Angelus, Osnabruck (16 November 1980)

On Sunday, 16 November 1980, the Holy Father spoke at the Angelus, in Osnabruck, of the personal vocation, “the special salvific task,” each of us has from God.

Dear brothers and sisters:

It is a great joy for me to be able to begin by addressing you with this beautiful name: brothers, sisters. For we are all children of one common Father, loved and redeemed by God in Christ. That is why we should not consider ourselves strangers or strangers to each other, 8 despite the fact that this is our first meeting. I wholeheartedly greet all of you who have gathered in this cathedral to recite with me the ancient and familiar Angelus prayer .

Our prayer community at noon embraces not only you, but many other men throughout Germany who are forced to carry the weight of any physical handicap in their lives and who also in a spirit of faith want to join us in the prayer through television or radio. I also want to call these brothers and sisters, you who from your homes ―alone or in the company of your family and friends― or from the community of a nursing home have communicated with us here, in Osnabrück, through the media Communication. In union with all of you we will praise God and give thanks for the great gift of love from him.

This love is the foundation of our hope and the breath of our life. God has shown us in an insurmountable way in Jesus Christ how much he loves each man and how immense is the dignity that he has conferred on him through him. Precisely those who must suffer from some physical or spiritual impediment must recognize themselves as friends of Jesus, as loved especially by Him. He himself says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will relieve you. Take my yoke upon you." and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light" ( Mt11, 28-30). For what seems to men weakness and weakness, is for God a reason for special love and care. And this divine criterion becomes for the Church and for each one of the Christians a task and an obligation. We Christians don't care much if someone is sick or healthy; What ultimately matters to us is the following: Are you willing to realize in all the circumstances of your life and in your behavior as a true Christian with full consciousness of faith, the dignity that God has granted you, or do you prefer to waste it before God? in a life of superficiality and lack of responsibility, guilt and sin? Also as handicapped you can become saints, you can all reach the high goal that God has reserved for each man, the creature of his love.

Each man receives from God a personal vocation, his special salvific task. As we have always been shown, God's will is for us ultimately a message of joy,a message for our eternal salvation. This is also valid for you who, as physically handicapped men, have been called to a special way of following Christ, the following of the cross. Christ invites you, through the words that we have previously quoted, to accept your weaknesses as his yoke, as the path that follows in his footsteps. Only in this way will you manage not to feel overwhelmed by this painful burden. The only adequate response to God's call to follow Christ, as He has always concretely demonstrated, is the response of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Be it done to me according to your word" ( Lc1, 38). Only your quick "yes" to God's will, which often escapes our natural way of seeing things, can make you happy and give you from now on an intimate joy that cannot be canceled by any external need.

Naturally you need the active help of many healthy men for this. I am thinking now in a special way of those who have helped or accompanied you to come here and who are, wherever they are, ready to help the handicapped. By virtue of your kinship or your profession, you put your skills, your time and your strength at the service of your neighbor. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is found in a mysterious way in every person in need, I would like to express my gratitude for this service so full of sacrifices, and I would also like to encourage you to continue on this path. The promise contained in the words of the Lord is intended for such generous servants: "Come, blessed of my Father...; I was sick and you visited me, prevented, and you have assisted me.Mt 25, 31-46).

I would also like to address a few words of thanks and encouragement to all the priests who, as chaplains for the disabled, carry out an important task for the Church. You are in a special way servants of her interior and spiritual joy. Do not get tired, despite the pressing lack of priests, of announcing the Good News, with priestly zeal and professional competence, to the handicapped entrusted to you. Help them to contemplate her fate in the light of faith, for only faith can teach them to discover it as a call to participate in the redemptive suffering of Christ. Be strong in Christ, who is the one who sent you and who through you brings about his salvation among men.

Finally, all men and the entire society are called to help the handicapped, as they have a special obligation in this. Between them and healthy men there should be no barrier or wall of separation. Someone who seems to be healthy today may already have some hidden disease within him, he too may have a misfortune tomorrow or experience the consequences of it in the long run. All of us are pilgrims on a very short run, and at one time or another the path ends for each of us with death. Even in moments of health, most of us experience the signs of limitation and weakness, of fragility and difficulties. Let us, therefore, remain in common and fraternal solidarity, those of us who are more or less healthy and those of us who are more or less handicapped,

For this reason, at this meeting with our handicapped brothers and sisters, all men, who in this place or in the rest of the country are watching or listening to us, are invited to join in our midday prayer. Before God all earthly differences disappear, only the measure of believing hope and generous love that each one carries in his heart remains decisive.

In the Angelus prayer we contemplate with the three familiar Hail Marys the nuclear Mystery of our faith the Incarnation of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary. In the same way as Mary expressed her "yes" to this plan of God, we also confess our "fiat" our "yes" to our vocation. Let us answer confidently with a yes, be it to the vocation of suffering, be it to the vocation of help and service. And just as the Word of God and our brother became flesh of Mary, so also our path will be fruitful with the strength of God. A suffering accepted in trust, a service assumed in love: this is the path by which the Lord wants to come into the world today.

With these sentiments let us join hands and pray:

The angel of the Lord announced to Mary, and she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God save you, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Behold the slave of the Lord, be done to me according to your word.

God save you, Maria...

Santa Maria...

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

God save you, Maria...

Santa Maria...

Pray for us, Holy Mother of God, so that we may be worthy of achieving the promises of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: infuse, Lord, your grace into our souls so that, having known by the announcement of the angel the incarnation of Jesus Christ, your Son, by his Passion and his cross we may be led to the glory of the resurrection. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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