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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
"The
Ascension invites us to a profound communion with jesus"
Homily during a Pastoral Visit to Cassino
H.H. Benedict XVI
Miranda Plaza Cassino, Italy
May 24, 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). With these words Jesus bids
farewell to the Apostles, as we heard in the first reading.
Immediately afterward the sacred author adds that "as they were
looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight"
(Acts 1:9). Today we are solemnly celebrating the mystery of the
Ascension. But what does the Bible and the liturgy intend to
communicate to us in saying that Jesus "was lifted up"? We will not
understand the meaning of this expression from a single text, nor
from one book of the New Testament, but in carefully listening to
the whole of Sacred Scripture. The use of the verb "to lift" is in
effect Old Testament in origin and it referred to an installation in
royalty. Christ's ascension thus means, in the first place, the
installation of the crucified and risen Son of Man in God's royal
dominion over the world.
There is a deeper meaning, however, that is not immediately
graspable. The passage from the Acts of the Apostles says first that
Jesus was "lifted up" (1:9), and afterward it adds that "he was
assumed" (1:11). The event is not described as a voyage up above,
but rather as an action of God's power, which introduces Jesus into
the space of nearness to the divine. The presence in the clouds that
"took him from their sight" (1:9) recalls a very ancient image of
Old Testament theology and inserts the Ascension into the history of
God with Israel, from the clouds of Sinai and above the tent of the
covenant, to the luminous clouds on the mountain of the
Transfiguration. Presenting the Lord wreathed in clouds definitively
evokes the same mystery expressed in the symbolism of "sitting at
the right hand of God." In Christ ascended into heaven, man has
entered in a new and unheard of way into the intimacy of God; man
now finds space in God forever. "Heaven" does not indicate a place
beyond the stars but something more bold and sublime: it indicates
Christ himself, the divine Person that completely and forever takes
on humanity, he in whom God and man are united forever. And we draw
near to heaven, indeed, we enter into heaven, to the extent that we
draw near to Jesus and enter into communion with him. For this
reason, today's Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to a profound
communion with Jesus dead and risen, invisibly present in the life
of each of us.
In this perspective we understand why the evangelist Luke says that,
after the Ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem "full of
joy" (24:52). They are joyful because what happened was not a
separation: in fact now they had the certainty that the crucified
and risen Christ was alive, and in him the gates of eternal life
were opened forever. In other words, the Ascension did not begin
Christ's temporary absence from the world but inaugurated instead
the new, definitive and insuppressible form of his presence, by
virtue of his participation in the royal power of God. It will
belong to them, to the disciples, emboldened by the power of the
Holy Spirit, to make his presence felt with their witness, preaching
and missionary commitment. The Solemnity of the Ascension of the
Lord should fill us also with serenity and enthusiasm like the
Apostles, who returned from the Mount of Olives "full of joy." Like
them, we too, accepting the invitation of the two men "dressed in
white garments," must not stay looking up at the sky, but, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must go everywhere and proclaim the
salvific message of the death and resurrection of Christ. His own
words -- with which the Gospel according Matthew concludes: "And
behold I am with you all days until the end of the world" (Matthew
28:19) -- accompany and comfort us.
Dear brothers and sisters, the historical character of the mystery
of the resurrection and ascension of Christ helps us to recognize
and to understand the transcendent and eschatological condition of
the Church, which was not born and does not live to take the place
of the Lord who has "disappeared" but which finds its reason for
being in his mission and in the invisible presence of Jesus working
with the power of his Spirit. In other words, we could say that the
Church does not carry out the function of preparing for the return
of an "absent" Jesus, but, on the contrary, lives and works to
proclaim his "glorious presence" in an historical and existential
manner. Since the day of the Ascension, every Christian community
advances in its earthly journey toward the fulfillment of the
messianic promises, fed by the Word of God and nourished by Body and
Blood of its Lord. This is the condition of the Church -- the Second
Vatican Council says -- as she "presses forward amid the
persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, announcing
the cross and death of the Lord until he comes" (Lumen Gentium, 8).
Brothers and sisters of this dear diocesan community, today's
solemnity calls on us to reinvigorate our faith in the real presence
of Jesus; without him we cannot do anything of value in our life or
apostolate. It is he, as the Apostle Paul recalls in the second
reading, who "made some apostles, others as prophets, others as
evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ," that
is, the Church. And he does this so that "we all attain to the unity
of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to manhood, to
the extent of the full stature of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13, 14).
My visit today is situated in this context. As your pastor noted,
the purpose of this visit is to encourage you constantly to "build,
found and rebuild" your diocesan community on Christ. How? St.
Benedict himself points the way, recommending in his Rule to put
nothing before Christ: "Christo nihil omnino praeponere" (LXII, 11).
This is why I thank God for the good that your community is
accomplishing under the leadership of your pastor, Father Abbot Dom
Pietro Vittorelli, whom I greet with affection and thank for the
kind words that he spoke to me on behalf of everyone. Together with
him, I greet the monastic community, the bishops, the priests and
the men and women religious who are present. I greet the civil and
military authorities, in the first place the mayor, to whom I am
grateful for the speech with which he welcomed me in here in Piazza
Miranda, which will afterwards bear my name. I greet the catechists,
the pastoral workers, the young people and those who in various ways
are overseeing the spreading of the Gospel in this land rich with
history, which experienced moments of great suffering during the
Second World War. The many cemeteries that surround your resort city
are a silent witness of this. Among these, I think particularly of
the Polish, German and Commonwealth cemeteries. Finally I extend my
greeting to all the citizens of Cassino and the nearby towns: to
each, especially to the sick and suffering, I assure my affection
and my prayer.
Dear brothers and sisters, we hear St. Benedict's call echo in this
celebration of ours, to keep our hearts fixed on Christ and put
nothing before him. This does not distract us but on the contrary
moves us even more to commit ourselves to the building up of a
society where solidarity is expressed in concrete signs. But how?
Benedictine spirituality, which you know well, proposes an
evangelical program synthesized in the motto: "ora et labora et lege"
-- "prayer, work, culture." First of all prayer, which is the most
beautiful legacy that St. Benedict left the monks, but also to your
local Church: to your clergy -- most of whom were formed in the
diocesan seminary, for centuries housed in the Abbey of Monte
Cassino itself -- to the seminarians, to the many who were educated
in the Benedictine schools and recreation programs and in your
parishes, to all of you who live in this land. Looking up from every
village and district of the diocese, you can all admire that
constant reminder of heaven that is the monastery of Monte Cassino,
to which you climb every year in the procession on the eve of
Pentecost. Prayer -- to which grave peals of the bell of St.
Benedict calls the monks every morning -- is the silent path that
leads us directly to the heart of God; it is the breath of the soul
that gives us peace again in the storms of life. Furthermore, in the
school of St. Benedict, the monks always cultivated a special love
for the Word of God in the "lectio divina," which has become the
common patrimony of many today. I know that your diocesan Church,
following the instructions of the Italian Bishops' conference, takes
great care in studying the Bible, and indeed has begun a course of
study of the Sacred Scriptures, dedicating this year to the
evangelist Mark and continuing over the next four years will
conclude, please God, with a diocesan pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
May attentive listening to the divine Word nourish your prayer and
make you prophets of truth and love in a joint commitment to
evangelization and human promotion.
The other hinge of Benedictine spirituality is work. Humanizing the
world of work is typical of the soul of monasticism, and this is
also the effort of your community that seeks to be at the side of
the many workers in the great industry present in Cassino and the
enterprises linked to it. I know how critical the situation of many
workers is. I express my solidarity with those who live in a
troubling precariousness, with those workers who on unemployment
assistance and those who have been laid off. May the wound of
unemployment that afflicts this area lead those who are responsible
for the "res publica," the entrepreneurs and those who are able, to
seek, with everyone's help, valid solutions to the employment
crisis, creating new places of work to safeguard families. In this
respect, how can we not recall that today the family has an urgent
need to be better protected, since it is gravely threatened in its
very institutional roots? I think also of the young people who have
difficulty finding a dignified job that allows them to build a
family. To them I would like to say: Do not be discouraged, dear
friends, the Church will not abandon you! I know that more than 25
young people from your diocese participated in last year's World
Youth Day in Sydney: treasuring that extraordinary spiritual
experience, may you be evangelical leaven among your friends and
peers; with the power of the Holy Spirit, be the new missionaries in
this land of St. Benedict!
Attention to the world of culture and education also belongs to your
tradition. The celebrated archive and library of Monte Cassino
contain innumerable testimonies of the commitment of men and women
who meditated on and researched ways of improving the spiritual and
material life of man. In your abbey one can touch with one's hands
the "quaerere Deum," the fact that European culture has been
constituted by the search for God and availability to listen to him.
And this is important for our time as well. I know that you are
working with this very spirit at the university and in the schools,
so that you become workers of knowledge, research, passion for the
future of new generations. I also know that in preparation for my
visit you recently held a conference on the theme of education to
solicit in everyone the lively determination to transmit to the
young people the values of our human and Christian patrimony that we
cannot renounce. In today's cultural effort aimed at creating a new
humanism, faithful to the Benedictine tradition you rightly intend
to stress attention to the fragility, weakness of man, to disabled
persons and immigrants. And I am grateful that you have given me the
possibility today of inaugurating the "House of Charity," where a
culture attentive to life will be built with deeds.
Dear brothers and sisters! It is not hard to see in your community,
this portion of the Church that lives around Monte Cassino, is heir
and repository of the mission, impregnated by the spirit of St.
Benedict, to proclaim that in your life no one and nothing must take
Jesus away from the first place; the mission to build, in Christ's
name, a new humanity to teach hospitality and help of the weakest.
May your patriarch help and accompany you, with St. Scholastica his
sister; may your holy patrons, and above all Mary, Mother of the
Church and Star of our hope, protect you. Amen!
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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