Pope Benedict XVI
THE
RING AND THE SCARF
The Ring
The Fisherman’s Ring that Pope Benedict received has no jewel, but
simply the imprint of Peter’s boat and nets as on the official papal seal. And
it was fitting that on the occasion of his inauguration the steps and slopes up
towards the altar were laid with green grassy turf, on which more than 17,000
flowers bloomed - roses, snapdragons and buttercups -
white and yellow mingling with a touch of dark red. Here were the banks
for the new fisherman, the fields for the new shepherd.
The
presentation and wearing on of the Fisherman’s Ring expressed the inauguration
of the Petrine Ministry. In his magnificent inaugural homily the Pope said,
“Today too the Church and the successors of the Apostles are told to put out
into the deep sea of history and to let down the nets, so as to win men and
women over to the Gospel - to God, to Christ, to true life. For a fish,
created for water, it is fatal to be taken out of the sea, to be removed from
its vital element. But in the mission of a fisher of men, the reverse is
true. The net of the Gospel pulls us out
of the waters of death and brings us into the splendour of God’s light. The
purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And the account of the 153 large
fish ends with the joyful statement: ‘although there were so many, the net was
not torn’ (John 21,11). Let us remember it in our prayer to the Lord, as we
plead with him: ‘yes, Lord, remember your promise. Do not allow your net to be
torn, help us to be servants of unity!’”
The Pallium
The origins of the Pallium are obscure, but in antiquity the word
signified the scarf or cloak worn by philosophers. In the course of time it
became the special badge of metropolitan archbishops, and today no archbishop
may exercise his ministry until he has received the Pallium from the Pope.
The
Pallium that Pope Benedict received returned to the longer and more elegant
style of the first millennium, as seen in early mosaics - a
long strip of cloth arranged around the shoulders like a loose scarf, and
hanging long down the left-hand side. This is preferable, I believe, to the
smaller yoke of cloth with a stubby tail that we usually see on archbishops’
shoulders during a solemn liturgy, indicating their sharing in the papal
plenitude of power. The Pope’s Pallium measures two and half metres in length,
woven from wool of both sheep and lambs. It provided a visual link between the
modern Petrine office and the early ages of undivided church, and evoked Christ’s
commission to St. Peter, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.” Pope Benedict’s
Pallium has five red crosses, symbolising the wounds of Christ, the Good
Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep.
Commenting
on the Pallium, the Pope pointed out that this ancient emblem has been worn
since the 4th. Century, and may stand for the yoke of Christ that he
takes upon his shoulders, though it does not oppress or destroy his freedom but
enables him to serve God and the whole world. The wool of which the Pallium is
made represents the lost, sick and weak sheep, which the shepherd carries on
his shoulders. The human race, every one of us, said the Pope, is the sheep
lost in the desert.
The accompanying prayers
emphasised the Pope’s Petrine obligation to strengthen his brother bishops,
and, through them, the People of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment