Italian Episcopate VIII centenary birth St Francis
Address of the Italian Episcopate, on the VIII centenary of the birth of St. Francis (03-12-82)
In 1982, the Episcopate of Italy held an extraordinary assembly in Assisi. The Pope went to Assisi, for the second time during his papacy, and met the bishops gathered in the sacred convent of St. Francis. This is the message from the Italian bishops to their nation, which the secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference read in the presence of the Pope during their meeting in Assisi on march 12, 1982.
1. We are in Assisi, and we are pilgrims. We bishops too, like Francis before the crucifix of Saint Damien, ask the most high and glorious Lord God "a correct faith, a certain hope, a perfect charity, sense and knowledge" (cf. OrSD).
With our "poor brother Francis", whom we venerate on the eighth centenary of his birth, God continues to restore his Church, enlightens the world and makes all his creatures sing, beautiful, resplendent, clear, precious and joyful.
"Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures". We have come to Assisi to find again the intensity of this song of creation to the glory of God.
A song capable of making the pure feelings of the human spirit vibrate, always, throughout the earth.
A hymn of faith that springs free where there is no hatred and sin, laziness of spirit, slavery of money and pleasure; where the heart trusts in God, feels his familiar steps, opens to the embrace of the brothers and reconquers, in the Spirit, the original harmony of creation.
It is not the thoughtless and playful son of Pietro Bernardone who leads us in this revelation, but the almost blind Francis, close to his death, among his brothers, after enduring a penitent and crucified life for the love of the Father. At the sunrise of "brother sun", he woke up from a night of pain.
To live is to sing to God
2. Francis decided one day not to adore himself any more and to resolutely follow in the footsteps of Christ. He fell in love with the Gospel, which was for him the "rule without gloss," the "way" of life. He was ecstatic by the mystery of the Incarnation and, in the vicinity of Greccio, invented the manger; She could no longer think of the crucifixion of Jesus without being moved and crying; he chose above all any invitation to pass through the narrow door.
And the narrow door quickly led him to the lepers: they had the face of Christ, indeed, they were Christ himself, his holy icon. Bowing down to Christ and bowing down to suffering humanity became the same thing for him.
Then the disturbing parable of his infatuation with "Most High Poverty" began for Francis: he expropriated everything, and took up the cross.
And as the passion of Christ for men was imprinted on his flesh, Francis freed himself "from the shadows of earthly things ... he flew to the top, he immersed himself pure in the light" (2 Cel 54). On Mount Della Verna, God himself also marked him outwardly with the wounds of his Son: and he responded by singing to God the feelings of the soul in love and transfigured in Christ: «You are holy, Lord God only ... You are strong, you You are great, you are the Most High ... you are the Holy Father ..., you are good, all good, supreme good ... You are love, you are wisdom, you are humility, you are patience, beauty, security, you are stillness, joy and happiness ... You are hope, faith and charity, you are strength, you are refuge, you are our sweetness, you are our eternal life, great and admirable Lord, almighty God, merciful Savior » (cf. AlD).
In the ecstasy of the experience of the wounds, the dominant motive of Francis's life and of our human existence exploded: to live is to sing to God; it is to disengage from creatures, with the force of the Gospel, the choral hymn of the glory of God.
But for the singular Franciscan canticle, passed down through the centuries, to reach us, it is useful to collect here the central message of three "circular letters" that Francis wrote close to death, "considering that he could not personally visit each one given the disease and weakness of his body ", and, on the other hand, considering himself obliged" to serve and to supply all the fragrant words of his Lord "(2CtaF 2-3).
To all Christians
3. He wrote one of the three letters "to all Christians, religious, clergy and laity, men and women, to all who live in the whole world" (2CtaF 1).
This is his fundamental supplication: «Let us therefore love God and adore him with a pure heart and with a pure mind ... And let us address him praises and prayers day and night, saying:" Our Father, who art in heaven ", because it is necessary may we always pray and not lose heart » (2CtaF 19 and 21).
Francis thus traces the life of Christians, completely wrapped up in that impulse upwards, which founds, and every day nourishes, our presence in the world.
It is an impulse of truth, which commits us to recognize in creatures the work and glory of God, in each man and in each woman the image of which he is jealous, in those who suffer and in the least the favorite face of his Child.
It is an impulse of freedom, which by putting "God above all else", saves our human energies from the slavery of sin and the ballast that is useless. There is no idol in front of our God: not money, not power, not consumption, not well-being, not the work of our hands; not our vices, not even our human wisdom. We should only love Him and only serve Him; and to our neighbor as ourselves, until giving our lives.
It is the impulse of fraternity, which rises with pleasure to the one "Our Father" only if it carries with it the humiliated man who has been served justice: the man who is hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, in jail; who has no voice, is homeless, jobless, loveless, marginalized, tired.
It is contemplating, it is "always praying without fainting."
It is "perfect joy", which is born from a poor heart, in love only with God.
Without pretending to change the social structures of his time, Francis in fact revolutionized his time, renewing the consciousness of men and the face of society.
The "Letter to all the faithful" reaches us today, as an effective witness to that radical option for the Gospel, which can also place us, clearly, among men and make our presence as Christians credible in the prospects of the country and the world.
"If we have not done enough in the world - we wrote last October - it is not because we are Christians, but because we are not enough."
Here, in Assisi, we Christians take a particularly lucid awareness of a vocation of evangelical poverty to which we must be faithful and to which we must give ever more credible signs: as bishops, as priests, as men and women religious, as laity, as Church.
To all the "clergymen"
4. A second "circular letter" from Francis was written "to all the clergy on the reverence of the Body of the Lord" (CtaCle).
Francis sends us ardor and disdain - depending on the case - for the way we treat the Eucharistic Body of Christ.
Es duro al denunciar «cuán viles son los cálices, los corporales y los manteles» que usamos; cuán «indignos» son los lugares en que conservamos la Eucaristía; cuán «sin respeto» el modo de llevarla; cómo se recibe y se administra sin reverencia el Cuerpo del Señor; cómo falta el respeto a las palabras «escritas» de la consagración, a los libros litúrgicos diríamos hoy en sentido amplio.
He pleads and urges that we amend ourselves "as soon as possible and resolutely", because "the pious Lord himself puts himself in our hands" spontaneously and entrusts himself to us without defense. He also threatens, remembering that whoever does not do this "will fall into the Lord's hands" and will have to give an account on the day of judgment.
Francis's love for the Eucharist is all concentrated here: the Eucharist is Jesus in our hands. She cries and is moved by the Jesus abandoned on the altar, as she cries and is moved by the poor Jesus in the manger and the martyred Jesus of the passion; because the misunderstanding of the Eucharist indicates a dull life and a useless mission.
From this tender and immediate faith comes the extraordinary veneration of Francis for priests: "The Lord gave me and continues to give me such great faith in priests ..." he writes in the Testament. And I do not want to notice sin in them, because I look at them as the Son of God and they are my masters. And I do it for this reason: because in this world I see nothing bodily of the very high Son of God but his most holy body and most holy blood, which they receive (consecrate) and they alone administer to others ”(Test 6: 9-10).
The veneration of Francis towards the clergy thus reaches the heart of priestly existence, rooted in the Eucharist, and, therefore, placed only at the service of God Most High, in intimate union of life with the passion, death and resurrection of his Son. .
This and no other is our true identity as bishops, and that of the priests associated with our priestly ministry, as well as that of the deacons.
This is the only passion that can save our vocation and that, incessantly guiding it to God's merciful love for men, consumes our energies every day for the edification of the Church and for the salvation of the whole world.
To the village authorities
5. In the letter "to the authorities of the peoples", surprisingly Francis does not start by censuring those who exercise authority or by indicating their duties.
He wishes you health and peace; But he immediately remembers severely that he must render an account of everything and pleads, "with the reverence that I can, that you do not forget the Lord" (LtA 3).
To the rulers of his time, he boldly recommends that they devoutly receive communion and that they send a town crier every evening to announce that the entire people give praise and thanksgiving to the Almighty Lord God (LtA 6-7).
But to everyone who holds authority - whether he is a believer or not - Francis sends his clear evangelical testimony even earlier. It not only offers admonitions, but presents realizations.
Among his own, he wants everyone without exception to be called "younger brothers" (1 R 6,3), and for those who govern to be called only "ministers and servants", so that the subjects "can speak and behave with the ministers as lords do with their servants ”(2 R 10,5).
This evangelical burden of Francis in the field of the exercise of power goes beyond his Order, and resolutely reaches our time as well, at all levels of social responsibility.
Power does not have and cannot have meaning if it is not service.
Serious and crucial problems of our time, such as those referring to the right to life, freedom of conscience and religious freedom, peace, hunger in the world, public morality, political self-determination and collaboration among peoples, require today undoubtedly the responsible participation of all: "Absenteeism, refuge in private life, delegation in white are not allowed to anyone, and for Christians they are a sin of omission," we also wrote last October.
However, we entrust these concerns to the particular responsibility of a leading and political class that wants to be transparent and knows how to be competent to develop its own irreplaceable service.
In the logic of Francis, we wish, in the name of God, that those who have the responsibility of guiding the Country be attentive interpreters and "servants" of man, of his vocation, of his dignity, of his rights, of his spiritual aspirations:
- so that where there is violence, they bring justice and love; where there is a lie, be operators of truth and healthy moral customs; where there is death, be promoters of life;
- so that rivalry or compromise between the parties does not prevail over the common good, so that the pride of power does not mortify the humble;
- so that our people can be proud before the Lord who governs them and can live in brotherhood blessing the holy name of God.
May the Lord give you peace
6. "The Lord revealed to me that we should say this greeting: The Lord give you peace" (Test 23), Francis writes in the Testament.
By order of the Lord, Aaron already blessed the Israelites with the same omen (cf. Num 6,26), which is repeated later throughout the history of salvation, whenever God visits his people.
It is the greeting of the risen Christ to the Apostles, the effective proclamation that He entrusts to the Church for the reconciliation of the whole world: «Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you ... Receive the Holy Spirit ... your sins will be forgiven »(cf. Jn 20,19-23).
We have almost wasted and made sterile this familiar greeting that the liturgy also makes an insistent resound, especially in the Eucharistic celebration: "The peace of the Lord be always with you!"
Here in Assisi, we are touched by their strength. Francis is a singular visit of God among men; it is His word; It is for us the greeting of the Lord. Not only the words, but the entire evangelical life of Francis is the clear echo of the greeting of the risen Christ: "Peace be with you!"
With Francis, as bishops we welcome in faith this greeting of peace that comes from God and, together, from Assisi, we address it to the Church and to the country: "The Lord give peace!"
With joyful appreciation, we welcome John Paul II among us: associated with him and guided by him in the episcopal ministry, we announce and implore the peace of the Lord: for the Church, for families, for our Italian people and for their rulers, for all the countries martyred by oppression, by hunger and by war, for the whole world.
United with our Christian communities, we confirm the will to live, like Francis, for the Gospel of peace, in communion with God and with each other, at the service of men with the predilection of the "last": to tear down idols with them , to eliminate violence and marginalization, to rediscover the values of the common good, to project tomorrow together, to have the strength to face the necessary sacrifices, to give the world the true vision of existence and a new taste for living, the taste of the peace that comes from God.
We greet, from Assisi, the priests, deacons, men and women religious. We greet the male and female Franciscan families, grateful to the Lord for the service he has always offered to Christian communities and confident of the witness of peace and good that they will continue to give to our people.
We salute the laity of Catholic Action, associations and ecclesial movements, the baptized and men of good will, in any way committed, with the price of their daily existence, to promote justice and fraternity in the country.
For all, with the Pope, we celebrate the Eucharist, next to the tomb of Francis, and we raise our prayers to the Virgin Mary, surrounding her with Francis of "unspeakable love", "for having made the Lord of Majesty our brother" (2 Cel 198).
The grace, peace and love of God be with you all.
Assisi, march 12, 1982.
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