Catholic Faith and Reflections

Thirty-three years ago today, Pope John Paul I made his way to his cathedral (St. John Lateran) to take formal possession of it. On his way there, he stopped at the foot of the Capitoline Hill to greet the civil government of the city of Rome.

In his brief speech to them, he returned to the theme of hope. Here is what he said in part:

The hope which I heard with pleasure echoed in your kind address, is for us believers – as I recalled at the General Audience last Wednesday – an obligatory virtue and an elect gift of God. May it serve to reawaken energies and resolutions in each of us and, as I trust in all fellow citizens of goodwill; may it serve to inspire initiatives and programs, in order that those problems may have suitable solutions and Rome may remain faithful, in actual fact, to those mistakably Christian ideals which are called hunger and thirst for justice, an active contribution for peace, the superior dignity of human respect and love for brothers, and unfailing solidarity with regard to the weakest.

Pope John Paul I again speaks of hope as an obligatory virtue, and he connects it with world renewal. In his view, it would seem, the new evangelization which his successor would take up, required a new hope.

Later that day, Luciani arrived at the Patriarchal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. His homily is stunningly beautiful and difficult to excerpt. It reflects, I believe, the core of what Luciani would have pursued in his pontificate should he had lived longer. In it he speaks of attention to the poor, the issue of authority and the relationship between laity and clergy, and liturgical reform.

Rome will be a true Christian community if God is honored by you not merely with a multitude of the faithful in the churches, not merely with private life that is lived morally, but also with love for the poor. These, the Roman deacon Lawrence said, are the true treasures of the Church……

In the Book of Job there is a description of a war-horse….the symbol of liberty. Authority, on the contrary, is like the prudent rider… to reconcile the horse and the rider, liberty and authority, has become a social problem. It is likewise in the Church…. “the faithful should acquiesce  to the bishop as the Church to Jesus Christ and as Jesus Christ to the Father. (Lumen Gentium, 27)…. May the Lord help us all build at Rome a living and active Christian community…..

I should like also that Rome should in fact give a good example of Liturgy celebrated devoutly and without ill-placed “creativity”. Certain abuses in liturgical matters have succeeded, through reaction, in favoring attitudes that have led to a taking up of positions that in themselves cannot be upheld and are in contrast with the Gospels. In appealing with affection and with hope to the sense of responsibility for everyone, before God and the Church, I should like to be able to give an assurance that every liturgical irregularity will be diligently avoided…

I can assure you that I love you, that I desire only to enter into your service and to place the poor powers that I have, however little they are, at the disposal of all.

Luciani also in this homily speaks of St. Pope Gregory the Great, and his hope that he would follow in the footsteps of Gregory in catechesis and attention to the social conditions of the time.

Log on to www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/speeches/documents/hf_jp-i_spe_23091978_rome-mayor_en.html  and

www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/homilies/documents/hf_jp-i_hom_23091978_en.html

to read both in English.

Papa Luciani, pray for us!

In his Wednesday General Audience on September 20, 1978, Pope John Paul I continued his series of talks on the seven “Lamps of Santification” of Pope John XXIII.  He focused on hope.

Here are some excerpts:

Today I will speak to you of [hope], which is obligatory for every Christian…. anyone who lives it travels in an atmosphere of trust and abandonment…. You will say further: how can this happen? It happens because one is attached to three truths: God is almighty, God loves me immensely, God is faithful to his promises. And it is he, the God of mercy, who kindles trust in me; so that I do not feel lonely, or useless, or abandoned, but involved in a destiny of salvation, which will lead to Paradise one day….. starving love, that is, hope…. God detests failings because they are failings. On the other hand, in a certain sense he loves failings since they give to him an opportunity to show his mercy and to us an opportunity to remain humble and to understand and to sympathize with our neighbor’s failings. Not everyone shares this sympathy of mine for hope…. “My God, I hope from your goodness…. eternal life and the necessary graces to deserve it with good works, which I must do and want to do. My God, let me not remain confounded for ever.”

You can read the entire address at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/audiences/documents/hf_jp-i_aud_20091978_en.html.

Don’t you just love the description of hope as “starved love”? A deep longing for the one whom you love, yet being not yet able to completely embrace or experience him.  A hunger with an assurance.

His tying hope to the “three truths” of God’s omipotence, his fidelity and his immense love is one of those fundamental realities of the Catholic faith that we often do not directly state or consider. It is something for those of us who preach and are entrusted with the Word of God need to consider when we offer homilies, i.e., how can we instill hope in our people if we don’t preach on God’s love, his faithfulness, and his unimaginable power to bring about all that he has promised. A God who has trust in us, who does not leave us alone and useless, who does not abandon us.

Hope: a starving love.

Papa Luciani, pray for us!

Thirty-three years ago today, Pope John Paul I during his Angelus address spoke on education, focusing largely on youth.

Here are some excerpts for you to enjoy (my translation of the Italian original):

Next Tuesday, about 12 million kids will return to school. The Pope doesn’t wish to take from Minister Pedini’s job, with any undeserved intelligence of my own, by offering my most cordial wishes to the teachers and scholars.

Italian instructors have some classic examples of attachment and dedication to schools. Joshua Carducci was a university professor in Bologna. He went to Florence for some festivities. One evening he met with the minister of public education. “But please,” said the minister, “stay here until tomorrow.” “Your excellency, I cannot. Tomorrow I must teach at the university and the youth expect me.” “I will excuse you.” said the minister. “You may excuse me, but I cannot excuse myself.” Professor Carducci truly was committed to the school and its graduates. He was of the class of those who say, “To teach Latin to John, it is not enough to know Latin; one must know John.” Also, “The lessons are worth only as much as the preparation.”…..

The Pope too has been a graduate of these schools: grammar school, high school, the university. But my thoughts have been only of youth and parish. No one ever came to me and said, “You will become Pope.” O my! If they would have told me! If they would have told me, I would have studied more, I would have prepared. Now however, I am old and there is no time.

But you, dear young ones, may you study, for you are truly young, you have the time, you have the youth, the health, the memory, the intelligence; seek to reap from all of these…. Some of you will become ministers, deputies, senators, mayors, assessors or other engineers, leaders, you will occupy places in society. Today, whoever occupies a position must have the necessary competence, he must prepare himself.

The general Wellington, he who defeated Napoleon, wanted to return to England to see the military college where he had studied, where he prepared himself, and he said to the cadets, “Be on guard, for here is where the battle of Waterloo is won.” And so I say to you, dear young ones, you will have battles in your life when you are 30, 40, 50 years old, and if you want to defeat them, now is the time to begin, now is the time to prepare yourselves, now is the time to be assiduous in your studies and at school….”

You can read the entire address, in Italian, at this link:

www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/angelus/documents/hf_jp-i_ang_17091978_it.html.

The humanity of Luciani is so evident here in the midst of his love for children, education and catechesis. One gets again a sense of his awareness of his limitations, his belief he was completely and unexpectedly chosen pope and, in his mind, unprepared for the vocation which truly was his, and the premonition that his was to be a brief role to play, a role that was to be a preparation for something in the future.

Luciani’s comments also reflect, in my mind, his spirituality which included a focus on the present. As he said, his thoughts had always been of youth and parish life. He didn’t aspire to great things, even though great things were given to him.

I was really struck by his comment, “I am old and there is no time.” Actually, he was not all that old, for popes, being in his mid-sixties. Yet, I find that comment to have been prophetic of his death some eleven days later.

Papa Luciani, pray for us!

Thirty-three years ago today, during his weekly general audience, Pope John Paul I spoke of faith.

Here are a few snippets for thought:

That is what faith is: to surrender to God, but transforming one’s life…. Augustine has told of the journey of his faith…. “One must say: ‘Yes, Lord! At once!’ This is faith. To respond to the Lord generously…. [Faith] is not just a question of believing in the things that God revealed, but in him who deserves our faith, who has love us so much and done so much for our sake…. the truths of faith are of two kinds: some pleasant, other unpalatable to our spirit. For example, it is pleasant to hear that God has so much tenderness for us, even more tenderness than a mother has for her children, as Isaiah says….. Other truths, on the contrary, are hard to accept. God must punish, if I resist. He runs after me, he begs me to repent and I say, “No!” I almost force him to punish me. This is not agreeable…. It is clear that Jesus and Christians, Jesus and the Church are the same thing: indissoluble, inseparable… We must accept the Church, as she is… The Church is also a mother…. If mother is sick, if my mother by chance should become lame, I love her even more. It is the same, in the Church…. our affection for the Church must never fail.

You can read the entire address in English at:

www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_i/audiences/documents/hf_jp-i_aud_13091978_en.html

His comment about the inseparability of Jesus and his Church, how faith is an adherence to the person of Jesus and thus a loving adherence to the Church is so necessary for us to appreciate in today’s world. Too many of us discard the Church (in whatever way we experience her) if the Church is “lame” because of imperfections and sin. You can see this in individuals who abandon parishes for another one that is perceived as more to their liking, or people who claim faith in Jesus but reject the Church.

Our faith is not a Jesus vs the Church thing. It is a Jesus and the Church reality. If and when we begin to see Jesus in the actual lives of our neighbors, and our own, we will begin to see the seamless Body of Christ in all its marvelous parts. We will embrace the Church as we embrace Jesus.

Luciani returned again to the theme of the maternal qualities of God’s love earlier in his discourse (not transcribed here) and then uses the powerful example of our love for our earthly mothers to illustrate the love we need have for the Church.

Luciani lived this reality in his own life.  He was truly a man of faith, and a man of the Church.

Papa Luciani, pray for us!