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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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Two things that neither OR nor Vatican Radio mention about the Mass is that it is the first Mass celebrated by the Pope in the renovated Pauline Chapel since it was inaugurated with Vespers on July 4, and that the Holy Father celebrated the Mass 'ad orientem', although the altar of the chapel was specially moved forward to allow for celebrating the Mass 'ad orientem' or 'ad popolo'.


Pope concelebrates Mass
with theologians
in the Pauline Chapel

Translated from
the 12/2/09 issue of





Left photo is the picture appearing in tomorrow's OR; all the rest of the photos were taken by NLM from the OR photo files, hence the watermarks.


On Tuesday morning, the Pope presided at a Mass in the Pauline Chapel concelebrated with the members of the International Theological Commission who are holding their annual plenary assembly Nov. 30-Dec. 4 at the Domus Sanctae Marthae in the Vatican.

During this session, which marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Commission by Pope Paul VI, the theologians will choose the issues that they propose to take up in the next five years.

Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and ex officio President of the Commission, has asked them to continue deliberating on theological methodology, which was a subject they started to consider in the five-year period that just ended.



Disappointingly, the OR does not carry the text of the Pope's homily, nor has the Press Office posted it online yet. For now, here's the Vatican Radio report on it:




The Pope to theologians:
Without the humility to feel small,
it is not possible to understand God

Translated from
the Italian service of


Dec. 1, 2009


The true theologian is he who does not yield to the temptation to measure the mystery of God with his own intelligence, in the process, often emptying all sense from the figure of Christ.

The true theologian is conscious of his limitations, like so many saints who are also recognized as great teachers and thinkers.

These statements synthesize the homily that Benedict XVI addressed this morning to the members of the International Theological Commssion at a Mass in the Pauline Chapel. Alessandro De Carolis reports:

Benedict XVI sees the prototype of the all-knowing theologian who studies Sacred Scripture as some scientists study nature - namely, with academic coldness which would vivisect the mystery of God and ignore the spark of the transcendent - in the ancient scribes who told the Magi to follow the road to a newborn King in Bethlehem.

He said they were "great specialists: they could say where the Messiah would be born" but "did not feel called on to go see him themselves".

The news "did not tocuh their life - they remained out of it. They could give information, but such information did not become formation for their own lives".

"Thus, even in our time, in the last 200 years, we have observed the same thing. There are great thinkers, great specialists, great theologians, masters of the faith who have taught so many things. Thye have penetrated into the details of Sacred Scripture, into the history of salvation. But they have been unable to see the mystery itself, the real nucleus: that Jesus is really the Son of God...

"It is very easy to name great personalities in the history of theology in the past 200 years from whom we have learned a lot, but who failed to uncover mystery with the eyes of the heart".

The Pope was severe about this method of theology by which, he said, "the theologian places himself above God". He is equally severe with scientists whose attitude is that "God has nothing to do with this (science)" and therefore, "there is no God".

But he is most severe with a theology that minimizes the divine, describing their deficiency with an effective image:

Such theologians "fish in the waters of Sacred Scripture with a net whose mesh only allows certain fish to be caught, and any fish that do not fit the mesh are left out, and therefore do not exist. Thus, the great mystery of Jesus, the Son of God who made himself a man, is reduced to a historical Jesus, who is really a tragic figure, but a phantasm without flesh and bone, or one who has remained in the sepulcher, corrupted, truly dead."

But, the Pope pointed out, the history of the Church is rich with men and women who could acknowledge their own smallness in the face of the grandeur of God, persons capable of humility, and therefore, of reaching the truth.

The Pope cites some names: "From Bernadette Soubirous to Therese of Lisieux, with a new reading of Sacred Scripture that was not scientific but went to the heart of Scripture, up to the saints and blesseds of our time: Sister Bakhita, Mother Teresa, Damian de Veuster. The list is long."

He called them a category of "little people who are also wise", models that inspire. He expressed the hope that "they may help us to be true theologians who can announce the mystery of Christ because it has touched us in the depths of our heart". Like Our Lady, or St. John, or the centurion at the Cross. Or St. Paul whose experience epitomizes in an emblematic way the trajectory of passage from false wisdom to true wisdom:

"And thus, after his resurrection, the Lord, along the road to Damascus, touched the heart of Paul, who had been one of those educated men who did not see. He himself, in his first letter to Timothy, says he was ignorant then, notwithstanding his great knowledge.

"But the Risen Lord touched him. He becomes blind and thus becomes truly a sser. He starts to see. The great rabbi becomes someone small, and it is as such that he sees the foolishness of God which is wisdom greater than all of human wisdom".




12/2/09
The Vatican Press Office released the the text of the homily this morning. Here is a translation:



Dear brothers and sisters,

The words of the Lord, which we heard just now in the Gospel passage, are a challenge to us theologians, or perhaps, better said, an invitation to an examination of conscience: What is theology? What are we as theologians? How does one do theology well?

We heard how the Lord praises the Father because he has hidden the great mystery of the Son, the Trinitarian mystery, the Christologic mystery, from the wise men and the learned - they have not known these mysteries - but has revealed it to the little people, to those who are not learned, who have no great culture. To them he revealed this great mystery.

With these words, teh Lord describes simply a fact of his life: a fact which begins at the time of his birth, when the Magi from the East asked the experts, the scribes, the exegetes, for the place of birth of the Savior, the King of Israel.

The scribes knew it because they were great specialists. They could say right away where the Messiah would be born - in Bethlehem. But they did not feel called on to go there themselves: for them, it was just academic knowledge which did not touch their lives; they remained out of it. They could give information, but such information did not become formation for their own lives.

Then, during the public life of the Lord, we find the same thing. It was inaccessible for the learned ones to understand that this unschooled man, this Galilean, could really be the Son of God. It was unacceptable to them that God, the great, the one and only, God of heaven and earth, could be present in this man.

They knew everything, even Isaiah 53, and all the great prophecies, but the mystery remained hidden to them.

Instead, it was revealed to the little people, from Our Lady to the fishermen on the Lake of Galilee. They knew, as did the Roman centurion at the foot of the Cross knew: this is the Son of God.

The essential facts of the life of Jesus do not belong only to the past, but they are present, in different ways, in all generations. So, even in our time, in the last 200 years, we have observed the same thing.

There are great scholars, great specialists, great theologians, teachers of the faith who have taught us many things. They have penetrated into the details of Sacred Scripture, into the history of salvation, but they have not been able to see the mystery itself, the true nucleus: that Jesus is truly the Son of God, that the trintiarian God had entered our history, at a certain historical moment, in a man like us.

The essential has remained hidden (to them). One can easily cite great names in the history of theology of the past 200 years, from whom we learned much, but the mystery remained closed to the eyes of their heart.

On the other hand, even in our time, there are the little ones who knew this mystery. We can think of St. Bernadette Soubirous, of St. Therese of Lisieux, with her new 'non-scientific' reading of the Bible which enters into the heart of Sacred Scripture; up to the saints and blesseds of our day: St. Giuseppina Bakhita, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Damian de Veuster. We can name so many!

But from all this, the question arises: Why is it so? Is Christianity the religion of simple people, of those without culture, of the uneducated? Is faith extinguished when reason comes awake? How do we explain this?

Perhaps we must look at history again. What Jesus said remains true - all that could be observed through the centuries. Nonetheless there is a 'species' of little people who are also learned. At the foot of teh Cross, there was Our Lady, the humble handmaid of the Lord and the great woman enlightened by God. There was John, fisherman of Galilee, who would rightly be called 'the theologian' by the Church, because he truly saw the mystery of God and announced it - with the eyes of an eagle, he penetrated into the inaccessible light of divine mystery.

And thus, after his recurrection, the Lord, along the road to Damascus, touched the heart of Saul, who had been one of those learned men who could not see. He himself in the first letter to Timothy, says he was 'igornant' at the time, notwithstanding all his knowledge.

But the Risen Lord touched him: he becomes blind, but at the same time, becomes truly a seer. He begins to see. The great rabbi becomes a small person, and because of this, he sees that the 'pointlessness' of God is wisdom, a knowledge greater than all of human knowledge.

We can continue to read all history in this way. Just one more observation. These learned sages, sofoi e sinetoi, in the First Reading today, appear in another way. Here, sofia and sinesis are gifts of the Holy Spirit that dwell in the Messiah, on Christ.

What does it mean? What emerges is that theire is a dual use for reason and a dual way of being wise or small.

There is a way of using reason that is autonomous, that places itself above God, in the whole range of the sciences, starting with the natural sciences, in which a method adapted for research into matter becomes universalized. In this method, God has no part, therefore, God does not exist.

And that has happened too in theology. There are those who fish in the waters of Sacred Scripture with a net whose mesh only allows certain fish to be caught, and any fish that do not fit the mesh are left out, and therefore do not exist. Thus, the great mystery of Jesus, the Son of God who made himself man, is reduced to a historical Jesus, who is really a tragic figure, a phantasm without flesh and bone, or one who has remained in the sepulcher, corrupted, truly dead.

This method can 'capture' certain fish, but excludes the great mystery, because man has made himself the measure: he has this arrogance, but at the same time, great stupidity, because he absolutizes certain methods that are not appropriate for the great realities. He enters into this academic spirit that we saw in the ancient scribes who answered the questions of the Magi: "It has nothing to do with me. I remain enclosed in my existence which is not touched at all."

This is specialization that sees all the details but can no longer see the totality.

There is another way of using reason, of being wise - that of the man who knows who he is: he knows his own measure and the greatness of God. He opens himself humbly to the novelty of God's action.

Thus, while accepting his own smallness, making himself small as he really is, he arrives at the truth. In this way, reason can express all its possibilities, it does not exhaust itself but broadens itself - it becomes larger.

This is another kind of sofia and sinesis, which does not exclude man from mystery, but is truly communion with the Lord in whom wisdom and knowledge dwell, along with their truth.

At this time, let us pray so that the Lord may give us true humility. May he give us the grace to be small so that we may be truly wise. May he enlighten us and make us see his mystery in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

May he help us to be true theologians who can announce his mystery because we have been touched by it in the depths of our own heart, in our own existence. Amen!





[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/12/2009 17:16]
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