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Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
Homily
"The
Celebration of Sanctity Is Renewed in St. Peter’s Square
Today"
Canonization Mass of Six Saints
October 17, 2010
zenit.org
Dear brothers and sisters! The celebration of
sanctity is renewed in St. Peter’s Square today.
With joy I extend my cordial welcome to you who have
come, also from a great distance, to take part in
this event. A particular greeting to the cardinals,
bishops and superior generals of the institutes
founded by the new saints, and to the official
delegations and all the civil authorities. Let us
try to grasp together what the Lord tells us in the
readings that were just proclaimed. This Sunday’s
liturgy offers us a fundamental teaching: the
necessity to pray always, without tiring. Sometimes
we grow tired of prayer, we have the impression that
prayer is not very useful for life, that it is not
very effective. Thus, we are tempted to dedicate
ourselves to activity, to employ every human method
to accomplish our goals, and we do not approach God.
But Jesus says that we must pray always, and he does
this through a specific parable (cf. Luke 18:1-8).
This parable speaks of a judge who does not fear God
and does not respect anyone, a judge who does not
have a positive attitude, but pursues only his own
interests. He does not fear God’s judgment and does
not respect his neighbor. The other figure is a
widow, a person in a situation of weakness. In the
Bible, the widows and the orphans are the most needy
classes because they are defenseless and without
means. The widow goes to the judge and asks him for
justice. Her possibilities of being heard are almost
non-existent because the judge despises her and she
can put no pressure on him. She cannot even appeal
to religious principles because the judge does not
fear God. So, this widow seems to be deprived of all
recourse. But she insists, she does not tire in
asking, she harasses the judge, and thus in the end
succeeds in obtaining what she wants from the judge.
At this point Jesus reflects, using an “a fortiori”
argument: if a dishonest judge in the end allows
himself to be convinced by the entreaties of a
widow, how much more will God, who is good, listen
to those who pray. God in fact is generosity in
person, he is merciful, and so he is always disposed
to listen to prayers. For this reason, we must not
give up hope, but always insist in prayer.
The conclusion of the Gospel passage speaks of
faith: “The Son of Man, when he comes, will he find
faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). It is a question
that intends to awaken a growth of faith in us. It
is clear, in fact, that prayer must be the
expression of faith, otherwise it is not true
prayer. If one does not believe in the goodness of
God, he cannot pray in a truly adequate way. Faith
is essential as the basis of the attitude of prayer.
The six new saints proposed today for veneration by
the universal Church made faith such a basis:
Stanislaw Soltys, André Bessette, Cándida María de
Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, Mary of the Cross
MacKillop, Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla
Varano.
[In Polish:]
St. Stanislaw Kazimierczyk, a religious of the 15th
century, can be an example and an intercessor for us
too. His whole life was bound to the Eucharist.
First of all in the church of Corpus Domini is
Kazimierz, in modern-day Krakow, where with his
mother and father, he learned faith and piety; where
he took religious vows with the Canons Regular;
where he worked as a priest, educator, attentive to
the care of the needy. In a particular way, however,
he was bound to the Eucharist by the ardent love for
Christ present under the species of bread and of
wine; living the mystery of death and resurrection,
which takes place in a bloodless way in Holy Mass;
through the practice of love of neighbor, of which
Communion is a source and sign.
[In French:]
Brother André Bessette, originally from Quebec in
Canada and a religious of the Congregation of the
Holy Cross, experienced suffering and poverty
starting very young. This led him to pay recourse to
God in prayer and an intense interior life. As
porter of the College of Notre Dame in Montreal, he
showed limitless charity and made every effort to
relieve the sufferings of those who went to entrust
themselves to him.
Though a man of little education, he nevertheless
understood where to find the essential of his faith.
For him, to believe meant to freely submit himself
out of love to the divine will. Abiding everything
in the mystery of Jesus, he lived the beatitude of
the pure hearts, of personal uprightness. This
simplicity has enabled many to see God.
He was responsible for building the Oratory of St.
Joseph in Mont Royal, where he would stay as a
faithful guardian until his death in 1937.
"Do not try to have your struggles taken away," he
said, "rather ask for the grace to carry them well."
For him, everything spoke of God and his presence.
May we, following him, seek God with simplicity to
find him always present in the midst of our lives!
May the example of Brother André always inspire
Canadian Christian life!
[In Spanish:]
When the Son of Man comes to bring justice to the
chosen ones, will he find faith on earth? (cf. Luke
18:18). Today with consolation and strength
contemplating figures such as Mother Cándida María
de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola, we can say that yes
[he will find faith].
This woman of simple origins -- with a heart upon
which God put his seal and whom he would take to
himself very quickly -- under the guidance of her
Jesuit spiritual directors made the firm resolution
to live "only for God." It was a decision maintained
with firmness, as she herself would recall when she
was about to die. She lived for God and for what he
most wanted: to reach everyone, to bring to everyone
the hope that does not waver, especially to those
who most need it.
"Where there is not a place for the poor, there is
no place for me," said the new saint, who, with few
resources, inspired other sisters to follow Jesus
and dedicate themselves to education and the
promotion of the woman. Thus was born the Daughters
of Jesus, who today have in their founder a very
exalted model to imitate, and a fascinating mission
to pursue in the many nations where the spirit and
the apostolic desires of Mother Cándida have
arrived.
[In English:]
"Remember who your teachers were -- from these you
can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus." For many years countless
young people throughout Australia have been blessed
with teachers who were inspired by the courageous
and saintly example of zeal, perseverance and prayer
of Mother Mary McKillop. She dedicated herself as a
young woman to the education of the poor in the
difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia,
inspiring other women to join her in the first
women’s community of religious sisters of that
country. She attended to the needs of each young
person entrusted to her, without regard for station
or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual
formation. Despite many challenges, her prayers to
Saint Joseph and her unflagging devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new
congregation, gave this holy woman the graces needed
to remain faithful to God and to the Church. Through
her intercession, may her followers today continue
to serve God and the Church with faith and humility!
[Again in Italian:]
In the second half of the 19th century in Campania,
in southern Italy, the Lord called a young
elementary school teacher, Giulia Salzano, and made
her an apostle of Christian education, founder of
the Congregation of the Sisters Catechists of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mother Giulia understood well
the importance of catechesis in the Church, and,
uniting pedagogical formation with spiritual fervor,
she dedicated herself to it with generosity and
intelligence, contributing to the formation of
persons of every age and social condition. She
repeated to her sisters that she wanted to teach the
catechism to the very last hour of her life,
demonstrating with her whole being that if “God
created us to know him, love him and serve him in
this life,” nothing must come before this task. May
the example and intercession of St. Giulia Salzano
sustain the Church in her perennial task of
announcing Christ and form authentic Christian
consciences.
St. Battista Camilla Varano, a nun of the Poor
Clares in the 15th century, bore witness to the
Gospel meaning of life in a radical way, especially
through her perseverance in prayer. She entered the
monastery of Urbino at 23 and was a protagonist in
the vast reform movement of Franciscan women’s
spirituality, which had as its aim the complete
recovery of the charism of St. Clare of Assisi. She
promoted new monastic foundations at Camerino, where
she was many times elected abbess, and at Fermo and
San Severino.
The life of St. Battista, completely immersed in the
depths of the divine, was a constant ascent in the
life of perfection, with a heroic love of God and
neighbor. It was marked by great sufferings and
mystical consolations; she had decided in fact, as
she herself wrote, to "enter into the most Sacred
Heart of Jesus and to drown in the ocean of his most
bitter sufferings."
In a time in which the Church was suffering from a
lack of discipline, she set out decisively on the
road of penance and prayer, animated by the ardent
desire for the renewal of the mystical body of
Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to the
Lord for the gift of holiness, which shines in the
Church and today illumines the faces of these
brothers and sisters of ours. Jesus also invites
each of us to follow him to inherit eternal life.
Let us be drawn by the luminous examples, let us be
guided by their teachings, so that our existence be
a canticle of praise to God.
May the Virgin Mary and the intercession of the six
new saints, whom we venerate today with joy, obtain
this grace for us. Amen.
[Translation by ZENIT]
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
