Holy Mass at Altoetting (18 November 1980)

On 18 November 1980, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass at the Chapel of Grace in Altötting. In his homily, the Pope preached on the greeting of Saint Elizabeth, at the Visitation, and the Blessed Mother's response. 

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord!

1. On the pilgrimage through your land, we meet at the Lord's house, at this shrine, to meet Mary, Our Lady, in a special way. You are the main participants in this meeting, Venerable Brothers and Sisters, who have a special vocation as members of religious orders, secular institutes and other spiritual communities. You can say of yourselves that through your consecrated total commitment "your life is hidden with Christ in God."

With you I come as a pilgrim to the Chapel of Grace in Altötting. I rejoice with you in the presence of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Bishop Antonius Hofmann, the head pastor of the Passau diocese, many bishops and auxiliary bishops, and the numerous pilgrims - priests and lay people - from Bavaria and neighboring countries who have gathered here for this evening celebration of the Eucharist. A warm "Vergelt's Gott" for coming! Thank you for the prayer and the mostly hidden, silent sacrifices with which you have spiritually prepared this encounter for weeks! Thank you for the supportive loyalty to the successor of Peter that you expressed in your greeting. Such a loving bond makes me feel at home with you today, on the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome.

Allow me to compare our joint visit to Altötting with Mary's visit to Zacharias and Elisabet. I trust that this visit of ours will bear rich fruit if we try to make it like Mary's. In doing so, we want to be guided as much as possible by the light of the Word of God heard in this liturgy.

2. Mary enters the house of her relatives, greets Elizabeth and hears words of greeting from her.

These words are intimately familiar to us. We say it countless times, especially when we contemplate the mysteries of the Rosary: ​​"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb". This is how Zechariah's wife greets Maria. In doing so she pronounces a first beatitude, the echo of which echoes in the history of the Church and humanity, in the history of human hearts and thoughts. Could man ever reach higher?

Could he ever learn something deeper about himself? Could man be raised higher through any achievement of his humanity, through reason, spiritual greatness or heroic achievements than he received in this "fruit of the womb" of Mary, in which the Eternal Word, the consubstantial Son of the Father, became flesh! Can the breadth of the human heart absorb a greater fullness of truth and love than that which God himself prepares to give man his only son? The Son of God becomes man, conceived by the Holy Spirit! Yes indeed, you are more blessed than any other woman, Maria!

Elizabeth adds a second beatitude to her first: "Blessed is she that believed that what the Lord commanded her to be fulfilled". Elizabeth praises and praises Mary's faith.

In doing so, she felt deeply the unique grandeur of that moment when the Virgin of Nazareth heard the words of the Annunciation. For this message had surpassed all human comprehension, despite the high tradition of the old covenant. And behold, Mary not only heard these words, not only received them, she gave them the fully appropriate answer: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be done to me as you have said." Such a response requires from Mary an unconditional faith, a faith modeled on Abraham and Moses, and even greater. It is precisely this faith of Mary that Elizabeth praises.

3. My dear brothers and sisters! Regarding the mystery of the personal vocation of each one of you, we can in a certain way repeat, but respecting the proportions: "Blessed because you have believed". Mary's faith also shone in you when you said your fiat, your yes to the call to follow Christ in a special way. Only in faith could you - like the disciples at the Sea of ​​Genesaret - take the first steps of those called by the Lord: in faith you heard the word of the caller within you; in faith you have left your previous living space with all its possibilities; you have followed the Lord in faith, ready from now on to expect the meaning and fruitfulness of your life only from your total commitment to him.

Believing in the fidelity of the caller and the power of his spirit, you placed yourselves at God's disposal in the vows of poverty, consecrated virginity and obedience; and not as an “obligation to revoke”, not as a “temporary monastery”, not as an employee in a group that comes together for a task and then disperses again at will. No, in faith you have said a yes for all and ever, which finds its expression in your way of life, right down to your religious habit. In our time of fear of commitment, when many would like to escape into a “life on trial”, it is up to you to bear witness to the fact that a final commitment, a life-supporting decision towards God, can be risked; that it will make you free and joyful if it is renewed day by day.

Your yes, given years or decades ago, must always be reaffirmed to the Lord. This requires daily listening to the mystery of the greater God, daily acceptance of his crucified - and crucifying - love. Only he can keep the gift of vocation alive in you. Only he can overcome the weakness experienced again and again through his spirit.

Mary's yes, spoken in a single decision, had to be redeemed again and again by her until she endured the cross, where she gave her son and became our mother. He who has claimed Mary's yes to share in salvation will also claim yours. You spoke it! Say it anew every day! Then also applies to you: "Blessed, because you have believed!".

4. Faith allows the status of religious to become a special testimony to the coming kingdom of God. Christ speaks of this kingdom in connection with the mystery of the resurrection of the flesh: "In the resurrection they shall marry no more". In the service that we are celebrating today at Our Lady in Altötting, this mystery is expressed in the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "But when this perishable is clothed with the imperishable and this mortal with immortality, then the word of the Writing: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? O death, where is thy sting? But the sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

These impressive words of the Apostle of the Gentiles were read today in honor of Mary. In fact, through her assumption into heaven, she attained full participation in the resurrection of Christ.

However, the apostle addresses the same words to you, dear brothers and sisters; for in the great Yes of your life you have chosen God-consecrated celibacy "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven". You are a visible sign of the coming kingdom of God!

May the heart of each one of you, who have renounced earthly fatherhood and motherhood, be filled again and again with the priceless riches of spiritual fatherhood and motherhood, which so many of your fellow human beings urgently need! You love no less; you love more!

That you know how to care, help, heal, educate, lead and comfort in a very deep way is testified not least by the many, often touching letters in which the Pope is implored not to allow it after all sisters, fathers or brothers are withdrawn from a kindergarten, a school, from a nursing home or hospital, from a social center or parish.

Why is your service so appreciated? Not only because of your professional competence; not only because you can give more time thanks to your life choices; but primarily because people feel that someone else is working through you. For to the extent that you live your full devotion to the Lord, you share something of Him; and it is ultimately what the human heart desires.

You love him in all who are entrusted to your multiple cares, your intercessory prayer, your hidden sacrifice. You serve him “in the sick and the elderly, the handicapped and disadvantaged, whom nobody else cares for..., in the children, the young people, in school, catechesis and pastoral care. You serve him in the simplest services, as well as in the fulfillment of tasks that sometimes require high learning”. For his sake, many of your communities are leaving their homes to serve the kingdom of God in tireless commitment in the young churches. - You seek and find him everywhere, like the bride of the Song of Songs: "... I have found the one whom my soul loves". This fulfillment of life - that you find him in everything and everything in him - is at the same time the best encouragement for young Christians, to get involved in the call of Jesus in the church - also to the call to the councils. It can dawn on them in you that whoever gives himself has found the meaning of his life.

Mary, to whom we made a pilgrimage to Altötting today, bears the features of that woman who describes the Secret Revelation to us: ”A woman clothed with the sun; the moon was under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head." This woman, who stands at the end of the story of creation and salvation, obviously corresponds to the one about whom it is said on the first pages of the Bible that she will "crush the serpent's head".

Between this promising beginning and the apocalyptic end, Mary brought to light a son "who will shepherd all nations with a rod of iron".

It is her heel that is pursued by that first "snake". It is she with whom the apocalyptic dragon fights, for as mother of the redeemed she is the image of the church, which we also call mother.

Dear brothers and sisters! You are called in a special way to take part in this spiritual battle! You are called to this ongoing struggle that our Mother Church is going through and that forms in her the image of the woman, the mother of the Messiah. You, who find the center of your profession in the worship of the holy God, are also particularly exposed to the temptation of evil - as is exemplified in the temptation of the Lord. The battle rages between the Word of God and the slogan of evil, between 'Let these stones become bread!' and 'Man does not live by bread alone'. God wants us to conquer the earth by perfecting it—and ourselves. The temptation of evil wants, that we disfigure them and ourselves; that work enslaves us and leisure spoils; that we make endless sacrifices for our outside and atrophy inside, decorate the home and are homeless, look to have and forget to be; that possessions become our "god". - Through the inner struggle for the spirit of poverty and through the symbolic visibility of this poverty, you, dear sisters and brothers, help all members of the Church and humanity to carefully manage this world, to own things in such a way that they do not own us , not to make the livelihood the purpose of life.

“Throw yourself down” is the name of the second temptation of Jesus. Plunge into adventure, dare to jump into the realm of dreams, that's what tempts you today; intoxicate yourself with the cornucopia of life - in the intoxication of speed, in the intoxication of sensuality, in the intoxication of delusions and in the intoxication of violence. God has given us a heart to experience and much that can fulfill us - especially you. But without him everything is too little. Either we seek happiness in it or we miss it - chased by the pursuit of happiness, from disappointment to disappointment, to weariness and disgust. - By renouncing the marriage-fulfilling you and by cultivating a loving openness to God, dear brothers and sisters, you help everyone in the Church: to give oneself without losing oneself; to approach each other to grow into God together; to rejoice in what is passing, as the liturgy prays, in such a way that at the same time one is already connected to the eternal.

Even more glorious and dangerous than the world and the you, as possessions and happiness, is the ego and its claim to realization. God wants man "in his image and likeness"; Lucifer wants him as an anti-god - who refuses worship and falls victim to the idol as a price: "He showed him all the kingdoms of the world...: I will give you all this if you bow down to me and worship me. Everything creative and every form of self-realization - in politics, in the economy, in spiritual life and also in the church - has the danger of vanity, pride, even recklessness. - Dear religious, by your faithful struggle for the spirit of obedience and by its visible sign, obedience to the superior, you help all believers and the Church itself, to recognize and endure the temptation of power; help her to complete freedom in devotion.

Today, perhaps more than ever, the kingdom of God that "suffers violence" needs new "fighters" to meet the temptations and demands of our time. It wants to find them in your monasteries and communities, shaped and supported by life together. Be assured that such generous men and women will bring forth new generations to follow Christ and "renew the face of the earth" today and tomorrow!

5. In these days of my pilgrimage to you, the Church commemorates three saints of your homeland.

In conclusion, I would like to commend your path and service in the Church to them. St. Albert help you to hear God's call from the signs of the times and to answer it in the spirit of your founders. St. Gertrud obtain for you the zeal and the fruit of the encounter with God in contemplation and liturgy. St. Elisabeth give you the fine feeling and the unlimited openness in the devotion to all who need you.

Albert, Gertrud, Elisabeth - they are joined here in Altötting by the humble, cheerful gatekeeper of the Sankt-Anna-Kloster, St. brother Konrad. We see him kneeling in his cell - in front of the window that was broken through the wall especially for him so that he could always look at the altar of the church. In the midst of everyday life, let us also break through the walls of the visible to keep the Lord always and everywhere in sight!

Together with Mary we want to continue our visit to the shrine so dear to her.

Let us enter united with her and let us repeat:
“My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. For he looked upon the lowliness of his maidservant. Behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.

For the mighty one has done great things for me, and his name is holy. From generation to generation he has compassion on all who fear him."

Truly, my dear brothers and sisters! The Almighty has done "great things" for each of you! big! To each of you! Don't stop praising him! Don't stop thanking him! Do not stop living your total dedication, your vocation every day anew under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin, Our Lady of Altötting!

This is how the kingdom of God will live in you!

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana