Full Text of Benedict XVI's reflection at the end of Via Crucis
At the end of his dramatic Passion narrative, the Evangelist Saint Mark tells us: "The centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, and said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’" (Mk 15:39). We cannot fail to be surprised by the profession of faith of this Roman soldier, who had been present throughout the various phases of the Crucifixion. When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death. This Roman army officer, having witnessed the execution of one of countless condemned prisoners, was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment. His shameful end ought to have marked the definitive triumph of hatred and death over love and life. But it was not so! Hanging from the Cross on Golgotha was a man who was already dead, but that man was acknowledged to be the "Son of God" by the centurion, "on seeing that he thus breathed his last", as the Evangelist specifies.
We are reminded of this soldier’s profession of faith every time we listen anew to Saint Mark’s Passion account. This evening, like the centurion, we pause to gaze on the lifeless face of the Crucified One at the conclusion of this traditional Via Crucis which, through radio and television coverage, has brought many people together from every part of the world. We have re-lived the tragic event of a man unique in the history of all times, who changed the world not by killing others but by letting himself be killed as he hung from a cross. This man, seemingly one of us, who while he was being killed forgave his executioners, is the "Son of God", who, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant … he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).
The anguish of the Passion of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to move to pity even the most hardened hearts, as it constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us. Saint John observes: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). It is for love of us that Christ dies on the cross! Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed him, making in their turn, like him and with his help, a gift to others of their own lives. They are the saints and the martyrs, many of whom remain unknown to us. Even in our own time, how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal! What would man be without Christ? Saint Augustine observes: "You would still be in a state of wretchedness, had He not shown you mercy. You would not have returned to life, had He not shared your death. You would have passed away had He not come to your aid. You would be lost, had He not come" (Discourse 185:1). So why not welcome him into our lives?
Let us pause this evening to contemplate his disfigured face: it is the face of the Man of sorrows, who took upon himself the burden of all our mortal anguish. His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised. Pouring out his blood, he has rescued us from the slavery of death, he has broken the solitude of our tears, he has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety.
Brothers and Sisters! As the Cross rises up on Golgotha, the eyes of our faith are already turned towards the dawning of the new Day, and we begin to taste the joy and splendour of Easter. "If we have died with Christ", writes Saint Paul, "we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom 6:8). In this certainty, let us continue our journey. Tomorrow, on Holy Saturday, we will watch and pray together with Mary, the Sorrowful Virgin, preparing ourselves in this way to celebrate the wonder of the Lord’s resurrection at the solemn Easter Vigil.
I wish all of you, even now, a Happy Easter in the light of the Risen Lord!
Benedict XVI's Good Friday Way of the Cross has a distinctly Asian perspective
Vatican City, April 11, 2009 - This year's meditation for Pope Benedict XVI's Good Friday Way of the Cross has a distinctly Asian perspective, referring to Hindu scriptures, an Indian poet and Mahatma Gandhi.
But the linchpin of this Eastern reflection is the passion of Jesus Christ. In that sense, it reflects Pope Benedict 's view of Christianity's relationship with the non-Christian world -- that the Gospel enlightens and fulfills the beliefs of other faiths.
Indian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati wrote the meditation on the 14 stations, to be read as the pope leads the candelit "Via Crucis" at Rome's Colosseum.
The pope chose Archbishop Menamparampil, a 72-year-old Salesian, after hearing him deliver an impressive talk at last year's Synod of Bishops on Scripture. The archbishop took it as a sign of the pope's interest in Asia.
"His Holiness regards very highly the identity of Asia, the cradle of civilization. Moreover, our Holy Father has a prophetic vision for Asia, a continent very much cherished by him and his pontificate," he said.
The immediate assumption among many Vatican observers was that the choice of an Indian would serve to highlight religious freedom issues in the wake of anti-Christian violence in parts of India.
Archbishop Menamparampil has assumed a leading role in conflict resolution among warring ethnic groups in northeast India, and his Good Friday meditation reflects his conviction that violence is never the way to resolve problems.
But he doesn't explicitly mention anti-Christian discrimination. His aim here is not to list Christianity's grievances, but to present its hopes and its answers to universal questions.
The archbishop is chairman of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences' Commission for Evangelization, and has spoken many times about the receptivity of Asians to the Gospel. He has argued that the church's presentation of the Christian message tends to be intellectual and doctrinal, but that it works best in Asia when it is more personal, experiential and poetic.
He follows that approach in his "Via Crucis" meditation, focusing on the way Jesus deals with violence and adversity, and finding parallels in Asian culture.
Condemned to death before the Sanhedrin, for example, Jesus' reaction to this injustice is not to "rouse the collective anger of people against the opponent, so that they are led into forms of greater injustice," the archbishop wrote.
Instead, he said, Jesus consistently confronts violence with serenity and strength, and seeks to prompt a change of heart through nonviolent persuasion -- a teaching Gandhi brought into public life in India with "amazing success."
He cited another Christian success story in India, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, when reflecting on how Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry his cross.
Simon was like millions of Christians from humble backgrounds with a deep attachment to Christ -- "no glamour, no sophistication, but profound faith," in whom we discover "the sacredness of the ordinary and the greatness of what looks small," the archbishop said.
It was Jesus' plan to lift up the lowly and sustain society's poor and rejected, and Blessed Mother Teresa made that her vocation, he said.
"Give me eyes that notice the needs of the poor and a heart that reaches out in love. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service," he said, borrowing a line from the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Archbishop Menamparampil echoed one of Pope Benedict 's favorite themes when he spoke about Jesus being mocked before his crucifixion. Today, he said, Jesus is humiliated in new ways: when the faith is trivialized, when the sense of the sacred erodes and when religious sentiment is considered one of the "unwelcome leftovers of antiquity."
The archbishop said the challenge today is to remain attentive to God's "quiet presences" found in tabernacles and shrines, the laughter of children, the tiniest living cell and the distant galaxies. His text reflected the idea that Jesus' own life embodies Indian values, including an awareness of the sacred through contemplation.
"May we never question or mock serious things in life like a cynic. Allow us not to drift into the desert of godlessness. Enable us to perceive you in the gentle breeze, see you in street corners, love you in the unborn child," he wrote.
Archbishop Menamparampil seemed equally comfortable drawing from the Western and Eastern Christian traditions. He illustrated the "mystic journey" of personal faith set in motion by Christ's death on the cross with a verse from a psalm and an eighth-century Irish hymn.
He ended with a meditation on Jesus' entombment, borrowing insights from the Eastern spiritual distinction between reality and illusion.
"Tragedies make us ponder. A tsunami tells us that life is serious. Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain pilgrim places. When death strikes near, another world draws close. We then shed our illusions and have a grasp of the deeper reality," he said.
He quoted a prayer from the Hindu holy writings, the Upanishads: "Lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to immortality." He said this was the path taken by the early Christians, who were inspired by Jesus' life to carry his message to the ends of the earth.
That message remains a simple one today, he said: "It says that the reality is Christ and that our ultimate destiny is to be with him."
Benedict XVI presided the Mass for Palm Sunday and the Lord's Passion
Vatican City – On Sunday, April 5, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided the Mass for Palm Sunday and the Lord's Passion in Saint Peter's Square. Many youth from Rome and other Diocese participated in the event marking the XXIV World Youth Day. In the homily, the Pope reflected on the meaning of the Kingdom of God announced by Christ.
The Pope explained that “St. John, in his Gospel, after the account of the entrance into Jerusalem...first of all reports that among the pilgrims who 'wanted to worship God' during the feast, there were also some Greeks. Let us note the fact that the true objective of these pilgrims was to worship God...The true scope of the pilgrimage must be that of encountering God, to worship him... Dear friends, that is why we are gathered here together: We want to see Jesus.” From the Gospel it is not clear whether there was a meeting between Jesus and those Greeks. “Jesus' gaze reaches far higher: 'If the grain of wheat falls to the ground and does not die, it will remain alone; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit.' This means that right now a more or less brief discussion with a few persons, who will then return home, is not important. As a grain of wheat dead and risen in a totally new way, that goes beyond the limits of the moment, he will go out to meet the world and the Greeks. Through the resurrection Jesus passes beyond the limits of space and time.”
Then, the Risen Lord “goes to the Greeks and speaks with them, he manifests himself to them in such a way that they, the ones who are faraway, draw near and, precisely in their language, in their culture, his word will be carried forward in a new way and understood in a new way -- his kingdom comes,” the Pope said. He then mentioned two essential characteristics of this kingdom: it passes through the Cross and it is universal.
Universality, “catholicity,” “means that no one can posit himself as absolute, his culture, his time and his world. This means that we all welcome each other, renouncing something of ourselves. Universality includes the mystery of the cross -- the overcoming of ourselves, obedience toward the universal word of Jesus Christ in the universal Church. Universality is always an overcoming of ourselves, a renunciation of something that is ours. Universality and the cross go together. Only in this way can peace be created.”
Responding to the Greeks, Jesus “formulates once again the fundamental law of human existence: 'He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will save it for eternal life.' He who wants to have his life for himself, live only for himself, squeeze out everything for himself and exploit all the possibilities -- he is the one who lose his life. It becomes boring and empty. Only in abandoning ourselves, only in the disinterested gift of the 'I' in favor of the 'Thou,' only in the 'Yes' to the greater life, precisely the life of God, our life too becomes full and more spacious. Thus, this fundamental principle that the Lord establishes is, in the final analysis, simply identical with the principle of love...It is this principle of love that defines man's journey, it is once again identical with the mystery of the cross, with the mystery of death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ,” the Pope continued.
In addressing especially the youth, the Holy Father reflected on the fact that “it is not just a simple matter of recognizing a principle, but of living its truth, the truth of the cross and the resurrection.” Therefore, “the great 'Yes' of the decisive moment in our life -- the 'Yes' to the truth that the Lord places before us -- must then be daily re-conquered in the everyday situations...Sacrifice, renunciation, also belongs to an upright life. He who permits himself a life without this ever renewed gift of self, deceives people. There is no successful life without sacrifice.”
Lastly, commenting on Jesus' fear in the face of the power of death, which is mentioned in the Gospel, the Pope recalled how “As a human being, Jesus also felt driven to ask that he be spared the terror of the passion. We too can pray in this way. We too can lament before the Lord like Job, present all our questions that arise in us in the face of the injustice in the world and the problems affect us personally. Before God we must not take refuge in pious phrases, in a world of make-believe...In the end, God's glory, his lordship, his will is always more important and more true than my thoughts and my will. And this is what is essential in our prayer and in our life: understanding this right order of reality, accepting it interiorly; trusting in God and believing that he is doing the right thing; understanding that his will is the truth and is love; understanding that my life will be a good life if I can learn how to conform to this order. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the guarantee that we can truly entrust ourselves to God. It is in this way that his kingdom is realized.”
In concluding the homily, the Holy Father recalled that at the end of the Mass, the young people from Australia would give the World Youth Day Cross to the young people of Spain. “When we touch the cross, indeed, when we carry it, we touch the mystery of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ. The mystery that God so loved the world -- us -- that he gave his only-begotten Son for us. We touch the marvelous mystery of God's love, the only truth that is really redemptive. But we also touch the fundamental law, the constitutive norm of our life, that is, that without the 'Yes' of the cross, without walking in communion with Christ day after day, life can never be a success.”
Benedict XVI calls upon young people
Vatican City, April 5, 2009 - A crowd of at least 40,000 people took part in the first ceremonies for Holy Week, with the celebration of Palm Sunday in St. Peter's Square, presided over by Benedict XVI. Most of them were young people from Rome and various nations, with multicolored T-shirts, hats, shoes, bandannas, and a thicket of palms and olive branches, who had come for the 24th World Youth Day, which this year is celebrated at the diocesan level. Last year, the Day took place at the worldwide level in Sydney (Australia), and in 2011 will be held in Madrid. For this reason, at the end of the celebration Australian young people handed over the Cross of the young people to their Spanish peers.
After the long and moving singing of the Passion of Jesus according to St. Mark, the pope addressed the young people with a profound, demanding proposal. Taking his cue from today's celebration, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, the pontiff recalled the value of the days in Sydney ("the essential objective was this: We want to see Jesus"), acclaimed, as in today's liturgy, as "he who comes in the name of the Lord," and as the "kingdom of our father David that is to come!" (Mark 11:9f).
The pope asked: "Do we understand what is the Kingdom of which He spoke in the interrogation before Pilate? Do we comprehend what it means that this Kingdom is not of this world? Or do we perhaps desire that instead it should be of this world?" "We can recognize two essential characteristics of this Kingdom," he explained. "The first is that this Kingdom passes through the cross . . . the second characteristic says: his Kingdom is universal."
But Benedict XVI immediately stressed what makes the kingdom of Jesus Christ different: "[it] is not the rule of a political power, but is exclusively based on the free adherence of love - a love that, for its part, responds to the love of Jesus Christ that is given for all. I think that we must constantly relearn these two things - first of all, universality, catholicity. This means that no one can set up himself, his culture, and his world as absolute. This requires that we all accept one another, renouncing something of our own. Universality includes the mystery of the cross - transcending oneself, obedience to the common word of Jesus Christ in the common Church. Universality is always a transcendence of oneself, the renunciation of something personal. Universality and the cross go together. This is the only way in which peace is created."
To the "We want to see Jesus" (John 12:21) - the theme of the Day in Sydney - Jesus responds with his words about the "grain of wheat that dies" (John 12:24), which is "the fundamental law of human existence. 'Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life' (John 12:25). He who wants to have his life for himself, to live only for himself, to clutch everything to himself and exploit all of its possibilities - this is the very person who loses his life. It becomes tedious and empty. Only in the abandonment of oneself, only in the disinterested gift of the 'I' in favor of the 'you', only in the 'yes' to a greater life, proper to God, does our own life become full and great."
The pope explained that this principle established by Jesus is in the end the very principle of love: "Love . . . means leaving oneself, giving oneself, not wanting to possess oneself, but becoming free from one's self: not turning back upon oneself - what will become of me - but looking forward, toward the other - toward God and toward the people He sends into my life. And this principle of love, which defines the journey of man, is once again identified with the mystery of the cross, with the mystery of the death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ."
"An upright life," the pope specified, "also includes sacrifice, renunciation. He who promises a life without this constantly renewed gift of self deceives people. There is no such thing as a successful life without sacrifice. If I look back over my own life, I must say that precisely the moments in which I said 'yes' to a renunciation were the great and important moments of my life."
The pope then turned his consideration to the moments of "Jesus' fear," "his fear before the power of death, before the entire abyss of evil that He sees and into which he must descend." "We as well," Benedict XVI explained, "are able to pray in this way. We as well are able to complain before the Lord as Job did, to present to him all of our questions which, in the face of the injustice of the world and the difficulty of our own selves, emerge within us. Before Him, we must not take refuge in pious phrases, in a fictitious world. Praying always means fighting with God as well, and like Jacob we are able to say to Him: 'I will not let you go until you bless me' (Gen. 32:27)."
In the end, however, "the glory of God, his lordship, his will is increasingly more important, and more true than my thoughts and my will. And this is the essential thing about our prayer and our lives: learning this just order of reality, accepting it intimately; confiding in God and believing that He is doing the right thing; that his will is truth and love; that my life becomes good if I learn to adhere to this order. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are for us the guarantee that we can truly trust in God. And it is in this way that his Kingdom is realized."
Returning to the symbol of the cross of the young people that passes from country to country, accompanied by the young people, he stresses: "When we touch the Cross, moreover when we carry it, we touch the mystery of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ. The mystery that God so loved the world - us - as to give his only begotten Son for us (cf. John 3:16). We touch the marvelous mystery of the love of God, the only truly redeeming reality. But we also touch the fundamental law, the essential norm of our life, meaning the fact that without the 'yes' to the Cross, without walking in communion with Christ day after day, life cannot be a success. The more we are able to make certain renunciations out of love for the great truth and love of God, the more our lives become great and rich. He who wishes to keep his life for himself, loses it. He who gives his life - every day, in the small gestures that are part of a great decision - he is the one who finds it. This is the demanding but also profoundly beautiful and liberating truth into which we wish to enter step by step during the Cross's journey across the continents. May the Lord bless this journey. Amen."
-asianews
Benedict XVI urged youths to be the hope of the Church
Vatican City, April 3, 2009 – Young people must be the “hope” of the Church and avoid the danger, so much present in our society, that “Christian hope” might be “reduced to ideology, group slogan, an outer cover.” Giving young people Jesus as the true basis for hope was John Paul II”s deepest concern, something that continues to motivate Benedict XVI in his quest to confront today’s “educational emergency.” In tonight’s mass in St Peter’s Basilica in memory of John Paul II who died four years ago today, his successor insisted on the continuing need to be concerned about young people.
Young people from Sydney and Madrid, coming from the last and the next city to host World Youth Day, joined those from Rome to hear the Pope speak. Together, they stood for the millions who participate in this international gathering promoted by the late Pontiff. Young Poles came as well, accompanying the current cardinal of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was John Paul II’s personal secretary from the time he was archbishop till his last breath.
“Your presence,” Benedict XVI said as he focused his attention on young people, “reminds me of the enthusiasm John Paul II was able to inspire in young generations. [. . .] Since his youth he was a fearless and ardent defender of Christ. For Him he did not spare his energy in order to spread His light everywhere. He chose not to compromise when it came to proclaiming His Truth and defending it. He never tired from spreading love. From the start of his pontificate until 2 April 2005 he was never afraid to proclaim to one and all that only Jesus is the Saviour, the true Liberator of mankind, the whole of mankind.”
“Looking at his life we see how God’s pledge of fecundity to Abraham unfolded,” said the Pope. “Specifically, we can see how, during his long pontificate, he instilled faith in so many youths, at World Youth Day, now in its 23rd edition, in various parts of the world. How many people owe their vocation for the priesthood and the consecrated life to him! How many young families chose to live by the evangelical ideal in search for holiness inspired by the way my venerated predecessor preached and bore witness! How many young men and women converted or kept to the Christian path because of his prayers, encouragement, support and example!”
“It is true! John Paul II was able to impart a strong urge for hope, based on faith in Jesus Christ. As a loving father and attentive educator, he pointed the way to safe and sound points of reference that are indispensable for all, but especially for the young. As he lay dying, the new generation showed how it understood his example, gathering in silent prayer in St Peter’s Square and many other places around the world, feeling that they were losing their Pope; that their “father” in faith was passing away, dying. Yet they also felt he was leaving them in legacy the courage and coherence of his witness. Did he not in fact insist on several occasions that a radical commitment to the Gospel was need? Did he not exhort adults and young people alike to take seriously their joint educational responsibility? I, too, do focus on this concern of his, having stressed it on several occasions when I spoke about the educational emergency now affecting the family, the Church, society and above all young people. As they grow up young people need adults who can provide them with principles and values. At their age they feel the need for others to teach how to live up to high ideals by example even more than by words. But where can we get the light and wisdom to accomplish such a mission which involves all of us in the Church and society? Certainly it is not enough to rely on human resources alone; we must trust divine help first of all.”
Dear young people, without hope life does not exist. Experience shows that everything, our life included, is in danger and can collapse at any time if it has no internal or external reason. This is normal because all that is human, including hope, has no basis in and of itself, but requires a “rock” to stand. That is why Paul writes that Christians are called to build human hope on the “living God” for “only in Him can it be certain and reliable.”
“Be careful though, at a time like ours, and in the cultural and social context in which we live, we might see Christian hope reduced to ideology, group slogan, an outer cover. There is nothing more antithetical to the message of Jesus than this. He does not want his disciples to “play” a role, not even that of hope. He wants them to “be” the hope, and they can be it only if they remain united with Him. He wants each one of you, my dear young people, to be a little spring of hope for your fellow man, so that together all of you can be an oasis of hope for the society in which you live.”
“If Christ’s words dwell in us, we can spread the fire of love he set on earth and carry on high the torch of faith and hope with we which we move towards Him, as we await his glorious return at the end of times.”
“That is the torch Pope John Paul II left us as our inheritance. He handed it to me, his successor, and as an ideal I hand it to you, once more, to you especially, young people of Rome, so that you can continue to keep watch in the morning, vigilant and joyful, in this, the dawn of the 3rd millennium. Please, respond to Christ’s appeal with generosity!”
Benedict XVI’s ended by addressing Mary with the words Totus tuus, John Paul II’s motto, as he entrusted the “noble soul” of the late Pope to the Virgin.
-Asianews