CHRISTIANITY
from issue no. 04 - 2007
|
|
|
The pastoral visit of Benedict XVI to Vigevano and Pavia
«Jesus, the Risen One, is alive even today»
The pastoral visit of Benedict XVI to Vigevano and Pavia on 21 and 22 April 2007
by Don Giacomo Tantardini
Benedict XVI during the Mass in Piazza Ducale in Vigevano, Saturday 21 April 2007
That is why Benedict XVI, even during what he conceived as a «pilgrimage» of prayer «at the tomb of the Doctor gratiae», simply and faithfully repeated «the ancient and ever new announcement: Christ is risen».
Thankful to the Pope for the testimony to Jesus Christ given also on this occasion, I aim to do nothing more in this article than highlight the words of Benedict XVI that most immediately gladdened my heart and comforted the faith.
* (All the words in oblique quotes «...» come from the Holy Father. Reference to L’Osservatore Romano of April 23-24 2007 will make clear from which speech the individual phrases are drawn).
Benedict XVI during the meeting with the world of culture, Cortile Teresiano, University of Pavia, Sunday 22 April 2007
If all the words of Benedict XVI re-echo the announcement of the apostles («Christ is risen, He is living amongst us. Also today»), it is above all in the homily at Mass in Vigevano – in which the Pope commented on the story of the miraculous draught of fishes, when the risen Jesus appeared for the third time to the disciples on the shore of the Lake Tiberias – that the most affecting descriptive references to the revelation of the Risen One occur. «After the “scandal” of the Cross, the disciples had returned to their land and their work as fishermen, to the activities they had carried out before they met Jesus. They had returned to their previous life and this suggests the atmosphere of dispersion and bewilderment that prevailed in their communities (cf. Mk 14, 27; Mt 26, 31). It was difficult for the disciples to understand what had happened. But while everything seemed to have ended, once again, as on the road to Emmaus, it was Jesus who came to his friends. This time he met them by the lake, a place that evokes the trials and tribulations of life; he met them when day was breaking, after a futile night-long effort. Their nets were empty. In a certain way, this seems to sum up their experience with Jesus: they had known him, they had been beside him, and he had promised them so many things. Nevertheless, they found themselves with empty nets and no fish. Yet, here at dawn Jesus comes to meet them...»
How fine is that «it was again Jesus who approached his friends… He met them… He met them… goes to meet them»! Like three years before, on the shore of the same lake, when, looking at them, he called them, so again it was He who took the initiative. That «again Jesus» recalls the “resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum / I am risen and I am with you still” with which the Easter mass begins. The initiative is still and always Jesus’. That is why one can be – as we pray in the Psalm – “serene and calm as a child in its mother’s arms” (Psalm 131, 2). If the initiative were ours we would be done for. The affirmation of the beloved disciple is always valid: “He loved us first” (1John 4, 19). As the Pope comments in the apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, that “first” does not relate only to the moment in time – each time we love Him, He is always “first” to love – but relates to the very possibility of loving Him: the very possibility of recognizing Him and loving Him arises from the loving attraction of His making Himself present, of His coming to meet us. Thus «John, kindled by love, addresses Peter and says: “He is the Lord”». So we too, «embraced by love», can «recognize» and «faithfully follow» Him.
If the initiative is His, what the Pope described in words of hope can also happen today: «When work in the Lord's vineyard seems to have been in vain like the nightlong efforts of the Apostles, you must never forget that Jesus can reverse everything in an instant. […] In the mysterious plans of his wisdom, God knows when the time is to intervene.».
If the initiative is His, the closing words of the Pope’s homily become the possibility in every moment of abandonment and comfort: «The exhausting yet sterile nocturnal fishing of the disciples is a perennial warning for the Church of all ages: alone, without Jesus, we can do nothing! In apostolic tasks our own forces do not suffice; even if our work is well organized it proves ineffective without divine Grace. Let us pray together...».
Benedict XVI during Vespers in the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, before the urn of Saint Augustine, Pavia, Sunday 22 April 2007
As one sees that a person is alive from the fact that he acts, so also one recognizes that the risen Jesus is alive from His acting today. Many times, with simplicity, the Pope points to the present acting of Jesus: «the risen Christ renews to each of you the invitation to follow Him»; «It is He Himself who awaits our love»; «Let us pray so that the Lord may ensure that…».
And in the homily of the Mass in Pavia, Benedict XVI, commenting on the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, speaks of those who «could not tolerate that this same Jesus was now beginning to be active again through the Apostles' preaching. They could not tolerate that his saving power was once more making itself felt and that his Name was attracting people who believed in him as the promised Redeemer ».
Precisely because it is «Jesus who leads to conversion», precisely because it is «He who creates the space and the possibility of changing, of re-beginning», the Pope, speaking about Augustine’s conversion, speaks, here again, simply of what Jesus has done.
«In his book, Confessions, Augustine touchingly described the development of his conversion which achieved its goal with Baptism, administered to him by Bishop Ambrose in the Cathedral of Milan... A careful examination of the course of St Augustine's life enables one to perceive that his conversion was not an event of a single moment but, precisely, a journey. And one can see that this journey did not end at the baptismal font. Just as prior to his baptism Augustine's life was a journey of conversion, after it too, although differently, his life continued to be a journey of conversion - until his last illness, when he had the penitential Psalms hung on the walls so that he might have them always before his eyes, and when he excluded himself from receiving the Eucharist in order to go back once again over the path of his repentance and receive salvation from Christ’s hands as a gift of God's mercy. Thus, we can rightly speak of Augustine's "conversions", which actually consisted of one important conversion in his quest for the Face of Christ and then in the journeying on with him.»
If «the first conversion», that leads him to the baptismal font on Easter night in 387, is described by the Pope as the passage of the discovery of God «far off and intangible», possible to human reason, to the «humility of our faith, which lays down its self-important pride and bows upon entering the community of Christ’s Body», «the second conversion» is described by the Pope as the acceptance «in tears» of the burden of the work first of priest and then of bishop. In speaking of the pastoral work of Augustine, these words are of special comfort: «He had to live with Christ for everyone»; «Always again together with Christ to give his own life so that others might find it, the true life». In fact «only those who live in the personal experience of the love of the Lord can perform the task of leading and accompanying others on the path of following Christ».
But «the third conversion» described by the Pope is what most surprises, moves and comforts. When, «twenty years after his ordination», Augustine is led by the experience of the grace of the Lord to correct his ideal of «perfect life». Quoting the Retractions the Pope says: «In the meantime, I have understood that one alone is truly perfect and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are totally fulfilled in one alone: Jesus Christ himself. “The whole Church, on the other hand – all of us, including the Apostles – must pray every day: forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (cf. Retract. I 19, 1-3). Augustine had learned a further degree of humility – not only the humility of integrating his great thought into the humble faith of the Church, not only the humility of translating his great knowledge into the simplicity of announcement, but also the humility of recognizing that he himself and the entire pilgrim Church needed and continually need the merciful goodness of a God who forgives every day. And we, he added, liken ourselves to Christ, the only Perfect One, to the greatest possible extent when we become, like him, people of mercy».
Benedict XVI during Mass in Piazza Ducale in Vigevano, Saturday 21 April 2007
During the prayer before the mortal remains of Augustine «in love with the love of God», the Pope summarizes what he had said on his pastoral visit as follows: «Jesus Christ is the revelation of the countenance of God Love». «“Deus caritas est, God is love” (1John 4, 8.16)». And in the words of the beloved apostle describes what that love consists of: «“In this lies love: it was not we that loved God but He who loved us and sent his Son as victim of expiation for our sins” (1John 4, 10)».
Benedict XVI concludes his first encyclical Deus caritas est, which before the tomb of Saint Augustine he «conceptually hands to the Church and the world», by speaking of Mary, the Mother of the Lord. And says that «the devotion of believers» to Our Lady «shows the infallible insight» that it is possible to truly love thanks to inward union with the Lord: “because love is from God” (1John 4, 7). It is very splendid that the Pope, at the end of his first encyclical, speaking of what is infallible truth about the love of God and of one’s neighbor, should refer not to the infallibility proper to the Magisterium, but the infallibility proper to the whole Church.
Also for this reason the words the Pope addressed to the many children cheering him on his exit from the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro after praying to Saint Augustine, remain in our hearts as prayer, that is as hope. «Dear children, [...] You are especially close to the Lord. His love is especially for you. Let us move forward in love for the Lord! Pray for me, and I will pray for you. Good-bye!».
