Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell Angelus: I will never abandon the Church
(Vatican Radio) “Dear brothers and sisters…The Lord is calling me to "climb the mountain",
to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning
the Church, indeed, if God is asking me to do this, it is so I can continue to serve
the Church with the same dedication and the same love with which I have done thus
far, but in a way that is better suited to my age and my strength”. "We will always
be close in prayer!".
This was Pope Benedict XVI’s parting message on Sunday,
during his last Angelus address. At noon the canons sounded from the Janiculum hill
and the great bells of St Peter’s basilica rang out. And as the curtains were drawn
from his study windows and the red papal banner unfurled, the ocean of pilgrims waiting
below erupted. Emer McCarthy reports:
They had come
in their thousands, pouring into the square since early dawn, men, women and children,
old and young, religious and lay Catholics. They held banners, emblazoned with messages
of gratitude and farewell for the 85 year old Pope, who had guided them in the faith
over the past eight years.
Pilgrims such as a father and his young son from
the earthquake devastated city of Aquilla, central Italy, who held aloft a homemade
sign, thanking Pope Benedict for having visited the city’s people in their time of
need, for his material support and spiritual solidarity. Or the Dominican nuns from
the Philippines who had held vigil since dawn praying the rosary. And beside them
the young people in their sleeping bags, from Spain, Brazil, Mexico with their banner
that read “the gates of hell will never prevail”.
With outstretched arms
and visibly moved, Pope Benedict greeted them all, repeating ‘grazie, grazie,’ as
he attempted to quieten the crowds. An almost impossible task.
Then, as
is tradition, he reflected on the Sunday Gospel, Luke chapter 9, which recounts the
Transfiguration of the Lord.
Below a Vatican Radio translation of the
Holy Father’s Angelus address:
Dear brothers and sisters!
On
the second Sunday of Lent, the liturgy always presents us with the Gospel of the Transfiguration
of the Lord. The evangelist Luke places particular emphasis on the fact that Jesus
was transfigured as he prayed: his is a profound experience of relationship with the
Father during a sort of spiritual retreat that Jesus lives on a high mountain in the
company of Peter, James and John , the three disciples always present in moments of
divine manifestation of the Master (Luke 5:10, 8.51, 9.28). The Lord, who shortly
before had foretold his death and resurrection (9:22), offers his disciples a foretaste
of his glory. And even in the Transfiguration, as in baptism, we hear the voice of
the Heavenly Father, "This is my Son, the Chosen One listen to him" (9:35). The presence
of Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, it
is highly significant: the whole history of the Alliance is focused on Him, the Christ,
who accomplishes a new "exodus" (9:31) , not to the promised land as in the time of
Moses, but to Heaven. Peter’s words: "Master, it is good that we are here" (9.33)
represents the impossible attempt to stop this mystical experience. St. Augustine
says: "[Peter] ... on the mountain ... had Christ as the food of the soul. Why should
he come down to return to the labours and pains, while up there he was full of feelings
of holy love for God that inspired in him a holy conduct? "(Sermon 78.3). We can
draw a very important lesson from meditating on this passage of the Gospel. First,
the primacy of prayer, without which all the work of the apostolate and of charity
is reduced to activism. In Lent we learn to give proper time to prayer, both personal
and communal, which gives breath to our spiritual life. In addition, to pray is not
to isolate oneself from the world and its contradictions, as Peter wanted on Tabor,
instead prayer leads us back to the path, to action. "The Christian life - I wrote
in my Message for Lent - consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God
and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from him, so as to
serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love "(n. 3). Dear brothers and sisters,
I feel that this Word of God is particularly directed at me, at this point in my life.
The Lord is calling me to "climb the mountain", to devote myself even more to prayer
and meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the Church, indeed, if God is asking
me to do this it is so that I can continue to serve the Church with the same dedication
and the same love with which I have done thus far, but in a way that is better suited
to my age and my strength. Let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may
she always help us all to follow the Lord Jesus in prayer and works of charity. I
offer a warm greeting to all the English-speaking visitors present for this Angelus
prayer, especially the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School. I thank everyone
for the many expressions of gratitude, affection and closeness in prayer which I have
received in these days. As we continue our Lenten journey towards Easter, may we
keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the Redeemer, whose glory was revealed on the mount of
the Transfiguration. Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings!