MASS OF POSSESSION OF THE CHAIR
OF THE BISHOP OF ROME
Homily
of H.H. Benedict XVI
Basilica of St John
Lateran
Saturday, 7 May 2005
Dear Father Cardinals,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, when I can sit for the first time on the Chair of the
Bishop of Rome as Successor of Peter, is the day on which the
Church in Italy celebrates the Feast of the Ascension of the
Lord. At the centre of this day we find Christ. And it is also
only thanks to him, thanks to the mystery of his Ascension, that
we can understand the significance of the Chair, which in turn
is the symbol of the Bishop's power and responsibility.
So
what does the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord mean for us? It
does not mean that the Lord has departed to some place far from
people and from the world. Christ's Ascension is not a journey
into space toward the most remote stars; for basically, the
planets, like the earth, are also made of physical elements.
Christ's Ascension means that he no longer belongs to the world
of corruption and death that conditions our life. It means that
he belongs entirely to God. He, the Eternal Son, led our human
existence into God's presence, taking with him flesh and blood
in a transfigured form.
The
human being finds room in God; through Christ, the human being
was introduced into the very life of God. And since God embraces
and sustains the entire cosmos, the Ascension of the Lord means
that Christ has not departed from us, but that he is now, thanks
to his being with the Father, close to each one of us for ever.
Each one of us can be on intimate terms with him; each can call
upon him. The Lord is always within hearing. We can inwardly
draw away from him. We can live turning our backs on him. But he
always waits for us and is always close to us.
From
the readings of today's liturgy we also learn something more
about the concrete way the Lord makes himself close to us. The
Lord promises the disciples his Holy Spirit. The first reading
that we heard tells us that the Holy Spirit will give "power" to
the disciples; the Gospel adds that he will guide them to the
whole truth. As the living Word of God, Jesus told his disciples
everything, and God can give no more than himself. In Jesus, God
gave us his whole self, that is, he gave us everything. As well
as or together with this, there can be no other revelation which
can communicate more or in some way complete the Revelation of
Christ. In him, in the Son, all has been said to us, all has
been given.
But
our understanding is limited: thus, the Spirit's mission is to
introduce the Church, in an ever new way from generation to
generation, into the greatness of Christ's mystery. The Spirit
places nothing different or new beside Christ; no pneumatic
revelation comes with the revelation of Christ - as some say -,
no second level of Revelation.
No:
"He will have received from me...", Christ says in the Gospel (Jn
16: 14). And as Christ says only what he hears and receives from
the Father, thus the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of Christ.
"He will have received from me". He does not lead us to other
places, far from Christ, but takes us further and further into
Christ's light. Consequently, Christian Revelation is both ever
old and new. Thus, all things are and always have been given to
us. At the same time, every generation, in the inexhaustible
encounter with the Lord - an encounter mediated by the Holy
Spirit - always learns something new.
The
Holy Spirit, therefore, is the power through which Christ causes
us to experience his closeness. But the first reading also has
something else to say: you will be my witnesses. The Risen
Christ needs witnesses who have met him, people who have known
him intimately through the power of the Holy Spirit; those who
have, so to speak, actually touched him, can witness to him.
It
is in this way that the Church, the family of Christ, "beginning
at Jerusa-lem"..., as the Reading says, spread to the very ends
of the earth. It is through witnesses that the Church was built
- starting with Peter and Paul and the Twelve, to the point of
including all who, filled with Christ, have rekindled down the
centuries and will rekindle the flame of faith in a way that is
ever new. All Christians in their own way can and must be
witnesses of the Risen Lord.
When
we read the saints' names we can see how often they have been -
and continue to be - first and foremost simple people from whom
shone - and shines - a radiant light that can lead others to
Christ.
But
this chorus of witnesses is also endowed with a clearly defined
structure: the successors of the Apostles, the Bishops, who are
publicly responsible for ensuring that the network of these
witnesses survives. The power and grace required for this
service are conferred upon Bishops through the sacrament of
Episcopal Ordination. In this network of witnesses, the
Successor of Peter has a special task. It was Peter who, on the
Apostles' behalf, made the first profession of faith: "You are
the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16: 16).
This
is the task of all Peter's Successors: to be the guide in the
profession of faith in Christ, Son of the living God. The Chair
of Rome is above all the Seat of this belief. From high up on
this Chair the Bishop of Rome is constantly bound to repeat:
Dominus Iesus - "Jesus is Lord", as Paul wrote in his
Letters to the Romans (10: 9) and to the Corin-thians (I Cor 12:
3). To the Corinthians he stressed: "Even though there are
so-called gods in the heavens and on the earth... for us there
is one God, the Father... and one Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom everything was made and through whom we live" (I Cor 8: 5).
The
Chair of Peter obliges all who hold it to say, as Peter said
during a crisis time among the disciples when so many wanted to
leave him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. We have come to believe; we are convinced that you
are God's holy one" (Jn 6: 68 ff.).
The One who sits on the Chair of Peter must remember the Lord's
words to Simon Peter at the Last Supper: "...You in turn must
strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22: 32). The one who holds the
office of the Petrine ministry must be aware that he is a frail
and weak human being - just as his own powers are frail and weak
- and is constantly in need of purification and conversion.
But
he can also be aware that the power to strengthen his brethren
in the faith and keep them united in the confession of the
Crucified and Risen Christ comes from the Lord. In St Paul's
First Letter to the Corinthians, we find the oldest account we
have of the Resurrection. Paul faithfully received it from the
witnesses. This account first speaks of Christ's death for our
sins, of his burial and of his Resurrection which took place the
third day, and then says: "[Christ] was seen by Cephas, then by
the Twelve..." (I Cor 15: 4). Thus, the importance of the
mandate conferred upon Peter to the end of time is summed up:
being a witness of the Risen Christ.
The
Bishop of Rome sits upon the Chair to bear witness to Christ.
Thus, the Chair is the symbol of the potestas docendi,
the power to teach that is an essential part of the mandate of
binding and loosing which the Lord conferred on Peter, and after
him, on the Twelve. In the Church, Sacred Scripture, the
understanding of which increases under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, and the ministry of its authentic interpretation
that was conferred upon the Apostles, are indissolubly bound.
Whenever Sacred Scripture is separated from the living voice of
the Church, it falls prey to disputes among experts.
Of
course, all they have to tell us is important and invaluable;
the work of scholars is a considerable help in understanding the
living process in which the Scriptures developed, hence, also in
grasping their historical richness.
Yet
science alone cannot provide us with a definitive and binding
interpretation; it is unable to offer us, in its interpretation,
that certainty with which we can live and for which we can even
die. A greater mandate is necessary for this, which cannot
derive from human abilities alone. The voice of the living
Church is essential for this, of the Church entrusted until the
end of time to Peter and to the College of the Apostles.
This
power of teaching frightens many people in and outside the
Church. They wonder whether freedom of conscience is threatened
or whether it is a presumption opposed to freedom of thought. It
is not like this. The power that Christ conferred upon Peter and
his Successors is, in an absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The
power of teaching in the Church involves a commitment to the
service of obedience to the faith. The Pope is not an absolute
monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the
Pope's ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his
Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly
bind himself and the Church to obedience to God's Word, in the
face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every
form of opportunism.
Pope
John Paul II did this when, in front of all attempts, apparently
benevolent to the human person, and in the face of erroneous
interpretations of freedom, he unequivocally stressed the
inviolability of the human being and of human life from the
moment of conception until natural death. The freedom to kill is
not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to
slavery.
The
Pope knows that in his important decisions, he is bound to the
great community of faith of all times, to the binding
interpretations that have developed throughout the Church's
pilgrimage. Thus, his power is not being above, but at the
service of, the Word of God. It is incumbent upon him to ensure
that this Word continues to be present in its greatness and to
resound in its purity, so that it is not torn to pieces by
continuous changes in usage.
The
Chair is - let us say it again - a symbol of the power of
teaching, which is a power of obedience and service, so that the
Word of God- the truth! - may shine out among us and show us the
way of life.
But
in speaking of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, how can we
forget St Ignatius of Antioch's words addressed to the Romans?
Peter came from Antioch, his first See, to Rome, his permanent
See. His martyrdom decreed that he stay here definitively and
bound his succession to Rome for ever.
Ignatius, for his part, while remaining Bishop of Antioch, was
also heading for the martyrdom that he was to suffer in Rome. In
his Letter to the Romans, he refers to the Church of Rome as
"She who presides in love", a deeply meaningful phrase. We do
not know with any certainty what Ignatius may have had in mind
when he used these words. But for the ancient Church, the word
love, agape, referred to the mystery of the Eucharist. In
this mystery, Christ's love becomes permanently tangible among
us. Here, again and again he gives himself. Here, again and
again his heart is pierced; here he keeps his promise, the
promise which, from the Cross, was to attract all things to
himself.
In
the Eucharist, we ourselves learn Christ's love. It was thanks
to this centre and heart, thanks to the Eucharist, that the
saints lived, bringing to the world God's love in ever new ways
and forms. Thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is reborn ever
anew! The Church is none other than that network - the
Eucharistic community! - within which all of us, receiving the
same Lord, become one body and embrace all the world.
Presiding in doctrine and presiding in love must in the end be
one and the same: the whole of the Church's teaching leads
ultimately to love. And the Eucharist, as the love of Jesus
Christ present, is the criterion for all teaching. On love the
whole law is based, and the prophets as well, the Lord says (cf.
Mt 22: 40). Love is the fulfilment of the law, St Paul wrote to
the Romans (cf. 13: 10).
Dear
Romans, I am now your Bishop. Thank you for your generosity,
thank you for your sympathy, thank you for your patience with
me! As Catholics, in some way we are also all Romans.
With
the words of Psalm 87, a hymn of praise to Zion, mother of all
the peoples, Israel sang and the Church sings: "Of Zion they
shall say: "One and all were born in her...'" (v. 5). We too can
likewise say: as Catholics, in a certain way, we are all born in
Rome.
Thus, I want to try with all my heart to be your Bishop, the
Bishop of Rome. And let us all seek to be more and more Catholic
- more and more brothers and sisters in the great family of God,
that family where no one is a stranger.
Lastly, I would like to warmly thank dear Cardinal Camillo Ruini,
Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, the Auxiliary Bishops and all
their collaborators. I warmly thank the parish priests, the
clergy of Rome and all who, as the faithful, make their
contribution to building here the living house of God. Amen.
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