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GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY
The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis today to the significance of the Year for Priests, to which he has dedicated some of his most impassioned teachings in the past several days.
Here is how he synthesized it in English:
Last Friday, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – a day traditionally devoted to prayer for the sanctification of priests – marked the beginning of the Year for Priests commemorating the sesquicentennial of the death of the Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary Vianney, patron of parish priests.
The Pauline Year now ending and the current Year for Priests invite us to consider how the Apostle Paul and the humble Curé of Ars both identified themselves completely with their ministry, striving to live in constant communion with Christ.
May this Year for Priests help all priests to grow towards the spiritual perfection essential to the effectiveness of their ministry, and enable the faithful to appreciate more fully the great gift of grace which the priesthood is: for priests themselves, for the Church and for our world.
Configured to Christ in the sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest is called to become an alter Christus, "another Christ". His personal union with the Lord must thus unify every aspect of his life and activity.
During this Year for Priests, let us entrust all priests to Mary, Mother of the Church, and pray that they will grow in fidelity to their mission to be living signs of Christ’s presence and infinite mercy.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's catechesis:
THE HOLY FATHER'S CATECHESIS
Dear brothers and sisters,
Last Sunday, June 19, Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the day traditionally dedicated to prayer for priestly sanctification, I had the joy of inaugurating the Year for Priests, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the 'birth of heaven' of the Curé of Ars, St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney.
Entering the Vatican Basilica for the celebration of Vespers, almost as a first symbolic gesture, I stopped at the Choir Chapel to venerate a relic of this holy Pastor of souls: his heart.
Why a Year for Priests? And why in commemoration of the holy Curé of Ars who apparently accomplished nothing 'extraordinary'?
Divine Providence willed that his figure be associated with that of St. Paul. Indeed, while we are about to conclude the Pauline Year dedicated to the Apostle of the Gentiles, model of the extraordinary evangelizer who made several missionary journeys to spread the Gospel, this new jubilee year invites us to look at a poor peasant who became a humble parish priest carrying out his pastoral service in a tiny village.
While the two saints differed a lot for the course of their lives - one travelled from region to region to announce the Gospel, the other welcomed thousands of faithful just staying in his tiny parish - there is, however, something fundamental which they had in common: their total identification with their own ministry, their communion with Christ which made St. Paul say, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2,20).
And St. Jean Marie Vianney loved to say, "If we have faith, we will see God hidden in the priest like a light behind glass, like wine mixed with water".
The purpose of this Year for Priests, as I wrote in the letter sent to all priests on the occasion, is therefore to promote the impulse of every priest "towards spiritual perfection on which the effectiveness of his ministry depends" and to help priests above all -and with them the people of God - to rediscover and reinvigorate consciousness of the extraordinary and indispensable gift of Grace that the priestly ministry represents for him who receives it, for the entire Church and for the world, which would be lost with without the real presence of Christ.
Undoubtedly, historical and social conditions have changed from when the Curé of Ars lived, and it is right to ask how priests can imitate hum in identifying with their ministry in the globalized societies today.
In a world where the common vision of life less and less includes the sacred - in place of which 'functionality' becomes the only decisive category - the Catholic concept of priesthood can risk losing its natural consideration, sometimes even in the ecclesial consciousness itself.
Not infrequently, both in theological circles as in concrete pastoral practice and formation of the clergy, two different concepts of the priesthood are in confrontation, even in opposition.
What has emerged in recent years is "on the one hand, the social-functional concept which defines the essence of priesthood with the concept of 'service' to the community, in fulfillment of a function. On the other hand, there is the sacramental-ontological concept, which naturally does not deny the service character of the priesthood, but sees it anchored to the essence of the ministry and maintains that thus essence is determined by a gift given by the Lord through the mediation of the Church" ((J. Ratzinger, 'ministry and life of the priest' in Elements of Fundamental Theology; Essay on the faith and ministry, Brescia 2005, p.165).
Even the terminological slide from the word 'priesthood' to 'service, ministry, job' is a sign of such a differing conception.
The first concept, the ontologic-sacramental, is tied to the primacy of the Eucharist, in the binomial 'priesthood-sacrifice', while the second corresponds to the primacy of the word and service to the Gospel.
Looking closer, this is not about opposing concepts, and the tension that exists between the two must be resolved internally. Thus, the Decreto Presbyterorum ordinis of the Second Vatican Council affirms: "It is properly through the ministry of priests that the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful are made perfect in union with the sacrifice of Christ, the only mediator. Indeed, this sacrifice, in the hands of priests and in the name of the Church, must be offered in the Eucharist in a bloodless and sacramental way until the day of the coming of the Lord" (No.2 ).
We ask ourselves then: "What exactly does it mean for priests to evangelize? What does the so-called 'primacy of the announcement' mean? Jesus speaks of the announcement of the Kingdom of God as the true purpose for his coming to the world, and his announcement was not mere 'discourse'.
It included at the same time his very actions: the signs and the miracles he performed indicate that the Kingdom comes to the world as a present reality, which ultimately coincides with his own person. In this sense, it must be remembered that even in the primacy of the announcement, words and gestures are indivisible.
Christian preaching does not proclaim 'words', but the Word, and the announcement coincides with the person of Christ himself, ontologically open to relationship with the Father and obedience to his will.
Thus, authentic service to the Word requires that the priest, on his part, must incline to a profound abnegation of himself to the point of saying with the Apostle, "It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me."
The priest cannot consider himself 'master' of the word, but its servant. He is not the word, as proclaimed by John the Baptist, whose birth we celebrate today, is the 'voice' of the Word: "A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths'" (Mk 1,3).
Now to be the 'voice' of the Word does not constitute for the priest merely a functional aspect. On the contrary, it presupposes a substantial 'losing oneself' in Christ, participating in his mystery of death and resurrection with all of his own self: intelligence, freedom, and will are offered from his very being, as a living sacrifice" (cfr Rm 12,1-2).
Only participation in the sacrifice of Christ in his kenosis [self-emptying] makes the announcement authentic! This is the path that must be followed with Christ in order to arrive at saying to the Father along with him: "Not what I will but what you will" (Mk 14,36).
The announcement then always comes with the sacrifice of self, a condition in order that the announcement may be authentic and effective.
Alter Christus [Another Christ], the priest is profoundly united to the Word of the Father, who incarnating himself as a servant, became a servant (cfr Phil 2,5-21). The priest is the servant of Christ, in the sense that his existence, ontologically configured to Christ, assumes an essentially relational character: he is in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ in the service of men.
Precisely because he belongs to Christ, the priest is radically in the service of men: he is the minister of their salvation, their happiness, their authentic liberation, maturing in a progressive assumption of the will of Christ, in prayer in 'being heart to heart' with him.
This then is the inseparable condition of every announcement, which involves participation in the sacramental offering of the Eucharist and in docile obedience to the Church.
The Holy Curé of Ars often repeated with tears in his eyes: "How frightening it is to be a priest!", adding "How sorry we must be for a priest when he celebrates the Mass like an ordinary fact! How unfortunate is a priest without an interior life!"
May the Year for Priests lead all priests to identify totally with the crucified and risen Christ so that, in imitation of St. John the Baptist, they may be ready to 'become less' that Jesus may 'grow'; so that, following the example of the Curé of Ars, they may be aware constantly and profoundly of the responsibility of their mission which is a sign and a presence of the infinite mercy of God.
Let us entrust Our Lady, Mother of the Church, the Year for Priests that has just begun and all the priests of the world.
 [Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2009 14:47] |