The "Sequela Christi"
Grazie mille e píu to one of the illustrious ops del nord for preparing this fulltext translation of Benedict XVI's meditation from the Mass of Palm Sunday, celebrated earlier today on the steps of St Peter's.
In the procession of Palm Sunday we associate ourselves with the crowd of disciples who, with festive joy, accompany the Lord during his entry into Jerusalem. Like them we praise the Lord with loud voices for all the wonders we have seen. Yes, we also have seen and continue to see the wonders of Christ: how He moves men and women to renounce the comfort of their lives and to give themselves totally to the service of the suffering; how He gives courage to men and women in order to oppose violence and lies, to make a place in the world for truth; how He secretly brings men and women to do good to others, to bring about reconciliation where there was hatred, to create peace where previously strife had reigned.
The procession is above all a joyful testimony that we give to Jesus Christ, in whom the Face of God is made visible to us and thanks to whom the heart of God is opened for all of us. In the Gospel of Luke the recounting of the beginning of the procession outside of Jerusalem is modelled, almost literally on the Rite of Incoronation, with which, according to the First book of Kings, Solomon was clothed with the Kingship of David for his inheritance. In this way, the procession of palms is also a procession of Christ the King: we profess the kingship of Jesus Christ, we recognize Jesus as the Son of David, the true Solomon – the King of peace and justice. Recognizing him as King means accepting Him as the One who indicates the way, which we accept and which we follow. It means accepting his words day by day as the valid criteria for our lives. It means seeing in Him the authority to which we submit ourselves. We submit ourselves to Him because his authority is that of truth.
At the beginning, with the first disciples, the sense was very simple and immediate: it meant that they had decided to leave their profession, their things, their entire lives to go with Jesus. It meant undertaking a new profession: that of disciple. The fundamental content of this profession was to go along with the master, the total entrusting of self to his guidance. In this way, following him was an external thing, but, at the same time, very interior. The external aspect was walking behind Jesus during his pilgrimages throughout Palestine, the interior
With these we can also clearly see what the meaning of the following of Christ is for us: it has to do with an interior change in our existence. It requires that I no longer be closed off in my self considering my self-realization to be the purpose of my being. It requires that I give myself freely to another – for the truth, for love, for God who, in Jesus Christ, goes before me and shows me the way. It deals with the fundamental decision to no longer consider the utility and the reward, my career and success as the ultimate end of my life. Instead, I must recognize as authentic criteria truth and love. It deals with the choice between living only for myself and or in giving myself – for the greatest of all things. Let us consider well that truth and love are not abstract values, in Jesus Christ they have become a person. Following Him we enter into the service of the truth and of love. In losing myself, I find myself.
We now return to the liturgy and the procession of Palms. In this, the Liturgy foresees as its chant Psalm 24 [23], that was, even in Israel a processional chant used in ascending the temple mount. The Psalm interprets the interior ascent of which the exterior one is an image and it explains to us once more what it means to ascend with Christ. “Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?” asks the Psalm, and it indicates to us two essential conditions. Those who ascend and who want to go high, to arrive at the true heights must be people who ask themselves about God. People who search inside themselves in order to find God, to find his Face. Dear young people – how important is precisely this, today: don’t allow yourselves to be carried here and there in life, don’t content yourselves with that which everyone thinks and says and does. Look to God and seek Him. May we not allow our quest for God to dissolve itself in our souls. The desire for that which is much bigger. The desire to know Him – His Face...
This is the call that at this moment we need to allow to penetrate our hearts. The Lord will help us to open the door of our hearts, the door of the world, so that He, the living God, can arrive, in these our times, in the person of His Son to gain our lives. Amen.
PHOTO 1: AP/Alessandra Tarantino
PHOTOS 2-3: Reuters/Dario Pignatelli
PHOTO 4-5: Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi
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