VATICAN - Benedict XVI's pastoral visit to Velletri: “This is our common mission: to be leaven of hope and peace because we believe in love. Love makes the Church live and since love is eternal it will make her live until the end of time”

Monday, 24 September 2007

Velletri (Agenzia Fides) - “I happy to be back here with you… I have returned with joy to meet your diocesan community for several years in a singular way my own and which will always be dear to my heart”. These were the first moving words pronounced by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI at the beginning of homily during the Eucharistic Concelebration he presided on Sunday 23 September at Velletri a diocese of which he was titular Cardinal from 1993 until his election to the Pontificate.
Dwelling on the theme which marked the diocese's intense preparation for this encounter with the Pope - a verse from the First Letter of John: "We ourselves have known and put our faith in the love God has for us" (4,16) - Benedict XVI underlined: “We believed in this love: this is the essence of Christianity. Therefore today's liturgical gathering cannot fail to focus on the essential truth, on God's love which impresses totally new direction and value on human existence. Love is the essence of Christianity, it renders the individual Christian believer and the community ferment of hope and peace in every environment, and especially attentive to the needs of the poor and the needy. And this is our common mission: we leaven of hope and peace because we believe in love. Love makes the Church live and since love is eternal it makes her live forever until the end of time.”
The Holy Father then commented the Sunday Gospel in which St Luke narrates the parable of the dishonest administrator (cfr LK 16,1-13), with which the Lord Jesus warns Christians about their attitude to money and the goods of this world. “Life is truly always a decision: between honesty and dishonesty, fidelity and infidelity, egoism and altruism, good and evil” said Benedict XVI. “It is necessary therefore to make a fundamental choice between God and mammon, it is necessary to choose between the logic of profit as ultimate criteria for our deeds and the logic of sharing and solidarity. The logic of profit, if prevailing, increases the disproportion between rich and poor and ruinous exploitation of the planet. When instead the logic of sharing and solidarity prevails, it is possible to correct the route and direct it towards development which is fair and sustainable. Basically it is a question of choosing between egoism and love, justice and dishonesty, basically between God and Satan. If we consider love for Christ and others not something superficial or accessory, but instead as the ultimate purpose of our whole life, then we must know how to make fundamental decisions, be ready for radical renunciation, if necessary even martyrdom. Today as in the past, the life of the Christian requires the courage to row against the current, to love as Jesus who went as far as to sacrifice himself on the cross.”
Commenting the other two readings of the Mass the Pontiff underlined that Christians must totally reject “selfish quest for profit in every possible way which turns into thirst for making money, contempt for the poor and exploitation of their situation for one's own advantage”. Christians must open their hearts with authentic generosity “expressed in sincere love for all and manifested in prayer”. After stressing the importance of prayer, the indispensable “spiritual contribution to the building up of an ecclesial Community faithful to Christ and the construction of a society of more justice and solidarity”, the Pope concluded with a prayer: “May Mary free us from greed for riches, and help us to lift up free and pure hands and render glory to God with our whole life!”
At the end of the Mass the Holy Father blessed a copy of a bronze pillar presented to him as a present for his 80th birthday during his apostolic visit to Germany, and which he in turn donated to the diocese of Velletri-Segni. The original stands in the town where the Pope was born Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 24/9/2007, righe 44, parole 662)


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