Posted on 02/26/2007 7:03:53 PM PST by NYer
"Eloquent Message of Love"
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today before reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in St. Peter's Square.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This year, the Lenten message is inspired in the verse of John's Gospel, which in turn goes back to a messianic prophecy of Zechariah: "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (John 19:37).
The beloved disciple, present with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other women on Calvary, was an eyewitness of the thrust of the spear which pierced Christ's side, so that blood and water came out (cf. John 19:31-34). This gesture of an unknown Roman soldier, destined to be lost in oblivion, was imprinted on the eyes and heart of the apostle, who recounted it in his Gospel. In the course of the centuries, how many conversions have taken place precisely thanks to the eloquent message of love that he receives who contemplates Jesus crucified!
Therefore, we enter the Lenten season with our gaze fixed on Jesus' side. In the encyclical letter "Deus Caritas Est" (cf. No. 12), I wished to underline that only by gazing on Jesus, dead on the cross for us, can we know and contemplate this fundamental truth: "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16). "In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move" ("Deus Caritas Est," No. 12).
Contemplating the Crucified with the eyes of faith, we can understand profoundly what sin is, its tragic gravity, and at the same time the incommensurable power of the Lord's forgiveness and mercy. During these days of Lent, let us not distance our hearts from this mystery of profound humanity and lofty spirituality.
On contemplating Christ, let us feel at the same time that we are contemplated by him. He whom we ourselves have pierced with our faults does not cease to shed over the world an inexhaustible torrent of merciful love. May humanity understand that only from this source is it possible to draw the spiritual energy indispensable to build that peace and happiness for which every human being is ceaselessly searching.
Let us pray to the Virgin Mary, whose soul was pierced next to her Son's cross, to obtain for us the gift of a firm faith. That, guiding us on our Lenten journey, she may help us leave everything that impedes us from listening to Christ and his word of salvation.
In particular, entrust to the Virgin Mary the week of Spiritual Exercises that will begin this afternoon in the Vatican, and in which I and my collaborators of the Roman Curia will participate.
Dear brothers and sisters: Please support me with your prayer and I will be happy to do the same in the recollection of the retreat, invoking divine power on each one of you, on your families and your communities.
[Translation by ZENIT]
Benedict XVI in 1st Full Day of Spiritual Exercises
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- To acknowledge one's own sin is to rediscover the profound joy of God's forgiveness, says the director of the weeklong spiritual retreat being attended by Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, retired archbishop of Bologna, delivered that message today, the first full day of the Spiritual Exercises. The Pope and his aides in the Roman Curia began the retreat on Sunday afternoon.
The retreat, being held in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, finishes Saturday.
According to Vatican Radio, Cardinal Biffi in the first meditation this morning reflected on the main tenets of Lent: conversion, that is, the sense of sin and repentance.
The Lenten liturgy, he said, is characterized by a phrase that represents the beginning of Jesus' public proclamation: "Repent and believe in the Gospel."
Not if, but what
Cardinal Biffi said that this is not a time in which the believer examines if there is something to change in himself, but rather sees what he must change. And conversion begins with the heart, through interior repentance, on the condition that the disciple firmly deplores his faults, the preacher added.
Thus, the believer has the certainty of divine mercy, and so repentance leads necessarily to profound joy, the 78-year-old cardinal explained.
According to Cardinal Biffi, today it is said there is no repentance because the sense of sin has been lost. However, he added, this is not totally true, since the era is characterized by the constant denunciation of sin in the media and in courts.
This means that the sense of sin exists -- but the sense of sin that others commit, the cardinal said.
He said the repentance that saves is that which recognizes one's own errors; to move away from one's faults is to come closer to God as he is the antithesis of evil.
Yes, I particularly like being able to worry about the sin that OTHERS commit!
He's right, though, there is definitely a tendency to externalize sin, particularly with the stress on "societal sins." Whatever those may be.
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