Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “I am truly happy to celebrate with you for the first time as Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urban University this solemn Mass to invoke the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the new academic year. In your presence I experience the vibrant universal Church as she offers in many tongues praise and thanksgiving to the Father through Jesus Christ. I experience the joy of belonging to the Urban family, within the larger family of Propaganda Fide which opens its arms to the whole world to announce to the far corners of the earth Christ who died and is risen.” With these words Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urban, commenced his homily during a votive Mass «De Spiritu Sancto» celebrated on 12 October in the Chapel of the Pontifical Urban University on the occasion of the inaguration of the new academic year 2006-2007.
Commenting the passage of Gospel of St John (13, 1-17) the Cardinal said “it indicates very clearly the heart of the mystery of love of Jesus Christ and the whole Christian life. He, the Son of God « Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.». An extraordinary, amazing love, that of the Lord, a love to the very end, that is, extreme.”
Jesus teaches us that only love can conquer evil and death. “Jesus did not think of himself, he did not flee from suffering, he refused legitimate defence of his companions, he did not defend himself…Jesus’ love might appear to be weak, powerless. Yes, living this sort of love is not easy, it is not immediate, it is not sentiment”. Cardinal Dias then referred to the encyclical Deus caritas est, which explains “the choice of a man, Son of God, who chose not to save himself but rather give his life living for others. This was the sense of his life and his death, the seed of the resurrection”.
Even today when “it is difficult to look at suffering and pain, Jesus, suffering and poor, reaches out to purify us of the arrogance of our self love .. Today in Jesus the poor man, we see the many poor of the word, despised, miserable, condemned... How often we have been mean to them, we have run away from their pain, we refused to reach out to alleviate their suffering, help them in their need, console them in grief, or felt that we were poor ones. The Lord teaches us to stop, to reach out…In fact Jesus the poor man makes us rich. It is Jesus we must care for, Jesus we must follow and listen to. But the paradox is precisely this: He is the one who cares for us, heals us and teaches us to serve. Service is a great freedom to love.”
The Cardinal then reflected on how this love is lived: “At times even we who are called to serve Jesus in a special way fail to listen when God speaks. We feel important, we think we are teachers and we stop being disciples. Only in obedience and listening to the voice of God, from which faith is born, can we begin to understand. We have no other beatitude, no other happiness than this… Let us put into practice this Gospel of love, kindness, compassion, in order to continue our struggle against the forces of evil by doing good, so that from our life, here at the University or wherever we are, the may flow energies of love and goodness for us and for the whole world”.
Concluding his homily, the Cardinal urged those present not to follow “the ephemeral glory of this world”, and to share with all the secret of Christian life, “it is not enough to study in the library or in class, we must live at the school of the one and only Master, the Lord Jesus Christ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 13/10/2006; righe 44, parole 679)
