VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI in Austria - “The heart of the mission of Jesus Christ and of all Christians is to announce the Kingdom of God. This announcement in the name of Christ means for the Church, the priests, the religious and all the baptised, commitment to be present in the world as His witnesses.”

Monday, 10 September 2007

Vienna (Agenzia Fides) - In the afternoon of Saturday 8 September inside the Basilica of Mariazell the Holy Father presided the celebration of Second Vespers of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary with priests, religious, deacons, seminarians and persons of consecrated life. “You are servants of the mission of Jesus Christ - the Pope said in his homily -. Just as two thousand years ago Jesus called people to follow him, also today young men and women at his call set out on a path, drawn to Him and moved by a desire to put their lives at the service of the Church, and to serve others … to be a disciple of Christ is in fact a risk because we are always threatened by sin, lack of freedom and defection. Therefore we all need His grace, just as Mary who received it in fullness.” Pope Benedict XVI recalled that “the Lord calls priest, religious and lay people to enter the world in its complex reality to help build therein the Kingdom of God”, and this the do in many different ways becoming “pilgrims with Him” in history. Walking with Him means two things: “the dimension of the Cross - with failure, suffering, misunderstanding, indeed even rejection and persecution -, but also the experience of profound joy in his service and the experience of great consolation deriving from the encounter with Him … The heart of the mission of Jesus Christ and of all Christians is to announce the Kingdom of God. This announcement in the name of Christ means for the Church, the priests, the religious and all the baptised, commitment to be present in the world as His witnesses. The Kingdom of God is in fact God himself who makes himself present and reigns through us. The Kingdom of God is built up then when God lives in us and we carry God to the world”.
To follow Christ “means to assimilate Jesus' way of thought, his style of life ” the Pope said stressing the need to reflect on the " evangelical counsels", the “determinant components of a life committed to radical discipleship of Christ: poverty, chastity and obedience ”. Here are some passages of the Holy Father's homily.
“Jesus Christ who possessed all the riches of God, became poor for us… those who wish to follow Christ in a radical way must renounce material goods. They must however live this poverty starting from Christ, becoming inwardly free for others. The question of poverty and the poor for all Christians, but especially for us, priests, for religious men and women, individuals and communities, must frequently be the subject of a sincere examination of conscience. Precisely in our situation, I think, in which we are not in situations of discomfort, we are not poor, we must consider carefully, how we can truly live this calling.".
“With the vow of chastity and celibacy we are not consecrating ourselves to individualism o or a life of isolation, we are making a solemn promise to put totally and without reserves at the service of the Kingdom of God- a so as the service of others- those intense relationships of which we are capable and which we receive as a gift. In this way, priests and religious become men and women of hope: by relying totally on God and demonstrating in this way that for them god is a reality, they make room for His presence- the presence of the Kingdom of God - in the world … and today the world has great need of our testimony.”
“Jesus lived his whole life, from the hidden years at Nazareth to the moment of his death on the cross, listening to the Father and in obedience to the Father… Christians have always found that they do not lose themselves when they entrust themselves wholly to the will of the Father indeed in doing so they reach deeper identity and inward freedom … To listen to God and obey Him has nothing to do with constriction or loss of self. Only if we enter God's will do we reach are true identity ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/9/2007; righe 45, parole 686)


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