Magister on Benedict post WYD

Hat tip to Amy Welborn.

Sandro Magister reflects on the Pope here!

He illustrates what the Reasonable MSM missed. Their lack of comprehension has led them away from the real story of WYD: the renewal of the Church's commitment to worship Christ. For the young have risen to the challenge they received. They came to worship him. Pope Benedict XVI came to draw their attention not to himself, but to Christ. Magister notes:

He had announced it since his first morning as pope, in the seminal address delivered in the Sistine Chapel on April 20: “The Eucharist will be the centre of the World Youth Day in Cologne in August.”

And what he said, he did. To the million young people gathered from 197 countries for four days in the city that keeps the relics of the Magi – even to those of little faith and the non-baptized – Benedict XVI preached “the inconceivable greatness of a God who humbled himself even to appearing in a manger, to giving himself as food on the altar.”

One of his other early statements was that the pope “must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God's word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism.”

And he kept this promise, too. From August 18-21 in Cologne, Benedict XVI did not bestow upon the crowd a mere theatrical gesture, or nothing more than a striking phrase. He led the young people to look, not at him, but always and only at the true protagonist: that Jesus whom the Magi adored in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread,” and who is now concealed in the consecrated host.

Joseph Razinger took a big risk in Cologne. Cardinal Angleo Scola, one of the many bishops who came to catechize the young people during the first three days of the vigil with the pope, thought he would win them over with a ten-minute recitation from “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac. Benedict XVI, on the other hand, challenged everyone’s attention span with a difficult explanation of “the different nuances of the word ‘adoration’ in Greek and in Latin. The Greek word is ‘proskynesis’. It refers to the gesture of submission, the recognition of God as our true measure. [...] The Latin word is ‘ad-oratio’, mouth to mouth contact, a kiss, an embrace, and hence ultimately love. Submission becomes union, because he to whom we submit is love.”

Magister also explains how we the Church, as his Mystical Body, submit to he that is Love and worship him. He points out the utter blindness of MSM to this fundamental expression of the real story:

The television news coverage missed the most characteristic features of the meeting. The three mornings of catechesis in 270 groups, in churches and stadiums in Cologne and the surrounding area, preached by the cardinals and bishops spurred on by the new pope. The ceaseless pilgrimage toward the cathedral, to the relics of the Magi. The many celebrations of the Stations of the Cross on Friday evening. The myriads of sacramental confessions in all languages. The prayer in the churches, day and night: like at Saint Agnes Church in Cologne, under the direction of the ecumenical community of Taizé, the forerunner of these international meetings of faith for young people. The blossoming of love among young men and women, but also of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. And to the standard agenda of the World Youth Days, Benedict XVI added a meeting with seminarians, the priests of tomorrow's Church.

We form ourselves in Christ by learning his teachings from those sheperds he sends, who bear his catechism for us. We celebrate Christ among us through devotion to him in the sacraments, sacramentals, prayers and confession of who he is. We share our relationship with Christ to one another by our witness to him in the raw public of one million strong, gathered to worship him.

WYD 2005 is what WYDs before it have always been: an encounter between the young and Christ. The Pope is not the story. Dissenters' desires are not the story. Who agrees with the Pope and institutional Church is not the story. The youth of the world's encounter with the Savior is the story. The Reasonable MSM didn't get that because they don't get Christ. Therefore, they don't have a hope of getting his Church. All they can do is force the wonder before their eye to fit a tired formula. Their bosses hope that will move their readers and audiences to buy Coronas at Costco or balms at Barney's.

The MSM missed Christ. Therefore, they missed the heart of the story. Sandro Magister gets it. Fools get it. That is enough.

For now.