Holy Mass in Cologne (15 November 1980)

On 15 November 1980, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in Cologne. In his homily, the Pope said the kingdom of God is among us and yet still before us, invoking the parable of a net thrown into the sea. 

"The kingdom of heaven is like a net..." ( Mt 13:47).

Allow me, reverend Bishop of the ancient, venerable Church of Cologne, reverend brother Cardinals and Bishops, allow me all, beloved brothers and sisters, to try to clarify in this Eucharistic celebration the importance of our extraordinary meeting today with the help of this parable, with the help of the word of Christ, who repeatedly explained the kingdom of God by means of parables. Using them, he announced the presence of this kingdom to the world.

We too must meet in this dimension. This is, in a way, the essential premise of today's visit of the successor of the Apostle Peter to the episcopal see of Rome to your Church in Germany, to you here in Cologne, who represent the Church of God as it was formed in the course of many centuries around the Roman “Colonia Agrippina”. The outstanding symbol of this Church up to now has been your splendid cathedral, whose spiritual importance has been renewed in you thanks to this year's jubilee: it powerfully speaks to you of the kingdom of God among us.

We, who now form the Church of Christ on earth, must meet in this part of the German territory in the dimension of the unity of the kingdom of God: Christ came to proclaim this kingdom and spread it on this earth, in every place on earth, in the men and among men.

This kingdom of God is among us (cf. Lk17:21), as it was in all the generations of your fathers and ancestors. Like them, however, we still pray in the "Our Father" every day: "Thy kingdom come". These words testify that the kingdom of God is still before us, that we go to meet it and to it we go advancing along confused, and indeed sometimes even false, paths of our earthly existence. With these words we testify that the kingdom of God is continually realized and is drawing near, even if we often lose sight of it and no longer perceive the profile of it determined by the Gospel. It often seems that the only and exclusive dimension of our existence is "this world": the "kingdom of this world" with its visible profile, its fascinating progress in science and technology, culture and economy... fascinating and often even worrying! However, if every day, or at least from time to time, we kneel down to pray, we always pronounce the same words amidst the circumstances of life: "Thy kingdom come".

Dear brothers and sisters! These hours, in which we meet here, the time which, thanks to your invitation and your hospitality, I can spend among you, is the time of the kingdom of God: of the kingdom "which is already here", and of that which still " he comes". For this we must interpret all the essentials, which refer to this visit, with the help of the parable, which we hear in today's Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is similar...".

2. What is it similar to?

According to Jesus' words as handed down to us by the four evangelists, this kingdom is explained with various parables and comparisons. Today's comparison is one of many. It seems to us very closely connected with that work, which Christ's apostles did, including Peter, like many of his listeners on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. Christ says: the kingdom of heaven is like "a net thrown into the sea, which gathers in all kinds of fish" ( Mt1.47pm). These simple words completely change the physiognomy of the world: the physiognomy of our human world, as we make it with experience and science. Experience and science cannot cross those boundaries of the "world" and of human existence in it, which are necessarily joined to the "sea of ​​time": the boundaries of a world, in which man is born and dies, in correspondence with the Genesis words: "You are dust and to dust you will return" ( Gen3.19). The comparison of Christ, on the contrary, speaks of the transposition of man into another "world", into another dimension of his existence. The kingdom of heaven is properly this new dimension, which opens up above the "sea of ​​time" and is at the same time the "net" which works in this sea for the destiny of man and of all men in God.

Today's parable invites us to recognize the kingdom of heaven as the definitive fulfillment of that justice, desired by man with irrepressible nostalgia, which the Lord has placed in his heart, of that justice that Jesus himself realized and proclaimed, of that justice finally, which Christ sealed with his own blood on the cross.

In the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom of "justice, love and peace" (prefatio in festo Christi Regis) man too will find himself perfect. For man is being, that he springs from the depths of God and hides such a depth in himself that only God can fill it. He, man, is in all his being a copy of God and is like him.

3. Jesus founded his Church on twelve apostles, many of whom were fishermen. Thus the image of the network was immediate. Jesus wanted them to be fishers of men. The Church too is a network, united with the Holy Spirit, connected by the apostolic mission, efficient for unity in faith, life and love.

I am thinking at this moment of the widely spread network of the universal Church.

At the same time, every single Church in your land is before my eyes, especially the great Church of Cologne and the neighboring dioceses. And finally before my eyes is the smallest of these churches, the "ecclesiola", the domestic church, which the very recent Synod of Bishops in Rome recalled with such great attention in the theme on "the duties of the Christian family".

The family: domestic church, unmistakable and irreplaceable community of people, of which Saint Paul speaks in today's second reading. In this he naturally has before his eyes the Christian family of his time, but what he says we must equally apply to the problems of families in our time: what he says to husbands, what he says to wives, children and parents. And finally what he says to all of us: "Clothe yourselves therefore with sentiments of mercy, goodness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearing one another and forgiving one another... Above all then, let there be charity which it is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, for to it you were called in one body. And be thankful!” ( Col 3:12-15).

What a great lesson in marriage and family spirituality!

4. But we cannot close our eyes to the other face either; the synod fathers in Rome also dealt very seriously with it: I mean the difficulties to which the lofty ideal of the Christian understanding of the family and family life is exposed today. Modern industrial society has fundamentally changed the living conditions for marriage and the family.

Marriage and family before were not only communities of life, but they were also communities of production and economy. They were rejected by many public functions. The public climate is not always favorable towards marriage and the family. And yet, in our mass civilization, they prove themselves as a place of refuge in the search for protection and happiness. Marriage and the family are more important than ever: living cells for the renewal of society, sources of strength, through which life is made more human. I can grasp the image: net, giving support and unity and lifting from the currents of the depths.

Let's not allow this network to break. State and society initiate their own decay if they do not support marriage and the family more effectively and no longer protect them and put them on a par with other non-marital communities of life. All men of good will, especially we Christians are called to rediscover the dignity and value of marriage and the family and to live them convincingly before men. The Church, with the light of faith, offers her advice and her spiritual service.

5. Marriage and the family are very deeply connected with man's personal dignity. They do not derive only from instinct and passion, not even only from feeling; they derive first of all from a decision of free will, from a personal love, through which the spouses become not only one flesh, but also one heart and one soul. Physical and sexual communion is something great and beautiful. But it is only worthy of man, if it is integrated into a personal union, recognized by the civil and ecclesiastical community. Full sexual communion between a man and a woman therefore has its legitimate place only within the sphere of the exclusive and definitive personal bond of fidelity in marriage. The indissolubility of conjugal fidelity, which today is no longer understandable to many, it is equally an expression of the unconditional dignity of man. You can't live just for trial, you can't die just for trial. You can't love only for trial, accept a man only for trial and time.

6. Thus marriage is oriented to the duration, to the future. It looks beyond its borders. Marriage is the only suitable place for the generation and education of children. Hence married love is also essentially oriented towards fruitfulness. In this task of handing down life, spouses collaborate with the love of God the Creator. I know that even here in today's society the difficulties are great. They especially burden the woman. Small housing, economic and health problems, often even a declared attitude not in favor of prolific families constitute an obstacle to greater fertility. I appeal to all those responsible, to all the forces of society: do everything to help. I appeal first of all to your conscience and your personal responsibility, dear brothers and sisters. In your conscience you must, in the presence of God, make the decision on the number of your children.

As spouses you are called to responsible parenthood. However, this means such family planning, which respects ethical norms and criteria, as was also underlined by the very recent Synod of Bishops. With great haste I would like to remind you today of this reason only one thing: the killing of unborn life is not a legitimate means of family planning. I repeat what I said on May 31 of this year to the workers in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis: “The first right of man is the right to life. We must defend this right and this value. Otherwise the whole logic of faith in man, the whole program of truly human progress would be shaken and everything would fall to the ground”. In reality it is about this: to serve life.

7. Dear brothers and sisters! On the indispensable platform and on the premise of what has been said, we wish to address the deepest mystery of marriage and the family. Marriage from the point of view of our faith is a Sacrament of Jesus Christ. Marital love and fidelity are understood and transmitted by God's love and fidelity in Jesus Christ. The strength of his cross and his resurrection carries and sanctifies Christian spouses.

As the recent Synod of Bishops pointed out in its message to the Christian families of today's world, the Christian family is called in a special way to collaborate in God's plan of salvation, inasmuch as it helps its members "to become protagonists in the history of salvation and at the same time living signs of God's plan for the world” (Synodi Episcoporum Nuntius ad Christianas Familias , 8).

As a "small Church", sacramentally founded, or rather the domestic Church, marriage and the family must be a school of faith and a place of common prayer. I attribute great significance to prayer in the family. It gives strength to overcome many problems and difficulties. In marriage and in the family, fundamental human and Christian attitudes must grow and mature, without which the Church and society cannot exist. Here is the first place for the Christian apostolate of the laity and of the priesthood common to all the baptized. Such marriages and families imbued with the Christian spirit are also true seminaries, that is to say nurseries for spiritual vocations for the priestly and religious state.

Dear spouses and parents, dear families! What more heartily could I wish you on the occasion of today's Eucharistic meeting than this: that all of you and every single family may be such a "domestic church", a small Church! May the parable of the kingdom of God be fulfilled in you! May you experience the presence of the kingdom of God, as you yourselves are the living "network", which unites and brings and shelters - for yourselves and for many around you.

This is my desire for blessing, which I express to you as your guest and pilgrim and as a servant of your salvation.

8. And now allow me at the end of this fundamental reflection on the kingdom of God and on the Christian family to also address Saint Albert the Great, whose seventh centenary celebrations brought me to your city. Indeed here is the tomb of this famous son of your country, who was born in Lauingen and in his long life was at the same time a great scientist, a spiritual son of St Dominic and the teacher of St Thomas Aquinas. He was one of the greatest men of intelligence in the thirteenth century. Like no one else, he has joined the "net" that unites faith and reason, God's wisdom and worldly science. At least in spirit, I also visit his city where he was born, Lauingen, while today, in Cologne, at his tomb, I stop to meditate with you on the words with which today's liturgy celebrates him: “If this is the will of the great Lord / he will be filled with the spirit of intelligence. / Like rain he will pour out words of wisdom, / in prayer he will give praise to the Lord. / He will direct his advice and the science of him, he will meditate on the mysteries of God. / He will make the doctrine of his teaching of him shine, / he will boast of the law of the covenant of the Lord. / Many will praise his intelligence, / he will never be forgotten, / the memory of him will not disappear, / his name will live on from generation to generation. / The peoples will speak of the wisdom of him, / the congregation will proclaim the praises of him ”( / He will make the doctrine of his teaching shine, / he will boast of the law of the covenant of the Lord. / Many will praise his intelligence, / he will never be forgotten, / the memory of him will not disappear, / his name will live on from generation to generation. / The peoples will speak of the wisdom of him, / the congregation will proclaim the praises of him ”( / He will make the doctrine of his teaching shine, / he will boast of the law of the covenant of the Lord. / Many will praise his intelligence, / he will never be forgotten, / the memory of him will not disappear, / his name will live on from generation to generation. / The peoples will speak of the wisdom of him, / the congregation will proclaim the praises of him ”(Sir 39,6-10).

There is nothing to add to these words of the wise Jesus Sirach. But neither should one leave any. In fact, they perfectly describe the figure of that man whose homeland, your city, is rightly honored and who brings joy to the whole Church. Albert the Great, universal doctor - Albert the Great, with a very broad doctrine: a true "disciple of the kingdom of God"! If today we have reflected together on the vocation of the Christian family to build the kingdom of God on earth, the words of Christ's parable must also give us the deepest meaning of this saint, whom we solemnly remember today. In fact, Christ says: "Every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" ( Mt 13:52).

St. Albert is also similar to this landlord! May his example and his intercession accompany me as I on my pilgrimage through your country, as a fisher of men, try to tie the net tighter and cast it again, so that the kingdom of God may come.

Pope's appeal for a kidnapped child

Before continuing with the liturgical celebration, it is my heartfelt desire, in the context of today's meditation on marriage and the family, on behalf of all of you to express my emotion at the abduction that has just taken place in your country of an eleven-year-old girl, Cornelia Becker . We share the parents' concern for the fate of their little girl.

Once again we feel with pain what human aberration and lack of feeling are capable of. In the name of humanity I appeal to the conscience of the kidnappers: desist from your insane action! Return little Cornelia, who is innocent, to her parents unconditionally! We wish now with prayer to address this supplication to God, to God who has access to the hearts of men, where our words do not reach. We pray with the affected parents that they will soon see their little girl again with joy. Lord Jesus Christ. You are the truth. Hear our plea. Amen.

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