VATICAN - Pope Benedict celebrates Mass in Warsaw’s Piłsudski Square: “How can we fail to thank God today for all that was accomplished in your native land and in the whole world during the Pontificate of John Paul II?”

Saturday, 27 May 2006

Warsaw(Agenzia Fides) - At 9.30am on Friday 26 May, Pope Benedict XVI presided an open air concelebration of Mass in Warsaw’s central Piłsudski Square. The Cardinals and bishops and priests of Poland and cardinals and bishops from various other countries concelebrated. About 250,000 people gathered to take part in the liturgy and civil and political authorities were also present in this square where Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on 2 June in 1979, on his first visit as Pope to his homeland, as Pope Benedict XVI recalled in his homily. “Here, on the eve of Pentecost, Pope John Paul II uttered the significant words of the prayer "Let your Spirit descend, and renew the face of the earth." And he added: "The face of this land." This very place witnessed the solemn funeral ceremony of the great Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, whose twenty-fifth anniversary occurs during these days. God united these two men not only through the same faith, hope and love, but also through the same human vicissitudes, which linked each of them so strongly to the history of this people and of the Church that lives in their midst.”
The Holy Father invited those present to join him in thanking God for what happened in Poland and the rest of the world during the pontificate of John Paul II: “Before our eyes, changes occurred in entire political, economic and social systems. People in various countries regained their freedom and their sense of dignity”. Commenting the readings of the Mass the Pope said that Jesus “reveals the profound link between faith and the profession of Divine Truth, between faith and dedication to Jesus Christ in love, between faith and the practice of a life inspired by the commandments. All three dimensions of faith are the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit... Hence faith is a gift, but at the same time it is a task”.
As in the past also today certain individuals and circles attempt to “falsify the word of Christ and remove from the Gospel those truths which in their view are too uncomfortable for modern man”. In this regard the Pope said: “the Church cannot silence the Spirit of Truth. The successors of the Apostles, together with the Pope, are responsible for the truth of the Gospel...Every Christian is bound to confront his own convictions continually with the teachings of the Gospel and of the Church’s Tradition in the effort to remain faithful to the word of Christ, even when it is demanding and, humanly speaking, hard to understand. We must not yield to the temptation of relativism or of a subjectivist and selective interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Only the whole truth can open us to adherence to Christ, who died and is Risen for our salvation.”
Underlining that “faith consists in an intimate relationship with Christ”, Pope Benedict XVI said to love Christ means “trusting in Him even in times of trial … In his hands our life acquires its true meaning... To love him is to remain in dialogue with him, in order to know his will and to put it into effect promptly… living one’s personal faith as a love-relationship with Christ also means being ready to renounce everything that constitutes a denial of his love.”.
At the end of his homily the Pope recalled that 27 years earlier in the same place John Paul II said: (Warsaw, 2 June 1979), and Benedict XVI concluded with this request: “I ask you now, cultivate this rich heritage of faith transmitted to you by earlier generations, the heritage of the thought and the service of that great Pole who was Pope John Paul II. Stand firm in your faith, hand it down to your children, bear witness to the grace which you have experienced so abundantly through the Holy Spirit in the course of your history”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2006 - righe 43, parole 645)


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