2012-09-10 15:34:59

Pope's Sunday 'Angelus' message


(September 10, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday characterized his trip to Beirut this weekend as a pilgrimage for peace for the entire Middle East region and its anguished people. Speaking to pilgrims and visitors after the weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo near Rome, Pope Benedict said that while finding solutions for the Middle East's problems seems difficult, people “shouldn't resign themselves to violence or worsening tensions.” He noted that during his three-day visit to the Lebanese capital, which begins on Friday, he would meet with Lebanese authorities as well as Christians from Lebanon and other nearby countries. The Pope who is visiting the Lebanese capital Beirut, Sept. 14-16, said he knew “the anguish of many people of the Middle East steeped daily in sufferings of every kind, which afflict sadly, and sometimes mortally, their personal and family life.” He urged the international community to support efforts at dialogue and reconciliation, as he stressed “the importance for the whole world of a stable and lasting peace in the entire region.” “My apostolic voyage in Lebanon, and by extension in the Middle East in its entirety, comes under the sign of peace,” Pope Benedict said.
In recent weeks there was concern that spill over in parts of Lebanon from the fighting in neighbouring Syria might derail the trip by the 85-year-old pontiff. But the Vatican has assured the faithful that despite a climate of tensions in Lebanon the pilgrimage is going forward. The Pope’s visit to Lebanon this weekend is to present his Apostolic Exhortation which resulted from the special synod of bishops for the Middle East held in the Vatican in October, 2010. Pope Benedict's visit also aims at encouraging his flock in the entire Middle East where some Christian communities have suffered for their faith, including terror attacks in Iraq. His schedule in Lebanon also includes his celebrating Mass in Beirut and attending a gathering with youth.
Before reciting the ‘Angelus’, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on Sunday’s Gospel saying Christ’s entire mission is summarized in one “small but very important” Aramaic word: “Ephphatha,” meaning ‘be opened’. The Holy Father commented on Jesus healing a deaf man with a speech impediment in a non-Jewish area. “Jesus took him aside, touched his ears and tongue, and then, looking up to the heavens, with a deep sigh said, ‘Ephphatha’, and immediately the man began to hear and speak fluently. The Pope explained that Christ became man so that man, made inwardly deaf and dumb by sin, would become able to hear the voice of God, the voice of love speaking to his heart, and learn to speak in the language of love, to communicate with God and with others. The man’s deafness is symbolic of the closing of man’s heart which Jesus came to ‘open’ to liberate, to enable us to fully live our relationship with God and with others.” This is why the word and gesture of “Ephphatha” is used in the Rite of Baptism when the priest touches the mouth and ears of the newly baptized, the Pope added.







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