"On the Love of God" by St. John Vianney

"If you love Me, keep My Commandments."

Nothing is so common among Christians as to say, "O my God; I love Thee," and nothing more rare, perhaps, than the love of the good God. Satisfied with making outward acts I of love, in which our poor heart often has no share, we think we have fulfilled the whole of the precept. An error, an illusion; for see, my children, Saint John says that we must not love the good God in word, but in deed. Our Lord Jesus Christ also says, "If anyone love Me he will keep My Word:' If we judge by this rule, there are very few Christians who truly love God, since there are so few who keep His Commandments. Yet nothing is more essential than the love of God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtue so necessary, that without it we shall never get to Heaven; and it is in order to love God that we are on the earth. Even if the good God did not command it, this feeling is so natural to us, that our heart should be drawn to it of its own accord.

But the misfortune is that we lavish our love upon objects unworthy of it, and refuse it to Him alone who deserves to be infinitely loved. Thus, my children, one person will love riches, another will love pleasures; and both will offer to the good God nothing but the languishing remains of a heart worn out in the service of the world. From thence comes insufficient love, divided love, which is for that very reason unworthy of the good God; for He alone, being infinitely above all created good, deserves that we should love Him above all things: more than our possessions, because they are earthly; more than our friends, because they are mortal; more than our life, because it is perishable; more than ourselves, because we belong to Him. Our love, my children, if it is true, must be without limit, and must influence our conduct....

If the Saviour of the world, addressing Himself to each one of us separately, were now to ask us the same question that He formerly asked Saint Peter: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?" could we answer with as much confidence as that great Apostle, "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee"? Domine, tu scis quia amo te. We have perhaps pronounced these words without taking in their meaning and extent; for, my children, to love the good God is not merely to say with the mouth, "O my God! I love Thee!" Oh, no! where is the sinner who does not sometimes use this language?

To love the good God is not only to feel from time to time some emotions of tenderness towards God; this sensible devotion is not always in our own power. To love the good God is not to be faithful in fulfilling part of our duties and to neglect the rest. The good God will have no division: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength:' This shows the strength of the Commandment to love God. To love God with our whole heart is to prefer Him to everything, so as to be ready to lose all our possessions, our honour, our life, rather than offend this good Master. To love God with our whole heart is to love nothing that is incompatible with the love of God; it is to love nothing that can share our heart with the good God: it is to renounce all our passions, all our ill-regulated desires. Is it thus, my children, that we love the good God?

To love the good God with our whole mind is to make the sacrifice to Him of our knowledge and our reason, and to believe all that He has taught. To love the good God with our whole mind is to think of Him often, and to make it our principal study to know Him well. To love the good God with our whole strength is to employ our possessions, our health, and our talents, in serving Him and glorifying Him. It is to refer all our actions to Him, as our last end. Once more, is it thus that we love the good God? Judging by this invariable rule, how few Christians truly love God!

Do those bad Christians love the good God, who are the slaves of their passions? Do those worldly persons love the good God, who seek only to gratify their body and to please the world? Is God loved by the miser, who sacrifices Him for a vile gain? Is He loved by that voluptuary, who abandons himself to vices the most opposite to divine love? Is He loved by that man who thinks of nothing but wine and good cheer? Is He loved by that other man, who cherishes an aversion to his neighbour, and will not forgive him? Is He loved by that young girl, who loves nothing but pleasures, and thinks of nothing but indulgence and vanity? No, no, my children, none of these persons love the good God; for we must love Him with a love of preference, with an active love!

If we had rather offend the good God than deprive ourselves of a passing satisfaction, than renounce those guilty meetings, those shameful passions, we do not love the good God with a love of preference, since we love our pleasures, our passions, better than the good God Himself. Let us go down into our own souls; let us question our hearts, my children, and see if we do not love some creature more than the good God. We are permitted to love our relations, our possessions, our health, our reputation; but this love must be subordinate to the love we should have for God, so that we may be ready to make the sacrifice of it if He should require it....

Can you suppose that you are in these dispositions--you who look upon mortal sin as a trifle, who keep it quietly on your conscience for months, for years, though you know that you are in a state most displeasing to the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God--you who make no efforts to correct yourselves; you who will deprive yourselves of nothing; you who offend the Creator every time that you find opportunity? Yes, my children, what the miser loves with his whole heart is money; what the drunkard loves with his whole heart is wine; what the libertine loves with his whole heart is the object of his passion. You, young girls, you who had rather offend God than give up your finery and your vanities, you say that you love God; say rather that you love yourselves.

No, no, my children; it is not thus that the good God is to be loved, for we must love Him not only with a love of preference, but also with an active love. "Love," says Saint Augustine, "cannot remain without the constant action of the soul: Non potest vacare amor in anima amantis. Yes," says this great saint, "seek for a love that does not manifest itself in works, and you will find none:' What! could it be, O my God, that Thy love alone should be barren, and that the Divine fire, which ought to enkindle the whole world, should be without activity and without strength?

When you love a person, you show him the more or less affection according as the ardour of your love for him is more or less great. See, my children, what the saints were like, who were all filled with the love of the good God: nothing cost them too much; they joyfully made the greatest sacrifices; they distributed their goods to the poor, rendered services to their enemies, led a hard and penitential life; tore themselves from the pleasures of the world, from the conveniences of life, to bury themselves alive in solitude; they hastened to torments and to death, as people hasten to a feast. Such were the effects which the love of the good God produced in the saints; such ought it to produce in us. But, my children, we are not penetrated with the love of God; we do not love the good God. Can anyone say, indeed, that he loves the good God, who is so easily frightened, and who is repulsed by the least difficulty? Alas! what would have become of us if Jesus Christ had loved us only as we love Him? But, no. Triumphing over the agonies of the Cross, the bitterness of death, the shame of the most ignominious tortures, nothing costs Him too dear when He has to prove that He loves us. That is our only model. If our love is active, it will manifest itself by the works which are the effects of love, because the love of the good God is not only a love of preference, but a pious affection, a love of obedience, which makes us practice His Commandments; an active love, which makes us fulfil all the duties of a good Christian. Such is the love, my children, which God requires from us, to which He has so many titles, which He has purchased by so many benefits heaped upon us by His death for us upon the Cross. What happiness, my children, to love the good God! There is no joy, no happiness, no peace, in the heart of those who do not love the good God on earth. We desire Heaven, we aspire to it; but, that we may be sure to attain to it, let us begin to love the good God here below, in order to be able to love Him, to possess Him eternally in His holy Paradise.

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World Youth Day 2007

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD
ON THE OCCASION
OF THE 22nd WORLD YOUTH DAY, 2007
“Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
(This is not a World Youth Day like the one in Cologne in 2005. This year it is celebrated on the diocesan level. Bold parts below were emphasized by me.)
My dear young friends,

On the occasion of the 22nd World Youth Day that will be celebrated in the dioceses on Palm Sunday, I would like to propose for your meditation the words of Jesus: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

Is it possible to love?

Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is Utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a “discovery” of love.

God, the source of love

The first stage concerns the source of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. Saint John makes this clear when he declares that “God is love” (1 John 4: 8,16). He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is a person; it is the Holy Spirit.

The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love of God

How is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached the second stage of our journey. Even though the signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, the full revelation of the intimate mystery of God came to us through the Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, “the real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts Can unprecedented realism” (n. 12). The manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by Saint Paul, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each one of us can truly say: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf Eph 5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits. The Cross, - for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal-, is in fact the “wisdom of God” for those who allow themselves to be touched right to the innermost depths of their being, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Moreover, the Crucifix, which after the Resurrection would carry forever the marks of his passion, exposes the “distortions” and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true “revolution” that He brings about: love.

Loving our neighbour as Christ loves us

Now we have arrived at the third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross: “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realise the need and urgency to love him as He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in the Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18), but the innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, “to the end” (cf Jn 13:1).

Witnesses to the love of Christ

I would like to linger for a moment on three areas of daily life where you, my dear young friends, are particularly called to demonstrate the love of God. The first area is the Church, our spiritual family, made up of all the disciples of Christ. Mindful of his words: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35), you should stimulate, with your enthusiasm and charity, the activities of the parishes, the communities, the ecclesial movements and the youth groups to which you belong. Be attentive in your concern for the welfare of others, faithful to the commitments you have made. Do not hesitate to joyfully abstain from some of your entertainments; cheerfully accept the necessary sacrifices; testify to your faithful love for Jesus by proclaiming his Gospel, especially among young people of your age.

Preparing for the future

The second area, where you are called to express your love and grow in it, is your preparation for the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek in their reciprocal love. The love of a man and woman is at the origin of the human family and the couple formed by a man and a woman has its foundation in God’s original plan (cf Gen 2:18-25). Learning to love each other as a couple is a wonderful journey, yet it requires a demanding “apprenticeship”. The period of engagement, very necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love, in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practise self-control and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare. In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to purify it of all selfishness. Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord’s call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise, dear young men and women, be ready to say “yes” if God should call you to follow the path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness.

Growing in love each day

The third area of commitment that comes with love is that of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family, studies, work and free time. Dear young friends, cultivate your talents, not only to obtain a social position, but also to help others to “grow”. Develop your capacities, not only in order to become more “competitive” and “productive”, but to be “witnesses of charity”. In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world. May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the “civilization of love”. The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!

“Dare to love” by following the example of the saints

My dear young friends, I want to invite you to “dare to love”. Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love (cf Rev 5:13). Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations. This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel and reflect this very first love. Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did. I shall just mention Mother Teresa. In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, “I thirst”, a cry that had touched her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognizing his disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor. Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). The message of this humble witness of divine love has spread around the whole world.

The secret of love

Each one of us, my dear friends, has been given the possibility of reaching this same level of love, but only by having recourse to the indispensable support of divine Grace. Only the Lord’s help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken. It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love. When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf Eph 3:17-18). By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render “in haste” the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters.

Towards the encounter in Sydney

On this subject, the recommendation of the apostle John is illuminating: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth” (1 Jn 3: 18-19). Dear young people, it is in this spirit that I invite you to experience the next World Youth Day together with your bishops in your respective dioceses. This will be an important stage on the way to the meeting in Sydney where the theme will be: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). May Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, help you to let that cry ring out everywhere, the cry that has changed the world: “God is love!” I am together with you all in prayer and extend to you my heartfelt blessing.

From the Vatican, 27 January 2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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"Catechism on The Love of God" by St. John Vianney

Our body is a vessel of corruption; it is meant for death and for the worms, nothing morel And yet we devote ourselves to satisfying it, rather than to enriching our soul, which is so great that we can conceive nothing greater-no, nothing, nothing! For we see that God, urged by the ardour of His charity, would not create us like the animals; He has created us in His own image and likeness, do you see? Oh, how great is man?

Man, being created by love, cannot live without love: either he loves God, or he loves himself and he loves the world. See, my children, it is faith that we want. . . . When we have not faith, we are blind. He who does not see, does not know; he who does not know does not love; he who does not love God loves himself, and at the same time loves his pleasures. He fixes his heart on things which pass away like smoke. He cannot know the truth, nor any good thing; he can know nothing but falsehood, because he has no light; he is in a mist. If he had light, he would see plainly that all that he loves can give him nothing but eternal death; it is a foretaste of Hell.

Do you see, my children, except God, nothing is solid--nothing, nothing! If it is life, it passes away; if it is a fortune, it crumbles away; if it is health, it is destroyed; if it is reputation, it is attacked. We are scattered like the wind. . . . Everything is passing away full speed, everything is going to ruin. O God! O God! how much those are to be pitied, then, who set their hearts on all these things! They set their hearts on them because they love themselves too much; but they do not love themselves with a reasonable love-they love themselves with a love that seeks themselves and the world, that seeks creatures more than God. That is the reason why they are never satisfied, never quiet; they are always uneasy, always tormented, always upset. See, my children, the good Christian runs his course in this world mounted on a fine triumphal chariot; this chariot is borne by angels, and conducted by Our Lord Himself, while the poor sinner is harnessed to the chariot of this life, and the devil who drives it forces him to go on with great strokes of the whip.

My children, the three acts of faith, hope and charity contain all the happiness of man upon the earth. By faith, we believe what God has promised us: we believe that we shall one day see Him, that we shall possess Him, that we shall be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. By hope, we expect the fulfilment of these promises: we hope that we shall be rewarded for all our good actions, for all our good thoughts, for all our good desires; for God takes into account even our good desires. What more do we want to make us happy?

In Heaven, faith and hope will exist no more, for the mist which obscures our reason will be dispelled; our mind will be able to understand the things that are hidden from it here below. We shall no longer hope for anything, because we shall have everything. We do not hope to acquire a treasure which we already possess. . . . But love; oh, we shall be inebriated with it! we shall be drowned, lost in that ocean of divine love, annihilated in that immense charity of the Heart of Jesus! so that charity is a foretaste of Heaven. Oh, how happy should we be if we knew how to understand it, to feel it, to taste it! What makes us unhappy is that we do not love God.

When we say, "My God, I believe, I believe firmly, " that is, without the least doubt, without the least hesitation. . . Oh, if we were penetrated with these words: "I firmly believe that Thou art present everywhere, that Thou seest me, that I am under Thine eyes, that one day I myself shall see Thee clearly, that I shall enjoy all the good things Thou hast promised me! O my God, I hope that Thou wilt reward me for all that I have done to please Thee! O my God, I love Thee; my heart is made to love Thee!" Oh, this act of faith, which is also an act of love, would suffice for everything! If we understood our own happiness in I being able to love God, we should remain motionless in ecstasy. . . .

If a prince, an emperor, were to cause one of his subjects to appear before him, and should say to him, "I wish to make you happy; stay with me, enjoy all my possessions, but be careful not to give me any just cause of displeasure, " with what care, with what ardour, would not that subject endeavour to satisfy his prince! Well, God makes the same proposals to us . . . and we do not care for His friendship, we make no account of His promises. . . . What a pity!

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Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Midnight Mass

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his second Midnight Mass for Christmas as Pope this year. Here is the text of his homily:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We have just heard in the Gospel the message given by the angels to the shepherds during that Holy Night, a message which the Church now proclaims to us: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:11-12). Nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother's care; a child born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God's sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfills the promise of the prophet Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the child lying in the manger.

God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him. The Fathers of the Church, in their Greek translation of the Old Testament, found a passage from the prophet Isaiah that Paul also quotes in order to show how God's new ways had already been foretold in the Old Testament. There we read: "God made his Word short, he abbreviated it" (Is 10:23; Rom 9:28). The Fathers interpreted this in two ways. The Son himself is the Word, the Logos; the eternal Word became small enough to fit into a manger. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way he teaches us to love the weak. In this way he teaches us respect for children. The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze toward all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. Toward children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; toward children who have to beg; toward children who suffer deprivation and hunger; toward children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us pray this night that the brightness of God's love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life.

And so we come to the second meaning that the Fathers saw in the phrase: "God made his Word short". The Word which God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture had become long in the course of the centuries. It became long and complex, not just for the simple and unlettered, but even more so for those versed in Sacred Scripture, for the experts who evidently became entangled in details and in particular problems, almost to the extent of losing an overall perspective. Jesus "abbreviated" the Word he showed us once more its deeper simplicity and unity. Everything taught by the Law and the Prophets is summed up, he says, in the command: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt 22:37-40). This is everything the whole faith is contained in this one act of love which embraces God and humanity. Yet now further questions arise: how are we to love God with all our mind, when our intellect can barely reach him? How are we to love him with all our heart and soul, when our heart can only catch a glimpse of him from afar, when there are so many contradictions in the world that would hide his face from us? This is where the two ways in which God has "abbreviated" his Word come together. He is no longer distant. He is no longer unknown. He is no longer beyond the reach of our heart. He has become a child for us, and in so doing he has dispelled all doubt. He has become our neighbor, restoring in this way the image of man, whom we often find so hard to love. For us, God has become a gift. He has given himself. He has entered time for us. He who is the Eternal One, above time, he has assumed our time and raised it to himself on high. Christmas has become the Feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself to us. Let us allow our heart, our soul and our mind to be touched by this fact! Among the many gifts that we buy and receive, let us not forget the true gift: to give each other something of ourselves, to give each other something of our time, to open our time to God. In this way anxiety disappears, joy is born, and the feast is created. During the festive meals of these days let us remember the Lord's words: "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite those who will invite you in return, but invite those whom no one invites and who are not able to invite you" (cf. Lk 14:12-14). This also means: when you give gifts for Christmas, do not give only to those who will give to you in return, but give to those who receive from no one and who cannot give you anything back. This is what God has done: he invites us to his wedding feast, something which we cannot reciprocate, but can only receive with joy. Let us imitate him! Let us love God and, starting from him, let us also love man, so that, starting from man, we can then rediscover God in a new way!

And so, finally, we find yet a third meaning in the saying that the Word became "brief" and "small". The shepherds were told that they would find the child in a manger for animals, who were the rightful occupants of the stable. Reading Isaiah (1:3), the Fathers concluded that beside the manger of Bethlehem there stood an ox and an ass. At the same time they interpreted the text as symbolizing the Jews and the pagans and thus all humanity who, each in their own way, have need of a Savior: the God who became a child. Man, in order to live, needs bread, the fruit of the earth and of his labor. But he does not live by bread alone. He needs nourishment for his soul: he needs meaning that can fill his life. Thus, for the Fathers, the manger of the animals became the symbol of the altar, on which lies the Bread which is Christ himself: the true food for our hearts. Once again we see how he became small: in the humble appearance of the host, in a small piece of bread, he gives us himself.

All this is conveyed by the sign that was given to the shepherds and is given also to us: the child born for us, the child in whom God became small for us. Let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace of looking upon the crib this night with the simplicity of the shepherds, so as to receive the joy with which they returned home (cf. Lk 2:20). Let us ask him to give us the humility and the faith with which Saint Joseph looked upon the child that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord to let us look upon him with that same love with which Mary saw him. And let us pray that in this way the light that the shepherds saw will shine upon us too, and that what the angels sang that night will be accomplished throughout the world: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased." Amen!

Copyright Vatican Publishing House

Photos:


AFP/Patrick Hertzog

REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (VATICAN)

Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (VATICAN)

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Sermon by St. Alphonsus Liguouri for the 4th Sunday of Advent

The Savior of the World, Whom, according to the Prediction-of the Prophet Isaiah, Men were One Day to see on this Earth ("and All Flesh shall see the Salvation of God"), has already come. We have not only seen Him conversing-among Men, but we have also seen Him Suffering and Dying for the Love of us. Let us, then, this morning, consider the Love which we Owe to Jesus Christ, at least through Gratitude, for the Love which He bears to us. In the First Point we shall consider the Greatness-of the Love which Jesus Christ has shown us; and in the Second we shall see the Greatness of our Obligations-to Love Him.




You may listen to the audio version here

First Point
On the Great Love which Jesus Christ has shown to us

"Christ", says Saint Augustine, "came on Earth that Men might Know how much God Loves them". He has come, and, to show the Immense Love which this God bears us, He has given Himself entirely to us, by Abandoning Himself to all the Pains of this Life, and afterwards to the Scourges, to the Thorns, and to all the Sorrows and Insults which He Suffered in His Passion, and by offering Himself to Die, Abandoned by all, on the Infamous Tree of the Cross. "Who Loved me, and Delivered Himself for me" - Galations 2:20.

Jesus Christ could Save us without Dying on the Cross, and without Suffering. One (1) Drop of His Blood would be Sufficient-for our Redemption. Even a Prayer, offered-to His Eternal Father, would be Sufficient; because, on-account-of His Divinity, His Prayer would be of Infinite (∞) Value, and would therefore be Sufficient-for the Salvation of the World, and of a Thousand (1000) Worlds. "But", says Saint Chrysostom, or another Ancient Author, "what was Sufficient for Redemption, was not Sufficient for Love". To show how much He Loved us, He Wished to shed not only a Part-of His Blood, but the Entire of it, by Dint-of Torrents. This may be Inferred-from the Words which He used on the Night before His Death: "This is My Blood of the New Testament, which shall be Shed for many" - Matthew 26:28.

The Words shall be Shed show that in His Passion, the Blood of Jesus Christ was Poured-forth, even to the Last Drop. Hence, when after Death, His Side was opened-with a Spear, Blood and Water came-forth, as if what then flowed, was All that remained-of His Blood. Jesus Christ, then, though He could Save us without Suffering, Wished-to embrace a Life of Continual Pain, and to Suffer the Cruel and Ignominious Death of the Cross. "He humbled Himself, becoming Obedient unto Death, even to the Death of the Cross" - Philippians 2:8.

"Greater Love than this no Man hath, that a Man lay down his Life for his Friends" - John 15:13. To show His Love for us, what more could the Son of God do, than Die for us? What more can One (1) Man do for Another, than give his Life for him? "Greater Love than this, no Man hath". Tell me, my Brother, if One of your Servants - if the Vilest Man on this Earth, had done for you what Jesus Christ has done, in Dying through Pain on a Cross, could you remember his Love for you, and not Love him?

Saint Francis of Assisi appeared to be unable to think of anything but the Passion of Jesus Christ; and thinking of it, he continually Shed Tears, so that by his Constant Weeping, he became nearly Blind. Being found one day, Weeping and Groaning at the Foot of the Crucifix, he was asked the Cause-of his Tears and Lamentations. He replied: "I Weep over the Sorrows and Ignominies of my Lord. And what makes me Weep still more, is that the Men for whom He has Suffered so much, Live in Forgetfulness of Him".

O Christian, should a Doubt ever enter your Mind, that Jesus Christ Loves you, Raise your Eyes and look-at Him, hanging-on the Cross. Ah! says Saint Thomas of Villanova, the Cross to-which He is Nailed, the 'Internal' and 'External' Sorrows which He endures, and the Cruel Death which He Suffers for you, are Convincing Proofs of the Love which He bears you. "Testis crux, testes dolores, testis amara mors quam pro te sustinuit". Do you not, says Saint Bernard, hear the Voice-of that Cross, and of those Wounds, crying-out to make you feel that He Truly Loves you? "Clamat crux, clamat vulnus, quod vere dilexit".

Saint Paul says that the Love which Jesus Christ has shown, in Condescending-to Suffer so much for our Salvation, should Excite us to His Love, more Powerfully than the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Painful Journey-to Calvary, the Agony of Three (3) Hours on the Cross, the Buffets, the Spitting in His Face, and all the other Injuries which the Savior endured. According to the Apostle, the Love which Jesus has shown us, not only Obliges, but in a certain manner 'Forces' and 'Constrains' us, to Love a God Who has Loved so much. "For the Charity of Christ presseth us" - 2Corinthians 5:14. On this 'Text', Saint Francis de Sales says: "We Know that Jesus, the True God, has Loved us so as to Suffer Death, and even Death on the Cross, for our Salvation. Does not such Love, put our Hearts, as it were, under a Press, to Force from them Love, by a Violence which is Stronger in proportion as it is more Amiable?".

So Great was the Love that Inflamed the Enamored Heart of Jesus, that He not only Wished to Die for our Redemption, but during His Whole Life, He Sighed Ardently for the Day on which He should Suffer Death, for the Love of us. Hence, during His Life, Jesus used to say: "I have a Baptism wherewith I am to be Baptized: and how am I Straitened (stressed), until it be accomplished?" - Luke 12:50. In My Passion, I am to be Baptized with the Baptism of My Own Blood, to Wash-away the Sins of Men. "And how am I Straitened?". How, says Saint Ambrose, explaining this 'Passage', am I Straitened (stressed) by the Desire of the Speedy Arrival of the Day of My Death. Hence, on the Night before His Passion He said: "With Desire I have Desired to eat this Pasch with you, before I Suffer" - Luke 22:15.

"We have", says Saint Lawrence Justinian, "seen Wisdom become Foolish, through the Excess of Love". We have, he says, seen the Son of God become, as it were, a Fool, through the Excessive Love which He bore-to Men. Such, too, was the Language of the Gentiles, when they heard the Apostles Preaching that Jesus Christ, Suffered Death for the Love of Men. "But we", says Saint Paul, " Preach Christ Crucified, unto the Jews indeed a Stumbling Block, and unto the Gentiles, Foolishness" - 1Corinthians 1:23. Who, they exclaimed, can Believe that a God, most-Happy in Himself, and Who stands in Need-of no one, should take Human Flesh and Die for the Love of Men, who are His Creatures? This would be to Believe that a God became Foolish, for the Love of Men. "It appears Folly", says Saint Gregory, "that the Author of Life should Die for Men". But, whatever Infidels may 'Say' or 'Think', it is of Faith that the Son of God has Shed all His Blood, for the Love of us, to Wash-away the Sins of our Souls. "Who hath Loved us, and Washed us from our Sins, in His Own Blood" - Revelation 1:5. Hence, the Saints were Struck Dumb with Astonishment, at the consideration-of the Love of Jesus Christ. At the Sight-of the Crucifix, Saint Francis of Paul could do nothing but exclaim, O Love! O Love! O Love!

"Having Loved His Own, who were in the World, He Loved them unto the End" - John 13:1. This Loving God was not content-with showing us His Love by Dying on the Cross for our Salvation; but, at the End of His Life, He Wished-to leave us His Own Flesh, for the Food of our Souls, that thus, He might Unite (1) Himself entirely to us. "Take ye, and eat. This is My Body" - Matthew 26:26. But of this Gift, and this Excess-of Love, we shall speak at another Time, in Treating-of the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Let us pass-to the Second Point.

Second Point
On the Greatness of our Obligation to Love Jesus Christ

He who Loves, Wishes to-be Loved. "When", says Saint Bernard, "God Loves, He Desires nothing else than to be Loved". The Redeemer said: "I am come to Cast Fire on the Earth; and what Will I, but that it be Kindled?" - Luke 12:49. I, says Jesus Christ, came on Earth, to Light-up the Fire-of Divine Love in the Hearts of Men, "What Will I, but that it be Kindled?". God Wishes nothing else from us, than to be Loved. Hence the Holy Church Prays in the Following Words: "We Beseech Thee, O Lord, that the Spirit may Inflame us with the Fire which Jesus Christ cast upon the Earth, and which He vehemently Wished to be Kindled". Ah! what have not the Saints, Inflamed-with this Fire, accomplished! They have Abandoned all things - Delights, Honors, the Purple and the Sceptre - that they might Burn with this Holy Fire. But you will ask what are you to do, that you too may be Inflamed-with the Love of Jesus Christ. Imitate David: "In my Meditation, a Fire shall Flame out" - Psalm 38:4. Meditation is the Blessed Furnace, in which the Holy Fire of Divine Love is Kindled. Make Mental Prayer every Day, Meditate on the Passion of Jesus Christ, and Doubt-not, but you too shall Burn-with this Blessed Flame.

Saint Paul says, that Jesus Christ Died for us to make Himself the Master of the Hearts of All. "To this End, Christ Died and Rose again; that He might be Lord both of the Dead and of the Living" - Romans 14:9. He Wished, says the Apostle, to give His Life for All Men, without a Single Exception, that not even One (1) should live any longer for himself, but that all might live only to that God, Who condescended-to Die for them. "And Christ Died for All; that they also who Live, may not now Live to themselves, but unto Him Who Died for them" - 2Corinthians 5:15.

Ah! to correspond-to the Love of this God, it would be necessary that another God should Die for him, as Jesus Christ Died for us. O Ingratitude of Men! A God has condescended-to give His Life for their Salvation, and they will not even think on what He has done for them! Ah! if each of you thought frequently of the Redeemer, and on the Love which He has shown us in His Passion, how could you but Love Him with your Whole Hearts? To him who sees with a Lively Faith, the Son of God suspended by Three (3) Nails on the Infamous Gibbet, every Wound of Jesus 'Speaks' and 'Says': "Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God". Love, O Man, thy Lord and thy God, Who has Loved thee so Intensely. Who can resist such Tender Expressions! "The Wounds of Jesus Christ", says Saint Bonaventure, "Wound the Hardest Hearts, and Inflame Frozen Souls".

"Oh! if you knew the Mystery of the Cross!", said Saint Andrew the Apostle to the Tyrant by whom he was Tempted to Deny Jesus Christ. O Tyrant, if you knew the Love which your Savior has shown you, by Dying on the Cross, for your Salvation; instead of Tempting me, you would Abandon all the Goods of this Earth, to give yourself to the Love of Jesus Christ.

I conclude, my most Beloved Brethren, by Recommending you henceforth to Meditate Every Day on the Passion of Jesus Christ. I shall be Content, if you Daily devote to this Meditation, a Quarter of an Hour. Let each, at least procure a Crucifix: let him keep it in his Room, and from time-to-time give a Glance at it saying: Ah! my Jesus, Thou hast Died for me, and I do not Love Thee! Had a Person Suffered-for a Friend, Injuries, Buffets, and Prisons, he would be Greatly Pleased to find that they were 'Remembered' and 'Spoken-of', with Gratitude. But, he should be Greatly Displeased, if the Friend, for whom they had been Borne, were Unwilling to 'Think' or 'Hear-of' his Sufferings. Thus Frequent Meditation on His Passion is very Pleasing-to our Redeemer; but the Neglect of it, greatly-provokes His Displeasure. Oh! how Great will be the Consolation which we shall receive in our Last Moments, from the Sorrows and Death of Jesus Christ, if during Life, we shall have Frequently Meditated on them, with Love! Let us not wait till others, at the Hour of Death, place in our hands, the Crucifix; let us not wait till they Remind us of all that Jesus Christ Suffered for us.

Let us during Life, embrace Jesus Christ Crucified; let us keep ourselves always United with Him. He who practices Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord, cannot but be Devoted to the Dolors of Mary, the Remembrance of which, will be to us a Source-of Great Consolation, at the Hour of Death. Oh! how 'Profitable' and 'Sweet', the Meditation of Jesus on the Cross. Oh! how Happy the Death of him, who Dies in the Embrace-of Jesus Crucified, accepting Death with Cheerfulness, for the Love of that God, Who has Died for the Love of us.

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Christmas Homily of Pope Benedict XVI

FEAST OF CHRISTMAS THE LORD

HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica
December 24, 2010

Dear brothers and sisters!

"You are my son, today I have begotten you" - with these words of the second Psalm, the Church begins the liturgy of the Holy Night. She knows that this phrase belongs, originally, the rite of coronation of the king of Israel. The king, who alone is a human being like other men, becomes a "son of God through the call and enthronement in its function: it is a sort of adoption by God, a record of decision in which he gives this man a new life, drawing them into your own being. Even more clear, reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we have just heard, has the same process in a situation of distress and threat to Israel: "A child is born to us a son is given to us. Has power over his shoulder "(9, 5). The royal enthronement function is like a new birth. And just like baby for God's personal decision, as a child of God, the king is a hope. The future rests on their shoulders. It is the keeper of the promise of peace. On the night of Bethlehem, this prophetic word was held in a way that at the time of Isaiah, he would have been unimaginable. Yes, now the one on whose shoulders lies the power is truly a boy. In him appears the new royalty that God creates in the world. This boy truly born of God. It is the eternal Word of God, which unites mutually humanity and divinity. For this boy, are valid evidence of the dignity which it assigns the coronation hymn of Isaiah: "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9, 5). Yes, this king does not need advisers belonging to the worldly wise. Himself brings the wisdom and counsel of God. Precisely the weakness of boy he is, He is strong and so God shows us, given the pretentious world powers, the strength of God itself.

In fact, the words of the rite of coronation in Israel were mere ritual words of hope, that far predicting a future that would be given by God. None of the kings, so honored, corresponded to the sublimity of such words. Them, all the expressions about affiliation to God, enthroned on the heritage of the people on the field of distant lands (Ps 2, 8) remained only a portent of the future - as if panel flags of hope, signs pointing to a future which then was still inconceivable. So keeping one's word, which begins on the night of Bethlehem, is at once vastly larger and - from the viewpoint of the world - more humble than let the prophetic word intuit. It is larger, because this boy is truly the Son of God, is truly "God from God, Light from Light, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father." Is conquered the infinite distance between God and man. God did not merely tilt the look down, as the Psalm says, he "fell" truly entered the world, became one of us to draw all to himself "This kid is truly the Emmanuel, God- us. His realm extends to the ends of truly earth. Universal in the immensity of the Holy Eucharist, he truly established islands of peace. Everywhere where it is celebrated, we have an island of peace, that peace which is God himself. This kid lit, in men, the light of kindness and gave them the strength to resist the tyranny of power. In every generation, He builds his kingdom from within, from the heart. But it is also true that "the baton of the oppressor 'has not been broken. Also today the shoe noisy march of soldiers and we have constantly to 'dress stained with blood "(Isaiah 9: 3-4). So part of the joy of this night by the closeness of God. We thank God because, as a child, If you trust in our hands, as it were begging for our love, infuses his peace in our hearts. But this joy is also a prayer: Lord, fulfill your promise fully. Break down the rod of the oppressor. Burn the noisy footwear. Grant that the time of blood-stained garments over. Accomplishment the promise of "peace without an end" (Isaiah 9, 6). We thank you for your kindness, but also ask Thee, shew your strength. Institutes in the world the domain of your truth, your love - the "kingdom of justice, love and peace."

"Mary gave birth to her firstborn son" (Lk 2, 7). With this sentence, Saint Luke recounts, in an absolutely sober, the big event that the prophetic words in the history of Israel, had envisioned beforehand. Luke refers to the boy as "the firstborn". In language that was formed in the Scriptures of the Old Covenant, "the firstborn" does not mean the first of a series of other children. The word "firstborn" is a title of honor, whether to follow after other brothers and sisters or not. Thus, in the Book of Exodus, Israel is called by God "my firstborn" (Ex 4, 22), expressing themselves in this way to his election, his unique dignity, particularly the love of God the Father The early Church knew that the word gained a new depth in Jesus, which are summed up in him the promises made to Israel. Thus the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus "the firstborn" simply in order to qualify, then the preparations in the Old Testament as the Son of God sending to the world (Heb 1, 5-7). The oldest belongs in a special way to God, and therefore - as happens in many religions - should be delivered in a special way to God and redeemed by a sacrifice of substitution, as St. Luke says in the episode of Jesus' presentation in the temple. The firstborn belongs to God in particular, as it is for the sacrifice. In the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, takes place in a unique way the fate of the firstborn. Himself, Jesus offers humanity to God, uniting man and God in such a way that God may be all in all. São Paulo, in the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians, broadened and deepened the idea of Jesus as firstborn: Jesus - tell us those letters - is the firstborn of creation, the true archetype according to which God formed the man-creature. Man may be the image of God because Jesus is God and Man, the true image of God and man. He is the firstborn from the dead: yet tell us those letters. In Resurrection, crossed the wall of death for us all. Opened to man the size of eternal life in communion with God. Finally, we are told: He is the firstborn of many brothers. Yes, now he is also the first in a series of brothers, ie the first that opens for us the life in communion with God. Creates true brotherhood, no fraternity, distorted by sin, Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, but the new brotherhood in which we are the very family of God. This new family of God begins the moment Mary involves the 'firstborn' in the tracks and recline in the manger. Let us pray to Him, Lord Jesus, you who have wished to be born as the first of many brothers, give us the true brotherhood. Help us to become like Thee. Help us to recognize another one that needs me, those who suffer or are abandoned, all men, your face, and live together with you as brothers and sisters to become a family, your family.

In the end, the Christmas Gospel tells us that a multitude of the heavenly host of angels praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he loves" (Lk 2, 14). The church expanded in the hymn "Glory ...», this praise the angels sang the sight of the holy night of the event, making it a hymn of jubilation about the glory of God. "We thank you for your glory." We thank you for beauty, for greatness, for thy goodness, which, tonight, become visible to us. The manifestation of beauty, beautiful, makes us happy that we should not wonder about its usefulness. The glory of God, whence all beauty, explodes in us the wonder and joy. Who sees God, feel joy, and tonight, we see something from your light. But the message of the angels on that Holy Night also tells men: "Peace to those whom God loves." The Latin translation of this phrase that we use in the liturgy and goes back to St. Jerome interprets differently: "Peace to men of good will." Just during the last decades, the words' men of good will in particular entered the vocabulary of the Church. But what is a fair translation? We read together, the two versions, only then we rightly understand the words of the angels. It would be a wrong interpretation that would recognize only the unique act of God, as if he had not called the man a free and loving response. But it would be wrong also an uplifting response, whereby a man with such good will power it would, so to speak, to redeem himself. The two things go together: grace and freedom, love of God that precedes us and without whom we can love Him not, and our response, which he hopes and prays it up in the birth of his son. The intertwining of grace and freedom, the entanglement of appeal and response can not divide it into parts separated from one another. Both are inseparably interwoven with each other. So this sentence is both promise and appeal. God preceded us with the gift of his Son. And ever anew and unexpectedly, God goes before us. Never ceases to seek, to stand up every time you need it. Do not abandon the lost sheep in the desert, where they lost. God is not confused by our sin. Again and again starts with us. However expects us to love Him with Love us so that we can become the people they love with him and thus could be peace on earth.

Lucas did not say that the angels sang. Very soberly, writes that the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God on high ..." (Lk 2, 13-14). But men have always heard that the talk of angels is different from that of men, and that precisely this evening of joyful message, such talk was a corner in which shone the sublime glory of God. So from the beginning, this song of angels is understood to music coming from God, nay, an invitation to come together in the corner with his heart in joy because we are loved by God. Saint Augustine says: Cantare Amantis est - singing is for one who loves. Thus over the centuries, the song of angels became ever again a song of love and joy, a corner of loved ones. At this time, Let us join together, full of gratitude, this chanting of all ages, that unites heaven and earth, angels and men. Yes, Lord, we give you thanks for your glory. We thank you for your love. Make us more and more people that love with you and therefore, people of peace. Amen.


Image Source: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

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Analysis of Pope Francis's First Encyclical in Light of Catholic Tradition

Is Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen fidei, in line with Tradition? DICI examines the text and gives some conclusions.  The following is directly quoted from that source.

Lumen fidei [published on June 29, 2013] claims to be “in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has pronounced”;  thus there is an explicit reference—but only in a footnote—to Chapter 3 of the Constitution Dei Filius of the First Vatican Council (no. 7, note 7).  It is also about the “faith [that is] received from God as a supernatural gift” (no. 4), and it specifies that faith is a “theological” and “supernatural” virtue given by God (no. 7). Similarly we read:

Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity” (no. 48); not a single article of the Creed can be denied;  there is a need for vigilance to ensure that the deposit of faith is passed on “in its entirety (no. 48).

But those are the only traces of the traditional teaching.

All the rest of the Encyclical buries these all-too-rare allusions in a context that is quite foreign to them. This context connects the idea of faith with the idea of experience and personal encounter, which establishes a relation between man and God, without making it clear whether this is the intellectual relation of knowledge[1] or the affective relation of love.[2] Nor is it very clear whether this personal encounter corresponds to the profound requirements of nature or whether it surpasses them by introducing man into a specifically supernatural order.[3] The problem is compounded by the failure to cite the classical notions of natural and supernatural in describing this relation: it is above all a question of existence.[4]

The central idea is that faith is first of all existential, the product of an encounter with the living God that reveals love and leads to communion (no. 4, no. 8).  It is essentially dynamic, openness to the promise of God and memory of [that promise about] the future (no. 9), openness to love (no. 21, no. 34), attachment to the source of life and of all fatherhood (no. 11), an experience of love (no. 47)…. It consists of “the willingness to let ourselves be constantly transformed and renewed by God’s call” (no. 13).

There is no definition of what a theological virtue is, and the reader will search in vain for a specific definition of the three theological virtues, which consequently are mixed up. Never is faith related to the authority of God who reveals (the word “authority” appears once, in no. 55, but in reference to another subject). The revealed deposit of faith is mentioned only in no. 48, but it is not defined—particularly the fact that it was completed at the death of the last apostle.

No. 18 recalls that “Christian faith is faith in the incarnation of the Word and his bodily resurrection; it is faith in a God who is so close to us that he entered our human history.” But it must be admitted that it is quite difficult to recite the act of faith on the basis of the considerations proposed here, according to which faith relies not on the authority of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived, but rather on the “utter reliability of God’s love” (no. 17), and on the reliability of Jesus “based… on his divine sonship” (ibid.). In other words: I believe in God because he is love and not because he is truthful.

We find in footnote 23 an excerpt from Dei Verbum that speaks about “[willing assent] to the revelation given by God”, which requires

the grace of God, anticipating it and assisting it, as well as the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, and opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth (no. 29).

Yet further on the Encyclical reads:

The creed does not only involve giving one’s assent to a body of abstract truths; rather, when it is recited the whole of life is drawn into a journey towards full communion with the living God (no. 45).

The necessity of faith in order to be saved is presented in a non-directive manner: the beginning of salvation is “openness to something prior to ourselves, to a primordial gift that affirms life and sustains it in being” (no. 19). Or else:  “Faith in Christ brings salvation because in him our lives become radically open” (no. 20). This is far from the Gospel clarity:

Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creation.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved:  but he that believeth not shall be condemned (Mark 16:15-16).

On the contrary, no. 34 says:

The light of love proper to faith can illumine the questions of our own time about truth…. As a truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed by force; it is not a truth that stifles the individual. Since it is born of love, it can penetrate to the heart, to the personal core of each man and woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others.

Incidentally, one might wonder about the catechetical effectiveness of the definition of the Decalogue given in no. 46:

The Decalogue is not a set of negative commands, but concrete directions for emerging from the desert of the selfish and self-enclosed ego in order to enter into dialogue with God.

In short, faith, as it is presented in Lumen fidei, is first of all an experience of life and of love, fully realized in the “encounter with Christ” (no. 30): “Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment” (no. 26). Jesus is said to be the one savior because “all God’s light is concentrated in him, in his ‘luminous life’ which discloses the origin and the end of history” (no. 35)….

It is much too early to propose, based on a first encyclical, a key to reading the teaching of Pope Francis; the next encyclical—which is said to be dedicated to poverty—will be more personal and will enlighten us more precisely. We will simply be so bold as to point out that Lumen fidei is indeed in line with post-conciliar teaching. Vatican II wanted to open up the Church to the modern world, which is characterized by its rejection of the argument from authority. Thus the Council claimed to be pastoral, avoiding all dogmatic definition so as not to give the impression of coercing contemporary minds.

From this perspective, the considerations on faith in Lumen fidei are somewhat reminiscent of what the immanentist philosopher Maurice Blondel wrote:

If faith increases our knowledge, it is not initially and principally inasmuch as it teaches us certain objective truths by authorized testimony, but rather inasmuch as it unites us to the life of a subject, inasmuch as it initiates us, through loving thought, to another thought and another love. (M. Blondel in A. Lalande, Dictionnaire technique et critique de la philosophie [Paris: PUF, 1968], 360, emphasis added.)

It is not learning objective truths, but becoming united to the life of a subject and being initiated by loving thought to another thought and another love. Hence a problem arises: how can one be content to propose to modern minds, which are smitten with autonomy, what the authority of divine revelation imposes on us? And how can we do this without giving the impression to those minds that the authority of divine revelation is contrary to their aspirations to autonomy? And without diluting the revealed deposit itself either or diminishing its authority? These are the difficulties with which the Magisterium has been struggling for fifty years.

In a recent article, Fr. Jean-Dominique, O.P., recalls the interest with which the Protestants of Taize welcomed the non-dogmatic teaching of Vatican II:

The Council’s intention is to drop an excessively static and notional language so as to adopt resolutely a dynamic, living language. This whole magnificent document [Dei Verbum, the conciliar document on Revelation—Editor’s note] will consider Revelation as the living Word that the living God addresses to the living Church composed of living members…. This whole document on Revelation will be dominated by the foundational evangelical themes of word, life and communion.  The Word of God, is the living Christ whom God gives to mankind so as to establish between him and them the communion of the Spirit in the Church.

Thus the Church gave up “speaking about the acceptance of revelation in terms of submission to authority” so as to speak primarily about a “personal faith that accepts God’s revelation” (Roger Schutz and Max Thurian, La Parole vivante au Concile [Les Presses de Taize, 1966], 77-78, cited by Fr. Jean-Dominique, “Concile ou révolution?” in Le Chardonnet [July 2013]: 6).

This intention no longer to resort to dogmatic definitions is deplored by the Declaration of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X dated June 27, 2013:

We are truly obliged to observe that this Council without comparison, which wanted to be merely pastoral and not dogmatic, inaugurated a new type of magisterium, hitherto unheard of in the Church, without roots in Tradition; a magisterium resolved to reconcile Catholic doctrine with liberal ideas; a magisterium imbued with the modernist ideas of subjectivism, of immanentism and of perpetual evolution according to the false concept of a living tradition [which is also found in the writings of Maurice Blondel—Editor’s note], vitiating  the nature, the content, the role and the exercise of ecclesiastical magisterium.”  (See DICI no. 278, dated July 5, 2013).

(DICI no. 279 dated July 19, 2013)

Footnotes

[1] Recall: Faith  is defined as the adherence of our intellect to the truths revealed by God, because of the authority of God who reveals them. The spiritual life has faith as its principle, which receives from revelation its properly intellectual and therefore conceptual knowledge of the mystery. Without denying the fact that faith must be enriched by charity and flourish in loving knowledge, we must firmly maintain that, in order to be united in the actual spiritual life, faith and charity must remain formally distinct in their definition, in the eyes of the Magisterium and of theology.

[2] “Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history” (no. 13). “Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love. Through this blending of faith and love we come to see the kind of knowledge which faith entails, its power to convince and its ability to illumine our steps. Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment. Faith’s understanding is born when we receive the immense love of God which transforms us inwardly and enables us to see reality with new eyes” (no. 26). “Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love. Through this blending of faith and love we come to see the kind of knowledge which faith entails, its power to convince and its ability to illumine our steps. Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment. Faith’s understanding is born when we receive the immense love of God which transforms us inwardly and enables us to see reality with new eyes” (no. 32).

[3] “The life of faith, as a filial existence, is the acknowledgment of a primordial and radical gift which upholds our lives. We see this clearly in St. Paul’s question to the Corinthians: ‘What have you that you did not receive?’ (1 Cor 4:7)” (no. 19). Does this refer to the gift of creation or to the gift of grace? “In accepting the gift of faith, believers become a new creation; they receive a new being, as God’s children”; this is well put, but it does not specify whether this newness is part of the natural order and in continuity with creation or whether it surpasses it.

[4] “The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence” (no. 4). “For those early Christians, faith, as an encounter with the living God revealed in Christ, was indeed a ‘mother’, for it had brought them to the light and given birth within them to divine life, a new experience and a luminous vision of existence for which they were prepared to bear public witness to the end” (no. 5). “The Second Vatican Council enabled the light of faith to illumine our human experience from within, accompanying the men and women of our time on their journey. It clearly showed how faith enriches life in all its dimensions” (no. 6). “Thus wonderfully interwoven, faith, hope and charity are the driving force of the Christian life as it advances towards full communion with God” (no. 7). “Believing means entrusting oneself to a merciful love which always accepts and pardons, which sustains and directs our lives, and which shows its power by its ability to make straight the crooked lines of our history” (no. 13). “The beginning of salvation is openness to something prior to ourselves, to a primordial gift that affirms life and sustains it in being” (no. 19). “Those who believe are transformed by the Love to which they have opened their hearts in faith. By their openness to this offer of primordial Love, their lives are enlarged and expanded” (no. 21). “The realization that God is light provided Augustine with a new direction in life and enabled him to acknowledge his sinfulness and to turn towards the good” (no. 33).

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Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Mass in Fatima

Image Source: Pope Benedict XVI says Holy Mass to mark the 93rd anniversary of the first appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children in 1917. Source is Reuters


Dear Pilgrims,

"Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations [...], they are a people whom the Lord has blessed" (Is 61:9). So the first reading of this Eucharist began, and its words are wonderfully fulfilled in this assembly devoutly gathered at the feet of Our Lady of Fatima. Dearly beloved brothers and sisters, I too have come as a pilgrim to Fatima, to this "home" from which Mary chose to speak to us in modern times. I have come to Fatima to rejoice in Mary's presence and maternal protection. I have come to Fatima, because today the pilgrim Church, willed by her Son as the instrument of evangelization and the sacrament of salvation, converges upon this place. I have come to Fatima to pray, in union with Mary and so many pilgrims, for our human family, afflicted as it is by various ills and sufferings. Finally, I have come to Fatima with the same sentiments as those of Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, and the Servant of God Lúcia, in order to entrust to Our Lady the intimate confession that "I love" Jesus, that the Church and priests "love" him and desire to keep their gaze fixed upon him as this Year for Priests comes to its end, and in order to entrust to Mary's maternal protection priests, consecrated men and women, missionaries and all those who by their good works make the House of God a place of welcome and charitable outreach.

These are the "people whom the Lord has blessed". The people whom the Lord has blessed are you, the beloved Diocese of Leiria-Fatima, with your pastor, Bishop Antonio Marto. I thank him for his words of greeting at the beginning of Mass, and for the gracious hospitality shown particularly by his collaborators at this Shrine. I greet the President of the Republic and the other authorities who serve this glorious Nation. I spiritually embrace all the Dioceses of Portugal, represented here by their Bishops, and I entrust to Heaven all the nations and peoples of the earth. In God I embrace all their sons and daughters, particularly the afflicted or outcast, with the desire of bringing them that great hope which burns in my own heart, and which here, in Fatima, can be palpably felt. May our great hope sink roots in the lives of each of you, dear pilgrims, and of all those who join us through the communications media.

Yes! The Lord, our great hope, is with us. In his merciful love, he offers a future to his people: a future of communion with himself. After experiencing the mercy and consolation of God who did not forsake them along their wearisome return from the Babylonian Exile, the people of God cried out: "I greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being exults in my God" (Is 61:10). The resplendent daughter of this people is the Virgin Mary of Nazareth who, clothed with grace and sweetly marvelling at God's presence in her womb, made this joy and hope her own in the canticle of the Magnificat: "My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour". She did not view herself as a fortunate individual in the midst of a barren people, but prophecied for them the sweet joys of a wondrous maternity of God, for "his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation" (Lk 1:47, 50).

This holy place is the proof of it. In seven years you will return here to celebrate the centenary of the first visit made by the Lady "come from heaven", the Teacher who introduced the little seers to a deep knowledge of the Love of the Blessed Trinity and led them to savour God himself as the most beautiful reality of human existence. This experience of grace made them fall in love with God in Jesus, so much so that Jacinta could cry out: "How much I delight in telling Jesus that I love him! When I tell him this often, I feel as if I have a fire in my breast, yet it does not burn me". And Francisco could say: "What I liked most of all was seeing Our Lord in that light which Our Mother put into our hearts. I love God so much!" (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 42 and 126).

Brothers and sisters, in listening to these innocent and profound mystical confidences of the shepherd children, one might look at them with a touch of envy for what they were able to see, or with the disappointed resignation of someone who was not so fortunate, yet still demands to see. To such persons, the Pope says, as does Jesus: "Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?" (Mk 12:24). The Scriptures invite us to believe: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (Jn 20:29), but God, who is more deeply present to me than I am to myself (cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11) - has the power to come to us, particularly through our inner senses, so that the soul can receive the gentle touch of a reality which is beyond the senses and which enables us to reach what is not accessible or visible to the senses. For this to happen, we must cultivate an interior watchfulness of the heart which, for most of the time, we do not possess on account of the powerful pressure exerted by outside realities and the images and concerns which fill our soul (cf. Theological Commentary on The Message of Fatima, 2000). Yes! God can come to us, and show himself to the eyes of our heart.

Moreover, that Light deep within the shepherd children, which comes from the future of God, is the same Light which was manifested in the fullness of time and came for us all: the Son of God made man. He has the power to inflame the coldest and saddest of hearts, as we see in the case of the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:32). Henceforth our hope has a real foundation, it is based on an event which belongs to history and at the same time transcends history: Jesus of Nazareth. The enthusiasm roused by his wisdom and his saving power among the people of that time was such that a woman in the midst of the crowd - as we heard in the Gospel - cried out: "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you!". And Jesus said: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!" (Lk 11:27-28). But who finds time to hear God's word and to let themselves be attracted by his love? Who keeps watch, in the night of doubt and uncertainty, with a heart vigilant in prayer? Who awaits the dawn of the new day, fanning the flame of faith? Faith in God opens before us the horizon of a sure hope, one which does not disappoint; it indicates a solid foundation on which to base one's life without fear; it demands a faith-filled surrender into the hands of the Love which sustains the world.

"Their descendants shall be known among the nations, [...] they are a people whom the Lord has blessed" (Is 61:9) with an unshakable hope which bears fruit in a love which sacrifices for others, yet does not sacrifice others. Rather, as we heard in the second reading, this love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor 13:7). An example and encouragement is to be found in the shepherd children, who offered their whole lives to God and shared them fully with others for love of God. Our Lady helped them to open their hearts to universal love. Blessed Jacinta, in particular, proved tireless in sharing with the needy and in making sacrifices for the conversion of sinners. Only with this fraternal and generous love will we succeed in building the civilization of love and peace.

We would be mistaken to think that Fatima's prophetic mission is complete. Here there takes on new life the plan of God which asks humanity from the beginning: "Where is your brother Abel [...] Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground!" (Gen 4:9). Mankind has succeeded in unleashing a cycle of death and terror, but failed in bringing it to an end... In sacred Scripture we often find that God seeks righteous men and women in order to save the city of man and he does the same here, in Fatima, when Our Lady asks: "Do you want to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the sufferings which he will send you, in an act of reparation for the sins by which he is offended and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?" (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 162).

At a time when the human family was ready to sacrifice all that was most sacred on the altar of the petty and selfish interests of nations, races, ideologies, groups and individuals, our Blessed Mother came from heaven, offering to implant in the hearts of all those who trust in her the Love of God burning in her own heart. At that time it was only to three children, yet the example of their lives spread and multiplied, especially as a result of the travels of the Pilgrim Virgin, in countless groups throughout the world dedicated to the cause of fraternal solidarity. May the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

©Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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Activities for our Baptism Anniversary

What activities should we, as Catholics, perform on the anniversary of our baptism?  Well, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.  Do you even remember the date on which you were baptized?  You remember your birthday and secular holidays.  For those readers from the United States, I'm sure you can recall the secular meaning of July 4th, can you not?

Yet, why do you fail to remember heavenly occassions?  Have you failed to recall the date on which your soul was purchased from satan.  That's right, it has always been taught that we can not be saved without Baptism.  Before your Baptism your soul belonged to satan.  Whether you were baptized as a child or as an adult, you (or your parents on your behalf) made a series of promises to the Church and you are bound to keep your share of those promises.

Thus, your first responsibility is to find out when you were baptized - the month, day, and year.  Next, write this on your calendar each and every year.  On the anniversary of your baptism, you should renew your baptismal promises and re-read the Rite of Baptism.  To aid you in this, I share below the Rite of Baptism performed according the 1962 Rubrics, which are still used by traditional Catholics.  Even if you were baptized in a different Rite (after all, you might have been baptized in an Eastern Catholic Rite), this Rite (or a similar one) should be read each year on your Baptism as a reminder of the transformation in your soul on that day.  Your soul will never the be same.  If you go to Heaven or Hell, your soul - by Baptism - is marked.  There is a mark present on your soul in a real way so that in the life hereafter it will be visible - no matter if you go to Heaven or Hell.

We begin our examination of the Rite of Baptism.  The Traditional Baptismal Rite begins as follows:

1. The priest says the greeting: Peace be with you.

He then asks the name of the child (if several are to be baptized he asks the name of each one):

Priest: What is your name?
Sponsors: N.

{From the beginning the Church has proclaimed to men the good news of salvation in Christ. And from one who wants the benefit of the good news the response of faith is demanded. To ask for baptism is first of all to ask for the faith of the Church. In the following brief dialogue between priest and subject is summed up the chief content of Christian life, of which faith is the foundation, everlasting life the goal, and love of God and of neighbor the means. The priest's role in the sacrament is pointed up here, that of representative of Christ and the Church, the role he plays from start to finish of the sacramental action.}

P (to each): N., what are you asking of God's Church?

Sponsors: Faith.

P (to each): What does faith hold out to you?

Sponsors: Everlasting life.

Stop here. Before you were baptized, you (or your parents on your behalf) asked for what? They asked for Faith. Faith is necessary for salvation. Our Lord, in His divine will in ordering of the universe, has made it so that we (as humans) can not love that which we do not know. We must first know something in order to love it. By Faith, we know God and by knowing God, we can love Him. Recall it was He who first loved us, while we were yet sinners (and unborn). It was then that our Lord gave up His Divine life in upspeakable love for us. We ask, before our baptism, for Faith. Do you have Faith? Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, and in His Son, the Redeemer of the World, and in the Holy Ghost? Do you belief that our Lord was crucified for our sins and, in so doing, died for all mankind? Do you believe that He rose again from the dead physically and ascended psychically into Heaven? Do you believe in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Eucharist? Do you believe all that the Church of God teaches?

You asked for Faith. Do you have it? Do you frequently pray the Act of Faith, a prayer which we we ask God to increase our Faith? If not, add it to your daily morning prayers (that is, assuming that you are faithful in your obligation to pray every morning).

And, what does the Rite of Baptism tell us that Faith will give us? It says "Everlasting life". Without Faith, we can not love God. If we have no love for God, He does not dwell within us. And if our Lord does not dwell within us, we can not be saved and possess everlasting life.

The Rite of Baptism continues with the priest saying:

P (to each): If, then, you wish to inherit everlasting life, keep the commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Now ask yourself, do you keep the Commandments? Can we say as the Psalmist proclaims, "Therefore have I loved thy commandments above gold and the topaz"? Do you love God more than men? Do you love God more than your family, your possessions, and even your own life? Our Divine Redeemer has said that "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38).

Do you love God more than everything else in the world? And if you say yes, do your actions show it? "Faith without works is dead," says St. James.

I ask that you continue through this examination. Reference the Rite of Baptism and continue to search your own soul. If you find yourself in sin, go to Confession (assuming you have already been baptized in the Catholic Faith). Go to Confession to receive the pardon of Almighty God.

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Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Mass in Valencia

Yesterday, July 9, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in Valencia, Spain during the final day of his 26 hour trip to The World Meeting for Families. The Mass drew around 1.5 milion people including King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, with their three children and seven grandchildren. The Prime Minister refused to attend.

Pope Benedict XVI even used the Holy Grail when celebrating the Mass! Pope John Paul II also used the relic when he celebrated Mass in Valencia on Nov. 8, 1982. According to tradition, The Holy Grail arrived in Valencia in 1437. St. Peter took the chalice from Jerusalem to Antioch centuries beforehand.

The Holy Father also announced that the next World Meeting for Families will take place in Mexico City in 2009.

Homily:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Holy Mass which it is my great joy to celebrate, together with many of my Brothers in the Episcopate and a great number of priests, I give thanks to the Lord for all of you, the joyful throng of beloved families gathered in this place, and the many others who in distant lands are following this celebration by radio and television. I greet all of you with an affectionate embrace.

Both Esther and Paul, as we have just heard in today's readings, testify that the family is called to work for the handing on of the faith.

Esther admits: "Ever since I was born, I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations" (14:5).

Paul follows the tradition of his Jewish ancestors by worshiping God with a pure conscience. He praises the sincere faith of Timothy and speaks to him about "a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, lives in you" (2 Timothy 1:15).

In these biblical testimonies, the family includes not only parents and children, but also grandparents and ancestors. The family thus appears to us as a community of generations and the guarantee of a patrimony of traditions.

None of us gave ourselves life or single-handedly learned how to live. All of us received from others both life itself and its basic truths, and we have been called to attain perfection in relationship and loving communion with others.

The family, founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, is the expression of this relational, filial and communal aspect of life. It is the setting where men and women are enabled to be born with dignity, and to grow and develop in an integral manner.

Once children are born, through their relationship with their parents, they begin to share in a family tradition with even older roots. Together with the gift of life, they receive a whole patrimony of experience. Parents have the right and the inalienable duty to transmit this heritage to their children: to help them find their own identity, to initiate them to the life of society, to foster the responsible exercise of their moral freedom and their ability to love on the basis of their having been loved and, above all, to enable them to encounter God.

Children experience human growth and maturity to the extent that they trustingly accept this heritage and training which they gradually make their own. They are thus enabled to make a personal synthesis between what has been passed on and what is new, a synthesis that every individual and generation is called to make.

At the origin of every man and woman, and thus in all human fatherhood and motherhood, we find God the Creator. For this reason, married couples must accept the child born to them, not simply as theirs alone, but also as a child of God, loved for his or her own sake and called to be a son or daughter of God. What is more: each generation, all parenthood and every family has its origin in God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Esther's father had passed on to her, along with the memory of her forebears and her people, the memory of a God who is the origin of all and to whom all are called to answer. The memory of God the Father, who chose a people for himself and who acts in history for our salvation. The memory of this Father sheds light on our deepest human identity: where we come from, who we are, and how great is our dignity.

Certainly we come from our parents and we are their children, but we also come from God who has created us in his image and called us to be his children. Consequently, at the origin of every human being there is not something haphazard or chance, but a loving plan of God. This was revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and a perfect man. He knew whence he came and whence all of us have come: from the love of his Father and our Father.

Faith, then, is not merely a cultural heritage, but the constant working of the grace of God who calls and our human freedom, which can respond or not to his call. Even if no one can answer for another person, Christian parents are still called to give a credible witness of their Christian faith and hope. The need to ensure that God's call and the good news of Christ will reach their children with the utmost clarity and authenticity.

As the years pass, this gift of God which the parents have helped set before the eyes of the little ones will also need to be cultivated with wisdom and gentleness, in order to instill in them a capacity for discernment. Thus, with the constant witness of the their parents' conjugal love, permeated with a living faith, and with the loving accompaniment of the Christian community, children will be helped better to appropriate the gift of their faith, to discover the deepest meaning of their own lives and to respond with joy and gratitude.

The Christian family passes on the faith when parents teach their children to pray and when they pray with them (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 60); when they lead them to the sacraments and gradually introduce them to the life of the Church; when all join in reading the Bible, letting the light of faith shine on their family life and praising God as our Father.

In contemporary culture, we often see an excessive exaltation of the freedom of the individual as an autonomous subject, as if we were self-created and self-sufficient, apart from our relationship with others and our responsibilities in their regard.

Attempts are being made to organize the life of society on the basis of subjective and ephemeral desires alone, with no reference to objective, prior truths such as the dignity of each human being and his inalienable rights and duties, which every social group is called to serve.

The Church does not cease to remind us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God's image and likeness. Christian education is consequently an education in freedom and for freedom.

"We do not do good as slaves, who are not free to act otherwise, but we do it because we are personally responsible for the world; because we love truth and goodness, because we love God himself and therefore his creatures as well. This is the true freedom to which the Holy Spirit wants to lead us (Homily for the Vigil of Pentecost, June 9, 2006).

Jesus Christ is the perfect human being, an example of filial freedom, who teaches us to share with others his own love: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love" (John 15:9).

And so the Second Vatican Council teaches that "Christian married couples and parents, following their own way, should support one another in grace all through life with faithful love, and should train their children, lovingly received from God, in Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues. Because in this way they present to all an example of unfailing and generous love, they build up the brotherhood of charity, and they stand as witnesses and co-operators of the fruitfulness of Mother Church, as a sign of and a share in that love with which Christ loved his Bride and gave himself for her" (Lumen Gentium, 41).

The joyful love with which our parents welcomed us and accompanied our first steps in this world is like a sacramental sign and prolongation of the benevolent love of God from which we have come. The experience of being welcomed and loved by God and by our parents is always the firm foundation for authentic human growth and authentic development, helping us to mature on the way towards truth and love, and to move beyond ourselves in order to enter into communion with others and with God.

To help us advance along the path of human maturity, the Church teaches us to respect and foster the marvelous reality of the indissoluble marriage between man and woman which is also the origin of the family. To recognize and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person.

This being the case, I want to stress the importance and the positive role which the Church's various family associations are playing in support of marriage and the family. Consequently, "I wish to call on all Christians to collaborate cordially and courageously with all people of good will who are serving the family in accordance with their responsibility" (Familiaris Consortio, 86), so that by joining forces in a legitimate plurality of initiatives they will contribute to the promotion of the authentic good of the family in contemporary society.

Let us return for a moment to the first reading of this Mass, drawn from the Book of Esther. The Church at prayer has seen in this humble queen interceding with all her heart for her suffering people, a prefigurement of Mary, whom her Son has given to us all as our Mother; a prefigurement of the Mother who protects by her love God's family on its earthly pilgrimage. Mary is the image and model of all mothers, of their great mission to be guardians of life, of their mission to be teachers of the art of living and of the art of loving.

The Christian family -- father, mother and children -- is called, then, to do all these things not as a task imposed from without, but rather as a gift of the sacramental grace of marriage poured out upon the spouses. If they remain open to the Spirit and implore his help, he will not fail to bestow on them the love of God the Father made manifest and incarnate in Christ.

The presence of the Spirit will help spouses not to lose sight of the source and criterion of their love and self-giving, and to cooperate with him to make it visible and incarnate in every aspect of their lives.

The Spirit will also awaken in them a yearning for the definitive encounter with Christ in the house of his Father and our Father. And this is the message of hope that, from Valencia, I wish to share with all the families of the world. Amen.

Original text: English; translation issued by the Holy See.

© Copyright 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana [adapted]

Photos:


REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo (SPAIN)

AP Photo/Chris Helgren, Pool

AP Photo/Philippe Desmazes, Pool

AP Photo/Javier Barbancho

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