He Suffered, Died, and was Buried

Darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three o'clock, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Some of the bystanders who heard it said, "Look, he is calling Elijah." One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to Him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."

Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed His last.

The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

When the centurion who stood facing Him saw how He breathed His last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. These women had followed Him when He was in Galilee and ministered to Him. There were also many other women who had come up with Him to Jerusalem.

When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Pilate was amazed that He was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.

Having bought a linen cloth, he took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where He was laid.

-- Mark 15:33-47

Concluding Reflection of Pope Benedict XVI
The Way of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum
April 10, 2009

At the end of his dramatic Passion narrative, the Evangelist Saint Mark tells us: "The centurion, who stood facing Him, saw that He thus breathed His last, and said: ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’" (Mk 15:39). We cannot fail to be surprised by the profession of faith of this Roman soldier, who had been present throughout the various phases of the Crucifixion. When the darkness of night was falling on that Friday, so unlike any other in history, when the sacrifice of the Cross was already consummated and the bystanders were making haste to celebrate the Jewish Passover in the usual way, these few words, wrung from the lips of a nameless commander in the Roman army, resounded through the silence that surrounded that most singular death. This Roman army officer, having witnessed the execution of one of countless condemned prisoners, was able to recognize in this crucified man the Son of God, who had perished in the most humiliating abandonment.

His shameful end ought to have marked the definitive triumph of hatred and death over love and life. But it was not so! Hanging from the Cross on Golgotha was a man who was already dead, but that man was acknowledged to be the "Son of God" by the centurion, "on seeing that He thus breathed His last," as the Evangelist specifies.

We are reminded of this soldier’s profession of faith every time we listen anew to Saint Mark’s Passion account. This evening, like the centurion, we pause to gaze on the lifeless face of the Crucified One at the conclusion of this traditional Via Crucis which, through radio and television coverage, has brought many people together from every part of the world. We have re-lived the tragic event of a man unique in the history of all times, who changed the world not by killing others but by letting Himself be killed as He hung from a cross. This man, seemingly one of us, who, while He was being killed, forgave His executioners, is the "Son of God," who, as the Apostle Paul reminds us, "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant … He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).

The anguish of the Passion of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to move to pity even the most hardened hearts, as it constitutes the climax of the revelation of God’s love for each of us. Saint John observes: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

It is for love of us that Christ dies on the cross! Throughout the course of the millennia, a great multitude of men and women have been drawn deeply into this mystery and they have followed Him, making in their turn, like Him and with His help, a gift to others of their own lives. They are the saints and the martyrs, many of whom remain unknown to us.

Even in our own time, how many people, in the silence of their daily lives, unite their sufferings with those of the Crucified One and become apostles of a true spiritual and social renewal! What would man be without Christ? Saint Augustine observes: "You would still be in a state of wretchedness, had He not shown you mercy. You would not have returned to life, had He not shared your death. You would have passed away had He not come to your aid. You would be lost, had He not come" (Discourse 185:1). So why not welcome Him into our lives?

Let us pause this evening to contemplate His disfigured face: it is the face of the Man of sorrows, who took upon Himself the burden of all our mortal anguish. His face is reflected in that of every person who is humiliated and offended, sick and suffering, alone, abandoned and despised. Pouring out His blood, He has rescued us from the slavery of death, He has broken the solitude of our tears, He has entered into our every grief and our every anxiety.

Brothers and Sisters! As the Cross rises up on Golgotha, the eyes of our faith are already turned towards the dawning of the new Day, and we begin to taste the joy and splendour of Easter. "If we have died with Christ," writes Saint Paul, "we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom 6:8). In this certainty, let us continue our journey. Tomorrow, on Holy Saturday, we will watch and pray together with Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, and we will pray with all who are suffering; we will pray above all with those who suffer in L'Aquila, hit by the earthquake. We will pray so that in this dark night, the star of hope will appear to them, the light of the Risen Lord.

I wish all of you, even now, a Happy Easter in the light of the Risen Lord!

.

His Mother, Our Mother

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took His tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.

So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:

They divided my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.

This is what the soldiers did.


Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.

When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple there whom He loved, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son."

Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother."

And from that hour, the disciple took her into his home.

-- John 19:23-27

ישוע הנצרי ומלך היהודים Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudæorumιησους ο ναζωραιος ο βασιλευς των ιουδαιων

Now two others, both criminals, were led away with Jesus to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him and the criminals there, one on His right, the other on His left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

They divided His garments by casting lots. The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at Him and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God." Even the soldiers jeered at Him. As they approached to offer Him wine, they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."

Above Him, there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews."

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal."

Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

-- Luke 23:32-43

ישוע הנצרי ומלך היהודים

"What Do You Say?"

They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death, but they found none. Many gave false witness against Him, but their testimony did not agree. Some took the stand and testified falsely against Him, alleging, "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.'" Even so their testimony did not agree.


The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, "Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?" But He was silent and answered nothing.

Again the high priest asked Him and said to Him, "Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?"


Then Jesus answered, "I AM, and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"

At that the high priest tore his garments and said, "What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you say?"

-- Mark 14:53-64

A Kiss of Betrayal, Not Love

Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then He said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me."

He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will."

When He returned to His disciples, He found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Withdrawing a second time, He prayed again, "My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without my drinking it, Your will be done!"

Then He returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open. He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing again.

Then He returned to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners. Get up, let us go. Look, my betrayer is at hand."

While He was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a large crowd, with swords and clubs, who had come from the chief priests and the elders of the people. His betrayer had arranged a sign with them, saying, "The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him."

Immediately he went over to Jesus and said, "Hail, Rabbi!" and he kissed Him. Jesus answered him, "Friend, do what you have come for."

Then stepping forward, they laid hands on Jesus and arrested Him.

-- Matthew 26:36-50

Amen

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to His disciples said, "Take and eat; this is my body."

Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father."

Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

-- Matthew 26:26-30

Today the Lord Gives Us the Sacrament of His Body and Blood

Homily of Pope Benedict XVI
Mass of the Lord's Supper
Holy Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Qui, pridie quam pro nostra omniumque salute pateretur, hoc est hodie, accepit panem: these words we shall pray today in the Canon of the Mass.

“Hoc est hodie” – the Liturgy of Holy Thursday places the word “today” into the text of the prayer, thereby emphasizing the particular dignity of this day. It was “today” that He did this: He gave himself to us forever in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. This “today” is first and foremost the memorial of that first Paschal event. Yet it is something more. With the Canon, we enter into this “today.” Our today comes into contact with His today. He does this now. With the word “today,” the Church’s Liturgy wants us to give great inner attention to the mystery of this day, to the words in which it is expressed. We therefore seek to listen in a new way to the institution narrative, in the form in which the Church has formulated it, on the basis of Scripture and in contemplation of the Lord Himself.

The first thing to strike us is that the institution narrative is not an independent phrase, but it starts with a relative pronoun: qui pridie. This “qui” connects the entire narrative to the preceding section of the prayer, “let it become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Your only Son, our Lord.” In this way, the institution narrative is linked to the preceding prayer, to the entire Canon, and it too becomes a prayer. By no means is it merely an interpolated narrative, nor is it a case of an authoritative self-standing text that actually interrupts the prayer. It is a prayer. And only in the course of the prayer is the priestly act of consecration accomplished, which becomes transformation, transubstantiation of our gifts of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

As she prays at this central moment, the Church is fully in tune with the event that took place in the Upper Room, when Jesus’ action is described in the words: “gratias agens benedixit – he gave you thanks and praise.” In this expression, the Roman liturgy has made two words out of the one Hebrew word berakha, which is rendered in Greek with the two terms eucharistía and eulogía. The Lord gives thanks. When we thank, we acknowledge that a certain thing is a gift that has come from another. The Lord gives thanks, and in so doing gives back to God the bread, “fruit of the earth and work of human hands,” so as to receive it anew from Him. Thanksgiving becomes blessing. The offering that we have placed in God’s hands returns from Him blessed and transformed. The Roman liturgy rightly interprets our praying at this sacred moment by means of the words: “through Him, we ask you to accept and bless these gifts we offer you in sacrifice.” All this lies hidden within the word “eucharistia.”

There is another aspect of the institution narrative cited in the Roman Canon on which we should reflect this evening. The praying Church gazes upon the hands and eyes of the Lord. It is as if she wants to observe Him, to perceive the form of His praying and acting in that remarkable hour, she wants to encounter the figure of Jesus even, as it were, through the senses. “He took bread in His sacred hands …” Let us look at those hands with which He healed men and women; the hands with which He blessed babies; the hands that He laid upon men; the hands that were nailed to the Cross and that forever bear the stigmata as signs of his readiness to die for love. Now we are commissioned to do what He did: to take bread in our hands so that through the Eucharistic Prayer it will be transformed. At our priestly ordination, our hands were anointed, so that they could become hands of blessing. Let us pray to the Lord that our hands will serve more and more to bring salvation, to bring blessing, to make His goodness present!

From the introduction to the Priestly Prayer of Jesus (cf. Jn 17:1), the Canon takes these words: “Looking up to heaven, to You His almighty Father …” The Lord teaches us to raise our eyes, and especially our hearts. He teaches us to fix our gaze upwards, detaching it from the things of this world, to direct ourselves in prayer towards God and thus to raise ourselves.

In a hymn from the Liturgy of the Hours, we ask the Lord to guard our eyes, so that they do not take in or cause to enter within us “vanitates” – vanities, nothings, that which is merely appearance. Let us pray that no evil will enter through our eyes, falsifying and tainting our very being. But we want to pray above all for eyes that see whatever is true, radiant and good; so that they become capable of seeing God’s presence in the world. Let us pray that we will look upon the world with eyes of love, with the eyes of Jesus, recognizing our brothers and sisters who need our help, who are awaiting our word and our action.

Having given thanks and praise, the Lord then breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples. Breaking the bread is the act of the father of the family who looks after his children and gives them what they need for life. But it is also the act of hospitality with which the stranger, the guest, is received within the family and is given a share in its life. Dividing (dividere), sharing (condividere) brings about unity. Through sharing, communion is created.

In the broken bread, the Lord distributes Himself. The gesture of breaking also alludes mysteriously to His death, to the love that extends even to death. He distributes Himself, the true “bread for the life of the world” (cf. Jn 6:51). The nourishment that man needs in His deepest self is communion with God Himself. Giving thanks and praise, Jesus transforms the bread, He no longer gives earthly bread, but communion with Himself. This transformation, though, seeks to be the start of the transformation of the world – into a world of resurrection, a world of God. Yes, it is about transformation – of the new man and the new world that find their origin in the bread that is consecrated, transformed, transubstantiated.

We said that breaking the bread is an act of communion, an act of uniting through sharing. Thus, in the act itself, the intimate nature of the Eucharist is already indicated: it is agape, it is love made corporeal. In the word “agape,” the meanings of Eucharist and love intertwine. In Jesus’ act of breaking the bread, the love that is shared has attained its most radical form: Jesus allows Himself to be broken as living bread.

In the bread that is distributed, we recognize the mystery of the grain of wheat that dies, and so bears fruit. We recognize the new multiplication of the loaves, which derives from the dying of the grain of wheat and will continue until the end of the world. At the same time, we see that the Eucharist can never be just a liturgical action. It is complete only if the liturgical agape then becomes love in daily life. In Christian worship, the two things become one – experiencing the Lord’s love in the act of worship and fostering love for one’s neighbour. At this hour, we ask the Lord for the grace to learn to live the mystery of the Eucharist ever more deeply, in such a way that the transformation of the world can begin to take place.

After the bread, Jesus takes the chalice of wine. The Roman Canon describes the chalice which the Lord gives to his disciples as “praeclarus calix” (the glorious cup), thereby alluding to Psalm 23 [22], the Psalm which speaks of God as the Good Shepherd, the strong Shepherd. There we read these words: “You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes … My cup is overflowing” – calix praeclarus. The Roman Canon interprets this passage from the Psalm as a prophecy that is fulfilled in the Eucharist: yes, the Lord does indeed prepare a banquet for us in the midst of the threats of this world, and He gives us the glorious chalice – the chalice of great joy, of the true feast, for which we all long – the chalice filled with the wine of His love.

The chalice signifies the wedding-feast: now the “hour” has come to which the wedding-feast of Cana had mysteriously alluded. Yes indeed, the Eucharist is more than a meal, it is a wedding-feast. And this wedding is rooted in God’s gift of Himself even to death. In the words of Jesus at the Last Supper and in the Church’s Canon, the solemn mystery of the wedding is concealed under the expression “novum Testamentum.” This chalice is the new Testament – “the new Covenant in my blood,” as Saint Paul presents the words of Jesus over the chalice in today’s second reading (1 Cor 11:25). The Roman Canon adds: “of the new and everlasting covenant,” in order to express the indissolubility of God’s nuptial bond with humanity.

The reason why older translations of the Bible do not say Covenant, but Testament, lies in the fact that this is no mere contract between two parties on the same level, but it brings into play the infinite distance between God and man. What we call the new and the ancient Covenant is not an agreement between two equal parties, but simply the gift of God who bequeaths to us His love – Himself. Certainly, through this gift of His love, He transcends all distance and makes us truly His “partners” – the spousal mystery of love is accomplished.

In order to understand profoundly what is taking place here, we must pay even greater attention to the words of the Bible and their original meaning. Scholars tell us that in those ancient times of which the histories of Israel’s forefathers speak, to “ratify a Covenant” means “to enter with others into a bond based on blood or to welcome the other into one’s own covenant fellowship and thus to enter into a communion of mutual rights and obligations.” In this way, a real, if non-material form of consanguinity is established. The partners become in some way “brothers of the same flesh and the same bones.” The covenant brings about a fellowship that means peace (cf. ThWNT II, 105-137).

Can we now form at least an idea of what happened at the hour of the Last Supper, and what has been renewed ever since, whenever we celebrate the Eucharist? God, the living God, establishes a communion of peace with us, or to put it more strongly, He creates “consanguinity” between Himself and us. Through the incarnation of Jesus, through the outpouring of His Blood, we have been drawn into an utterly real consanguinity with Jesus and thus with God Himself. The Blood of Jesus is His love, in which divine life and human life have become one. Let us pray to the Lord, that we may come to understand ever more deeply the greatness of this mystery. Let us pray that in our innermost selves its transforming power will increase, so that we truly acquire consanguinity with Jesus, so that we are filled with His peace and grow in communion with one another.

Now, however, a further question arises. In the Upper Room, Christ gives his Body and Blood to the disciples, that is, He gives Himself in the totality of His person. But can he do so? He is still physically present in their midst, he is standing in front of them! The answer is: at that hour, Jesus fulfils what He had previously proclaimed in the Good Shepherd discourse: “No one takes my life from me: I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again …” (Jn 10:18). No one can take His life from Him: He lays it down by His own free decision.

At that hour, He anticipates the Crucifixion and Resurrection. What is later to be fulfilled, as it were, physically in Him, He already accomplishes in anticipation, in the freedom of His love. He gives His life and He takes it again in the Resurrection, so as to be able to share it forever.

Lord, today You give us Your life, You give us Yourself. Enter deeply within us with Your love. Make us live in Your “today.” Make us instruments of Your peace! Amen.

.

Sanctified in Truth

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Chrism Mass
Holy Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Upper Room, on the eve of His Passion, the Lord prayed for His disciples gathered about Him. At the same time, He looked ahead to the community of disciples of all centuries, “those who believe in me through their word” (Jn 17:20). In His prayer for the disciples of all time, He saw us too, and He prayed for us. Let us listen to what He asks for the Twelve and for us gathered here: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, so that they also may be consecrated in truth” (17:17ff.). The Lord asks for our sanctification, sanctification in truth. And He sends us forth to carry on His own mission.

But in this prayer, there is one word which draws our attention, and appears difficult to understand. Jesus says: “For their sake I consecrate myself.” What does this mean? Is Jesus not Himself “the Holy One of God,” as Peter acknowledged at that decisive moment in Capharnaum (cf. Jn 6:69)? How can He now consecrate – sanctify – Himself?

To understand this, we need first to clarify what the Bible means by the words “holy” and “consecrate – sanctify.” “Holy” – this word describes above all God’s own nature, His completely unique, divine, way of being, one which is His alone. He alone is the true and authentic Holy One, in the original sense of the word. All other holiness derives from Him, and is a participation in His way of being. He is purest Light, Truth and untainted Good.

To consecrate something or someone means, therefore, to give that thing or person to God as His property, to take it out of the context of what is ours and to insert it in His milieu, so that it no longer belongs to our affairs, but is totally of God. Consecration is thus a taking away from the world and a giving over to the living God. The thing or person no longer belongs to us, or even to itself, but is immersed in God. Such a giving up of something in order to give it over to God, we also call a sacrifice: this thing will no longer be my property, but His property.

In the Old Testament, the giving over of a person to God, his “sanctification,” is identified with priestly ordination, and this also defines the essence of the priesthood: it is a transfer of ownership, a being taken out of the world and given to God. We can now see the two directions which belong to the process of sanctification-consecration. It is a departure from the milieu of worldly life – a “being set apart” for God. But for this very reason, it is not a segregation. Rather, being given over to God means being charged to represent others. The priest is removed from worldly bonds and given over to God, and precisely in this way, starting with God, he is available for others, for everyone.

When Jesus says: “I consecrate myself,” He makes himself both priest and victim. Bultmann was right to translate the phrase: “I consecrate myself” by “I sacrifice myself.” Do we now see what happens when Jesus says: “I consecrate myself for them”? This is the priestly act by which Jesus – the Man Jesus, who is one with the Son of God – gives Himself over to the Father for us. It is the expression of the fact that He is both priest and victim. I consecrate myself – I sacrifice myself: this unfathomable word, which gives us a glimpse deep into the heart of Jesus Christ, should be the object of constantly renewed reflection. It contains the whole mystery of our redemption. It also contains the origins of the priesthood in the Church.

Only now can we fully understand the prayer which the Lord offered the Father for His disciples – for us. “Sanctify them in the truth”: this is the inclusion of the Apostles in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the institution of His new priesthood for the community of the faithful of all times. “Sanctify them in truth”: this is the true prayer of consecration for the Apostles. The Lord prays that God Himself draw them towards Him, into His holiness. He prays that God take them away from themselves to make them His own property, so that, starting from Him, they can carry out the priestly ministry for the world.

This prayer of Jesus appears twice in slightly different forms. Both times we need to listen very carefully, in order to understand, even dimly the sublime reality that is about to be accomplished. “Sanctify them in the truth.” Jesus adds: “Your word is truth.” The disciples are thus drawn deep within God by being immersed in the word of God. The word of God is, so to speak, the bath which purifies them, the creative power which transforms them into God’s own being.

So then, how do things stand in our own lives?

Are we truly pervaded by the Word of God? Is that Word truly the nourishment we live by, even more than bread and the things of this world? Do we really know that Word? Do we love it? Are we deeply engaged with this Word to the point that it really leaves a mark on our lives and shapes our thinking?

Or is it rather the case that our thinking is constantly being shaped by all the things that others say and do? Aren’t prevailing opinions the criterion by which we all too often measure ourselves? Do we not perhaps remain, when all is said and done, mired in the superficiality in which people today are generally caught up?

Do we allow ourselves truly to be deeply purified by the Word of God?

Friedrich Nietzsche scoffed at humility and obedience as the virtues of slaves, a source of repression. He replaced them with pride and man’s absolute freedom. Of course, there exist caricatures of a misguided humility and a mistaken submissiveness, which we do not want to imitate. But there also exists a destructive pride and a presumption which tear every community apart and result in violence. Can we learn from Christ the correct humility which corresponds to the truth of our being, and the obedience which submits to truth, to the will of God? “Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth”: this word of inclusion in the priesthood lights up our lives and calls us to become ever anew disciples of that truth which is revealed in the Word of God.

I believe that we can advance another step in the interpretation of these words. Did not Christ say of Himself: “I am the truth”? (cf. Jn 14:6) Is He not Himself the living Word of God, to which every other word refers?

Sanctify them in the truth – this means, then, in the deepest sense: make them one with me, Christ. Bind them to me. Draw them into me. Indeed, when all is said and done, there is only one priest of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ Himself. Consequently, the priesthood of the disciples can only be a participation in the priesthood of Jesus. Our being priests is simply a new way of being united to Christ.

In its substance, it has been bestowed on us for ever in the Sacrament. But this new seal imprinted upon our being can become for us a condemnation, if our lives do not develop by entering into the truth of the Sacrament. The promises we renew today state in this regard that our will must be directed along this path: “Domino Iesu arctius coniungi et conformari, vobismetipsis abrenuntiantes.” Being united to Christ calls for renunciation. It means not wanting to impose our own way and our own will, not desiring to become someone else, but abandoning ourselves to Him, however and wherever He wants to use us.

As Saint Paul said: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). In the words “I do,” spoken at our priestly ordination, we made this fundamental renunciation of our desire to be independent, “self-made.” But, day by day, this great “yes” has to be lived out in the many little “yeses” and small sacrifices. This “yes” made up of tiny steps which together make up the great “yes,” can be lived out without bitterness and self-pity only if Christ is truly the center of our lives, if we enter into true closeness to Him. Then indeed we experience, amid sacrifices which can at first be painful, the growing joy of friendship with Him, and all the small and sometimes great signs of His love, which He is constantly showing us. “The one who loses himself, finds himself.” When we dare to lose ourselves for the Lord, we come to experience the truth of these words.

To be immersed in the Truth, in Christ – part of this process is prayer, in which we exercise our friendship with Him and we come to know Him: His way of being, of thinking, of acting. Praying is a journey in personal communion with Christ, setting before Him our daily life, our successes and failures, our struggles and our joys – in a word, it is to stand in front of Him.

But if this is not to become a form of self-contemplation, it is important that we constantly learn to pray by praying with the Church. Celebrating the Eucharist means praying. We celebrate the Eucharist rightly if with our thoughts and our being we enter into the words which the Church sets before us. There we find the prayer of all generations, which accompany us along the way towards the Lord. As priests, in the Eucharistic celebration we are those who by their prayer blaze a trail for the prayer of today’s Christians. If we are inwardly united to the words of prayer, if we let ourselves be guided and transformed by them, then the faithful will also enter into those words. And then all of us will become truly “one body, one spirit” in Christ.

To be immersed in God’s truth and thus in His holiness – for us this also means to acknowledge that the truth makes demands, to stand up, in matters great and small, to the lie which in so many different ways is present in the world; accepting the struggles associated with the truth, because its inmost joy is present within us.

Nor, when we talk about being sanctified in the truth, should we forget that in Jesus Christ truth and love are one. Being immersed in Him means being immersed in His goodness, in true love. True love does not come cheap, it can also prove quite costly. It resists evil in order to bring men true good. If we become one with Christ, we learn to recognize Him precisely in the suffering, in the poor, in the little ones of this world; then we become people who serve, who recognize our brothers and sisters in Him, and in them, we encounter Him.

“Sanctify them in truth” – this is the first part of what Jesus says. But then He adds: “I consecrate myself, so that they also may be consecrated in truth” – that is, truly consecrated (Jn 17:19). I think that this second part has a special meaning of its own. In the world’s religions, there are many different ritual means of “sanctification,” of the consecration of a human person. Yet all these rites can remain something merely formal. Christ asks for His disciples the true sanctification which transforms their being, their very selves; He asks that it not remain a ritual formality, but that it make them truly the “property” of the God of holiness. We could even say that Christ prayed on behalf of us for that sacrament which touches us in the depths of our being. But He also prayed that this interior transformation might be translated day by day in our lives; that, in our everyday routine and our concrete daily lives, we might be truly pervaded by the light of God.

On the eve of my priestly ordination, fifty-eight years ago, I opened the Sacred Scripture because I wanted to receive once more a word from the Lord for that day and for my future journey as a priest. My gaze fell on this passage: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Then I realized: the Lord is speaking about me, and He is speaking to me. This very same thing will be accomplished tomorrow in me.

When all is said and done, we are not consecrated by rites, even though rites are necessary. The bath in which the Lord immerses us is Himself – the Truth in person. Priestly ordination means: being immersed in Him, immersed in the Truth. I belong in a new way to Him and thus to others, “that His Kingdom may come.”

Dear friends, in this hour of the renewal of promises, we want to pray to the Lord to make us men of truth, men of love, men of God. Let us implore Him to draw us ever anew into Himself, so that we may become truly priests of the New Covenant. Amen.
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Meditation on the Way of the Cross 2009

Meditation of The Most Reverend Thomas Menamparampil
Archbishop of Guwahati, India

My dear brothers and sisters, we come to sing together a “hymn of hope.” We want to tell ourselves that all is not lost in hard times. When bad news comes, one bit after another, we grow anxious. When misfortune hits us close to home, we grow disheartened. When we fall direct victims of a disaster, our self-confidence is totally shaken and our faith is put to the test. But all is not lost yet. Like Job we search for meaning.

In this effort we have a model. Abraham believed and hoped, even when there was no reason for hoping. Indeed, in testing times we see no reason for believing and hoping. And yet we believe. And yet we hope. This can happen in our personal lives. It happens in the wider society.

We ask ourselves with the Psalmist: “Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God.” We renew and strengthen our faith, and continue to trust in the Lord. For he saves those who have lost all hope. And this hope does not ultimately disappoint us.

It is truly in Christ that we understand the full meaning of suffering. During this meditation, while we watch with anguish the painful side of Jesus’ suffering, we shall also give attention to its redemptive value. It was God’s plan that the “Messiah had to suffer,” and that these sufferings should be for us. An awareness of this fills us with living hope. It is this hope that keeps us joyful and patient in our troubles.

A journey of faith and hope is a long spiritual journey, as we ponder the deeper design of God in the cosmic processes and the events of human history. For, below the surface of cataclysmic calamities, wars, revolutions and conflicts of every kind, there is a quiet presence, there is purposeful divine action. God stays hidden in the world, in society, in the universe. Science and technology reveal the marvels of his greatness and love: “There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” God breathes hope.

God reveals his plans through his “word,” showing how he draws good out of evil both from the little events in our personal lives and the great happenings of human history. His “word” makes known the “rich and glorious” plan of God, which says that he frees us from our sins and that Christ is in you.

May this message of hope echo from the Hoang-Ho to Colorado, from the Himalayas to the Alps and the Andes, from the Mississipi to the Brahmaputra. It says: “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord.”
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Believe in the Light

Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light."

Many, even among the authorities, believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be expelled from the synagogue.

For they preferred human praise to the glory of God.

Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness."

-- John 12:35-36; 41-46

They Paid Him Thirty Pieces of Silver

Jesus said to His disciples, "You know that in two days' time it will be Passover, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they consulted together to arrest Jesus by treachery and put Him to death. But they said, "Not during the festival, that there may not be a riot among the people."

Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that moment, he began to look out for an opportunity to betray Him.

-- Matthew 26:1-5; 14-16.

Judas and his motivations have always fascinated me -- perhaps that was the influence in my youth of Jesus Christ Superstar (original concept album), which focuses on him a lot (I hated the movie, with it's Manson family style hippies, not the story/music, even if I can see now the theological errors and perhaps impiety of the JCS story).

I tend to be somewhat sympathetic towards him, but in the end cannot complain too much about his fate because that is the fate he chose of his own free will.

I tend to shy away from the view that he was always an evil villain and scoundrel to the core -- after all, Jesus chose him, and Jesus would not choose someone merely to use him, to be a pawn, He chose him to a follower, not a betrayer. I tend to think away from the view that Judas betrayed Jesus knowing and believing Him to be the Son of God.

But I do think that Judas enjoyed an excess of pride, probably stemming from the fact that he was the scholar of the group, the "smartest" and most educated. As such, he thought he knew better than Jesus did what a proper Messiah should be like. (In many ways, it is a repeat of the sin of Adam and Eve.) In all his learning, Judas has learned to be ignorant, to blind himself to true knowledge. He put himself and his own ideas before the Truth who lived beside him everyday and, thus, began to confuse error for truth and truth for error, no longing believing that Jesus was Lord, before compounding his freely chosen evil by using an act of love to commit treachery. It is the same with our pointy-headed intelligensia today - the smartest folks in the room are often the most stupid.

Of course, we all have to guard against that temptation of thinking that you know it all, especially thinking that you know better than God how things ought to be. AND ESPECIALLY continuing to think you know better, continuing to take charge and impose your own will, even after you see that you were wrong, refusing to seek forgiveness and, instead, tying a rope around your neck and jumping from a tree. If you do that, if that is "your final answer," you will have to live, or not-live rather, with that choice.

Perhaps, in that millisecond before his neck snapped or before he took his last gasp of breath and the synapses stopped firing in his brain, perhaps in that flash of an instant Judas fully repented and sought forgiveness -- but that is not what is suggested in the Gospels. The implication of scripture, and hence the natural inference to be drawn, is that, unlike Peter, in his arrogant pride and refusal to be humble, rejecting God's gift of life and engaging in the sin of despair, Judas sadly chose the darkness.

Let us be like Peter and not Judas while there is still time.

In his talks at the Wednesday General Audiences, Pope Benedict has had occastion to consider Judas and his choice of self over God:

Jesus treated [Judas] as a friend (cf. Mt 26:50); however, in His invitations to follow Him along the way of the beatitudes, He does not force His will or protect it from the temptations of Satan, respecting human freedom.

In effect, the possibilities to pervert the human heart are truly many. The only way to prevent it consists in not cultivating an individualistic, autonomous vision of things, but on the contrary, by putting oneself always on the side of Jesus, assuming His point of view. We must daily seek to build full communion with Him.

Let us remember that Peter also wanted to oppose Him and what awaited Him at Jerusalem, but he received a very strong reproval: "You are not on the side of God, but of men" (Mk 8:33)!

After his fall, Peter repented and found pardon and grace. Judas also repented, but his repentance degenerated into desperation and thus became self-destructive.

For us, it is an invitation to always remember what St. Benedict says at the end of the fundamental Chapter Five of his "Rule": "Never despair of God's mercy." In fact, God "is greater than our hearts," as St. John says (I Jn 3:20).

Let us remember two things. The first: Jesus respects our freedom. The second: Jesus awaits our openness to repentance and conversion; He is rich in mercy and forgiveness.

--Pope Benedict, General Audience of October 18, 2006

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Palm Sunday 2009

Mark 11:1-10

When Jesus and His disciples drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples and said to them,

Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, "Why are you doing this?" reply, "The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once."

So they went off and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And He sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding Him as well as those following kept crying out:

Hosanna!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Palm Sunday Mass, Piazza San Pietro
World Youth Day, April 5, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Young People!

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for Passover along with a growing crowd of pilgrims. On the last stage of the journey, He had cured the blind Bartimaeus, who had addressed Him as Son of David, asking for mercy. Now -- being able to see -- with gratitude He joined the pilgrims. When, at the gates of Jerusalem, Jesus mounts a donkey, the animal symbol of Davidic royalty, joyous certainty erupts among the pilgrims: It is he, the Son of David! Thus they greet Jesus with the messianic acclamation: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and add: "Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11:9).

We do not know exactly what the enthusiastic pilgrims imagined the coming kingdom of David to be. But we, have we truly understood the message of the Jesus, Son of David? Have we understood what the kingdom is that He spoke of when He was interrogated by Pilate? Do we understand what it means that this kingdom is not of this world? Or would we like it to be of this world?

St. John, in his Gospel, after the account of the entrance into Jerusalem, reports a series of words of Jesus, in which He explains the essentials of this new type of kingdom. In a first reading of these texts, we can distinguish three different images of the kingdom in which the same mystery is always reflected in a different way.

John first of all reports that, among the pilgrims who "wanted to worship God" during the feast, there were also some Greeks (cf. 12:20). Let us note the fact that the true objective of these pilgrims was to worship God. This corresponds perfectly to what Jesus said on the occasion of the purification of the Temple: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Mark 11:17). The true scope of the pilgrimage must be that of encountering God, to worship Him, and, in this way, put the fundamental relationship of our life in right order.

The Greeks are persons in search of God, they are on a journey toward God with their lives. Now, with the help of two Greek-speaking apostles, Philip and Andrew, they send this request to the Lord: "We want to see Jesus" (John 12:21). This is essential. Dear friends, that is why we are gathered here together: We want to see Jesus. Millions of young people went to Sydney last year for this purpose. Certainly they had many expectations about this pilgrimage. But the main objective was this: We want to see Jesus.

What did Jesus say in regard to this request at that time? From the Gospel, it is not clear whether there was a meeting between Jesus and those Greeks. Jesus' gaze reaches far higher: "If the grain of wheat falls to the ground and does not die, it will remain alone; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit" (John 12:24). This means that, right now, a more or less brief discussion with a few persons, who will then return home, is not important.

As a grain of wheat, dead and risen in a totally new way that goes beyond the limits of the moment, He will go out to meet the world and the Greeks. Through the Resurrection, Jesus passes beyond the limits of space and time. As the Risen One, He is on a journey toward the vastness of the world and history. Indeed, as the Risen One, He goes to the Greeks and speaks with them, He manifests Himself to them in such a way that they, the ones who are faraway, draw near and, precisely in their language, in their culture, His word will be carried forward in a new way and understood in a new way -- His kingdom comes.

We can thus recognize two essential characteristics of this kingdom. The first is that this kingdom passes through the Cross. Because Jesus gives Himself totally, He can, as the Risen One, belong to everyone and make Himself present to all. In the Holy Eucharist, we receive the fruit of the dead grain of wheat, the multiplication of the loaves that continues to the end of the world and in all times.

The second characteristic is that His kingdom is universal. It fulfills the ancient hope of Israel: this reign of David knows no more borders. It extends "from sea to sea" -- as the prophet Zachariah says (9:10) -- that is, it embraces the whole world. This, however, is only possible because it is not a political kingdom, but is based solely on the free adhesion of love -- a love that, for its part, answers to the love of Jesus Christ that has given itself for all.

I think that we must always be learning both things -- first the universality, the catholicity. It means that no one can posit himself as absolute, his culture, his time and his world. This means that we all welcome each other, renouncing something of ourselves. Universality includes the mystery of the Cross -- the overcoming of ourselves, obedience toward the universal word of Jesus Christ in the universal Church. Universality is always an overcoming of ourselves, a renunciation of something that is ours. Universality and the Cross go together. Only in this way can peace be created.

The saying about the dead grain of wheat is part of Jesus' answer to the Greeks, it is His answer. Then, however, He formulates once again the fundamental law of human existence: "He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will save it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

He who wants to have his life for himself, live only for himself, squeeze out everything for himself and exploit all the possibilities -- he is the one who loses his life. It becomes boring and empty. Only in abandoning ourselves, only in the disinterested gift of the "I" in favor of the "Thou," only in the "Yes" to the greater life, precisely the life of God, does our life too become full and more spacious. Thus, this fundamental principle that the Lord establishes is, in the final analysis, simply identical with the principle of love.

Love, in fact, means leaving yourself behind, giving yourself, not wanting to hold on to yourself, but becoming free from yourself: not getting preoccupied with yourself -- what will become of me -- but looking ahead, toward the other - toward God and the people whom He sends to me. It is this principle of love that defines man's journey, it is once again identical with the mystery of the Cross, with the mystery of death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ.

Dear friends, perhaps it is relatively easy to accept this grand fundamental vision of life. In concrete reality, however, it is not just a simple matter of recognizing a principle, but of living its truth, the truth of the Cross and the Resurrection. And for this, once again, just one big decision is not enough.

It is surely important, at some point, to dare to make a fundamental decision, to dare the great "Yes" that the Lord asks of us at a certain moment in our life. But the great "Yes" of the decisive moment in our life -- the "Yes" to the truth that the Lord places before us -- must then be daily reconquered in the everyday situations in which, again and again, we must abandon our "I," make ourselves available, when, at bottom, we just want to hang on to that "I."

Sacrifice, renunciation, also belongs to an upright life. He who permits himself a life without this ever-renewed gift of self, deceives people. There is no successful life without sacrifice. If I cast a retrospective glance on my own life, I must say that precisely those moments in which I said "Yes" to renunciation were the great and important moments of my life.

Finally, St. John also put Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Olives in a modified form in his composition for "Palm Sunday." There is first of all the statement, "My soul is troubled" (12:27). Here Jesus' fear appears, which is amply illustrated by the other evangelists -- His fear in the face of the power of death, in the face of the entire abyss of evil that He sees and into which He must descend. The Lord suffers our anxieties together with us, He accompanies us in the last anxiety until we come to the light.

Then there follow, in John, Jesus' two questions. The first is only expressed conditionally: "What will I say, 'Father, save me from this hour?'" (12:27). As a human being, Jesus also felt driven to ask that He be spared the terror of the passion. We too can pray in this way. We too can lament before the Lord like Job, present all our questions that arise in us in the face of the injustice in the world and the problems affect us personally. Before God, we must not take refuge in pious phrases, in a world of make-believe. Praying also means struggling with God, and like Jacob we can say to Him: "I will not let you go until you have given me a blessing!" (Genesis 32:37).

But then there is Jesus' second request: "Glorify your name!" (John 12:28). The Synoptic Gospels put this request in this way: "Not my will, but Your will be done!" (Luke 22:42). In the end, God's glory, His lordship, His will is always more important and more true than my thoughts and my will. And this is what is essential in our prayer and in our life: understanding this right order of reality, accepting it interiorly; trusting in God and believing that He is doing the right thing; understanding that His will is the truth and is love; understanding that my life will be a good life if I can learn how to conform to this order. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the guarantee that we can truly entrust ourselves to God. It is in this way that His kingdom is realized.

Dear friends, at the end of this liturgy, the young people from Australia will give the World Youth Day Cross to the young people of Spain. The Cross is on its way from one side of the world to the other, from sea to sea. And we accompany it. Let us go forth with it along this road and, in this way, find our road.

When we touch the Cross, indeed, when we carry it, we touch the mystery of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ, the mystery that God so loved the world -- us -- that He gave His only-begotten Son for us (cf. John 3:16). We touch the marvelous mystery of God's love, the only truth that is really redemptive. But we also touch the fundamental law, the constitutive norm of our life, that is, that without the "Yes" of the Cross, without walking in communion with Christ day after day, life can never be a success.

The more that, for the love of the great truth and the great love -- for love of the truth and love of God -- we can make some sacrifice, the greater and richer our life will become. He who wants to keep his life for himself will lose it. He who gives his life away -- daily in small gestures, that are part of the great decision -- will find it. This is the exigent truth, a truth that is also deeply beautiful and liberating, in which we want to enter, step by step, on the Cross' journey over the continents. May the Lord bless this journey. Amen.
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The Bold and Daring Witness of Karol Wojtyla

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Holy Mass on the Fourth Anniversary of
the Death of the Servant of God John Paul II
St. Peter's Basilica, April 2, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Four years ago, exactly today, my beloved Predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II, ended his pilgrimage on earth, after not a brief period of great suffering. We celebrate the Holy Eucharist for the repose of his soul, while thanking the Lord for giving him to the Church for so many years as zealous and generous Pastor. His memory, which continues to be alive in people's heart, brings us together this afternoon, as demonstrated also by the uninterrupted pilgrimage of faithful to his tomb in the Vatican Grottoes. Therefore, I preside over this Mass with emotion and joy, while greeting you and thanking you for your presence, dear faithful coming from different parts of the world, especially from Poland, for such a significant event.

I would like to greet the Poles, particularly Polish youth. On the fourth anniversary of the death of John Paul II, accept his appeal "Do not be afraid to entrust yourselves to Christ. He will guide you, He will give you the strength to follow Him every day and in every situation" (Tor Vergata, Vigil of Prayer, Aug. 19, 2000). I hope this thought of the Servant of God will guide you on the paths of your life, and lead you to the happiness of the morning of the Resurrection.

I greet the cardinal Vicar, the cardinal archbishop of Krakow, and the other cardinals and prelates; I greet the priests and the men and women religious. I greet you in a special way, dear young people of Rome, with this celebration you prepare yourselves for the World Youth Day that we will live together next Sunday, Palm Sunday. Your presence brings to mind the enthusiasm that John Paul II was able to infuse in the new generations. His memory is a stimulus for all of us, gathered in this Basilica where on many occasions he celebrated the Eucharist, to let ourselves be illumined and challenged by the Word of God, just proclaimed.

The Gospel of this Thursday of the fifth week of Lent proposes for our meditation the last part of Chapter 8 of John, which contains a long dispute over the identity of Jesus. Shortly before He had presented Himself as "the light of the world," using on three occasions the expression "I AM," which in a strong sense alludes to the name of God revealed to Moses (cf. Exodus 3:14). And He adds: "If any one keeps my word, he will never see death," thus declaring He was sent by God, who is His Father, to take to men the radical deliverance from sin and death, indispensable to enter into eternal life.

However, His words wound the pride of His interlocutors, and also the reference to the great Patriarch Abraham became a motive for conflict. "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (8:58). Without mincing words, He declares His pre-existence and, therefore, His superiority in respect of Abraham, arousing -- understandably -- the scandalized reaction of the Jews. But Jesus cannot be silent about His own identity; He knows that, in the end, the Father Himself will vindicate Him, glorifying Him with death and resurrection so that, precisely when He is raised on the cross, He is revealed as the only begotten of God (cf. John 8:28; Mark 15:39).

Dear friends, meditating on this passage of the Gospel of John, the consideration arises spontaneously of how difficult it is to witness to Christ. And our thought goes to the beloved Servant of God Karol Wojtyla -- John Paul II -- who from his youth showed himself a bold and daring defender of Christ: He did not hesitate to consume all his energies in order to spread the light everywhere. He accepted no compromise when it came to proclaiming and defending His Truth. He never tired of spreading His love. From the beginning of his pontificate until April 2, 2005, he was not afraid to proclaim to all and always that Jesus alone is the Savior and the true Liberator of man and of all men.

"I will make you exceedingly fruitful" (Genesis 17:6). If giving witness of one's adherence to the Gospel has never been easy, we are certainly comforted by the certainty that God makes our commitment fruitful when it is sincere and generous. The spiritual experience of the Servant of God John Paul II also seems significant to us from this point of view. Looking at his life, we see realized in it the promise of fruitfulness made by God to Abraham, which is echoed in the first reading, taken from the Book of Genesis.

It could be said that, especially in the years of his pontificate, he engendered many sons and daughters in the faith. You are visible signs of this, dear young people present this afternoon: you, young people of Rome and you, young people from Sydney and Madrid, who represent ideally the multitude of boys and girls who have participated in the by now 23 World Youth Days in different parts of the world. How many vocations to the priesthood and to consecrated life, how many young families determined to live the evangelical ideal and to tend to holiness are united to the testimony and the preaching of my venerated Predecessor! How many boys and girls have been converted, or have persevered on their Christian path thanks to his prayer, his encouragement, his support and his example!

It is true! John Paul II was able to communicate a strong charge of hope, founded on faith in Jesus Christ, who "is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8), as the motto of the Great Jubilee of 2000 stated. As affectionate father and attentive educator, he indicated sure and firm points of reference indispensable for all, in a special way for youth.

And in the hour of agony and death, this new generation wished to manifest to him that it had understood his teachings, silently recollected in prayer in St. Peter's Square and in so many other places of the world. Young people felt that his disappearance constituted a loss: "Their" Pope was dying, whom they regarded as "their father" in the faith. They realized at the same time that he was leaving them as inheritance his courage and the consistency of his testimony. Had he not underlined many times the need for a radical adherence to the Gospel, exhorting adults and young people to take this common educational responsibility seriously?

I have also wanted to take up this longing of his, pausing on different occasions to speak of the educational emergency that concerns families, the Church, society and especially the new generations today. In the age of growth, young people need adults capable of proposing their principles and values: They see the need for persons that are able to teach with their life, rather than with words, to spend themselves for lofty ideals.

But where can one get the light and wisdom to carry out this mission, which involves every one in the Church and in society? It is certainly not enough to take recourse to human resources; it is necessary to trust in the first place in divine help. "The Lord is faithful forever": This is how we prayed a while ago in the Responsorial Psalm, certain that God never abandons those who remain faithful to Him.

This reminds us of the theme of the 24th World Youth Day, which will be held at the diocesan level next Sunday. The theme is taken from St. Paul's first Letter to Timothy: "We have our hope set on the living God" (4:10). The Apostle speaks in the name of the Christian community, in the name of all those who have believed in Christ and are different from "others who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13), precisely because they hope, nourish confidence in the future, a confidence not based on ideas or human foresight, but on God, the "living God."

Dear young people, we cannot live without hope. Experience shows that every thing, and our own life, runs the risk, can collapse for any reason internal or external to us, at any moment. It is normal: Everything that is human, hence hope, has no foundation in itself, but needs a "rock" on which to anchor itself. This is why Paul wrote that Christians are called to base human hope on the "living God." He alone is sure and trustworthy. What is more, only God, who has revealed the fullness of His love in Jesus, can be our firm hope. In Him, our hope, we have in fact been saved (cf. Romans 8:24).

However, pay attention: In times such as these, given the cultural and social context in which we live, the risk can be stronger of reducing Christian hope to an ideology, to a group slogan, to an exterior coating. There is nothing more contrary to Jesus' message!

He does not want His disciples to "recite" a part of his teaching, perhaps that of hope. He wants them to "be" hope, and they can be so only if they remain united to Him! He wants each one of you, dear young friends, to be a small source of hope for your neighbor, and to be, all together, an oasis of hope for the society in which you are inserted.

Now, this is possible with one condition: That you live of Him and in Him, through prayer and the sacraments, as I have written you in this year's message. If Christ's words remain in us, we will be able to carry high the flame of that love that He has enkindled in the earth; we can carry high the flame of faith and hope, with which we advance toward Him, while we await His glorious return at the end of time. It is the flame that Pope John Paul II has left us as inheritance. He has given it to me, as his Successor; and this afternoon I hand it over once again, in a special way, to you, young people of Rome, so that you continue to be morning watchmen, vigilant and joyful in this dawn of the third millennium. Respond generously to Christ's call! In particular, during the Priestly Year that will begin next June 19, make yourselves readily available if Jesus calls you to follow him on the path of priesthood and of consecrated life.

"This is the favorable moment, this is the day of salvation." Along with the Gospel, the liturgy has exhorted us to renew now -- and every instant is a "favorable moment" -- our determined will to follow Christ, certain that He is our salvation.

Finally, this is the message that John Paul II repeats to us this afternoon. While we entrust his chosen soul to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, whom he always loved tenderly, we very much hope that from heaven he will not cease to accompany us and intercede for us. That he will help each one of us to live, as he did, repeating with full confidence day after day to God, through Mary, Totus tuus. Amen!

After Mass, Pope Benedict descended to the grottos underneath St. Peter's and knelt for a few minutes of silent prayer before tomb of John Paul II. The Pope then sprinkled holy water in blessing before returning to the basilica upstairs and greeting some of the pilgrims.
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Joannes Paulus MagnusSanto Subito!

Homily of His Holiness Pope John Paul II
Mass of Inauguration of his Petrine Ministry
October 22, 1978

Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept His power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind.

Be not afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!

To His saving power, open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development.

Be not afraid! Christ knows 'what is in man.' He alone knows it. So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair.

We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man! He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life.

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Servant of God John Paul the Great, Pray for Us

+ O Holy Trinity,
we thank you for having given to the Church
Pope John Paul II,
and for having made him shine with your fatherly tenderness,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit of love

He, trusting completely in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself
in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd
and has pointed out to us holiness
as the path to reach eternal communion with You.

Grant us, through his intercession,
according to your will, the grace that we implore,
in the hope that he will soon be numbered among your saints.
Amen. +
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