HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI Basilica of Saint Giovanni in Laterano Saturday, 7 May 2005

CELEBRATION EUCARISTICA And TAKEOVER On The ROMAN CATHEDRA OF THE BISHOP OF ROME BENEDICT XVI OMELIA OF ITS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI Basilica of Saint Giovanni in Laterano Saturday, 7 May 2005

This day, in which I can for before the time insediarmi on the Chair of the Bishop of Rome which successor of Peter, is the day in which the in Italy Church it celebrates the Festivity of the Ascension of the Lord. To the center of this day, we find Christ. And only thanks to He, thanks to the mystery of its to rise, we succeed to comprise the meant one of the Chair, that it is in its turn the symbol of the potestÃ and the responsibility of the Bishop. What wants to then say the Festivity to us of the Ascension of the Lord? It does not want dirci that the Lord if he has gone some in some place far away from the men and the world. The Ascension of Christ is not a travel in the space towards the remoter stars; because, in bottom, also the stars are made of physical elements like the earth. The Ascension of Christ means that It does not belong more to the world of the corruption and the dead women that conditions our life. It means that It completely belongs to God He - the Eternal Son - has lead our human being in the presence of God, has carried with himself the meat and the blood in a trasfigurata shape. The man finds space in God; through Christ, the human being has been carried end within the same life of God. And since God embraces and supports the entire cosmos, the Ascension of the Lord means that Christ is not itself removed from we, but that now, thanks to Its being with the Father, are close to everyone of we, in order always. Everyone of we can darGli of you; everyone can chiamarLo. The Lord always finds itself to voice capacity. We can go away inner from He. We can living voltandoGli the shoulders. But It always waits for to us, and is always close to we. From the readings of the liturgy odierna we learn also something in more on the concretezza with which the Lord Its being to we realizes this close. The Lord promises to the disciples Its Saint Spirit. The first reading says to us that the Saint Spirit will be "force" for the disciples; the Gospel adds that she will be guide to the entire Truth tutt'. Jesus has said all to Its disciples, being same He the living Word of God, and God cannot give more than same himself. In Jesus, God has donated us all same himself - that is - has donated to us all. Beyond to this, or beside this, other detection in a position to communicating cannot is to us no mainly or to complete, in some way, the Detection of Christ. In He, in the Son, it has been said all, it has been donated all. But our ability to comprise is limited; therefore the mission of the Spirit is to introduce the Church in always new way, of generation in generation, the largeness of the mystery of Christ. The Spirit does not place null of various and new beside Christ; not there is no pneumatic detection beside that one of Christ - like some they believe - no according to level of Detection. Not: "he will take of mine", says Christ in the Gospel (Gv 16, 14). And as Christ says only that that he feels and he receives from the Father, therefore the Saint Spirit is interpreter of Christ. "He will take of mine". He does not lead to us in other places, far from Christ, but he leads to us more and more within the light of Christ. For this, the Christian Detection is, at the same time, always ancient and always new. For this, all it is always and already donated. At the same time, every generation, in the inexhaustible encounter with the Lord - encounter mediated from the Saint Spirit - learns always something of new. Therefore, the Saint Spirit is the force through which Christ makes us to experience its vicinity. But the first reading says also a second word: me you will be witnesses. The revived Christ has need of witnesses who have met It, of men who have intimately known It through the force of the Saint Spirit. Men who having, so to speak, touched with hand, can testimoniarLo. He is therefore that the Church, the family of Christ, has grown from "Gerusalemme... until the extreme borders of the earth", like says the reading. Through the witnesses it has been constructed the Church - to begin from Peter and Paul, and the Twelve, until all the men and the women whom, ricolmi of Christ, in the course of the centuries they have relit and will relight in always new way the flame of the faith. Every Christian, to its way, can and must be witness of the revived Lord. When we read the names of know can see how many times to you have been - and they continue to being - first of all of the simple men, men from which emanated - and he emanates - one able dazzling light to lead Christ. But this sinfonia of testimonies is equipped also of one structure very defined: to the successory ones of the Apostles, and that is to the Bishops, the public responsibility is up to make yes that the net of these testimonies permanga in the time. In the sacramento of the episcopal ordinazione they conferred the necessary potestÃ and the grace for this service come. In this net of witnesses, to the Successor of Peter special task competes one. He was Peter who expressed for first, to name of the apostles, the profession of faith: "You the six Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16, 16). This is the task of all the Successory ones of Peter: to be the guide in the profession of faith in Christ, the Son of the living God. The Chair of Rome is first of all Chair of this creed. From the high of this Chair the Bishop of Rome is held constantly to repeat: Dominus Iesus - "Jesus is the Lord", like Paul wrote in its letters to Roman (10, 9) and to the Corinzi (1 Cor 12, 3). To the Corinzi, with particular emphasis, he said: "Even if there are so-called dÃ¨i is in the sky is on the earth... for we is a single God, the Father...; and a single Lord Jesus Christ, in virtue of which the things exist all and we exist for he" (1 Cor 8, 5). The Chair of Peter obligates those who of it is the holders to say - like already it made Peter in a moment of crisis of the disciples - when many wanted to be gone some: "Lord, from who we will go? You have words of eternal life; we have believed and known that you the six Saint of God "(Gv 6, 68ss). C$r-he who seats on the Chair of Peter must remember the words that the Lord said to Simon Peter in the hour of the Last Supper: "... e you, once ravveduto, confirmation your siblings...." (Lc 22, 32). C$r-he who is the holder of the ministry petrino must have the knowledge of being a fragile man and weak person - like they are fragile and weak people its own forces - constantly needy of purification and conversion. But it can also have the revived knowledge that they give to the Lord it comes the force in order to confirm its siblings in the faith and to hold them united in the confession of the Christ crocifisso and. In the first letter of saint Paul to the Corinzi, we find the most ancient story of the risurrezione that we have. Paul has faithfully resumed it from the witnesses. Such story at first speaks about the dead women of the Lord for our sins, of its interment, of its risurrezione, happened the third day, and then it says: "Christ appeared to Cefa and therefore to Twelve..." (1 Cor 15, 4), Therefore, once again, comes reassumed the meant one of the mandate conferred to Peter until the end of the times: to be witness of the revived Christ. The Bishop of Rome seats on its Chair for giving testimony of Christ. Therefore the Chair is the symbol of the potestas docendi, that potestÃ of instruction that is mandate part essential to tie and to melt conferred from the Lord to Peter and, after he, to the Twelve. In the Church, the Sacred Writing, whose understanding grows under the inspiration of the Saint Spirit, and the ministry of the authentic interpretation, conferred to the apostles, belongs one to the other in indissolubile way. Where the Sacred Writing comes detached from the living voice of the Church, it falls in preda to the disputes of the experts. Sure, all that that they have from dirci is precious important and; a job of the sages is of remarkable aid for being able to comprise that process living with which the Writing has grown and to understand therefore its historical wealth. But science alone cannot supply one to us definitive interpretation and binding; it is not in a position to give to us, in the interpretation, that certainty with which we can living and for which we can also die. For this it is necessary a greater mandate, than human abilities cannot gush from the sun. For this it is necessary the alive voice of the Church, of that Church entrusted to Peter and to the college of the apostles until the end of the times. This potestÃ of instruction scares many men within and outside of the Church. They are asked if it does not threaten the conscience freedom, if presunzione contrapposta to the thought freedom is not one. It is not therefore. The power conferred from Christ to Peter and its successory ones is, in absolute sense, a mandate in order to serve. The potestÃ to teach, in the Church, involves a engagement to service of obedience to the faith. The Pope is not an absolute monarch, whose to think and wish they are law. To the contrary: the ministry of the Pope is guarantee of obedience towards Christ and Its Word. It does not have to proclamare the own ideas, but to bind if constantly same and the Church to obedience towards the Word of God, of forehead to all the tried ones you of adaptation and dilution, like of forehead to every opportunismo. It made Pope John Paul II, when, before all the tried ones to you, apparently benevolent towards the man, of forehead to the wrong interpretations of the freedom, he emphasized in inequivocabile way the inviolabilitÃ of the human being, the inviolabilitÃ of the human life from the until death natural conception. The freedom to kill is not a true freedom, but it is a tyranny that reduces the human being in slavery. The Pope is aware of being, in its great decisions, legacy to the great community of the faith of all the times, to the grown binding interpretations along the pellegrinante way of the Church. Therefore, a its power is not to of over, but it is to the service of the Word of God, and on he it is incumbent continuous the responsibility to make yes that this Word to remain present in its largeness and to risuonare in its purity, therefore that it does not come made to pieces from the continuous changes of the mode. The Chair is - we say it once again - symbol of the potestÃ of instruction, that potestÃ of obedience and service is one, so that the Word of God - its truth! - it can risplendere between of we, indicating the road to us. But, speaking about the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, like not remembering the words that Sant' Ignazio d' Antiochia wrote to the Roman? Peter, coming from Antiochia, its first center, headed to Rome, its definitive center. A center rendered definitive through the martyrdom with which it tied in order always its succession to Rome. Ignazio, from part its, remaining Bishop of Antiochia, was directed towards the martyrdom that would have had to endure in Rome. In its letter to the Roman one refers to the Church of Rome like "The one who that presides in the love", much meaningful expression. We do not know with certainty that what Ignazio had indeed in mind using these words. But for the ancient Church, the word love, agape, it pointed out to the mystery of the Eucaristia. In this Mystery the love of Christ is made always tangible in means we. Here, It always donates itself of new. Here, It makes itself to always trafiggere the heart of new; here, It maintains Its promise, the promise that, from the Cross, would have attracted himself all. In the Eucaristia, same we learn the love of Christ. E' be thanks to this center and heart, thanks to the Eucaristia, than it knows to you have lived, carrying the love of God in the world in ways and always new shapes. Thanks to the Eucaristia the Church rinasce always of new! The Church is not other that that net - the eucaristica community! - in which all we, receiving the same Lord, become a single body and embrace all the world. To preside in the doctrine and to preside in the love, to the end, must be one single what: all the doctrine of the Church, to the end, leads to the love. And the Eucaristia, which present love of Jesus Christ, is the criterion of every doctrine. On the love the Law and the Prophets depend all, say the Lord (Mt 22, 40). The love is the fulfillment of the law, wrote Saint Paul to Roman (13, 10). Beloveds Roman, now are your Bishop. Thanks for your generosity, thanks for your sympathy, thanks for your patience! In how many catholics, in some way, all we are also roman. With the words of salmo the 87, a hymn of praise to Sion, mother of all the people, sang Israel and sings the Church: "it will be said of Sion: One and the other is been born in it... "(v. 5). Equally, also we could say: in how many catholics, in some way, we are all NATO to Rome. Therefore I want to try, with all the heart, of being your Bishop, the Bishop of Rome. And all we want more and more to try to be more and more catholic - siblings and sisters in the great family of God, that family in which does not exist foreign. Finally, I would want ringraziare of heart the Vicario for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and also the auxiliary Bishops and all its collaborators. Ringrazio of heart the parroci, the clergy of Rome and all those who, like faithfuls, offer their contribution in order to construct here the living house of God Amen.

Benedict XVI's 1st Homily From Cathedral of Rome

Pope Is a "Leader in the Profession of Faith in Christ"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the first part of the homily Benedict XVI delivered Saturday when taking possession of the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

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This day, in which for the first time I may sit in the chair of the Bishop of Rome, as Successor of Peter, is the day in which the Church in Italy celebrates the feast of the Lord's Ascension. At the center of this day, is Christ. And only thanks to him, thanks to the mystery of his Ascension, are we able to understand the meaning of the chair, which in turn is the symbol of the authority and responsibility of the bishop. What, then, does the feast of the Lord's Ascension tell us? It does not say that the Lord has gone to a place far away from men and the world. The Ascension of Christ is not a journey into space to the most remote heavenly bodies, because in the end, heavenly bodies, like the earth, are also made up of physical elements.

The Ascension of Christ means that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death, which conditions our life. It means that he belongs completely to God. He, the eternal Son, has taken our human being to the presence of God; he has taken with him flesh and blood in a transfigured form. Man finds a place in God through Christ; the human being has been taken into the very life of God. And, given that God embraces and sustains the whole cosmos, the Lord's Ascension means that Christ has not gone far away from us, but that now, thanks to the fact he is with the Father, he is close to each one of us forever. Each one of us may address him familiarly; each one may turn to him. The Lord always hears our voice. We may distance ourselves inwardly from him. We can live with our backs turned to him, but he always awaits us, and is always close to us.

From the readings of today's liturgy we also learn something more about the concrete way in which the Lord is with us. The Lord promises his disciples his Holy Spirit. The first reading tells us that the Holy Spirit will be "strength" for the disciples; the Gospel adds that he will guide us toward the fullness of truth. Jesus told his disciples everything, as he is the living word of God, and God can give no more than himself. In Jesus, God gave himself totally to us, that is, he gave us everything. In addition to this, or together with this, there can be no other revelation able to communicate something else, or to complete, in a certain sense, the revelation of Christ. In him, in the Son, we were told everything, we were given everything. But our ability to understand is limited; for this reason the mission of the Spirit consists in introducing the Church in an ever new way, from generation to generation, into the grandeur of the mystery of Christ.

The Church does not present anything different or new next to Christ; there is no pneumatic revelation next to that of Christ, as some believe, there is no second level of revelation. No: "He will take what is mine," says Christ in the Gospel (John 16:14). And, just like Christ, he only says what he hears and receives from the Father; the Holy Spirit is Christ's interpreter. "He will take what is mine." He does not lead us to other places, away from Christ, but makes us penetrate ever more within the light of Christ. For this reason, Christian revelation is, at the same time, always old and always new. For this reason, everything has always and already been given to us. At the same time, in the inexhaustible encounter with the Lord, encounter mediated by the Holy Spirit, every generation always learns something new.

Thus, the Holy Spirit is the force through which Christ makes us experience his closeness. But the first reading also leaves a second message: you will be my witnesses. The risen Christ is in need of witnesses who have encountered him, who have known him intimately through the force of the Holy Spirit, men who, having touched Him with their hand, so to speak, can attest to him. It was in this way that the Church, family of Christ, grew from "Jerusalem ... to the ends of the earth," as the reading says. The Church was built by witnesses, beginning with Peter and Paul, the twelve, all men and women who, full of Christ, in the course of the centuries have rekindled and will kindle again in an ever new way the flame of faith. Every Christian, in his way, can and must be a witness of the risen Lord. When we read the names of the saints, we can see how many times they have been, above all -- and continue to be -- simple men, men from whom arose -- and arises -- a shining light capable of leading to Christ.

But this symphony of witnesses is gifted with a clearly defined structure: to the successors of the apostles, namely, the bishops, corresponds the public responsibility to make this network of witnesses endure with the passing of time. In the sacrament of episcopal ordination they are conferred the necessary authority and grace to exercise this service. In this network of witnesses, a special task corresponds to the Successor of Peter. Peter expressed in the first place, in the name of the apostles, the profession of faith: "Your are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). This is the task of all the Successors of Peter: to be the leader in the profession of faith in Christ, the Son of the living God.

The chair of Rome is, first of all, chair of this creed. From the loftiness of this chair, the Bishop of Rome is obliged to repeat constantly: "Dominus Iesus." "Jesus is Lord," as Paul wrote in his Letters to the Romans (10:9), and to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:3). To the Corinthians he said, with particular emphasis: "For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth ... yet for us there is one God, the Father ... and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist" (1 Corinthians 8:5). The chair of Peter obliges its incumbents to say, as Peter did at a moment of crisis of the disciples, when many wished to go away: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (John 6:68 and following).

Whoever sits on the chair of Peter must remember the words that the Lord said to Simon Peter in the Last Supper: "And when you have returned again, strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22:32). The holder of the Petrine ministry must be conscious of being a frail and weak man, as his own strength is frail and weak, constantly needing purification and conversion. But he can also be conscious that from the Lord he receives strength to confirm his brethren in the faith and to keep them united in the confession of Christ, crucified and risen. In the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, we find the oldest account of the Resurrection available. Paul took it up faithfully from the witnesses. This account speaks first of all of the Lord's death for our sins, of his burial, of his resurrection, which took place on the third day, and later he says: "he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (1 Corinthians 15:5). Thus is summarized once again the meaning of the mandate conferred on Peter until the end of times: to be witness of the risen Christ.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[Part 2 of the homily will be published Tuesday]

Part 2:

VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is part 2 of a translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered Saturday when taking possession of the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Part 1 of the homily was published by ZENIT Monday.

* * *

The Bishop of Rome sits on his chair to give testimony of Christ. Thus the chair is the symbol of the "potestas docendi," that teaching authority that is an essential part of the mandate to bind and to loose conferred by the Lord to Peter and, after him, to the twelve. In the Church, Sacred Scripture, whose comprehension grows under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of authentic interpretation, conferred to the apostles, belong mutually to one another in an indissoluble way.

Whenever Sacred Scripture is removed from the living voice of the Church, it becomes a victim of the experts' disputes. Certainly all that the latter can tell us is important and precious; the work of the learned is of notable help to us to be able to understand the living process with which Scripture grew and thus understand its historical richness. But science on its own cannot offer us a definitive and binding interpretation; it is not able to give us, in the interpretation, that certainty with which we can live and also for which we can die. For this, the living voice of the Church is needed, of that Church entrusted to Peter and the college of apostles until the end of times.

This teaching authority frightens many men within and outside the Church. They wonder if it is not a threat to freedom of conscience, if it is not a presumption that is opposed to freedom of thought. It is not so. The power conferred by Christ on Peter and his Successors is, in an absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The teaching authority, in the Church, entails a commitment to service of the obedience of the faith. The Pope is not an absolute monarch, whose thought and will are law. On the contrary, the Pope's ministry is guarantee of obedience to Christ and his word. The Pope must not proclaim his own ideas, but bind himself constantly and bind the Church to obedience to the Word of God, in face of attempts to adapt and water down, in face, as well, of all opportunism.

Pope John Paul II did so, when, in face of all attempts, apparently benevolent, in face of erroneous interpretations of freedom, he emphasized in an unequivocal way the inviolability of the human being, the inviolability of human life from its conception until natural death. The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery. In his important decisions, the Pope is conscious of being linked to the great community of faith of all times, to binding interpretations developed through the Church's journey of pilgrimage. Thus, his power is not above all, but at the service of the Word of God, and on him weighs the responsibility to ensure that this Word continues to be present in its grandeur and resonating in its purity, so that it will not be shattered with the constant changes of fashion.

The chair is -- let us say it once again -- symbol of the teaching authority, which is an authority of obedience and service, so that the Word of God -- his truth! -- may shine among us, indicating the way to us. However, when speaking of the chair of the Bishop of Rome, how can one not recall the words that St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Romans? Peter, coming from Antioch, his first see, went to Rome, his definitive see; a see that became definitive with the martyrdom that joined forever his succession with Rome as that "which presides in love," an extremely significant expression.

We do not know with certainty what Ignatius really wished to say when using these words. But for the early Church, the word love, "agape," made reference to the mystery of the Eucharist. In this mystery, the love of Christ is always made tangible among us. Here, he always gives himself again. Here, he always lets his heart be pierced again. Here, he keeps his promise, the promise according to which, from the Cross, he would attract all men to himself. In the Eucharist, we ourselves learn the love of Christ.

Thanks to this center and heart, thanks to the Eucharist, the saints have lived, bringing the love of God to the world in ever new forms and ways. Thanks to the Eucharist, the Church is always reborn. The Church is no more than that network -- the Eucharistic community! -- in which all of us, by receiving the same Lord, become only one body and embrace the whole world. To preside in doctrine and love, in the end, must be only one thing: all the doctrine of the Church, in the end, leads to love. And the Eucharist, as the present love of Jesus Christ, is the criterion of all doctrine. On love depend all the law and the prophets, says the Lord (Matthew 22:40). Love is the fulfillment of the law, wrote St. Paul to the Romans (13:10).

Dear Romans, now I am your bishop. Thank you for your generosity, thank you for your affection, thank you for your patience! As Catholics, in a certain sense, we are all Romans. With the words of Psalm 87, a hymn of praise to Zion, Mother of all peoples, Israel sang and the Church sings: "But of Zion it must be said: 'They all were born here.'" (Psalm 87:5). In the same way, we might also say: as Catholics, in a certain sense, we have all been born in Rome. So, I want to try to be, with all my heart, your bishop, the Bishop of Rome. And all of us want to try to be ever more Catholics, more brothers and sisters in the great family of God, that family in which there are no strangers.

Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the vicar for the diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, as well as to the auxiliary bishops and all their collaborators. My heartfelt thanks to the parish priests, the clergy of Rome, and all those who, as faithful, offer their contribution to build here the living house of God. Amen.

[Translation by ZENIT]

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