Consistory and Angelus Nov. 24-25

Angelus Message – Christ the King, November 25, 2012

 

            Blessed Solemnity of Christ the King!  For the Church, this weekend was a particularly special one due to the six new cardinals that were created by Pope Benedict XVI (see below).  One is an American, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.  One is from Lebanon, Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï; one from the Philippines, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle; one from Nigeria, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan; one from India, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal; and one is from Colombia, Cardinal Salazar Gómez.  Congratulations to them! 

            In Pope Benedict XVI’s Angelus message, after the First Mass with the new Cardinals, the Holy Father spoke about the importance of the Solemnity of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which, as he teaches, sums up the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection and dominion over all.  As Catholics, we gaze with eager anticipation for the second coming of Christ, when God will be all in all, when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to His Father.  He spoke about how the mission of Jesus and His message consist in proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven, which “is first of all manifested in the very person of Christ” (Lumen Gentium, 5) in his death and resurrection.  The Holy Father instructs, “This Kingdom of Christ has been entrusted to the Church, which is the ‘seed’ and ‘beginning’ and has the task of announcing it and spreading it among all the nations with the power of the Holy Spirit.  At the end of the determined time the Lord will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father and will present to him all who have lived by the commandment of love”.  May we be among those who have lived by the commandment of love!  As we work to announce and proclaim the Kingdom of God, as the Holy Father tells us, we are to convert to the Gospel and firmly decide to follow the King, who came to serve and bear witness to the truth.  In this light, he invited all to pray with him for the newly created Cardinals, “that the Holy Spirit strengthen them in faith and in charity and fill them with him gifts so that they live their new responsibility as a further commitment to Christ and his Kingdom”. 

            Speaking to the English speakers present at the Angelus prayer, he spoke of another beatification, this one in Macas, Ecuador!  Her name is Blessed Maria Troncatti, who was a religious sister of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians.  Giving a brief history, the Holy Father explains, “She was born in Val Camonica, Italy, and was a nurse during the First World War.  She later went to Ecuador where she dedicated herself to the people of the forest, in evangelizing and human development.  Let us give thanks to God for this generous witness of hers!”

            Further, he spoke about the upcoming pilgrimage of university students to the Tomb of Saint Peter for the Year of Faith, in which he will preside at First Vespers!  Get ready, university students!

 

Image from http://salesianity.blogspot.it/2012/05/miracle-attributed-to-sr-maria.html . 

ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY
FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS

PAPAL MASS

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica
Saturday, 24 November 2012

 

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

These words, which the new Cardinals are soon to proclaim in the course of their solemn profession of faith, come from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, the synthesis of the Church’s faith that each of us receives at baptism. Only by professing and preserving this rule of truth intact can we be authentic disciples of the Lord. In this Consistory, I would like to reflect in particular on the meaning of the word “catholic”, a word which indicates an essential feature of the Church and her mission. Much could be said on this subject and various different approaches could be adopted: today I shall limit myself to one or two thoughts.

The characteristic marks of the Church are in accordance with God’s plan, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities” (no. 811). Specifically, what makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity. While during his earthly life Jesus’ mission was limited to the Jewish people, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24), from the beginning it was meant to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and lead all nations into the kingdom of God. When he saw the faith of the centurion at Capernaum, Jesus cried out: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11). […]

Jesus sends his Church not to a single group, then, but to the whole human race, and thus he unites it, in faith, in one people, in order to save it. The Second Vatican Council expresses this succinctly in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium: “All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Therefore this people, while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout the whole world and through every age, so that the design of God's will may be fulfilled” (no. 13). Hence the universality of the Church flows from the universality of God’s unique plan of salvation for the world. […] The Church’s universal mission does not arise from below, but descends from above, from the Holy Spirit: from the beginning it seeks to express itself in every culture so as to form the one People of God. Rather than beginning as a local community that slowly grows and spreads outwards, it is like yeast oriented towards a universal horizon, towards the whole: universality is inscribed within it. […]And when the Apostles speak of the Church, they are not referring to a community of their own, but to the Church of Christ, and they insist on the unique, universal and all-inclusive identity of the Catholica that is realized in every local church. The Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, she reflects in herself the source of her life and her journey: the unity and communion of the Trinity. […]

Situated within the context and the perspective of the Church’s unity and universality is the College of Cardinals: it presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church. In this Consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents. She is the Church of Pentecost: amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God. […] At the same time, today’s rite expresses the supreme value of fidelity. Indeed, the oath that you are about to take, venerable brothers, contains words filled with profound spiritual and ecclesial significance: “I promise and I swear, from now on and for as long as I live, to remain faithful to Christ and his Gospel, constantly obedient to the Holy Apostolic Roman Church”. […]

Dear friends, let us praise the Lord, who “with manifold gifts does not cease to enrich his Church spread throughout the world” (Oration), and reinvigorates her in the perennial youth that he has bestowed upon her. To him we entrust the new ecclesial service of these our esteemed and venerable Brothers, that they may bear courageous witness to Christ, with a lively growing faith and unceasing sacrificial love. Amen.

(http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2012/november/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20121124_concistoro_en.html cited on November 27, 2012)