Từ ngày Đức Giáo Hoàng Biển Đức thứ 16 thoái vị về hưu, có người dịch danh xưng Pope Emeritus là Giáo Hoàng Danh Dự. Rồi nhiều người khác cóp lại loan truyền trên internet, báo chí, truyền thông. Cách gọi này không đúng.
Thứ nghĩ xem? Nếu Pope emeritus là Giáo Hoàng danh dự, vậy Đức Hồng Y Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York là Tổng Giám Mục 'Danh Dự' tổng giáo phận New York (http://www.archny.org/about-us/edward-cardinal-egan/), Đức Tổng Giám Mục Giuse Ngô Quang Kiệt là Tổng Giám Mục 'Danh Dự' (Archbishop Emeritus http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dhano.html) tổng giáo phận Hà Nội, Đức cha Têphanô Nguyễn Như Thể là Tổng Giám Mục 'Danh Dự' TGP Huế. Đức Giám Mục Phaolo Nguyễn Văn Hòa là Giám Mục 'Danh Dự' (Bishop Emeritus http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dnhat.html) địa phận Nha Trang, Đức Giám Mục Joseph Gossman là Giám Mục 'Danh Dự' địa phận Raleigh (http://www.dioceseofraleigh.org/who/emeritus/). Không. Chúng ta không dịch như vậy. Chúng ta vẫn gọi các ngài là Tổng Giám Mục hay Giám Mục và người nghe, người đọc ai ai cũng hiểu rắng các vị ấy đã về hưu hay không còn đương nhiệm.
Điểm thứ hai. Giáo Hoàng Danh Dự làm tôi liên tưởng đến các bằng tiến sĩ danh dự mà các đại học trao cho Bill Gates (http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/06/07/us-microsoft-gates-idUSN0730259120070607) hay các nhân vật nổi tiếng (http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-received-honorary-doctorates-2012-5). Các người này chưa từng hoàn tất chương trình đại học hay bảo vệ thành công luận án tiến sĩ. Tiến sĩ danh dự đây là tiến sĩ "giấy". Viết Giáo Hoàng 'Danh Dự' Benedict XVI, phải chăng người viêt muốn nói Đức Biển Đức XVI là giáo hoàng 'hàng mã', là giáo hoàng tượng trưng? Không. Đức Benedict XVI đã thực sự cai quản Giáo Hội suốt 8 năm trời, không thể gọi ngài là Giáo Hoàng 'Danh Dự' như các tiến sĩ danh dự, công dân danh dự (đại sứ Henry Cabot Lodge), hạ sĩ danh dự (ca sĩ Minh Hiếu),..
Điểm thứ ba. Nếu chúng ta tìm hiểu thêm một chút. Google chữ emeritus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeritus). Chúng ta thấy danh xưng này, ngoài giáo hội (để chỉ các vị giám mục về hưu, từ nhiệm, không bị cất chức), còn được các đại học dùng để vinh danh các vị giáo sư (professor) xuất sắc đã về hưu sau nhiều năm cống hiến. Như vậy, emeritus được hiểu là về hưu trong vinh dư (retired with honor). Emeritus không thể hiểu đơn giản là 'danh dự' đươc.
Chúng ta nên tiếp tục gọi là Đức Giáo Hoàng Biển Đức XVI hay Đức Thánh Cha (His Holiness) Biển Đức XVI hay ngắn gọn hơn Đức Biển Đức XVI như trong bài viết của linh mục Paul Phạm Văn Tuấn (http://danchuausa.net/giao-hoi-hoan-vu/cuoc-gap-go-lich-su-chua-tung-co-giua-hai-vi-giao-hoang/) và Vũ Văn An (http://danchuausa.net/giao-hoi-hoan-vu/duc-phanxico-duc-me-khiem-nhuong-va-cuoc-gap-go-giua-hai-vi-giao-hoang/). Nếu đễ rỏ ràng, Đức nguyên giáo hoàng Biển Đức XVI như các bài viết ở trang web của Hồi Đồng Giám Mục Việt Nam của Thành Thi (http://www.hdgmvietnam.org/sau-khi-tu-nhiem-duc-thanh-cha-benedicto-xvi-van-giu-nguyen-tuoc-hieu-va-tu-phuc-trang/4741.57.7.aspx) và Minh Đức (http://www.hdgmvietnam.org/khoanh-khac-hiep-thong-sau-sac-giua-hai-giao-hoang/4845.57.7.aspx) là đúng đắn.
Dominic V
Showing posts with label Pope Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Pope Renounces Papal Throne
Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father, at the end of today's consistory for causes for canonization, announced his resignation from ministry as Bishop of Rome to the College of Cardinals. Following is the Holy Father's complete declaration, which he read in Latin:
"I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."
"Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve Homily
"What would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door"
VATICAN CITY, December 24, 2012 (Zenit.org).
Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave at tonight's Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.
I am also repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable; he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he writes: "he came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (Jn 1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still. Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the "God hypothesis" becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so "full" of ourselves that there is no room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need to listen to Saint Paul’s exhortation: "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2). Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (nous), of the whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world.
There is another verse from the Christmas story on which I should like to reflect with you – the angels’ hymn of praise, which they sing out following the announcement of the new-born Saviour: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased." God is glorious. God is pure light, the radiance of truth and love. He is good. He is true goodness, goodness par excellence. The angels surrounding him begin by simply proclaiming the joy of seeing God’s glory. Their song radiates the joy that fills them. In their words, it is as if we were hearing the sounds of heaven. There is no question of attempting to understand the meaning of it all, but simply the overflowing happiness of seeing the pure splendour of God’s truth and love. We want to let this joy reach out and touch us: truth exists, pure goodness exists, pure light exists. God is good, and he is the supreme power above all powers. All this should simply make us joyful tonight, together with the angels and the shepherds.
Linked to God’s glory on high is peace on earth among men. Where God is not glorified, where he is forgotten or even denied, there is no peace either. Nowadays, though, widespread currents of thought assert the exact opposite: they say that religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in the world. If there is to be peace, humanity must first be liberated from them. Monotheism, belief in one God, is said to be arrogance, a cause of intolerance, because by its nature, with its claim to possess the sole truth, it seeks to impose itself on everyone. Now it is true that in the course of history, monotheism has served as a pretext for intolerance and violence. It is true that religion can become corrupted and hence opposed to its deepest essence, when people think they have to take God’s cause into their own hands, making God into their private property. We must be on the lookout for these distortions of the sacred. While there is no denying a certain misuse of religion in history, yet it is not true that denial of God would lead to peace. If God’s light is extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished. Then the human creature would cease to be God’s image, to which we must pay honour in every person, in the weak, in the stranger, in the poor. Then we would no longer all be brothers and sisters, children of the one Father, who belong to one another on account of that one Father. The kind of arrogant violence that then arises, the way man then despises and tramples upon man: we saw this in all its cruelty in the last century. Only if God’s light shines over man and within him, only if every single person is desired, known and loved by God is his dignity inviolable, however wretched his situation may be. On this Holy Night, God himself became man; as Isaiah prophesied, the child born here is "Emmanuel", God with us (Is 7:14). And down the centuries, while there has been misuse of religion, it is also true that forces of reconciliation and goodness have constantly sprung up from faith in the God who became man. Into the darkness of sin and violence, this faith has shone a bright ray of peace and goodness, which continues to shine.
So Christ is our peace, and he proclaimed peace to those far away and to those near at hand (cf. Eph 2:14, 17). How could we now do other than pray to him: Yes, Lord, proclaim peace today to us too, whether we are far away or near at hand. Grant also to us today that swords may be turned into ploughshares (Is 2:4), that instead of weapons for warfare, practical aid may be given to the suffering. Enlighten those who think they have to practise violence in your name, so that they may see the senselessness of violence and learn to recognize your true face. Help us to become people "with whom you are pleased" – people according to your image and thus people of peace.
Once the angels departed, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened for us (cf. Lk 2:15). The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem, the Evangelist tells us (cf. 2:16). A holy curiosity impelled them to see this child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Saviour, Christ the Lord. The great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts and given them wings.
Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today. Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go "across", daring to step beyond, to make the "transition" by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us. Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.
Let us go over to Bethlehem: as we say these words to one another, along with the shepherds, we should not only think of the great "crossing over" to the living God, but also of the actual town of Bethlehem and all those places where the Lord lived, ministered and suffered. Let us pray at this time for the people who live and suffer there today. Let us pray that there may be peace in that land. Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom. Let us also pray for the countries of the region, for Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and their neighbours: that there may be peace there, that Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.
The shepherds made haste. Holy curiosity and holy joy impelled them. In our case, it is probably not very often that we make haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing. Why should we not also be moved by curiosity to see more closely and to know what God has said to us? At this hour, let us ask him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity and the holy joy of the shepherds, and thus let us go over joyfully to Bethlehem, to the Lord who today once more comes to meet us. Amen.
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.zenit.org/article-36238?l=english
VATICAN CITY, December 24, 2012 (Zenit.org).
Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave at tonight's Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.
I am also repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable; he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he writes: "he came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (Jn 1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still. Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the "God hypothesis" becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so "full" of ourselves that there is no room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need to listen to Saint Paul’s exhortation: "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2). Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (nous), of the whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world.
There is another verse from the Christmas story on which I should like to reflect with you – the angels’ hymn of praise, which they sing out following the announcement of the new-born Saviour: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased." God is glorious. God is pure light, the radiance of truth and love. He is good. He is true goodness, goodness par excellence. The angels surrounding him begin by simply proclaiming the joy of seeing God’s glory. Their song radiates the joy that fills them. In their words, it is as if we were hearing the sounds of heaven. There is no question of attempting to understand the meaning of it all, but simply the overflowing happiness of seeing the pure splendour of God’s truth and love. We want to let this joy reach out and touch us: truth exists, pure goodness exists, pure light exists. God is good, and he is the supreme power above all powers. All this should simply make us joyful tonight, together with the angels and the shepherds.
Linked to God’s glory on high is peace on earth among men. Where God is not glorified, where he is forgotten or even denied, there is no peace either. Nowadays, though, widespread currents of thought assert the exact opposite: they say that religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in the world. If there is to be peace, humanity must first be liberated from them. Monotheism, belief in one God, is said to be arrogance, a cause of intolerance, because by its nature, with its claim to possess the sole truth, it seeks to impose itself on everyone. Now it is true that in the course of history, monotheism has served as a pretext for intolerance and violence. It is true that religion can become corrupted and hence opposed to its deepest essence, when people think they have to take God’s cause into their own hands, making God into their private property. We must be on the lookout for these distortions of the sacred. While there is no denying a certain misuse of religion in history, yet it is not true that denial of God would lead to peace. If God’s light is extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished. Then the human creature would cease to be God’s image, to which we must pay honour in every person, in the weak, in the stranger, in the poor. Then we would no longer all be brothers and sisters, children of the one Father, who belong to one another on account of that one Father. The kind of arrogant violence that then arises, the way man then despises and tramples upon man: we saw this in all its cruelty in the last century. Only if God’s light shines over man and within him, only if every single person is desired, known and loved by God is his dignity inviolable, however wretched his situation may be. On this Holy Night, God himself became man; as Isaiah prophesied, the child born here is "Emmanuel", God with us (Is 7:14). And down the centuries, while there has been misuse of religion, it is also true that forces of reconciliation and goodness have constantly sprung up from faith in the God who became man. Into the darkness of sin and violence, this faith has shone a bright ray of peace and goodness, which continues to shine.
So Christ is our peace, and he proclaimed peace to those far away and to those near at hand (cf. Eph 2:14, 17). How could we now do other than pray to him: Yes, Lord, proclaim peace today to us too, whether we are far away or near at hand. Grant also to us today that swords may be turned into ploughshares (Is 2:4), that instead of weapons for warfare, practical aid may be given to the suffering. Enlighten those who think they have to practise violence in your name, so that they may see the senselessness of violence and learn to recognize your true face. Help us to become people "with whom you are pleased" – people according to your image and thus people of peace.
Once the angels departed, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened for us (cf. Lk 2:15). The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem, the Evangelist tells us (cf. 2:16). A holy curiosity impelled them to see this child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Saviour, Christ the Lord. The great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts and given them wings.
Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today. Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go "across", daring to step beyond, to make the "transition" by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us. Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.
Let us go over to Bethlehem: as we say these words to one another, along with the shepherds, we should not only think of the great "crossing over" to the living God, but also of the actual town of Bethlehem and all those places where the Lord lived, ministered and suffered. Let us pray at this time for the people who live and suffer there today. Let us pray that there may be peace in that land. Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom. Let us also pray for the countries of the region, for Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and their neighbours: that there may be peace there, that Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.
The shepherds made haste. Holy curiosity and holy joy impelled them. In our case, it is probably not very often that we make haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing. Why should we not also be moved by curiosity to see more closely and to know what God has said to us? At this hour, let us ask him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity and the holy joy of the shepherds, and thus let us go over joyfully to Bethlehem, to the Lord who today once more comes to meet us. Amen.
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.zenit.org/article-36238?l=english
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Pope's Address for Feast of Immaculate Conception
"Mary, in Fact, Is Wholly Associated With the Victory of Jesus Christ"
ROME, DEC. 8, 2011 (Zenit.org)- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters!
The great feast of Mary Immaculate invites us every year to gather here, in one of Rome’s most beautiful piazzas, to offer homage to her, to the Mother of Christ and our Mother. With affection I greet all of you who are present here and those who are joining us via radio and television. And I thank you for your choral participation in my act of prayer.
At the top of the column that we crown Mary is represented by a statue that in part recalls the passage from the Book of Revelation that was just proclaimed: “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and, upon her head, a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). What is the meaning of this image? It represents both Our Lady and the Church.
First of all the “woman” of the Book of Revelation is Mary herself. She appears “clothed in the sun,” that is, clothed in God: the Virgin Mary is in fact surrounded by the light of God and lives in God. This symbol of the luminous garments expresses a condition that regards the whole of Mary’s being: she is the one who is “full of grace,” filled with the love of God. And “God is light” as St. John says (1 John 1:5). This is why she who is “full of grace,” the “Immaculate” reflects with her whole person the light of the “sun” that is God.
This woman has the moon beneath her feet, the symbol of death and mortality. Mary, in fact, is wholly associated with the victory of Jesus Christ, her Son, over sin and death; she is free from every shadow of death and is completely filled with life. As death no longer has any power over the risen Jesus (cf. Romans 6:9), thus, by a grace and a singular privilege of almighty God, Mary has left death behind, she has overcome it. And this is manifested in the two great mysteries of her life: at the beginning, being conceived without original sin, which is the mystery that we celebrate today; and, at the end, being assumed in soul and body into heaven, into God’s glory. But also her whole life on earth was a victory over death, because it was spent entirely in the service of God, in the complete offering of herself to God and neighbor. Because of this Mary is in herself a him to life: she is the creature in whom the word of Christ is already realized: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it in abundance” (John 10:10).
In the vision of the Book of Revelation there is another detail: upon the head of the woman clothed in the sun there is “a crown of twelve stars.” This sign represents the 12 tribes of Israel and means that the Virgin Mary is at the center of the People of God, of the whole communion of saints. And thus this image of the crown of twelve stars introduces us to the second great interpretation of the celestial sign of the “woman clothed in the sun”: besides representing our Lady, this sign personifies the Church, the Christian community of all times. She is pregnant, in the sense that she carries Christ in her womb and must bear him for the world: this is the suffering of the pilgrim Church on earth, who in the midst of God’s consolations and the world’s persecution must bring Jesus to men.
It is precisely for this, because she brings Jesus, that the Church meets the opposition of a ferocious adversary, represented in the Book of Revelation by the “great red dragon” (Revelation 12:3). This dragon sought in vain to devour Jesus – the “male child destined to govern all the nations” (12:5). The dragon tries in vain because Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has ascended to God and he has taken his seat upon his throne. This is why the dragon, defeated once and for all in heaven, turns his attacks toward to the woman – the Church – in the wilderness of the world. But in every age the Church is sustained by the light and by the power of God, which nourishes her in the wilderness with the bread of his Word and the Holy Eucharist. And so in every tribulation, through all of the trials that she meets in the course time and in different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecution but is always victorious in the end. And precisely in this way the Christian community is the presence, the guarantee of God’s love against every ideology of hatred and egoism.
The only threat the Church can and must fear is the sin of her members. While, in fact, Mary is the Immaculate, free from every stain of sin, the Church is holy, but at the same time she is stained by our sins. This is why the People of God, in pilgrimage through time, turns to its heavenly Mother and implores her help; it asks this so that she might accompany us on the journey of faith, that she might encourage the undertaking of a Christian life and support our hope. We need her above all in this very difficult moment for Italy, for Europe, for various parts of the world. Mary helps us to see that there is a light beyond the dark clouds that seems to envelop reality. For this reason we too, especially on this occasion, do not cease ask for her help with filial confidence: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Iesum Christum!
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-33954?l=english
ROME, DEC. 8, 2011 (Zenit.org)- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today in honor of the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters!
The great feast of Mary Immaculate invites us every year to gather here, in one of Rome’s most beautiful piazzas, to offer homage to her, to the Mother of Christ and our Mother. With affection I greet all of you who are present here and those who are joining us via radio and television. And I thank you for your choral participation in my act of prayer.
At the top of the column that we crown Mary is represented by a statue that in part recalls the passage from the Book of Revelation that was just proclaimed: “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and, upon her head, a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). What is the meaning of this image? It represents both Our Lady and the Church.
First of all the “woman” of the Book of Revelation is Mary herself. She appears “clothed in the sun,” that is, clothed in God: the Virgin Mary is in fact surrounded by the light of God and lives in God. This symbol of the luminous garments expresses a condition that regards the whole of Mary’s being: she is the one who is “full of grace,” filled with the love of God. And “God is light” as St. John says (1 John 1:5). This is why she who is “full of grace,” the “Immaculate” reflects with her whole person the light of the “sun” that is God.
This woman has the moon beneath her feet, the symbol of death and mortality. Mary, in fact, is wholly associated with the victory of Jesus Christ, her Son, over sin and death; she is free from every shadow of death and is completely filled with life. As death no longer has any power over the risen Jesus (cf. Romans 6:9), thus, by a grace and a singular privilege of almighty God, Mary has left death behind, she has overcome it. And this is manifested in the two great mysteries of her life: at the beginning, being conceived without original sin, which is the mystery that we celebrate today; and, at the end, being assumed in soul and body into heaven, into God’s glory. But also her whole life on earth was a victory over death, because it was spent entirely in the service of God, in the complete offering of herself to God and neighbor. Because of this Mary is in herself a him to life: she is the creature in whom the word of Christ is already realized: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it in abundance” (John 10:10).
In the vision of the Book of Revelation there is another detail: upon the head of the woman clothed in the sun there is “a crown of twelve stars.” This sign represents the 12 tribes of Israel and means that the Virgin Mary is at the center of the People of God, of the whole communion of saints. And thus this image of the crown of twelve stars introduces us to the second great interpretation of the celestial sign of the “woman clothed in the sun”: besides representing our Lady, this sign personifies the Church, the Christian community of all times. She is pregnant, in the sense that she carries Christ in her womb and must bear him for the world: this is the suffering of the pilgrim Church on earth, who in the midst of God’s consolations and the world’s persecution must bring Jesus to men.
It is precisely for this, because she brings Jesus, that the Church meets the opposition of a ferocious adversary, represented in the Book of Revelation by the “great red dragon” (Revelation 12:3). This dragon sought in vain to devour Jesus – the “male child destined to govern all the nations” (12:5). The dragon tries in vain because Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has ascended to God and he has taken his seat upon his throne. This is why the dragon, defeated once and for all in heaven, turns his attacks toward to the woman – the Church – in the wilderness of the world. But in every age the Church is sustained by the light and by the power of God, which nourishes her in the wilderness with the bread of his Word and the Holy Eucharist. And so in every tribulation, through all of the trials that she meets in the course time and in different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecution but is always victorious in the end. And precisely in this way the Christian community is the presence, the guarantee of God’s love against every ideology of hatred and egoism.
The only threat the Church can and must fear is the sin of her members. While, in fact, Mary is the Immaculate, free from every stain of sin, the Church is holy, but at the same time she is stained by our sins. This is why the People of God, in pilgrimage through time, turns to its heavenly Mother and implores her help; it asks this so that she might accompany us on the journey of faith, that she might encourage the undertaking of a Christian life and support our hope. We need her above all in this very difficult moment for Italy, for Europe, for various parts of the world. Mary helps us to see that there is a light beyond the dark clouds that seems to envelop reality. For this reason we too, especially on this occasion, do not cease ask for her help with filial confidence: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Ora pro nobis, intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Iesum Christum!
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
Source: http://www.zenit.org/article-33954?l=english
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Bishops Must Set an Example through Sanctity of Life
Repost from V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service. www.visnews.org
VATICAN CITY, 15 SEP 2011 (VIS) - Today in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father received a group of newly consecrated bishops who are currently participating in a meeting organised by the Congregation for Bishops. For the last ten years the congregation has been inviting new bishops to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter in order to reflect on the main responsibilities of episcopal ministry.
"You are invited", the Pope told the group "to renew your profession of faith and your trusting adherence to Jesus Christ over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, showing the same impulse of love as Peter himself and strengthening your ties of communion with his Successor and with your brother bishops".
In this context Benedict XVI explained that "the bishop ... is not alone, he is part of that 'corpus episcoporum' which, joining us to Christ, has been handed down from the Apostles' time to our own". He encouraged the prelates to live every day in episcopal fraternity, working in communion with the Pope and their brother bishops, while "seeking to cultivate friendship with them and with your priests".
The Holy Father then turned his attention to the importance of bishops accepting "the charisms which the Spirit arouses for the edification of the Church", especially among the faithful. "Bishops have the task of watching and working to ensure that the baptised increase in grace, in accordance with the charisms the Holy Spirit causes to arise in their hearts and communities", he said.
"The fundamental gift you are called to cherish in the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care is that of divine filiation; in other words, the fact that everyone participates in Trinitarian communion. Baptism, which makes men and women 'children in the Son' and members of the Church, is the root and source of all other charismatic gifts. Through your ministry of sanctification, you educate the faithful to participate with increasing intensity in the priestly, prophetic and regal office of Christ, helping them to build the Church, actively and responsibly, according to the gifts they have received from God.
"We must", the Pope added, "always bear in mind the fact that the gifts of the Spirit - be they extraordinary or simple and humble - are always given freely for the edification of all. The bishop, as a visible sign of the unity of his particular Church, has the duty of unifying and harmonising the charismatic diversity of ecclesial unity, favouring reciprocity between the hierarchical and the baptismal priesthood".
The Holy Father invited bishops "to accept charisms gratefully, for the sanctification of the Church and the vitality of the apostolate. This acceptance and this gratitude ... are inseparable from discernment, which is part of the bishop's mission. Vatican Council II said as much when it gave pastoral ministry the task of judging the genuineness of charisms and their proper use, not extinguishing the Spirit but testing and retaining what is good. Therefore, it must always be clear that no charism can dispense from deferring and submitting to the pastors of the Church".
Episcopal ministry "requires the bishop to nourish his own spiritual life with care" because, as the Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores gregis" says, "he becomes a 'father' precisely because he is fully a 'son' of the Church. ... These two inseparable aspects call him to grow as son and as pastor as he follows Christ, in order that his personal sanctity may be an expression of the objective sanctity he received through episcopal consecration".
The Holy Father concluded: "The sanctity of your lives and your pastoral charity will be an example and support to your priests, ... who are also called to build the community with their gifts, charisms and the witness of their lives, so that the choral communion of the Church may bear witness to Jesus Christ, that the world may believe".
AC/ VIS 20110915 (660)
VATICAN CITY, 15 SEP 2011 (VIS) - Today in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father received a group of newly consecrated bishops who are currently participating in a meeting organised by the Congregation for Bishops. For the last ten years the congregation has been inviting new bishops to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter in order to reflect on the main responsibilities of episcopal ministry.
"You are invited", the Pope told the group "to renew your profession of faith and your trusting adherence to Jesus Christ over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, showing the same impulse of love as Peter himself and strengthening your ties of communion with his Successor and with your brother bishops".
In this context Benedict XVI explained that "the bishop ... is not alone, he is part of that 'corpus episcoporum' which, joining us to Christ, has been handed down from the Apostles' time to our own". He encouraged the prelates to live every day in episcopal fraternity, working in communion with the Pope and their brother bishops, while "seeking to cultivate friendship with them and with your priests".
The Holy Father then turned his attention to the importance of bishops accepting "the charisms which the Spirit arouses for the edification of the Church", especially among the faithful. "Bishops have the task of watching and working to ensure that the baptised increase in grace, in accordance with the charisms the Holy Spirit causes to arise in their hearts and communities", he said.
"The fundamental gift you are called to cherish in the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care is that of divine filiation; in other words, the fact that everyone participates in Trinitarian communion. Baptism, which makes men and women 'children in the Son' and members of the Church, is the root and source of all other charismatic gifts. Through your ministry of sanctification, you educate the faithful to participate with increasing intensity in the priestly, prophetic and regal office of Christ, helping them to build the Church, actively and responsibly, according to the gifts they have received from God.
"We must", the Pope added, "always bear in mind the fact that the gifts of the Spirit - be they extraordinary or simple and humble - are always given freely for the edification of all. The bishop, as a visible sign of the unity of his particular Church, has the duty of unifying and harmonising the charismatic diversity of ecclesial unity, favouring reciprocity between the hierarchical and the baptismal priesthood".
The Holy Father invited bishops "to accept charisms gratefully, for the sanctification of the Church and the vitality of the apostolate. This acceptance and this gratitude ... are inseparable from discernment, which is part of the bishop's mission. Vatican Council II said as much when it gave pastoral ministry the task of judging the genuineness of charisms and their proper use, not extinguishing the Spirit but testing and retaining what is good. Therefore, it must always be clear that no charism can dispense from deferring and submitting to the pastors of the Church".
Episcopal ministry "requires the bishop to nourish his own spiritual life with care" because, as the Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores gregis" says, "he becomes a 'father' precisely because he is fully a 'son' of the Church. ... These two inseparable aspects call him to grow as son and as pastor as he follows Christ, in order that his personal sanctity may be an expression of the objective sanctity he received through episcopal consecration".
The Holy Father concluded: "The sanctity of your lives and your pastoral charity will be an example and support to your priests, ... who are also called to build the community with their gifts, charisms and the witness of their lives, so that the choral communion of the Church may bear witness to Jesus Christ, that the world may believe".
AC/ VIS 20110915 (660)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Benedict XVI Names Twenty-Four New Cardinals
VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2010 (VIS) - Following today's general audience, the Holy Father announced the names of twenty-four prelates who will be created cardinals in a consistory due to be held on 20 November, eve of the Solemnity of Christ the King. The consistory will be the third of his pontificate.
"Cardinals", said the Pope, "have the task of helping Peter's Successor carry out his mission as permanent and visible source and foundation of the Church's unity of faith and communion".
Twenty of the new cardinals, being under the age of eighty, will be electors. Their names are:
- Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
- His Beatitude Antonios Naguib, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, Egypt.
- Archbishop Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum".
- Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls.
- Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, penitentiary major of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
- Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
- Archbishop Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
- Archbishop Paolo Sardi, vice chamberlain of Holy Roman Church.
- Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
- Archbishop Velasio De Paolis C.S., president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
- Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
- Archbishop Medardo Joseph Mazombwe, emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia.
- Archbishop Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, emeritus Quito, Ecuador.
- Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Italy.
- Archbishop Donald William Wuerl of Washington, U.S.A.
- Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil.
- Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, Poland.
- Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany.
Having pronounced the names of the new cardinal electors, the Pope then indicated that he had also decided to elevate to the dignity of cardinal "two prelates and two priests", all over the age of eighty and hence non-electors, for their "generosity and dedication in the service of the Church." Their names are:
- Archbishop Jose Manuel Estepa Llaurens, military ordinary emeritus of Spain.
- Bishop Elio Sgreccia, former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
- Msgr. Walter Brandmuller, former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.
- Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci, former director of the Pontifical Choir.
AG/
VIS 20101020 (420)
Source: http://visnews-en.blogspot.com/2010/10/benedict-xvi-names-twenty-four-new.html
"Cardinals", said the Pope, "have the task of helping Peter's Successor carry out his mission as permanent and visible source and foundation of the Church's unity of faith and communion".
Twenty of the new cardinals, being under the age of eighty, will be electors. Their names are:
- Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
- His Beatitude Antonios Naguib, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, Egypt.
- Archbishop Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum".
- Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls.
- Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, penitentiary major of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
- Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
- Archbishop Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
- Archbishop Paolo Sardi, vice chamberlain of Holy Roman Church.
- Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
- Archbishop Velasio De Paolis C.S., president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
- Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
- Archbishop Medardo Joseph Mazombwe, emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia.
- Archbishop Raul Eduardo Vela Chiriboga, emeritus Quito, Ecuador.
- Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, Italy.
- Archbishop Donald William Wuerl of Washington, U.S.A.
- Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil.
- Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, Poland.
- Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- Archbishop Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany.
Having pronounced the names of the new cardinal electors, the Pope then indicated that he had also decided to elevate to the dignity of cardinal "two prelates and two priests", all over the age of eighty and hence non-electors, for their "generosity and dedication in the service of the Church." Their names are:
- Archbishop Jose Manuel Estepa Llaurens, military ordinary emeritus of Spain.
- Bishop Elio Sgreccia, former president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
- Msgr. Walter Brandmuller, former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.
- Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci, former director of the Pontifical Choir.
AG/
VIS 20101020 (420)
Source: http://visnews-en.blogspot.com/2010/10/benedict-xvi-names-twenty-four-new.html
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI's Remark to General Audience on 26 May 2010
Munus regendi
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these final days of the Year for Priests, I would like to speak of the priest’s ministry of governing, in the name of Christ, the flock entrusted to his care. Authority, in the Christian understanding, is a service to the true, ultimate good of the person, which is our salvation in Christ; exercised in the Lord’s name, it is an expression of the constant presence and care of the Good Shepherd. The spiritual authority conferred in Holy Orders should be matched by the priest’s interior fidelity to his pastoral mission and his personal readiness to follow obediently the lead of Christ. Understood in the light of faith, this authority, while involving the exercise of power, remains a service to the building up of the Church in holiness, unity and truth. Christ’s power was expressed in the washing of feet, and his kingship by the wood of the Cross; so too, the priestly ministry of governance must be expressed in pastoral charity. I ask all of you to support your priests in their ministry of leading men and women to God, bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel and its message of hope. In a special way I also ask you to pray for my own ministry of governance in the Church, and for the spiritual fruitfulness of the celebrations at the conclusion of the Year for Priests.
* * *
I welcome all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, India, Barbados, Canada and the United States of America. Upon you and your families I cordially invoke Almighty God’s blessings of joy and peace!
+Pope Benedict XVI
Source: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100526_en.html
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these final days of the Year for Priests, I would like to speak of the priest’s ministry of governing, in the name of Christ, the flock entrusted to his care. Authority, in the Christian understanding, is a service to the true, ultimate good of the person, which is our salvation in Christ; exercised in the Lord’s name, it is an expression of the constant presence and care of the Good Shepherd. The spiritual authority conferred in Holy Orders should be matched by the priest’s interior fidelity to his pastoral mission and his personal readiness to follow obediently the lead of Christ. Understood in the light of faith, this authority, while involving the exercise of power, remains a service to the building up of the Church in holiness, unity and truth. Christ’s power was expressed in the washing of feet, and his kingship by the wood of the Cross; so too, the priestly ministry of governance must be expressed in pastoral charity. I ask all of you to support your priests in their ministry of leading men and women to God, bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel and its message of hope. In a special way I also ask you to pray for my own ministry of governance in the Church, and for the spiritual fruitfulness of the celebrations at the conclusion of the Year for Priests.
* * *
I welcome all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, India, Barbados, Canada and the United States of America. Upon you and your families I cordially invoke Almighty God’s blessings of joy and peace!
+Pope Benedict XVI
Source: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100526_en.html
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Forgiveness Does Not Replace Justice, Says Pope
Excerpt from http://www.zenit.org/article-29219?l=english
LISBON, Portugal, MAY 11, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the greatest persecution that the Church endures comes from the sins of her own children.
..........
"The attacks on the Pope and the Church do not just come from outside, but the sufferings of the Church come precisely from within the Church, from the sin that is in the Church," he said. "This has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way: The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born from the sin in the Church.
"And the Church, therefore, has the profound need to learn penance again, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness, as well as the need for justice. Forgiveness does not replace justice."
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI on Holy Thursday, 1st April 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In his Gospel, Saint John, more fully than the other three evangelists, reports in his own distinctive way the farewell discourses of Jesus; they appear as his testament and a synthesis of the core of his message. They are introduced by the washing of feet, in which Jesus’ redemptive ministry on behalf of a humanity needing purification is summed up in this gesture of humility. Jesus’ words end as a prayer, his priestly prayer, whose background exegetes have traced to the ritual of the Jewish feast of Atonement. The significance of that feast and its rituals – the world’s purification and reconciliation with God – is fulfilled in Jesus’ prayer, a prayer which anticipates his Passion and transforms it into a prayer. The priestly prayer thus makes uniquely evident the perpetual mystery of Holy Thursday: the new priesthood of Jesus Christ and its prolongation in the consecration of the Apostles, in the incorporation of the disciples into the Lord’s priesthood. From this inexhaustibly profound text, I would like to select three sayings of Jesus which can lead us more fully into the mystery of Holy Thursday.
* * *
Read more at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20100401_coena-domini_en.html
In his Gospel, Saint John, more fully than the other three evangelists, reports in his own distinctive way the farewell discourses of Jesus; they appear as his testament and a synthesis of the core of his message. They are introduced by the washing of feet, in which Jesus’ redemptive ministry on behalf of a humanity needing purification is summed up in this gesture of humility. Jesus’ words end as a prayer, his priestly prayer, whose background exegetes have traced to the ritual of the Jewish feast of Atonement. The significance of that feast and its rituals – the world’s purification and reconciliation with God – is fulfilled in Jesus’ prayer, a prayer which anticipates his Passion and transforms it into a prayer. The priestly prayer thus makes uniquely evident the perpetual mystery of Holy Thursday: the new priesthood of Jesus Christ and its prolongation in the consecration of the Apostles, in the incorporation of the disciples into the Lord’s priesthood. From this inexhaustibly profound text, I would like to select three sayings of Jesus which can lead us more fully into the mystery of Holy Thursday.
* * *
Read more at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20100401_coena-domini_en.html
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI: Christ Does Not Conquer Through the Sword, but Through the Cross
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
At the centre of the Church's worship is the notion of "sacrament". This means that it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through his action, he looks upon us and he leads us to himself. Another striking feature is this: God touches us through material things, through gifts of creation that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself. There are four elements in creation on which the world of sacraments is built: water, bread, wine and olive oil. Water, as the basic element and fundamental condition of all life, is the essential sign of the act in which, through baptism, we become Christians and are born to new life. While water is the vital element everywhere, and thus represents the shared access of all people to rebirth as Christians, the other three elements belong to the culture of the Mediterranean region. In other words, they point towards the concrete historical environment in which Christianity emerged. God acted in a clearly defined place on the earth, he truly made history with men. On the one hand, these three elements are gifts of creation, and on the other, they also indicate the locality of the history of God with us. They are a synthesis between creation and history: gifts of God that always connect us to those parts of the world where God chose to act with us in historical time, where he chose to become one of us.
At the centre of the Church's worship is the notion of "sacrament". This means that it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through his action, he looks upon us and he leads us to himself. Another striking feature is this: God touches us through material things, through gifts of creation that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself. There are four elements in creation on which the world of sacraments is built: water, bread, wine and olive oil. Water, as the basic element and fundamental condition of all life, is the essential sign of the act in which, through baptism, we become Christians and are born to new life. While water is the vital element everywhere, and thus represents the shared access of all people to rebirth as Christians, the other three elements belong to the culture of the Mediterranean region. In other words, they point towards the concrete historical environment in which Christianity emerged. God acted in a clearly defined place on the earth, he truly made history with men. On the one hand, these three elements are gifts of creation, and on the other, they also indicate the locality of the history of God with us. They are a synthesis between creation and history: gifts of God that always connect us to those parts of the world where God chose to act with us in historical time, where he chose to become one of us.
* * *
Read completely the homily Benedict XVI delivered at the Chrism Mass held at St. Peter's Basilica at http://www.zenit.org/article-28828?l=english
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Dien van cua Duc Thanh Cha Benedict XVI
Diễn văn của Đức Thánh Cha Bênêđictô XVI đọc trong buổi triều yết dành cho các Đức Giám mục Việt Nam ngày 27-6-2009, Vatican
Kính thưa Đức Hồng y
Anh Em trong Hàng Giám mục quý mến,
Thật là niềm vui mừng lớn lao khi tôi được tiếp đón Anh Em, các mục tử của Giáo Hội Công Giáo tại Việt Nam. Cuộc gặp gỡ của chúng ta có một ý nghĩa đặc biệt trong những ngày này khi toàn thể Giáo Hội trọng thể mừng kính các Thánh Tông đồ Phêrô và Phaolô, và cuộc gặp gỡ này đối với tôi là một sự nâng đỡ lớn lao vì tôi vẫn biết các mối dây liên hệ thật sâu xa trong sự trung thành và tình thương mà các tín hữu của xứ sở của Anh Em vẫn có đối với Giáo Hội và đối với Đức Thánh Cha.
Chính tại Mộ của hai Vị Tông đồ Cả mà Anh Em đến để bày tỏ sự hiệp thông của Anh Em đối với Người Kế vị thánh Phêrô và tăng cường sự hiệp nhất cần phải luôn được thể hiện giữa Anh Em và phải lớn lên thêm nữa. Tôi cám ơn Đức cha Phêrô Nguyễn Văn Nhơn, Giám mục giáo phận Đà Lạt, Chủ tịch Hội đồng Giám mục của Anh Em, vì những lời thân thương mà ngài đã nói với tôi nhân danh Anh Em. Xin cho phép tôi chào thăm cách đặc biệt các giám mục được bổ nhiệm tại Việt Nam từ lần thăm viếng ad limina cuối cùng trước đây. Tôi cũng muốn tưởng nhớ ở đây Đức Hồng y đáng kính Phaolô Giuse Phạm Đình Tụng, Tổng Giám mục Hà Nội trong nhiều năm. Cùng với Anh Em, tôi tạ ơn Thiên Chúa vì lòng nhiệt thành mục tử mà Ngài đã thể hiện cách khiêm nhường trong tình yêu hiền phụ sâu xa đối với đoàn dân của Ngài và với tình huynh đệ lớn lao đối với các linh mục. Chớ gì gương thánh thiện, khiêm tốn, lối sống đơn sơ của các vị mục tử vĩ đại của xứ sở của Anh Em, trở nên cho Anh Em những gương khích lệ trong sứ vụ giám mục khi phục vụ dân tộc Việt Nam, dân tộc mà tôi biểu lộ lòng trân trọng sâu xa.
Anh Em trong Hàng Giám mục thân mến, Năm Linh mục vừa bắt đầu được mấy ngày qua. Năm này cho phép chúng ta làm sáng tỏ sự cao cả và vẻ đẹp của sứ vụ của các linh mục. Tôi vui mừng tỏ lòng biết ơn các linh mục giáo phận và các linh mục tu sĩ của xứ sở của Anh Em vì đã hiến dâng đời sống cho Chúa và vì những cố gắng mục vụ để mưu cầu công việc thánh hóa Dân Thiên Chúa. Anh Em hãy lo lắng cho họ, hãy bày tỏ tràn đầy lòng cảm thông và hãy giúp đỡ các linh mục để hoàn thành việc thường huấn của họ. Để trở nên người hướng đạo chính thực và theo như lòng Chúa và để theo đúng các giáo huấn của Giáo Hội, linh mục phải đào sâu đời sống nội tâm và lo hướng tới sự thánh thiện như Cha sở thánh thiện và khiêm nhường của họ Ars đã tỏ ra. Sự phát sinh dồi dào các ơn gọi linh mục và tu sĩ, nhất là trong đời sống thánh hiến của nữ giới, đó là một ơn huệ mà Chúa Kitô ban cho Giáo Hội của Anh Em. Chúng ta hãy cảm tạ Thiên Chúa vì những đặc sủng riêng này và Anh Em đang khuyến khích nhưng vẫn tôn trọng và cổ võ.
Trong Bức Thư Mục vụ năm vừa qua, Anh Em đã biểu lộ mối quan tâm đặc biệt đối với các tín hữu giáo dân khi làm cho rõ ràng vai trò của ơn gọi của họ trong phạm vi gia đình. Thật là điều rất đáng mong ước, đó là mỗi gia đình công giáo, trong khi dạy cho con cái biết sống hòa hợp với Phúc Âm qua một lương tâm ngay thẳng, trong sự liêm chính và sự thật, thì gia đình trở nên trung tâm các giá trị và đức tính nhân bản, một trường dạy đức tin và tình yêu đối với Thiên Chúa. Còn phần họ, các giáo dân công giáo phải làm sao tỏ ra bằng đời sống của họ dựa trên đức ái, sự lương thiện, việc quý trọng công ích, vì mỗi người công giáo tốt cũng là một công dân tốt. Để được như thế Anh Em hãy chú ý cẩn thận mà tạo cho họ có được việc huấn luyện tốt trong khi cổ võ đức tin và trong mức độ văn hóa để họ có thể phục vụ hữu hiệu Giáo Hội và xã hội. Tôi muốn trao phó một cách đặc biệt cho sự lo lắng ân cần của Anh Em các người trẻ, đặc biệt là các người trẻ tại nông thôn là những người đang bị cuốn hút về thành phố để thăng tiến học hành cấp cao hơn và để tìm được việc làm. Mong rằng Anh Em tìm ra được đường hướng mục vụ thích hợp cho các người trẻ di dân trong nước này, qua việc tăng cường sự hợp tác giữa các giáo phận gốc của người trẻ và các giáo phận họ đến và bằng việc đưa ra các lời khuyên bảo trong phạm vi luân lý và các chỉ dẫn thực hành.
Giáo Hội tại Việt Nam hiện đang chuẩn bị mừng 50 năm thành lập Hàng Giáo Phẩm tại Việt Nam. Việc mừng biến cố này sẽ được đánh dấu cách rất đặc biệt bằng Năm Thánh vào năm 2010, sẽ làm cho Giáo Hội này hăng say chia sẻ niềm vui đức tin với tất cả mọi người Việt Nam trong khi canh tân những dấn thân truyền giáo. Ơn huệ này đã được tiếp nhận cách quảng đại, đã sống và được chứng nhận bằng đông đảo các Vị Tử đạo, là những người muốn loan báo chân lý và tính phổ quát của niềm tin vào Thiên Chúa. Theo ý nghĩa này, chứng tá về Chúa Kitô là một việc phục vụ cao cả nhất mà Giáo Hội có thể hiến tặng cho dân tộc Việt Nam và cho tất cả mọi người tại Á Châu, bởi vì nó đáp ứng lại sự tìm kiếm sâu xa chân lý và các giá trị bảo đảm cho sự phát triển nhân bản toàn diện (x. Giáo Hội tại Á Châu). Trước những thách đố thật nhiều mà chứng tá này hiện đang gặp phải, thì một sự hợp tác chặt chẽ giữa các giáo phận với nhau, giữa các giáo phận với các dòng tu, cũng như giữa các dòng tu với nhau là thật cần thiết.
Bức thư mục vụ mà Hội đồng Giám mục của Anh Em công bố năm 1980, nhấn mạnh về điểm "Giáo Hội Chúa Kitô giữa lòng Dân Tộc". Trong khi đem tới cái cá biệt của mình – là việc loan báo Tin Mừng của Chúa Kitô – Giáo Hội đóng góp vào việc phát triển nhân bản và thiêng liêng của con người, nhưng cũng đồng thời đóng góp vào sự phát triển của xứ sở. Việc tham gia vào tiến trình này là một bổn phận và một sự đóng góp quan trọng nhất là trong lúc mà nước Việt Nam cũng đang nhận ra việc từ từ cởi mở đối với cộng đồng quốc tế.
Anh Em cũng như tôi đều biết rằng một sự hợp tác lành mạnh giữa Giáo Hội và cộng đồng chính trị có thể thực hiện được. Về điểm này, Giáo Hội mời gọi các phần tử của mình dấn thân một cách lương thiện để xây dựng một xã hội công bằng, liên đới và bình đẳng. Giáo Hội không đòi hỏi phải thay thế các nhà trách nhiệm của Chính Phủ, nhưng chỉ mong rằng Giáo Hội có thể, trong tinh thần đối thoại và hợp tác tôn trọng nhau, góp phần xứng đáng vào sinh hoạt quốc gia, vào việc phục vụ tất cả người dân. Trong khi tham gia cách tích cực, theo như chỗ đứng xứng đáng dành cho mình vào theo ơn gọi cá biệt của mình, Giáo Hội không bao giờ miễn trừ cho mình việc thực hành bác ái theo như các hoạt động được tổ chức của các tín hữu, và, đàng khác, không bao giờ có một tình trạng trong đó mà người ta lại không cần tới bác ái của mỗi Kitô hữu, bởi vì con người, ngoài công bình ra, vẫn cần và sẽ còn cần tới tình yêu (Tđ. Thiên Chúa là tình yêu, s. 29). Ngoài ra, tôi thấy điều này là quan trọng là phải nhấn mạnh rằng các tôn giáo không gây ra một mối nguy hiểm cho tình đoàn kết quốc gia, bởi vì tôn giáo nhằm giúp đỡ cá nhân thánh hóa chính mình và, qua các cơ chế, các tôn giáo quảng đại tự đặt mình phục vụ tha nhân trong cách thế hoàn toàn vô vị lợi.
Kính thưa Đức Hồng y, Anh Em trong Hàng Giám mục, khi Anh Em trở về nhà, xin Anh Em hãy chuyển lời chào thăm nồng nhiệt của Đức Giáo Hoàng tới các linh mục, tu sĩ nam nữ, tới các chủng sinh, các giáo lý viên và tới tất cả tín hữu, nhất là những người nghèo khổ và đau đớn phần hồn và phần xác. Tôi nồng nhiệt khuyến khích tất cả hãy trung thành với đức tin đã lãnh nhận từ các Thánh Tông đồ mà họ là chứng tá quảng đại trong các hoàn cảnh thường là khó khăn và hãy khiêm nhường tỏ ra sự kiên quyết mà Tông Huấn "Giáo Hội Tại Á Châu" (s. 9) đã chân nhận như là đặc tính của họ. Xin Chúa Thánh Thần của Đức Kitô là Vị hướng đạo và là sức mạnh cho họ. Tôi trao phó Anh Em cho sự che chở hiền mẫu của Đức Mẹ La Vang và nơi sự bầu cử của các Thánh Tử đạo Việt Nam, tôi vui lòng ban cho tất cả Phép Lành Tông Tòa trong tình thân mến.
+ ĐTC Bênêđictô XVI
Người dịch: Lm. Phanxicô Borgia Trần Văn Khả Rôma, 27-6-2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
ADRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF VIETNAM ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Your Eminence,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I receive you with great joy, Pastors of the Catholic Church in Vietnam. Our meeting acquires special significance during these days when the whole Church is celebrating the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and it is a great comfort to me for I know the deep links of fidelity and love that the faithful of your country feel for the Church and for the Pope.
You have come to the tombs of these two Princes of the Apostles to express your communion with the Successor of Peter and to reinforce the unity that must always unite you and that must continue to grow. I thank Bishop Pierre Nguyên Vãn Nhon, Bishop of Ðà Lat, for his kind words on your behalf. Allow me to greet in particular the Bishops who have been appointed since your last ad limina visit. I would also like to remember venerable Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Ðinh Tung, Archbishop of Hanoi for many years. With you, I thank God for the pastoral zeal he exercised humbly in profound fatherly love for his people and great brotherhood for his priests. May the example of holiness, humility, simplicity of life of the outstanding Pastors of your country be for you incentives in your episcopal ministry at the service of the Vietnamese people, to whom I wish to express my high esteem.
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, the Year for Priests began a few days ago. It will bring into the limelight the greatness and beauty of the ministry of priests. I would be grateful if you would kindly thank the diocesan and religious priests of your beloved country for their lives consecrated to the Lord and for their pastoral efforts with a view to the sanctification of the People of God. Be concerned for them and full of understanding, and help them to complete their continuing formation. If he is to be an authentic guide conformed to the Heart of God and the teaching of the Church, the priest must deepen his inner life and strive for holiness after the example of the humble Curé d'Ars. The flourishing of priestly and religious vocations, especially in the consecrated life of women, is a gift of the Lord for your Church. Let us give thanks to God for their charisms, which you encourage by respecting and promoting them.
In your Pastoral Letter last year you paid special attention to the lay faithful, highlighting the role of their vocation in the family context. It is to be hoped that every Catholic family, by teaching their children to live in accordance with an upright conscience, in loyalty and truth, may become a home of values and human virtues, a school of faith and love for God. Lay Catholics for their part must show by their life, which is based on charity, honesty and love for the common good, that a good Catholic is also a good citizen. For this reason you must ensure that they have a sound formation, by promoting their life of faith and their cultural standard so that they may serve the Church and society effectively.
I would like to entrust to you the young people in particular, especially rural youth who are attracted by the city to continue their advanced studies in it and to find jobs. It would be desirable to develop appropriate pastoral care for these young internal migrants, starting by strengthening, here too, collaboration between the young people's original dioceses and the host dioceses and by being unsparing in ethical advice and practical directives.
The Church in Vietnam is currently preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnamese episcopal hierarchy. This celebration which will be especially marked by the Jubilee Year 2010, will enable it to share the joy of faith enthusiastically with all the Vietnamese, in renewing their missionary commitments. On this occasion the People of God must be asked to give thanks for the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. This gift was generously received, lived and witnessed to by numerous martyrs who wished to proclaim the truth and universality of faith in God. In this regard, witness born to Christ is a supreme service that the Church can offer to Vietnam and to all the peoples of Asia, because it responds to the profound research for the truth and values that guarantee integral human development (cf. Ecclesia in Asia). In the face of the many challenges that this witness currently encounters, closer collaboration is necessary between the different dioceses and between the dioceses and religious congregations, as well as within them.
The Pastoral Letter that your Bishops' Conference published in 1980 emphasized "the Church of Christ in the midst of his People". In contributing her specific message, the proclamation of the Good News of Christ, the Church is contributing to the human and spiritual development of people, but also to the development of the country. Her participation in this process is a duty and an important contribution, especially at the time when Vietnam is gradually opening to the international community.
You know, as well as I do, that healthy collaboration between the Church and the political community is possible. In this regard, the Church invites all her members to be loyally committed to building a just, supportive and fair society. Her intention is certainly not to replace government leaders; she wishes only to be able to play a just role in the nation's life, at the service of the whole people, in a spirit of dialogue and respectful collaboration. By active participation in her own province and in accordance with her specific vocation, the Church can never be exempt from practising charity as an organized activity of believers, and on the other hand, there will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice humans need, and will always need, love (Deus Caritas Est, n. 29). Furthermore, it seems important to me to emphasize that religions do not represent a threat to the nation's unity since they aim to help individuals to sanctify themselves and through their institutions desire to put themselves generously and impartially at the service of their neighbour.
Your Eminence, dear Brothers in the Episcopate, on your return to your country, please convey the Pope's warm greeting to the priests, men and women religious, seminarians, catechists and all the faithful, especially to the poorest and to those who suffer physically and spiritually. I warmly encourage them to stay faithful to the faith received from the Apostles, whose generous witnesses they are, in conditions that are often difficult, and to show the humble firmness which the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, n. 9) recognizes as one of their characteristics. May the Lord's Spirit be their guide and their strength! As I entrust you to the motherly protection of Our Lady of La Vang and to the intercession of the holy Martyrs of Vietnam, I impart to you all an affectionate Apostolic Blessing.
© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20090627_ad-limina-viet-nam_en.html
Your Eminence,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I receive you with great joy, Pastors of the Catholic Church in Vietnam. Our meeting acquires special significance during these days when the whole Church is celebrating the Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and it is a great comfort to me for I know the deep links of fidelity and love that the faithful of your country feel for the Church and for the Pope.
You have come to the tombs of these two Princes of the Apostles to express your communion with the Successor of Peter and to reinforce the unity that must always unite you and that must continue to grow. I thank Bishop Pierre Nguyên Vãn Nhon, Bishop of Ðà Lat, for his kind words on your behalf. Allow me to greet in particular the Bishops who have been appointed since your last ad limina visit. I would also like to remember venerable Cardinal Paul Joseph Pham Ðinh Tung, Archbishop of Hanoi for many years. With you, I thank God for the pastoral zeal he exercised humbly in profound fatherly love for his people and great brotherhood for his priests. May the example of holiness, humility, simplicity of life of the outstanding Pastors of your country be for you incentives in your episcopal ministry at the service of the Vietnamese people, to whom I wish to express my high esteem.
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, the Year for Priests began a few days ago. It will bring into the limelight the greatness and beauty of the ministry of priests. I would be grateful if you would kindly thank the diocesan and religious priests of your beloved country for their lives consecrated to the Lord and for their pastoral efforts with a view to the sanctification of the People of God. Be concerned for them and full of understanding, and help them to complete their continuing formation. If he is to be an authentic guide conformed to the Heart of God and the teaching of the Church, the priest must deepen his inner life and strive for holiness after the example of the humble Curé d'Ars. The flourishing of priestly and religious vocations, especially in the consecrated life of women, is a gift of the Lord for your Church. Let us give thanks to God for their charisms, which you encourage by respecting and promoting them.
In your Pastoral Letter last year you paid special attention to the lay faithful, highlighting the role of their vocation in the family context. It is to be hoped that every Catholic family, by teaching their children to live in accordance with an upright conscience, in loyalty and truth, may become a home of values and human virtues, a school of faith and love for God. Lay Catholics for their part must show by their life, which is based on charity, honesty and love for the common good, that a good Catholic is also a good citizen. For this reason you must ensure that they have a sound formation, by promoting their life of faith and their cultural standard so that they may serve the Church and society effectively.
I would like to entrust to you the young people in particular, especially rural youth who are attracted by the city to continue their advanced studies in it and to find jobs. It would be desirable to develop appropriate pastoral care for these young internal migrants, starting by strengthening, here too, collaboration between the young people's original dioceses and the host dioceses and by being unsparing in ethical advice and practical directives.
The Church in Vietnam is currently preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnamese episcopal hierarchy. This celebration which will be especially marked by the Jubilee Year 2010, will enable it to share the joy of faith enthusiastically with all the Vietnamese, in renewing their missionary commitments. On this occasion the People of God must be asked to give thanks for the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. This gift was generously received, lived and witnessed to by numerous martyrs who wished to proclaim the truth and universality of faith in God. In this regard, witness born to Christ is a supreme service that the Church can offer to Vietnam and to all the peoples of Asia, because it responds to the profound research for the truth and values that guarantee integral human development (cf. Ecclesia in Asia). In the face of the many challenges that this witness currently encounters, closer collaboration is necessary between the different dioceses and between the dioceses and religious congregations, as well as within them.
The Pastoral Letter that your Bishops' Conference published in 1980 emphasized "the Church of Christ in the midst of his People". In contributing her specific message, the proclamation of the Good News of Christ, the Church is contributing to the human and spiritual development of people, but also to the development of the country. Her participation in this process is a duty and an important contribution, especially at the time when Vietnam is gradually opening to the international community.
You know, as well as I do, that healthy collaboration between the Church and the political community is possible. In this regard, the Church invites all her members to be loyally committed to building a just, supportive and fair society. Her intention is certainly not to replace government leaders; she wishes only to be able to play a just role in the nation's life, at the service of the whole people, in a spirit of dialogue and respectful collaboration. By active participation in her own province and in accordance with her specific vocation, the Church can never be exempt from practising charity as an organized activity of believers, and on the other hand, there will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice humans need, and will always need, love (Deus Caritas Est, n. 29). Furthermore, it seems important to me to emphasize that religions do not represent a threat to the nation's unity since they aim to help individuals to sanctify themselves and through their institutions desire to put themselves generously and impartially at the service of their neighbour.
Your Eminence, dear Brothers in the Episcopate, on your return to your country, please convey the Pope's warm greeting to the priests, men and women religious, seminarians, catechists and all the faithful, especially to the poorest and to those who suffer physically and spiritually. I warmly encourage them to stay faithful to the faith received from the Apostles, whose generous witnesses they are, in conditions that are often difficult, and to show the humble firmness which the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, n. 9) recognizes as one of their characteristics. May the Lord's Spirit be their guide and their strength! As I entrust you to the motherly protection of Our Lady of La Vang and to the intercession of the holy Martyrs of Vietnam, I impart to you all an affectionate Apostolic Blessing.
© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/june/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20090627_ad-limina-viet-nam_en.html
Sunday, April 12, 2009
URBI ET ORBI
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
EASTER 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
From the depths of my heart, I wish all of you a blessed Easter. To quote Saint Augustine, “Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra – the resurrection of the Lord is our hope” (Sermon 261:1). With these words, the great Bishop explained to the faithful that Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope (cf. ibid.).
Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death? To this mystery today’s solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This proclamation is at the heart of the Gospel message. As Saint Paul vigorously declares: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” He goes on to say: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:14,19). Ever since the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new condition: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savour the joy of eternal life.
The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, that has opened a “new way” between heaven and earth (cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. In fact, at dawn on the first day after the Sabbath, Peter and John found the tomb empty. Mary Magdalene and the other women encountered the risen Jesus. On the way to Emmaus the two disciples recognized him at the breaking of the bread. The Risen One appeared to the Apostles that evening in the Upper Room and then to many other disciples in Galilee.
The proclamation of the Lord’s Resurrection lightens up the dark regions of the world in which we live. I am referring particularly to materialism and nihilism, to a vision of the world that is unable to move beyond what is scientifically verifiable, and retreats cheerlessly into a sense of emptiness which is thought to be the definitive destiny of human life. It is a fact that if Christ had not risen, the “emptiness” would be set to prevail. If we take away Christ and his resurrection, there is no escape for man, and every one of his hopes remains an illusion. Yet today is the day when the proclamation of the Lord’s resurrection vigorously bursts forth, and it is the answer to the recurring question of the sceptics, that we also find in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’?” (Ec 1:10). We answer, yes: on Easter morning, everything was renewed. “Mors et vita, duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus – Death and life have come face to face in a tremendous duel: the Lord of life was dead, but now he lives triumphant.” This is what is new! A newness that changes the lives of those who accept it, as in the case of the saints. This, for example, is what happened to Saint Paul.
Many times, in the context of the Pauline year, we have had occasion to meditate on the experience of the great Apostle. Saul of Tarsus, the relentless persecutor ofChristians, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and was “conquered” by him. The rest we know. In Paul there occurred what he would later write about to the Christians of Corinth: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Let us look at this great evangelizer, who with bold enthusiasm and apostolic zeal brought the Gospel to many different peoples in the world of that time. Let his teaching and example inspire us to go in search of the Lord Jesus. Let them encourage us to trust him, because that sense of emptiness, which tends to intoxicate humanity, has been overcome by the light and the hope that emanate from the resurrection. The words of the Psalm have truly been fulfilled: “Darkness is not darkness for you, and the night is as clear as the day” (Ps 139 [138]:12). It is no longer emptiness that envelops all things, but the loving presence of God. The very reign of death has been set free, because the Word of life has even reached the “underworld”, carried by the breath of the Spirit (v. 8).
If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of men and women in every time and place who help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love. This is the message which, during my recent Apostolic Visit to Cameroon and Angola, I wanted to convey to the entire African continent, where I was welcomed with such great enthusiasm and readiness to listen. Africa suffers disproportionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations, and from the growing number of her sons and daughters who fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease. I shall repeat the same message emphatically in the Holy Land, to which I shall have the joy of travelling in a few weeks from now. Reconciliation – difficult, but indispensable – is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My thoughts move outwards from the Holy Land to neighbouring countries, to the Middle East, to the whole world. At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope. Let no one draw back from this peaceful battle that has been launched by Christ’s Resurrection. For as I said earlier, Christ is looking for men and women who will help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love.
Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra! The resurrection of Christ is our hope! This the Church proclaims today with joy. She announces the hope that is now firm and invincible because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. She communicates the hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place, especially where Christians suffer persecution because of their faith and their commitment to justice and peace. She invokes the hope that can call forth the courage to do good, even when it costs, especially when it costs. Today the Church sings “the day that the Lord has made”, and she summons people to joy. Today the Church calls in prayer upon Mary, Star of Hope, asking her to guide humanity towards the safe haven of salvation which is the heart of Christ, the paschal Victim, the Lamb who has “redeemed the world”, the Innocent one who has “reconciled us sinners with the Father”. To him, our victorious King, to him who is crucified and risen, we sing out with joy our Alleluia!
© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
EASTER 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
From the depths of my heart, I wish all of you a blessed Easter. To quote Saint Augustine, “Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra – the resurrection of the Lord is our hope” (Sermon 261:1). With these words, the great Bishop explained to the faithful that Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope (cf. ibid.).
Indeed, one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death? To this mystery today’s solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This proclamation is at the heart of the Gospel message. As Saint Paul vigorously declares: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” He goes on to say: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:14,19). Ever since the dawn of Easter a new Spring of hope has filled the world; from that day forward our resurrection has begun, because Easter does not simply signal a moment in history, but the beginning of a new condition: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us, and in him we can already savour the joy of eternal life.
The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, that has opened a “new way” between heaven and earth (cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. In fact, at dawn on the first day after the Sabbath, Peter and John found the tomb empty. Mary Magdalene and the other women encountered the risen Jesus. On the way to Emmaus the two disciples recognized him at the breaking of the bread. The Risen One appeared to the Apostles that evening in the Upper Room and then to many other disciples in Galilee.
The proclamation of the Lord’s Resurrection lightens up the dark regions of the world in which we live. I am referring particularly to materialism and nihilism, to a vision of the world that is unable to move beyond what is scientifically verifiable, and retreats cheerlessly into a sense of emptiness which is thought to be the definitive destiny of human life. It is a fact that if Christ had not risen, the “emptiness” would be set to prevail. If we take away Christ and his resurrection, there is no escape for man, and every one of his hopes remains an illusion. Yet today is the day when the proclamation of the Lord’s resurrection vigorously bursts forth, and it is the answer to the recurring question of the sceptics, that we also find in the book of Ecclesiastes: “Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’?” (Ec 1:10). We answer, yes: on Easter morning, everything was renewed. “Mors et vita, duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus – Death and life have come face to face in a tremendous duel: the Lord of life was dead, but now he lives triumphant.” This is what is new! A newness that changes the lives of those who accept it, as in the case of the saints. This, for example, is what happened to Saint Paul.
Many times, in the context of the Pauline year, we have had occasion to meditate on the experience of the great Apostle. Saul of Tarsus, the relentless persecutor ofChristians, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and was “conquered” by him. The rest we know. In Paul there occurred what he would later write about to the Christians of Corinth: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). Let us look at this great evangelizer, who with bold enthusiasm and apostolic zeal brought the Gospel to many different peoples in the world of that time. Let his teaching and example inspire us to go in search of the Lord Jesus. Let them encourage us to trust him, because that sense of emptiness, which tends to intoxicate humanity, has been overcome by the light and the hope that emanate from the resurrection. The words of the Psalm have truly been fulfilled: “Darkness is not darkness for you, and the night is as clear as the day” (Ps 139 [138]:12). It is no longer emptiness that envelops all things, but the loving presence of God. The very reign of death has been set free, because the Word of life has even reached the “underworld”, carried by the breath of the Spirit (v. 8).
If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of men and women in every time and place who help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love. This is the message which, during my recent Apostolic Visit to Cameroon and Angola, I wanted to convey to the entire African continent, where I was welcomed with such great enthusiasm and readiness to listen. Africa suffers disproportionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations, and from the growing number of her sons and daughters who fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease. I shall repeat the same message emphatically in the Holy Land, to which I shall have the joy of travelling in a few weeks from now. Reconciliation – difficult, but indispensable – is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My thoughts move outwards from the Holy Land to neighbouring countries, to the Middle East, to the whole world. At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope. Let no one draw back from this peaceful battle that has been launched by Christ’s Resurrection. For as I said earlier, Christ is looking for men and women who will help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love.
Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra! The resurrection of Christ is our hope! This the Church proclaims today with joy. She announces the hope that is now firm and invincible because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. She communicates the hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place, especially where Christians suffer persecution because of their faith and their commitment to justice and peace. She invokes the hope that can call forth the courage to do good, even when it costs, especially when it costs. Today the Church sings “the day that the Lord has made”, and she summons people to joy. Today the Church calls in prayer upon Mary, Star of Hope, asking her to guide humanity towards the safe haven of salvation which is the heart of Christ, the paschal Victim, the Lamb who has “redeemed the world”, the Innocent one who has “reconciled us sinners with the Father”. To him, our victorious King, to him who is crucified and risen, we sing out with joy our Alleluia!
© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Friday, February 27, 2009
Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2009
"He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)
and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God's power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, "dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride" (Paschal Præconium). For this year's Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord's fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah's fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.
We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that "fasting was ordained in Paradise," and "the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam." He thus concludes: " 'You shall not eat' is a law of fasting and abstinence" (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that "we might humble ourselves before our God" (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah's call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: "Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?" (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.
In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who "sees in secret, and will reward you" (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the "true food," which is to do the Father's will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord's command "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat," the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.
The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the "old Adam," and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: "Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God's ear to yourself" (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).
In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a "therapy" to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to "no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him … he will also have to live for his brethren" (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).
The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as "twisted and tangled knottiness" (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: "I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness" (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.
At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: "If anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him – how does the love of God abide in him?" (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.
From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: "Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia – Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses."
Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a "living tabernacle of God." With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 11 December 2008.
+ BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice VaticanaSource: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20081211_lent-2009_en.html
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