The Pope's visit to the Holy
Places brought him to the land that witnessed the birth, life,
death and resurrection of Jesus and the Church's beginnings
At the General Audience of
Wednesday, 29 March, the Holy Father reflected on his recent
Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Here is a translation of
his address, which was given in Italian.
1. Following the commemoration of
Abraham and my brief but intense visit to Egypt and Mount Sinai,
my Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Places brought me to
the land that saw the birth, life, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Church. My heart is filled
with inexpressible joy and gratitude for this gift of the Lord,
to which I had so looked forward. After visiting the Holy Land
during the Second Vatican Council, I have now had the grace of
returning there, together with some of my collaborators, in the
year of the Great Jubilee, the 2,000th anniversary of Christ's
birth. It was a return, in a sense, to the origins, to the roots
of our faith and of the Church.
I thank the Latin Patriarch and
the Bishops of the various Eastern Catholic Churches in the Holy
Land, as well as the Franciscans of the Custody for their warm
welcome and for all they did. I warmly thank the Jordanian,
Israeli and Palestinian authorities who welcomed and assisted me
during my religious journey. I appreciated their generous
efforts to ensure the success of my visit and I reassured them
of the Holy See's concern for a just peace among all the peoples
of the region. I am grateful to the communities of those lands
for the warm welcome they gave me.
2. The first stop—Mount Nebo—was
a continuation of my visit to Sinai: from the top of that
mountain Moses beheld the Promised Land after fulfilling the
mission entrusted to him by God and before giving up his soul to
him. I began my journey, in a certain sense, with Moses' own
gaze, realizing its evocative power that transcends centuries
and millennia.
Jerusalem's stones bear silent
witness to mystery of Christ
That gaze was turned to the
Jordan Valley and the Judean desert, where, in the fullness of
time, the voice would ring out of John the Baptist, sent
by God, like a new Elijah, to prepare the way for the Messiah.
Jesus wanted to be baptized by him, revealing that he was the
Lamb of God who took upon himself the sin of the world. The
figure of John the Baptist led me in the footsteps of Christ. I
joyfully celebrated a solemn Mass in Amman Stadium for the
Christian community living in that area, whom I found fervently
religious and well integrated into the country's society.
3. After leaving Amman I stayed
at the Apostolic Delegation in Jerusalem. From there my first
destination was Bethlehem, the city where 3,000 years ago
King David was born and where 1,000 years later, according to
the Scriptures, the Messiah was born. In this year 2000
Bethlehem is the focus of the Christian world's attention:
from there came the Light of nations, Christ the Lord; from
there spread the proclamation of peace for all men whom God
loves.
Along with my collaborators, the
Catholic Ordinaries, a number of Cardinals and many other
Bishops, I celebrated Holy Mass in the city's main square, which
is next to the cave where Mary gave birth to Jesus and laid him
in a manger. The joy of Christmas, the joy of the Great
Jubilee, is renewed in mystery. It was as if we could hear
Isaiah's prophecy again: "To us a child is born, to us a
son is given' (Is 9:6), with the angel's message: "I bring
you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people;
for behold to you is born this day in the city of David a
Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11).
In the afternoon, I knelt with
deep emotion in the cave of the Nativity, where I felt the whole
Church spiritually present, all the world's poor among whom God
chose to pitch his tent. A God who became an exile and a refugee
in order to bring us back to his house. This thought accompanied
me—before leaving the Palestinian Autonomous Territories—as
I visited one of the many camps in Bethlehem where over
three million Palestinian refugees have been living for
too long. With everyone's effort may this sad problem finally be
resolved!
4. The memory of Jerusalem
can never be erased from my heart. Great is the mystery of this
city where the fullness of time became, so to speak, the
"fullness of space". Indeed, Jerusalem hosted the
central, culminating event of salvation history: Christ's
paschal mystery. It was there that the purpose for which the
Word became flesh was revealed and fulfilled: in his death on
the Cross and his Resurrection 'everything was finished"
(cf. Jn 19:30). On Calvary the Incarnation was manifested as the
Redemption in accordance with God's eternal plan.
The stones of Jerusalem bear a
silent but eloquent witness to this mystery, starting with the Upper
Room, where we celebrated the Holy Eucharist in the very
place where it was instituted by Jesus, There, where the
Christian priesthood was born, I remembered all priests
and signed the Letter I addressed to them for next Holy
Thursday.
Witness is also borne to this
mystery by the olive trees and the rock of Gethsemane
where Christ, seized with mortal anguish, prayed to the Father
before his Passion. In a very special way Calvary and the empty
tomb, the Holy Sepulchre, testify to those dramatic
hours. Last Sunday, the Lord's Day, I renewed in that very place
the message of salvation
which spans the centuries and millennia: Christ is risen! That
was the moment when my pilgrimage reached its climax. For this
reason I felt the need to pray again in the afternoon on
Calvary, where Christ shed his blood for humanity.
5. In Jerusalem, the Holy City
for Jews, Christians and Muslims, I met the Chief Rabbis of
Israel and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. I then had a meeting
with representatives of the other two monotheistic religions,
Judaism and Islam. Despite great difficulties, Jerusalem is
called to become the symbol of peace among those who believe
in the God of Abraham and submit to his law. May men and
women hasten the fulfilment of this plan!
At Yad Vashem, the Shoah
Memorial, I paid homage to the millions of Jewish victims of
Nazism. Once again I expressed my deep sorrow for that
terrifying tragedy and reaffirmed that "we want to
remember" in order to commit ourselves together—Jews,
Christians and people of good will—to overcoming evil with
good, so as to walk on the way of peace.
Today many Churches, heirs to
ancient traditions, live their faith in the Holy Land. This
diversity is a great treasure as long as it is accompanied by a
spirit of communion in total fidelity to the faith of the
Fathers. The Ecumenical Meeting held at the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem with everyone's enthusiastic
participation marked an important step on the journey towards
full unity among Christians. It gave me great joy to be able to
speak with His Beatitude Diodoros, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of
Jerusalem, and with His Beatitude Torkom Manoogian, Armenian
Patriarch of Jerusalem. I invite everyone to pray that the
process of understanding and of collaboration among the
Christians of the various Churches will be strengthened and
developed.
6. A special grace of this
pilgrimage was to celebrate Mass on the Mount of the
Beatitudes near the Sea of Galilee with a large number of young
people from the Holy Land and from all over the world. A
moment filled with hope! As I proclaimed and entrusted to young
people the Commandments of God and the Beatitudes, I saw in them
the future of the Church and the world.
Also on the shores of that lake,
I was deeply moved in visiting Tabgha, where Christ
multiplied the loaves, the "place of the primacy",
where he entrusted to Peter the pastoral guidance of the Church,
and lastly in Capernaum the remains of Peter's house and the
synagogue where Jesus revealed himself as the Bread come down
from heaven for the life of the world (Jn 6:26-58).
Galilee!
Homeland of Mary and the first disciples; homeland of the Church
sent on mission among the nations! I think that Peter always had
cherished it in his heart, and so does his Successor!
Where God became man, man
rediscovers his dignity
7. On the liturgical feast of
the Annunciation, we went back in a sense to the sources of
the mystery of faith and knelt in the grotto of the
Annunciation in Nazareth where, in Mary's womb, "the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). There,
reflected in the Virgin's "fiat", one can hear
in silent adoration God's loving "yes" to man, the amen
of the eternal Son, who opens the path of salvation to every
human being. There, in the reciprocal self-giving of Christ and
Mary, are the hinges of every "holy door". There,
where God became man, man rediscovers his dignity and high
calling.
I thank everyone in the various
Dioceses, religious houses and contemplative communities who
spiritually followed the steps of my pilgrimage, and I assure
them that I took the whole Church with me in prayer to the
places I visited. Once again, as I express my gratitude to the
Lord for this unforgettable experience, I ask him with humble
trust to draw from it abundant fruits for the good of the Church
and of humanity.
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