Catholics across the world learned of Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign just two days before Ash Wednesday.
In an unexpected way, the 2013 Lenten season will be remembered as a time of sadness, yet it will also be one of gratitude for the legacy of a spiritual father who courageously defended the Catholic faith and the dignity of the human person across all cultures and political systems.
Pope Benedict presented his decision as the fruit of deep prayer and a prolonged examination of "conscience before God." He said he was "well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering."
However, he wrote that his declining strength of mind and body forced him "to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."
During his last public homily, he told the congregation at St. Peter’s Basilica on Ash Wednesday that he would pray with other Church leaders at "the tomb of the Apostle Peter, to also ask him to pray for the path of the Church going forward at this particular moment in time, to renew our faith in the Supreme Pastor, Christ the Lord."
Thus, while the College of Cardinals prepares for a conclave to elect a successor, the present Pope will leave the Vatican on Feb. 28 for his summer residence — and eventually a Vatican monastery, where he will "devotedly serve the holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."
There will be time enough for speculation regarding Pope Benedict’s successor and even more attention given for thoughtful reflection of the greatest contributions of his papacy.
For now, let us begin the liturgical season with prayers of gratitude for his service to the Church — and with a mind and heart prepared to receive the guidance he offered in his message for Lent 2013.
"The celebration of Lent, in the context of the Year of Faith, offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God — the God of Jesus Christ — and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others," stated Pope Benedict in his message for this season.
The Holy Father asked us to meditate on the bond between faith and love, even as our cultural beliefs and pastimes seem to wrench them apart.
In the West, we reside in what some call a "post-Christian" world. As religious witness is marginalized, a code of self-assertion has filled the vacuum. Men and women are encouraged to construct their own visions of reality — whom to love and what to believe. It’s all up to them.
Many Catholics, too, have bought into the ethos of personal autonomy, and even when they reach out to others in need, they often look for strength only from within themselves, not from God.
Pope Benedict draws us toward another path that perceives both the beautiful and difficult elements of reality through the eyes of faith. This faith is not the stuff of delusion, but "a response to the love of God," rooted in his laws.
In his Lenten message, the Pope cited a passage from his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love):
"Acknowledgement of the living God is one path towards love, and the ‘Yes’ of our will to his will unites our intellect, will and sentiments in the all-embracing act of love. But this process is always open-ended; love is never ‘finished’ and complete."
This is his message for Catholics during a period of transition and anxiety both for the Church and for the world.
Charity is not our individual "project," as Pope Benedict reminds us, but a response to the gratuitous gift of God’s self-sacrificing love. We need not fear the limits of our capacity to love and serve, because our friendship with God will give us the grace to love without ceasing.
God "wants to draw us to himself, to transform us in such a profound way as to bring us to say, with St. Paul: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,’" stated the Pope, citing Galatians 2:20.
During Lent and throughout this Year of Faith, let us affirm Pope Benedict’s call to "make room for the love of God; then we become like him, sharing in his own charity."
We need never choose between faith and love, and we need never fear that the time reserved for prayer, contemplation and reception of the sacraments will impede the rest of our lives, including our service to others.
The Pope writes that the "Christian life 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."
In the wake of his momentous decision to resign from his office, these words offer Catholics a glimpse of Pope Benedict’s own "friendship" with God and the fruits it has already yielded in this life.
To all those anxious about the future of the Church, to all those who question the place of charity in a world that has forgotten God, let us find reassurance and strength in the Pope’s words: "Love is never finished."
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I share with you this morning one of the most beautiful tributes of love and gratitude to our Holy Father, in a letter from the Father General of the Discalced Carmelite Order. It is not just a tribute but also much for us to meditate upon as we pray for our beloved Holy Father.
Communicationes
P. SAVERIO CANNISTRÀ | ROME-ITALY (15-02-2013).- We feel the need to tell you this after news of your resignation from the papal ministry reached our family of Discalced Carmelites with lightening speed, from north to south, from east to west. Your words have profoundly moved us.
Among our flood of feelings, the one that stands out over all others is gratitude. Like so many millions of faithful in all parts of the world, we also, members of the Teresian Carmel, nuns, friars, and seculars, want to express our great and deep appreciation.
In these years of your service to the Church from the See of Peter, we have seen in you an open door to cross through to belief in Jesus. We can never thank you enough for this, with all the warmth and passion inherited from our Holy Mother Teresa. Our heart, which daily received your tender and profound proclamation of the Gospel, has allowed itself to be captured by your words of Father and Teacher. With joy and faith we have walked along the way to which they invited us, tasting the beauty of the faith more each day. Allow us today, Holy Father, to contemplate your life and your example in the light of the verses of Saint John of the Cross: “Now I occupy my soul and all my energy in his service; I no longer tend the herd, nor have I any other work now that my every act is love.”
In your message you told us that now your service to the Church will be expressed specially by prayer. How well we in the Teresian Carmel understand the value and greatness of this service! Allow us to accompany you in this new journey in search of the Beloved.
We want to tell you in all simplicity that we still need you, and if we can no longer enjoy your words, we are counting on your silent love, your hidden prayer, and your fraternal intercession. For us, God will transform the weakness you experience today into power capable of inspiring our efforts as Christians and religious.
It is God who traces out pathways, and certainly his ways are not our ways. Your Holiness, we wanted to have you with us always, to continue hearing your Shepherd’s voice that would reassure and encourage us to pass through the dark valleys of this life. Know that we are sorrowfully living your decision to retire, but in your words we feel the resonance of those Jesus spoke to his disciples: “If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father.” We are sure that like Jesus, you also, Holiness, in retiring, communicate to us the Spirit that has accompanied you from the vernal mornings of your infancy to the evenings of these last years.
Count on our poor prayers. It is the only way we can express our thankfulness for the mission you have carried out with courage, dignity, firmness, and above all, true humility. Your testimony encourages us to offer our lives in a moment of such great need for the Church. As Saint Teresa said, “Happy the lives lost for such a purpose!”
We commend your intentions to Mary, Queen and Mother of Carmel, who always leads us to Jesus, in whose favour we want to live
I appreciate the encouragement to not fear the limits of our capacity to love and serve but to have faith in our Lord’s infinite love. Come Holy Spirit!
What a magnificent editorial, in many ways. The editorial is a fundamental exposition of Benedict’s reign as the Vicar of Christ. It speaks to the love, faith, suffering, evangelization (the spreading of the gospel), and conversion in our times and throughout time.
What many people don’t seem to understand is the seeming contradiction (a paradox if you will) in joy and suffering. Faith and virtue encompass both faith and suffering. One is not had without the other. Our Church, our Faith is God’s gift to us as the means of our truly retuning our love to Him. But, within that joy resides suffering. Through suffering we have the grace of proving our love when it is united with the suffering of Christ in sacrifice and gratitude for our salvation. Suffering is also an enormous act of God’s mercy as an opportunity for penance.
How much more profoundly could Christ, the Living God, demonstrate and prove His love for us other than by His suffering, passion, and death for our redemption?
Living our faith and working toward virtue includes suffering: our doubts, our guilt and sorrowful remorse, our sinfulness turning ourselves away from God through our sinfulness, faults, failings, and inclinations toward evil. All these we suffer through in order grow in love and joy.
How can we possibly love God if our love does not exercise itself in action toward all our brothers and sisters? Even in our human relationships, we tend to love those and what our loved ones love. How can I say I love God if I do not love willingly all his individual children as He loves them? I can’t. I’ll fail because in reality I would be giving into my own self-love. True love begins with our will, not our feelings. Father of the Church, St. Francis de Sales eloquently yet simply, teaches us this through his life and writing “Treatise on the Love of God”.
The very nature and essence of God is love without which we would not nor continue to even be. It follows that in order to be what God intends for us to be in His image and likeness we must sacrifice and give up self in order to love others. We do that through our faith and love of others by spreading and promoting God’s purpose.
This is what Pope Benedict XVI has given us throughout his Papacy. He is criticized from many angles. They say he is a poor administrator: he is far too conservative (objective truth does not change); he is insensitive to the needs of modern day, changing societies and cultures; he is not gregarious and charismatic as was his predecessor, and on and on.
All of these miss the point. His Papacy will fundamentally go down as living expression of obedience to the will of God.
Please email this editorial to others as your contribution to spreading truth in the onslaught of media and personal misunderstanding and rejection.
What a right on editorial summarizing the papacy of Benedict XVI. It highlights in a most positive way the need for love, faith, suffering, conversion and the spread the Gospel and our faith in these times and throughout all time. We have the grace of proving our love when it is united with the suffering of Christ in sacrifice and gratitude for our salvation. Suffering is also an enormous act of God’s mercy as an opportunity for penance. All we suffer in our efforts to grow in virtue are filled with God’s love and joy We are mandated to share these with others in an evangelical way.This is what Pope Benedict XVI has given us throughout his papacy. But, he is criticized from many fronts. They say he is a poor administrator: he is far too conservative (objective truth does not change); he is insensitive to the needs of modern day, changing societies and cultures; he is not gregarious and charismatic as was his predecessor; he is not political enough and on and on. All of these miss the point. His Papacy will fundamentally go down as a living expression of obedience to the will of God.
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