Holy Father's Christmas Message

Holy Father's Christmas Message

"God Still Kindles Fires in the Night of the World"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's Christmas message, which he gave today at noon from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world,
and all men and women, whom the Lord loves!

"Lux fulgebit hodie super nos,
quia natus est nobis Dominus.

A light will shine on us this day,
the Lord is born for us"

(Roman Missal, Christmas, Entrance Antiphon for the Mass at Dawn)

The liturgy of the Mass at Dawn reminded us that the night is now past, the day has begun; the light radiating from the cave of Bethlehem shines upon us.

The Bible and the Liturgy do not, however, speak to us about a natural light, but a different, special light, which is somehow directed to and focused upon "us", the same "us" for whom the Child of Bethlehem "is born". This "us" is the Church, the great universal family of those who believe in Christ, who have awaited in hope the new birth of the Saviour, and who today celebrate in mystery the perennial significance of this event.

At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that "us" was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light "that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the "sign" of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the "us" of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.

Wherever there is an "us" which welcomes God's love, there the light of Christ shines forth, even in the most difficult situations. The Church, like the Virgin Mary, offers the world Jesus, the Son, whom she herself has received as a gift, the One who came to set mankind free from the slavery of sin. Like Mary, the Church does not fear, for that Child is her strength. But she does not keep him for herself: she offers him to all those who seek him with a sincere heart, to the earth's lowly and afflicted, to the victims of violence, and to all who yearn for peace. Today too, on behalf of a human family profoundly affected by a grave financial crisis, yet even more by a moral crisis, and by the painful wounds of wars and conflicts, the Church, in faithful solidarity with mankind, repeats with the shepherds: "Let us go to Bethlehem" (Lk 2:15), for there we shall find our hope.

The "us" of the Church is alive in the place where Jesus was born, in the Holy Land, inviting its people to abandon every logic of violence and vengeance, and to engage with renewed vigour and generosity in the process which leads to peaceful coexistence. The "us" of the Church is present in the other countries of the Middle East. How can we forget the troubled situation in Iraq and the "little flock" of Christians which lives in the region? At times it is subject to violence and injustice, but it remains determined to make its own contribution to the building of a society opposed to the logic of conflict and the rejection of one's neighbour. The "us" of the Church is active in Sri Lanka, in the Korean peninsula and in the Philippines, as well as in the other countries of Asia, as a leaven of reconciliation and peace. On the continent of Africa she does not cease to lift her voice to God, imploring an end to every injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she invites the citizens of Guinea and Niger to respect for the rights of every person and to dialogue; she begs those of Madagascar to overcome their internal divisions and to be mutually accepting; and she reminds all men and women that they are called to hope, despite the tragedies, trials and difficulties which still afflict them. In Europe and North America, the "us" of the Church urges people to leave behind the selfish and technicist mentality, to advance the common good and to show respect for the persons who are most defenceless, starting with the unborn. In Honduras she is assisting in process of rebuilding institutions; throughout Latin America, the "us" of the Church is a source of identity, a fullness of truth and of charity which no ideology can replace, a summons to respect for the inalienable rights of each person and his or her integral development, a proclamation of justice and fraternity, a source of unity.

In fidelity to the mandate of her Founder, the Church shows solidarity with the victims of natural disasters and poverty, even within opulent societies. In the face of the exodus of all those who migrate from their homelands and are driven away by hunger, intolerance or environmental degradation, the Church is a presence calling others to an attitude of acceptance and welcome. In a word, the Church everywhere proclaims the Gospel of Christ, despite persecutions, discriminations, attacks and at times hostile indifference. These, in fact, enable her to share the lot of her Master and Lord.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, how great a gift it is to be part of a communion which is open to everyone! It is the communion of the Most Holy Trinity, from whose heart Emmanuel, Jesus, "God with us", came into the world. Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, let us contemplate, filled with wonder and gratitude, this mystery of love and light! Happy Christmas to all!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Benedict XVI's Christmas Vigil Homily

Benedict XVI's Christmas Vigil Homily

"God Is Important, by Far the Most Important Thing in Our Lives"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 24, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave tonight at the Christmas Vigil Mass in the Vatican.


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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

"A child is born for us, a son is given to us" (Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a cloud of light streams forth: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:11). The Lord is here. From this moment, God is truly "God with us". No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness. He has entered the world. He is close to us. The words of the risen Christ to his followers are addressed also to us: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20). For you the Saviour is born: through the Gospel and those who proclaim it, God now reminds us of the message that the Angel announced to the shepherds. It is a message that cannot leave us indifferent. If it is true, it changes everything. If it is true, it also affects me. Like the shepherds, then, I too must say: Come on, I want to go to Bethlehem to see the Word that has occurred there. The story of the shepherds is included in the Gospel for a reason. They show us the right way to respond to the message that we too have received. What is it that these first witnesses of God’s incarnation have to tell us?

The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch -- they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people. What does this mean? The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His "self" is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one's own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people. Conflict and lack of reconciliation in the world stem from the fact that we are locked into our own interests and opinions, into our own little private world. Selfishness, both individual and collective, makes us prisoners of our interests and our desires that stand against the truth and separate us from one another.

Awake, the Gospel tells us. Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one God. To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. There are people who describe themselves as "religiously tone deaf". The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed -- our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today's world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us "tone deaf" towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear "tone deaf" and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself. The great theologian Origen said this: if I had the grace to see as Paul saw, I could even now (during the Liturgy) contemplate a great host of angels (cf. in Lk 23:9). And indeed, in the sacred liturgy, we are surrounded by the angels of God and the saints. The Lord himself is present in our midst. Lord, open the eyes of our hearts, so that we may become vigilant and clear-sighted, in this way bringing you close to others as well!

Let us return to the Christmas Gospel. It tells us that after listening to the Angel's message, the shepherds said one to another: "‘Let us go over to Bethlehem’ … they went at once" (Lk 2:15f.). "They made haste" is literally what the Greek text says. What had been announced to them was so important that they had to go immediately. In fact, what had been said to them was utterly out of the ordinary. It changed the world. The Saviour is born. The long-awaited Son of David has come into the world in his own city. What could be more important? No doubt they were partly driven by curiosity, but first and foremost it was their excitement at the wonderful news that had been conveyed to them, of all people, to the little ones, to the seemingly unimportant. They made haste -- they went at once. In our daily life, it is not like that.

For most people, the things of God are not given priority, they do not impose themselves on us directly, and so the great majority of us tend to postpone them. First we do what seems urgent here and now. In the list of priorities God is often more or less at the end. We can always deal with that later, we tend to think. The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God's work alone. The Rule of Saint Benedict contains this teaching: "Place nothing at all before the work of God (i.e. the divine office)". For monks, the Liturgy is the first priority. Everything else comes later. In its essence, though, this saying applies to everyone. God is important, by far the most important thing in our lives. The shepherds teach us this priority. From them we should learn not to be crushed by all the pressing matters in our daily lives. From them we should learn the inner freedom to put other tasks in second place -- however important they may be -- so as to make our way towards God, to allow him into our lives and into our time. Time given to God and, in his name, to our neighbour is never time lost. It is the time when we are most truly alive, when we live our humanity to the full.

Some commentators point out that the shepherds, the simple souls, were the first to come to Jesus in the manger and to encounter the Redeemer of the world. The wise men from the East, representing those with social standing and fame, arrived much later. The commentators go on to say: this is quite natural. The shepherds lived nearby. They only needed to "come over" (cf. Lk 2:15), as we do when we go to visit our neighbours. The wise men, however, lived far away. They had to undertake a long and arduous journey in order to arrive in Bethlehem. And they needed guidance and direction. Today too there are simple and lowly souls who live very close to the Lord. They are, so to speak, his neighbours and they can easily go to see him. But most of us in the world today live far from Jesus Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us.

We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him. But a path exists for all of us. The Lord provides everyone with tailor-made signals. He calls each one of us, so that we too can say: "Come on, ‘let us go over’ to Bethlehem -- to the God who has come to meet us. Yes indeed, God has set out towards us. Left to ourselves we could not reach him. The path is too much for our strength. But God has come down. He comes towards us. He has travelled the longer part of the journey. Now he invites us: come and see how much I love you. Come and see that I am here. Transeamus usque Bethlehem, the Latin Bible says. Let us go there! Let us surpass ourselves! Let us journey towards God in all sorts of ways: along our interior path towards him, but also along very concrete paths – the Liturgy of the Church, the service of our neighbour, in whom Christ awaits us.

Let us once again listen directly to the Gospel. The shepherds tell one another the reason why they are setting off: "Let us see this thing that has happened." Literally the Greek text says: "Let us see this Word that has occurred there." Yes indeed, such is the radical newness of this night: the Word can be seen. For it has become flesh. The God of whom no image may be made -- because any image would only diminish, or rather distort him -- this God has himself become visible in the One who is his true image, as Saint Paul puts it (cf. 2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15). In the figure of Jesus Christ, in the whole of his life and ministry, in his dying and rising, we can see the Word of God and hence the mystery of the living God himself. This is what God is like.

The Angel had said to the shepherds: "This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:12; cf. 2:16). God’s sign, the sign given to the shepherds and to us, is not an astonishing miracle. God’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love.

Origen, taking up one of John the Baptist’s sayings, saw the essence of paganism expressed in the symbol of stones: paganism is a lack of feeling, it means a heart of stone that is incapable of loving and perceiving God’s love. Origen says of the pagans: "Lacking feeling and reason, they are transformed into stones and wood" (in Lk 22:9). Christ, though, wishes to give us a heart of flesh. When we see him, the God who became a child, our hearts are opened. In the Liturgy of the holy night, God comes to us as man, so that we might become truly human. Let us listen once again to Origen: "Indeed, what use would it be to you that Christ once came in the flesh if he did not enter your soul? Let us pray that he may come to us each day, that we may be able to say: I live, yet it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20)" (in Lk 22:3).
Yes indeed, that is what we should pray for on this Holy Night. Lord Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, come to us! Enter within me, within my soul. Transform me. Renew me. Change me, change us all from stone and wood into living people, in whom your love is made present and the world is transformed. Amen.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Papal Address to Saints Congregation

Papal Address to Saints Congregation

"Holiness Means Constantly Striving for a High Standard of Christian Living"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 24, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday upon receiving in audience members of the Congregation for Saints' Causes on the occasion of its 40th anniversary.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I would like to express to you all my joy at meeting you! I greet with deep cordiality the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops present. I address a special thought to the Prefect of the Dicastery, Archbishop Angelo Amato, and thank him for his kind and affectionate words on behalf of all. Together with him I greet the Secretary of the Congregation, the Undersecretary, the Priests, the Religious, the Historical and Theological Consultors, the Postulators, the Lay Officials and the Medical Experts with their families and all the collaborators.

The special circumstance that sees you gathered round the Successor of Peter is the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the institution of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which has given a more organic and modern form to the action of discernment which the Church, from her origins, has exercised in order to recognize the holiness of so many of her children.

The interventions of my Predecessors, especially Sixtus v, Urban viii and Benedict xiv prepared for the creation of your Dicastery which was set up in 1969 by the Servant of God Paul vi, thanks to whom a collection of experiences, scientific contributions and procedural norms were worked out in an intelligent and balanced synthesis, which resulted in the erection of a new Dicastery.

I am well aware of the activity that this Congregation has developed with competence over the past 40 years at the service of the edification of the People of God, making a significant contribution to the work of evangelization.

Indeed, when the Church venerates a Saint, she proclaims the efficacy of the Gospel and discovers joyfully that Christ's presence in the world, believed in and adored with faith, is capable of transforming the life of human beings and producing fruits of salvation for all humanity.

In addition, every beatification and canonization is for Christians a strong encouragement to live the sequela of Christ with intensity and enthusiasm, walking towards the fullness of Christian existence and the perfection of charity (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 40).

In the light of these fruits it is possible to understand the importance of the role carried out by the Dicastery in accompanying the individual stages of an event of such rare depth and beauty and faithfully documenting the manifestation of that sensus fidelium which is an important factor in the recognition of holiness.

The Saints are a sign of that radical newness which the Son of God with his Incarnation, death and Resurrection grafted on to human nature. As outstanding witnesses of faith, they are not representatives of the past but rather constitute the present and future of the Church and of society. They have fully realized that caritas in veritate which is the supreme value of Christian life; they are like the facets of a prism which, in various nuances, reflect the one light who is Christ.

The life of these extraordinary figures of believers who belong to all the regions of the earth have two significant constants that I would like to underline.

First of all, their relationship with the Lord, even when it takes traditional paths, is never weary and repetitive but is always expressed in authentic, lively and original ways and flows from an intense and involving dialogue with the Lord, which also enhances and enriches the exterior forms.

In addition, the continuous search for evangelical perfection, the rejection of mediocrity and the aspiration to belong totally to Christ stands out in the lives of these brothers and sisters. "You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev 19: 2) is the exhortation quoted in the Book of Leviticus which God addresses to Moses. It makes us realize that holiness means constantly striving for a high standard of Christian living, a demanding achievement, a ceaseless quest for communion with God which makes the committed believer, with the greatest possible generosity, "correspond" to the plan of love that the Father has for him or her and for the whole of humanity.

The main stages in the recognition of holiness by the Church, that is, beatification and canonization, are linked to each other by a bond of great coherence. To them should be added, as an indispensable preparatory phase, the declaration of a Servant of God's heroic virtues or martyrdom, and the ascertainment of some extraordinary gift, the miracle, which the Lord grants through the intercession of his faithful Servant.

What great pedagogical wisdom is manifest in this itinerary!

At first, the People of God are invited to look to those brethren who, after a careful preliminary discernment, are held up as models of Christian life; the faithful are then urged to address to them a cult of veneration and invocation restricted to within the context of local Churches or religious orders; finally, they are called to rejoice with the entire community of believers in the certainty that thanks to the solemn Pontifical proclamation, one of its sons or daughters has attained God's glory, in which he or she shares in Christ's perennial intercessions for the brothers and sisters (cf. Heb 7: 25).

In this journey the Church welcomes with joy and wonder the miracles that God in his infinite kindness freely bestows upon her in order to strengthen the preaching of the Gospel (cf. Mk 16: 20). He likewise welcomes the testimony of martyrs as the clearest and most intense form of configuration to Christ.

This progressive manifestation of the holiness of believers corresponds with the style God has chosen in revealing himself to men and women, and, at the same time, it is part of the process with which the People of God grows in faith and in the knowledge of the Truth.

The gradual approach to the "fullness of light" emerges uniquely in the passage from beatification to canonization. In this process, in fact, events of great religious and cultural vitality take place. Liturgical invocation, popular devotion, the imitation of virtues, historical and theological study and attention to the "signs from on high" are all interwoven and enrich one another.

On this occasion, Jesus' promise to his disciples of all times is fulfilled: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth" (cf. Jn 16: 13). Indeed, the witness of Saints sheds light on ever new aspects of the Gospel and makes them known.

As has been clearly emphasized by the words of the Most Excellent Prefect, a spiritual and pastoral richness becomes visible in the process of the recognition of holiness which involves the whole Christian community. Holiness, namely the transfiguration of people and human realities into an image of the Risen Christ, represents the ultimate goal of the plan of divine salvation, as the Apostle Paul recalls: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thes 4: 3).

Dear Brothers and Sisters, the Solemnity of Christmas, for which we are preparing, causes to shine out in its full light the dignity of each human being, called to become a son or daughter of God. In the experience of the Saints, this dignity is manifested in the concreteness of historical circumstances, in personal temperaments, in free and responsible choices and in supernatural charisms.

Comforted by such a large number of witnesses, let us too, therefore, hasten our steps toward the Lord who comes, raising the splendid invocation with which the hymn of the Te Deum ends: Aeterna fac sum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari"; Let them [Thy servants] be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory.

With these wishes I gladly express to each one my fervent good wishes for the approaching Christmas celebrations and impart my Apostolic Blessing to you all with affection.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On the Feast of Christ's Birth

On the Feast of Christ's Birth

"God Has Come So Near to Each One of Us"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

With the Christmas novena that we are celebrating in these days, the Church invites us to live intensely and profoundly the preparation for the birth of the Savior, which is nearly upon us.

The desire that all of us have in our hearts is that, in the midst of the frenetic activity of our days, the coming feast of Christmas gives us serene and profound joy to enable us to touch the goodness of our God with our hands and to fill us with new energy.

To better understand the meaning of the birth of the Lord, I would like to briefly refer to the historical origin of this solemnity. In fact, the liturgical year of the Church did not initially develop beginning with the birth of Christ, but rather from faith in the Resurrection. Because of this the most ancient feast of Christianity is not Christmas, but Easter: The resurrection of Christ is at the base of Christian faith; it is at the base of the proclamation of the Gospel and gives birth to the Church. Therefore to be Christians means to live in the mode of Easter, connecting ourselves to the dynamic that comes from baptism, which brings death to sin to live with God (cf. Romans 6:4).

The first one to clearly affirm that Jesus was born on Dec. 25 was Hippolytus of Rome in his commentary on the Book of the prophet Daniel, written around 204. One exegete observes, moreover, that on this day was celebrated the Dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C.. The concurrence of dates would come to mean that with Jesus, appearing as light of God in the night, advent of God to this earth, the consecration of the temple is truly fulfilled.

Within Christianity, the feast of Christmas took on a definite form in the fourth century, when it took the place of the Roman feast of "sol invictus," the invincible sun. Thus was shown that the birth of Christ is the victory of true light over the darkness of evil and sin. Yet, the unique and intense spiritual atmosphere that surrounds Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to St. Francis of Assisi, who was profoundly in love with Jesus as man, with God-with-us.

His first biographer, Thomas of Celano, in the "Vita Seconda," narrates that St. Francis, "above the other solemnities, celebrated with ineffable attention the birth of Baby Jesus, and he called the feast of feasts the day on which God, become a small child, nursed at a human breast" (Fonti Francescane, No. 199, p. 492).

From this particular devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation came the famous celebration of Christmas in Greccio. Most probably, St. Francis was inspired to have this celebration by his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and by the manger of St. Mary Major in Rome. What moved the Poor Man of Assisi was the desire to experience in an actual, concrete and living way the humble greatness of the event of Baby Jesus' birth, and to communicate his joy to everyone.

In the first biography, Thomas of Celano speaks of the night of Bethlehem in Greccio in a lively and moving manner, offering a decisive contribution to the spreading of this most beautiful Christmas tradition, the Nativity scene. The night of Greccio, in fact, has given back to Christianity the intensity and the beauty of the feast of Christmas, and has educated the people of God to learn its most authentic message, its particular warmth, and to love and adore the humanity of Christ.

This particular approach to Christmas has brought a new dimension to Christian faith. Easter had focused attention on the power of God who overcomes death, inaugurates new life and teaches us to hope in the world to come. With St. Francis and his nativity, the defenseless love of God was shown, his humility and goodness, which in the incarnation of the Word is manifested to man so as to teach a new way to live and to love.

Celano narrates that, on that Christmas night, Francis was given a marvelous vision. He saw a little child lying still in a manger; the child woke up because Francis approached. And he adds: "This vision was not different than real life, since through the work of his grace acting by way of his holy servant Francis, the Child Jesus was resurrected in the hearts of many, people who had forgotten him, and this was deeply impressed on his loving memory" (Vita prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 307).

These lines describe very well how Francis' living faith in and love for the humanity of Christ have been transmitted to the Christian feast of Christmas: the discovery that God reveals himself in the tiny fingers of the Child Jesus. Thanks to St. Francis, the Christian people have been able to perceive that at Christmas, God truly has become Emmanuel, God-with-us, from whom no barrier or distance can separate us. In this Child, God has come so near to each one of us, so close, that we can address him with confidence and maintain with him a trusting relationship of deep affection, as we do with a newborn.

In this Child, in fact, God-Love is manifested: God comes without weapons, without strength, because he does not aim to conquer, we could say, from without, but rather wants to be welcomed by man in liberty. God becomes a defenseless Child to conquer man's pride, violence and desire to possess. In Jesus, God took up this poor and defenseless condition to conquer with love and lead us to our true identity. We should not forget that the greatest title of Jesus Christ is precisely that of "Son," Son of God. Divine dignity is indicated with a term that makes reference to the humble condition of the manger in Bethlehem, though corresponding uniquely to his divinity, which is the divinity of the "Son."

His condition as a Child also shows us how we can find God and enjoy his presence. It is in the light of Christmas that we can understand the words of Jesus: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

He who has not understood the mystery of Christmas has not understood the decisive element of Christian existence. He who does not welcome Jesus with the heart of a child cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. This is what Francis wanted to remind Christianity of his age and of every age, until today.

Let us pray to the Father so that he concedes to our hearts this simplicity that recognizes the Lord in this Child, precisely as Francis did in Greccio. Then, we too can experience what Thomas of Celano said happened to those present in the event in Greccio -- referring to the experience of the shepherds on the holy night (cf. Luke 2:20) -- "Each one returned to his house filled with an ineffable joy" (Vita prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 479).

This is the wish that I affectionately express to all of you, to your families and loved ones. Merry Christmas to everyone!

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then addressed the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In these last days before Christmas, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s Birth and to experience the joy and hope which the newborn Saviour brings into our world. Gazing on the Christ Child lying in the manger, we contemplate the love of a God who humbly asks us to welcome him into our hearts and into our world. By coming among us as a helpless Child, God conquers our hearts not by force, but by love, and thus teaches us the way to authentic freedom, peace and fulfilment. This Christmas, may the Lord grant us simplicity of heart, so that we may recognize his presence and love in the lowly Babe of Bethlehem, and, like the shepherds, return to our homes filled with ineffable joy and gladness.

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially the groups from the Philippines and the United States. In these holy days, may you and your families draw ever closer to the Lord and experience his heavenly gifts of love, joy and peace. Merry Christmas!

©Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On Bethlehem, City-Symbol of Peace

On Bethlehem, City-Symbol of Peace

"A Peace That Is Laboriously Sought and Awaited"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the public address Benedict XVI gave today before praying the midday Angelus with the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

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Dear brothers and sisters!

With the 4th Sunday of Advent, the birth of the Lord is now before us. With the words of the prophet Micah, the liturgy invites us to look to Bethlehem, the little town of Judea that is witness to the great event: "And you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times" (Micah 5:1). One thousand years before Christ, Bethlehem had given birth to the great king David, whom the Scriptures concur in presenting as the ancestor of the Messiah. Luke's Gospel says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem because Joseph, the husband of Mary, being "of the house of David," had to return there for the census, and it was then that Mary gave birth to Jesus (cf. Luke 2:1-7).

The same prophecy of Micah continues, noting a mysterious birth: "God will give them up," he says "until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel" (Micah 5:2). There is thus a divine plan that includes and explains the times and places of the coming of the Son of God into the world. It is a plan of peace, as the prophet proclaims, saying of the Messiah: "He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord, his God. And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth. He himself shall be peace!" (Micah 5:3).

Precisely this last aspect of the prophecy -- that of the messianic peace -- naturally brings us to note that Bethlehem is also a city-symbol of peace in the Holy Land and in the whole world. Unfortunately, Bethlehem does not represent an achieved and stable peace, but rather a peace that is laboriously sought and awaited.

God, however, never resigns himself to this state of affairs. So, once again this year in Bethlehem and in the entire world, he will renew in the Church the mystery of Christmas, the prophecy of peace for all mankind, which commits Christians to face the barriers, the crises, often unknown and hidden, and the conflicts of their lives, with the sentiments of Jesus, to become the instruments and messengers of peace everywhere, to bring love where there is hate, forgiveness where there is offense, joy where there is sadness, and truth where there is error, according to the beautiful expressions of a famous Franciscan prayer.

Today, as in the time of Jesus, Christmas is not a fairytale for children, but rather God's answer to the drama of humanity in search of peace. "He himself will be peace!" the prophet says, referring to the Messiah. We are expected to throw open the doors to welcome him. Let us learn from Mary and Joseph: Let us put ourselves at the service of God's plan with faith. Even if we do not fully understand it, let us entrust ourselves to his wisdom and goodness. Let us first seek the Kingdom of God and Providence will help us. Merry Christmas, everyone!

[After the Angelus, the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian, he said:]

I address a cordial greeting to the personnel of L'Osservatore Romano, who, during the Sundays and Wednesdays of the Christmas season, will set up a stand in St. Peter’s Square, where one can buy a copy of the newspaper with a little picture of the Nativity. I wish this initiative well. Besides making the Vatican-daily available, it will also help to build a school in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English, he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims here today. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we are filled with joy because the Lord is at hand. We heard in today’s Gospel about Mary’s journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Just as Mary travelled through the hill country of Judah, to share with her kinswoman the joyful news of Christ’s coming, so too the Church is called to journey through history, proclaiming the wondrous message of salvation. As the great feast of Christmas draws near, I invoke God’s abundant blessings upon all of you, and upon your families and loved ones at home.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On John of Salisbury

On John of Salisbury

"We Witness a Worrying Separation Between Reason ... and Liberty"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

Today we will meet the figure of John of Salisbury, who belonged to one of the most important philosophical and theological schools of the Middle Ages, that of the cathedral of Chartres, in France. John, too, like the theologians about whom I've spoken over the past weeks, helps us to understand how faith, in harmony with the just aspirations of reason, pushes thought toward revealed truth, in which the true good of man is found.

John was born in England, in Salisbury, between the year 1100 and 1120. Reading his works, and above all, his rich epistles, we discover the most important events of his life. For 12 years, between 1136 and 1148, he dedicated himself to study, availing of the most qualified schools of the epoch, where he heard lectures from famous teachers.

He headed to Paris and then to Chartres, the environment that particularly marked his formation and from which he assimilated his great cultural openness, his interest for speculative problems, and his appreciation of literature. As often happened in that time, the most brilliant students were picked by prelates and sovereigns, to be their closest collaborators. This also happened to John of Salisbury, who was presented by a great friend of his, Bernard of Claraval, to Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury -- the primary see of England -- who happily took him in among his clergy.

For 11 years, from 1150 to 1161, John was the secretary and chaplain of the elderly archbishop. With tireless zeal, despite continuing his studies, he carried out an intense regimen of diplomatic activities, traveling 10 times to Italy with the specific objective of nourishing the relationship of the kingdom of England and the Church there with the Roman Pontiff.

Among other things, during those years, the Pope was Adrian IV, an Englishman who was a close friend of John of Salisbury. In the years following the 1159 death of Adrian IV, a situation of serious tension was created in England between the Church and the kingdom. The king, Henry II, aimed to wield authority over the internal life of the Church, limiting its liberty. This endeavor brought about a reaction from John of Salisbury, and above all, valiant resistance from Theobald's successor in the episcopal see of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket. St. Thomas went to exile in France because of this. John of Salisbury accompanied him and remained at his service, always working for reconciliation. In 1170, when both John and Thomas Becket had returned to England, Thomas was attacked and killed in the cathedral. He died as a martyr and was immediately venerated as such by the people.

John continued faithfully serving the successor of Thomas as well, until he was elected bishop of Chartres, where he stayed from 1176 to 1180, the year of his death.

I would like to point out two of John of Salisbury's works, which are considered his masterpieces and which are elegantly named with the Greek titles of "Metalogicon" (In Defense of Logic) and "Policraticus" (The Man of Government).

In the first work -- and not lacking that fine irony that characterizes many men of culture -- he rejects the position of those who had a reductionist concept of culture, considering it empty eloquence and useless words. John instead praises culture, authentic philosophy, that is, the encounter between clear thought and communication, efficient speech. He writes, "As in fact eloquence that is not enlightened by faith is not only rash but also blind, so wisdom that does not engage in the use of the word not only is weak, but in a certain way, is truncated: Although perhaps wisdom without words could be of benefit to the individual conscience, rarely and little does it benefit society" (Metalogicon 1,1 PL 199,327).

This is a very relevant teaching. Today, what John defines as "eloquence," that is, the possibility of communicating with instruments ever more elaborate and widespread, has enormously increased. For all that, there is an even more urgent need to communicate messages gifted with "wisdom," that is, messages inspired in truth, goodness and beauty. This is a great responsibility that particularly involves those who work in the multiform and complex realm of culture, communication and the media. And this is a realm in which the Gospel can be announced with missionary vigor.

In "Metalogicon," John takes up the problems of logic, which were something of great interest in his time, and he proposes a fundamental question: What can human reason come to know? Up to what point can it respond to this aspiration that is in every person, that of seeking the truth? John of Salisbury takes a moderate position, based in the teaching of certain treatises of Aristotle and Cicero. According to him, ordinarily human reason can reach knowledge that is not indisputable, but probable and contestable. Human knowledge -- this is his conclusion -- is imperfect, because it is subject to finitude, to the limits of man. Nevertheless, it increases and becomes perfected thanks to experience and the elaboration of correct and concrete reasoning, capable of establishing relationships between concepts and reality; thanks to discussion, to confrontation, and to knowledge that is enriched from one generation to another. Only in God is there a perfect knowledge, which is communicated to man, at least partially, by means of revelation welcomed in faith. Thus the knowledge of faith opens the potentialities of reason and brings it to advance with humility in knowledge of the mysteries of God.

The believer and the theologian, who go deeper into the treasure of the faith, are opened as well to a practical knowledge that guides daily activity, that is, moral law and the exercise of virtue.

John of Salisbury writes: "The clemency of God has conceded us his law, which establishes what is useful for us to know, and indicates how much is licit to know of God and how much is justifiable to investigate. ... In this law, in fact, the will of God is made explicit and manifested, so that each one of us knows what is necessary for him to do" (Metalogicon 4,41, PL 199,944-945).

According to John of Salisbury, there also exists an objective and immutable truth, whose origin is God, accessible to human reason. This truth regards practical and social actions. This is a natural law, from which human laws and political and religious authority should take inspiration, so that they can promote the common good. This natural law is characterized by a property that John calls "equity," that is, the attribution to each person of his rights. From here descend precepts that are legitimate for all peoples and which in no case can be abrogated. This is the central thesis in "Policraticus," the treatise on philosophy and political theology, in which John of Salisbury reflects on the conditions that enable a political leader to act in a just and authorized manner.

While other discussions taken up in this work are tied to the historical circumstances in which it was written, the theme of the relationship between natural law and a positive-juridical ordering, arbitrated by equity, is still today of great importance. In our times, in fact, above all in certain countries, we witness a worrying separation between reason, which has the task of discovering the ethical values linked to the dignity of the human person, and liberty, which has the responsibility of welcoming and promoting these values. Perhaps John of Salisbury would remind us today that only those laws are equitable that protect the sanctity of human life and reject the legalization of abortion, euthanasia and limitless genetic experimentation, those laws that respect the dignity of matrimony between a man and a woman, that are inspired in a correct secularity of state -- secularity that always includes the protection of religious liberty -- and that pursue subsidiarity and solidarity at the national and international level.

If not, what John of Salisbury calls the "tyranny of the sovereign" or, what we would call "the dictatorship of relativism," ends up taking over -- a relativism that, as I recalled some years ago, "recognizes nothing as definitive and that has as its measure only the self and its desires" (Misa pro eligendo Romano Pontifice, homily, April 19, 2005).

In my most recent encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," addressing men and women of good will, who endeavor to ensure that social and political action is never disconnected from the objective truth about man and his dignity, I wrote: "Truth, and the love which it reveals, cannot be produced: they can only be received as a gift. Their ultimate source is not, and cannot be, mankind, but only God, who is himself Truth and Love. This principle is extremely important for society and for development, since neither can be a purely human product; the vocation to development on the part of individuals and peoples is not based simply on human choice, but is an intrinsic part of a plan that is prior to us and constitutes for all of us a duty to be freely accepted" (No. 52).

This plan that is prior to us, this truth of being, we should seek and welcome, so that justice is born. But we can find it and welcome it only with a heart, a will and reason purified in the light of God.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[At the end of the audience, the Holy Father greeted the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to John of Salisbury, an outstanding philosopher and theologian of the twelfth century. Born in England, John was educated in Paris and Chartres. A close associate of Saint Thomas Becket, he was involved in the crisis between the Church and the Crown under King Henry II, and died as Bishop of Chartres. In his celebrated work, the Metalogicon, John teaches that authentic philosophy is by nature communicative: it bears fruit in a message of wisdom which serves the building up of society in truth and goodness. While acknowledging the limitations of human reason, John insists that it can attain to the truth through dialogue and argumentation. Faith, which grants a share in God’s perfect knowledge, helps reason to realize its full potential. In another work, the Policraticus, John defends reason’s capacity to know the objective truth underlying the universal natural law, and its obligation to embody that law in all positive legislation. John’s insights are most timely today, in light of the threats to human life and dignity posed by legislation inspired more by the "dictatorship of relativism" than by the sober use of right reason and concern for the principles of truth and justice inscribed in the natural law.

I offer a warm welcome to the student groups present today from England, Ireland and the United States. My cordial greeting also goes to the pilgrims from Kenya and Nigeria. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!

© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[He added in Italian:]

With great affection, I greet you dear youth, ill people and newlyweds. In this period of Advent, the Lord tells us in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, "Turn to me and be saved" (45:22). Dear boys and girls, coming from so many schools and parishes of Italy, leave space in your heart for Jesus who comes to give testimony of his joy and peace. Dear sick people, welcome the Lord in your lives so as to find support and consolation in the encounter with him. And dear newlyweds, make of the message of the love of Christmas the rule of life for your families.

[Translation by ZENIT]

On Christian Joy and the Nativity Scene

"The Crèche Is a School of Life"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the public address Benedict XVI gave today before praying the midday Angelus with the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

We have now arrived at the third week of Advent. In the liturgy today there echoes the invitation of the Apostle Paul: "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice ... the Lord is near!" (Philippians 4:4-5). Mother Church, while she accompanies us toward the holy season of Christmas, helps us to rediscover the sense and the taste of Christian joy, so different from the world's joy.

It is a beautiful tradition that on this Sunday the children of Rome come to have the Pope bless little statues of Baby Jesus, which they will place in their crèches. And, indeed, I see many children and young people, together with their parents, teachers and catechists here in St. Peter's Square. Dear friends, I greet all of you with great affection and I thank all of you for having come. It is a cause of joy for me to know that in your families you continue the custom of making the crèche. But it is not enough to repeat a traditional gesture, however important. It is necessary to try to live every day what the crèche represents, that is, Christ's love, his humility, his poverty. That is what St. Francis did at Greccio: He represented the scene of the Nativity to try to contemplate and adore it, but above all to know better how to put into practice the message of the Son of God, who left everything behind and became a little child out of love for us.

The blessing of the "babies" -- as one says in Rome -- reminds us that the crèche is a school of life, where we can learn the secret of true joy. This does not consist in having a lot of things, but in feeling loved by the Lord, in making oneself a gift for others, in loving. We look at the crèche: The Madonna and St. Joseph do not seem to be a very fortunate family; they had their first child in the midst of great hardships; and yet they are full of deep joy, because they love each other, they help each other and above all they are certain that God is at work in their history, God who made himself present in the little Jesus. And the shepherds? What reason would they have to rejoice? That newborn certainly would not change the facts of poverty and marginalization in their lives. But faith helps them to recognize in the "child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger" the "sign" of the accomplishment of God's promises for all men, "whom he loves" (Luke 2:12, 14), even them!

Behold, dear friends, what true joy consists in: It is feeling that our personal and communal existence is visited and filled by a great mystery, the mystery of God's love. To be joyful we do not just have need of things, but love and truth: We need a God who is near, who warms our heart, and responds to our profound desires. This God is manifested in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary. This is why that Baby, whom we place in the stable or the cave, is the center of everything, the heart of the world. Let us pray that every person, like the Virgin Mary, may welcome into the center of their lives the God who became a Child, font of true joy.

[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian he said:]

This week I received sad news from certain countries in Africa about the murder of four missionaries: the priests, Father Daniel Cizimya, Father Louis Blondel and Father Gerry Roche, and Sister Denise Kahambu. They were faithful witnesses of the Gospel, which they knew how to proclaim, even at the risk of their own lives. As I express nearness to their families and communities, who are grieving, I invite everyone to join in my prayer that the Lord welcome them into his house, console those who weep for them and bring them reconciliation and peace with his coming.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English, the Pontiff said:]

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for our Angelus prayer. The liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent, marked by joyful expectation of the Lord's coming, invites us to rejoice in the hope of our salvation. May these days of preparation for Christmas be a time of genuine conversion and interior renewal for all Christians. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace in Jesus our Saviour.

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On Rupert of Deutz

On Rupert of Deutz

"We Can Also, Each One in His Own Way, Find the Lord Jesus"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we come to know another Benedictine monk of the 12th century. His name is Rupert of Deutz, a city near Cologne, headquarters of a famous monastery. Rupert himself speaks of his life in one of his most important works, "The Glory and Honor of the Son of Man," which is a partial commentary on the Gospel of Mark. While still a child, he was received as an "oblate" in the Benedictine monastery of St. Lawrence of Liege, according to the custom of the age to entrust one of the children to the education of monks, intending to make of him a gift to God. Rupert always loved the monastic life. He very soon learned the Latin language to study the Bible and to enjoy the liturgical celebrations. He was distinguished for his absolutely upright moral rectitude and for his strong attachment to the See of St. Peter.

His times were marked by opposition between the papacy and the empire, due to the so-called investiture conflict, with which -- as I have pointed out in other catecheses -- the papacy wished to prevent the appointment of bishops and the exercise of their jurisdiction from depending on the civil authority, which was guided in the main by political and economic motivations, and certainly not pastoral ones. Otbert, the bishop of Liege, resisted the Pope's directives and sent Berengarius, abbot of the monastery of St. Lawrence, into exile, precisely for his fidelity to the Pontiff. Rupert lived in that monastery, and he did not hesitate to follow his abbot into exile. Only when Bishop Otbert re-entered into communion with the Pope did Rupert return to Liege and accept priestly ordination. Up to that moment, in fact, he had avoided receiving ordination from a bishop in disagreement with the Pope. Rupert teaches us that when controversies arise in the Church, reference to the Petrine ministry guarantees fidelity to sound doctrine and gives interior serenity and liberty. After the dispute with Otbert, he still had to leave his monastery two more times. In 1116 the adversaries in fact wanted to prosecute him. Although acquitted from every accusation, Rupert preferred to go for a time to Siegbur, but because the controversies had not yet ceased when he returned to the monastery in Liege, he decided to establish himself definitively in Germany. Appointed abbot of Deutz in 1120, he remained there until 1129, the year of his death. He left only for a pilgrimage to Rome in 1124.

A prodigious writer, Rupert left very numerous works, still of great interest today, in part because he was active in several important theological discussions of the time. For example, he intervened with determination in the Eucharistic controversy that in 1077 led to the condemnation of Berengarius of Tours. The latter had given a reductive interpretation of the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, describing it as only symbolic. The term "transubstantiation" had still not entered the language of the Church, but Rupert, using at times audacious expressions, made himself a determined supporter of the reality of the Eucharist. Above all in a work titled "De divinis officiis" (The Divine Offices), he affirmed with determination the continuity between the Body of the Word Incarnate of Christ and that present in the Eucharistic species of bread and wine. Dear brothers and sisters, it seems to me that at this point we must also think of our time; the danger exists also today of re-appraising the Eucharistic realism, to consider, that is, the Eucharist almost as just a rite of communion, of socialization, forgetting too easily that the risen Christ is really present -- with his risen body -- which is placed in our hands to draw us out of ourselves, to be incorporated in his immortal body and thus lead us to new life. This great mystery that the Lord is present in all his reality in the Eucharistic species is a mystery to be adored and loved always anew!

I would like to quote here the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church which bear in themselves the fruit of the meditation of the faith and of the theological reflection of 2,000 years: "The mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as 'the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.' In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist 'the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained'" (CCC, 1374). With his reflection, Rupert was a contributor to this precise formulation.

Another controversy in which the abbot of Deutz was involved refers to the problem of the reconciliation of the goodness and omnipotence of God and the existence of evil. If God is omnipotent and good, how does one explain the reality of evil? Rupert in fact reacted to the positions assumed by the teachers of the theological school of Laon, who with a series of philosophical reasonings distinguished in God's will "approval" and "permission," concluding that God permits evil without approving it and, hence, without willing it. Rupert, instead, gave up the use of philosophy, which he considered inadequate in the face of such a great problem, and remained simply faithful to the biblical account. He begins from the goodness of God, from the truth that God is most good and cannot but desire goodness. Thus he singles out the origin of evil in man himself and in the mistaken use of human liberty. When Rupert addresses this argument, he writes pages full of religious inspiration to praise the Father's infinite mercy and the patience and benevolence of God toward sinful man.

As other theologians of the Middle Ages, Rupert also asked himself: Why did the Word of God, the Son of God, become man? Some, many, responded explaining the incarnation of the Word with the urgency of repairing man's sin. Rupert, instead, with a Christocentric vision of the history of salvation, widens this perspective, and in one of his works titled "The Glorification of the Trinity," holds the position that the Incarnation, the central event of history, was foreseen from all eternity, even independently of man's sin, so that all creation could give praise to God the Father and love him as in one family gathered around Christ, the Son of God. He sees then in the pregnant woman of Revelation the whole history of humanity, which is oriented to Christ, just as conception is oriented to birth, a perspective that will be developed by other thinkers and put to good use also by contemporary theology, which affirms that the whole history of the world and of humanity is conception oriented to the birth of Christ.

Christ is always at the center of exegetical explanations furnished by Rupert in his comments on the books of the Bible, to which he dedicated himself with great diligence and passion. He thus rediscovers a wonderful unity in all the events of the history of salvation, from the creation to the final consummation of time: "The whole of Scripture," he affirms, "is just one book, which tends to the same end [the divine Word]; which comes from one God and which was written by only one Spirit" (De glorificatione Trinitatis et processione Sancti Spiritus I, V, PL 169, 18).

In the interpretation of the Bible, Rupert does not limit himself to repeat the teaching of the Fathers, but shows his originality. For example, he is the first writer who identified the bride of the Canticle of Canticles with Mary Most Holy. Thus his commentary on this book of Scripture is a sort of Mariological summa, in which are presented the privileges and the excellent virtues of Mary. In one of the most inspired passages of his commentary, Rupert writes: "O most beloved among the beloved, Virgin of virgins, what in you is praised by your beloved Son, whom the entire choir of angels exalts? Praised are simplicity, purity, innocence, doctrine, modesty, humility, the integrity of mind and flesh, in other words, the untainted virginity" (In Canticum Canticorum 4, 1-6, CCL 26, pp. 69-70). Rupert's Marian interpretation of the Canticle is a good example of the harmony between liturgy and theology. In fact, several passages of this biblical Book were already used in the liturgical celebrations of Marian feasts.

Moreover, Rupert took care to insert his Mariological doctrine in ecclesiological doctrine. In other words, he saw in Mary Most Holy the most holy part of the whole Church. See why my venerated predecessor, Pope Paul VI, in the closing address of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, solemnly proclaiming Mary Mother of the Church, quoted in fact a proposal treated in Rupert's works, who describes Mary as portio maxima, portio optima -- the loftiest part, the best part of the Church (cf. In Apocalypsem 1.7, PL 169, 1043).

Dear friends, from this hasty sketch we recall that Rupert was a fervent theologian, gifted with great depth. As all the representatives of monastic theology, he was able to combine the rational study of the mysteries of the faith with prayer and contemplation, considered the summit of all knowledge of God. He himself speaks sometimes of his mystical experiences, as when he confides about the ineffable joy of having perceived the presence of the Lord: "In that brief moment," he affirms, "I experienced how true that is which he himself says: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart" (De gloria et honore Filii hominis. Super Matthaeum 12, PL 168, 1601). We can also, each one in his own way, find the Lord Jesus who endlessly accompanies us on our way, makes himself present in the Eucharistic bread and in his Word for our salvation.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then addressed the people in various languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to Rupert of Deutz, an outstanding theologian of the twelfth century. Rupert experienced at first hand the conflict between the Empire and the Church linked to the investiture crisis, and he played a significant role in the principal theological debates of his day. He forcefully defended the reality of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, and insisted that the origin of evil is to be found in man's mistaken use of freedom, not in the positive will of God. Rupert also contributed to the medieval discussion of the purpose of the Incarnation, which he set within the vast vision of history centred on Christ. His teaching on the dignity and privileges of the Virgin Mary, presented with a broad ecclesiological context, would prove influential for later theology and find an echo in the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council. Rupert's ability to harmonize the rational study of the mysteries of faith with prayer and contemplation makes him a typical representative of the monastic theology of his time. His example inspires us to draw near to Christ, present among us in his Word and in the Eucharist, and to rejoice in the knowledge that he remains with us at every moment of our lives and throughout history.

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today's Audience. I greet especially the groups from South Korea, South Africa and the United States of America. As we prepare with joy to celebrate our Saviour's birth this Christmas, let us renew our commitment to bring the light of Christ to those we meet. May God bless you all!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[In Italian, he said:]

Finally, I greet young people, the sick and newlyweds. The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which we celebrated yesterday, reminds us of Mary's singular adherence to God's salvific plan. Dear young people, make an effort to imitate her with a pure and transparent heart, letting yourselves be molded by God who also in you wills to "do great things" (cf. Luke 1:49). Dear sick people, with the help of Mary always trust the Lord, who knows your sufferings and, uniting them to his, offers them for the salvation of the world. And you, dear newlyweds, make your home in imitation of that of Nazareth, welcoming and open to life.

[Translation by ZENIT]

On Mary's Presence in Rome

On Mary's Presence in Rome

"Let Us Hear Her Silent but Pressing Appeal"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, during his visit to the image of the Immaculate Conception in Rome's Piazza de Spagna.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In the heart of Christian cities, Mary constitutes a sweet and reassuring presence. With her discreet style she gives everyone peace and hope in happy and sad moments of life. In the churches, in the chapels, on the walls of palaces: a painting, a mosaic, a statue recalls the presence of the Mother who constantly watches over her children. Also here, in Piazza di Spagna, Mary is placed on high, almost to watch over Rome.

What does Mary say to the city? Of what does she remind everyone with her presence? She reminds that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20) -- as the Apostle Paul writes. She is the Immaculate Mother who repeats also to the men of our time: Do not be afraid, Jesus has conquered evil; he has conquered it at the root, freeing us from its dominion.

How much we have need of this beautiful news! Every day, in fact, through newspapers, the television and the radio, evil is recounted, repeated, amplified, accustoming us to the most horrible things, making us become insensitive and, in some way, intoxicating us, because the negative is not fully disposed of and accumulates day after day. The heart hardens and thoughts become dark. Because of this, the city has need of Mary, who with her presence speaks to us of God, reminds us of the victory of grace over sin, and induces us to hope even in humanly more difficult situations.

In the city live -- or survive -- invisible persons, who every now and then leap onto the front page or on television screens, and are exploited to the end, so that the news and the image attract attention. It is a perverse mechanism, to which unfortunately one finds it hard to resist. The city first hides and then exhibits to the public, without pity, or with false pity. There is instead in every man the desire to be received as a person and considered a sacred reality, because every human history is a sacred history, and requires the greatest respect.

The city, dear brothers and sisters, is all of us! Each one contributes to its life and its moral climate, for good or evil. In the heart of every one of us passes the boundary between good and evil, and not one of us should feel the right to judge others, but rather each one must feel the duty to improve himself!

The mass media tends to make us feel always as "spectators," as if evil refers only to others, and certain things could never happen to us. Instead we are all "actors" and, in evil as in good, our behavior has an influence on others.

We often lament the pollution of the air, which in certain places of the city is unbreathable. It is true: We need everyone's commitment to make the city cleaner.

And yet, there is another pollution, less perceptible to the senses, but just as dangerous. It is the pollution of the spirit; it is that which renders our faces less smiling, more gloomy, which leads us not to greet one another, to not look at one another in the face. The city is made up of faces, but unfortunately the collective dynamics can make the perception of their depth disappear. We see everything on the surface. Persons become bodies, and these bodies lose the soul, become things, objects without a face, to be exchanged and consumed.

Mary Immaculate helps us to rediscover and defend the depth of persons, because in her there is perfect transparency of the soul in the body. She is purity personified, in the sense that the spirit, soul and body are in her, fully consistent between themselves and with the will of God. The Madonna teaches us to open ourselves to God's action, to look at others as he looks at them -- from the heart. And to look at them with mercy, with love, with infinite tenderness, especially those who are most alone, most looked down upon, most exploited. "Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."

I wish to pay tribute publicly to all those who in silence, not with words, but with deeds, make an effort to practice this evangelical law of love, which sends the world forward. They are so many, also here in Rome, and rarely do they make news. Men and women of every age, who have understood that it is no use to condemn, to lament, to recriminate, but it is better to respond to evil with good. This changes things, it changes persons and, in consequence, improves society.

Dear Roman friends, and all of you who live in this city! While we are busy in daily activities, let us listen to Mary's voice. Let us hear her silent but pressing appeal. She says to each one of us: Where sin increased, grace can overflow, beginning precisely from your heart and your life! And the city will be more beautiful, more Christian, more human.

Thank you, Holy Mother, for this your message of hope. Thank you for your silent but eloquent presence in the heart of our city. Immaculate Virgin, "Salus Populi Romani," pray for us!

[Translation by ZENIT]

On Mary as Mother

On Mary as Mother

"We Can Turn to Her, and Our Heart Receives Light and Comfort"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI delivered at midday before and after praying the Angelus on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, together with the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The 8th of December we celebrate one of the most beautiful feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception. But what does it mean that Mary is the "Immaculate"? And what does this title tell to us?

First of all we refer to the biblical texts of today's liturgy, especially the great "fresco" of the third chapter of the Book of Genesis and the account of the Annunciation of the Gospel of Luke. After original sin, God turned to the serpent, which represents Satan, he curses him and adds a promise: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15).

It is the proclamation of revenge: Satan at the beginning of creation seems to have the upper hand, but the son of a woman will come who will crush his head. Thus, through the woman's offspring, God himself will triumph. That woman is the Virgin Mary, from whom was born Jesus Christ who, with his sacrifice, has defeated once and for all the ancient tempter. Because of this, in so many painting and statues of the Immaculate, she is represented in the act of crushing a serpent under her foot.

The evangelist Luke, instead, shows us the Virgin Mary who receives the annunciation of the heavenly messenger (cf. Luke 1:26-38). She appears as the humble and authentic daughter of Israel, true Zion in whom God wishes to make his dwelling. She is the young plant from which the Messiah must be born, the just and merciful King.

In the simplicity of the home of Nazareth lives Israel's pure remnant from which God wishes to have his people be born again, as a new tree that will extend its branches in the whole world, offering all men good fruits of salvation. As opposed to Adam and Eve, Mary remains obedient to the Lord's will, with her whole self she pronounces her "yes" and places herself fully at the disposition of the divine plan. She is the new Eve, true "mother of all the living" -- that is, of all those who by faith in Christ receive eternal life.

Dear friends, what immense joy to have Mary Immaculate as Mother! Every time we experience our frailty and the suggestion of evil, we can turn to her, and our heart receives light and comfort.

Also in life's trials, in the storms that make faith and hope vacillate, we think that we are her children and that the roots of our existence sink in the infinite grace of God. The Church herself, even if exposed to the negative influences of the world, always finds in her the star to direct and follow the route indicated by Christ.

Mary is in fact the Mother of the Church, as Pope Paul VI and Vatican Council II solemnly proclaimed. While, therefore, we render thanks to God for this wonderful sign of his goodness, we entrust to the Immaculate Virgin each one of us, our families and the community, the whole Church and the entire world.

I will also do so this afternoon, according to the tradition, at the feet of the monument dedicated to her in Piazza di Spagna.

[After the Angleus, the Pope greeted the pilgrims. In Italian, he said:]

Also this year, in today's feast, I have the joy of greeting the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate, led by Cardinal Andrea Maria Deskur. Dear Lord Cardinal, dear friends, I entrust with affection each one of you and your activity to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary.

Then I address a special thought to Italian Catholic Action, which today, in so many parishes, renews its commitment to the Church. In particular, I encourage the educators of Boys Catholic Action, present here in the Square at the conclusion of their annual meeting, to be generous and tireless in educating boys in the faith and in witnessing.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[In English, he said:]

I am happy to greet all the English-speaking visitors present in this Angelus prayer. Today we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. As we venerate her life of holiness, full of grace from the beginning of her existence, we praise God and acclaim the power of his gifts. May all Christians, filled with joyful hope and following the example of Mary, be faithful to God's grace and seek a life of holiness. I wish you all a happy feast day and a pleasant stay in Rome!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On Preparing the Scene for the Word

On Preparing the Scene for the Word

"The Word of God Is the Subject That Moves History"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address before praying the midday Angelus today with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

On this second Sunday of Advent the liturgy proposes the Gospel passage in which St. Luke prepares the scene, so to speak, in which Jesus will open and begin his public mission (Luke 3:1-6). The evangelist shines the spotlight on John the Baptist, who was the precursor of the Messiah, and traces with great precision the coordinates in space and time of his preaching. Luke writes: "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert" (Luke 3:1-2). Two things draw our attention. The first is the abundance of references to all the political and religious authorities of Palestine in 27-28 A.D. Evidently the evangelist wants to point out to the reader or listener that the Gospel is not a myth, but the account of a true story, that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical personage inserted in that precise context. The second element worthy of note is that, after this ample historical introduction, the subject becomes "the word of God," presented as a force that descends from on high and comes to rest upon John the Baptist.

Tomorrow is the liturgical memorial of St. Ambrose, the great Bishop of Milan. I take from a comment of his on this evangelical text: "The Son of God," he writes, "before gathering the Church together, acts first of all in his humble servant. Thus, St. Luke says well that the word of God descended upon John, the son of Zachariah, in the desert, because the Church did not have its beginning from men, but from the Word" (Expositio Evangelii Secundum Lucam Libris X Comprehensa, 2, 67). This, therefore is the meaning: The Word of God is the subject that moves history, inspires prophets, prepares the way for the Messiah, convokes the Church. Jesus himself is the divine Word that became flesh in Mary's virginal womb: In him God is fully revealed, he has spoken and given us everything, opening the treasuries of his truth and of his mercy to us. St. Ambrose continues in his commentary: "So, the Word descended that the earth, which before had been a desert, would produce its fruits for us" (ibid.).

Dear friends, the most beautiful flower that has sprung up from the word of God is the Virgin Mary. She is the first fruits of the Church, garden of God on earth. But, while Mary is the Immaculate One -- as we will celebrate her the day after tomorrow -- the Church has constant need of purifying herself, because sin infects all her members. In the Church there is always a struggle taking place between the desert and the garden, between the sin that parches the earth and the grace that waters it so that it produces abundant fruits of holiness. Let us therefore pray to the Mother of the Lord that she will help us, in this Advent season, to "straighten" our ways, letting ourselves be guided by the word of God.

[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Tomorrow there will open in Copenhagen the U.N. conference on climate change through which the international community intends to fight global warming. I hope that the work will help to identify actions respectful of creation and favorable to solidary development founded on the dignity of the human person and oriented toward the common good. The safeguarding of creation requires sober and responsible lifestyles that would benefit the poor and future generations. In this perspective, to guarantee the conferences complete success, I invite all persons of good will to respect the laws placed by God in nature and to rediscover the moral dimension of human life.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus. In today’s Gospel we hear the voice of John the Baptist calling out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord!" May this Advent season be for us a time of repentance so that, when Christ comes, we may welcome Him with joy, share in his wisdom and become one with him. Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!

A good Sunday to all!

©Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On the "Singer of Charity"

On the "Singer of Charity"

"Only One Task Is Entrusted to Every Human Being"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's address during today's general audience in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

In a previous catechesis I presented the figure of Bernard of Clairvaux, the "Doctor of Sweetness," great protagonist of the 12th century. His biographer, friend and admirer was William of Saint-Thierry, on whom I will pause in this morning's reflection.

William was born in Liege between 1075 and 1080. From a noble family, gifted with a lively intelligence and an innate love of study, he frequented famous schools of the time, as that of his native city of Rheims in France. He entered into personal contact also with Abelard, the teacher who applied philosophy to theology in such a particular way as to incite many perplexities and opposition. William also expressed his own reservations, requesting his friend Bernard to take a position in confrontations with Abelard.

William responded to that mysterious and irresistible call of God, which is the vocation to a consecrated life, entering the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicaise of Rheims. Widespread at that time was the need to purify and renew monastic life, to render it authentically evangelical. William worked in this sense within his own monastery, and in general in the Benedictine Order. However, he met with not a few resistances in face of his attempts at reform and thus, notwithstanding the contrary advice of his friend Bernard, in 1135 he left the Benedictine abbey, took off the black habit and put on the white one, to join the Cistercians of Signy. From that moment until his death, which occurred in 1148, he dedicated himself to prayerful contemplation of the mysteries of God, always the object of his most profound desires, and to writing spiritual literature, important in the history of monastic theology.

One of his first works is titled De natura et dignitate amoris (The nature and dignity of love). Expressed there is one of William's fundamental ideas, valid also for us. The main energy that moves the human spirit, he says, is love. Human nature, in its most profound essence, consists in loving. In a word, only one task is entrusted to every human being: to learn to will the good, to love, sincerely, authentically, freely. However, only at the school of God can this task be accomplished and man can attain the end for which he was created. In fact, William wrote: "The art of arts is the art of love. ... Love is awakened by the Creator of nature. Love is a force of the soul, which leads it as a natural weight to the place and to the end that is proper to it" (The nature and the dignity of love 1, PL 184,379).

To learn to love requires a long and demanding journey, which William articulated in four stages, corresponding to man's age: infancy, youth, maturity and old age. In this itinerary the person must impose on himself an effective ascesis, a strong control of himself to eliminate every disordered affection, every shadow of egoism, and to unify his life in God, source, goal and force of love, until attaining the summit of the spiritual life, which William defines as "wisdom." At the conclusion of this ascetic itinerary, one feels great serenity and sweetness. All man's faculties -- intelligence, will, affection -- rest in God, known and loved in Christ.

Also in other texts, William speaks of this radical vocation of love for God, which is the secret of a successful and happy life, and which he describes as an incessant and growing desire, inspired by God himself in the heart of man. In a meditation he says that the object of this love is Love with a capital "L," namely God. It is he who flows in the heart of the one who loves, and renders him apt to receive him. He gives himself to the point of satiating and in such a way, that from this satiety the desire [for him] is never lessened. This rush of love is man's fulfillment" (De contemplando Deo 6, passim. SC 61bis, pp. 79-83).

Striking is the fact that William, in speaking of the love of God, attributes notable importance to the emotional dimension. Indeed, dear friends, our heart is made of flesh, and when we love God, who is Love itself, how can we not express in this relationship with the Lord also our most human feelings, such as tenderness, sensitivity, delicacy? The Lord himself, becoming man, wished to love us with a heart of flesh!

According to William, then, love has another important property: It enlightens the intelligence and enables one to know God better and in a more profound way and, in God, persons and events. Knowledge that comes from the senses and from the intelligence, reduces, but does not eliminate, the distance between the subject and the object, between the I and the you. Love instead produces attraction and communion, to the point that there is a transformation and an assimilation between the subject that loves and the object loved. This reciprocity of affection and attraction permits then a much more profound knowledge than that operated only by reason. Explained thus is a famous expression of William: "Amor ipse intellectus est" -- love itself brings knowledge. Dear friends, we ask ourselves: Is it not like this in our own life? Is it not perhaps true that we know only who and what we love? Without a certain attraction one does not know anyone or anything! And this is true first of all in the knowledge of God and his mysteries, which exceed the capacity of comprehension of our intelligence: God is known if he is loved.

A synthesis of the thought of William of Saint-Thierry is contained in a long letter addressed to the Carthusians of Mont-Dieu, to whom he had gone on a visit and who he wished to encourage and console. The learned Benedictine Jean Mabillon already in 1690 gave this letter a significant title: "Epistola aurea" (Golden Epistle). In fact, the teachings on the spiritual life contained in it are noteworthy for all those who wish to grow in communion with God, in sanctity. In this treatise William proposes an itinerary in three stages. One must pass, he says, from "animal" man to "rational" man," to come to "spiritual" man. What does our author intend to say with these three expressions? At the beginning, a person accepts the vision of life inspired by faith with an act of obedience and trust. Then with a process of interiorization, in which reason and will play a great role, faith in Christ is received with profound conviction and one feels a harmonious correspondence between this real and satisfying communion with God. One lives only in love and for love. William bases this itinerary on a solid vision of man, inspired by the ancient Greek Fathers, above all Origen, who, with an intrepid language, taught that man's vocation is to become like God, who created him in his image and likeness. The image of God present in man drives him toward likeness, namely, toward an ever fuller identity between his own will and the divine will. One does not attain to this perfection, which William calls "unity of spirit," with personal effort, even if it is sincere and generous, because another thing is necessary. This perfection is attained by the action of the Holy Spirit, who makes his dwelling in the soul and purifies, absorbs and transforms in charity every outburst and every desire of love present in man. "There is then another likeness with God," we read in the "Epistola aurea," "which is no longer called likeness but unity of spirit, when man becomes one with God, one spirit, not only by the unity of an identical will, but by not being able to will something other. Thus man merits to become not God, but that which God is: Man becomes by grace that which God is by nature" (Epistola aurea 262-263, SC 223, pp. 353-355).

Dear brothers and sisters, this author, who we can define as the "Singer of love, of charity," teaches us to make in our lives the ultimate choice, which gives meaning and value to all other choices: to love God and, for love of him, to love our neighbor; only thus will we be able to find true joy, anticipation of eternal blessedness. Let us put ourselves then in the school of the saints to learn to love in an authentic and total way, to enter in this itinerary of our being. With a young saint, doctor of the Church, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, let us also say to the Lord that we want to live for love.

And I conclude in fact with a prayer of this saint: "I love you, and you know it, divine Jesus! The Spirit of love kindles me with its fire. Loving You I attract the Father, whom my weak heart keeps, without escape. O Trinity! Be a prisoner of my love. To live from love, down here, is a giving of oneself immeasurably, without asking a salary ... when one loves one does not make calculations. I have given everything to the Divine Heart, which overflows with tenderness! And I run lightly. I no longer have anything, and my only wealth is to live from love."

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Pope then greeted pilgrims in different languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to William of Saint-Thierry, an outstanding monastic theologian and a close friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. William took active part in the twelfth-century movement of monastic renewal and, after serving as abbot of Saint-Thierry, he entered the Cistercian monastery of Signy. A central theme of his writings is the nature and power of love, seen as the ultimate vocation and the driving force of the human spirit. For William, this innate human drive finds perfection in the love of the triune God, the source and goal of all love. As the culmination of a process of purification and integration of the affections, the love of God brings supreme human fulfillment, and a profound experiential knowledge of both God and the world about us. In William's celebrated phrase, Amor ipse intellectus est -- love itself brings knowledge. By contemplation of the mysteries of the faith, we grow in the image of God and, by uniting our will to his, we become one with him. May the example and teaching of William of Saint-Thierry strengthen our desire to love God above all things and to let that love overflow in love of our neighbour. May we thus discover authentic joy and the foretaste of eternal bliss.

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims present at today's Audience, including the priests from Scotland celebrating their ordination jubilees and the students and staff from Saint Mary's High School, Casino, Australia. May your Advent visit to Rome be a time of deep spiritual renewal. Upon all of you I invoke God's abundant blessings!

Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[In Italian, he said:]

Finally, I greet young people, the sick and newlyweds. Today in fact is the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the apostolic exhortation "Reconciliatio et paenitentia," which called attention to the importance of the sacrament of penance in the life of the Church. On this significant anniversary, I wish to evoke again some extraordinary "apostles of the confessional," tireless dispensers of divine mercy: Sts. John Mary Vianney, Joseph Cafasso, Leopold Mandic, Pio of Pietrelcina.

May their witness of faith and of charity encourage you, dear young people, to flee from sin and to plan your future as a generous service to God and neighbor. May it help you, dear sick people, to experience in suffering the mercy of Christ crucified. And may it solicit you, dear newlyweds, to create in the family a climate of faith and of mutual understanding.

May the example of these saints, assiduous and faithful ministers of divine forgiveness, be finally for priests -- especially in this Year for Priests -- and for all Christians, an invitation to always have confidence in God's goodness, approaching and celebrating with trust the sacrament of reconciliation.

[Translation by ZENIT]

On God's Presence and Coming

On God's Presence and Coming

"He Is Here and Comes to Visit Us"

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave Saturday at First Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

With this evening celebration we enter the liturgical time of Advent. In the biblical reading we just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul invites us to prepare for the "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (5:23), keeping ourselves irreproachable, with the grace of God. Paul uses, in fact, the word "coming," in Latin adventus, from whence comes the term Advent.

Let us reflect briefly on the meaning of this word, which can be translated as "presence," "arrival," "coming." In the language of the ancient world it was a technical term used to indicate the arrival of a functionary or the visit of a king or emperor to a province. But it could also indicate the coming of the divinity, which goes out of concealment to manifest itself with power, or which is celebrated as present in worship. Christians adopted the word "advent" to express their relationship with Jesus Christ: Jesus is King, who has entered into this poor "province" called earth to visit everyone; he brings to participate in his advent those who believe in him, all those who believe in his presence in the liturgical assembly. With the word adventus an attempt was made essentially to say: God is here, he has not withdrawn from the world, he has not left us alone. Although we cannot see or touch him, as is the case with tangible realities, he is here and comes to visit us in multiple ways.

The meaning of the expression "advent" includes therefore also that of visitatio, which means simply and properly "visit"; in this case it is a visit of God: He enters my life and wants to address me. We all experience in daily life having little time for the Lord and little time for ourselves. We end up by being absorbed in "doing." Is it not true that often activity possesses us, that society with its many interests monopolizes our attention? Is it not true that we dedicate much time to amusements and leisure of different kinds? Sometimes things "trap" us.

Advent, this intense liturgical time that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to grasp a presence. It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day is a gesture that God directs to us, sign of the care he has for each one of us. How many times God makes us perceive something of his love! To have, so to speak, an "interior diary" of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the Lord who is present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us to see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to see our whole existence as a "visit," as a way in which he can come to us and be close to us, in each situation?

Another essential element of Advent is expectation, expectation that at the same time is hope. Advent drives us to understand the meaning of time and history as "kairos," as a favorable occasion for our salvation. Jesus illustrated this mysterious reality in many parables: in the account of the servants invited to await the return of their master; in the parable of the virgins who await the bridegroom; or in those of the sowing and harvesting. Man, in his life, is in constant waiting: When he is a child he wants to grow, as an adult he tends to his realization and success, growing in age, he aspires to his deserved rest. However the time comes in which he discovers that he has waited too little if, beyond his profession or social position, he has no choice but to wait. Hope marks the path of humanity, but for Christians it is animated by a certainty: The Lord is present in the course of our life, he accompanies us and one day he will also dry our tears. In a not too distant day, everything will find its fulfillment in the Kingdom of God, Kingdom of justice and peace.

However, there are very different ways of waiting. If time is not filled by a present gifted with meaning, the waiting runs the risk of becoming unbearable; if something is expected, but at this moment there is nothing, namely, if the present is empty, every instant that passes seems exaggeratedly long, and the waiting is transformed into a weight that is too heavy because the future is totally uncertain. When, instead, time is gifted with meaning and we perceive in every instant something specific and valuable, then the joy of waiting makes the present more precious.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us live the present intensely, when we already have the gifts of the Lord, let us live it projected to the future, a future full of hope. The Christian Advent thus becomes an occasion to reawaken in ourselves the true meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah awaited for long centuries and born in the poverty of Bethlehem. Coming among us, he has brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and of his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily life, in the whole of creation, which changes in aspect if he is behind it or if it is obfuscated by the mist of an uncertain origin and an uncertain future. In turn, we can speak to him, present to him the sufferings that afflict us, impatience, the questions that spring from the heart. We are certain that he always hears us! And if Jesus is present, there is no time deprived of meaning and void. If he is present, we can continue to wait also when others can no longer give us their support, even when the present is exhausting.

Dear friends, Advent is the time of the presence and the expectation of the eternal. Precisely for this reason it is, in a particular way, the time of joy, of an internalized joy, that no suffering can erase. Joy because of the fact that God became a child. This joy, invisibly present in us, encourages us to walk with confidence. Model and support of this profound joy is the Virgin Mary, through whom the Child Jesus has been given to us. May she, faithful disciple of her Son, obtain for us the grace to live this liturgical time vigilant and diligent in waiting. Amen.

[Translation by ZENIT]