VATICAN CITY, 4 NOV 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Basilica the Pope presided at the traditional November Mass for the souls of cardinals and bishops who died over the course of the year. Members of the College of Cardinals concelebrated with the Holy Father.
At the beginning of his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the names of the cardinals who passed away during the last twelve months - Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, Cahal Brendan Daly, Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, Tomas Spidlik S.J., Paul Augustin Mayer O.S.B. and Luigi Poggi - expressing his affection for them and for all the other archbishops and bishops who died this year.
"We wish to remember these our venerable brothers as zealous pastors whose ministry was always inscribed in that eschatological horizon, which encourages hope in the unblemished happiness we have been promised after this life, as witnesses of the Gospel, ... as Christians, animated by profound faith and by the living desire to conform ourselves to Jesus".
The Holy Father then went on to observe that the term "eternal life" designates "the divine gift granted to humankind; i.e., communion with God in this world and its fullness in the next. Eternal life was opened to us by Christ's Paschal Mystery and faith is the way to attain it". Referring then to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, as recounted in today's Gospel, the Pope explained how in this exchange Jesus "reveals the most profound meaning of the event of salvation: ... The Son of man must be raised on the wood of the cross so that those who believe in Him might have life. ... The cross, paradoxically, from being a sign of condemnation, death and failure, becomes a sign of redemption, life and victory in which, with the eyes of faith, we can see the fruits of salvation".
The salvific significance of the cross "consists in the immense love of God and in the gift of His only-begotten Son. ... The verbs 'to love' and 'to give' indicate a decisive and definitive action expressing the radical way in which God approached man in love, even unto the total giving of self, ... lowering Himself into the abyss of our utter abandonment, and crossing the portal of death. The object and beneficiary of divine Love is the world, in other words humanity. This completely cancels the idea of a distant God divorced from man's journey, and reveals His true face". God "loves without measure. He does not show His omnipotence in punishment, but in mercy and forgiveness".
The Holy Father concluded his homily: "Jesus came to save, not to condemn. With the sacrifice of the cross, He revealed the face of God's love. And it is precisely because of our faith in the superabundant love Jesus Christ gave us that we know that even the smallest effort of love is greater that the most powerful destructive force and can transform the world. And because of this same faith we have a 'sure hope': in eternal live and in the resurrection of the flesh".
HML/ VIS 20101104 (520)
At the beginning of his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the names of the cardinals who passed away during the last twelve months - Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, Cahal Brendan Daly, Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, Tomas Spidlik S.J., Paul Augustin Mayer O.S.B. and Luigi Poggi - expressing his affection for them and for all the other archbishops and bishops who died this year.
"We wish to remember these our venerable brothers as zealous pastors whose ministry was always inscribed in that eschatological horizon, which encourages hope in the unblemished happiness we have been promised after this life, as witnesses of the Gospel, ... as Christians, animated by profound faith and by the living desire to conform ourselves to Jesus".
The Holy Father then went on to observe that the term "eternal life" designates "the divine gift granted to humankind; i.e., communion with God in this world and its fullness in the next. Eternal life was opened to us by Christ's Paschal Mystery and faith is the way to attain it". Referring then to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, as recounted in today's Gospel, the Pope explained how in this exchange Jesus "reveals the most profound meaning of the event of salvation: ... The Son of man must be raised on the wood of the cross so that those who believe in Him might have life. ... The cross, paradoxically, from being a sign of condemnation, death and failure, becomes a sign of redemption, life and victory in which, with the eyes of faith, we can see the fruits of salvation".
The salvific significance of the cross "consists in the immense love of God and in the gift of His only-begotten Son. ... The verbs 'to love' and 'to give' indicate a decisive and definitive action expressing the radical way in which God approached man in love, even unto the total giving of self, ... lowering Himself into the abyss of our utter abandonment, and crossing the portal of death. The object and beneficiary of divine Love is the world, in other words humanity. This completely cancels the idea of a distant God divorced from man's journey, and reveals His true face". God "loves without measure. He does not show His omnipotence in punishment, but in mercy and forgiveness".
The Holy Father concluded his homily: "Jesus came to save, not to condemn. With the sacrifice of the cross, He revealed the face of God's love. And it is precisely because of our faith in the superabundant love Jesus Christ gave us that we know that even the smallest effort of love is greater that the most powerful destructive force and can transform the world. And because of this same faith we have a 'sure hope': in eternal live and in the resurrection of the flesh".
HML/ VIS 20101104 (520)
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