Pope: Love of neighbor will come from listening to Jesus/ 250,000 attend Mass as Pope Benedict XVI returns ?home' to Bavaria for six-day visit

photos by Christopher Gunty/courtesy of the Florida Catholic

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A boy on his father's shoulder's gets a better view of Pope Benedict XVI at a Mass in Munich, Germany, Sept. 10. An estimated 250,000 attended the open-air Mass, at which the pope spoke about love of neighbor and evangelism.

by Christopher Gunty

special to the Intermountain Catholic

ALTÖTTING, Germany — Just as Jesus called out, "Ephphatha," – "be opened" – to allow the deaf-mute in the Gospel to hear and speak, so do we today need to be open to God’s voice and to be able to speak to him, Pope Benedict XVI told a crowd estimated at 250,000 in Munich Sept. 10.

And the next day, in Altötting at a major Marian shrine, he urged those present to be like Mary in willingness to leave everything to the Lord’s judgment.

In Munich, the pope noted that in the Gospel, Jesus showed concern for those suffering and for those pushed to the margins of society. "He heals them and, by enabling them to live and work together, he brings them to equality and fraternity."

He said, "There is not only a physical deafness which largely cuts people off from social life; there is also a ‘hardness of hearing’ where God is concerned, and this is something from which we suffer particularly in our own time. Put simply, we are no longer able to hear God – there are too many frequencies filling our ears.

"Along with this hardness of hearing or outright deafness where God is concerned, we naturally lose our ability to speak with him and to him," Pope Benedict said.

John Reeves, an American originally from Louisiana who now lives in Austria, attended the Mass with a group from the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family in Gaming, Austria. Reeves translated the pope’s German-language homily on-the-fly for English-speaking members of the group.

He said he and his wife have noticed that many people in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria, where his wife is a native, profess to be Catholic, but do not regularly attend Mass. Reeves believes this is part of the spiritual deafness of which the pope spoke and thinks there needs to be a great mission to re-evangelize Europe.

The pope in his homily also spoke of the need for love of neighbor to flow from God being a part of our lives and our world. He cited the example of African bishops who make their ad limina visits to the Vatican, and express their gratitude for the support of German bishops and dioceses for social programs on their continent. However, the pope said, when these African bishops seek support for evangelization programs, they do not receive the same support.

"The experience of these bishops is that evangelization itself should be foremost, that the God of Jesus Christ must be known, believed in, and loved, and that hearts must be converted if progress is to be made on social issues and reconciliation is to begin, and if – for example – AIDS is to be combated by realistically facing its deeper causes and the sick are to be given the loving care they need," Benedict said.

"Social issues and the Gospel are inseparable. When we bring people only knowledge, ability, technical competence and tools, we bring them too little."

These themes are a continuation or an expansion of the concepts in the pope’s first encyclical "Deus Caritas Est," ("God is Love").

Sam Spiering, a student at Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., who is attending a semester program at the International Theological Institute in Gaming, attended the Mass in Munich, about an hour and a half away from the school. He was impressed with the pope’s homily and said the words rang true.

"A lot of times we get wrapped up in the social work and don’t get that it has to flow through the love of God. We have to love God and from that comes love of neighbor and from that comes our desire to help others," he said.

Spiering added that this does not mean that one must proselytize while serving others, but in the words of St. Francis, "Always preach the Gospel and when necessary, use words."

"People naturally, if they see you doing (good work) will want to know why you are doing it. A lot of social work is given, but there’s no love in it. There needs to be more neighbor giving to neighbor," he said.

An American living in Germany said it was an "amazing feeling" to be at the Mass. Susan Evans of Seattle, Wash., working in Germany at the Leighton Barracks of Wuertzburg Army Post, said 80 tickets for the Mass had been offered to the U.S. Army, and her unit had been fortunate enough to receive 34 of those.

Sister Ruth, a Franciscan missionary sister who has served in 266 countries, including a stint in Tampa, said before the Mass that she loves Pope Benedict. "Thank God we’ve got him. He writes with great clarity. He’s a genius, holy and very humble."

The nun joined Carmelita Maghana Mangold of the Philippines in carrying a sign that said, in English, "We love Pope Benedict." The two met on the bus on the way to the Munich Trade Fair Center, where the Mass was held. Mangold wore a shirt and jeans to which she had applied sequins spelling out, "I believe in God. I believe in Pope Benedict."

In Altötting Sept. 11, the pope made a pilgrimage to a Marian shrine that attracts about a million visitors a year, comparable to some other major shrines in Europe.

In his homily at the Mass, he noted that Mary did not tell Jesus what to do or ask Jesus specifically for a miracle. She simply told him: "They have no wine" and entrusted the needs of their friends to Jesus. "She simply hands the matter over to Jesus and leaves him to decide what to do," Pope Benedict said. In doing so, we can see that Mary has affectionate concern for people and that she leaves everything to the Lord’s judgment. "From Mary we learn graciousness and readiness to help, but we also learn humility and generosity in accepting God’s will, in the confident conviction that whatever he says in response will be best for us."

The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and at the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was acknowledged during the Mass in the prayers of the faithful. "We ask for our homeland and our families, for peace between old and young and the uniting band of the faithful – and we ask five years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York for peace in the whole world"

Gunty is executive publisher of the Florida Catholic, with papers serving that state’s six dioceses.