| 'Choose Life' Means Choosing God On Thursday morning, 2 March, in the Hall of Blessings, the Holy Father
addressed members of the Roman clergy. After a greeting by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar of Rome, the Pope responded to questions or statements
by 10 priests, and later responded the interventions of five
additional priests. The following is a
synopsis of the 15 questions and a
translation of the Holy Father's Responses, which were given in Italian.
I am going to speak straightaway, for otherwise, if I wait until the
end of all the interventions, my monologue will become too long.
I would first like to express my joy at being here with you, dear
Priests of Rome. It is a true joy to see so many good pastors at the
service of the "Good Shepherd" here, in the first See of Christianity,
in the Church which "presides in charity" and must be a model for other
local Churches. Thank you for your service!
We have a shining example of Fr. Andrea, who shows us what it means
to "be" a priest to the very end: dying for Christ during a moment of
prayer, thereby witnessing on the one hand to the interiority of his own
life with Christ, and on the other, to his own witness for people at a
truly "panpherical" point in the world, surrounded by hatred and the
fanaticism of others. It is a witness that inspires everyone to follow
Christ, to give one's life for others and thus to find life.
1. Holy Father, we are meeting you at this Lenten gathering for the
first time. I want to remember the beloved Servant of God John Paul II.
In the words you spoke at his funeral I saw a sign of continuity between
you and your beloved Predecessor: "We can be sure that our beloved Pope
is standing today at the window of the Father's House, that he sees us and
blesses us". This thought inspires a sonnet written in Roman dialect that
I have dedicated to you: "A window on high in Heaven".
With regard to the first intervention, I first of all say a big "thank
you" for this marvelous poem! There are also poets and artists in the
Church of Rome, in the presbyterate of Rome, and I will have the possibility of further meditating upon and interiorizing these beautiful
words, mindful that this "window" is always "open". Perhaps this is an
opportunity to recall the fundamental legacy of the great Pope John Paul
II in order to continue to increasingly
assimilate this legacy.
Yesterday, we began Lent. Today's Liturgy gives us a profound idea of
the essential significance of Lent: it is a guide for our life.
It therefore seems to me I speak with reference to Pope John Paul II
that we should insist a little on today's First Reading. Moses' great
discourse, on the threshold of the Holy Land after the 40-year pilgrimage
in the desert, sums up the whole of the Torah, the whole of the Law. Here we find the essential, not only for the Jewish people
but also for
us. This essential is the Word of God: "I have set before you life and
death, blessing and curse; therefore, choose life" (Dt 30:19).
These fundamental words of Lent are also the fundamental words of the
legacy of our great Pope John Paul II: "choose life". This is our
priestly vocation to choose life ourselves and to help others to choose life.
It
is a matter of renewing in Lent our own, so to speak, "fundamental
option", the option for life.
But the question immediately arises: how can we choose life, how
should we do this?
Reflecting upon this, I remembered that the great defection from
Christianity which has occurred in the West in the past 100 years was precisely in the name of the option for life.
It was said I am thinking of Nietzsche but also of so many others
that
Christianity is an option opposed to life. With the Cross, with all the
Commandments, with all the "nos" that it proposes to us, some have said
that it closes the door to life.
But we, we want to have life and we choose, we opt, ultimately, for
life, freeing ourselves by the Cross, freeing ourselves by all these
Commandments, by all these "nos". We want to have life in abundance,
nothing but life.
Here, the words of today's Gospel immediately come to mind: "Whoever
would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake,
he will save it" (Lk 9:24). This is the paradox we must first be aware of
in opting for life. It is not by arrogating life to ourselves but only by
giving life, not by having life and holding on to it but by giving it,
that we can find it. This is the ultimate meaning of the Cross: not to
seek life for oneself, but to give one's own life.
Thus, the New and Old Testaments go together. In the First Reading from
Deuteronomy God's response is: "I command you this day, by loving the
Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments
and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live" (Dt 30:16). At
first sight we may not like this, but it is the way: the option for life
and the option for God are identical. The Lord says so in St. John's
Gospel: "This is eternal life, that they know you" (Jn 17:3).
Human life is a relationship. It is only in a relationship, and not
closed in on ourselves, that we can have life. And the fundamental
relationship is the relationship with the Creator, or else other
relations are fragile. Hence, it is essential to choose God. A world empty
of God, a world that has forgotten God, loses life and relapses into a
culture of death.
Choosing life, taking the option for life, therefore, means first and
foremost choosing the option of a relationship with God. However, the
question immediately arises: with which God? Here, once again, the Gospel
helps us: with the God who showed us his face in Christ, the God who
overcame hatred on the Cross, that is, in love to the very end. Thus, by
choosing this God, we choose life.
Pope John Paul II gave us the great Encyclical Evangelium Vitae.
In it we can clearly see it is, as it were, a portrait of the problems
of today's culture, hopes and dangers that a society which forgets God,
excludes God, precisely in order to have life, falls into a culture of
death.
Precisely in order to have life, a "no" is said to the child, because
it takes some part of my life away from me; a "no" is said to the future,
in order to have the whole of the present; a "no" is said to unborn life
as well as to suffering life that is approaching death. What seems to be a
culture of life becomes the anticulture of death, where God is absent,
where that God who does not ordain hatred but overcomes hatred is absent.
Here we truly opt for life.
Consequently, everything is connected: the deepest option for the
Crucified Christ with the most complete option for life, from the very
first moment until the very last.
To me this also seems in some way the nucleus of our pastoral care: to
help people make the true choice for life, to renew their relationship
with God as the relationship which gives us life and shows us the way to
life. And thus, to love Christ anew, who from being the most unknown Being
whom we did not reach and who remained enigmatic, became a known God, a
God with a human face, a God who is love.
Let us keep this fundamental point for life before us and consider that
this programme contains the whole Gospel, the Old and the New Testaments,
that centre on Christ. Lent should be for us a time to renew our knowledge
of God, our friendship with Jesus, to be able to guide others in a
convincing way to opt for life, which is above all the option for God. It
must be clear to us that in choosing Christ, we have not chosen to deny
life, but have really chosen life in abundance.
The Christian option is basically very simple: it is the option to say
"yes" to life. But this "yes" only takes place with a God who is known,
with a God with a human face. It takes place by following this God in the
communion of love. What I have said so far is intended as a way of
renewing our remembrance of the great Pope John Paul II.
2. As a parish priest, I ask you for a few words of joyful
encouragement for mothers. In memory of our mothers, Your Holiness, for
their faith and spiritual strength that can be seen in the human and
Christian upbringing that they gave to us, help us talk to the mothers of
all the boys and girls who attend catechism classes and are often
distracted. Say a few words that we can pass on to them, saying: "This is
what the Pope says to you".
We come to the second intervention, which was so nice, about mothers. I
would say that I cannot communicate important programmes just now, words
that you could say to mothers. Simply tell them: the Pope thanks you! He
thanks you because you have given life, because you want to help this life
that is developing and thereby to build a human world, contributing to a
human future.
And it is not only by giving biological life that you do so, but by
communicating the heart of life, making Jesus known, introducing your
children to knowledge of Jesus and friendship with Jesus. This is the
foundation of every catechesis.
Therefore, one must thank mothers above all because they have had the
courage to give life. And we must ask mothers to complete their gift by
giving friendship with Jesus.
3. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed for adoration 24 hours a day in
St. Anastasia on the Palatine. The faithful take turns in making Perpetual
Adoration. My suggestion is that there should be Perpetual Adoration of
the Eucharist in each one of the five sectors of the Diocese of Rome.
The third intervention was by the Rector of St. Anastasia's Church.
Here, perhaps I can say in parentheses that the Church of St. Anastasia
was already dear to me even before I saw it because it was the titular
church of our Cardinal de Faulhaber. He always let us know that he had a
church in Rome, St. Anastasias. We always met with this community for the
second Mass of Christmas, dedicated to the "statio" of St. Anastasia.
Historians say that it was at St. Anastasia's that the Pope had to
visit the Byzantine Governor and that it was there that he had his seat.
The church also reminds us of the saint, and hence, of the "Anastasis". At
Christmas we also think of the Resurrection.
I did not know and I am glad to have been told about it, that the
church is now a place of "Perpetual Adoration"; thus, it is a focal
point in Rome of the life of faith. I confidently place in the hands of
the Cardinal Vicar this proposal to create five places of Perpetual
Adoration in the five sectors of the Diocese of Rome.
I only want to say: thanks be to God that after the Council, after a
period in which the sense of Eucharistic Adoration was somewhat lacking,
the joy of this adoration was reborn everywhere in the Church, as we saw
and heard at the Synod on the Eucharist. Of course, the conciliar
Constitution on the Liturgy enabled us to discover to the full riches of the Eucharist in which the Lord's testament is accomplished: he
gives himself to us and we respond by giving ourselves to him.
We have now rediscovered, however, that without adoration as an act consequent to Communion received, this
centre which the Lord gave to us,
that is, the possibility of celebrating his sacrifice and thus of entering
into a sacramental, almost corporeal, communion with him, loses its depth
as well as its human richness.
Adoration means entering the depths of our hearts in communion with the
Lord, who makes himself bodily present in the Eucharist, in the
monstrance, he always entrusts himself to us and asks us to be united with
his Presence, with his risen Body.
4. You are a "teacher" who guides thought in a "fully human" faith. We
never fail to be moved by your words, by the harmony in which each point
find its mark, in lively synthesis, especially in a time as fragmented as
ours. How can we help lay people grasp this synthesis of harmony, this
catholicity of faith?
We now come to the fourth question. If I have understood it correctly,
but I am not sure if I have, it was: "How do we acquire a living faith, a
truly Catholic faith, a faith that is practical, lively and effective?".
Faith, ultimately, is a gift. Consequently, the first condition is to
let ourselves be given something, not to be self-sufficient or do
everything by ourselves because we cannot but to open ourselves in
the awareness that the Lord truly gives.
It seems to me that this gesture of openness is also the first gesture
of prayer: being open to the Lord's presence and to his gift. This is also
the first step in receiving something that we do not have, that we cannot
have with the intention of acquiring it all on our own.
We must make this gesture of openness, of prayer
give me faith, Lord!
with our whole being. We must enter into this willingness to accept the
gift and let ourselves, our thoughts, our affections and our will, be
completely immersed in this gift.
Here, I think it is very important to stress one essential point: no
one believes purely on his own. We always believe in and with the Church.
The Creed is always a shared act, it means letting ourselves he
incorporated into a communion of progress, life, words and thought.
We do not "have" faith, in the sense that it is primarily God who
gives it to us. Nor do we "have" it either, in the sense that is must
not be invented by us. We must let ourselves fall, so to speak, into the communion of
faith, of the Church. Believing is in itself a Catholic act. It is
participation in this great certainty, which is present in the Church as a
living subject.
Only in this way can we also understand Sacred Scripture in the
diversity of an interpretation that develops for thousands of years. It is
a Scripture because it is an element, an expression of the unique subject
the People of God , which on its pilgrimage is always the same subject.
Of course, it is a subject that does not speak of itself, but is created
by God the classical expression is "inspired"
, a subject that
receives, then translates and communicates this word. This synergy is very
important.
We know that the Koran, according to the Islamic faith, is a word given
verbally by God without human mediation. The Prophet is not involved. He
only wrote it down and passed it on. It is the pure Word of God.
Whereas for us God enters into communion with us, he allows us to
cooperate, he creates this subject and in this subject his word grows and
develops. This human part is essential and also gives us the possibility of
seeing how the individual words really become God's Word only in the
unity of Scripture as a whole the the living subject of the People of God.
Therefore, the first element is the gift of God; the second is the
sharing it faith of the pilgrim people, the communication in the Holy
Church, which for her part receives the Word of God which is the Body of
Christ, brought to life by the living Word, the divine Logos.
Day after day, we must deepen our communion with the Holy Church and
thus, with the Word of God. They are not two opposite things, so that I
can say: I am pro-Church or I am pro-God's Word. Only when we are united
in the Church, do we belong to the Church, do we become members of the
Church, do we live by the Word of God which is the life-giving force of
the Church. And those who live by the Word of God can only live it because
it is alive and vital in the living Church.
5. Eugenio Pacelli was born it Rome on 2 March 1876 and on 2 March
1939, was elected Pope and took the name of Pius XII. This great Pope is
shrouded in silence, and we are deeply indebted to this Pontiff, who also
had great love for Germany. We all truly hope he will soon be raised to the honour of the altars.
The fifth intervention was on Pius XII. Thank you for your
intervention. He was the Pope of my youth. We all venerated him. As was
rightly said, he deeply loved the German People; he also defended them in
the great catastrophe after the War. And I must add that before he was
Nuncio in Berlin he was Nuncio in Munich, because at the outset there was
no Papal Representation in Berlin. He was also really close to us.
This seems to me the opportunity to express gratitude to all the great
Popes of the last century. The century began with St. Pius X, then Benedict
XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II.
I believe that this is a special gift in such a difficult century with
two World Wars and two destructive ideologies: Fascism-Nazism and
Communism. It was in this very century, which was opposed to the faith of
the Church, that the Lord gave us a series of great Popes, hence, a
spiritual inheritance that I would say historically strengthened the truth
of the Primacy of the Successor of Peter.
6. The Diocese of Rome is seeking the best way and a new approach to
respond to the needs of today's families. Families must be given fresh
vitality, they must be made the subject rather than the object of pastoral
care. In our time, the family is threatened by relativism and
indifference. Parents, engaged couples and children must be assisted with
catechesis and continuous guidance; they need priests expert in humanity
who understand peoples' needs. Married couples must be encouraged to
revive the grace of the sacraments.
The next intervention dedicated to the family was made by the parish
priest of St. Sylvia. Here, I cannot but fully agree. Furthermore, during
the ad limina visits I always speak to Bishops about the family,
threatened throughout the world in various ways.
The family is threatened in Africa because it is difficult to find the
way from "traditional marriage" to "religious marriage", because there is
a fear of finality.
Whereas in the West the fear of the child is caused by the fear of
losing some part of life, in Africa it is the opposite. Until it is
certain that the wife will also bear children, no one dares to enter
marriage definitively. Therefore, the number of religious marriages
remains relatively small, and even many "good" Christians with an
excellent desire to be Christians do not take this final step.
Marriage is also threatened in Latin America, for other reasons, and is
badly threatened, as we know, in the West. So it is all the more necessary
for us as Church to help families, which are the fundamental cell of every
healthy society.
Only in families, therefore, is it possible to create a communion of
generations in which the memory of the past lives on in the present and is
open to the future. Thus, life truly continues and progresses. Real
progress is impossible without this continuity of life, and once again, it
is impossible without the religious element. Without trust in God, without
trust in Christ who in addition gives us the ability to believe and to
live, the family cannot survive.
We see this today. Only faith in Christ and only sharing the faith of
the Church saves the family; and on the other hand, only if the family is
saved can the Church also survive. For the time being, I do not have an
effective recipe for this, but it seems to me that we should always bear
it in mind.
Nothing else, only the Lord's presence, helps us to truly relive what
the Creator wanted at the outset and which the Redeemer renewed. Teach
family prayer and thus invite people to pray with the Church and then seek
all the other ways.
7. Hearing of a mother and some women Religious who have helped
priests through a crisis prompts me to ask: why should not women also
have a hand in governing the Church? Women often function charismatically,
with prayer, or on a practical level, like St. Catherine of Siena who
obtained the Popes' return Rome. It would be right to promote the role
of women in institutions too, since their viewpoint, which is different
from that of men, could help priests in decision-making.
I now reply to the parochial vicar of St. Jerome's
I see that he is
still very young who tells us how much women do in the Church and for
priests themselves.
I can stress that in the First Canon, the Roman Canon, the special
prayer for priests: "Nobis quoque peccatoribus", always makes a deep
impression on me. Here, in this realistic humility of priests, precisely
as sinners, we pray to the Lord to help us to be his servants. In this
prayer for the priest, precisely only in this prayer, seven women appear
who surround the priest. They show themselves to be the believing women
who help us on our way. Each one of us has certainly had this experience.
Thus, the Church has a great debt of gratitude to women. And you have
correctly emphasized
that at a charismatic level, women do so much, I would dare to say, for the
government of the Church, starting with women Religious, with the Sisters of the great Fathers of the Church such as St. Ambrose, to the
great women of the Middle Ages St. Hildegard, St. Catherine of Siena,
then St. Teresa of Avila and lastly, Mother Teresa. I would say that this charismatic sector is undoubtedly distinguished by the ministerial sector
in the strict sense of the term, but it is a true and deep participation
in the government of the Church.
How could we imagine the government of the Church without this contribution. which sometimes becomes very visible, such as when St.
Hildegard
criticized the Bishops or when St. Bridget offered recommendations and St.
Catherine of Siena obtained the return of the Popes to Rome? It has always
been a crucial factor without which the Church cannot survive.
However, you rightly say: we also want to see women more visibly in the
government of the Church. We can say that the issue is this: the priestly
ministry of the Lord, as we know, is reserved to men, since the priestly
ministry is government in the deep sense, which, in short, means it is the
Sacrament [of Orders] that governs the Church.
This is the crucial point. It is not the man who does something, but
the priest governs, faithful to his mission, in the sense that it is the
Sacrament, that is, through the Sacrament it is Christ himself who
governs, both through the Eucharist and in the other Sacraments, and thus Christ always presides.
However, it is right to ask whether in ministerial service
despite the fact that here Sacrament and charism are the two ways in which
the Church fulfils herself it might
be possible to make more room, to
give more offices of responsibility to women.
8. I am responsible for the rehabilitation of the victims of religious
sects. I am grateful to you, Your Holiness, for your frequent denunciation
of the harm they cause. Many simple people are unable to discover their
tricks without help, like unfortunate travellers on the infamous road from
Jerusalem to Jericho. Your Holiness, do you not think it is urgently
necessary today to train Good Samaritans? Would not such preparation be
good in the seminaries and in specific courses held at the university
level and in the permanent formation of the clergy responsible for the
care of souls?
I did not quite understand the words of the eighth intervention. I more
or less understood that today, "humanity" on the way from Jerusalem to
Jericho falls among robbers. The Good Samaritan offers assistance with the
Lord's mercy.
We can only emphasize that in the end, it is man who fell and who falls again and again into the hands of
robbers, and it is Christ who heals us. We must and can help him, both in
the service of love and in the service of faith, which is also a ministry
of love.
9. The Feast of the Holy Patrons of my parish, the Holy Martyrs of
Uganda, is celebrated on 3 June. I praise God for this pastoral
experience. May more people join in prayer in and for Africa.
Then, the Martyrs of Uganda. Thank you for your contribution. You
remind us of the African Continent, which is the great hope of the Church.
In recent months I have received the majority of the African Bishops
on their ad limina visits. I found it very edifying and comforting
to see Bishops of a high theological and cultural standard. They are zealous
Bishops, truly enlivened by the joy of faith. We know that this Church is
in good hands, but that she still suffers because the nations are not yet
formed.
In Europe it was precisely through Christianity that, in addition to
the ethnic groups that existed, the great bodies of nations, the great
languages were formed, and thus communion of cultures and places of peace,
in opposition to one another, created a new sort of war that had
previously not existed.
However, in many parts of Africa we still have this situation where
there are above all dominant ethnic groups. The colonial power then
imposed boundaries within which nations now have to develop. But there is
still the difficulty of finding oneself in a great mass and of
discovering, in addition to the ethnic groups, the unity of democratic
government groups as well as the possibility of opposing forms of colonial
abuse that continue. Africa still continues to be the object of abuse by
the great powers, and many conflicts would not have taken this form if the
interests of these great powers had not been behind them.
Thus, I have also seen how, in all this confusion, the Church with her
Catholic unity is the great factor that unites in dispersion. In many
situations, especially now, after the great war in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, the Church has remained the one reality which functions and
makes life continue, which provides the necessary assistance, guarantees
coexistence and helps to find the possibility of creating one great
solution.
In this sense, in these situations, the Church also carries out a
service that replaces the political level, giving the possibility of
living together and of rebuilding communion after destruction and of
rebuilding, after the outburst of hatred, the spirit of reconciliation.
Many people have told me that precisely in these situations, the Sacrament
of Penance is of great importance as a force of reconciliation and must
also be administered with this in view.
In a word, I wanted to say that Africa is a Continent of great hope, of
great faith, of moving ecclesial realities, of zealous priests and
Bishops. But it has always been a Continent which, after the destruction
we brought to it from Europe, needs our brotherly help. And this cannot
but be born from faith that also creates universal love, over and above
human divisions.
This is our great responsibility in this epoch. Europe has exported
its ideologies, its interests, but has also exported, with the mission,
the factor of healing, today, we are especially responsible for having a
zealous faith that is communicated, that wants to help others, that is
aware that giving faith does not mean introducing an alienating power but
means giving the true gift that human beings need precisely in order to be
creatures of love.
10. I see with concern the situation in Rome, especially the plight
of young people and adolescents "on the fringe of humanity", many of whom
do not go to church. I believe that priests, lay people and Religious
should be closer to our faithful, especially youth, and we should put our
charisms at the service of catechesis.
A last point was touched on by the Carmelite parochial vicar of St.
Teresa of Avila who has rightly revealed his worries to us.
A simple and superficial optimism which does not discern the great
threats to youth, children and families today would certainly be
erroneous. We must perceive with great realism these threats that come
into being wherever God is absent. We must be more and more aware of our
responsibility so that God will be present and thus, the hope and the
ability to walk confidently towards the future.
After the interventions of five more priests, the Pope concluded his
Discourse by responding to the priests' questions:
11. Adolescents are victims of today's "desert of love" and suffer
appallingly from lack of love. They suffer from the fear of being lonely
and misunderstood. Some priests also feel "inwardly dislocated". How can
we be experts in "agape", in the fullness of love, in order to be able to
make the total gift of ourselves to help them?
I will now continue, starting with the Pontifical Academy. We can
tangibly feel today all that you said about the problem of adolescents,
their loneliness and their being misunderstood by adults. It is
interesting that these young people who seek closeness in discotheques are
actually suffering from great loneliness and, of course, also from
misunderstanding.
This seems to me, in a certain sense, an expression of the fact that
parents, as has been said, are largely absent from the formation of the
family. And mothers too are obliged to work outside the home. Communion
between them is very fragile.
Each family member lives in a world of his or her own: they are
isolated in their thoughts and feelings, which are not united. The great
problem of this time in which each person, desiring to have life for
himself, loses it because he is isolated and isolates the other from
him is to rediscover the deep communion which in the end can only stem
from a foundation that is common to all souls, from the divine presence
that unites all of us.
I think that the condition for this is to overcome loneliness and
misunderstanding, because the latter also results from the fact that
thought today is fragmented. Each one seeks his own way of thinking and
living and there is no communication in a profound vision of life. Young
people feel exposed to new horizons which previous generations do not
share; therefore, continuity in the vision of the world is absent,
caught up as it is in an ever more rapid succession of new inventions.
In 10 years changes have taken place which previously never occurred in
100 years. In this way worlds are really separated. I am thinking of my
youth and of the "ingenuousness", if you will, in which we lived, in a
society that was totally agricultural in comparison with contemporary
society. We see that the world is changing at an ever faster pace, so that
also with these changes it is fragmented. Therefore, at a moment of
renewal and change, the element of stability becomes even more important.
I remember when the conciliar Constitution Gaudium et Spes
was discussed. On the one hand, there was a recognition of the new, of
newness, the "yes" of the Church to the new epoch with its innovations,
its "no" to the romanticism of the past, a proper and necessary "no".
However, the Fathers proof of this is also in the text also said
that in spite of this, in spite of the necessary willingness to move
forward and even leave behind other things that were dear to us, there is
something, that does not change, because it is the human being himself,
his being as a creature.
Man is not completely historical. The absolutizing of historicism, in
the sense that man is only and always a creature, the product of a certain
period, is not true. His nature as a creature exists, and is is precisely
this that gives us the possibility to live through change and to retain
our identity.
This is not an instant response to what we should do, but it seems to
me that the first step should be to obtain the diagnosis. Moreover, why
should this loneliness exist in a society that appears to be a society of
the masses? Why should there be this lack of understanding in a society
where everyone is seeking to understand one another, where communication
is everything and where the transparency of all things to all people is
the supreme law?
The answer lies in the fact that we see the change in our own world and
do not sufficiently live that element which binds us all together, the
element of our nature as creatures which becomes accessible and becomes
reality in a certain history: the history of Christ, who is not against
our nature as creatures but restores all that the Creator desired, as the
Lord says about marriage.
Christianity precisely emphasizes history and religion as a historical
event, an event in history starting with Abraham. Then, as a historical
faith, after opening the floor to modernity with its sense of progress and
by constantly moving ahead, Christianity is at the same time a faith based
on the Creator who reveals himself and makes himself present in a history
to which he gives continuity, hence, communicability between souls.
Here too, therefore, I think that a faith lived in depth which is fully
open to today but also fully open to God, combines the two things: respect
for otherness and newness and the continuity of our being, communicability
between people and between times.
The other point was: how can we live life as a gift? This is a question
that we ask now, especially in Lent. We want to renew the option for Life,
which is, as I have said, an option not to possess our selves but to give
ourselves.
It seems to me that we can only do so by means of an ongoing
conversation with the Lord and a conversation with one another. Also with
"correctio fraterna", it is necessary to develop the gift of one's
self more and more in the face of an ever insufficient capacity to live.
But, it seems to me that we must also unite both things. On the one
hand, we must accept our inadequacy with humility, accept this "I" that is
never perfect but always reaches for the Lord in order to arrive at
communion with the Lord and with all people. This humility in accepting
our own limitations is also very important.
Only in this way, on the other hand, can we also grow, develop and pray
to the Lord that he will help us not to tire along the way, also accepting
humbly that we will never be perfect and accepting imperfections,
especially in others. By accepting our own imperfections we can more
easily accept those of others, allowing ourselves to be formed and
reformed ever anew by the Lord.
12. Holy Father, I bring you the greetings of my confreres who work
in secular hospitals, of the sick and of health-care workers. We ask you
for a word of encouragement to help everyone be salt, light and leaven in
the health-care sector.
Now for hospitals. Thank you for the greeting from the hospitals. I did
not know of the mindset that sees a priest carrying out his ministry in a
hospital because he did something wrong.... I always thought that service
to the sick and the suffering was a primary service of the priest, because
the Lord came above all to be with the sick. He came to share our
suffering and to heal us.
On the occasion of the ad limina visits of the Africans Bishops
I always say that the two pillars of our work are education that is, the
formation of the human being which involves so many dimensions, such as
education, learning, professionalism. the in-depth education of the person
and healing. The fundamental, essential service of the Church is
therefore that of healing. All this is done precisely in the African
countries: the Church offers healing. She presents people who help the
sick, help them to recover in body and soul.
It seems to me, therefore, that we should see the Lord himself as our
model of the priesthood in order to heal, help, assist and accompany
people on their way towards recovery. This is fundamental to the Church's
commitment; it is a fundamental form of love and consequently, a
fundamental expression of faith. Thus, it is also the central point
in the priesthood.
13. Last September I had the joy of taking part in an ecumenical
meeting hosted by the Orthodox Patriarchate of Athens. It was a deeply
enriching dialogue. I believe the clergy should avoid a conflictual
attitude and establish a frank and serene dialogue with everyone.
Then, I respond to the parochial vicar of Holy Patrons of Italy Parish
who has spoken to us of the dialogue with the Orthodox and of ecumenical
dialogue in general.
In today's world situation, we see that dialogue at all levels is
fundamental. It is even more important for Christians not to be closed in
on themselves but open.
Precisely in relations with the Orthodox I see that personal
relationships are fundamental. In doctrine, we are largely united on all
the fundamental matters, but it is in doctrine that it seems very
difficult to make any headway. But drawing close to one another in
communion, in our common experience of the life of faith, is the way to
recognize one another as children of God and disciples of Christ.
And this is my experience of at least 40 or almost 50 years. This is an
experience of common discipleship, that we actually live in the same
faith, in the same Apostolic Succession, with the same sacraments and
therefore also with the great tradition of prayer; this diversity and
multiplicity of religious cultures, of the culture of faith, is beautiful.
To have this experience is fundamental, and it perhaps seems to me that
the convinced opposition to ecumenism of some, of a part of the monks of
Mount Athos, stems also from the lack of a visible, tangible experience
that the other also belongs to the same Christ, to the same communion with
Christ in the Eucharist.
So this is very important: we must tolerate the separation that exists.
St. Paul says that divisions are necessary for a certain time and that the
Lord knows why: to test us, to train us, to develop us, to make us more
humble. But at the same time, we are obliged to move towards unity, and
moving towards unity is already a form of unity.
14. Your Encyclical Deus Caritas Est has deeply enlightened
me, especially Part II on pastoral charity, since it invites us to
practice charity directly, not to wait for the poor to come to us but to
reach out to them and do something concrete for them. However, priests
find it very difficult to pass on the faith to the younger generations.
Sometimes we feel somewhat let down by a young parochial vicar, yet we
went to the same seminary and are only a few years older. Are we expecting
too much, or is there something lacking in our formation?
Let us now turn to the spiritual director of the Seminary.
The first problem was the difficulty of pastoral charity. We live it on
the one hand, but on the other, I would also like to say: courage. The
Church gives many thanks to God, in Africa but also in Rome and in Europe!
She does so much and so many people are grateful to her, both in the area
of the pastoral care of the sick and in the pastoral care of the poor and
abandoned. Let us continue courageously to seek to find the best paths
together.
The other point was focused on the fact that priestly formation even
between close generations seems to be a little different for many people,
and this complicates the common commitment to the transmission of faith. I
noted this when I was Archbishop of Munich.
When we entered the seminary, we all had a common Catholic spirituality
that was more or less mature. Let us say that we had a spiritual
foundation in common. Seminarians now come from very different spiritual
experiences. I observed at my seminary that they live on different
"islands" of spirituality that had difficulties communicating.
Let us thank the Lord especially because he has given so many new
impulses to the Church and also so many new forms of spiritual life, of
the discovery of the riches of the faith. It is necessary above all not to
neglect the common Catholic spirituality which is expressed in the Liturgy
and in the great Tradition of faith. This seems to me to be very
important. This point is also important with regard to the Council.
We need not, as I said to the Roman Curia before Christmas, live the
hermeneutic of discontinuity, but rather the hermeneutic of renewal, which
is the spirituality of continuity, of going ahead in continuity. This
seems to me to be very important also as regards the Liturgy. Let me take
a concrete example that came to me this very day with today's brief
meditation.
The "Statio" of today, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, is St. George.
Corresponding to this soldier-saint, there were once two readings on two
holy soldiers.
The first spoke of King Hezekiah, who was ill and condemned to death
and who prayed to the Lord, weeping: "Give me a little more life!". And
the Lord was good and granted him another 17 years of life. Hence, a
beautiful healing and a soldier who could once again conduct his
activities.
The second is the Gospel that tells us of the official of Capernaum
with his sick servant. We thus have two motives: that of the healing and
that of the "militia" of Christ, of the great fight.
Now, in today's liturgy, we have two totally different Readings. We
have the one from Deuteronomy: "Choose life", and the Gospel: "Take up
your cross and follow Christ", which means it is not necessary to seek
your own life but to give life, and this is one interpretation of what
"choosing life" means.
I must say that I have always loved the Liturgy. I was truly in love
with the Church's Lenten journey, with these "stational churches" and the
readings linked to these churches: a geography of faith that becomes a
spiritual geography of the pilgrimage with the Lord. And I was somewhat
unhappy at the fact that they had taken from us this connection between
the "station" and the Readings.
Today, I see that these very Readings are most beautiful and express
the Lenten programme: choosing life, that is, renewing the "yes" of
Baptism, which is precisely, a choice of life. In this regard there is an
intimate continuity, and it seems to me that we must learn from this that
it is only a fraction between discontinuity and continuity.
We must accept newness but also love continuity, and we must see the
Council in this perspective of continuity. This will also help us in
mediating between the generations in their way of communicating the faith.
15. There is a great lack of hope in the world today and widespread
secularism. Believing in the Church and with the Church means responding
to it, seeking the only thing necessary [love], as you pointed out in the
Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. Contemplation is the only way to
understand and love others, a simple way to being more Christian.
Lastly, the priest of the Vicariate of Rome ended with a word that I
perfectly make my own so that with it we can conclude: becoming simpler.
This seems to me to be a very beautiful programme. Let us seek to put it
into practice and thus we will be more open to the Lord and to people.
Thank you!
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