Excerpts from yesterday’s St. Patrick’s homily by Pope Benedict XVI:
* The Church . . . is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life. . . . The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization.
* This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts.
* Even for those of us within, the light of faith can be dimmed by routine, and the splendor of the Church obscured by the sins and weaknesses of her members . . . In a word, it is not always easy to see the light of the spirit all about us, the splendor of the risen Lord illuminating our lives and instilling renewed hope in his victory over the world.
* For all of us, I think, one of the great disappointments which followed the Second Vatican Council, with its call for a greater engagement in the Church’s mission to the world, has been the experience of division between different groups, different generations, different members of the same religious family.
* I would like to say a word about the sexual abuse that has caused so much suffering. I have already had occasion to speak of this, and of the resulting damage to the community of the faithful. Here I simply wish to assure you, dear priests and religious, of my spiritual closeness as you strive to respond with Christian hope to the continuing challenges that this situation presents.
I join you in praying that this will be a time of purification for each and every particular church and religious community, and a time for healing. May our Lord Jesus Christ grant the Church in America a renewed sense of unity and purpose, as all – bishops, clergy, religious and laity – move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another.
* The spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis, they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God.