VATICAN - “ Let us ask the Lord to keep all hostility away from our hearts, to remove from us every feeling of self-sufficiency and truly to clothe ourselves with the vestment of love, so that we may be luminous persons and not belong to darkness. ”: the Pope told his priests during the Chrism Mass in the morning of Holy Thursday

Thursday, 5 April 2007

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father Benedict XVI presided this morning in St Peter's Basilica the Chrism mass with the clergy of his diocese of Rome Cardinals and Bishops also concelebrated. During the Mass there was the renewal of priestly vows and then the Pope blessed the sacred oils used in the Sacraments of Baptism, Conference, Ordination and the Anointing of the Sick.
During his Homily, the Pope recalled a story written by Leo Tolstoi about a harsh sovereign who asks “ his priests and sages to show him God so that he might see him. The wise men were unable to satisfy his desire. Then a shepherd, who was just coming in from the fields, volunteered to take on the task of the priests and sages. From him the king learned that his eyes were not good enough to see God. Then, however, he wanted to know at least what God does. "To be able to answer your question", the shepherd said to the king, "we must exchange our clothes". Somewhat hesitant but impelled by curiosity about the information he was expecting, the king consented; he gave the shepherd his royal robes and had himself dressed in the simple clothes of the poor man. Then came the answer: "This is what God does". Indeed, the Son of God, true God from true God, shed his divine splendour: "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men; and being found in human form he humbled himself..., even unto death on a cross" (cf. Phil 2: 6ff.). God, as the Fathers say, worked the sacrum commercium, the sacred exchange: he took on what was ours, so that we might receive what was his and become similar to God”. The Pope then said “ St Paul explicitly uses the image of clothing: "For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal 3: 27). “ This - the Pope said - is what is fulfilled in Baptism: we put on Christ, he gives us his garments and these are not something external. It means that we enter into an existential communion with him, that his being and our being merge, penetrate one another. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me", is how Paul himself describes the event of his Baptism in his Letter to the Galatians (2: 20). Christ has put on our clothes: the pain and joy of being a man, hunger, thirst, weariness, our hopes and disappointments, our fear of death, all our apprehensions until death. And he has given to us his "garments". What in the Letter to the Galatians Paul describes as a simple "fact" of Baptism - the gift of new being - he presents to us in the Letter to the Ephesians as an ongoing task: "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life... and [you must] put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away falsehood, let everyone speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin..." (Eph 4: 22-26).

The Pope continued: “ Just as in Baptism an "exchange of clothing" is given, an exchanged destination, a new existential communion with Christ, so also in priesthood there is an exchange: in the administration of the sacraments, the priest now acts and speaks "in persona Christi". In the sacred mysteries, he does not represent himself and does not speak expressing himself, but speaks for the Other, for Christ. Thus, in the Sacraments, he dramatically renders visible what being a priest means in general; what we have expressed with our "Adsum - I am ready", during our consecration to the priesthood: I am here so that you may make use of me. We put ourselves at the disposal of the One who "died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves..." (II Cor 5: 15). Putting ourselves at Christ's disposal means that we allow ourselves to be attracted within his "for all": in being with him we can truly be "for all.” The Holy Father then explained that at the moment of priestly Ordination, the Church has also made this reality of "new clothes" visible and comprehensible externally through being clothed in liturgical vestments. Putting on priestly vestments was once accompanied by prayers that helped us understand better each single element of the priestly ministry. Let us start with the amice. In the past - and in monastic orders still today - it was first placed on the head as a sort of hood, thus becoming a symbol of the discipline of the senses and of thought necessary for a proper celebration of Holy Mass. My thoughts must not wander here and there due to the anxieties and expectations of my daily life; my senses must not be attracted by what there, inside the church, might accidentally captivate the eyes and ears. My heart must open itself docilely to the Word of God and be recollected in the prayer of the Church, so that my thoughts may receive their orientation from the words of the proclamation and of prayer. And the gaze of my heart must be turned toward the Lord who is in our midst: this is what the ars celebrandi means: the proper way of celebrating. If I am with the Lord, then, with my listening, speaking and acting, I will also draw people into communion with him”. (P.R.) (Agenzia Fides 5/4/2007 - righe 57, parole 870)


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