Pope's Homily at Vigil in Preparation for Assisi

Pope's Homily at Vigil in Preparation for Assisi




"It Is Not the Sword of the Conqueror That Builds Peace, But the Sword of the Sufferer"


VATICAN CITY, OCT. 26, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave today at a liturgy in preparation for Thursday's day of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace in Assisi.

The liturgy replaced the customary general audience held on Wednesdays.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

Today our customary meeting for the General Audience takes on a special character, for it is the vigil of the Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World, which will be held tomorrow in Assisi -- 25 years after the historic first meeting called by Pope John Paul II. I wanted to give this day the title "Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace" in order to signify the commitment we solemnly wish to renew -- together with members of different religions and also with those who are non-believers but who sincerely seek the truth -- to the advancement of the true good of humanity and for the building up of peace. As I have already had occasion to recall, "He who is on the journey towards God cannot help but transmit peace; those who build peace cannot help but draw close to God."

As Christians, we are convinced that the most precious contribution we can make to the cause of peace is that of prayer. For this reason, we find ourselves gathered here today, as the Church of Rome together with pilgrims who are present in the city, in order to listen to God's Word, and to invoke the gift of peace in faith. The Lord can enlighten our minds and hearts and guide us to be builders of justice and of reconciliation in our everyday lives and in the world.

In the passage we just heard from the Prophet Zechariah, an announcement resounds full of peace and light (cf. Zechariah 9:10). God promises salvation; He issues an invitation to "rejoice greatly," for this salvation is about to be realized. A king is spoken of: "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious" (Verse 9), but the one who is announced is not a king who presents himself in human power with the strength of armies; nor is he a king who dominates through political and military force; he is a gentle king, who reigns with humility and meekness before God and men, a king who is different than the great rulers of the world: "humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass," says the prophet (ibid.). He comes riding the animal of the common people -- of the poor -- in contrast with the war chariots of the armies of the great powers of the world. Indeed, he is a king who will cause these chariots to vanish; he will cut off the battle bow; he will announce peace to the nations (cf. Verse 10).

But who is this king of whom the Prophet Zechariah speaks? Let us go for a moment to Bethlehem and listen to what the Angel says to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. The Angel announces a great joy which will come to all the people, and which is tied to a sign of poverty: a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger (cf. Luke 2:8-12). And a multitude of the heavenly host sings "Glory to God in the highest and on the earth peace among men, whom He loves" (Verse 14), to men of goodwill. The birth of that child, who is Jesus, carries with it an announcement of peace to the whole world.

But let us also go to the final moments of Christ's life, when He enters Jerusalem welcomed by a jubilant crowd. The Prophet Zechariah's announcement of the coming of a meek and humble king returned to the minds of Jesus' disciples in a particular way after the events of the Passion, Death and Resurrection -- of the Paschal Mystery -- when they reconsidered with the eyes of faith the Master's joyous entrance into the Holy City. He rides upon an ass, which was borrowed (cf. Matthew 21:2-7): He does not ride in a stately carriage or on horseback like the great ones. He does not enter Jerusalem accompanied by a powerful army of chariots and charioteers. He is a poor king, the king of God's poor. In the Greek text, the word praeîs appears, which means gentle, meek; Jesus is the king of the anawim, of those whose hearts are free of the lust for power and material riches, free of the will and the search for dominion over others. Jesus is the king of all those who possess that interior freedom that enables them to overcome the greed and egoism of the world, and who know that God is their only wealth.

Jesus is the poor king among the poor, meek among those who desire to be meek. In this way, He is the king of peace, thanks to the power of God, which is the power of good, the power of love. He is a king who causes the chariots and charioteers of battle to disappear, who will shatter the bows of war; He is a king who will bring peace to fulfillment on the Cross by joining heaven and earth, and by throwing a bridge of brotherhood between all peoples. The Cross is the new bow of peace, the sign and instrument of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of understanding, a sign of the love that is stronger than all violence and oppression, stronger than death: Evil is conquered with good, with love.

This is the new kingdom of peace whose king is Christ; and it is a kingdom that extends over all the earth. The Prophet Zechariah announces that this humble, peaceful king will have dominion "from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:10). The reign inaugurated by Christ has universal dimensions. The horizons of this poor and gentle king are neither a territory nor a state, but rather the very ends of the earth; transcending every barrier of race, language and culture, He creates communion; He creates unity.

And where do we see this announcement fulfilled today? The prophecy of Zechariah shines with splendor in the great nets of the Eucharistic communities that extend over all the earth. These form a great mosaic of communities in which this gentle and peaceful king's sacrifice of love is made present; they form a multitude of "islands of peace" that radiate peace. Everywhere, in every circumstance and reality, in every culture, from the great cities with their palaces to tiny villages with their humble abodes, from towering cathedrals to little chapels, He comes, He makes Himself present; and in entering into communion with Him, men are also united with one another in one body, overcoming division, rivalries, and resentment. The Lord comes in the Eucharist to take us away from our individualism, our particularities that exclude others, to form of us one body, one kingdom of peace in a divided world.

But how may we build this kingdom of peace, of which Christ is king? The command that He leaves to His Apostles, and through them, to us all is: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations … and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matthew 28:19). Like Jesus, the messengers of peace in His kingdom must take to the road, they must respond to His invitation. They must go, but not with the power of war, nor with the force of power. In the Gospel passage we heard, Jesus sends 72 disciples into the great harvest that is the world, and He invites them to pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (cf. Luke 10:1-3); He does not send them with powerful means, but rather "as lambs in the midst of wolves" (Verse 3), without purse, or bag or sandals (cf. Verse 4). St. John Chrysostom, in one of his Homilies, comments: "As long as we are lambs we will conquer; even if we are surrounded by many wolves, we will succeed in overcoming them. But if we become wolves, we will be defeated, because we will be deprived of the help of the Shepherd" (Homily 33, 1: PG 57,389).

Christians must never yield to the temptation to become wolves in the midst of wolves; it is not with power, with force or with violence that Christ's kingdom of peace is extended, but with the gift of self, with love taken to the extreme, even toward our enemies. Jesus does not conquer the world with the strength of armies, but with the strength of the Cross, which is victory's true guarantee. Consequently, for the one who desires to be the Lord's disciple -- His messenger -- this means being ready for suffering and martyrdom, being ready to lose one's life for Him, so that good, love and peace may triumph in the world. This is the condition for being able to say, upon entering into any circumstance: "Peace be to this house!" (Luke 10:5).

In front of St. Peter's Basilica there stand two great statues of Sts. Peter and Paul, which are easily identifiable: St. Peter holds keys in his hands, and Paul instead holds a sword. One who is unfamiliar with the story of the latter might think he is a great captain who commanded powerful armies and subjected peoples and nations with the sword, procuring for himself fame and riches by others' blood. Instead it is exactly the opposite: The sword he holds is the instrument with which Paul was put to death, with which he underwent martyrdom and shed his own blood. His battle was not one of violence and of war but of martyrdom for Christ. His only weapon was the proclamation of "Jesus Christ and Him Crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). His preaching was not based "on plausible words and wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power" (Verse 4). He dedicated his life to spreading the Gospel's message of reconciliation and peace, spending all his energy in order that it might resound to the very ends of the earth.

And this was his strength: He did not seek a tranquil, comfortable life, far from difficulties and contradictions; rather, he wore himself out for the sake of the Gospel, he gave himself entirely and without reserve, and in this way he became the great messenger of Christ's peace and reconciliation.

The sword that St. Paul holds also recalls the power of truth, which can often wound, can hurt: the Apostle remained faithful to this truth to the end; he served it; he suffered for it; he gave over his life for it. This same logic holds true also for us if we want to be bearers of the kingdom and peace announced by the Prophet Zechariah and fulfilled by Christ: We must be willing to pay personally, to suffer in the first person misunderstanding, rejection, persecution. It is not the sword of the conqueror that builds peace, but the sword of the sufferer, of he who knows how to give his very life.

Dear brothers and sisters, as Christians we want to invoke from God the gift of peace; we want to ask Him to make us instruments of His peace in a world torn by hatred, division, egoism and war; we want to ask Him that tomorrow's meeting in Assisi foster dialogue between people of different religious affiliations and that it carry with it a ray of light capable of enlightening the minds and hearts of all people, so that resentment may give way to forgiveness, division to reconciliation, hatred to love, violence to meekness, and that peace may reign in the world. Amen.

[Translated by Diane Montagna]

Appeal of the Holy Father for the Peoples of Turkey

Dear brothers and sisters, before greeting you in various languages, I begin with an appeal. In this moment, my thoughts go to the peoples of Turkey who have been harshly hit by the earthquake that has caused grave losses of human life, numerous missing persons and extensive damage. I invite you to unite yourselves with me in prayer for those who have lost their lives, and to be spiritually close to the many persons so harshly tried. May the Almighty give support to all those who are committed to the work of providing aid. Now I greet you in various languages.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

[The Holy Father greeted the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

I am pleased to receive you in Saint Peter's Basilica and to extend a warm welcome to all of you who could not be accommodated in the Audience Hall. Always stay faithfully united to Christ and bear joyful witness to the Gospel. To all of you I cordially impart my Blessing.

* * *

I am happy to welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here today. I ask you to accompany me in prayer as I journey tomorrow to Assisi for the celebration of the Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World, together with representatives of different religions. I extend special greetings to the pilgrims from the Diocese of Niigata in Japan celebrating their centenary. I also welcome those present from England, Denmark, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam and the United States. May Almighty God bless all of you!

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[He added in Italian:]

Lastly, I greet young people, the sick and newlyweds. May the example of St. Francis of Assisi, at whose tomb I will pray tomorrow, support you, dear young people, in the commitment of daily fidelity to Christ; may he encourage you, dear sick, to always follow Jesus along the path of trial and suffering; may he help you, dear newlyweds, to make your family life a place of constant encounter with the love of God and neighbor. Thank you to you all. Good day.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

On the Newly Canonized

On the Newly Canonized




"Let Us Measure Our Actions Every Day by His Call to Love"


VATICAN CITY, OCT. 24, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave on Sunday before praying the midday Angelus with crowds in St. Peter's Square. He had just finished celebrating Mass for the canonization of three saints.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Before concluding this solemn celebration, I would like to cordially greet everyone.

[In Italian, he said:]

I turn first to pilgrims who have come to pay homage to St. Guido Maria Conforti and St. Luigi Guanella, with a thought of special affection and encouragement for members of the Institutes founded by them: the Xavieran Missionaries, the Daughters of Our Lady of Providence and the Servants of Charity. I greet the bishops and civil authorities and thank each of them for their presence. Once again, Italy has offered the Church and the world brilliant testimonies of the Gospel; let us give glory to God and let us pray that in this nation the faith may never cease to renew itself and bear good fruit.

[Translation by L'Osservatore Romano]

[In Spanish, he said:]

I very cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims who have come to Rome to participate in the joyful celebration of the proclamation of these new saints. Together with the archbishops and bishops who accompany you, the official delegations and those devoted to those canonized today, following them in spirit, I particularly greet the Servants of St. Joseph, who have the great joy of seeing the holiness of their founder recognized for the universal Church. May the example and intercession of these personalities honored in the Church motivate everyone to renew their commitment to live their faith in Christ with their whole heart, and give witness in the diverse spheres of society. Thank you very much.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[In English, he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present, especially those here for today’s canonizations. In this Sunday's Gospel passage, Jesus urges us to love God above all things and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Let us measure our actions every day by his call to love, and live it with courage and joy. May almighty God bless all of you!

On Psalm 136 (135)

On Psalm 136 (135)


"God Is; God Is Good, and His Mercy Is Eternal"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Italian-language catechesis Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience held in St. Peter's Square. The Pope today continued his catecheses on prayer with a reflection on Psalm 136 (135).

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Dear brothers and sisters,

Today I would like to meditate with you on a psalm that summarizes the whole of salvation history as recounted for us in the Old Testament. It is a great hymn of praise that extols the Lord in the manifold, repeated manifestations of His goodness throughout the course of human history; it is Psalm 136 -- or 135 according to the Greco-Latin tradition.

A solemn prayer of thanksgiving known as the "Great Hallel," this psalm is traditionally sung at the end of the Hebrew Passover meal, and was probably also prayed by Jesus during the final Passover celebrated with the disciples; the Evangelists seem in fact to allude to it in their annotations: "And when they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (cf. Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). The horizon of praise thus illumines the difficult road to Golgotha. The whole of Psalm 136 takes the form of a litany marked by the refrain "for His steadfast love endures forever."

Throughout this poetic composition, God's many mighty deeds in human history are enumerated, as are His continual interventions on behalf of His people; and to each proclamation of the Lord's saving action the antiphon responds with the fundamental motivation for praise: God's eternal love, a love that, according to the Hebrew word employed, involves fidelity, mercy, goodness, grace and tenderness. This is the unifying reason for the entire psalm; it is always repeated in the same way, while His prompt and paradigmatic manifestations change: creation, the liberation of the exodus, the gift of land, the Lord's constant and providential help for His people and for every creature.

After a threefold invitation to give thanks to the sovereign God (Verses 1-3), the Lord is extolled as He who alone does great wonders (Verse 4), the first of which is creation: the heavens, the earth and the great lights (Verses 5-9). The created world is not merely a set onto which God's saving action enters; it is rather the very beginning of that marvelous action. With creation, the Lord reveals Himself in all His goodness and beauty; He involves Himself with life, revealing the good will from which every other saving action flows. And our psalm, echoing the first chapter of Genesis, summarizes the created world in its principle elements, laying particular stress upon the great lights: the sun, the moon, the stars -- those magnificent creatures that govern the day and the night. The creation of the human being is not spoken of here, but he is always present; the sun and the moon are for him -- for man -- they are to mark time for man, putting him in relation with the Creator especially through the indication of liturgical times.

And, in fact, it is the feast of Passover that is recalled immediately after this when, passing on to God's self-revelation in history, it begins with the great event of liberation from Egyptian slavery, of the Exodus -- traced out in its most important elements: the liberation from Egypt by the plague that smote the Egyptians' first-born; the departure from Egypt; the passage through the Red Sea, the journey through the desert and the entrance into the Promised Land (Verses 10-20). We are in the first moments of Israel's history. God powerfully intervenes in order to bring His people into freedom; through Moses, His envoy, He makes Himself known to Pharaoh, revealing Himself in all his greatness and, in the end, He bends the Egyptians' resistance with the terrible scourge of the death of their firstborn sons. Thus is Israel able to leave the land of slavery, with the gold of their oppressors (cf. Exodus 12:35-36) and "with raised hands" (Exodus 14:8) in the exultant sign of victory.

The Lord acts with merciful power also at the Red Sea. Faced by an Israel who stands afraid at the sight of the Egyptians who pursue them, so much so that they regret having left Egypt (cf. Exodus 14:10-12), God, our psalm says, "divided the Red Sea in sunder […] made Israel pass through the midst of it […] and overthrew Pharaoh and his host" (Verses 13-15). The image of the Red Sea "divided" in two seems to evoke the idea of the sea as a great monster cut in two and thus rendered harmless.

The Lord's power conquers the peril of the forces of nature as well as that of the military forces set up by men: the sea, which seemed to block the way for God's people, allows Israel to pass on dry ground -- and then closes in upon the Egyptians, sweeping them away. The Lord's "mighty hand and outstretched arm" (cf. Deuteronomy 5:15; 7:19; 26:8) are thus revealed in all their saving power: The unjust oppressor is conquered, swallowed up by the waters, while the People of God "pass through the midst of it" to continue on their journey toward freedom.

Our psalm now makes reference to this journey by calling to mind Israel's long pilgrimage toward the Promised Land with a very brief phrase: "He led His people through the wilderness, for His steadfast love endures forever" (Verse 16). These few words summarize an experience that lasted 40 years -- a decisive time for Israel, who in allowing itself to be guided by the Lord, learns to live by faith, in obedience and in docility to God's law. They are difficult years marked by the harshness of life in the desert, but they are also happy ones -- years of confidence in the Lord, of filial trust; it is the time of "youth" as the prophet Jeremiah defines it when speaking to Israel in the name of the Lord, with expressions full of tenderness and nostalgia: "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown" (Jeremiah 2:2). The Lord, like the shepherd in Psalm 23 that we contemplated in another catechesis, guided His People for 40 years; He educated and loved them, leading them to the Promised Land and conquering even the resistance and hostility of enemy peoples who wanted to obstruct them on the way of salvation (cf. Verses 17-20).

In unfolding the "great wonders" enumerated by our psalm, we reach the moment of the decisive gift, through the fulfillment of the divine promise made to the Fathers: "He gave their land as a heritage, for His steadfast love endures forever; a heritage to Israel his servant, for His steadfast love endures forever" (Verses 21-22). In extolling God's eternal love, the gift of land is now remembered, a gift which the people must receive without ever claiming it as their own possession -- by living continually in an attitude of grateful acceptance. Israel received the land in which they live as an "inheritance" -- a word that generally designates the possession of a good received from another; a right of propriety that refers specifically to a paternal inheritance. One of the prerogatives of God is that of "giving"; and now, at the end of the Exodus journey, Israel, the receiver of the gift, enters as a son into the Land of the promise fulfilled. The time of wandering -- under tents, in a life marked by danger -- is over. Now the blessed time of stability has begun -- of joy in building their homes and in planting their vineyards, of living in security (cf. Deuteronomy 8:7-13). But it is also the time of temptation to idol-worship; of contamination with the pagans; of a self-sufficiency that makes them forget the Origin of the gift. For this reason, the psalmist mentions humiliation and the foe, a mortal reality in which the Lord, yet again, reveals Himself as Savior: "It is He who remembered us in our low estate, for His steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for His steadfast love endures forever" (Verses 23-24).

At this point the question arises: How can we make this psalm our own, how can we make this psalm a part of our own prayer? What frames this psalm at its beginning and its end is important: and this is Creation. Let us return to this point: Creation as God's great gift from which we live, in which He reveals Himself in his goodness and greatness. Therefore, to regard creation as a gift of God is of interest to us all.

Then follows salvation history. Naturally we can say: The liberation from Egypt, the time in the desert, the entrance into the Promised Land and then the other problems are very distant from us; they are not part of our history. But we must be attentive to the fundamental structure of this prayer. The fundamental structure is that Israel remembers the Lord's goodness. In its history, there are so many dark valleys, so many passages through difficulty and death, but Israel remembers that God is good, and they can overcome in the dark valley -- in the valley of death -- because they remember. Israel remembers the Lord's goodness and His power; that His mercy endures forever.

And this is also important for us: remembering the Lord's goodness. Remembering becomes the strength of hope. Remembering tells us: God is; God is good, and His mercy is eternal. And thus, remembering opens the road to the future -- even in the darkness of a day, of a moment in time, it is the light and star that guides us. Let us, too, remember the good; let us remember God's eternal, merciful love. Israel's history is already part of our memory as well, of how God revealed Himself, of how He created for Himself a people to be His own. Then God became man, one of us: he lived with us, suffered with us, died for us. He remains with us in the Blessed Sacrament and in the Word. It is a history, a remembrance of God's goodness that assures us of His goodness: His love is eternal.

And then also, in these 2,000 years of the Church's history, there is always -- once again -- the goodness of the Lord. After the dark period of the Nazi and Communist persecutions, God freed us. He showed us that He is good, that He has power and that His mercy endures forever.

And, just as the presence of the memory of God's goodness helps us and becomes a star of hope for us in our common, collective history, so also each of us has his own personal history of salvation, and we must truly treasure this history, keeping always in mind the great things He has also done in my life, so that we might trust: His mercy is eternal. And if today I am in the dark night, tomorrow He will free me, for His mercy is eternal.

Let us return to the psalm, for at the end, it returns to creation. The Lord, it says, "gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever" (Verse 25). The prayer of the psalm concludes with an invitation to praise: "O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever." The Lord is a good and provident Father, who gives the inheritance to His children and bestows food upon all. The God who created the heavens and the earth and the great celestial lights, who enters into human history in order to bring salvation to all of His children, is the God who fills the universe with His good presence, taking care of life and giving us bread. The invisible power of the Creator and Lord, which the psalm extols, is revealed in the littleness and visibility of the bread that He gives us, and by which He makes us live. And thus, this daily bread symbolizes and summarizes God's love as Father, and opens before us the New Testament fulfillment of that "bread of life," the Eucharist, which accompanies us in our existence as believers, and anticipates the definitive joy of the messianic banquet of Heaven.

Brothers and sisters, the blessing and praise of Psalm 136 has led us to retrace the most important stages in the history of salvation, reaching all the way to the paschal mystery in which God's saving action reaches its culmination. With grateful joy, let us therefore extol the Creator, Savior and faithful Father, who "so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). In the fullness of time, the Son of God was made man in order to give His life, to give salvation to each one of us, and He gives Himself as bread in the mystery of the Eucharist in order to make us enter into His covenant, which makes us His children. To such great heights do God's merciful goodness and the sublimity of "His eternal love" attain.

I therefore wish to conclude this catechesis by making my own the words St. John writes in his First Letter, and which we must always keep present in our prayer: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are" (1 John 3:1). Thank you.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our continuing catechesis on Christian prayer, we now turn to Psalm 136. Known as the Great Hallel, this Psalm is a great hymn of praise which was traditionally sung at the conclusion of the Passover meal. As such, it was probably sung by Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper (cf. Mt 26:30). The Psalm takes the form of a litany praising God's mighty deeds in the creation of the world and in the history of Israel; each reference to God's saving work is followed by the refrain: "For his steadfast love endures for ever". It is God's faithful love, in fact, which is revealed in the ordered beauty of the universe and in the great events of Israel's liberation from slavery and the pilgrimage of the Chosen People to the land of promise. As we sing this great litany of God's mighty works, we give thanks that the depth of his steadfast and merciful love was fully revealed in the coming of his only-begotten Son. In Christ, we see clearly "what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, for that is what we are" (1 Jn 3:1).

* * *

I offer cordial greetings to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today's Audience, especially those from England, Norway, Nigeria, Australia, Indonesia and the United States. My greeting also goes to the members of Legatus visiting Rome on pilgrimage and to the group of Lutheran pilgrims from Iceland. I also welcome the group of Anglican seminarians taking part in a month of study in Rome. Upon all of you I invoke God's blessings of joy and peace!

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[The Holy Father concluded in Italian:]

Lastly, I greet the sick, the newly married and young people, especially the newly confirmed of the Diocese of Faenza-Modigliana who are being accompanied by their Bishop Claudio Stagni. Yesterday we celebrated the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. May his love for Christ sustain you, dear sick, in accepting suffering in union with the divine Master; may he encourage you, dear newlyweds, to live the sacrament of matrimony in its fullness; and may he help you, dear young people, to cling with an ever greater conviction to the Word of salvation, so that you might joyfully witness to it among your peers. Thank you.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

On Psalm 126

On Psalm 126


"It Is Important Not to Lose the Memory of God's Presence in Our Lives"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 12, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Italian-language catechesis Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience held in St. Peter's Square. The Pope today continued his catecheses on prayer with a reflection on Psalm 126.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the previous catecheses, we have meditated on a number of psalms of lament and of trust. Today, I would like to reflect with you on a notably joyous psalm, a prayer that sings with joy the marvels of God. It is Psalm 126 -- according to Greco-Latin numbering, 125 -- which extols the great things the Lord has done with His people, and which He continues to do with every believer.

The psalmist begins the prayer in the name of all Israel by recalling the thrilling experience of salvation:

"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

we were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

and our tongue with shouts of joy" (Verses 1-2a).

The psalm speaks of "restored fortunes"; that is, restored to their original state in all their former favorability. It begins then with a situation of suffering and of need to which God responds by bringing about salvation and restoring the man who prays to his former condition; indeed, one that is enriched and even changed for the better. This is what happens to Job, when the Lord restores to him all that he had lost, redoubling it and bestowing upon him an even greater blessing (cf. Job 42:10-13), and this is what the people of Israel experience in returning to their homeland after the Babylonian exile.

This psalm is meant to be interpreted with reference to the end of the deportation to a foreign land: The expression "restore the fortunes of Zion" is read and understood by the tradition as a "return of the prisoners of Zion." In fact, the return from exile is paradigmatic of every divine and saving intervention, since the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation into Babylon were devastating experiences for the Chosen People, not only on the political and social planes, but also and especially on the religious and spiritual ones. The loss of their land, the end of the davidic monarchy and the destruction of the Temple appear as a denial of the divine promises, and the People of the Covenant, dispersed among the pagans, painfully question a God who seems to have abandoned them.

Therefore, the end of the deportation and their return to their homeland are experienced as a marvelous return to faith, to trust, to communion with the Lord; it is a "restoring of fortunes" that involves a conversion of heart, forgiveness, re-found friendship with God, knowledge of His mercy and a renewed possibility of praising Him (cf. Jeremiah 29:12-14; 30:18-20; 33:6-11; Ezekiel 39:25-29). It is an experience of overflowing joy, of laughter and of cries of jubilation, so beautiful that "it seems like a dream." Divine help often takes surprising forms that surpass what man is able to imagine; hence the wonder and joy that are expressed in this psalm: "The Lord has done great things." This is what the nations said, and it is what Israel proclaims:

"Then they said among the nations,

'the Lord has done great things for them.'

The Lord has done great things for us;

we are glad" (Verses 2b-3).

God performs marvelous works in the history of men. In carrying out salvation, He reveals Himself to all as the powerful and merciful Lord, a refuge for the oppressed, who does not forget the cry of the poor (cf. Psalm 9:10,13), who loves justice and right and of whose love the earth is filled (cf. Psalm 33:5). Thus, standing before the liberation of the People of Israel, all the nations recognize the great and marvelous things God has accomplished for His People, and they celebrate the Lord in His reality as Savior.

And Israel echoes the proclamation of the nations, taking it up and repeating it once more -- but as the protagonist -- as a direct recipient of the divine action: "The Lord has done great things for us"; "for us" or even more precisely, "with us," in hebrew 'immanû, thus affirming that privileged relationship that the Lord keeps with His chosen ones, and which is found in the name Emmanuel, "God with us," the name by which Jesus would be called, His complete and full revelation (cf. Matthew 1:23).

Dear brothers and sisters, in our prayer we should look more often at how, in the events of our own lives, the Lord has protected, guided and helped us, and we should praise Him for all He has done and does for us. We should be more attentive to the good things the Lord gives to us. We are always attentive to problems and to difficulties, and we are almost unwilling to perceive that there are beautiful things that come from the Lord. This attention, which becomes gratitude, is very important for us; it creates in us a memory for the good and it helps us also in times of darkness. God accomplishes great things, and whoever experiences this -- attentive to the Lord's goodness with an attentiveness of heart -- is filled with joy. The first part of the psalm concludes on this joyous note. To be saved and to return to one's homeland from exile are like being returned to life: Freedom opens up to laughter, but is does so together with a waiting for a fulfillment still desired and implored. This is the second part of our psalm, which continues:

"Restore our fortunes, O Lord,

like the watercourses in the Negeb!

May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy!

He that goes forth weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him" (Verses 4-6).

If at the beginning of the prayer, the psalmist celebrated the joy of a fortune already restored by the Lord, now instead he asks for it as something still to be realized. If we apply this psalm to the return from exile, this apparent contradiction could be explained by Israel's historical experience of a difficult and only partial return to their homeland, which prompts the man who prays to implore further divine help to bring the People's restoration to completeness.

But the psalm goes beyond the purely historical moment and opens to broader, theological dimensions. The consoling experience of freedom from Babylon is nevertheless still incomplete, it has "already" occurred, but it is "not yet" marked by a definitive fullness. Thus, while the prayer joyously celebrates the salvation received, it opens in anticipation of its full realization. Therefore, the psalm uses distinctive imagery that in its complexity calls to mind the mysterious reality of redemption, in which the gift received and yet still to be awaited, life and death, joys dreamed of and painful tears, are interwoven.

The first image refers to the dried-up streams of the Negeb desert, which with the rains are filled with rushing waters that restore life to the arid ground and make it flourish. Thus, the psalmist's request is that the restoration of the People's fortunes and their return from exile be like those waters, roaring and unstoppable, capable of transforming the desert into an immense stretch of green grass and flowers.

The second image shifts from the arid and rocky hills of the Negeb to the fields that farmers cultivate for food. In describing salvation, the experience renewed every year in the world of agriculture is here recalled: the difficult and tiring time of sowing, and then the overflowing joy in the harvest. It is a sowing in tears, since one casts to the ground what could still become bread, exposing it to a time of waiting that is full of uncertainty: The farmer works, he prepares the earth, he scatters the seed, but as the parable of the Sower illustrates well, one never knows where the seed will fall -- if the birds will eat it, if it will take root, if it will become an ear of grain (cf. Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:2-9; Luke 8:4-8).

To scatter the seed is an act of trust and of hope; man's industriousness is needed, but then one must enter into a powerless time of waiting, well aware that many deciding factors will determine the success of the harvest, and that the risk of failure is always lurking. And yet, year after year, the farmer repeats his gesture and scatters the seed. And when it becomes an ear of grain, and the fields fill with crops, this is the joy of he who stands before an extraordinary marvel.

Jesus knew well this experience, and He spoke of it with those who were His own: "He said: 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how'" (Mark 4:26-27). It is the hidden mystery of life, these are the wondrous, "great things" of salvation that the Lord carries out in human history and whose secret men do not know.

When divine help is manifested in all its fullness, it has an overflowing dimension, like the watercourses of the Negeb and like the grain of the fields -- the latter also evoking a disproportion characteristic of the things of God: a disproportion between the effort of the sowing and the immense joy of the harvest; between the anxiety of waiting and the comforting vision of the granaries filled; between the little seeds thrown upon the ground and the great sheaves of grain made golden by the sun. At the harvest, all is transformed; the weeping has ended and has given way to an exultant cry of joy.

This is what the psalmist refers to when he speaks of salvation, of liberation, of the restoration of fortunes and of return from exile. The deportation to Babylon, like every other situation of suffering and of crisis, with its painful darkness filled with doubts and the apparent absence of God, in reality -- our psalm says -- is like a time of sowing. In the Mystery of Christ -- in the light of the New Testament -- the message becomes even clearer and more explicit: The believer who passes through this darkness is like the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies, but that bears much fruit (cf. John 12:24); or, borrowing another image that was dear to Jesus, the believer is like the woman who suffers the pains of labor for the sake of attaining the joy of having brought a new life to light (cf. John 16:21).

Dear brothers and sisters, this psalm teaches us that, in our prayer, we must always remain open to hope, and firm in our faith in God. Our personal history -- even if often marked by suffering, uncertainty and moments of crisis -- is a history of salvation and of the "restoring of fortunes." In Jesus our every exile ends and every tear is wiped away in the mystery of His Cross, of death transformed into life, like the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and yields a harvest. Also for us, this discovery of Jesus Christ is the great joy of God's "yes," of the restoration of our fortunes. But like those who -- having returned from Babylon filled with joy -- found an impoverished, devastated land as well as difficulty in sowing, and weeping, they suffered not knowing if at the end there would actually be a harvest, so also we, after the great discovery of Jesus Christ -- our life, the truth, the way -- entering into the terrain of faith, into the "land of faith," we also often find that life is dark, hard, difficult -- a sowing in tears -- but we are certain that in the end, the light of Christ truly gives us the great harvest.

And we must learn this also in the dark nights; do not forget that the light is there, that God is already in the midst of our lives and that we can sow with the great trust in the fact that God's "yes" is stronger than us all. It is important not to lose the memory of God's presence in our lives, this profound joy that God has entered into our lives, thus freeing us: It is gratitude for the discovery of Jesus Christ, who has come among us. And this gratitude is transformed into hope; it is a star of hope that gives us trust; it is light, since the very pains of sowing are the beginning of new life, of the great and definitive joy of God.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

[The Holy Father then greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our continuing catechesis on Christian prayer, we now turn to Psalm 126. This Psalm is a joyful prayer of thanksgiving for God's fidelity to his promises in bringing about Israel's return from the Babylonian Exile: "The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced" (v. 3). A similar spirit of joy and thanksgiving should mark our own prayer as we recall the care which God has shown to us in the events of our lives, even those which seem dark and bitter. The Psalmist implores God to continue to grant Israel his saving help: "May those who sow in tears, reap with shouts of joy" (v. 5). This imagery of the seed which silently grows to maturity reminds us that God's salvation is at once a gift already received and the object of our hope, a promise whose fulfilment remains in the future. Jesus will use this same imagery to express the passage from death to life, from darkness to light, which must take place in the lives of all who put their faith in him and share in his paschal mystery (cf. Jn 12:24). As we pray this Psalm, may we echo the song of the Virgin Mary by rejoicing in the great things which the Almighty has done for us (cf. Lk 1:49) and by awaiting in hope the fulfilment of God's promises.

* * *

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today's Audience, especially the members of the NATO Defense College, and pilgrims from England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Lebanon, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada and the United States of America. Upon all of you I invoke God's abundant blessings of joy and peace!

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[He concluded in Italian:]

Now I turn with great affection to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. My thoughts go to Our Lady of Fatima, whose final apparition we will remember tomorrow. To the heavenly Mother of God I entrust you, dear young people, so that you might generously respond to the Lord's call. May Mary be for you, dear sick, comfort in your suffering and may she accompany you, dear newlyweds, in the journey of family life you are now beginning.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

[At the end of the audience, the Holy Father made this appeal]

I am profoundly saddened by the episodes of violence that were committed in Cairo last Sunday. I unite myself to the suffering of the families of the victims and to that of the entire Egyptian people, torn as it is by attempts to undermine the peaceful coexistence of its communities, [a coexistence] that instead it is necessary to safeguard, especially in this moment of transition. I exhort the faithful to pray that this society might enjoy a true peace, founded upon justice, upon respect for the freedom and the dignity of every citizen. Moreover, I support the efforts of the Egyptian authorities, civil and religious, who promote a society in which the human rights of all are respected, and in particular of minorities, to the benefit of national unity.

[Translation by Diane Montagna]

Pope's Address to Carthusian Monks

Pope's Address to Carthusian Monks


"A Whole Life Barely Suffices to Enter Into This Union With God"

LAMEZIA TERME, Italy, OCT. 11, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a L'Osservatore Romano translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave Sunday during vespers celebrated in the Carthusian monastery of St. Bruno. The Pope was on a one-day pastoral visit to Lamezia Terme and Serra San Bruno in the region of Calabria, Italy.

* * *

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,

Dear Carthusian Brothers,

Brothers and Sisters,

I thank the Lord who has brought me to this place of faith and prayer, the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno. In renewing my grateful greeting to Archbishop Vincenzo Bertolone of Catanzaro-Squillace, I address this Carthusian Community, each one of its members, with deep affection, starting with the Prior, Father Jacques Dupont, whom I warmly thank for his words, while I ask him to communicate my grateful thoughts and my blessing to the Minister General and to the Nuns of the Order.

I am first of all eager to stress that this Visit comes in continuity with certain signs of strong communion between the Apostolic See and the Carthusian Order, which became apparent in the past century. In 1924, Pope Pius XI issued an Apostolic Constitution with which he approved the Statutes of the Order, revised in the light of the Code of Canon Law. In May 1984, Blessed John Paul II addressed a special letter to the Minister General, on the occasion of the ninth centenary of the foundation by St Bruno of the first community at the Chartreuse [Charterhouse] near Grenoble. On 5 October that same year my beloved Predecessor came here and the memory of his passing between these walls is still vivid.

Today I come to you in the wake of these events, past but ever timely, and I would like our meeting to highlight the deep bond that exists between Peter and Bruno, between pastoral service to the Church's unity and the contemplative vocation in the Church. Ecclesial communion, in fact, demands an inner force, that force which Father Prior has just recalled, citing the expression "captus ab Uno," ascribed to St Bruno: "grasped by the One," by God, "Unus potens per omnia," as we sang in the Vespers hymn. From the contemplative community the ministry of pastors draws a vital sap that comes from God.

"Fugitiva relinquere et aeterna captare": to abandon transient realities and seek to grasp the eternal. These words from the letter your Founder addressed to Rudolph, Provost of Rheims, contain the core of your spirituality (cf. Letter to Rudolph "the Green", n. 13): the strong desire to enter in union of life with God, abandoning everything else, everything that stands in the way of this communion, and letting oneself be grasped by the immense love of God to live this love alone.

Dear brothers you have found the hidden treasure, the pearl of great value (cf. Mt 13:44-46); you have responded radically to Jesus' invitation: "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). Every monastery -- male or female -- is an oasis in which the deep well, from which to draw "living water" to quench our deepest thirst, is constantly being dug with prayer and meditation. However, the charterhouse is a special oasis in which silence and solitude are preserved with special care, in accordance with the form of life founded by St Bruno and which has remained unchanged down the centuries. "I live in a rather faraway hermitage... with some religious brothers", is the concise sentence that your Founder wrote (Letter to Rudolph "the Green", n. 4). The Successor of Peter's Visit to this historical Charterhouse is not only intended to strengthen those of you who live here but the entire Order in its mission which is more than ever timely and meaningful in today's world.

Technical progress, markedly in the area of transport and communications, has made human life more comfortable but also more keyed up, at times even frantic. Cities are almost always noisy, silence is rarely to be found in them because there is always a lingering background noise, in some areas even at night. In the recent decades, moreover, the development of the media has spread and extended a phenomenon that had already been outlined in the 1960s: virtuality that risks getting the upper hand over reality. Unbeknown to them, people are increasingly becoming immersed in a virtual dimension because of the audiovisual messages that accompany their life from morning to night.

The youngest, who were already born into this condition, seem to want to fill every empty moment with music and images, as for fear of feeling this very emptiness. This is a trend that has always existed, especially among the young and in the more developed urban contexts but today it has reached a level such as to give rise to talk about anthropological mutation. Some people are no longer capable of remaining for long periods in silence and solitude.

I chose to mention this socio-cultural condition because it highlights the specific charism of the Charterhouse as a precious gift for the Church and for the world, a gift that contains a deep message for our life and for the whole of humanity. I shall sum it up like this: by withdrawing into silence and solitude, human beings, so to speak, "expose" themselves to reality in their nakedness, to that apparent "void," which I mentioned at the outset, in order to experience instead Fullness, the presence of God, of the most royal Reality that exists and that lies beyond the tangible dimension. He is a perceptible presence in every created thing: in the air that we breathe, in the light that we see and that warms us, in the grass, in stones.... God, Creator omnium, [the Creator of all], passes through all things but is beyond them and for this very reason is the foundation of them all.

The monk, in leaving all, "takes a risk," as it were: he exposes himself to solitude and silence in order to live on nothing but the essential, and precisely in living the essential he also finds a deep communion with his brethren, with every human being.

Some might think that it would suffice to come here to take this "leap." But it is not like this. This vocation, like every vocation, finds an answer in an ongoing process, in the searching of a whole life. Indeed it is not enough to withdraw to a place such as this in order to learn to be in God's presence. Just as in marriage it is not enough to celebrate the Sacrament to become effectively one but it is necessary to let God's grace act and to walk together through the daily routine of conjugal life, so becoming monks requires time, practice and patience, "in a divine and persevering vigilance," as St Bruno said, they "await the return of their Lord so that they might be able to open the door for him as soon as he knocks" (Letter to Rudolph "the Green", n. 4); and the beauty of every vocation in the Church consists precisely in this: giving God time to act with his Spirit and to one's own humanity to form itself, to grow in that special state of life according to the measure of the maturity of Christ.

In Christ there is everything, fullness; we need time to make one of the dimensions of his mystery our own. We could say that this is a journey of transformation in which the mystery of Christ's resurrection is brought about and made manifest in us, a mystery to which the word of God in the biblical Reading from the Letter to the Romans has recalled us this evening: the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and will give life even to our mortal bodies (cf. Rom 8:11) is the One who also brings about our configuration to Christ in accordance with each one's vocation, a journey that unwinds from the baptismal font to death, a passing on to the Father's house. In the world's eyes it sometimes seems impossible to spend one's whole life in a monastery but in fact a whole life barely suffices to enter into this union with God, into this essential and profound Reality which is Jesus Christ.

I have come here for this reason, dear Brothers who make up the Carthusian Community of Serra San Bruno! To tell you that the Church needs you and that you need the Church. Your place is not on the fringes: no vocation in the People of God is on the fringes. We are one body, in which every member is important and has the same dignity, and is inseparable from the whole. You too, who live in voluntary isolation, are in the heart of the Church and make the pure blood of contemplation and of the love of God course through your veins.

Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis [the cross is steady while the world is turning], your motto says. The Cross of Christ is the firm point in the midst of the world's changes and upheavals. Life in a Charterhouse shares in the stability of the Cross which is that of God, of God's faithful love. By remaining firmly united to Christ, like the branches to the Vine, may you too, dear Carthusian Brothers, be associated to his mystery of salvation, like the Virgin Mary who stabat (stood) beneath the Cross, united with her Son in the same sacrifice of love.

Thus, like Mary and with her, you too are deeply inserted in the mystery of the Church, a sacrament of union of men with God and with each other. In this you are unusually close to my ministry. May the Most Holy Mother of the Church therefore watch over us and the holy Father Bruno always bless your community from Heaven. Amen.

On the Lord's Work in History

On the Lord's Work in History


"God Gives Himself Into Our Hands"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

This Sunday's Gospel closes with Jesus' warning addressed to the chief priests and elders of the people that is particularly severe: "The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will bear its fruits" (Matthew 21:43). These are words that make us think of the great responsibility of those who, in every age, are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord, especially with the role of authority; they move us to complete fidelity to Christ. He is the "stone that the builders rejected" (cf. Matthew 21:42), because they judged him an enemy of the law and a threat to public order; but he himself, rejected and crucified, is risen, becoming the "cornerstone" upon which every human existence and the entire world can rest with absolute security.

The parable of the unfaithful tenants, to whom a man gave his vineyard to be cultivated to bear fruit, speaks of this truth. The owner of the vineyard represents God himself, while the vineyard symbolizes God's people as well as the life that he has bestowed upon us to do good through our commitment and his grace. St. Augustine says that "God cultivates us like a field to make us better" (Sermo 87, 1, 2: PL 38, 531). God has a project for his friends but unfortunately man's answer is often oriented to infidelity, which translates into rejection. Pride and egoism impede the recognition and acceptance even of God's most precious gift: his only begotten Son. When, in fact, "he sent them his son," writes the Evangelist Matthew, "they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him" (Matthew 21:37, 39). God gives himself into our hands, he allows himself to be an unfathomable mystery of weakness and manifests his omnipotence in fidelity to a plan of love that, in the end, foresees also punishment for the wicked (cf. Matthew 21:41).

Solidly anchored in faith in the cornerstone that is Christ, we remain in him as a branch that cannot bear fruit on its own if it does not remain in the vine. Only in him, through him and with him is the Church, the people of the New Covenant, built up. In this connection the Servant of God Pope Paul VI wrote: "The first benefit which we trust the Church will reap from a deepened self-awareness, is a renewed discovery of its vital bond of union with Christ. This is something which is perfectly well known, but it is supremely important and absolutely essential. It can never be sufficiently understood, meditated upon and preached" ("Ecclesiam Suam," August 6, 1964: AAS 56 [1964], 622).

Dear friends, the Lord is always near and working in human history, and he also accompanies us with the unique presence of his angels, whom the Church venerates today as "guardians," that is, ministers of the divine care for every man. From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their unceasing protection. And the angels are the crown of the august Queen of Victories, the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, who in the first Sunday of October, precisely at this hour, receives the fervid plea, from the sanctuary in Pompeii and from the whole world, that evil be defeated and the goodness of God be revealed in its fullness.

[Following the Angelus the Holy Father addressed the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters, this afternoon, in Ivrea, Italy, Sister Antonia Maria Verna, foundress of the Institute of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea, will be proclaimed blessed. The rite will be celebrated by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my secretary of state. We thank God for the luminous figure of this newly beatified woman, who lived between the 18th and 19th centuries, a model for women who lead the consecrated life and those who are teachers.

[In English he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus. In particular, I extend cordial greetings to the participants in the Second International Congress on Divine Mercy in Krakow, and to the students from Iona College, Australia. The Gospel of today's liturgy spurs us to pray for all who work in the Lord's vineyard, especially where they face violence and threats because of their faith. May God grant them, and all of us, strength in our service to him and to one another. God bless all of you!

[Concluding in Italian, he said:]

I wish everyone a good Sunday!

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]