English text of Benedict’s homily at today’s canonization Mass:
Four new saints are proposed today for the veneration of the universal Church: Rafael Guízar y Valencia, Filippo Smaldone, Rosa Venerini and Théodore Guérin. Their names will forever be remembered.
In contrast, we think immediately of the ‘rich young man’ in the Gospel we just heard. This young man has remained anonymous. If he had responded positively to the invitation of Jesus, he would have become His disciple and the evangelists would have recorded his name.
This fact immediately allows us to see the theme of tehe Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. If man places his security in the riches of this world, he will not achieve the full sense of life and true joy; if instead, trusting in the word of God, he renounces himself and his worldly goods for the Kingdom of Heaven, he will apparently lose much but in fact gain everything.
A saint is that man or woman who, responding with joy and gnerosity to the call of Christ, leaves everything to follow Him. Like Peter and the other Apostles, like St. Teresa of Jesus whom we remember today, and numberless other friends of God, the new saints went through this exigent but satisfying evangelical itinerary, and received back – along with the trials and persecutions of their earthly life – ‘a hundredfold’, as well as eternal life.
Jesus therefore can guarantee a happy existence and eternal life, but through a road different from that imagined by the rich young man – not through one good deed or some legal contribution, but by choosing the Kingdom of God as the ‘precious pearl’ for which it is worth selling all that one possesses (cfr Mt 13, 45-46).
The rich young man did not get to take this step. Even if he earned a look full of love from Jesus (cfr Mk 10,21), his heart could not detach itself from the wealth he possessed. And that was a teaching for the disciples: "How difficult it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!" (Mk 10,23).
He went on to say a bit about each saint in the appropriate languages: Spanish, Italian, English and French.
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