The Pope's final Wednesday audience drew nearly 200,000 people today in St. Peter's Square. As one who has tried hard to read nearly each and every Wednesday audience he gave during his nearly 8 years as Pope, I find myself a bit sad at this moment. He will truly be missed - in the way a young man misses his late grandfather, to whom he felt a special closeness. As I have done after reading so many Wednesday audiences, I bid adieu to Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate with a quote... my favorite from today:
I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat
on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle
breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times
when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of
the Church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless, I
always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is
not mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who
steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He
desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It
is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for
never did He leave me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His
love.
With love, I thank you, Pope Benedict... and thanks above all be to God, Who, in His Providence gave us so great a teacher.
One of the Italian headlines said, "Pope Benedict says that God fell asleep on the Church." What a tragic misquote of what was an exquisite oration.
ReplyDelete- Jake