Pope: True Revolution
Pope: Adoring Jesus, following the defenceless power of his love is the true revolution
A masterly and fatherly homily to 800,000 youth at WYD. The challenge
of
faith and of the church as a path to true humanity and global
solidarity.
Cologne (AsiaNews) - We reproduce in full the text of the pope's homily
to
the youth during the vigil in the esplanade of Marienfeld (Cologne):
[in German]
Dear young friends,
In our pilgrimage with the mysterious Magi from the East, we have
arrived at
the moment which Saint Matthew describes in his Gospel with these
words:
"Going into the house (over which the star had halted), they saw the
child
with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him" (Mt 2:11).
Outwardly, their journey was now over. They had reached their goal. But
at
this point a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage which
changed
their whole lives. Their mental picture of the infant King they were
expecting to find must have been very different. They had stopped at
Jerusalem specifically in order to ask the King who lived there for
news of
the promised King who had been born. They knew that the world was in
disorder, and for that reason their hearts were troubled. They were
sure
that God existed and that he was a just and gentle God. And perhaps
they
also knew of the great prophecies of Israel foretelling a King who
would be
intimately united with God, a King who would restore order to the
world,
acting for God and in his name. It was in order to seek this King that
they
had set off on their journey: deep within themselves they felt prompted
to
go in search of the true justice that can only come from God, and they
wanted to serve this King, to fall prostrate at his feet and so play
their
part in the renewal of the world. They were among those "who hunger and
thirst for justice" (Mt 5:6). This hunger and thirst had spurred them
on in
their pilgrimage - they had become pilgrims in search of the justice
that
they expected from God, intending to devote themselves to its service.
Even if those who had stayed at home may have considered them Utopian
dreamers, they were actually people with their feet on the ground, and
they
knew that in order to change the world it is necessary to have power.
Hence
they were hardly likely to seek the promised child anywhere but in the
King's
palace. Yet now they were bowing down before the child of poor people,
and
they soon came to realize that Herod, the King they had consulted,
intended
to use his power to lay a trap for him, forcing the family to flee into
exile. The new King, to whom they now paid homage, was quite unlike
what
they were expecting. In this way they had to learn that God is not as
we
usually imagine him to be. This was where their inner journey began. It
started at the very moment when they knelt down before this child and
recognized him as the promised King. But they still had to assimilate
these
joyful gestures internally.
[in english]
They had to change their ideas about power, about God and about man,
and in
so doing, they also had to change themselves. Now they were able to see
that
God's power is not like that of the powerful of this world. God's ways
are
not as we imagine them or as we might wish to them to be. God does not
enter
into competition with earthly powers in this world. He does not marshal
his
divisions alongside other divisions. God did not send twelve legions of
angels to assist Jesus in the Garden of Olives (cf. Mt 26:53). He
contrasts
the noisy and ostentatious power of this world with the defenceless
power of
love, which succumbs to death on the Cross, and dies ever anew
throughout
history; yet it is this same love which constitutes the new divine
intervention that opposes injustice and ushers in the Kingdom of God.
God is
different - this is what they now come to realize. And it means that
they
themselves must now become different, they must learn God's ways.
They had come to place themselves at the service of this King, to model
their own kingship on his. That was the meaning of their act of homage,
their adoration. Included in this were their gifts - gold, frankincense
and
myrrh - gifts offered to a King held to be divine. Adoration has a
content
and it involves giving. Through this act of adoration, these men from
the
East wished to recognize the child as their King and to place their own
power and potential at his disposal, and in this they were certainly on
the
right path. By serving and following him, they wanted, together with
him, to
serve the cause of good and the cause of justice in the world. In this
they
were right. Now, though, they have to learn that this cannot be
achieved
simply through issuing commands from a throne on high. Now they have to
learn to give themselves - no lesser gift would be sufficient for this
King.
Now they have to learn that their lives must be conformed to this
divine way
of exercising power, to God's own way of being. They must become men of
truth, of justice, of goodness, of forgiveness, of mercy. They will no
longer ask: how can this serve me? Instead they will have to ask: How
can I
serve God's presence in the world? They must learn to lose their life
and in
this way to find it. Having left Jerusalem behind, they must not
deviate
from the path marked out by the true King, as they follow Jesus.
[in french]
Dear friends, what does all this mean for us? What we have just been
saying
about the nature of God being different, and about the way our lives
must be
shaped accordingly, sounds very fine, but remains rather vague and
unfocussed. That is why God has given us examples. The Magi from the
East
are just the first in a long procession of men and women who have
constantly
tried to gaze upon God's star in their lives, going in search of the
God who
has drawn close to us and shows us the way. It is the great multitude
of the
saints - both known and unknown - in whose lives the Lord has opened up
the
Gospel before us and turned over the pages; he has done this throughout
history and he still does so today. In their lives, as if in a great
picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the
shining
path which God himself has traced throughout history and is still
tracing
today. My venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II beatified and
canonized a
great many people from both the distant and the recent past. Through
these
individuals he wanted to show us how to be Christian; how to live life
as it
should be lived - according to God's way. The saints and the blesseds
did
not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give
themselves,
because the light of Christ had shone upon them. They show us the way
to
attain happiness, they show us how to be truly human. Through all the
ups
and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly
rescued it
from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly
shed
upon it the light that was needed to make sense - even in the midst of
suffering - of God's words spoken at the end of the work of creation:
"It is
very good". One need only think of such figures as Saint Benedict,
Saint
Francis of Assisi, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Ignatius of Loyola,
Saint
Charles Borromeo, the founders of nineteenth-century religious orders
who
inspired and guided the social movement, or the saints of our own day -
Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. In
contemplating
these figures we learn what it means "to adore" and what it means to
live
according to the measure of the child of Bethlehem, by the measure of
Jesus
Christ and of God himself.
[in spanish]
The saints, as we said, are the true reformers. Now I want to express
this
in an even more radical way: only from the saints, only from God does
true
revolution come, the definitive way to change the world. In the last
century
we experienced revolutions with a common programme - expecting nothing
more
from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world
in
order to change it. And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial
point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle.
Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called
totalitarianism. It
does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It
is
not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living
God, our
Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really
good
and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the
measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love.
And
what could ever save us apart from love?
Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts. There are many
who
speak of God; some even preach hatred and perpetrate violence in God's
name.
So it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi from the
East
found it, when they knelt down before the child of Bethlehem. "Anyone
who
has seen me has seen the Father", said Jesus to Philip (Jn 14:9). In
Jesus
Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of
God is
seen. We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who
went
before us. Then we will be travelling along the right path.
[in italian]
This means that we are not constructing a private God, a private Jesus,
but
that we believe and worship the Jesus who is manifested to us by the
Sacred
Scriptures and who reveals himself to be alive in the great procession
of
the faithful called the Church, always alongside us and always before
us.
There is much that could be criticized in the Church. We know this and
the
Lord himself told us so: it is a net with good fish and bad fish, a
field
with wheat and darnel. Pope John Paul II, as well as revealing the true
face
of the Church in the many saints that he canonized, also asked pardon
for
the wrong that was done in the course of history through the words and
deeds
of members of the Church. In this way he showed us our own true image
and
urged us to take our place, with all our faults and weaknesses, in the
procession of the saints that began with the Magi from the East. It is
actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In
this
way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the
disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners. The Church is like a
human
family, but at the same time it is also the great family of God,
through
which he establishes an overarching communion and unity that embraces
every
continent, culture and nation. So we are glad to belong to this great
family; we are glad to have brothers and friends all over the world.
Here in
Cologne we discover the joy of belonging to a family as vast as the
world,
including heaven and earth, the past, the present, the future and every
part
of the earth. In this great band of pilgrims we walk side by side with
Christ, we walk with the star that enlightens our history.
[in german]
"Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and
they
fell down and worshipped him" (Mt 2:11). Dear friends, this is not a
distant
story that took place long ago. It is with us now. Here in the sacred
Host
he is present before us and in our midst. As at that time, so now he is
mysteriously veiled in a sacred silence; as at that time, it is here
that
the true face of God is revealed. For us he became a grain of wheat
that
falls on the ground and dies and bears fruit until the end of the world
(cf.
Jn 12:24). He is present now as he was then in Bethlehem. He invites us
to
that inner pilgrimage which is called adoration. Let us set off on this
pilgrimage of the spirit and let us ask him to be our guide. Amen.