Paul VI’s testimony feeds in us the flame of love for Christ: Pope
Vatican City, 22 June 2013: ‘Love for Christ, love for the Church and love for man’
– these three phrases Illustrates the Servant of God Pope Paul VI. This is what he
taught and these were his fundamental attitudes, said Pope Francis on Saturday morning
while addressing thousands of Pilgrims from the Italian diocese of Brescia, in St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In fact, about 5 thousand pilgrims from the Diocese of Brescia
had arrived on Friday in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul
VI. The pilgrims attended the Mass on Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Basilica presided
over by Bishop of Brescia, Msgr. Luciano Monari. Along with him, 3 other concelebrating
bishops and hundreds of priests.
This is your pilgrimage in the Year of Faith,
and it's nice that you wanted to do it on the 50th anniversary of the election
of your great countryman Paul VI, said the Pontiff, eliciting thunderous applause
from the pilgrims. Paul VI was able to witness, in difficult years, faith in Jesus
Christ, said the Pope adding "Jesus is more necessary than ever to the man of today,
the world of today, because in the "deserts" of the secular cities Jesus speaks to
us of God, reveals his face. Total love of Christ emerged throughout the life of Paul
VI, even in the choice of the name as Pope.
A deep love for Christ is not
to possess, but to announce it, said Pope Francis recalling the passionate words of
Paul VI in Manila in 1970 where he said: "Christ! Yes, I feel the need to announce
it, I cannot keep silent! He ... is the revealer of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature is, is the foundation of all things, He is the Teacher of mankind,
the Redeemer… our existence, our happiness."
Pope Francis said: that the passionate
Paul VI’s speech in Manila and also one in Nazareth have been for me to spiritual
strength. I have done so well in life! I'm going back to this speech, I go back, because
it does me good to hear these words of Paul VI. Today, even today, said the Pope,
I return to these speeches, bringing great applause from the pilgrims. About ‘love
for the Church, Pope Francis said, for Paul VI it was a passionate love, the love
of a lifetime, joyful and painful expressed since his first encyclical, Ecclesiam
suam. Paul VI has lived through the suffering of the Church after Vatican II, the
lights, the hopes, the tensions. He loved the Church and has spent his life without
reservation. He wrote: "I want to hug her, greet her, love her in every being that
composes it, in every bishop and priest who is there to help and guide, in every soul
that lives and illustrates it."
About ‘love for man, Pope Francis said that
it is also linked with Christ: it is the passion of God that compels us to meet the
man, to respect, to recognize him, to serve him. In the last session of Vatican II,
Pope Paul VI gave a speech, where he speaks of the attention of the Council for the
contemporary man. He said: "the profane secular humanism eventually appeared in its
terrible stature and has, in a sense, defied the council. The religion of the God
who became man has met the religion of the man who made himself God does. What has
happened? A fight, a battle, a condemnation? It could be, but it has not happened.
The old story of the Samaritan has been the model of spirituality of the council.
Paul VI’s testimony feeds in us the flame of love for Christ, love for the
Church, the momentum to announce the Gospel to the man of today, with mercy, with
patience, with courage, with joy, concluded Pope Francis.Source: VR Sedoc