Visiting Venice, the city of gondolas and canals, Pope Benedict XVI
has said Christians must try to make their lives reflect the life-giving
qualities of water and not the chaos and destruction it can bring.
Pope
Benedict said at the end of a two-day visit to Aquileia and Venice in
northern Italy: “Water is an ambivalent symbol: of life, but also death;
the populations struck by flooding and tsunamis know this.”
Seated
in a white gondola amid a colorful flotilla of all kinds of boats, Pope
Benedict rode to a meeting with Venetian cultural, artistic, political
and economic leaders.
He said Venetians knew how fascinating water
had made their city and, yet, how many difficulties it had caused,
particularly for the health and stability of the city.
Residents,
he said, could choose to reflect either the beautiful or the problematic
qualities of water in their relationships with others and in the way
they organise their life together.
Either they are “fluid” to the extent
of being adrift and destructive, or they hold firm to their Christian
heritage and become a source of life for all, he said.
Celebrating
Mass for an estimated 300,000 people in a park in nearby Mestre that
morning, Pope Benedict preached about the Gospel story of the disciples
meeting the risen Jesus on the road of Emmaus. The story, he said, was
about “conversion from desperation to hope, conversion from sadness to
joy and, also, conversion to community life”.
“Sometimes when one
speaks of conversion, people think only about the hard work, detachment
and renunciation it involves. But Christian conversion is most of all a
source of joy, hope and love,” as seen in the Gospel story when the
disciples discover that Jesus truly rose from the dead and they return
to Jerusalem to share the good news with the other disciples.
Too
many Christians today tend to live like the disciples going toward
Emmaus: they once knew Jesus or heard about him, but now they are
“immersed in doubt, sadness and disappointment”, he said.
“The
problem of evil, of pain and suffering, the problem of injustice and
oppression, the fear of others, of foreigners and of those from far away
who reach our lands and seem to threaten who we are, can lead
Christians today to say: we had hoped that the Lord would free us from
evil, pain, suffering, fear and injustice,” the Pope said.
The
only truly Christian response, he said, was to recognise that Christ had
risen and continues to be present in his Church, helping people respond
to new challenges with hope and trust.
The Pope began his weekend
visit in Aquileia, an ancient Roman city at the extreme northeastern
edge of Italy.
Many of the town’s early Christians were martyred under
the Emperor Diocletian in 303.
During an outdoor meeting with
residents of the town, Pope Benedict said he wanted to visit Aquileia
“to admire this rich and ancient tradition, but also to confirm you in
the deep faith of your forefathers”.