I've been catching up on Papal doings for the Triduum and Easter. Here are the links.
Palm Sunday homily. Speaking to young people, Benedict explains all the Old Testament prophesies that Christ fulfills. He also tells them that Jesus' "triumphal" entry into Jerusalem shows he is King of the poor --he rides a borrowed colt, not a royal carriage:
A person can be materially poor yet his heart can be full of greed for wealth and for the power that derives from it. The very fact that he lives with envy and covetousness shows that, in his heart, he is one of the rich. He wants to reverse the division of goods so that he himself can take over the situation that was previously theirs. The poverty that Jesus means - that the prophets mean - presupposes above all inner freedom from the greed for possession and the mania for power. This is a greater reality than merely a different distribution of possessions, which would still be in the material domain and thereby make hearts even harder. It is first and foremost a matter of purification of heart, through which one recognizes possession as responsibility, as a duty towards others, placing oneself under God's gaze and letting oneself be guided by Christ, who from being rich became poor for our sake(cf. II Cor 8: 9). Inner freedom is the prerequisite for overcoming the corruption and greed that devastate the world today. This freedom can only be found if God becomes our richness; it can only be found in the patience of daily sacrifices, in which, as it were, true freedom develops.
Homily for the Chrism mass.Those mourning the discontinuation of the Holy Thursday letter to priests JPII used to write should read this reflection the hands of the priest.
"You are clean, but not all of you", the Lord says (Jn 13: 10). This sentence reveals the great gift of purification that he offers to us, because he wants to be at table together with us, to become our food. "But not all of you" - the obscure mystery of rejection exists, which becomes apparent with Judas' act, and precisely on Holy Thursday, the day on which Jesus made the gift of himself, it should give us food for thought. The Lord's love knows no bounds, but man can put a limit on it.
Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum (written by Archbishop Comastri & led by the pope, causing much journalistic hyperventilation).
The Easter Vigil homily illustrates what I love about Benedict. The consummate teacher, he is always ready to get to the heart of the matter. Where some teachers will express their ideas and kind of hope no one asks a tough question, Benedict often starts a homily with the toughest possible objection, to wit, with respect to the Resurrection:
A German theologian once said ironically that the miracle of a corpse returning to life - if it really happened, which he did not actually believe - would be ultimately irrelevant precisely because it would not concern us. In fact, if it were simply that somebody was once brought back to life, and no more than that, in what way should this concern us?
And then, ah! his answer. My favorite? The chrism mass, although the Vigil is powerful. Here are some side dishes to go with all this red meat, too:
Comments on the anniversary of JP the Great's death.
Urbi et orbi message (2x a year I regret not having cable --when the Pope gives this special blessing, which can be received through the wires). Go here and you can see the Pope's Easter card (in which it is revealed that the Pope may be a Ph.D, but he writes like and MD), and find the U et O message in any language.
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