Pope reflects on beauty of radical acceptance of God's call

Vatican City, Jun 27, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).

- Before reciting the Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict XVI spoke today about "radical" responses to divine vocations. Referring to Sunday's readings he took up the theme of Christ's call to us and "its demands."

As the Pope looked out over the crowd gathered to join him for the weekly prayer on Sunday at noon, he saw a smattering of Polish flags waving, especially well represented now that the country's children have just begun their summer vacation and brightly colored parasols were used to shelter many of the pilgrims from the intense Mediterranean sun.

Referring to the day's Gospel reading from Luke in which Jesus asks those on the road to Jerusalem to cut their family ties and follow him, the Holy Father explained that the demands Jesus makes of Christians might seem "too tough."

"But," he went on, "in reality they express the newness and the absolute priority of the Kingdom of God that makes itself present in the very Person of Jesus Christ."

He said that, upon further analysis, "it's about that radicalism that is due to the Love of God, to which Jesus himself is the first to obey.

"He who renounces everything, even himself, to follow Jesus, enters into a new dimension of freedom, which St. Paul defines as 'walking in the Spirit."

Speaking of the experience of the "fortune" of those who know a young person who has left their "family of origin, studies or work to consecrate themselves to God," the Pope said that, effectively, a person who does so is "a living example of the radical response to the divine vocation."

And this, he said, "is one of the most beautiful experiences that takes place within the Church: seeing, touching with the hand the action of the Lord in the life of the people; experiencing that God is not an abstract entity, but a Reality so big and strong so as to overabundantly fill the heart of man, a Person living and near, that loves us and asks to be loved."

As St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, the Pope recalled, Christ has called us to liberty and through it we are called to serve one another. "Liberty and love coincide!" he exclaimed, noting that, "on the contrary, obeying our proper selfishness leads to rivalry and conflict."

In the month of June the Church celebrates devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. With the end of the month quickly approaching, Benedict XVI said, "today, I would like to invite everyone to contemplate the mystery of the human and divine heart of Jesus, to draw from the same source of the Love of God.

"Whoever fixes their gaze on that Heart, pierced and always open to our love, feels the truth of this invocation 'You, Lord, are my only possession,' and is ready to leave everything to follow the Lord."

Benedict XVI: Faithful to God revealed by Christ

Pope calls for imitation of St. Thomas Aquinas' devotion to Eucharist

Vatican City, Jun 23, 2010 / (CNA/EWTN News).

- Basing his catechesis for a third and final time on the legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Benedict highlighted Aquinas’ “masterpiece,” the “Summa Theologica.” He referred to the saint's devotion to the Eucharist, making the call for all people to "fall in love" with the Blessed Sacrament.

An estimated 7,000 pilgrims and faithful joined the Pope in the Paul VI Hall for Wednesday's general audience. Among those in attendance was a group from Malawi in tribal dress who performed a traditional dance for the Holy Father from their seats in the packed auditorium.

Referring to the "masterpiece" of the “Summa Theologica,” Benedict XVI noted the saint’s “serene confidence in the harmony of faith and reason, and in the ability of reason, enlightened by faith, to come to an understanding of God and his saving plan.”

Through the work, said the Pope, the saint “illustrates the working of divine grace, which perfects our natural gifts and enables us, through the practice of the virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to attain the eternal happiness for which we were created.”

In the collection of articles from which the “Summa” is composed, explained the Holy Father, the 13th century saint offers an extensive series of questions and answers through which he assists in deepening the teachings provided in Scripture and those from the Fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine. He examines three elements of the being and essence of God: that He exists in Himself as the beginning and end of all things, that He is present in life through His Grace and in Christian activity, and that he is present in a special way in the Person of Christ, still present in the sacraments.

Benedict XVI recalled the importance the saint gives to the sacraments, in particular to the Eucharist. Noting Aquinas' enormous devotion to the Eucharist, the Holy Father cited the saint's words from another work in which he spoke of the Blessed Sacrament as that of the "Passion of our Lord, (which) contains in it Jesus Christ who suffered for us.”

"Therefore," he went on, "all that is the effect of the Passion of our Lord, is also the effect of this sacrament, it not being but the application in us of the Passion of the Lord."

Through these words, said the Pope, we "understand well why St. Thomas and other saints celebrated Mass while shedding tears of compassion, tears of joy and of gratitude, for the Lord, who offers himself in sacrifice for us."

The Holy Father then exclaimed, "in the example of the saints, let us all fall in love with this Sacrament!

"Let us participate devotedly in Mass in order to obtain its spiritual fruits; let us feed from the Body and Blood of the Lord that we may be incessantly nourished by divine Grace; let us pause willingly and often in the company of the Blessed Sacrament."

Pope Benedict XVI concluded the English-language portion of the catechesis by imploring that, “with the Angelic Doctor, let us pray for the grace to love the Lord with all our heart and to love our neighbor, 'in God and for God.'”