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Pope
Benedict XVI - Addresses |
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO CONSECRATED MEN AND WOMEN
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
XIII World Day of Consecrated Life
Monday, Februrary 2, 2009
A Mass was held in St. Peter's Square.
The Pope delivered this message after the Mass.
"Paul Lives For, With
and In Christ"
Your
Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I meet you with great joy at the end of the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, on this liturgical Feast which for 13 years now has gathered
men and women religious for the Day for Consecrated Life. I
cordially greet Cardinal Franc Rodé, with special gratitude to him
and to his collaborators at the Congregation for Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for their service
to the Holy See and to what I would call the "cosmos" of consecrated
life. I greet with affection the men and women Superiors General
present here and all of you, brothers and sisters who, with your
witness as consecrated persons modeled on the Virgin Mary, carry
Christ's light in the Church and in the world. In this Pauline Year,
I make my own the Apostle's words: "I give thanks to my God every
time I think of you which is constantly, in every prayer I utter
rejoicing, as I plead on your behalf, at the way you have all
continually helped promote the gospel from the very first day" (Phil
1: 3-5). In this greeting addressed to the Christian community of
Philippi, Paul expresses the affectionate remembrance he cherishes
of all who live the Gospel personally and toil to pass it on,
combining the care of their interior life with the effort of the
apostolic mission.
In the Church's tradition, St Paul has always been recognized as
father and teacher of those, called by the Lord, who have chosen
unconditional dedication to him and to his Gospel. Various religious
Institutes are named after St. Paul and draw from him a specific
charismatic inspiration. One can say that he repeats to all
consecrated men and women a forthright and affectionate invitation:
"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11: 1). What in fact
is consecrated life other than a radical imitation of Jesus, a total
"sequela" of him? (cf. Mt 19: 27-28). Well, in all this Paul
represents a sound pedagogical mediation: imitating him in the
following of Jesus, dear friends, is the privileged way to
correspond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the
Church.
Indeed, from his own voice we can recognize a lifestyle that
expresses the substance of consecrated life inspired by the
evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. He sees the
life of poverty as the guarantee of a Gospel proclamation carried
out totally gratuitously (cf. 1 Cor 9:1-23), while at the same time
he expresses concrete solidarity to his brethren in need. In this
regard we all know of Paul's decision to support himself with the
work of his hands and of his commitment to collecting offerings for
the poor of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Thes 2: 9; 2 Cor 8-9).
Paul is also an apostle who, in accepting God's call to chastity,
gave his heart to the Lord in an undivided manner to be able to
serve his brethren with even greater freedom and dedication (cf. 1
Cor 7: 7; 2 Cor 11: 1-2). Furthermore, in a world in which the
values of Christian chastity were far from widespread (cf. 1 Cor 6:
12-20) he offered a reliable reference for conduct. Then concerning
obedience it suffices to note that doing God's will and the "daily
pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor 11: 28)
motivated, shaped and consummated his existence, rendered a
sacrifice that found favor with God. All this brought him to
proclaim, as he wrote to the Philippians: "For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1: 21).
Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life is the
mission.
He belongs wholly to Jesus in order, like Jesus, to belong to all;
indeed, to be Jesus for all: "I have become all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor 9: 22). In him, so
closely united to the person of Christ, we recognize a profound
capacity for combining spiritual life and missionary action. In him
the two dimensions refer to each other reciprocally. And thus we can
say that he belongs to the ranks of those "mystical builders" whose
existence is both contemplative and active, open to God and to the
brethren, in order to carry out an effective service to the Gospel.
In this mystic and apostolic tension, I would like to remark on the
Apostle's courage as he faced the sacrifice of confronting terrible
trials, even to the point of martyrdom (cf. 2 Cor 11: 16-33) and on
his steadfast faith based on the words of his Lord: "my grace is
enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection" (2 Cor 12:
9-10). His spiritual experience thus appears to us as a lived-out
expression of the Paschal Mystery, which he investigated intensely
and proclaimed as a form of Christian life. Paul lives for, with and
in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ", he writes, "it is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2: 20); and
again: "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1:
21).
This explains why he does not tire of urging us to behave in such a
way that Christ's word may dwell within us in its richness (cf. Col
3: 16). This brings to mind the invitation addressed to you in the
recent Instruction on The Service of Authority and Obedience, to
seek "every morning... a living and faithful contact with the Word
which is proclaimed that day, meditating on it and holding it in
[your] heart as a treasure, making of it the root of every action
and the primary criterion of each choice". I therefore hope that the
Pauline Year will nourish still more in you the determination to
accept the testimony of St Paul, meditating every day upon the word
of God with the faithful practice of lectio divina, praying with
"psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness..." (Col 3:
16). May he also help you to carry out your apostolic service in and
with the Church with a spirit of communion without reservation,
making a gift of your own charisms to others (cf. 1 Cor 14: 12), and
witnessing in the first place to the greatest charism which is
charity (cf. 1 Cor 13).
Dear brothers and sisters, today's liturgy urges us to look at the
Virgin Mary, the "consecrated one" par excellence. Paul speaks of
her with concise but effective words that describe her greatness and
her task: she is the "woman" from whom, in the fullness of time, the
Son of God was born (cf. Gal 4: 4).
Mary is the Mother who today presents her Son to the Father at the
Temple, also continuing in this action the "yes" she spoke at the
moment of the Annunciation. May she once again be the mother who
accompanies and sustains us, God's children and her children, in
carrying out a generous service to God and to the brethren. To this
end, I invoke her heavenly intercession as I warmly impart the
Apostolic Blessing to all of you and to your respective religious
families.
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