VATICAN - Benedict XVI inaugurates his ministry as Successor of Peter: “The world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucify. The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man.”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “The shepherd must be inspired by Christ’s holy zeal: for him it is not a matter of indifference that so many people are living in the desert. And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. Therefore the earth’s treasures no longer serve to build God’s garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction. The Church as a whole and all her shepherd, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.” Pope Benedict said in his homily during the Mass to inaugurate his ministry celebrated yesterday in St Peter’s square, when he commented the symbols of the Pope’s ministry, one being the Pallium.
Made of the wool of lambs and sheep and worn by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome since the 4th century, the Pallium “may be considered an image of the yoke of Christ, which the Bishop of this City, the Servant of the Servants of God, takes upon his shoulders”, and again “the lamb's wool is meant to represent the lost, sick or weak sheep which the shepherd places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life”. Explaining further the Holy Father said: “God’s yoke is God’s will, which we accept. And this will does not weigh down on us, oppressing us and taking away our freedom. To know what God wants, to know where the path of life is found - this was Israel’s joy, this was her great privilege. It is also our joy: God’s will does not alienate us, it purifies us - even if this can be painful - and so it leads us to ourselves. In this way, we serve not only him, but the salvation of the whole world, of all history.”.
The Church Fathers saw the parable of the lost sheep as an image of the mystery of Christ and his Church. “The human race - every one of us - is the sheep lost in the desert which no longer knows the way. The Son of God will not let this happen; he cannot abandon humanity in so wretched a condition. He leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross. He takes it upon his shoulders and carries our humanity; he carries us all - he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. What the Pallium indicates first and foremost is that we are all carried by Christ. But at the same time it invites us to carry one another. Hence the Pallium becomes a symbol of the shepherd’s mission”.
In ancient times in the ‘east’ kings called themselves “shepherds of their people”. This was an image of their power, a cynical image: to them their subjects were like sheep, which the shepherd could dispose of as he wished. Instead “the shepherd of all humanity, the living God, himself became a lamb, he stood on the side of the lambs, with those who are downtrodden and killed. This is how he reveals himself to be the true shepherd: "I am the Good Shepherd . . . I lay down my life for the sheep", Jesus says of himself (Jn 10:14). It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God’s sign: he himself is love. How often we wish that God would make show himself stronger, that he would strike decisively, defeating evil and creating a better world. All ideologies of power justify themselves in exactly this way, they justify the destruction of whatever would stand in the way of progress and the liberation of humanity. We suffer on account of God’s patience. And yet, we need his patience. God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucify. The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man.”
The shepherd must love the people entrusted to him, even as he loves Christ whom he serves, the Pope said. “Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of his presence, which he gives us in the Blessed Sacrament”. And Benedict XVI made a request: “My dear friends - at this moment I can only say: pray for me, that I may learn to love the Lord more and more. Pray for me, that I may learn to love his flock more and more - in other words, you, the holy Church, each one of you and all of you together. Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another.”
Commenting the second symbol of his ministry, the ‘ring of the Fisherman’ the Pope reflected on the Gospel account of the miraculous catch of fish after a nigh of unsuccessful fishing. “Today too the Church and the successors of the Apostles are told to put out into the deep sea of history and to let down the nets, so as to win men and women over to the Gospel - to God, to Christ, to true life… We are living in alienation, in the salt waters of suffering and death; in a sea of darkness without light. The net of the Gospel pulls us out of the waters of death and brings us into the splendour of God’s light, into true life. It is really true: as we follow Christ in this mission to be fishers of men, we must bring men and women out of the sea that is salted with so many forms of alienation and onto the land of life, into the light of God. It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to give this friendship with Him to others.”
In his homily the Pope underlined that the Church is alive “we are the communion of the saints, we who are baptised… draw life from the gift of Christ’s Body and Blood,” and he continued: “Yes, the Church is alive - this is the wonderful experience of these days.… And the Church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way towards the future. The Church is alive and we are seeing it: we are experiencing the joy that the Risen Lord promised his followers. The Church is alive - she is alive because Christ is alive, because he is truly risen.”.
Benedict XVI greeted the cardinals and bishops, priests and deacons, pastoral workers and catechists, religious men and women, the laity and added “With great affection I also greet all those who have been reborn in the sacrament of Baptism but are not yet in full communion with us” brothers and sisters of the Jewish people, “to whom we are joined by a great shared spiritual heritage” and he said “Finally, like a wave gathering force, my thoughts go out to all men and women of today, to believers and non-believers alike.”
At the end of his homily the Pope recalled the words with which Pope John Paul II started his ministry on 22 October 1978: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ!" The Pope was addressing the mighty, the powerful of this world, who feared that Christ might take away something of their power if they were to let him in, if they were to allow the faith to be free. Yes, he would certainly have taken something away from them: the dominion of corruption, the manipulation of law and the freedom to do as they pleased. But he would not have taken away anything that pertains to human freedom or dignity, or to the building of a just society. The Pope was also speaking to everyone, especially the young… And so, today, with great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long personal experience of life, I say to you, dear young people: Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ - and you will find true life. Amen..” (Agenzia Fides 25/4/2005; righe 88, parole 1.431)