Closing Holy Mass of the Katholikentag (11 September 1983)

On Sunday, 11 September 1983, the Holy Father celebrated the closing Holy Mass of the “Katholikentag” in Danube Park, Vienna. In his homily, the Pope spoke of the theme of the festival as “Living Hope,” reflecting on the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

1. " I will get up and go to my father " ( Luke 15, 18).

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

From today's Gospel reading, these words impress us. They take on a particular significance at the close of this "Katholikentag"; whose theme "Living hope — giving hope" illustrates the perspectives for our hope. Yes, these words of the Gospel indeed contain the perspective of hope, which Jesus Christ announced to us when, with his Good News, he placed the entire life of man in a new light.

Today's solemn closing Mass gives me the opportunity to greet in a very cordial way, in the spirit of a common Christian hope, all the participants in this Eucharistic celebration and the entire "Katholikentag".

I offer my greetings to the faithful of the various Austrian dioceses. My visit here, to Vienna, extends at the same time to all places in your homeland, near or far. I also address my greeting as a brother to the Cardinals and Bishops present here, led by the illustrious Cardinal König , to the priests and deacons, and also to the representatives of other Christian Churches and religious communities. I also heartily greet the high-ranking personalities of the State and society who participate in this solemn closing Mass. Finally, I greet with joy the numerous visitors, coming from many other countries and also from the East to this celebration of the Eucharist.

2. You, dear Austrians, gave your "Katholikentag" the theme of hope. From experience, you know that today many men, young and old, have lost hope! But you can't live without hope for long! How can we then find hope again? How can we show others the path to hope?

The Gospel parable, just heard, tells of a young man who, proud and full of himself, left his father's home and went to distant places, where he hoped to find greater freedom and fortune. But when his estate was exhausted and he was forced to submit to new and unworthy conditions of man, all his hope vanished. Until, finally, he admitted his guilt, remembered his father and decided to return to his father's home. Full of hope — against all hope!

3. Precisely in this passage of the Gospel we find the words: "I will get up and go to my father". In this profound parable of Christ, in reality, the entire eternal drama of man is contained: the drama of freedom, the drama of a freedom misused.

Man obtained the gift of freedom from his Creator. With freedom he can form and order this world, he can create the wonderful works of the human spirit, of which this country and the earth are full: science and art, economics and technology, the entire culture. Freedom gives man the possibility of expressing the only human love, which is not just a consequence of a natural attraction, but rather a free act of the heart. Freedom makes you capable — as the highest act of human dignity — of loving and worshiping God.

Freedom, however, has its price. All who are free should ask themselves: Have we preserved our freedom in freedom? Freedom does not mean agency. Man cannot do everything he can or wants. There is no freedom without bonds. Man is responsible for himself, his neighbors and the world. He is responsible before God. A society that minimizes responsibility, law and conscience deteriorates the foundations of human life. The man without responsibility will allow himself to be carried away by the pleasures of this life and, like the prodigal son, will have to submit to unworthy conditions and will lose his homeland and freedom. With unprecedented selfishness he will abuse his neighbor or appropriate material goods without any limit. Where the link with the supreme values ​​is not recognized, there marriage and the family dissolve, there is little value for the lives of other men, especially the unborn, the elderly and the sick. The worship of God turns into the worship of money, prestige or power.

Isn't the entire history of humanity also a history of the abuse of freedom? Do not many today also follow the path of the prodigal son? They have before them a destroyed life, a betrayed love, in guilty suffering, full of fear and despair. "All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God" ( Rom . 3, 23). They ask themselves: where have I arrived? where is the solution?

4. In Christ's parable, the prodigal son is the man who misused his own freedom. In this parable we can see the consequences of the abuse of freedom — that is, of sin: those consequences that weigh on the lives of different human communities or their environment, and even those that weigh on peoples and all of humanity. Sin is a debasement of man (cf. Gaudium, et spes , 13): it contradicts his real dignity and at the same time causes a wound in social life. Sin itself has a personal and social dimension . Both obscure the vision of good and deprive human life of the light of hope.

Christ's parable, however, does not abandon us in the face of the sad situation of man fallen into sin with all his degradation. The words "I will arise and go to my father" make us see in the heart of the prodigal son the longing for good and the light of sure hope . These words open up the perspective of hope. A similar vision is always given to us, because each man and all humanity can rise together and go to the father. This is the truth that is at the heart of the Good News.

The words "I will arise and go to my father" are the sign of inner transformation. For the prodigal son continues: I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you'" ( Lk . 15, 18). At the center of the joyful message is the truth of the "metanoia" of transformation: transformation is possible, it is necessary!

5. And why is it like that? Because here is shown what is in the depths of each man's soul and lives and acts there, despite sin and even through sin: that insatiable hunger for truth and love, which demonstrates to us as the spirit of man, through All creation tends towards God. The starting point of conversion is in man .

The point of initiative on God's part corresponds to this: In the parable this divine initiative is represented with an effective simplicity and at the same time with a convincing force: The father waits. The prodigal son's return was awaited, as if he was already certain that he would return. The father goes down to the paths through which his son could return home. He wants to find him.

In this mercy the love with which God, through His eternal Son, loved man from the beginning is revealed (cf. Eph . 1:4-5). It is the love that, sealed from eternity in the heart of the Father, was revealed to our time through Jesus Christ. The cross and the resurrection constitute the culmination of this revelation.

That is why it was very significant that yesterday, during European Vespers, we paid honor to the Cross of Christ as a sign of hope: because of this the Austrian "Katholikentag" of 1983; together with the entire Church — draw its vital strength. In the symbol of the Cross, the point of divine initiative in relation to all conversions in the history of man and of all humanity is always present. For on the Cross is the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that once and for all descended upon humanity, a love that will never be exhausted. Converting means finding this love and welcoming it into your own heart; It means building future behavior on this love.

Precisely this happened in the life of the prodigal son, when he decided: "I will get up and go to my father." At the same time, however, "he had undoubtedly become aware that, upon returning to his father, he must recognize his own guilt: 'Father, I have sinned' ( Luke 15:18).

Conversion is to be reconciled. Reconciliation is, however, possible only when one's own sins are recognized. Recognizing one's sins means bearing witness to the truth that God is the Father, a Father who forgives. He who in his belief bears witness to this truth, is once again welcomed by the Father as his Son. The prodigal son is aware that only God's paternal love can forgive his sins .

Love is stronger than all guilt!

6. Dear Brothers and Sisters! You have placed at the center of this "Katholikentag" the perspective of hope: enter into the spirit of Christ's parable about the prodigal son. She is realistic for all intents and purposes. Here the perspective of hope is intimately linked to the path to conversion. Meditate on everything that relates to this path: the examination of conscience — repentance with the firm intention of amendment — believing in confession. Renew in yourselves your esteem for this sacrament, which is also called the " sacrament of reconciliation ". It is closely linked to the sacrament of the Eucharist, the sacrament of love: Confession frees us from evil; the Eucharist gives us communion with the highest good.

Take seriously the Church’s binding invitation to participate in Holy Mass every Sunday. In it, together with the community, you can encounter the Father each time and receive the gift of his love, Holy Communion, the bread of our hope. Through this source of strength, transform every Sunday into a day dedicated to God. Because our life belongs to Him, we owe our worship to Him. In this way, in everyday life, your bond with God can remain alive and all your actions will become a Christian testimony.

All this means the words: "I will arise and go to my father." A program of our hope that cannot be imagined more profound and at the same time simpler! (cf. " Dives in mercy" , nos. 5 and 6).

7. Starting from this spiritual program, I wish to reflect with you on some points of conversion within the family and society . Marriage and the family are in danger today. This is why so many men suffer: their spouses and even more so their children, after all, the entire society.

Two years ago, based on the experience of Bishops around the world, I outlined today's family crisis as follows: There are "signs of worrying degradation of some fundamental values: a wrong conception... of the independence of spouses from each other; the serious ambiguities regarding the relationship of authority between parents and children; the concrete difficulties that the family often experiences in the transmission of values ; An evil that we have not yet managed to put a stop to and whose severity is still felt by the conscience of very few men.

The root of this crisis seems to be above all a wrong concept of freedom. A freedom, "conceived not as the capacity to realize the truth of God's project on marriage and the family, but as an autonomous force of affirmation, often against others, for one's own selfish well-being" ( ibid .). These negative aspects are furthermore reinforced by public opinion that casts doubt on the institution of marriage and the family and that seeks to justify other forms of coexistence. Despite many people saying that the family is so important to society, very little is still done to truly protect it. I believe, however, that the determining reason for this crisis has deeper origins. Marriage and the family are in danger because their faith and religious sense have often disappeared. Because the spouses themselves and with this also the children have become indifferent towards the things of God.

Dear fathers and mothers! Dear families! You too, get up and go to the father! Only in responsibility before God can you recognize and experience all the richness of marriage and the family. I know that in Austria many priests and lay people have tried in recent years to renew marriage and the family in a Christian spirit. I know your efforts to help spouses live an authentic relationship; your commitment to giving women a place adapted to their dignity and nature in marriage and the family, in society and in the Church. You understood that the family nucleus must also open itself to others in order to be able to offer them, through lived love, spiritual and material assistance. More and more families realize that they constitute a small Church, that is, a "domestic church". Continue working in this direction! However, seek, with the same seriousness, ways to live responsible fatherhood and motherhood before God, which respond to objective criteria, such as those proposed throughout the world by religious teaching and also by the successor of Peter. In this regard, I would like to recall in particular the brief Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio , which gives strength to the indication of the Encyclical Humanae vitae .

Christian family! It becomes a family that prays again! A family that lives by faith! A family where parents are their children's first catechists. Where can you find the spirit of God, which is love. Learn from the merciful Father to always forgive you reciprocally. Parents, also learn from Him to give freedom to your children, and yet to always be with them. Take away from our parable the hope that the prodigal son finally found a father he never knew before.

8. "I will get up and go to my father." These words showed us the path of hope for families. But the family belongs to a certain society, to a people, and in the broadest sense, to all humanity. In this way, it is also involved in the many events of current civilization.

Don't we also perceive in all these events the desperate cry of that son in Christ's parable? Or at least a faint echo of this cry?

The son, in his exalted desire for freedom, seems to me to represent man in the society of highly developed states. Rapid progress in technology and economy, a standard of living that developed hastily caused profound transformations in this society. Many are overcome by euphoria, as if man were finally capable of holding the world in his hands and shaping it forever. In this proud consideration, not a few abandoned their innate conception of the world, according to which God was the origin and end of all beings. Now God no longer seems indispensable.

But this selfish departure from God was soon followed by great disillusionment, accompanied by fear: fear of the future, fear of the possibilities that man now has in his hands. Fear, therefore, of men themselves. Austria, in the heart of Europe, was not spared from this process either. Now, look for new paths, new answers to the problems of this time.

Return to your spiritual origin! Go back, turn back to God and organize the life of your society according to his laws! The Church, with its pastors and teachers, wants to help you in this. Through the Council's Pastoral Constitution, it continually presents the fundamental questions: "What is man? What is the meaning of pain, evil and death?... What can man give to society, and what can he receive from it? What But is there anything beyond this earthly life?" ( Gaudium, et spes , n. 10).

Dear Brothers and Sisters! Such fundamental questions of the Second Vatican Council affect the central point of the problem, to which the works of the "Katholikentag" of 1983 are dedicated. The answer to these problems is given by the Gospel. In this response, the perspective of hope appears to man. Without this answer there is no possibility of hope.

Does it not follow that we must accept the Joyful Message anew? Should we not accept it as a message that is of the same vital importance to men today as it was to men two thousand years ago? Should we not accept it with the inner conviction and decision to convert?

Yes, we must start a new annunciation. The announcement that man must convert and return to the Father.

The Father awaits us. The Father comes to meet us.

The Father desires to welcome each man again as a son or daughter.

Let's get up and go to Him! This is our hope!

Amen.

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