Entry 0284: Reflections on the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
by Pope Benedict XVI
On seven occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 12 June 2005, 18 June 2006, 17 June 2007, 15 June 2008, 14 June 2009, 13 June 2010, and 17 June 2012. Here are the texts of the seven reflections prior to the recitation of the Angelus and the two homilies delivered on these occasions.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 12 June 2005
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Year of the
Eucharist continues. It was desired by our beloved Pope John Paul II to
reawaken ever greater wonder toward this Sacrament in the consciences of
believers.
One of the
recurring themes in this special Eucharistic period is that of Sunday, the Lord’s
Day, a topic that was also at the heart of the recent Italian Eucharistic
Congress held in Bari .
At the closing
celebration, I too emphasized how participation in Sunday Mass must not be felt
as an imposition or burden by Christians, but rather as a necessity and joy.
Gathering together with our brothers and sisters to listen to the Word of God
and to be nourished by Christ, sacrificed for us, is a beautiful experience
that gives life meaning and imbues our hearts with peace. We Christians cannot
live without Sunday.
Parents,
therefore, are called to help their children to discover the value and
importance of responding to the invitation of Christ, who summons the whole
Christian family to Sunday Mass.
An especially significant stage in this educational journey is First Communion,
a true celebration for the parish community which welcomes its smallest
children to the Lord’s Table for the first time.
To highlight the
importance of this event for families and parishes, next 15 October, God
willing, I will be holding a special catechetical meeting in the Vatican for children who have received their
First Communion this year, especially those from Rome and Lazio. This festive gathering will
be taking place towards the end of the Year of the Eucharist and during the
Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, focused on the Eucharistic mystery.
It will be a suitable and beautiful opportunity to reaffirm the essential role
of the Eucharist in the formation and spiritual growth of young children.
From this moment
I entrust this meeting to the Virgin Mary, so that she may teach us to love
Jesus more and more, in constant meditation on his Word and in adoration of his
presence in the Eucharist; I also ask her to help us enable the young
generations to discover the “precious pearl” of the Eucharist, which gives life
true and full meaning. With this intention, we now turn to the Holy Virgin.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 18 June 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, in Italy and in other countries, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi is celebrated, which already
had its intense moment in Rome
in the city’s procession on Thursday. It is the solemn, public feast of the
Eucharist, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ: on this day, the
mystery instituted at the Last Supper and commemorated every year on Holy
Thursday is manifested to all, in the midst of the fervour of faith and
devotion of the Ecclesial Community.
Indeed, the
Eucharist is the “treasure” of the Church, the precious heritage that her Lord
has left to her. And the Church preserves it with the greatest care,
celebrating it daily in Holy Mass, adoring it in churches and chapels,
administering it to the sick, and as viaticum to those who are on their last
journey.
However, this
treasure that is destined for the baptized, does not exhaust its radius of
action in the context of the Church: the Eucharist is the Lord Jesus who gives
himself “for the life of the world” (Jn 6: 51). In every time and in every
place, he wants to meet human beings and bring them the life of God. And this
is not all. The Eucharist also has a cosmic property: the transformation of the
bread and the wine into Christ’s Body and Blood is in fact the principle of the
divinization of creation itself.
For this reason,
the Feast of Corpus Christi
On this feast
day, the Christian Community proclaims that the Eucharist is its all, its very
life, the source of life that triumphs over death. From communion with Christ
in the Eucharist flows the charity that transforms our life and supports us all
on our journey towards the heavenly Homeland. For this reason the liturgy makes
us sing “Good Shepherd, true Bread.... You who know all things, who can do all
things, who nourish us while on earth, lead your brethren to the heavenly
banquet in the glory of your Saints”.
Mary is the “Woman
of the Eucharist” as Pope John Paul II described her in his Encyclical Ecclesia
de Eucharistia. Let us pray the Virgin that all Christians may deepen their
faith in the Eucharistic mystery, to live in constant communion with Jesus and
be his effective witness.
PASTORAL
VISIT
OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO ASSISI
ON
THE EIGHTH CENTENARY
OF
THE CONVERSION OF SAINT FRANCIS
ANGELUS
Square
outside the Lower Basilica of St Francis, Sunday, 17 June 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
About eight
centuries ago, it would have been hard for the town of Assisi
to imagine the role that Providence
was to assign it, making it a famous city in the world today, a true “place of
the soul”. It was what happened here which gave it this character that
impressed on it an indelible mark.
I am referring
to the conversion of the young Francis. After 25 years of a mediocre life full
of dreams, spent in the pursuit of worldly pleasures and success, he opened
himself to grace, came to his senses and gradually recognized Christ as the
ideal of his life. My Pilgrimage to Assisi
today is intended to recall that event and to relive its significance and
importance.
I stopped with
special emotion at the little Church
of San Damiano
At Rivotorto I
saw the place where tradition has it that lepers were confined whom the Saint
approached with mercy, thus beginning his life as a penitent. And I also saw
the Shrine which calls to mind the poor dwelling place of Francis and his first
friars.
I went to the
Basilica of St Clare, Francis’ “plantlet”, and this afternoon, after my Visit
to the Cathedral of Assisi, I shall stop at the Portiuncula from which, in Mary’s
shadow, Francis guided the steps of his expanding brotherhood and where he
breathed his last. I will meet the youth there because there the young Francis,
converted to Christ, spoke to their hearts.
From the
Basilica of St Francis in which his mortal remains repose, I would now like
above all to make his tones of praise my own: “Most High, All Powerful, All
Good Lord, All praise is yours, all glory, all honour and all blessing” (see Canticle
of the Sun 1). Francis of Assisi is a great teacher of our faith and
praise. By falling in love with Jesus Christ he encountered the Face of
God-Love, of whom he became an impassioned bard and sang his praise
passionately like a real “minstrel of God”.
In the light of
the Gospel Beatitudes we can understand the gentleness with which St Francis
was able to live his relations with others, presenting himself in humility to
all and becoming a witness and artisan of peace.
From this city
of peace, I would like to send a greeting to the representatives of the other
Christian denominations and of the other religions who, in 1986, accepted the invitation of my venerable
Predecessor to take part in a World Day of Prayer for Peace here in the
homeland of St Francis.
I consider it my
duty to launch from here a pressing and heartfelt appeal to stop all the armed
conflicts which bathe the earth in blood. May weapons be silenced and may
hatred everywhere give way to love, offence to forgiveness and discord to
union!
We feel here the
spiritual presence of all those whom war and its tragic consequences cause to
weep, suffer and die in any part of the world.
We are thinking
in particular of the Holy Land, so loved by St Francis; and of Iraq , Lebanon
and the entire region of the Middle East . For
too long now the peoples of those countries have been experiencing the horrors
of war, terrorism, blind violence, the illusion that force can resolve
conflicts, the refusal to listen to the reasoning of others and the refusal to
do them justice.
Only a
responsible and sincere dialogue, backed by the generous support of the
International Community, will be able to put an end to all this suffering and
restore life and dignity to individuals, institutions and peoples.
May St Francis,
a man of peace, obtain for us from the Lord an increasing number of people who
accept to make themselves “instruments of his peace” through thousands of small
acts in daily life; and that all who have roles of responsibility be motivated
by a passionate love for peace and an indomitable determination to achieve it,
choosing the appropriate means to obtain it.
May the Blessed
Virgin, whom the “Poverello” loved tenderly and praised in inspired tones, help
us discover the secret of peace in the miracle of love which was fulfilled in
her womb with the Incarnation of the Son of God.
PASTORAL
VISIT
OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO ASSISI
ON
THE EIGHTH CENTENARY
OF
THE CONVERSION OF SAINT FRANCIS
EUCHARISTIC
CONCELEBRATION
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Square
outside the Lower Basilica of St Francis, Sunday, 17 June 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
What is the Lord
saying to us today while we celebrate the Eucharist in the evocative setting of
this square, in which eight centuries of holiness, devotion, art and culture
linked to the name of Francis of Assisi are gathered?
Today,
everything here speaks of conversion, as Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino
recalled and whom I warmly thank for his kind words. With him, I greet the
entire Church of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, as well as the Pastors of
the Churches of Umbria.
I extend a
grateful thought to Cardinal Attilio Nicora, my Legate for the two Papal
Basilicas of this Town.
I address an
affectionate greeting to the sons of Francis of the various Orders present here
with their Ministers General. I express my cordial respects to the President of
the Council of Ministers and to all the Civil Authorities who have wished to
honour us with their presence.
Speaking of
conversion means going to the heart of the Christian message, and at the same
time to the roots of human existence. The Word of God just proclaimed enlightens
us by holding up to our gaze three converted figures.
The first is
David. The passage concerning him, taken from the Second Book of Samuel, presents
to us one of the most dramatic conversations in the Old Testament. A burning
verdict lies at the heart of this dialogue, with which the Word of God, uttered
by the Prophet Nathan, exposes a king who had reached the summit of his
political fortune but had also fallen to the lowest level of his moral life.
To grasp the
dramatic tension of this dialogue, it is necessary to bear in mind its
historical and theological horizon. This horizon is outlined by the event of
love with which God chooses Israel
as his People, establishing a Covenant with them and taking care to assure them
a land and freedom.
David is a link
in this history of God’s continuing concern for his People. He was chosen in a
difficult period and placed beside King Saul, then to become his successor. God’s
design also concerns his descendants connected with the messianic project,
which was to find its complete fulfilment in Christ, “Son of David”.
The figure of
David is thus an image of both historical and religious importance. In even
starker contrast with this is the abjection into which he falls. Blinded by his
passion for Bathsheba, he wrenches her from her husband, one of his most
faithful warriors, and then orders his assassination in cold blood. This is
something that makes one shudder: how could a man chosen by God fall so low?
The human being
is truly greatness and wretchedness: he is great because he bears in himself
God’s image and is the object of his love; he is wretched because he can make
evil use of the freedom which is his great privilege, ending by setting himself
against his Creator.
God’s verdict on
David, pronounced by Nathan, sheds light on the intimate fibres of the
conscience where armies, power and public opinion count for nothing but where
one is alone with God himself.
“You are that
man” are the words that nailed David to his responsibilities. Deeply struck
by them, the king developed sincere repentance and opened himself to the offer
of mercy. This is the path of conversion.
Today, it is
Francis who invites us to make this journey beside David. From what the Saint’s
biographers have said of his youthful years, nothing would lead us to imagine
actions as serious as those imputed to the ancient King of Israel. Yet, in the Testament
he compiled during the last months of his life, Francis himself regarded
the first 25 years of his existence as a time when he “was in sin” (see Testament
1).
Over and above
its individual manifestations, he conceived of sin as organizing one’s whole
life around oneself, pursuing vain dreams of earthly glory.
While he was the
“king of feasts” among the young men of Assisi
(see 2 Cel I, 3, 7), he was not without spontaneous generosity. But this
was still far from the Christian love that is given to the other without
reserve.
As he himself
recalled, the sight of lepers seemed bitter to him. Sin prevented him from
overcoming his physical repugnance to recognize them as so many brothers to
love. Conversion led him to show them mercy and at the same time obtained mercy
for him.
Serving lepers,
even to the point of kissing them, was not merely a philanthropic gesture, a “social”
conversion, so to speak, but a true religious experience commanded by the
initiative of God’s grace and love: “The Lord himself”, he said, “led me among
them” (Test. 2). It was then that what had seemed bitter was changed
into “sweetness in (his) soul and body” (Test. 3).
Yes, my dear
brothers and sisters, converting to love means passing from bitterness to “sweetness”,
from sorrow to true joy. Man is truly himself and fulfils himself completely to
the extent that he lives with God and of God, recognizing him and loving him in
his brethren.
Another aspect
of the journey of conversion emerges in the passage from the Letter to the
Galatians. It is explained to us by another great convert, the
Apostle Paul. The discussion in which the primitive community found itself
involved is the immediate context of his words: in this discussion, many
Christians who came from Judaism tended to link salvation to fulfilling the
requirements of the ancient Law, thereby making the newness of Christ and the
universality of his message vain.
Paul stood as a
witness and champion of grace. On the road to Damascus, Christ’s radiant face
and strong voice had snatched him from his violent zeal as a persecutor and had
kindled within him the new zeal of the Crucified One, who reconciles in his
Cross those who are near and far (see Eph 2: 11-22).
Paul realized
that in Christ the whole of the law is fulfilled and that those who adhere to
Christ are united with him and fulfil the law. Bringing Christ, and with Christ
the one God, to all peoples became his mission. Christ “is our peace, who has
made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:
14).
At the same
time, Paul’s very personal confession of love also expresses the common essence
of Christian life: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2: 20b). And how can one
respond to this love except by embracing the Crucified Christ to the point of
living his very life? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2: 20a).
In speaking of
being crucified with Christ, St Paul
was not only referring to his new birth in Baptism, but to the whole of his
life at the service of Christ. This connection with his apostolic life appears
clearly in the final words of his defence of Christian freedom at the end of
the Letter to the Galatians: “Henceforth let no man trouble me;
for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (6: 17).
This is the
first time in the history of Christianity that the words “the marks of Jesus”
[stigmata] appear. In the dispute on the right way of seeing and living the
Gospel, it is not, in the end, the arguments that decide our thought: it is the
reality of life that decides, communion lived and suffered with Jesus, not only
in ideas or words but in the depths of our existence, also involving the body,
the flesh.
The bruises that
the Apostle received in the long history of his passion are the witness of the
presence of the Cross of Jesus in St
Paul ’s body; they are his stigmata. Thus, one can say
that it is not circumcision that saves: these stigmata are the consequence of
his Baptism, the expression of his dying with Jesus, day after day, the sure
sign of his being a new creature (see Gal 6: 15).
Moreover, by
using the word “marks”, Paul is referring to the ancient practice of branding
the slave with his owner’s mark. Thus, the servant was “marked” as the property
of his owner and was under his protection. The sign of the Cross, stamped on
Paul’s skin through long drawn-out suffering, was his boast. It legitimized him
as a true servant of Jesus, protected by the Lord’s love.
Today, dear
friends, Francis of Assisi
presents all of these words of Paul anew, together with the power of his
witness. Since the time when the faces of lepers, loved through love of God,
made him understand in a certain way the mystery of kenosis (see Phil 2:
7) - the humbling of God in the flesh of the Son of Man -, from the time when
the voice of the Crucifix in San Damiano put in his heart the programme for his
life, “Go, Francis, repair my house” (2 Cel I, 6, 10), his journey was
none other than the daily effort to put on Christ.
He fell in love
with Christ. The wounds of the Crucified One wounded his heart before leaving
their marks on his body on Mount La Verna. He could truly say with Paul: “It is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”.
And so we come
to the evangelical heart of today’s Word of God. Jesus himself, in the passage
from Luke’s Gospel which has just been read, explains to us the dynamism of
authentic conversion, pointing out to us as a model the sinful woman redeemed
by love. It should be recognized that this woman had ventured much.
The manner in
which she chose to come before Jesus, bathing his feet with tears and drying
them with her hair, kissing them and sprinkling scented oil upon them, was done
to shock those who viewed people in her condition with the merciless eye of the
judge.
What is
striking, on the other hand, is the tenderness with which Jesus treated this
woman, exploited and judged by so many. In Jesus she found at last a pure eye,
a heart capable of loving without exploiting. In the gaze and heart of Jesus
she received the revelation of God-Love!
To avoid any
misunderstanding, it should be noted that Jesus’ mercy was not expressed by
putting moral law in parentheses. For Jesus, good is good and evil is evil. Mercy
does not change the connotations of sin but consumes it in a fire of love.
This purifying
and healing effect is achieved if within the person there is a corresponding
love which implies recognition of God’s law, sincere repentance and the
resolution to start a new life.
The sinful woman
in the Gospel was pardoned greatly because she loved greatly. In Jesus, God
comes to give love to us and to ask love of us.
My dear brothers
and sisters, what was the life of the converted Francis if not a great
act of love? This is revealed by his passionate prayers, rich in contemplation
and praise, his tender embrace of the Divine Child at Greccio, his
contemplation of the Passion at La Verna, his living “according to the form of
the Holy Gospel” (2 Test. 14), his choice of poverty and his quest for
Christ in the faces of the poor.
This was his
conversion to Christ, to the point that he sought to be “transformed” into him,
becoming his total image; and this explains his typical way of life by virtue
of which he appears to us to be so modern, even in comparison with the great
themes of our time such as the search for peace, the safeguard of nature, the
promotion of dialogue among all people. In these things Francis was a true
teacher. However, he was so by starting from Christ.
Indeed, Christ
is “our peace” (see Eph 2: 14). Christ is the very principle of the cosmos,
since through him all things were made (see Jn 1: 3). Christ is the divine
truth, the eternal “Logos”, in which, in time, every “dia-logos” finds
its ultimate foundation. Francis profoundly embodies this “Christological”
truth which is at the root of human existence, the cosmos and history.
I cannot forget
in today’s context the initiative of John Paul II, my Predecessor of holy
memory, who in 1986 wanted to gather here at a Prayer Meeting for Peace representatives
of the Christian denominations and of the different world religions.
It was a
prophetic intuition and a moment of grace, as I said a few months ago in my
Letter to the Bishop of this Town on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of
that event. The choice of celebrating the meeting at Assisi was prompted precisely by the witness
of Francis as a man of peace to whom so many people, even from other cultural
and religious positions, look with sympathy.
At the same
time, the light of the “Poverello” on that initiative was a guarantee of
Christian authenticity, since his life and message are so visibly based on
Christ’s choice to reject a priori any temptation of religious
indifferentism which would have nothing to do with authentic interreligious
dialogue.
The “spirit of Assisi ”, which has
continued to spread throughout the world since that event, counters the spirit
of violence and the abuse of religion as a pretext for violence. Assisi tells us that
faithfulness to one’s own religious conviction, and especially faithfulness to
the Crucified and Risen Christ, is not expressed in violence and intolerance
but in sincere respect for the other, in dialogue, in a proclamation that
appeals to freedom and reason and in the commitment to peace and
reconciliation.
The failure to
combine acceptance, dialogue and respect for all with the certainty of faith
which every Christian, like the Saint of Assisi, is bound to foster,
proclaiming Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life of man (see Jn 14: 6),
the one Saviour of the World, can be neither an evangelical nor a Franciscan
attitude.
May Francis of
Assisi obtain the grace of an authentic and full conversion to the love of
Christ for this particular Church, for the Churches in Umbria ,
for the whole of the Church in Italy
whose Patron he is, together with St Catherine of Siena , and for the many people in the world
who refer to him.
PASTORAL
VISIT
TO
SANTA MARIA DI LEUCA AND BRINDISI (APULIA - ITALY )
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Apollinaris Wharf ,
Brindisi
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Before
concluding this celebration, I express my gratitude to all those who prepared
it with such care and enlivened it with music and song. I thank those who
organized my Visit and who are making their contribution to ensuring its
success: I am thinking of the various local Authorities, the police, the
volunteers and you, the inhabitants of Brindisi .
I invite you all, as on every Sunday, to join me in the prayer of the Angelus.
The place where we are - the port - is charged with a eloquent symbolic
significance. Every port speaks of welcome, of shelter, of safety; it speaks of
a longed-for haven after what may have been a long and difficult navigation. It
also speaks of departures, of plans and aspirations, of the future. The port of Brindisi
in particular has a primary role in communications between the Mediterranean Sea and the East, and for this reason it is
also host to a United Nations Base that performs an important function in
humanitarian terms.
Thus, from this
most evocative place, not far from the town called the “good morning” (Calimera)
of Italy, I would like to renew the Christian message of cooperation and peace
among all peoples, especially among those around this sea coast, the ancient
cradle of civilization, and those of the Near and Middle East. Moreover, I am
pleased to do this with the words I used two months ago in my Address to the
General Assembly of the United Nations in New York: “The action of the
international community and its institutions, provided that it respects the
principles undergirding the international order, should never be interpreted as
an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of sovereignty. “On the contrary, it
is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What is needed
is a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring
every possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to
even the faintest sign of dialogue or desire for reconciliation” (Address, 18
April 2008).
From this corner
of Europe which juts into the Mediterranean between East and West, let us turn
once again to Mary, the Mother who “shows us the way” - Odegitria -, giving
us Jesus, the Way of peace. Let us invoke her in spirit with all the titles by
which she is venerated in the Shrines of Apulia and especially here, from this
ancient port, let us pray to her as the “Port of salvation” for every person
and for the whole of humanity. May her maternal protection always defend this
city of yours, the Region, Italy, Europe and the whole world from the storms
that threaten the faith and true values; may she enable the young generations
to put out into the deep without fear, to face the journey of life with
Christian hope. Mary, Port
of Salvation
PASTORAL VISIT
TO SANTA MARIA DI LEUCA AND BRINDISI
(APULIA - ITALY )
EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St Apollinaris Wharf, Port of Brindisi
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the
Lord’s Day, in the middle of my Visit to Brindisi ,
we are celebrating the mystery which is the source and summit of the Church’s
whole life. We are celebrating Christ in the Eucharist, the greatest gift that
flowed from his divine and human Heart, the Bread of Life, broken and shared to
enable us to become one with him and with one another. I greet with affection
all of you who have gathered at the port, this deeply symbolic place which
calls to mind the missionary journeys of Peter and Paul. I rejoice to see the
many young people who enlivened last night’s vigil in preparation for the
Eucharistic celebration. And I also greet you, who are taking part in spirit by
means of radio and television. I address a special greeting to Archbishop Rocco
Talucci, the Pastor of this beloved Church, and thank him for his words at the
beginning of Holy Mass. I also greet the other Bishops of Apulia who have
desired to be here with us with sentiments of fraternal communion. The presence
of Metropolitan Gennadios gives me special pleasure and I offer him my cordial
greeting, which I extend to all the Orthodox brethren and those of the other
Denominations, from this Church
of Brindisi Brindisi !
The
biblical texts we have heard on this 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time help us to
understand the reality of the Church: the First Reading (see Ex 19: 2-6a)
recalled the Covenant made on Mount Sinai, during the Exodus from Egypt; the
Gospel (see Mt 9: 36-10: 8) consisted of the account of the call and mission of
the Twelve Apostles. We find the “constitution” of the Church presented here:
how can we fail to perceive the implicit invitation addressed to every
Community to renew its own vocation and missionary drive? In the First Reading
the sacred author tells of God’s Covenant with Moses and with Israel on Sinai. This is one of the
great milestones in salvation history, one of those moments that transcend
history itself in which the boundary between the Old and New Testaments
disappears and the eternal plan of the God of the Covenant is manifest: the
plan for the salvation of all men and women through the sanctification of a
people to which God proposes to become “my own possession among all peoples”
(Ex 19: 5). In this perspective, the people is called to become a “holy nation”,
not only in the moral sense, but first and above all in its own ontological
reality, in its being as a people. Already in the Old Testament, how the
identity of this people is to be understood is gradually made clear in the
course of the salvific events; then it was fully revealed with the coming of
Jesus Christ. Today’s Gospel presents us with a decisive moment for this
revelation. In fact, when Jesus called the Twelve he desired to refer
symbolically to the 12 tribes of Israel , going back to the 12 sons
of Jacob. Thus, by placing the Twelve at the centre of his new community, he
makes it understood that he came to bring the heavenly Father’s design to
completion, even if the new face of the Church was to appear only at Pentecost
when the Twelve, “filled with the Holy Spirit” proclaimed the Gospel, and spoke
in all the languages (Acts 2: 3-4). It was then that the universal Church was
to be made manifest, gathered in a single Body of which the Risen Christ is
Head yet, at the same time, sent by him to all the nations, even to the very
ends of the earth (see Mt 28: 19).
Jesus’
style is unmistakeable: it is the characteristic style of God who likes to do
great things in a poor and humble manner. The solemnity of the accounts of the
Covenant in the Book of Exodus leaves room in the Gospels for humble and
discreet gestures which nevertheless contain an enormous potential for renewal.
It is the logic of the Kingdom
of God Galilee ,
on the contrary, were exempt from such manifestations and reflect the docility
and compassion of Christ’s Heart although they foretold another battle, another
upheaval, inspired by the forces of evil. Christ gave to the Twelve, we heard, “authority
over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every
infirmity” (Mt 10: 1). The Twelve must cooperate with Jesus in establishing the
Kingdom of God
Thus it
is a plan that the Lord desires to implement with respect for our freedom, for
love, by its nature, cannot be imposed. The Church in Christ then is the place
in which to accept and mediate God’s love. In this perspective it is clear that
the Church’s holiness and missionary character are two sides of
the same coin: only because she is holy, that is, filled with divine love, can
the Church carry out her mission, and it is precisely in terms of this task
that God chose her and sanctified her as his property. Our first duty,
therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to
God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on
others, on history. Your Ecclesial Community, dear brothers and sisters,
involved as it is in the Diocesan Synod in this period, is measuring itself at
this moment against the double term, “holiness-mission” - holiness is always a
force that transforms others. In this regard, it is useful to reflect that the
Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious
irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but
at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even
serious. Therefore Jesus did not call them because they were already holy,
complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby
also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians. In the
Second Reading we heard the Apostle Paul’s synthesis: “God shows his love for
us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5: 8). The Church
is the community of sinners who believe in God’s love, letting themselves be
transformed by him and thus become holy, sanctifying the world.
In the
light of God’s providential words, today I have the joy of strengthening your
Church on her way. It is a way of holiness and mission on which your Archbishop
has invited you to reflect in his recent Pastoral Letter; it is a way he has
thoroughly examined in the course of his Pastoral Visit and which he now
intends to promote through the Diocesan Synod. Today’s Gospel suggests to us
the style of the mission, in other words the interior attitude that is
expressed in life lived. It can only be Jesus’ style: that of “compassion”. The
Evangelist highlights this by focusing attention on Christ looking at the
crowd. He wrote: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because
they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9: 36). And
after the call of the Twelve, this attitude is once again apparent in the order
he gives them to go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ” (Mt 10:
6). Christ’s love for his people, especially the lowly and the poor, can be
felt in these words. Christian compassion has nothing to do with pietism or the
culture of dependency. Rather, it is synonymous with solidarity and sharing and
is enlivened by hope. Were not Jesus’ words to the Apostles born from hope: “Preach
as you go, saying, “the Kingdom
of Heaven Kingdom of God ,
there is the newness of the world - as the theme of the Fourth Ecclesial
Convention of Italy celebrated in Verona
clearly recalled: the Risen Christ is the “hope of the world”.
Enlivened
by the hope in which you have been saved, may you too, brothers and sisters of
this ancient Church
of Brindisi
Dear
brothers and sisters of Brindisi ,
continue in this spirit on the way on which you have set out. May your Patrons,
St Leucius and St Oronzo, both of whom arrived from the East in the second
century to water this land with the living water of the Word of God, watch over
you. May the relics of St Theodore of Amasea, venerated in the Cathedral of
Brindisi, remind you that giving one’s life for Christ is the most effective
preaching. May St Lawrence, a son of this City who, in Francis of Assisi’s
footsteps, became an apostle of peace in a Europe
torn apart by wars and disputes, obtain for you the gift of authentic
brotherhood. I entrust you all to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of Hope and Star of Evangelization. May the Blessed Virgin help you to
remain in the love of Christ, so that you may bear abundant fruit for the glory
of God the Father and the salvation of the world. Amen.
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 June 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The
Solemnity of Corpus Christi Corpus Christi
This
feast speaks to us in a unique and special way of divine love, of what it is
and of what it does. It tells us, for example, that it is regenerated in
self-giving, that it is received in self-giving, that it is never lacking nor
can it be consumed as a hymn by St Thomas Aquinas sings: “nec sumptus
consumitur”. Love transforms all things and we therefore understand that
the centre of today’s Feast of Corpus Christi is the mystery of
transubstantiation, a sign of Jesus Christ who transforms the world. Looking at
him and worshipping him, we say: “yes, love exists and because it exists things
can change for the better and we can hope”. It is hope that comes from Christ’s
love which gives us the strength to live and to deal with difficulties. For
this reason let us sing as we carry the Most Holy Sacrament in procession; let
us sing and praise God who revealed himself concealing himself in the sign of
the Bread broken. We are all in need of this Bread, as the journey to freedom,
justice and peace is long and difficult.
We can
imagine with what great faith and love Our Lady must have received and adored
the Blessed Eucharist in her heart! For her it must have been every time like
reliving the whole mystery of her Son Jesus: from his Conception to his
Resurrection. The “Woman of the Eucharist”, my venerable and beloved
Predecessor John Paul II called her. Let us learn from her to renew our
communion with the Body of Christ ceaselessly so that we may love one another
as he loved us.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 June 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Year for
Priests came to an end a few days ago. Here in Rome we lived unforgettable days, with the
presence of more than 15,000 priests from across the world. Therefore, today I
would like to thank God for all the benefits that this Year has brought to the
universal Church. No one will ever be able to measure them but they can
certainly be seen and their fruits will be even easier to see.
The Year for
Priests ended on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, which is traditionally the “day
of priestly sanctification”; and it was so this time in a quite special way. In
fact, dear friends, the priest is a gift of the Heart of Christ: a gift for the
Church and for the world. From the Heart of the Son of God, brimming with love,
flow all the goods of the Church. In particular, originates in it the vocation
of those men who, won over by the Lord Jesus, leave all things to devote
themselves without reserve to the service of the Christian people, after the
example of the Good Shepherd. The priest is moulded by the charity of Christ
himself, that love which impelled him to lay down his life for his friends and
also to forgive his enemies. For this reason all priests are first and foremost
workers of the civilization of love. And here I am thinking of so many priests,
known and less known figures, some of whom have been raised to the honour of
the altars, others whose memory lives on indelibly in the faithful, even in a
small parish community, as happened at Ars, the French village where St John
Mary Vianney exercised his ministry. There is no need to add further words to
what has been said in these past months. However, from now on this Saint’s
intercession must accompany us even more frequently. May his prayer, his “Act
of Love”, which we have so often recited during this Year for Priests continue
to nurture our conversation with God.
Another figure I
wish to remember: Fr Jerzy Popiełuszko, a priest and martyr who was proclaimed
Blessed in Warsaw
precisely last Sunday. He exercised his generous and courageous ministry beside
all those who were working for freedom, for the defence of life and for its
dignity. His work at the service of goodness and truth was a sign of
contradiction for the regime governing Poland at the time. Love of the
Heart of Christ led him to give his life and his witness was the seed of a new
springtime in the Church and in society. If we look at history, we can note how
many pages of authentic spiritual and social renewal were written with the
crucial contribution of Catholic priests, motivated solely by passion for the
Gospel and for human beings and for their true freedom, both religious and
civil. How many initiatives of integral human promotion have been born from the
intuition of a priestly heart!
Dear brothers
and sisters, let us entrust all the priests in the world to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, whose liturgical Memorial we celebrated yesterday, so that they
may continue with the power of the Gospel to build everywhere the civilization
of love.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 17 June 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s liturgy
presents to us two short parables of Jesus: the parable of the seed that grows
of its own accord and the parable of the mustard seed (see Mk 4:26-34). With
images taken from the farming world the Lord presents the mystery of the Word
and of the Kingdom
of God
In the first
parable the focus is on the dynamism of the sowing: the seed that was scattered
on the land sprouts and grows by itself, whether the peasant is awake or
asleep. The man sows with the trust that his work will not be fruitless. What
supports the farmer in his daily efforts is specifically trust in the power of
the seed and in the goodness of the soil. This parable recalls the mysteries of
the creation and of redemption, of God’s fertile work in history. It is he who
is the Lord of the Kingdom, man is his humble collaborator who contemplates and
rejoices in the divine creative action and patiently awaits its fruits. The
final harvest makes us think of God’s conclusive intervention at the end of
time, when he will fully establish his Kingdom. The present is the time of
sowing, and the growth of the seed is assured by the Lord. Every Christian
therefore knows well that he must do all he can, but that the final result
depends on God: this awareness sustains him in his daily efforts, especially in
difficult situations. St Ignatius of Loyola wrote in this regard: “Act as
though everything depended on you, but in the knowledge that really everything
depends on God” (see Pedro de Ribadeneira, Vita di S. Ignazio di Loyola, Milan , 1998).
The second
parable also uses the image of the seed. Here, however, it is a specific seed,
the mustard seed, considered the smallest of all seeds. Yet even though it is
so tiny, it is full of life; it breaks open to give life to a sprout that can
break through the ground, coming out into the sunlight and growing until it
becomes “the greatest of all shrubs” (Mk 4:32): the seed’s weakness is its strength,
its breaking open is its power. Thus the Kingdom of God is like this: a humanly
small reality, made up of those who are poor in heart, of those who do not rely
on their own power but on that of the love of God, on those who are not
important in the world’s eyes; and yet it is through them that Christ’s power
bursts in and transforms what is seemingly insignificant.
The image of the
seed is especially dear to Jesus, because it clearly expresses the mystery of
the Kingdom of God
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Book by Orestes J. González
