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Most
Reverend Abbot General!
Dear Confreres!
Treasured Family and Friends of the
Newly Ordained!
Solemnly gathered community!
Dear Lukas!
“The whole world understands my
language.”
This was Joseph Haydn’s reply to the
concern, which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is supposed to have uttered as
regards the matter of foreign languages before Hayden departed on his
first trip to England. The concern was unfounded. Haydn was a celebrated
musician in England, in modern terms: a star. In 1794, while Haydn was on
a second visit to England, the new Prince Nicholas II of the House of
Esterházy entreated him to return to Austria in order to become the court
musician, a position which his father had terminated. Since the musical
interests of the new prince was above all Church music, the highest
priority for Haydn in this new capacity would be to compose a new Mass for
the celebration of patronal feast of the Princess Marie Hermenegildis on
September 8th. Thus by 1806 appeared six great Masses, which
are counted among Haydn’s most impressive achievements.
Of these the “Missa in angustiis“
(„Mass in time of distress“), a musical version of the ordinary of the
Mass, stems from the year 1798, when at that time, a great anxiety gripped
Austria on a account of the ominous threat of Napoleon’s victory. A
legend reports how this Mass received its nickname, the “Nelson Mass”:
during the composition of the Mass in September 1798, the news arrived
that at a battle in the Mediterranean Sea the English Admiral Lord Nelson
had crushingly defeated the French fleet. As Haydn heard about Nelson’s
great deed, he is supposed to have added the trumpet fanfare at the end of
the score of the Benedictus in order to give honor to the sea hero of his
much beloved England. The second explanation of the name “The Nelson
Mass” is less legendary coming as it does since Admiral Nelson had
traveled through Austria during which time he came to the palace of Prince
Esterházy. On that occasion Haydn’s “Missa in angustiis“ was played in
his honor.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
Dear Lukas!
Perhaps there was in some such way
this concern for you as you started out five years ago in order to go to
London and there to study theology. But I believe that it is right to say
that your sojourn and studies in England have been extremely successful.
The most important concern of Stift Klosterneuburg is the care of souls,
to which you have now returned and indeed have already embraced in your
pastoral service in Austria and especially as a deacon in Norway. And it
will be moreover your great task – after your tour of Masses of
Thanksgivings through the parishes of the Stift – to undertake your
priestly and pastoral ministry as a parochial vicar in the Parish in
Bergen.
The very successful completion of
your studies in London attests that for you the languages of the world
pose not great problems. Even just yesterday the bishop in his homily
praised your rapid progress in the Norwegian language. And even we
Austrians do not have any problems understanding a Hamburger in our common
mother tongue.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
In your theological studies, dear
Lukas, you especially dealt with the study of the Bible. The Apostle, who
speaks a language, which the whole world understands – and this is
necessarily something positive – encounters us in the Bible in the person
of St. Thomas; there Thomas is the one who questions. Thomas is – and I
say this knowing that it is not probably what is said in most homilies
which are held today on Low Sunday – not un-believing; Thomas is a
modern man. He wants to believe, but he finds it so hard and he does not
want to settle for hearing about it second hand. Thomas – and much of
contemporary society around us – will not let himself be tricked by an
improbable story. Moreover Jesus did not rebuke his desire because Thomas
is just as much an apostle as all the others to whom Jesus really had
appeared after his Resurrection. Thomas demands nothing other than what
he would be entitled to in other circumstances. The witness of the
Apostles, who have seen the Risen One, is namely necessary for Christians
of every generation. That is the difference between Apostles and
Christians of the post-paschal Church. Our faith needs the witness of the
Apostles including that of Thomas. Only through the truth of their
testimony are we able to believe in Jesus, the Risen One. Thomas has come
to a perfect faith in Jesus because he was permitted to see the Risen
One. We come into possession of the same faith without seeing for
ourselves, but rather on the basis of the witness of Thomas and the other
Apostles.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
The whole world neither understood
nor understands the testimony of the Apostles about the Resurrection of
Jesus. The Apostles had to find a language through which they could
render witness to the world. How they accomplished this is reported in
the Acts of the Apostles. We have heard about this in the first reading:
the witness of the Apostles about the Resurrection of Jesus is embedded in
the idealized portrayal of the first community in Jerusalem, which
distinguished itself by its unity and common life. The unity and common
life of Christians in the Church became the proclamation of the
Resurrection of Jesus because it rendered compelling signs of the truth of
their witness. This testimony has found a language in the one
heart and in the one soul of the community of the believers, in
which the message of the resurrection can be understood by the world.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
Dear Lukas!
You have decided by your religious
profession to embrace a way of life by which one seeks to follow the
example of the idealized early Church of Jerusalem. The Father of the our
Order, Augustine, very often cited this short verse from today’s first
reading in many of his homilies and other writings in order to describe
his ideal of religious life and to give it a biblical underpinning. You
know yourself to be called a religious by God to pursue this ideal in
your life and with your life. It is the fate of this high ideal
that we never truly reach it in this life in its fullness. But this is
nevertheless no reason for resignation, but on the contrary it is the
incentive – with every ounce of realism – to keep going further one step
after another.
Precisely as a priest – ordained to
preach the Gospel – must you care for your personal faith in the
Resurrection. And your life, your religious life with your confreres must
find the language of the one heart and the one soul, in order to thereby
be able to give a witness to your faith in the Resurrection to whomever
you meet both with our community and in the world beyond.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
Whoever knows our newly ordained
priest Lukas, knows well that he has the courage to be Thomas. I believe
that one may say that you are a man, who does not accept things without
challenging them, who does not let things simply stand unquestioned or
without criticism. This not only applies to theological questions, but
also to political and social questions. I can remember well many
discussions in which we raised exciting questions in theology and
ecclesiology and we sought with great effort answers and we took hold of
‘hot potatoes’ in politics and social philosophy: matters on which – in
order to remain with the language of politics – I have not necessarily
taken on the Red, Deep Red and Green positions.
Dear Lukas, maintain your courage on
this way – precisely as a priest – to be another Thomas: the courage to
ask questions and the courage to admit to yourself that you have
questions, the courage to cultivate your ideas. In the day to day world
of pastoral life there is absolutely no guarantee of success if you only
employ ready made solutions. Far greater success will appear if you
struggle with other people to find the answers and if you have the courage
to admit to yourself and to others that you cannot still find sure answers
to some questions. Then people with their often pressing questions will
understand you; then you will speak the language which the world
understands. Only then – like Thomas – will your confession to “Your Lord
and Your God” be convincing and credible for everyone else. Only then as
another Thomas struggling for the faith will you speak a language of
faith, which helps others find faith.
“The whole world understands my
language.”
Joseph
Haydn took up in his composition of the Nelson Mass – not by accident was
it the only one in a minor key among his great Masses – the general mood
of depression in the time of the threat of war. And nevertheless the
musical genius did not let the reference to the difficult times appear on
the program because this work was supposed to be a solemn Mass for a feast
day in the court of Esterházy whereupon the sublimity and majesty, the
jubilation and triumph of our faith should resound. That’s what your own
language must be about, when you celebrate the liturgy, dispense the
Sacraments, proclaim the Gospel, lead the parish and give your pastoral
encouragement. Take the often difficult, anxious and depressing reality
of human beings as true and real. Let joy however resound in your liturgy
and your proclamation, that the Crucified one is risen and lives. Then
you have spoken the language of faith: “so that we may all believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that we all through faith have
life in His Name (Jn. 20:31), thereby expressing the words with which
John’s Gospel originally concluded. Then you need not simply give Mozart
a brash reply, but on the contrary can lay your entire priestly life and
work in the Hands of God, because you have tried to speak a language –
your language – which the whole world does understand. |
