MESSAGE TO THE 29TH ANNUAL MEETING
FOR FRIENDSHIP AMONG PEOPLES
(Rimini, Italy, August 24-30, 2008)
On the occasion of the 29th annual Meeting for Friendship among Peoples held in Rimini, on the theme 'O Protagonista o Nessuno' - (the Church is) Either a Protagonist or No One (in public life), Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sent a message to the organizers and participants in the name of the Holy Father Benedict XVI. The message was read at the start of the Opening Day Mass on Sunday by Mons. Francesco Lambiasi, Bishop of Rimini. Here is a translation of the message:
To His Excellency
Mons. Francesco Lambiasi
Bishop of Rimini
Most Reverend Excellency,
On the occasion of the 29th edition of the Meeting for Friendship among Peoples taking place in Rimini from August 24-30, I am happy to convey to you, to the promoters and to all participants in this significant manifestation the heartfelt greetings of His Holiness Benedict XVI.
The provocative title of the encounter "O protagonisti o nessuno' is an immediate attention-getter. Actually, this is the precise intention of the organizers: to urge reflection on the concept of the person.
What does it mean to be a protagonist in one's own existence and that of the world? The question is urgent today because the alternative to playing an active role often appears to be a life without sense, the grey anonymity of so many 'nobodies' who are all confused among teh folds and creases of an amorphous mass, and incapable, unfortunately, of emerging with their own face and being worthy of notice.
The question then must be placed in better focus and could be reformulated thus: what gives a man a face, what makes him unmistakably himself, what assures full dignity to his existence?
The society and culture in which we are immersed, and for which the mass media constitute a powerful echo chamber, are largely dominated by convictions that notoriety/fame constitutes an essential component of one's personal realization.
To emerge from anonymity, to succeed in imposing oneself in the public eye through any means and pretext - this is the goal pursued by many. Political and economic power, prestige in one's profession, wealth that can be displayed grandly, teh notoriety of one's own self-realizations, ostentation even of one's excesses - all these are considered complacently as 'success' in life.
That is why, very often, the new generations aspire to professions and careers that they idealize precisely because they offer a spotlight that would allow them to 'shine', to feel they are 'somebody'. The ideal they aim for is represented by movie stars, personalities in show business and television, athletes, foot ball players, etc.
But what about those who will never reach such a level of social visibility? What about those who are forgotten if not downright crushed by the dynamics of worldly success to which is oriented the society in which we live? What about those who are poor, powerless, sick, aged or disabled, those who have no talent to make their way ahead among others or have no means to cultivate any talents, those who do not have the voice to make their ideas and beliefs felt? How do we consider those who lead obscure lives with no apparent relevance or interest for the mass media?
Man today, like man at all times, is driven to find happiness and will pursue it wherever he thinks he may find it. Here then is the true question hidden by the word 'protagonism' [playing an active role] that the Meeting offers for our reflection this year. What does happiness consist of? What can really lead man to achieve it?
Pope Benedict VI has designated this year as a special jubilee year dedicated to a champion of Christianity for all time, the Pharisee from Tarsus called Saul, who,after having persecuted the early church with fury, converted upon receiving the call of teh Lord. From that moment on, he served the cause of the Gospel with total dedication, tirelessly going to all the parts of the known world in his time and contributing to set the bases for that which would become European culture informed by Christianity.
Rare are the spirits who have shown a vastness of knowledge and acumen equal to his. His letters demonstrate the explosive power of his passionate personality and have attracted millions of readers, exercising a unique influence on generation after generation of men, on entire peoples and on nations.
Through his writings, Paul never ceased to present Christ as the authentic source of respect among men, peace among nations, adn justice with coexistence.
All of us, two thousand years removed, can still consider ourselves the 'children' of his preaching, and our civilization knows what it owes this man precisely for the values that have formed its foundation.
And yet St. Paul's existence was far from the glare of the spotlight and of public recognition. When he died, the Church that he had contributed to spread was still a small seed, a grouping that the highest authorities of the Roman Empire could either choose to ignore or to try to crush in blood.
The existence of Paul, examined in its daily particulars, was full of tribulations, afflicted by hostility and dangers, much more full of difficulties to face rather than comforts and joys. He himself gives vivid testimony of these in many passages of his writings.
Her is what he says, for instance, in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: "Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?" (11, 24-29).
This obstacle course - as we might define it - which he overcame with the strength and in the name of his Redeemer, Paul concluded in Rome, where after being condemned to death, he was beheaded. Together with him, in the fury of the persecutions by the Emperor Nero, many other Christians died, among them Peter, the fisherman from Galilee and head of the Church.
Can we consider Paul's life a 'success'? Here we face the paradox of Christian life as such. What, in fact, does it mean for a Christian to 'succeed'? What do the lives of saints tell us who have spent their lives hidden in convents? What are we told by the lives and deaths of countless Christian martyrs, most of them unknown, who ended their existence nor amid acclamation but surrounded by scorn, hatred or indifference? Where are we to find the 'greatness' in such lives, the luminosity of their testimony, their 'success'?
Even recently, the Holy Father Benedict XVI recalled that man is made for the eternal fulfillment of his existence. This goes way beyond worldly success and is not in contradiction to however humble the conditions in which his earthly pilgrimage may take place.
Man's fulfillment is knowing God, by whom every person was created and to whom every fiber of our being reaches out. To do this, neither fame nor success before the crowds do not serve.
This then is the protagonism that the title of this edition of the Rimini Meeting aims to examine. Man is the protagonist of his own existence when he gives his life to God, who calls him to cooperate in the universal plan of salvation.
The Meeting wishes to reiterate that only Christ can disclose to man his true dignity and convey to him the authentic sense of his existence. When the believer follows him obediently, he is capable of leaving behind a lasting trace in history. It is the trace of love, of which he becomes a witness because he himself has been gripped by love.
Then, that which was possible for St. Paul also becomes possible for each of us. It doesn't matter if God's plan sees for us a small radius of action. It doesn't matter if we live behind the walls of a cloistered monastery or if we are immersed in multiple and diverse activities in the world. It doesn't matter if we are fathers and mothers, priests or consecrated persons.
God makes use of us according to his plan of love, according to ways that he decides and he asks us to fall in with the action of his Spirit - he needs collaborators to realize his Kingdom. To each one he says, "Come follow me" (Lk 18,22), and only by following him can man know the true exaltation of his ego.
This is what we are taught by teh experience of the saints, men and women who very often have lived their faithfulness to God indiscreet and ordinary ways. Among them we find many true leading players in history, persons who were fully realized, living examples of hope and witnesses to a love which fears nothing, not even death.
The Holy Father hopes that these reflections may help the participants of the Meeting to encounter Christ, to better understand the value of Christian life and to realize its sense in humble protagonism in the service of mission for the Church, in Italy and around the world.
To this end, he assures you of his prayers for the success of this Meeting adn send to you, to the organizers and all present today, a special Benediction.
I gladly extend my most fervent wishes for the profitable success of this demonstration, and will avail of the occasion to affirm my respects in the name of the Lord.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Vatican Secretary of State
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/08/2008 07:31]