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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
"The
Cross Is Part of the Ascent Toward the Height of Jesus Christ"
Palm Sunday Homily
H.H. Benedict XVI
March 28, 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Young People!
The Gospel for the blessing of the palms that we have listened to
together here in St. Peter's Square begins with the phrase: "Jesus
went ahead of everyone going up to Jerusalem" (Luke 19:28).
Immediately at the beginning of the liturgy this day, the Church
anticipates her response to the Gospel, saying, "Let us follow the
Lord." With that the theme of Palm Sunday is clearly expressed. It
is about following. Being Christian means seeing the way of Jesus
Christ as the right way of being human -- as that way that leads to
the goal, to a humanity that is fully realized and authentic. In a
special way, I would like to repeat to all the young men and women,
on this 25th World Youth Day, that being Christian is a journey, or
better: It is a pilgrimage, it is a going with Jesus Christ. A going
in that direction that he has pointed out to us and is pointing out
to us.
But what direction are we talking about? How do we find it? The line
from our Gospel offers two indications in this connection. In the
first place it says that it is a matter of an ascent. This has in
the first place a very literal meaning. Jericho, where the last
stage of Jesus's pilgrimage began, is 250 meters below sea-level
while Jerusalem -- the goal of the journey -- is 740-780 meters
above sea level: an ascent of almost 1,000 meters. But this external
rout is above all an image of the interior movement of existence,
which occurs in the following of Christ: It is an ascent to the true
height of being human. Man can choose an easy path and avoid all
toil. He can also descend to what is lower. He can sink into lies
and dishonesty. Jesus goes ahead of us, and he goes up to what is
above. He leads us to what is great, pure, he leads us to the
healthy air of the heights: to life according to truth; to the
courage that does not let itself be intimidated by the gossip of
dominant opinions; to the patience that stands up for and supports
the other. He leads us to availability to the suffering, to the
abandoned; to the loyalty that stands with the other even when the
situation makes it difficult.
He leads us to availability to bring help; to the goodness that does
not let itself be disarmed not even by ingratitude. He leads us to
love -- he leads us to God.
"Jesus went ahead of everyone going up to Jerusalem." If we read
these words of the Gospel in the context of Jesus' way as a whole --
a way that, in fact, he travels to the end of time -- we can
discover different meanings in the indication of "Jerusalem" as the
goal. Naturally, first of all it must be simply understood as the
place "Jerusalem:" It is the city in which one found God's Temple,
the oneness of which was supposed to allude to the oneness of God
himself. This place thus announces in the first place two things: On
the one hand it says that there is only one God in all the world,
who is completely beyond all our places and times; he is that God to
whom all creation belongs. He is the God whom deep down all men seek
and whom they all have knowledge of in some way. But this God has
given himself a name. He has made himself known to us, he has
launched a history with men; he chose a man -- Abram -- as the
beginning of this history. The infinite God is at the same time the
God who is near. He, who cannot be enclosed in any building,
nevertheless wants to live among us, be completely with us.
If Jesus goes up to Jerusalem together with Israel on pilgrimage, he
goes there to celebrate the Passover with Israel: the memorial of
Israel's liberation -- a memorial that is always at the same time
hope for the definitive liberation that God will give. And Jesus
goes to this feast with the awareness that he himself is the Lamb
spoken of in the Book of Exodus: a male lamb without blemish, which
at twilight will be slaughtered before all of Israel "as a perpetual
institution" (cf. Exodus 12:5-6, 14). And in the end Jesus knows
that his way goes beyond this: It will not end in the cross. He
knows that his way will tear away the veil between this world and
God's world; that he will ascend to the throne of God and reconcile
God and man in his body. He knows that his risen body will be the
new sacrifice and the new Temple; that around him in the ranks of
the angels and saints there will be formed the new Jerusalem that is
in heaven and nevertheless also on earth. His way leads beyond the
summit of the Temple mount to the height of God himself: This is the
great ascent to which he calls all of us. He always remains with us
on earth and has always already arrived [in heaven] with God; he
leads us on earth and beyond the earth.
Thus in the breadth of Jesus' ascent the dimensions of our following
of him become visible -- the goal to which he wants to lead us: to
the heights of God, to communion with God, to being-with-God. This
is the true goal, and communion with him is the way. Communion with
Christ is being on a journey, a permanent ascent to the true height
of our calling. Journeying together with Jesus is always at the same
time a traveling together in the "we" of those who want to follow
him. It brings us into this community. Because this journey to true
life, to being men conformed to the model of the Son of God Jesus
Christ is beyond our powers, this journeying is also always a state
of being carried. We find ourselves, so to speak, in a "roped party"
[1] with Jesus Christ -- together with him in the ascent to the
heights of God. He pulls us and supports us. Letting oneself be part
of a roped party is part of following Christ; we accept that we
cannot do it on our own. The humble act of entering into the "we" of
the Church is part of it -- holding on to the roped party, the
responsibility of communion, not letting go of the rope because of
our bullheadedness and conceit.
Humbly believing with the Church, like being bound together in a
roped party ascending to God, is an essential condition for
following Christ. Not acting as the owners of the Word of God, not
chasing after a mistaken idea of emancipation -- this is also part
of being together in the roped party. The humility of "being-with"
is essential to the ascent. Letting the Lord take us by the hand
through the sacraments is another part of it. We let ourselves be
purified and strengthened by him, we let ourselves accept the
discipline of the ascent, even if we are tired.
Finally, we must again say that the cross is part of the ascent
toward the height of Jesus Christ, the ascent to the height of God.
Just as in the affairs of this world great things cannot be done
without renunciation and hard work (joy in great discoveries and joy
in a true capacity for activity are linked to discipline, indeed, to
the effort of learning) so also the way to life itself, to the
realization of one's own humanity is linked to him who climbed to
the height of God through the cross. In the final analysis, the
cross is the expression of that which is meant by love: Only he who
loses himself will find himself.
Let us summarize: Following Christ demands as a first step the
reawakening of the nostalgia for being authentically human and thus
the reawakening for God. It then demands that one enter into the
roped party of those who climb, into the communion of the Church. In
the "we" of the Church we enter into the communion with the "Thou"
of Jesus Christ and therefore reach the way to God. Moreover,
listening to and living Jesus Christ's word in faith, hope and love
is also required. We are thus on the way to the definitive Jerusalem
and already, from this point forward, we already find ourselves
there in the communion of all God's saints.
Our pilgrimage in following Christ, then, is not directed toward any
earthly city, but toward the new City of God that grows in the midst
of this world. The pilgrimage to the earthly Jerusalem,
nevertheless, can be something useful for us Christians for that
greater voyage. I myself linked three meanings to my pilgrimage to
the Holy Land last year. First, I thought that what St. John says at
the beginning of his first letter could happen to us: That which we
have heard, we can, in a certain way see and touch with our hands
(cf. 1 John 1:1). Faith in Jesus Christ is not the invention of a
fairy tale. It is founded on something that actually happened. We
can, so to speak, contemplate and touch this historical event. It is
moving to find oneself in Nazareth in the place where the angel
appeared to Mary and transmitted the task of becoming Mother of the
Redeemer to her. It is moving to be in Bethlehem in the place where
the Word, made flesh, came to live among us; to put one's foot upon
the holy ground where God wanted to make himself man and child.
It is moving to climb the steps up to Calvary to the place where
Jesus died on the cross. And then standing before the empty tomb,
praying there where his holy corpse lay and where on the third day
the Resurrection occurred. Following the material paths of Jesus
should help us to walk more joyously and with a new certainty along
the interior paths that Jesus himself points out to us.
When we go to the Holy Land as pilgrims, we go there, however -- and
this is the second aspect -- as messengers of peace too, with prayer
for peace; with the firm invitation that everyone in that place
(which bears the word "peace" in name), has everything possible so
that it truly become a place of peace. Thus this pilgrimage is at
the same time -- as the third aspect -- an encouragement to
Christians to remain in the country of their origin and to commit
themselves in an intense way to peace.
Let us return once more to the liturgy of Palm Sunday. The prayer
with which the palms are blessed we pray so that in communion with
Christ we can bear the fruit of good works. Following a mistaken
interpretation of St. Paul, there has repeatedly developed over the
course of history and today too, the opinion that good works are not
part of being Christian, in any case they would not be significant
for man's salvation. But if Paul says that works cannot justify man,
he does not intend by this to oppose the importance of right action
and, if he speaks of the end of the Law, he does not declare the Ten
Commandments obsolete and irrelevant. It is not necessary at the
moment to reflect on the whole question that the Apostle was
concerned with. It is important to stress that by the term "Law" he
does not mean the Ten Commandments, but the complex way of life by
which Israel had to protect itself against paganism. Now, however,
Christ has brought God to the pagans. This form of distinction was
not to be imposed upon them.
Christ alone was given to them as Law. But this means the love of
God and neighbor and all that pertains to it. The Ten Commandments
read in a new and deeper way beginning with Christ are part of this
love. These commandments are nothing other than the basic rules of
true love: first of all and as fundamental principle, the worship of
God, the primacy of God, which the first three commandments express.
They tell us: Without God nothing comes out right. Who this God is
and how he is, we know from the person of Jesus Christ. The sanctity
of the family follows (fourth commandment), holiness of life (fifth
commandment), the ordering of matrimony (sixth commandment), the
regulation of society (seventh commandment) and finally the
inviolability of the truth (eighth commandment). All of this is of
maximum relevance today and precisely also in St. Paul's sense -- if
we read all of his letters. "Bear fruit with good works:" At the
beginning of Holy Week we pray to the Lord to grant all of us this
fruit more and more.
At the end of the Gospel for the blessing of the palms we hear the
acclamation with which the pilgrims greet Jesus at the gates of
Jerusalem. They are the words of Psalm 118 (117), that originally
the priests proclaimed to the pilgrims from the Holy City but that,
after a period, became an expression of messianic hope: "Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Psalm 118[117]:26; Luke
19:38). The pilgrims see in Jesus the one whom they have waited for,
who comes in the name of the Lord, indeed, according to the St.
Luke's Gospel, they insert another word: "Blessed is he who comes,
the king, in the name of the Lord."
And they follow this with an acclamation that recalls the message of
the angels at Christmas, but they modify it in a way that gives
pause. The angels had spoken of the glory of God in the highest
heavens and of peace on earth for men of divine goodwill. The
pilgrims at the entrance to the Holy City say: "Peace in heaven and
glory in the highest heavens!" They know well that there is no peace
on earth. And they know that the place of peace is in heaven. Thus
this acclamation is an expression of a profound suffering and it is
also a prayer of hope: May he who comes in the name of the Lord
bring to earth what is in heaven. The Church, before the Eucharistic
consecration, sings the words of the Psalm with which Jesus is
greeted before his entrance into the Holy City: It greets Jesus as
the King who, coming from God, enters in our midst in God's name.
Today too this joyous greeting is always supplication and hope. Let
us pray to the Lord that he bring heaven to us: God's glory and
peace among men. We understand such a greeting in the spirit of the
request of the Our Father: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven!" We know that heaven is heaven, a place of glory and peace,
because there the will of God rules completely. And we know that
earth is not heaven until the will of God is accomplished on it. So
we greet Jesus, who comes from heaven and we pray to him to help us
know and do God's will. May the royalty of God enter into the world
and in this way it be filled with the splendor of peace. Amen.
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
© Copyright 2010 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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