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Pontiff: Be More Radical in Following Christ
07/03/2010
Calls Saying Yes to God a "Beautiful Experience"VATICAN CITY, JUNE 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- On the last Sunday of the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart, Benedict XVI invited the faithful to be more willing and radical in responding to a call from Christ.
The Pope made these comments today in a short address before praying the midday Angelus with crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square, which he dedicated to the theme of "Christ's call and its demands."
"Whoever has the fortune to know a young man or young woman who leaves their family, their studies or work to consecrate himself or herself to God [...] has before him a living example of radical response to the divine calling," the Holy Father began.
He called the affirmative response to God's call "one of the most beautiful experiences that one has in the Church," in which one sees "the Lord’s action in people’s lives, touch[es] it with one’s hand; experienc[es] that God is not an abstract entity, but a Reality so great and powerful that he can fill man’s heart in a super-abundant way. He is a Person who is alive and near, who loves us and asks us to love him."
The Holy Father reflected on several passages from the Gospel in which Christ is "very demanding" with several disciples who express their desire to follow him. Christ informs the would-be disciples that "whoever chooses to work with him in God’s field cannot change his mind," and must "completely sever his familial bonds."
"These demands might appear too harsh," Benedict XVI continued, "but in reality they express the newness and absolute priority of the Kingdom of God that is made present in the Person himself of Jesus Christ. In the final analysis it is the radicality that is owed to the Love of God, whom Jesus is the first to obey."
The Pontiff continued: "Whoever renounces everything, even himself, to follow Jesus, enters into a new dimension of freedom that St. Paul defines as 'walking according to the Spirit.'
"'Christ has freed us for freedom!' the Apostle writes, and explains that this new form of freedom acquired for us by Christ consists in being 'in the service of each other.'
"Freedom and love coincide! Obeying one’s own egoism, on the contrary, leads to rivalry and conflict."
Vatican-Vietnam Working Group Advances
07/03/2010
Both Sides Report "Positive Developments"VATICAN CITY, JUNE 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See and Vietnam are reporting "positive developments" with regard to the advancement of diplomatic relations between the two sides.
A statement released Saturday by the Vatican press office reported that the two-day meeting of the Vietnam-Holy See Join Working Group, held last Wednesday and Thursday at the Vatican, saw "positive developments since the first meeting of the Joint Working Group," which was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2009.
A special note was made of the meeting last December between Benedict XVI and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet. At that time, the Vatican called the visit "a significant stage in the progress of bilateral relations with Vietnam."
"The two sides also had in-depth and comprehensive discussions on bilateral diplomatic relations," the note continued. "In order to deepen the relations between the Holy See and Vietnam, as well as the bonds between the Holy See and the local Catholic Church, it was agreed that, as a first step, a non-resident Representative of the Holy See for Vietnam will be appointed by the Pope."
Also discussed at the meeting were "international issues and those related to bilateral relations and to the Catholic Church in Vietnam."
"The Vietnamese side recalled its consistent policy of respect for freedoms of religion and belief as well as the legal provisions to guarantee its implementation," the statement said. "The Delegation of the Holy See took note of this explanation and asked that further conditions be established so that the Church may participate effectively in the development of the country, especially in the spiritual, educational, healthcare, social and charitable fields.
"The Delegation of the Holy See also mentioned that the Church in her teaching invites the faithful to be good citizens and therefore to work for the common good of the population."
The communiqué reported that both the Holy See and Vietnam "noted encouraging developments in various areas of Catholic life in Vietnam, especially in relation to the Jubilee Year," which is under way in the country through Jan. 6, 2011. The year marks 350 years since the establishment of Vietnam's first two apostolic vicariates and 50 years since the hierarchy was put in place.
The note also added that the address Benedict XVI gave at the conclusion of the last five-yearly "ad limina" visit of the Vietnamese bishops, and the Holy Father’s message to the Catholic Church in Vietnam on the occasion of the Jubilee Year, "would serve as an orientation for the Catholic Church in Vietnam in the years ahead."
The meeting was co-chaired by Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, undersecretary for the relations with states, and Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Vietnam's vice minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Vatican statement reported that the third meeting will be held in Vietnam, but that no date had been set.
There are an estimated 6 million Catholics in Vietnam, which constitutes 8% of the population.
Pontiff: Church Will Never Sink
04/17/2009
Pontiff: Church Will Never SinkReflects on Symbolism of Easter Vigil
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- While many think the Church is dying, or ought to be dead already, it continues on, held up by the hands of Christ, says Benedict XVI.The Pontiff said this as he reflected during his homily Saturday at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica on the three main symbols used at the Easter Vigil: light, water, and the new song -- the Alleluia. During the Mass he baptized five adults: three Italians men, a woman from China and a woman from the United States.
"First of all," he said, "there is light": "Where there is light, life is born, chaos can be transformed into cosmos."
"The resurrection of Jesus is an eruption of light," he explained. "Death is conquered, the tomb is thrown open. The Risen One himself is Light, the Light of the world. With the resurrection, the Lord’s day enters the nights of history.
"Beginning with the resurrection, God’s light spreads throughout the world and throughout history. Day dawns. This Light alone -- Jesus Christ -- is the true light, something more than the physical phenomenon of light. He is pure Light: God himself, who causes a new creation to be born in the midst of the old, transforming chaos into cosmos."
"At the Easter Vigil," the Pontiff said, "the Church represents the mystery of the light of Christ in the sign of the Paschal candle, whose flame is both light and heat. The symbolism of light is connected with that of fire: radiance and heat, radiance and the transforming energy contained in the fire -- truth and love go together. The Paschal candle burns, and is thereby consumed: The cross and the resurrection are inseparable."
Life and death
Benedict XVI said that the second symbol, water, has "two opposed meanings": "On the one hand there is the sea, which appears as a force antagonistic to life on earth, continually threatening it; yet God has placed a limit upon it. Hence the book of Revelation says that in God’s new world, the sea will be no more.
"It is the element of death. And so it becomes the symbolic representation of Jesus’ death on the Cross: Christ descended into the sea, into the waters of death, as Israel did into the Red Sea. Having risen from death, he gives us life.
"This means that baptism is not only a cleansing, but a new birth: with Christ we, as it were, descend into the sea of death, so as to rise up again as new creatures."
He said the other "way in which we encounter water is in the form of the fresh spring that gives life, or the great river from which life comes forth."
"Without water there is no life," the Pontiff affirmed. "It is striking how much importance is attached to wells in sacred Scripture. They are places from which life rises forth. Beside Jacob’s well, Christ spoke to the Samaritan woman of the new well, the water of true life."
Benedict XVI then reflected on the third symbol, "the singing of the new song -- the alleluia."
"When a person experiences great joy, he cannot keep it to himself," he explained. "He has to express it, to pass it on. But what happens when a person is touched by the light of the resurrection, and thus comes into contact with Life itself, with Truth and Love? He cannot merely speak about it. Speech is no longer adequate. He has to sing."
"At the Easter Vigil, year after year, we Christians intone this song after the third reading, we sing it as our song, because we too, through God’s power, have been drawn forth from the water and liberated for true life," he said.
A new song
Recalling the story from the Bible when Moses sang a song after Israel's liberation from Egypt, the Pope said the "image describes the situation of the disciples of Jesus Christ in every age, the situation of the Church in the history of this world."
"Humanly speaking, it is self-contradictory," he explained. "On the one hand, the community is located at the Exodus, in the midst of the Red Sea, in a sea which is paradoxically ice and fire at the same time.
"And must not the Church, so to speak, always walk on the sea, through the fire and the cold? Humanly speaking, she ought to sink. But while she is still walking in the midst of this Red Sea, she sings – she intones the song of praise of the just: the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in which the Old and New Covenants blend into harmony.
"While, strictly speaking, she ought to be sinking, the Church sings the song of thanksgiving of the saved. She is standing on history’s waters of death and yet she has already risen. Singing, she grasps at the Lord’s hand, which holds her above the waters.
"And she knows that she is thereby raised outside the force of gravity of death and evil -- a force from which otherwise there would be no way of escape -- raised and drawn into the new gravitational force of God, of truth and of love."
"At present she is still between the two gravitational fields," Benedict XVI reflected. "But once Christ is risen, the gravitational pull of love is stronger than that of hatred; the force of gravity of life is stronger than that of death. Perhaps this is actually the situation of the Church in every age?"
"It always seems as if she ought to be sinking, and yet she is always already saved," he said. "St. Paul illustrated this situation with the words: 'We are as dying, and behold we live.' The Lord’s saving hand holds us up, and thus we can already sing the song of the saved, the new song of the risen ones: Alleluia!"
Scripture and the Meaning of Holiness
10/20/2008
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—Fr. Mark
Scripture and the Meaning of Holiness
Pope and Patriarch Preside Over Vespers
Father Thomas Rosica, CSB
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).—One of the topics mentioned in a good number of the synod presentations was that of the saints and blessed who offer the Church concrete examples of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures and the living Word of God.
When Archbishop Angelo Amato, the new prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, addressed the synod Tuesday, he offered a very graphic image of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures: For more than 2,000 years men and women, old and young, wise and ignorant, in the East as in the West, applied themselves to the school of the Lord Jesus, which caused this sublime commandment to echo in their hearts and minds: "You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).
This does not mean that man-made perfection is the goal to be reached, rather it is the heights of divine perfection. With simplicity and humility, even youth -- like 14-year-old Domenico Savio and 13-year-old Laura Vicuña -- have taken the Lord's words seriously and taken up the path toward sainthood.
Their library was largely composed of the life and words of Jesus: Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the gentle, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those who are persecuted. The saints, understanding that the beatitudes are the essence of the Gospel and the portrait of Christ Himself, became their imitators.
The theme of the saints and holiness reached a crescendo on Saturday evening during the solemn vespers ceremony celebrated in the Sistine Chapel by Benedict XVI, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, and all delegates and participants in this world Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church.
Backdoor
We were told at the end of the morning session to begin making our way around 4 p.m. through the "back way" to the Sistine Chapel: walking around the basilica, through parts of the Vatican Gardens, past the palace and manicured gardens of the Governatorato, and into the courtyard of St. Damaso.
Basilian Bishop Ronald Fabbro of London, Canada, and I took our time walking along the quiet path and into the maze of inner courtyards until we arrived at San Damaso. We joined many other cardinals, bishops and synodal delegates who were then escorted by Swiss Guards up the "seconda loggia."
Once we arrived in the Sistine Chapel, there was a hush over the audience, many of whom had arrived a full hour early just to pray under and before the beauty around us. Shortly before the vespers began, a Vatican monsignor from the Office of Pontifical Ceremonies spoke to us about the historic and ecclesial significance of this chapel's artwork, commissioned by Pope Julius II. The chapel was built with the same dimensions of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem. The monsignor did not, however, touch upon some things I remember about this grandiose room from my art history classes while I was a university student years ago.
For example, Pope Julius was referred to as "Il Terrible." His life reminds us of one of the colorful characters of Rabelais's world: Julius was a wild hunter, a boastful warrior and bullish fighter, and somewhat of a problematic character. "E' stato un papa abbastanza curioso" (He was quite a curious Pope), one Vatican diplomat said -- diplomatically!
Contrary to popular opinion, Michelangelo Buonarotti didn't paint the frescos in the reclining position, nor did he do them alone. He and his helpers prepared and painted the vault from the standing position (albeit leaning back a bit). The artist had many assistants -- to scrape, prepare the wall for plaster, to mix the paints, and to carry up supplies from the floor 60 feet below. He did a few of the later characters free hand, but most were detailed in "cartoons" (preparatory drawings).
Often, work had to be done while services were going on below. The bishops and cardinals often complained back then about the dust and noise. There were no complaints from bishops and cardinals on Saturday night. Only awe and gratitude for being in this room.
Vatican first
At exactly 5 p.m., the papal and patriarchal procession entered the Sistine Chapel as the Sistine choir began its haunting chants. The significance of this sight unfolding before us was lost on no one in the Sistine Chapel.
Benedict XVI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I entered the chapel walking side by side. Behind them came their closest collaborators working in the areas of Christian unity in their respective churches. This was history in the making: the first time an Orthodox patriarch was taking part in a world Synod of Bishops, or co-presiding, if you will, in this historic and magnificent place.
Following the vespers, the Pope invited Patriarch Bartholomew to address us, and did he ever speak, in flawless English. The Ecumenical Patriarch's talk was divided into three sections: on hearing and speaking the Word of God through the Holy Scriptures; on seeing God's Word in nature and above all in the beauty of the icons; and finally on touching and sharing God's Word in the communion of saints and the sacramental life of the Church."
The talk was a masterpiece meriting further study, meditation and contemplation. Click here for full text: http://zenit.org/article-23981?l=english
Like fire
The third section of the Patriarch's magisterial lesson really struck me. Here are some excepts of Bartholomew's reflection on the saints and holiness:
"Within the life of the Church, the unfathomable self-emptying and generous sharing of the divine Logos is reflected in the lives of the saints as the tangible experience and human expression of God's Word in our community. In this way, the Word of God becomes the Body of Christ, crucified and glorified at the same time. As a result, the saint has an organic relationship with heaven and earth, with God and all of creation. In ascetic struggle, the saint reconciles the Word and the world [...]
"This is why the saint loves with warmth and spaciousness that are both unconditional and irresistible. In the saints, we know God's very Word, since -- as St. Gregory Palamas claims -- God and his saints share the same glory and splendor. [...]
"In the gentle presence of a saint, we learn how theology and action coincide. In the compassionate love of the saint, we experience God as "our father" and God's mercy as "steadfastly enduring." (Ps. 135) The saint is consumed with the fire of God's love. This is why the saint imparts grace and cannot tolerate the slightest manipulation or exploitation in society or in nature. [...]
"And within the communion of saints, each of us is called to 'become like fire' (Sayings of the Desert Fathers), to touch the world with the mystical force of God's Word, so that -- as the extended Body of Christ -- the world, too, might say: 'Someone touched me!' (cf. Mt 9.20)
"Evil is only eradicated by holiness, not by harshness. And holiness introduces into society a seed that heals and transforms. Imbued with the life of the sacraments and the purity of prayer, we are able to enter the innermost mystery of God's Word.
"It is like the tectonic plates of the earth's crust: the deepest layers need only shift a few millimeters to shatter the world's surface. Yet for this spiritual revolution to occur, we must experience radical metanoia -- a conversion of attitudes, habits and practices -- for ways that we have misused or abused God's Word, God's gifts and God's creation."
Archbishop Angelo Amato spoke of the personal library, composed of the life and words of Jesus, especially of the great blueprint for the Christian life found in the beatitudes.
The Ecumenical Patriarch spoke not just of words imprinted on the hearts and minds of the holy ones, but also of the gift of the fire of God's Word that must be alive and burning within the hearts of the saints.
It is this fire, this dynamism, that will burn away the evil within us and around us and cause holiness to burst forth, healing and transforming the society and culture surrounding us.
Parish Directory
07/25/2008
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