9 hrs
" in the measure that the church loves, he has the holy spirit." (HL. Augustine)
Sermon by Pope Benedict XVI. From 22.09.2011 from the Berlin Olympic Stadium. She may help us, just now that the church is attacked and disfigured to love these all the more and suffer and atone for their limbs. Please consider this sermon and let us share it!
Love confreres in bishop and priesthood!
Dear sisters and brothers!
The view of the wide Olympic Stadium, which you are filling in today, brings great joy and confidence in me. Very warmly i salute you all - the believers from the archdiocese of Berlin and the dioceses of Germany as well as the many pilgrims from neighbouring countries. 15 years ago, a pope came to the capital of Berlin. The visit of my revered predecessor, the blessed John Paul II and the beatification of the Berlin Cathedral Prop Bernhard Lichtenberg - along with Karl leisner - just here in this place is all of us, including myself, in very vivid memory.
When we think of this blessed and the host of saints and blessed as a whole, we can understand what it means to live as a rebzweige of the true vine Christ and bear fruit. Today's gospel has re-we the image, this in the and icon of life force, a metaphor for the beauty and dynamism of the community of Jesus with its disciples and friends with us.
In the example of the vine, Jesus does not say: " you are the vine ", but " I am the vine - you are the vines " (Joh 15,5), which means: " as the rebzweige are connected to the vine, You belong to me! But by listening to me, you belong to each other." and this one and to him is not some ideal, symbolic, symbolic relationship, but - almost i would like to say - a biological, a life full to Jesus - Christ belong. This is the church, this domestic partnership with Jesus Christ and for each other, which is founded by the baptism and is deepened and verlebendigt in the Eucharist. " I am the true vine ", that means, " I am her and you are me ", an outrageous identification of the Lord with us, with his church.
At the time of Damascus, Christ himself asked the church of churches: " why are you following me?" (APG 9,4), so the Lord expresses the common fate of fate, which is from the intimate domestic partnership of his church with him, the resurrected, Returns. He lives in his church in this world. He's with us and we're with him. - " why are you following me?" it's ultimately Jesus who wants to meet the pursuers of his church. At the same time, it means that if we are to be harassed for our faith, we are not alone. Jesus Christ is with us and with us.
In the example, Lord Jesus says once again: "I am the true vine, and my father is the wine grower" (Joh 15,1), and he leads the wine grower to take a knife, cut off the drought and purify the fruit So that they bring more fruit. God will - to say it with the image of the prophet Ezekiel that we heard at first reading - take the dead, stone heart out of our chest, and give us a living heart of meat (CF. EZ 36,26), a heart of love, kindness and peace. He wants to give us new, powerful life. Christ has come to call the sinners. You need the doctor, not the healthy (CF. 5,31 F). And so, as the second Vatican Council says, the church is the "Universal Salvation Sacrament" (LG 48), which is for the sinners, for us to open the path of reversal, healing and life. This is the eternal great show of the church that is transferred to it by Christ.
Some people stay with their eyes on the church on their outer shape. Then the church appears only more than one of the many organizations within a democratic society, according to whose standards and laws then the so bulky size "Church" is to be judged and treated. If the painful experience is that there is good and bad fish, wheat and weeds in the church, and the view of the negative remains fixed, the great and beautiful mystery of the church no longer opens up.
Then there will be no more joy about belonging to this vine " church ". it is spreading discontent and displeasure when you do not see the own superficial and flawed ideas of " church ", its own " Church dreams " does not realize! Then the happy " thanks to the Lord who has called me from mercy " to his church ", has sung the generations of Catholics with conviction.
But we return to the gospel. The Lord continues, " stay in me, then I will stay in you. As the vine can not bring fruit, but only if it remains at the vine, you can not bring fruit if you do not stay in me, because separate from me - we could also translate: outside of me - you can't do anything " (Joh 15,4).
Before that decision, each of us is asked. How serious she is, the Lord tells us in his example: " whoever does not stay in me will be thrown away like the vine, and he will wither. You collect the discarded vines, throw them in the fire, and burn them "( Joh 15,6 ). The Saint Augustine commented on it:" one of both comes to the vine, either the vine or the fire; if it is not in the vine, Will she be in the fire; so that she may not be in the fire, may she be in the vine " (in ioan. Ev. Tract. 81,3 [PL 35, 1842]
The choice required here makes us aware of the fundamental importance of our lebensentscheidung. But at the same time, the image of the vine is a sign of hope and confidence Christ himself has come to this world through his incarnation to be our root reason. In all distress and drought he is the source that gives the water of life that feeds and strengthens us. He himself takes all sin, fear and suffering on himself and purifies and finally turns us mysterious into good vines that bring good wine. Sometimes we feel in such hours of emergency as in the wine, like grapes that are completely pressed. But we know that we are connected to Christ's wine. Even the heavy and depressing of our lives knows God in love. It is important that we stay at the vine, at Christ's, the evangelist uses the word "stay" in this short section. This "in-Christ-stay" characterizes the whole parable. In our time of restlessness and arbitrariness where so many people lose orientation and stop where the loyalty of love in marriage and friendship has become so fragile and short-lived, where we want to call in our distress like the Emmaus younger: " Lord stay with us , because it is evening (CF. Lk 24,29), it is dark around us!" in this time, the resurrected gives us a stay, a place of light, hope and confidence, peace and security. Where the rebzweigen are threatening drought and death, there is in Christ future, life and joy. There's always forgiveness and fresh start, transformation into his love.
In Christ, as we have already seen, remain in church. The whole community of believers is in the vine of Christ. In Christ we belong together. In this community, it carries us, and at the same time all members bear each We stand together against the storm and give each other protection. Who believes is not alone. We do not believe alone, we believe with the whole church of all places and times, with the church in heaven and on earth.
The church as a verkünderin of the word of God and donor of the sacraments connects us with Christ, the true vine The church as "abundance and complement of the savior", like PIUS XII. It was called " PIUS XII , myst corporis, AAS 35 [1943] S. 230: "Plenitudo et complementum redemptoris") is the pledge of the divine life and the mediator of the fruits of which the parable of the vine speaks. So the church is the most beautiful gift of God. As a result, Augustine could say, "in the measure that the church loves, he has the Holy Spirit" (in ioan. Ev. Tract. 32, 8 [PL 35, 1646]). With the church and in the church we may announce to all people that Christ is the source of life that he is there that he is the great Is that we're looking for and crave. He gives himself and gives us God, happiness, love. Whoever believes in Christ has future. God does not want the drought, the dead, the one that is thrown away at the end, but the fertile and living, life in abundance, and he gives us life in abundance.
Dear sisters and brothers! I wish you all, all of us, that you will always discover the joy of being connected to the church with all your needs and darkness with Christ, that you will find comfort and salvation in all distress, that we are all more and more Wine of joy and love of Christ for this world. Amen.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar