HOMILY ON 11/29/08
First Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily at St. Peter's Basilica:
Dear brothers and sisters!
With this Vespertine liturgy, we begin the itinerary of a new liturgical year, entering the first of the seasons that make it up: Advent.
In the Biblical reading we just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul used that very word - advent, or coming, which in Greek is
parousia and in Latin,
adventus (1 Thess 5,23).
According to the common tradition about this text, Paul was exhorting the Christians of Thessalonica to keep themselves irreproachable '
for the coming' of the Lord. But in the original text, its written '
in the coming', almost as though the coming of the Lord is, more than a future point in time, a spiritual place in which to walk even in the present, during the waiting, and within which we must keep ourselves perfect in every personal dimension.
In fact, this is precisely that we live in liturgy. Celebrating the liturgical seasons, we actualize the mystery - in this case, the coming of the Lord - in such a way that we can, so to speak, walk in it on the way to its full realization, to the end of time, but already drawing from it its sanctifying virtue, inasmuch as the 'end of time' has begin with the death and resurrection of Christ.
The word that summarizes this particular state, in which we await something that should manifest itself, but which at the same time is already glimpsed and tasted, is 'hope'.
Advent is, par excellence, the spiritual season of hope, and in it, the entire Church is called on to become hope, for itself and for the world. The entire spiritual organism of the Mystical Body takes on, so to speak, the color of hope.
All the people of God are on their way, drawn by this mystery: that our God is 'the God who is coming' and who calls us to come forward and meet him.
In what way? Above all in that universal form of hope and expectation which is prayer, which finds its eminent expression in the Psalms - human words in which God himself placed and continually places on the lips and in the hearts of believers the invocation of his coming.
And so let us dwell a few moments on the two Psalms which we prayed earlier and which are consecutive even in the Biblical book - Psalms 141 and 142, according to the Jewish numbering.
"LORD, I call to you; come quickly to help me; listen to my plea when I call. Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening sacrifice" (Ps 141,1-2).
Thus begins the first Psalm of the First Vespers in the first week of the Psaltery - words which at the beginning of Advent acquire a new 'color', because the Holy Spirit always makes them resound anew in us, in the Church which is midway between human time and God's time.
"Lord...come quickly to help me" (v. 1). It is the cry of a person who feels himself in grave danger, but it is also the cry of the Church caught among the multiple traps that surround her, that threaten her holiness, that irreproachable integrity that St. Paul referred to, that which must be conserved for the coming of the Lord.
This invocation also echoes the cry of all just men, all who want to resist evil, the seductions of iniquitous wellbeing and pleasures that are offensive to human dignity and to the condition of the poor.
At the beginning of Advent, the liturgy of the Church takes up this cry anew, and raises it to God 'like incense' (v. 2). Indeed, the Vespertine offering of incense is the symbol of prayer, of the effusion of hearts addressed to God, to the Most High, as are the 'uplifted hands' of the evening sacrifice (V. 2).
In the Church, we no longer offer material sacrifices, as they did in the temple of Jerusalem, but we raise up the spiritual offering of prayer in union with that of Jesus Christ, who is at the same time Sacrifice and Priest of the new and eternal Alliance.
In the cry of the Mystical Body, we recognize the voice of the Head himself - the Son of God who took upon himself our trials and our temptations in order to give us the grace of his victory.
This identification of Christ with the psalmist is particularly evident in the second Psalm (142). Here, every word, every invocation, makes us think of Jesus in his passion, particularly his prayer to the Father at Gethsemane.
In his first coming, in the Incarnation, the Son of God wished to share fully our human condition. Of course, he did not share our sin, but for our salvation, he suffered all the consequences of sin.
Every time it prays Psalm 142, the Church relives the grace of Christ's 'com-passion', the 'coming' of our Lord to human anguish to the point of knowing it to its very depths.
Thus the cry of hope at Advent expresses, from the beginning and in the strongest way, all the gravity of our condition, our extreme need of salvation.
It's as if we await the Lord not as a beautiful decoration in a world that has been saved, but as the only way of liberation from a mortal danger - knowing that he himself, the Liberator, had to suffer and die in order to bring us out of imprisonment (cfr v. 8).
["Lead me out of my prison, that I may give thanks to your name".]
In short, these two Psalms shield us from any temptation of evasion and flight from reality. They keep us from false hope, that of entering Advent looking to Christmas while forgetting the tragedies of our personal and collective existence.
Indeed, hope that is reliable, not deceptive, cannot be other than 'Paschal' hope, as we are reminded every Saturday evening by the canticle from the Letter to the Philippians, with which we praise Christ who was incarnated, crucified, resurrected, Christ the universal Lord.
Let us turn our eyes and our hearts to him, in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Advent. Let us put our hand in hers and joyfully enter this new time of grace that God gives his Church for the good of all mankind.
Like Mary and with her maternal help, let us make ourselves obedient to the action of the Holy Spirit so that the God of peace may sanctify us fully and the Church may be a sign and instrument of hope for all men. Amen.
For convenience, here are the two Psalms chanted at Vespers today:
Psalm 141
LORD, I call to you; come quickly to help me; listen to my plea when I call.
Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening sacrifice.
Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips.
Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin.
I will never feast upon the fine food of evildoers.
Let the just strike me; that is kindness; let them rebuke me; that is oil for my head.
All this I shall not refuse, but will pray despite these trials.
When their leaders are cast over the cliff, all will learn that my prayers were heard.
As when a farmer plows a field into broken clods, so their bones will be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
My eyes are upon you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I take refuge; do not strip me of life.
Guard me from the trap they have set for me, from the snares of evildoers.
Into their own nets let all the wicked fall, while I make good my own escape.
Psalm 142
With full voice I cry to the LORD; with full voice I beseech the LORD.
Before God I pour out my complaint, lay bare my distress.
My spirit is faint within me, but you know my path.
Along the way I walk they have hidden a trap for me.
I look to my right hand, but no friend is there.
There is no escape for me; no one cares for me.
I cry out to you, LORD, I say,
You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
Listen to my cry for help, for I am brought very low.
Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.
Lead me out of my prison, that I may give thanks to your name.
Then the just shall gather around me because you have been good to me.
HOMILY ON 11/30/08
First Sunday of Advent
Pastoral Visit to San Lorenzo fuori Le Mura
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily at the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the Walls:
Dear brothers and sisters:
With the first Sunday of Advent today, we enter that period of four weeks that starts the liturgical year and which directly prepares us for the feast of the Nativity, commemorating the incarnation of Christ in history.
The spiritual message of Advent, however, is more profound, because it projects us towards the glorious return of the Lord at the end of history.
Adventus is a Latin word, which can be translated as arrival, coming, presence. In the language of the ancient world, it was a technical term which referred to the arrival of a functionary, particularly that of a visit by the king or the emperor to the provinces, but it could also be used to mean the appearance of a divinity emerging from his hidden dwelling and thus manifesting his divine power: his presence was solemnly celebrated in [an act of] worship.
In adopting the term Advent, Christians meant to express the special relation that united them with the crucified and resurrected Christ. He is the King, who, having entered this poor province called earth, made a gift to us of his visit; who, after his resurrection and ascension to heaven, nonetheless wanted to stay with us - we perceive his mysterious presence in our liturgical assembly.
In celebrating the Mass, we are proclaiming, in fact, that He has not retreated from the world and he has not left us, and even if we cannot see and touch him as we do can do with material and sensory realities, He is nevertheless with us and among us.
Indeed, he is in us, because he can draw towards him and communicate his own life to every believer who opens his heart to him.
Advent therefore means remembering the first coming of the Lord in the flesh, while thinking now of his definitive return. At the same time, it means acknowledging that Christ present among us makes himself our travelling companion in the life of the Church which celebrates his mystery.
This awareness, dear brothers and sisters, nourished by listening to the Word of God, should help us see the world with different eyes, to interpret the single events of life and history as words addressed to us by God, as signs of his love which assure us of his nearness in every situation.
This awareness, in particular, should prepare us to welcome him when "once again he returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end", as we will proclaim soon in the Credo.
In this perspective, Advent becomes for all Christians a time of waiting and hope, a favored time for listening and reflection if we allow ourselves to be guided by the liturgy which invites us to go forward to meet the coming Lord.
"Come Lord Jesus" - that ardent invocation of the first Christian community should become, dear friends, our constant aspiration as well, the aspiration of the Church in every age, which yearns and prepares for the encounter with her Lord.
"Come today, Lord - help us, enlighten us, grant us peace, help us defeat violence. Come Lord, we pray to you especially during these weeks. Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved."
Thus we prayed earlier with the responsorial Psalm. And the prophet Isaiah revealed to us, in the first Reading, that the face of our Lord is that of a kind and merciful Father, who cares for us in every circumstance because we are his handiwork: "You LORD are our father, our redeemer.." (63,16).
Our God is a father ready to forgive all sinners who repent and to welcome those who believe in his mercy (cfr Is 64,4). We were estranged from him because of sin, falling into the dominion of death, but he took pity on us, and of his own initiative, without any merit on our part, he decided to come to us, sending his only Son as our Redeemer.
Before such a great mystery of love, our gratitude rises spontaneously, and our invocation is more confident: "Show us your mercy, Lord, today, in our time, in all parts of the world, and grant us your salvation" (cfr Canto al Vangelo).
Dear brothers and sisters, the thought of the presence of Christ and of his certain return at the end of time, is even more significant in this, your Basilica, next to the monumental cemetery of Verano, where so many of our dear departed repose, awaiting the resurrection.
How many times funeral liturgies have been celebrated here! How many times the words have resounded full of consolation: "In Christ your Son, our savior, may the hope of blessed resurrection shine on us, and as we are saddened by the thought of certain death, we are comforted by the promise of future immortality" (cfr Preface for the Dead I).
But this monumental Basilica of yours, which leads us to think of the primitive church ordered built by the Emperor Constantine which was subsequently transformed to what it is today, speaks to us above all of the glorious martyr St. Lawrence, arch-deacon of Pope Sixtus II, and his trustee in the administration of the assets of the Church.
I came to celebrate the Holy Eucharist today to join you in rendering homage during a singular event, the occasion of the Lawrentian Jubilee Year, declared to commemorate 1750 years since the birth in heaven of the holy Deacon.
History confirms how glorious the name of this saint is, at whose tomb we are gathered. His solicitude for the poor, the generous service he rendered to the Church of Rome in the field of social assistance and charity, his loyalty to the Pope, who inspired him to want to follow him in the supreme trial of martyrdom and the heroic testimony by blood, which he shed just a few days later, are universally known.
St. Leo the Great, in a beautiful homily, commented on the atrocious martyrdom of this 'illustrious hero': "The flames could not conquer the charity of Christ; and the fire which burned him was weaker than that which blazed within him".
He added: "The Lord wished to exalt his glorious name in all the world, that from East to West, in the vivid brilliance of the light radiated by the greatest of deacons, the same glory that came to Jerusalem from Stephen also came to Rome thanks to Lawrence's merit" (Homily 55,4: PL 54,486).
This year is also the 50th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Pius XII, and this recalls to us an event that was particularly dramatic in the pluricentennial history of your Basilica. It took place during the Second World War, when on July 19, 1943, a violent bombardment inflicted very serious damages on the Church and on the entire neighborhood, sowing death and destruction.
Never can that generous gesture by my venerated predecessor be erased from historical memory, in coming immediately to the aid and comfort of the people who had been so severely struck, meeting them among still-smoking ruins.
Neither can I forget that this Basilica also houses the remains of two other great personages. In the hypogeum [underground crypt], the mortal remains of Blessed Pius IX have been placed for the veneration of the faithful; and in the atrium is the tomb of Alcide De Gasperi, a wise and fair-minded leader for Italy in the difficult years of postwar reconstruction, who was, at the same time, an illustrious statesman who was capable of looking at Europe with wide-ranging Christian vision.
While we are gathered together in prayer, I am pleased to greet you all with affection, starting with the Cardinal Vicar; the Vice Regent, who is also the Abbot of the Basilica; the Auxiliary Bishop of the North Sector; and your parish priest, Fr. Bruno Mustacchio, whom I thank for the kind words he addressed to me before the start of the Mass.
I greet the Minister General of the Capuchin Order and the brothers of the Community who have been carrying out their service with seal and dedication - welcoming the numerous pilgrims, assisting the pooer in charity, and testifying to hope in the resurrected Christ to all who visit the cemetery of Verano. I wish to assure you of my appreciation, and above all, of remembrance in my prayers.
I also greet the various groups involved in catechesis, liturgy and charity; the members of the two polyphonic choirs, and the local and regional branches of the Third Franciscan Order.
I particularly appreciate the fact that for many years now, this parish has been home to the 'diocesan missionary laboratory' to educate the parish communities in missionary awareness, and I gladly join you in hoping that this initiative in our Diocese may contribute to inspire a courageous pastoral missionary activity, which will bring the message of God's merciful love to every corner of Rome, involving above all the young people and families.
Finally, I wish to extend my greeting to all the inhabitants of this quarter, especially the aged, the sick, the people who are alone and in difficulty. I pray for each and everyone in this Holy Mass.
Dear brothers and sisters, at the start of Advent, what better message to draw from St. Lawrence than that of sanctity? He repeats to us that sanctity - that is, walking forward to Christ who is always coming to visit us, is never out of fashion, but, with the passing of time, it shines more luminously and shows the perennial tendency of man to reach out to God.
Therefore, may this jubilee commemoration be an occasion for your parish community for a renewed adherence to Christ, for a greater examination in depth of your sense of belonging to his Mystical Body which is the Church, and for a constant commitment to evangelization through charity.
May St. Lawrence, heroic witness to the crucified and resurrected Christ, be for each one an example of obedient adherence to the divine will, in order that, as we heard the apostle Paul remind the Corinthians, we too can live in a way that we may be found 'irreproachable' on the day of the coming of the Lord (cfr 1 Cor 1,7-9).
To prepare ourselves for the advent of Christ is also the exhortation we gather from today's Gospel: "Be watchful", Jesus tells us in the brief parable of the master who leaves home but does not know when he will return (cfr Mk 13,33-37).
To be watchful means to follow the Lord, to choose what he chose, love as he loved, conform our own life to his. To be watchful means to pass every moment of our time within the horizon of his love without allowing ourselves to be beaten by the inevitable difficulties and problems of daily life.
That is what St. Lawrence did. This we should do, and let us ask the Lord to give us the grace so that Advent may be a stimulus for everyone to walk in this direction.
May we be guided and accompanied by the intercession of the humble Virgin of Nazareth, Mary, chosen by God to become the Mother of the Redeemer; by St. Andrew, whose feast we celebrate today; and by St. Lawrence, example of intrepid Christian faithfulness unto martyrdom. Amen.
Angelus of 11/30/08
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the Angelus today:
Dear brothers and sisters:
Today, with the first Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. This invites us to reflect on the dimension of time, which always exercises a great fascination on us.
As Jesus liked to do, I wish nonetheless to start from a very concrete observation: we all say "We do not have time" because the rhythm of daily life has become so frenetic for everyone. But even in this respect, the Church brings 'good news': God gives us his time.
We always have too little time. Especially for the Lord, we do not know how to find the time - or sometimes, we don't want to.
Well, God has time for us! This is the first thing that the start of a liturgical year makes us rediscover with fresh wonder. Yes, God gives us his time, because he entered history with his Word and his work of salvation, to open it up to the eternal, to make it become a story of alliance with him.
In this perspective, time is already in itself a fundamental sign of God's love - a gift which man, as he can with any other thing, can either value or waste; he can comprehend its significance, or ignore it out of obtuse superficiality.
There are three great 'hinges' of time that mark the story of salvation: in the beginning is creation; in the center, incarnation-redemption; and in the end, parousia, the Final Coming of the Lord which also includes the Universal Judgment.
But these three instances are not to be understood simply as a chronological succession.
Indeed, creation is at the beginning of everything, but it is also continuous and takes place along the entire course of cosmic becoming, to the very end of time.
Likewise, incarnation-redemption took place at a specific historical moment - Jesus's passage through earth - but its range of action extends to the preceding time and to that which follows.
In their turn, the Final Coming and the last Judgment - which were anticipated decisively on the Cross of Christ - exercise their influence on the conduct of men in every age.
The liturgical season of Advent celebrates the coming of God, in both its instances: First, it invites us to reawaken our expectation of the glorious return of Christ. Thus, as Christmas approaches, it calls us to welcome the Word-made-flesh for our salvation.
But the Lord continually comes into our life. How very timely then is Jesus's appeal which is powerfully re-proposed to us on this first Sunday of Advent: "Be watchful!" (Mk 13,33.35.37) It was addressed to his disciples, but also 'to everyone", because each of us, at a time known only to God, will be called to account for our own existence.
This implies proper detachment from earthly goods, sincere repentance for our errors, active charity towards our neighbor, and above all, a humble and confident entrusting of oneself into the hands of God, our kind and merciful Father.
The icon of Advent is the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus. Let us invoke her so that she may help us to become an extension of mankind for the Lord who is coming.
After the Angelus prayers, he said this:
November 20 is the Feast Day of the Apostle St. Andrew, brother of Simon Peter. Both were followers of John the Baptist, but after the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, they became his disciples, having recognized in him the Messiah.
St. Andrew is the patron of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and therefore the Church of Rome feels itself bound to that of Constantinople by a bond of special brotherhood.
Following what has now become a tradition on this happy occasion, a delegation of the Holy See, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is visiting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.
With all my heart, I address my greeting and my best wishes to him and the faithful of the Patriarchate, invoking on all the abundance of heavenly blessings.
I wish to invite you now to join in prayers for the numerous victims of the brutal terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and of the deadly encounters that have just erupted in Jos, Nigeria, for all those who were injured and who were in any way affected by these events.
The causes and the circumstances of these tragic events are diverse, but the horror and deploration for the explosion of such cruel and senseless violence must be common.
Let us ask the Lord to touch the hearts of those who delude themselves that violence is the way to resolve local or international problems, and let us feel impelled to give an example of kindness and love in order to build a society that is worthy of God and of man.
In English, he said:
I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus prayer. I offer a special welcome to the participants in the Youth Meeting at the European University of Rome.
Today, the First Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new liturgical year. The Gospel invites to be prepared as faithful servants for the coming of Christ.
May Advent be a time of preparation that leads us to a life centred on our Christian hope. May God bless you all!
To Polish-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I welcome the Poles, with a particular greeting to the participants in the Roman Encounter of Youth, who have gathered here from different countries in order to seek together from the teachings of John Paul II inspiration and perspectives for a fruitful life.
In this effort to construct a future of ha[[happiness, may you be sustained by the protection of Mary. May God bless all present.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/01/2009 20:23]