REGINA CAELI ON 5/4/08
At 12 noon today, the Holy Father led the recitation of the Regina caeli from the steps of St. Peter's Basilica before an audience of more than 100,000 faithful. Most of them were members of Catholic Action in Italy, which celebrates today its 140th anniversary. Earlier, they attended a Mass on the Square celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops conference.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words before the Regina caeli:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, various nations including Italy celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension of Christ to heaven, a mystery of faith which, according to the Acts of the Apostles, took place 40 days after the Resurrection (cfr Acts 1,3-11). Therefore, in the Vatican and in some nations, it was celebrated last Thursday.
After the Ascension, the first disciples remained together in the Cenacle around the Mother of God, fervently awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit that had been promised by Jesus (cfr Acts 1,14).
On this first Sunday of May, month of Mary, even we relive this experience, feeling more intensely than ever the spiritual presence of Mary. And St. Peter's Square presents itself today like a Cenacle in the open, full of faithful, in large part members of Italian Catholic Action, whom I will address after this Marian prayer.
In his farewell discourses to his disciples, Jesus insisted very much on the importance of his 'return to the Father', which would crown his entire mission: Indeed, he came to the world to bring back man to God, not on the plane of ideas - like a philosopher or a sage - but in reality, as a shepherd who wishes to bring back the sheep to the fold.
This 'exodus' towards the celestial homeland, which Jesus lived first hand, was something he took on totally for us. It is for us that he came down from heaven, and it is for us that he ascended, after having made himself like man in every way, humiliated to the point of death on the Cross, and after having touched the abyss of the maximum possible distance from God.
It is for this that the Father was 'well pleased' in Him and 'greatly exalted' him (Phil 2,9), giving him back the fullness of his glory, but now, with our humanity. God in man - man in God! This has become truth which is not theoretical but real.
That is why, Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion, but as the Letter to the Hebrews says, "This we have as an anchor of the soul," (Heb 6,19), an anchor that penetrates Heaven where Christ has preceded us.
What does man at any time need but this: a firm anchor for his own existence? And here once again is the amazing sense of Mary's presence among us. Turning our eyes to her, like the first disciples, we are immediately brought to the reality of Jesus: the Mother points to the Son, who is no longer physically among us but awaits us in the House of the Father.
Jesus invites us not to remain looking upward, but to be together united in prayer, to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, only he who is 'reborn from above', that is, in the Spirit of God, will find the entrance to the Kingdom of the heavens open (cfr Jn 3m,3-5), and the first person 'reborn from above' was the Virgin Mary herself. That is why we turn to her in the fullness of our Paschal joy.
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After the Regina caeli, he addressed greetings in various languages to the pilgrims present, and then proceeded to address the Catholic Action assembly. Text translation be posted in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/05/2008 22:09]