Pope Francis’ Homily for Benedict
"Father, into your
hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). These were the final words
spoken by the Lord on the cross; his last breath, as it were, which summed up
what had been his entire life: a ceaseless self-entrustment into the hands of
his Father. His were hands of forgiveness and compassion, healing and mercy,
anointing and blessing, which led him also to entrust himself into the hands of
his brothers and sisters. The Lord, open to the individuals and their stories
that he encountered along the way, allowed himself to be shaped by the Father’s
will. He shouldered all the consequences and hardships entailed by the Gospel,
even to seeing his hands pierced for love. “See my hands,” he says to Thomas (Jn 20:27),
and to each of us. Pierced hands that constantly reach out to us, inviting us
to recognize the love that God has for us and to believe in it (cf. 1
Jn 4:16).[1]
“Father into your
hands I commend my spirit.” This is the invitation and the programme of life
that he quietly inspires in us. Like a potter (cf. Is 29:16),
he wishes to shape the heart of every pastor, until it is attuned to the heart
of Christ Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5). Attuned in grateful
devotion, in service to the Lord and to his people, a service born of
thanksgiving for a completely gracious gift: “You belong to me … you belong to
them,” the Lord whispers, “you are under the protection of my hands. You are
under the protection of my heart. Stay in my hands and give me yours.”[2] Here
we see the “condescension” and closeness of God, who is ready to entrust
himself to the frail hands of his disciples, so that they can feed his people
and say with him: Take and eat, take and drink, for this is my body which is
given up for you (cf. Lk 22:19).
Attuned in prayerful
devotion, a devotion silently shaped and refined amid the challenges and
resistance that every pastor must face (cf. 1 Pet 1:6-7) in
trusting obedience to the Lord’s command to feed his flock (cf. Jn 21:17
). Like the Master, a shepherd bears the burden of interceding and the strain
of anointing his people, especially in situations where goodness must struggle
to prevail and the dignity of our brothers and sisters is threatened (cf. Heb 5:7-9).
In the course of this intercession, the Lord quietly bestows the spirit of
meekness that is ready to understand, accept, hope and risk, notwithstanding
any misunderstandings that might result. It is the source of an unseen and
elusive fruitfulness, born of his knowing the One in whom he has placed his
trust (cf. 2 Tim 1:12). A trust itself born of prayer and
adoration, capable of discerning what is expected of a pastor and shaping his
heart and his decisions in accord with God’s good time (cf. Jn 21:18):
“Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving
means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of
God’s word, the nourishment of his presence.”[3]
Attuned in devotion
sustained by the consolation of the Spirit, who always precedes the pastor
in his mission. In his passionate effort to communicate the beauty and the joy
of the Gospel (cf. Gaudete et Exsultate, 57). In the fruitful
witness of all those who, like Mary, in so many ways stand at the foot of the
cross. In the painful yet steadfast serenity that neither attacks nor coerces.
In the stubborn but patient hope that the Lord will be faithful to his promise,
the promise he made to our fathers and to their descendants forever (cf. Lk 1:54-55).
Holding fast to the
Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an
ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother
into the hands of the Father. May those merciful hands find his lamp
alight with the oil of the Gospel that he spread and testified to for his
entire life (cf. Mt 25:6-7).
At the end of
his Pastoral Rule, St. Gregory the Great urged a friend to offer
him this spiritual accompaniment: “Amid the shipwreck of the present life,
sustain me, I beseech you, by the plank of your prayer, that, since my own
weight sinks me down, the hand of your merit will raise me up.” Here we see the
awareness of a pastor who cannot carry alone what in truth he could never carry
alone, and can thus commend himself to the prayers and the care of the people
entrusted to him.[4] God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompanies and
entrusts to him the life of the one who was their pastor. Like the women at the
tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in
order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with
the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the
years. Together, we want to say: “Father, into your hands we commend his
spirit.”
Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever!"
This is a good homily, focusing on Christ. The penultimate paragraph is particularly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting is the text of the deed that is traditionally placed into the coffin of a pope. It summarises the highlights of Benedict's papacy. I was a bit disappointed to read that '[he] successfully promoted dialogue with the Anglicans, with the Jews and with the representatives of other religions' - but nothing about the Orthodox, although the EP honoured him at his retirement for his work in furthering relations between the Churches.
It was a good homily because, as you say, its theme was service to Christ. The exclusion of Orthodoxy may well have had something to do with the current situation in Ukraine/Russia where allegiance to particular Churches has become embroiled in that conflict.
ReplyDeleteWhen do you celebrate Christmas? For us in the West the season ends today.
The Orthodox world is bigger than Russia, though, and there's been a much more brutal conflict going on between the Anglicans and reality for some time...
DeleteWe follow the New Calendar, so we celebrated Christmas on 25 Dec. Today is the Blessed Feast of the Theophany, which commemorates Christ's baptism (and the institution of Christian baptism) rather than the visit of the Magi.
Yes, Jack certainly agrees there is a fierce spiritual battle taking within Anglicanism and it would appear the Church of England has been annexed by the advancing armies of "Mordor". So far the Catholic Church is holding firm but the enemy is making cunning advances in the West, most notably in Germany.
ReplyDeleteThere will be a post on this tomorrow by Happy Jack ... subject to Mrs Jack giving him the peace he needs to complete it.
And I thought you were the one in charge!
DeleteIndeed. Within a couple of days of Pope Benedict passing, I saw a 'Catholic' blog asking 'who is the real pope now?' This kind of constant stirring and divisiveness is the last thing Benedict would have wanted, hence why he remained silent in retirement.
I found this snippet from a letter by Abp. Alexander of Texas useful advice in dealing with these types of blogs (replace Orthodox with Catholic). A lot of people running those kind of sites need to hear this.
Finally, and in closing, I implore you: stay away from so-called Orthodox blogs, videos and social media posts that trade in conspiracies, fear, hatred and anger, ultimately leading to schism and the loss of faith. In so many instances people who have been Orthodox a matter of months or a few years set themselves up as experts in canon law, church history and theology and seek to teach and lead others. “Armchair bishops” without the grace of the episcopacy are leading people to their spiritual ruin.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete*it would appear the Church of England has been annexed by the advancing armies of "Mordor".*
DeleteJust today, on another website, I’ve seen a term that is new to me in a church context, “low threshold”. A recent convert to the Catholic faith, formerly an ordained Calvinist minister, writes:
*But when I’ve seen that in France, it was in settings which gave out a “low-threshold” kind of atmosphere, to use an expression that is quite fashionable in Protestant churches around me but generally seems to mean washing down the faith in the (vain) hope that more people will come to it. (My former church loves trying to be “low-threshold”, but its parishes, on the whole, are a bit more empty with each passing year.)*
(The poster is a French speaker. “Washing down” here is evidently intended as “watering down".)
@Ray maybe it's a badly translated way of saying something like 'appealing to lowest common denominator'. I've heard this way of thinking justified before as not wishing to place 'stumbling blocks' in people's paths.
DeleteLain, the Ukrainian Orthodox church has moved to the 25th , but allows congregations and individuals to continue with the 7th Jan.
ReplyDeleteThe Russian Orthodox is sticking to the old calendar.
Have a lot of Orthodox Churches moved to the new calendar?
@ Lain
DeleteHappy Jack refers to these folks as comprising the Internet Magisterium made up of Armchair Theologians. It gives new meaning to Satan being "the ruler of the kingdom of the air" (Ephesians 2:2).
The calendar is a bit of a mess, to be honest. This article gives a good overview. Part of the intention of updating the calendar was to unite our feasts with the rest of the Christian world, but it wasn't universally accepted. Technically, all the Churches celebrate Christmas on the same date, just on different calendars (today is 24 December 2022 in the Russian Church calendar, for example).
DeleteAccording to that article, 'the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and most recently, Bulgaria (1968)' have moved to the New Calendar, but the 'Churches of Jerusalem, Russia and Serbia, along with the monasteries on Mt. Athos, all continue to adhere to the Old Calendar.' Confusingly, as well as canonical churches that use the Old Calendar, there are the so-called Old Calendarist churches, who are schismatics and not in communion with the Orthodox Church. I suppose it's fair to say, broadly, that the churches that have more contact with the West have tended to adopt the New Calendar.
We do, however, all celebrate Pascha on the same day - 16 April this year - since it's determined by phases of the moon and the vernal equinox, rather than calendar months.
@Jack
DeleteI've heard it called Interdoxy in Orthodox circles; the Interdox tend to haunt blogs and YouTube comments sharing their sage opinion on things (usually what a priest or bishop or the EP is doing wrong). Strangely, most of these online crusaders for Orthodoxy turn out to have never even been to a Divine Liturgy or spoken to a priest; I guess they just like the beards and robes and think that what they perceive as the stern conservatism of the Orthodox Church backs up their own political views. There have been guys passing themselves off as Orthodox monks on YouTube videos, who have no connection to the Church whatsoever.
Why not just shape up and follow the Western calendar across the Orthodox Church?
DeleteIs it true that those Orthodox Churches aligning their liturgical calendar with the Latin one are more inclined towards ecumenicalism?
@ Mysterious Dodo person who definitely isn't Jack.
DeleteThe OC still determines the date of Easter following the directives of the First Ecumenical Synod of 325, using the Julian Calendar that was in use at the time. One doesn't simply abandon 1700 years of tradition for a novelty such as the Gregorian Calendar! The last part of the article I linked for Clive talks about the reasons for our different dating for Pascha.
For Orthodox Churches that still fully use the Old Calendar, such as the ROC, there is also a resistance to accepting a calendar modification made by a post-Schism pope, and a general suspicion of all things Western, which is increasingly seen as a hotbed for heresy and depravity (amazingly!). Some Orthodox won't touch a rosary, for example, because it's Western and post-Schism, although the Hail Mary is included in the Western Rite Orthodox daily offices and many other Orthodox pray the rosary without catching fire.
On a practical level, it would also mean that Old Calendar Orthodox countries would need to change their biggest public holidays etc., and there's little incentive to do so.
Oh, and yes. I'd say that's roughly right re. ecumenism.
DeleteA few weeks ago Patriarch Bartholomew was reported as saying he was in favour of finding a common date for Easter (link below). We’re not told what formula he has in mind, but it’s possible he may be thinking of a so-called “fixed Easter” such as, for example, the second Sunday in April or something along those lines, divorced from the phases of the moon. In the Catholic Church this idea was briefly in the news a few years ago, in 2015 I think, when Pope Francis was quoted as saying the Church would have no objection to the change.
DeleteThe idea is, on the surface, an appealing one. If all Christians worldwide were in fact to celebrate Easter on the same day, that would certainly convey the desired sense of unity and of a single communion of all Christians. But in practice I fear the effect would be the opposite. There are going to be some people, both inside and outside the Catholic Church, who will refuse to accept the change and will go on following the present-day formula, in force since 325 though now applied differently in accordance with the Julian or the Gregorian calendar There will be more breakaway groups and small-scale schisms.
So instead of two different Easter dates each year, as at present — the Gregorian and Julian dates — there would then be three, Gregorian, Julian, and whatever the new formula is. The change would be counterproductive. It would be divisive. It would lead to more dissension, more quarrelling, and more fragmentation.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252851/why-catholics-and-orthodox-might-once-again-celebrate-easter-on-the-same-date
Thanks for that link, I'd missed that. A fixed date has its appeal, but that does risk (further) minimising the link to Passover.
DeleteI think you're right; it would be counterproductive (and it's much easier to say one is in favour of something than actually going through with it!). There would be strong resistance both ways; I imagine there would be outcry from radtrad Catholics over aligning with schismatics, for 'error has no rights', and there will certainly be Orthodox who see it as the Filioque 2.0. And what would the various Protestant groups do? At its heart, the difficulty around Easter is a problem caused by the division of the Apostolic Church, so is it really their concern? Would Canterbury move to the new date?
Unless Rome or the East are willing to adopt the other's way of calculating Easter (unlikely), then the only way this would work is to abandon both the Eastern and Latin dating systems and find something completely different. But I can't see, for example, the Russian Church ever agreeing to change its practice, particularly if the suggestion has come from the EP and the Pope, and especially in the current climate.
On a side note; although I regret that we mark different days, I do actually like celebrating Easter on a different date to the Western one; all the chocolate eggs and bunnies have been taken down and it feels like a religious celebration instead of having to fight for room with a secular holiday.
In many ways, though, we celebrate Easter at every Eucharist, and Christians are Easter people who should live the resurrection every day, so perhaps having two dates for Easter isn't the end of the world.
Your final paragraph is exactly right. There is no biblical evidence of the early church celebrating Easter. Quite the opposite - Passover, as a Jewish festival, is one of the shadows which the early church seems to have viewed with ambivalence.
DeleteThe earliest Church was no doubt too busy anticipating the imminent return of Christ and being persecuted to worry too much about establishing liturgical calendars. This would naturally become more important once the faith developed, and people realised that they were in it for the long haul. Nonetheless, the practice of observing Pascha was already well established by the second century, from which the earliest records of the celebration date. St. Paul is emphatic in linking Christ's death to the Passover; however, the link to the actual Jewish commemoration became more nebulous following the destruction of the Temple, when the diasporic Jews began to rely on pagan calendars to determine their dates, and Christianity continued to establish itself as a religion distinct from Judaism.
DeleteLiturgical practice is flexible and develops, as the NT itself demonstrates in the movement from Christian participation in synagogue worship to the establishment of separate communities. The NT isn't intended to be a normative liturgical handbook, nor is there evidence that the Church has ever felt herself constrained to simply ape the church of Acts.
@Jack
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of the Church of England:
Christian Concern: Archbishop of Canterbury affirms trans guidance for children.
Are you surprised, Lain?
DeleteThis section says it all:
“The policy document ‘Valuing All God’s Children’ is integral to our vision for education and the wisdom, hope and integrity it aspires to. The prevention of any form of bullying is essential to the dignity and respect we encourage in schools. I recognise that this can be quite complicated to live out in a school community where parents, staff and children may all have different views.”
Bullying is now equated with a refusal to accept boys and girls are no longer biological realities, And this shows his prime concern is political:
“We will continue to review our policies in light of updated legislation and Government guidance.”
Not in the least, sadly. He is a very weak leader who repeatedly shies away from anything that might rock the political boat. Christ is always an afterthought; simply a handy personification upon which to hang his political ideology (and York is the same). Goodness knows what his successor will be like.
DeleteInteresting how these things are always slipped through under the veil of compassion. Of course bullying is bad. Telling a child who's standing on the edge of the roof that they can't actually fly isn't bullying, however.
Yes, HJ saw that article being discussed over on Thinking Anglicans - known henceforth as "Mordor".
DeleteThe role of archbishop is to be a focus of unity."! Whatever happened to Truth and St Peter's and the Apostle's duty to feed and tend Christ's lambs?
During the Lambeth Conference Justin Welby made some telling comments as did Michael Curry and Jayne Ozanne. These reveal how each see the mission of the the world - as accommodation to particular cultures and pressure groups.
The Guardian and others ran the story.
One might be tempted to say that thinking Anglicans are all in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches by now. The Guardian's byline is right; the Anglican Church is 'tying itself up in knots' over this by trying to reconcile two binary and mutually exclusive positions at once.
DeleteThe answer is simple. The CofE either recognises the validity of all shades of marriage and allows clergy to administer them accordingly in conscience; or reaffirms the traditional Christian understanding of marriage, renounces its role as a civil registrar and only conducts religious/'sacramental' marriage services to people who've done the civil bit elsewhere, as is the practice in most of Europe.
"In 1928, the United Kingdom actually fixed the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April, but the act putting it into law was never actually implemented and the reform was never followed".
ReplyDeleteShould have stuck with this!
I had never heard about that until this moment. What did the Act of Parliament state, exactly? That the Church of England would adopt that rule for celebrating Easter, or that all churches would be required to do that? In the latter case, how would they enforce it? Would they send the police out all over the country to attend church services every Sunday in March and April to make sure none of them were illegally celebrating Easter according to their own calendars? It doesn’t sound like the kind thing a British Conservative government would have done. Xi Jinping maybe, but Stanley Baldwin, I don’t think so!
Deletehttps://whorunsbritain.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2017/04/17/what-happened-to-the-easter-act/#:~:text='%20The%20Easter%20Act%2C%201928%2C,Man%20and%20the%20Channel%20Islands.
DeleteInterestingly it actually has Royal Assent. See link, it answers some of your questions!
Ps it was a private member's bill
DeleteInteresting (and it would get the date of Western Easter right this year, too). I see there was some desire to pass this without the agreement of the churches, in which case one could hardly call it 'Easter'. I wonder if such compulsion would ever be considered against any other religion that has moveable feasts based on the sighting of the moon.
DeleteI think establishing a fixed 'spring bank holiday weekend' (which is all Easter is to most people now) would be a good idea; then Christians can be left alone to celebrate Easter without the commercialism.
Thank you, Clive! I find it surprising that they seem to have handled the whole business, from start to finish, as though Easter was purely and simply a British bank holiday, unknown outside the UK.
DeleteBut at the same time there seems to be a reluctance to move on this without Church agreement. I think what Lain suggests is the way ahead.
Delete