Today, the Pope began his day with a visit to the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility in Rome. His homily during the Mass there was extemporaneous, so it will take a while for a full text to be available. Some notes and hints, though:
Benedict XVI also spoke of love for live and the sense of life with young detainees at the Casal del Marmo, in his first visit to a prison. The institution which hosts around fifty teenage boys and girls of various nationalities – is the same visited by John Paul II in 1980, on the invitation of the then Cardinal Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli who for over 30 years spent as much time as possible at the prison, as Benedict XVI recalled.
During the mass Benedict XVI spoke openly and without text to the young prisoners, commenting on the evangelical episode of the prodigal son. He noted how behind the figures of the two sons were two “distinct life projects different one from the other”, with the younger son finding the life of a wealthy landowner dissatisfactory. “He wants freedom from discipline, rules and commandments”, “freedom with all its beauty”. For his part the after is “respectful” of the son’s decision to make his own way.
Thus the young man takes what is his. “Now his freedom is to do what he wishes to do, no longer in the prison of his home discipline”. And “in the first movements he feels happy, but slowly a worrying emptiness settles upon him”: the “slavery of a freedom that is consumed by terrestrial pleasures” was not living, “in fact life began to distance itself from him”. So the young man begins to reflect, “To ask himself if it is not better to live ones live for others”. Thus he begins “an interior journey of maturation towards a new life project which also becomes an outward journey."
The feast prepared for the return of the prodigal son shows that “the work, humility, discipline of every day life creates the feast”; the young man knows that “certainly even in the future his life will not be easy, that temptation will return”, but he will also know that “life without God doesn’t work, it is missing the essential”.
“The Commandments are not obstacles to freedom, rather indicators on the road to life” and “the Gospel helps us to understand who really is God: our most merciful father, merciful beyond measure”.
In the words of Benedict XVI, it is a matter of “what freedom is and what papers to be freedom”; in short “freedom is a launching pad towards the infinity of God’s love or the abyss of sin and evil”. And meeting with the young teenagers after the celebration of mass, who he greeted one by one along with the present authorities, the Pope once again asked the question “how can you be happy if you suffer, when you are deprived of freedom, when you feel abandoned”, true joy and happiness he answered, “is knowing that God loves you”: “You could even be deprived of everything – he concluded – of freedom and of health but yet be peaceful and serene : the secret is putting God in first place”.
From Italian news services, via PRF (scroll down):
Speaking in behalf of 53 minors detained at the Penal Institute for Minors in Casal del Marmo, one of them told the Holy Father:
"Dear Holy Father, you have given us such pleasure with your visit. We were dumbfounded when we first heard you were coming to see us. We never imagined that someone as important as you would come to visit us.
"We are very sorry that we did wrong, even if often, it was not us but someone else who pushed us into doing wrong. But we know we have to pay for it, at a high price, because in detention we suffer much.
"We hope you can understand us and that when we get out of here, we will be able to make a positive change in our lives. We would be very happy also to see you with us again, and maybe we, too may also get to visit you later."
Much moved, the Pope rose and approached the boy to thank him for his words.
The Pope gave the young wards two large baskets full of chocolate, cookies and candied fruit. Most of the detainees are Eastern European immigrants.
I have just returned from the Penal Institute for Minors of Casal del Marmo, where I visited on this fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare Sunday in Latin – which means, "Rejoice!" from the first word of the entrance antiphon in today’s liturgy.
Today then, the liturgy invites us to rejoice because Easter is near, the day of Christ’s victory over sin and death. But where else is found the spring of Christian joy but in the Eucharist, which Christ left us as spiritual food while we are pilgrims on this earth?
The Eucharist nourishes in believers of every era that profound joy which unites with love and peace, and which comes from communion with God and our brothers.
Last Tuesday we presented the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis whose theme is the Eucharist as source and summit of the life and mission of the Church. I elaborated it by putting together the fruits of the 11th Gemeral Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which took place at the Vatican in October 2005.
I count on returning to this important text, but for now, I wish to underscore that it represents an expression of the faith of the universal Church in the Eucharistic mystery, and is in a line of continuity with the Second Vatican Council and the Magisterium of my venerated predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II.
In this document, I wished, among other things, to bring to light its link to the encyclical Deus caritas est: That is why I chose the title Sacramentum caritatis, using a beautiful definition of the Eucharist by St. Tomas Aquinas, (cfr Summa Th. III, q. 73, a. 3, ad 3), the sacrament of love.
Yes, in the Eucharist Christ wished to give us the love which made Him offer His life on the Cross for us. In tehe Last Supper, washing the feet of His disciples, Jesus left us the commandment of love: "As I have loved you, so too must you love each other" (Jn 13,34).
But because this is only possible if we remain united with Him, like tendrils to a vine (cfr Jn 15,1-8), He chose to remain with us in the Eucharist, so that we may be able to remain in Him.
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