January 30, 2013

Pope: God shows us what it truly means to be a "father"

   In his Wednesday audience Pope Benedict XVI continued his catechesis on the Creed, reflecting on what it means when we call God the Father Almighty. Speaking to a packed Paul VI audience hall, Pope Benedict reflected that it is not always easy today to talk about fatherhood. Especially in the West, where broken families, increasing work commitments, the concerns of trying to balance the family budget as well as the distracting invasion of the mass media in daily life can prevent a peaceful and constructive relationship between fathers and children”.
   At times, he added: “communication becomes difficult, trust can be lost and relationships with the father figure can become problematic. And without adequate models of reference even imagining God as a father becomes problematic”. Particularly for people who have experienced overly authoritarian or absentee fathers. But Pope Benedict said Wednesday biblical revelation helps us to overcome these difficulties by telling us about a God who shows us what it truly means to be a "father", a loving, patient and forgiving father who is also Almighty.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
   In last Wednesday’s catechesis we reflected on the words of the Creed: "I believe in God." But the profession of faith specifies this affirmation: God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Thus I would like to reflect with you now on the first, fundamental definition of God that the Creed presents us with: He is our Father. It is not always easy today to talk about fatherhood. Especially in our Western world, the broken families, increasingly absorbing work commitments, concerns, and often the fatigue of trying to balance the family budget, the distracting invasion of the mass media in daily life are some of the many factors that can prevent a peaceful and constructive relationship between fathers and children. At times communication becomes difficult, trust can be lost and relationships with the father figure can become problematic. Even imagining God as a father becomes problematic, not having had adequate models of reference. For those who have had the experience of an overly authoritarian and inflexible father, or an indifferent father lacking in affection, or even an absent father, it is not easy to think of God as Father and trustingly surrender oneself to Him.
   But the biblical revelation helps us to overcome these difficulties telling us about a God who shows us what it truly means to be a "father", and it is especially the Gospel which reveals the face of God as a Father who loves even to the giving of his own Son for the salvation humanity. The reference to the father figure therefore helps us to understand something of the love of God which remains infinitely greater, more faithful, more total than that of any man. "Which of you, - says Jesus to show the disciples the Father's face - would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him" (Mt 7.9 to 11; cf. Lk 11.11 to 13 ). God is our Father because He has blessed and chosen us before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph 1:3-6); he really made us his children in Jesus (cf. 1 Jn 3:1). And, as Father, God lovingly accompanies our lives, giving us His Word, His teachings, His grace, His Spirit.
   He - as revealed in Jesus - is the Father who feeds the birds of the sky even though they so not sow and reap, and vests the fields with colours of wonderful colours, with clothes more beautiful than those of King Solomon (cf. Mt 6.26 to 32 and Luke 12.24-28), and we - adds Jesus - are worth far more than the flowers of birds of the sky! And if He is good enough to make "his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45), we can always, without fear and with total confidence, trust in his Father’s forgiveness when go wrong. God is a good Father who welcomes and embraces the lost and repented son (cf. Luke 15.11 ff), He gives himself freely to those who ask (cf. Mt 18.19, Mk 11.24, Jn 16:23) and offers the bread of Heaven and the living water that gives life forever (cf. Jn 6,32.51.58).
   Therefore, the prayer of Psalm 27, surrounded by enemies, besieged by evil and slanderers, and seeking help from the Lord, and invoking it, can give its testimony full of faith, saying: "Even if my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me in" (v. 10). God is a Father who never abandons his children, a loving Father who supports, helps, welcomes, forgives, saves, with a fidelity that immensely surpasses that of men, opening up to an eternal dimension. "For his mercy endures forever," as Psalm 136 continues to repeat in a litany, in every verse, through the history of salvation. The love of God never fails, never tires of us, it is a love that gives to the extreme, even to the sacrifice of His Son. Faith gifts us this certainty, which becomes a sure rock in the construction of our lives so that we can face those moments of difficulty and danger, experience those times of darkness, crisis and pain, supported by the faith that God never abandons us and is always near, to save us and bring us to life.
   It is in the Lord Jesus that we fully see the benevolent face of the Father who is in heaven. It is in knowing Him that we can know the Father (cf. Jn 8.19, 14.7), in seeing Him we can the Father, because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (cf. Jn 14, 9.11). He is the "image of the invisible God" as defined by the hymn of the Letter to the Colossians, "the firstborn of all creation ... the firstborn of those who rise from the dead", "through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" and reconciliation of all things, “making peace by the blood of his cross [through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven" (cf. Col 1.13 to 20). Faith in God the Father asks you to believe in the Son, through the action of the Spirit, recognizing in the Cross that saves the final revelation of Divine love. God is our Father giving his Son for us, God is our Father, forgiving our sins and bringing us to the joy of the risen life, God is our Father giving us the Spirit that makes us children and allows us to call Him, in truth, "Abba, Father" (cf. Rom 8:15). This is why Jesus, teaching us to pray, invites us to say "Our Father" (Mt 6.9 to 13; cf. Lk 11:2-4).
   The fatherhood of God, then, is infinite love, a tenderness that leans over us, weak children, in need of everything. Psalm 103, the great hymn of divine mercy, proclaims: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him For he knows how we are formed, remembers that we are dust, for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust" ( vs. 13-14). It is our smallness, our weak human nature, our frailty that becomes an appeal to the mercy of the Lord so that He manifest the greatness and tenderness of a Father helping us, forgives us and saving us. And God responds to our call, sending His Son, who died and rose again for us; He enters into our fragility and does that which man alone could never do: he takes upon himself the sins of the world, like an innocent lamb, and he re-opens for us the path to communion with God, he makes us true children of God. There, in the Paschal Mystery, the definitive role of the Father is revealed in all its brightness. And it is there, on the glorious Cross, that the full manifestation of the greatness of God as "the Father Almighty" is manifest.
   But we might ask: how is it possible to imagine a God almighty looking at the Cross of Christ? At this evil power that arrives at killing the Son of God? We would prefer a divine omnipotence according to our thought patterns and our desires: an "Almighty" God who solves problems, who intervenes to save us from every difficulty, who defeats all adversaries, who changes the course of events and removes all pain. Thus, today many theologians say that God can not be omnipotent otherwise there would not be so much suffering, so much evil in the world. Indeed in the face of evil and suffering, it becomes difficult for many to believe in God the Father and believe Him to be Almighty; some seek refuge in idols, yielding to the temptation to find an answer in an alleged "magic" omnipotence and its illusory promises.
   But faith in the Almighty God pushes us to follow very different paths, to understand that God’s thoughts are different to ours and his that God's ways are different from ours , and even his omnipotence is different: it is not expressed as an automatic or arbitrary force, but is marked by a loving and fatherly freedom. In fact, God, in creating free creatures, in gifting freedom, waived a portion of His power, leaving the power of our freedom. In so doing, He loves and respects the free response of his call to love. As a Father, He wants us to become His children and we live as such in his Son, in communion, in full intimacy with Him. His omnipotence is not expressed in violence, in an adverse power, but in mercy, forgiveness, in accepting our freedom, in an untiring call to conversion of heart, in a seemingly weak attitude, God seems weak if we see Jesus Christ who prays, who allows himself to be killed, but the attitude that is apparently weak, made of patience, gentleness and love, shows that this is the true way of power and strength. This is the power of God and this is victorious. The Wiseman in the Book of Wisdom turns to God: “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook sins for the sake of repentance. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for you would not fashion what you hate But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Ruler and Lover of souls"(11:23-24a .26).
   Only the truly powerful can endure pain and show compassion, and only the truly powerful can fully exercise the power of love. And God, to whom all things belong because all things were made by Him, reveals His power loving everyone and everything, in a patient waiting for the conversion of us men, whom He wants to have as children. God is waiting for our conversion. The all-powerful love of God knows no bounds, so much so that "He did not spare his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). The omnipotence of love is not that of the power of the world, but that of total gift, and Jesus, the Son of God, reveals to the world the omnipotence of the Father giving his life for us sinners. This is the real, authentic and perfect divine power to respond to evil mot with evil, but with good, to insults with forgiveness, murderous hatred with love that gives life. So evil is really defeated, because washed by the love of God, death is finally defeated because it is turned into the gift of life. God the Father raises His Son: death, the great enemy (cf. 1 Cor 15:26), is swallowed up and deprived of its poison (cf. 1 Cor 15.54 to 55), and we made free from sin, we can access our reality of being God's children
   When we say "I believe in God the Father Almighty," we express our faith in the power of the love of God which in his Son who died and rose again, defeats hatred, evil, sin and gifts us eternal life, that of the children who want to always be in the "Father's House". Saying, I believe in God the Father Almighty, in His power, in His way of being a father, is always an act of faith, conversion, transformation of our thoughts, our love, our whole way of life.
   Dear brothers and sisters, we ask the Lord to sustain our faith and give us the strength to proclaim Christ crucified and risen to help us to truly find the faith and to bear witness to love of God and neighbour. May God grant that we receive the gift of our sonship, to fully live the reality of the Creed, in trusting love of the Father and His merciful omnipotence, the true omnipotence that saves.
   Summary in English: Dear Brothers and Sisters, in our continuing catechesis during this Year of Faith, we now reflect on the Creed’s description of God as “the Father Almighty”. Despite the crisis of fatherhood in many societies, the Scriptures show us clearly what it means to call God “Father”. God is infinitely generous, faithful, and forgiving; he so loves the world that he has given us his only Son for our salvation. As “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), Jesus reveals God as a merciful Father who never abandons his children and whose loving concern for us embraces even the Cross. In Christ, God has made us his adopted sons and daughters. The Cross shows also us how God our Father is “almighty”. His omnipotence transcends our limited human concepts of power; his might is that of a patient love expressed in the ultimate victory of goodness over evil, life over death, and freedom over the bondage of sin. As we contemplate the Cross of Christ, let us turn to God the almighty Father and implore the grace to abandon ourselves with confidence and trust to his merciful love and his saving power.
   Greeting to pilgrims: I offer a warm welcome to the priests taking part in the Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical North American College. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from the Republic of Korea, Canada and the United States of America, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.

January 27, 2013

Pope: Living Sunday as the Lord’s day

   Pope Benedict XVI spoke of how Sunday is a propitious day for people to entrust themselves, their prayers and intentions to the Lord, because on Sunday, through the Eucharist and living to His life-giving Word, we have a direct channel of communication to the Lord. “What does Sunday, the day of the Lord, mean for us? It is a day for rest and for family, but first of all a day for Him”, tweeted Pope Benedict XVI this Sunday shortly after concluding the midday Angelus prayer with the thousands of pilgrims – mostly Romans – who had flocked to St Peter’s Square. It was a day with many important anniversaries: International Holocaust Remembrance Day, World Day of Prayer for the Holy Land, and World Leprosy Day.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Angelus reflection:

Dear brothers and sisters,
   Today's liturgy presents to us, brought together, two separate pieces of the Gospel of Luke. The first (1:1-4) is the prologue, addressed to a certain "Theophilus", as this name in Greek means "friend of God", we can see him in every believer who opens himself to God and wants to know the Gospel. The second passage (4.14 to 21), however, presents us with Jesus who "through the power of the Spirit" goes to the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath. As a true believer, the Lord does not avoid the weekly liturgical rhythm and joins the assembly of his fellow citizens in prayer and in listening to the Scriptures. The ritual involves the reading of a text from the Torah or the Prophets, followed by a comment. On that day, Jesus stood up to read and found a passage from the prophet Isaiah that begins: "The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners"(61:1-2).
   Origen says: "It is no coincidence that he opened the scroll and found the chapter of the reading that prophesies about him, this was the work of God's providence" (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke, 32, 3). Jesus, in fact, after the reading, in a silence full of attention, said, " Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21). St. Cyril of Alexandria says that '"today", located between the first and the final coming of Christ, is related to the ability of the believer to listen and repent (cf. PG 69, 1241). But, in an even more radical sense, Jesus himself is the "today" of salvation in history, because he brings he completes the fullness of redemption. The word "today", very dear to Saint Luke (cf. 19.9, 23.43), brings us back to the Christological title preferred by the Evangelist, that of "savior" (sōtēr). Already in the infancy narratives, it is present in the words of the angel to the shepherds: " For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord" (Lk 2:11).
   Dear friends, this Gospel passage also challenges us "today". First of all, it makes us think about how we live Sunday: as a day of rest and for the family, moreover as the day to devote to the Lord, by participating in the Eucharist, in which we are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and his life-giving Word. Second, in our scattered and distracted era, this Gospel invites us to ask ourselves about our ability to listen. Before we can speak of God and with God, we need to listen, and the liturgy of the Church is the "school" of this listening to the Lord who speaks to us. Finally, he tells us that every moment can be propitious for our conversion. Every day (kathçmeran) can become the today of our salvation, because salvation is a story that continues for the Church and for every disciple of Christ. This is the Christian meaning of "carpe diem": seize the day in which God is calling you to give you salvation! May the Virgin Mary always be our model and our guide to recognize and welcome the presence of God our Savior and of all humanity every day of our lives.
   Greetings in English: I greet all the English-speaking visitors present at this Angelus prayer. In today’s Gospel Jesus fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy in his own person, as he proclaims new sight to the blind and freedom to captives. In this Year of Faith, especially through the Sacraments, may we deepen our confidence in Christ and embrace his grace which sets us free. May God bless you and your loved ones!

January 25, 2013

Pope: Christian message affects less in community life

   Pope Benedict XVI presided over an ecumenical Vespers service on Friday evening in the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls. The liturgy marked the close of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – an annual effort of prayer, dialogue and action begun by the Catholic convert, priest and founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Fr. Paul Wattson, in 1908. In his homily, the Holy Father spoke of the threats that contemporary societies are facing, and the challenges they pose to the cause of the Gospel. “In today's society,” he said, “it seems that the Christian message is less and less in presence personal and community life, and this is a challenge for all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities.”

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Homily  at Vespers:

Dear brothers and sisters,
   It 's always a joy and a special grace come together, around the tomb of the Apostle Paul, concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I greet with affection the Cardinals present, first Cardinal Harvey, Archpriest of this Basilica, and with him the Abbot and the Community of monks who are hosting us. I greet Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and all employees of the Department. I express my cordial and fraternal greetings to His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Rev. Canon Richardson, Personal Representative in Rome the Archbishop of Canterbury, and all the representatives of the different Churches and Ecclesial Communities, gathered here this evening. In addition, I am particularly pleased to greet the members of the Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, to whom I wish a fruitful work for the plenary session that is taking place these days in Rome, as well as students Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, on a visit to Rome to deepen their knowledge of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox young people who study here. Lastly, I greet all those present agreed to pray for the unity of all the disciples of Christ.
   This celebration is part of the Year of Faith, which began on 11 October, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. Communion in the same faith is the basis for ecumenism. The unit is in fact given by God as inseparable from faith it expresses effectively St. Paul: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is only one hope to which you were called, that belongs to your call, a one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is over all, works through all and in all "(Eph. 4:4-6). The baptismal profession of faith in God, the Father and Creator, who revealed himself in his Son Jesus Christ, pouring out the Spirit who gives life and holiness, already unites Christians. Without faith - which is primarily a gift of God, but also man's response - the whole ecumenical movement would be reduced to a form of "contract" which adhere to a common interest. The Second Vatican Council recalls that Christians "with the closer communion will be united with the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, the more deeply and easily will they be able to increase mutual brotherhood" (Decree UR, 7). Doctrinal issues that still divide us must not be overlooked or minimized. They should rather be faced with courage, in a spirit of brotherhood and mutual respect. The dialogue, when it reflects the priority of faith, can open to the action of God with the firm conviction that alone we can not build unity, but it is the Holy Spirit who guides us toward full communion, and draws from the wealth spiritual present in different Churches and Ecclesial Communities.
   In today's society it seems that the Christian message affects less and less in personal and community life, and this is a challenge for all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities. The unit is in itself a privileged, almost a prerequisite to announce more and more credible faith to those who do not yet know the Saviour, or that, having received the proclamation of the Gospel, have almost forgotten this precious gift . The scandal of division that undermined the missionary activity was the impulse that started the ecumenical movement that we know today. The full and visible communion among Christians is to be understood, in fact, as a fundamental characteristic of a witness even clearer. While we are on the path towards full unity, then it is necessary to pursue practical cooperation among the disciples of Christ for the sake of passing on the faith to the contemporary world. Today there is a great need for reconciliation, dialogue and mutual understanding, with a view not moralistic, but in the name of authenticity Christian for a stronger presence in the reality of our time.
   True faith in God that it is inseparable from the personal holiness, as well as the pursuit of justice. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ended today, the theme offered for our meditation was, "What the Lord requires of us," inspired by the words of the prophet Micah, we have heard (see 6.6 - 8). It has been proposed by the Student Christian Movement in India, in collaboration with the All India Catholic University Federation and the National Council of Churches in India, who also prepared the aids for reflection and prayer. To those who have collaborated want to express my deep gratitude and with great affection, I assure you of my prayers for all Christians of India, which sometimes are called to bear witness to their faith in difficult conditions. "Walk humbly with God" (cf. I 6.8) means first walk in radical faith, like Abraham, trusting in God, or rather to discover in him all our hopes and aspirations, but it also means walking past the barriers, and hatred , racism and social discrimination and religious divide and harm society as a whole. As St Paul says, Christians must first provide a shining example in the search for reconciliation and communion in Christ, beyond any kind of division. In the Letter to the Galatians, the Apostle of the Gentiles says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus "(3:27-28).
   Our search for unity in truth and in love, then, must never lose sight of the perception that Christian unity is the work and gift of the Holy Spirit, and goes far beyond our own efforts. Therefore, spiritual ecumenism, especially prayer is the heart of the ecumenical (cf. Decr. UR, 8). However, ecumenism will not bear lasting fruit if not accompanied by concrete gestures of conversion, which stir the conscience and foster the healing of memories and relationships. As stated in the Decree on Ecumenism of the Second Vatican Council, "there is no true ecumenism without interior conversion" (n. 7). Genuine conversion, as suggested by the prophet Micah and which the Apostle Paul is a significant example, will bring us closer to God at the center of our lives, so also draw closer to each other. This is a key element of our ecumenical commitment. The renewal of the inner life of our heart and our mind, which is reflected in everyday life, is crucial in any process of reconciliation and dialogue, ecumenism by a mutual commitment to understanding, respect and love, "so that the world may believe" (Jn 17:21).
   Dear brothers and sisters, let us invoke the Virgin Mary with confidence, incomparable model of evangelization for the Church, "a sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of unity among all men" (Lumen Gentium, 1), ads frankly, in our time, Christ the Savior. Amen.

January 23, 2013

Pope: Going against the grain like Abraham

   Pope Benedict XVI picked up his audience catechesis on the Profession of Faith Wednesday morning with a reflection on how Abraham, as the father of believers, teaches Christians to “go against he grain” in societies where God has become the “great absentee” and “possession” the idol to be worshiped.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
   In this Year of the faith, I would like to start today to reflect with you on the Creed, the solemn profession of faith which accompanies our lives as believers. The Creed begins, "I believe in God." It is a fundamental affirmation, deceptively simple in its essence, but which opens the infinite world of our relationship with the Lord and with His mystery. Believing in God implies attachment to him, welcoming his Word and joyful obedience to His revelation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, "Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself" (n. 166). Being able to say that we believe in God is therefore both a gift and a commitment, it is divine grace and human responsibility, in an experience of dialogue with God who, out of love, "speaks to men as friends" (Dei Verbum, 2), speaks to us so that, in faith and with faith, we enter into communion with Him.
   Where can we hear God speaking to us? Holy Scripture is fundamental, in which the Word of God becomes audible for us and nourishes our life as "friends" of God. The entire Bible recounts God’s revelation to humanity, the entire Bible speaks of faith and teaches us faith by telling a story in which God carries out His plan of redemption and makes Himself close to man, through many luminous figures of people who believe in Him and trust Him, to the fullness of the revelation of the Lord Jesus.
   In this regard, chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews is most beautiful, which speaks of faith and highlights the great biblical figures who lived and became a model for all believers: "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen"(11.1). The eyes of faith are thus able to see the unseen and the heart of the believer can hope beyond all hope, just as Abraham, who Paul says in Romans "believed, hoping against hope" (4.18 ).
   In fact I would like to focus my attention on Abraham, because he is the first major reference point when speaking about faith in God, the great patriarch Abraham, role model, father of all believers (cf. Rom 4.11 to 12 ). The Letter to the Hebrews presents him as follows: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God"(11.8 to 10).
   The author of Hebrews refers here to the call of Abraham, narrated in the Book of Genesis. What does God ask of this great patriarch? He asks him to leave, abandoning his country and to go to the country that He will show him, "Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you" (Gen 12:1). How would we respond to an invitation like that? It is, in fact, a departure in the dark, not knowing where God will lead him, it is a journey that calls for obedience and radical trust, which only faith can access. But the darkness of the unknown is illuminated by the light of a promise: God adds a reassuring word to His command that opens a future of life in its fullness to Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great; ... All the families of the earth will find blessing in you"(Gen 12,2.3).
   The blessing in Holy Scripture, is related primarily to the gift of life that comes from God, and manifests itself primarily in fertility, in a life that is multiplied, passing from generation to generation. And the blessing is also connected to the experience of owning a land, a stable place to live and grow in freedom and security, fearing God and building a society of men loyal to the Alliance, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (cf. Ex 19:6).
   So Abraham, in the divine plan, is destined to become the "father of a multitude of nations" (Gen 17.5; cf. Rom 4:17-18) and to enter into a new land to live. But Sara, his wife, is sterile, unable to have children, and the country to which God leads him far from his native land, is already inhabited by other peoples, and will never really belong to them. The biblical narrator emphasizes this, although very discreetly: When Abraham arrived in the place of God's promise: "the Canaanites were then in the land" (Gen 12:6). The land that God gives to Abraham does not belong to him, he is a stranger and will remain so forever, with all that this entails: having no intentions of possession, always averting their poverty, seeing everything as a gift. This is also the spiritual condition of those who agree to follow the Lord, who decide to leave, accepting His call, under the sign of His invisible but powerful blessing. And Abraham, the "father of believers," accepted this call, in the faith. St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans: "He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “Thus shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body as [already] dead (for he was almost a hundred years old) and the dead womb of Sarah. 20He did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God 21and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do"(Rom 4.18 to 21).
   Faith leads Abraham to on a paradoxical journey. He will be blessed, but without the visible signs of blessing: he is promised he will become a great nation, but with a life marked by the barrenness of Sarah his wife; he is brought to a new home but will have to live there as a foreigner, and the only possession of the land that he will be allowed will be that of a piece of land in which to bury Sarah (cf. Gen 23.1 to 20). Abraham was blessed because, in faith, he was able to discern the divine blessing going beyond appearances, trusting in God's presence even when His ways appear mysterious to him.
   What does this mean for us? When we say, "I believe in God," we say, like Abraham: "I trust you, I entrust myself to You, Lord," but not as Someone to run to only in times of difficulty or to whom to dedicate a few moments of the day or of the week. Saying "I believe in God" means grounding my life in Him, letting His Word guide each day, in the concrete choices without fear of losing something of myself. When, in the Rite of Baptism, we are asked three times: "Do you believe?" In God, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church and the other truths of faith, the triple response is in the singular: "I believe," because it is my personal existence that reaches a turning point with the gift of faith, it is my life that must change, convert. Each time we participate in a Baptism we should ask ourselves how we live the great gift of faith every day.
   Abraham, the believer, teaches us faith, and, as a stranger on earth, shows us the true homeland. Faith makes us pilgrims on earth, inserted into the world and history, but on the way to the heavenly homeland. Believing in God makes us carries of values which often do not coincide with the prevailing fashion and opinion, it requires us to adopt criteria and a conduct which do not belong to the common way of thinking. The Christian should not be afraid to go "against the grain" to live his or her faith, resisting the temptation to "conform". In many societies God has become the "great absentee" and there are many and diverse idols now in His place, above all possesion. And also the significant and positive progress in science and technology have created in humans an illusion of omnipotence and self-sufficiency, and a growing self-centeredness, which has created many imbalances within relationships and social behaviours.
   And yet, the thirst for God (cf. Ps 63.2) has not been extinguished and the Gospel message continues to resonate through the words and deeds of many men and women of faith. Abraham, the father of believers, continues to be the father of many children who are willing to walk in his footsteps and set out in obedience to the divine call, trusting in the benevolent presence of the Lord and accepting His blessing to be a blessing for all. It is the blessed world of faith to which we are all called, to walk without fear following the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes it is difficult journey, one that even knows trial and death, but one that is open to life, in a radical transformation of reality that only the eyes of faith can see and enjoy in abundance.
   Saying "I believe in God" leads us, then, to set out, to continually go beyond ourselves, just as Abraham, to bring the certainty that comes from faith: the certainty into our daily reality, that is, the presence of God in history, even today, a presence that brings life and salvation, and opens us to a future with Him for a fullness of life without sunset.
   Summary in English: Dear Brothers and Sisters, in our catechesis for this Year of Faith, we now turn to the Creed, the solemn profession of our faith as Christians. At the beginning of the Creed, we say “I believe in God”. Faith is our response to the God who first speaks to us, makes himself known and calls us to enter into communion with him. We hear God speaking to us in the Scriptures, which recount the history of his revelation, culminating in the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ. A central figure in this history of revelation is Abraham, the father and model of all believers (cf. Rom 4:11-12). Sustained by God’s blessing and trusting in his promises, Abraham set off into the unknown. Like Abraham, we too are called to let faith shape our thoughts and actions in accordance with God’s saving word, even when this runs contrary to the thinking and ways of this world. With the eyes of faith, we discern God’s presence and his promise of eternal life beyond the realities of this present existence. In opening ourselves to God’s blessing, we become in turn a blessing for others.
   Greeting to pilgrims: During this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I offer a warm welcome to the faculty and students of the Bossey Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, with cordial good wishes for their studies. I also greet the military chaplains from the United Kingdom recently returned from Afghanistan. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including the pilgrim and student groups from the United States, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.

January 20, 2013

Pope: Pray for Christian unity and for peace

   Pope Benedict XVI appealed for an end to conflicts around the world on Sunday. Speaking to pilgrims and faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray the Angelus with him, Pope Benedict especially prayed that, in the various conflicts unfortunately under way around the world, “The slaughter of innocent civilians should cease.” He went on to say, “Let there be an end to all violence, and let there be found the courage to conduct dialogue and to negotiate.” The Pope’s appeal for peace came in the context of a reflection on the pressing need for a recovery of the full, visible communion of all Christians, which Christ Himself desires for His Church. This Sunday falls in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – a theme to which the Pope also turned in his English remarks to the faithful.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Angelus reflection:

Dear brothers and sisters,
   Today the liturgy proposes the passage of the wedding at Cana, an episode narrated by John, an eyewitness of the incident. This episode has been placed on this Sunday immediately following Christmas time because, along with the visit of the Magi from the East and the Baptism of Jesus, form the trilogy of Epiphany, ie the manifestation of Christ. That of the wedding at Cana is in fact "the beginning of the signs" (Jn 2:11), that is the first miracle performed by Jesus, with whom he appeared in public, his glory, provoking the faith of his disciples. Let us recall briefly what happened during the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. It happened that it was the wine gave out, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, he pointed out to her Son. He replied that it was not yet his time, but then followed the solicitation of Mary, and made six large jars filled with water, turned water into wine, fine wine, better than the last. With this "sign", Jesus reveals himself as the Bridegroom Messiah, came to establish his people the new and eternal covenant, in the words of the prophets: "As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Is 62:5). And the wine is a symbol of this joy of love, but it also alludes to the blood that Jesus will pay in the end, to seal his marriage covenant with humanity.
   The Church is the bride of Christ, who makes holy and beautiful with its grace. However, this spouse, formed by human beings, is always in need of purification. And one of the most serious sins that disfigure the face of the Church is against its visible unity, especially the historical divisions that have separated Christians and who have not yet been overcome. Just this week, January 18 to 25, held the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a moment always welcome to believers and communities, which awakens in all the desire and spiritual commitment to the full communion. In this sense, it was very significant that I could celebrate the vigil about a month ago, in this square, with thousands of young people across Europe and the ecumenical community of Taizé: a moment of grace in which we experienced the beauty of form in Christ one. I encourage everyone to pray together so that we can achieve, "What does the Lord require of us" (cf. I 6.6 to 8), says this year the theme of the week, a theme espoused by some Christian communities in India, which invite to engage with decision towards the visible unity of all Christians, and to overcome, as brothers in Christ, any kind of unjust discrimination. On Friday, at the end of these days of prayer, I will preside at Vespers in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, in the presence of representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities.
   Dear friends, to pray for Christian unity would add once again that for peace because, unfortunately, in the different conflicts in place to halt the despicable massacres of unarmed civilians, to end all violence, and find the courage dialogue and negotiation. For both of these intentions, we invoke the intercession of Mary, mediator of Grace.

January 16, 2013

Pope: The face of God revealed in Christ

   Torrential rains swept St Peter’s Wednesday as pilgrims huddled in queues waiting to enter the Paul VI hall for the weekly audience with Pope Benedict XVI. In his catechesis the Holy Father continued his series of lessons on the Year of Faith, focusing this week on God’s Revelation of Himself to humanity in Jesus Christ.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
   The Second Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, affirms that the intimate truth of the Revelation of God, shines for us "in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all Revelation" (n. 2 ). The Old Testament tells us how God, after creation, despite original sin, despite the arrogance of man who wants to take the place of his Creator, again offers the possibility of His friendship, especially through the covenant with Abraham and the journey of a small nation, that of Israel, which He chooses not with the criteria of earthly power, but simply out of love. It is a choice that remains a mystery and reveals the way of God calls some not to exclude others, but so they become bridges that lead to Him. Electing, always electing the other. In the history of the people of Israel we can retrace the steps of a long journey in which God makes Himself known, reveals Himself, enters into history in words and actions. For this work He uses mediators, such as Moses, the Prophets, the Judges, who communicate His wishes to the people, remind us of the need for fidelity to the covenant and keep alive expectation for the full and definitive realization of the divine promises.
   And it is the realization of these promises that we have contemplated in Christmas: God's Revelation reaches its peak, its fullness. In Jesus of Nazareth, God truly visits His people, He visits humanity in a way that goes beyond all expectations: He sends His only begotten Son who became man. Jesus tells us something about God, he does not simply speak about the Father, but is the revelation of God. In the Prologue to his Gospel, Saint John writes: "No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed Him"(Jn 1:18).
   I would like to focus on this "has revealed Him". In this regard, St. John, in his Gospel, speaks to us of a significant fact, that we have just heard. Approaching the Passion, Jesus assures his disciples, urging them not to be afraid and to have faith; then, he begins a dialogue with them in which he speaks of God the Father (cf. Jn 14.2 to 9). At one point, the apostle Philip asks Jesus, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us" (Jn 14:8). Philip is very practical and concrete, he says what we all want to say: he asks to "see" the Father, to see His face. The answer of Jesus, not only to Philipp but to all of us, introduces us to the heart of the Church's Christological faith; For the Lord says: "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).This expression summarizes the novelty of the New Testament, the novelty that appeared in the cave of Bethlehem: God can be seen, he showed his face is visible in Jesus Christ.
   The theme of "seeking the face of God", the desire to see this face, to see how God really is, is present throughout the Old Testament, so much so that the Hebrew term pānîm, which means "face", occurs no less than 400 times, 100 of which refer to God. Yet the Jewish religion, by prohibiting all images, because God can not be depicted - as their neighbors did with the worship of idols, and from this the prohibition of images in the Old Testament- seems to totally exclude "seeing" from worship and piety. What does seek the face of God mean then, for the pious Israelite, recognizing that there can be no image? The question is important: on the one hand it is as if to say that God can not be reduced to an object, like an image that can be picked up, but neither can anything can take God’s place; on the other, it is affirmed that God has a face, that He is a "You" that can enter into a relationship, that He is not closed within Heaven looking down upon humanity. God is certainly above all else, but He turns to us and hears, sees and speaks to us, makes covenants, He is capable of love. Salvation history is the history of this relationship of God with humanity, of this relationship in which He progressively reveals Himself to man, making Himself and His face known.
   Right at the beginning of the year, on January 1, we heard, in the liturgy, the beautiful prayer of blessing over the people: "The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!"(Numbers 6:24-26). The splendour of the divine face is the source of life, it is what allows us to see reality; and the light of his countenance is our guide in life. In the Old Testament there is a figure which is connected in a very special way the theme of the "face of God”; Moses, whom God chose to free the people from slavery in Egypt, to gift the Law of the covenant and to lead them to the Promised Land. In chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus, it is said that Moses had a close and confidential relationship with God: "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks with his friend" (v. 11). By virtue of this confidence, Moses asks God: "Show me thy glory," and the Lord's answer is clear: "I will will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name ... But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives ... Here is a place near me ... so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen "(vv. 18-23). On the one hand, then, there is a face to face dialogue, as friends, but on the other there is the impossibility, in this life, of seeing the face of God, which remains hidden; its’ vision is limited. The Fathers say this: you can only see my back, which means that you can only follow Christ and see from behind the mystery of God. We can only follow God, seeing his back.
   Something new happens, however, with the Incarnation. The search for the face of God receives an incredible sea change, because we can now see this face: it is that of Jesus, the Son of God who became man. In Him the path of God's Revelation that began with the call to Abraham is fulfilled, He is the fullness of this Revelation because he is the Son of God, he is both a "mediator and fullness of all Revelation" (Dogmatic Constitution. Dei Verbum, 2), and in Him the content of Revelation and Revelator coincide. Jesus shows us the face of God and teaches us the name of God in the priestly prayer at the Last Supper, He says to the Father: "I have manifested thy name to the men ... I made known your name to them " (cf. Jn 17,6.26). The term "name of God" means God as the One who is present among men. God had revealed his name to Moses at the burning bush, to be invoked, giving a concrete sign of His "existence" among men. All this finds fulfillment and fullness in Jesus: He inaugurates a new modality of God's presence in history, because he who sees Him sees the Father, as he tells Philip (cf. Jn 14:9). Christianity - says Saint Bernard - is the "religion of the Word of God," which is not, however, "a written and mute word, but an incarnate and living one" (Hom. super missus est, IV, 11: PL 183, 86B). In the of patristic and medieval tradition a special formula is used to express this reality: Jesus is the Verbum abbreviatum (cf. Rom 9.28, referring to Isaiah 10:23), the short and substantial Word of the Father, of whom he told us everything. In Jesus all of the word is present.
   In Jesus even mediation between God and man is fulfilled. In the Old Testament there is a host of figures who preformed this task, particularly Moses, the deliverer, the guide, the "mediator" of the covenant, as defined by the New Testament (cf. Gal 3:19; Acts 7 , 35, Jn 1:17). Jesus, true God and true man, is not simply one of the mediators between God and man, but is "the mediator" of the new and everlasting covenant (cf. Heb 8:6; 9.15, 12.24), "For there is one God- St Paul says - There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human "(1 Tim 2:5, Gal 3:19-20). In him we see and meet the Father, in Him we can invoke God as "Abba, Father" in Him we are gifted salvation. The desire to really know God, to see his face is in every man, even the atheists. And we consciously have this desire to see just who He is and what He is for us. But this desire is only realized by following Christ, so we see his back and finally, see, God as a friend, His face in the face of Christ. It is important that we follow Christ not only in times of need and when we find space in our daily tasks, but with our very lives.
   Our entire existence should be directed to the encounter with Him, to love Him; and, love of neighbour must also have a central place, a love that, in the light of the Crucifix, enables us to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering. This is only possible if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us in listening to His Word, and especially in the mystery of the Eucharist. In the Gospel of St. Luke the passage of the two disciples of Emmaus, who recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, is significant. For us, the Eucharist is the great school in which we learn to see the face of God, where we enter into an intimate relationship with Him and learn at the same time to turn our gaze to the final moment of history, when He will fill us with the light of His face. On earth we walk towards this fullness, in the joyful expectation for the coming of the Kingdom of God
   Appeal: The day after tomorrow, Friday, January 18, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins, which this year has the theme: "What the Lord requires of us," inspired by a passage from the prophet Micah (cf. Mi 6, 6 - 8). I invite everyone to pray, asking God with insistence for the great gift of unity among the disciples of the Lord. May the inexhaustible power of the Holy Spirit encourage us in a sincere commitment to the search for unity, so that together we may all profess that Jesus is the Savior of the world.
   Greetings: I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, including the pilgrimage groups from Australia and the United States of America. My particular greeting goes to the pilgrims from the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. I also welcome the deacons from Saint Paul Seminary and the many college and university students present. May the light of the Lord’s face shine upon all of you and fill you with his richest blessings of joy and peace!

January 13, 2013

Pope: In Jesus, God became man like us

   Pope Benedict XVI baptised 20 babies in the Sistine Chapel Sunday, urging couples and godparents to lead their lives as an example of true Christian virtue even though it may seem unfashionable. In his homily for this year’s celebration on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, the Pope said “It's not always easy to openly and uncompromisingly show your beliefs, especially in the context in which we live, in a society that often considers unfashionable those who live out their faith in Jesus.”

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Homily:

Dear brothers and sisters!
   The joy arising from the celebration of Christmas finds its completion today in the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. To this joy is added another reason for those of us who are gathered here: in the Sacrament of Baptism that will soon be administered to these infants, the living and active presence of the Holy Spirit is manifested, enriching the Church with new children, enlivening and making them grow, and we cannot help but rejoice. I wish to extend a special greeting to you, dear parents and godparents, who today bear witness to your faith by requesting Baptism for these children, because they are regenerated to new life in Christ and become part of the community of believers.
   The Gospel account of Jesus' baptism, which we have heard today according to St Luke’s account, shows the path of abasement and humility that the Son of God freely chose in order to adhere to the plan of the Father, to be obedient to His loving will for mankind in all things, even to the sacrifice on the Cross. Having reached adulthood, Jesus begins His public ministry by going to the River Jordan to receive from John the baptism of repentance and conversion. What happens may appear paradoxical to our eyes. Does Jesus need repentance and conversion? Of course not. Yet He Who is without sin is placed among the sinners to be baptized, to fulfil this act of repentance; the Holy One of God joins those who recognize in themselves the need for forgiveness and ask God for the gift of conversion – that is, the grace to turn to Him with their whole heart, to be totally His. Jesus wills to put Himself on the side of sinners, by being in solidarity with them, expressing the nearness of God. Jesus shows solidarity with us, with our effort to convert, to leave behind our selfishness, to detach ourselves from our sins, saying to us that if we accept Him into our lives, He is able to raise us up and lead us the heights of God the Father. And this solidarity of Jesus is not, so to speak, a mere exercise of the mind and will. Jesus was really immersed in our human condition; He lived it to the utmost – although without sin – and in such a way that He understands weakness and fragility. Therefore He is moved to compassion; He chooses to “suffer with” men, to be penitent together with us. This is the work of God that Jesus wishes to accomplish: the divine mission to heal those who are wounded and to cure those who are sick, to take upon Himself the sin of the world.
   What happens at the moment when Jesus was baptized by John? In the face of this humble act of love on the part of the Son of God, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit is visibly manifested in the form of a dove, while a voice from on high expresses the pleasure of the Father, Who recognizes the Only-begotten Son, the Beloved. It is a true manifestation of the Holy Trinity, which gives testimony to the divinity of Jesus, to His being the promised Messiah, the One whom God has sent to free His people, so that His people might be saved (cf. Is 40, 2). Thus is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that we heard in the first reading: the Lord God comes with power to destroy the works of sin and His arm exercises dominion to disarm the Evil one; but keep in mind that this arm is the arm extended on the Cross, and the power of Christ is the power of the One who suffers for us: this is the power of God, differing from the power of the world. Thus God comes in power to destroy sin. Jesus truly acts as the good shepherd, that feeds His flock and gathers it together so that it will not be scattered (cf. Is 40, 10-11), and offers His own life that it might live. It is through His redemptive death that man is freed from the dominion of sin and reconciled with the Father; and through His resurrection that man is saved from eternal death and is made victorious over the Evil one.
   Dear brothers and sisters, what happens in Baptism, which will soon be administered to your children? What happens is this: they will be united in a profound way and forever with Jesus, immersed in the mystery of His power, that is, in the mystery of His death, which is the source of life, in order to share in His resurrection, to be reborn to new life. See the miracle that is repeated today for your children: receiving baptism, they are reborn as children of God, partakers of the filial relationship that Jesus has with the Father, able to turn to God and call upon Him with full trust and confidence: “Abba, Father!” On your children, too, the heavens are opened, and God says: “these are my children, with whom I am well pleased.” Inserted into this relationship and freed from original sin, they become living members of the unique body which is the Church, and are enabled to live fully their vocation to holiness, so as to inherit eternal life, obtained for us by the resurrection of Jesus.
   Dear parents, in asking for Baptism for your children, you manifest and bear witness to your faith, to the joy of being a Christian and of belonging to the Church. It is the joy that comes from knowing you have received a great gift from God – the faith – a gift that none of us have merited, but that has been freely given and to which we have responded with our “yes.” It is the joy of recognizing ourselves as children of God, of discovering that we have been entrusted into His hands, to know that we are welcomed into a loving embrace, in the same way that a mother supports and embraces her child. This joy, that directs the path of every Christian, is based on a personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship that guides the whole of human existence. He, in fact, is the meaning of our life, the One upon Whom it is worthy to gaze, in order to be enlightened by His Truth and be able to live life to the fullest. The way of faith that begins today for these children is therefore based on a certainty, on the experience that there is nothing greater than to know Christ and to communicate friendship with Him to others; only in this friendship is the great potential of the human condition truly revealed and we can experience what is beautiful and what is free (cf. Homily at Mass for the beginning of his pontificate, April 24, 2005). Those who have this experience are not willing to give up their faith for anything in the world.
   Dear godfathers and godmothers, yours is the important duty of supporting and contributing to the work of parents in education, working alongside them in the transmission of the truths of faith and in witnessing to the values ​​of the Gospel, in raising these children in an ever deeper friendship with the Lord. May you always give them your good example, through the exercise of Christian virtues. It is not easy to demonstrate what you believe in openly and without compromise, especially in the context in which we live, in the face of a society that often considers those who live by faith in Jesus to be old-fashioned and out of date. In the wake of this mentality, there can be, even among Christians, the risk of understanding the relationship with Jesus as limiting, as something that is detrimental to personal fulfilment, “God is seen as a limitation of our freedom, a limitation that destroys man’s ability to be himself” (The Infancy of Jesus, 101). But it is not so! This view demonstrates that it has understood nothing of the relationship with God, because, proceeding along the path of faith, we understand that Jesus exercises over us the freeing action of God's love that takes us beyond our selfishness and keeps us from being turned in on ourselves, in order to lead a full life, a life in communion with God and open to others. “‘God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God abides in him’ (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny” (Encyclical Deus caritas est, 1).
   The water with which these children will be signed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit immerses them in the “fount” of life that is God Himself and that will make them His own children. And the seed of the theological virtues, infused by God – faith, hope and charity – the seed that today is placed in their hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, must always be fed by the Word of God and the Sacraments, so that these virtues of the Christian can grow and reach full maturity, in order to make each one of them a true witness of the Lord. While we invoke upon these little children the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we entrust them to the protection of the Holy Virgin: May she always guard them with her maternal presence and accompany them at every moment of their lives. Amen.
 
   The Holy Father was speaking to pilgrims after having celebrated the traditional feast day liturgy in the Sistine Chapel where he baptised twenty babies. Below is a translation of Pope's Angelus address:
Dear brothers and sisters!
   This Sunday after the Epiphany ends the liturgical season of Christmas time: time of light, the light of Christ, as new sun appearing on the horizon of humanity, dispels the darkness of evil and ignorance. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus: the Child, the son of the Virgin, whom we contemplated in the mystery of his birth, we see today an adult emerging himself in the waters of the Jordan River, thus sanctifying the waters and the entire cosmos - as evidenced by the Eastern tradition.
   But why did Jesus, in whom there was no shadow of sin, go to be baptized by John? Because he wanted to make that gesture of penance and conversion, along with so many people who wanted to prepare for the coming of the Messiah? That gesture - which marks the beginning of Jesus' public life, takes the same line of the Incarnation, of God's descent from the highest to the abyss of hell.
   The meaning of this downward movement of God can be summed up in one word: love, which is the name of God. The Apostle John writes: "In this was manifested the love of God in us, that God sent into the world his only Son so that we might live through him" and He sent him" as a victim of expiation for our sins "(1 Jn 4.9 to 10). That is why the first public act of Jesus was His baptism by John, who, seeing him, said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).
   The Evangelist Luke recounts that when Jesus once baptised, “was praying, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit in a bodily shape like a dove descended upon him, and a voice came from heaven: "You are the Son my beloved, in you I am well pleased '"(3:21-22).
   This Jesus is the Son of God who is totally immersed in the will of the Father's love. This Jesus is the One who died on the cross and resurrected by the power of the same Spirit that now rests upon Him, and consecrates him. This Jesus is the new man who wants to live as a son of God, that is in love; the man who, in the face of evil in the world, chooses the path of humility and responsibility, chooses not to save himself but give his own life for truth and justice.
   Being Christian means living like this, but this kind of life involves a rebirth: reborn from above, from God, by grace. This rebirth is Baptism, which Christ has given to the Church to regenerate men to new life. An ancient text attributed to St. Hippolytus says: "Who enters with faith in this bath of rebirth, renounces the devil and sides with Christ, denies the enemy and recognizes that Christ is God, is stripped of slavery and is clothed in filial adoption "(Discourse on the epiphany, 10: PG 10, 862).
   According to tradition, this morning I had the joy of baptising a large group of children who were born in the last three or four months. At this time I would like to extend my prayer and my blessing to all newborns, but especially encourage everyone to make a memorial of his or her own Baptism, to the spiritual rebirth that has opened the way to eternal life. May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, rediscover the beauty of being born again from above, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.

January 9, 2013

Pope: In Jesus, God became man like us

   Following Christ’s example, we have to learn to give ourselves completely. Anything else is not enough. This was Pope Benedict XVI’s tweet sent out to his followers Wednesday summarizing the general audience. “In the Child of Bethlehem, God gives us the greatest gift possible, the gift of himself” and today we need to rediscover the “wonder” and “all-enveloping magnitude of this event”, because through the Incarnation God has revealed mankind’s “sublime dignity”.

Below is a translation of the Holy Father’s Catechesis:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
   In this Christmas season we focus once again on the great mystery of God who came down from Heaven to take on our flesh. In Jesus, God became incarnate, He became man like us, and in doing so opened the door to heaven to us, to full communion with Him.
   In these days, the word "incarnation" of God rang out several times in our churches, to express the reality we celebrate at Christmas: The Son of God became man, as we say in the Creed. What does this word, central to the Christian faith, mean? It is derived from the Latin "incarnatio." St. Ignatius of Antioch, and especially Saint Irenaeus have used this term reflecting on the Prologue of the Gospel of St. John, in particular on the expression "The Word became flesh" (Jn 1:14). Here the word "flesh", according to Hebrew tradition, refers to the person as a whole, under the aspect of his transience and temporality, his poverty and contingency. This is to say that the salvation wrought by God made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth touches man in his concrete reality and in every situation. God took on the human condition to heal it of all that separates us from Him, so that we can call Him, in his only begotten Son, by the name of "Abba, Father" and truly be his children. St. Irenaeus says, "This is why the Word became man, and the Son of God, Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God "(Adversus haereses, 3,19,1: PG 7.939; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 460).
   "The Word became flesh" is one of those truths we have become so used to that the greatness of the vent it expresses hardly affects us any more. And indeed, in this Christmas season, in which the expression returns often in the liturgy, at times we are more concerned with outward appearances, the "colours" of the festivity, than what is at the heart of the great novelty that Christians celebrate, something absolutely unthinkable, that only God could operate and we can only enter with faith. The Logos which is with God, the Logos who is God (cf. Jn 1:1), through which they were created all things were created (cf. 1.3), which accompanied mankind with his light throughout history (cf. 1 0.4 to 5, 1.9), became flesh and made his dwelling place among us, became one of us (cf. 1:14). The Second Vatican Council says: "The Son of God ... worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin"(Gaudium et Spes, 22). It is important therefore, that we recover our wonder before this mystery, allow ourselves to be enveloped by the magnitude of this event: God walked our streets as man, he entered into the time of man, to communicate His life to us (cf. 1 Jn 1:1 - 4). And He did this not with the splendour of a sovereign, who subjugates the world with his power, but with the humility of a child.
   A second element should also be underlined. At Christmas we usually exchange gifts with the people closest to us. Sometimes it may be an act done out of convention, but it generally expresses affection; it is a sign of love and esteem. In the prayer over the gifts at Christmas Mass we prayed: "Accept, O Lord, our offering in this night of light, and for this mysterious exchange of gifts transform us in Christ, your Son, who raised man next to you in glory". The idea of giving is at the heart of the liturgy and brings to our consciousness the original gift of Christmas: on that Holy night God, becoming flesh, wanted to become a gift for men, He gave a little of himself to us, took on our humanity to gift us His divinity. This is the great gift. Even in our giving is not important whether a gift is expensive or not; those who cannot afford to give a little of themselves, always give too little, indeed, sometimes they try to replace the heart and the meaning of giving with money or material things. The mystery of the Incarnation shows us that God did not do this: He did not give something; He gave himself in His only-begotten Son. Here we find the model for our giving, so that our relationships, especially the most important ones, are driven by generosity and love.
   I would like to offer a third reflection: the fact of the Incarnation, of God becoming a man like us, shows us the unprecedented realism of Divine love. The action of God, in fact, is not limited to words, indeed we might say that he is not content to speak, but is immersed in our history and takes on fatigue and weight of human life. The Son of God became truly man, born of the Virgin Mary, in a specific time and place in Bethlehem during the reign of Augustus, under Governor Quirinius (Lk 2:1-2), he grew up in a family, had friends, he formed a group of disciples, he instructed the apostles to continue his mission, he completed the course of his earthly life on the Cross. This mode of action of God is a powerful stimulus to question the realism of our faith, which should not be limited to the sphere of feelings and emotions, but must enter into concrete existence, that is to touch our lives every day and direct them in a practical way. God did not stop at words, but He showed us how to live, sharing our own experience, except sin. The Catechism of St. Pius X, which some of us have studied as children, with its simplicity, to the question: "What should we do to live according to God?", gives this answer: "To live according to God we must believe the truth revealed by Him and keep His commandments with the help of His grace, which is obtained through the sacraments and prayer. " Faith has a fundamental aspect which affects not only the mind and the heart, but all of our lives.
   A final element I propose for your consideration. St. John states that the Word, the Logos was with God from the beginning, and that all things were made through the Word, and nothing that exists was made without Him (cf. Jn 1:1-3). The Evangelist clearly alludes to the story of creation that is in the early chapters of Genesis, and read them in the light of Christ. This is a fundamental criterion in Christian reading of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments should always be read together and by beginning with the New the deepest sense also of the Old is disclosed. That same Word that has always existed with God, which is God Himself and by which and in view of which all things were created (cf. Col 1:16-17), became man: the eternal and infinite God immersed himself in human finitude, His creature, to bring man and the whole of creation to Him The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: " The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendour of which surpasses that of the first creation "(n. 349). The Fathers of the Church have likened Jesus to Adam, to the point of calling him the "second Adam" or the definitive Adam, the perfect image of God. With his incarnation the Son of God is a new creation, which gives the complete answer to the question "Who is man?". Only in Jesus is God's plan on the human being fully revealed: He is the definitive man according to God. The Second Vatican Council strongly reiterates: "In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear... Christ, the final Adam, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. "(Gaudium et Spes, 22; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 359). In this child, the Son of God contemplated at Christmas, we can recognize the true face of the human being, and only by opening action of his grace and trying every day to follow Him, do we realize God's plan for us.
   Dear friends, in this period we meditate on the great and wonderful richness of the mystery of the Incarnation, to allow the Lord to enlighten us and transform us more and more to the image of his Son made man for us.
   Pope Benedict's English greetings: "I greet all the English-speaking visitors present, including the pilgrimage groups from Nigeria, Taiwan and Brazil. My cordial greeting goes to the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians from the United States. I also thank the choirs, including those from Saint Joseph University and from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, for their praise of God in song. Upon all of you I invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace!"

January 6, 2013

Pope: Let God be known throughout the world

   After the Solemn Mass for the Epiphany, Pope Benedict led the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square in the traditional noon-day Angelus. Below, please find Pope Benedict's remarks during Sunday's Angelus address:

Dear brothers and sisters,
   Please forgive the lateness. I ordained four bishops today in the St. Peter's Basilica, and the rite lasted a little longer than normal. But today we celebrate above all the Epiphany of the Lord, His manifestation to the people; while numerous Oriental Churches celebrate Christmas, in accordance with the Julian calendar. This slight difference, which superimposes these two events, highlights the fact that the Child, born in the humble grotto in Bethlehem, is the light of the world that guides the paths of all peoples. It is a combination that is reflected even from the point of view of the faith: on the one hand, at Christmas, in the presence of Jesus, we see the faith of Mary, of Joseph, and of the shepherds; on the other, in the Epiphany, we see the faith of the Magi, who have come from the East to adore the King of the Jews.
   The Virgin Mary, together with her husband, represents the “branch” of Israel, the “remnant” foretold by the prophets, from which the Messiah will spring forth. The Magi represent the people – we can even say the civilisations, the cultures, the religions – that are, so to speak, on the path to God, in search of his reign of peace, of justice, of truth, and of liberty. First there is a nucleus, embodied above all by Mary, the “daughter of Sion”: a nucleus of Israel, the people that know and have faith in that God that was revealed to the Patriarchs and in the passage of history. This faith reaches its fulfilment in Mary, in the fullness of time: in her, “blessed because she has believed,” the Word was made flesh, God has “appeared” in the world. The faith of Mary becomes the first fruits and the model of the faith of the Church, the People of the New Covenant. But this people, from the beginning, is universal; and we see this today in the figure of the Magi, who come to Bethlehem following the light of a star and the indications of the Sacred Scriptures.
   Saint Leo the Great says, “An innumerable succession was once promised to Abraham, which would be begotten not according to the flesh, but in the fertility of the faith” (Sermon 3 for Epiphany, 1: PL 54, 240). Mary’s faith can be compared to that of Abraham: it is the new beginning of the same promise, of the same immutable plan of God, that now finds its fulfilment in Jesus Christ. And the light of Christ is so clear and strong that it makes the language of the cosmos and of the Scriptures intelligible, so that all those who, like the Magi, are open to the truth can recognise it and join in contemplating the Saviour of the world. Saint Leo continues, “Let the fullness of the peoples enter into the family of the patriarchs, let it enter . . . Let all the people . . . adore the Creator of the universe, and let God be known not only in Judea, but in all the earth” (ibid.). It is from this perspective that we can view the episcopal ordinations which I had the joy of conferring this morning in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Two of the new bishops will remain in service at the Holy See; while the other two will depart to become Papal Representatives in different countries. Let us pray for each of them, and for their respective ministries, that the light of Christ might shine forth throughout the whole world.
   After the Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict greeted pilgrims and visitors from around the world. These are his remarks in English: "I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present today, including the boys of the Palestrina Choir of Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, who sang this morning at the solemn Mass of the Epiphany. At that ceremony I had the joy of conferring episcopal ordination upon four priests, including Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu of Nigeria. May the new Bishops be faithful successors of the Apostles, always bearing witness to Christ, who today reveals the face of God to the nations. May the Lord bless all of you and grant you his peace!"