This past week has been a very busy one for Benedict – let the man go on vacation (he will – in July, to the same place in the Italian Alps he went last year and to which JP2 went for many years)!
I thought I’d provide links to and snippets from his major addresses and talks this past ten days:
2) At the 5/31 General Audience, he reflected on that Poland trip:
I took advantage of the opportunity to renew before the Polish people the wonderful proclamation of the Christian truth about man, created and redeemed in Christ; that truth that John Paul proclaimed with vigor on so many occasions to encourage all to remain firm in faith, hope and love. "Stand firm in the faith." This is the instruction he has left the children of his beloved Poland, encouraging them to persevere in faithfulness to Christ and to the Church so that Europe and the world will never lack the contribution of her evangelical testimony. All Christians must feel committed to give this testimony so as to avoid that humanity of the third millennium might again know new horrors similar to those tragically evoked by the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
3) On 6/1, he spoke to the "Patrons of the Artis" of the Vatican Museums:
In every age Christians have sought to give expression to faith’s vision of the beauty and order of God’s creation, the nobility of our vocation as men and women made in his image and likeness, and the promise of a cosmos redeemed and transfigured by the grace of Christ. The artistic treasures which surround us are not simply impressive monuments of a distant past. Rather, for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who contemplate them year after year, they stand as a perennial witness to the Church’s unchanging faith in the Triune God who, in the memorable phrase of Saint Augustine, is himself "Beauty ever ancient, ever new" (Confessions, X, 27).
4) Also on 6/1, he looked forward to the release of the post-Synodal document on the Eucharist
"The Eucharist is above all the source and secret of the permanent impulse of our mission," Benedict XVI said. "In fact, in his ecclesial existence the bishop configures the image of Christ, who nourishes us with his flesh and blood.
"From the Eucharist, the pastor draws vigor to exercise that particular pastoral charity which consists in dispensing the food of truth to the Christian people.
"And this text that is being prepared will be one of those interventions to nourish the people of God with the food of truth, to help them grow in the truth and above all to make the mystery of the Eucharist known and to invite [them] to an intense Eucharistic life."
The Holy Father continued: "At a time characterized by the growing phenomenon of globalization, it is increasingly necessary to have the truth of Christ and of his Gospel of salvation reach all with vigor and clarity.
"The areas where the truth must be proclaimed and witnessed with love are innumerable; many people are thirsty and we cannot leave them languishing in search of food."
5) On 6/2 Benedict’s statement for World Mission Sunday (10/22) was released:
To be missionaries then means to love God with all one’s heart, even to the point of giving one’s life for him. How many priests, men and women religious and laity, even in our time, have rendered supreme witness of their love for him by their martyrdom!
To be missionaries, is to tend, like the good Samaritan, to the needs of all, particularly those of the poor and the needy, because he who loves with the heart of Christ, searches not for his own interest but only for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. In this lies the secret of the apostolic fruitfulness in missionary work which crosses frontiers and cultures, reaches all peoples and spreads to the utmost ends of the world.
My dear brothers and sisters, World Mission Day is an appropriate occasion for better understanding that witness of love, soul of the mission, concerns everyone. Indeed to serve the Gospel can never be considered a solitary adventure, but a binding duty for every community.
Along with all those who operate on the front line of evangelization — and here I remember with gratitude all missionaries — I also think of many others, children, young and old who by their prayers and cooperation in many ways contribute to the spreading of the kingdom of God on earth.
6) Also on 6/2, Benedict spoke to candidates for diplomatic service to the Holy See:
Benedict told the group of priests that in order to prepare themselves for their future mission, "you are called, above all, to be a community of prayer in which the relationship with God is constant, faithful and intense. … May the Eucharist you celebrate every day be the vital center, the source and the root of all your activities over these years and in the future, when you will perform your priestly ministry at the service of the Holy See in various countries of the world.
7) ALSO on 6/2, Benedict spoke to communications professionals associated with the Italian bishops’ conference:
Benedict XVI encouraged Catholic communicators "to support and promote the new Christian experiences that are being born and help them attain an ever clearer awareness of their ecclesial roots and the role they can play in society and culture."
The Pope encouraged the journalists to carry out their work, paying attention to "the problems, needs and hopes" of the people they address.
"Christian faith is open to all that is ‘true, noble, just, kind, and honest’ in peoples’ cultures, as the Apostle Paul taught the Philippians," he said.
For their message to be credible, Benedict XVI invited Catholic communicators to give "a luminous testimony of profound Christian life, being always tenaciously united to Christ, to be able to look at the world with his very eyes."
The Pope continued: "Experience the happiness of belonging to the Church and of introducing your voice and reasons in the great circuit of communication.
8) Is it Saturday yet? That means we get to all of the various remarks at the Pentecost gathering. The Vigil remarks are summarized here
One who has found what is true, beautiful and good in his life — the only treasure, the precious pearl! — runs everywhere to share it, in the family, at work, in all the environments of his life," the Pope said.
The Holy Father appealed to the movements and communities "to be even more, much more, collaborators in the Pope’s universal apostolic ministry, opening the doors to Christ."
"This," he said, "is the best service of the Church to people and in a totally particular way to the poor so that the life of the person, a more just order in society and peaceful coexistence among nations, find Christ, the ‘cornerstone’ on which to build an authentic civilization, the civilization of love."
Here’s his homily on Pen
tecost:
The People of God, which had found its first configuration in Sinai, extends today to the point of surmounting every barrier of race, culture, space and time. As opposed to what occurred with the tower of Babel, when people wanted to build a way to heaven with their hands, they ended up by destroying their very capacity to understand one another mutually. The Pentecost of the Spirit, with the gift of tongues, shows that his presence unites and transforms confusion into communion. Man’s pride and egoism always creates divisions, builds walls of indifference, hatred and violence.
The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, makes hearts capable of understanding everyone’s languages, as it re-establishes the bridge of authentic communication between earth and heaven. The Holy Spirit is love.
The very brief Regina Coeli, at the end of the Pentecost Mass:
The whole Church, as Pope John Paul II liked to say, is only one great movement, animated by the Holy Spirit, a river that goes through history to water it with the grace of God and to make her life fruitful in goodness, beauty, justice and peace.
9) Finally, on Monday, Benedict addressed the Diocese of Rome ecclesial congress at St. John Lateran. His focus was on transmitting the faith to the young:
The Holy Father then highlighted the importance of the new generations feeling that the Church "is a company of friends, one that is truly trustworthy and remains close in all the moments and circumstances of life, … and that will never abandon us even in death, because it carries in itself the promise of eternity."
Young people and adolescents, he went on, "must be disabused of the widespread prejudice that Christianity, with its commandments and its prohibitions, places too many obstacles to the joy of love, and in particular that it prevents the full enjoyment of the happiness that man and woman find in their mutual love. … The Ten Commandments are not a series of ‘nos’, but a big ‘yes’ to love and to life. Human love must be purified, it must mature and go beyond its own limits in order to become truly human, to be the origin of true and lasting joy, to respond to that demand for eternity it carries within itself and which it cannot relinquish without betraying itself. This is the fundamental reason for which love between man and woman is fully realized only in marriage."
Benedict XVI highlighted how the theme of truth "must occupy a central position." In the faith, he said, "we welcome and accept the Truth that our minds cannot fully understand, that they cannot posses." This "enables us to arrive at the Mystery in which we are immersed and to rediscover in God the definitive meaning of our existence."
Another dimension of the faith, the Pope went on, "is entrusting oneself to a person: not to any person but to Jesus Christ" Who "fills our hearts, expanding them and imbuing them with joy, spurring our intelligence towards unexplored horizons, offering His decisive standpoint to our freedom, thus raising it up from the straits of egoism and making it capable of authentic love."
"Scientific progress," the Pope went on, "is often presented as opposed to the affirmations of the faith, giving rise to confusion and making it more difficult to accept Christian truth." On this matter he added: "Dialogue between faith and reason, if conducted sincerely and firmly, makes it possible to gain a more effective and convincing vision of the rationality of faith in God – not in any God but in the God Who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ – and to show how the fulfillment of all authentic human aspirations lies in Jesus Christ Himself."
Alongside the experience of faith, there exists a "privileged space in which this meeting [with God] takes place more directly: … prayer," said the Pope. And he called on all the Church in Rome, especially consecrated people, to be "assiduous in prayer" and to adore "the living Christ in the Eucharist, falling ever more in love with Him, Who is our brother and true friend, the Bridegroom of the Church, the faithful and merciful God Who loved us first. Thus, you young people will be ready and willing to welcome His call, if He wants you totally for Him in the priesthood or in consecrated life."
"The Pope concluded his remarks: "In the extent to which we nourish ourselves from Christ and love Him, we also feel within ourselves the stimulus to bring others to Him. Indeed, we cannot keep the joy of the faith to ourselves, we must transmit it. This need becomes even stronger and more impelling in the presence of that strange forgetfulness of God that exists today in vast areas of the world and, to some extent, even here in Rome."
I gathered the links in the post because I wanted to give a sense of the Pope’s mind and heart. Some pundits continue to be puzzled by Benedict, to wonder what he is up to and why. Some say he’s too soft – the Luv Pope – such a 60’s guy after all! Some sniff at his continual references to the darkness and deserts in the modern world and within the heart of contemporary human beings. He’s positioned himself in a "clash with the modern world" as a forthcoming book (which is on my list for the next week) is subtitled.
Well, the heart of Christianity is salvation in the vale of tears. It is not "the modern world" – it is the tragedy of life distracted, wasted, harmed and destroyed by sin. The lot of humanity since The Fall. It is not a concern Benedict invented. And what is the fundamental answer to that? God’s answer – Christ. The Way, the Truth, the Life. Love.
As discussed endlessly at the release of Deus Caritas Est, Benedict sees the fundamental problem – in my own mind, I keep coming back to my experiences standing in front of classrooms full of adolescents, all day, every day, for nine years. What did they need? What were they hungry and thirsty for? A strong dose of doctrine? "Catholic identity?" No – that is the fruit, the next stop along the road, or even simply a more formal articulation of the fundamental need. It all comes back to Christ. Some would like to pose a disconnect – for example, during the past forty years, the suggested disconnect has been that if you have "love" you don’t need "Church" and all of its articulations and ritual. Benedict makes clear that the love of God is embodied in the Church, because the Church is the Body of Christ and Christ is the Way, is God’s love enfleshed. Every step of the way he reminds us that we can’t separate ourselves our our faith from the Church.
This doesn’t please everyone. But that’s too bad. In his clear way, so beautifully grounded in Scripture and Tradition, he’s making connections, to anyone who’s willing to listen. He shows that he knows the heart of contemporary humanity – surrounded by a myriad of choices in some areas of the world, trapped in poverty and repression in some areas, a world divided. He is constantly challenging those who call themselves Christian – all of us, lay and ordained, church professionals or living in the world – to be attentive to the reality of life as it is, and to bring it the transforming love of Christ, a love which is encountered and embodied in the richness of His Church.
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