Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On Sunday 9 March at 10am the Holy Father Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at the church of San Lorenzo “in Piscibus”, just outside St Peter's Square, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the opening of the San Lorenzo International Youth Centre, inaugurated by Pope John Paul II on 13 March 1983. In his homily, after greeting and thanking those present and recalling the anniversary, the Holy Father reflected on the significance of the Gospel passage on the raising of Lazarus from the dead, “dedicated to a great and fundamental theme: what is life? what is death? how to live? How to die?”. Saint John uses two different words for this one reality of life, two words which indicate two different dimensions: the word bíos and the word zoé. Bíos, as can easily be understood, means this great biocosmos, this biosphere that extends from individual, primitive cells to the most organized, most developed organisms; this great tree of life where all the possibilities of this reality, bios, are developed. Man belongs to this tree of life.
“But although man is part of this great biocosmos, - the Pope continued - he transcends it, for he is also part of that reality which St John calls zoé. It is a new level of life in which the being is open to knowledge. Of course, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a comatose state, even if he is at the embryonic stage, but if he lives only biologically, the full potential of his being is not fulfilled. Man is called to open himself to new dimensions. He is a being who knows… He thirsts for knowledge of the infinite, he desires to arrive at the font of life, he desires to drink at this font, to find life itself..”
In addition to dimension of the knowledge of truth and being, and inseparable from it, exists the dimension of the relationship of love, “here the human being comes closer to the source of life from which he wants to drink in order to have life in abundance, to have life itself. We could say that science, and medicine in particular, is one great struggle for life. In the end, medicine seeks to counter death; it is the search for immortality. But can we find a medicine that will guarantee us immortality? The question of today's Gospel is precisely this. Spiritual immortality. Let us try to imagine that medicine succeeds in finding the recipe against death, the recipe for immortality. Even in this case it would always be a medicine that fitted into the biosphere, a useful medicine of course for our spiritual and human lives, but in itself confined within this biosphere… It is easy to imagine what would happen if the biological life of man lasted for ever; we would find ourselves in an ageing world, a world full of old people, a world that would no longer leave room for the young, for the renewal of life. We can therefore understand that this cannot be the type of immortality to which we aspire; this is not the possibility of drinking at the source of life for which we all long.”.
Precisely at this point, when on the one hand we realize that we cannot hope for biological life to be infinitely prolonged, yet on the other, we desire to drink from the very source of life to enjoy life without end, it is precisely at this point that the Lord intervenes. He speaks to us in the Gospel, saying: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. “In encountering Christ- the Pope explained -, we enter into contact, indeed, into communion with life itself and we have already crossed the threshold of death because, beyond biological life, we are in touch with true life… in the Eucharist we come into contact, indeed, we enter into communion with the Risen Body of Christ, we enter the space of life already raised, eternal life. Let us enter into communion with this Body which is enlivened by immortal life and thus, from this moment and for ever, we will dwell in the space of life itself.”.
The Holy Father underlined that the Sunday Gospel “is also a profound interpretation of what the Eucharist is and invites us to live truly on the Eucharist, to be able thus to be transformed into the communion of love. This is true life.
… Life in abundance is not as some think: to consume everything, to have all, to be able to do all that one wants. In that case we would live for inanimate things, we would live for death. Life in abundance means being in communion with true life, with infinite love. It is in this way that we truly enter into the abundance of life and also become messengers of life for others”.
Benedict XVI ended his homily recalling that “The Lord waits for us and not only does he wait for us; he is present and stretches out his hand to us. Let us take the Lord's hand and pray to him to grant that we may truly live, live the abundance of life and thus also be able to communicate true life to our contemporaries, life in abundance”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/3/2008; righe 53, parole 802)
