BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Last year, it took a full week before the Vatican Press Office released the transcript of the Holy Father's 'lectio divina' to the seminarians of Rome. I hope it won't take as long this time. [P.S. This time, it only took them overnight, thank God.] Meanwhile, a report from the Italian service of Vatican Radio is all we have to go on, with its limitations in terms of random quotes that do not seem to follow Benedict XVI's thought flow...

Benedict XVI to seminarians:
Christians must accept martyrdom
Translated from the Italian service of

February 8, 2013

"No one can be a Christian without following the Cross, without accepting martyrdom". So said the Pope, recalling the many persecutions that the followers of Christ have undergone through the centuries, during his lectio divina Friday evening to the seminarians of Rome.






The Bishop of Rome spoke to 150 students for the priesthood from Rome's five seminaries - the Pontificio Seminario Maggiore, the Seminario Romano Minore, the Almo Collegio Capranica, the Collegio Diocesano Redemptoris Mater and the Seminario della Madonna del Divino Amore - at the chapel of the Major Seminary next to the Lateran Basilica, on the feast day of Our Lady of Trust, patroness of the seminary.

As he has done for the past five years. he gave the lectio divina extemporaneously, reflecting on a phrase from the First Letter of Peter (1,3-5): "safeguarded through faith by the power of God".

[The entire passage: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by the power of God, are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time."]

Benedict XVI expressed his joy at seeing "so many young men on the way to priesthood, seeking how to serve the Lord in our time".

Reflecting on the Letter of Peter, he called it "the first encyclical... full of the passion of someone who had found the Messiah, then sinned, but remained faithful to Christ".

He noted the elevated language used, words, he said, "that do not seem to be the words of a fisherman". But, he pointed out, "Peter wrote this in Rome, where he had the help of other brothers in the faith, the help of the Church".

"Peter does not speak as an individual, he speaks ex persona ecclesiae, as a man of the Church - certainly as a person too, with his personal responsibility, but he is not speaking individualistically. He speaks in the communion of the Church".

He said Peter knew he would meet with martyrdom in Rome, but that did not keep him back - he went toward the cross indicated by Christ, and in this way, he invites contemporary man to welcome the martyrological aspect of the faith.

He dwelt on the aspect of election by God - the unique and individual choice that God makes for each man. "To be chosen by God to know the face of Christ, to be Catholics, is a gift".

"We must rejoice that God has given us this grace - the beauty of knowing the fullness of God's Truth, the joy of his love".

He said the word 'chosen' was one that denoted 'privilege and humility' at the same time, but not 'triumphalism'. He noted how today, Christians are the most persecuted group in the world, because "we don't conform... we are against the tendencies to selfishness and materialism", and although Christians had contributed much to the formation of Western culture, they have always lived in 'a condition of minority and extraneousness'.

"Let us pray to the Lord so that he may help us accept this mission of living like dispersed people, like a minority in a way, living like strangers in society while being responsible for others, reinforcing goodness in the world."

Finally, the Holy Father decried the 'false pessimism' of those who are saying today that Christianity is 'finished', calling instead for 'healthy realism':

"There have been grave and dangerous failing in the Church," he said, "and we must recognize with healthy realism whenever bad things are done that these things cannot go on. But we must also keep our certainty that even if here and there, the Church dies a little because of the sins of men, because of their lack of faith, that it will always be born anew. The future is truly God's - this is the great certainty of our life, the great and true optimism that we know. The Church is the tree of God which lives eternally and carries in herself eternity and the true legacy: eternal life".

The Pope was welcomed to the seminary by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini, and by the rector of the Major Seminary, don Concetto Occhipinti, and warmly greeted by the seminarians, along with 16 young men enrolled in a preparatory year of discernment.

After the lecture, the Pope spent a few moments praying before the image of Our Lady of Trust, then had dinner with the seminarians before returning to the Vatican.





Here is a translation of the Holy Father's lectio divina delivered extemporaneously to the seminarians of Rome.

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Eminence,
Dear brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood,
Dear friends:

Every year, it is a great joy for me to be with you and to see so many young men who are preparing for the priesthood, who listen to the voice of the Lord, and wish to follow his voice and find the way to serve the Lord in our time.

We heard three verses from the First Letter of St. Peter (cfr 1,3-5). Before entering into this text, I think it is important to be attentive to the fact that it is Peter who speaks here.

The first two words of the letter are 'Petrus apostolus' (cfr v 1): he is speaking, and he is speaking to the Churches of Asia and is calling the faithful "chosen sojourners of the dispersion" (ibidem).

Let us reflect a bit on this. Peter is speaking, and he does so - as we hear at the end of the Letter - from Rome, which he calls 'Babylon' (cfr 5,13). Peter speaks: It is almost like a first encyclical, through which the first Apostle, Vicar of Christ, speaks to the Church in all ages.

Peter the apostle: He who speaks is someone who has found in Christ Jesus the Messiah of God, who spoke first among all in the name of the future Church: "You are Christ, Son of the living God" (cfr Mt 16,16) He who introduced us to this faith is speaking, the man to whom the Lord said: "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven" (cfr Mt 16,19), to whom he entrusted his flock after the Resurrection,telling him three times, "Feed my sheep" (cfr Jn 21,15-17).

But this is also the man who fell, who denied Jesus, but had the grace to see the look of Jesus, and to be touched in his heart, and to find forgiveness and a renewal of his mission.

It is above all most important that this man, full of passion, of the desire for God, the desire for the kingdom of God,the desire for the Messiah - that this man found Jesus, the Lord and the Messiah, but he is also the man who sinned, who stumbled, but still remained under the Lord's eyes, and so, he is now responsible for the Church of God, he has been given the responsibility by Christ, he remains the bearer of his love.

It is Peter the Apostle who speaks, but exegetes would tell us: It is not possible that this letter could have been Peter's, because the Greek is so good that it cannot be the Greek of a fisherman from Galilee.

Not only is the language, the structure of the language, excellent, but even the thought is already quite mature, it already expressed concrete formulations in which the faith and the reflection of the Church are condensed.

And so they say, "It is a stage of development that cannot be that of Peter". How to answer this? There are two important positions to take: First, Peter himself - that is, the Letter - gives us a key, because at the end, it says, "I write you dia Silvano, through Silvanus".

This 'dia' can mean different things: It can mean that he, Silvanus, transports, transmits. It can mean that he helped in writing the letter. It can mean that he himself was the actual writer.

In any case, we can conclude that the letter itself tells us that Peter was not alone in writing this Letter, but that he was expressing the faith of a Church that had already set off on its journey of faith, a faith that was increasingly maturing.

He does not write it by himself, as an isolated individual - he writes with the help of the Church, of persons who were helping each other to deepen their knowledge of the faith and therefore entered the depth of his thought, of his rationality, of his profundity.

This is very important. Peter does not speak as an individual, he speaks ex persona Ecclesiae, he speaks as a man of the Church - certainly as an individual too, with his personal responsibility, but also as a person who speaks in the name of the Church. These are not just private thoughts, not like a 20th century genius who wished only to express his personal and original ideas, that no one could have said before him.

No. he does not speak as an individualistic genius, but he speaks within the communion of the Church. In the Apocalypse, in the initial vision of Christ, it says that the voice of Christ is the voice of all the waters in the world )cfr Ap 1.15).

This means to say that the voice of Christ reunites all the waters of the world. it carries all the living waters that give life to the world. This is the very grandeur of the Lord who carries in him all the rivers of the Old Testament, of the wisdom of peoples.

And what is said here about the Lord also goes, in another way, for the apostle, who does not intend to say a single word that is his alone, but truly carries in himself the waters of the faith, the waters of the whole Church, and therefore, of fertility, of fruitfulness - a personal testimony that opens to the Lord, it becomes open and wide. That is why this is important.

It also seems important that in the conclusion of this letter, Silvanus and Mark are named, two persons who also were among the friends of St. Paul. So through this conclusion, the worlds of St. Peter and St. Paul come together:

It is not a theology that is exclusively Petrine against a Pauline theology, but it is a theology of the Church, of the faith of the Church, in which there is diversity - certainly - of temperament, of thinking, of the style of speaking, between Peter and Paul. And it is good that there is such diversity, even today, of various charisms, of various temperaments, but nonetheless, not contradictory and which are united in the common faith.

I wish to say one more thing: St. Peter writes from Rome. It is important, Here we have the Bishop of Rome, we have the start of the succession, we have the start of the primacy concretely situated in Rome, not just sent from the Lord, but also situated here in this city, in what was the capital of the world.

How did Peter come to Rome? This is a serious question. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that after his escape from the prison of Herod, he went to 'another place' (cfr 12,17) - eis eteron topon - and we are not told which place. Some have said Antioch, some say Rome.

In any case, in this chapter, it is also said that before escaping, he entrusted the Judeo-Christian Church, the Church of Jerusalem, to James, but entrusting it to James, he nonetheless remained Primate of the universal Church, of the Church of the pagans, but also of the Judeo-Christian Church.

Thus we see that in Rome, we find both parts of the Church - the Judeo-Christian, and the pagan-Christian, united, an expression of the universal Church. And here in Rome, he found a large Judeo-Christian community.

Liturgists tell us that in the Roman canon, there is a trace of typically Judeo-Christian language. We see that here in Rome, where both parts of the Church were found, united, an expression of the universal Church.

For Peter, certainly, the passage from Jerusalem to Rome was the passage to the universality of the Church, to the Church of the pagans and of all times, and to the Church of the Jews, as well. I think that, going to Rome, St. Peter was not thinking only of this passage - Jerusalem/Rome, Judeo-Christian Church/universal Church.

That of course, he also recalled the last words that Jesus addressed to him, reported by St. John: "When you grow old... you will go where you do not want to go... someone else will dress you... will extend your hands" (cfr Jn 21,18).

It is a prophecy of the crucifixion. Philologists show us that this is a precise expression, a technical term, 'to extend the hands' for the crucifixion.

St. Peter knew that his end would be martyrdom, it would be the Cross. And thus, he would be completely following Christ. So going to Rome certainly meant going to martyrdom - in Babylon, martyrdom awaited him.

Thus, the primacy has this content of universality but also of martyrology. Going to Rome, Peter accepts anew the word of the Lord - go towards the Cross - and invites us, too, to accept the martyrological aspect of Christianity which ca have diverse forms.

The Cross too can have very diverse forms, but no one can be Christian without following the Cross, without accepting that martyrological moment.

After these words about the communicator, some words also about the persons to whom the letter was written. I have already said that Peter defines those whom he is writing to, as 'chosen sojourners of the dispersion' - eklektois parepidemois (cfr 1 Pt 1,1).

Once again we have this paradox of glory and Cross. chosen, but dispersed as strangers. 'Chosen' is Israel's title of glory: we are the chosen ones, God elected this small group of people not because we are great, it says in Deuteronomy, but because he loves us (cfr 7,7-8).

We are chosen: this is what St Peter transmits to all who are baptized, and the contents of the first chapters in his First Letter is that those who are baptized enter into the privileges of Israel - they are the new Israel.

'Chosen' - it is worth reflecting on this word. We are chosen. God has always known us, before we were even born, before we were conceived. God has wanted me to be Christian, to be Catholic, he was wanted me to be a priest.

God thought about me, he sought me out from among millions, from so many - he saw me and he chose me, not for my merits which I do not have, but out of his goodness. He wanted me to be the bearer of his choosing, which is also always mission, above all, mission - and responsibility for others.

'Chosen': We must be grateful and joyful for this fact. God thought of me, he chose me to be Catholic, as a bearer of his Gospel, as priest. I think it is worthwhile reflecting on this several times, and to enter once more into the fact of having been chosen - he chose me, he wanted me, and I am responding.

Perhaps today, we might be tempted to say - we do not want to be joyful for having been chosen, it would be triumphalism. But triumphalism would be thinking that God chose me because I am great - that would be mistaken triumphalism.

To be joyful because God has chosen me is not triumphalism, but gratitude, and I think we should re-learn this joy: God wished that I be born so, in a Catholic family, that has known Jesus from the start.

What a gift it is to be wanted by God, so that I have been able to know his face, I have come to know Jesus Christ, the human face of God, God's human history in the world.

To be joyful because he chose me to be Catholic, to be in his Church, in which subsistit Ecclesia unica, in which the only Church subsists. I must be joyful because God has given me this grace, this beauty of knowing the fullness of the truth of God, the joy of his love.

'Chosen' - a word of privilege and humility at the same time. But 'chosen', as I said, is accompanied by parapidemois - dispersed, strangers. As Christians, we are dispersed and we are strangers. We see that in the world today: Christians are the most persecuted group, because he do not conform, because Christianity is a stimulus, against the tendencies to selfishness, to materialism, all these things.

Of course, Christians are not just strangers. We are also a Christian nation. We are proud to have contributed to the formation of culture. There is a healthy patriotism, a healthy joy in belonging to a nation that has a great history of culture, of faith.

Nonetheless, as Christians, we are also always strangers - which was the destiny of Abraham described in the Letter to the Hebrews. As Christians, today we are always strangers. In the workplace, Christians are a minority - they find themselves in a situation of extraneousness: others wonder that today anyone could still believe and live as Christians do.

This is part of our life. It is a way of being with the crucified Christ. Being a stranger, not living according to how everyone else lives, but living - or at least seeking to live = according to his Word, very much different with respect to what everyone else says.

We may all say, "Everyone does this, why not me?" But no, not I, because I wish to live according to God. St. Augustine once said, "Christians do not have their roots below like trees, but they have their roots above, and they live in this gravitation, not in the natural downward gravitation".

Let us pray to the Lord that he may help us accept this mission of living in dispersion, as a minority, in a certain sense; of living like strangers but nonetheless responsible for others, and thus reinforcing goodness in this world.

So now we come to the three verses for today's reflection. I would like to underscore, and interpret a bit, as far as I can, three words: 'given new birth', 'inheritance', and the phrase 'safeguarded through the faith'.

Given new birth - anaghennesas, in the Greek text - means that to be a Christian is not just a decision of my will, an idea of mine: I see that it is a group that I like, so I make myself a member, because I share their objectives, etc.

No, to be a Christian is not to join a group to do something, it is not an act of my will alone, not primarily of my will, of my reason. It is an act of God. Rebirth does not concern only the sphere of the will, of thought, but the sphere of being.

I am reborn: this means that to become Christian is first of all passive. I cannot say, 'I make myself Christian', but I am caused to be reborn, I am remade by the Lord to the very depth of my being. And I enter into this process of rebirth - I allow myself to be transformed, renewed, regenerated.

I think this is very important. As a Christian, I am not simply carrying out an idea of mine that I share with some others, and when it no longer pleases me, then I can leave. No, it has to do with our deepest being. To be a Christian begins with an act of God, it is above all an act of God, through which I let myself be formed and transformed.

This is a matter for reflection, precisely in a year during which we are reflecting on the sacraments of Christian initiation, to meditate on this passive and active aspects of being regenerated, of living a completely a Christian life, allowing myself to be transformed by his Word, by the communion of the Church, by the life of the Church, through the signs that the Lord works in me, that he works for me and with me.

T be reborn, to be regenerated, also means that I thereby enter into a new family: God my Father, the Church my Mother, other Christians my brothers and sisters.

To be regenerated, to allow oneself to be regenerated,thus implies that we allow ourselves to be willingly inserted into this family, to live for God the Father and from God the Father, to live from communion with Christ his Son who regenerates me through his Resurrection, as the Letter says (cfr 1Pt 1,3).

To live in the Church, allowing myself to be formed by the Church in many senses, in many ways, and to be open to my brothers, recognizing others as truly my brothers who, like me, are generated, transformed, renewed, in which one bears responsibility for the other. In short, a responsibility of Baptism which is a lifelong process.

The second word: inheritance. It is a very important word in the Old Testament, which says that Abraham and his seed would inherit the earth. This has always been God's promise to his people: You will possess the earth, you will inherit the earth.

In the New Testament, this word becomes a word for us: we are the heirs, not of a specific nation, but of God's land, the future of God. Inheritance is a thing of the future, and so this word says above all that as Christians, we have a future: the future is ours, the future is God's.

And so, being Christians, we know that the future is ours, that the tree of the Church is not a dying tree but the tree that always grows anew.

We thus have a reason not to let ourselves be moved, as Pope John said, by the prophets of doom who say, "The Church may well be a tree that came from a mustard seed, that has grown in two millennia, but now, its time is past, now it is time for it to die". No, the Church always renews herself, she is always reborn. The future is ours.

Of course, there is false optimism and false pessimism. A false pessimism that says the time of Christianity is over. No! It starts anew. And false optimism is that which, after the Council, when convents closed, seminaries closed, said, "That's nothing, everything will be well". No! Not everything is going well.

There have been serious and dangerous stumbles, and we should acknowledge with a healthy realism that these things cannot be, that we must not be doing the wrong things. But also being sure at the same time, that if here and there, the Church dies somewhat because of the sins of men, because of their lack of faith, at the same time, she is reborn.

The future is truly God's - this is the great certainty of our life, the great and true optimism that we know. The Church is the tree of God which lives eternally and carrieseternity in her, and the true inheritance - eternal life.

Finally, 'safeguarded through the faith'. The text of the New Testament, of the Letter of St. Peter, uses a rare word, phrouroumenoi, which means 'watchmen', and the faith is like the 'watchman' who safeguards the integrity of my being, of my faith.

This word connotes above all the watchmen at the gates of a city, where they are stationed to safeguard the city so that it may not be invaded by the forces of destruction. In this way, the faith is the watchman of my being, of my life, of my inheritance.

We must be grateful for this vigilance of the faith that protects us, helps us, guides us, gives us security: God will not let me fall from his hands.

"Safeguarded by the faith" - that is how I will conclude. Speaking of the faith, I must always think of that sick Syro-Phoenician woman who, in the midst of a crowd, found her way to Jesus, touched him to be healed, and was healed.

The Lord asked, "Who touched me?" And they tell him: "But, Lord, everyone touches you, how can you ask, who touched me?" (cfr Mk 7,24-30). But the Lord knows.

There is a way of touching him that is superficial and external, which has really nothing to do with a true encounter with him. And there is a way of touching him profoundly. This woman touched him truly - not only with the hand but with her heart, and thus she received the healing power of Christ, by touching him truly from within, in faith.

And this is faith: to touch Christ with the hand of faith, with our heart, and thus enter into the power of his life, into the healing power of the Lord.

Let us pray to the Lord that we can always touch him in this way in order to be healed, made whole again. Let us pray that he will not allow us to fall down, that he holds us by the hand and thus safeguards us for true life. Thank you.

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WOW! Words are inadequate to react to Benedict XVI's extraordinary catecheses 'off the cuff' - perhaps the most direct way one can get to know him, when he comes through spontaneously, not pre-scripted, but as Joseph Ratzinger talking to his students. Even though, as he says of Peter above, it is not his word alone, but that of the Vicar of Christ, expressing the faith of his Church, and therefore, the voice of the Church herself. How fortunate we are to have that voice in our day... And thanks to the Vatican Press office for coming through with the transcript in record time.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/02/2013 14:29]