VATICAN CITY, 24 FEB 2008 (VIS) - This morning the Pope visited the Roman parish of Santa Maria Liberatrice a Monte Testaccio, where he celebrated Mass.
At the beginning of his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the fact that this year marks the centenary of the consecration of the current church. He then went on to comment on the liturgy for today, the third Sunday of Lent, and its symbolic references to water. "God", he said, "is thirsty for our faith and wants us to find the source of our true happiness in Him. The risk for all believers is that of practising an inauthentic form of religiosity, of seeking the answer to our most inmate expectations elsewhere than in the heart of God, of using God as if He were at the service of our desires and our plans".
Referring to the Old Testament reading on the journey through the desert, the Holy Father noted how "the people, rather than abandoning themselves faithfully into His hands, insisted that God meet their expectations and requirements and, in the moment of trial, lost trust in Him.
"How often does this happen in out lives", he added. "In how many circumstances, rather than meekly conforming ourselves to divine will, would we like God to accomplish all our designs and fulfil all our expectations. In how many occasions does our faith appear fragile, our trust weak, our religiosity contaminated by magical elements of merely earthly origin?"
In this period of Lent in which the Church invites us "to true conversion, let us humbly and obediently welcome the warning of the responsorial Psalm: 'O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts'".
Turning then to consider the Gospel account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar, Benedict XVI highlighted how at a certain point the woman asked Jesus for water, "thus showing how everyone has an inborn need of God and of the salvation that only He can achieve".
"Jesus wishes to bring us, like the Samaritan woman, to profess our faith in Him forcefully, that we may then announce and testify to our fellow man the joy of meeting Him and the wonders that His Love brings to our lives".
This Sunday's liturgy, said the Pope, encourages us "to re-examine our relationship with Jesus, to seek His face tirelessly. This is indispensable so that you, dear friends, may continue - in a new cultural and social context - the work of evangelisation and of human and Christian education that has been carried out in this parish for more than a century".
"Open your hearts to that pastoral missionary activity which encourages each Christian to go out and meet people - in particular young people and families - in the places where they live, work and spend their free time, in order to announce to them God's merciful love. ... I encourage you to persevere in you commitment to education, which is the typical charism of all Salesian parishes".
In a meeting held following Mass, the Pope again evoked the episode of the Samaritan woman. She, he said "may appear representative of modern mankind, of modern life. She had had five husbands and lived with another man. She made copious use of her freedom but did not become freer, rather she became emptier. But we also see that this woman had a burning desire to discover true happiness, true joy. In this context, the Pope encouraged the faithful "to continue your pastoral and missionary commitment, your dynamism, to help people today discover true freedom and true joy".
At the end of the visit, one of the parishioners read out a Roman dialect poem in honour of the Pope. "Unfortunately", the Holy Father replied, "I do not speak the Roman dialect, but as Catholics we are all a little Roman, we carry Rome in our hearts and we understand a little of the Roman dialect".
HML/.../SANTA MARIA LIBERATRICE VIS 20080225 (670)
At the beginning of his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the fact that this year marks the centenary of the consecration of the current church. He then went on to comment on the liturgy for today, the third Sunday of Lent, and its symbolic references to water. "God", he said, "is thirsty for our faith and wants us to find the source of our true happiness in Him. The risk for all believers is that of practising an inauthentic form of religiosity, of seeking the answer to our most inmate expectations elsewhere than in the heart of God, of using God as if He were at the service of our desires and our plans".
Referring to the Old Testament reading on the journey through the desert, the Holy Father noted how "the people, rather than abandoning themselves faithfully into His hands, insisted that God meet their expectations and requirements and, in the moment of trial, lost trust in Him.
"How often does this happen in out lives", he added. "In how many circumstances, rather than meekly conforming ourselves to divine will, would we like God to accomplish all our designs and fulfil all our expectations. In how many occasions does our faith appear fragile, our trust weak, our religiosity contaminated by magical elements of merely earthly origin?"
In this period of Lent in which the Church invites us "to true conversion, let us humbly and obediently welcome the warning of the responsorial Psalm: 'O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts'".
Turning then to consider the Gospel account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar, Benedict XVI highlighted how at a certain point the woman asked Jesus for water, "thus showing how everyone has an inborn need of God and of the salvation that only He can achieve".
"Jesus wishes to bring us, like the Samaritan woman, to profess our faith in Him forcefully, that we may then announce and testify to our fellow man the joy of meeting Him and the wonders that His Love brings to our lives".
This Sunday's liturgy, said the Pope, encourages us "to re-examine our relationship with Jesus, to seek His face tirelessly. This is indispensable so that you, dear friends, may continue - in a new cultural and social context - the work of evangelisation and of human and Christian education that has been carried out in this parish for more than a century".
"Open your hearts to that pastoral missionary activity which encourages each Christian to go out and meet people - in particular young people and families - in the places where they live, work and spend their free time, in order to announce to them God's merciful love. ... I encourage you to persevere in you commitment to education, which is the typical charism of all Salesian parishes".
In a meeting held following Mass, the Pope again evoked the episode of the Samaritan woman. She, he said "may appear representative of modern mankind, of modern life. She had had five husbands and lived with another man. She made copious use of her freedom but did not become freer, rather she became emptier. But we also see that this woman had a burning desire to discover true happiness, true joy. In this context, the Pope encouraged the faithful "to continue your pastoral and missionary commitment, your dynamism, to help people today discover true freedom and true joy".
At the end of the visit, one of the parishioners read out a Roman dialect poem in honour of the Pope. "Unfortunately", the Holy Father replied, "I do not speak the Roman dialect, but as Catholics we are all a little Roman, we carry Rome in our hearts and we understand a little of the Roman dialect".
HML/.../SANTA MARIA LIBERATRICE VIS 20080225 (670)
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