PASTORAL VISIT
OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO LORETO
ON THE OCCASION OF THE AGORĄ
OF ITALIAN YOUTH
EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
Plain of Montorso
Sunday, 2 September 2007
After
last night's Vigil, our Meeting in Loreto is now coming to an
end around the altar with the solemn Eucharistic celebration. Once
again, my most cordial greeting to you all. I extend a special
greeting to the Bishops and I thank Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco who
has expressed your common sentiments. I greet the Archbishop of
Loreto who has welcomed us with affection and kindness. I greet the
priests, the men and women religious and all those who have
carefully prepared this important event of faith. I offer a
respectful greeting to the Civil and Military Authorities present,
with a particular remembrance for Hon. Mr Francesco Rutelli,
Vice-President of the Council of Ministers.
This is truly a day of
grace! The Readings we have just heard help us to understand the
marvellous work the Lord has done in bringing so many of us here to
Loreto, to meet in a joyful atmosphere of prayer and festivity. In a
certain sense, our gathering at the Virgin's Shrine fulfils the
words of the Letter to the Hebrews: "You have come to Mount Zion and
to the city of the living God". Celebrating the Eucharist in the
shadow of the Holy House, we too come to the "festal gathering, and
to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven". Thus,
we can experience the joy of having come "to a judge who is God of
all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect". With Mary, Mother
of the Redeemer and our Mother, let us above all go to meet "the
Mediator of a New Covenant", Our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Heb 12:
22-24). The Heavenly Father, who in many and various ways spoke to
our fathers (cf. Heb 1: 1), offering his Covenant and often
encountering resistance and rejection, desired in the fullness of
time to make a new, definitive and irrevocable agreement with human
beings, sealing it with the Blood of his Only-Begotten Son, who died
and rose for the salvation of all humanity. Jesus Christ, God made
man, took on our own flesh in Mary, participated in our life and
chose to share in our history. To realize his Covenant God sought a
young heart and he found it in Mary, "a young woman".
God also seeks young people
today. He seeks young people with great hearts who can make room for
him in their lives to be protagonists of the New Covenant. To accept
a proposal as fascinating as the one Jesus offers us, to make the
covenant with him, it is necessary to be youthful within, to be
capable of letting oneself be called into question by his newness,
to set out with him on new roads. Jesus has a fondness for young
people, as the conversation with the rich young man clearly shows
(cf. Mt 19: 16-22; Mk 10: 17-22); he respects their freedom but
never tires of proposing loftier goals for life to them: the newness
of the Gospel and the beauty of holy behaviour. Following her Lord's
example, the Church continues to show the same attention. This is
why, dear young people, she looks at you with immense affection, she
is close to you in moments of joy and festivity, in trials and in
loss. She sustains you with the gifts of sacramental grace and
accompanies you in the discernment of your vocation. Dear young
people, let yourselves be involved in the new life that flows from
the encounter with Christ and you will be able to be apostles of his
peace in your families, among your friends, within your Ecclesial
Communities and in the various milieus in which you live and work.
But what is it that makes
people "young" in the Gospel sense? Our Meeting, which is taking
place in the shadow of a Marian Shrine, invites us to look to Our
Lady. Let us therefore ask ourselves: How did Mary spend her youth?
Why was it that in her the impossible became possible? She herself
reveals it to us in the Canticle of the Magnificat. God "regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden" (Lk 1: 48a). It was Mary's
humility that God appreciated more than anything else in her. And it
is precisely of humility that the other two Readings of today's
liturgy speak to us. Is it not a happy coincidence that this message
is addressed to us exactly here in Loreto? Here, we think
spontaneously of the Holy House of Nazareth, which is the Shrine of
humility: the humility of God who took flesh, who made himself
small, and the humility of Mary who welcomed him into her womb; the
humility of the Creator and the humility of the creature. Jesus, Son
of God and Son of man, was born from this encounter of humility.
"The greater you are, the more you humble yourself, so you will find
favour in the sight of the Lord. For great is the might of the Lord"
(3: 18-20) says the passage in Sirach; and in the Gospel, after the
Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus concludes: "Every one who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"
(Lk 14: 11). Today, this perspective mentioned in the Scriptures
appears especially provocative to the culture and sensitivity of
contemporary man. The humble person is perceived as someone who
gives up, someone defeated, someone who has nothing to say to the
world. Instead, this is the principal way, and not only because
humility is a great human virtue but because, in the first place, it
represents God's own way of acting. It was the way chosen by Christ,
the Mediator of the New Covenant, who "being found in human form he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a
cross" (Phil 2: 8).
Dear young people, I seem to
perceive in these words of God about humility an important message
which is especially current for you who want to follow Christ and
belong to his Church. This is the message: do not follow the way of
pride but rather that of humility. Go against the tide: do not
listen to the interested and persuasive voices that today are
peddling on many sides models of life marked by arrogance and
violence, by oppression and success at any cost, by appearances and
by having at the expense of being. How many messages, which reach
you especially through the mass media, are targeting you! Be alert!
Be critical! Do not follow the wave produced by this powerful,
persuasive action. Do not be afraid, dear friends, to prefer the
"alternative" routes pointed out by true love: a modest and sound
lifestyle; sincere and pure emotional relationships; honest
commitment in studies and work; deep concern for the common good. Do
not be afraid of seeming different and being criticized for what
might seem to be losing or out of fashion; your peers but adults
too, especially those who seem more distant from the mindset and
values of the Gospel, are crying out to see someone who dares to
live according to the fullness of humanity revealed by Jesus Christ.
Therefore, dear friends, the
way of humility is not the way of renunciation but that of courage.
It is not the result of a defeat but the result of a victory of love
over selfishness and of grace over sin.
In following Christ and imitating Mary, we must have the courage of
humility; we must entrust ourselves humbly to the Lord, because only
in this way will we be able to become docile instruments in his
hands and allow him to do great things in us. The Lord worked great
miracles in Mary and in the Saints! I am thinking, for example, of
Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena, Patrons of Italy. I am
thinking also of splendid young people like St Gemma Galgani, St
Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, St Louis Gonzaga, St Dominic Savio,
St Maria Goretti, born not far from here, and the Blesseds,
Piergiorgio Frassati and Alberto Marvelli. And I am also thinking of
numerous young men and women who belong to the ranks of the
"anonymous" Saints, but who are not anonymous to God. For him, every
individual person is unique, with his or her own name and face. All,
and you know it, are called to be Saints!
As you see, dear young
people, the humility the Lord has taught us and to which the Saints
have borne witness, each according to the originality of his or her
own vocation, is quite different from a renunciatory way of life.
Let us look above all at Mary. At her school, we too, like her, can
experience that "yes" of God to humanity from which flow all the
"yeses" of our life. It is true, the challenges you must face are
many and important. The first however, is always that of following
Christ to the very end without reservations and compromises. And
following Christ means feeling oneself a living part of his body
which is the Church. One cannot call oneself a disciple of Jesus if
one does not love and obey his Church. The Church is our family in
which love for the Lord and for our brothers and sisters, especially
through participation in the Eucharist, enables us to experience the
joy of already having a foretaste, now, of the future life that will
be totally illuminated by Love. May our daily commitment be to live
here below as though we were already in Heaven above.
Thus, feeling oneself as Church is a vocation to holiness for all;
it is a daily commitment to build communion and unity, overcoming
all resistance and rising above every incomprehension. In the Church
we learn to love, teaching ourselves to accept our neighbour freely,
to show caring attention to those in difficulty, to the poor and to
the lowliest. The fundamental motivation that unites believers in
Christ is not success but goodness, a goodness that is all the more
authentic the more it is shared, and which does not primarily
consist in having or in being powerful, but in being. In this way
one builds the city of God with human beings, a city which at the
same time grows on earth and comes down from Heaven because it
develops in the encounter and collaboration between people and God
(cf. Rv 21: 2-3).
Following Christ, dear young
people, also entails the constant effort to make one's own
contribution to building a society that is more just and sober and
in which all may enjoy the goods of the earth.
I know that many of you are generously dedicated to witnessing to
your faith in the various social environments, active as volunteers
and working to promote the common good, peace and justice in every
community. There is no doubt that one of the fields in which it
seems urgent to take action is that of safeguarding creation. The
future of the planet is entrusted to the new generations, in which
there are evident signs of a development that has not always been
able to protect the delicate balances of nature. Before it is too
late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions that can recreate
a strong alliance between humankind and the earth. A decisive "yes"
is needed to protect creation and also a strong commitment to invert
those trends which risk leading to irreversibly degrading
situations. I therefore appreciated the Italian Church's initiative
to encourage sensitivity to the problems of safeguarding creation by
establishing a National Day, which occurs precisely on 1 September.
This year attention is focused above all on water, a very precious
good which, if it is not shared fairly and peacefully, will
unfortunately become a cause of harsh tensions and bitter conflicts.
Dear young friends, after
listening to your reflections yesterday evening and last night,
letting myself be guided by God's Word, I now want to entrust to you
my considerations which are intended as a paternal encouragement to
follow Christ in order to be witnesses of his hope and love. For my
part, I will continue to be beside you with my prayers and
affection, so that you may persevere enthusiastically on the journey
of the Agora, this unique triennial journey of listening, dialogue
and mission. Today, concluding the first year with this wonderful
Meeting, I cannot fail to invite you to look ahead already to the
great event of
World Youth Day that will be held in July next year in Sydney. I
ask you to prepare yourselves for this important manifestation of
youthful faith by meditating on the Message which examines in depth
the theme of the Holy Spirit, to live together a new springtime of
the Spirit. Therefore, I am expecting many of you even in Australia,
at the end of your second year of the Agora. Lastly, let us turn our
gaze, our eyes, once again to Mary, model of humility and courage.
Virgin of Nazareth, help us to be docile to the work of the Holy
Spirit, as you were; help us to become ever more holy, disciples in
love with your Son Jesus; sustain and guide these young people so
that they may be joyful and tireless missionaries of the Gospel
among their peers in every corner of Italy. Amen! Top
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