Full text of his speech below from Vatican Radio Source here.
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood!
Distinguished Authorities!
Dear brothers and sisters!
Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this last General Audience of my pontificate.
Like
the Apostle Paul in the biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my
heart the paramount duty to thank God, who guides the Church and makes
her grow: who sows His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His people.
At this moment my soul/spirit reaches out to embrace the whole Church
throughout the world, and I thank God for the “news” that in these years
of Petrine ministry I have been able to receive regarding the faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity that circulates in the body of
the Church – charity that makes the Church to live in love – and of the
hope that opens for us the way towards the fullness of life, and directs
us towards the heavenly homeland.
I feel I [ought to] carry
everyone in prayer, in a present that is God’s, where I recall every
meeting, every voyage, every pastoral visit. I gather everyone and every
thing in prayerful recollection, in order to entrust them to the Lord:
in order that we might have full knowledge of His will, with every
wisdom and spiritual understanding, and in order that we might comport
ourselves in a manner that is worthy of Him, of His, bearing fruit in
every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).
At this time, I have within
myself a great trust [in God], because I know – all of us know – that
the Gospel’s word of truth is the strength of the Church: it is her
life. The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the
community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and
lives in charity. This is my faith, this is my joy.
When, almost eight years ago, on April 19th,
[2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I held steadfast in
this certainty, which has always accompanied me. In that moment, as I
have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart
were: “Lord, what do you ask of me? It a great weight that You place on
my shoulders, but, if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the
nets, sure that you will guide me” – and the Lord really has guided me.
He has been close to me: daily could I feel His presence. [These years]
have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has seen moments
joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter
with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has
given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the
catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were
rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it
has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless, I always
knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is
not mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He,
who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing,
for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing
can tarnish. It is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with
gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church without His
consolation, His light, His love.
We are in the Year of Faith,
which I desired in order to strengthen our own faith in God in a context
that seems to push faith more and more toward the margins of life. I
would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would
like that we all, entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and
rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even
in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who
gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone
to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited
daily in the morning says, “I adore you, my God, I love you with all my
heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made me a
Christian.” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most
precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this
every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us,
but He also expects that we love Him!
At this time, however, it
is not only God, whom I desire to thank. A Pope is not alone in guiding
St. Peter’s barque, even if it is his first responsibility – and I have
not ever felt myself alone in bearing either the joys or the weight of
the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed next to me many people, who,
with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been
close to me. First of all you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom,
your counsels, your friendship, were all precious to me. My
collaborators, starting with my Secretary of State, who accompanied me
faithfully over the years, the Secretariat of State and the whole Roman
Curia, as well as all those who, in various areas, give their service to
the Holy See: the many faces which never emerge, but remain in the
background, in silence, in their daily commitment, with a spirit of
faith and humility. They have been for me a sure and reliable support. A
special thought [goes] to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I can not
forget the Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, the
consecrated persons and the entire People of God: in pastoral visits, in
public encounters, at Audiences, in traveling, I have always received
great care and deep affection; I also loved each and every one, without
exception, with that pastoral charity which is the heart of every
shepherd, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle
Peter. Every day I carried each of you in my prayers, with the father's
heart.
I wish my greetings and my thanks to reach everyone: the
heart of a Pope expands to [embrace] the whole world. I would like to
express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See,
which makes present the great family of nations. Here I also think of
all those who work for good communication, whom I thank for their
important service.
At this point I would like to offer heartfelt
thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world, who, in recent
weeks have sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer.
Yes, the Pope is never alone: now I experience this [truth] again in a
way so great as to touch my very heart. The Pope belongs to everyone,
and so many people feel very close to him. It’s true that I receive
letters from the world's greatest figures - from the Heads of State,
religious leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I
also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply
from their heart and let me feel their affection, which is born of our
being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write
me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one
does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters,
with the sense of very affectionate family ties. Here, one can touch
what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for
religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of
brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all. To
experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one’s
hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a
time in which many speak of its decline.
In recent months, I felt
that my strength had decreased, and I asked God with insistence in
prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me take the right decision
– not for my sake, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this
step in full awareness of its severity and also its novelty, but with a
deep peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to
make difficult, trying choices, having ever before oneself the good of
the Church and not one’s own.
Here allow me to return once again
to April 19, 2005. The gravity of the decision was precisely in the fact
that from that moment on I was committed always and forever by the
Lord. Always – he, who assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any
privacy. He belongs always and totally to everyone, to the whole
Church. His life is, so to speak, totally deprived of the private
sphere. I have felt, and I feel even in this very moment, that one
receives one’s life precisely when he offers it as a gift. I said before
that many people who love the Lord also love the Successor of Saint
Peter and are fond of him, that the Pope has truly brothers and sisters,
sons and daughters all over the world, and that he feels safe in the
embrace of their communion, because he no longer belongs to himself, but
he belongs to all and all are truly his own.
The “always” is
also a “forever” - there is no returning to private life. My decision to
forgo the exercise of active ministry, does not revoke this. I do not
return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions,
conferences and so on. I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new
way near to the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the
office for the government of the Church, but in the service of prayer I
remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds. St. Benedict, whose name
I bear as Pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us
the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work
of God.
I thank each and every one of you for the respect and
understanding with which you have welcomed this important decision. I
continue to accompany the Church on her way through prayer and
reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and to His Bride, which I
have hitherto tried to live daily and that I would live forever. I ask
you to remember me before God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals,
who are called to so important a task, and for the new Successor of
Peter, that the Lord might accompany him with the light and the power of
His Spirit.
Let us invoke the maternal intercession of Mary,
Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and
the whole ecclesial community: to her we entrust ourselves, with deep
trust.
Dear friends! God guides His Church, maintains her always,
and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of
faith, which is the only true vision of the way of the Church and the
world. In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always
the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us,
that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love.
Thank
you!"
