HOLY THURSDAY 2024. A HOMILY OF GREETING FROM CARDINAL GIUSEPPE BETORI

Affirm that today, from the eagles and hawks that were we are moving on to chickens or, good going, to turkeys, it is not an ungenerous and irreverent statement but a fact: in recent years we have witnessed the episcopal appointments of embarrassing individuals, but what's worse is that they are all the same, or as they say molded, cloned for emulation. All this in the face of the plurality of voices within the Church!

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This article inspired me - which is not so, because it involves reporting the text of a homily pronounced by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori Metropolitan Archbishop of Florence - it was Father Ariel, who a few weeks ago dedicated a tribute to his Bishop in these columns of ours, S. AND. Mons. Andrea Turazzi; tribute done with a touch of class summarized in this sentence:

«A good priest is such if he waits for the end of his mandate to praise his Bishop […] Only now that he no longer has the power of pastoral governance over the Diocese and over me, I can publicly say how much I revered it, appreciated and loved my Bishop".

The Archbishop of Florence, despite having presented his resignation from the pastoral governance of our Diocese to the Supreme Pontiff, he is not yet emeritus, nor has his designated successor been made official yet. His mission among us, de facto, However, it is to be considered finished. As for his successor, it is almost certain that he has already been chosen and appointed, we just have to wait for the official announcement.

With Cardinal Giuseppe Betori - and now very few others who became bishops in their fifties under the pontificate of the Holy Pontiff John Paul II - an ecclesiastical and ecclesiastical season which also had its many problems is definitively closed, but in any case also populated by personalities of high pastoral level and cultural depth. Affirm that today, from the eagles and hawks that were we are moving on to chickens or, good going, to turkeys, it is not an ungenerous and irreverent statement but a fact: in recent years we have witnessed the episcopal appointments of embarrassing individuals, but what's worse is that they are all the same, or as they say molded, cloned for emulation. All this in the face of the plurality of voices within the Church!

Making the words my own addressed by a brother to his Bishop today I can say too:

«A good priest is such if he waits for the end of his mandate to praise his Bishop […] Only now that he no longer has the power of pastoral governance over the Diocese and over me, I can publicly say how much I revered it, appreciated and loved my Bishop".

Cardinal Giuseppe Betori has revealed itself to be a pearl now set in the diadem of the genealogy of the last Bishops donated to this Florentine Church of ours by Rome which was now, as the following homily demonstrates...

Florence, 28 March 2024

 

The Chrism Mass, which the Bishop concelebrates with the presbyters of the different areas of the diocese and during which he blesses the holy chrism and the other oils, it is considered one of the main manifestations of the fullness of the priesthood of the bishop and a sign of the close union of the presbyters with him". These are the words of the Roman Pontifical in the Premises to the rite of the Blessing of the Oils. With these words fifteen years ago I addressed you in my first presidency of the celebration of the Chrism Mass in the Florentine Church. I still refer to them today, in this celebration which can be presumed to be my last presidency of the Chrism Mass in this cathedral, to address you in particular to you Florentine priests, with whom I have shared the pastoral governance of the people of God that has been entrusted to me in recent years.

Mine are meant to be words of thanks, of reflection, of delivery for the future. However, I would like to avoid slipping into feelings, although important and not absent in my heart at this moment, to bring everything back to the light of the word of God. Gratitude, awareness, confident hope must in fact be measured by the faithfulness with which we have been able to correspond to the gift that Christ has given us, of how we feel obliged to delve into its forms in a way that is appropriate to the times, of how we hand ourselves over to it in the certainty that the presence of the Lord and his Spirit is among us, despite the uncertainties of the present, it will never fail.

In this horizon we welcome the revelation that comes to us today from the word of God regarding the mission of Christ, of the dignities and responsibilities that are given to his disciples, of the service of the word and of grace which is entrusted to us, his ministers, for the benefit of all. The image that summarizes this mystery is that of the anointing, with which the prophet expresses the consecration of the Messiah sent to bring the good news of salvation, to place themselves at the service of the poor and oppressed, to spread the consolation of mercy. We heard Jesus proclaim this same anointing as a sign of the mission for which the Spirit sends him as a liberator of humanity from all its fragility to enter the time of the Lord's grace. In the end, this anointing, now defined as regal and priestly, it is the sign of a redeemed people who live for the glory of the Father.

Announcement, priesthood and kingship from the person of Christ they pass to that of believers in him and our ministry as priests is placed at the service of this passage. Thank you therefore for your ministry at the service of the Word; May there always be within you the desire to know it ever more deeply and to be able to express it again with words that are able to meet the expressed and unexpressed questions of contemporary humanity, we look to the future with confidence, certain that in the inexhaustible richness of the word of God there is a sure orientation for the new challenges that loom over humanity in the days to come. Thank you for your ministry as pontiffs between humanity and its Creator, of generous transmitters of the grace that comes from above and of the voice of humanity and its expectations towards the Father of all; in a world that is built following the myth of self-sufficiency, feel that it is your particular commitment to reawaken in your people the need for invocation and the humility to welcome the gift of life, the new work of the sacraments; always nourish hope within you, so that no obstacle throws you into despair or even just into inertia, because nothing changes anyway, having within us the certainty that the Risen One has the power to make all things new. Thank you for how you animate your communities in your ministry, devote yourself to being, you take on the problems of the poorest in particular; We are indeed ministers of the Church, but our service is always for the coming of the Kingdom of God among us, in the signs of good that we help to blossom and in the contribution that as Christian communities we are able to offer for the affirmation of justice, of peace, of respect for the dignity of every man, of the common good; The place of the Church in society is rapidly changing and consequently that of the priest, therefore we are urged to abandon any nostalgia for centrality but also to reiterate that no one and no world can remain alien to the gift of ourselves in the Lord.

In the homily from fifteen years ago I was calling you to a communion that was not a massifying uniformity, but an interweaving of relationships in the diversity of experiences and in the modulation of the single truth. I asked you to avoid the tired repetition of a monotonous melody to seek a polyphonic harmony in which each voice seeks harmony with the others, for communication that expresses the intelligence of reality and the beauty of experience. I don't know how long we have managed to live like this in these years and I am also here to ask you for forgiveness for what I have not done or for what I may have done in the opposite direction.

The other reminder from fifteen years ago it was at the sacramental root of our ministry, so as not to allow ourselves to be reduced to social agents, although appreciated and well-liked, nor even to officials of a sacred place to resort to as a refuge from human anguish. Sacramentality means that what is decisive in us is the gift of grace, of which we have been and are recipients and of which we have the responsibility of being transmitters. I therefore reminded you and repeat to you that serving the sacramental dimension of the Church means first and foremost a commitment to showing how in the sacramental regime we can grasp the primacy of God in history and how it manifests itself to us and comes into contact with our life thanks to the mediation of Christ, who is the foundation and founder of the sacraments.

And this call to Christ makes me repeat even today that the extent of our being a priest is strictly dependent on our bond with him. Only by remaining united with him can both our identity and our service in the Church and in the world find truth and effectiveness. May this look to Christ never be lacking in our daily life, talk to him, let ourselves be guided and supported by him.

We have walked together over these years. It has been a great gift for me to be your bishop and to be able to count on your support. We don't know when, but in the future another bishop will guide you, to whom I will hand you over but to whom I also ask you to hand yourselves over with trust. The bishops pass, the Lord remains and he is our only true Shepherd, of which we are only signs, aware, as far as I'm concerned, of weakness and insufficiency. I ask the Lord for mercy and I ask you for human understanding. With affection.

 

Florence, 28 March 2024

Metropolitan Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Holy Chrism Mass

 

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