VIDEO MESSAGE OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL RETREAT FOR PRIESTS
[ARS, SEPTEMBER 27 - OCTOBER 3, 2009]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As you can easily imagine, I would have been
extremely happy to be with you on this international retreat for priests on the
theme: "The joy of priesthood: consecrated for the salvation of the
world". A large number of you are taking part and you have the benefit of
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's teaching. I greet him cordially together with
the other preachers and Bishop Guy-Marie Bagnard of Belley-Ars. I must be
content with addressing this recorded message to you, but please believe that
through these words I am speaking to each one of you in the most personal way
possible because, as St Paul says: "I hold you in my heart, for you are
all partakers with me of grace" (Phil 1: 7).
St John Mary Vianney emphasized the
indispensable role of the priest when he said: "A good pastor, a pastor
according to the heart of God, is the greatest treasure that the good Lord can
give to a parish and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy" (Le
Curé d'Ars, Pensées, presented by Abbé Bernard Nodet, Desclée de Brouwer,
Foi Vivante, 2000, p. 101). In this Year for Priests we are all called to explore and to rediscover the greatness of the
sacrament which has configured us for ever to Christ the High Priest and has
"consecrated" us all "in truth" (Jn 17: 19).
Chosen from among men, the priest continues to
be one of them and is called to serve them by giving them the life of God. It
is he who "continues the work of redemption on earth" (Nodet, p. 98).
Our priestly vocation is a treasure that we bear in earthen vessels (cf. 2 Cor
4: 7). St Paul expressed with happiness the infinite distance that exists
between our vocation and the poverty of the responses we can give to God. From
this point of view, a secret bond unites the Pauline Year with the Year for Priests. Let us keep present in our ears
and in the depths of our hearts the moving and trusting exclamation of the
Apostle who said: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12: 10).
Awareness of this weakness opens us to intimacy with God who gives us strength
and joy. The more the priest perseveres in friendship with God, the more he
will continue the Redeemer's work on this earth (cf. Nodet, p. 98). The priest
does not exist for himself, he exists for everyone (cf. Nodet, p. 100).
That is precisely where one of the greatest
challenges of our time lies. Indeed, today more than ever the priest, a man of
the divine word and of the sacred, must be a man of joy and hope. To people who
can no longer conceive that God is pure Love, he will always affirm that life
is worth living and that Christ gives it its full meaning because he loves
human beings, he loves them all. The religion of the Curé d'Ars is a religion
of joy, not a morbid quest for mortification as has sometimes been believed:
"Our happiness is too great; no, no, we shall never understand it"
(Nodet, p. 110), he would say, and further: "when we are travelling and
see a bell-tower, this view should quicken our heart beat, just as the sight of
the roof of her beloved's dwelling place quickens the bride's heart beat"(ibid.).
Here I would like to greet with very special affection all those of you who
have pastoral responsibility for several bell-towers and spend yourselves
without counting the cost to keep up the sacramental life in your respective
communities. The Church is immensely grateful to you all! Do not lose heart but
continue to pray and to have prayers said that numerous young men will be ready
to respond to the call of Christ who never stops wanting to increase the number
of his apostles to reap the harvest in his fields.
Dear priests, think too of the extreme
diversity of the ministries you exercise in the service of the Church. Think of
the great number of Masses you have celebrated or will celebrate, making Christ
really present on the altar each time. Think of the innumerable absolutions you
have given and will give, enabling a sinner to be forgiven. Then you perceive
the infinite fruitfulness of the sacrament of Orders. In the space of a moment
your hands, your lips became the hands and lips of God. You bear Christ within
you; through grace, you have entered the Holy Trinity. Just as the saintly Curé
said: "if we had faith, we would see God hidden in the priest like a light
behind glass or like wine mixed with water" (Nodet, p. 97). This
consideration should lead to harmonizing relations between priests so as to
create a priestly community, as St Peter exhorted (cf. 1 Pt 2: 9), in order to
build up the body of Christ and build up yourselves in love (cf. Eph 4: 11-16).
The priest is the man of the future: it is he
who has taken seriously Paul's words: "If then you have been raised with
Christ, seek the things that are above" (Col 3: 1). What he does on earth
is in the order of the means ordered to the last things. The Mass is this one
point of union between the means and the End because it already enables us to
contemplate, under the humble appearances of bread and wine, the Body and Blood
of the One we shall adore for eternity. The holy Curé's simple, concentrated
sentences on the Eucharist help us perceive more clearly the riches of this
unique moment in the day when we experience an encounter that is life-giving
for ourselves and for each one of the faithful. "The happiness that exists
in saying Mass", he wrote, "will only be properly understood in
Heaven" (Nodet, page 104).
I therefore encourage you to strengthen your
faith and that of your faithful in the sacrament you celebrate, which is the
source of true joy. The Saint of Ars wrote: "The priest must feel the same
joy (as the Apostles) in seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands" (ibid.).
In giving thanks for what you are and for what you do, I repeat to you:
"Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the
Church" (Homily, Mass on the
Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, 13
September 2008). Living witnesses of the power of God at work in human
weakness, consecrated for the salvation of the world, you remain, my dear
brothers, chosen by Christ himself in order to be, through him, salt of the
earth and light of the world. At this spiritual retreat may you have a profound
experience of the "inexpressible closeness" (St Augustine, Les
Confessions, III, 6, 11 BA 13, p. 383) in order to be perfectly united to
Christ so as to proclaim his Love around you and to be wholly committed to the
service of the sanctification of all the members of the People of God. As I entrust
you to the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and of priests, I impart my Apostolic
Blessing to you all.
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