VATICAN CITY, 4 MAY 2008 (VIS) - On today's Solemnity of the Ascension, Benedict XVI prayed the Regina Coeli from the atrium of the Vatican Basilica with thousands of faithful from Italian Catholic Action and other pilgrims who filled St. Peter's Square.
The Pope recalled how following the Ascension "the first disciples remained together in the Cenacle around the Mother of Jesus, fervently awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised".
"In His farewell discourses to His disciples, Jesus had given great emphasis to the importance of His 'return to the Father', as the coronation of His mission. He, in fact, came into the world to bring man back to God, not theoretically - like a philosopher or a sage - but in a real sense, as a shepherd leading his sheep to the fold. And it was entirely for us that Jesus experienced in His own person this 'exodus' towards the heavenly homeland".
"It is for this reason that the Father was pleased with Him and 'highly exalted' Him, restoring Him to the fullness of His glory, but now with our humanity. God in man - man in God: this is now a real not a theoretical truth. Hence Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, 'a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul'".
"And what", the Pope asked, "does man in all times need if not this: a solid anchor for his existence? Here again, then, is the stupendous sense of Mary's presence among us. Turning our gaze to her, as the first disciples did, we are immediately transported to the reality of Jesus. The Mother leads back to the Son, Who is no longer among us physically but awaits us in the house of the Father. Jesus invites us not to remain gazing upwards, but to stay together, united in prayer, invoking the gift of the Holy Spirit".
ANG/ASCENSION/... VIS 20080505 (340)
The Pope recalled how following the Ascension "the first disciples remained together in the Cenacle around the Mother of Jesus, fervently awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised".
"In His farewell discourses to His disciples, Jesus had given great emphasis to the importance of His 'return to the Father', as the coronation of His mission. He, in fact, came into the world to bring man back to God, not theoretically - like a philosopher or a sage - but in a real sense, as a shepherd leading his sheep to the fold. And it was entirely for us that Jesus experienced in His own person this 'exodus' towards the heavenly homeland".
"It is for this reason that the Father was pleased with Him and 'highly exalted' Him, restoring Him to the fullness of His glory, but now with our humanity. God in man - man in God: this is now a real not a theoretical truth. Hence Christian hope, founded in Christ, is not an illusion but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, 'a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul'".
"And what", the Pope asked, "does man in all times need if not this: a solid anchor for his existence? Here again, then, is the stupendous sense of Mary's presence among us. Turning our gaze to her, as the first disciples did, we are immediately transported to the reality of Jesus. The Mother leads back to the Son, Who is no longer among us physically but awaits us in the house of the Father. Jesus invites us not to remain gazing upwards, but to stay together, united in prayer, invoking the gift of the Holy Spirit".
ANG/ASCENSION/... VIS 20080505 (340)
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