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P. Joachim Schmiedl, prédica Fr. Joachim Schmiedl during the sermon P. Joachim Schmiedl bei der Predigt |
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Foto: POS Fischer © 2006 |
My dear Schoenstatt Family:
When our Father and Founder returned from Milwaukee he began his first homily with these words: "I could remain here on earth with you, or I could also rise with you heavenwards" (December 24, 1965). This phrase is also a summary of the papal visit that we have experienced in our country a few days ago. We have accompanied the Holy Father while he followed the footsteps of his history of life. His message of hope continually resounds in his message: "Those who believe are never alone!" This morning we can meditate on the relationship that exists between the fundamental expressions of his message with those our life and with the inheritance of our Father and Founder.
The Pope’s main intention during these last days has been to place God in the center. In Munich he denounced that we can no longer perceive God well: "There is not only a physical deafness which largely cuts people off from social life; there is also a "Hardness of hearing" where God is concerned, and this is something from which we particularly suffer in our own time. Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God – there are too many different frequencies filling our ears. What is said about God strikes us as pre-scientific, no longer suited to our age. Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him And so we end up losing a decisive capacity for perception. " (September 10, 2006)
We should note that "it is important to carry out the dialogue not only in fragments; rather, with the full image of God" (September 12, 2006). The Pope wants us to see God footprints in the world and in life, and in this way we will achieve an integral bond with Him as Creator and Redeemer, so that "God is made more presence for us and in us" (September 10, 2006). For him, the words of the Magnificat are the best expression of the relationship between the greatness of God and of the greatness of man:"My soul magnifies – make great – the Lord". Making the Lord great means giving him a place in the world, in our lives, and letting him enter into our time and our activity: ultimately this is the essence of true prayer. When God is made great, men and women are not made small: there too men and women become great and the world is filled with light" (September 11, 2006)
We found this same supernatural focus in our Father and Founder. He is totally convinced that in Schoenstatt the "irruption of the divine" is observed, that what is done is a "divine initiative" and that God can be seen behind this. Forty years ago, he stressed, referring to Saint Vicent Pallotti: "This is what is important for me and for all of you, that we always passionately revolve around the infinite God. Everything that is earthly, everything that glitters, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow will be trifles. Only God, God, God. This is what is important" (October 14, 1966)
How is this made concrete, how is God placed in the center? It is made concrete through the process of believing. Pope Benedict reflected about this through the profession of faith that short declaration that unites all of Christianity. In his words: "We believe in God – in God, who is the Beginning and Endo of human life. We believe in a Good who enters into a relationship with us human beings, who is our origin and our future. Consequently, faith is, always and inseparably, hope: the certainty that we have a future and will not end up as nothing. And faith is love, since God’s love is "Contagious". This is the first thing: we simply believe in God, and this brings with it hope and love. (September 12, 2006).
Faith is something more than a doctrine. It is something that has to do with the certainty of our future. It has something to do with the affect, with the heart. Once again we recall the words of Benedict XVI: "The Creed is not a collection of propositions; it is not a theory. It is anchored in the event of Baptism – a genuine encounter between God and man. In the mystery of baptism, God stoops to meet us; he comes close to us and in turn brings us closer to one another. Baptism means that Jesus Christ adopts us his brothers and sisters welcoming us as sons and daughters into God’s family. He thus makes us one great family in the universal communion of the Church. Truly, those who believe are never alone. God comes to meet us. Let us go out to meet God and thus meet one another! To the extent we can, let us make sure that none of God’s children ever feels alone!" (September 12, 2006).
Neither is it difficult to make a parallel with our Father. Rephrasing a saying of Cardinal Newman, a well known English theologian, our Founder said during October Week of 1950:"Christianity is above all a vital revelation and only secondarily a revealing or communicating of truths (…). The Catholic religion, Christianity, is the first place there is an irruption of divine live into the earthly, in the temporal, in the Person of Christ (…)In this irruption of divine life into the temporal there is simultaneously an association, as a way of saying, a connection, a betrothal between divine life and the Spouse of Christ, that is his Church heart on earth" (October 17, 1950).
At that time these words wakened a protest. Today they sound like something that is evident. We experience the dynamic of faith in the emerging of the Catholic Movements. We see the enthusiasm of so many people that come close to the Pope and by this they express how important he is for them in this mutual strengthening in faith. It was clearly seen in the last large events such as the World Youth Day and the papal visit to his home land: The Church exists where the life of faith is communicated and shared.
Like no other Pope before him, not even John Paul II, Benedict XVI made the people participate in his own experience of faith. The pilgrimage to his town was for Benedict a trip to his own history of faith that was founded in his land: "I am also happy to revisit familiar places which had a decisive influence on my life, shaping my thoughts and feelings: places where I learned how to believe and how to live. This is a time to say thanks to all those –living and deceased – who guided and accompanied me along the way. I thank God for this beautiful country and for all the person who have made it truly my homeland" (September 10, 2006).
These bonds have a history going back centuries and constantly nourished by firm adherence to the values of the Christian faith, an adherence in which the region of Bavaria can take particular pride. It is witnessed to by famous monuments, majestic cathedrals, statues and paintings of great artistic value, literary works, cultural initiatives and above all, the many individual and community events which reflect the Christian beliefs of successive generations in this Land which is so dear to me" (September 9, 2006).
Here, I also want to make a parallel with our Father. He defined the homeland in an extraordinary manner: The homeland is the center where all the experiences, sentiments and ideals are united" (August 1938). It was clear to our Father that many men of our time suffer from unrootedness and uncertainty. "Base of migration" is the word that describes the reality that, just in Germany. 20% of the population has its roots outside of this country, without mentioning the many that have to move because of work situations. Perhaps the strong accent that the Pope placed on the homeland is also conditioned by the fact that as a child he also had to move several times and during the twenty years that he was a professor of theology he held the chair at five universities. So it can be said that he well knows about the restlessness of our time.
That is why the organism of attachments that functions is more necessary, and it is also a necessity for us.
God, faith, homeland: for the Pope, these essential points in the homilies and discourses during his trip to Bavaria are tied to the person of Mary. He spoke about Her on repeated occasions. He entrusted humanity to Her, the Patron of Bavaria before the column of Mary, in Munich. The Marian moments during Vespers and at the end of the Eucharist in Regensburgh have been climatic symbolic points on this trip. In Altotting he showed the person of the Blessed Mother in her close bond with Jesus. She helps men in their necessities, as she did in the weeding of Cana. But she respects the freedom of her Son. She can do this because she entrusted everything to the Lord. This is how the Pope stressed it: " From Mary we learn graciousness and readiness to help, but we also learn humility and generosity in accepting God’s will, in the confident conviction that, whatever it may be, it will be our, and my own, true good " (September 11, 2006). Like Jesus, Mary also has a perfect unity with the will of the Father.
This is the classic Mariology that was developed in Vatican Council II, not in the least, with the contribution of the theologian Joseph Ratzinger. But it also the Mariology of our Founder: Mary is the official and permanent collaborator of Jesus. Mary is always where Jesus is, she shares his desires, She leads the Church towards Him.
"Those who believe are never alone!". Not only are the thousands of people who had a sleepless night waiting for the Pope in the large encounters convinced of this. The media transmitted this conviction to the rest of the people. It makes us feel somewhat enthusiastic. Although we were not the soccer champions of the world; rather, we only came out as a Germany that is surer of itself –we are "still the Pope". And we can pray that we grow more profoundly in the thinking and in the attitude of faith of the Pope, in an attitude open to God and dependent on him, and it is hoped that it will also be included in the constitution of Europe, with an attitude that lives from a personal and communitarian experience of faith, an attitude that is seen in the organism of attachments, and as an opportunity for an encounter with God, an Marian attitude of complete openness of respect to the will of God and with the willingness to accompany Jesus in his apostolic way. Like our Father and Founder, we are on the best road. Amen.
Instead of the prayer of the faithful:
The prayer of Pope Benedict XVI before the column of Mary in Munich (September 9, 2006)
Holy Mother of the Lord!
Our ancestors, at a time of trouble, have entrusted the city and country to your care. They wanted to meet you again and again along the paths of their daily life, and to learn from you the right way to live, to find God and to live in harmony. They gave you a crown and a sceptre, which at that time were symbols of dominion over the country, because they knew that power and dominion would then be in good hands - in the hands of a Mother.
Your Son, just before his farewell to his disciples, said to them: "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" (Mk 10:43-44). At the decisive hour in your own life, you said: "Here I am, the servant of the Lord" (Lk 1:38). You lived your whole life as service. And you continue to do so throughout history. At Cana, you silently and discreetly interceded for the spouses, and so you continue to do. You take upon yourself people's needs and concerns, and you bring them before the Lord, before your Son. Your power is goodness. Your power is service.
Teach us - great and small alike - to carry out our responsibilities in the same way. Help us to find the strength to offer reconciliation and forgiveness. Help us to become patient and humble, but also free and courageous, just as you were at the hour of the Cross. In your arms you hold Jesus, the Child who blesses, the Child who is also the Lord of the world. By holding the Child who blesses, you have yourself become a blessing. Bless us, this city and this country! Show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb! Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen!
Translation: Celina Garza, Harlingen, TX, USA