By Isabella H. de Carvalho
Pope Leo XIV invited the Benedictines to respond to the challenges our times face by placing Christ at the center of their lives during a Mass on Tuesday, Nov 11, to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Dedication of the Church of Sant’Anselmo on the Aventine Hill in Rome.
“The sudden changes we are witnessing provoke and question us, raising issues that have never been seen before,” he said.
“This celebration,” the Pope continued, “reminds us that, like the apostle Peter, and together with him Benedict and many others, we too can respond to the demands of our vocation only by placing Christ at the center of our existence and our mission, starting from that act of faith that makes us recognize Him as the Savior and translating it into prayer, study, and commitment to a holy life.”
The Church of Sant’Anselmo is located in a complex overseen by the Benedictine Confederation, the international governing body of the Order of St Benedict. The grounds, in fact, also host the abbot primate of the Order, currently Abbot Jeremias Schröder, his curia, and the Pontifical Atheneum of Sant’Anselmo and a residential college.
Monasteries have brought peace during dark periods
The Pope highlighted how his predecessor Pope Leo XIII strongly encouraged the development of the complex and of the Benedictine Confederation because “he was convinced” that the Order of St Benedict “could be of great help to the good of all God’s people at a time full of challenges, such as the transition from the 19th to the 20th century”.
Pope Leo underlined how monasticism has been, since its origins, a “frontier” that prompted “courageous men and women to establish centres of prayer, work, and charity in the most remote and inaccessible places,” and thus transformed desolate areas into fertile lands, from an economic point of view, but especially from a spiritual one.
“The monastery, thus, has increasingly characterized itself as a place of growth, peace, hospitality, and unity, even in the darkest periods of history,” he continued.
Become a school of the Lord’s service
He encouraged the complex to “aspire to become a beating heart” in the Benedictine world, with at its centre the church, according to the teachings of the saint that inspired the Order.
The Pope also noted that the commitment to living a holy life in the complex is already being manifested in various ways “in the liturgy, first of all, then in the Lectio Divina, in research, in pastoral care, with the involvement of monks from all over the world and with openness to clerics, religious, and lay people from the most diverse backgrounds and conditions.” He called the center and its institutions to keep growing as an authentic “school of the Lord’s service.”
Pointing to the first reading of the Mass, taken from the Prophet Ezechiel, which described “the image of the river flowing from the Temple”, the Pope said this illustrated well the idea of a “heart pumping the lifeblood into the body, so that every member may receive nourishment and strength for the benefit of others.” In the second reading, he instead emphasized the mention of the “spiritual house”, founded on the solid stone that is Christ.
“In the industrious hive of Sant’Anselmo, may this be the place where everything begins and to which everything returns to find verification, confirmation, and deeper understanding before God,” Pope Leo XIV insisted.
He expressed his hope that this institution may send the “prophetic message” to the Church and the world, to be a chosen people, “so that we may proclaim the admirable works of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.”
Bring Jesus to all
Pope Leo also said that the dedication is a “solemn moment in the history of a sacred building when it is consecrated as a place of encounter between space and time, between the finite and the infinite, between man and God.”
He reiterated this idea by citing the Second Vatican Council constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, which explained how the Church is “both human and divine” and “in her the human is directed and subordinated to the divine, the visible likewise to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, which we seek.”
“It is the experience of our lives and of the lives of every man and woman in this world, searching for that ultimate and fundamental answer that ‘neither flesh nor blood’ can reveal, but only the Father who is in heaven; ultimately in need of Jesus, ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’,” the Pope continued.
He concluded by inviting those present to seek Jesus and to bring Him to all, “grateful for the gifts he has given us, and above all for the love with which He has preceded us. This temple will then increasingly become a place of joy, where we experience the beauty of sharing with others what we have received freely.” – Vatican News
