Vatican City, 10 September 2015 (VIS) –
The bishops are witnesses to the risen Christ, educators, spiritual
guides and catechists, mystagogues and missionaries, Pope Francis
affirmed this morning as he received in audience in the Clementine
Hall the new bishops ordained during the past year. They were
accompanied by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops, and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of
the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. The following are
extensive extracts from the Holy Father's address.
“Bishops .. are witnesses of the
Resurrected Christ. This is your primary and indispensable task. You
have been entrusted the preaching of the reality that holds up the
entire edifice of the Church. Jesus is risen! … We too will be
resurrected with Christ. … This is not an obvious or easy
proclamation. The world is so content with … what it is seemingly
able to provide that appears useful to suppress the demand for what
is definitive. … However, we are assailed by questions, the answers
to which can only come from a definitive future. … How can we face
our difficult present if our sense of belonging to the community of
the Risen Christ fades? Will we be able to remember the greatness of
human destiny if there abates in us the courage to subordinate our
life to the love that does not die?”.
“I think of great challenges such as
globalisation, which brings together those who are distant from each
other yet at the same time separates those who are close; I think of
the epochal phenomenon of migration that unsettles our times; I think
of the natural environment, the garden God gave to us as the habitat
for human beings and for other creatures, threatened by short-sighted
and often predatory exploitation; I think of the dignity and future
of human work, of which entire generations are deprived; I think of
the desertification of relationships, a widespread abdication of
responsibility … the bewilderment of many young people and the
solitude of many elderly. … I do not wish to focus on this agenda
of tasks to complete as I do not want to alarm you. … I wish only
to offer to you the joy of the Gospel. … Remember always that it is
the Gospel that protects you and therefore do not be afraid to go
everywhere and to be with those whom God has entrusted to you. … No
sphere of human life is excluded from the interest of the heart of
the pastor. … Be on your guard against the danger of neglecting the
many and singular situations of the members of your flock; do not
renounce encounters with them; do not spare preaching of the living
Word of the Lord; invite all to the mission”.
Bishops as educators, spiritual guides
and catechists
“With those who are at home, who
frequent your communities and partake of the Eucharist, I invite you
to be educators, spiritual guides and catechists, able to take them
by the hand and to lead them up Mount Tabor, guiding them in the
knowledge of the mystery they profess. … Do not spare any efforts
in accompanying them and do not let them resign themselves to staying
on the plain”.
Bishops as mystagogues
“I think of baptised people who do
not however respond to the demands of their Baptism. Perhaps it has
long been thought that the land on which the seed of the Gospel falls
is not in need of care. Some have drifted away as they are
disillusioned by the promises of faith or perhaps because the path to
realising them has appeared too challenging. Some instead leave,
slamming the door behind them, holding our weaknesses against us or
seeking, while not entirely successfully, to convince themselves that
they had been deceived by hopes that were ultimately dashed. Be
bishops able to intercept their path. … Do not be scandalised by
their pain or their disappointments. Enlighten them with a humble
flame … always able to illuminate those who are reached by its
light that is, however, never blinding. Devote time to meeting them
on the road to their Emmaus. Offer them words that show to them what
they are still unable to see: the hidden potential of their very
delusions. … More than with words, warm their hearts by humbly
listening, interested in what is truly good for them, so that they
open their eyes and are able to reverse course, returning to Him,
from Whom they had drifted.
Bishops as missionaries
“As pastors and missionaries of God's
gratuitous salvation, seek also those who do not know Jesus or have
simply refused Him. Go in their direction … without fear or unease.
… It is not true that we can do without these distant brothers. It
is not permissible for us to dispense with our concerns about their
fate. … Seeing in us the Lord Who calls to them, perhaps they will
have the courage to respond to the divine invitation. If so, our
communities will be enriched by what they have to share and our
Pastors' hearts will rejoice to repeat once more, “Today salvation
has come to this house”.
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