APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI TO GERMANY SUNDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2011 - DAY
4 * Homily during the Holy Mass in Freiburg Airport * * Address at
the Angelus, Freiburg Airport * * Address to Catholics engaged in the Church
* * Address at the Departure Ceremony, Lahr Airport *
Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Germany Homily
during the Holy Mass in Freiburg, Airport
Dear Brothers and Sisters, It
is moving for me to be here once again to celebrate this Eucharist, this Thanksgiving,
with so many people from different parts of Germany and the neighbouring countries.
We offer our thanks above all to God, in whom we live and move. But I would also
like to thank all of you for your prayers that the Successor of Peter may continue
to carry out his ministry with joy and faithful hope, and that he may strengthen his
brothers in faith. “Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and forgiveness”,
as we said in today’s Collect. In the first reading we heard how God manifested the
power of his mercy in the history of Israel. The experience of the Babylonian Exile
caused the people to fall into a crisis of faith: Why did this calamity happen? Perhaps
God was not truly powerful? There are theologians who, in the face of all the terrible
things that happen in the world today, say that God cannot be all-powerful. In response
to this we profess God, the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth. We are glad
and thankful that God is all-powerful. At the same time, we have to be aware that
he exercises his power differently from the way we normally do. He has placed a limit
on his power, by recognizing the freedom of his creatures. We are glad and thankful
for the gift of freedom. However, when we see the terrible things that happen as
a result of it, we are frightened. Let us put our trust in God, whose power manifests
itself above all in mercy and forgiveness. Let us be certain, dear faithful, that
God desires the salvation of his people. He desires our salvation. He is always
close to us, especially in times of danger and radical change, his heart aches for
us and he reaches out to us. We need to open ourselves to him so that the power of
his mercy can touch our hearts. We have to be ready to abandon evil, to raise ourselves
from indifference and make room for his word. God respects our freedom. He does
not constrain us. In the Gospel Jesus takes up this fundamental theme of prophetic
preaching. He recounts the parable of the two sons invited by their father to work
in the vineyard. The first son responded: “‘I will not go’, but afterward he repented
and went.” Instead the other son said to the father: “‘I go, sir,’ but did not go.”
When asked by Jesus which of the two sons did the father’s will, those listening respond:
“the first” (Mt 21:29-31). The message of the parable is clear: it is not words that
matter, but deeds, deeds of conversion and faith. Jesus directs this message to the
chief priests and elders of the people, that is, to the experts of religion for the
people of Israel. At first they say “yes” to God’s will, but their piety becomes
routine and God no longer matters to them. For this reason they find the message
of John the Baptist and the message of Jesus disturbing. The Lord concludes his parable
with harsh words: “Truly, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the Kingdom of
God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not
believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him, and even when you
saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him” (Mt 21:32). Translated into
the language of our time, this statement might sound something like this: agnostics,
who are constantly exercised by the question of God, those who long for a pure heart
but suffer on account of our sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers
whose life of faith is “routine” and who regard the Church merely as an institution,
without letting their hearts be touched by faith.
The words of Jesus should
make us all pause, in fact they should disturb us. However, this is by no means to
suggest that everyone who lives in the Church and works for her should be considered
far from Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Absolutely not! On the contrary, this is
a time to offer a word of profound gratitude to the many co-workers, employees and
volunteers, without whom life in the parishes and in the entire Church would be hard
to imagine. The Church in Germany has many social and charitable institutions through
which the love of neighbour is practised in ways that bring social benefits and reach
to the ends of the earth. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to
all those working in Caritas Germany and in other church organizations who give their
time and effort generously in voluntary service to the Church. In the first place,
such service requires objective and professional expertise. But in the spirit of
Jesus’ teaching something more is needed – an open heart that allows itself to be
touched by the love of Christ, and thus gives to our neighbour, who needs us, something
more than a technical service: it gives love, in which the other person is able to
see Christ, the loving God. So let us ask ourselves, how is my personal relationship
with God: in prayer, in participation at Sunday Mass, in exploring my faith through
meditation on sacred Scripture and study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church?
Dear friends, in the last analysis, the renewal of the Church will only come about
through openness to conversion and through renewed faith.
The Gospel for this
Sunday speaks of two sons, but behind them, in a mysterious way, there is a third
son. The first son says “no,” but does the father’s will. The second son says “yes,”
but does not do what he was asked. The third son both says “yes” and does what he
was asked. This third son is the Only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, who has
gathered us all here. Jesus, on entering the world, said: “Lo, I have come to do
thy will, O God” (Heb 10:7). He not only said “yes”, he acted on it. As the Christological
hymn from the second reading says: “Though he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did
not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross” (Phil. 2:
6-8). In humility and obedience, Jesus fulfilled the will of the Father and by dying
on the Cross for his brothers and sisters, he saved us from our pride and obstinacy.
Let us thank him for his sacrifice, let us bend our knees before his name and proclaim
together with the disciples of the first generation: “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). The Christian life must continually measure
itself by Christ: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”
(Phil 2:5), as Saint Paul says in the introduction to the Christological hymn. A
few verses before, he exhorts his readers: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ,
any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord
and of one mind” (Phil 2:1-2). Just as Christ was totally united to the Father and
obedient to him, so too the disciples must obey God and be of one mind among themselves.
Dear friends, with Paul I dare to exhort you: complete my joy by being firmly united
in Christ. The Church in Germany will overcome the great challenges of the present
and future, and it will remain a leaven in society, if the priests, consecrated men
and women, and the lay faithful, in fidelity to their respective vocations, work together
in unity, if the parishes, communities, and movements support and enrich each other,
if the baptized and confirmed, in union with their bishop, lift high the torch of
untarnished faith and allow it to enlighten their abundant knowledge and skills.
The Church in Germany will continue to be a blessing for the entire Catholic world:
if she remains faithfully united with the Successors of Saint Peter and the Apostles,
if she fosters cooperation in various ways with mission countries and allows herself
to be “infected” by the joy that marks the faith of these young Churches. To his
exhortation to unity, Paul adds a call to humility: “Do nothing from selfishness or
conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look
not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3-4).
Christian life is a life for others: existing for others, humble service of neighbour
and of the common good. Dear friends, humility is a virtue that does not enjoy great
esteem today. But the Lord’s disciples know that this virtue is, so to speak, the
oil that makes the process of dialogue fruitful, cooperation simple and unity sincere.
The Latin word for humility, humilitas, is derived from humus and indicates closeness
to the earth. Those who are humble stand with their two feet on the ground, but above
all they listen to Christ, the Word of God, who ceaselessly renews the Church and
each of her members.
Let us ask God for the courage and the humility to walk
the path of faith, to draw from the riches of his mercy, and to fix our gaze on Christ,
the Word, who makes all things new and is for us “the way, the truth, and the life”
(Jn 14:6): he is our future. Amen. XXX XXX XXX Apostolic
Journey of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Germany Address at the Angelus,
Freiburg, Airport Dear Brothers and Sisters!At the end of this solemn celebration
of holy Mass we now pray the Angelus together. This prayer constantly reminds us
of the historical beginnings of our salvation. The Archangel Gabriel presents God’s
plan of salvation to the Virgin Mary, by which she was to become the Mother of the
Redeemer. Mary was fearful, but the angel spoke a word of comfort to her: “Do not
be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” So Mary is able to respond
with her great “yes”. This “yes”, by which she accepts to become the handmaid of
the Lord, is the trusting “yes” to God’s plan, to our salvation. And she finally
addresses her “yes” to us all, whom she received as her children entrusted to her
at the foot of the Cross (cf. Jn 19:27). She never withdraws this promise. And so
she is called happy, or rather blessed, for believing that what was promised her by
the Lord would be fulfilled (cf. Lk 1:45). As we pray the Angelus, we may join Mary
in her “yes”, we may adhere trustingly to the beauty of God’s plan and to the providence
that he has assigned to us in his grace. Then God’s love will also, as it were, take
flesh in our lives, becoming ever more tangible. In all our cares we need have no
fear. God is good. At the same time we know that we are sustained by the fellowship
of the many believers who are now praying the Angelus with us throughout the world,
via radio and television. XXX XXX XXX Apostolic Journey of His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Germany Address to Catholics engaged in the
life of the Church and Society, Freiburg, Concert Hall
Dear Brother
Bishops and Priests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am glad to be here today with all
of you who work in so many ways for the Church and for society. This gives me a welcome
opportunity personally to thank you most sincerely for your commitment and your witness
as “powerful heralds of the faith in things to be hoped for” (Lumen Gentium, 35 –
validi praecones fidei sperandarum rerum). In your fields of activity you readily
stand up for your faith and for the Church, something that is not always easy at the
present time. For some decades now we have been experiencing a decline in religious
practice and we have been seeing substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away
from church life. This prompts the question: should the Church not change? Must
she not adapt her offices and structures to the present day, in order to reach the
searching and doubting people of today? Blessed Mother Teresa was once asked what
in her opinion was the first thing that would have to change in the Church. Her answer
was: you and I. Two things are clear from this brief story. On the one hand Mother
Teresa wants to tell her interviewer: the Church is not just other people, not just
the hierarchy, the Pope and the bishops: we are all the Church, we the baptized.
And on the other hand her starting-point is this: yes, there are grounds for change.
There is a need for change. Every Christian and the community of the faithful are
constantly called to change. What should this change look like in practice? Are
we talking about the kind of renewal that a householder might carry out when reordering
or repainting his home? Or are we talking about a corrective, designed to bring
us back on course and help us to make our way more swiftly and more directly? Certainly
these and other elements play a part. As far as the Church in concerned, though,
the basic motive for change is the apostolic mission of the disciples and the Church
herself. The Church, in other words, must constantly rededicate herself to her
mission. The three Synoptic Gospels highlight various aspects of the missionary task.
The mission is built upon personal experience: “You are witnesses” (Lk 24:48); it
finds expression in relationships: “Make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19); and
it spreads a universal message: “Preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15).
Through the demands and constraints of the world, however, the witness is constantly
obscured, the relationships are alienated and the message is relativized. If the
Church, in Pope Paul VI’s words, is now struggling “to model itself on Christ's ideal”,
this “can only result in its acting and thinking quite differently from the world
around it, which it is nevertheless striving to influence” (Ecclesiam Suam, 58).
In order to accomplish her mission, she will constantly set herself apart from her
surroundings, she needs in a certain sense to become unworldly or “desecularized”. The
Church’s mission has its origins in the mystery of the triune God, in the mystery
of his creative love. Love is not just somehow within God, he himself is love by
nature. And divine love does not want to exist in isolation, it wants to pour itself
out. It has come down to men in a particular way through the incarnation and self-offering
of God’s Son. He stepped outside the framework of his divinity, he took flesh and
became man; and indeed his purpose was not merely to confirm the world in its worldliness
and to be its companion, leaving it completely unchanged. The Christ event includes
the inconceivable fact of what the Church Fathers call a commercium, an exchange between
God and man, in which the two parties – albeit in quite different ways – both give
and take, bestow and receive. The Christian faith recognizes that God has given man
a freedom in which he can truly be a partner to God, and can enter into exchange with
him. At the same time it is clear to man that this exchange is only possible thanks
to God’s magnanimity in accepting the beggar’s poverty as wealth, so as to make the
divine gift acceptable, given that man has nothing of comparable worth to offer in
return. The Church likewise owes her whole being to this unequal exchange. She
has nothing of her own to offer to him who founded her. She finds her meaning exclusively
in being a tool of salvation, in filling the world with God’s word and in transforming
the world by bringing it into loving unity with God. The Church is fully immersed
in the Redeemer’s outreach to men. She herself is always on the move, she constantly
has to place herself at the service of the mission that she has received from the
Lord. The Church must always open up afresh to the cares of the world and give herself
over to them, in order to make present and continue the holy exchange that began with
the Incarnation. In the concrete history of the Church, however, a contrary tendency
is also manifested, namely that the Church becomes settled in this world, she becomes
self-sufficient and adapts herself to the standards of the world. She gives greater
weight to organization and institutionalization than to her vocation to openness. In
order to accomplish her true task adequately, the Church must constantly renew the
effort to detach herself from the “worldliness” of the world. In this she follows
the words of Jesus: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (Jn
17:16). One could almost say that history comes to the aid of the Church here through
the various periods of secularization, which have contributed significantly to her
purification and inner reform. Secularizing trends – whether by expropriation of
Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like – have always meant a profound
liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness, for in the process she has set
aside her worldly wealth and has once again completely embraced her worldly poverty.
In this the Church has shared the destiny of the tribe of Levi, which according to
the Old Testament account was the only tribe in Israel with no ancestral land of its
own, taking as its portion only God himself, his word and his signs. At those moments
in history, the Church shared with that tribe the demands of a poverty that was open
to the world, in order to be released from her material ties: and in this way her
missionary activity regained credibility. History has shown that, when the Church
becomes less worldly, her missionary witness shines more brightly. Once liberated
from her material and political burdens, the Church can reach out more effectively
and in a truly Christian way to the whole world, she can be truly open to the world.
She can live more freely her vocation to the ministry of divine worship and service
of neighbour. The missionary task, which is linked to Christian worship and should
determine its structure, becomes more clearly visible. The Church opens herself to
the world not in order to win men for an institution with its own claims to power,
but in order to lead them to themselves by leading them to him of whom each person
can say with Saint Augustine: he is closer to me than I am to myself (cf. Confessions,
III, 6, 11). He who is infinitely above me is yet so deeply within me that he is
my true interiority. This form of openness to the world on the Church’s part also
serves to indicate how the individual Christian can be open to the world in effective
and appropriate ways. It is not a question here of finding a new strategy to relaunch
the Church. Rather, it is a question of setting aside mere strategy and seeking total
transparency, not bracketing or ignoring anything from the truth of our present situation,
but living the faith fully here and now in the utterly sober light of day, appropriating
it completely, and stripping away from it anything that only seems to belong to faith,
but in truth is mere convention or habit. To put it another way: for people of
every era, not just our own, the Christian faith is a scandal. That the eternal God
should know us and care about us, that the intangible should at a particular moment
have become tangible, that he who is immortal should have suffered and died on the
Cross, that we who are mortal should be given the promise of resurrection and eternal
life – to believe all this is to posit something truly remarkable. This scandal,
which cannot be eliminated unless one were to eliminate Christianity itself, has unfortunately
been overshadowed in recent times by other painful scandals on the part of the preachers
of the faith. A dangerous situation arises when these scandals take the place of
the primary skandalon of the Cross and in so doing they put it beyond reach, concealing
the true demands of the Christian Gospel behind the unworthiness of those who proclaim
it. All the more, then, is it time once again for the Church resolutely to set
aside her worldliness. That does not mean withdrawing from the world. A Church relieved
of the burden of worldliness is in a position, not least through her charitable activities,
to mediate the life-giving strength of the Christian faith to those in need, to sufferers
and to their carers. “For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which
could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable
expression of her very being” (Deus Caritas Est, 25). At the same time, though, the
Church’s charitable activity also needs to be constantly exposed to the demands of
due detachment from worldliness, if it is not to wither away at the roots in the face
of increasing erosion of its ecclesial character. Only a profound relationship with
God makes it possible to reach out fully towards others, just as a lack of outreach
towards neighbour impoverishes one’s relationship with God. Openness to the concerns
of the world means, then, for the Church that is detached from worldliness, bearing
witness to the primacy of God’s love according to the Gospel through word and deed,
here and now, a task which at the same time points beyond the present world because
this present life is also bound up with eternal life. As individuals and as the community
of the Church, let us live the simplicity of a great love, which is both the simplest
and hardest thing on earth, because it demands no more and no less than the gift of
oneself. Dear friends, it remains for me to invoke God’s blessing and the strength
of the Holy Spirit upon us all, that we may continually recognize anew and bear fresh
witness to God’s love and mercy in our respective fields of activity. Thank you for
your attention.XXX XXX XXX Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI to Germany Address at the Departure Ceremony, Lahr, Airport Mr President of the Federal Republic, Distinguished Representatives of the Federal
Government, of Baden Württemburg and its Communities, Dear Brother Bishops, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Before leaving Germany, I would like very much to thank you
for these days, so moving and eventful, spent in my native land. I am grateful
to you, President Wulff, for welcoming me in Berlin in the name of the German people
and now, at the moment of my departure, for again honouring me with your gracious
words. My thoughts turn to the representatives of the Federal Government and the
governments of the Länder who are present at this departure ceremony. I offer heartfelt
thanks to Archbishop Zollitsch of Freiburg, who accompanied me throughout the journey.
I likewise express my gratitude to Archbishop Woelki of Berlin and Bishop Wanke of
Erfurt, who also showed me hospitality, and to the entire German episcopate. Finally
I offer a particular word of thanks to all those who worked behind the scenes before
and during these four days in order to ensure that all went smoothly: to the civic
institutions, to all those engaged in providing security, health services and public
transport, and to the many volunteers. I thank all of you for these splendid days,
for our many personal encounters and for your many signs of attention and affection. In
Berlin, the Federal Capital, I had the particular opportunity of addressing the members
of the Bundestag nd presenting some reflections on the intellectual foundations of
the state. I also readily think of the fruitful conversations which I had with the
Federal President and the Federal Chancellor about the present state of the German
people and the international community. I was particularly touched by the cordial
welcome and enthusiasm shown by so many people in Berlin. Here in the land of the
Reformation, Christian unity was naturally a high point of my journey. I would mention
in particular my meeting with representatives of the Lutheran Church in Germany, which
took place in the former Augustinian convent of Erfurt. I am profoundly grateful
for our fraternal exchange and common prayer. Significant too were my meetings with
Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians, as well with Jews and Muslims. Of course
my visit was particularly aimed at the Catholic communities in Berlin, Erfurt, Eichsfeld
and Freiburg. I gladly recall our common liturgical celebrations and the joy which
accompanied them, our common listening to the word of God and our union in prayer
– especially in those parts of the country where efforts were made for decades to
remove religion from people’s lives. This gives me confidence for the future of Christianity
in Germany. As in previous visits, it was clear how many people here are bearing
witness to their faith and making its transforming power present in today’s world. Last
but not least, after the impressive celebration of World Youth Day in Madrid, I was
also delighted to be in the presence of large numbers of young people in Freiburg
at yesterday’s youth vigil. I encourage the Church in Germany to pursue with
resolute confidence the path of faith which leads people back to their roots, to the
heart of the Good News of Christ. It will be small communities of believers – and
these already exist – whose enthusiasm spreads within a pluralistic society and makes
others curious to seek the light which gives life in abundance. “There is nothing
more beautiful than to know Christ and to speak to others of our friendship with him”
(Homily for the Solemn Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry, 24 April 2005). This
experience ultimately gives the certainty that “where God is, there is a future.”
Wherever God is present, there is hope: new and often unexpected horizons open up
beyond the present and the ephemeral. In this sense I accompany in my thoughts and
prayers the path of the Church in Germany. With vivid memories of these days spent
in my native land, I now return to Rome. With the assurance of my prayers for all
of you, and for a future of peace and freedom for our country, I bid you farewell
with a hearfelt “Vergelt’s Gott” [May God reward you]. God bless you all!