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MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY
OF CHRIST THE KING
The Pope gives the ring
to the new cardinals
Libretto illustrations: Images from the 'Dalmatic of Charlemagne' (back). Images from the front illustrated the libretto for yesterday's consistory.
At 9:30 today, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided at St. Peter's Basilica the Eucharistic concelebration with the 24 new cardinals created in the consistory yesterday.
In the course of the Mass, he gave each of them the cardinal's ring as 'a sign of rank, of pastoral solicitude and of firmer communion with the See of Peter".
Here is a translation of the Pope's homily:
Eminent Cardinals,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters:
On the Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, we have the joy of gathering around the Altar of the Lord together with the 24 new cardinals whom I added yesterday to the College of Cardinals.
To them, first of all, I address my heartfelt greeting, which I extend to the other cardinals and all the other prelates present, as well as to the distinguished authorities, the honorable ambassadors, priests, religious and all the faithful who have come from various parts of this world for this occasion, with its evident character of universality.
Many of you would have noted that even the last Public Consistory for the creation of new cardinals in November 2007 was celebrated on the vigil of the Solemnity of Christ the King. Three years have passed, and therefore, following the Sunday liturgical cycle, the Word of God comes to us today through the same Biblical readings for this important feast.
It takes place on the last Sunday of the liturgical year, and it presents to us, at the end of the itinerary of faith, the kingly face of Christ, like the Pantocrator in the apse of ancient churches.
This coincidence invites us to meditate profoundly on the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, and on that linked to it, the ministry of cardinals, in the light of the singular Kingship of Jesus, our Lord.
The first service of the Successor of Peter is to the faith. In the New Testament, Peter becomes the 'rock' of the Church as the bearer of the Creed: the 'we' of the Church begins with the name of him who first professed faith in Christ - it starts with his faith.
It was a faith that was first acerbic and still 'too human', but after Easter, it became mature and able to follow Jesus up to giving himself - mature in believing that Jesus is truly the King; that he is so, precisely because he remained on the Cross and gave his life for sinners.
In the Gospel, we read that everyone asked Jesus to come down from the Cross. They derided him, but that was also a way to exculpate themselves, as if to say - "It's not our fault that you are on the Cross; it's your fault alone, because if you were really the Son of God, King of the Jews, you would not be there, but you would save yourself and come down from that infamous gallow. So, if you stay there, it means that you are wrong and we are right."
The drama that takes place at the foot of the Cross is a universal drama - it concerns all men in front of God, who shows himself for who he is, namely, Love.
In the crucified Jesus, divinity is disfigured, stripped of every visible glory, but it is present and real. Only faith can recognize it: the faith of Mary, who guards in her heart this last tile of the mosaic of the life of her Son. She still does not see the whole picture but she continues to trust in God, repeating once more with the same abandon, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord" (Lk 1,38).
And there was the faith of the good thief: a faith that had barely budded, but enough to assure him of salvation: "Today you will be with me in Paradise". That 'with me' is decisive. Yes, that is what saves. Of course, the good thief is also on a cross like Jesus, but above all, he is on the cross with Jesus.
Unlike the other malefactor, and all the others who mocked them, he does not ask Jesus to come down from the Cross nor to bring him down from the Cross. He asks instead: "Remember me when you enter your Kingdom".
He sees Jesus on the Cross, disfigured, unrecognizable, and yet he entrusts himself to him as to a King, or rather, as to the King. The good thief believes what was written on the tag above Jesus's head, 'King of the Jews' - he believes in it, and so he trusts. Because of this he is already, right away, in God's 'today', in Paradise, because Paradise is to be with Jesus, to be with God.
Therefore, dear brothers, here emerges clearly the first and fundamental message that the Word of God tells us today - to me, Successor of Peter, and to you Cardinals. It calls us to be with Jesus, like Mary, and not ask him to come down from the Cross, but for us to stay there with him.
This, because of our ministry, we ought to do not only for ourselves but for the whole Church, for all the People of God. We know from the Gospel that the Cross was the critical point for the faith of Simon Peter and the other Apostles. It is clear, and it cannot be otherwise: they were men and thought 'like men' - they could not tolerate the idea of a crucified Messiah.
The 'conversion' of Peter was fully realized when he gave up wanting to 'save' Jesus but accepted that he should be saved by him. He renounced wanting to save Jesus from the Cross and accepted to be saved by that Cross.
"I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22,32), the Lord said to him. Peter's ministry consists entirely of his faith, a faith that Jesus recognized right away, from the start, as genuine, a a gift form the heavenly Father. But a faith that had to to go through the scandal of the Cross, in order to become authentic, truly 'Christian', in order to become the 'rock' on which Jesus could build his Church.
Participation in the Lordship of Christ is concretely verified only in sharing his humiliation, on the Cross. Even my ministry, dear brothers, and consequently, yours too, consists entirely of the faith.
Jesus can build his Church on us to the degree that he finds in us the true faith, the Paschal faith, that which does not want Jesus to come down from the Cross, but trusts in him on the Cross. In this sense, the authentic place for the Vicar of Christ is the Cross, and to persist in obedience to the Cross.
This ministry is difficult because it is not aligned to man's thinking, to that natural logic which remains always active in us. But this is and always remains our first service - the service of faith, which transforms all of life:
To believe that Jesus is God, that he is the King precisely because he reached the point of loving us to the very extreme. It is this paradoxical kingship that we must bear witness to and announce, as he, the King, did, - that is, following the same way and striving to adopt his logic, the logic of humility and service, of the grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit.
The Pope and the cardinals are called on to be profoundly united above all in this: All together, under the leadership of the Successor of Peter, we must remain under the Lordship of Christ, thinking and acting according to the logic of the Cross - though this is never easy nor to be taken for granted.
In this, we must remain compact, and we are because we are not united by an idea or a strategy - we are united by the love of Christ and his Holy Spirit.
The efficacy of our service to the Church, the Spouse of Christ, essentially depends on this - our faith in the divine kingship of crucified Love.
Because of this, the image of the Crucifixion is found on the ring that I will give you today, seal of your nuptial vow with the Church. For the same reason, the color of your garments evokes blood, symbol of life and love.
The Blood of Christ, which, according to an ancient legend, Mary collected as it flowed from the pierced side of her Son who had just died on the Cross, and which the apostle John contemplated as it flowed out with water, as the Scriptures had prophesied.
Dear brothers, our wisdom comes from this - sapientia Crucis, the wisdom of the Cross. St. Paul reflected deeply on this, having been the first to develop organic Christian thought, centered precisely on the paradox of the Cross [/DIM](cfr 1Cor 1,18-25; 2,1-8).
In the Letter to the Colossians - whose Christological hymn is propsoed to us in today's liturgy - the Pauline reflection, made fruitful by the grace of the Spirit, already reaches an impressive level of synthesis in expressing an authentic Christian concept of God and the world, of personal and universal salvation.
And everything is centered on Christ, Lord of hearts, of history, and the cosmos: "For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross (through him), whether those on earth or those in heaven" (Col 1,19-20).
This, dear brothers, is what we are always called on to announce to the world: Christ, 'image of the invisible God'; Christ 'firstborn of all creation' and 'those who rise from the dead', because, as the Apostle writes, "in all things he himself is preeminent" (Col 1,15.18).
The primacy of Peter and his Successors is totally in the service of the primacy of Jesus Christ, the only Lord; in the service of his Kingdom, namely, in his Lordship of love, so that it may come and be disseminated, renew men and things, transform the earth and make peace and justice germinate in it.
Within this plan that transcends history, but at the same time, is disclosed and realized in it, is the Church, the 'Body" of which Christ is 'the Head' (cfr Col 1,18).
In the Letter to the Ephesians, St, Paul speaks explicitly of the Lordship of Christ and presents it in relation to the Church. He formulates a prayer of praise to "the greatness of the power of God" who resurrected Christ and made him the universal Lord, then concludes: "And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way" (Eph 1,22-23).
The same word 'fullness' that belongs to Christ, Paul attributes here to the Church, through participation: the body, in fact, participates in the fullness of the Head.
And this, venerated Brother Cardinals - and I also address all of you who share with us the grace of being Christian - is our joy: that of taking part in the Church, in the fullness of Christ through obedience to the Cross, "to participate in the destiny of saints in the light", to be 'transferred' to the kingdom of the Son of God (cfr Col 1,12-13).
Because of love, we live in perennial thanksgiving, and even through trials, we do not feel less the joy and the peace that Christ has left us, as an earnest of his Kingdom which is already in our midst, and that we look to with faith and hope, and of which, in charity, we have a foretaste. Amen.
What a powerful homily! I kept getting shivers as I was translating. Benedict has not reflected publicly as often about Peter as he has about Paul, but whenever he does, he throws a whole new and exhilarating light on the fisherman-Rock! This homily seems an appropriate companion piece, in its own way, to LIGHT OF THE WORLD!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/11/2010 16:29] |