VATICAN CITY, MARCH 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Following a Lenten tradition, Benedict XVI met Feb.26 with parish priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome for a question-and-answer session. Here is a translation of the fifth and sixth questions and the Holy Father’s answers.
ZENIT will be publishing these transcriptions over the coming days. Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 were published Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
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[Father Marco Valentini:]Holy Father, I am Father Marco Valentini, vicar of St. Ambrose parish. When I was being formed, I was not aware, as I am now, of the importance of the liturgy. Of course there was no lack of celebrations, but I did not understand how this was «the highest point to which the action of the Church tends and the source from which her energy emanates» (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10). Instead, I regarded it as a technical matter for the success of a celebration, or a pious practice and not, rather, as a contact with the saving mystery, allowing oneself to be conformed to Christ to be the light of the world, a source of theology, a means to bring about the longed for integration between what is studied and the spiritual life. On the other hand, I did not believe that the liturgy was strictly necessary to be Christian and to be saved, and that it was enough to put the Beatitudes into practice. Now I wonder what charity would be without the liturgy, and if without it our faith would be reduced to morality, an idea, a doctrine, an event of the past, and we priests would not be so much teachers and advisers as mystagogues who introduce people in the mystery. The very Word of God is a proclamation that is realized in the liturgy and that has an amazing relationship with it. (Sacrosanctum Concilium 6; Praenotanda of the Lectionary 4 and 10). And let’s also think of the passage of Emmaus or the Ethiopian minister (Acts 8).
Hence, this is my question: Given our specificity, and without lessening our human, philosophical and psychological formation, should not the universities and seminaries offer greater liturgical formation, or does the practice and structure of the studies at present already satisfy sufficiently the Constitution «Sacrosanctum Concilium» 16, which states that the liturgy must be considered among the necessary and most important and principal subjects, and should be taught under the theological, historical, spiritual, pastoral and legal aspects, and that professors of other subjects must make the connection with the liturgy clear? I have asked this question because, taking note of the decree, «Optatam Totius,» I think that the many actions of the Church in the world and our own pastoral efficacy depends a lot on our own consciousness of the inexhaustible mystery of our being baptized, anointed and priests.
[Benedict XVI:]If I have understood correctly, the question is, what is the space and place of liturgical education and of the reality of the celebration of the mystery in the whole of our pastoral work, which is multiple and of so many dimensions. In this sense, it seems to me that it is also a question about the unity of our proclamation and of our pastoral work, which has so many dimensions. We must seek the unifying point, so that our many concerns are all together the work of a pastor. If I have understood well, you seem to think that the unifying point, which creates the synthesis of all the dimensions of our work and our faith, might be, precisely, the celebration of the mysteries; hence, mystagogy, which teaches us to celebrate.
What is really important for me is that the sacraments, the Eucharistic celebration of the sacraments, not be something foreign along with more contemporary endeavors such as moral education, economics, and all the things we have already mentioned. It can easily happen that the sacrament remains somewhat isolated in a more pragmatic context and becomes a reality that is not altogether inserted in the totality of our being. Thank you for the question, because we must really teach what it means to be men. We must teach this great art: how to be a man. As we have seen, this calls for many things: from the great denunciation of original sin in the roots of our economy and of so many aspects of our life, to concrete guidelines on justice, to the proclamation to non-believers. But the mysteries are not something exotic in the cosmos of the most practical realities.
The mystery is the heart from which comes our strength, and to which we return to find this center. And that is why I think that catechesis, let us say mystagogic [catechesis], is really important. Mystagogic also means realistic, referred to our life of men of today. If it is true that man in himself knows not his measure — that he is just and that he is not just — but that he finds his measure outside of himself, in God; it is important that this God not be distant but reconcilable, concrete, that he enter our lives and really be a friend with whom we can talk and who talks with us. We must learn to celebrate the Eucharist, learn to know Jesus Christ, the God with a human face, up close, really enter into contact with him, learn to listen to him and to allow him to enter into us. Because sacramental communion is precisely this interpenetration between two persons. I am not taking a piece of bread, or flesh, but I take or I open my heart so that the Risen One will enter the context of my being, so that he is within me and not just outside of me, and thus speaks with me and transforms my being. He gives me the sense of justice, the dynamism of justice, in zeal for the Gospel.
This celebration, in which God not only comes close to us, but enters into the fabric of our existence, is essential to really be able to live with God and for God and to take the light of God to this world. Let us not go into too many details now. But it is always important that the sacramental catechesis be an existential catechesis. Of course, even accepting and increasingly learning the mystic aspect — where words and reasoning fail — the latter is totally realistic, because it leads me to God, and God to me. It leads me to the other because the other receives the same Christ, as I do. Hence, if the same Christ is in him and me, we also are no longer separate individual beings. Herein lies the birth of the doctrine of the Body of Christ, because we have all been incorporated if we receive the Eucharist correctly in the same Christ. Hence, my neighbor is truly close: we are no longer two separate «I»s, but we are united in the same «I» of Christ.
In other words, Eucharistic and sacramental catechesis must really go to the depth of our existence, to be, in fact, education to open myself to the voice of God, to let myself be opened to break this original sin of egoism and to open my existence profoundly, so that I will really be just. In this sense, it seems to me that we must all learn the liturgy better, not as something exotic but as the heart of our being Christian, which does not open easily to a distant man, but which is, on the other hand, precisely openness to the other, to the world. We must all collaborate in celebrating the Eucharist ever more profoundly: not only as a rite but as an existential process that touches me profoundly, more than anything else, and changes me, transforms me and, by transforming me, sparks the transformation of the world that the Lord desires and of which He wishes to make me an instrument.
[Father Lucio Maria Zappatore:]Most Blessed Father, I am Father Lucio Maria Zappatore, Carmelite, parish priest of Santa Maria Regina Mundi parish in Torrespaccata.
To justify my intervention, I refer to what you said last Sunday, during the recitation of the Angelus, in regard to the Petrine ministry. You spoke of the singular and
specific ministry of the Bishop of Rome, who presides over the universal communion of charity. I ask you to continue this reflection, extending it to the universal Church: What singular charism does the Church of Rome have and what are the characteristics that make her, by a mysterious gift of Providence, unique in the world? To have as bishop the Pope of the universal Church — what does this entail in your mission, today in particular? We do not want to know what privileges we have: once it was said «Parochus in urbe, episcopus in orbe»; but we want to know how to live this charism, this gift of living as priests in Rome, and what you expect from us, the Roman parish priests.
In a few days you will go to the Campidoglio to meet with the civil authorities of Rome, and you will speak about the material problems of our city. Today we ask you to speak to us about the spiritual problems of Rome and of its Church. And, in regard to your visit to the Campidoglio, I have taken the liberty to dedicate a sonnet to you in Roman dialect, requesting that you be pleased to hear it.
Er Papa che salisce al Campidojo / e un fatto che te lassa senza fiato / perche ‘sta vortas sorte for dar sojo, / pe creanza che tie ‘n bon vicinato. / Er sindaco e la giunta con orgojo / janno fatto ‘n invito, er piu accorato, / perche Roma, se sa, vojo o nun vojo / nun po’ fa’ proprio a meno der papato. / Roma, tu ciai avuto drento ar petto / la forza pe porta la civirta. / Quanno Pietro t’ha messo lo zicchetto / eterna Dio t’ha fatto addiventa. / Accoji allora er Papa Benedetto / che sale a beneditte e a ringrazia!
[Benedict XVI:]Thank you. We have heard the Roman heart speak, which is a heart of poetry. It is lovely to hear a bit of Roman dialect spoken and to feel that poetry is profoundly rooted in the Roman heart. This is, perhaps, a natural privilege that the Lord has given Romans. It is a natural charism that precedes the ecclesial.
If I have understood correctly, your question is made up of two parts. First of all, what concrete responsibility does the Bishop of Rome have today? And then you correctly extend the Petrine privilege to the whole Church of Rome — it was thus regarded also in the early Church — and you ask what are the obligations of the Church of Rome to respond to this vocation of hers.
It is not necessary to develop the doctrine of the primacy here; you all know it very well. It is important to reflect on the fact that the Successor of Peter, Peter’s ministry, really guarantees the universality of the Church, the transcendence of nationalism and other borders that exist in humanity today, to be truly one Church in diversity and in the wealth of so many cultures.
We also see how the other ecclesial communities, the other Churches see the need of a unifying point so as not to fall prey to nationalism, identification with a determined culture, to be really open, all for all and to be almost obliged to be always open to others. I think this is the essential ministry of the Successor of Peter: to guarantee this catholicity which implies multiplicity, diversity, cultural wealth, respect of differences and that, at the same time, excludes absolutism and unites all, obliges them to open themselves, to come out of their own absolutism to meet in the unity of the family of God that the Lord has desired and of which the Successor of Peter is the guarantee, as unity in diversity.
Of course, the Church of the Successor of Peter must bear, with her Bishop, this burden, this joy of the gift of her responsibility. In Revelation the bishop appears in fact as the angel of his Church, that is, somewhat like the incorporation of his Church, to which he must respond being of the same Church. Hence, the Church of Rome, together with the Successor of Peter and as his particular Church, must guarantee precisely this universality, this openness, this responsibility for the transcendence of love, this presiding in love which excludes particulars. It must also guarantee fidelity to the Word of the Lord, to the gift of faith, which we have not invented, but which is really a gift that could only come from God himself. This will always be the duty, but also the privilege, of the Church of Rome, against the fashion, against the particular, against absolutism in some aspects, against heresies which are always the absolutizing of an aspect. Also the duty to guarantee universality and fidelity to the integrity, to the richness of her faith, of her path in history that is always open to the future. And, together with this testimony of faith and universality, she must of course give example of charity.
So said St. Ignatius, identifying in this somewhat enigmatic word the sacrament of the Eucharist, the action of loving others. And, to return to the previous point, this is very important: namely, this identification with the Eucharist which is agape, charity, the presence of charity which was given to us in Christ. She must always be charity, sign and cause of charity in openness to others, in giving herself to others, in responsibility towards the needy, the poor, the forgotten. This is a great responsibility.
Presiding over the Eucharist must be followed by presiding in charity, which can be witnessed only by the community itself. I think this is the great duty, the great question posed to the Church of Rome: to really be an example and point of departure of charity. In this sense, she presides in charity.
In the presbytery of Rome we are from all the continents, all the races, all the philosophies and all the cultures. I am happy that the presbytery of Rome expresses precisely the universality; [it expresses], in the unity of the small local Church, the presence of the universal Church. More difficult and exacting is to be bearers also of the testimony of charity, of being with others with our Lord. We can only pray to the Lord to help us in each parish, in each community, so that all together we will be really faithful to this gift, to this command to preside in charity.
[Translation by ZENIT]— — —
On ZENIT’s Web site:
Part 1: http://www.zenit.org/article-25258?l=english
Part 2: http://www.zenit.org/article-25264?l=english
Part 3: http://www.zenit.org/article-25275?l=english
Part 4: http://www.zenit.org/article-25283?l=english
