The Pope to new bishops:
'Aim to convince others of the faith,
but be prepared to accept attacks'
Translated from
January 8, 2013
The dominant agnosticism these days is far from being a garden of tolerance, Benedict XVI said in his splendid homily on the Magi, whom he held up as a mirror for what a bishop must be, well aware that his great task of renewing the Church must go through a renewal first of the episcopate.
As the Pope points out, current agnosticism has its own dogmas and is extremely intolerant of anyone who would question its criteria. And that is why he said "the courage to contradict the prevailing mindset is particularly urgent for the bishop today".
One only has to randomly scan the pages of any newspaper to be aware of this urgency. Benedict XVI himself has suffered a new round of brutal insults in recent days for having denounced the falsehood of an ideology of gender - coming not just from the hate brigades in teh social media but even from democratic institutions like the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
And here, in Spain, no less than the spokesman of an autonomous government, that of Andalucia, has just asked for the Bishop of Cordoba to be muzzled! Perhaps, he studied democracy in Moscow's Lubjanka prison, but this state of affairs is not new.
The Pope vividly recreated what it must have meant for the Magi to the 'realists' in their time when they decided to go forth following a star. Always, the humility of faith finds itself in conflict with the dominant thinking of those who adhere to what they think appears to be certain.
And that is why a bishop has to be courageous. But what kind of courage does he need" The Pope says, "it does not consist in striking out or in acting aggressively, but rather in allowing oneself to be steadfast in his principles against the prevalent way of thinking... the courage to remain firm in the truth."
Evidently this is not about a morbid taste for confrontation nor of savoring the role of victim. The Pope goes on: "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".
I think Benedict XVI is the living image of this effort which seeks to persuade both the mind and the heart of contemporary man. It is not about launching forth the truth as if it were a stone to hurl against the opponent's shield, but to convince and invite.
Christian witness is not about exacerbating contradiction but obtaining an acknowledgment of the Truth. Because what we desire is that men listen to the Christian message and follow it.
But in any case, the dominant mindset will never be the criterion to which the Christian must answer, least of all, a bishop who must walk ahead, opening the way and marking the route to faith, hope and love.
The criterion can only be the Lord himself, who, as Benedict XVI often points out, surpasses the limits of human reason but never contradicts it. And so it always happens that the announcement of the Gospel draws many persons 'home' to the Church, even as it disturbs and challenges others.
But it also has happened and is bound to happen that the witness for Christ (and the bishop should be first to bear such witness) is inevitably attacked by those who would oppose the Truth. In such a case - never wanted nor sought - "then we can be grateful for having been judged worthy to share in the passion of Christ".
[Obviously, that is what sustains the Holy Father in dealing with all the unfair and unwarranted attacks on him and the Church even by some Catholics who ought to know better. We defend him best by unfailingly praying for him and all those who serve the Lord by serving the Church.]
The bishop, as leading witness, cannot offer any discourse that is different from the life he leads - he must demonstrate with his own life the truth that he is announcing, and that means exposing himself, being ready to pay the price.
At this point, we may well ask - All this for what? We must return to the first part of the homily when the Pope explains that, like the Magi from the East, a bishop is not just someone who is content with carrying out his task efficiently.
Rather, he must be a man possessed with the same 'restlessness' God has for men, nothing less. He must be a man concerned for others, who feels touched by the vicissitudes of others. And who knows that his own harvest brings little that can truly help him. That only to the degree that he can reflect on God, that he can open for others the way to him, only then will he truly serve those for whose spiritual wellbeing he is responsible. Nothing less will do.
Restan inadvertently omits the explicit statement that
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.
It is always awesome when Benedict XVI speaks about what it means to be a priest and a bishop, because one hears someone who is sharing his own personal experience. No one can speak so constantly, consistently and compellingly about the Catholic ministry unless he has lived what he says. It's the closest we can get to a first-person account of the Holy Father's most intimate being. One can appreciate even more why he is the Pope who convoked a Year for Priests. Perhaps there ought to be a Year for Priests every five years - in addition to a topdown overhaul of the priest formation process - in order to breed the kind of priest exemplified by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.