Our procession today is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the living God. This is the ascent that matters. This is the journey which Jesus invites us to make. But how can we keep pace with this ascent? Isn’t it beyond our ability? Certainly, it is beyond our own possibilities. From the beginning men and women have been filled ”“ and this is as true today as ever ”“ with a desire to “be like God”, to attain the heights of God by their own powers. All the inventions of the human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free. Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful. With the increase of our abilities there has been an increase not only of good. Our possibilities for evil have increased and appear like menacing storms above history. Our limitations have also remained: we need but think of the disasters which have caused so much suffering for humanity in recent months.
The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down ”“ towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us and grants us true freedom.
This was an especially comprehensive and insightful homily, preached to about 50,000 in St. Peter’s Square. I encourage you to post also the address, when translated, from Benedict’s Holy Wednesday general audience, delivered about half an hour ago. In it he covered the significance of events commemorated in the Triduum including Jesus’ time in Gethsemane, speaking from apparently scant notes at that point and delivering an arresting exposition of the theological meaning, looking straight at his audience.
This is mainly in Italian, but with the video (of the entire Wednesday audience) captured, which was what really made his Holy Wednesday catechesis most engaging:
http://benedictxvi.tv/site/2011/04/20/general-audience/
The compressed version suffices, I’ve found. The address will be a while into the video.