Fr. John Wauck: “Benedict was content to let words speak for
themselves. He was a teacher and very self-effacing – he was a very humble man.
He was humble in the sense that he didn’t want the message to be about himself
in any way. In some ways, he shied away from making his personality part of the
story.”[1]
Me: But Pope Francis, like Christ, is the Word lived.
No less humble – perhaps more so – he writes: “Whoever wants to preach must be the
first to let the word of God move him deeply and become incarnate in his daily
life… we need to let ourselves be penetrated by that by that word which will
also penetrate others, for it is a living and active word like a sword ‘which
pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerns
the thoughts and intention of the heart’ (Heb. 4, 12). This has great pastoral
importance. Today too, people prefer to listen to witnesses: they ‘thirst for
authenticity and ‘call for evangelizers to speak of a God whom they themselves
know and are familiar with, as if they were seeing him.’ (…) What is essential is that the preacher be
certain that God loves him, that Jesus Christ has saved him and that his love
has always the last word… and if he does not devote time to pray with that
word, then he will indeed be a false prophet, a fraud, a shallow impostor…
Christ’s message must truly penetrate and possess the preacher, not just
intellectually but in his entire being.”[2]
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