Pope points to predecessor’s faith at Holy Thursday Chrism Mass

(April 23, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI warmly praised his predecessor Pope John Paul II during his Holy Thursday Chrism Mass, days before Pope’s John Paul's May 1 beatification, holding him up as an example of faith amid Western indifference to Christianity and God. “For all the shame we feel over our failings” the world must not forget what he called radiant examples of faith such as John Paul, Pope Benedict said during the morning Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday in St. Peter's Basilica.
The Chrism Mass takes its name from the oils that are blessed for use at Catholic rites and sacraments over the coming year. The Chrism Mass is usually the largest annual gathering of clergy and faithful of a diocese when priests renew the commitments they made at their ordination. In St. Peter’s Basilica, deacons carried the oils in large silver urns to Pope Benedict at the main altar while catechumens, youths preparing for confirmation, the sick and deacons about to be ordained in the Diocese of Rome wheeled small tables carrying large, artistic urns containing sacramental oils.
In his homily, Pope Benedict remarked that people in the West seemed tired of their faith, bored with their Christian traditions “and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ.” He said that the human heart is always restless “because whatever is finite is too little.” However, people must be careful that desire for more is channelled toward God, not earthly things and the quest for self-sufficiency, he said. He asked that Christians understand that loving and knowing God is never over. “Let us remain constantly on a journey toward him, longing for him, always open to receive new knowledge and love,” he said. Pope Benedict underlined the importance of the church's ministry of healing, not just for those afflicted by hunger, thirst, violence and illness, but also for the lonely, the persecuted and the broken-hearted. The task of evangelization and proclaiming God's kingdom is, in fact, “a process of healing,” he said. By proclaiming God's kingdom and God's infinite goodness, hearts will be healed. If a person's “relationship with God is disturbed, then all the rest is disturbed as well” and “we cannot truly be healed in body and soul,” he said.
While the church's most fundamental form of healing is healing people's hearts and souls by reconciling people with God, there is also the important vocation of being present with and caring for the ill and infirm, the Pope said. The Pope thanked all those who care for the sick and recalled the legacies of St. Vincent de Paul and Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, saying Christian men and women who dedicate their lives and time to the suffering bear “definitive witness to the goodness of God himself” and make Christ manifest even without speaking of him. He asked that all Christians make the living God present in today's world by bearing witness to Christ and leading people toward him.
Being baptized is not something to boast about, he said, rather it should trigger the questions: “Are we truly God's shrine in and for the world? Do we open up the pathway to God for others or do we rather conceal it? Have not we -- the people of God -- become to a large extent a people of unbelief and distance from God? Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ?” Pope Benedict said that despite “the shame we feel over our failings, we must not forget that today, too, there are radiant examples of faith, people who give hope to the world through their faith and love,” particularly Pope John Paul II. He said the late Pope was “a great witness to God and to Jesus Christ in our day,” as well as a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. When Pope John Paul II is beatified on May 1, we shall think of him with hearts full of thankfulness as a great witness to God and Jesus Christ in our day,” Pope Benedict said.