|
Pope Benedict XVI- Apostolic Journey to the Holy Land |
"Even Hearts Hardened by......Unwillingness to Forgive Are Never
Beyond the Reach of God"
Address
at Regina Pacis Center
H.H. Benedict XVI
Amman, Jordan
May 8, 2009
Your Beatitudes,
Your Excellencies,
Dear Friends,
I am very happy to be here with you this afternoon, and to greet
each of you and your family members, wherever they may be. I thank
His Beatitude Patriarch Fouad Twal for his kind words of welcome and
in a special way I wish to acknowledge the presence among us of
Bishop Selim Sayegh, whose vision and labours for this Centre,
together with those of His Beatitude Patriarch Emeritus Michel
Sabbah, are today honored through the blessing of the new extensions
which has just taken place. I also wish to greet with great
affection the Central Committee members, the Comboni Sisters and the
dedicated lay staff, including those who work in the Centre's many
community branches and units. Your reputation for outstanding
professional competence, compassionate care and resolute promotion
of the rightful place in society of those with special needs is well
known here and throughout the Kingdom. To the young people present,
I thank you for your moving welcome. It is a great joy for me to be
with you.
As you know, my visit to the Our Lady of Peace Centre here in Amman
is the first stop along my journey of pilgrimage. Like countless
pilgrims before me it is now my turn to satisfy that profound wish
to touch, to draw solace from and to venerate the places where Jesus
lived, the places which were made holy by his presence. Since
apostolic times, Jerusalem has been the primary place of pilgrimage
for Christians, but earlier still, in the ancient Near East, Semitic
peoples built sacred shrines in order to mark and commemorate a
divine presence or action. And ordinary people would travel to these
centres carrying a portion of the fruits of their land and livestock
to offer in homage and thanksgiving.
Dear friends, every one of us is a pilgrim. We are all drawn
forward, with purpose, along God's path. Naturally, then, we tend to
look back on life - sometimes with regrets or hurts, often with
thanksgiving and appreciation - and we also look ahead - sometimes
with trepidation or anxiety, but always with expectation and hope,
knowing too that there are others who encourage us along the way. I
know that the journeys that have led many of you to the "Regina
Pacis" Centre have been marked by suffering or trial. Some of you
struggle courageously with disabilities, others of you have endured
rejection, and some of you are drawn to this place of peace simply
for encouragement and support. Of particular importance, I know, is
the Centre's great success in promoting the rightful place of the
disabled in society and in ensuring that suitable training and
opportunities are provided to facilitate such integration. For this
foresight and determination you all deserve great praise and
encouragement!
At times it is difficult to find a reason for what appears only as
an obstacle to be overcome or even as pain - physical or emotional -
to be endured. Yet faith and understanding help us to see a horizon
beyond our own selves in order to imagine life as God does. God's
unconditional love, which gives life to every human individual,
points to a meaning and purpose for all human life. His is a saving
love (cf. Jn 12:32). As Christians profess, it is through the Cross
that Jesus in fact draws us into eternal life, and in so doing
indicates to us the way ahead - the way of hope which guides every
step we take along the way, so that we too become bearers of that
hope and charity for others.
Friends, unlike the pilgrims of old, I do not come bearing gifts or
offerings. I come simply with an intention, a hope: to pray for the
precious gift of unity and peace, most specifically for the Middle
East. Peace for individuals, for parents and children, for
communities, peace for Jerusalem, for the Holy Land, for the region,
peace for the entire human family; the lasting peace born of
justice, integrity and compassion, the peace that arises from
humility, forgiveness and the profound desire to live in harmony as
one.
Prayer is hope in action. And in fact true reason is contained in
prayer: we come into loving contact with the one God, the universal
Creator, and in so doing we come to realize the futility of human
divisions and prejudices and we sense the wondrous possibilities
that open up before us when our hearts are converted to God's truth,
to his design for each of us and our world.
Dear young friends, to you in particular I wish to say that standing
in your midst I draw strength from God. Your experience of trials,
your witness to compassion, and your determination to overcome the
obstacles you encounter, encourage me in the belief that suffering
can bring about change for the good. In our own trials, and standing
alongside others in their struggles, we glimpse the essence of our
humanity, we become, as it were, more human. And we come to learn
that, on another plane, even hearts hardened by cynicism or
injustice or unwillingness to forgive are never beyond the reach of
God, can always be opened to a new way of being, a vision of peace.
I exhort you all to pray every day for our world. And today I want
to ask you to take up a specific task: please pray for me every day
of my pilgrimage; for my own spiritual renewal in the Lord, and for
the conversion of hearts to God's way of forgiveness and solidarity
so that my hope - our hope - for unity and peace in the world will
bear abundant fruit.
May God bless each of you and your families, and the teachers,
caregivers, administrators and benefactors of this Centre and may
Our Lady, Queen of Peace, protect you and guide you along the
pilgrim way of her Son, the Good Shepherd.
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
