What Does Pope Benedict Hear on His Lenten Retreat?

The Pope is currently on Lenten retreat. What does the Pope and the Papal Household hear on such a retreat. Well the Ratzinger Forum has translated via Vatican Radio, Italian Service, one of the talks that was given.

On the fourth day of the Lenten spiritual exercises for the Holy Father and the Roman Curia, the two morning meditations proposed by retreat master Cardinal Albert Van Hoye were on how St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews presents the promise of the New Alliance and on the marriage at Cana.

Yesterday's evening meditation was on Christ's 'sacerdotal solidarity' with mankind. Alessandro Gisotti reports: Cardinal VanHoye said that the letter to the Hebrews establishes a close connection between Christ's priesthood and the New Alliance, of which Jesus is the mediator. The text presents a long citation from the oracle of Jeremiah who pre-announced the New Alliance.

The Cardinal recalled that the people of Israel had been repeatedly 'unfaithful' to God since the original Alliance with the people of Abraham. Therefore, God ordered Jeremiah to announce a truly new Alliance, different from that which he had made with the Patriarchs of Israel. God, said VanHoye, wanted a radically different alliance founded on four elements:
"The first aspect: The New Alliance will be interior and not exterior.

Second, it shall be a relationship of perfect reciprocal belonging between God and man.

Third, it will not be a collective institution but a personal relationship of every man with God.

Fourth, this relationship would be founded on complete forgiveness of sins." Thus, the New Alliance leads to a transformation of the heart. On Sinai, VanHoye pointed out, God wrote his laws on stone tablets - external laws to be observed - but which do not necessarily change man's heart.

So, an interior transformation was necessary, and God promised this. Once the heart is transformed, then that reciprocal relationship with God is established. Jeremiah had said that the New Alliance would be a persona, intimate relationship that would make admonitions useless, whereas in the Old Testament, admonitions and threats from the prophets were always necessary, even if these did not serve to convert the people of Israel.

In contrast, the New Alliance no longer needs admonitions. But although the oracle opened up wondrous prospects, it does not explain how the promise of God would be realized: "Jesus tells us in the Last Supper, when he institutes the Eucharist. He takes the chalice and says: 'This is my Blood...of the new and eternal Alliance...' The New Alliance had to be founded on blood - shed for many in remission of sins, according to the promise of the New Alliance."

As the New Alliance is founded on the blood of Jesus, the cardinal said, we must be aware that it is meant to renew us completely and places us in profound relationship with God through Christ. In the second meditation of the day, Cardinal VanHoye said that the marriage at Cana, too, was celebrated to establish an alliance. In the Old Testament, the alliance between God and his people was often presented as a marriage, whereas idolatry was presented as adultery by the people of Israel, as in the episode of the calf of gold.

But even in the most tragic moments, the Lord never renounced the promise of a New Alliance as a union of love. In Cana, he performed the miracle of transforming water into wine, giving the first of his miraculous signs and thereby manifesting his glory. What exactly is the glory of Jesus, the cardinal asked. It is the glory of a spouse, the glory of generous love which provided the good wine to celebrate the marriage. In the Gospel story, we are equally struck by the role of Mary, who called the attention of her Son that there was no more wine. And jesus replied in a way that showed the evolution of his relationship with his Mother. "

A Patristic commentary explains that it was no longer 'Mary's time', no longer the time when the Mother should guide her Son in life. It was now 'Jesus's hour' - the time when he had to take the initiative adn start carrying out God's plan. Jesus did not have to obey Mary now but take in hand his own mission as the Messiah." At the same time, Mary taught us what it means to be obedient to him. He concluded the meditation with St. Paul's invitation, in the Letter to the Romans, inviting us to transform ourselves by renewing our minds as well.