BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 17
May 2006
Peter, the
fisherman
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
In the new series
of Catecheses, we have tried above all to understand better what the Church is
and what idea the Lord has about this new family of his. Then we said that the
Church exists in people, and we have seen that the Lord entrusted this new reality,
the Church, to the Twelve Apostles. Let us now look at them one by one, to
understand through these people what it means to experience the Church and what
it means to follow Jesus. We begin with St Peter.
After Jesus, Peter
is the figure best known and most frequently cited in the New Testament
writings: he is mentioned 154 times with the nickname of Pétros, "rock", which is the
Greek translation of the Aramaic name Jesus gave him directly: Cephas, attested to nine times, especially
in Paul's Letters; then the frequently occurring name Simon (75 times) must be added; this is a
hellenization of his original Hebrew name "Symeon" (twice: Acts
15: 14; II Pt 1: 1).
Son of John (cf.
Jn 1: 42) or, in the Aramaic form, "Bar-Jona, son of Jona" (cf.
Mt 16: 17), Simon was from Bethsaida (cf. Jn 1: 44), a little town to
the east of the Sea of Galilee, from which Philip also came and of course,
Andrew, the brother of Simon.
He spoke with a
Galilean accent. Like his brother, he too was a fisherman: with the
family of Zebedee, the father of James and John, he ran a small fishing
business on the Lake of Gennesaret (cf. Lk 5: 10). Thus, he must have been
reasonably well-off and was motivated by a sincere interest in religion, by a
desire for God - he wanted God to intervene in the world -, a desire that
impelled him to go with his brother as far as Judea to hear the preaching of
John the Baptist (Jn 1: 35-42).
He was a believing
and practising Jew who trusted in the active presence of God in his people's
history and grieved not to see God's powerful action in the events he was
witnessing at that time. He was married and his mother-in-law, whom Jesus was
one day to heal, lived in the city of Capernaum, in the house where Simon also
stayed when he was in that town (cf. Mt 8: 14ff.; Mk 1: 29ff.; Lk
4: 38ff.).
Recent
archaeological excavations have brought to light, beneath the octagonal mosaic
paving of a small Byzantine church, the remains of a more ancient church built
in that house, as the graffiti with invocations to Peter testify.
The Gospels tell
us that Peter was one of the first four disciples of the Nazarene (cf. Lk
5: 1-11), to whom a fifth was added, complying with the custom of every
Rabbi to have five disciples (cf. Lk 5: 27: called Levi). When Jesus
went from five disciples to 12 (cf. Lk 9: 1-6), the newness of his mission
became evident: he was not one of the numerous rabbis but had come to
gather together the eschatological Israel, symbolized by the number 12, the
number of the tribes of Israel.
Simon appears in the Gospels with a determined and impulsive character: he is ready to assert his own opinions even with force (remember him using the sword in the Garden of Olives: cf. Jn 18: 10ff.). At the same time he is also ingenuous and fearful, yet he is honest, to the point of the most sincere repentance (cf. Mt 26: 75).
Simon appears in the Gospels with a determined and impulsive character: he is ready to assert his own opinions even with force (remember him using the sword in the Garden of Olives: cf. Jn 18: 10ff.). At the same time he is also ingenuous and fearful, yet he is honest, to the point of the most sincere repentance (cf. Mt 26: 75).
The Gospels enable
us to follow Peter step by step on his spiritual journey. The starting point
was Jesus' call. It happened on an ordinary day while Peter was busy with his
fisherman's tasks. Jesus was at the Lake of Gennesaret and crowds had gathered
around him to listen to him. The size of his audience created a certain
discomfort. The Teacher saw two boats moored by the shore; the fishermen had
disembarked and were washing their nets. He then asked permission to board the
boat, which was Simon's, and requested him to put out a little from the land.
Sitting on that improvised seat, he began to teach the crowds from the boat
(cf. Lk 5: 1-3). Thus, the boat of Peter becomes the chair of Jesus.
When he had
finished speaking he said to Simon: "Put out into the deep and let
down your nets for a catch". And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled
all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets" (Lk
5: 4-5). Jesus, a carpenter, was not a skilled fisherman: yet Simon
the fisherman trusted this Rabbi, who did not give him answers but required him
to trust him.
His reaction to
the miraculous catch showed his amazement and fear: "Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Lk 5: 8). Jesus replied by inviting
him to trust and to be open to a project that would surpass all his
expectations. "Do not be afraid; henceforth, you will be catching
men" (Lk 5: 10). Peter could not yet imagine that one day he would
arrive in Rome and that here he would be a "fisher of men" for the
Lord. He accepted this surprising call, he let himself be involved in this
great adventure: he was generous; he recognized his limits but believed
in the one who was calling him and followed the dream of his heart. He said
"yes", a courageous and generous "yes", and became a
disciple of Jesus.
Peter was to live
another important moment of his spiritual journey near Caesarea Philippi when
Jesus asked the disciples a precise question: "Who do men say that I
am?" (Mk 8: 27). But for Jesus hearsay did not suffice. He wanted
from those who had agreed to be personally involved with him a personal
statement of their position. Consequently, he insisted: "But who do
you say that I am?" (Mk 8: 29).
It was Peter who answered on behalf of the others: "You are the Christ" (ibid.), that is, the Messiah. Peter's answer, which was not revealed to him by "flesh and blood" but was given to him by the Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 16: 17), contains as in a seed the future confession of faith of the Church. However, Peter had not yet understood the profound content of Jesus' Messianic mission, the new meaning of this word: Messiah.
It was Peter who answered on behalf of the others: "You are the Christ" (ibid.), that is, the Messiah. Peter's answer, which was not revealed to him by "flesh and blood" but was given to him by the Father who is in heaven (cf. Mt 16: 17), contains as in a seed the future confession of faith of the Church. However, Peter had not yet understood the profound content of Jesus' Messianic mission, the new meaning of this word: Messiah.
He demonstrates
this a little later, inferring that the Messiah whom he is following in his
dreams is very different from God's true plan. He was shocked by the Lord's
announcement of the Passion and protested, prompting a lively reaction from
Jesus (cf. Mk 8: 32-33).
Peter wanted as
Messiah a "divine man" who would fulfil the expectations of the
people by imposing his power upon them all: we would also like the Lord
to impose his power and transform the world instantly. Jesus presented himself
as a "human God", the Servant of God, who turned the crowd's
expectations upside-down by taking a path of humility and suffering.
This is the great
alternative that we must learn over and over again: to give priority to
our own expectations, rejecting Jesus, or to accept Jesus in the truth of his
mission and set aside all too human expectations.
Peter, impulsive as
he was, did not hesitate to take Jesus aside and rebuke him. Jesus' answer
demolished all his false expectations, calling him to conversion and to follow
him: "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but
of men" (Mk 8: 33). It is not for you to show me the way; I take my
own way and you should follow me.
Peter thus learned
what following Jesus truly means. It was his second call, similar to Abraham's
in Genesis 22, after that in Genesis 12: "If any man would come
after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and
the Gospel's will save it" (Mk 8: 34-35). This is the demanding rule
of the following of Christ: one must be able, if necessary, to give up
the whole world to save the true values, to save the soul, to save the presence
of God in the world (cf. Mk 8: 36-37). And though with difficulty, Peter
accepted the invitation and continued his life in the Master's footsteps.
And it seems to me
that these conversions of St Peter on different occasions, and his whole
figure, are a great consolation and a great lesson for us. We too have a desire
for God, we too want to be generous, but we too expect God to be strong in the
world and to transform the world on the spot, according to our ideas and the
needs that we perceive.
God chooses a
different way. God chooses the way of the transformation of hearts in suffering
and in humility. And we, like Peter, must convert, over and over again. We must
follow Jesus and not go before him: it is he who shows us the way.
So it is that
Peter tells us: You think you have the recipe and that it is up to you to
transform Christianity, but it is the Lord who knows the way. It is the Lord
who says to me, who says to you: follow me! And we must have the courage
and humility to follow Jesus, because he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 24
May 2006
Peter, the
Apostle
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these
Catecheses, we are meditating on the Church. We said that the Church lives in
people and therefore, in last week's Catechesis, we began to meditate on the
characters of the individual Apostles, beginning with St Peter.
We examined two
decisive stages of his life: the call [to follow Jesus] near the Sea of
Galilee, and then the confession of faith: "You are Christ, the
Messiah". It is a confession, we said, that is still lacking, initial and
yet open. St Peter puts himself on a path of "sequela", following.
And so, this initial confession carries within it, like a seed, the future
faith of the Church.
Today, we want to
consider another two important events in the life of St Peter: the
multiplication of the loaves - we heard the Lord's question and St Peter's
reply in the Gospel passage just read - and then the Lord who calls Peter to be
Pastor of the universal Church.
Let us now begin with the multiplication of the loaves. You know that the people had been listening to the Lord for hours. At the end, Jesus says: They are tired and hungry, we must give these people something to eat. The Apostles ask: But how? And Andrew, Peter's brother, draws Jesus' attention to a boy who had with him five loaves of bread and two fish. But what is this for so many people, the Apostles ask.
Let us now begin with the multiplication of the loaves. You know that the people had been listening to the Lord for hours. At the end, Jesus says: They are tired and hungry, we must give these people something to eat. The Apostles ask: But how? And Andrew, Peter's brother, draws Jesus' attention to a boy who had with him five loaves of bread and two fish. But what is this for so many people, the Apostles ask.
The Lord has the
crowd be seated and these five loaves and two fish distributed. And the hunger
of everyone is satisfied; what is more, the Lord gives the Apostles - Peter
among them - the duty to collect the abundant leftovers: 12 baskets of
bread (cf. Jn 6: 12-13).
Afterwards, the
people, seeing this miracle - that seemed to be the much-awaited renewal of a
new "manna", of the gift of bread from heaven -, wanted to make him
king. But Jesus does not accept and withdraws into the hills by himself to
pray. The following day, on the other side of the lake in the Synagogue of
Capernaum, Jesus explained the miracle - not in the sense of a kingship over
Israel with a worldly power in the way the crowds hoped, but in the sense of the
gift of self: "The bread which I shall give for the life of the
world is my flesh" (Jn 6: 51).
Jesus announces
the Cross and with the Cross the true multiplication of the loaves, the
Eucharistic bread - his absolutely new way of kingship, a way completely
contrary to the expectations of the people.
We can understand
that these words of the Master, who does not want to multiply bread every day,
who does not want to offer Israel a worldly power, would be really difficult,
indeed, unacceptable, for the people. "He gives his flesh":
what does this mean?
Even for the
disciples what Jesus says in this moment seems unacceptable. It was and is for
our heart, for our mentality, a "hard saying" which is a trial of
faith (cf. Jn 6: 60). Many of the disciples went away. They wanted someone
who would truly renew the State of Israel, of his people, and not one who
said: "I give my flesh".
We can imagine that the words of Jesus were difficult for Peter too, who at Caesarea Philippi he protested at the prophesy of the Cross. However, when Jesus asked the Twelve: "Will you also go away?", Peter reacted with the enthusiasm of his generous heart, guided by the Holy Spirit.
We can imagine that the words of Jesus were difficult for Peter too, who at Caesarea Philippi he protested at the prophesy of the Cross. However, when Jesus asked the Twelve: "Will you also go away?", Peter reacted with the enthusiasm of his generous heart, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Speaking on
everyone's behalf, he answered with immortal words, which are also our
words: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of
God" (cf. Jn 6: 66-69).
Here, like at
Caesarea, Peter begins with his words the confession of the Church's
Christological faith and becomes spokesman also for the other Apostles, and of
we believers of all times. This does not mean that he had already understood
the mystery of Christ in all its depth; his faith was still at the beginning of
a journey of faith. It would reach its true fullness only through the
experience of the Paschal events.
Nonetheless, it
was already faith, open to the greatest reality; open especially because it was
not faith in something, it was faith in Someone: in him, Christ.
And so, our faith
too is always an initial one and we have still to carry out a great journey.
But it is essential that it is an open faith and that we allow ourselves to be
led by Jesus, because he does not only know the Way, but he is the Way.
Peter's rash
generosity does not protect him, however, from the risks connected with human
weakness. Moreover, it is what we too can recognize in our own lives. Peter
followed Jesus with enthusiasm, he overcame the trial of faith, abandoning
himself to Christ. The moment comes, however, when he gives in to fear and
falls: he betrays the Master (cf. Mk 14: 66-72).
The school of
faith is not a triumphal march but a journey marked daily by suffering and
love, trials and faithfulness. Peter, who promised absolute fidelity, knew the
bitterness and humiliation of denial: the arrogant man learns the costly
lesson of humility. Peter, too, must learn that he is weak and in need of
forgiveness.
Once his attitude changes and he understands the truth of his weak heart of a believing sinner, he weeps in a fit of liberating repentance. After this weeping he is finally ready for his mission.
Once his attitude changes and he understands the truth of his weak heart of a believing sinner, he weeps in a fit of liberating repentance. After this weeping he is finally ready for his mission.
On a spring
morning, this mission will be entrusted to him by the Risen Christ. The
encounter takes place on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias. John the Evangelist
recounts the conversation between Jesus and Peter in that circumstance. There
is a very significant play on words.
In Greek, the word "fileo" means the love of friendship,
tender but not all-encompassing; instead, the word "agapao" means love without reserve, total
and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon... do you
love me (agapas-me)"
with this total and unconditional love (Jn 21: 15)?
Prior to the
experience of betrayal, the Apostle certainly would have said: "I
love you(agapo-se) unconditionally".
Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own
weakness, he says with humility: "Lord; you know that I love you (filo-se)", that is,
"I love you with my poor human love". Christ insists:
"Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter
repeats the response of his humble human love: "Kyrie,
filo-se", "Lord, I
love you as I am able to love you". The third time Jesus only says to
Simon: "Fileis-me?", "Do you love me?".
Simon understands
that his poor love is enough for Jesus, it is the only one of which he is
capable, nonetheless he is grieved that the Lord spoke to him in this way. He
thus replies: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (filo-se)".
This is to say
that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus'
level! It is exactly this divine conformity that gives hope to the Disciple,
who experienced the pain of infidelity.
From here is born
the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end: "This
he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this he said to
him, "Follow me'" (Jn 21: 19).
From that day,
Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his own
fragility; but this understanding did not discourage him. Indeed, he knew that
he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him.
From the naïve
enthusiasm of initial acceptance, passing though the sorrowful experience of
denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to
that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way he
shows us the way, notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus
adapts himself to this weakness of ours.
We follow him with
our poor capacity to love and we know that Jesus is good and he accepts us.
It was a long journey for Peter that made him a trustworthy witness, "rock" of the Church, because he was constantly open to the action of the Spirit of Jesus.
Peter qualifies himself as a "witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed" (I Pt 5: 1). When he was to write these words he would already be elderly, heading towards the end of his life that will be sealed with martyrdom. He will then be ready to describe true joy and to indicate where it can be drawn from: the source is believing in and loving Christ with our weak but sincere faith, notwithstanding our fragility.
It was a long journey for Peter that made him a trustworthy witness, "rock" of the Church, because he was constantly open to the action of the Spirit of Jesus.
Peter qualifies himself as a "witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed" (I Pt 5: 1). When he was to write these words he would already be elderly, heading towards the end of his life that will be sealed with martyrdom. He will then be ready to describe true joy and to indicate where it can be drawn from: the source is believing in and loving Christ with our weak but sincere faith, notwithstanding our fragility.
He would therefore
write to the Christians of his community, and says also to us:
"Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you
believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of
your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls" (I Pt 1: 8-9).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 7
June 2006
Peter, the rock
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
We are returning
to the weekly Catecheses that we began this spring. In the last Catechesis two
weeks ago, I spoke of Peter as the first of the Apostles; today let us return
once again to this great and important figure of the Church.
In recounting
Jesus' first meeting with Simon, the brother of Andrew, John the Evangelist
records a unique event: Jesus "looked at him and said, "So you
are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas (which means
Peter)'" (Jn 1: 42).
It was not Jesus'
practice to change his disciples' names: apart from the nickname
"sons of thunder", which in specific circumstances he attributed to
the sons of Zebedee (cf. Mk 3: 17) and never used again. He never gave any
of his disciples a new name.
Yet, he gave one
to Simon, calling him "Cephas". This name was later translated into
Greek as Petros and into Latin as Petrus. And it was translated precisely
because it was not only a name; it was a "mandate" that Petrus received in that way from the
Lord. The new namePetrus was
to recur frequently in the Gospels and ended by replacing "Simon",
his original name.
This fact acquires special importance if one bears in mind that in the Old Testament, a change of name usually preceded the entrustment of a mission (cf. Gn 17: 5; 32: 28ff., etc.).
This fact acquires special importance if one bears in mind that in the Old Testament, a change of name usually preceded the entrustment of a mission (cf. Gn 17: 5; 32: 28ff., etc.).
Indeed, many signs
indicate Christ's desire to give Peter special prominence within the Apostolic
College: in Capernaum the Teacher enters Peter's house (cf. Mk
1: 29); when the crowd becomes pressed on the shore of Lake Genesaret,
seeing two boats moored there, Jesus chooses Simon's (cf. Lk 5: 3); when,
on certain occasions, Jesus takes only three disciples with him, Peter is
always recorded as the first of the group: as in the raising of Jairus'
daughter (cf. Mk 5: 37; Lk 8: 51), in the Transfiguration (cf. Mk
9: 2; Mt 17: 1; Lk 9: 28) and during the agony in the Garden of
Gethsemane (cf. Mk 14: 33; Mt 26: 37). And again: the Temple
tax collectors address Peter and the Teacher pays only for himself and Peter
(cf. Mt 17: 24-27); it is Peter's feet that he washes first at the Last
Supper (cf. Jn 13: 6), and for Peter alone he prays that his faith will
not fail so that he will be able to strengthen the other disciples in faith
(cf. Lk 22: 30-31).
Moreover, Peter
himself was aware of his special position: he often also spoke on behalf
of the others, asking for the explanation of a difficult parable (cf. Mt
15: 15), the exact meaning of a precept (cf. Mt 18: 21) or the formal
promise of a reward (cf. Mt 19: 27).
It is Peter in
particular who resolves certain embarrassing situations by intervening on
behalf of all. Thus, when Jesus, saddened by the misunderstanding of the crowd
after the Bread of Life discourse, asks: "Will you also go
away?", Peter's answer is peremptory in tone: "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (cf. Jn 6: 67-69).
Equally decisive
is the profession of faith which, again on behalf of the Twelve, he makes near
Caesarea Philippi. To Jesus' question: "But who do you say that I
am?", Peter answers: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God" (Mt 16: 15-16). Jesus responded by pronouncing the solemn
declaration that defines Peter's role in the Church once and for all:
"And I tell you: you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my
Church.... I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven" (Mt 16: 18-19).
In themselves, the
three metaphors that Jesus uses are crystal clear: Peter will be the rocky foundation on which he will build the edifice of
the Church; he will have the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
to open or close it to people as he sees fit; lastly, he will be able to bindor to loose, in the sense of establishing or
prohibiting whatever he deems necessary for the life of the Church. It is
always Christ's Church, not Peter's.
Thus, vivid images
portray what the subsequent reflection will describe by the term:
"primacy of jurisdiction".
This pre-eminent
position that Jesus wanted to bestow upon Peter is also encountered after the
Resurrection: Jesus charges the women to announce it especially to Peter,
as distinct from the other Apostles (cf. Mk 16: 7); it is to Peter and John
that Mary Magdalene runs to tell them that the stone has been rolled away from
the entrance to the tomb (cf. Jn 20: 2), and John was to stand back to let
Peter enter first when they arrived at the empty tomb (cf. Jn 20: 4-6).
Then, Peter was to
be the first witness of an appearance of the Risen One (cf. Lk 24: 34; I
Cor 15: 5). His role, decisively emphasized (cf. Jn 20: 3-10), marks
the continuity between the pre-eminence he had in the group of the Apostles and
the pre-eminence he would continue to have in the community born with the
paschal events, as the Book of Acts testifies (cf. 1: 15-26;
2: 14-40; 3: 12-26; 4: 8-12; 5: 1-11, 29; 8: 14-17;
10; etc.).
His behaviour was
considered so decisive that it prompted remarks as well as criticism (cf. Acts
11: 1-18; Gal 2: 11-14).
At the so-called
Council of Jerusalem Peter played a directive role (cf. Acts 15; Gal
2: 1-10), and precisely because he was a witness of authentic faith, Paul
himself recognized that he had a certain quality of "leadership" (cf.
I Cor 15: 5; Gal 1: 18; 2: 7ff., etc.).
Moreover, the fact
that several of the key texts that refer to Peter can be traced back to the
context of the Last Supper, during which Christ conferred upon Peter the
ministry of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 31ff.), shows that the
ministry entrusted to Peter was one of the constitutive elements of the Church,
which was born from the commemoration of the Pasch celebrated in the Eucharist.
This
contextualization of the Primacy of Peter at the Last Supper, at the moment of
the Institution of the Eucharist, the Lord's Pasch, also points to the ultimate
meaning of this Primacy: Peter must be the custodian of communion with
Christ for all time. He must guide people to communion with Christ; he must
ensure that the net does not break, and consequently that universal communion
endures. Only together can we be with Christ, who is Lord of all.
Thus, Peter is
responsible for guaranteeing communion with Christ with the love of Christ,
guiding people to fulfil this love in everyday life. Let us pray that the
Primacy of Peter, entrusted to poor human beings, will always be exercised in
this original sense as the Lord desired, and that its true meaning will
therefore always be recognized by the brethren who are not yet in full
communion with us.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Wednesday,
14 June 2006
Andrew,
the Protoclete
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
In the
last two catecheses we spoke about the figure of St Peter. Now, in the measure
that sources allow us, we want to know the other 11 Apostles a bit better.
Therefore, today we shall speak of Simon Peter's brother, St Andrew, who was
also one of the Twelve.
The first
striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as might
have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness in his
family that cannot be ignored. We are in Galilee, where the Greek
language and culture are quite present. Andrew comes second in the list of the
Twelve, as in Matthew (10: 1-4) and in Luke (6: 13-16); or fourth, as
in Mark (3: 13-18) and in the Acts (1: 13-14). In any case, he
certainly enjoyed great prestige within the early Christian communities.
The
kinship between Peter and Andrew, as well as the joint call that Jesus
addressed to them, are explicitly mentioned in the Gospels. We read:
"As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is
called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were
fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men'" (Mt 4: 18-19; Mk 1: 16-17).
From the
Fourth Gospel we know another important detail: Andrew had previously
been a disciple of John the Baptist: and this shows us that he was a man
who was searching, who shared in Israel's hope, who wanted to know better the
word of the Lord, the presence of the Lord.
He was truly a man of faith and hope; and one day he heard John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus as: "the Lamb of God" (Jn 1: 36); so he was stirred, and with another unnamed disciple followed Jesus, the one whom John had called "the Lamb of God". The Evangelist says that "they saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day..." (Jn 1: 37-39).
He was truly a man of faith and hope; and one day he heard John the Baptist proclaiming Jesus as: "the Lamb of God" (Jn 1: 36); so he was stirred, and with another unnamed disciple followed Jesus, the one whom John had called "the Lamb of God". The Evangelist says that "they saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day..." (Jn 1: 37-39).
Thus,
Andrew enjoyed precious moments of intimacy with Jesus. The account continues
with one important annotation: "One of the two who heard John speak,
and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother
Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah' (which means Christ).
He brought him to Jesus" (Jn 1: 40-43), straightaway showing an
unusual apostolic spirit.
Andrew,
then, was the first of the Apostles to be called to follow Jesus. Exactly for
this reason the liturgy of the Byzantine Church honours him with the
nickname: "Protokletos", [protoclete] which means, precisely, "the first called".
And it is
certain that it is partly because of the family tie between Peter and Andrew
that the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople feel one another in a
special way to be Sister Churches. To emphasize this relationship, my
Predecessor Pope Paul VI, in 1964, returned the important relic of St Andrew,
which until then had been kept in the Vatican Basilica, to the Orthodox
Metropolitan Bishop of the city of Patras in Greece, where tradition has it
that the Apostle was crucified.
The Gospel traditions mention Andrew's name in particular on another three occasions that tell us something more about this man. The first is that of the multiplication of the loaves in Galilee. On that occasion, it was Andrew who pointed out to Jesus the presence of a young boy who had with him five barley loaves and two fish: not much, he remarked, for the multitudes who had gathered in that place (cf. Jn 6: 8-9).
The Gospel traditions mention Andrew's name in particular on another three occasions that tell us something more about this man. The first is that of the multiplication of the loaves in Galilee. On that occasion, it was Andrew who pointed out to Jesus the presence of a young boy who had with him five barley loaves and two fish: not much, he remarked, for the multitudes who had gathered in that place (cf. Jn 6: 8-9).
In this
case, it is worth highlighting Andrew's realism. He noticed the boy, that is,
he had already asked the question: "but what good is that for so
many?" (ibid.), and recognized the insufficiency of his minimal resources.
Jesus, however, knew how to make them sufficient for the multitude of people
who had come to hear him.
The
second occasion was at Jerusalem. As he left the city, a disciple drew Jesus'
attention to the sight of the massive walls that supported the Temple. The
Teacher's response was surprising: he said that of those walls not one
stone would be left upon another. Then Andrew, together with Peter, James and
John, questioned him: "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be
the sign when these things are all to be accomplished?" (Mk 13: 1-4).
In answer
to this question Jesus gave an important discourse on the destruction of
Jerusalem and on the end of the world, in which he asked his disciples to be
wise in interpreting the signs of the times and to be constantly on their
guard.
From this
event we can deduce that we should not be afraid to ask Jesus questions but at
the same time that we must be ready to accept even the surprising and difficult
teachings that he offers us.
Lastly, a
third initiative of Andrew is recorded in the Gospels: the scene is still
Jerusalem, shortly before the Passion. For the Feast of the Passover, John
recounts, some Greeks had come to the city, probably proselytes or God-fearing
men who had come up to worship the God of Israel at the Passover Feast. Andrew
and Philip, the two Apostles with Greek names, served as interpreters and
mediators of this small group of Greeks with Jesus.
The
Lord's answer to their question - as so often in John's Gospel - appears
enigmatic, but precisely in this way proves full of meaning. Jesus said to the
two disciples and, through them, to the Greek world: "The hour has
come for the Son of man to be glorified. I solemnly assure you, unless a grain
of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if
it dies, it produces much fruit" (12: 23-24).
Jesus wants to say: Yes, my meeting with the Greeks will take place, but not as a simple, brief conversation between myself and a few others, motivated above all by curiosity. The hour of my glorification will come with my death, which can be compared with the falling into the earth of a grain of wheat. My death on the Cross will bring forth great fruitfulness: in the Resurrection the "dead grain of wheat" - a symbol of myself crucified - will become the bread of life for the world; it will be a light for the peoples and cultures.
Jesus wants to say: Yes, my meeting with the Greeks will take place, but not as a simple, brief conversation between myself and a few others, motivated above all by curiosity. The hour of my glorification will come with my death, which can be compared with the falling into the earth of a grain of wheat. My death on the Cross will bring forth great fruitfulness: in the Resurrection the "dead grain of wheat" - a symbol of myself crucified - will become the bread of life for the world; it will be a light for the peoples and cultures.
Yes, the
encounter with the Greek soul, with the Greek world, will be achieved in that
profundity to which the grain of wheat refers, which attracts to itself the
forces of heaven and earth and becomes bread.
In other
words, Jesus was prophesying about the Church of the Greeks, the Church of the
pagans, the Church of the world, as a fruit of his Pasch.
Some very
ancient traditions not only see Andrew, who communicated these words to the
Greeks, as the interpreter of some Greeks at the meeting with Jesus recalled
here, but consider him the Apostle to the Greeks in the years subsequent to
Pentecost. They enable us to know that for the rest of his life he was the
preacher and interpreter of Jesus for the Greek world.
Peter,
his brother, travelled from Jerusalem through Antioch and reached Rome to
exercise his universal mission; Andrew, instead, was the Apostle of the Greek
world. So it is that in life and in death they appear as true brothers - a
brotherhood that is symbolically expressed in the special reciprocal
relations of the See of Rome and of Constantinople, which are truly Sister
Churches.
A later tradition, as has been mentioned, tells of Andrew's death at Patras, where he too suffered the torture of crucifixion. At that supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be nailed to a cross different from the Cross of Jesus. In his case it was a diagonal or X-shaped cross, which has thus come to be known as "St Andrew's cross".
A later tradition, as has been mentioned, tells of Andrew's death at Patras, where he too suffered the torture of crucifixion. At that supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be nailed to a cross different from the Cross of Jesus. In his case it was a diagonal or X-shaped cross, which has thus come to be known as "St Andrew's cross".
This is
what the Apostle is claimed to have said on that occasion, according to an
ancient story (which dates back to the beginning of the sixth century),
entitled The Passion of Andrew:
"Hail, O Cross, inaugurated by the Body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as though they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired an earthly fear. Now, instead, endowed with heavenly love, you are accepted as a gift.
"Believers
know of the great joy that you possess, and of the multitude of gifts you have
prepared. I come to you, therefore, confident and joyful, so that you too may
receive me exultant as a disciple of the One who was hung upon you.... O
blessed Cross, clothed in the majesty and beauty of the Lord's limbs!... Take
me, carry me far from men, and restore me to my Teacher, so that, through you,
the one who redeemed me by you, may receive me. Hail, O Cross; yes, hail
indeed!".
Here, as
can be seen, is a very profound Christian spirituality. It does not view the
Cross as an instrument of torture but rather as the incomparable means for
perfect configuration to the Redeemer, to the grain of wheat that fell into the
earth.
Here we
have a very important lesson to learn: our own crosses acquire value if
we consider them and accept them as a part of the Cross of Christ, if a
reflection of his light illuminates them.
It is by
that Cross alone that our sufferings too are ennobled and acquire their true
meaning.
The
Apostle Andrew, therefore, teaches us to follow Jesus with promptness (cf. Mt
4: 20; Mk 1: 18), to speak enthusiastically about him to those we
meet, and especially, to cultivate a relationship of true familiarity with him,
acutely aware that in him alone can we find the ultimate meaning of our life
and death.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 21
June 2006
James, the
Greater
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are continuing
the series of portraits of the Apostles chosen directly by Jesus during his
earthly life. We have spoken of St Peter and of his brother, Andrew. Today we
meet the figure of James. The biblical lists of the Twelve mention two people
with this name: James, son of Zebedee, and James, son of Alphaeus (cf. Mk 3:
17,18; Mt 10: 2-3), who are commonly distinguished with the nicknames
"James the Greater" and "James the Lesser".
These titles are
certainly not intended to measure their holiness, but simply to state the
different importance they receive in the writings of the New Testament and, in
particular, in the setting of Jesus' earthly life. Today we will focus our
attention on the first of these two figures with the same name.
The name
"James" is the translation of Iakobos, the Graecised form of the name of
the famous Patriarch, Jacob. The Apostle of this name was the brother of John
and in the above-mentioned lists, comes second, immediately after Peter, as
occurs in Mark (3: 17); or in the third place, after Peter and Andrew as in the
Gospels of Matthew (10: 2) and Luke (6: 14), while in the Acts he comes after
Peter and John (1: 13). This James belongs, together with Peter and John, to
the group of the three privileged disciples whom Jesus admitted to important
moments in his life.
Since it is very hot today, I want to be brief and to mention here only two of these occasions. James was able to take part, together with Peter and John, in Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the event of Jesus' Transfiguration. Thus, it is a question of situations very different from each other: in one case, James, together with the other two Apostles, experiences the Lord's glory and sees him talking to Moses and Elijah, he sees the divine splendour shining out in Jesus.
Since it is very hot today, I want to be brief and to mention here only two of these occasions. James was able to take part, together with Peter and John, in Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the event of Jesus' Transfiguration. Thus, it is a question of situations very different from each other: in one case, James, together with the other two Apostles, experiences the Lord's glory and sees him talking to Moses and Elijah, he sees the divine splendour shining out in Jesus.
On the other
occasion, he finds himself face to face with suffering and humiliation, he sees
with his own eyes how the Son of God humbles himself, making himself obedient
unto death. The latter experience was certainly an opportunity for him to grow
in faith, to adjust the unilateral, triumphalist interpretation of the former
experience: he had to discern that the Messiah, whom the Jewish people were
awaiting as a victor, was in fact not only surrounded by honour and glory, but
also by suffering and weakness. Christ's glory was fulfilled precisely on the
Cross, in his sharing in our sufferings.
This growth in
faith was brought to completion by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so that James,
when the moment of supreme witness came, would not draw back. Early in the
first century, in the 40s, King Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great,
as Luke tells us, "laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the
Church. He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword" (Acts 12:
1-2).
The brevity of the
news, devoid of any narrative detail, reveals on the one hand how normal it was
for Christians to witness to the Lord with their own lives, and on the other,
that James had a position of relevance in the Church of Jerusalem, partly
because of the role he played during Jesus' earthly existence.
A later tradition,
dating back at least to Isidore of Seville, speaks of a visit he made to Spain
to evangelize that important region of the Roman Empire. According to another
tradition, it was his body instead that had been taken to Spain, to the city of
Santiago de Compostela.
As we all know,
that place became the object of great veneration and is still the destination
of numerous pilgrimages, not only from Europe but from the whole world. This
explains the iconographical representation of St James with the pilgrim's staff
and the scroll of the Gospel in hand, typical features of the travelling
Apostle dedicated to the proclamation of the "Good News" and
characteristics of the pilgrimage of Christian life.
Consequently, we can learn much from St James: promptness in accepting the Lord's call even when he asks us to leave the "boat" of our human securities, enthusiasm in following him on the paths that he indicates to us over and above any deceptive presumption of our own, readiness to witness to him with courage, if necessary to the point of making the supreme sacrifice of life.
Consequently, we can learn much from St James: promptness in accepting the Lord's call even when he asks us to leave the "boat" of our human securities, enthusiasm in following him on the paths that he indicates to us over and above any deceptive presumption of our own, readiness to witness to him with courage, if necessary to the point of making the supreme sacrifice of life.
Thus James the
Greater stands before us as an eloquent example of generous adherence to
Christ. He, who initially had requested, through his mother, to be seated with
his brother next to the Master in his Kingdom, was precisely the first to drink
the chalice of the passion and to share martyrdom with the Apostles.
And, in the end,
summarizing everything, we can say that the journey, not only exterior but
above all interior, from the mount of the Transfiguration to the mount of the
Agony, symbolizes the entire pilgrimage of Christian life, among the
persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, as the Second Vatican
Council says. In following Jesus, like St James, we know that even in
difficulties we are on the right path.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 28
June 2006
James, the
Lesser
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Beside the figure
of James the Greater, son of Zebedee, of whom we spoke last Wednesday, another
James appears in the Gospels, known as "the Lesser". He is also
included in the list of the Twelve Apostles personally chosen by Jesus and is
always specified as "the son of Alphaeus" (Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18; Lk 5; Acts 1: 13). He has often been identified
with another James, called "the Younger" (cf. Mk 15: 40), the son of a Mary (cf. ibid.), possibly "Mary the wife of
Clopas", who stood, according to the Fourth Gospel, at the foot of the
Cross with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Jn 19: 25).
He also came from
Nazareth and was probably related to Jesus (cf. Mt 13: 55; Mk 6: 3); according to Semitic custom he
is called "brother" (Mk 6:
3; Gal 1: 19).
The book of the
Acts of the Apostles emphasizes the prominent role that this latter James
played in the Church of Jerusalem. At the Apostolic Council celebrated there
after the death of James the Greater he declared, together with the others,
that pagans could be received into the Church without first submitting to
circumcision (cf. Acts 15: 13). St Paul, who attributes a
specific appearance of the Risen One to James (cf. I Cor 15: 7), even named James before
Cephas-Peter on the occasion of his visit to Jerusalem, describing him as a
"pillar" of that Church on a par with Peter (cf. Gal 2: 9).
Subsequently,
Judeo-Christians considered him their main reference point. The Letter that
bears the name of James is also attributed to him and is included in the New
Testament canon. In it, he is not presented as a "brother of the
Lord" but as a "servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Jas 1: 1).
Among experts, the
question of the identity of these two figures with the same name, James son of
Alphaeus and James "the brother of the Lord", is disputed. With
reference to the period of Jesus' earthly life, the Gospel traditions have not
kept for us any account of either one of them.
The Acts of the
Apostles, on the other hand, reveal that a "James" played a very
important role in the early Church, as we have already mentioned, after the
Resurrection of Jesus (cf.Acts 12:
17; 15: 13-21; 21: 18).
His most important
act was his intervention in the matter of the difficult relations between the
Christians of Jewish origin and those of pagan origin: in this matter, together
with Peter, he contributed to overcoming, or rather, to integrating the
original Jewish dimension of Christianity with the need not to impose upon
converted pagans the obligation to submit to all the norms of the Law of Moses.
The Book of Acts has preserved for us the solution of compromise proposed
precisely by James and accepted by all the Apostles present, according to which
pagans who believed in Jesus Christ were to be asked only to abstain from the
idolatrous practice of eating the meat of animals offered in sacrifice to the
gods, and from "impropriety", a term which probably alluded to
irregular matrimonial unions. In practice, it was a question of adhering to
only a few prohibitions of Mosaic Law held to be very important.
Thus, two
important and complementary results were obtained, both of which are still
valid today: on the one hand, the inseparable relationship that binds
Christianity to the Jewish religion, as to a perennially alive and effective
matrix, was recognized; and on the other, Christians of pagan origin were
permitted to keep their own sociological identity which they would have lost
had they been forced to observe the so-called "ceremonial precepts"
of Moses.
Henceforth, these
precepts were no longer to be considered binding for converted pagans. In
essence, this gave rise to a practice of reciprocal esteem and respect which,
despite subsequent regrettable misunderstandings, aimed by its nature to
safeguard what was characteristic of each one of the two parties.
The oldest
information on the death of this James is given to us by the Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus. In his Jewish Antiquities (20, 201ff.), written in Rome
towards the end of the first century, he says that the death of James was
decided with an illegal initiative by the High Priest Ananus, a son of the Ananias
attested to in the Gospels; in the year 62, he profited from the gap between
the deposition of one Roman Procurator (Festus) and the arrival of his
successor (Albinus), to hand him over for stoning.
As well as the
apocryphal Proto-Gospel of James, which exalts the holiness and virginity of
Mary, Mother of Jesus, the Letter that bears his name is particularly
associated with the name of this James. In the canon of the New Testament, it
occupies the first place among the so-called "Catholic Letters", that
is, those that were not addressed to any single particular Church - such as
Rome, Ephesus, etc. - but to many Churches.
It is quite an
important writing which heavily insists on the need not to reduce our faith to
a purely verbal or abstract declaration, but to express it in practice in good
works. Among other things, he invites us to be constant in trials, joyfully
accepted, and to pray with trust to obtain from God the gift of wisdom, thanks
to which we succeed in understanding that the true values of life are not to be
found in transient riches but rather in the ability to share our possessions
with the poor and the needy (cf. Jas 1: 27).
Thus, St James'
Letter shows us a very concrete and practical Christianity. Faith must be
fulfilled in life, above all, in love of neighbour and especially in dedication
to the poor. It is against this background that the famous sentence must be
read: "As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from
works is dead" (Jas 2:
26).
At times, this
declaration by St James has been considered as opposed to the affirmations of
Paul, who claims that we are justified by God not by virtue of our actions but
through our faith (cf. Gal 2: 16; Rom 3: 28). However, if the two apparently
contradictory sentences with their different perspectives are correctly
interpreted, they actually complete each other.
St Paul is opposed
to the pride of man who thinks he does not need the love of God that precedes
us; he is opposed to the pride of self-justification without grace, simply
given and undeserved.
St James, instead,
talks about works as the normal fruit of faith: "Every sound tree bears
good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit", the Lord says (Mt 7: 17). And St James repeats it and
says it to us.
Lastly, the Letter
of James urges us to abandon ourselves in the hands of God in all that we do:
"If the Lord wills" (Jas 4:
15). Thus, he teaches us not to presume to plan our lives autonomously and with
self interest, but to make room for the inscrutable will of God, who knows what
is truly good for us.
In this way, St
James remains an ever up-to-date teacher of life for each one of us.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Wednesday,
5 July 2006
John,
son of Zebedee
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Let us
dedicate our meeting today to remembering another very important member of the
Apostolic College: John, son of Zebedee and brother of James. His typically Jewish
name means: "the Lord has worked grace". He was mending his nets on
the shore of Lake Tiberias when Jesus called him and his brother (cf. Mt 4: 21;
Mk 1: 19).
John was
always among the small group that Jesus took with him on specific occasions. He
was with Peter and James when Jesus entered Peter's house in Capernaum to cure
his mother-in-law (cf. Mk 1: 29); with the other two, he followed the Teacher
into the house of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue whose daughter he was to
bring back to life (cf. Mk 5: 37); he followed him when he climbed the mountain
for his Transfiguration (cf. Mk 9: 2).
He was
beside the Lord on the Mount of Olives when, before the impressive sight of the
Temple of Jerusalem, he spoke of the end of the city and of the world (cf. Mk
13: 3); and, lastly, he was close to him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he
withdrew to pray to the Father before the Passion (cf. Mk 14: 33).
Shortly
before the Passover, when Jesus chose two disciples to send them to prepare the
room for the Supper, it was to him and to Peter that he entrusted this task
(cf. Lk 22: 8).
His
prominent position in the group of the Twelve makes it somewhat easier to
understand the initiative taken one day by his mother: she approached Jesus to
ask him if her two sons - John and James - could sit next to him in the
Kingdom, one on his right and one on his left (cf. Mt 20: 20-21).
As we
know, Jesus answered by asking a question in turn: he asked whether they were
prepared to drink the cup that he was about to drink (cf. Mt 20: 22). The
intention behind those words was to open the two disciples' eyes, to introduce
them to knowledge of the mystery of his person and to suggest their future
calling to be his witnesses, even to the supreme trial of blood.
A little
later, in fact, Jesus explained that he had not come to be served, but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mt 20: 28).
In the
days after the Resurrection, we find "the sons of Zebedee" busy with
Peter and some of the other disciples on a night when they caught nothing, but
that was followed, after the intervention of the Risen One, by the miraculous
catch: it was to be "the disciple Jesus loved" who first recognized
"the Lord" and pointed him out to Peter (cf. Jn 21: 1-13).
In the
Church of Jerusalem, John occupied an important position in supervising the
first group of Christians. Indeed, Paul lists him among those whom he calls the
"pillars" of that community (cf. Gal 2: 9). In fact, Luke in the Acts
presents him together with Peter while they are going to pray in the temple
(cf. Acts 3: 1-4, 11) or appear before the Sanhedrin to witness to their faith
in Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4: 13, 19).
Together
with Peter, he is sent to the Church of Jerusalem to strengthen the people in
Samaria who had accepted the Gospel, praying for them that they might receive
the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8: 14-15). In particular, we should remember what he
affirmed with Peter to the Sanhedrin members who were accusing them: "We
cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4: 20).
It is
precisely this frankness in confessing his faith that lives on as an example
and a warning for all of us always to be ready to declare firmly our steadfast
attachment to Christ, putting faith before any human calculation or concern.
According
to tradition, John is the "disciple whom Jesus loved", who in the
Fourth Gospel laid his head against the Teacher's breast at the Last Supper
(cf. Jn 13: 23), stood at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of
Jesus (cf. Jn 19: 25) and lastly, witnessed both the empty tomb and the
presence of the Risen One himself (cf. Jn 20: 2; 21: 7).
We know
that this identification is disputed by scholars today, some of whom view him
merely as the prototype of a disciple of Jesus. Leaving the exegetes to settle
the matter, let us be content here with learning an important lesson for our
lives: the Lord wishes to make each one of us a disciple who lives in personal
friendship with him.
To
achieve this, it is not enough to follow him and to listen to him outwardly: it
is also necessary to live with him and like him. This is only possible in the
context of a relationship of deep familiarity, imbued with the warmth of total
trust. This is what happens between friends; for this reason Jesus said one
day: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends.... No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know
what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have
heard from my Father I have made known to you" (Jn 15: 13, 15).
In the
apocryphal Acts of John, the Apostle is not presented as the
founder of Churches nor as the guide of already established communities, but as
a perpetual wayfarer, a communicator of the faith in the encounter with
"souls capable of hoping and of being saved" (18: 10; 23: 8).
All is
motivated by the paradoxical intention to make visible the invisible. And
indeed, the Oriental Church calls him quite simply "the Theologian",
that is, the one who can speak in accessible terms of the divine, revealing an
arcane access to God through attachment to Jesus.
Devotion
to the Apostle John spread from the city of Ephesus where, according to an
ancient tradition, he worked for many years and died in the end at an
extraordinarily advanced age, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.
In Ephesus
in the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian had a great basilica built in his
honour, whose impressive ruins are still standing today. Precisely in the East,
he enjoyed and still enjoys great veneration.
In
Byzantine iconography he is often shown as very elderly - according to
tradition, he died under the Emperor Trajan - in the process of intense
contemplation, in the attitude, as it were, of those asking for silence.
Indeed,
without sufficient recollection it is impossible to approach the supreme mystery
of God and of his revelation. This explains why, years ago, Athenagoras,
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the man whom Pope Paul VI embraced at a
memorable encounter, said: "John is the origin of our loftiest
spirituality. Like him, "the silent ones' experience that mysterious
exchange of hearts, pray for John's presence, and their hearts are set on
fire" (O. Clément, Dialoghi con Atenagora, Turin 1972, p.
159).
May the
Lord help us to study at John's school and learn the great lesson of love, so as
to feel we are loved by Christ "to the end" (Jn 13: 1), and spend our
lives for him.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Paul
VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 9 August 2006
Wednesday, 9 August 2006
John,
the theologian
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Before
the holidays I had begun sketching small portraits of the Twelve Apostles. The
Apostles were Jesus' travelling companions, Jesus' friends. Their journey with
Jesus was not only a physical journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, but an
interior journey during which they learned faith in Jesus Christ, not without
difficulty, for they were people like us.
But for
this very reason, because they were Jesus' travelling companions, Jesus'
friends, who learned faith on a journey that was far from easy, they are also
guides for us, who help us to know Jesus Christ, to love him and to have faith
in him.
I have
already commented on four of the Twelve Apostles: Simon Peter; Andrew, his
brother; James, the brother of St John; and the other James, known as "The
Lesser", who wrote a Letter that we find in the New Testament. And I had
started to speak about John the Evangelist, gathering together in the last
Catechesis before the holidays the essential facts for this Apostle's profile.
I would
now like to focus attention on the content of his teaching. The writings that
we want to examine today, therefore, are the Gospel and the Letters that go
under his name.
If there
is one characteristic topic that emerges from John's writings, it is love. It
is not by chance that I wanted to begin my first Encyclical Letter with this
Apostle's words, "God is love (Deus caritas est); he
who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (I Jn 4: 16). It
is very difficult to find texts of this kind in other religions. Thus, words
such as these bring us face to face with an element that is truly peculiar to
Christianity.
John, of
course, is not the only author of Christian origin to speak of love. Since this
is an essential constituent of Christianity, all the New Testament writers
speak of it, although with different emphases.
If we are
now pausing to reflect on this subject in John, it is because he has outlined
its principal features insistently and incisively. We therefore trust his
words. One thing is certain: he does not provide an abstract, philosophical or
even theological treatment of what love is.
No, he is
not a theoretician. True love, in fact, by its nature is never purely
speculative but makes a direct, concrete and even verifiable reference to real
persons. Well, John, as an Apostle and a friend of Jesus, makes us see what its
components are, or rather, the phases of Christian love, a movement marked by
three moments.
The first
concerns the very Source of love which the Apostle identifies as God, arriving
at the affirmation that "God is love" (I Jn 4: 8, 16). John is the
only New Testament author who gives us definitions of God. He says, for example,
that "God is spirit" (Jn 4: 24) or that "God is light" (I
Jn 1: 5). Here he proclaims with radiant insight that "God is love".
Take
note: it is not merely asserted that "God loves", or even less that
"love is God"! In other words: John does not limit himself to
describing the divine action but goes to its roots.
Moreover,
he does not intend to attribute a divine quality to a generic and even
impersonal love; he does not rise from love to God, but turns directly to God
to define his nature with the infinite dimension of love.
By so
doing, John wants to say that the essential constituent of God is love and
hence, that all God's activity is born from love and impressed with love: all
that God does, he does out of love and with love, even if we are not always
immediately able to understand that this is love, true love.
At this
point, however, it is indispensable to take another step and explain that God
has concretely demonstrated his love by entering human history through the
Person of Jesus Christ, incarnate, dead and risen for us.
This is
the second constitutive moment of God's love. He did not limit himself to
verbal declarations but, we can say, truly committed himself and
"paid" in the first person.
Exactly
as John writes, "God so loved the world", that is, all of us,
"that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3: 16). Henceforth, God's love for
humanity is concretized and manifested in the love of Jesus himself.
Again,
John writes: "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to
the end" (Jn 13: 1). By virtue of this oblative and total love we are
radically ransomed from sin, as St John writes further: "My little
children... if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ, the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours
only but also for the sins of the whole world" (I Jn 2: 1-2; cf. I Jn 1:
7).
This is
how Jesus' love for us reaches us: by the pouring out of his own Blood for our
salvation! The Christian, pausing in contemplation before this
"excess" of love, cannot but wonder what the proper response is. And
I think each one of us, always and over and over again, must ask himself or
herself this.
This
question introduces us into the third moment of the dynamic of love: from being
the recipients of a love that precedes and surpasses us, we are called to the
commitment of an active response which, to be adequate, can only be a response
of love.
John
speaks of a "commandment". He is, in fact, referring to these words
of Jesus: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another" (Jn 13: 34).
Where is
the newness to which Jesus refers? It lies in the fact that he is not content
with repeating what had already been requested in the Old Testament and which
we also read in the other Gospels: "You shall love your neighbour as
yourself" (Lv 19: 18; cf. Mt 22: 37-39; Mk 12: 29-31; Lk 10: 27).
In the
ancient precept the standard criterion was based on man ("as
yourself"), whereas in the precept to which John refers, Jesus presents
his own Person as the reason for and norm of our love: "as I have loved
you".
It is in
this way that love becomes truly Christian: both in the sense that it must be
directed to all without distinction, and above all since it must be carried
through to its extreme consequences, having no other bounds than being
boundless.
Those
words of Jesus, "as I have loved you", simultaneously invite and
disturb us; they are a Christological goal that can appear unattainable, but at
the same time they are an incentive that does not allow us to ensconce
ourselves in what we have been able to achieve. It does not permit us to be
content with what we are but spurs us to keep advancing towards this goal.
In The
Imitation of Christ, that golden text of spirituality which is the
small book dating back to the late Middle Ages, on this subject is
written: "The love of Jesus is noble and generous: it spurs us on to do
great things, and excites us to desire always that which is most perfect. Love
will tend upwards and is not to be detained by things beneath. Love will be at
liberty and free from all worldly affections... for love proceeds from God and
cannot rest but in God above all things created. The lover flies, runs and
rejoices, he is free and not held. He gives all for all and has all in all,
because he rests in one sovereign good above all, from whom all good flows and
proceeds" (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book
III, Chapter V, 3-4).
What
better comment could there be on the "new commandment" spelled out by
John? Let us pray to the Father to be able, even if always imperfectly, to live
it so intensely that we share it with those we meet on our way.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Paul
VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 23 August 2006
Wednesday, 23 August 2006
John,
the Seer of Patmos
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
In the
last Catechesis we had reached the meditation on the figure of the Apostle
John. We had first sought to look at all that can be known of his life. Then,
in a second Catechesis, we meditated on the central content of his Gospel and
his Letters: charity, love. And today we are still concerned with the figure of
John, this time to examine the Seer of the Book of Revelation. And let us
immediately note that while neither the Fourth Gospel nor the Letters
attributed to the Apostle ever bear his name, the Book of Revelation makes at
least four references to it (cf. 1: 1, 4, 9; 22: 8).
It is
obvious, on the one hand, that the author had no reason not to mention his own
name, and on the other, that he knew his first readers would be able to
precisely identify him. We know, moreover, that in the third century, scholars
were already disputing the true factual identity of John of the
"Apocalypse".
For the
sake of convenience we could also call him "the Seer of Patmos"
because he is linked to the name of this island in the Aegean See where,
according to his own autobiographical account, he was, as it were, deported
"on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rv 1: 9).
It was on
Patmos itself, "on the Lord's Day... caught up in ecstasy" (Rv 1:
10), that John had a grandiose vision and heard extraordinary messages that
were to have a strong influence on the history of the Church and of entire
Western culture.
For
example, from the title of his book - Apocalypse,
Revelation - the words "apocalypse, apocalyptic" were
introduced into our language and, although inaccurately, they call to mind the
idea of an incumbent catastrophe.
The Book
should be understood against the backdrop of the dramatic experiences of the
seven Churches of Asia (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, Laodicea) which had to face serious difficulties at the end of
the first century - persecutions and also inner tensions - in their witness to
Christ.
John
addresses them, showing acute pastoral sensitivity to the persecuted
Christians, whom he exhorts to be steadfast in the faith and not to identify
with the pagan world. His purpose is constituted once and for all by the
revelation, starting with the death and Resurrection of Christ, of the meaning
of human history.
The first
and fundamental vision of John, in fact, concerns the figure of the Lamb who is
slain yet standing (cf. Rv 5: 6), and is placed before the throne on which God
himself is already seated.
By saying
this, John wants first of all to tell us two things: the first is that although
Jesus was killed with an act of violence, instead of falling heavily to the
ground, he paradoxically stands very firmly on his own feet because, with the
Resurrection, he overcame death once and for all.
The other
thing is that Jesus himself, precisely because he died and was raised,
henceforth fully shares in the kingship and saving power of the Father. This is
the fundamental vision.
On this
earth, Jesus, the Son of God, is a defenceless, wounded and dead Lamb. Yet he
stands up straight, on his feet, before God's throne and shares in the divine
power. He has the history of the world in his hands.
Thus, the
Seer wants to tell us: trust in Jesus, do not be afraid of the opposing powers,
of persecution! The wounded and dead Lamb is victorious! Follow the Lamb Jesus,
entrust yourselves to Jesus, take his path! Even if in this world he is only a
Lamb who appears weak, it is he who triumphs!
The
subject of one of the most important visions of the Book of Revelation is this
Lamb in the act of opening a scroll, previously closed with seven seals that no
one had been able to break open. John is even shown in tears, for he finds no
one worthy of opening the scroll or reading it (cf. Rv 5: 4).
History
remains indecipherable, incomprehensible. No one can read it. Perhaps John's
weeping before the mystery of a history so obscure expresses the Asian
Churches' dismay at God's silence in the face of the persecutions to which they
were exposed at that time.
It is a
dismay that can clearly mirror our consternation in the face of the serious
difficulties, misunderstandings and hostility that the Church also suffers
today in various parts of the world.
These are
trials that the Church does not of course deserve, just as Jesus himself did
not deserve his torture. However, they reveal both the wickedness of man, when
he abandons himself to the promptings of evil, and also the superior ordering
of events on God's part.
Well
then, only the sacrificed Lamb can open the sealed scroll and reveal its
content, give meaning to this history that so often seems senseless. He alone
can draw from it instructions and teachings for the life of Christians, to whom
his victory over death brings the message and guarantee of victory that they
too will undoubtedly obtain. The whole of the vividly imaginative language that
John uses aims to offer this consolation.
Also at
the heart of the visions that the Book of Revelation unfolds, are the deeply
significant vision of the Woman bringing forth a male child and the
complementary one of the dragon, already thrown down from Heaven but still very
powerful.
This
Woman represents Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer, but at the same time she
also represents the whole Church, the People of God of all times, the Church
which in all ages, with great suffering, brings forth Christ ever anew. And she
is always threatened by the dragon's power. She appears defenceless and weak.
But while
she is threatened, persecuted by the dragon, she is also protected by God's
comfort. And in the end this Woman wins. The dragon does not win.
This is
the great prophecy of this Book that inspires confidence in us! The Woman who
suffers in history, the Church which is persecuted, appears in the end as the
radiant Bride, the figure of the new Jerusalem where there will be no more
mourning or weeping, an image of the world transformed, of the new world whose
light is God himself, whose lamp is the Lamb.
For this
reason, although John's Book of Revelation is pervaded by continuous references
to suffering, tribulation and tears - the dark face of history -, it is
likewise permeated by frequent songs of praise that symbolize, as it were, the
luminous face of history.
So it is,
for example, that we read in it of a great multitude that is singing, almost
shouting: "Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us
rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has
come, and his Bride has made herself ready" (Rv 19: 6-7).
Here we
face the typical Christian paradox, according to which suffering is never seen
as the last word but rather, as a transition towards happiness; indeed,
suffering itself is already mysteriously mingled with the joy that flows from
hope.
For this
very reason John, the Seer of Patmos, can close his Book with a final
aspiration, trembling with fearful expectation. He invokes the definitive
coming of the Lord: "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rv 22: 20).
This was
one of the central prayers of the nascent Christianity, also translated by St
Paul into its Aramaic form: "Marana tha". And this
prayer, "Our Lord, come!" (I Cor 16: 22) has many dimensions.
It is,
naturally, first and foremost an expectation of the definitive victory of the
Lord, of the new Jerusalem, of the Lord who comes and transforms the world. But
at the same time, it is also a Eucharistic prayer: "Come Jesus,
now!". And Jesus comes; he anticipates his definitive coming.
So it is
that we say joyfully at the same time: "Come now and come for ever!".
This
prayer also has a third meaning: "You have already come, Lord! We are sure
of your presence among us. It is our joyous experience. But come
definitively!".
And thus,
let us too pray with St Paul, with the Seer of Patmos, with the newborn
Christianity: "Come, Jesus! Come and transform the world! Come today
already and may peace triumph!". Amen!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI
Audience Hall
Wednesday, 30 August 2006
Wednesday, 30 August 2006
Matthew
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Continuing the
series of portraits of the Twelve Apostles that we began a few weeks ago, let
us reflect today on Matthew. To tell the truth, it is almost impossible to
paint a complete picture of him because the information we have of him is
scarce and fragmentary. What we can do, however, is to outline not so much his
biography as, rather, the profile of him that the Gospel conveys.
In the meantime,
he always appears in the lists of the Twelve chosen by Jesus (cf. Mt 10: 3; Mk
3: 18; Lk 6: 15; Acts 1: 13).
His name in Hebrew
means "gift of God". The first canonical Gospel, which goes under his
name, presents him to us in the list of the Twelve, labelled very precisely:
"the tax collector" (Mt 10: 3).
Thus, Matthew is
identified with the man sitting at the tax office whom Jesus calls to follow
him: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting
at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me'. And he rose and
followed him" (Mt 9: 9). Mark (cf. 2: 13-17) and Luke (cf. 5: 27-30), also
tell of the calling of the man sitting at the tax office, but they call him
"Levi".
To imagine the
scene described in Mt 9: 9, it suffices to recall Caravaggio's magnificent
canvas, kept here in Rome at the Church of St Louis of the French.
A further
biographical detail emerges from the Gospels: in the passage that immediately
precedes the account of the call, a miracle that Jesus worked at Capernaum is
mentioned (cf. Mt 9: 1-8; Mk 2: 1-12) and the proximity to the Sea of Galilee,
that is, the Lake of Tiberias (cf. Mk 2: 13-14).
It is possible to
deduce from this that Matthew exercised the function of tax collector at
Capernaum, which was exactly located "by the sea" (Mt 4: 13), where
Jesus was a permanent guest at Peter's house.
On the basis of
these simple observations that result from the Gospel, we can advance a pair of
thoughts.
The first is that
Jesus welcomes into the group of his close friends a man who, according to the
concepts in vogue in Israel at that time, was regarded as a public sinner.
Matthew, in fact,
not only handled money deemed impure because of its provenance from people
foreign to the People of God, but he also collaborated with an alien and
despicably greedy authority whose tributes moreover, could be arbitrarily
determined.
This is why the
Gospels several times link "tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 9: 10; Lk
15: 1), as well as "tax collectors and prostitutes" (Mt 21: 31).
Furthermore, they
see publicans as an example of miserliness (cf. Mt 5: 46: they only like those
who like them), and mention one of them, Zacchaeus, as "a chief tax
collector, and rich" (Lk 19: 2), whereas popular opinion associated them
with "extortioners, the unjust, adulterers" (Lk 18: 11).
A first fact
strikes one based on these references: Jesus does not exclude anyone from his
friendship. Indeed, precisely while he is at table in the home of Matthew-Levi,
in response to those who expressed shock at the fact that he associated with
people who had so little to recommend them, he made the important statement:
"Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mk 2: 17).
The good news of
the Gospel consists precisely in this: offering God's grace to the sinner!
Elsewhere, with
the famous words of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the Temple to
pray, Jesus actually indicates an anonymous tax collector as an appreciated
example of humble trust in divine mercy: while the Pharisee is boasting of his
own moral perfection, the "tax collector... would not even lift up his
eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a
sinner!'".
And Jesus
comments: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who
humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 18: 13-14).
Thus, in the
figure of Matthew, the Gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those
who seem to be the farthest from holiness can even become a model of the
acceptance of God's mercy and offer a glimpse of its marvellous effects in
their own lives.
St John Chrysostom
makes an important point in this regard: he notes that only in the account of
certain calls is the work of those concerned mentioned. Peter, Andrew, James
and John are called while they are fishing, while Matthew, while he is
collecting tithes.
These are
unimportant jobs, Chrysostom comments, "because there is nothing more
despicable than the tax collector, and nothing more common than fishing" (In
Matth. Hom.: PL 57, 363).
Jesus' call, therefore, also reaches people of a low social class while they go
about their ordinary work.
Another reflection
prompted by the Gospel narrative is that Matthew responds instantly to Jesus'
call: "he rose and followed him". The brevity of the sentence clearly
highlights Matthew's readiness in responding to the call. For him it meant
leaving everything, especially what guaranteed him a reliable source of income,
even if it was often unfair and dishonourable. Evidently, Matthew understood
that familiarity with Jesus did not permit him to pursue activities of which
God disapproved.
The application to
the present day is easy to see: it is not permissible today either to be
attached to things that are incompatible with the following of Jesus, as is the
case with riches dishonestly achieved.
Jesus once said,
mincing no words: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and
give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow
me" (Mt 19: 21).
This is exactly
what Matthew did: he rose and followed him! In this "he rose", it is
legitimate to read detachment from a sinful situation and at the same time, a
conscious attachment to a new, upright life in communion with Jesus.
Lastly, let us
remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to
Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. This had already begun with Bishop
Papias of Hierapolis in Frisia, in about the year 130.
He writes:
"Matthew set down the words (of the Lord) in the Hebrew tongue and everyone
interpreted them as best he could" (in Eusebius of Cesarea, Hist. Eccl. III, 39, 16).
Eusebius, the
historian, adds this piece of information: "When Matthew, who had first
preached among the Jews, decided also to reach out to other peoples, he wrote
down the Gospel he preached in his mother tongue; thus, he sought to put in
writing, for those whom he was leaving, what they would be losing with his
departure" (ibid., III,
24, 6).
The Gospel of
Matthew written in Hebrew or Aramaic is no longer extant, but in the Greek
Gospel that we possess we still continue to hear, in a certain way, the
persuasive voice of the publican Matthew, who, having become an Apostle,
continues to proclaim God's saving mercy to us. And let us listen to St
Matthew's message, meditating upon it ever anew also to learn to stand up and
follow Jesus with determination.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's
Square
Wednesday, 6 September 2006
Wednesday, 6 September 2006
Philip the
Apostle
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
While we continue
to outline the features of the various Apostles, as we have been doing for
several weeks, today we meet Philip. He always comes fifth in the lists of the
Twelve (cf. Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18; Lk 6: 14; Acts 1: 13); hence, he is definitely
among the first.
Although Philip
was of Jewish origin, his name is Greek, like that of Andrew, and this is a
small sign of cultural openness that must not be underestimated. The
information we have on him is provided by John's Gospel. Like Peter and Andrew,
he is a native of Bethsaida (cf. Jn 1: 44), a town that belonged to the
Tetrarchy of a son of Herod the Great, who was also called Philip (cf. Lk 3:
1).
The Fourth Gospel
recounts that after being called by Jesus, Philip meets Nathanael and tells
him: "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets
wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (Jn 1: 45). Philip does not
give way to Nathanael's somewhat sceptical answer ("Can anything good come
out of Nazareth?") and firmly retorts: "Come and see!" (Jn 1:
46).
In his dry but
clear response, Philip displays the characteristics of a true witness: he is
not satisfied with presenting the proclamation theoretically, but directly
challenges the person addressing him by suggesting he have a personal experience
of what he has been told.
The same two verbs
are used by Jesus when two disciples of John the Baptist approach him to ask
him where he is staying. Jesus answers: "Come and see" (cf. Jn 1:
38-39).
We can imagine
that Philip is also addressing us with those two verbs that imply personal
involvement. He is also saying to us what he said to Nathanael: "Come and
see". The Apostle engages us to become closely acquainted with Jesus.
In fact,
friendship, true knowledge of the other person, needs closeness and indeed, to
a certain extent, lives on it. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that
according to what Mark writes, Jesus chose the Twelve primarily "to be
with him" (Mk 3: 14); that is, to share in his life and learn directly
from him not only the style of his behaviour, but above all who he really was.
Indeed, only in
this way, taking part in his life, could they get to know him and subsequently,
proclaim him.
Later, in Paul's
Letter to the Ephesians, one would read that what is important is to
"learn Christ" (4: 20): therefore, not only and not so much to listen
to his teachings and words as rather to know him in person, that is, his
humanity and his divinity, his mystery and his beauty. In fact, he is not only
a Teacher but a Friend, indeed, a Brother.
How will we be
able to get to know him properly by being distant? Closeness, familiarity and
habit make us discover the true identity of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Philip
reminds us precisely of this. And thus he invites us to "come" and
"see", that is, to enter into contact by listening, responding and
communion of life with Jesus, day by day.
Then, on the
occasion of the multiplication of the loaves, he received a request from Jesus
as precise as it was surprising: that is, where could they buy bread to satisfy
the hunger of all the people who were following him (cf. Jn 6: 5). Then Philip
very realistically answered: "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough
bread for each of them to get a little" (Jn 6: 7).
Here one can see
the practicality and realism of the Apostle who can judge the effective
implications of a situation.
We then know how
things went. We know that Jesus took the loaves and after giving thanks,
distributed them. Thus, he brought about the multiplication of the loaves.
It is interesting,
however, that it was to Philip himself that Jesus turned for some preliminary
help with solving the problem: this is an obvious sign that he belonged to the
close group that surrounded Jesus.
On another
occasion very important for future history, before the Passion some Greeks who
had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover "came to Philip... and said to him,
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus'. Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with
Philip and they told Jesus" (cf. Jn 12: 20-22).
Once again, we
have an indication of his special prestige within the Apostolic College. In
this case, Philip acts above all as an intermediary between the request of some
Greeks - he probably spoke Greek and could serve as an interpreter - and Jesus;
even if he joined Andrew, the other Apostle with a Greek name, he was in any
case the one whom the foreigners addressed.
This teaches us
always to be ready to accept questions and requests, wherever they come from,
and to direct them to the Lord, the only one who can fully satisfy them. Indeed,
it is important to know that the prayers of those who approach us are not
ultimately addressed to us, but to the Lord: it is to him that we must direct
anyone in need. So it is that each one of us must be an open road towards him!
There is then
another very particular occasion when Philip makes his entrance. During the
Last Supper, after Jesus affirmed that to know him was also to know the Father
(cf. Jn 14: 7), Philip quite ingenuously asks him: "Lord, show us the
Father, and we shall be satisfied" (Jn 14: 8). Jesus answered with a
gentle rebuke: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me,
Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father: how can you say, "Show us
the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?...
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me" (Jn 14: 9-11).
These words are
among the most exalted in John's Gospel. They contain a true and proper
revelation. At the end of the Prologue to his Gospel, John says: "No one
has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made
him known" (Jn 1: 18).
Well, that
declaration which is made by the Evangelist is taken up and confirmed by Jesus
himself, but with a fresh nuance. In fact, whereas John's Prologue speaks of an
explanatory intervention by Jesus through the words of his teaching, in his
answer to Philip Jesus refers to his own Person as such, letting it be
understood that it is possible to understand him not only through his words but
rather, simply through what he is.
To express
ourselves in accordance with the paradox of the Incarnation we can certainly
say that God gave himself a human face, the Face of Jesus, and consequently,
from now on, if we truly want to know the Face of God, all we have to do is to
contemplate the Face of Jesus! In his Face we truly see who God is and what he
looks like!
The Evangelist
does not tell us whether Philip grasped the full meaning of Jesus' sentence.
There is no doubt that he dedicated his whole life entirely to him. According
to certain later accounts (Acts of Philip and
others), our Apostle is said to have evangelized first Greece and then Frisia,
where he is supposed to have died, in Hierapolis, by a torture described
variously as crucifixion or stoning.
Let us conclude
our reflection by recalling the aim to which our whole life must aspire: to
encounter Jesus as Philip encountered him, seeking to perceive in him God
himself, the heavenly Father. If this commitment were lacking, we would be
reflected back to ourselves as in a mirror and become more and more lonely!
Philip teaches us instead to let ourselves be won over by Jesus, to be with him
and also to invite others to share in this indispensable company; and in
seeing, finding God, to find true life.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Saint
Peter's Square
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Thomas
the twin
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing
our encounters with the Twelve Apostles chosen directly by Jesus, today we will
focus our attention on Thomas. Ever present in the four lists compiled by the
New Testament, in the first three Gospels he is placed next to Matthew (cf. Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18;Lk 6: 15),
whereas in Acts, he is found after Philip (cf. Acts 1: 13).
His name
derives from a Hebrew root, ta'am, which means
"paired, twin". In fact, John's Gospel several times calls him
"Dydimus" (cf. Jn 11: 16; 20: 24; 21: 2), a Greek
nickname for, precisely, "twin". The reason for this nickname is
unclear.
It is
above all the Fourth Gospel that gives us information that outlines some
important traits of his personality.
The first
concerns his exhortation to the other Apostles when Jesus, at a critical moment
in his life, decided to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus, thus coming dangerously
close to Jerusalem (Mk 10: 32).
On that
occasion Thomas said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may
die with him" (Jn 11: 16). His determination to follow his Master is
truly exemplary and offers us a valuable lesson: it reveals his total
readiness to stand by Jesus, to the point of identifying his own destiny with
that of Jesus and of desiring to share with him the supreme trial of death.
In fact,
the most important thing is never to distance oneself from Jesus.
Moreover,
when the Gospels use the verb "to follow", it means that where he
goes, his disciple must also go.
Thus,
Christian life is defined as a life with Jesus Christ, a life to spend together
with him. St Paul writes something similar when he assures the Christians of
Corinth: "You are in our hearts, to die together and to live
together" (II Cor 7: 3). What takes place between the Apostle and his
Christians must obviously apply first of all to the relationship between
Christians and Jesus himself: dying together, living together, being in
his Heart as he is in ours.
A second
intervention by Thomas is recorded at the Last Supper. On that occasion,
predicting his own imminent departure, Jesus announced that he was going to
prepare a place for his disciples so that they could be where he is found; and
he explains to them: "Where [I] am going you know the way" (Jn
14: 4). It is then that Thomas intervenes, saying: "Lord, we do
not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" (Jn 14: 5).
In fact,
with this remark he places himself at a rather low level of understanding; but
his words provide Jesus with the opportunity to pronounce his famous
definition: "I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life" (Jn
14: 6).
Thus, it
is primarily to Thomas that he makes this revelation, but it is valid for all
of us and for every age. Every time we hear or read these words, we can stand
beside Thomas in spirit and imagine that the Lord is also speaking to us, just
as he spoke to him.
At the
same time, his question also confers upon us the right, so to speak, to ask
Jesus for explanations. We often do not understand him. Let us be brave enough
to say: "I do not understand you, Lord; listen to me, help me to
understand". In such a way, with this frankness which is the true way of
praying, of speaking to Jesus, we express our meagre capacity to understand and
at the same time place ourselves in the trusting attitude of someone who
expects light and strength from the One able to provide them.
Then, the
proverbial scene of the doubting Thomas that occurred eight days after Easter
is very well known. At first he did not believe that Jesus had appeared in his
absence and said: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails,
and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I
will not believe" (Jn 20: 25).
Basically,
from these words emerges the conviction that Jesus can now be recognized by his
wounds rather than by his face. Thomas holds that the signs that confirm Jesus'
identity are now above all his wounds, in which he reveals to us how much he
loved us. In this the Apostle is not mistaken.
As we
know, Jesus reappeared among his disciples eight days later and this time
Thomas was present. Jesus summons him: "Put your finger here, and
see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be
faithless, but believing" (Jn 20: 27).
Thomas
reacts with the most splendid profession of faith in the whole of the New
Testament: "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20: 28). St Augustine
comments on this: Thomas "saw and touched the man, and acknowledged
the God whom he neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and
touched, he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other"
(In ev. Jo. 121, 5).
The
Evangelist continues with Jesus' last words to Thomas: "Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
believe" (Jn 20: 29). This sentence can also be put into the present:
"Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe".
In any
case, here Jesus spells out a fundamental principle for Christians who will
come after Thomas, hence, for all of us.
It is
interesting to note that another Thomas, the great Medieval theologian of
Aquinas, juxtaposed this formula of blessedness with the apparently opposite
one recorded by Luke: "Blessed are the eyes which see what you
see!" (Lk 10: 23). However, Aquinas comments: "Those who
believe without seeing are more meritorious than those who, seeing,
believe" (In Johann. XX lectio VI 2566).
In fact,
the Letter to the Hebrews, recalling the whole series of the ancient biblical
Patriarchs who believed in God without seeing the fulfilment of his promises,
defines faith as "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of
things not seen" (Heb 11: 1).
The
Apostle Thomas' case is important to us for at least three reasons:
first, because it comforts us in our insecurity; second, because it shows us
that every doubt can lead to an outcome brighter than any uncertainty; and,
lastly, because the words that Jesus addressed to him remind us of the true
meaning of mature faith and encourage us to persevere, despite the difficulty,
along our journey of adhesion to him.
A final
point concerning Thomas is preserved for us in the Fourth Gospel, which
presents him as a witness of the Risen One in the subsequent event of the
miraculous catch in the Sea of Tiberias (cf. Jn 21: 2ff.).
On that
occasion, Thomas is even mentioned immediately after Simon Peter: an
evident sign of the considerable importance that he enjoyed in the context of
the early Christian communities.
Indeed,
the Acts and the Gospel of Thomas, both apocryphal
works but in any case important for the study of Christian origins, were written
in his name.
Lastly,
let us remember that an ancient tradition claims that Thomas first evangelized
Syria and Persia (mentioned by Origen, according to Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical
History3, 1) then went on to Western India (cf. Acts of Thomas 1-2
and 17ff.), from where also he finally reached Southern India.
Let us
end our reflection in this missionary perspective, expressing the hope that
Thomas' example will never fail to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, Our
Lord and Our God.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Saint
Peter's Square
Wednesday, 4 October 2006
Wednesday, 4 October 2006
Bartholomew
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
In the
series on the Apostles called by Jesus during his earthly life, today it is the
Apostle Bartholomew who attracts our attention. In the ancient lists of the
Twelve he always comes before Matthew, whereas the name of the Apostle who
precedes him varies; it may be Philip (cf. Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18; Lk
6: 14) or Thomas (cf. Acts 1: 13).
His name
is clearly a patronymic, since it is formulated with an explicit reference to
his father's name. Indeed, it is probably a name with an Aramaic stamp, bar
Talmay, which means precisely: "son of Talmay".
We have
no special information about Bartholomew; indeed, his name always and only
appears in the lists of the Twelve mentioned above and is therefore never
central to any narrative.
However,
it has traditionally been identified with Nathanael: a name that means
"God has given".
This
Nathanael came from Cana (cf. Jn 21: 2) and he may therefore have witnessed
the great "sign" that Jesus worked in that place (cf. Jn
2: 1-11). It is likely that the identification of the two figures stems
from the fact that Nathanael is placed in the scene of his calling, recounted
in John's Gospel, next to Philip, in other words, the place that Bartholomew
occupies in the lists of the Apostles mentioned in the other Gospels.
Philip
told this Nathanael that he had found "him of whom Moses in the law and
also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (Jn
1: 45). As we know, Nathanael's retort was rather strongly
prejudiced: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn
1: 46). In its own way, this form of protestation is important
for us. Indeed, it makes us see that according to Judaic
expectations the Messiah could not come from such an obscure village as,
precisely, Nazareth (see also Jn 7: 42).
But at
the same time Nathanael's protest highlights God's freedom, which baffles our
expectations by causing him to be found in the very place where we least expect
him. Moreover, we actually know that Jesus was not exclusively "from
Nazareth" but was born in Bethlehem (cf. Mt 2: 1; Lk 2: 4) and
came ultimately from Heaven, from the Father who is in Heaven.
Nathanael's
reaction suggests another thought to us: in our relationship with Jesus we must
not be satisfied with words alone. In his answer,
Philip offers Nathanael a meaningful invitation: "Come and
see!" (Jn 1: 46). Our knowledge of Jesus needs above all a first-hand
experience: someone else's testimony is of course important, for normally
the whole of our Christian life begins with the
proclamation handed down to us by one or
more witnesses.
However,
we ourselves must then be personally involved in a close and deep relationship
with Jesus; in a similar way, when the Samaritans had heard the testimony of
their fellow citizen whom Jesus had met at Jacob's well, they wanted to talk to
him directly, and after this conversation they told the woman: "It
is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for
ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world" (Jn
4: 42).
Returning
to the scene of Nathanael's vocation, the Evangelist tells us that when Jesus
sees Nathanael approaching, he exclaims: "Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom there is no guile!" (Jn 1: 47). This is praise
reminiscent of the text of a Psalm: "Blessed is the man... in whose spirit
there is no deceit" (32[31]: 2), but provokes the curiosity of
Nathanael who answers in amazement: "How do you know me?" (Jn
1: 48).
Jesus'
reply cannot immediately be understood. He says: "Before Philip called
you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you"
(Jn 1: 48). We do not know what had happened under this
fig tree. It is obvious that it had to do with a decisive moment in Nathanael's
life.
His heart
is moved by Jesus' words, he feels understood and he understands: "This
man knows everything about me, he knows and is familiar with the road of life;
I can truly trust this man". And so he answers with a clear and beautiful
confession of faith: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of
Israel!" (Jn 1: 49). In this confession is conveyed a first important
step in the journey of attachment to Jesus.
Nathanael's
words shed light on a twofold, complementary aspect of Jesus' identity: he is
recognized both in his special relationship with God the Father, of whom he is
the Only-begotten Son, and in his relationship with the People of Israel, of
whom he is the declared King, precisely the description of the awaited Messiah.
We must never lose sight of either of these two elements because if we only
proclaim Jesus' heavenly dimension, we risk making him an ethereal and
evanescent being; and if, on the contrary, we recognize only his concrete place
in history, we end by neglecting the divine dimension that properly qualifies
him.
We have
no precise information about Bartholomew-Nathanael's subsequent apostolic
activity. According to information handed down by Eusebius, the fourth-century
historian, a certain Pantaenus is supposed to have discovered traces of
Bartholomew's presence even in India (cf. Hist. eccl. V, 10,
3).
In later
tradition, as from the Middle Ages, the account of his death by flaying became
very popular. Only think of the famous scene of the Last
Judgment in the Sistine Chapel in which Michelangelo painted St
Bartholomew, who is holding his own skin in his left hand, on which the artist
left his self-portrait.
St
Bartholomew's relics are venerated here in Rome in the Church dedicated to him
on the Tiber Island, where they are said to have been brought by the German
Emperor Otto III in the year 983.
To
conclude, we can say that despite the scarcity of information about him, St
Bartholomew stands before us to tell us that attachment to Jesus can also be
lived and witnessed to without performing sensational deeds. Jesus himself, to
whom each one of us is called to dedicate his or her own life and death, is and
remains extraordinary.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's
Square
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Simon and
Jude
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, let us
examine two of the Twelve Apostles: Simon the Cananaean and Jude Thaddaeus (not
to be confused with Judas Iscariot). Let us look at them together, not only
because they are always placed next to each other in the lists of the Twelve
(cf. Mt 10: 3, 4; Mk 3: 18; Lk 6: 15; Acts 1: 13), but also because there is
very little information about them, apart from the fact that the New Testament
Canon preserves one Letter attributed to Jude Thaddaeus.
Simon is given a
nickname that varies in the four lists: while Matthew and Mark describe him as
a "Cananaean", Luke instead describes him as a "Zealot".
In fact, the two
descriptions are equivalent because they mean the same thing: indeed, in Hebrew
the verb qanà' means "to be jealous,
ardent" and can be said both of God, since he is jealous with regard to
his Chosen People (cf. Ex 20: 5), and of men who burn with zeal in serving the
one God with unreserved devotion, such as Elijah (cf. I Kgs 19: 10).
Thus, it is highly
likely that even if this Simon was not exactly a member of the nationalist
movement of Zealots, he was at least marked by passionate attachment to his
Jewish identity, hence, for God, his People and divine Law.
If this was the
case, Simon was worlds apart from Matthew, who, on the contrary, had an
activity behind him as a tax collector that was frowned upon as entirely
impure. This shows that Jesus called his disciples and collaborators, without
exception, from the most varied social and religious backgrounds.
It was people who
interested him, not social classes or labels! And the best thing is that in the
group of his followers, despite their differences, they all lived side by side,
overcoming imaginable difficulties: indeed, what bound them together was Jesus
himself, in whom they all found themselves united with one another.
This is clearly a
lesson for us who are often inclined to accentuate differences and even
contrasts, forgetting that in Jesus Christ we are given the strength to get the
better of our continual conflicts.
Let us also bear
in mind that the group of the Twelve is the prefiguration of the Church, where
there must be room for all charisms, peoples and races, all human qualities
that find their composition and unity in communion with Jesus.
Then with regard
to Jude Thaddaeus, this is what tradition has called him, combining two
different names: in fact, whereas Matthew and Mark call him simply
"Thaddaeus" (Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18), Luke calls him "Judas, the son
of James" (Lk 6: 16; Acts 1: 13).
The nickname
"Thaddaeus" is of uncertain origin and is explained either as coming
from the Aramaic, taddà', which means "breast" and
would therefore suggest "magnanimous", or as an abbreviation of a
Greek name, such as "Teodòro, Teòdoto".
Very little about
him has come down to us. John alone mentions a question he addressed to Jesus
at the Last Supper: Thaddaeus says to the Lord: "Lord, how is it that you
will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?".
This is a very
timely question which we also address to the Lord: why did not the Risen One
reveal himself to his enemies in his full glory in order to show that it is God
who is victorious? Why did he only manifest himself to his disciples? Jesus'
answer is mysterious and profound. The Lord says: "If a man loves me, he
will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and
make our home with him" (Jn 14: 22-23).
This means that
the Risen One must be seen, must be perceived also by the heart, in a way so
that God may take up his abode within us. The Lord does not appear as a thing.
He desires to enter our lives, and therefore his manifestation is a
manifestation that implies and presupposes an open heart. Only in this way do
we see the Risen One.
The paternity of
one of those New Testament Letters known as "catholic", since they
are not addressed to a specific local Church but intended for a far wider
circle, has been attributed to Jude Thaddaeus. Actually, it is addressed
"to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus
Christ" (v. 1).
A major concern of
this writing is to put Christians on guard against those who make a pretext of
God's grace to excuse their own licentiousness and corrupt their brethren with
unacceptable teachings, introducing division within the Church "in their
dreamings" (v. 8).
This is how Jude
defines their doctrine and particular ideas. He even compares them to fallen
angels and, mincing no words, says that "they walk in the way of
Cain" (v. 11).
Furthermore, he
brands them mercilessly as "waterless clouds, carried along by winds;
fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea,
casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether
gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever" (vv. 12-13).
Today, perhaps, we
are no longer accustomed to using language that is so polemic, yet that tells
us something important. In the midst of all the temptations that exist, with
all the currents of modern life, we must preserve our faith's identity. Of
course, the way of indulgence and dialogue, on which the Second Vatican Counsel
happily set out, should certainly be followed firmly and consistently.
But this path of
dialogue, while so necessary, must not make us forget our duty to rethink and
to highlight just as forcefully the main and indispensable aspects of our
Christian identity. Moreover, it is essential to keep clearly in mind that our
identity requires strength, clarity and courage in light of the contradictions
of the world in which we live.
Thus, the text of
the Letter continues: "But you, beloved" - he is speaking to all of
us -, "build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy
Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt..." (vv.
20-22).
The Letter ends
with these most beautiful words: "To him who is able to keep you from
falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory
with rejoicing, to the only God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, be
glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and for ever.
Amen" (vv. 24-25).
It is easy to see
that the author of these lines lived to the full his own faith, to which
realities as great as moral integrity and joy, trust and lastly praise belong,
since it is all motivated solely by the goodness of our one God and the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, may
both Simon the Cananaean and Jude Thaddeus help us to rediscover the beauty of
the Christian faith ever anew and to live it without tiring, knowing how to
bear a strong and at the same time peaceful witness to it.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Saint
Peter's Square
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Judas
Iscariot and Matthias
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today,
concluding our walk through the portrait gallery of the Apostles called
directly by Jesus during his earthly life, we cannot fail to mention the one
who has always been named last in the list of the Twelve: Judas Iscariot. We
want to associate him with the person who is later elected to substitute him,
Matthias.
Already
the very name of Judas raises among Christians an instinctive reaction of
criticism and condemnation.
The
meaning of the name "Judas" is controversial: the more common
explanation considers him as a "man from Kerioth", referring to his
village of origin situated near Hebron and mentioned twice in Sacred Scripture
(cf. Gn 15: 25; Am 2: 2). Others interpret it as a variant of the term
"hired assassin", as if to allude to a warrior armed with a dagger,
in Latin, sica.
Lastly,
there are those who see in the label a simple inscription of a Hebrew-Aramaic
root meaning: "the one who is to hand him over". This designation is
found twice in the Gospel: after Peter's confession of faith (cf. Jn 6: 71),
and then in the course of the anointing at Bethany (cf. Jn 12: 4).
Another
passage shows that the betrayal was underway, saying: "he who betrayed
him"; and also during the Last Supper, after the announcement of the
betrayal (cf. Mt 26: 25), and then at the moment of Jesus' arrest (cf. Mt 26:
46, 48; Jn 18: 2, 5). Rather, the lists of the Twelve recalls the fact of the
betrayal as already fulfilled: "Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him",
says Mark (3: 19); Matthew (10: 4) and Luke (6: 16) have equivalent formulas.
The
betrayal itself happens in two moments: before all, in the planning, when Judas
agreed with Jesus' enemies to 30 pieces of silver (cf. Mt 26: 14-16), and then,
in its execution, with the kiss given to the Master in Gethsemane (cf. Mt 26:
46-50).
In any
case, the Evangelists insist on the status as an Apostle that Judas held in all
regards: he is repeatedly called "one of the twelve" (Mt 26: 14, 47;
Mk 14: 10, 20; Jn 6: 71) or "of the number of the twelve" (Lk 22: 3).
Moreover,
on two occasions, Jesus, addressing the Apostles and speaking precisely of
Judas, indicates him as "one of you" (Mt 26: 21; Mk 14: 18; Jn 6: 70;
13: 21). And Peter will say of Judas that "he was numbered among us and
allotted his share in this ministry" (Acts 1: 17).
He is
therefore a figure belonging to the group of those whom Jesus had chosen as
strict companions and collaborators. This brings with it two questions in the
attempt to provide an explanation for what happened.
The first
consists in asking how is it that Jesus had chosen this man and trusted him. In
fact, although Judas is the group's bursar (cf Jn. 12: 6b; 13: 29a), in reality
he is called a "thief" (Jn 12: 6a).
The
mystery of the choice remains, all the more since Jesus pronounces a very
severe judgement on him: "Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is
betrayed!" (Mt 26: 24).
What is
more, it darkens the mystery around his eternal fate, knowing that Judas
"repented and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests
and the elders, saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood'"
(Mt 27: 3-4). Even though he went to hang himself (cf. Mt 27: 5), it is not up
to us to judge his gesture, substituting ourselves for the infinitely merciful
and just God.
A second
question deals with the motive of Judas' behaviour: why does he betray Jesus?
The question raises several theories. Some refer to the fact of his greed for
money; others hold to an explanation of a messianic order: Judas would have
been disappointed at seeing that Jesus did not fit into his programme for the
political-militaristic liberation of his own nation.
In fact,
the Gospel texts insist on another aspect: John expressly says that "the
devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to
betray him" (Jn 13: 2). Analogously, Luke writes: "Then Satan entered
into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve" (Lk 22:
3).
In this
way, one moves beyond historical motivations and explanations based on the
personal responsibility of Judas, who shamefully ceded to a temptation of the
Evil One.
The
betrayal of Judas remains, in any case, a mystery. Jesus treated him 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.
Besides,
when we think of the negative role Judas played we must consider it according
to the lofty ways in which God leads events. His betrayal led to the death of
Jesus, who transformed this tremendous torment into a space of salvific love by
consigning himself to the Father (cf. Gal 2: 20; Eph 5: 2, 25).
The word
"to betray" is the version of a Greek word that means "to
consign". Sometimes the subject is even God in person: it was he who for
love "consigned" Jesus for all of us (Rm 8: 32). In his mysterious
salvific plan, God assumes Judas' inexcusable gesture as the occasion for the
total gift of the Son for the redemption of the world.
In
conclusion, we want to remember he who, after Easter, was elected in place of
the betrayer. In the Church of Jerusalem two were proposed to the community,
and then lots were cast for their names: "Joseph called Barsabbas, who was
surnamed Justus, and Matthias" (Acts 1: 23).
Precisely
the latter was chosen, hence, "he was enrolled with the eleven
apostles" (Acts 1: 26). We know nothing else about him, if not that he had
been a witness to all Jesus' earthly events (cf. Acts 1: 21-22), remaining
faithful to him to the end. To the greatness of his fidelity was later added
the divine call to take the place of Judas, almost compensating for his
betrayal.
We draw
from this a final lesson: while there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous
Christians in the Church, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil
done by them with our clear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's
Square
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Paul of
Tarsus
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
We have concluded
our reflections on the Twelve Apostles, called directly by Jesus during his
earthly life. Today, we begin to examine the figures of other important early
Church personalities.
They also spent
their lives for the Lord, the Gospel and the Church. They are men and also
women who, as Luke writes in the Book
of Acts, "have risked
their lives for the sake of Our Lord Jesus Christ" (15: 26).
The first of
these, called by the Lord himself, by the Risen One, to be a true Apostle, is
undoubtedly Paul of Tarsus. He shines like a star of the brightest magnitude in
the Church's history, and not only in that of its origins. St John Chrysostom
praised him as a person superior even to many angels and archangels (cf. Panegirico, 7, 3). Dante Alighieri in theDivine
Comedy, inspired by Luke's
account in Acts (cf. 9: 15), describes him simply as "vessel of
election" (Inf. 2: 28), which means: instrument chosen by God. Others
called him the "13th Apostle", or directly, "the first after the
Only".
Certainly, after
Jesus, he is one of the originals of whom we have the most information. In
fact, we possess not only the account that Luke gives in the Acts of the Apostles, but also a group of Letters that have come directly from his
hand and which, without intermediaries, reveal his personality and thought.
Luke tells us that
his name originally was Saul (cf. Acts 7: 58; 8: 1), in Hebrew also Saul (cf.
Acts 9: 14, 17; 22: 7, 13; 26: 14), like King Saul (cf. Acts 13: 21), and he
was a Jew of the diaspora, since the city of Tarsus is situated between
Anatolia and Syria.
Very soon he went
to Jerusalem to study the roots of Mosaic Law in the footsteps of the great
Rabbi Gamaliele (cf. Acts 22: 3). He also learned a manual and common trade,
tent making (cf. Acts 18: 3), which later permitted him to provide personally
for his own support without being a weight on the Churches (cf. Acts 20: 34; I
Cor 4: 12; II Cor 12: 13).
It was decisive
for him to know the community of those who called themselves disciples of
Jesus. Through them he came to know a new faith - a new "way", as it
was called - that places not so much the Law of God at the centre but rather
the person of Jesus, Crucified and Risen, to whom was now linked the remission
of sins. As a zealous Jew, he held this message unacceptable, even scandalous,
and he therefore felt the duty to persecute the followers of Christ even
outside of Jerusalem.
It was precisely
on the road to Damascus at the beginning of the 30s A.D. that, according to his
words, "Christ made me his own" (Phil 3: 12). While Luke recounts the
fact with abundant detail - like how the light of the Risen One touched him and
fundamentally changed his whole life -, in his Letters he goes directly to the
essential and speaks not only of a vision (cf. I Cor 9: 1), but of an
illumination (cf. II Cor 4: 6), and above all of a revelation and of a vocation
in the encounter with the Risen One (cf. Gal 1: 15-16).
In fact, he will
explicitly define himself as "apostle by vocation" (cf. Rom 1: 1; I
Cor 1: 1) or "apostle by the will of God" (II Cor 1: 1; Eph 1: 1; Col
1: 1), as if to emphasize that his conversion was not the result of a
development of thought or reflection, but the fruit of divine intervention, an
unforeseeable, divine grace.
Henceforth, all
that had constituted for him a value paradoxically became, according to his
words, a loss and refuse (cf. Phil 3: 7-10). And from that moment all his
energy was placed at the exclusive service of Jesus Christ and his Gospel. His
existence would become that of an Apostle who wants to "become all things
to all men" (I Cor 9: 22) without reserve.
From here we draw
a very important lesson: what counts is to place Jesus Christ at the centre of
our lives, so that our identity is marked essentially by the encounter, by
communion with Christ and with his Word. In his light every other value is
recovered and purified from possible dross.
Another
fundamental lesson offered by Paul is the universal breadth that characterizes
his apostolate. Acutely feeling the problem of the Gentiles, of the pagans, to
know God, who in Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen offers salvation to all
without exception, he dedicates himself to make this Gospel - literally,
"good news" - known, to announce the grace destined to reconcile men
with God, self and others.
From the first
moment he understood that this is a reality that did not concern only the Jews
or a certain group of men, but one that had a universal value and concerned
everyone, because God is the God of everyone.
The point of
departure for his travels was the Church of Antioch in Syria, where for the
first time the Gospel was announced to the Greeks and where also the name
"Christians" was coined (cf. Acts 11: 20, 26), believers in Christ.
From there he
first went to Cyprus and then on different occasions to the regions of Asia
Minor (Pisidia, Laconia, Galatia), and later to those of Europe (Macedonia,
Greece). The most famous were the cities of Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica,
Corinth, without forgetting Berea, Athens and Miletus.
In Paul's apostolate
difficulties were not lacking, which he faced with courage for love of Christ.
He himself recalls having endured "labours... imprisonment... beatings...
numerous brushes with death.... Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was
stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep;
on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers
from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the
wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship,
through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent
fastings, cold and exposure. And apart from these things there is the daily
pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the Churches" (II Cor 11: 23-28).
From a passage of
the Letter to the Romans (cf. 15: 24, 28) appears his proposal to push on even
to Spain, to the Far West, to announce the Gospel everywhere, even to the then
known ends of the earth. How can one not admire a man like this? How can one
not thank the Lord for having given an Apostle of this stature?
It is clear that
he would not have been able to face such difficult and at times desperate
situations if he did not have a reason of absolute value, before which no limit
could be considered insurmountable. For Paul, this reason, as we know, is Jesus
Christ, of whom he writes: "The love of Christ impels us... so that those
who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake
died and was raised" (II Cor 5: 14-15), for us, for all.
In fact, the
Apostle renders the supreme witness of blood under the Emperor Nero here in
Rome, where we keep and venerate his mortal remains. Clement of Rome, my
Predecessor to this Apostolic See, wrote of him in the last years of the first
century: "Because of jealousy and discord, Paul was obliged to show us how
one obtains the prize of patience.... After preaching justice to all in the
world, and after having arrived at the limits of the West, he endured martyrdom
before the political rulers; in this way he left this world and reached the
holy place, thus becoming the greatest model of perseverance" (To the
Corinthians, 5).
May the Lord help
us to put into practice the exhortation left to us by the Apostle in his
Letters: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (I Cor 11: 1).
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's
Square
Wednesday, 8 November 2006
Wednesday, 8 November 2006
St Paul's
new outlook
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
In our previous
Catechesis two weeks ago, I endeavoured to sketch the essential lines of the
biography of the Apostle Paul. We saw how his encounter with Christ on the road
to Damascus literally revolutionized his life. Christ became his raison d'être and the profound motivation of all his
apostolic work.
In his Letters,
after the Name of God which appears more than 500 times, the name most
frequently mentioned is Christ's (380 times). Thus, it is important to realize
what a deep effect Jesus Christ can have on a person's life, hence, also on our
own lives. Actually, the history of salvation culminates in Jesus Christ, and
thus he is also the true discriminating point in the dialogue with other
religions.
Looking at Paul,
this is how we could formulate the basic question: how does a human being's
encounter with Christ occur? And of what does the relationship that stems from
it consist? The answer given by Paul can be understood in two stages.
In the first
place, Paul helps us to understand the absolutely basic and irreplaceable value
of faith. This is what he wrote in his Letter
to the Romans: "We hold
that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (3: 28).
This is what he
also wrote in his Letter to
the Galatians: "[M]an is
not justified by works of the law but only through faith in Jesus Christ; even
we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ,
and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be
justified" (2: 16).
"Being
justified" means being made righteous, that is, being accepted by God's
merciful justice to enter into communion with him and, consequently, to be able
to establish a far more genuine relationship with all our brethren: and this
takes place on the basis of the complete forgiveness of our sins.
Well, Paul states
with absolute clarity that this condition of life does not depend on our
possible good works but on the pure grace of God: "[We] are justified by
his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom
3: 24). With these words St Paul expressed the fundamental content of his
conversion, the new direction his life took as a result of his encounter with
the Risen Christ.
Before his
conversion, Paul had not been a man distant from God and from his Law. On the
contrary, he had been observant, with an observance faithful to the point of
fanaticism. In the light of the encounter with Christ, however, he understood
that with this he had sought to build up himself and his own justice, and that
with all this justice he had lived for himself.
He realized that a
new approach in his life was absolutely essential. And we find this new
approach expressed in his words: "The life I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:
20).
Paul, therefore,
no longer lives for himself, for his own justice. He lives for Christ and with
Christ: in giving of himself, he is no longer seeking and building himself up.
This is the new justice, the new orientation given to us by the Lord, given to
us by faith.
Before the Cross
of Christ, the extreme expression of his self-giving, there is no one who can
boast of himself, of his own self-made justice, made for himself! Elsewhere,
re-echoing Jeremiah, Paul explains this thought, writing, "Let him who
boasts, boast of the Lord" (I Cor 1: 31 = Jer 9: 23-24ff.); or: "Far
be it from me to glory except in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which
the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6: 14).
In reflecting on
what justification means, not for actions but for faith, we thus come to the
second component that defines the Christian identity described by St Paul in
his own life.
This Christian
identity is composed of precisely two elements: this restraint from seeking
oneself by oneself but instead receiving oneself from Christ and giving oneself
with Christ, thereby participating personally in the life of Christ himself to
the point of identifying with him and sharing both his death and his life. This
is what Paul wrote in his Letter
to the Romans: "[A]ll of
us... were baptized into his death... we were buried therefore with him... we
have been united with him.... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom 6: 3, 4, 5, 11).
These last words
themselves are symptomatic: for Paul, in fact, it was not enough to say that
Christians are baptized or believers; for him, it was just as important to say
they are "in Christ Jesus" (cf. also Rom 8: 1, 2, 39; 12: 5; 16: 3,
7, 10; I Cor 1: 2, 3 etc.).
At other times he
inverted the words and wrote: "Christ is in us/you" (Rom 8: 10; II
Cor 13: 5) or "in me" (Gal 2: 20).
This mutual
compenetration between Christ and the Christian, characteristic of Paul's
teaching, completes his discourse on faith.
In fact, although
faith unites us closely to Christ, it emphasizes the distinction between us and
him; but according to Paul, Christian life also has an element that we might
describe as "mystical", since it entails an identification of ourselves
with Christ and of Christ with us. In this sense, the Apostle even went so far
as to describe our suffering as "the suffering of Christ" in us (II
Cor 1: 5), so that we might "always [carry] in the body the death of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies" (II
Cor 4: 10).
We must fit all
this into our daily lives by following the example of Paul, who always lived
with this great spiritual range. Besides, faith must constantly express
humility before God, indeed, adoration and praise.
Indeed, it is to
him and his grace alone that we owe what we are as Christians. Since nothing
and no one can replace him, it is necessary that we pay homage to nothing and
no one else but him. No idol should pollute our spiritual universe or
otherwise, instead of enjoying the freedom acquired, we will relapse into a
humiliating form of slavery.
Moreover, our
radical belonging to Christ and the fact that "we are in him" must
imbue in us an attitude of total trust and immense joy. In short, we must
indeed exclaim with St Paul: "If God is for us, who is against us?"
(Rom 8: 31). And the reply is that nothing and no one "will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8: 39).
Our Christian life, therefore, stands on the soundest and safest rock one can
imagine. And from it we draw all our energy, precisely as the Apostle wrote:
"I can do all things in him who strengthens me" (Phil 4: 13).
Therefore, let us
face our life with its joys and sorrows supported by these great sentiments that
Paul offers to us. By having an experience of them we will realize how true are
the words the Apostle himself wrote: "I know whom I have believed, and I
am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to
me"; in other words, until the Day (II Tm 1: 12) of our definitive meeting
with Christ the Judge, Saviour of the world and our Saviour.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT
XVI
GENERAL
AUDIENCE
Saint
Peter's Square
Wednesday, 15 November 2006
Wednesday, 15 November 2006
St
Paul and the Spirit
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today
too, as in our last two Catecheses, we return to St Paul and his thought. We
have before us a giant, not only in terms of his actual apostolate but also of
his extraordinarily profound and stimulating theological teaching.
After
meditating last time on what Paul wrote about the central place that Jesus
Christ occupies in our life of faith, today let us look at what he said about
the Holy Spirit and about his presence in us, because here too, the Apostle has
something very important to teach us.
We know
what St Luke told us of the Holy Spirit from his description of the event of
Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. The Spirit of Pentecost
brought with him a strong impulse to take on the commitment of the mission in
order to witness to the Gospel on the highways of the world.
Indeed,
the Acts of the Apostles relates a whole series of missions
the Apostles carried out, first in Samaria, then on the coastal strip of
Palestine, then towards Syria. Above all, the three great missionary journeys
of Paul are recounted, as I recalled at one of our previous Wednesday meetings.
In his
Letters, however, St Paul also spoke to us of the Spirit from another angle. He
did not end by describing solely the dynamic and active dimension of the Third
Person of the Blessed Trinity, but also analyzed his presence in the lives of
Christians, which marks their identity.
In other
words, in Paul's reflection on the Spirit he not only explained his influence
on theaction of Christians, but also on their being. Indeed,
it is he who said that the Spirit of God dwells in us (cf. Rom 8: 9; I Cor 3:
16) and that "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts"
(Gal 4: 6).
In Paul's
opinion, therefore, the Spirit stirs us to the very depths of our being. Here
are some of his words on this subject which have an important meaning:
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from
the law of sin and death... you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry,
"Abba! Father!', it is the Spirit himself" (Rom 8: 2, 15) who speaks
in us because, as children, we can call God "Father".
Thus, we
can see clearly that even before he does anything, the Christian already
possesses a rich and fruitful interiority, given to him in the Sacraments of
Baptism and Confirmation, an interiority which establishes him in an objective
and original relationship of sonship with God. This is our greatest dignity: to
be not merely images but also children of God. And it is an invitation to live
our sonship, to be increasingly aware that we are adoptive sons in God's great
family. It is an invitation to transform this objective gift into a subjective
reality, decisive for our way of thinking, acting and being.
God
considers us his children, having raised us to a similar if not equal dignity
to that of Jesus himself, the one true Son in the full sense. Our filial
condition and trusting freedom in our relationship with the Father is given or
restored to us in him.
We thus
discover that for Christians, the Spirit is no longer only the "Spirit of
God", as he is usually described in the Old Testament and as people
continue to repeat in Christian language (cf. Gn 41: 38; Ex 31: 3; I Cor 2: 11,
12; Phil 3: 3; etc.). Nor is he any longer simply a "Holy Spirit"
generically understood, in the manner of the Old Testament (cf. Is 63: 10, 11; Ps
51[50]: 13), and of Judaism itself in its writings (Qumran, rabbinism).
Indeed,
the confession of an original sharing in this Spirit by the Risen Lord, who
himself became a "life-giving Spirit" (I Cor 15: 45), is part of the
specificity of the Christian faith.
For this
very reason, St Paul spoke directly of the "Spirit of Christ" (Rom 8:
9), of the "Spirit of his Son" (cf. Gal 4: 6) or of the "Spirit
of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1: 19). It is as though he wanted to say that not
only is God the Father visible in the Son (cf. Jn 14: 9), but that the Spirit
of God also expresses himself in the life and action of the Crucified and Risen
Lord!
Paul
teaches us another important thing: he says that there is no true prayer
without the presence of the Spirit within us. He wrote: "The Spirit helps
us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches
the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8: 26-27).
It is as
if to say that the Holy Spirit, that is, the Spirit of the Father and of the
Son, is henceforth as it were the soul of our soul, the most secret part of our
being, from which an impulse of prayer rises ceaselessly to God, whose words we
cannot even begin to explain.
In fact,
the Spirit, ever alert within us, completes what is lacking in us and offers to
the Father our worship as well as our deepest aspirations.
This, of
course, requires a degree of great and vital communion with the Spirit. It is
an invitation to be increasingly sensitive, more attentive to this presence of
the Spirit in us, to transform it into prayer, to feel this presence and thus
to learn to pray, to speak to the Father as children in the Holy Spirit.
There is
also another typical aspect of the Spirit which St Paul teaches us: his
connection with love. Thus, the Apostle wrote: "Hope does not disappoint
us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us" (Rom 5: 5).
In my
Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, I cited a most
eloquent sentence of St Augustine: "If you see charity, you see the
Trinity" (n. 19), and I continued by explaining: "The Spirit, in
fact, is that interior power which harmonizes [believers'] hearts with Christ's
Heart and moves them to love their brethren as Christ loved them" (ibid.).
The Spirit immerses us in the very rhythm of divine life, which is a life of
love, enabling us to share personally in relations between the Father and the
Son.
It is not without significance that when Paul lists the various elements that constitute the fruit of the Spirit he puts love first: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace", etc. (Gal 5: 22).
And since
by definition, love unites, this means first of all that the Spirit is the creator of communion within the Christian community, as we say at the beginning
of Mass, borrowing Paul's words: "... may the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit [that is, what he brings about] be with you all" (II Cor 13: 14).
Furthermore,
however, it is also true that the Spirit stimulates us to weave charitable
relations with all people. Therefore, when we love we make room for the Spirit
and give him leeway to express himself fully within us.
We thus
understand why Paul juxtaposes in the same passage of his Letter to the
Romans the two exhortations: "Be aglow with the Spirit" and
"Repay no one evil for evil" (Rom 12: 11, 17).
Finally, according to St Paul, the Spirit is a generous downpayment given to us by God himself as a deposit and at the same time, a guarantee of our future inheritance (cf. II Cor 1: 22; 5: 5; Eph 1: 13-14).
We
therefore learn from Paul that the Spirit's action directs our life towards the
great values of love, joy, communion and hope. It is our task to experience
this every day, complying with the inner promptings of the Spirit and helped in
our discernment by the Apostle's enlightened guidance.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's
Square
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
St Paul and the Church
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today, we are
ending our encounters with the Apostle Paul by dedicating one last reflection
to him. Indeed, we cannot take our leave of him without considering one of the
decisive elements of his activity and one of the most important subjects of his
thought: the reality of the Church.
We must first of
all note that his initial contact with the Person of Jesus happened through the
witness of the Christian community of Jerusalem. It was a turbulent contact.
Having met the new group of believers, he immediately became a fierce
persecutor of it. He acknowledged this himself at least three times in as many
of his Letters: "I persecuted the Church of God" (I Cor 15: 9; Gal 1:
13; Phil 3: 6), as if to describe his behaviour as the worst possible crime.
History shows us
that one usually reaches Jesus by passing through the Church! In a certain
sense, this proved true, we were saying, also for Paul, who encountered the
Church before he encountered Jesus. In his case, however, this contact was
counterproductive; it did not result in attachment but violent rejection.
For Paul,
adherence to the Church was brought about by a direct intervention of Christ,
who in revealing himself on the road to Damascus identified himself with the
Church and made Paul realize that persecution of the Church was persecution of
himself, the Lord.
In fact, the Risen
One said to Paul, persecutor of the Church: "Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me?" (Acts 9: 4). In persecuting the Church, he was persecuting
Christ.
Paul, therefore,
was at the same time converted to Christ and to the Church. This leads one to
understand why the Church later became so present in Paul's thoughts, heart and
activity.
In the first
place, she was so present that he literally founded many Churches in the
various cities where he went as an evangelizer. When he spoke of his
"anxiety for all the Churches" (II Cor 11: 28), he was thinking of
the various Christian communities brought into being from time to time in
Galatia, Ionia, Macedonia and in Achaea.
Some of those
Churches also caused him worry and chagrin, as happened, for example, in the
Churches of Galatia, which he saw "turning to a different gospel"
(Gal 1: 6), something he opposed with grim determination.
Yet, he felt bound
to the Communities he founded in a way that was far from cold and bureaucratic
but rather intense and passionate. Thus, for example, he described the
Philippians as "my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and
crown" (Phil 4: 1).
On other occasions
he compared the various Communities to a letter of recommendation, unique in
its kind: "You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on
your hearts, to be known and read by all men" (II Cor 3: 2).
At yet other
times, he showed a real feeling for them that was not only paternal but also maternal,
such as when he turned to those he was addressing, calling them: "My
little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in
you" (Gal 4: 19; cf. also I Cor 4: 14-15; I Thes 2: 7-8).
Paul also
illustrates for us in his Letters his teaching on the Church as such. Thus, his
original definition of the Church as the "Body of Christ", which we
do not find in other Christian authors of the first century, is well known (cf.
I Cor 12: 27; Eph 4: 12; 5: 30; Col 1: 24).
We find the deepest
root of this surprising designation of the Church in the Sacrament of the Body
of Christ. St Paul said: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are
one body" (I Cor 10: 17). In the same Eucharist, Christ gives us his Body
and makes us his Body. Concerning this, St Paul said to the Galatians:
"You are all one in Christ" (Gal 3: 28). By saying all this, Paul
makes us understand that not only does the belonging of the Church to Christ
exist, but also a certain form of equality and identification of the Church
with Christ himself.
From this,
therefore, derive the greatness and nobility of the Church, that is, of all of
us who are part of her: from our being members of Christ, an extension as it
were of his personal presence in the world. And from this, of course, stems our
duty to truly live in conformity with Christ.
Paul's
exhortations concerning the various charisms that give life and structure to
the Christian community also derive from this. They can all be traced back to a
single source, that is, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, knowing well
that in the Church there is no one who goes without them, for, as the Apostle
wrote, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common
good" (I Cor 12: 7).
It is important,
however, that all the charisms cooperate with one another for the edification
of the community and do not instead become the cause of a rift.
In this regard,
Paul asked himself rhetorically: "Is Christ divided?" (I Cor 1: 13).
He knows well and teaches us that it is necessary to "maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call" (Eph 4: 3-4).
Obviously, underlining the need for unity does not mean that ecclesial life should be standardized or levelled out in accordance with a single way of operating. Elsewhere, Paul taught: "Do not quench the Spirit" (I Thes 5: 19), that is, make room generously for the unforeseeable dynamism of the charismatic manifestations of the Spirit, who is an ever new source of energy and vitality.
But if there is
one tenet to which Paul stuck firmly it was mutual edification: "Let all
things be done for edification" (I Cor 14: 26). Everything contributes to
weaving the ecclesial fabric evenly, not only without slack patches but also
without holes or tears.
Then, there is
also a Pauline Letter that presents the Church as Christ's Bride (cf. Eph 5:
21-33).
With this, Paul borrowed an ancient prophetic metaphor which made the People of Israel the Bride of the God of the Covenant (cf. Hos 2: 4, 21; Is 54: 5-8). He did so to express the intimacy of the relationship between Christ and his Church, both in the sense that she is the object of the most tender love on the part of her Lord, and also in the sense that love must be mutual and that we too therefore, as members of the Church, must show him passionate faithfulness.
With this, Paul borrowed an ancient prophetic metaphor which made the People of Israel the Bride of the God of the Covenant (cf. Hos 2: 4, 21; Is 54: 5-8). He did so to express the intimacy of the relationship between Christ and his Church, both in the sense that she is the object of the most tender love on the part of her Lord, and also in the sense that love must be mutual and that we too therefore, as members of the Church, must show him passionate faithfulness.
Thus, in short, a
relationship of communion is at stake: the so to speak vertical communion between Jesus Christ and all
of us, but also the horizontal communion between all who are
distinguished in the world by the fact that they "call on the name of Our
Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor 1: 2).
This is our
definition: we belong among those who call on the Name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, we clearly understand how desirable it is that what Paul
himself was hoping for when he wrote to the Corinthians should come to pass:
"If an unbeliever or an uninitiated enters while all are uttering prophecy,
he will be taken to task by all and called to account by all, and the secret of
his heart will be laid bare. Falling prostrate, he will worship God, crying
out, "God is truly among you'" (I Cor 14: 24-25).
Our liturgical
encounters should be like this. A non-Christian who enters one of our
assemblies ought finally to be able to say: "God is truly with you".
Let us pray to the Lord to be like this, in communion with Christ and in
communion among ourselves.
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