Pope In Portugal
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:00 PM
The Pope hadn’t even de-planed from his trip to Portugal before delivering on the promised “intense message” at Fatima.
Benedict’s remark that the deepest attacks on the Church today come not from without, but from sins within, made instant headlines.
When a reporter asked about the Third Secret of Fatima, the Pope in essence downplayed the specific meaning and focused on its general prophesy of suffering for the Church.
The message of Fatima is not so much about the fate of specific popes or even specific prayers, he said.
the answer of Fatima, it not substantially addressed to particular devotions, but is the fundamental response: permanent conversion, penance, prayer, and the three cardinal virtues: faith, hope and charity. Here we see the true, fundamental response the Church must give, which each of us individually must give
He went on to say—and this is what drew the press’s attention at once—that the most terrifying suffering of the Church today is not external attacks, but the sins of her own members:
the greatest persecution of the Church does not come from enemies on the outside, but is born from the sin within the church, the Church therefore has a deep need to re-learn penance, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness but also the need for justice. Forgiveness is not a substitute for justice. In one word we have to re-learn these essentials: conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues. That is how we respond, and we need to be realistic in expecting that evil will always attack, from within and from outside, but the forces of good are also always present, and finally the Lord is stronger than evil and the Virgin Mary is for us the visible maternal guarantee that the will of God is always the last word in history.
What didn’t make headlines was his homily during an outdoor Mass in Lisbon yesterday, in which he in a sense elaborates on this confidence that God is stronger than evil.
just as Jesus Christ joined the disciples on the road to Emmaus, so today he walks with us in accordance with his promise: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” We too have a real and personal experience of the risen Lord, even if it differs from that of the Apostles. The distance of centuries is overcome and the risen Lord presents himself alive and at work, acting through us, in the Church and the world of today. This is our great joy. In the living river of ecclesial Tradition, Christ is not two thousand years distant from us, but is really present among us
The following paragraph is extraordinary as an evaluation of where the Church is in relation to the culture and what form evangelization must take in our time:
We know that she also has quarrelsome and even rebellious sons and daughters, but it is in the saints that the Church recognizes her most characteristic features, it is in them that she tastes her deepest joy. They all share the desire to incarnate the Gospel in their own lives, under the inspiration of the eternal animator of God’s People – the Holy Spirit. Focussing her attention upon her own saints, this local Church has rightly concluded that today’s pastoral priority is to make each Christian man and woman a radiant presence of the Gospel perspective in the midst of the world, in the family, in culture, in the economy, in politics. Often we are anxiously preoccupied with the social, cultural and political consequences of the faith, taking for granted that faith is present, which unfortunately is less and less realistic. Perhaps we have placed an excessive trust in ecclesial structures and programmes, in the distribution of powers and functions; but what will happen if salt loses its flavour?
In order for this not to happen, it is necessary to proclaim anew with vigour and joy the event of the death and resurrection of Christ, the heart of Christianity, the fulcrum and mainstay of our faith, the firm lever of our certainties, the strong wind that sweeps away all fear and indecision, all doubt and human calculation. The resurrection of Christ assures us that no adverse power will ever be able to destroy the Church. Therefore our faith is well-founded, but this faith needs to come alive in each one of us.
In other words, we don’t need programs or structures or policies so much as we need saints.
The rest is so beautiful, but no one needs my personal ecstasies when the pope’s own words beckon. RTWT.
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