POPE'S EXTEMPORANEOUS HOMILY ON 12/18/05
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Dear brothers and sisters:
For me it truly is a great joy to be here with you this morning and celebrate the Holy Mass with you and for you. This visit to Santa Maria Consolatrice – the first Roman parish I am visiting since the Lord called me to be Bishop of Rome, is for me a homecoming in a very real and concrete sense. I remember very well that day on October 15, 1977, when I took possession of this as my titular church. Don Ennio Appignanesi was the parish priest, and his vicars were Don Enrico Pomili and Don Franco Camaldo. The ceremonial master assigned to me was Monsignor Piero Marini. And we are all here together again! So for me, it truly is a great joy.
From then on, our reciprocal ties have progressively become stronger, more profound. A bond in our Lord Jesus Christ, whose Eucharistic Sacrifice I have celebrated and whose Sacraments I have administered so many times in this church. A bpnd of affection and friendship, which has truly warned my heart, and warms it even now. A bond which has united me to all of you, especially to your parish priest and to the other priests in the parish.
It is a bond which did not loosen even when I became titular Cardinal of the diocese of Velletri-Segni, and which has acquired a new dimension and more depth now that I am Bishop of Rome, and therefore, your Bishop.
I am also particularly happy that my visit today – as Don Enrico said earlier – takes place in the year when you celebrate the 60th anniversary of the erection of this parish, the 50th anniversary of our dearest Monsignor Pomili’s sacerdotal ordination, and finally, the 25th anniversary of Monsignor Appignanesi’s episcopate. Therefore, a year in which we all have special reasons for giving thanks to the Lord.
Now, I salute affectionately Monsignor Enrico and thank him for the very kind words he said about me. I salute my Vicar, Cardinal Camillo Ruini; Cardinal Ricardo Maria Carles Gordo, who is now the titular cardinal of this Church, and therefore, my successor here; Cardinal Giovanni Canestri, already your much-loved parish priest; the Vice-Regent and Bishop of the eastern sector of Rome, Mons. Luigi Moretti; Mons. Appignanesi, whom we have greeted, and Mons. Maassimo Giustetti, who was your parish vicar.
I also extend an affectionate greeting to your present parish vicars and to the nuns of Santa Maria Consolatrice, much valued collaborators in this parish and true bearers of mercy and comfort in this quarter, especially for the poor and for the children. With the same affection, I greet each of you, all the families of the parish, and those who serve the parish in many different ways.
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Here begins the extemporaneous portion]
We will now meditate briefly on the beautiful Gospel of this fourth Sunday in Advent, which I consider one of the most beautiful pages in Sacred Scriptures. I would want – in order not to go on too long - to reflect only on three words in this rich Gospel.
The first word I wish to meditate on with you is the Angel’s greeting to Mary. In the Italian translation, the Angel says: “I greet you, Mary.” But the underlying Greek word for the greeting, “Kaire”, means by itself “rejoice”, “be happy.” And here is the first surprise: the greeting used among Jews was “Shalom,”- “Peace.” whereas the greeting used in the Greek world was “Kaire” – “Rejoice.”
It is surprising that the Angel, entering the house of Mary, should greet her with the Greek form “Kaire” – “Rejoice, be happy.” The Greeks, when they read this Gospel 40 years later, could see an important message here: they understood that with the beginning of the New Testament, to which this page from Luke refers, it was also an opening to the world of all peoples, to the universality of the people of God, (a phrase) which from now on, would embrace not only the Jewish people, but the world in its totality, all the peoples of the world. In this Greek salute by the Angel, we see the new universality of the Kingdom of the real Son of David.
But it must be pointed out right away that the words of the Angel to Mary reprise a prophetic promise found in the book of the prophet Sofonia. We find that promise repeated almost word for word in today’s Gospel. The prophet Sofonia, inspired by God, tells Israel: “Rejoice, daughter of Sion; the Lord is with you and takes his dwelling in you.” We know that Mary knew the Sacred Scriptures well. Her Magnificatn is woven out of threads from the Old Testament. We can be certain, therefore, that the Holy Virgin immediately understood that these were the words of the prophet Sofonia addressed to Israel, to the “daughter of Sion” considered to be the dwelling of God.
And so, the surprising thing to Mary is that these words, addressed to all Israel, are now directed specially to her. So it appears clear to her that she herself is the “daughter of Sion” of whom the old prophet spoke, that therefore the Lord had a special mission for her, that she was called to be the true dwelling of God, a dwelling not made of stone, but of living flesh, a living heart, and that God indeed intended to make her, the Virgin, his true temple. What a sign! We can therefore understand how Mary started to reflect with particular intensity on what the Angel’s greeting meant.
But let us consider above all the first word: “Rejoice, be happy.” This is the first word that is heard in the New Testament as such, because the announcement made by the angel to Zachariah about the birth of John the Baptist are words which were uttered on the threshold between the two Testaments.
Only with this dialog that the angel Gabriel has with Mary does the New Testmanet really begin.
We can therefore say that the first word of the New Testament is an invitation to joy: “Rejoice,” “Be happy.” The New Testament is truly “Gospel,” the “Good News” that brings us joy. God is not far from us, unknown, enigmatic, maybe even dangerous. God is near us, so near that he became a baby, and we can address this God with a familiar “you.”
Thus, the Greek world took notice of this news, took profound notice of the joyous news, because for them, it was not clear whether there was a good God or a bad God or simply no God at all. Their religion in those days gave them so many divinities. They therefore felt surrounded by a variety of these gods, one against the other, such that they were always fearful that if they did something in favor of one divinity, another one could take offense and take his vengeance. So they lived in a world of fear, surrounded by dangerous demons, never knowing how to save themselves from these competing forces.
In this world of fear and of darkness, suddenly they hear: “Rejoice, these demons are nothing, there is a true God, and he is good, he loves us, he knows us, he is with us, he is with us so much that he has been made flesh!” This is the great joy which Christinaity announces. To know this God is truly the “good news”, a promise of redemption.
Maybe we Catholics, who have always known this, are no longer surprised, we no longer experience acutely that liberating joy. But if we look at the world today, where God is absent, we will realize that our world too is now dominated by fear and uncertainty: Is it good to be a man or not? Is it good to live or not? Maybe everything is negative? (Such men) live in a world of darkness, in fact; they need to be anesthetized in order to go on living. And so, the words, “Rejoice, because God is with you and with us” are words that truly open up a new age. Dearest ones, with an act of faith, we should accept
again and understand in the depth of our hearts this liberating word, “Rejoice!”
This joy that one receives cannot be kept to oneself; joy should always be shared. Joy must be communicated. Mary immediately set forth to communicate her joy to her cousin Elizabeth. And since she was assumed into Heaven, she distributes joy throughout the world, she has become the great Comforter – our mother, who communicates joy, trust, goodness, and invites us to share the joy around.
This is the true commitment of Advent – to bring joy to others. Joy is the true gift of Christmas, not the expensive things which cost money and time. And we can communicate this joy in simple ways – with a smile, with a good deed, with a small act of assistance, with a pardon. Let us bring this joy to others, and the joy we give will come back to us. Let us try, most especially, to bring the joy that is most profound, that of knowing God in Christ. Let us pray that in our lives this liberating joy from God shines through.
The second word that I would like to meditate on is still the Angel’s: “Do not be afraid, Mary,” he said. In fact, she had reason to be afraid: to carry the weight of the world, to be the mother of the universal King, the mother of the Son of God –it was a burden beyond the strength of any human being. But the Angel said, “Do not be afraid! Yes, you will carry God, but God carries you. Do not be afraid!”
This admonition surely penetrated to the depths of Mary’s heart. We can imagine the many different situations in which the Virgin had to come back again and again to those words, had to listen to them again. When Simeon told her: “Your son will be a sign of contradiction, and a sword will pierce your heart” – in those moments when she could have yielded to fear, Mary turns back to the Angel’s words and hears it echo within her: “Do not be afraid, God will carry you.” When later, during his public life, Jesus aroused all sorts of contradictions, and many said of him, “He is mad!”, she thought to herself, “Do not be afraid,” and went on ahead. Finally, when she met her son on the way to Calvary, and later, under the Cross, when her whole world seemed to have crumbled, she hears the Angel’s words again in her heart, “Do not be afraid.” And so, courageously, she stays by her dying son, and sustained by faith, she goes on towards the Resurection, towards Pentecost, towards the founding of a new family, the Church.
“Do not be afraid.” Mary also tells us this. I have already said that we live in a world of fear – fear of misery and of poverty, fear of disease and suffering, fear of being alone, fear of death. We have, to be sure, a well-developed system of social security. But we know that at the moment of deepest suffering, at the moment of ultimate aloneness in death, no insurance can protect us. The only valid insurance at that time will be that which comes from the Lord who will tell us then, “Do not be afraid, I am always with you.” We may fall down, but we will fall into the hands of God, and the hands of God are good.
The third word: At the end of their dialog, Mary answers the Angel: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” In that way Mary anticipates the third invocation in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” She says Yes to the grand will of God, a design too great for any human being. But Mary says Yes to the divine will, she places herself within it; with that Yes, she puts her whole existence under the will of God and thus opens the door of the world to God. Adam and Eve with their “No” to God’s will had closed this door.
“Let God’s will be done!” Mary invites us to learn to say Yes, which at times appears most difficult to do. We are tempted to do as we please, but she tells us: “Take courage, say like I did, ‘Thy will be done’, because God’s will is good.” Initially, it may appear like an almost insupportable weight, like a yoke that one cannot possibly carry, but God’s will is never a weight, God’s will gives us wings to soar, and so, we can dare like Mary did to open the doors of our life to God, the doors of this world, by saying Yes to his will, knowing full well that this will is the true good which will lead us to true happiness.
Let us pray to Mary the Comforter, our Mother, the Mother of the Church, so that she may give us the courage to say Yes, and that she give us also the joy of being with God, that she guide us to her Son who is the true Life. Amen.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/12/2005 1.07]