Austrian gems
Actually, they’re gems of wisdom from Pope Benedict who is visiting Austria. You know, I was scanning lots of news stories this morning and started to scan the VIS reports on Benedict’s addresses today at two locations.
They’re too rich to scan, and I absorbed them with amazement that Benedict is always so….on.
He told a group of dignitaries in Vienna that the “European model of life” has veered away from its Christian roots and has suffered from “misguided courses of action.”
These have included: ideological restrictions imposed on philosophy, science and also faith, the abuse of religion and reason for imperialistic purposes, the degradation of man resulting from theoretical and practical materialism, and finally the degeneration of tolerance into an indifference with no reference to permanent values.
That last one deserves an address all by itself. Or a conference. Or a summit meeting. He nails it: tolerance has degenerated into indifference that has no moral reference point. That’s more than cultural malaise. Without exaggeration, it was the state of the culture of Rome before it fell.
The Pope then turned his attention to “the fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, [which] is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right.”
The Jesuits are very well known for their work and emphasis on peace and social justice. And the Jesuit U.S. Province declares in its statement of principles that there is no justice without the right to life. As Benedict says here, it’s the fundamental human right.
The Pope concluded his address by emphasizing the fact that “much of what Austria is and possesses, it owes to the Christian faith and its beneficial effects on individual men and women. … Consequently it should be everyone’s concern to ensure that the day will never come when only its stones speak of Christianity! An Austria without a vibrant Christian faith would no longer be Austria.”
Then he moved on to the famous shrine at Mariazell and celebrated Mass for over 50,000 pilgrims. In his homily, Benedict had a very interesting message about pilgrimage, which he’s been talking about for the past couple of days here and there. It’s a sort of ‘get outside yourself’ message, which no question, people need to hear.
Making a pilgrimage means setting out in a particular direction, travelling towards a destination…Among the pilgrims of Jesus’ genealogy there were many who forgot the goal and wanted to make themselves the goal.
But they were directed, he said, by people with open hearts who stayed fixed on the goal.
“We too need an open and restless heart like theirs. This is what pilgrimage is all about. Today as in the past, it is not enough to be more or less like everyone else and to think like everyone else. Our lives have a deeper purpose.
Which is to know God, simply put (in Benedict’s eloquent way).
Knowing the reluctance people have to being public witnesses to faith, because it’s not ‘culturally cool’ or it ‘might offend’ someone, Benedict encouraged them with answers to inevitable challenges.
This is excellent:
If we call Jesus “the one universal Mediator of salvation,” said the Pope, “this does not mean that we despise other religions, nor that we are arrogantly proposing the absolutism of our own ideas; on the contrary, it means that we are gripped by Him Who has touched our hearts and lavished gifts upon us, so that we, in turn, can offer gifts to others.
“In fact, our faith is decisively opposed to the attitude of resignation that considers man incapable of truth, as if this were more than he could cope with. This attitude of resignation with regard to truth lies at the heart of the crisis of the West, the crisis of Europe. If truth does not exist for man, then neither can he ultimately distinguish between good and evil. And then the great and wonderful discoveries of science become double-edged: they can open up significant possibilities for good, for the benefit of mankind, but also, as we see only too clearly, they can pose a terrible threat.
“We need the truth. Yet admittedly, in the light of our history we are fearful that faith in the truth might entail intolerance. If we are gripped by this fear, which is historically well grounded, then it is time to look towards Jesus as we see Him in the shrine at Mariazell. We see Him here in two images: as the Child in His mother’s arms, and … as the Crucified One. These two images tell us this: truth prevails not through external force. Rather, it is humble and it yields itself to man only via the inner force of its veracity. Truth proves itself in love.”