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Pope Benedict XVI- Addresses |
"Only
in the 'We' of the Church Can We Truly Hear the Word"
Address at End of Lenten Retreat
H.H. Benedict XVI
Redemptoris Mater Chapel
February 27, 2010
Dear Brothers,
Dear Father Enrico,
In the name of all of us present here I would like to say thank you
with my whole heart to you, Father Enrico, for this retreat, for the
impassioned and very personal way in which you guided our path
toward Christ, on path of renewal of our priesthood.
You chose as your starting point, as an always present background,
as destination -- we saw it just now -- Solomon's prayer for "a
heart that hears." In truth, it seems to me that here the whole
Christian vision of man is recapitulated. Man is not perfect in
himself, man has need of relation -- he is a being in relation. It
is not his "cogito" that can "cogitare" the whole of reality. He
needs to listen, to listen to the other, above all the Other -- with
a capital "O" -- who is God. Only in this way does he know himself,
only in this way does he become himself.
From my place here I always saw the Mother of the Redeemer, the "Sedes
Sapietiae," the living seat of wisdom, with Wisdom incarnate in her
womb. And as we saw, St. Luke presents Mary precisely as a woman who
listens from the heart, who is immersed in the Word of God, who
listens to the Word, who meditates ("synballein") on it, composes
and treasures it, who carries it in her heart. The Fathers of the
Church say that in the moment of the conception of the eternal Word
in the womb of the Virgin the Holy Spirit entered into Mary through
her ear. In listening she conceived the eternal Word, she gave her
flesh to this Word. And thus she tells what it means to have a heart
that listens.
Mary is surrounded here by the fathers and the mothers of the
Church, by the communion of saints. And so we see and we have
understood during these days that we cannot truly hear the Word in
the isolated "I" but only in the "we" of the Church, in the "we" of
the communion of saints.
And you, dear Father Enrico, have shown us, have provided a voice
for five exemplary figures of the priesthood, beginning with
Ignatius of Antioch and continuing to the dear and venerable Pope
John Paul II. Thus we have truly again perceived what it means to be
a priest, to become priests more and more.
You have also stressed that consecration is for mission, it is
destined to become mission. During these days we have penetrated our
consecration more deeply with God's help. Thus, with new courage, we
would like now to take up our mission. May the Lord help us. Thank
you for your help, Father Enrico.
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
