God guides the Church and sustains her always

Following is an unofficial translation of the Holy Father, Benedict XVIs address to the crowds who gathered in Saint Peter's Square this morning for the weekly General Audience.  This was the final public appearance of the Pontiff before he renounces the Office of Bishop of Rome tomorrow evening (at 8:00pm local time in Rome).

At that time, the period of Sede Vacante will begin.

Address of His Holiness, Benedict XVI

For the General Audience held in Saint Peter’s Square
Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopacy and the Presbyterate!
Distinguished authorities!
Dear brothers and sisters!

I thank you for having come in such great numbers to this, my last General Audience.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!  I am truly touched!  I see in you the Church alive!  And I think that I must also say thank you to the Creator for the beautiful weather that we are enjoying in this Wintertime.

Like the Apostle Paul in the biblical text which we have just heard, I also feel in my heart that I must above all thank God who guides the Church and calls us to believe, who sows his Word and with it, feeds his people.  In this moment, my soul reaches out and embraces all the Church in all parts of the world; and I give thanks to God for the news which throughout these years of the Petrine ministry I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and about the charity that is truly evident throughout the Body of the Church which makes her live by love, and about the hope which keeps her always open to and focused on life in all its fullness, as we journey toward the Heavenly homeland.

 

I feel that I am being carried in prayer, in the presence of God, where I can recall every encounter, every voyage, every pastoral visit.  I remember each and every one of you in prayer and commend you to the Lord, for we are fully award of His will, with all wisdom and spiritual intellect, and why we can live in a manner worthy of Him, of his love, which bears fruit in every good work (cf Col 1:9-10).

At this moment, I have within me great trust because I know, we all know that the word of truth which we read in the Gospel is the power of the Church, the source of her life.  The Gospel purifies and renews, bears fruit.  In it, the community of believers hears about and draws the grace of God, the source of truth and of charity.  This is my trust, this is my joy.

When, on April 19, almost eight years ago, I accepted and assumed the Petrine ministry, I was filled with a firm conviction which has always accompanied me:  belief in the life of the Church and in the word of God.  Now, as I have expressed many times before, the words that resonate in my heart are: Lord, why are you asking this of me and what are you asking? The weight that you place on my shoulders is great, but if you have asked it of me, at your request I will put out the nets, knowing that You will always guide me, even with all my faults.  Eight years afterwards, I can say that the Lord has guided me, has always been close to me.  I have been aware of his presence with me every day.  Throughout these past years, there have been moments of joy and light, but also some difficult moments; I felt like Saint Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has provided many days of sun and of light breezes, days in which the fishing was abundant; there were also moments in which the waters were rough and the winds were contrary.  As it has been throughout the history of the Church, it seemed at such moments that the Lord was sleeping.  But I have always known that in this boat the Lord is present and I have always known that the Barque of the Church is not mine; it does not belong to us, it is His.  And the Lord will not allow it to fail, he guides it, certainly He does so through the men that he has chosen, because this is how he wants it to be.  This was and is a certainty that nothing can obscure. And this is why today my heart is filled with gratitude to the Lord because he has never left the Church or me without the gift of his consolation, his light and his love.

We are in the midst of the Year of Faith, which I called in order to strengthen our faith in God, in the midst of a world that often puts Him in second place.  I wish to invite everyone to renew your trust in God, to trust him like children in the arms of God, confident that his arms will always support us and allow us to walk every day, even when we are tired.  I wish that everyone should know that he or she is loved by God who has given his Son for us and has demonstrated his boundless love.  I wish that everyone should know the joy of being Christian.  In a beautiful prayer which is repeated every morning, it says: I adore you O God, and I love you with all my heart.  I thank you for having created me and for having made me Christian …  Yes, we are thankful for the gift of faith; it is the most precious gift, which no one can take from us!  Let us give thanks to the Lord every day for this gift with prayer and with a Christian life consistent with this belief.  God loves us, but He waits for us also to love Him!

 I wish not only to thank God at this time.  A Pope is not alone in his responsibility of guiding the Barque of Peter, even if this is his primary responsibility I have never felt alone in carrying the joy and the weight of the Petrine ministry.  The Lord has placed me near to many people who with generosity and love for God and for the Church, have helped me and have always been close to me.  And so to all of you, dear Brother Cardinals, your wisdom, your counsel and your friendship have been precious to me; my Collaborators, including my Secretary of State who has accompanied me faithfully throughout these years; the Secreatriat of State and the entire Roman Curia, likewise all those who in various ways have served the Holy See: so many times you gave of yourselves so generously, working in the shadows, tuly in silence with daily dedication, with a spirit of faith and humility.  You have been for me a constant source of secure and reliable support.  A special thought is reserved for the Church of Rome, my Diocese!  I can never forget my Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate, consecrated persons and the entire People of God: through pastoral visits, through gatherings, though audiences and travels, I have always known and appreciated your attentiveness and your profound affection; but also I have loved you all, without distinction, with the pastoral care that is at the heart of every Shepherd, above all that of the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter.  Every day I have carried you in prayer, with a father’s love.

I express a special greeting and my gratitude to everyone: the heart of a Pope reaches out to the entire world.  I wish to express my gratitude to the members of the Diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, who make present here the great family of Nations.  I think also of all those who work to ensure good communications, and I thank them for their important service.
At this time, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all the numerous persons throughout the world who during these last weeks have sent me moving messages of their affection, of friendship and of prayer.  Yes, the Pope is never alone; I have witnessed this truth once again in such a heartfelt way.  The Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel close to him.  It is true that I have received letters from the important people of the world – from Heads of State, from Religious leaders, from representatives of the world of culture etc. but I have also received countless letters from simple people who have written in simple words, from their hearts and told me of their affection, born out of the union we share in Christ in the Church.  These people do not write as they might write to a prince or someone who they do not know.  They write as brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with a sense of familiar and affectionate connection.  Here I can see and even touch the heart of the Church – not a religious or humanitarian organization or an association but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who together are one.  To test the Church in this way and to see in this the strength of her truth and of her love is cause for great joy, in a time when so many speak of her decline.  See how the Church is alive today!

For the last few months, I have felt my physical strength diminish, and I asked the Lord insistently in prayer to guide me with His light so that I might make the decision that is right, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church.  I have made this decision with full knowledge of the gravity which it carries, but with a profound serenity of heart.  To love the Church means also to have the courage to make difficult choices, to suffer, to hold before us always the good of the Church and not our own interests.

Allow me now to return once more to April 19, 2005.  The serious nature of that decision was evident in the fact that from that moment onward I have been pledged always and forever to the Lord.  Always – the one who assumes the Petrine ministry never has any more privacy.  He belongs always and entirely to everyone, to the entire Church.  From that moment on, all semblance of privacy is forever and always removed.  I have tested this theory, and I learn from this experience even now that one receives life precisely when it is given.  As I said before, many people who love the Lord love also the Successor of Peter and  are kind to him; that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters throughout the entire world, and that he is aware of their communal embrace; because he no longer belongs to himself, he belongs to all and all belong to him.

The always is also a forever – there is no more return to the private.  My decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry doesn’t revoke it.  I do not return to a private life, to a life of travels, meetings, receptions, conferences etc.  I am not abandoning the cross, but staying in a new way close to the Crucified Lord.  I will no longer carry the power of Office to govern the Church, but in the service of prayer, I will remain, so to speak, within the walls of St. Peter’s.  Saint Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will provide for me a great example of this.  He himself showed the way to live a life which, active or passive, belongs totally to the work of God.

 

I thank each and everyone also for the respect and understanding with which you have welcomed this very important decision.  I will continue to accompany the Church with the same prayer, reflection and dedication to the Lord and to His Spouse as I have tried to live daily until the present, and which I pray I may continue always.  I ask that you remember me before the Lord, and above all that you pray for the Cardinals, called to accomplish such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter: that the Lord may accompany them with the light and strength of his Spirit.

Let us invoke the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, that she may accompany every one of us and the entire ecclesial community; to Whom we entrust ourselves with profound faith.

Dear friends!  God guides His Church and sustains her always, particularly in difficult moments.  Don’t ever lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the pilgrimage of the Church and of the world.  In our heart, in the heart of each one here, rests the joyous certitude that the Lord is near and will never abandon us.  He is close to us and envelops us with his love.  Thank you!