For Benedict XVI to abdicate is, well, not to abdicate. He is not running away from Calvary as did all the apostles, including his direct predecessor, Saint Peter.
Instead, he is embracing all the more what it means to be a sign of unity that our Lord has established him to be.
For instance, in becoming a hermit, I did not in the least think that this was abandoning my priestly responsibilities, but rather that this was an intensification of the priesthood. I am certain that Pope Benedict thinks the same about his becoming, if you will, a hermit at the heart of the Church. He is not casting off his Petrine responsibilities. He is embracing them all the more.
I know the Holy Father well enough to know that in order to do this, he has seen the Sacred Mysteries, what it means that our Lord bears the wounds on His body still. He knows what it means that our Lord has exclaimed, during His own passion: “If they do this when the wood is green, what will they do when it is dry!”
Our Holy Father would not have taken extraordinary measures unless extraordinary circumstances were upon us. He agony is ineffable, truly. Let’s be with him in all solidarity just as he is with our Lord in all solidarity. Let us behold the wounds of our Lord with Pope Benedict. Let’s all become just a little bit of the hermit he will become on 28 February 2013.
This has nothing to do with rest. Our Holy Father is going into the battle all the more intensely. It is frightening to me to write this. I know our Lord wants something from me as He does from all of us, and now, in a special way from our Holy Father.
No one but no one is more prepared than our Holy Father. However, now more than ever, we must be with him in solidarity. The wolves for him now will be increased a thousand fold. He is doing a great favor to the Church in taking on such a hermit life, for he will, much like Saint Francis, be holding the Church up with his prayers and penances intensified according to his knowledge of where the Church stands in its need. I know extremely little of all that. He’s the one. But I would like to be with him in my own small way in all solidarity, one hermit for another. Let’s all be with him in solidarity.
Source:
http://holysoulshermitage.com/2013/02/11/the-agony-of-pope-benedict-xvi-lets-understand-this-in-solidarity-welcome-to-what-it-means-to-be-a-hermit-holy-father/