The following is a translation of the text of a videomessage
sent by Pope Benedict XVI and transmitted Monday to a group of
priests on an international retreat in Ars, France. The retreat
was preached by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of
Vienna, Austria. The retreat, held in the context of the Year
for Priests, began Monday September 28 and concluded October 4.
Dear brothers in the priesthood,
As you can imagine, I would have been enormously happy to be
able to be with you on this international priestly retreat on
the theme: "The Joy of Being a Priest: Consecrated for the
Salvation of the World." You are many who participate and are
benefited by the teachings of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. I
cordially greet the other preachers and the bishop of Belley-Ars,
Guy Marie Bagnard. I have had to be content with addressing this
taped message to you, but I want to believe that with these
words, I speak to each one of you in the most personal way
possible, so that, as St. Paul said, "I hold you in my heart,
for you are all partakers with me of grace" (Philippians 1:7).
St. John Mary Vianney emphasized the indispensable role of the
priest when he said: "A good pastor, a pastor according to the
heart of God, this is the greatest treasure that the good God
can give a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine
mercy" (The Cure of Ars, Thoughts, Bernard Nodet, Desclee de
Brouwer, Foi Vivante, 2000, p. 101). In this Year of the Priest,
we are all called to explore and rediscover the grandeur of the
sacrament that has configured us forever to Christ the High
Priest and has "consecrated" all of us "in truth" (John 17:19).
Chosen among men, the priest continues to be one of them and is
called to serve them giving them the life of God. He it is who
"continues the work of redemption on earth" (Nodet, p. 98). Our
priestly vocation is a treasure that we bear in earthen vessels
(cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7). St. Paul expressed happily the infinite
distance that exists between our vocation and the poverty of the
answer we can give to God. Let us keep present in our ears and
in the depth of our heart the Apostle's exclamation full of
confidence, who said: "for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2
Corinthians 12:10). Awareness of this weakness opens us to
intimacy with God, who gives us strength and joy. The more the
priest perseveres in friendship with God, the more he will
continue the work of the Redeemer on earth (cf. Nodet, p. 98).
The priest is no longer for himself, but for all (cf. Nodet, p.
100).
Precisely therein lies one of the greatest challenges of our
time. The priest, man of the divine Word and of sacred things,
must be today, more than ever, a man of joy and hope. To men who
can no longer conceive that God is pure Love, he will always
affirm that life is worth living, and that Christ gives it all
its meaning because he loves men, all men. The religion of the
Cure d'Ars is a religion of joy, not a morbid seeking of
mortification, as sometimes has been believed: "Our happiness is
too great, no, no, we will never be able to understand it" (Nodet,
p. 110), he said, and also "when we are along the way and we
catch sight of a bell tower, this should make our heart beat as
the sight of the roof of the dwelling of the beloved makes the
bride's heart beat."
Thus, I would like to greet with particular affection those of
you who have the pastoral charge of several churches and who
spend yourselves without counting the cost to maintain a
sacramental life in your different communities. The recognition
of the Church is immense for you all! Do not lose courage, but
continue praying so that numerous young men will agree to
respond to Christ's call. Christ does not fail to want to
increase the number of his apostles to carry out the mission in
his fields.
Dear priests, I am also thinking of the enormous diversity of
the ministries you exercise at the service of the Church. Think
of the great number of Masses you have celebrated or will
celebrate, each time making Christ present on the altar. Think
of the innumerable absolutions you have given and will give,
allowing a sinner to be forgiven. You perceive in this moment
the infinite fecundity of the sacrament of [holy] orders. Your
hands, your lips, become, in the space of an instant, the hands
and lips of God. You bear Christ in yourselves; you have, by
grace, entered in the Holy Trinity. As the saintly Cure said:
"If one had faith, he would see God hidden in the priest as a
light behind a glass, as wine mixed with water" (Nodet, p. 97).
This consideration should help to harmonize relations between
priests in order to bring about that priestly community to which
St. Peter exhorts (cf. 1 Peter 2:9) to form the body of Christ,
upbuilt in love (cf. Ephesians 4:11-16).
The priest is the man of the future: he who has taken seriously
Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek
the things that are above" (Colossians 3:1). What is done on
earth is in the order of the means ordered to the last End. The
Mass is the only point of union between the means and the End,
because it allows us already to contemplate, under the humble
appearance of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of him whom we
will adore in eternity. The simple but profound phrases of the
saintly Cure on the Eucharist help us to perceive better the
richness of that unique moment of the day in which we live a
vivifying face to face [encounter] for ourselves and for each
one of the faithful. "The happiness there is in saying the Mass
will be understood only in heaven," he wrote (Nodet, p. 104).
Therefore, I encourage you to reinforce your faith and that of
the faithful in the sacrament you celebrate which is the source
of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest should feel the
same joy (of the Apostles) on seeing Our Lord, whom he has
between his hands" (Ibid.).
Thanking you for what you are and for what you do, I repeat:
"Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests in the life
of the Church" (Homily during the Mass of Sept. 13, 2008, on the
Esplanade des Invalides, Paris). Living witnesses of the power
of God who works in the weakness of men, consecrated for the
salvation of the world, you are, my dear brothers, chosen by
Christ himself to be, thanks to him, salt of the earth and light
of the world. May you be able to experience in a profound way,
during this spiritual retreat, the Inexpressible Closeness (St.
Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, va 13, p. 383) to be perfectly
united to Christ in order to proclaim his love around you and to
commit yourselves totally to the service of the sanctification
of all the members of the people of God! Entrusting you to the
Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of priests, I impart to you
all my Apostolic Blessing.
[Translation by ZENIT]
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Look at the One they
Pierced!
