ROME Sunday, April 4, 2010 (ZENIT.org) .- Here is the homily delivered by Benedict XVI in presiding over this Saturday in St. Peter's Basilica, the solemn Easter Vigil in the Holy Night.
* * * Dear brothers and sisters,
an ancient Jewish legend from the apocryphal book is "Life of Adam and Eve," says Adam, in his last illness, he sent his son set together with Eva in the region Paradise to take the oil of mercy, to be anointed with this and so cured. After all the praying and the crying of the two in search of the tree of life, it is the Archangel Michael to tell them that they would not obtain tree oil of mercy and that Adam would have died. Later, Christian readers have added to this communication Archangel a word of consolation. Archangel would have said that after 5,500 years would come the loving King Messiah, the Son of God, and he anointed with the oil of mercy all those who would believe in Him "the oil of mercy from everlasting to everlasting will be given to those who will be born again of water and the Holy Spirit. Then the Son of God full of love, Christ, will descend into the depths of the earth and bring your father in heaven, the tree of mercy. " This legend is visible throughout the affliction dell’uomo di fronte al destino di malattia, dolore e morte che ci è stato imposto. Si rende evidente la resistenza che l’uomo oppone alla morte: da qualche parte – hanno ripetutamente pensato gli uomini – dovrebbe pur esserci l’erba medicinale contro la morte. Prima o poi dovrebbe essere possibile trovare il farmaco non soltanto contro questa o quella malattia, ma contro la vera fatalità – contro la morte. Dovrebbe, insomma, esistere la medicina dell’immortalità. Anche oggi gli uomini sono alla ricerca di tale sostanza curativa. Pure la scienza medica attuale cerca, anche se non proprio di escludere la morte, di eliminare tuttavia il maggior numero possibile delle sue cause, di rimandarla sempre di più; to provide a better and longer life forever. But let us reflect for a moment: how it would really, if you succeed, maybe not totally exclude the death, but to postpone it indefinitely, to reach an age of several hundred years? This would be a good thing? Humanity would become old in an extraordinary degree, for the youth there would be no more room. Turn off the ability of innovation and a never-ending life would not be a paradise, but rather a conviction. The real cure for death should be different. Should not lead simply indefinite extension of this present life. Should transform our lives from within. It should create in us a new life, really capable of eternity: it should transform in a way that does not end with death, but only to start with it fully. What is new and exciting Christian message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was and still is this, that we are told, yes, this herb medicine against death, the true medicine of immortality there. It has been found. It is accessible. In Baptism we are given this medicine. A new life begins in us, a new life that mature in the faith and is not cleared by the death of the old life, but that only then is brought fully to light. At this
some, perhaps many will say the message, of course, I feel, however, mi manca la fede. E anche chi vuole credere chiederà: ma è davvero così? Come dobbiamo immaginarcelo? Come si svolge questa trasformazione della vecchia vita, così che si formi in essa la vita nuova che non conosce la morte? Ancora una volta un antico scritto giudaico può aiutarci ad avere un’idea di quel processo misterioso che inizia in noi col Battesimo. Lì si racconta come il progenitore Enoch venne rapito fino al trono di Dio. Ma egli si spaventò di fronte alle gloriose potestà angeliche e, nella sua debolezza umana, non poté contemplare il Volto di Dio. "Allora Dio disse a Michele – così prosegue il libro di Enoch –: ‘Prendi Enoch e togligli le vesti terrene. Ungilo con olio soave e rivestilo robes of glory ' And Michael took away my clothes, my sweet anointed with oil and this oil was more than a radiant light His brightness was like the rays of the sun. When I looked, behold, I was like a glorious beings "(Ph. Rech, Inbild des Kosmos, II 524).
precisely this - to be coated with the new dress of God - is in Baptism, so says the Christian faith . Of course, this change of garments is a journey that lasts a lifetime. What happens in baptism is the beginning of a process that encompasses our entire life - enables us to eternity, so that acting within the light of Jesus Christ can appear before God and live with Him forever.
In the rite of baptism, there are two elements in which this event is expressed and becomes visible as a requirement for our further life. There is, first of the ritual sacrifices and promises. In the early Church, the baptized person is turned towards the West, a symbol of darkness, the sunset, death, and then the power of sin. The candidate would turn in that direction and made a triple "no" to the devil, his pomps and sin. With the strange word "pump", that the pomp of the devil, it was indicated the splendor of the worship of the gods and the ancient theater, where you taste test seeing people torn apart by wild beasts live. So this was the refusal of a type of culture that the man chained to the worship of power, the world of greed, falsehood and cruelty. It was an act of liberation from the imposition of a life form, which is offered as a pleasure, however, pushed towards the destruction of what humans are its best qualities. This waiver - a procedure less dramatic - today is also an essential part of baptism. In it we raise "old clothes" with which you can not stand before God said it best: we begin to lay them. This waiver is, in fact, a promise in which we give a hand to Christ, that He may guide us and clothe ourselves. What are the "clothes" that we set aside, what is the promise we speak, it becomes evident when we read the fifth chapter of Galatians, what Paul calls "works of the flesh" - a term that is precisely the old clothes to give evidence. Paul designates as "fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, discord, jealousy, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like that" (Gal 5.19 ff). These are the clothes that we set aside; clothes are of death. Then the
baptizing in the early Church faced the East - the symbol of light, symbol of the new sun of history, new rising sun, symbol of Christ. The candidate determines the new direction of his life: faith in the triune God to whom he gives himself. So God himself dressed in a light, apparel, life. Paul calls these new "clothes" fruit of the Spirit "and it describes in the following words:" love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control "(Gal 5:22).
In the early Church, the baptized was then really stripped of his garments. He fell and was immersed in the baptismal font three times - a symbol of death that embodies the radical nature of the spoliation and the change of clothes. This life, however, is destined for death, baptizing the delivery of death, together with Christ, and Lui si lascia trascinare e tirare su nella vita nuova che lo trasforma per l’eternità. Poi, risalendo dalle acque battesimali, i neofiti venivano rivestiti con la veste bianca, la veste di luce di Dio, e ricevevano la candela accesa come segno della nuova vita nella luce che Dio stesso aveva accesa in essi. Lo sapevano: avevano ottenuto il farmaco dell’immortalità, che ora, nel momento di ricevere la santa Comunione, prendeva pienamente forma. In essa riceviamo il Corpo del Signore risorto e veniamo, noi stessi, attirati in questo Corpo, così che siamo già custoditi in Colui che ha vinto la morte e ci porta attraverso la morte.
Nel corso dei secoli, i simboli sono diventati più scarsi, ma l’avvenimento essenziale Baptism is, however, remained the same. It is not just a bath, let alone welcome a little 'complicated in a new association. It is death and resurrection, rebirth to new life.
Yes, the cure for death exists. Christ is the tree of life available again. If we follow Him, then we are in life. For this we will sing in this night of the resurrection, with all my heart, the Alleluia, the song of joy that does not need words. This is why Paul can say to the Philippians: "Be joyful in the Lord always, again I say: Rejoice!" (Phil 4:4). The joy you can not control. It can only give. The resurrected Lord gives us joy: true life. We are now preserved forever in the love of Him who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (cf. Mt 28:18). So we ask, sure to be heard, deals with a prayer on the Church stands on this night: Lord, accept the prayers of your people along with the sacrificial offerings, because what with the mysteries of Easter began use would be for your work as medicine for eternity. Amen.
[© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
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