HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Sunday, 21 October 2012
[Video]
The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mk 10:45)
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today the Church listens again to these words of Jesus, spoken by
the Lord during his journey to Jerusalem, where he was to accomplish
the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection. They are words
which enshrine the meaning of Christ’s mission on earth, marked by his
sacrifice, by his total self-giving. On this third Sunday of October,
on which we celebrate World Mission Sunday, the Church listens to them
with special attention and renews her conviction that she should always
be fully dedicated to serve mankind and the Gospel, after the example of
the One who gave himself up even to the sacrifice of his life.
I extend warm greetings to all of you who fill Saint Peter’s
Square, especially the official delegations and the pilgrims who have
come to celebrate the seven new saints. I greet with affection the
Cardinals and Bishops who, during these days, are taking part in the
Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization. The coincidence between
this ecclesiastical meeting and World Mission Sunday is a happy one; and
the word of God that we have listened to sheds light on both subjects.
It shows how to be evangelizers, called to bear witness and to proclaim
the Christian message, configuring ourselves to Christ and following
his same way of life. This is true both for the mission ad Gentes and for the new evangelization in places with ancient Christian roots.
The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mk 10:45)
These words were the blueprint for living of the seven Blessed
men and women that the Church solemnly enrols this morning in the
glorious ranks of the saints. With heroic courage they spent their
lives in total consecration to the Lord and in the generous service of
their brethren. They are sons and daughters of the Church who chose a
life of service following the Lord. Holiness always rises up in the
Church from the well-spring of the mystery of redemption, as foretold by
the prophet Isaiah in the first reading: the Servant of the Lord is the
righteous one who “shall make many to be accounted as righteous; and he
shall bear their iniquities” (Is 53:11); this Servant is Jesus
Christ, crucified, risen and living in glory. Today’s canonization is
an eloquent confirmation of this mysterious saving reality. The
tenacious profession of faith of these seven generous disciples of
Christ, their configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today
in the whole Church.
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| St. Jacques Berthieu |
Jacques Berthieu, born in 1838 in France, was passionate about
Jesus Christ at an early age. During his parish ministry, he had the
burning desire to save souls. Becoming a Jesuit, he wished to journey
through the world for the glory of God. A tireless pastor on the island
of Sainte Marie, then in Madagascar, he struggled against injustice
while bringing succour to the poor and sick. The Malagasies thought of
him as a priest come down from heaven, saying, You are our “father and
mother!” He made himself all things to all men, drawing from prayer and
his love of the sacred heart of Jesus the human and priestly force to
face martyrdom in 1896. He died, saying “I prefer to die rather than
renounce my faith”. Dear friends, may the life of this evangelizer be
an encouragement and a model for priests that, like him, they will be
men of God! May his example aid the many Christians of today persecuted
for their faith! In this Year of Faith, may his intercession bring
forth many fruits for Madagascar and the African Continent! May God
bless the Malagasy people!
Pedro Calungsod was born around the year 1654, in the Visayas
region of the Philippines. His love for Christ inspired him to train as a
catechist with the Jesuit missionaries there. In 1668, along with other
young catechists, he accompanied Father Diego Luís de San Vitores to
the Marianas Islands in order to evangelize the Chamorro people. Life
there was hard and the missionaries also faced persecution arising from
envy and slander. Pedro, however, displayed deep faith and charity and
continued to catechize his many converts, giving witness to Christ by a
life of purity and dedication to the Gospel. Uppermost was his desire to
win souls for Christ, and this made him resolute in accepting
martyrdom. He died on the April 2nd 1672. Witnesses record
that Pedro could have fled for safety but chose to stay at Father
Diego’s side. The priest was able to give Pedro absolution before he
himself was killed. May the example and courageous witness of Pedro
Calungsod inspire the dear people of the Philippines to announce the
Kingdom bravely and to win souls for God!
Giovanni Battista Piamarta, priest of the Diocese of Brescia, was
a great apostle of charity and of young people. He raised awareness of
the need for a cultural and social presence of Catholicism in the
modern world, and so he dedicated himself to the Christian, moral and
professional growth of the younger generations with an enlightened input
of humanity and goodness. Animated by unshakable faith in divine
providence and by a profound spirit of sacrifice, he faced difficulties
and fatigue to breathe life into various apostolic works, including the
Artigianelli Institute, Queriniana Publishers, the Congregation of the
Holy Family of Nazareth for men, and for women the Congregation of the
Humble Sister Servants of the Lord. The secret of his intense and busy
life is found in the long hours he gave to prayer. When he was
overburdened with work, he increased the length of his encounter, heart
to heart, with the Lord. He preferred to pause before the Blessed
Sacrament, meditating upon the passion, death and resurrection of
Christ, to gain spiritual fortitude and return to gaining people’s
hearts, especially the young, to bring them back to the sources of life
with fresh pastoral initiatives.
“May your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (Ps
32:22). With these words, the liturgy invites us to make our own this
hymn to God, creator and provider, accepting his plan into our lives.
María Carmelo Sallés y Barangueras, a religious born in Vic in Spain in
1848, did just so. Filled with hope in spite of many trials, she, on
seeing the progress of the Congregation of the Conceptionist Missionary
Sisters of Teaching, which she founded in 1892, was able to sing with
the Mother of God, “His mercy is on those who fear him from generation
to generation” (Lk 1:50). Her educational work, entrusted to
the Immaculate Virgin Mary, continues to bear abundant fruit among young
people through the generous dedication of her daughters who, like her,
entrust themselves to God for whom all is possible.
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| St. Marianne Cope |
I now turn to Marianne Cope, born in 1838 in Heppenheim,
Germany. Only one year old when taken to the United States, in 1862 she
entered the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis at Syracuse, New
York. Later, as Superior General of her congregation, Mother Marianne
willingly embraced a call to care for the lepers of Hawaii after many
others had refused. She personally went, with six of her fellow
sisters, to manage a hospital on Oahu, later founding Malulani Hospital
on Maui and opening a home for girls whose parents were lepers. Five
years after that she accepted the invitation to open a home for women
and girls on the island of Molokai itself, bravely going there herself
and effectively ending her contact with the outside world. There she
looked after Father Damien, already famous for his heroic work among the
lepers, nursed him as he died and took over his work among male
lepers. At a time when little could be done for those suffering from
this terrible disease, Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage
and enthusiasm. She is a shining and energetic example of the best of
the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her
beloved Saint Francis.
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| St. Kateri Tekakwitha |
Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today’s New York state in 1656 to a
Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother who gave to her a sense
of the living God. She was baptized at twenty years of age and, to
escape persecution, she took refuge in Saint Francis Xavier Mission near
Montreal. There she worked, faithful to the traditions of her people,
although renouncing their religious convictions until her death at the
age of twenty-four. Leading a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to
her love for Jesus, to prayer and to daily Mass. Her greatest wish was
to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith
and purity.
Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite
of the absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so
unusual in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each other!
May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without
denying who we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first
native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the
first nations and in all of North America! May God bless the first
nations!
Anna Schaeffer, from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to
enter a missionary order. She came from a poor background so, in order
to earn the dowry needed for acceptance into the cloister, she worked as
a maid. One day she suffered a terrible accident and received
incurable burns on her legs which forced her to be bed-ridden for the
rest of her life. So her sick-bed became her cloister cell and her
suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept her
fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call from the
crucified One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she
became an untiring intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for
the many who sought her counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and
suffering, of sacrifice and expiation, be a shining example for
believers in her homeland, and may her intercession strengthen the
Christian hospice movement in its beneficial activity.
Dear brothers and sisters, these new saints, different in origin,
language, nationality and social condition, are united among themselves
and with the whole People of God in the mystery of salvation of Christ
the Redeemer. With them, we too, together with the Synod Fathers from
all parts of the world, proclaim to the Lord in the words of the psalm
that he “is our help and our shield” and we invoke him saying, “may your
love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (Ps 32:20.22).
May the witness of these new saints, and their lives generously spent
for love of Christ, speak today to the whole Church, and may their
intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the
Gospel to the whole world.
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