Pope Benedict Speaks to Young Religious
September 20th, 2008 by Rev. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P.
In the midst of disasters both natural and man-made, the American press had little time this week time to cover Pope Benedict’s pilgrimage to Paris and Lourdes. Consequently, many of us may have not heard that France’s welcome of the Successor of St. Peter was better than expected. More disappointing is the fact that little has been said here of the near dozen speeches and homilies the Pope delivered in both cities. They require our careful consideration. In several ways, they may prove to be more fundamental to restoring the Christian vision of the West than those Benedict delivered here last April.
At Vespers in Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, which was celebrated with priests and religious, Pope Benedict offered a few words of counsel to young seminarians and religious preparing for their lives of consecrated service.
In a particular way, men and women religious and all consecrated persons draw life from the Wisdom of God expressed in his word. The profession of the evangelical counsels has configured you, dear consecrated persons, to Christ, who for our sakes became poor, obedient and chaste. Your only treasure – which, to tell the truth, will alone survive the passage of time and the curtain of death – is the word of the Lord. It is he who said: “Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will not pass away” (Mt 24:35). Your obedience is, etymologically, a “hearing”, for the word obey comes from the Latin obaudire, meaning to turn one’s ear to someone or something. In obeying, you turn your soul towards the one who is the Way, and the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6), and who says to you, as Saint Benedict taught his monks: “Hear, my child, the teaching of the Master, and hearken to it with all your heart” (Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict). Finally, let yourselves be purified daily by him who said: “Every branch that bears fruit my Father prunes, to make it bear more fruit” (Jn 15:2). The purity of God’s word is the model for your own chastity, ensuring its spiritual fruitfulness.
