The following words were delivered on the steps of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to the crowds who were awaiting the arrival of Pope Benedict on Wednesday, April 16, 2008.
Brothers and sisters, what have you come out to see, a reed shaken by the wind, or the rock? Our Catholic faith is solid like a rock, built on the rock of Peter. But one would never know it by listening to the voices of despair around us.
So many people are making the case for despair. We hear all the time about the scandals in the Church. We hear about the crisis in Catholic education. We hear that young people are leaving the Church in droves. And we hear not only about the Church. A state governor just resigned from office, and the mayor of a major city is on trial. Moral relativism seems pervasive and books pushing atheism are more popular than ever. To top it off, today [April 16] is the one year anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech. Sometimes, the case for despair seems unanswerable.
But Pope Benedict is coming to the United States to answer the case for despair. The answer is Jesus. You can take all the evils in the world, line up all the crises in the Church and in society, or make an inventory of all of our problems, and you know what we say? We say that the love of Christ is stronger. The love of Christ is stronger than all the problems around us. The love of Christ is stronger than all of our weaknesses.
“I know my plans for you says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for evil, plans to give you a future and hope” (Jer. 29:11).
To those who are trapped in addiction to alcohol, drugs, and pornography, we say that the love is Christ is stronger. To the women and men hurting after an abortion, we say that the love of Christ is stronger than the bitter memory of that day in your life. To those who are broken hearted about the war and the violence around us, we say that the love of Christ is stronger. “He heals the broken hearted, he binds up all their wounds” (Ps. 147:3).
Now, when we say that the love of Christ is stronger, we do not mean that the love of Christ is some magic wand that will make all of our problems disappear. We are too realistic to think such a thing. Rather, we say that the love of Christ is like a flame flickering in the night time. No matter how thick the surrounding darkness can get, the darkness never extinguishes the flame. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:5).
Remember St. Maximilian Kolbe? He was the Polish priest, the Franciscan, who lived during World War II. He confessed the name of Christ, was arrested, and sent to Auschwitz. In that horrific place he was surrounded on all sides by reasons for despair. Everywhere he turned there was another reason to give up hope. But he had the supernatural knowledge called faith, and by his faith he knew that the love of Christ was stronger than all the evil he saw around him.
The rule in the camp was that if anyone attempted to escape, ten men would be selected at random to die by starvation. They would be rounded up and sent to a starvation bunker. One day, someone tried to escape. Sure enough, ten were selected to die. One of the men selected for execution had children, and pleaded for his life with the guard. Fr. Kolbe saw the man pleading, and offered himself to the guard in exchange. The guard accepted the offer, and St. Maximilian Kolbe went off to die with the rest of them in the starvation bunker.
Even though St. Maximilian was surrounded on all sides by evils of every kind, even though he was swamped with reasons to despair, the darkness could not extinguish from his heart the capacity to love. Even in that horrible place, St. Maximilian retained within himself the ability to love like Christ. And that, brothers and sisters, is the victory of Christ. The victory is interior and spiritual.
Let us always remember St. Maximilian Kolbe, and let us always remember that no matter what is going on around us, the love of Christ is stronger.
