ON GOD THE ALMIGHTY FATHER

"Despite the Crisis of Fatherhood in Many Societies, the Scriptures Show us Clearly what it Means to Call God 'Father'"

VATICAN CITY, January 30, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is a translation of the General Audience Pope Benedict XVI gave today in Paul VI Hall.

--- --- ---

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In last Wednesday's catechesis we focused on the words of the Creed: "I believe in God." But the profession of faith specifies this statement: God is the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I should like to reflect with you now on the first, fundamental definition of God that the Creed gives us: He is Father.

It is not always easy today to talk about fatherhood. Especially in the West, the broken families, the increasingly absorbing work commitments, the worries and often the effort to balance the family budget, the distracting invasion of the media into daily life are some of the many factors that can prevent a peaceful and constructive relationship between fathers and their children. Communication becomes difficult at times, trust is weakened and the relationship with the father figure can become problematic; and thus it also becomes difficult to imagine God as a father, not having adequate models of reference. For those who have had the experience of a father who was too authoritarian and inflexible, or indifferent and lacking in affection, or even absent, it is not easy to think calmly of God as Father and surrender to Him with confidence.

But the biblical revelation helps to overcome these difficulties, telling us about a God who shows us what it means to truly be "father", and it is especially the Gospel which reveals the face of God as a Father who loves even to the giving of his own Son for the salvation humanity. The reference to the father figure therefore helps to understand something of the love of God which however remains infinitely greater, more faithful, more total than that of any man. "Is there anyone among you", says Jesus, to show the disciples the Father's face, "who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"(Mt 7:9-11; cf. Lk 11:11-13). God is our Father because He has blessed and chosen us before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph 1:3-6), he has truly made us his children in Jesus (cf. 1 Jn 3:1). And, as Father, God accompanies our lives with love, giving us His Word, His teachings, His grace, His Spirit.

He - as revealed in Jesus - is the Father who feeds the birds of the sky without them having to sow and reap, and bedecks the flowers of the field in wonderful colors, with clothes more beautiful than those of King Solomon (cf. Mt 6.26-32 and Lk 12:24-28); and we - adds Jesus - are worth far more than flowers and the birds of the sky! And if He is good enough to make "his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and ... send the rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Mt 5:45), we can always, without fear and with total confidence, trust in the forgiveness of Father when we lose our way. God is a good Father who welcomes and embraces the lost and repentant son (cf. Lk 15:11ff), He gives himself freely to those who ask (cf. Mt18:19, Mk 11:24, Jn 16:23) and offers the bread from heaven and the living water that gives life forever (cf. Jn 6:32.51.58).

Therefore, the one praying in Psalm 27, surrounded by enemies, besieged by evil and slanderers, while he seeks help from the Lord and calls upon Him, can give his testimony full of faith, saying: "My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up"(v. 10). God is a Father who never abandons his children, a loving Father who supports, helps, welcomes, forgives, saves, with a fidelity that immensely surpasses that of men, opening onto the dimensions of eternity. "For his steadfast love endures forever," as Psalm 136 continually repeats in every verse, as a litany, retracing the history of salvation. The love of God the Father never fails, He never tires of us; He is love that gives to the extreme, even to the sacrifice of His Son. Faith gives us this certainty, which becomes a secure rock in constructing our lives: we can face all the moments of difficulty and danger, the experience of the darkness of crisis and of times of pain, supported by our faith that God does not leave us alone and is always near, to save us and bring us to eternal life.

It is in the Lord Jesus that the benevolent face of the Father who is in heaven shows itself fully. It is in knowing Him that we can know the Father (cf. Jn 8:19; 14:7); it is by seeing Him that we can see the Father, because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (cf. Jn 14:9.11). He is the "image of the invisible God" as the hymn of the Letter to the Colossians defines Him, "the firstborn of all creation ... the firstborn from the dead", "through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" and reconciliation of all things, "whether in heaven or on earth, having made peace through the blood of his cross" (cf. Col 1:13-20).

Faith in God the Father asks us to believe in the Son, under the action of the Spirit, recognizing in the Cross that saves the final revelation of divine love. God is our Father by giving us his Son; God is our Father by forgiving our sins and bringing us to the joy of the risen life; God is our Father giving us the Spirit that makes us sons and allows us to call Him, in truth, "Abbà, Father "(cf. Rom 8:15). Therefore Jesus, teaching us to pray, invites us to say "our Father" (Mt 6:9-13; cf. Lk 11:2-4).

The fatherhood of God, then, is infinite love, tenderness that stoops over us, weak children, in need of everything. Psalm 103, the great hymn of divine mercy, proclaims: "As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him, for he knows how we were made, he remembers that we are dust" (vv. 13-14). It is precisely our littleness, our weak human nature, our fragility that becomes an appeal to the Lord's mercy for Him to manifest His greatness and tenderness as a Father by helping us, forgiving us and saving us.

And God responds to our appeal, sending His Son, who died and rose again for us; He enters our fragility and does that which man alone could never do: He takes upon Himself the sin of the world, as an innocent lamb, and re-opens the way for us to communion with God, He makes us true children of God. It is there, in the Paschal Mystery, where the definitive face of the Father is revealed in all its luminosity. And it is there, on the glorious Cross, where the full manifestation occurs of the greatness of God as "Father Almighty."

But we might ask: how is it possible to imagine an omnipotent God looking at the Cross of Christ? At this power of evil, that goes so far as to kill the Son of God? We would like an omnipotence of God according to our mental schemes and our desires: an "omnipotent" God who solves the problems, who intervenes to save us from every difficulty, who defeats all the harmful powers, changes the course of events and cancels out pain. Thus, today various theologians say that God cannot be omnipotent, otherwise there would not be so much suffering, so much evil in the world. In reality, in the face of evil and suffering, for many, for us, it becomes difficult to believe in God the Father and to believe Him to be almighty; some seek refuge in idols, yielding to the temptation to find an answer in an alleged "magical" omnipotence and its illusory promises.

But faith in the Almighty God takes us through very different paths: to learn to recognize that God's thoughts are different from our thoughts, that God's ways are different from our ways (cf.Is 55:8), and even his omnipotence is different: it is not expressed as an automatic or arbitrary force, but is marked by a loving and fatherly freedom. In reality, God, by creating free creatures, giving them freedom, has renounced a part of his power, empowering our freedom. In this way He loves and respects our free response of love to his call.  Like a Father, God want us to be his children and to live as such in his Son, in communion, in full intimacy with Him. His omnipotence is not expressed in violence, it is not expressed in the destruction of every adverse power as we would like, but is expressed in love, in mercy, in forgiveness, in accepting our freedom and in the untiring call to conversion of heart, in an attitude that is only apparently weak – God seems weak, if we think of Jesus Christ who prays, who lets himself be killed. An apparently weak attitude, consisting of patience, gentleness and love, shows that this is the true way of being powerful! This is the power of God! And this power will win! The wise man of theBook of Wisdom addresses God in this way: "You are merciful to all, for you can do all things; you overlook people's sins, so that they may repent. For you love all things that exist ... You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living"(11:23-24a.26).

Only one who is truly powerful can endure evil and show compassion; only one who is truly powerful can fully exercise the power of love. And God, to whom all things belong because all things were made by Him, reveals his strength by loving everyone and everything, in a patient waiting for the conversion of us men, whom he wants to have as children. God awaits our conversion.  God's all-powerful love knows no bounds, so much so that "he did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us" (Rom 8:32). The omnipotence of love is not that of the power of the world, but that of total gift, and Jesus, the Son of God, reveals to the world the true omnipotence of the Father, giving his life for us sinners. This is the real, authentic and perfect divine power: to respond to evil with good, to insults with forgiveness, to murderous hatred with the love that gives life. Then evil is really defeated, because washed by the love of God; then death is finally defeated, because transformed into the gift of life. God the Father raises the Son: death, the great enemy (cf. 1  Cor 15:26), is swallowed up and deprived of its poison (cf. 1 Cor15.54-55), and we, freed from sin, can access our reality of being God's children.

So when we say "I believe in God the Father Almighty," we express our faith in the power of the love of God who in his Son dead and risen defeats hatred, evil, sin and opens us to eternal life, that of children who want to be always in the "Father's House". To say “I believe in God the Father Almighty”, in his power, in his way of being Father, is always an act of faith, of conversion, of transformation of our mind, of all our affection, of our entire way of life.

Dear brothers and sisters, we ask the Lord to sustain our faith, to help us truly discover faith and to give us the strength to proclaim Christ crucified and risen and to bear witness to him in the love of God and neighbor. And God grant that we may receive the gift of our "sonship", to live fully the reality of the Creed, in trusting abandonment to the love of the Father and His merciful omnipotence that saves. Thank you.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our continuing catechesis during this Year of Faith, we now reflect on the Creed’s description of God as “the Father Almighty”.  Despite the crisis of fatherhood in many societies, the Scriptures show us clearly what it means to call God “Father”.  God is infinitely generous, faithful, and forgiving; he so loves the world that he has given us his only Son for our salvation. 

As “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), Jesus reveals God as a merciful Father who never abandons his children and whose loving concern for us embraces even the Cross.  In Christ, God has made us his adopted sons and daughters.  The Cross shows also us how God our Father is “almighty”.  His omnipotence transcends our limited human concepts of power; his might is that of a patient love expressed in the ultimate victory of goodness over evil, life over death, and freedom over the bondage of sin.  As we contemplate the Cross of Christ, let us turn to God the almighty Father and implore the grace to abandon ourselves with confidence and trust to his merciful love and his saving power.  

I offer a warm welcome to the priests taking part in the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College.  Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from the Republic of Korea, Canada and the United States of America, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.

[Original text: English]

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana 

* * *

I extend a cordial greeting to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. In particular, I greet the Bishops, friends of the Focolare Movement. Dear Brothers, along with you, I also greet all those who will participate in the meetings organized in different regions of the world. Assuring you of my prayers, I hope that the charism of unity which is particularly dear to you, may support you and encourage you in your apostolic ministry. And I greet the faithful of the Archdiocese of Potenza-Lucano-Marsiconuovo, accompanied by their Shepherd Mons. Agostino Superbo. Dear friends, continue to devote every effort so that, in equal manner in the cities and small towns, a solid religious education may be built up, so that all may be prepared to receive the Sacraments fruitfully, the essential nourishment for growth in the faith. The presence at this meeting of the civil authorities of Basilicata, to whom I extend a respectful greeting, gives me the opportunity to express my deep gratitude to all those who have labored for the preparation of the charming nativity scene, located in this Square, which has been admired by many pilgrims, and also by me with great joy, as an expression of Lucan art.

Finally, I address an affectionate thought to young people, the sick and newlyweds. Tomorrow marks the liturgical memorial of St. John Bosco, priest and educator. Look at him, dear young people, as a true master of life. You, dear sick people, learn from his spiritual experience to confide in every circumstance in Christ crucified. And you, dear newlyweds, have recourse to his intercession to live with generous commitment your mission as spouses. Thank you. 

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

ON CHRIST AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN

'Jesus [] is Truly God Among Us, 'The Mediator and the Fullness of All Revelation'"

VATICAN CITY, January 16, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is a translation of the General Audience Pope Benedict XVI gave today in Paul VI Hall.

--- --- ---

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Second Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, says that the intimate truth of the revelation of God shines for us "in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all revelation"(no. 2). The Old Testament tells us how God, after the creation, despite original sin, despite man's arrogance in wanting to take the place of his Creator, again offers the possibility of his friendship, especially through the covenant with Abraham and the journey of a small nation, that of Israel, whom he chooses not according to the criteria of earthly power, but simply out of love. It is a choice that remains a mystery and reveals God's style, who calls some not to exclude others, but so that those called will act as bridge leading to Him: election is always an election for the other. In the history of the people of Israel we can retrace the stages of a long journey in which God makes himself known, reveals himself, enters into history with words and actions. For this work He uses mediators, such as Moses, the Prophets, the Judges, who communicate his will to the people, they remind them of the need for fidelity to the covenant and keep alive the expectation of the full and definitive realization of the divine promises.

And it is precisely the fulfillment of these promises that we contemplated in Christmas: God's revelation reaches its peak, its fullness. In Jesus of Nazareth, God truly visits his people, he visits humanity in a way that exceeds all expectation: he sends his only begotten Son, who becomes man, God himself. Jesus does not simply tell us something about God, he does not simply talk about the Father, because he is God, and thus he reveals to us the face of God. In the Prologue of his Gospel, John writes: "No one has ever seen God: it is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (Jn 1:18).

I want to focus on this "revealing the face of God." In this regard, St. John, in his Gospel, relates to us a significant fact. Approaching the passion, Jesus reassures his disciples, inviting them not to be afraid and to have faith; then he initiates a dialogue with them in which he speaks of God the Father (cf. Jn 14:2-9). At one point, the apostle Philip asks Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied" (Jn 14:8). Philip is very practical and concrete: he says what we, too, want to say: “we want to see, show us the Father”; he asks to "see" the Father, to see his face. Jesus' answer is an answer not only for Philip, but also for us and leads us into the heart of the Christological faith of the Church; the Lord affirms: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). This expression contains a synthesis of the novelty of the New Testament, that novelty that appeared in the cave of Bethlehem: God can be seen, he has shown his face, he is visible in Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Old Testament the theme of "seeking the face of God" is ever present, so that the Hebrew term panîm, which means "face", occurs no less than 400 times, 100 of which refer to God, it means to see the face of God. Yet the Jewish religion, by forbidding all images, since God cannot be depicted - as instead occurred among their neighbors with the worship of idols; therefore, with this prohibition of imagery, the Old Testament seems to totally exclude "seeing" from worship and piety. What does it mean then, for the pious Israelite, to seek the face of God, while recognizing that there can be no image of Him? The question is important: on the one hand, it is said that God cannot be reduced to an object, to a simple image, nor can anything be put in the place of God; on the other, however, it is affirmed that He has a face, that is, He is a "You" that can enter into a relationship, who isn't closed in his Heavens looking down upon humanity. God is certainly above all things, but he turns to us, hears us, sees and speaks, makes covenants, is capable of love. The history of salvation ishistory of God with humanity, it is the history of this relationship of God who progressively reveals himself to man, letting him see his face.

Right at the beginning of the year, on January 1, we heard in the liturgy the beautiful prayer of blessing over the people: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face to you and give you peace" (Num.6:24-26). The splendor of the divine face is the source of life, it is what allows us to see reality, and the light of his countenance is the guide to life. In the Old Testament there is a figure connected in a very special way to the theme of the "face of God": Moses, whom God chose to free the people from slavery in Egypt, to give them the Law of the covenant and to lead them to the Promised Land. Well, in chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus, it says that Moses had a close and confidential relationship with God: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks with his friend" (v. 11). By virtue of this confidence, Moses asks God: "Show me your glory," and the Lord's answer is clear: "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name ... But you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live ... Here is a place near me ... you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen "(vv. 18-23). On the one hand, then, there is the face to face dialogue as among friends, but on the other, there is the impossibility, in this life, of seeing the face of God, which remains hidden; the vision is limited. The Fathers say that these words, “you shall only see my back”, mean: you can only follow Christ and in following you see from behind the mystery of God;God can be followed seeing his back.

Something new happens, however, with the incarnation. The search for the face of God undergoes an unthinkable change, because now this face can be seen: that of Jesus, the Son of God who became man. In Him the path of God's revelation finds fulfillment, which began with the call of Abraham; He is the fullness of this revelation because he is the Son of God, he is both "the mediator and fullness of all revelation" (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 2), and in Him the content of Revelation and the Revealer coincide. Jesus shows us the face of God and makes known to us the name of God. In the priestly prayer at the Last Supper, He says to the Father: "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world ... I made your name known to them" (cf. Jn 17:6,26). The expression "name of God" means God as He who is present among men. To Moses at the burning bush, God had revealed his name, had made it possible to invoke him, had given a concrete sign of his "existence" among men. All this finds fulfillment and completeness in Jesus: He inaugurates a new way of God's presence in history, because he who sees Him, sees the Father, as he says to Philip (cf. Jn 14:9). Christianity - says Saint Bernard - is the "religion of the Word of God"; not, however, "a written and mute word, but of the incarnate and living Word" (Hom. super missus est, IV, 11: PL 183, 86B). In the Patristic and Medieval traditions, a special formula is used to express this reality: Jesus is the Verbumabbreviatum (cf. Rom 9:28, referring to Isaiah 10:23), he is the short, abbreviated and substantial Word of the Father, who has told us everything about Him. In Jesus the whole Word is present.

In Jesus even the mediation between God and man finds its fullness. In the Old Testament, there is a host of figures who have performed this task, particularly Moses, the deliverer, the guide, the "mediator" of the covenant, as also the New Testament defines him (cf. Gal 3:19;Acts 7:35, Jn 1:17). Jesus, true God and true man, is not simply one of the mediators between God and man, he is "the mediator" of the new and everlasting covenant (cf. Heb 8:6; 9:15, 12:24); "For there is one God", Paul says, "and one mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5, Gal 3:19-20). In Him we see and meet the Father; in Him we can invoke God as "Abbà, Father"; in Him we are given salvation.

The desire to know God truly, that is, to see the face of God, is in every man, even atheists. And we perhaps unwittingly have this desire to see simply who He is, what He is, who He is for us. But this desire is realized by following Christ, so we see his back and finally also see God as a friend, his face in the face of Christ.

The important thing is that we follow Christ not only when we are in need and when we find  space for it in our daily affairs, but with our lives as such.The whole of life should be directed towards encountering Him, towards loving Him; and, in it, a central place must also be given to the love of one's neighbor, that love that, in the light of the Crucified One, enables us to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering. This is only possible if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us in listening to His Word, in interior dialogue, in entering into this Word in such a way as to really encounter him,and naturally in the Mystery of the Eucharist. In the Gospel of St. Luke there is the significant passage of the two disciples of Emmaus, who recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, thought after being prepared by the journey with Him, prepared by the invitation they made Him to remain with them, prepared by the dialogue that made their hearts burn; so, in the end, they see Jesus.For us, too, the Eucharist is the great school in which we learn to see the face of God, we enter into an intimate relationship with Him, and we learn at the same time to turn our gaze towards the final moment of history, when He will satisfy us with the light of his face. On earth we walk towards this fullness, awaiting the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. Thank you.

[Translation by Peter Waymel] 

* * * 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

During the Christmas season we celebrated the mystery of the Incarnation as the culmination of God’s gradual self-revelation to Israel, a revelation mediated by those great figures such as Moses and the Prophets who kept alive the expectation of God’s fulfillment of his promises. Jesus, the Word made flesh, is truly God among us, "the mediator and the fullness of all revelation" (Dei Verbum, 2). In him, the ancient blessing is fulfilled: God has made his face to shine upon us (cf. Num 6:25). As the Incarnate Son, the one mediator between God and man (cf. 1 Tim 2:5), Jesus does not simply speak to us about God; he shows us the very face of God and enables us to call him our Father. As he says to the apostle Philip, "whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). May our desire to see the Lord’s face grow through our daily encounter with him in prayer, in meditation on his word and in the Eucharist, and thus prepare us to contemplate forever the light of his countenance in the fullness of his eternal Kingdom.

I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including the pilgrimage groups from Australia and the United States of America. My particular greeting goes to the pilgrims from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. I also welcome the deacons from Saint Paul Seminary and the many college and university students present. May the light of the Lord’s face shine upon all of you and fill you with his richest blessings of joy and peace!

[Original text: English]

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana 

* * *

I extend a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. In particular I greet the faithful of the Diocese of Civita Castellana, accompanied by Bishop Romano Rossi. Dear friends, may the example of Blessed Cecilia Eusepi help each one of you, especially the young people, to persevere in your generous adherence to Christ and in joyful witness to the Gospel.
I greet the students from the Diocese of Caserta: may this encounter strengthen each of you in your faith and your commitment to the Christian life. I greet with affection the young patients at the National Institute for Research and Treatment of Cancer in Milan, and assure you of my prayers that the Lord will sustain each of you with his grace.

I turn, finally, to the young, the sick and the newlyweds. Tomorrow we celebrate the liturgical memorial of St. Anthony, Abbot, the famous father of monasticism, spiritual teacher and sublime model of Christian life. May his example help you, dear young people, to follow Christ without compromise; may it sustain you, dear sick people, in times of distress and trial; and may it urge you, newlyweds, not to neglect prayer in everyday life. Thank you!

APPEAL OF THE HOLY FATHER

The day after tomorrow, Friday, January 18, begins the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which this year has the theme: "What Does God Require of Us," inspired by a passage from the prophet Micah (cf. Micah 6:6-8). I invite everyone to pray, insistently asking God for the great gift of unity among the Lord's disciples. May the inexhaustible power of the Holy Spirit encourage us to a sincere commitment to seeking unity, so that we may all profess together that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

Deacons and the Servant Myth

Anthony Gooley 

It is frequently argued that the distinctive character of deacons is that they are servants called to the charitable and social justice ministry of the Church. The belief that service is distinctive of deacons is the servant myth. It is based on a false reading of Acts 6 and it has consequences for the way in which the Church receives the ministry of deacons. Breaking down this myth is the first step in restoring an authentic diaconate in the life of the Church. Anthony Gooley is a deacon and Ministry Development Officer in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia.

What happens in Acts 6.1-7? Is Acts 6 the starting point for the ministry of deacons and what is their ministry? Frequently readers assume that the Seven were called to meet the material needs of the Greek widows who were neglected at the daily distribution and that this form of charitable service establishes the authentic and distinctive character of deacons. This is the beginning of the deacon as ‘servant myth’. This myth is a belief that the distinctive and defining characteristic of a deacon and diaconal ministry is service, usually in the form of charity, especially to the poor and those on the margins of Church and society. It is a myth that continues to distort our understanding of the diaconate and hampers the full reception of the fruits of this restored ministry. Curiously it never seems to touch the transitional diaconate, which is accepted without question or indeed much reflection, at least in the Roman Catholic tradition. If service is the distinctive quality of the diaconate, what does this say about the service dimension of the other ordained ministries and the mission life of the Church? Diakonia is a word Roman Catholics use to describe the ministry of the bishop without any sense that the word is restricted to social justice or charity (Lumen gentium24). Surely all ministers are called to imitate Christ the servant and a similar attitude should pervade the whole church. I do not argue that deacons cannot have or will not have a charitable or service role, only that it is not the distinctive character of their ministry. The myth does not have its genesis in Acts but is shaped by the revival of the diaconate in the nineteenth century German Lutheran church; reinforced by translators’ choices which shape our understanding of Acts and reflections of diaconate in post-war Germany in the 1940s and 50s. In this article I intend to explore the origins of the myth and suggest why it is not a sound basis for a theology and praxis of the diaconate. The most recent documents of the Roman Catholic tradition on diaconate contain layers of tradition, but it is possible to perceive an outline of diaconate that is balanced and avoids the servant myth as a foundation.

Making sense of Acts

In making sense of Acts 6.1-7 translators in English take some liberties with the Greek text.1 The choices translators make have influenced the way we hear and make meaning of this text. In verse one the cause for the complaint of the Greek speaking Christians is variously given as a neglect of the widows in the daily distribution of food (NRSV), of funds (GNB) and of food (JB).2 The RSV is happy to leave the neglect simply at an unspecified distribution. The Greek does not add the preposition of or the terms food and funds and in this the RSV reflects the original text. The text does not say what is being missed in the daily distribution and it has to be inferred from the whole context of Acts. It would hardly seem likely that either food or funds could be intended because Acts 5 deals with what happens to disciples who try to neglect others in the distribution of the material goods of the community. In verse 2 the apostles complain about not wanting to neglect the word and wait on tables (NRSV), neglect the preaching and manage finances (GNB) neglect the word to give out food (JB) and to give up preaching to serve tables (RSV). Again it is the RSV which resists the temptation to add anything to the text and it does not insert a preposition which is not found in the Greek between serve and tables or add references to finances or food. In verse 4 all translators are certain about prayer and with dealing with the word we are most interested in; diakonia, which is translated in the way it is most normally used in Acts and the letters of Paul. Diakonia is translated as ministry, and in the context of the whole sentence a ministry of the word (diakonia tou logou).

If we take the Greek text, as it is reproduced in RSV, we are able to construct a better picture of what is really happening in Acts 6.1-7. The Greek speaking Christians are complaining that their widows are being neglected in the daily diakonia. In Acts the diakonia is the proclamation of the Gospel.3 They are neglected for two reasons, the Aramaic speaking Apostles predominantly concentrate their proclamation in the Temple and the widows, who cannot comprehend the language and for social reasons are mostly restricted to the home, are overlooked in this daily diakonia. The solution proposed by the Apostles and agreed to by the whole Church is to appoint seven from among the Greek speaking community to do that daily diakonia in the homes of the Greek widows or as the expression in the Greek has it, to minister tables.4 Both the Apostles and the Seven had been entrusted with the same diakonia which is to minister or proclaim the word. To underscore this interpretation we see that Stephen immediately commences to proclaim the Gospel to the point of giving witness with his life (Acts 6-7.50) and Philip commences his diakonia of the word in proclaiming the Gospel, catechising the Ethiopian and baptising (Acts 8). The laying on of hands becomes the concrete sign that the ministry entrusted to the Apostles is to be entrusted to the Seven. The one thing we do not see the Seven do is charitable works or distributing food or funds to the widows, in fact we do not see anyone in the New Testament with the title of diakonos engaged in a specifically charitable service activity. This should give us some clues as we address the servant myth.

Whether or not the Seven were the first deacons, as Eusebius calls them, is debatable. The one word that Luke does not use of them is diakonos, the noun from which we get our word deacon. Proclaiming the word, leading communities, representing communities and taking messages between communities and other forms of ministry are associated with those who are called diakonos in the New Testament as well as the clear delegation and imposition of a mandate for such ministry by the leaders of the community through the laying on of hands. Therefore it is reasonable to infer that the Seven may have been referred to as deacons in the early Church and that Eusebius is reflecting that understanding.5

How did diakonia become service?

We do not have space here to review the many references to deacons in the first nine centuries of the Church, and in particular the first four centuries when so much of the structure of ministries in the early Church was taking shape. A few brief references, taken from the Fathers and used again in the recent Roman Catholic documents, are testament to an earlier tradition, before diakonia was defined as service and deacons as a kind of ordained social worker/charity worker. Three references will suffice to indicate the flavour of this early tradition. Ignatius to the Magnesians, ‘deacons entrusted with the ministry/d of Christ’ and to the Trallians, ‘deacons are not waiters (diakonoi) providing food and drink but executives (hyperetai) of the Church of God’ and finally to the Philadelphians, ‘take care to use only one Eucharist…there is one bishop in union with the presbyters and the deacon.’ The earliest witnesses of the tradition reflect the common Greek usage. Deacons were not thought of as having a distinctive servant orientation but as part of the broader understanding of the apostolic ministry and leadership of local churches.

Although it is a broad leap from the early tradition, we need to look to Trent. By the time the Reformation was underway the diaconate had become a transitional ministry of limited liturgical functions. Luther and others argued that the ministry, as they experienced it, had limited value in the life of the community and saw it more as an appendage to the ministry. The response of the Council of Trent was to insist on the reality and validity of the threefold ministry of deacon, priest and bishop and to call for the restoration of the diaconate as a permanent ministry in the life of the Church. Trent’s desire to restore the diaconate was not fulfilled until the Second Vatican Council was able to take up the issue again and Paul VI issued Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem. (Basic Norms and Directory, Introduction §2) By 1998 the Congregations for Clergy and for Education issued jointly the Basic Norms for the Formation of Permanent Deacons and the Directory for the Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons. In these two documents we find an outline of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on diaconate. What we find in the documents is an interweaving of two traditions, an early tradition which frames diaconate within the broader understanding of the apostolic ministry of the Gospel, and a narrower tradition with a focus on diakonia as a synonym for service. Behind these two traditions stand two sources. The first source is the Scriptural foundation which understands diakonia as a ministry as outlined in the study by Collins. The second source is the revival of the diaconate in the German Lutheran churches in the nineteenth century, specifically as a work of charity and social work.

A type of diaconate was revived in the nineteenth century in the Lutheran Church in Germany and gradually this pattern of diaconate was adopted in the Nordic Lutheran and some of the Reformed churches. The Lutheran Pastor Theodore Fliedner and his wife Frederike established a ministry to care for the homeless and poor who were increasing in number in the industrialised cities. This ministry was not an ordained ministry and was modelled somewhat on the lines of a Roman Catholic religious order. The Fliedners took their inspiration from their understanding of Acts 6 as a ministry of charity to the widows who, in their reading of the text, were neglected in the daily distribution of charity and the goods of the community. They called the women in this ministry deaconess and the men deacons.

Brodd argues that the identification of diakonia with charity (caritas) and social service developed into a functionalist understanding of diaconate, where the deacon is defined not from an ecclesiological foundation based on the Church as koinonia and situating ordination within this context but inductively from the sum of the functions performed.6 The result is that in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions the deacon came to be seen as a kind of ordained social worker.7 In his study Brodd concurs with the work of Collins and indicates that caritas and diakonia essentially belong to two different conceptual circles.8

It is the intersection of four elements that provide us with the final clues as to how diakonia became service. The first is the development of the functionalism in the eighteenth century as a way describing ministry. The second is the practice of diakonia that was revived in this charitable, social work form in northern Europe. The third is the influence of the authoritative work of Bauer, The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, which defined diakonia as service. He was perhaps influenced in this by his association with the Lutheran deacon movement. The fourth element is the development of role theory in psychology and sociology and the attempt to account for ministries in the church in terms of roles. What emerged was an understanding of diaconate not based on Scripture and the early tradition of the Church but one developed from the practice of the charitable diaconate movement.

Restoring the diaconate

‘The almost total disappearance of the permanent diaconate from the Church of the West for more than a millennium has certainly made it more difficult to understand the profound reality of this ministry. However, it cannot be said for that reason that the theology of the diaconate has no authoritative points of reference, completely at the mercy of theological opinion.’(Basic Norms §3) The norms list some of these reference points as an ecclesiology of koinonia/communion, the sacrament of ordination, the gifts of the Spirit received at ordination, the rite of ordination, the theology of sacraments of character and the powers conferred. The Norms and the Directory simply equate diakonia with service, for the most part, and repeat the error and therefore continue the servant myth through this process. Why and how this premise must be challenged is considered below.

The one essential reference point must be the recovery of the meaning ofdiakonia and diakonos from the Scriptures and the early documents of the Church. In order to do this through the Scriptural path churches, deacons and others interested in ministry must go through the work of John N Collins. Collins has the only study of the diakon group of words and his work represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of diakonia. Some churches have commenced this process, as is evident in the documents from the Anglican Church in England on diaconate.9 Once the task is undertaken diakonia can be fully appreciated and the gift of this ministry and its potential in the Church can be more easily fulfilled.

The International Theological Commission in its paper, From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles, suggests that the Second Vatican Council intended to implement the principle and not any particular historical form of the diaconate.10 That is Laurence of Rome or Francis of Assisi or a Nicholas Ferrar might give us some idea of how deacons have exercised their ministry in the past but we may not want to copy their ministry as the model diaconal ministry.11 What we are looking for is a diaconate for today. It should also be a ministry that includes women in all of the Churches since we know from the Scriptures and the early Church and its laws that women were deacons. In the Roman Catholic Church there has never been a statement about ordination to the diaconate being reserved to men alone, although canon law includes such a reservation. This is one of the questions that remain open for the church to consider in its restoration of the ministry.

Conclusion

The creative possibilities for diaconal ministry are opened for the Church when we move away from restrictive notions of the deacon as being primarily defined by service as the minister of charity or social justice. Deacons are primarily those who proclaim the Gospel, in the name of their bishop, to the assembled community and those dispersed. Like the bishop, whom they serve, they have a diakonia to build up the community of faith and reach out to dispersed Christians and to those who have yet to hear the gospel. Restricting our understanding of deacons as principally servants of charity and justice not only reveals a disregard for the Scriptural witness but leads to sterile debates about the identity of deacons and closes our eyes to new possibilities for the new evangelisation to which deacons are called to contribute (Basic Norms and Directory, Joint Declaration). When we look to the Scriptures and the early tradition of the Church, we see those who are described as diakonos/deacons engaged in a vast array of activities. Only some of their activities would include what we call charity or justice. We need to let go of the servant myth in order to receive fruitfully the gift of the Spirit which is the ministry of deacons. n

1 Collins, J. N., Deacons and the Church: Making Connections Between Old and New. Gracewing, Leomister, 2002, p.47-58

2 NRSV is the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition. Thomas Nelson, 1990, GNB is the Good News Bible, American Bible Society 1976, JB is the Jerusalem Bible, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966. RSV isRevised Standard Version 1946.

3 Collins, J.N., Deacons and the Church, p 52. I add the emphasis here to indicate that the unifying meaning of diakonia in Acts is the ministry of proclaiming the gospel and is used throughout the work of the apostles, Paul, and the other ministers of the Gospel.

4 Collins J.N., Diakonia: reinterpreting the ancient sources. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1990. Collins’ ground breaking study of the whole family of diakon- words in the Bible and extra-biblical sources indicates that service and charity are simply not part of the field of meaning of the worddiakonia and that the phrase ‘minister tables’ had a particular resonance with the Greek speaking community as a sacred duty by which one was delegated to perform a ministry of significance and was not confused in Greek usage with the ordinary meaning of servers of food and drink. This distinction is found in the texts of the early Greek Fathers e.g. Ignatius, Trallians, 2.3.

5 Collins, in the works cited, would conclude that the Seven were not deacons.

6 Brodd, S-E., ‘Caritas and Diakonia as perspectives on the Diaconate’, in Borgegard, Fanuelsen, Hall (eds) The Ministry of the Deacon: Ecclesiological Reflections 2, Nordic Ecumenical Council, 2000, pp.42-43

7 In the Nordic Lutheran Churches deacons have had to obtain nursing or social work qualifications before being installed or ordained as deacons because charity was the defining feature of the understanding of diaconate. The practice is changing across Northern Europe as more churches engage with the research of the Australian scholar John N Collins. A diaconate with a clearer scriptural and ecclesiological foundation is developing with a balance of a ministry of word, liturgy and pastoral aspects.

8 Brodd, S-E., Caritas and Diakonia, p.27

9 Two documents that give witness to the shift that biblically-based reflection can have are For A Time Such as This: A report of the General Synod of the House of Bishops, 2001 and The Distinctive Diaconate, Diocese of Salisbury, 2003. At one point the Church of England had wondered about phasing out the diaconate and now their engagement with Collins and ecumenical conversations, particularly the Hanover report, have reversed this direction of thinking.

10 International Theological Commission, From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles. Catholic Truth Society, London, 2003.

11 Cummings, O., Deacons and the Church, Paulist Press, New York, 2004. He devotes chapter 5 of his work to explore the life and ministry of this diverse group of deacons.

ON THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

"May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, Rediscover the Beauty of being Reborn from Above"

VATICAN CITY, January 13, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is the translation of the Holy Father's address before and after the recitation of the Angelus in St. Peter's Square today. 

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

On this Sunday after Epiphany we conclude the liturgical season of Christmas: a time of light, the light of Christ that, as the new sun that appears on the horizon of humanity, disperses the darkness of evil and ignorance. We celebrate today the feast of the Baptism of Jesus: that Child, son of the Virgin, whom we contemplated in the mystery of his birth, we see today as an adult immersing himself in the waters of the Jordan River, and in this way sanctifying all water and the whole cosmos, as the Eastern tradition emphasizes. But why did Jesus, in whom there was no shadow of sin have himself baptized by John? Why did he wish to perform that gesture of repentance and conversion together with many others who wanted to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah? That gesture, which marks the beginning of Christ’s public life, is situated in the same line as the Incarnation, of God’s descent from the highest heaven to the abyss of hell (“inferi”). The meaning of this movement of divine abasement is summed up in a single word: love, which is the very name of God. The apostle John writes: “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). This is why the first act of Jesus was to receive the baptism of John, who, when he saw him coming, said: “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

The evangelist Luke writes that while Jesus, after receiving the baptism, “was in prayer, the heavens opened and there descended upon him the Holy Spirit in bodily form, as a dove, and there came a voice from heaven: ‘You are my Son, the beloved: in you I am well-pleased” (3:21-22). This Jesus is the Son of God, who is totally immersed in the Father’s will of love. This Jesus is he who will die upon the cross and rise up by the power of the same Spirit that now comes to rest upon him and consecrates him. This Jesus is the new man who wishes to live as a son of God, that is, in love; he is the man who, in the face of the evil of the world, chooses the path of humility and responsibility, chooses not to save himself but to offer his life for truth and for justice. Being Christians means living in this way, but this way of life brings a rebirth: being reborn from above, from God, by Grace. This rebirth is the Baptism that Christ gave to the Church to regenerate men to new life. And ancient text attributed to St. Hippolytus: “Whoever enters this bath of regeneration, renounces the devil and aligns himself with Christ, renounces the enemy and recognizes that Christ is God, puts off slavery and puts on the filial adoption” (Sermon for Epiphany, 10: PG, 10 862).

Following tradition, this morning I had the joy of baptizing a large group of children, who were born in the last 3 or 4 months. At this time I would like to extend my prayer and my benediction to all newborns; but above all I would like to invite everyone to recall their baptism, that spiritual rebirth that opened for us to the path of eternal life. May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, rediscover the beauty of being reborn from above, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.

[Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted those present in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today we celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. In the Message for this year I compared migrations to a “pilgrimage of faith and hope.” Those who leave their own country do so because they hope in a better future, but they also do so because they trust in God, who guides man’s steps, as he did Abraham’s. And in this way migrants are in the world bearers of faith and hope. I offer my greeting to each of them with a special prayer and benediction. I greet in a particular way the Catholic community of migrants present in Rome and I entrust them to the protection of St. Frances Cabrini and Bl. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini.

[In English he said:]

I greet all English-speaking visitors taking part in this Angelus prayer. Today, in the Baptism of the Lord, we contemplate our share in the divine life through the gift of the Holy Spirit in the waters of Baptism. May we be renewed in our own Baptism and strengthened in witness to the Gospel and its promises! Upon you and your families I invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace.

[Concluding in Italian he said:]

I wish everyone a good Sunday, a good week. Have a good Sunday everyone! Thank you!

POPE BENEDICT'S HOMILY ON THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

"Upon your Children Too the Heavens have Opened,"

VATICAN CITY, January 13, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is the translation of Pope Benedict XVI's Homily during the Mass celebrating the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord where he baptized 20 babies.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

The joy that flowed from the celebration of Christmas finds its fulfillment today in the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. For us who are gathered together here there is a further reason for this joy. In the sacrament of Baptism that I will soon administer to these newborns there is infact manifested the living and active presence of the Holy Spirit who, enriching the Church with new children, vivifies her and makes her grow and we cannot help but rejoice over this. I would like to address a special greeting to you, dear parents, godfathers and godmothers, who are witnessing to your faith today, asking for Baptism for these children, so that they might be begotten in the new life in Christ and become a part of the community of believers.

The Gospel account of the baptism of Jesus that we heard today in the reading from St. Luke, displays the path of abasement and humility that the Son of God freely chose in order to follow the Father’s plan, to be obedient to his will of love for man in all things, to the point of the sacrifice on the cross. Now an adult, Jesus initiates his public ministry, traveling to the Jordan River to receive a baptism of repentance and conversion from John. There occurs here something that might seem paradoxical in our eyes. Does Jesus need to repent and convert? Certainly not. And yet he who is without sin places himself among sinners to be baptized, to perform this gesture of repentance; the Holy One of God joins with those who recognize their need of forgiveness and ask God for the gift of conversion, that is, the grace to return to him with all their heart, to be completely his. Jesus wishes to place himself among sinners, making himself solidary with them, expressing God’s nearness. Jesus shows himself to be solidary with us, with our effort to convert, to leave our egoism behind, to turn from our sins, to tell us that if we accept him in our lives he is able to lift us back up and lead us to the heights of God the Father. And this solidarity of Jesus is not, so to say, a simple exercise of the mind and will. Jesus has truly immersed himself in our human condition, he lived it through and through, except for sin, and is able to understand weakness and frailty. For this reason he has compassion, chooses to “suffer with” men, to make himself a penitent with us. The work of God that Jesus wishes to accomplish is this: the divine mission heal those who are wounded and to care for the sick, to take the sin of the world upon himself.

What happens in the moment that Jesus has himself baptized by John? With this act of humble love on the part of the Son of God the heavens open and the Holy Spirit is visibly manifest as a dove, while a voice from on high expresses the Father’s pleasure, who points to his only begotten Son, the Beloved. This is an authentic manifestation of the Most Holy Trinity, which witnesses to Jesus’ divinity, his being the promised Messiah, he whom God sent to free his people so that they might be saved (cf. Isaiah 40:2). In this way the prophecy of Isaiah that we heard in the first reading is realized: the Lord God comes with power to destroy the works of sin and his arm exercises dominion to disarm the Evil One; but let us remember that this arm is the arm stretched out upon the cross and that Jesus’ power is the power of him who suffers for us: this is the power of God, different from the power of the world; in this way God comes to destroy sin. Jesus truly acts as the Good Shepherd who feeds the flock and gathers it together that it not be scattered (cf. Isaiah 40:10-11), and he offers his life itself so that it have life. It is through Jesus’ redemptive death that man is freed from the reign of sin and is reconciled with the Father; it is through his resurrection that man is saved from eternal death and is made victorious over the Evil One.

Dear brothers and sisters, what occurs in the Baptism that in a few moments I will administer to your children? It is this: they will be forever united in a profound way with Jesus, in the mystery of this power of his, that is in the mystery of his death, which is the font of life, to participate in his resurrection, to be reborn in a new life. This is the wonder that today is repeated also for your children: receiving Baptism they are reborn as children of God, participants in the filial relation of Jesus with the Father, able to turn toward God calling him “Abbà, Father” with complete confidence. Upon your children too the heavens have opened, and God says: these are my children, children in whom I am pleased. Inserted in this relation and liberated from original sin, they become members of the one body that is the Church and are now able to live in the fullness of their vocation to sanctity so as to have the possibility of eternal life, obtained for us by Jesus’ resurrection.

Dear parents, in asking for Baptism for your children you manifest and witness to your faith, the joy of being Christians and of belonging to the Church. It is the joy that flows from the awareness of having received a great gift from God, precisely the faith, a gift that none of us was able to merit, but that was given to us gratuitously and to which we responded with our “yes.” It is the joy of recognizing ourselves as children of God, to find ourselves entrusted into his hands, to feel ourselves welcomed in the embrace of love, in the same way that a mother holds and embraces her child. This joy, which orients the journey of every Christian, is based on a personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship that orients the whole of human existence. He is in fact the meaning of our lives, he upon whom it is good to fix our gaze, to be enlightened by his truth and be able to live his fullness. The journey of faith that today begins for these children is thus founded on a certainty, the experience that there is nothing greater than knowing Christ and communicating friendship with him to others; only in this friendship is there really disclosed the extraordinary possibilities of the human condition and can we experience that which is beautiful and that which frees (cf. Homily for the beginning of the pontificate, April 24, 2005). Those who have had this experience are not willing to give up their faith for anything in the world.

You, dear godfathers and godmothers, have the important task of supporting and helping the parents in the work of education, assisting them in the transmission of the truths of the faith and in witnessing to the values of the Gospel, in making these children grow in an ever deeper friendship with the Lord. Always know how to give them your good example through the exercise of the Christian virtues. It is not easy to manifest openly and without compromises what we believe, especially in the context in which we live, faced with a society that often considers those live their faith in Jesus unfashionable and out of date. On account of the wave of this mentality, there may also be among Christians the danger of understanding this relationship with Jesus as limiting, as something that is harmful to one’s self-realization; “God is seen as the limit on our freedom, a limit that must be eliminated so that man might be completely himself” (“Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives,” 101 [Italian edition]). But this is not so! It is clear that such a vision does not understand anything of man’s relationship with God because precisely as one progresses in the journey of faith, we grasp how Jesus exercises the liberating love of God upon us, which draws us out of our egoism, from our being closed in on ourselves, to lead us to a full life in communion with God and others. “‘God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John4:16). These words from theFirst Letter of Johnexpress with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny” (“Deus caritas est,” 1).

The water with which these children will be signed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, will immerse them in that “font” of life that is God himself and makes them his true children. And the seed of the theological virtues, infused by God, faith, hope, and charity, a seed that today is placed in their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, must always be cared for by the Word of God and the Sacraments, so that these Christian virtues might grow and reach maturity to make each of them a true witness to the Lord. As we invoke the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon these little ones, we entrust them to the protection of the Holy Virgin; may she guard them always with her maternal presence and accompany them in every moment of their life. Amen.

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]

POPE'S HOMILY AT MASS FOR SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY

"Faiths inner pilgrimage towards God occurs above all in prayer"

VATICAN CITY, January 7, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is the translation of the Holy Father's homily for the Solemnity of the Epiphany. 

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

For the Church which believes and prays, the Wise Men from the East who, guided by the star, made their way to the manger of Bethlehem, are only the beginning of a great procession which winds throughout history. Thus the liturgy reads the Gospel which relates the journey of the Wise Men, together with the magnificent prophetic visions of the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah and Psalm 71, which depict in bold imagery the pilgrimage of the peoples to Jerusalem. Like the shepherds, who as the first visitors to the newborn Child in the manger, embodied the poor of Israel and more generally those humble souls who live in deep interior closeness to Jesus, so the men from the East embody the world of the peoples, the Church of the Gentiles – the men and women who in every age set out on the way which leads to the Child of Bethlehem, to offer him homage as the Son of God and to bow down before him. The Church calls this feast "Epiphany" – the appearance of the Godhead. If we consider the fact that from the very beginning men and women of every place, of every continent, of all the different cultures, mentalities and lifestyles, have been on the way to Christ, then we can truly say that this pilgrimage and this encounter with God in the form of a Child is an epiphany of God’s goodness and loving kindness for humanity (cf. Tit 3:4).

Following a tradition begun by Pope John Paul II, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord also as the day when episcopal ordination will be conferred on four priests who will now cooperate in different ways in the ministry of the Pope for the unity of the one Church of Jesus Christ in the multiplicity of the Particular Churches. The connection between this episcopal ordination and the theme of the pilgrimage of the peoples to Jesus Christ is evident. It is the task of the Bishop in this pilgrimage not merely to walk beside the others, but to go before them, showing the way. But in this liturgy I would like to reflect with you on a more concrete question. Based on the account of Matthew, we can gain a certain idea of what sort of men these were, who followed the sign of the star and set off to find that King who would establish not only for Israel but for all mankind a new kind of kingship. What kind of men were they? And we can also ask whether, despite the difference of times and tasks, we can glimpse in them something of what a Bishop is and how he is to carry out his task.

These men who set out towards the unknown were, in any event, men with a restless heart. Men driven by a restless quest for God and the salvation of the world. They were filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place in society. They were looking for something greater. They were no doubt learned men, quite knowledgeable about the heavens and probably possessed of a fine philosophical formation. But they desired more than simply knowledge about things. They wanted above all else to know what is essential. They wanted to know how we succeed in being human. And therefore they wanted to know if God exists, and where and how he exists. Whether he is concerned about us and how we can encounter him. Nor did they want just to know. They wanted to understand the truth about ourselves and about God and the world. Their outward pilgrimage was an expression of their inward journey, the inner pilgrimage of their hearts. They were men who sought God and were ultimately on the way towards him. They were seekers after God.

Here we come to the question: What sort of man must he be, upon whom hands are laid in episcopal ordination in the Church of Jesus Christ? We can say that he must above all be a man concerned for God, for only then will he also be truly concerned about men. Inversely, we could also say that a Bishop must be a man concerned for others, one who is concerned about what happens to them. He must be a man for others. But he can only truly be so if he is a man seized by God, if concern for God has also become for him concern for God’s creature who is man. Like the Wise Men from the East, a Bishop must not be someone who merely does his job and is content with that. No, he must be gripped by God’s concern for men and women. He must in some way think and feel with God. Human beings have an innate restlessness for God, but this restlessness is a participation in God’s own restlessness for us. Since God is concerned about us, he follows us even to the crib, even to the Cross. "Thou with weary steps hast sought me, crucified hast dearly bought me, may thy pains not be in vain", the Church prays in the Dies Irae. The restlessness of men for God and hence the restlessness of God for men must unsettle the Bishop. This is what we mean when we say that, above all else, the Bishop must be a man of faith. For faith is nothing less than being interiorly seized by God, something which guides us along the pathways of life. Faith draws us into a state of being seized by the restlessness of God and it makes us pilgrims who are on an inner journey towards the true King of the world and his promise of justice, truth and love. On this pilgrimage the Bishop must go ahead, he must be the guide pointing out to men and women the way to faith, hope and love.

Faith’s inner pilgrimage towards God occurs above all in prayer. Saint Augustine once said that prayer is ultimately nothing more than the realization and radicalization of our yearning for God. Instead of "yearning", we could also translate the word as "restlessness" and say that prayer would detach us from our false security, from our being enclosed within material and visible realities, and would give us a restlessness for God and thus an openness to and concern for one another. The Bishop, as a pilgrim of God, must be above all a man of prayer. He must be in constant inner contact with God; his soul must be open wide to God. He must bring before God his own needs and the needs of others, as well as his joys and the joys of others, and thus in his own way establish contact between God and the world in communion with Christ, so that Christ’s light can shine in the world.

Let us return to the Wise Men from the East. These were also, and above all, men of courage, the courage and humility born of faith. Courage was needed to grasp the meaning of the star as a sign to set out, to go forth – towards the unknown, the uncertain, on paths filled with hidden dangers. We can imagine that their decision was met with derision: the scorn of those realists who could only mock the reveries of such men. Anyone who took off on the basis of such uncertain promises, risking everything, could only appear ridiculous. But for these men, inwardly seized by God, the way which he pointed out was more important than what other people thought. For them, seeking the truth meant more than the taunts of the world, so apparently clever.

How can we not think, in this context, of the task of a Bishop in our own time? The humility of faith, of sharing the faith of the Church of every age, will constantly be in conflict with the prevailing wisdom of those who cling to what seems certain. Anyone who lives and proclaims the faith of the Church is on many points out of step with the prevalent way of thinking, even in our own day. Today’s regnant agnosticism has its own dogmas and is extremely intolerant regarding anything that would question it and the criteria it employs. Therefore the courage to contradict the prevailing mindset is particularly urgent for a Bishop today. He must be courageous. And this courage or forcefulness does not consist in striking out or in acting aggressively, but rather in allowing oneself to be struck and to be steadfast before the principles of the prevalent way of thinking. The courage to stand firm in the truth is unavoidably demanded of those whom the Lord sends like sheep among wolves. "Those who fear the Lord will not be timid", says the Book of Sirach (34:16). The fear of God frees us from the fear of men. It liberates.

Here I am reminded of an episode at the very beginning of Christianity which Saint Luke recounts in the Acts of the Apostles. After the speech of Gamaliel, who advised against violence in dealing with the earliest community of believers in Jesus, the Sanhedrin summoned the Apostles and had them flogged. It then forbade them from preaching in the name of Jesus and set them free. Saint Luke continues: "As they left the council, they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonour for the name of Jesus. And every day… they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah" (Acts 5:40ff.). The successors of the Apostles must also expect to be repeatedly beaten, by contemporary methods, if they continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that can be heard and understood. Then they can rejoice that they have been considered worthy of suffering for him. Like the Apostles, we naturally want to convince people and in this sense to obtain their approval. Naturally, we are not provocative; on the contrary we invite all to enter into the joy of that truth which shows us the way. The approval of the prevailing wisdom, however, is not the criterion to which we submit. Our criterion is the Lord himself. If we defend his cause, we will constantly gain others to the way of the Gospel. But, inevitably, we will also be beaten by those who live lives opposed to the Gospel, and then we can be grateful for having been judged worthy to share in the passion of Christ.

The Wise Men followed the star, and thus came to Jesus, to the great Light which enlightens everyone coming into this world (cf. Jn 1:9). As pilgrims of faith, the Wise Men themselves became stars shining in the firmament of history and they show us the way. The saints are God’s true constellations, which light up the nights of this world, serving as our guides. Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, told his faithful that they must shine like stars in the world (cf. 2:15).

Dear friends, this holds true for us too. It holds true above all for you who are now to be ordained Bishops of the Church of Jesus Christ. If you live with Christ, bound to him anew in this sacrament, then you too will become wise men. Then you will become stars which go before men and women, pointing out to them the right path in life. All of us here are now praying for you, that the Lord may fill you with the light of faith and love. That that restlessness of God for man may seize you, so that all may experience his closeness and receive the gift of his joy. We are praying for you, that the Lord may always grant you the courage and humility of faith. We ask Mary, who showed to the Wise Men the new King of the world (cf. Mt 2:11), as a loving mother, to show Jesus Christ also to you and to help you to be guides along the way which leads to him. Amen.

[00020-02.02] [Original text: Italian]

ON THE EPIPHANY

"Marys Faith becomes the First Fruit and the Model of the Faith of the Church"

VATICAN CITY, January 7, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Here is the translation of the Holy Father's Angelus address delivered from the window of the Apostolic Palace to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

I apologize for being late. I ordained 4 new bishops in St. Peter’s Basilica and the rite lasted a little while. But today we celebrate above all the Epiphany of the Lord, his manifestation to the nations, while many Eastern Churches, according to the Julian Calendar, celebrate Christmas. This slight difference, which superimposes the 2 moments, makes us see that the Child, born in a grotto in Bethlehem, is the light of the world, who directs the journey of all peoples. It is a combination, which makes us reflect, also from the point of view of faith: on the one hand, looking upon Jesus we see the faith of Mary, of Joseph and the shepherds; today, the Epiphany, we see the faith of the 3 magi, who came from the East to worship the king of the Jews.

The Virgin Mary, together with her husband, represent the “stump” of Israel, the “remnant” foretold by the prophets, from which the Messiah was to come forth. The magi represent the peoples, and, we can also say, the civilizations of the earth, the cultures, the religions that are, so to say, on their way to God, in search of his kingdom of peace, justice, truth and freedom. There was at first a nucleus, personified above all by Mary, the “daughter of Zion”: a nucleus of Israel, the people who knows and has faith in that God who is revealed to the Patriarchs and along the path of history. This faith reaches its fulfillment in Mary, in the fullness of time; in her, “blessed because she believed,” the Word became flesh, God “appeared” in the world. Mary’s faith becomes the first fruit and the model of the faith of the Church, the People of the New Covenant. But this people is from the beginning universal, and this we see today in the figures of the magi, who arrive in Bethlehem following the light of a star and the instructions of the Sacred Scriptures.

St. Leo the Great says: “There was once promised to Abraham countless descendants who would be begotten not by the flesh but by the fecundity of faith” (Sermon 3 for Epiphany, 1: PL 54, 240). Mary’s faith can be joined with Abraham’s: it is the new beginning of the same promise, of the same unchanging plan of God that now finds its completion in Christ Jesus. And Christ’s light is so limpid and powerful that it makes the language of the cosmos and that of the Scriptures intelligible so that all those who, like the magi, are open to the truth can recognize it and arrive at the contemplation of the Savior of the world. St. Leo continues: “Let the great mass of the nations ... all peoples ...  enter in, indeed, let them enter into the family of the patriarchs, let them adore the Creator of the universe, and may God be known not only in Judea but in all the earth” (ibid.). We can also consider the episcopal ordinations that I had the joy to confer this morning in St. Peter’s Basilica from this perspective: 2 bishops will remain in the service of the Holy See and the other 2 will depart to be pontifical representatives in 2 other countries. Let us pray for each of them, for their ministry, and that the light of Christ shine upon the whole world.

[Following the recitation of the Angleus the Holy Father greeted those present in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

As I already indicated, tomorrow the Eastern Churches who follow the Julian Calendar will celebrate the Birth of the Lord: in the joy of our common faith I address to them my most heartfelt wish of peace with a special remembrance in prayer.

Today in Italy is the Day of Holy Childhood, dedicated to the children who engage in the spread of the Gospel and concretely help their peers who are most in need. Dear children, I thank you and I encourage you: bring the love of God to everyone!

[In English he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present today, including the boys of the Palestrina Choir of Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, who sang this morning at the solemn Mass of the Epiphany. At that ceremony I had the joy of conferring episcopal ordination upon four priests, including Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu of Nigeria. May the new Bishops be faithful successors of the Apostles, always bearing witness to Christ, who today reveals the face of God to the nations. May the Lord bless all of you and grant you his peace!

[Concluding in Italian he said:]

I wish everyone a happy feast day and a good year. Thank you. Happy feast day and have a good year!

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]