Di Andrea Gagliarducci CITTÀ DEL VATICANO , 19 marzo, 2015 / 10:30 AM (ACI Stampa).- Perché Dio ha scelto San Giuseppe come padre putativo di suo Figlio? Perché era un uomo pratico, oltre che giusto. La straordinaria, logica, semplice e allo stesso tempo teologicamente fondata spiegazione dalla scelta l’ha data il Papa emerito Benedetto XVI, in una di quelle omelie che – come ha rivelato l’arcivescovo Georg Gaenswein, suo segretario particolare – tiene ogni domenica nella cappella del Monastero Mater Ecclesiae, dove risiede. Un rapporto, quello tra Joseph Ratzinger e il suo santo, strettissimo e vivo. Un rapporto che è bello ricordare nel giorno dell’onomastico del Papa emerito, che per una felice coincidenza coincide con l’anniversario della Messa di Inizio del Ministero Petrino di Papa Francesco. Ogni domenica, alle nove e mezza del mattino, il Papa emerito celebra, l’arcivescovo Gaenswein concelebra vestendo spesso una casula gemella a quella di Benedetto XVI, e assistono alla Messa le quattro Memores Domini e i pochissimi altri che riescono ad entrare nella cappellina, che può contenere massimo 12 persone. Durante la settimana, Benedetto XVI appronta il testo della sua omelia su un quadernetto, a mano, nella sua grafia minutissima e precisa. Ma poi, l’omelia la pronuncia a braccio, con la sua memoria di ferro che è rimasta lucidissima, e piena di idee. E in una di queste memorabili omelie – raccontate ad ACIStampa da chi ha avuto il privilegio di essere presente – tratteggiò proprio la figura di San Giuseppe. Aveva detto Benedetto XVI: “Perché Dio ha scelto Giuseppe? Perché Giuseppe era un uomo giusto, pio. Ma anche perché Giuseppe era un uomo pratico. D’altronde, ci voleva un uomo pratico per organizzare la fuga in Egitto, ma anche per organizzare il viaggio a Betlemme per il censimento, e per provvedere a tutte le necessità pratiche di Gesù”. E’ un tassello che si aggiunge ai tanti riferimenti alla figura di San Giuseppe di chi è stato pieno il pontificato di Benedetto XVI. Il 19 marzo del 2006 era una domenica, e il Papa ricordò la figura del suo santo sottolineando che “la grandezza di San Giuseppe, al pari di quella di Maria, risalta ancor più perché la sua missione si è svolta nell'umiltà e nel nascondimento della casa di Nazaret. Del resto, Dio stesso, nella Persona del suo Figlio incarnato, ha scelto questa via e questo stile - l'umiltà e il nascondimento - nella sua esistenza terrena”. Nei primi Vespri della festa di San Giuseppe del 2009, Benedetto XVI tratteggia quasi con stupore teologico la figura di San Giuseppe. “San Giuseppe – disse Benedetto - manifesta ciò in maniera sorprendente, lui che è padre senza aver esercitato una paternità carnale. Non è il padre biologico di Gesù, del quale Dio solo è il Padre, e tuttavia egli esercita una paternità piena e intera. Essere padre è innanzitutto essere servitore della vita e della crescita. San Giuseppe ha dato prova, in questo senso, di una grande dedizione. Per Cristo ha conosciuto la persecuzione, l’esilio e la povertà che ne deriva. Ha dovuto stabilirsi in luogo diverso dal suo villaggio. La sua sola ricompensa fu quella di essere con Cristo.” Chi era San Giuseppe? Il 19 marzo del 2011, Benedetto XVI spiegò che “san Giuseppe era giusto, era immerso nella Parola di Dio, scritta, trasmessa nella saggezza del suo popolo, e proprio in questo modo era preparato e chiamato a conoscere il Verbo Incarnato - il Verbo venuto tra noi come uomo -, e predestinato a custodire, a proteggere questo Verbo Incarnato; questa rimane la sua missione per sempre: custodire la Santa Chiesa e il Nostro Signore". E nell’omelia del 19 marzo 2009, Benedetto disse: “Giuseppe è, nella storia, l’uomo che ha dato a Dio la più grande prova di fiducia, anche davanti ad un annuncio così stupefacente” Ma la figura di San Giuseppe diventa centrale proprio nel periodo di Natale, quando Giuseppe diventa un personaggio importante nelle scritture. Il 30 dicembre 2012, giorno della Sacra Famiglia, Benedetto XVI chiede che "il silenzio di Giuseppe, uomo giusto (cfr Mt 1,19), e l’esempio di Maria, che custodiva ogni cosa nel suo cuore (cfr Lc 2,51), ci facciano entrare nel mistero pieno di fede e di umanità della Santa Famiglia. Auguro a tutte le famiglie cristiane di vivere alla presenza di Dio con lo stesso amore e con la stessa gioia della famiglia di Gesù, Maria e Giuseppe”. Giuseppe, per Benedetto XVI, è anche una figura da cui imparare. Nell’Angelus del 18 dicembre 2005, alla vigilia del suo primo Natale da Papa, Benedetto XVI invitò i fedeli a “lasciarsi contagiare dal silenzio di San Giuseppe.” “Ne abbiamo tanto bisogno, in un mondo spesso troppo rumoroso, che non favorisce il raccoglimento e l’ascolto della voce di Dio. In questo tempo di preparazione al Natale coltiviamo il raccoglimento interiore, per accogliere e custodire Gesù nella nostra vita”. San Giuseppe, uomo pratico, uomo dell’obbedienza silenziosa, uomo della storia e uomo giusto: sulla sua figura Benedetto XVI ha costruito anche la sua personalità, fedele all’idea che i santi di cui si porta il nome devono essere modello per la vita.
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer to the Holy Face (Manoppello)
Lord Jesus,
As the first apostles,
Whom you asked: “What do you seek?”,
Accepted your invitation to: “Come and see,”
Recognizing you as the Son of God,
The Promised Messiah for the world’s redemption,
We too, your disciples in this difficult time
Want to follow you and be your friends,
Drawn by the brilliance of your face much desired yet hidden.
Show us, we pray you, your face ever new,
That mirror, mystery laden, of God’s infinite mercy.
Grant that we may contemplate it
With the eyes of our mind and our hearts:
The Son’s face, radiance of the Father’s glory
And the imprint of his Nature (cf. Hb 1,3),
The human face of God that has burst into history
To reveal the horizons of eternity.
The silent face of Jesus suffering and risen,
When loved and accepted changes the heart and life.
“Your face, Lord, do I seek,
Do not hide your face from me” (Ps. 27, 8ff).
How many times through the centuries and millenia has not resounded
The ardent invocation of the Psalmist among the faithful!
Lord, with faith, we too repeat the same invocation:
“Man of suffering, as one from whom others hide their faces” (Is. 53, 3),
Do not hide your face from us!
We want to draw from your eyes,
That look on us with tenderness and compassion.
The force of love and peace which shows us the way of life,
And the courage to follow you without fear or compromise,
So as to be witnesses of your Gospel,
With concrete signs of acceptance, love and forgiveness.
O Holy Face of Christ,
Light that enlightens the darkness of doubt and sadness,
Life that has defeated forever the force of evil and death,
O inscrutable gaze
That never ceases to watch over men and people,
Face concealed in the Eucharistic signs
And in the faces of those that live with us,
Make us God’s pilgrims in this world,
Longing for the Infinite and ready for the final encounter,
When we shall see you, Lord, “face to face”(1 Cor. 13, 12),
And be able to contemplate you forever in heavenly Glory.
Mary, Mother of the Holy Face,
Help us have “hands innocent and a heart pure,”
Hands illumined by the truth of love
And hearts enraptured by divine beauty,
That transformed by the encounter with Christ,
We may gift ourselves to the poor and the suffering,
Whose faces reflect the hidden presence
Of your Son Jesus,
Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen!
—Benedict XVI, Rome, September 1st 2007, written and sent to the Guardian of the Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello (Italy) in memory of his pilgrimage to the Sanctuary a year before, on September 1st, 2006
We must ask, and listen humbly
DDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO A DELEGATION OF THE THEOLOGICAL FACULTY
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN IN GERMANY
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Dear Bishop, esteemed Dean, distinguished Colleagues, if I may be permitted to call you such!
I thank you for this visit and I can say that it makes me deeply happy.
On the one hand, an encounter with one's past is always beautiful because there is something rejuvenating about it. On the other, however, it is something more than a nostalgic meeting.
You yourself, Your Excellency, said that it is also a sign: a sign on the one hand of how dear to me theology is - and how could it be otherwise? -, because I had considered teaching to be my true vocation, even if the Good Lord suddenly wanted something else.
At the same time, however, it is also a sign on your part, that is, that you see the interior unity between theological research, doctrine and theological work, and pastoral service in the Church, and thus the total ecclesial commitment for the human being, for the world and for our future.
Yesterday evening, of course, I started rummaging among my memories with a view to this meeting. So it was that a memory came to mind which fits in with what you have just said, Mr Dean: in other words, the memory of the Grand Senate. I do not know today whether all the appointments still pass through the Grand Senate.
It was very interesting that when, for example, a chair of mathematics or Assyriology or the physics of solid bodies or any other subject was to be assigned, the contribution from the other faculties was minimal, and everything was resolved quite quickly because almost no one dared to speak out. The situation in the humanistic disciplines was rather different and when the chairs of theology came up in both faculties, in the end, everyone had their say.
Thus, it was evident that all the professors of the University felt in some way competent in theology; they had the feeling that they could and should participate in the decision. Theology was obviously very dear to them.
Consequently, on the one hand it could be perceived that their colleagues in the other faculties in a certain way considered that theology was the heart of the University, and on the other, that theology was precisely something that concerned everyone, in which all felt involved and somehow also knew that they were competent.
In other words, come to think of it, this means that precisely in the debate concerning the chairs of theology, the University could be experienced as a university. I am pleased to learn that these cooptations exist today, more than in the past, although Tübingen has always striven for this.
I do not know whether the Leibniz-Kolleg of which I was a member still exists; in any case, the modern University runs a considerable risk of becoming, as it were, a complex of advanced study institutes externally and institutionally united rather than being able to create the interior unity of universitas.
Theology was evidently something in which the universitas was present and in which it was demonstrated that the whole forms a unit, and that precisely at its root are a common questioning, a common task, a common purpose.
I think, moreover, that one can see in this a deep appreciation of theology. I consider this a particularly important fact.
It reveals that in our time - at least in the Latin countries where the secularity of the State and State institutions is emphasized to the extreme and therefore the omission of all that has to do with the Church, Christianity and faith is demanded - interconnections exist from which it is impossible to separate that complex reality which we call theology (which is also fundamentally linked with the Church, faith and Christianity).
It thus becomes evident in our collection of European situations - however secular, in a certain perspective, they are and must be - that Christian thought with its questions and answers is present and accompanies them.
I maintain, on the one hand, that this fact shows that theology itself continues in a certain way to make its contribution and to constitute what the University is.
But on the other, it naturally also implies an immense challenge to theology to satisfy this expectation, to be equal to it and to carry out the service entrusted to it and expected of it.
I am pleased that through the cooptations which have now become visible in a rather practical way - far more than they used to be - that the intra-university debate makes the University truly what it is, involving it in a collective self-questioning and responding.
However, I think that this is also a reason to reflect on how far we are able - not only in Tübingen but also elsewhere - to satisfy this need. The University and society, humanity, in fact, need questions, but they also need answers. And I hold that in this regard there emerges for theology - and not only for theology - a certain dialectic between scientific rigour and the greatest question that transcends it and constantly emerges from it: the question about truth.
I would like to make this clearer with an example. An exegete, an interpreter of Sacred Scripture, must explain it as a historical work "secundum artem", that is, with the scientific rigour that we know in accordance with all the historical elements that require it and with the necessary methodology.
This alone, however, does not suffice for him to be a theologian. If he were to limit himself to doing this, then theology, or at any rate the interpretation of the Bible, would be something similar to Egyptology or Assyriology, or any other specialization.
To be a theologian and to carry out this service for the University, and I dare to say for humanity - hence, the service that is expected of him -, he must go further and ask: but is what is said there true? And if it is true, does it concern us? And how does it concern us? And how can we recognize that it is true and concerns us?
In my opinion, in this regard, even in the scientific context, theology is always also requested and called into question over and above the scientific perspective.
The University and humanity are in need of questions. Whenever questions are no longer asked, even those that concern the essential and go beyond any specialization, we no longer receive answers, either.
Only if we ask, and if with our questions we are radical, as radical as theology must be radical over and above any specialization, can we hope to obtain answers to these fundamental questions which concern us all.
First of all, we have to ask questions. Those who do not ask do not get a reply.
But I would add that for theology, in addition to the courage to ask, we also need the humility to listen to the answers that the Christian faith gives us; the humility to perceive in these answers their reasonableness and thus to make them newly accessible to our time and to ourselves.
Thus, not only is the University built up but also humanity is helped to live. For this task, I invoke God's Blessing upon you.
Bringing back Eucharistic adoration
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Holy Mass for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi
Basilica of Saint John Lateran
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This evening I would like to meditate with you on two interconnected aspects of the Eucharistic Mystery: worship of the Eucharist and its sacred nature. It is important to reflect on them once again to preserve them from incomplete visions of the Mystery itself, such as those encountered in the recent past.
First of all, a reflection on the importance of Eucharistic worship and, in particular, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We shall experience it this evening, after Mass, before the procession, during it and at its conclusion. A unilateral interpretation of the Second Vatican Council penalized this dimension, in practice restricting the Eucharist to the moment of its celebration. Indeed it was very important to recognize the centrality of the celebration in which the Lord summons his people, gathers it round the dual table of the Word and of the Bread of life, nourishes and unites it with himself in the offering of the Sacrifice.
Of course, this evaluation of the liturgical assembly in which the Lord works his mystery of communion and brings it about still applies; but it must be put back into the proper balance. In fact — as often happens — in order to emphasize one aspect one ends by sacrificing another. In this case the correct accentuation of the celebration of the Eucharist has been to the detriment of adoration as an act of faith and prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus, really present in the Sacrament of the Altar.
This imbalance has also had repercussions on the spiritual life of the faithful. In fact, by concentrating the entire relationship with the Eucharistic Jesus in the sole moment of Holy Mass one risks emptying the rest of existential time and space of his presence. This makes ever less perceptible the meaning of Jesus’ constant presence in our midst and with us, a presence that is tangible, close, in our homes, as the “beating Heart” of the city, of the country, and of the area, with its various expressions and activities. The sacrament of Christ’s Charity must permeate the whole of daily life.
Actually it is wrong to set celebration and adoration against each other, as if they were competing. Exactly the opposite is true: worship of the Blessed Sacrament is, as it were, the spiritual “context” in which the community can celebrate the Eucharist well and in truth. Only if it is preceded, accompanied and followed by this inner attitude of faith and adoration can the liturgical action express its full meaning and value. The encounter with Jesus in Holy Mass is truly and fully brought about when the community can recognize that in the Sacrament he dwells in his house, waits for us, invites us to his table, then, after the assembly is dismissed, stays with us, with his discreet and silent presence, and accompanies us with his intercession, continuing to gather our spiritual sacrifices and offer them to the Father.
In this regard I am pleased to highlight the experience we shall be having together this evening too. At the moment of Adoration, we are all equal, kneeling before the Sacrament of Love. The common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood are brought together in Eucharistic worship. It is a very beautiful and significant experience which we have had several times in St Peter’s Basilica, and also in the unforgettable Vigils with young people — I recall, for example, those in Cologne, London, Zagreb and Madrid. It is clear to all that these moments of Eucharistic Vigil prepare for the celebration of the Holy Mass, they prepare hearts for the encounter so that it will be more fruitful.
To be all together in prolonged silence before the Lord present in his Sacrament is one of the most genuine experiences of our being Church, which is accompanied complementarily by the celebration of the Eucharist, by listening to the word of God, by singing and by approaching the table of the Bread of Life together. Communion and contemplation cannot be separated, they go hand in hand. If I am truly to communicate with another person I must know him, I must be able to be in silence close to him, to listen to him and look at him lovingly. True love and true friendship are always nourished by the reciprocity of looks, of intense, eloquent silences full of respect and veneration, so that the encounter may be lived profoundly and personally rather than superficially. And, unfortunately, if this dimension is lacking, sacramental communion itself may become a superficial gesture on our part.
Instead, in true communion, prepared for by the conversation of prayer and of life, we can address words of confidence to the Lord, such as those which rang out just now in the Responsorial Psalm: “O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. / You have loosed my bonds./ I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving /and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps 116[115]:16-17).
I would now like to move on briefly to the second aspect: the sacred nature of the Eucharist. Here too so we have heard in the recent past of a certain misunderstanding of the authentic message of Sacred Scripture. The Christian newness with regard to worship has been influenced by a certain secularist mentality of the 1960s and 70s. It is true, and this is still the case, that the centre of worship is now no longer in the ancient rites and sacrifices, but in Christ himself, in his person, in his life, in his Paschal Mystery. However it must not be concluded from this fundamental innovation that the sacred no longer exists, but rather that it has found fulfilment in Jesus Christ, divine Love incarnate.
The Letter to the Hebrews, which we heard this evening in the Second Reading, speaks to us precisely of the newness of the priesthood of Christ, “high priest of the good things that have come” (Heb 9:11), but does not say that the priesthood is finished. Christ “is the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb 9:15), established in his blood which purifies our “conscience from dead works” (Heb 9:14). He did not abolish the sacred but brought it to fulfillment, inaugurating a new form of worship, which is indeed fully spiritual but which, however, as long as we are journeying in time, still makes use of signs and rites, which will exist no longer only at the end, in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there will no longer be any temple (cf. Rev 21:22). Thanks to Christ, the sacred is truer, more intense and, as happens with the Commandments, also more demanding! Ritual observance does not suffice but purification of the heart and the involvement of life is required.
I would also like to stress that the sacred has an educational function and its disappearance inevitably impoverishes culture and especially the formation of the new generations. If, for example, in the name of a faith that is secularized and no longer in need of sacred signs, these Corpus Christi processions through the city were to be abolished, the spiritual profile of Rome would be “flattened out”, and our personal and community awareness would be weakened.
Or let us think of a mother or father who in the name of a desacralized faith, deprived their children of all religious rituals: in reality they would end by giving a free hand to the many substitutes that exist in the consumer society, to other rites and other signs that could more easily become idols.
God, our Father, did not do this with humanity: he sent his Son into the world not to abolish, but to give fulfilment also to the sacred. At the height of this mission, at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood, the Memorial of his Paschal Sacrifice. By so doing he replaced the ancient sacrifices with himself, but he did so in a rite which he commanded the Apostles to perpetuate, as a supreme sign of the true Sacred One who is he himself. With this faith, dear brothers and sisters, let us celebrate the Eucharistic Mystery today and every day and adore it as the centre of our life and the heart of the world. Amen.
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope Francis on Benedict XVI in the Vatican
There is something that qualifies my relation with Benedict: I love him so much. I’ve always loved him. For me he is a man of God, a humble man, a man who prays. I was so happy when he was elected Pope. Also when he gave his resignation, it was for me an example of greatness! A great man. Only a great man does this! A man of God is a man of prayer. He now lives in the Vatican, and some say to me: but how can this be? Two Popes in the Vatican! But, doesn’t he encumber you? Doesn’t he make a revolution against you? All these things that are said, no? I’ve found a phrase to say this: “It’s like having a grandfather at home,” but a wise grandfather. When a grandfather is at home with a family, he is venerated, loved, listened to. He is a man of prudence! He doesn’t meddle. I’ve said to him so many times: “Holiness, you receive, make your life, come with us.” He came for the inauguration and blessing of the statue of Saint Michael. There, that phrase says everything. For me he is like having a grandfather at home: my father. If I had a difficulty or something I didn’t understand, I would telephone him: “But, tell me, can I do that?” And when I went to talk about that big problem of Vatileaks, he told me everything with a simplicity … at the service. It’s something I don’t know if you know, I think so, but I’m not sure: when he spoke to us, in his farewell address on February 28, he said to us: “The next Pope is among you: I promise obedience to him.” But he’s a great man, he is a great!
(29 July 2013)
Politics and redemption
Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic.
― Pope Benedict XVI
Dictatorship of relativism leads to spiritual poverty
But there is another form of poverty! It is the spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously. It is what my much-loved predecessor, Benedict XVI, called the "tyranny of relativism", which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples. And that brings me to a second reason for my name. Francis of Assisi tells us we should work to build peace. But there is no true peace without truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth. --Pope Francis, Address to Diplomatic Corps, 22 March 2013
Dare to be true
Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.