Pope Benedict XVI said that Jesus did not seek recognition during his public ministry but chose instead to preach the sometimes difficult truth of “his sacrifice of love.”
“Jesus was not a Messiah who aspired to an earthly throne,” Pope said during his Sunday Angelus address at Castel Gandoflo Aug. 19.
“He did not seek popularity to conquer Jerusalem, and, indeed, he desired to go to the Holy City to share the fate of the prophets: to give his life for God and the people.”
Pope Benedict made his remarks from the Gospel of St. John in which Jesus reveals to the multitude in Capernaum that he is “the living bread which came down from heaven” and that “if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever.”
The crowds, who had previously been enthused by the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, are now dismayed as Christ clarifies that this bread that he “shall give for the life of the world” is, in fact, his “flesh.”
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” many protested, according the Gospel.
The realization had sunk in, noted the Pope, that the “loaves, broken for thousands of people, would not result in a triumphal march, but predict the sacrifice of the cross, when Jesus became the bread broken for the multitude, the body and blood offered in atonement for the soul of the world.”
Pope Benedict said Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in addressing the crowd “to break their illusions and, especially, force his disciples to decide.”
The result was that Christ's words did “dampen enthusiasm and cause many disagreements” among his disciples, such that “many of them no longer followed him.”
Jesus wanted to make clear that “he was sent to offer his life” and that “those who wanted to follow him had to join him in a deep and personal way, participating in his sacrifice of love.”
Hence, he subsequently establishes the sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper so “that his disciples may have in themselves his charity and, as one body united to him, extend in the world his mystery of salvation.”
The Pope concluded by leading pilgrims in the praying of the midday Marian prayer before expressing some specific words of encouragement to English-speaking pilgrims.
“May we always hunger for the gift of his presence in the Eucharistic sacrifice, wherein Jesus gives us his very self as food and drink to sustain us on our pilgrim journey to the Father. God bless all of you!”
Comments
Post a Comment
Jesus would say that having celibate old men as the only decision makers in his Church is absurd. He would say to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He would say that ignoring 50% of the flock (the women) and most of the men (the married ones) when you are selecting leaders will leave you with a less than ideal pool of talented leaders. And that’s the truth.
Listen on youtube to the Homily from this past Sunday’s Holy Mass (8/19/2012)that was televised on EWTN. Fr Menez (sorry, Fr, I know I misspelled your name)gave a wonderful Homily on the Eucharist, one of the very best I have ever heard on the Real Presence. It is a keeper.
I often here challenges to Church teachings along the lines of “well,polls show xx% of Catholics disagree with such and such Church teaching.”
Why do some attempt to reduce faith and morality to the current popular trend? There was a “poll” some 2000 years ago and the crowd demanded “Crucify Him.”
Wonderful teaching.
Here is the central core of our teaching and our Faith. The Holy Father quite rightfully refers to Jesus breaking up our illusions and compassionately encouraging a decision for us to develop a deeper and more personal relationship with Our Father In Heaven.
Christ is not an “I am ok, you are ok” teacher—- he is not ” what is good for me is not what is good for you”.....he does not allow us to NOT decide…..in the words of CS Lewis….he is either the son of God or he is a complete and utter fanatic….we can decide on one or the other…because he does not allow room for anything else. W
Regarding Jimbo’s comment:
There is nothing in the Gospel to assume that Christ was against Temple worship or the priesthood. Indeed all serious scholars agree that Christ came to fullfill the law and not abolish it, this included comleting the temple sacrifices and priesthood.
In fact, Catholicism is the continuation of the Jewish temple worship, thus perfected.
Modern day Jewry is completely alien to the Jewish religion practiced by Christ, the Apostles and His Blessed Mother.
So to summarize, I don’t agree with you. And it is a non sequitor to assume Christ would disagree with the structure of the Church He Himself founded.
Well said, Holy Father. The Catholic Church is not a democracy. We need to be obedient because I don’t think in heaven, we’ll be able to tell the Father to change this or that or that we deserve a bigger crown than so and so. Just saying.
On point as always!!! We are blessed to have another wise and Holy man as our pope. Followers of Christ will always be persecuted, as was Christ Himself.
Jimbo, what form of Protestantism are you advocating? I know that what you are talking about is certainly not Catholic.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.