1) Pope Francis:
Homily of Pope Francis at Canonization Mass
of Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II
"May these two
new saints and shepherds of Gods people intercede
for the Church"
for the Church"
VATICAN
CITY, April 27, 2014
(…)
“The wounds in the hands, feet and
side of the Risen Christ are a ‘a scandal, a stumbling block for faith,
yet they are also the test of faith. That’s why they never pass away: (blogger: they are the poor); they
remain, for those wounds are the enduring sign of God’s love for us.
They are essential for believing in God. Not for believing that God
exists, but for believing that God is love, mercy and faithfulness’ ….
In these two men, who looked upon the wounds of Christ and bore witness to his mercy, there dwelt a living hope and an indescribable and glorious joy (1 Pet 1:3,8). The hope and the joy which the risen Christ bestows on his disciples, the hope and the joy which nothing and no one can take from them. The hope and joy of Easter, forged in the crucible of self-denial, self-emptying, utter identification with sinners, even to the point of disgust at the bitterness of that chalice. Such were the hope and the joy which these two holy popes had received as a gift from the risen Lord and which they in turn bestowed in abundance upon the People of God, meriting our eternal gratitude.
This hope and this joy were palpable in the earliest community of believers, in Jerusalem, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. 2:42-47). It was a community which lived the heart of the Gospel, love and mercy, in simplicity and fraternity.
This is also the image
of the Church which the Second Vatican Council set before us. Saint John XXIII
and Saint John Paul II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in keeping
with her pristine features, those features which the saints have given
her throughout the centuries. Let us not forget that it is the saints who give
direction and growth to the Church. In convening the Council, Saint John XXIII
showed an exquisite openness to the
Holy Spirit. He let himself be led and he was for the Church a pastor, a
servant-leader. This was his great service to the Church; he was the pope of openness to the Holy
Spirit.
In his own service to the People of God, Saint John Paul II was the pope of the family. He himself once said that he wanted to be remembered as the pope of the family. I am particularly happy to point this out as we are in the process of journeying with families towards the Synod on the family. It is surely a journey which, from his place in heaven, he guides and sustains.
May these two new saints and shepherds of God’s people intercede for the Church, so that during this two-year journey toward the Synod she may be open to the Holy Spirit in pastoral service to the family. May both of them teach us not to be scandalized by the wounds of Christ and to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of divine mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it always loves.
In his own service to the People of God, Saint John Paul II was the pope of the family. He himself once said that he wanted to be remembered as the pope of the family. I am particularly happy to point this out as we are in the process of journeying with families towards the Synod on the family. It is surely a journey which, from his place in heaven, he guides and sustains.
May these two new saints and shepherds of God’s people intercede for the Church, so that during this two-year journey toward the Synod she may be open to the Holy Spirit in pastoral service to the family. May both of them teach us not to be scandalized by the wounds of Christ and to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of divine mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it always loves.
Pope Benedict XVI: gave us the theology of the person in the Trinity and the anthropology imaging it in terms of subjectivity and relationality: "I - Gift." As peritus at the Vatican II, he gave us Dei
Verbum #5:
“ 'The obedience of faith (Rom. 16, 26; cf. Rom. 1, 5; 2 Cor. 10,
5-6) must be given to God as he reveals himself. By faith man freely commits
his entire self to God as he reveals himself. By faith man freely commits his
entire self to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to
God, who reveals,’ and willingly assenting assenting to the Revelation given by
him.”
John Paul II: gave us subjectivity as ontological reality (not consciousness as subjectivism). Explaining the development of Vatican II, he wrote in his “Sources of Renewal:”[1]
“If we study the Conciliar Magisterium as a whole, we find that the Pastors fo
the Church were not so much concerned to answer questions like ‘What should men
believe?’, ‘What is the real meaning of this or that truth of faith?’ and so
on, but rather to answer the more complex question: ‘What does it mean to be a
believer, a Catholic and a member of the Church?’” This question “not only
presupposes the truth of faith and pure doctrine, but also calls for that truth
to be situated in the human consciousness and calls for a definition of the
attitude, or rather the man attitudes, that go to make the individual a
believing member of the Church. This would seem to be the main respect in which
the Conciliar Magisterium has a pastoral character, corresponding to the
pastoral purpose for which it was called. A ‘purely’ doctrinal Council would
have concentrated on defining the precise meaning of the truths of faith,
whereas a pastoral Council proclaims, recalls or clarifies truths for the
primary purpose of giving Christians a life-style, a way of thinking and acting.”
Commenting on John
Paul II's intervention in the discussion on the schema on the Church, October 21, 1963, Rocco Buttiglione writes that he“criticized the structure of the schema and
asked that the document deal first with the People of God and its unity and
then with the ministerial priesthood and the lay status. This suggestion was
then incorporated in the definitive version of ‘Lumen Gentium,’ which deals
first with the ‘Mystery of the Church’ and then in the second chapter, with
‘The People of God;’ the third chapter ‘The Church is Hierarchical.’”[2]
Buttiglione continues: “In his observations[3],
Wojtyla underlines the unity which must subsist between the ministerial
priesthood and the laypeople worldwide, thereby realizing both the
transcendence and the immanence of the entire People of God in history…. Wojtyla was able to ask for both a clearer
emphasis on the peculiarity of the ministerial priesthood and a greater esteem
of the value of the laity, as well as a stronger focus on the unity of the
People of God within which all the other differences must be considered.
Against the first scheme on the Church, Wojtyla argues that the laypeople do
not have a merely a ‘passive possession of the faith.’ On the contrary, the
specificity of their charism, destine to lead every human action to its own
truth which is Christ, implies an active and apostolic faith. Therefore to the
schema ‘… it is necessary to add that the apostolate is something which springs
immediately and subjectively from the faith and the love in the soul of the
believer in Christ. In the notion of apostolate, even when it is used for the
laity, is included the Christian’s consciousness of the personal vocation,
which surely differs from the mere passive possession of the faith. For this
reason, in the apostolate of the laity there is a certain actualization of
the faith [my
emphasis] united with the responsibility for the supernatural good divinely
conferred in the Church to any human person.
“These
affirmations seem to indicate a will to go beyond the usual ‘theology of the
laity’ toward a more comprehensive ‘theology of
the People of God’ in which the differences are articulated starting from the unity of the task of Christians in the world. To understand their authentic meaning we need to recall the context in which they were pronounced. The predominant theological doctrine of the time did not attribute to the laity a native capacity for apostolic initiative and, therefore, denied the laity an active role in the presence, diffusion, and growth of the faith in the world. A relatively active role of the laity could be assumed only insofar as it was indirectly made part of the ordained ministry through a particular mandate, conferred on the associations of Catholic Action. With the Council [mediated by Opus Dei], however, the apostolate becomes an original dimension of the presence of the Christian, and it recognizes the layperson’s right and duty, by virtue of baptism and not by a particular mandate, to be an active agent of the apostolate.”[4]
the People of God’ in which the differences are articulated starting from the unity of the task of Christians in the world. To understand their authentic meaning we need to recall the context in which they were pronounced. The predominant theological doctrine of the time did not attribute to the laity a native capacity for apostolic initiative and, therefore, denied the laity an active role in the presence, diffusion, and growth of the faith in the world. A relatively active role of the laity could be assumed only insofar as it was indirectly made part of the ordained ministry through a particular mandate, conferred on the associations of Catholic Action. With the Council [mediated by Opus Dei], however, the apostolate becomes an original dimension of the presence of the Christian, and it recognizes the layperson’s right and duty, by virtue of baptism and not by a particular mandate, to be an active agent of the apostolate.”[4]
Wojtyla brings a
metaphysics of the subject to the Council:
“(A)s
the need increases to understand the personal subjectivity of the human being—the category of lived experience takes on
greater significance, and, in fact,
key significance. For then the issue is not just the metaphysical objectification of the human being as an acting
subject, as the agent of acts, but the revelation of the person as a subject experiencing its acts and inner happenings, and with them its own
subjectivity(for example, replicating the sentiments of Jesus Christ). From the
moment the need to interpret the
acting human being (I'home agissant)
is expressed, the category of
lived experience must have a place in anthropology and ethics—and even somehow be at the center of their respective interpretations.
“One might immediately ask whether, by giving lived
experience such a key function
in the interpretation of the human being as a personal subject, we are not inevitably condemned to subjectivism. Without going into a detailed response, I would simply say that, so
long as in this interpretation
we maintain a firm enough connection with the integral experience of the human being, not only are we not doomed
to subjectivism, but we will
also safeguard the authentic personal subjectivity of the human being
in the realistic interpretation of human existence. 4
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
1) Address of John Paul II on Opus Dei: at a workshop of Opus Dei on the Apostolic Letter “Novo millennio Ineunte”, March 17, 2001.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. Welcome! I cordially greet each of you,
priests and lay people, who have gathered in Rome to spend some days reflecting
on the Apostolic Letter Novo
Millennio Ineunteand on the prospects
that I outlined in it for the future of evangelization. I especially greet your
Prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría, who organized this meeting for the purpose
of strengthening the Prelature's service to the particular Churches where its
faithful are present.
You are here representing the components by
which the Prelature is organically structured, that is, priests and lay
faithful, men and women, headed by their own Prelate. This hierarchical nature
of Opus Dei, established in the Apostolic Constitution by which I erected the
Prelature (cf. Apos. Const. Ut Sit, 28 Nov. 1982), offers a starting point for pastoral
considerations full of practical applications. First of all, I wish to
emphasize that the membership of the lay faithful in their own particular
Churches and in the Prelature, into which they are incorporated, enables the
special mission of the Prelature to converge with the evangelizing efforts of each
particular Church, as envisaged by the Second Vatican Council in desiring the
figure of personal prelatures.
The organic way that priests and laity work
together is one of those privileged areas where pastoral activity will take
life and be strengthened, activity marked by that "new energy" (cf.
Apost. Let. Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 15) which has encouraged us all since the Great Jubilee. In
this connection, we should recall the importance of that "spirituality of
communion" stressed by the Apostolic Letter (cf. ibid., nn. 42-43).
2. The laity, inasmuch as they are Christians,
are involved in carrying out a missionary apostolate. Their specific skills in
various human activities are, first of all, an instrument entrusted to them by
God to enable "the proclamation of Christ to reach people, mould
communities, and have a deep and incisive influence in bringing Gospel values
to bear in society and culture" (ibid., n. 29). They should be encouraged,
then, to put their knowledge actively at the service of the "new
frontiers" that are emerging as so many challenges for the Church's saving
presence in the world.
It will be their direct witness in all these
fields that will show how the highest human values only achieve their fullness
in Christ. And their apostolic zeal, fraternal friendship and supportive
charity will enable them to turn daily social relationships into opportunities
for awakening in others that thirst for truth which is the first condition for
the saving encounter with Christ.
Priests, on their part, exercise an
irreplaceable primary function: that of helping souls, one by one, through the
sacraments, preaching and spiritual direction to open themselves to the gift of
grace. A spirituality of communion will make the most of the roles of each ecclesial
element.
3. I urge you, dear friends, in all your work
not to forget the central point of the Jubilee experience: the encounter with
Christ. The Jubilee was a continuous, unforgettable contemplation of the face
of Christ, the eternal Son, God and Man, crucified and risen. We sought him in
the pilgrimage towards the Door that opens the way to heaven for man. We
experienced his sweetness in the very human and divine act of forgiving the
sinner. We saw him as a brother to all men and women, restored to unity in the
gift of saving love. The thirst for spirituality felt in our society can only
be quenched by Christ.
"No, we shall not be saved by a formula,
but by a Person, and the assurance which he gives us: I am with you!"
(Apos. Let. Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 29). For the world, for all our brothers and sisters, we
Christians must open the way that leads to Christ. "Your face, O Lord, do
I seek" (Ps 27 [26]: 8). This aspiration was often on the lips of Bl.
Josemaría, a man who thirsted for God and was therefore a great apostle. He
wrote: "In intentions, may Jesus be our end; in affections, our love; in
speech, our theme; in actions, our model" (The Way, 271).
4. It is time to put aside all fear and pursue
daring apostolic goals. Duc in
altum! (Lk 5: 4): Christ's invitation spurs us to
put out into the deep and to nurture ambitious dreams of personal holiness and
apostolic fruitfulness. The apostolate always overflows from one's interior
life. Certainly, it is also action, but action sustained by love. And the
source of love always lies in a person's deepest dimension, where the voice of
Christ is heard inviting us to put out into the deep with him. May each of you
welcome this invitation of Christ and respond to it with fresh generosity every
day. With this wish, as I entrust your commitment to prayer, work and witness
to Mary's intercession, I affectionately give you my Blessing.
2) At the death of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo: At
6, 15 p.m. on the afternoon of March 23, 1994, John Paul II arrived at 73 Viale
Bruno Buozzi, and descended to the oratory of Our Lady of Peace. Upon entering
he said in Italian: “Sia lodato Gesu
Cristo!” (Praised by Jesus Christ). All responded the same.
The Pope then knelt
down on a predieu with a red stole and remained kneeling in prayer for some ten
minutes in the midst of an impressive silence.
He was then invited by the Prelate to pray the
response for the dead, but he preferred to intone the Salve and pray three Glory be
to the Father’s. He then pronounced
the invocations Requiem aeternum dona ei,
Domine and Requiescat in pace. He
was offered the hyssop and he sprinkled the body of D. Alvaro with holy water.
Afterwards, he knelt down and prayed for a short time more. Before leaving the
chapel, he blessed all those present.
The Prelate reminded
the Pope of the profound love of D. Alvaro for the Church and the Pope for whom
he always offered the Mass, and concretely the Mass of yesterday morning that
he celebrated in the Cenacle of Jerusalem. Then, he thanked the Holy Father in
the name of the Work for his coming to pray. The Pope, in Italian, answered
that he considered a duty: “Si doveva, si
doveva…
Then the Pope asked
the Father what time D. Alvaro had celebrated Mass in the Cenacle. He
calculated the number of hours that passed between the last Mass precisely
there and the moment of death. The answer was seventeen (17) [perhaps
the time between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion].
[1]
Karol Wojtyla, “Sources of Renewal,” Harper and Row (1979) 17-18; for the
guidance of the Pastoral Synod of the archdiocese of Cracow. The purpose of the
Synod was to enrich the religious consciousness of the people of God and form
mature Christian attitudes… Previous Councils such as Trent and Vatican I were
primarily of a dogmatic and apologetic character: defending the Church against
perversions of the Catholic faith, they defined the truths that were in peril
and condemned erroneous doctrines. By contrast, the aim of Vatican II was
primarily pastoral. Avoiding all anathemas, it sought to give a positive
presentation of the faith, above all in its relation to modern man and the
modern world, and to help mankind by showing the Church to be ready for dialogue,
collaboration and solidarity with all men of good will.;” [from the Preface].
[2]
Rocco Buttiglione, Karol Wojtyla, “The thought of the Man Who Became John Paul
II,” Eerdman’s (1997) 188.
[3]
From the Acta Synodalia Sacrosancti Concilii Oecumenici 2, 158.
[4]
K.Wojtyla, “Subjectivity and the Irreducible in the Human Person,” Person
and Community (1993) 209-217.
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