Subject: VISnews 120201
Organization: VIS
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
TWENTY SECOND YEAR - N. 23
ENGLISH
WEDNESDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2012
SUMMARY:
- We Must Learn to Have Greater Trust in Divine Providence
- Telegram for the Death of Cardinal Bevilacqua
___________________________________________________________
WE MUST LEARN TO HAVE GREATER TRUST IN DIVINE PROVIDENCE
VATICAN CITY, 1 FEB 2012 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall the Holy
Father received thousands of pilgrims from around the world in his weekly
general audience. As part of a series of catecheses dedicated to the prayers
pronounced by Christ, he focused his remarks on Jesus' prayer in the Garden
of Gethsemane.
Mark the Evangelist narrates how, following the Last Supper, Jesus went to
the Mount of Olives and readied Himself for personal prayer. "But this
time", the Pope said, "something new occurred; it seemed that He did not
want to remain alone. Many times in the past Jesus had moved away from the
crowds, even from His own disciples. ... However, in Gethsemane he invited
Peter, James and John to stay close by; the same disciples who had
accompanied Him during the Transfiguration.
"The proximity of these three during the prayer at Gethsemane is
significant", Benedict XVI added. It represents "a request for solidarity at
the moment in which He felt the approach of death. Above all it was a
closeness in prayer, an expression of unity with Him at the moment in which
He was preparing to accomplish the Father's will to the end, an invitation
to all disciples to follow Him on the path of the Cross".
Jesus' words to the three disciples - "I am deeply grieved, even to death;
remain here and keep awake" - show that He was feeling "fear and anguish at
that 'Hour', experiencing the ultimate profound solitude as God's plan was
being accomplished. Jesus fear and anguish comprehend all the horror that
man feels at the prospect of his own death, its inexorable certainty and the
perception of the burden of evil which affects our lives".
Having invited His disciples to keep awake, Jesus moved away from them.
Referring to the Gospel of St. Mark, the Pope noted that Jesus "threw
Himself to the ground: a position for prayer which expresses obedience to
the Father's will, an abandonment of self with complete trust in Him". Jesus
then asks the Father that, if possible, the hour might pass from Him. "This
is not just the fear and anguish of man in the face of death", the Holy
Father explained, "but the distress of the Son of God Who sees the terrible
accumulation of evil He must take upon Himself, in order to overcome it and
deprive it of power".
In this context, Benedict XVI invited the faithful to pray to God, placing
before Him "our fatigue, the suffering of certain situations and of certain
days, our daily struggle to follow Him and to be Christians, and the burden
of evil we see within and around us, that He may give us hope, make us aware
of His closeness and give us a little light on life's journey".
Returning then to Jesus' prayer, the Pope focused on "three revealing
passages" in Christ's words: "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible;
remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want but what you want". Firstly,
Benedict XVI said, the Aramaic word "Abba" is used by children to address
their fathers, "therefore it express Jesus relationship with God the Father,
a relationship of tenderness, affection and trust". Secondly, Jesus' words
contain an acknowledgment of the Father's omnipotence "introducing a request
in which, once again, we see the drama of Jesus' human will in the face of
death and evil. ... Yet the third expression ... is the decisive one, in
which the human will adheres fully to the divine will. ... Jesus tells us
that only by conforming their will to the divine will can human beings
achieve their true stature and become 'divine'. ... This is what Jesus does
in Gethsemane. By transferring human will to the divine will the true man is
born and we are redeemed".
When we pray the Our Father "we ask the Lord that 'your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven'. In other words, we recognise that God has a will
for us and with us, that God has a will for our lives and, each day, this
must increasingly become the reference point for our desires and our
existence. We also recognise that ... 'earth' becomes 'heaven' - the place
where love, goodness, truth and divine beauty are present - only if the will
of God is done".
In our prayers "we must learn to have greater trust in Divine Providence,
to ask God for the strength to abandon our own selves in order to renew our
'yes', to repeat to Him 'your will be done', to conform our will to His.
This is a prayer we must repeat every day, because it is not always easy to
entrust oneself to the will of God".
The Gospel says that the disciples were unable to remain awake for Christ,
and Pope Benedict concluded his catechesis by saying: "Let us ask the Lord
for the power to keep awake for Him in prayer, to follow the will of God
every day even if He speaks of the Cross, to live in ever increasing
intimacy with the Lord and bring a little of God's 'heaven' to this
'earth'".
Following the catechesis the Holy Father delivered greetings in a number
of languages to the pilgrims filling the Paul VI Hall. They included a group
of British military chaplains, faithful from Hong Kong and South America,
bishops friends of the Sant'Egidio Community from Europe, Asia and Africa,
as well as young people and the sick.
AG/ VIS
20120201 (940)
TELEGRAM FOR THE DEATH OF CARDINAL BEVILACQUA
VATICAN CITY, 1 FEB 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father has sent a telegram to
Archbishop Charles Chaput O.F.M. Cap. of Philadelphia, U.S.A., for the death
of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, former archbishop of that archdiocese who
died yesterday at the age of 88. The Holy Father writes:
"Having learned with sadness of the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua,
archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, I offer my heartfelt condolences to you
and to all the faithful of the archdiocese. I join you in commending the
late cardinal's soul to God, the Father of mercies, with gratitude for his
years of episcopal ministry among Christ's flock in Philadelphia, his
longstanding commitment to social justice and the pastoral care of
immigrants, and his expert contribution to the revision of the Church's law
in the years following Vatican Council II. To you, and to all the clergy,
religious and laity of the Church in Philadelphia, and to the members of his
family, I cordially impart my apostolic blessing as a pledge of consolation
and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ".
TGR/ VIS
20120201 (190)
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