(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.