A short while ago we heard the Word of God that helps us better to understand the solemn moment we are now experiencing. In the Gospel passage, Jesus had just recalled for the third time the fate that awaits him in Jerusalem, but the ambition of the disciples gets the upper hand on the fear that for a moment assailed them. After Peter\u2019s confession at Caesarea and the discussion along the way about who was greatest, ambition drives the sons of Zebedee to claim for themselves the best positions in the messianic kingdom at the end of time. In the race for privileges, the two know well what they want, just as the other 10 do, despite their \u201crighteous\u201d\u009d indignation. In truth, however, they do not know what they are asking for. It is Jesus who makes them understand, speaking in very different terms of the \u201cservice\u201d\u009d that awaits them. He corrects the coarse conception of merit that they have, according to which man can acquire rights before God.<\/p>\n
The Evangelist Mark reminds us, dear and venerable brothers, that every true disciple of Christ can aspire for one thing only: to share in his passion without claiming recompense. The Christian is called to assume the condition of \u201cservant,\u201d\u009d following in the footsteps of Jesus, spending his life for others in a gratuitous and disinterested way. It is not the quest for power and success but the humble gift of self for the good of the Church that should characterize each gesture and each word of ours. True Christian greatness, in fact, does not consist in dominating but in serving. Today Jesus repeats to each of us that he \u201cdid not come to be served but to serve and to give his life for the many\u201d\u009d (Mark 10:45). This is the ideal that must orient your service. Dear brothers, in entering the College of Cardinals, the Lord asks of you and gives to you the service of love: love for God, love for his Church, love for our brothers, with a total and unconditional dedication, \u201cusque ad sanguinis effusionem\u201d\u009d [even to the shedding of blood], as is said in the formula for the imposition of the biretta and as is shown in the garments that you will put on.<\/p>\n
Be apostles of God, who is love, and witnesses of evangelical hope: The Christian people expects this of you. Today\u2019s ceremony highlights the great responsibility that weighs on each of you, venerable and dear brothers, and which finds confirmation in the words of the Apostle Peter that we have just heard: \u201cAdore the Lord, Christ, in your hearts, always ready to answer whoever asks you the reason for the hope that is in you\u201d\u009d (1 Peter 3:15). Such a responsibility does not exempt you from risks, rather, as St. Peter adds, \u201cIt is better, if God wills it, to suffer for doing the good than for doing evil\u201d\u009d (1 Peter 3:17). Christ asks you to confess his truth before men, to embrace and share his cause; and to accomplish all of this \u201cwith sweetness and respect, with a good conscience\u201d\u009d (1 Peter 3:1-16), that is, with that interior humility that is a fruit of cooperation with the grace of God.<\/p>\n