Full text: Pope's homily at Mass with new Cardinals
Below is the full text of Pope Benedict XVI's homily at Mass in St. Peter's Basilica,
with the newly-created Cardinals.
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Dear
Cardinals, Brother Bishops and Priests, Dear Brothers and Sisters, On this
solemnity of the Chair of Saint Peter, we have the joy of gathering around the altar
of the Lord together with the new Cardinals whom yesterday I incorporated into the
College of Cardinals. It is to them, first of all, that I offer my cordial greetings
and I thank Cardinal Fernando Filoni for the gracious words he has addressed to me
in the name of all. I extend my greetings to the other Cardinals and all the Bishops
present, as well as to the distinguished authorities, ambassadors, priests, religious
and all the faithful who have come from different parts of the world for this happy
occasion, which is marked by a particular character of universality. In the second
reading that we have just heard, Saint Peter exhorts the “elders” of the Church to
be zealous pastors, attentive to the flock of Christ (cf. 1 Pet 5:1-2). These words
are addressed in the first instance to you, my dear venerable brothers, who have already
shown great merit among the people of God through your wise and generous pastoral
ministry in demanding dioceses, or through presiding over the Dicasteries of the Roman
Curia, or in your service to the Church through study and teaching. The new dignity
that has been conferred upon you is intended to show appreciation for the faithful
labour you have carried out in the Lord’s vineyard, to honour the communities and
nations from which you come and which you represent so worthily in the Church, to
invest you with new and more important ecclesial responsibilities and finally to ask
of you an additional readiness to be of service to Christ and to the entire Christian
community. This readiness to serve the Gospel is firmly founded upon the certitude
of faith. We know that God is faithful to his promises and we await in hope the fulfilment
of these words of Saint Peter: “And when the chief shepherd is manifested you will
obtain the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pet 5:4). Today’s Gospel passage presents
Peter, under divine inspiration, expressing his own firm faith in Jesus as the Son
of God and the promised Messiah. In response to this transparent profession of faith,
which Peter makes in the name of the other Apostles as well, Christ reveals to him
the mission he intends to entrust to him, namely that of being the “rock”, the visible
foundation on which the entire spiritual edifice of the Church is built (cf. Mt 16:16-19).
This new name of “rock” is not a reference to Peter’s personal character, but can
be understood only on the basis of a deeper aspect, a mystery: through the office
that Jesus confers upon him, Simon Peter will become something that, in terms of “flesh
and blood”, he is not. The exegete Joachim Jeremias has shown that in the background,
the symbolic language of “holy rock” is present. In this regard, it is helpful to
consider a rabbinic text which states: “The Lord said, ‘How can I create the world,
when these godless men will rise up in revolt against me?’ But when God saw that Abraham
was to be born, he said, ‘Look, I have found a rock on which I can build and establish
the world.’ Therefore he called Abraham a rock.” The prophet Isaiah makes reference
to this when he calls upon the people to “look to the rock from which you were hewn
... look to Abraham your father” (51:1-2). On account of his faith, Abraham, the
father of believers, is seen as the rock that supports creation. Simon, the first
to profess faith in Jesus as the Christ and the first witness of the resurrection,
now, on the basis of his renewed faith, becomes the rock that is to prevail against
the destructive forces of evil. Dear brothers and sisters, this Gospel episode
that has been proclaimed to us finds a further and more eloquent explanation in one
of the most famous artistic treasures of this Vatican Basilica: the altar of the Chair.
After passing through the magnificent central nave, and continuing past the transepts,
the pilgrim arrives in the apse and sees before him an enormous bronze throne that
seems to hover in mid air, but in reality is supported by the four statues of great
Fathers of the Church from East and West. And above the throne, surrounded by triumphant
angels suspended in the air, the glory of the Holy Spirit shines through the oval
window. What does this sculptural composition say to us, this product of Bernini’s
genius? It represents a vision of the essence of the Church and the place within
the Church of the Petrine Magisterium. The window of the apse opens the Church
towards the outside, towards the whole of creation, while the image of the Holy Spirit
in the form of a dove shows God as the source of light. But there is also another
aspect to point out: the Church herself is like a window, the place where God draws
near to us, where he comes towards our world. The Church does not exist for her own
sake, she is not the point of arrival, but she has to point upwards, beyond herself,
to the realms above. The Church is truly herself to the extent that she allows the
Other, with a capital “O”, to shine through her – the One from whom she comes and
to whom she leads. The Church is the place where God “reaches” us and where we “set
off” towards him: she has the task of opening up, beyond itself, a world which tends
to become enclosed within itself, the task of bringing to the world the light that
comes from above, without which it would be uninhabitable. The great bronze throne
encloses a wooden chair from the ninth century, which was long thought to be Saint
Peter’s own chair and was placed above this monumental altar because of its great
symbolic value. It expresses the permanent presence of the Apostle in the Magisterium
of his successors. Saint Peter’s chair, we could say, is the throne of truth which
takes its origin from Christ’s commission after the confession at Caesarea Philippi.
The magisterial chair also reminds us of the words spoken to Peter by the Lord during
the Last Supper: “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you
have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:32). The chair of Peter evokes
another memory: the famous expression from Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the
Romans, where he says of the Church of Rome that she “presides in charity” (Salutation,
PG 5, 801). In truth, presiding in faith is inseparably linked to presiding in love.
Faith without love would no longer be an authentic Christian faith. But the words
of Saint Ignatius have another much more concrete implication: the word “charity”,
in fact, was also used by the early Church to indicate the Eucharist. The Eucharist
is the Sacramentum caritatis Christi, through which Christ continues to draw us all
to himself, as he did when raised up on the Cross (cf. Jn 12:32). Therefore, to “preside
in charity” is to draw men and women into a eucharistic embrace – the embrace of Christ
– which surpasses every barrier and every division, creating communion from all manner
of differences. The Petrine ministry is therefore a primacy of love in the eucharistic
sense, that is to say solicitude for the universal communion of the Church in Christ.
And the Eucharist is the shape and the measure of this communion, a guarantee that
it will remain faithful to the criterion of the tradition of the faith. The great
Chair is supported by the Fathers of the Church. The two Eastern masters, Saint John
Chrysostom and Saint Athanasius, together with the Latins, Saint Ambrose and Saint
Augustine, represent the whole of the tradition, and hence the richness of expression
of the true faith of the one Church. This aspect of the altar teaches us that love
rests upon faith. Love collapses if man no longer trusts in God and disobeys him.
Everything in the Church rests upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization,
charity. Likewise the law and the Church’s authority rest upon faith. The Church
is not self-regulating, she does not determine her own structure but receives it from
the word of God, to which she listens in faith as she seeks to understand it and to
live it. Within the ecclesial community, the Fathers of the Church fulfil the function
of guaranteeing fidelity to sacred Scripture. They ensure that the Church receives
reliable and solid exegesis, capable of forming with the Chair of Peter a stable and
consistent whole. The sacred Scriptures, authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium
in the light of the Fathers, shed light upon the Church’s journey through time, providing
her with a stable foundation amid the vicissitudes of history. After considering
the various elements of the altar of the Chair, let us take a look at it in its entirety.
We see that it is characterized by a twofold movement: ascending and descending.
This is the reciprocity between faith and love. The Chair is placed in a prominent
position in this place, because this is where Saint Peter’s tomb is located, but this
too tends towards the love of God. Indeed, faith is oriented towards love. A selfish
faith would be an unreal faith. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into
the dynamic of love that finds its source in the Eucharist, discovers true joy and
becomes capable in turn of living according to the logic of gift. True faith is illumined
by love and leads towards love, leads on high, just as the altar of the Chair points
upwards towards the luminous window, the glory of the Holy Spirit, which constitutes
the true focus for the pilgrim’s gaze as he crosses the threshold of the Vatican Basilica.
That window is given great prominence by the triumphant angels and the great golden
rays, with a sense of overflowing fulness that expresses the richness of communion
with God. God is not isolation, but glorious and joyful love, spreading outwards
and radiant with light. Dear brothers and sisters, the gift of this love has been
entrusted to us, to every Christian. It is a gift to be passed on to others, through
the witness of our lives. This is your task in particular, dear brother Cardinals:
to bear witness to the joy of Christ’s love. We now entrust your ecclesial service
to the Virgin Mary, who was present among the apostolic community as they gathered
in prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). May she, Mother of the Incarnate
Word, protect the Church’s path, support the work of the pastors by her intercession
and take under her mantle the entire College of Cardinals. Amen!