When attending Mass and receiving the Eucharist, Catholics must be filled with gratitude for God’s great gifts, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of his former students. “Despite the fact that we have nothing to give in return and we are full of faults,” the pope said, Jesus “invites us to his table and wants to be with us.” The pope presided at a Mass Aug. 29 in Castel Gandolfo during his annual meeting with students who did their doctorates with him when he was a professor in Germany. Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, a regular participant in the “Ratzinger Schulerkreis” (Ratzinger student circle), gave the homily at the Mass, but the pope made remarks at the beginning of the liturgy.
The Vatican released the text of the pope’s remarks Aug. 31. Introducing the penitential rite, Pope Benedict said: “In today’s Gospel the Lord makes us see how, in reality, we continue to live like the pagans do. We extend invitations only to those who can invite us. We give only to those who can give back.” In the day’s Gospel passage from Luke, Jesus tells his disciples not to invite the rich to dinner “in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” The pope told his former students that “God’s style” of inviting people is clear in the gift of the Eucharist.
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS)