Homily of Pope Benedict XVI Mass in Yaoundé Stadium
(19 Mar 09 - RV) Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Mass
on the occasion of the Publication of the Instrumentum Laboris
Dear
Brother Bishops, Dear Brothers and Sisters, Praised be Jesus Christ who has
gathered us in this stadium today that we may enter more deeply into his life! Jesus
Christ brings us together on this day when the Church, here in Cameroon and throughout
the world, celebrates the Feast of Saint Joseph, Husband of the Virgin Mary. I begin
by wishing a very happy feast day to all those who, like myself, have received the
grace of bearing this beautiful name, and I ask Saint Joseph to grant them his special
protection in guiding them towards the Lord Jesus Christ all the days of their life.
I also extend cordial best wishes to all the parishes, schools, colleges, and institutions
named after Saint Joseph. I thank Archbishop Tonyé-Bakot of Yaoundé for his kind
words, and I warmly greet the representatives of the African Episcopal Conferences
who have come to Yaoundé for the promulgation of the Instrumentum Laboris of
the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. How can we enter
into the specific grace of this day? In a little while, at the end of Mass, the liturgy
will remind us of the focal point of our meditation when it has us pray: “Lord, today
you nourish us at this altar as we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph. Protect your
Church always, and in your love watch over the gifts you have given us.” We are asking
the Lord to protect the Church always – and he does! – just as Joseph protected his
family and kept watch over the child Jesus during his early years. Our Gospel
reading recalls this for us. The angel said to Joseph: “Do not be afraid to take
Mary your wife into your home,” (Mt 1:20) and that is precisely what he did:
“he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him” (Mt 1:24). Why was Saint
Matthew so keen to note Joseph’s trust in the words received from the messenger of
God, if not to invite us to imitate this same loving trust? Although the first
reading which we have just heard does not speak explicitly of Saint Joseph, it does
teach us a good deal about him. The prophet Nathan, in obedience to God’s command,
tells David: “I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins” (2 Sam
7:12). David must accept that he will die before seeing the fulfilment of this
promise, which will come to pass “when (his) time comes” and he will rest “with (his)
ancestors”. We thus come to realize that one of mankind’s most cherished desires
– seeing the fruits of one’s labours – is not always granted by God. I think of those
among you who are mothers and fathers of families. Parents quite rightly desire to
give the best of themselves to their children, and they want to see them achieve success.
Yet make no mistake about what this “success” entails: what God asks David to do is
to place his trust in him. David himself will not see his heir who will have a throne
“firm for ever” (2 Sam 7:16), for this heir, announced under the veil of prophecy,
is Jesus. David puts his trust in God. In the same way, Joseph trusts God when he
hears his messenger, the Angel, say to him: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this
child has been conceived in her” (Mt 1:20). Throughout all of history, Joseph
is the man who gives God the greatest display of trust, even in the face of such astonishing
news. Dear fathers and mothers here today, do you have trust in God who has
called you to be the fathers and mothers of his adopted children? Do you accept that
he is counting on you to pass on to your children the human and spiritual values that
you yourselves have received and which will prepare them to live with love and respect
for his holy name? At a time when so many people have no qualms about trying to impose
the tyranny of materialism, with scant concern for the most deprived, you must be
very careful. Africa in general, and Cameroon in particular, place themselves at
risk if they do not recognize the True Author of Life! Brothers and sisters in Cameroon
and throughout Africa, you who have received from God so many human virtues, take
care of your souls! Do not let yourselves be captivated by selfish illusions and
false ideals! Believe – yes! – continue to believe in God – Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit – he alone truly loves you in the way you yearn to be loved, he alone can satisfy
you, can bring stability to your lives. Only Christ is the way of Life. God alone
could grant Joseph the strength to trust the Angel. God alone will give you, dear
married couples, the strength to raise your family as he wants. Ask it of him! God
loves to be asked for what he wishes to give. Ask him for the grace of a true and
ever more faithful love patterned after his own. As the Psalm magnificently puts
it: his “love is established for ever, his loyalty will stand as long as the heavens”
(Ps 88:3). Just as on other continents, the family today – in your country
and across Africa – is experiencing a difficult time; but fidelity to God will help
see it through. Certain values of the traditional life have been overturned. Relationships
between different generations have evolved in a way that no longer favours the transmission
of accumulated knowledge and inherited wisdom. Too often we witness a rural exodus
not unlike that known in many other periods of human history. The quality of family
ties is deeply affected by this. Uprooted and fragile members of the younger generation
who often – sadly – are without gainful employment, seek to cure their pain by living
in ephemeral and man-made paradises which we know will never guarantee the human being
a deep, abiding happiness. Sometimes the African people too are constrained to flee
from themselves and abandon everything that once made up their interior richness.
Confronted with the phenomenon of rapid urbanization, they leave the land, physically
and morally: not as Abraham had done in response to the Lord’s call, but as a kind
of interior exile which alienates them from their very being, from their brothers
and sisters, and from God himself. Is this an irreversible, inevitable development?
By no means! More than ever, we must “hope against all hope” (Rom 4:18).
Here I wish to acknowledge with appreciation and gratitude the remarkable work done
by countless associations that promote the life of faith and the practice of charity.
May they be warmly thanked! May they find in the word of God renewed strength to
carry out their projects for the integral development of the human person in Africa,
especially in Cameroon! The first priority will consist in restoring a sense of
the acceptance of life as a gift from God. According to both Sacred Scripture and
the wisest traditions of your continent, the arrival of a child is always a gift,
a blessing from God. Today it is high time to place greater emphasis on this: every
human being, every tiny human person, however weak, is created “in the image and likeness
of God” (Gen 1:27). Every person must live! Death must not prevail over life!
Death will never have the last word! Sons and daughters of Africa, do not be
afraid to believe, to hope, and to love; do not be afraid to say that Jesus is the
Way, the Truth and the Life, and that we can be saved by him alone. Saint Paul is
indeed an inspired author given to the Church by the Holy Spirit as a “teacher of
nations” (1 Tim 2:7) when he tells us that Abraham, “hoping against hope, believed
that he should become the father of many nations; as he had been told, ‘So shall your
descendants be’” (Rom 4:18). “Hoping against hope”: is this not a magnificent
description of a Christian? Africa is called to hope through you and in you! With
Jesus Christ, who trod the African soil, Africa can become the continent of hope!
We are all members of the peoples that God gave to Abraham as his descendants. Each
and every one of us was thought, willed and loved by God. Each and every one of us
has a role to play in the plan of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If discouragement
overwhelms you, think of the faith of Joseph; if anxiety has its grip on you, think
of the hope of Joseph, that descendant of Abraham who hoped against hope; if exasperation
or hatred seizes you, think of the love of Joseph, who was the first man to set eyes
on the human face of God in the person of the Infant conceived by the Holy Spirit
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Let us praise and thank Christ for having drawn so
close to us, and for giving us Joseph as an example and model of love for him. Dear
brothers and sisters, I want to say to you once more from the bottom of my heart:
like Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary into your home, that is to say do not be
afraid to love the Church. Mary, Mother of the Church, will teach you to follow your
pastors, to love your bishops, your priests, your deacons and your catechists; to
heed what they teach you and to pray for their intentions. Husbands, look upon the
love of Joseph for Mary and Jesus; those preparing for marriage, treat your future
spouse as Joseph did; those of you who have given yourselves to God in celibacy, reflect
upon the teaching of the Church, our Mother: “Virginity or celibacy for the sake of
the Kingdom of God not only does not contradict the dignity of marriage but presupposes
and confirms it. Marriage and virginity are two ways of expressing and living the
one mystery of the Covenant of God with his people” (Redemptoris Custos, 20). Once
more, I wish to extend a particular word of encouragement to fathers so that they
may take Saint Joseph as their model. He who kept watch over the Son of Man is able
to teach them the deepest meaning of their own fatherhood. In the same way, each
father receives his children from God, and they are created in God’s own image and
likeness. Saint Joseph was the spouse of Mary. In the same way, each father sees
himself entrusted with the mystery of womanhood through his own wife. Dear fathers,
like Saint Joseph, respect and love your spouse; and by your love and your wise presence,
lead your children to God where they must be (cf. Lk 2:49). Finally, to
all the young people present, I offer words of friendship and encouragement: as you
face the challenges of life, take courage! Your life is priceless in the eyes of
God! Let Christ take hold of you, agree to pledge your love to him, and – why not?
– maybe even do so in the priesthood or in the consecrated life! This is the supreme
service. To the children who no longer have a father, or who live abandoned in the
poverty of the streets, to those forcibly separated from their parents, to the maltreated
and abused, to those constrained to join paramilitary forces that are terrorizing
some countries, I would like to say: God loves you, he has not forgotten you, and
Saint Joseph protects you! Invoke him with confidence. May God bless you and watch
over you! May he give you the grace to keep advancing towards him with fidelity!
May he give stability to your lives so that you may reap the fruits he awaits from
you! May he make you witnesses of his love here in Cameroon and to the ends of the
earth! I fervently beg him to give you a taste of the joy of belonging to him, now
and for ever. Amen.