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Entrusted with 'anxiety for all the Churches'
On Monday evening, 25 April, the Feast of St Mark the Evangelist,
Pope Benedict XVI visited the Roman Basilica of St
Paul-Outside-the-Walls on his first Pontifical Pilgrimage. The
enthusiastic faithful lined the streets to see the Holy Father pass by
on his way to the Basilica.
During the service, the Pope read the beginning of St Paul's
Letter to the Romans, and then knelt in prayer at the tomb of the
Apostle to the Gentiles; after preaching, the Pontiff intoned the "Our
Father" and imparted his Apostolic Blessing.
In his Homily, the Holy Father, referring to St Paul's love of
Christ which changed his whole life, prayed that the Lord would "foster
a similar love in me, so that I still not rest before the urgent need,
to proclaim the Gospel in our world today".
The Pope's brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, was among the Prelates
who accompanied the Pope on this Pilgrimage.
The following is a translation of the Holy Father's Homily, which
was given in Italian.
Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,
I give thanks to God who, at the beginning of my ministry as
Successor of Peter, has granted me to pause in prayer at the Apostle
Paul's tomb. It is a deeply-desired pilgrimage, an act of faith that I
am making not only in my own name but also in the name of the beloved
Diocese of Rome, of which the Lord has constituted me Bishop and Pastor,
and of the universal Church, entrusted to my pastoral care.
It is a pilgrimage, so to speak, to the roots of mission, the mission
that the Risen Christ entrusted to Peter, to the Apostles and in a
special way also to Paul, urging him to proclaim the Gospel to the
Gentiles, so that he came as far as this city where, after preaching the
Kingdom of God for some time (cf. Acts 28:31), he poured out his blood,
bearing the extreme witness to his Lord who had "grasped" him (Phil
3:12) and sent him forth.
Even before Providence led him to Rome, the Apostle wrote his most
important Letter, from a doctrinal point of view, to the Christians of
this city, the capital of the Empire. The first part of it has just been
proclaimed, a closely packed introduction in which the Apostle greets
the community of Rome, introducing himself as a "servant of Christ
Jesus, called to be an apostle" (Rom 1:1). A little further on he adds:
"Through him [Christ] we have been favoured with apostleship, that we
may spread his name and bring to obedient faith all the Gentiles" (Rom
1:5).
Missionary mandate timely today
Dear friends, as the Successor of Peter, I am here to revive in the
faith this "apostolic grace", since God, as the Apostle to the Gentiles
has likewise said, has entrusted me with "anxiety for all the Churches"
(II Cor 11:28).
We have before our eyes the example of my beloved Venerable
Predecessor John Paul II, a missionary Pope: the more than 100 Apostolic
Visits that he made outside of Italy testify to the truly unique
intensity of his activity. What impelled him to this dynamism other than
that same love of Christ which transformed St Paul's existence (cf. II
Cor 5:14)? May the Lord also foster a similar love in me, so that I will
not rest before the urgent need to proclaim the Gospel in our world
today.
The Church is by nature missionary; her urgent duty is to evangelize.
The Second Vatican Council dedicated to missionary activity the Decree
entitled, precisely, "Ad Gentes". It recalls that "the
Apostles... following the footsteps of Christ, 'preached the word of
truth and begot churches' (St Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 44, 23:
PL 36, 508; CChr. 30, 510)", and that it "is the duty of
their successors to carry on this work so that 'the word of God may run
and be glorified' (II Thes 3:1) and the Kingdom of God proclaimed and
renewed throughout the whole world" (Ad Gentes, n. 1).
Put love for Jesus Christ first
At the beginning of the third millennium, the Church feels with
renewed intensity that Christ's missionary mandate is more timely than
ever. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 led her to "set out anew from
Christ", contemplated in prayer, so that the light of his truth might
shine on all men and women, primarily through the witness of holiness.
I would like here to recall the motto that St Benedict placed in his
Rule, urging his monks "to prefer nothing to the love of Christ" (chap.
IV). In fact, the Lord's call to Paul on the road to Damascus brought
him to this: to making Christ the centre of his life, leaving all things
for the sublimity of knowing him and the mystery of his love, and
subsequently, striving to proclaim him to all, especially the pagans,
"that we may spread his name" (Rom 1:5). Passion for Christ brought him
to preach the Gospel not only with words but with his very life, which
he modeled ever more closely on that of his Lord.
At last, Paul proclaimed Christ with martyrdom, and his blood,
together with Peter's and that of many other Gospel witnesses,
fertilized the Church of Rome which presides in charity over universal
communion (cf. St Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Rom., Inscr.: Funk, I,
252).
As we all know, the 20th century was a period of martyrdom. Pope John
Paul II placed a strong emphasis on this when he asked the Church to
"update the Martyrology", and canonized and beatified numerous martyrs
of recent history.
Consequently, if the blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians,
it is legitimate at the beginning of the third millennium to expect the
Church to blossom anew, especially in the places where she has suffered
the worst for the faith and Gospel witness.
Let us entrust this hope to the intercession of St Paul. May he
obtain for the Church of Rome, especially for her new Bishop and for the
entire People of God, the joy of proclaiming and bearing witness of the
Good News of Christ the Saviour to everyone.
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