ADDRESSES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES

Here is the text of the address delivered in English by the Holy Father after receiving the credentials of the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Mary Ann Glendon, who was president of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences before her appointment as ambassasdor.


Your Excellency,

It is a pleasure for me to accept the Letters by which you are accredited Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America and to offer my cordial good wishes as you take up your new responsibilities in the service of your country.

I am confident that the knowledge and experience born of your distinguished association with the work of the Holy See will prove beneficial in the fulfillment of your duties and enrich the activity of the diplomatic community to which you now belong.

I also thank you for the cordial greetings which you have conveyed to me from President George W. Bush on behalf of the American people, as I look forward to my Pastoral Visit to the United States in April.

From the dawn of the Republic, America has been, as you noted, a nation which values the role of religious belief in ensuring a vibrant and ethically sound democratic order. Your nation’s example of uniting people of good will, regardless of race, nationality or creed, in a shared vision and a disciplined pursuit of the common good has encouraged many younger nations in their efforts to create a harmonious, free and just social order.

Today this task of reconciling unity and diversity, of forging a common vision and summoning the moral energy to accomplish it, has become an urgent priority for the whole human family, which is increasingly aware of its interdependence and the need for effective solidarity in meeting global challenges and building a future of peace for coming generations.

The experience of the past century, with its heavy toll of war and violence, culminating in the planned extermination of whole peoples, has made it clear that the future of humanity cannot depend on mere political compromise. Rather, it must be the fruit of a deeper consensus based on the acknowledgment of universal truths grounded in reasoned reflection on the postulates of our common humanity (cf. Message for the 2008 World Day of Peace, 13).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose sixtieth anniversary we celebrate this year, was the product of a world-wide recognition that a just global order can only be based on the acknowledgment and defense of the inviolable dignity and rights of every man and woman. This recognition, in turn, must motivate every decision affecting the future of the human family and all its members.

I am confident that your country, established on the self-evident truth that the Creator has endowed each human being with certain inalienable rights, will continue to find in the principles of the common moral law, enshrined in its founding documents, a sure guide for exercising its leadership within the international community.

The building of a global juridic culture inspired by the highest ideals of justice, solidarity and peace calls for firm commitment, hope and generosity on the part of each new generation (cf. Spe Salvi, 25).

I appreciate your reference to America’s significant efforts to discover creative means of alleviating the grave problems facing so many nations and peoples in our world.

The building of a more secure future for the human family means first and foremost working for the integral development of peoples, especially through the provision of adequate health care, the elimination of pandemics like AIDS, broader educational opportunities to young people, the promotion of women and the curbing of the corruption and militarization which divert precious resources from many of our brothers and sisters in the poorer countries.

The progress of the human family is threatened not only by the plague of international terrorism, but also by such threats to peace as the quickening pace of the arms race and the continuance of tensions in the Middle East.

I take this occasion to express my hope that patient and transparent negotiations will lead to the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons and that the recent Annapolis Conference will be the first of a series of steps towards lasting peace in the region.

The resolution of these and similar problems calls for trust in, and commitment to, the work of international bodies such as the United Nations Organization, which by their nature are capable of fostering genuine dialogue and understanding, reconciling divergent views, and developing multilateral policies and strategies capable of meeting the manifold challenges of our complex and rapidly changing world.

I cannot fail to note with gratitude the importance which the United States has attributed to inter-religious and intercultural dialogue as a positive force for peacemaking. The Holy See is convinced of the great spiritual potential represented by such dialogue, particularly with regard to the promotion of nonviolence and the rejection of ideologies which manipulate and disfigure religion for political purposes, and justify violence in the name of God.

The American people’s historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse and in shedding light on the inherent moral dimension of social issues - a role at times contested in the name of a straitened understanding of political life and public discourse - is reflected in the efforts of so many of your fellow-citizens and government leaders to ensure legal protection for God’s gift of life from conception to natural death, and the safeguarding of the institution of marriage, acknowledged as a stable union between a man and a woman, and that of the family.

Madam Ambassador, as you now undertake your high responsibilities in the service of your country, I renew my good wishes for the success of your work. Be assured that you may always count on the offices of the Holy See to assist and support you in the fulfillment of your duties.

Upon you and your family, and upon all the beloved American people, I cordially invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, strength and peace.

At 5 p.m. today, March 1, the annual Marian vigil was held in connection with the European Day for University Students, marking six years in 2008, promoted by the Conference of European Bishops and organized by the Vicariate of Rome's Office for university pastoral ministry. The theme this year is "Europe and the Americas together to construct the civilization of love".

Participating this year besides the university students of Rome were students from Bucharest (Romania), Toledo (Spain), Avignon (France), Edinburgh (Scotland), Minsk (Belarus), New York City, Havana, Aparecida, Mexico City, and Loja (Ecuador), who were linked by satellite TV to the Aula Paolo VI.

At 6 p.m., the Holy Father joined the assembly to lead them in praying the Rosary. At the end of the prayer, he addressed the students, during which he symbolically offered them his second encyclical Spe salvi. The encyclical was also distributed to the participants as a CD-ROM.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address and greetings:



Dear university students and young people:

At the end of this Marian vigil, it is with great joy that I greet you all, those who are present here and those who are taking part through satellite link.

I greet with appreciation the venerable Cardinals and Bishops, especially those who presided at the recitation of the Rosary in their respective sees: Aparecida, Brazil; Avignon, France; Bucharest, Romania; Mexico City; Havana, Cuba; Loja, Ecuador; Minsk, Belarus; Naples, Italy; Toledo, Spain; and Washington, DC.

Five seats in Europe and five in the Americas - in fact, our meeting has the theme "Europe and the Americas together to build a civilization of love'.

On this same theme, a conference was held these past few days at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and I likewise greet the participants.

It is a happy choice to demonstrate from time to time the relationship between Europe and other continents in a perspective of hope. Two years ago, it was with Africa; last year, with Asia; and this year, Europe and America.

Christianity constitutes a strong and profound link between the so-called old world and that which has been called the 'new world'. All we have to do is consider the fundamental place that Sacred Scripture and Christian liturgy occupy in the culture and art of the European and American peoples.

Unfortunately, so-called Western civilization has partly betrayed its evangelical inspiration. But meanwhile, the situation calls for honest and sincere reflection, an examination of conscience.

It is necessary to discern between what builds a 'civilization of love', according to God's plan revealed in Jesus Christ, and that
which opposes it.

Now I address myself to you, dear young people. Young [people have always been, in the history of Europe and the Americas, the bearers of evangelical impetus. Let us think of young people like Benedict of Norcia, St. Francis of Assisi and blessed Karl Leisner in Europe; like St. Martin of Porres, St. Rose of Lima and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, in America. All were young builders of the civilization of love.

Today God calls on you, the young people of Europe and the Americas, to cooperate, along with your contemporaries around the world, so that the lymph of the Gospel may renew the civilizations of these continents and of all mankind.

The great European and American cities are increasingly more cosmopolitan, but often they lack this lymph, which is capable of making divisions and conflicts, not reasons for division, but for reciprocal enrichment.

The civilization of love is a 'con-viviality', which means a respectful, peaceful and joyous coexistence of differences in the name of a common plan, which, the Blessed Pope John XXIII said, is founded on the four pillars of love, truth, freedom and justice.

This, dear friends, is the message that I entrust to you today: Be disciples and witnesses of the Gospel, because it is the good seed of the Kingdom of God, therefore, of the civilization of love. Be the builders of peace and unity!

A sign of this Catholic unity, that is, universal and integrated in the contents of the Christian faith which binds us all together, is also the initiative of giving to each of you the text of the encyclical Spe salvi in five languages on a CD.

May the Virgin Mary watch over you, your families and all those who are dear to you.

And now, I would like to greet in their respective languages those who are linked with us from other cities:

In Spanish, he said:

Dear young people gathered in Mexico City, Havana, Loja and Toledo, be witnesses of the great hope that Christ brought to the world. May the Lord bless you and accompany you in our studies.


In English, he said:

Dear University students of Washington DC, I send warm greetings to you! With the help of God, I will be in your city in April. With your assistance, may America remain faithful to its Christian roots and to its high ideals of freedom in truth and justice!


In French:

Dear friends gathered together in Avignon, Europe needs from you the spirit that you carry, and that you, as young Christians, can give it as you try to live the Gospel truly, to be a testimony for all. This is what I hope with all my heart.


In Portuguese:

Dear young people gathered together in Aparecida, the remembrance of my pastoral visit to Brazil remains vividly in my heart, especially to the Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida of the Immaculate Conception. I pray to the Virgin Mary to obtain for you that you may all be witnesses to hope!


In Byelorussian:

Dear university students of Minsk, I greet you all with affection. To you as well, I entrust the encyclical on hope and I call on you to build the civilization of love through daily actions full of faith and evangelical courage.


In Romanian:

Dear friends gathered in Bucharest, may the Lord bless you! In order to spread the civilization of love, we Christians must be united in the spirit of ecumenism. Set yourselves as examples of sincere collaboration among all disciples of Jesus.


He ended his greetings in Italian:

Finally, I salute you who are in the Cathedral of Naples. Your city and all of Italy need to recover the sense of a shared commitment for a society that is more just and fraternal. Be examples even in this task, nourishing yourselves on prayer and allowing yourselves to be guided by the light and strength of the Gospel.

I thank Cardinal Ruini and Mons. Leuzzi and all those who worked together to organize this encounter. I thank the chorus and orchestra which has supplemented our prayers, as well as CTV, Vatican Radio and Telepace for the broadcast links.

Dear young people, I wish you all serene and profitable study and a happy Easter. I impart to you all from the heart the Apostolic Blessing.

ADDRESS TO BISHOPS OF GUATEMALA, 3/6/08

ADDRESS TO COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL SCIENCES, 3/7/08

ADDRESS TO COURSE PARTICIPANTS OF APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY FORUM, 3/7/08

Here is a translation of the address the Holy Father gave to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Sala Clementina on Saturday, March 8:



Lord Cardinals,
Dear brothers in the Episcopate and priesthood,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen:

I am happy to welcome you on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and to congratulate you for the work that you are doing, particularly for the theme you chose for this session: "The Church and the challenge of secularization."

This is a fundamental question for the future of mankind and of the Church. Secularization, which is often transformed into secularism by abandoning the positive sense of secularity, is subjecting the Christian life of the faithful and their pastors to a great test, and during your sessions, you have interpreted and transformed it into a providential challenge to which convincing responses may be offered to the questions and hopes of contemporary man.

I thank Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, who has been president of the dicastery for only a few months, for the kind words which he gave in your behalf and for his description of the work you have done.

I am grateful to all of you for your generous commitment to make sure that the Church is in dialog with the cultural movements of our time, and in this way, make better known and articulated the interest that the Holy See has for the vast and variegated world of culture.

Today more than ever, in fact, the reciprocal openness among cultures is a privileged terrain for dialog among men and women engaged in the search for authentic humanism, beyond the differences that separate them.

Secularization, which presents itself in cultures as a formulation of the world and of mankind without reference to Transcendence, invades every aspect of daily life and is developing a mentality in which God is simply absent, wholly or in part, from human existence and consciousness.

This secularization is not only an external threat to believers, but has been manifested for some time in the very bosom of the Church itself - profoundly denaturing Christian faith from within and consequently, the lifestyle and the day-to-day behavior of believers.

They live in the world and are often marked, if not conditioned, by the culture of image which imposes contradictory models and impulses for the practical negation of God - namely, that there is no need for God any more, no need to think of him, or to turn to him.

Moreover, the dominant hedonistic and consumeristic mentality favors, in the faithful as in their pastors, a drift towards superficiality and a self-centeredness which harms the life of the Church.

The 'death of God' announced in past decades by so many intellectuals paved the way for a sterile cult of the individual. In this cultural context, there is a risk of falling into spiritual atrophy and a void in the heart, often characterized by surrogate forms of religious affiliation and vague spiritualism.

This shows us how much more urgent it is to react to such dangerous trends by calling on the higher values of existence which give sense to life and can quench the anxieties of the human heart in search of happiness - values like the dignity of the human being and his freedom, the equality of all men, the sense of life and death and what awaits us after the end of our earthly existence.

In this context, my predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II, conscious of the radical and rapid changes in society, insisted on the urgency of encountering man on the terrain of culture in order to transmit the Gospel message to him.

Because of this, he established this Pontifical Council for Culture, to give a new impulse to the activity of the Church in making the Gospel known to the many cultures there are in the various parts of the world (cfr Letter to Cardinal Casaroli, in: AAS LXXIV, 6, pp. 683-688).

Pope John Paul II's intellectual sensibility and his pastoral charity led him to highlight the fact that the industrial revolution and scientific discoveries had allowed a response to questions which were originally satisfied partially only by religion. The consequence was that contemporary man has often had the impression that he no longer needs anyone to understand, explain and master the universe; he feels himself to be the center and the measure of everything.

More recently, globalization, through the new information technologies, has not uncommonly had the result of disseminating in all cultures many materialistic and individualistic components of Western culture.

More than ever, the formula 'Etsi Deus no daretur', as if God does not exist, has become a way of life which has its origins in a kind of 'arrogance' of reason - a faculty created and loved by God - an arrogance that thinks itself self-sufficient and closes itself off from the contemplation and quest for a Truth which surpasses it.

The light of reason that was exalted - but actually impoverished - by the Enlightenment was radically substituted for the light of faith, the light of God (cfr Benedict XVI, Allocution prepared for La Sapienza Unisirty, Jan. 17, 2008).

And that is why the challenges are great that the mission of the Church must face in the field. How much more important then is the commitment of the Pontifical Council for Culture to a fruitful dialog between science and faith!

It is an encounter much awaited by the Church, and also by the scientific community, and I encourage you to pursue it. Through your efforts, faith can supplement and perfect reason; and reason, illuminated by faith, can find the strength to elevate itself towards a knowledge of God and of spiritual realities.

In this sense, secularization does not favor the ultimate goal of science, which is at the service of man who is 'imago Dei', the image of God.

May the dialog continue towards a clear distinction betweeen the specific characteristics of sience and faith, respectively. Indeed, each has its own methods, spheres of action, subjects of inquiry, ends and limitations, and should reciprocally respect and recognize in the other its legitimate possibilities to exercise itself autonomously according to its own principles (cfr Gaudium et spes, 36). Both are called on to serve man and humanity, favoring the inegral development and growth of each and everyone.

I exhort above all the pastors of the flock of God to a tireless and generous mission in order to face, through dialog and the encounter of cultures, the proclamation of the Gospel and of Christian testimony, the worrying phenomenon of secularization which weakens the human being and hinders his innate yearning for the Truth in its wholeness.

In this way, may the disciples of Christ, thanks to the service rendered by your Dicastery in particular, continue to announce Christ in the heart of the world's cultures, because he is the light who illuminates rezson, man and the world.

We, too, are faced with the warning addressed to the angel (bishop) of the Church in Ephesus: "I know your works and your labour and your patience ... But I have something against you, because you have left your first love" (Ap 2,2,4).

Let us make the cry of the Spirit and of the Church ours as well, "Come!" (Ap 22,17), and allow our hearts to be invaded by the Lord's response: "Yes, I will come soon" (Ap 22,20).

He is our hope, the light for our journey, the strength to announce salvation with apostolic courage, reaching into the heart of all cultures. May God help you is carrying out your arduous but exalting mission!

Entrusting to Mary, Mother of the Church and Star of the New Evangelization, the future of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and that of all its members, I impart the apostolic Blessing with all my heart.

Here is a translation of the homily delivered extemporaneously by the Holy Father yesterday at the Mass he celebrated in San Lorenzo di Piscibus to mark the 25th anniversary of the International Youth Center based there.


Lord Cardinals,
venerated brothers in the Episcopate and priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!

It is a great joy for me to be able to commemorate with you - in this beautiful Romanesque church - the 25th anniversary of the International Youth Center, which the beloved John Paul II wanted to be located close to St. Peter's Basilica and inaugurated by him on March 13, 1983.

The Holy Mass that is offered here every Friday evening constitutes for many young people who are here from various parts of the world to study in Roman universities, an important spiritual appointment and a significant occasion to be in touch with the cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia, as well as with the bishops from five continents who come to Rome for their 'ad limina' visits.

As you recalled, I came here myself not a few times to celebrate the Eucharist when I was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it was always a beautiful experience to meet boys and girls from so many regions of the earth who find this place an important hospitality center and reference point.

It is to you, above, all dear young, people, that I address my greetings, and I thank you for the wearm welcome you showed today. I also greet all the others who have chosen to attend this solemn but also familial celebration.

I particularly greet the cardinals and prlates present. Allow me to cite, in particular, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, titular of this Church, San Lorenzo in Piscibus; and Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, whom I thank for the kind expressions of welcome addressed to me before the Mass began.

I greet Mons. Josef Clemens, Secretary of the Council for the Laity,
and the team of young people, priests and seminarians who run this Center under the guidance of the Council's Youth Section, as well as all those who contribute to the Center in various ways.

I refer to the associations, movements and communities represented here, with a special mention of the Emmanuel Community, which has coordinated the Center's activities for 20 years with great faithfulnees, and which has created a Mission School in Rome, attended by some of the young people here today.

I greet the chaplains and the volunteers who have worked for the past 25 years in the service of the youth. To each and everyone, my affectionate greeting.

Now let us come to the Gospel today, dedicated to a great and fundamental topic: What is life? What is death? How should we live? And how should we die?

St. John, to make us better understand the mystery of life and Jesus's response, uses for this unique reality of life two different words to indicate the different dimensions of the reality we call 'life': the (Greek) words bios and zoé.

Bíos, as we can easily deduce, refers to this great biocosmos, the biosphere that comprises primitive single cells to the most organized and most developed organisms - this great tree of life in which are developed all the possibilities of the bios.

Man belongs to this tree of life. He is part of the cosmos of life which begins with a miracle - a vital core develops within inert matter into the reality of a living organism.

But man, although he is part of this great biocosmos, transcends it because he is also part of that reality that St. John calls zoé. It is a new level of life in which the being opens up to consciousness.

Of course, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a coma, even at the stage of an embryo. But if he lives only biologically, then all the potentialities of his being cannot be realized and developed.

Man is called on to open up to new dimensions. He is a conscious being. Of course, even animals have 'consciousness', but only of what pertains to their biologic life.

Man's consciousness goes beyond that. He wants to know everything, all of reality, reality in its totality. He wants to know what is his being, what is this world. He has a thirst to know the infinite, he wants to get to the source of life, he wants to drink at this source and find life itself.

Thus we touch a second dimension of life: man is not only a cosncious being, he also lives in relationships of friendship and love. Beyond the dimension of knowing truth and ebing, there exists, inseparable from it, the dimension of relationship, of love.

In this, man approaches ever closer to the fountain of life from which he wants to drink in order to have life in abundance, to have life itself.

We can say that all science is one great battle for life, above all, the science of medicine. Ultimately, medicine is a search for an antidote to death, a quest for immortality. But can we find the medicine that will assure us immortality? That is the question posed by the Gospel today.

Let us try to imagine what would happen if medicine did find this prescription against death, the prescription for immortality. Even in such a case, it would still have to do with medical means within the biosphere, medicine that is useful for our spiritual and human life, but by itself, still confined to the biosphere.

It is easy to imagine what would happen if man's biological life were without end, if man were immortal. We would find ourselves in an 'old world', a world full of aged people, a world that would leave little room for the young, for the renewal of life.

So we understand that this is not the immortality that we aspire to. This is not the possibility of drinking at the fountain of life that we all desire.

At this point in which, on the one hand, we understand that we cannnot hope for an infinite prolongation of biological life, while on the other hand, we desire to drink at the fountain of life to enjoy 'life without end', the Lord intervenes and speaks to us from the Gospel to say: "I am the Resurrection and the Life: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; whoever lives and believes in me, will not die in eternity".

"I am the Resurrection": To drink at the fountain of life is to enter in communion with this infinite love which is the source of life. Encountering Christ, we enter into contact - better, into communion -
with life itself, and we would then have crossed the threshold of death, because we are in touch - beyond biological life - with true life.

The Fathers of the Church called the Eucharist the drug of immortality. That is so, because in the Eucharist, we enter into contact and communion with the resurrected Body of Christ - we enter the space of life that has been resurrected, of eternal life.

We enter into communion with this Body which has immortal life, and therefore we ourselves, now and for always, enter the space of life itself.

Thus, this Gospel is also a profound interpretaiton of what the Eucharist is and invites us to really live the Eucharist so that we can be transformed in the communion of love. This is the true life.

In Johm's Gospel, the Lord says: "Ihave come so that you may have life, and have life in abundance." A life in abundance is not, as some may think, to consume everything, to have everything, to do everything one pleases. In such a case, we would live for dead things, we would live for death.

Life in abundance is to be in communion with true life, with infinite love. It is this way that we truly enter into the abundance of life and we become bearers of life even for others.

Prisoners of war who had been in Russia for ten years or more, exposed to cold and hunger, would say upon returning: "I could survive because I knew I was being awaited. I knew there were persons who waited to see me back, that I was neeeded and awaited." This love that awaited them was the effective medicine of life against all ills.

In truth, we are all awaited. The Lord awaits us but more than that, he is present and holds his hand out to us. Let us accept the Lord's hand and pray to him that he may grant us to live truly, to live the abundance of life and thus be able to communicate to our contemporaries this true life, this life in abundance. Amen.

Address to new Bolivian ambassador, 3/14/08 -
to be translated from Spanish

HOMILY AT PENITENTIAL LITURGY, 3/14/08


On Thursday afternoon, the Holy Father presided at Rites of Reconciliation in St. Peter's Basilica with individual confessions and absolutions given. The event was primarily intended for the youth of the Diocese of Rome in preparation for the diocesan level celebration of World Youth Day on Palm Sunday.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily at the penitential liturgy:


Dear young people of Rome!

Once again this year, shortly before Palm Sunday, we find outrselves together to prepare for celebrating the XXIII World Youth Day which, as you know, will culminate in the encounter of youth from all over the world in Sydney this coming July 15-20.

You have known for some time the theme for this year's WYD. It is taken from the words we heard just now from the first Reading: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses..." (Acts, 1,8).

Our gathering together today takes the form, not by chance, of a penitential liturgy with the celebration of individual confessions.

Why do I say not by chance? The response may be inferred from what I wrote in my first Encyclical, in which I emphasized that the start of being Christian is the encounter with an event, with a Person, who gives a new horizon to life and with it, its decisive direction (cfr Deus caritas est, 1).

Precisely to favor this encounter with Christ, hasten to open your hearts to God, confessing your sins and receiving forgiveness and peace by the action of the Holy Spirit and through the ministry of the Church.

That is how we make room within us for the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who is the 'soul' and the 'vital breath' of Christian life: the Spirit makes us capable of "maturing within us an understanding of Jesus that is increasingly more profound and joyous, while at the same time, realizing an effective application of the Gospel" (Message for the XXXIII WYD, 1).

When I was Archbishop of Munich-Freising, in a meditation on Pentecost I was inspired by a film called Seelenwanderung]Metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation], to explain the action of the Holy Spirit on the soul.

The film tells of two poor devils who, because of their goodness, could not get anywhere in life. One day, it occurred to one of them that, having nothing else to sell, he could sell his soul. Indeed, he sold it for a trifle and it was placed into a box.

But from that moment, everything changed in his life. He began to rise rapidly, he grew increasingly rich, he obtained great honors, and on his death, he was well-endowed with goods and money.

From the moment that he gave up his soul, he also lost any thought for others and any humanity. He acted without scruples, intent only on profit and success. Other men no longer counted. He himself no longer had a soul. The film, I concluded, demonstrates impressively how an empty existence is often hidden behind the facade of success.

To all appearances, the man had not lost anything, but he did not have a soul, and without a soul, he lacked everything. Obviously, I continued in that meditation, a human being cannot really throw out his soul, because it is the soul that makes him a person, that in fact, he remains a human being.

But he now has the frightening possibility of turning inhuman, of remaining a person who is selling and losing his own humanity. The distance between a human being and an inhuman one is immense, although it cannot be shown; this is a truly essential matter, although it may appear unimportant (cfr Suchen, was droben ist: Meditation das Jahr hindurch LEV, 1985)[Looking at the things above: Meditations throughout the year].

Even the Holy Spirit, who is at the beginning of creation, and who, thanks to the mystery of Easter, descended abundantly on Mary and the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, cannot be demonstrated to the outer
eye. Whether he penetrates into a person or not cannot be seen. But he changes and renews the entire perspective of human existence.

The Holy Spirit does not change the exterior situations of life, but the interior. On the evening of Easter, Jesus appeared to his disciples, "breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit' (Jn 20,22).

Then, in a manner that weas even more (externally) evident, the Spirit descended on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost like a wind that blew strongly and in the form of tongues of fire.

Even tonight, the Spirit will descend on our hearts to pardon our sins and renew us interiorly, investing us with a strength that can give even we ourselves, like the Apostles, the daring to announce that 'Christ died and rose again."

Dear friends, let us prepare ourselves then, with a sincre examination of conscience, to present ourselves to those whom Christ has entrusted with the ministry of reconciliatiion. With a contrite spirit, let us confess our sins, intending seriously above all not to repeat them anymore, determined to remain on the path of penitence.

Thus we will experience true joy - the joy which flows from the mercy of God is poured into our hearts and reconciles us to him. This joy is contagious!

"You will have strength from the Holy Spirit who will descend on you" - says the Biblical verse chosen as the theme of the XXIII World Youth Day - "and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1,8).

Of this joy that comes from receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit, make yourselves the bearers, giving testimony in your lives of the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5,22), as St. Paul lists the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Letter to the Galatians.

Always remember that you are 'the temple of the Spirit' - let him dwell in you and obediently follow his indications, in order to bring your contribution to the building of the Church (cfr 1Cor 12,7) and to discern to what vocation the Lord is calling you.

Even today, the world needs priests, consecrated men and women, as well as Christian spouses. To respond to any of these callings, be generous; help yourself by availing of the sacrament of confession and the practice of spiritual guidance in your paths as consistent Christians. Look in particular to opening your hearts sincerely to Jesus our Lord, to offer him your unconditional Yes.

Dear young people, the city of Rome is in your hands. It is your task to render it beautiful spiritually as well, with your testimony of a life lived in the grace of God and far from sin, adhering to all that the Spirit calls you to be, in the Church and in the world.

You will thus render visible the grace of Christ's over-abundant mercy which flowed from his side that was pierced for our sake on the Cross.

May the Lord Jesus wash us of our sins, heal us of all guilt, and strengthen us so we do not succumb in the battle against sin, as well as in bearing witness of his love.

Twenty-five years ago, the beloved Servant of God John Paul II inaugurated, not far from this Basilica, the San Lorenzo International Youth Center - a spiritual initiative added to so many others in the Diocese of Rome to promote a hospitable center for young people, where they can exhange experiences and testimonials of the faith, but above all, be together in prayer which makes us discover the love of God.

On that occasion, John Paul II said: "Whoever allows himself to be filled with this love - God's love - cannot keep denying his faults. The loss of the sense of sin derives ultimately from the most radical and hidden loss of the sense of God" (Homily at the inauguration of the San Lorenzo International Youth Center, 13 March 1983, 5).

He added: "Where can one go in this world, with sin and guilt, without the Cross? The Cross takes on itself all the misery of the world which is born from sin. It reveals itself as a sign of grace. It brings us together in solidarity and encourages us to sacrifice for others" (ibid.).

Dear young people, may this experience be renewed today for you. Look at the Cross at this time, and let us welcome the love of God which is given to us by the Cross, by the Holy Spirit who springs from the pierced side of the Lord, and, as Pope John Paul II, said: "Become yourselves redeemers of the youth of the world" (ibid.).

Divine Heart of Jesus, from which Blood and Water flowed as a spring of mercy for us, we trust in you. Amen.

ADDRESS TO THE NEW AMBASSADOR FROM GREECE, 3/15/08


Here is the text of the address given by the Holy Fatter in English upon receiving the credentials of the new ambassador from Greece to the Holy See.


Your Excellency,

It is a pleasure for me to welcome you to the Vatican and to accept the letters by which you are appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Hellenic Republic to the Holy See.

I am grateful for the courteous greeting which you have conveyed from His Excellency Mr Karolos Papoulias, and I would ask that you assure him, the leaders of your country and the people of Greece of my good wishes and prayers for their well-being and peace.

Recently, several significant encounters have strengthened the bonds of goodwill between Greece and the Holy See.

In the wake of the Jubilee Year of 2000, my venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II visited your country during his pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Paul. This led to an exchange of visits from Orthodox and Catholic delegations to and from Rome and Athens.

In 2006, I was happy to receive your President here at the Vatican, and I was graced by a visit from His Beatitude Christodoulos, whose recent death Christians in your country and throughout the world continue to mourn. I pray that the Lord will grant this devoted pastor rest from his labours and bless him for his valiant efforts to mend the breach between Christians in the East and West.

I avail myself of this occasion to extend to the new Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, my sincere fraternal greetings of peace, together with an assurance of my constant prayers for his fruitful ministry and good health.

Let me also take this opportunity to reiterate my eagerness to work together as we travel the road towards Christian unity. In this regard, Your Excellency has highlighted the signs of hope emerging from the ecumenical meetings that have taken place over the past decades.

Not only have these reaffirmed what Catholics and Orthodox already hold in common, but they have also opened the door to deeper discussions about the precise meaning of the Church’s unity.

Undoubtedly, honesty and trust will be required from all parties if the important questions raised by this dialogue are to continue to be addressed effectively. We take courage from the "new spirit" of friendship that has characterized our conversations, inviting all participants to ongoing conversion and prayer, which alone are able to ensure that Christians will one day attain the unity for which Jesus prayed so fervently (cf. Jn 17:21).

The imminent Jubilee dedicated to the bi-millennial anniversary of the birth of Saint Paul will be a particularly auspicious occasion to intensify our ecumenical endeavours, for Paul was a man who "left no stones unturned for unity and harmony among all Christians" (cf. Homily at the Vespers celebration of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, 28 June 2007).

This brilliant "Apostle to the Gentiles" dedicated his energies to preaching the wisdom of the cross of Christ amidst the people of Greece, who were formed by the highly sophisticated Hellenistic culture.

Because Paul’s memory is forever planted in her soil, Greece will play an important role in this celebration. I am confident that the pilgrims who come to Greece in order to venerate the holy sites associated with his life and teaching will be embraced with the warm spirit of hospitality for which your nation is renowned.

The vibrant exchange between Hellenistic culture and Christianity allowed the former to be transformed by Christian teaching and the latter to be enriched by Greek language and philosophy. This enabled Christians to communicate the Gospel more coherently and persuasively throughout the world.

Even today, visitors to Athens can contemplate Paul’s words — now etched on the monument overlooking the Areopagus — which he proclaimed to the learned citizens of the polis. He spoke of the one God in whom "we live and move and have our being" (cf. Acts 17:16-34).

Paul’s powerful preaching of the mystery of Christ to the Corinthians, who highly esteemed their philosophical heritage (cf. 1 Cor 2:5), opened their culture to the salutary influence of the Word of God.

His words still resound in the hearts of men and women today. They can help our contemporaries to appreciate more deeply their human dignity, and thus promote the good of the entire human family.

It is my hope that the Pauline Year will become a catalyst that will spark reflection upon the history of Europe and stir its inhabitants to rediscover the inestimable treasure of values they have inherited from the integral wisdom of Hellenistic culture and the Gospel.

Mr Ambassador, I thank you for the assurance of your government’s resolve to address administrative issues concerning the Catholic Church in your nation. Among these, the question of its juridical status is of particular significance. The Catholic faithful, though few in number, look forward to the favourable results of these deliberations.

Indeed, when religious leaders and civil authorities work together to formulate fair legislation in regard to the life of local ecclesial communities, the spiritual welfare of the faithful and the good of all society are enhanced.

In the international arena, I commend Greece’s efforts to promote peace and reconciliation, especially in the surrounding area of the Mediterranean basin. Her efforts to quell tensions and dispel the clouds of suspicion which have long stood in the way of a fully harmonious coexistence in the region will help to rekindle a spirit of goodwill between individuals and nations.

Finally, Mr Ambassador, I cannot help but recall the devastation caused by the wildfires that raged through Greece last summer. I continue to remember in my prayers those who were affected by this disaster, and I invoke God’s grace and strength upon all those involved in the process of rebuilding.

As you assume your responsibilities within the diplomatic community accredited to the Holy See, I offer you my prayerful good wishes for the success of your mission and assure you that the various offices of the Roman Curia will always be ready to assist you in your duties.

I cordially invoke upon you and all the beloved people of Greece the abundant blessings of Almighty God.

HOMILY AND ANGELUS MESSAGE ON PALM SUNDAY, 3/16/08





At 9:30 a.m., the Holy Father presided at the solemn liturgical celebration of Palm Sunday and the Passion of the Lord at St. Peter's Square.

The Pope blessed the palms and olives, and following a procession with the blessed fronds, he celebrated Mass.

Special participants in today's assembly were the youth of Rome and other parts of Italy for the diocesan celebration of World Youth Day which culminates in the international event to be held in Sydney, Australia, from July 15-20, with the participation of Pope Benedict.

Here is a translation of the Pope's homily:


Dear brothers and sisters,

Every year, the Gospel passage on Palm Sunday tells us about Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. Together with his disciples and growing ranks of pilgrims, he had come from the plains of Galilee to the Holy City.

Like steps along this ascent, the evangelists have transmitted to us three announcements Jesus made about his Passion, indicating at the same time the interior ascent taking place with this pilgrimage.

Jesus is on his way to the Temple - to the place where God, as it says in Deuteronomy, had chosen to be 'the dwelling place of his name'(cfr 12, 11; 14, 23). The God who had created heaven and earth had given himself a name, he had made himself invocable, or better yet, he had made himself tangible to men.

No place can contain him, and yet - or precisely because of this - he gave himself a place and a name so that he, personally, the true God, could be venerated as God in our midst.

From the story of Jesus as a twelve-year-old, we know that he loved the Temple as the house of his Father, as his paternal home. Now he comes again to this temple, but this trip would take him beyond it. The final end of his ascent to Jerusalem is the Cross.

This is the ascent that the Letter to the Hebrews describes as the ascent towards the 'tent not made by human hands', towards the presence of God. The ascent towards the presence of God takes the way of the Cross. It is the ascent towards 'love to the very end' (cfr Jn 13,1), which is the true mount of God, the definitive place of contact between God and man.

During the entry to Jerusalem, the people paid homage to Jesus as the son of David with the pilgrims' words from Psalm 118(117): "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest" (Mt 21,9).

Then he arrives at the Temple. But there, in a space meant for the encounter between God and man, he finds vendors of beasts and money changers plying their trade in the space for prayer.

Of course, the animals on sale were intended to be sacrificed by immolating them at the temple. And since coins bearing the likenesss of the Roman emperors who opposed the true God could not be used in the temple, money had to be changed into currency that did not bear these idolatrous images.

However, all these trading could be done elsewhere. The space where it was now taking place was intended to be the atrium for pagans. The God of Israel was, in fact, the one God of all peoples. So even if pagans do not enter, so to speak, within Revelation, they could still associate themselves with prayer to the one God in this atrium of faith.

The God of Israel, the God of all men, is always waiting for their prayers, their searching, their invocations. But now, the place was dominated by business - business which had been authorized by competent (temple) authorities who shared in the merchants' profits. The merchants behaved correctly according to the prevailing order, but it was the order itself that was corrupted.

"Greed is idolatry", says the Letter to the Colossians (cfr 3,5). This is the idolatry that Jesus encountered and before which he quoted Isaiah: "My house shall be a house of prayer' (Mt 21,13; cfr Is 56,7) and Jeremiah: "But you are making it a den of thieves" (Mt 21,13; cfr Jer 7,11). Against a badly misrepresented order, Jesus with his prophetic action, defended the true order found in the Law and the Prophets.

All this should make even us today think, as Christians: Is our faith pure and open enough so that from it, even 'pagans', persons who are in search and have questions, may catch intuitively the light of the one God, associate themselves in the atriums of faith to our prayers, and with their questions, become worshippers themselves?

Has the awareness that greed is idolatry reached our own hearts and our way of life? Are we not perhaps allowing idols to enter the world of our faith in various ways? Are we willing to let ourselves be purified ever anew by the Lord, allowing him to drive out from us and from the Church all that is against him?

But the purification of the temple meant more than just fighting the abuses. A new hour in history was foretold. It was the start of what Jesus had told the Samaritan woman about true adoration: "The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him" (Jn 4,23).

The time had ended for sacrificing animals to God. The sacrifice of animals had always been a poor substitute, a nostalgic gesture, for true worship of God. The Letter to the Hebrews, on the life of Jesus and his actions, used a passage from Psalm 40[39] as a motto: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me" (Heb 10,5).

In place of the bloody sacrifices and offerings of food, the Body of Christ himself is offered. Only 'a love to the very end' - a love that gives itself totally to God in behalf of man, is true worship and true sacrifice. To adore in the spirit and in truth means to adore in communion with he who is the Truth - to adore in communion with his Body, to which the Holy Spirit unites us.

The evangelists tell us that in the trial of Jesus, false witnesses wre presented who said they heard Jesus say, "I can destroy the temple of God and within three days rebuild it" (mt 26, 61).

In front of Christ hanging on the Cross, some mockers referred to the same words saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, (and) come down from the cross!" (Mt 27,40)

The right version of the words, as they had come out of Jesus's mouth himself, is given to us by John in his account of the cleansing of the temple. Having been asked to give a sign by which he could legitimize his actions [driving out the vendors and money changers], the Lord answered: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (Jn 2,18f).

John adds that, rethinking that event after the Resurrection, the disciples understood that Jesus was speaking of the Temple of his Body (cfr 2,21f). It is not Jesus who destroys the temple; it is abandoned to destruction by the attitude of those who have transformed a place of encounter of all peoples with God into a 'den of thieves', in a place to run their business.

As always, since the fall of Adam, man's failings become the occasion for an even greater commitment of God's love in our behalf. The time of stone temples, of animal sacrifices, was now past. The fact that the Lord now drove out the merchants not only prevented abuse but indicated God's new activity.

The new Temple had been built: Jesus Christ himself, in whom God's love bends down to mankind. He, in his life, is the the new and living Temple. He, who died through the Cross and rose again, is the living space of spirit and life, in which correct worship is achieved.

Thus the purification of the temple, as the culmination of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, is at the same time an omen of the impending destruction of the (actual) edifice and a promise of a new Temple - a promise of the kingdom of reconciliation and love which, in communion with Christ, will be established beyond every frontier.

St. Matthew, whose Gospel we are listening to this year, cites at the end of his account of Palm Sunday, after the purification of the temple, two more small incidents that once again have a prophetic character, and once again makes clear to us what Jesus's true intentions were.

Immediately after the words of Jesus about a house of prayer for all peoples, the evangelist continues: "The blind and the lame approached him in the temple area, and he cured them" (Mt 21, 14f).

Matthew also tells us that the children in the temple area repeated the acclamation by the pilgrims when Jesus entered the city: "Hosanna to the son of David" (Mt 21,15f).

Jesus countered the trade in animals and the affairs of the money changers with his healing goodness. This is the true purification of the temple.

He did not come as a destroyer, he did not come with the sword of a revolutionary. He dedicated himself to those who are pushed to the extremes of life and the margins of society by their weakness and infirmity. Jesus showed God as He who loves, and his power as the power of love. Thus he tells us what will always be part of true worship of God: healing, serving, goodness that heals.

Then there were the children who rendered homage to Jesus as son of David and acclaimed him with Hosannas. Jesus had told his disciples that in order to enter into the Kingdom of God, one must be like little children. He himself, who embraces the whole world, became s baby to come to us and lead us to God.

In order to recognize God, we should abandon pride which blinds us, which would drive us away from God, as if God were a rival. We should learn to see with a young heart, unhindered by prejudices and not blinded by selfish interests. Thus, the Church through time has seen in the 'small' people, who with childlike hearts freely and openly recognize God, the image of believers in all times, its own image.

Dear friends, today we associate ourselves with the procession of young people then - a procession which passes through all of history. Together with the young people all over the world, let us go forth to meet Jesus. Let us allow ourselves to be led by him towards God, to learn from God himself the right way to be human.

With him we thank God because in Jesus, son of David, he gave us a space of peace and reconciliation which encompasses the whole world. Let us pray that we, too, may become with him and through him, messengers of his peace, so that in us and around us, his Kingdom may grow. Amen.


The Mass ended in time for the Holy Father to lead the noonday Angelus. Before the Marian prayer, he said:

At the end of this solemn celebration, in which we meditated on the Passion of Christ, I wish to remember the lamented Archbishop of Mosul of the Chaledeans, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who tragically died recently.

His beautiful testimony of faithfulness to Christ, to the Church and his people, whom he did not abandon despite numerous threats, impels me to raise a strong and heartfelt cry: Enough of the killings, enough of violence, enough of hatred in Iraq!

At the same time, I raise an appeal to the Iraqi people, who have borne for five years the consequences of a war which has provoked such disorder in their civic and social life: Beloved Iraqis, lift up your heads and be yourselves the primary rebuilders of your national life! May reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and respect of civil coexistence among tribes, races, and religious groups be the fraternal and common way to peace in the name of God.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, I renew my cordial greetings to all of you. In particular, I address myself to the youth, who have come from many parts of the world, on the occasion of World Youth Day, which the beloved Servant of God John Paul II had wished to link to Palm Sunday.

My thoughts at this time go to Sydney, Australia, for the great encounter that I will have with the youth of the world from July 15-20. I thank the Australian bishops conference, particularly Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, and his co-workers, for all the work that they have been doing with such commitment.

I am similarly grateful to Australian authorities, both federal and state officials, for the generous support they have given to this important initiative.

Let us see each other in Sydney.





In English, he said:

I welcome the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here this Palm Sunday, when we acclaim Jesus, model of humility, our Messiah and King.

In a special way I greet all the young people gathered in Rome. I am looking forward to seeing many of you, together with thousands of others from across the globe, at World Youth Day in Sydney.

Today, I wish to recognize the preparatory work being undertaken by the Australian Bishops’ Conference together with Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, and the organizing staff.

Similarly I wish to acknowledge the spirit of generous cooperation shown by the Federal and the New South Wales governments, as well as the residents and business people of Sydney.

Let us all pray for our young people, that World Youth Day will be a time of deep and lasting spiritual renewal.

May the great events of Holy Week, in which we see love unfold in its most radical form, inspire you all to be courageous ‘witnesses of charity’ to your friends, your communities and our world.

Upon each of you present and your families, I invoke God’s blessings of peace and wisdom.

MAUNDY THURSDAY HOMILIES, 3/20/08


MASS OF THE CHRISM, ST. PETER'S BASILICA

The Holy Father presided in the morning at the Mass of the Chrism which is celebrated on Maundy Thursday in all diocesan cathedrals. He concelebrated it with cardinals, bishops, priests and religious present in Rome. During the Mass, the renewal of priestly vows was followed by the blessing of the sacramental oils.



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily:


Dear brothers and sisters,

Every year, the Mass of the Chrism exhorts us to renew our Yes to God's call which we pronounced on the day of our priestly ordination.

"Adsum" - here I am - we said, like Isaiah when he heard the voice of God who asked, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" - and Isaiah answered, "Here I am. Send me!" (Is 6,9).

Then the Lord himself, through the hands of the Bishop, imposed his hands on us and we gave ourselves to his mission. Subsequently, we have followed different ways within the scope of his mission.

We can always affirm what Paul did - after years of service to the Gospel that was often exhausting and marked by every kind of suffering - when he wrote to the Corinthians: "Since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged" (cfr 2 Cor 4,1).

"We are not discouraged". Let us pray on this day that our zeal may always be rekindled so that it will always be fed anew by the living flame of the Gospel.

At the same time, Maundy Thursday is for us an occasion to ask ourselves yet again: What did we say Yes to? What does it mean to 'be a priest of Jesus Christ'?

Canon II of our Missal - which probably dates back to the second century here in Rome - describes the essence of the priestly ministry with the words that describe the essence of the Old Testament priesthood in the Book of Deuteronomy (18, 5,7): "astare coram te et tibi ministrare" - to stand before you and serve you.

In the first place, then, "to stand before the Lord". In the Book of Deuteronomy, this is read in the context of the preceding disposition, according to which the priest does not receive any portion or lot in the Holy Land, (because) priests should live off God and for God. They were not to expect to do the usual necessary work to sustain daily life. Their profession was 'to stand before the Lord' - to contemplate him, to be there for him.

In this way, the Word (of God) indicates a life in the presence of God, and with this, a ministry in behalf of others. As other men must cultivate the land from which even priests live, so does the priest keep the world open toward God, and should live with his attention fixed on him.

This passage is found today in the Canon of the Mass, immediately after the consecration of the offerings - after the entry of the Lord into the assembly in prayer - (and) it tells us to be present before the Lord, indicating the Eucharist as the center of priestly life. But the meaning goes even farther.

In the hymn of the Liturgy of the Hours that introduces the Office of the Readings in Lent - the Office which monks once recited during an hour of nightly vigil before God and for men - one of the tasks during Lent is described with the imperative: 'arctius perstemus in custodia' – let us be even more intensely attentive.

In the Syrian monastic tradition, monks were defined as 'those who are on their feet' - this expression referred to being vigilant. That which was seen as a task for monks, we can rightly see likewise as an expression of the priestly mission and as the correct interpretation of the words of Deuteronomy: the priest should be one who watches and keeps guard.

He must stand guard against the pressing powers of evil. He must keep the world awake for God. He must be someone who is on his feet - standing sqwuarely against the currents of the time, standing for the truth, for a commitment to the good.

Standing before the Lord should always be, at its most profound, taking responsibility as well for others before the Lord, who, in his turn, takes responsibility for all men before the Father.

And it should mean taking on Christ himself, his words, his truth, his love. The priest shoud be correct, fearless and ready to undergo even the worst affronts for the Lord - as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, "rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name of Jesus" (5,41).

Let us proceed to the second part of the passage that the Canon takes from the text of the Old Testament: 'to stand before you and to serve you'. The priest should be an upright person, vigilant, a person who remains straight. But to all this is added that he must serve.

In the Old Testament text, this word has an essentially ritualistic meaning: it was the priest's task to perform all the actions of worship prescribed by the Law. But this acting according to rite came to be described as service, as a responsibility of service, which explains in what spirit that activity should be carried out.

With the use of the word 'to serve' in the Canon, the liturgical meaning of the term was adopted to conform to the newness of Christian worship. What the priest does in the moment of celebrating the Eucharist is to serve, to fulfill a service to God and a service to men.

The act of worship that Christ offered to the Father was to give himself up to the very end in behalf of men. It is within this worship, within this service, that the priest must situate himself. Therefore the expression 'to serve' has many dimensions.

Certainly, part of it is, first of all, the correct celebration of the liturgy and of the Sacraments in general, which must be carried out with interior participation. We should learn to understand ever increasingly the sacred liturgy in all its essence, develop such a living familiarity with it that it becomes the soul of our daily existence.

And when we celebrate liturgy in the right way, then ars celebrandi, the art of celebrating, emerges by itself. This art should not have anything artificial.

If the Liturgy is a central task for the priest, this also means that prayer itself should be a priority to be learned ever anew and ever more profoundly in the school of Christ and the saints of all times.

Inasmuch as Christian liturgy, by its very nature, is always also an announcement, we should be familiar ourselves with the Word of God, as persons who love it and live it - because only then can we explain it appropriately.

"To serve the Lord": priestly service also means learning to know the Lord in his Word, and to make this be known to all those whom he has entrusted to us.

Two other aspects make up what it means 'to serve'. No one is closer to the Lord than the servant who has access to the most intimate aspects of his life. In this sense, service means closeness, which requires familiarity.

But this familiarity also carries a danger: even the sacred which we encounter all the time then becomes a habit, and this extinguishes reverential awe. Conditioned by habit, we no longer can perceive the great, new and surprising fact - that God himself is present, speaks to us, and gives himself to us.

Against this habituation to an extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, we must fight ceaselessly, always acknowledging our inadequacy, as well as the grace it means to us for him to (literally) put himself into our hands.

To serve means closeness but above all, it means obedience. The servant is bound by the words: "Not my will but yours be done" (Lk 22, 42). With these words, Jesus in the Garden of Olives resolved the conclusive battle against sin, against the rebellion of the fallen.

Adam's sin consisted, precisely, in that he wanted his will to be realized, not God's. Mankind's temptation has always been to want total autonomy to follow one's own will and to believe that only thus can we be free, that man can be completely human only thanks to such freedom without limits. But in thinking this way, we oppose the truth.

Because the truth is that we should share our freedom with others and that we can only be free in communion with others. This shared freedom can be true freedom only if we use it to enter that which is the measure itself of freedom, if we enter into the will of God.

This fundamental obedience is part of being human: a being who does not exist on his own nor for himself alone becomes even more concrete in the priest. We do not announce ourselves, but God and his Word, which we could not have thought of ourselves.

We announce the word of Christ correctly only in communion with his Body. Our obedience is a believing with the Church, thinking and speaking with the Church, serving with the Church. In this, we can always think of what Jesus predicted to Peter: "You will be drawn where you do not wish to be."

Allowing ourselves to be led where we do not wish to be is an essential dimension of our service, but it is this which makes us free. In allowing ourselves to be led thus - which may be contrary to our own ideas and plans - we experience the new thing, the richness of God's love.

"To stand before him and to serve him": Christ as the true High priest of the world gave these words a profoundness which was previously unimaginable. He, who as the Son was and is the Lord, wanted to be that servant of God that the vision in the Book of the prophet Isaiah had foretold. He wanted to be the servant of all.

And he illustrated the sum total of his supreme priesthood in the act of washing the Apostles' feet. With his act of love to the very end, he washes our dirty feet; with the humility of his service, he purifies us from our affliction with pride. And thus he makes us worthy to sit at the table of God.

He came down to us, and the true ascent of man is realized when we come down with him and towards him. His elevation is the Cross. It is the most profound descent, and, as an expression of the love that gives to the very end, it is also the summit of ascent, the true 'elevation' of man.

"To stand before him and to serve him". This means answering his call as a servant of God. The Eucharist as the presence of Christ's descent and ascent thus points us back, beyond itself, to the multiple ways of service out of love for our neighbor.

Let us ask the Lord today for the gift of being able to say again, with this sense of service, our Yes to his call - "Here I am. Send me, Lord!" (Is 6, 8). Amen.



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MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER,
BASILICA OF ST. JOHN LATERAN




At 5:30 on Thusrday afternoon, the Holy Father presided at the concelebrated Mass of the Lord's Supper in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. During the liturgy, the Pope carried out the washing of the feet of 12 priests. At the presentation of gifts, a collection for the orphanage La Edad de Oro in Havana, Cuba, was given to the Holy
Father.

The Mass was followed by the solemn transplation in procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose. Here is a translation of the Pope's homily:


Dear brothers and sisters,

St. John begins his narration of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples in language that is particularly solemn, almost liturgical.

"Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end." (Jn 13, 1).

Jesus's hour had come, towards which his work had been directed from the very beginning. What constitutes the content of this hour is described by John in two words: passage or transit (metabainein, metabasis) and agape - love.

The two words explain each other. Together they describe the Passover of Jesus: Cross and Resurrection. The Cross as an elevation, as a 'passage' to the glory of God, as a 'passing' to the world of the Father.

It is not as if Jesus, after a brief visit to the world, now simply leaves to go back to the Father. The transition is a transformation. He carries with him his flesh, his humanity. In giving himself on the Cross, he is cast and transformed into a new mode of being in which he is now and for always with the Father, and at the same time, with all men.

He transforms the Cross, the act of killing, into an act of giving, of love to the very end. With this expression 'to the very end', John looks forward to Jesus's last words on the Cross: everything has been fulfilled, "it is finished" (19, 30).

Through his love, the Cross becomes metabasis, the transformation of the human being into one participating in the glory of God. In this transformation, he involves all of us, drawing us with the transformative power of his love to the point where, being with him, our life becomes a 'passage', transformation. Thus we receive redemption - becoming participants in eternal love, a condition to which we aspire in our entire existence.

This essential process of Jesus's hour is represented in the washing of the feet like a symbolic prophetic act. Jesus proves through a concrete act what the great Christologic hymn in the Letter to the Philippians describes as the content of the mystery of Christ: Jesus lays aside the vestments of his glory, he girds himself with the clothing of humanity, and makes himself a servant.

He washes the feet of the apostles and thus makes them worthy of coming to the divine banquet to which he invites them. In place of the cultic external purification that ritually purifies man, while leaving him exactly as he was, is this new washing: He makes us pure through his Word and his love, through the gift of himself.

"You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you," he would say to the disciples in his discourse about the vine (Jn 15, 9). Ever anew he washes us with his word. Yes, if we welcome the words of Jesus in an attitude of meditation, prayer and faith, they can work on us their purificatory power.

Day after day, we are covered by many forms of filth, by empty words and prejudices, by diminished and distorted knowledge: multiple half-truths or open falsities continually infiltrate into our most intimate being. All this obfuscates and contaminates our soul and threatens us with an incapacity for the truth and for goodness.

If we welcome the words of Jesus with an attentive heart, they will prove to be true cleansings, purifications of the soul, of the interior man. This is what the Gospel invites to do us in the washing of the feet: to allow ourselves always to be washed anew by this pure water, to allow ourselves to be made worthy of convivial commmunion with God and with our brothers.

From the side of Jesus, after the soldier pierced hin with a lance, not only water gushed forth but also blood (Jn 19, 34; cfr 1Jn 5, 6.8). Jesus not only spoke - he did not leave us with words only. He gave himself. He washes us with the sacred power of his blood, that is, with his giving himself 'up to the end', up to the Cross. His word is more than just speaking: it is flesh and blood 'for the life of the world' (Jn 6, 51).

In the holy sacraments, the Lord kneels anew at our feet to purify us. Let us pray to him so that in the sacred cleansing of his love we may always be more profoundly penetrated and truly purified!

If we listen to the Gospel with attention, we can see in the washing of the feet two different aspects. The washing that Jesus gives his disciples is first of all a personal act of his - the gift of purity, of the 'capacity for God' offered to them.

But the gift then becomes a model, the task of doing the same thing for each other. The Fathers have described this double aspect of the washing of the feet with the words sacramentum ad exemplum. Sacramentum in this context does not refer to any of the seven Sacraments, but to the mystery of Christ in its totality, from the incarnation to the Cross and the resurrection.

This totality becomes the health-restoring and sanctifying force, the trasformative force for man - it becomes our metabasis, our transformation to a new form of being, to an opening to God and communion with him.

This new form of being which He - through no merit of ours - simply gives us, must then be transformed within us into the dynamic of a new life. The ensemble of offering and example which we find in the passage on the washing of the feet is characteristic of the nature of Christianity in general.

Christianity is not a kind of moralism or simply an ethical system. It does not begin with our doing nor our moral capacity. Christianity is above all a gift: God gives himself to us - not just something, but himself. This happens not only at the beginning, at the start of our conversion. He is always the one who gives continuously. Always anew, he offers us his gifts. He is always ahead of us.

That is why the central act of being Christian is the Eucharist: gratitude for being gratified, joy for the new life that he gives us.
And yet, we do not remain passive recipients of divine goodness. . God gratifies us as his personal living partners. The love he gives is the dynamic of 'loving together' - he wants us to have a new life coming from him.

That is how we understand the words which, at the end of the narration of the washing of the feet, Jesus says to his disciples: "I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." (Jn 13, 34).

The 'new commandment' does not consist of a new and difficult standard that did not exist till then. What is new is the gift that introduces us to the mentality of Christ. If we think about it, we can perceive how far we are in our life from this novelty of the New Testament- how little we give to mankind by the example of loving in communion with his love.

Because of this, we should pray much more to the Lord that he may make us, through his purifying action, mature for the new commandment.

In the Gospel on the washing of the feet, Jesus's conversation wtih Peter presents yet another particular of the practice of Christian living, to which we wish to turn our attention now.

At first, Peter did not want his feet to be washed by the Lord: this upturning of the usual order, namely, that the master - Jesus - would wash their feet, that the master would take on the service of the slave, contrasted totally with his reverential awe for Jesus, with his idea of the relationship between master and disciple.

"You will never wash my feet," he tells Jesus with his usual passion (Jn 13, 8). His idea of the Messiah involved an image of majesty, of divine grandeur. He had to learn anew all the time that the grandeur of God is different from our idea of grandeur - that it consists, in fact, in coming down, in the humility of service, in the radicalness of a love to the point of self-spoliation.

Even we should always learn this anew, because systematically, we desire a God of success and not of passion, because we are not capable of realizing that the Shepherd comes as a Lamb who gives himself, and in doing so, leads us to the right pasture.

When the Lord tells Peter that without the washing of the feet, he would not be able to have any part of him, Peter immediately asks that even his head and his hands be washed. Jesus then answers with the mysterious words: "Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed," (Jn 13, 10).

Jesus was alluding to a bath that the disciples had already undergone. In order to participate in the feast, all that was needed now was to wash the feet.

Of course, a deep meaning is hidden here. In any case, let us bear in mind that the washing of the feet, in the sense of this entire chapter from John, does not indicate a single Sacrament only - but the 'sacramentum Christi' in its entirety - his service of salvation, his descent to the Cross, his love to the very end, which purfies us and makes us capable of God.

This distinction between bathing and washing of the feet also makes perceptible to us an allusion to the life in the community of disciples, into the life of the Church.

It seems clear that the bath which purifies us conclusively and does not have to be repeated is Baptism - immersion in the death and resurrection of Christ, a fact which changes our life profoundly, which gives us a new identity which remains with us, if we do not throw it aside, as Judas did.

But even with the permanence of this new identity given by Baptism, we need a washing of the feet for a convivial communion with Christ. What does it mean? I think that the first Letter of St. John gives us the key to understanding it.

We read: "If we say, 'We are without sin', we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing" (1, 8f)

We need the 'washing of the feet' to wash away the sins of everyday life, and for this we need to confess our sins as St. John writes in this Letter. We must recognize that even in our new life as baptized persons, we need confession as it has taken form in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In it, the Lord always washes our feet anew so that we can sit at table with him.

Thus even the words with which the Lord broadens the sacramentum by making it also an exemplum, a gift, a service for one's brother, takes on new meaning: "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet." (Jn 13. 14). We should wash each other's feet in our daily reciprocal service of love. But we also should wash each other's feet in the sense of forgiving each other ever anew.

The debt that the Lord has condoned us is always infinitely greater than all the debts that others can owe us (cfr Mt 18, 21-35). This is what Maundy Thursday invites us to do: not to let rancor towards another become within us a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to purify our memory continually, forgiving each other from the heart, washing each other's feet, so that we can together present ourselves at God's banquet.

Maundy Thursday is a day of gratitude and joy for the great gift of love to the very end that the Lord has made to us. Let us pray to the Lord at this time, so that this gratitude and joy can become in us the strength to love each other with his love. Amen.

REMARKS AFTER THE VIA CRUCIS AT THE COLOSSEUM, 3/21/08





Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the end of the Via Crucis Friday night:


Dear brothers and sisters,

This year once again, we have followed the way of the Cross, the Via Crucis, evoking with faith the stages of the Passion of Christ. Our eyes have seen again the suffering and anguish that our Redeemer had to bear in his hour of great pain at the culmination of his mission on earth.

Jesus has died on the Cross and lies in the sepulchre. Good Friday, so impregnsted with human sadness and religious silence, ends in the silence of meditation and prayer.

Going back to our homes tonight, we too, like those who were present at the sacrifice of Jesus, can only 'beat our breasts', thinking back on all that has happened (cf Lk 23,48). Could anyone be indifferent to the death of a God? For us, for our salvation, he became man and died on the Cross.

Brothers and sisters, today we turn our attention, so often distracted by scattered and ephemeral world lyinterests, towards Christ: let us pause and contemplate his Cross.

The Cross is the spring of univsal life, it is a school for justice and peace, it is a universal patrimony of forgiveness and mercy. It is the permanent proof of an oblative and infinite love which impelled God to become a vulnerable man like each of us, up to his death on the Cross.

His arms nailed to the Cross are open for every human being, inviting us to come close to him, certain that he welcomes us and holds us to him in an embrace of infinite kindness: "When I am lifted up from the earth," he said, "I will draw everyone to myself" Jn 12,32).

Through the sorrowful way of the Cross, men in every age, reconciled and redeemed by the Blood of Christ, have become friends of God, children of the heavenly Father. "Friend!", Jesus called Judas as he addressed him with his last dramatic appeal for penitence. He calls each of us 'friend' because he is the true friend of all.

Unfortunately, men have not always succeeded in perceiving the profoundness of this boundless love that God has for his creatures. To him, race and culture make no difference. Jesus Christ died to free man from ignorance of God, from the cycle of hatred and vengeance, from the slavery of sin. The Cross makes us all brothers.

We may well ask ourselves: What have we done with this gift? What have we done with God's revelation of himself in Christ, of the revelation of God's love which conquers hate?

So many, even in our time, do not know God and cannot find him in the crucified Christ. So many are in search of love and freedom that exclude God. So many believe they do not need God.

Dear friends, after having lived together the Passion of Jesus, let us allow his sacrifice on the Cross to speak to us and question us: let us allow him to place our human certainties in crisis. Let us open our hearts to him: Jesus is the Truth which makes us free to love.

Let us not be afraid! In dying, our Lord has saved sinners, that is, all of us.

The Apostle Peter wrote: "He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (1 Pt 2,24).

This is the truth of Good Friday: On the Cross, the Redeemer returned to us the dignity that is ours. He made us adopted children of God who created us in his image and likeness.



O Christ, crucified King, give us true knowledge of yourself, the joy that we yearn for, the love which can fill our hearts that thirst for the infinite. Thus we pray to you tonight, Jesus, Son of God, who died for us on the Cross and rose again on the third day. Amen.

HOMILY AT THE EASTER VIGIL, 3/22/08


Here is the Vatican's English translation of the homily given by the Holy Father at the Easter Vigil Mass last night.





Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In his farewell discourse, Jesus announced his imminent death and resurrection to his disciples with these mysterious words: "I go away, and I will come to you", he said (Jn 14:28).

Dying is a "going away". Even if the body of the deceased remains behind, he himself has gone away into the unknown, and we cannot follow him (cf. Jn 13:36).

Yet in Jesus’s case, there is something utterly new, which changes the world. In the case of our own death, the "going away" is definitive, there is no return.

Jesus, on the other hand, says of his death: "I go away, and I will come to you." It is by going away that he comes. His going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present.

By dying he enters into the love of the Father. His dying is an act of love. Love, however, is immortal. Therefore, his going away is transformed into a new coming, into a form of presence which reaches deeper and does not come to an end.

During his earthly life, Jesus, like all of us, was tied to the external conditions of bodily existence: to a determined place and a determined time. Bodiliness places limits on our existence. We cannot be simultaneously in two different places. Our time is destined to come to an end. And between the "I" and the "you" there is a wall of otherness.

To be sure, through love we can somehow enter the other’s existence. Nevertheless, the insurmountable barrier of being different remains in place. Yet Jesus, who is now totally transformed through the act of love, is free from such barriers and limits.

He is able not only to pass through closed doors in the outside world, as the Gospels recount (cf. Jn 20:19). He can pass through the interior door separating the "I" from the "you", the closed door between yesterday and today, between the past and the future.

On the day of his solemn entry into Jerusalem, when some Greeks asked to see him, Jesus replied with the parable of the grain of wheat which has to pass through death in order to bear much fruit. In this way he foretold his own destiny: these words were not addressed simply to one or two Greeks in the space of a few minutes.

Through his Cross, through his going away, through his dying like the grain of wheat, he would truly arrive among the Greeks, in such a way that they could see him and touch him through faith.

His going away is transformed into a coming, in the Risen Lord’s universal manner of presence, in which he is there yesterday, today and for ever, in which he embraces all times and all places.

Now he can even surmount the wall of otherness that separates the "I" from the "you". This happened with Paul, who describes the process of his conversion and his Baptism in these words: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20).

Through the coming of the Risen One, Paul obtained a new identity. His closed "I" was opened. Now he lives in communion with Jesus Christ, in the great "I" of believers who have become – as he puts it – "one in Christ" (Gal 3:28).

So, dear friends, it is clear that, through Baptism, the mysterious words spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper become present for you once more.

In Baptism, the Lord enters your life through the door of your heart. We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another. He passes through all these doors. This is the reality of Baptism: he, the Risen One, comes; he comes to you and joins his life with yours, drawing you into the open fire of his love. You become one, one with him, and thus one among yourselves.

At first this can sound rather abstract and unrealistic. But the more you live the life of the baptized, the more you can experience the truth of these words.

Believers – the baptized – are never truly cut off from one another. Continents, cultures, social structures or even historical distances may separate us. But when we meet, we know one another on the basis of the same Lord, the same faith, the same hope, the same love, which form us.

Then we experience that the foundation of our lives is the same. We experience that in our inmost depths we are anchored in the same identity, on the basis of which all our outward differences, however great they may be, become secondary. Believers are never totally cut off from one another.

We are in communion because of our deepest identity: Christ within us. Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close (cf. Eph 2:13).

The Church expresses the inner reality of Baptism as the gift of a new identity through the tangible elements used in the administration of the sacrament. The fundamental element in Baptism is water; next, in second place, is light, which is used to great effect in the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil.

Let us take a brief look at these two elements. In the final chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews, there is a statement about Christ which does not speak directly of water, but the Old Testament allusions nevertheless point clearly to the mystery of water and its symbolic meaning.

Here we read: "The God of peace … brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant" (13:20). In this sentence, there is an echo of the prophecy of Isaiah, in which Moses is described as the shepherd whom the Lord brought up from the water, from the sea (cf. 63:11).

Jesus appears as the new, definitive Shepherd who brings to fulfilment what Moses had done: he leads us out of the deadly waters of the sea, out of the waters of death.

In this context we may recall that Moses’ mother placed him in a basket in the Nile. Then, through God’s providence, he was taken out of the water, carried from death to life, and thus – having himself been saved from the waters of death – he was able to lead others through the sea of death. Jesus descended for us into the dark waters of death.

But through his blood, so the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, he was brought back from death: his love united itself to the Father’s love, and thus from the abyss of death he was able to rise to life. Now he raises us from death to true life.

This is exactly what happens in Baptism: he draws us towards himself, he draws us into true life. He leads us through the often murky sea of history, where we are frequently in danger of sinking amid all the confusion and perils.

In Baptism he takes us, as it were, by the hand, he leads us along the path that passes through the Red Sea of this life and introduces us to everlasting life, the true and upright life. Let us grasp his hand firmly! Whatever may happen, whatever may befall us, let us not lose hold of his hand! Let us walk along the path that leads to life.

In the second place, there is the symbol of light and fire. Gregory of Tours recounts a practice that in some places was preserved for a long time, of lighting the new fire for the celebration of the Easter Vigil directly from the sun, using a crystal.

Light and fire, so to speak, were received anew from heaven, so that all the lights and fires of the year could be kindled from them. This is a symbol of what we are celebrating in the Easter Vigil.

Through his radical love for us, in which the heart of God and the heart of man touched, Jesus Christ truly took light from heaven and brought it to the earth – the light of truth and the fire of love that transform man’s being. He brought the light, and now we know who God is and what God is like.

Thus we also know what our own situation is: what we are, and for what purpose we exist. When we are baptized, the fire of this light is brought down deep within ourselves.

Thus, in the early Church, Baptism was also called the Sacrament of Illumination: God’s light enters into us; thus we ourselves become children of light. We must not allow this light of truth, that shows us the path, to be extinguished. We must protect it from all the forces that seek to eliminate it so as to cast us back into darkness regarding God and ourselves.

Darkness, at times, can seem comfortable. I can hide, and spend my life asleep. Yet we are not called to darkness, but to light. In our baptismal promises, we rekindle this light, so to speak, year by year.

Yes, I believe that the world and my life are not the product of chance, but of eternal Reason and eternal Love, they are created by Almighty God.

Yes, I believe that in Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, in his Cross and resurrection, the face of God has been revealed; that in him, God is present in our midst, he unites us and leads us towards our goal, towards eternal Love.

Yes, I believe that the Holy Spirit gives us the word of truth and enlightens our hearts; I believe that in the communion of the Church we all become one Body with the Lord, and thus we encounter his resurrection and eternal life.

The Lord has granted us the light of truth. This light is also fire, a powerful force coming from God, a force that does not destroy, but seeks to transform our hearts, so that we truly become men of God, and so that his peace can become active in this world.

In the early Church there was a custom whereby the Bishop or the priest, after the homily, would cry out to the faithful: "Conversi ad Dominum" – turn now towards the Lord.

This meant in the first place that they would turn towards the East, towards the rising sun, the sign of Christ returning, whom we go to meet when we celebrate the Eucharist. Where this was not possible, for some reason, they would at least turn towards the image of Christ in the apse, or towards the Cross, so as to orient themselves inwardly towards the Lord.

Fundamentally, this involved an interior event; conversion, the turning of our soul towards Jesus Christ and thus towards the living God, towards the true light.

Linked with this, then, was the other exclamation that still today, before the Eucharistic Prayer, is addressed to the community of the faithful: "Sursum corda" – "Lift up your hearts", high above the tangled web of our concerns, desires, anxieties and thoughtlessness – "Lift up your hearts, your inner selves!"

In both exclamations we are summoned, as it were, to a renewal of our Baptism: Conversi ad Dominum – we must distance ourselves ever anew from taking false paths, onto which we stray so often in our thoughts and actions. We must turn ever anew towards him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

We must be converted ever anew, turning with our whole life towards the Lord. And ever anew we must allow our hearts to be withdrawn from the force of gravity, which pulls them down, and inwardly we must raise them high: in truth and love.

At this hour, let us thank the Lord, because through the power of his word and of the holy Sacraments, he points us in the right direction and draws our heart upwards.

Let us pray to him in these words: Yes, Lord, make us Easter people, men and women of light, filled with the fire of your love. Amen.

EASTER MESSAGE 'URBI ET ORBI', 3/23/08


Here is the Vatican's English translation of the Holy Father's Easter message today 'to the city and to the world', delivered this year from the altar where he had just celebrated Easter Mass, instead of from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican explained that the Pope decided this in order to minimize the exposure of the faithful to the heavy rain which fell throughout the Mass:



Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Alleluia! -
I have risen, I am still with you. Alleluia!

Dear brothers and sisters,

Jesus, crucified and risen, repeats this joyful proclamation to us today: the Easter proclamation. Let us welcome it with deep wonder and gratitude!

Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum – I have risen, I am still with you, for ever. These words, taken from an ancient version of Psalm 138 (v. 18b), were sung at the beginning of today’s Mass.

In them, at the rising of the Easter sun, the Church recognizes the voice of Jesus himself who, on rising from death, turns to the Father filled with gladness and love, and exclaims: My Father, here I am! I have risen, I am still with you, and so I shall be for ever; your Spirit never abandoned me.

In this way we can also come to a new understanding of other passages from the psalm: "If I climb the heavens, you are there; if I descend into the underworld, you are there … Even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as clear as day; for you, darkness is like light" (Ps 138:8,12).

It is true: in the solemn Easter vigil, darkness becomes light, night gives way to the day that knows no sunset. The death and resurrection of the Word of God incarnate is an event of invincible love, it is the victory of that Love which has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death. It has changed the course of history, giving to human life an indestructible and renewed meaning and value.

"I have risen and I am still with you, for ever." These words invite us to contemplate the risen Christ, letting his voice resound in our heart.

With his redeeming sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth has made us adopted children of God, so that we too can now take our place in the mysterious dialogue between him and the Father.

We are reminded of what he once said to those who were listening: "All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (Mt 11:27).

In this perspective, we note that the words addressed by the risen Jesus to the Father on this day – "I am still with you, for ever" – apply indirectly to us as well, "children of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him" (cf. Rom 8:17).

Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we too rise to new life today, and uniting our voice with his, we proclaim that we wish to remain for ever with God, our infinitely good and merciful Father.

In this way we enter the depths of the Paschal mystery. The astonishing event of the resurrection of Jesus is essentially an event of love: the Father’s love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body.

And there is more: the Father’s love which "newly embraces" the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity.

From today’s solemnity, in which we relive the absolute, once-and-for-all experience of Jesus’s resurrection, we receive an appeal to be converted to Love; we receive an invitation to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is "gentle and lowly in heart", who is "rest for our souls" (cf. Mt 11:29).

Dear Christian brothers and sisters in every part of the world, dear men and women whose spirit is sincerely open to the truth, let no heart be closed to the omnipotence of this redeeming love!

Jesus Christ died and rose for all; he is our hope – true hope for every human being. Today, just as he did with his disciples in Galilee before returning to the Father, the risen Jesus now sends us everywhere as witnesses of his hope, and he reassures us: I am with you always, all days, until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20).

Fixing the gaze of our spirit on the glorious wounds of his transfigured body, we can understand the meaning and value of suffering, we can tend the many wounds that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day.

In his glorious wounds we recognize the indestructible signs of the infinite mercy of the God of whom the prophet says: it is he who heals the wounds of broken hearts, who defends the weak and proclaims the freedom of slaves, who consoles all the afflicted and bestows upon them the oil of gladness instead of a mourning robe, a song of praise instead of a sorrowful heart (cf. Is 61:1,2,3).

If with humble trust we draw near to him, we encounter in his gaze the response to the deepest longings of our heart: to know God and to establish with him a living relationship in an authentic communion of love, which can fill our lives, our interpersonal and social relations with that same love. For this reason, humanity needs Christ: in him, our hope, "we have been saved" (cf. Rom 8:24).

How often relations between individuals, between groups and between peoples are marked not by love but by selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence!

These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters.

They are waiting to be tended and healed by the glorious wounds of our Risen Lord (cf. 1 Pet 2:24-25) and by the solidarity of people who, following in his footsteps, perform deeds of charity in his name, make an active commitment to justice, and spread luminous signs of hope in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled.

It is hoped that these are precisely the places where gestures of moderation and forgiveness will increase!

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us allow the light that streams forth from this solemn day to enlighten us; let us open ourselves in sincere trust to the risen Christ, so that his victory over evil and death may also triumph in each one of us, in our families, in our cities and in our nations. Let it shine forth in every part of the world.

In particular, how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Dafur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, and finally Tibet, all of whom I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good!

Let us invoke the fullness of his Paschal gifts, through the intercession of Mary who, after sharing the sufferings of the passion and crucifixion of her innocent Son, also experienced the inexpressible joy of his resurrection.

Sharing in the glory of Christ, may she be the one to protect us and guide us along the path of fraternal solidarity and peace.

These are my Easter greetings, which I address to all who are present here, and to men and women of every nation and continent united with us through radio and television. Happy Easter!

RESERVED FOR ADDRESS TO SALESIANS, 3/31/08

HOMILY AT THE MASS FOR JOHN PAUL II, 4/2/08



At 10:30 Wednesday morning,the Holy Father Benedict XVI, presided at the concelebration of Holy Mass with some 30 cardinals to mark the third anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's beautifully moving homily:

The date April 2 has been impressed in the memory of the Church as the day the Servant of God Pope John Paul II departed from this world. We relive with emotion the hours of that Saturday evening, when the news of his death was received by a huge crowd in prayer that had filled up St. Peter's Square.

For several days, the Vatican Basilica and this Square became truly the heart of the world. An uninterrupted stream of pilgrims paid homage to the remains of the venerated Pope, and at his funeral rites, they gave even greater testimony to the esteem and affection that he had conquered in the souls of so many believers and persons from every part of the earth.

As it was three years ago, even today, not much time has passed since Easter. The heart of the Church is still profoundly immersed in the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord.

In truth, we can read the whole life of my beloved predecessor, particularly his Petrine ministry, in the sign of the Risen Christ.
He had an extraordinary faith in Him, and kept up with him an intimate, singular and uninterrupted conversation.

Among his many human and supernatural qualities, he also had that of an exceptional spiritual and mystic sensibility. One only had to observe him when he prayed: he literally immersed himself in God and it seemed as if everything else at that time was alien to him.

At liturgical celebrations, he was attentive to the mystery that was taking place, with an outstanding capacity of capturing the eloquence of the Word of God in the unfolding of history at the profound level of God's design.

The Holy Mass, as he often said, was for him the center of every day and of his entire existence. The 'living and sacred' reality of the Eucharist gave him the spiritual energy to lead the Poeple of God along their journey in history.

John Paul II died on the eve of the second Sunday of Easter, on 'the day that the Lord made'. His agony took place during this 'day', in this new space-time which is 'the eighth day', intended by the most Holy Trinity through the work of the Word Incarnate, dead and risen.

Pope John Paul II gave proof several times that he was already immersed in this spiritual dimension during his lifetime, and specially, in fulfilling his mission as Supreme Pontiff. His Pontificate, in its entirety and in so many specific moments, appears to us, in fact, like a sign and testimony of the Resurrection of Chirst.

The Paschal dynamism, which made his life a total response to the call of the Lord, could not be expressed without his participation in the sufferings and death of the divine Master and Redeemer.

"This saying is trustworthy:" said the Apostle Paul, "If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him" (2 Tim 2, 11-12).

Since he was a child, Karol Wojtyla experienced the truth of these words, encountering the Cross along the way, in (the experiences of) his family and his people. He decided early that he would carry this Cross along with Christ, following his footsteps. He wanted to be his faithful servant, welcoming the priesthood as a gift and a commitment of his entire life. He lived with him, and he also intended to die with him.

All this, through the singular mediation of the Most Blessed Mary, Mother of the Church, Mother of the Redeemer, intimately and factually associated with the saving mystery of death and resurrection.

In this evocative reflection, the biblical reading that we have just heard guides us: "Do not be afraid!" (Mt 28,5). The words of the Angel of the Resurrection, addressed to the women who came to the empty tomb became a sort of motto on the lips of Pope John Paul II, from the solemn beginning of his Petrine ministry.

He repeated it many times to the Church and to mankind as it approached the year 2000, through that historical milestone and beyond it, to the dawn of the third millenium.

He always said with inflexible firmness, brandishing his pastoral staff that culminates in the Crucifix, and later, as his physical energies started to diminish, almost holding on to it, until that last Good Friday, when he took part in the Via Crucis from his private chapel, embracing the Cross in his arms.

We cannot forget his last silent testimonial of love for Jesus. That eloquent scene of human suffering and faith, on that last Good Friday for him, showed believers and the world the secret of Christian life.

His "Do not be afraid' was not based on human powers, not on successes obtained, but only on the Word of God, on the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.

As he was being stripped of everything - even of words, at the end - this confidence in Christ appeared increasingly evident. As with Jesus, so too with John Paul II - at the end, words gave way to the extreme sacrifice, the gift of himself.

Death was the seal of an existence that had been given entirely to Christ, conformed to him even physically in the features of suffering and of confident abandon into the arms of the heavenly Father.

"Le me go home to the Father' - according to those who were present - were his last words, at the end of a life that had been totally projected towards knowing and contemplating the face of the Lord.


Providentially, this photo was used by Il Giornale to accompany its Page 1 April 2 story entitled "His gaze was fixed on Christ'.


Venerated and dear brothers, I thank you all for joining me in this Holy Mass of intercession for the beloved John Paul II. I address a special thought to the particiapnts of the first World Congress on Divine Mercy, which begins today, with the goal of examining in depth John Paul's rich magisterium on this topic.

God's mercy, he often said, is a key to reading his Pontificate. He wanted the message of God's merciful love to reach all men and exorted the faithful to be witnesses to it (cfr Homily at Cracow-Lagiewniki, 8/1/6/2002).

That is why he elevated to the sainthood Sister Faustina Kowalska, a humble nun who became, by mysterious design, the prophetic divine messenger of Divine Mercy.

The Servant of God John Paul II personally knew and lived the immense tragedies of the 20th century, and for a long time asked himself what could possuibly stem the tide of evil. The answer could not be found except in the love of God.

Only Divine Mercy can put a limit to evil. Only the omnipotent love of God can defeat the domination of evil ones and the destructive power of selfishenss and hatred.

That is why, during his last visit to Poland, returning to his native land, he said: "There is no other source of hope for man than God's mercy" (ibid.).

Let us give thanks to the Lord for having given the Church this faithful and courageous servant of his. Let us praise and bless the Blessed Virgin Mary for having watched incessantly over his person and his ministry for the benefit of the Christian people and of all mankind.

And as we offer for his elected soul this redemptive Sacrifice, let us pray to him to continue to intercede in Heaven for each of us, for me in a special way, whom Providence has callen to take up his invaluable spiritual legacy.

May the Church, following his teachings and examples, follow his evangelizing mission faithfully and without compromises, disseminating tirelessly the merciful love of Christ, the spring of true peace for the entire world.

ADDRESSES ON 4/5/08 FOR TRANSLATION

TO PARTICIPANTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON DIVORCE AND ABORTION

TO PARTICIPANTS OF THE PLENARY MEETING OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY

ALL PAPAL TEXTS DURING THE VISIT TO THE USA AND THE UN WERE POSTED IN THE THREAD
'APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO THE U.S.A AND VISIT TO THE UNITED NATIONS'