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Pope Benedict XVI- Audiences |
General Audience
On Being an Apostle
"May You Always Be Friends and Apostles of Jesus Christ!"
H.H. Benedict XVI
August 2, 2006
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you for your welcome! I greet you all with great affection. After
an interval, due to my stay in the Aosta Valley, today I am resuming the
general audiences. And I am starting with a truly special audience,
because I have the joy of welcoming the large European Pilgrimage of
Altar Servers.
Dear boys and girls and young people, welcome! Since most of the altar
servers who have gathered in this square today are German-speaking, I
will first address them in my mother-tongue.
Dear Altar Servers,
I am pleased that my first audience after my holiday in the Alps is with
you altar servers, and I greet each one of you with affection. I thank
your pastor, Auxiliary Bishop Martin Gächter of Basle, for the words
with which, as president of Coetus Internationalis Ministrantium, he
introduced the audience, and I am grateful for the scarf, thanks to
which I am once again an altar boy. In 1935, more than 70 years ago, I
began as an altar boy; consequently, it has been a long journey on this
path.
I cordially greet Cardinal Christoph Schönborn who celebrated holy Mass
for you yesterday, and the many bishops and priests who have come from
Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary.
I would like to offer you, dear altar servers -- briefly, since it is
hot -- a message that can accompany you throughout your life and your
service in the Church.
I would therefore like to resume the subject I have been addressing at
the Catecheses in recent months. Perhaps some of you know that at the
Wednesday general audiences I am presenting the figures of the apostles.
First came Simon, whom the Lord called Peter, his brother Andrew, then
another pair of brothers, St. James known as "the Greater," the first
martyr among the apostles, and John the theologian and Evangelist, then
James called "the Less."
I am planning to continue my presentation of the individual apostles at
the next audiences, in which the Church, so to speak, becomes personal.
Today, however, we are reflecting on a common subject: on what kind of
people the apostles were.
In short, we might say that they were "friends" of Jesus. This is what
he himself called them at the Last Supper, saying to them: "No longer do
I call you servants ... but ... friends" (John 5: 15).
They were, and were able to be, apostles and witnesses of Christ because
they were close to him. They were united to him by a bond of love,
brought to life by the Holy Spirit.
In this perspective, we can understand the theme of your pilgrimage: "Spiritus
vivificat." It is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who gives life. It is he
who gives life to your relationship with Jesus, in such a way that it
becomes not only exterior: "We know that he existed and that he is
present in the sacrament," but he makes it become an intimate, profound
and truly personal friendship which can give meaning to each one of your
lives. And since you know him and know him in friendship, you will be
able to witness to him and take him to others.
Today, seeing you here before me in St. Peter's Square, I think of the
apostles and I hear Jesus' voice saying to you: I do not call you
servants but friends; abide in my love and you will bear an abundance of
fruit (cf. John 15: 9, 16).
I ask you to listen to this voice! Christ did not only say this 2,000
years ago; he is alive and saying it to you now. Listen to his voice
with great openness; he has something to say to each one. Perhaps he is
saying to some of you: "I want you to serve me in a special way as a
priest, thus becoming my witness, being my friend and introducing others
into this friendship."
Listen faithfully, therefore, to Jesus' voice. Each person's vocation is
different, but Christ wants to make friends with everyone, just as he
did with Simon, whom he called Peter, with Andrew, James, John and the
other apostles.
He has given you his word and continues to give it to you, so that you
may know the truth, know how things truly are for human beings, and
thus, so that you know how one ought to live in the right way, how one
ought to face life so that it may become true. Thus, each of you, in
your own way, will be able to be his disciples and apostles.
Dear altar servers, you are, in fact, already apostles of Jesus! When
you take part in the liturgy by carrying out your altar service, you
offer a witness to all. Your absorption, the devotion that wells up from
your heart and is expressed in gestures, in song, in the responses: If
you do it correctly and not absent-mindedly, then in a certain way your
witness is one that moves people.
The Eucharist is the source and summit of the bond of friendship with
Jesus. You are very close to Jesus in the Eucharist, and this is the
most important sign of his friendship for each one of us. Do not forget
it.
This is why I am asking you not to take this gift for granted so that it
does not become a sort of habit, knowing how it works and doing it
automatically; rather, discover every day anew that something important
happens, that the living God is among us and that you can be close to
him and help him so that his mystery is celebrated and reaches people.
If you do not give into habit, if you put your innermost self into
carrying out your service, then you will truly be his apostles and bear
fruits of goodness and service in every context of your life: in the
family, at school, in your free time.
Take to one and all that love which you receive in the liturgy,
especially to places where you realize that they lack love, where they
do not receive goodness, where they suffer and are lonely.
With the power of the Holy Spirit, try to take Jesus to those very
people who are outcast, who are not very popular or have problems. With
the power of the Holy Spirit, it is precisely there that you must take
Jesus.
In this way, the bread you see broken upon the altar will be shared and
multiplied even more, and you, like the Twelve Apostles, will help Jesus
distribute it to the people of today in their different walks of life.
So it is, dear altar servers, that my last words to you are: May you
always be friends and apostles of Jesus Christ!
And I now move on to the other languages...
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims here today, including the
groups from Scotland and Ireland, Asia, Norway and the United States. A
special greeting to the English-speaking altar servers present: By
serving at Mass, may you come ever closer to Christ our Lord. Upon all
of you I invoke God's abundant blessings.
I now address a special greeting to the sick and the newlyweds who are
present today. May Christ's love always be for you, dear sick people, a
source of comfort and peace; and may it help you, dear newlyweds, to
make your union stronger and deeper every day.
Lastly, I invite everyone to continue to pray for the beloved and
tormented region of the Middle East.
Our eyes are filled with chilling images of the mangled corpses of so
many people, especially children -- I am thinking in particular of Cana,
in Lebanon.
I would like to repeat that nothing can justify the shedding of innocent
blood, wherever it may occur!
With my heart full of grief, I renew once again a pressing appeal for
the immediate cessation of all hostilities and all violence, as I urge
the international community and those who are more directly involved in
this tragedy to create the conditions for a definitive political
solution to the crisis that can pass on to the generations to come a
more peaceful and secure future.
[Translation issued by the Holy See]
© Copyright 2006 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]
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