Pope: Everything in the Church rests on faith: the sacraments, liturgy, evangelization, charity
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - With one eye on today's solemnity, the Chair of St. Peter, and the upcoming Year of the Faith, Benedict XVI gave a deep and passionate homily on the occasion of the first celebration of the Eucharist with the new 22 cardinals created in yesterday's consistory. In it, after explaining the meaning of the name "rock" of faith, bestowed by Christ on Peter ("through the commission that Jesus gives, Simon Peter becomes what he is not through" flesh and blood '") he shows that "Everything in the Church rests upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization, charity. Likewise the law and the Church's authority rest upon faith"), that faith is bound to love ("a selfish faith would be an unreal faith"), and especially that the faith of the Church is" like a window, the place where God draws near to us, where he comes towards our world. The Church does not exist for her own sake, she is not the point of arrival, but she has to point upwards, beyond herself, to the realms above. "
In explaining his magisterial thought, the
Pope cites a great Protestant exegete Joachim Jeremias, Jewish rabbinical
wisdom, and in the aesthetic and theological explanation of the Altar of the
Chair, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, located in the apse of Vatican basilica.
Before
the celebration, one of the new cardinals, Fernando
Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, addressed
thanks and gratitude to the Pope on behalf of he fellow cardinals.
"The
scarlet bestowed on us - said card. Filoni - reminds us, Holy Father, not so
much the greatness of the wearer as a symbol of power and domination, but the
profound mystery of the suffering of Jesus, covered by his captors with a scarlet
cloak, and thus presented to the crowd before Pilate, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2.8). Even
today in the Church, for their loyalty to his Lord, many of its members face martyrdom,
trial and persecution. "
"Most
Holy Father - he continued - Most Holy Father, at this most meaningful moment
in our life's journey, we would like, together with our feelings of gratitude,
affection and dedication, present You as a gift, our renewed commitment of
fidelity, our complete willingness in the performance of the specific tasks entrusted
to us in
the Roman Curia, in the particular Churches or in the service of truth and
knowledge . We
too wish to wear a robe usque ad effusionem
sanguinis". Our
gratitude today is joined by that, no less profound and joyful, of our
relatives and friends, the churches where we come from and peoples to which we
belong"
Here below the full text of Benedict XVI:
Dear Cardinals,
Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this solemnity of the Chair of Saint Peter, we have the joy of gathering
around the altar of the Lord together with the new Cardinals whom yesterday I
incorporated into the College of Cardinals. It is to them, first of all, that I
offer my cordial greetings and I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni for the
gracious words he has addressed to me in the name of all. I extend my greetings
to the other Cardinals and all the Bishops present, as well as to the
distinguished authorities, ambassadors, priests, religious and all the faithful
who have come from different parts of the world for this happy occasion, which
is marked by a particular character of universality.
In the second reading that we have just heard, Saint Peter exhorts the "elders"
of the Church to be zealous pastors, attentive to the flock of Christ (cf. 1
Pet 5:1-2). These words are addressed in the first instance to you, my dear
venerable brothers, who have already shown great merit among the people of God
through your wise and generous pastoral ministry in demanding dioceses, or
through presiding over the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, or in your service
to the Church through study and teaching. The new dignity that has been conferred
upon you is intended to show appreciation for the faithful labour you have
carried out in the Lord's vineyard, to honour the communities and nations from
which you come and which you represent so worthily in the Church, to invest you
with new and more important ecclesial responsibilities and finally to ask of
you an additional readiness to be of service to Christ and to the entire
Christian community. This readiness to serve the Gospel is firmly founded upon
the certitude of faith. We know that God is faithful to his promises and we
await in hope the fulfilment of these words of Saint Peter: "And when the chief
shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory" (1 Pet
5:4).
Today's Gospel passage presents Peter, under divine inspiration, expressing his
own firm faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the promised Messiah. In response
to this transparent profession of faith, which Peter makes in the name of the
other Apostles as well, Christ reveals to him the mission he intends to entrust
to him, namely that of being the "rock", the visible foundation on which the
entire spiritual edifice of the Church is built (cf. Mt 16:16-19). This new
name of "rock" is not a reference to Peter's personal character, but can be
understood only on the basis of a deeper aspect, a mystery: through the office
that Jesus confers upon him, Simon Peter will become something that, in terms
of "flesh and blood", he is not. The exegete Joachim Jeremias has shown that in
the background, the symbolic language of "holy rock" is present. In this
regard, it is helpful to consider a rabbinic text which states: "The Lord said,
'How can I create the world, when these godless men will rise up in revolt
against me?' But when God saw that Abraham was to be born, he said, 'Look, I
have found a rock on which I can build and establish the world.' Therefore he
called Abraham a rock." The prophet Isaiah makes reference to this when he
calls upon the people to "look to the rock from which you were hewn ... look to
Abraham your father" (51:1-2). On account of his faith, Abraham, the father of
believers, is seen as the rock that supports creation. Simon, the first to
profess faith in Jesus as the Christ and the first witness of the resurrection,
now, on the basis of his renewed faith, becomes the rock that is to prevail
against the destructive forces of evil.
Dear brothers and sisters, this Gospel episode that has been proclaimed to us
finds a further and more eloquent explanation in one of the most famous
artistic treasures of this Vatican Basilica: the altar of the Chair. After
passing through the magnificent central nave, and continuing past the
transepts, the pilgrim arrives in the apse and sees before him an enormous
bronze throne that seems to hover in mid air, but in reality is supported by
the four statues of great Fathers of the Church from East and West. And above
the throne, surrounded by triumphant angels suspended in the air, the glory of
the Holy Spirit shines through the oval window. What does this sculptural
composition say to us, this product of Bernini's genius? It represents a vision
of the essence of the Church and the place within the Church of the Petrine
Magisterium.
The window of the apse opens the Church towards the outside, towards the whole
of creation, while the image of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove shows God
as the source of light. But there is also another aspect to point out: the
Church herself is like a window, the place where God draws near to us, where he
comes towards our world. The Church does not exist for her own sake, she is not
the point of arrival, but she has to point upwards, beyond herself, to the
realms above. The Church is truly herself to the extent that she allows the
Other, with a capital "O", to shine through her - the One from whom she comes
and to whom she leads. The Church is the place where God "reaches" us and where
we "set off" towards him: she has the task of opening up, beyond itself, a
world which tends to become enclosed within itself, the task of bringing to the
world the light that comes from above, without which it would be uninhabitable.
The great bronze throne encloses a wooden chair from the ninth century, which
was long thought to be Saint Peter's own chair and was placed above this
monumental altar because of its great symbolic value. It expresses the
permanent presence of the Apostle in the Magisterium of his successors. Saint
Peter's chair, we could say, is the throne of truth which takes its origin from
Christ's commission after the confession at Caesarea Philippi. The magisterial
chair also reminds us of the words spoken to Peter by the Lord during the Last
Supper: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have
turned again, strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:32).
The chair of Peter evokes another memory: the famous expression from Saint
Ignatius of Antioch's
letter to the Romans, where he says of the Church of Rome that she "presides in
charity" (Salutation, PG 5, 801). In truth, presiding in faith is inseparably
linked to presiding in love. Faith without love would no longer be an authentic
Christian faith. But the words of Saint Ignatius have another much more
concrete implication: the word "charity", in fact, was also used by the early
Church to indicate the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the Sacramentum caritatis
Christi, through which Christ continues to draw us all to himself, as he did
when raised up on the Cross (cf. Jn 12:32). Therefore, to "preside in charity"
is to draw men and women into a eucharistic embrace - the embrace of Christ -
which surpasses every barrier and every division, creating communion from all
manner of differences. The Petrine ministry is therefore a primacy of love in
the eucharistic sense, that is to say solicitude for the universal communion of
the Church in Christ. And the Eucharist is the shape and the measure of this
communion, a guarantee that it will remain faithful to the criterion of the
tradition of the faith.
The great Chair is supported by the Fathers of the Church. The two Eastern
masters, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Athanasius, together with the Latins,
Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, represent the whole of the tradition, and
hence the richness of expression of the true faith of the one Church. This
aspect of the altar teaches us that love rests upon faith. Love collapses if
man no longer trusts in God and disobeys him. Everything in the Church rests
upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization, charity. Likewise the
law and the Church's authority rest upon faith. The Church is not self-regulating,
she does not determine her own structure but receives it from the word of God,
to which she listens in faith as she seeks to understand it and to live it.
Within the ecclesial community, the Fathers of the Church fulfil the function
of guaranteeing fidelity to sacred Scripture. They ensure that the Church
receives reliable and solid exegesis, capable of forming with the Chair of
Peter a stable and consistent whole. The sacred Scriptures, authoritatively
interpreted by the Magisterium in the light of the Fathers, shed light upon the
Church's journey through time, providing her with a stable foundation amid the
vicissitudes of history.
After considering the various elements of the altar of the Chair, let us take a
look at it in its entirety. We see that it is characterized by a twofold
movement: ascending and descending. This is the reciprocity between faith and
love. The Chair is placed in a prominent position in this place, because this
is where Saint Peter's tomb is located, but this too tends towards the love of
God. Indeed, faith is oriented towards love. A selfish faith would be an unreal
faith. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into the dynamic of love
that finds its source in the Eucharist, discovers true joy and becomes capable
in turn of living according to the logic of gift. True faith is illumined by
love and leads towards love, leads on high, just as the altar of the Chair
points upwards towards the luminous window, the glory of the Holy Spirit, which
constitutes the true focus for the pilgrim's gaze as he crosses the threshold
of the Vatican Basilica. That window is given great prominence by the
triumphant angels and the great golden rays, with a sense of overflowing
fulness that expresses the richness of communion with God. God is not
isolation, but glorious and joyful love, spreading outwards and radiant with
light.
Dear brothers and sisters, the gift of this love has been entrusted to us, to
every Christian. It is a gift to be passed on to others, through the witness of
our lives. This is your task in particular, dear brother Cardinals: to bear
witness to the joy of Christ's love. We now entrust your ecclesial service to
the Virgin Mary, who was present among the apostolic community as they gathered
in prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). May she, Mother of the
Incarnate Word, protect the Church's path, support the work of the pastors by
her intercession and take under her mantle the entire College of Cardinals.
Amen!
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26/02/2009
