October 11, 2012
(Romereports.com) “During the
Second Vatican Council there was an emotional tension as we faced the
common task of making the truth and beauty of the faith shine out in our
time, without sacrificing it to the demands of the present or leaving
it tied to the past”, remembered Pope Benedict XVI.
SEE THE FULL TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today,
fifty years from the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council,
we begin with great joy the Year of Faith. I am delighted to greet all
of you, particularly His Holiness Bartholomaois I, Patriarch of
Constantinople, and His Grace Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. A
special greeting goes to the Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the
Eastern Catholic Churches, and to the Presidents of the Bishops’
Conferences. In order to evoke the Council, which some present had the
grace to experience for themselves - and I greet them with particular
affection - this celebration has been enriched by several special signs:
the opening procession, intended to recall the memorable one of the
Council Fathers when they entered this Basilica; the enthronement of a
copy of the Book of the Gospels used at the Council; the consignment of
the seven final Messages of the Council, and of the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, which I will do before the final blessing. These signs
help us not only to remember, they also offer us the possibility of
going beyond commemorating. They invite us to enter more deeply into the
spiritual movement which characterized Vatican II, to make it ours and
to develop it according to its true meaning. And its true meaning was
and remains faith in Christ, the apostolic faith, animated by the inner
desire to communicate Christ to individuals and all people, in the
Church’s pilgrimage along the pathways of history.
The Year of
Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s
whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the
Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of
Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which
Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one
Saviour, yesterday, today and forever. Between these two Popes, Paul VI
and John Paul II, there was a deep and profound convergence, precisely
upon Christ as the centre of the cosmos and of history, and upon the
apostolic eagerness to announce him to the world. Jesus is the centre of
the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was
revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and
their definitive interpreter. Jesus Christ is not only the object of the
faith but, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews, he is "the pioneer
and the perfecter of our faith" (12:2).
Today’s Gospel tells us
that Jesus Christ, consecrated by the Father in the Holy Spirit, is the
true and perennial subject of evangelization. "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the
poor" (Lk 4:18). This mission of Christ, this movement of his continues
in space and time, over centuries and continents. It is a movement which
starts with the Father and, in the power of the Spirit, goes forth to
bring the good news to the poor, in both a material and a spiritual
sense. The Church is the first and necessary instrument of this work of
Christ because it is united to him as a body to its head. "As the Father
has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn 20:21), says the Risen One to his
disciples, and breathing upon them, adds, "Receive the Holy Spirit"
(v.22). Through Christ, God is the principal subject of evangelization
in the world; but Christ himself wished to pass on his own mission to
the Church; he did so, and continues to do so, until the end of time
pouring out his Spirit upon the disciples, the same Spirit who came upon
him and remained in him during all his earthly life, giving him the
strength "to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to
the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" and "to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19).
The Second
Vatican Council did not wish to deal with the theme of faith in one
specific document. It was, however, animated by a desire, as it were, to
immerse itself anew in the Christian mystery so as to re-propose it
fruitfully to contemporary man. The Servant of God Paul VI, two years
after the end of the Council session, expressed it in this way: "Even if
the Council does not deal expressly with the faith, it talks about it
on every page, it recognizes its vital and supernatural character, it
assumes it to be whole and strong, and it builds upon its teachings. We
need only recall some of the Council’s statements in order to realize
the essential importance that the Council, consistent with the doctrinal
tradition of the Church, attributes to the faith, the true faith, which
has Christ for its source and the Church’s Magisterium for its channel"
(General Audience, 8 March 1967). Thus said Paul VI.
We
now turn to the one who convoked the Second Vatican Council and
inaugurated it: Blessed John XXIII. In his opening speech, he presented
the principal purpose of the Council in this way: "What above all
concerns the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of
Christian doctrine be safeguarded and taught more effectively […]
Therefore, the principal purpose of this Council is not the discussion
of this or that doctrinal theme… a Council is not required for that…
[but] this certain and immutable doctrine, which is to be faithfully
respected, needs to be explored and presented in a way which responds to
the needs of our time" (AAS 54 [1962], 790,791-792).
In the
light of these words, we can understand what I myself felt at the time:
during the Council there was an emotional tension as we faced the common
task of making the truth and beauty of the faith shine out in our time,
without sacrificing it to the demands of the present or leaving it tied
to the past: the eternal presence of God resounds in the faith,
transcending time, yet it can only be welcomed by us in our own
unrepeatable today. Therefore I believe that the most important thing,
especially on such a significant occasion as this, is to revive in the
whole Church that positive tension, that yearning to announce Christ
again to contemporary man. But, so that this interior thrust towards the
new evangelization neither remain just an idea nor be lost in
confusion, it needs to be built on a concrete and precise basis, and
this basis is the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the place
where it found expression. This is why I have often insisted on the need
to return, as it were, to the "letter" of the Council – that is to its
texts – also to draw from them its authentic spirit, and why I have
repeated that the true legacy of Vatican II is to be found in them.
Reference to the documents saves us from extremes of anachronistic
nostalgia and running too far ahead, and allows what is new to be
welcomed in a context of continuity. The Council did not formulate
anything new in matters of faith, nor did it wish to replace what was
ancient. Rather, it concerned itself with seeing that the same faith
might continue to be lived in the present day, that it might remain a
living faith in a world of change.
If we place ourselves in
harmony with the authentic approach which Blessed John XXIII wished to
give to Vatican II, we will be able to realize it during this Year of
Faith, following the same path of the Church as she continuously
endeavours to deepen the deposit of faith entrusted to her by Christ.
The Council Fathers wished to present the faith in a meaningful way; and
if they opened themselves trustingly to dialogue with the modern world
it is because they were certain of their faith, of the solid rock on
which they stood. In the years following, however, many embraced
uncritically the dominant mentality, placing in doubt the very
foundations of the deposit of faith, which they sadly no longer felt
able to accept as truths.
If today the Church proposes a new Year
of Faith and a new evangelization, it is not to honour an anniversary,
but because there is more need of it, even more than there was fifty
years ago! And the reply to be given to this need is the one desired by
the Popes, by the Council Fathers and contained in its documents. Even
the initiative to create a Pontifical Council for the promotion of the
new evangelization, which I thank for its special effort for the Year of
Faith, is to be understood in this context. Recent decades have seen
the advance of a spiritual "desertification". In the Council’s time it
was already possible from a few tragic pages of history to know what a
life or a world without God looked like, but now we see it every day
around us. This void has spread. But it is in starting from the
experience of this desert, from this void, that we can again discover
the joy of believing, its vital importance for us, men and women. In the
desert we rediscover the value of what is essential for living; thus in
today’s world there are innumerable signs, often expressed implicitly
or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the ultimate meaning of life.
And in the desert people of faith are needed who, with their own lives,
point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive. Living faith
opens the heart to the grace of God which frees us from pessimism.
Today, more than ever, evangelizing means witnessing to the new life,
transformed by God, and thus showing the path. The first reading spoke
to us of the wisdom of the wayfarer (cf. Sir 34:9-13): the journey is a
metaphor for life, and the wise wayfarer is one who has learned the art
of living, and can share it with his brethren – as happens to pilgrims
along the Way of Saint James or similar routes which, not by chance,
have again become popular in recent years. How come so many people today
feel the need to make these journeys? Is it not because they find
there, or at least intuit, the meaning of our existence in the world?
This, then, is how we can picture the Year of Faith: a pilgrimage in the
deserts of today’s world, taking with us only what is necessary:
neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, nor two tunics – as the
Lord said to those he was sending out on mission (cf. Lk 9:3), but the
Gospel and the faith of the Church, of which the Council documents are a
luminous expression, as is the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
published twenty years ago.
Venerable and dear Brothers, 11
October 1962 was the Feast of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. Let us
entrust to her the Year of Faith, as I did last week when I went on
pilgrimage to Loreto. May the Virgin Mary always shine out as a star
along the way of the new evangelization. May she help us to put into
practice the Apostle Paul’s exhortation, "Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom […] And
whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col 3:16-17). Amen.
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