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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On Saturday, September 12, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided the Mass in the Vatican Basilica in which he ordained 5 Prelates: Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon; Archbishop Franco Coppola, appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Burundi; Archbishop Pietro Parolin, appointed Apostolic Nuncio in Venezuela; Bishop Raffaello Martinelli, elected Bishop of the Diocese of Frascati; Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, appointed President of the Labor Office of the Apostolic See. The two Bishops co-consecrating were Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In the homily, the Holy Father thanked the Prelates “for the faithful service that they have rendered the Church, working in the Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Governorate of Vatican City State,” expressing his certainty that “with the same love for Christ and the same zeal for souls, they will carry out the ministry that is being entrusted to them today with episcopal ordination in new fields of pastoral action.”
Thus, the Pope reflected on the fundamental elements of the episcopal consecration: the imposition of hands and the prayer. “The imposition of hands happens in silence. The human word is inarticulate. The soul opens in silence to God, whose hand stretches out to man, who takes man for himself and, at the same time, covers him with his hand to protect him, so that consequently man becomes God's total property, belonging entirely to God and bringing others into God's hand...the prayer follows. Episcopal ordination is an event of prayer. No man can make another man a priest or bishop. It is the Lord himself who, through the word of prayer and the gesture of the imposition of hands, brings that man totally into his service, draws him into his own priesthood.” During the ordination prayer, the Gospel, the Book of God's Word, he placed open on the candidate: “The Gospel must penetrate him, the living Word of God must, so to speak, pervade him...Along with the Word, Christ's life itself must pervade that man, in such a way that he becomes wholly one with him, that Christ lives in him and gives his life form and content.”
After having mentioned that the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to his same words, “is not domination, but service,” and St. Paul's words “Let a man so account us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now, that which is required of stewards is that each be faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2), Benedict XVI recalled Jesus' teaching and the way in which servants to whom the Lord is entrusting His goods in the world should act.
The Pope began: “The first characteristic that the Lord requires of the servant is fidelity. He is entrusted with a great good that does not belong to him. The Church is not 'our' Church, but his Church, God's Church. The servant must give an account of the way that he has taken care of the goods that have been entrusted to him. We do not bind men to us; we do not seek power, prestige, esteem for ourselves. We lead men to Jesus Christ and so to the living God...We know that things in civil society, and often in the Church too, go badly because those upon whom responsibility has been conferred work for themselves and not the community, for the common good...The fidelity of the servant of Jesus Christ also consists precisely in the fact that he does not seek to adjust the faith to the fashions of the time. Christ alone has words of eternal life, and we must bring these words to people. They are the precious good that we have been given...Faith must be shared: it has not been given to us for ourselves alone, for the personal salvation of our soul, but for others, for this world and for our time. We must bring it to this world so that it becomes a living force, to make the presence of God in the world grow.”
“The second characteristic that Jesus requires of the servant is prudence,” the Pope said. “Prudence is something different from cleverness. Prudence, according to the Greek philosophical tradition, it is the first of the cardinal virtues; it indicates the primacy of truth, that becomes the criterion of our conduct through 'prudence.' Prudence demands humble, disciplined and vigilant reason, [which can be] blinded by prejudices; it does not judge according to desires and passions, but it seeks the truth -- even uncomfortable truth. Prudence means engaging in the pursuit of truth and acting in a way that conforms to it...God, through Jesus Christ, has thrown open the window to truth for us that, had it been left to our own powers, would have remained shut tightly and only partly transparent...We do not let ourselves be guided by the little window of our personal cleverness, but by the big window, that Christ has opened up to the whole truth for us, we look upon the world and men and [from this truth] see what truly counts in life.”
“The third characteristic that Jesus speaks about in the parable of the servant is goodness,” the Pope continued. “Only God is good in the full sense. He is the Good, the Good par excellence, Goodness in person. In a creature -- in man -- being good is therefore necessarily based on a deep interior orientation to God. Goodness grows with interior unification with the living God. Goodness presupposes above all a living communion with God, the Good, a growing interior union with him...We become good servants through our living relationship with Jesus Christ. Only if our life unfolds in dialogue with him, only if his being, his characteristics penetrate us and form us, can we become truly good.”
Concluding his homily, the Holy Father also mentioned the Virgin Mary, who “was and is totally united to the Son, to Christ, men in the darkness and sufferings of this world found the faith of the Mother who gives us courage to go forward...In the goodness with which she welcomed and ever again comes to meet the great and small aspirations of many men, we recognize the goodness of God himself in a very human way. With her goodness, she always brings us back to Jesus Christ, and thus, the great Light of God in the world.” Lastly, he encouraged all to invoke the Mother of the Lord for the new Bishops, that she may always lead them “to her Son, the source of all goodness,” and that they may become “faithful, prudent, and good servants.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/9/2009)
