BXVI: September 11th appeal to world’s leaders to reject violence
From the Adriatic port city of Ancona this Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI raised an appeal
to world leaders to always reject violence as a solution to problems. The Pope had
flown into the eastern Italian city to preside at the conclusion of the 25th
Italian National Eucharistic Congress, but during the midday Angelus – for a second
straight day – his thoughts went to September 11th of ten years ago and
to the victims of the terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers, on Washington and
on Pennsylvania:
“Today, our thoughts also go to September 11 ten years ago.
In entrusting the victims of the terrorist attacks on that day and their families
to the Lord of Life, I invite the leaders of nations and men of good will to always
refuse violence as the solution to problems, to resist the temptation toward hatred
and to work in society, inspired by the principles of solidarity, justice and peace”.
On Saturday in a letter to the President of the US bishops’ conference, Archbishop
Timothy Dolan of New York, the Holy Father had written about the brutality of the
9/11 attacks that killed almost 3, 000 people. He wrote that nothing can justify
terrorism and that what happened is further compounded by the perpetrators’ claim
to be acting in the name of God.
His latest appeal resounded across the deep
blue of the Adriatic sea, a perfect backdrop to the Sunday liturgy which saw Italy’s
biggest shipyard transformed into an open air cathedral. An estimated 100 thousand
people drawn from the nations 42 Metropolitan Archdiocese had gathered for the week
long congress in Ancona on the theme “The Eucharist for every day life” inspired by
the passage from the Gospel of John on Christ’s sermon on the Bread of Life.
In
gifting Himself daily in the Eucharist – Pope Benedict said in his homily – God offers
us " the path to avoid indifference to the fate of our brothers and sisters, to enter
the same logic of love and gift of sacrifice of the Cross". He said : "Those who know
how to kneel before the Eucharist, those who receive the body of Christ can not fail
to be attentive, in the unfolding of the day, to situations unworthy of man and know
firsthand how to bend over the needy, how to break bread with the hungry, how to share
water with the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned".
Commenting
on the phrase that begins today's Gospel "This is a hard saying," Pope Benedict said
that "it is hard because often we confuse freedom with the absence of constraints,
in the belief that we can make it alone, without God, seen as a limit to freedom.
This is an illusion which soon turns into disappointment, generating fear and anxiety
and leading us, paradoxically, to regret the chains of the past: "If only we had died
at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt ..." - said the Jews in the desert (Ex 16.3),
as we heard. In fact, only in openness to God, in welcoming His gift, do we become
truly free, free from the bondage of sin which disfigures the face of man and able
to serve the true good of our brothers".
The Pope continued : "It is hard
because man often falls into the illusion of being able to "turn stones into bread."
After having put God aside, or having tolerated Him as a private choice that should
not interfere with public life, certain ideologies have tried to organize society
by the force of power and the economy. History dramatically shows us how the goal
of ensuring development, material well-being and peace to all, excluding God and his
revelation, resulted in people being given stone instead of bread. Bread, dear brothers
and sisters, is the "fruit of human hands", and in this truth lies all the responsibilities
entrusted to our hands and our ingenuity; but bread is also, and before that, "fruit
of the earth ", which receives the sun and rain from above: it is a gift to be asked
for, that takes away all of our pride and makes us cry out with the confidence of
the humble:" Father (...), give us this day our daily bread "(Matt. 6:11)".
"Man
is incapable of giving life by himself, he can only be understood starting from God:
it is our relationship with Him, that gives consistency to our humanity and makes
our lives good and right. In the Our Father we ask that His name be hallowed, that
His kingdom come, that His will is done. Above all else, we must recover the primacy
of God in our world and our lives, because it is this very primacy that allows us
to recover the truth of who we are, and it is in knowing and following the will of
God that we find our true good. Give time and space to God, so that he is the vital
centre of our existence. Where to start, as if from the source, to recover and reassert
the primacy of God? From the Eucharist: there God draws so close that He becomes food
for us, here He becomes strength in the often difficult journey, here He becomes a
friendly presence that transforms".
Pope Benedict concluded : "A Eucharistic
spirituality, then, is the real antidote to the individualism and selfishness that
often characterize daily life, it leads to the rediscovery of gratuity, of the centrality
of relationships, starting from the family, with particular attention to healing the
wounds of those that are broken. A Eucharistic spirituality is the soul of a church
community that goes beyond divisions and conflicts and promotes the diversity of charisms
and ministries by placing them in the service of the unity of the Church, its vitality
and its mission. Eucharistic spirituality is a way to restore dignity to man’s everyday
life and therefore to his work, in the search to reconcile it with times of celebration
and family life and with a commitment to overcome the insecurity and uncertainty of
the unemployment problem. A Eucharistic spirituality will also help us to draw close
to the different forms of human frailty aware that they do not overshadow the value
of the person, but require closeness, welcome and help. A renewed educational vitality
can draw force from the Bread of life, attentive to witness the fundamental values
of existence, of knowledge, of our spiritual and cultural heritage, its vitality
will help us live in the city of mankind with the willingness to spend ourselves for
the horizon of the common good to build a more just and fraternal world".