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On Death, and Death"s Healing

[2010-04-04]
[Engleză]
This evening in St. Peter"s Basilica, during a Holy Saturday liturgy (the Easter Vigil Mass), Pope Benedict XVI gave a profound homily in which he spoke of "the true cure for death." What is it? It involves being clothed in "robes of glory." How? In baptism...

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

=====================================

A Profound Easter Vigil Sermon

ROME, Italy, Saturday, April 3, 2010 -- Tonight at 9 p.m. in St. Peter"s Basilica, I attended the Holy Saturday evening liturgy which celebrates the Vigil of Easter Sunday -- the Vigil of the Resurrection.

The ceremony is special because it begins in darkness, and then, from a single candle, lights up, as the faithful light candles, one from another, throughout the basilica.

(Photo of Pope Benedict entering St. Peter"s carrying the Easter candle, by Albert Cesare. Cesare, 22, a young American photographer, has been accredited by the Vatican Press Office during this Holy Week. This is the first photo of the Vatican he has ever published.)

Unfortunately, when that moving ceremony occurred, I was outside the basilica, in the cold.

With my press pass, I could have been inside.

But the Vatican, evidently, issued too many tickets for this Mass...

As a result, the members of my little group of Holy Week pilgrims (all of whom had valid tickets to enter the Basilica), after standing for more than an hour in a long line which snaked entirely around St. Peter"s Square, were halted by the Vatican police just as they were passing through the final control point.

They, and hundreds of others behind them, were not allowed to proceed into the basilica to attend the Vigil Mass.

In essence, they were literally just a minute too late to get in.

I was inside St. Peter"s at the time, just next to the main altar along with another of our pilgrims, an 88-year-old woman who has lost a foot to cancer and so has to move about in a wheel chair. (Those in wheel chairs have a special entrance, with an elevator, into St. Peter"s.)

I was planning to go back to meet the others at the front entrance, then go inside with them, when my cell phone rang. I learned suddenly, to my surprise, that my group was blocked outside. I had to get to them.

By this time, the basilica had been entirely sealed off for the Pope"s arrival, so I could not exit through the front doors, though I tried. I had to go around the edge of basilica, through a number of check points, and then out the back door of St. Peter"s and all around the outside of the basilica, to reach my companions.

I found them sitting in the open air, in the first section of seats in the piazza near the Bronze Doors. I sought out several officials, trying to have the decision rescinded, to no avail.

Though we were in Rome, we were unable to enter the basilica tonight, and had to sit in the piazza and watch the liturgy on one of the four large video screens in the square.

(Benedict baptizes a young woman on Holy Saturday using a shell to pour water over her head; photo by Albert Cesare)

Several of the women had not brought coats (I had assured everyone that we would be sitting inside). It was not truly cold, but neither was it warm, and there was often a brisk night wind, so as the minutes turned into hours, from 9 p.m. until after midnight, many of the pilgrims began to shiver. I gave my coat to one of the women, and began to shiver too.

But we stayed.

Perhaps there was something positive in the experience, after all. Because we were right in front of the video screen, we could see the Pope even more clearly than those in the basilica -- better, even, than those in the very first rows.

And so I was able to watch Benedict"s face throughout the liturgy, and to observe him as he delivered a profound homily on death and eternal life -- appropriate for the Vigil Mass of the Resurrection.

I also could watch him as he baptized six people, including a young boy.

And I saw that, in contrast to recent days, when he has not smiled at all, he smiled tonight, when those who were baptized brought gifts to the altar.

(Photo of Pope Benedict smiling this evening, by Albert Cesare)

In this sense, I think it is true to say that tonight"s lengthy Easter Vigil liturgy was punctuated by moments of evident joy for the embattled Pope.

===========================

"Indeed, the cure for death does exist"

The Easter Vigil Mass is a time when catechumens are baptized, that is, a time when those who have studied and come to believe in the doctrines of the Church are baptized into the Church.

The Pope baptized six people this evening.

Baptism, the Pope said in his homily, is the true medicine of eternal life. Modern science seeks the key to endless life, but the only way to true immortality is through Christ, who died and rose again, and in so doing, made it possible for man to be made new again.

In the context of the recent attacks on him, and on the Church in general as an institution which has covered up grave crimes of sexual abuse, this homily refers directly to such sins -- sexual sins like "fornication" and "impurity" -- as deadly, calling them "garments of death."

Benedict said: "Paul designates them [the sins that must be renounced by Christians] thus: “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like” (Gal 5:19ff.). These are the garments that we remove: the garments of death."

I read this as a clear reference to the current crisis, and a call to all Christians, not just those newly baptized tonight, to reject these actions and behaviors -- to purify the Church from acts which are abusive, wrong, and death-bringing.

On the other hand, the actions and behaviors which are to mark and characterize the lives of Christians are these: "Paul, " he said, "calls these new "garments" "fruits of the spirit," and he describes them as follows: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22)."

The text also sets forth very clearly one of the Pope"s oft-repeated themes: that science alone cannot bring man the true happiness we all seek. Though he does not deny the benefits science can bring, he does deny that science, without a relationship to faith in Christ, can bring final happiness, even if ways are discovered to prolong human life for many centuries.

Benedict"s most profound reflections came in these words: "Endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation. The true cure for death must be different. It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity."

Here is the complete text of tonight"s homily.

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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