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops whose theme is “The
Word of God in the life and mission of the Church”. I would like to greet
here with cordial affection all of you, venerable Synod Fathers, and all those
who are taking part in this meeting as experts, auditors and special guests. I
am pleased also to welcome the Fraternal Delegates of other Churches and
Ecclesial Communities. I extend to the Secretary General of the Synod of
Bishops and his collaborators the expression of gratitude of us all for the
hard work they have carried out in the past months, together with my good
wishes for the efforts that await them in the coming weeks.
When God speaks,
he always asks for a response. His saving action demands human cooperation; his
love must be reciprocated. Dear brothers and sisters, may what the biblical
text recounts about the vineyard never occur: “[he] looked for it to yield
grapes but it yielded wild grapes” (Is 5: 2). The Word of God alone can
profoundly change man’s heart so it is important that individual believers and
communities enter into ever increasing intimacy with his Word. The Synodal
Assembly will focus attention on this fundamental truth for the life and
mission of the Church. To draw nourishment from the Word of God is her first
and fundamental task. In fact, if the Gospel proclamation is her raison d’être
and mission, it is indispensable that the Church know and live what she
proclaims, so that her preaching may be credible despite the weaknesses and
poverty of the people of whom she is comprised. We know, furthermore, that the
proclamation of the Word, at the school
of Christ , has the Kingdom of God St
Jerome ’s reflection: “Whoever does not know Scripture
does not know the power and wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scripture is
ignorance of Christ” (Prologue of the commentary on Isaiah: no. 1, CCL
73, 1).
In this Pauline
Year we hear the cry of the Apostle to the Gentiles resounding with special
urgency: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9: 16); a cry that
becomes for every Christian a pressing invitation to serve Christ. “The harvest
is plentiful” (Mt 9: 37) the Divine Teacher still repeats today: so many still
do not know him and are awaiting the first proclamation of his Gospel; others,
although they received a Christian formation, have become less enthusiastic and
retain only a superficial contact with God’s Word; yet others have drifted away
from the practice of the faith and need a new evangelization. Then there are
plenty of people of right understanding who ask themselves essential questions
about the meaning of life and death, questions to which only Christ can give
satisfactory answers. It is, therefore, becoming indispensable for Christians
on every continent to be ready to reply to those who ask them to account for
the hope that is in them (see 1 Pt 3: 15), joyfully proclaiming the Word of God
and living the Gospel without compromises.
Venerable and
dear Brothers, may the Lord help us to question ourselves together, in the coming
weeks of the Synod’s work, on how to make the Gospel proclamation increasingly
effective in our time. We all know how necessary it is to make the Word of God
the centre of our lives, to welcome Christ as our one Redeemer, as the Kingdom
of God in person, to ensure that his light may enlighten every context of
humanity: from the family to the school, to culture, to work, to free time and
to the other sectors of society and of our life. In taking part in the
Eucharistic celebration we are always aware of the close connection that exists
between the proclamation of the Word of God and the Eucharistic sacrifice: it
is the Mystery itself that is offered for our contemplation. This is why “the
Church”, as the Second Vatican Council highlights, “has always venerated the
divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord, in so far as she never
ceases, particularly in the sacred liturgy to partake of the bread of life and
to offer it to the faithful from the one table of the Word of God and the Body
of Christ” (Dei Verbum, no. 21). The Council rightly concludes: “Just as
from constant attendance at the Eucharistic mystery the life of the Church
draws increase, so a new impulse of spiritual life may be expected from
increased veneration of the Word of God, which “stands for ever’“ (Dei
Verbum, no. 26).
May the Lord
grant that we approach with faith the twofold banquet of the Body and Blood of
Christ. May Mary Most Holy, who “kept all these things, pondering them in her
heart” (Lk 2: 19) obtain this for us. May she teach us to listen to the
Scriptures and meditate upon them in an inner process of maturation that never
separates the mind from the heart. May the Saints come to our aid, and in
particular the Apostle Paul, whom during this year we are increasingly
discovering as an undaunted witness and herald of God’s Word. Amen!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 4 October 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Eucharist
was celebrated in St Peter’s Basilica this morning for the opening of the
Second Special Assembly for Africa of the
Synod of Bishops, during which we also prayed in various African languages. My
venerable Predecessor John Paul II convoked the First “African Synod” in 1994,
with a view to the Year 2000 and the Third Christian Millennium. Pope John Paul
II, who with his missionary zeal went many times to Africa
as a pilgrim, gathered the content of what emerged from that meeting in the
Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, giving a new impetus to the
evangelization of the continent. Fifteen years later, this new Assembly follows
up on the first one, to assess the ground covered, to deepen knowledge of
certain aspects and to examine the most recent challenges. The theme chosen is:
“The Church in Africa at the service of
reconciliation, justice and peace”, accompanied by Christ’s words to his
disciples: “You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world”
(Mt 5: 13, 14).
The Synod is always an intense ecclesial experience,
an experience of collegial pastoral responsibility with regard to a specific
aspect of the Church’s life, or, as in this case, of a part of the Christian
People determined on the basis of their geographical area. The Pope and his closest
collaborators are meeting with the Members designated by the Assembly, the
Experts and the Auditors to examine the chosen theme. It is important to stress
that it is neither a study convention nor a programmatic assembly. Reports and
discourses are heard in the hall, the participants meet in groups, but we all
know well that we are not the protagonists: it is the Lord, his Holy Spirit,
who guides the Church. The most important thing for everyone is to listen: to
listen to each other, and for everyone to listen to what the Lord wants to say
to us. This is why the Synod takes place in an atmosphere of faith and prayer,
in religious obedience to God’s word. It is the task of the Successor of Peter
to convoke and guide Synodal Assemblies, to evaluate what emerges from their
work and then to make the appropriate pastoral suggestions.
Dear friends, Africa is a continent endowed with an extraordinary
wealth of humanity. Its population currently amounts to about a billion, and
its overall birth-rate is the highest in the world. Africa
is a fertile land of human life, but this life is unfortunately beset by so
many forms of poverty and at times suffers from gross injustice. The Church is
committed to surmounting them with the power of the Gospel and the material
solidarity of numerous institutions and charitable projects. Let us pray the
Virgin Mary that she may bless the Second Synod Assembly for Africa
and obtain peace and development for that great, beloved continent.
EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION FOR THE OPENING
OF
THE SECOND SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR AFRICA
OF
THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Venerable Brothers in the
Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Pax vobis peace
to you! With this liturgical greeting I address you all, gathered in the
Vatican Basilica, where 15 years ago, on 10 April 1994, the Servant of God John
Paul II opened the First Special Assembly for Africa
of the Synod of Bishops. The fact that today we are here to inaugurate the
Second one means that it was indeed a historic event, but not an isolated one.
It marked the arrival point of a journey that subsequently continued and is now
reaching a significant new milestone in the process of assessment and
relaunching. Let us praise the Lord for this! I address my most cordial welcome
to the Members of the Synod Assembly who are concelebrating this Holy Eucharist
with me, with the Experts and with the Auditors, and in particular to
those who come from Africa. I extend a special greeting to the General
Secretary of the Synod and his collaborators. I am very happy to have with us
His Holiness Abuna Paulos, Patriarch of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church of
Ethiopia, whom I warmly thank, and the Fraternal Delegates of the other
Churches and Ecclesial Communities. I am also glad to greet the Civil
Authorities and Ambassadors who have wished to take part in this celebration; I
greet with affection the priests, the men and women religious, the
representatives of organizations, movements and associations, and the Congolese
Choir which, together with the Sistine Chapel Choir, is enlivening our
Eucharistic Celebration.
The biblical Readings of this Sunday
speak of marriage. However, more radically, they speak of the design of
Creation, of the origins and hence, of God. The Second Reading from the Letter
to the Hebrews confirms this design, where it says: “For he who sanctifies”,
namely Jesus Christ, and “those who are sanctified”, that is, human beings, “have
all one origin”. “That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb 2:
11). Thus the primacy of God the Creator visibly stands out in both Readings,
with the eternal validity of his original imprint and the absolute priority of his
lordship, that lordship which children can welcome better than adults; for this
reason Jesus holds them up as a model for entering the Kingdom of Heaven (see
Mk 10: 13-15). Now, recognition of the absolute lordship of God is certainly
one of the salient and unifying features of the African culture. There are of
course many different cultures in Africa but
they all seem to agree on this point: God is the Creator and the source of
life. Now life as we well know is essentially expressed in the union between
the man and the woman and in the birth of children; the divine law, written
into nature, is therefore stronger and pre-eminent with respect to any human
law, according to Jesus’ clear and concise affirmation: “What therefore God has
joined together, let not man put asunder” (Mk 10: 9). Thus the perspective is
not primarily moral: it concerns being, the order inscribed in creation, before
duty.
Dear brothers
and sisters, in this regard beyond the first impression today’s liturgy of the
Word appears particularly suited to accompanying the opening of a Synodal
Assembly dedicated to Africa . I would like to
stress in particular certain aspects that emerge forcefully and call into
question the work that awaits us. The first, already mentioned: the primacy of
God, Creator and Lord. The second: marriage. The third: children. As regards
the first aspect, Africa is the depository of a priceless treasure for the
whole world: its profound sense of God, which I have been able to perceive
first hand at my meetings with the African Bishops on their ad limina
visits, and especially during my recent Apostolic Visit in Cameroon and Angola,
of which I retain pleasant and moving memories. It is precisely this pilgrimage
to Africa that I would now like to recall,
because during those days I opened this Synod Assembly in spirit by presenting
the Instrumentum Laboris to the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences
and the Heads of the Synods of Bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
When Africa ’s treasures are mentioned one immediately thinks
of the abundant riches of the territory which have unfortunately become and
continue to be a cause of exploitation, conflict and corruption. The Word of
God, instead, makes us look at another patrimony: the spiritual and cultural
heritage, which humanity needs even more than raw materials. “For what does it
profit a man”, Jesus was to say, “to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”
(Mk 8: 36). From this viewpoint Africa
constitutes an immense spiritual “lung” for a humanity that appears to be in a
crisis of faith and hope. But this “lung” can also become ill. And at this
moment at least two dangerous pathologies are infecting it: in the first place,
a disease that is already widespread in the Western world, in other words
practical materialism, combined with relativist and nihilistic thought.
Without
discussing the genesis of such sickness of the spirit, it is nevertheless
indisputable that the so-called “first” world has sometimes exported and is
exporting toxic spiritual refuse which contaminates the peoples of other
continents, including in particular the population of Africa .
In this sense, colonialism finished at a political level has never really
ended. But, precisely in this perspective, a second “virus” should be pointed
out that could strike Africa too, that is,
religious fundamentalism, combined with political and economic interests.
Groups that relate to various religious affiliations are spreading on the
African continent; they do so in the name of God but according to a logic
opposed to divine logic, in other words, not by teaching and practicing love
and respect for freedom but rather by intolerance and violence.
As regards the
subject of marriage, the text of chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis has recalled
the perennial foundation that Jesus himself confirmed: “Therefore a man leaves
his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh”
(Gn 2: 24). How is it possible not to recall the wonderful cycle of catecheses
that the Servant of God John Paul ii dedicated to this subject, based on a
particularly deeply studied exegesis of this biblical text? Today, in proposing
it to us again at the opening of the Synod, the liturgy offers us the
superabundant light of the truth revealed and incarnate in Christ with which it
is possible to consider the complex topic of marriage in the African ecclesial
and social context. On this point too, however, I would like briefly to mention
a thought that precedes any reflection or indication of a moral order, and
which is nevertheless still connected to the primacy of the meaning of the
sacred and of God. Marriage, as the Bible presents it to us, does not exist
outside the relationship with God. Conjugal life between a man and a woman, and
hence the life of the family that results from it, is inscribed in communion
with God and, in the light of the New Testament, becomes an icon of Trinitarian
Love and the sacrament of Christ’s union with the Church. To the extent in
which it preserves and develops its faith, Africa
will be able to draw on immense resources for the benefit of the family founded
on marriage.
Furthermore, by
including in the Gospel passage the text on Jesus and the children (Mk 10:
13-15), the liturgy invites us from this moment to bear in mind in our pastoral
concern the reality of children who constitute a great and unfortunately often
suffering part of the African population. In the scene where Jesus welcomes the
children, even indignantly opposing the disciples who sought to keep them away
from him, we see the image of the Church which in Africa ,
and in every other part of the earth, expresses her own motherhood especially
to the smallest ones, even when they are not yet born. Like the Lord Jesus, the
Church does not see them principally as recipients of assistance and even less
of pietism or exploitation but rather as people in every sense, who through
their own way of being show the main road by which to enter the Kingdom of God,
the road, that is, of unconditional entrustment to his love.
Dear Brothers, these
indications that come from the Word of God fit into the broad horizon of the
Synodal Assembly that is beginning today and that is the follow-up of the
former Synod dedicated to the African continent, whose fruits were presented to
Pope John Paul II, of venerable memory, in the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia
in Africa . Although the first duty of
evangelization remains valid and timely, there is need of a new evangelization
that takes into account the rapid social changes of our epoch and of the
phenomenon of world globalization. The same can be said of the pastoral
decision to build the Church as God’s family (see ibid., no. 63). In
this broad wake comes the Second Assembly whose theme is: “The Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and
peace: “You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world’ (Mt 5:
13, 14)”. In recent years the Catholic Church in Africa
has experienced great dynamism and the Synodal Meeting is an opportunity to
thank the Lord. And since the growth of the ecclesial community in all fields
also entails challenges ad intra and ad extra, the Synod is a
favourable moment for rethinking pastoral activity and renewing the thrust of
evangelization. In order to become the light of the world and the salt of the earth
it is therefore always necessary to aim at the “high standard” of Christian
living, in other words, at holiness. Pastors and all the members of the
ecclesial community are called to be holy; the lay faithful are called to
spread the fragrance of holiness in the family, in the work place, at school
and in every other social and political context. May the Church in Africa always be a family of authentic disciples of
Christ where the difference between ethnic groups becomes a cause and an
incentive for reciprocal human and spiritual enrichment.
With her work of
evangelization and human advancement, the Church can certainly make a great
contribution in Africa to the whole of society
which, unfortunately, is experiencing poverty, injustice, violence and war in
various countries. The vocation of the Church, a community of people who are
reconciled with God and with one another, is that of being a prophesy and a
leaven of reconciliation between the different ethnic, linguistic and even
religious groups, within single nations and throughout the continent.
Reconciliation, a gift of God that men and women must implore and receive, is a
stable basis on which to build peace, an indispensable condition for the
authentic progress of people and of society, in accordance with the project of
justice wanted by God. Open to the redeeming grace of the Risen Lord, Africa
will thus be illuminated increasingly by his light and, letting itself be
guided by the Holy Spirit, will become a blessing for the universal Church, making
its own qualified contribution to building a more just and fraternal world.
Dear Synod
Fathers, thank you for the contribution that each one of you will make to the
work in the coming weeks, which will be for us a renewed experience of
fraternal communion that will redound to the benefit of the whole Church,
especially in the context of the Year for Priests. And I ask you, dear brothers
and sisters, to accompany us with your prayers. I ask it of those present: I
ask it of the cloistered monasteries and religious communities scattered
throughout Africa and in other parts of the world, of the parishes and
movements, of the sick and the suffering: I ask all to pray that the Lord may
make this Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops fruitful.
Let us invoke upon it the protection of St Francis of Assisi
whom we are commemorating today, that of all the African Saints and, in a
special way, that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and Our Lady
of Africa . Amen!
PASTORAL VISIT TO
PALERMO
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Foro
Italico, Palermo
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
At this moment
of profound communion with Christ, present and alive in our midst and within
us, as an ecclesial family it is beautiful to turn in prayer to Mary Most Holy
Immaculate, his Mother and ours. Sicily is
spangled with Marian Shrines and in this place I feel spiritually at the centre
of this “network” of devotion that reaches all the cities and all the villages
of the Island .
I want to
entrust the whole People of God that lives in this beloved region to the Virgin
Mary. May she support families, in their love and in their commitment to
education; may she make fruitful the seeds of vocation that God sows lavishly
among the young; may she instil courage in trials, hope in difficulty, and
renewed enthusiasm in doing good. May Our Lady comfort the sick and all the
suffering, and help Christian communities so that no one in them is
marginalized or needy but each one, especially the little and the weak, feels
welcomed and treasured.
Mary is the
model of Christian life. I ask her above all to enable you to walk swiftly and
joyfully on the path of holiness, in the footsteps of so many luminous
witnesses of Christ, children of Sicily .
In this context I would like to recall that this morning, in Parma , Blessed Anna Maria Adorni was
beatified. In the 19th century she was an exemplary wife and mother and then,
widowed, she devoted herself to charity to women in prison and in difficulty,
for whose service she founded two religious Institutes. Because of her
ceaseless prayer, Mother Adorni was known as the “Living Rosary”. I am glad to
place her at the beginning of the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary. May the
daily meditation on the mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, the prayerful
Virgin, strengthen all of us in faith, in hope and in charity.
PASTORAL VISIT TO
PALERMO
HOLY
MASS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Foro
Italico Umberto I, Palermo
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I rejoice at
being able to break with you the bread of the Word of God and of the Eucharist.
I greet you all with affection and thank you for your warm welcome! I greet in
particular your Pastor, Archbishop Paolo Romeo; I thank him for his words of
welcome on behalf of you all and for the meaningful gift he has offered me. I
also greet the Archbishops and Bishops present, the priests, the men and women
Religious and the Representatives of the Ecclesial Associations and Movements.
I address a respectful thought to Hon. Mr Diego Cammarata, the Mayor, grateful
for his courteous greeting, to the Representative of the Government and to the
Civil and Military Authorities, who have wished to honour our Meeting with
their presence. A special “thank you” goes to all who have generously offered
their collaboration for the organization and preparation of this day.
Dear friends, my
Visit is taking place on the occasion of an important regional ecclesial
Meeting of Young People and Families, whom I will meet this afternoon. But I
have also come to share with you the joys and hopes, efforts and commitments,
ideals and aspirations of this diocesan community. When the ancient Greeks
landed in this area, as the Mayor mentioned in his greeting, they called it “Panormo”
meaning the place looking out over the whole bay, a name that suggested safety,
peace and calm. In coming to see you for the first time, my hope is that this
City, drawing inspiration from the most authentic values of its history and
tradition, may always know how to make the hopes of serenity and peace, summed
up in its name, come true for its inhabitants and for the entire nation.
I know that in
Palermo, as in the whole of Sicily, difficulties, problems and worries are not
lacking; I am thinking in particular of those who are actually living their
lives in precarious conditions, because of unemployment, uncertainty about the
future and physical and moral suffering and, as the Archbishop recalled,
because of organized crime. Today I am among you to witness to my closeness and
my remembrance in prayer. I am here to give you strong encouragement not to be
afraid to witness clearly to thehuman and Christian values that are so deeply
rooted in the faith and history of this territory and of its people.
Dear brothers
and sisters, every liturgical assembly is a place of God’s presence. Gathered
together for the Holy Eucharist, disciples of the Lord are immersed in Christ’s
redeeming sacrifice, they proclaim that he is Risen, is alive and is the Giver
of life, and witness that his Presence is grace, strength and joy. Let us open
our hearts to his Word and welcome the gift of his presence! All the texts of
this Sunday’s Liturgy speak to us of faith, which is the foundation of the
whole of Christian life. Jesus taught his disciples to grow in faith, to
believe and to entrust themselves increasingly to him, in order to build their
own lives on the rock. For this reason they asked him “increase our faith!” (Lk
17: 5). What they asked the Lord for is beautiful, it is the fundamental
request: disciples do not ask for material gifts, they do not ask for
privileges but for the grace of faith, which guides and illumines the whole of
life; they ask for the grace to recognize God and to be in a close relationship
with him, receiving from him all his gifts, even those of courage, love and
hope.
Jesus, without
directly answering their prayer, has recourse to a paradoxical image to express
the incredible vitality of faith. Just as a lever raises something far heavier
than its own weight, so faith, even a crumb of faith, can do unthinkable,
extraordinary things, such as uproot a great tree and plant it in the sea (ibid.).
Faith trusting in Christ, welcoming him, letting him transform us, following
him to the very end makes humanly impossible things possible in every
situation. The Prophet Habbakuk also bears witness to this in the First
Reading. He implores the Lord, starting with a dreadful situation of violence,
iniquity and oppression. And even in this difficult, insecure situation, the
Prophet introduces a vision that offers an inside view of the plan that God is
outlining and bringing to fulfilment in history: “He whose soul is not upright
in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab 2: 4). The
godless person, the one who does not behave in accordance with God, who trusts
in his own power but is relying on a frail and inconsistent reality that will
therefore give way, is destined to fall; the righteous person, on the other
hand, trusts in a hidden but sound reality, he trusts in God and for this
reason will have life.
In past
centuries the Church in Palermo
was enriched and enlivened by a fervent faith that found its loftiest and most
successful expression in the Saints. I am thinking of St Rosalia, whom you
venerate and honour and who, from Mount
Pellegrino
The second part
of today’s Gospel presents another teaching, a teaching of humility that is
nevertheless closely linked to faith. Jesus invites us to be humble and
suggests the example of a servant who has worked in the fields. When he returns
home, the master asks him to go on working. According to the mentality of Jesus’
time the master had every right to do this. The servant owed his master total
availability; and the master did not feel under any obligation to him for
having carried out the orders he had received. Jesus makes us aware that,
before God, we are in a similar situation: we are God’s servants, we are not
his creditors but are always indebted to him, because we owe him everything
since everything is a gift from him. Accepting and doing his will is the
approach to have every day, at every moment of our life. Before God we must
never present ourselves as if we believe we have done a service and deserve a
great reward. This is an illusion that can be born in everyone, even in people
who work very hard in the Lord’s service, in the Church. Rather, we must be
aware that in reality we never do enough for God. We must say, as Jesus’
suggests: “we are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Lk
17: 10). This is an attitude of humility that really puts us in our place and
permits the Lord to be very generous to us. In fact, in another Gospel passage,
he promises people that “he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and
he will come and serve them” (see Lk 12: 37). Dear friends, if we do God’s will
today with humility, without claiming anything from him, it will be Jesus
himself who serves us, who helps us, who encourages us, who gives us strength
and serenity.
In today’s
Second Reading the Apostle Paul too speaks of faith. Timothy is asked to have
faith and, through it, to exercise charity. The disciple is also urged to
rekindle in faith the gift of God that is in him through the laying on of Paul’s
hands, in other words the gift of Ordination, received so that he might carry
out the apostolic ministry as a collaborator of Paul (see 2 Tm 1: 6). He must
not let this gift be extinguished but must make it ever more alive through
faith. And the Apostle adds: “for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but
a spirit of power and love and self-control” (v. 7).
Dear people of Palermo and dear Sicilians, your beautiful Island was one
of the first regions of Italy
to receive the faith of the Apostles, to receive the proclamation of the Word
of God, to adhere to the faith in such a generous way that, even amidst
difficulties and persecutions, the flower of holiness always sprang from it. Sicily was and is a land
of Saints, belonging to every walk of life, who have lived the Gospel with
simplicity and wholeness. To you lay faithful, I repeat: do not fear to live
and to witness to the faith in the various contexts of society, in the many
situations of human existence, especially in those that are difficult! May faith
give you the power of God in order to be ever confident and courageous, to go
ahead with new determination, to take the necessary initiatives to give an ever
more beautiful face to your land. And when you come up against the opposition
of the world, may you hear the Apostle’s words: “Do not be ashamed then of
testifying to our Lord” (v. 8). One should be ashamed of evil, of what offends
God, of what offends man; one should be ashamed of the evil done to the Civil
and Religious Community by actions that would prefer to remain in the shade!
The temptation of discouragement and resignation comes to those who are weak in
faith and those who confuse evil with good and to those who think that in the
face of evil that is often profound there is nothing that can be done. On the
contrary, those who are firmly founded on faith, who trust totally in God and
who live in the Church are capable of conveying the devastating power of the
Gospel. This was how the Saints who flourished in Palermo and throughout Sicily
down the centuries behaved, as likewise the lay people and priests of today who
are well known to you, such as, for example, Fr Pino Puglisi. May they always
keep you united and nourish in each one the desire to proclaim, with word and
deed, the presence and love of Christ. People of Sicily , look at your future with hope! Bring
out the full radiance of the good that you desire, that you seek and that you
possess! Live courageously the values of the Gospel to make the light of
goodness shine out! With God’s power everything is possible! May the Mother of
Christ, Our Lady Hodegetria whom you so deeply venerate, help you and lead you
to deep knowledge of her Son. Amen!
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 2 October 2011
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This Sunday’s
Gospel ends with a particularly severe warning from Jesus, addressed to the
chief priests and the elders of the people: “The kingdom of God will be taken
away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (Mt 21:43).
These are words that call to mind the great responsibility of those in every
epoch who are called to work in the Lord’s vineyard, especially in roles of
authority, and they press for a renewal of full fidelity to Christ.
He is “the very
stone which the builders rejected” (see Mt 21:42), because they judged him to
be hostile to the law and a danger to public order; but he himself, rejected
and crucified, is risen, to become the “corner stone” on which the foundations
of every human life and of the whole world may rest in total safety.
The truth of
this is the subject of the Parable of the Unfaithful Tenants to whom a man
entrusted his vineyard so that they might cultivate and harvest the produce.
The owner of the vineyard symbolizes God himself, while the vineyard symbolizes
his people, as well as the life he gives, so that with his grace and our hard
work, we may do good. St Augustine
comments: “God does also cultivate us... as a field, that he may make us better”
(see Sermo 87, 1, 2: PL 38, 531). God has a project for his friends, but
unfortunately the human response is often oriented to infidelity which is
expressed in rejection. Pride and selfishness prevent us from recognizing and
welcoming even God’s most precious gift: his Only-Begotten Son.
When, in fact, “he
sent his son to them”, the Evangelist Matthew wrote, “[the tenants] took him
and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Mt 21:37, 39). God puts
himself in our hands, agrees to make himself an unfathomable mystery of
weakness and manifests his omnipotence in his faithfulness to a plan of love
which, in the end, also provides for the proper punishment of the wicked (see
Mt 21:41).
Firmly anchored
in faith to the cornerstone which is Christ, let us abide in him, like the
branch that can bear no fruit unless it remains attached to the vine. The
Church, the People of the New Covenant, is built only in him, for him and with
him. On this the Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “The first benefit which We
trust the Church will reap from a deepened self-awareness, is a renewed
discovery of its vital bond of union with Christ. This is something which is
perfectly well known, but it is supremely important and absolutely essential.
It can never be sufficiently understood, meditated upon and preached”
(Encyclical Ecclesiam Suam, 6 August 1964: AAS 56 [1964], 622).
Dear friends,
the Lord is ever close and active in humanity’s history and accompanies us with
the unique presence of his Angels, whom today the Church venerates as “Guardian
Angels”, that is, ministers of the divine care for every human being. From the
beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their constant
protection. And the Angels encircle the august Queen of Victories, the Blessed
Virgin Mary of the Rosary, who, on the first Sunday of October, at this very
moment, receives the fervent supplication from the Shrine of Pompeii and from
the whole world that evil may be defeated and God’s goodness revealed in its
fullness.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 7 October 2012
Dear Brothers and
Sisters,
Let
us now turn in prayer to Mary Most Holy, whom we venerate today as Queen of the
Holy Rosary. At this moment at the Shrine of Pompeii, the traditional “supplication”
is prayed, to which countless people around the world are united. As we, too,
join in spirit to that choral invocation, I would like to propose to everyone
the value of praying the Rosary in the upcoming Year of Faith. Through the
Rosary we allow ourselves to be guided by Mary, the model of faith, in meditating
on the mysteries of Christ. Day after day she helps us to assimilate the
Gospel, so that it gives a form to our life as a whole. Thus, in the footsteps
of my Predecessors, especially Blessed John Paul II who 10 years ago gave us
the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I invite you to pray the
Rosary on your own, in your family and in your community, placing yourselves in
the school of Mary
HOLY MASS FOR THE
OPENING OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS AND
PROCLAMATION OF ST
JOHN OF AVILA AND OF ST HILDEGARD OF BINGEN
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 7 October 2012
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear brothers and sisters,
With this solemn
concelebration we open the thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops on the theme The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith. This theme reflects a programmatic direction for the life
of the Church, its members, families, its communities and institutions. And
this outline is reinforced by the fact that it coincides with the beginning of
the Year of Faith, starting on 11 October, on the fiftieth anniversary of the
opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. I give a cordial and grateful
welcome to you who have come to be part of the Synodal Assembly, in particular
to the Secretary-General of the Synod of Bishops, and to his colleagues. I
salute the fraternal delegates of the other churches and ecclesial communities
as well as all present, inviting them to accompany in daily prayer the
deliberations which will take place over the next three weeks.
The readings for
this Sunday’s Liturgy of the Word propose to us two principal points of
reflection: the first on matrimony, which I will touch shortly; and the second
on Jesus Christ, which I will discuss now. We do not have time to comment upon
the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews but, at the beginning of this
Synodal Assembly, we ought to welcome the invitation to fix our gaze upon the
Lord Jesus, “crowned with glory and honour, because of the suffering of death
(2:9). The word of God places us before the glorious One who was crucified, so
that our whole lives, and in particular the commitment of this Synodal session,
will take place in the sight of him and in the light of his mystery. In every
time and place, evangelization always has as its starting and finishing points
Jesus Christ, the Son of God (see Mk 1:1); and the Crucifix is the
supremely distinctive sign of him who announces the Gospel: a sign of love and
peace, a call to conversion and reconciliation. My dear Brother Bishops,
starting with ourselves, let us fix our gaze upon him and let us be purified by
his grace.
I would now like
briefly to examine the new evangelization, and its relation to ordinary
evangelization and the mission ad Gentes. The Church exists to
evangelize. Faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command, his disciples went out
to the whole world to announce the Good News, spreading Christian communities
everywhere. With time, these became well-organized churches with many faithful.
At various times in history, divine providence has given birth to a renewed
dynamism in the Church’s evangelizing activity. We need only think of the
evangelization of the Anglo-Saxon peoples or the Slavs, or the transmission of
the faith on the continent of America ,
or the missionary undertakings among the peoples of Africa, Asia and Oceania . It is against this dynamic background that I
like to look at the two radiant figures that I have just proclaimed Doctors of
the Church, Saint John of Avila and Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Even in our own
times, the Holy Spirit has nurtured in the Church a new effort to announce the
Good News, a pastoral and spiritual dynamism which found a more universal
expression and its most authoritative impulse in the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council. Such renewed evangelical dynamism produces a beneficent influence on
the two specific “branches” developed by it, that is, on the one hand the Missio
ad Gentes or announcement of the Gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus
Christ and his message of salvation, and on the other the New
Evangelization, directed principally at those who, though baptized, have
drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life.
The Synodal Assembly which opens today is dedicated to this new evangelization,
to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone who fills our existence with
deep meaning and peace; and to favour the rediscovery of the faith, that source
of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life.
Obviously, such a special focus must not diminish either missionary efforts in
the strict sense or the ordinary activity of evangelization in our Christian
communities, as these are three aspects of the one reality of evangelization
which complement and enrich each other.
The theme of
marriage, found in the Gospel and the first reading, deserves special
attention. The message of the word of God may be summed up in the expression
found in the Book of Genesis and taken up by Jesus himself: “Therefore a man
leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one
flesh” (Gen 2:24; Mk 10:7-8). What does this word say to us
today? It seems to me that it invites us to be more aware of a reality, already
well known but not fully appreciated: that matrimony is a Gospel in itself, a
Good News for the world of today, especially the dechristianized world. The
union of a man and a woman, their becoming “one flesh” in charity, in fruitful
and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a force and an
eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately, for
various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is
going through a profound crisis. And it is not by chance. Marriage is linked to
faith, but not in a general way. Marriage, as a union of faithful and
indissoluble love, is based upon the grace that comes from the triune God, who
in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross. Today we ought to
grasp the full truth of this statement, in contrast to the painful reality of
many marriages which, unhappily, end badly. There is a clear link between the
crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage. And, as the Church has said and
witnessed for a long time now, marriage is called to be not only an object but
a subject of the new evangelization. This is already being seen in the many
experiences of communities and movements, but its realization is also growing
in dioceses and parishes, as shown in the recent World Meeting of Families.
One of the
important ideas of the renewed impulse that the Second Vatican Council gave to
evangelization is that of the universal call to holiness, which in itself
concerns all Christians (see Lumen Gentium, nos.39-42). The saints are
the true actors in evangelization in all its expressions. In a special way they
are even pioneers and bringers of the new evangelization: with their
intercession and the example of lives attentive to the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they show the beauty of the Gospel to those who are indifferent or even
hostile, and they invite, as it were tepid believers, to live with the joy of
faith, hope and charity, to rediscover the taste for the word of God and for
the sacraments, especially for the bread of life, the Eucharist. Holy men and
women bloom among the generous missionaries who announce the Good News to
non-Christians, in the past in mission countries and now in any place where
there are non-Christians. Holiness is not confined by cultural, social,
political or religious barriers. Its language, that of love and truth, is
understandable to all people of good will and it draws them to Jesus Christ,
the inexhaustible source of new life.
At this point,
let us pause for a moment to appreciate the two saints who today have been
added to the elect number of Doctors of the Church. Saint John of Avila lived
in the sixteenth century. A profound expert on the sacred Scriptures, he was
gifted with an ardent missionary spirit. He knew how to penetrate in a uniquely
profound way the mysteries of the redemption worked by Christ for humanity. A
man of God, he united constant prayer to apostolic action. He dedicated himself
to preaching and to the more frequent practice of the sacraments, concentrating
his commitment on improving the formation of candidates for the priesthood, of
religious and of lay people, with a view to a fruitful reform of the Church.
Saint Hildegard
of Bingen, an important female figure of the twelfth century, offered her
precious contribution to the growth of the Church of her time, employing the
gifts received from God and showing herself to be a woman of brilliant
intelligence, deep sensitivity and recognized spiritual authority. The Lord
granted her a prophetic spirit and fervent capacity to discern the signs of the
times. Hildegard nurtured an evident love of creation, and was learned in
medicine, poetry and music. Above all, she maintained a great and faithful love
for Christ and his Church.
This summary of
the ideal in Christian life, expressed in the call to holiness, draws us to
look with humility at the fragility, even sin, of many Christians, as
individuals and communities, which is a great obstacle to evangelization and to
recognizing the force of God that, in faith, meets human weakness. Thus, we
cannot speak about the new evangelization without a sincere desire for
conversion. The best path to the new evangelization is to let ourselves be
reconciled with God and with each other (see 2 Cor 5:20). Solemnly
purified, Christians can regain a legitimate pride in their dignity as children
of God, created in his image and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus
Christ, and they can experience his joy in order to share it with everyone,
both near and far.
© Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Book by Orestes J. González