631. Election of The Roman Pontiff

Meditations no. 634 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The anniversary of the election of the Pope, Successor of St. Peter in the government of the universal Church, moves us to give thanks to God and to pray for the Holy Father.

YOU ARE Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

These are the words that Jesus addressed to Simon Peter on the road to Caesarea Philippi, in response to the Apostle’s confession: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. On this anniversary of the Pope’s election, we consider once again-with enormous gratitude to God-how Christ’s promise continues to be fulfilled, because those words “mark the beginning of Peter’s mission in the history of salvation, in the history of the People of God.”

It is the divine will that the primacy of Simon Peter over the universal Church be perpetuated in his successors in the See of Rome, until the end of time. “In this city Peter carried out and fulfilled the mission entrusted to him by the Lord (…). Peter came to Rome! What was it that guided him and led him to this city, the heart of the Roman Empire, if not obedience to the inspiration received from the Lord? It is possible that this fisherman from Galilee would not have wanted to come here; that he would have preferred to stay there, on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret, with his boat, with his nets. But guided by the Lord, obedient to his inspiration, he came here.”

Over the centuries, St. Peter has always had successors in the Roman See: an unbroken chain of Bishops that can only be understood in the light of a very special Providence of God. “According to an ancient tradition,” John Paul II commented, “… during the persecution of Nero, Peter wanted to leave Rome. But the Lord intervened, came to meet him. Peter turned to him and asked: ‘Quo vadis, Domine?: Where are you going, Lord?’ And the Lord immediately answered him: ‘I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time.’ Peter returned to Rome and remained here until his crucifixion.”

In view of the greatness of this call, it is logical that the person chosen by the Holy Spirit, invested with such a great responsibility, should experience in a particularly acute way the weakness of the human condition and, consequently, the need to rely on prayer. This is what Benedict XVI said at the Mass with which he began his ministry as universal Pastor. “I, a weak servant of God, must take on this unprecedented task, which truly surpasses all human capacity. How can I do it? How will I be able to carry it out?” The Pope was consoled by the feeling of support by the prayers of millions of people throughout the world and by the prayers of the saints of the Cycle. “In this way,” he added, “this awareness is also revived in me: I am not alone. I do not have to bear alone what I could never really bear alone. The crowd of God’s saints protects me, supports me and leads me.”

Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia, ibi Deus. We want to be with Peter, because the Church is with him, God is with him; and without him there is no God. That is why, our Father said, I wanted to Romanize the Work. Love the Holy Father very much. Pray very much for the Pope. Love him very much, love him very much! Because he needs all the affection of his children. And I understand this very well: I know it from experience, because I am not like a wall, I am a man of flesh. That is why I like the Pope to know that we love him, that we will always love him, and that for one reason only: that he is the sweet Christ on earth.

The Work is very Roman from its origin: it is born Roman. Our spirit demands a close union with the Roman Pontiff, with the visible Head of the Universal Church. May our voice not be missing for a day in this admirable concert of prayer for the Pope. Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in térra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.

The Roman Pontiff is the Supreme Shepherd: we must support him in the fulfilment of his mission.

WITH the words of the Collect, we ask God to assist the Roman Pontiff at all times. Look with love to our Holy Father, the Pope, and since you have made him the successor of Peter, grant that he may be for your people the principle and visible foundation of unity in faith and of communion in love.

The anniversary we are celebrating is a clear manifestation of the vitality of the Church, which will never succumb, for she is built by Christ on the rock of Peter and assisted by the Holy Spirit. “Yes, the Church is alive; this is the wonderful experience of these days,” Benedict XVI said after his election. Precisely in the sad days of the illness and death of the Pope [John Paul II], something has manifested itself in a marvellous way before our eyes: that the Church is alive. And the Church is young. She carries within herself the future of the world and therefore also shows each one of us the way to the future. The Church is alive and we see it: we experience the joy that the Risen One promised to his own.”

Among the symbols that declare the ministry of the Roman Pontiff, the imposition of the pallium stands out: a fabric of pure wool that is placed on the shoulders after his election. It means that the Pope voluntarily and totally submits himself to the yoke of Christ, in order to fulfill his Will always and in all things. “In reality,” Benedict XVI explained, “the symbolism of the pallium is even more concrete: lamb’s wool represents the lost, sick or weak sheep, which the shepherd carries on his back to lead it to the waters of life. The parable of the lost sheep, which the shepherd seeks in the desert, was for the Fathers of the Church an image of the mystery of Christ and of the Church. Humanity-all of us-is the sheep lost in the desert that can no longer find its way. The Son of God does not allow this to happen; he cannot abandon humanity to such a miserable situation. He stands up, abandons the glory of heaven, to go in search of the sheep and go after it, even to the cross. He places it on his shoulders, he carries our humanity, he leads us to ourselves, for he is the good shepherd, who offers his life for the sheep.

“The pallium indicates first of all that Christ leads us all. But at the same time, he invites us to take one another. He thus becomes the symbol of the pastor’s mission. … Christ’s holy restlessness, Benedict XVI said, must animate the pastor: it is not indifferent to him that many people wander in the desert. And there are many forms of desert: the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst; the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of broken love. There is also the desert of God’s darkness, of the emptiness of souls who are no longer aware of the dignity and direction of man. Outer deserts are multiplying in the world, because interior deserts have spread … The Church as a whole, as well as her Pastors, must set out like Christ to rescue men from the desert and lead them to the place of life, to friendship with the Son of God, to the One who gives us life, and life in fullness.”

All Catholics, by virtue of Baptism, must feel responsible for other Christians, and also for those souls who walk on dark paths, far from the light of God. Moreover, the children of God in Opus Dei, through our priestly souls, have as it were especially addressed to us some words of our Father: we can say, my children, that we are burdened by the concern and responsibility of the whole Holy Church - sollicitudo totius Sanctae Ecclesiae Dei - not of this particular area or of that area. Seconding the official responsibility - juridical, de jure divino - of the Roman Pontiff and of the Most Reverend Ordinaries, we, with a responsibility that is not juridical, but spiritual, ascetic, of love, serve the whole Church with a service of a professional nature, of citizens who bring the Christian witness of example and doctrine to the farthest corners of civil society.

The fisherman’s ring, worn by the Roman Pontiff, speaks to us of the fishing of souls that Christ has entrusted to everyone in the Church.

THE LORD conferred on Peter the primacy over the universal Church after his resurrection. It happened on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, as St. John recounts in his Gospel. After the second miraculous catch, in which they caught a large number of large fish, without the net breaking, Jesus Christ began a special dialogue with Peter. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

He asked him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Shepherd my sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he answered, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”

This Gospel scene is reflected in the symbolism of the fisherman’s ring, which the Pope receives after his election. This is how Benedict XVI commented: “Peter’s call to be a shepherd … comes after the narration of a heavy catch; after a night in which they cast their nets without success, the disciples saw the risen Lord on the shore. He commands them to fish again, and behold, the net is so full that they did not have the strength to pull it out; there were one hundred and fifty-three large fish and,”although there were so many, the net was not broken” (Jn 21:11). This account at the end of Jesus’ earthly journey with his disciples corresponds to one from the beginning: even then the disciples had not caught anything all night; even then Jesus invited Simon to put out into the deep. And Simon, who was not yet called Peter, gave that wonderful answer: “Master, by your word I will let down the nets”. He was then entrusted with the mission: “Do not be afraid, for from now on you will be fishers of men” (Lk 5:1, 11).

“Today too the Church and the successors of the Apostles are told to enter the sea of history and let down their nets, to win men and women for the Gospel, for God, for Christ, for true life. The Fathers also dedicated a very special commentary to this unique task. They say thus: for the fish, created to live in water, it is deadly to take it out of the sea. It is deprived of its vital element in order to make it man’s food. But in the mission of the fisher of men the opposite happens. We people live alienated, in the salty waters of suffering and death; in a sea of darkness, without light. The net of the Gospel rescues us from the waters of death and leads us to the radiance of God’s light, in true life.

“This is indeed true: in the mission of being a fisher of men, following Christ, it is necessary to take men out of the salty sea of all alienations and bring them to the land of life, to the light of God. This is true: we exist to teach God to men. And only where we see God does life really begin. Only when we encounter the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not the accidental and meaningless product of evolution. Each one of us is the fruit of a thought of God. Each one of us is loved, each one is loved, each one is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to have been reached, surprised, by the Gospel, by Christ. Nothing is more beautiful than to know him and to communicate to others our friendship with him. The task of the shepherd, of the fisher of men, can sometimes seem burdensome. But it is joyful and great, because in the end it is a service to joy, to the joy of God who wants to make his entrance into the world.”

All Catholics must feel in solidarity with the Pope in the task of winning souls for Christ. It is time to ask ourselves, in the words of our Father: do I share with Christ his desire for souls? Do I pray for this Church, of which I am a part, in which I have to carry out a specific mission, which no one else can do for me? Being in the Church is already a lot: but it is not enough. We must be Church, because our Mother must never be strange, external, alien to our deepest thoughts.

We ask the Blessed Virgin, Mater Ecclesiae, to make effective our desires to serve the Church, the Roman Pontiff and souls with joy and simplicity, illuminating the roads of the earth with the luminary of faith and love.