“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon\u00a0you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria,\u00a0and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). With these words Jesus bids\u00a0farewell to the Apostles, as we heard in the first reading. Immediately\u00a0afterward the sacred author adds that “as they were looking on, he was\u00a0lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). Today we are\u00a0solemnly celebrating the mystery of the Ascension. But what does the Bible and\u00a0the liturgy intend to communicate to us in saying that Jesus “was lifted\u00a0up”? We will not understand the meaning of this expression from a single\u00a0text, nor from one book of the New Testament, but in carefully listening to the\u00a0whole of Sacred Scripture. The use of the verb “to lift” is in effect\u00a0Old Testament in origin and it referred to an installation in royalty. Christ’s\u00a0ascension thus means, in the first place, the installation of the crucified and\u00a0risen Son of Man in God’s royal dominion over the world<\/span>.<\/p>\n There is a deeper meaning, however, that is not immediately\u00a0graspable. The passage from the Acts of the Apostles says first that Jesus was\u00a0“lifted up” (1:9), and afterward it adds that “he was\u00a0assumed” (1:11). The event is not described as a voyage up above, but rather In this perspective we understand why the evangelist Luke\u00a0says that, after the Ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem “full\u00a0of joy” (24:52). They are joyful because what happened was not a\u00a0separation: in fact now they had the certainty that the crucified and risen\u00a0Christ was alive, and in him the gates of eternal life were opened forever. In\u00a0other words, the Ascension did not begin Christ’s temporary absence from the\u00a0world but inaugurated instead the new, definitive and insuppressible form of\u00a0his presence, by virtue of his participation in the royal power of God. It will\u00a0belong to them, to the disciples, emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0to make his presence felt with their witness, preaching and missionary\u00a0commitment. The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord should fill us also with\u00a0serenity and enthusiasm like the Apostles, who returned from the Mount of\u00a0Olives “full of joy.” Like them, we too, accepting the invitation of\u00a0the two men “dressed in white garments,” must not stay looking up at\u00a0the sky, but, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must go everywhere and\u00a0proclaim the salvific message of the death and resurrection of Christ<\/span>. His own\u00a0words — with which the Gospel according Matthew concludes: “And behold I\u00a0am with you all days until the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19) –accompany and comfort us.<\/p>\n Dear brothers and sisters, the historical character of the\u00a0mystery of the resurrection and ascension of Christ helps us to recognize and Brothers and sisters of this dear diocesan community,\u00a0today’s solemnity calls on us to reinvigorate our faith in the real presence of\u00a0Jesus; without him we cannot do anything of value in our life or apostolate. It\u00a0is he, as the Apostle Paul recalls in the second reading, who “made some\u00a0apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and This is why I thank God for the good that your community is\u00a0accomplishing under the leadership of your pastor, Father Abbot Dom Pietro\u00a0Vittorelli, whom I greet with affection and thank for the kind words that he\u00a0spoke to me on behalf of everyone. Together with him, I greet the monastic\u00a0community, the bishops, the priests and the men and women religious who are\u00a0present. I greet the civil and military authorities, in the first place the mayor,\u00a0to whom I am grateful for the speech with which he welcomed me in here in\u00a0Piazza Miranda, which will afterwards bear my name. I greet the catechists, the\u00a0pastoral workers, the young people and those who in various ways are overseeing\u00a0the spreading of the Gospel in this land rich with history, which experienced\u00a0moments of great suffering during the Second World War. The many cemeteries\u00a0that surround your resort city are a silent witness of this. Among these, I\u00a0think particularly of the Polish, German and Commonwealth cemeteries. Finally I\u00a0extend my greeting to all the citizens of Cassino and the nearby towns: to\u00a0each, especially to the sick and suffering, I assure my affection and my\u00a0prayer.<\/p>\n Dear brothers and sisters, we hear St. Benedict’s call echo\u00a0in this celebration of ours, to keep our hearts fixed on Christ and put nothing\u00a0before him<\/span>. This does not distract us but on the contrary moves us even more to\u00a0commit ourselves to the building up of a society where solidarity is expressed\u00a0in concrete signs. But how? Benedictine spirituality, which you know well,\u00a0proposes an evangelical program synthesized in the motto: “ora et labora\u00a0et lege” — “prayer, work, culture.”<\/span> First of all prayer, which\u00a0is the most beautiful legacy that St. Benedict left the monks, but also to your The other hinge of Benedictine spirituality is work<\/span><\/span>. Humanizing Attention to the world of culture<\/span><\/span> and education also belongs\u00a0to your tradition. The celebrated archive and library of Monte Cassino contain\u00a0innumerable testimonies of the commitment of men and women who meditated on and\u00a0researched ways of improving the spiritual and material life of man. In your\u00a0abbey one can touch with one’s hands the “quaerere Deum,” the fact that\u00a0European culture has been constituted by the search for God and availability to\u00a0listen to him<\/span>. And this is important for our time as well. I know that you are\u00a0working with this very spirit at the university and in the schools, so that you\u00a0become workers of knowledge, research, passion for the future of new\u00a0generations. I also know that in preparation for my visit you recently held a\u00a0conference on the theme of education to solicit in everyone the lively\u00a0determination to transmit to the young people the values of our human and\u00a0Christian patrimony that we cannot renounce. In today’s cultural effort aimed\u00a0at creating a new humanism, faithful to the Benedictine tradition you rightly\u00a0intend to stress attention to the fragility, weakness of man, to disabled\u00a0persons and immigrants<\/span>. And I am grateful that you have given me the\u00a0possibility today of inaugurating the “House of Charity,” where a\u00a0culture attentive to life will be built with deeds.<\/p>\n Dear brothers and sisters! It is not hard to see in your community, this portion of the Church that lives around Monte Cassino, is heir and repository of the mission, impregnated by the spirit of St. Benedict, to proclaim that in your life no one and nothing must take Jesus away from the first place; the mission to build, in Christ’s name, a humanity to teach hospitality and help of the weakest<\/span><\/span><\/span>. May your patriarch help and accompany you, with St. Scholastica his sister; may your holy patrons, and above all Mary, Mother of the Church and Star of our hope, protect you. Amen!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pope Benedict, as noted before, celebrated the Mass for the diocese of Montecassino on May 24, 2009. As previous popes had done so Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage to the place of Saints Benedict and Scholastica. His homily follows: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon\u00a0you, and you will be my witnesses … Continue reading Building a new humanity in Christ, Pope says during a Mass at Monte Cassino<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,69],"tags":[2102,32089,2108,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32006,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24659\/revisions\/32006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"B16arms.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/B16arms-thumb-175x232.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Ascension](\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/Ascension%20Giotto.jpg\")
\nas an action of God’s power, which introduces Jesus into the space of nearness\u00a0to the divine<\/span>. The presence in the clouds that “took him from their
\nsight” (1:9) recalls a very ancient image of Old Testament theology and
\ninserts the Ascension into the history of God with Israel, from the clouds of
\nSinai and above the tent of the covenant, to the luminous clouds on the
\nmountain of the Transfiguration. Presenting the Lord wreathed in clouds
\ndefinitively evokes the same mystery expressed in the symbolism of “sitting
\nat the right hand of God.” In Christ ascended into heaven, man has entered\u00a0in a new and unheard of way into the intimacy of God; man now finds space in\u00a0God forever<\/span>. “Heaven” does not indicate a place beyond the stars but\u00a0something more bold and sublime: it indicates Christ himself, the divine Person\u00a0that completely and forever takes on humanity, he in whom God and man are\u00a0united forever. And we draw near to heaven, indeed, we enter into heaven, to\u00a0the extent that we draw near to Jesus and enter into communion with him. For\u00a0this reason, today’s Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to a profound\u00a0communion with Jesus dead and risen, invisibly present in the life of each of\u00a0us<\/span>.<\/p>\n
\nto understand the transcendent and eschatological condition of the Church,\u00a0which was not born and does not live to take the place of the Lord who has\u00a0“disappeared”<\/span> but which finds its reason for being in his mission and\u00a0in the invisible presence of Jesus working with the power of his Spirit<\/span>. In\u00a0other words, we could say that the Church does not carry out the function of\u00a0preparing for the return of an “absent” Jesus, but, on the contrary,\u00a0lives and works to proclaim his “glorious presence” in an historical\u00a0and existential manner<\/span>. Since the day of the Ascension, every Christian\u00a0community advances in its earthly journey toward the fulfillment of the\u00a0messianic promises, fed by the Word of God and nourished by Body and Blood of\u00a0its Lord. This is the condition of the Church –the Second Vatican Council\u00a0says — as she “presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the\u00a0consolations of God, announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he\u00a0comes” (Lumen Gentium<\/span>, 8).<\/p>\n
\nteachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the\u00a0body of Christ,” that is, the Church. And he does this so that “we\u00a0all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to\u00a0manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13,\u00a014). My visit today is situated in this context. As your pastor noted, the\u00a0purpose of this visit is to encourage you constantly to “build, found and\u00a0rebuild” your diocesan community on Christ. How? St. Benedict himself\u00a0points the way<\/span>, recommending in his Rule to put nothing before Christ:”Christo nihil omnino praeponere” (LXII, 11).<\/p>\n
\nlocal Church: to your clergy — most of whom were formed in the diocesan\u00a0seminary, for centuries housed in the Abbey of Monte Cassino itself — to the
\nseminarians, to the many who were educated in the Benedictine schools and
\nrecreation programs and in your parishes, to all of you who live in this land.
\nLooking up from every village and district of the diocese, you can all admire
\nthat constant reminder of heaven that is the monastery of Monte Cassino, to
\nwhich you climb every year in the procession on the eve of Pentecost. Prayer<\/span><\/span> —
\nto which grave peals of the bell of St. Benedict calls the monks every morning
\n— is the silent path that leads us directly to the heart of God; it is the
\nbreath of the soul that gives us peace again in the storms of life.
\nFurthermore, in the school of St. Benedict, the monks always cultivated a
\nspecial love for the Word of God in the “lectio divina<\/span><\/span>,” which has
\nbecome the common patrimony of many today. I know that your diocesan Church,
\nfollowing the instructions of the Italian Bishops’ conference, takes great care
\nin studying the Bible, and indeed has begun a course of study of the Sacred
\nScriptures, dedicating this year to the evangelist Mark and continuing over the
\nnext four years will conclude, please God, with a diocesan pilgrimage to the
\nHoly Land. May attentive listening to the divine Word nourish your prayer and
\nmake you prophets of truth and love in a joint commitment to evangelization and
\nhuman promotion.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe world of work is typical of the soul of monasticism, and this is also the
\neffort of your community that seeks to be at the side of the many workers in
\nthe great industry present in Cassino and the enterprises linked to it. I know
\nhow critical the situation of many workers is. I express my solidarity with
\nthose who live in a troubling precariousness, with those workers who on
\nunemployment assistance and those who have been laid off. May the wound of\u00a0unemployment that afflicts this area lead those who are responsible for the
\n“res publica,” the entrepreneurs and those who are able, to seek,\u00a0with everyone’s help, valid solutions to the employment crisis, creating new
\nplaces of work to safeguard families. In this respect, how can we not recall
\nthat today the family has an urgent need to be better protected, since it is
\ngravely threatened in its very institutional roots? I think also of the young
\npeople who have difficulty finding a dignified job that allows them to build a
\nfamily. To them I would like to say: Do not be discouraged, dear friends, the
\nChurch will not abandon you! I know that more than 25 young people from your\u00a0diocese participated in last year’s World Youth Day in Sydney: treasuring that\u00a0extraordinary spiritual experience, may you be evangelical leaven among your\u00a0friends and peers; with the power of the Holy Spirit, be the new missionaries\u00a0in this land of St. Benedict<\/span>!<\/p>\n