(Vatican Radio) On the eve of the Year of Faith and with one eye on the upcoming Synod
on New Evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI launched a call to mission Sunday as he told
the lay faithful of Frascati that they share respnsability for the Church and the
formation of new generations of Christians. That God is calling them and they need
to listen. That rediscovering the beauty of being Church means carrying on Christ’s
work of “forming the formators”, clergy, religious and above all laity. That being
missionaries - like the Apostles - can mean rejection and persecution, it means preaching
"truth and justice" even if goes against applause and human power. Emer McCarthy reports
listen:
Eight thousand
people packed into the tiny square in front of the Cathedral of St Peter the Apostle,
for Sunday morning Mass presided by Pope Benedict. Loud speakers relayed the liturgy
throughout the winding cobbled streets of the hill top town, festooned with white
and yellow flags and banners bearing Pope Benedict’s coat of arms.
The Pope
was greeted on behalf of the suburbicarian diocese by Bishop Raffaele Martinelli,
who spoke of Frascati’s deep bonds with the Successor of St Peter and his personal
witness, during a period of service at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
of then Cardinal Ratzinger’s tireless work on behalf of the Church. Bishop Martinelli
presented Pope Benedict with a donation for his personal charities on behalf of his
community and urged the Pope to confirm the local Church, first formed in 2 A.D.,
in the faith.
“Dear brothers and sisters of Frascati!” the Pope responded
“Be united among yourselves, and at the same time open, be missionaries”. Drawing
on the Liturgy of the Word proclaimed during Mass, the Pope dedicated his homily to
the history of mission and evangelization in the Church, which he noted is never-ending
: “It is a beautiful and exciting thing to see that after two thousand years, we are
still carrying on Christ’s commitment to formation!”
“The Lord calls us all,
distributing different gifts for different tasks in the Church. He calls us to the
priesthood and consecrated life, and He calls us to marriage and commitment as lay
people within the Church and in society. What is important is that the wealth of these
gifts is fully welcomed…God calls: we need to listen, welcome, respond”.
Below
a Vatican Radio translation of Pope Benedict XVI’s Homily
Dear
brothers and sisters!
I am very pleased to be among you today to celebrate
this Eucharist and to share the joys and hopes, trials and efforts, ideals and aspirations
of this diocesan community. I greet Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my Secretary of State
and the titular of this diocese. I greet your pastor, Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli,
and the Mayor of Frascati, thanking them for the kind words of welcome with which
they greeted me on your behalf. I am pleased to welcome the Minister, the Presidents
of the Region and the Province, the Mayor of Rome, the other mayors present and all
the distinguished authorities.
And I am very happy today to celebrate this
Mass with your bishop who for more than twenty years, as he already mentioned, was
a very loyal and capable collaborator of mine in the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith. Working primarily in the field of catechesis and catechism with great
silence and discretion he contributed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and
the Compendium of the Catechism. His voice is also very present in this great symphony
of faith.
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus takes the initiative to send the twelve
Apostles on a mission (cf. Mk 6.7 to 13). In fact, the term "apostles" literally means
"emissary, messenger." Their vocation is fully realized after the resurrection of
Christ with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. However, it is very important
that from the outset Jesus wants to involve the Twelve in his action: it is a sort
of "internship" in view of the great responsibility that awaits them. The fact that
Jesus calls some disciples to collaborate directly in His mission, expresses an aspect
of His love: He does not disdain the help that other men can contribute to his work,
He knows their limits, their weaknesses, but does not despise them, indeed, He confers
on them the dignity of being His emissaries. Jesus sends them out two by two and gives
them instructions, which the Evangelist summarizes in a few sentences. The first concerns
the spirit of detachment: the apostles must not be attached to money and comforts.
Then Jesus warns the disciples that they will not always receive a favorable welcome:
at times they will be rejected, and indeed may also be persecuted. But that should
not affect them: they must speak in the name of Jesus and preach the Kingdom of God,
without worrying about their success. They must leave the success in God's hands.
The
first reading, presents us the same perspective, showing us that often God’s messengers
are not well received. This is the case of the prophet Amos, sent out by God to prophesize
in the sanctuary of Bethel, a sanctuary of the kingdom of Israel (cf. 7.12 to 15 Am).
Amos preached with great energy against injustice, especially denouncing the abuses
of the king and chiefs, abuses that offend the Lord, and render acts of worship vain.
Thus Amaziah, a priest of Bethel, orders Amos to leave. He replies that he did not
choose this mission, but the Lord made him a prophet and sent him there, to the kingdom
of Israel. Therefore, whether accepted or rejected, he will continue to prophesize,
preaching what God says and not what people want to hear. And this remains the mandate
of the Church: She does not preach what the powerful want to hear. The criterion is
truth and justice even if it goes against applause and against human power.
Similarly,
in the Gospel, Jesus warns the Twelve that they may encounter rejection in some places.
In this case they must go elsewhere, after having carried out the gesture of shaking
the dust from their feet in front of the people, a sign that expresses detachment
in two senses: moral detachment - as if to say: the announcement was given to you,
you are the ones who refuse it - and material detachment - we did not and do not want
anything for ourselves (cf. Mk 6.11). The other very important indication of the Gospel
is that the Twelve can not be content to preach conversion: their preaching must
be accompanied, according to the instructions and example given by Jesus, by the healing
of the sick. Care of the sick bodily and spiritually. He speaks of the concrete curing
of diseases, but he also speaks of casting out demons that is, purifying the human
mind, cleaning, cleaning the eyes of the soul that are obscured by ideology and therefore
can not see God, can not see the truth and justice. This dual physical and spiritual
healing is always the mandate of the disciples of Christ. The Apostolic mission must
always include both aspects of preaching the word of God and the manifestation of
His goodness with acts of charity, service and dedication.
Dear brothers and
sisters, I give thanks to God who sent me here today to re-announce to you this Word
of salvation! A Word that is at the foundation of the life and action of the Church,
this Church in Frascati. Your bishop has informed me of his most heartfelt pastoral
commitment, which is essentially a commitment to formation, aimed primarily at educators:
forming the formators. This is exactly what Jesus did with his disciples: He taught
them, prepared them, formed them also through missionary "training", so they were
capable of taking on Apostolic responsibility in the Church. It is a beautiful and
exciting thing to see that after two thousand years, we are still carrying on Christ’s
commitment to formation! In the Christian community, this is always the first service
offered by those in roles of responsibility: starting with parents, who in the family
accomplish the mission of educating children, we think of parish priests, who are
responsible for formation in the community, of all priests, in different fields of
work: priority is always given to the educational dimension, and the lay faithful
who, in addition to their role as parents, are involved in the formation of young
people or adults, as leaders in Apostolic Action and other church movements, or engaged
in civil and social spheres, always with a strong focus on forming people.
The
Lord calls us all, distributing different gifts for different tasks in the Church.
He calls us to the priesthood and consecrated life, and He calls us to marriage and
commitment as lay people within the Church and in society. What is important is that
the wealth of these gifts is fully welcomed, especially by young people: that they
may feel the joy of responding to God with their whole heart, gifting it on the path
of priesthood and consecrated life or on the path of marriage, two complementary paths
that illuminate each other, enrich each other and together enrich the community. Virginity
for the Kingdom of God and marriage are both vocations, calls by God to be answered
with and for our entire life. God calls: we need to listen, welcome, respond. Like
Mary: Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word (Lk 1.38).
Even
here, in the diocesan community of Frascati, the Lord bountifully sows his gifts,
he calls you to follow Him and to extend His mission today. Even here there is need
for a new evangelization, which is why I propose you intensely live the Year of Faith,
which will begin in October, 50 years from the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
The Council documents contain an enormous wealth for the formation of new generations
of Christians, for the formation of our consciousness. So read them, read the Catechism
of the Catholic Church and rediscover the beauty of being Christians, of being Church
to enjoy the great "we" that Jesus has formed around him, to evangelize the world:
the "we" of the Church, never closed, but always open and projected towards the proclamation
of the Gospel.
Dear brothers and sisters of Frascati! Be united among yourselves,
and at the same time open, be missionaries. Stand firm in faith, rooted in Christ
through the Word and the Eucharist; be people of prayer, to always remain bound to
Christ, as branches to the vine, and at the same time go out, bring His message to
everyone, especially the small, to the poor, the suffering. In every community, love
each other, do not be divided but live as brothers and sisters, so that the world
may believe that Jesus is alive in his Church and the Kingdom of God is near. The
Patrons of the Diocese of Frascati are two Apostles, Philip and James, two of the
Twelve. To their intercession we commend your community’s journey, that it may be
renewed in faith and give clear witness in works of charity. Amen.