ON THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN

"St. Stephen is a Model for All Those Who Want to Serve the New Evangelization"

VATICAN CITY, December 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each year, on the day after Christmas, the liturgy celebrates the feast of St. Stephen, deacon and first martyr. The book of Acts presents him as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 6.8 to 10, 7.55); in him the full promise of Jesus recounted in today's Gospel passage is fulfilled, which is that believers who are called to bear witness in difficult and dangerous circumstances will not be abandoned or left defenseless: the Spirit of God will speak to them (cf. Mt 10:20).

The deacon Stephen, in fact, worked, spoke and died animated by the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to the love of Christ to the point of extreme sacrifice. The first martyr is described, in his suffering, as a perfect imitation of Christ, whose passion is repeated even in the details. The life of Saint Stephen is entirely shaped by God, conformed to Christ, whose passion is repeated in him; in the final moment of death, on his knees, he takes up the prayer of Jesus on the cross, trusting in the Lord (cf. Acts 7.59 ) and forgiving his enemies: " Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (v. 60). Filled with the Holy Spirit, as his eyes are about to close, he fixed his gaze on "Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (v. 55), the Lord of all, who draws all to Him.

On St. Stephen’s Day, we are called to fix our gaze on the Son of God, who in the joyful atmosphere of Christmas we contemplate in the mystery of His Incarnation. In Baptism and Confirmation, with the precious gift of faith nourished by the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist, Jesus Christ has bound us to Him and wants to continue in us, through the action of the Holy Spirit, his work of salvation that redeems, enhances, elevates and leads all to fulfillment. Allowing ourselves be drawn by Christ, like St. Stephen, means opening our lives to the light that calls, directs and makes us walk the path of good, the path of humanity according to God’s loving plan.

Finally, St. Stephen is a model for all those who want to serve the new evangelization. He shows that the novelty of proclamation does not primarily consist in the use of original methods or techniques, which certainly have their uses, but in being filled with the Holy Spirit and allowing ourselves to be guided by Him. The novelty of proclamation lies in immerging ourselves deeply in the mystery of Christ, the assimilation of His Word and of His presence in the Eucharist, so that He Himself, the living Jesus, can act and speak through His envoy. In essence, the evangelizer becomes able to bring Christ to others effectively when he lives of Christ, when the newness of the Gospel manifests itself in his own life. We pray to the Virgin Mary, so that the Church, in this Year of Faith, sees more men and women who, like St. Stephen, know how to give a convinced and courageous witness of the Lord Jesus.

[Translation by Vatican Radio]

After the Recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted the pilgrims present in various languages. In English, the Holy Father said:

I am pleased to welcome all those present for this Angelus prayer. Today, immediately after Christmas Day, by tradition we celebrate the feast of the first martyr, Saint Stephen the Deacon. Like him, may we be blessed by God’s grace to have the courage to speak up and to defend the truth of our faith in public, with charity and constancy. God bless all of you and your loved ones!

BENEDICT XVI'S CHRISTMAS EVE HOMILY

"What would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door"

VATICAN CITY, December 24, 2012 (Zenit.org).

Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave at tonight's Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.

I am also repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable; he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he writes: "he came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (Jn 1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still. Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the "God hypothesis" becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so "full" of ourselves that there is no room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need to listen to Saint Paul’s exhortation: "Be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2). Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (nous), of the whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world.

There is another verse from the Christmas story on which I should like to reflect with you – the angels’ hymn of praise, which they sing out following the announcement of the new-born Saviour: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased." God is glorious. God is pure light, the radiance of truth and love. He is good. He is true goodness, goodness par excellence. The angels surrounding him begin by simply proclaiming the joy of seeing God’s glory. Their song radiates the joy that fills them. In their words, it is as if we were hearing the sounds of heaven. There is no question of attempting to understand the meaning of it all, but simply the overflowing happiness of seeing the pure splendour of God’s truth and love. We want to let this joy reach out and touch us: truth exists, pure goodness exists, pure light exists. God is good, and he is the supreme power above all powers. All this should simply make us joyful tonight, together with the angels and the shepherds.

Linked to God’s glory on high is peace on earth among men. Where God is not glorified, where he is forgotten or even denied, there is no peace either. Nowadays, though, widespread currents of thought assert the exact opposite: they say that religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in the world. If there is to be peace, humanity must first be liberated from them. Monotheism, belief in one God, is said to be arrogance, a cause of intolerance, because by its nature, with its claim to possess the sole truth, it seeks to impose itself on everyone. Now it is true that in the course of history, monotheism has served as a pretext for intolerance and violence. It is true that religion can become corrupted and hence opposed to its deepest essence, when people think they have to take God’s cause into their own hands, making God into their private property. We must be on the lookout for these distortions of the sacred. While there is no denying a certain misuse of religion in history, yet it is not true that denial of God would lead to peace. If God’s light is extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished. Then the human creature would cease to be God’s image, to which we must pay honour in every person, in the weak, in the stranger, in the poor. Then we would no longer all be brothers and sisters, children of the one Father, who belong to one another on account of that one Father. The kind of arrogant violence that then arises, the way man then despises and tramples upon man: we saw this in all its cruelty in the last century. Only if God’s light shines over man and within him, only if every single person is desired, known and loved by God is his dignity inviolable, however wretched his situation may be. On this Holy Night, God himself became man; as Isaiah prophesied, the child born here is "Emmanuel", God with us (Is 7:14). And down the centuries, while there has been misuse of religion, it is also true that forces of reconciliation and goodness have constantly sprung up from faith in the God who became man. Into the darkness of sin and violence, this faith has shone a bright ray of peace and goodness, which continues to shine.

So Christ is our peace, and he proclaimed peace to those far away and to those near at hand (cf. Eph 2:14, 17). How could we now do other than pray to him: Yes, Lord, proclaim peace today to us too, whether we are far away or near at hand. Grant also to us today that swords may be turned into ploughshares (Is 2:4), that instead of weapons for warfare, practical aid may be given to the suffering. Enlighten those who think they have to practise violence in your name, so that they may see the senselessness of violence and learn to recognize your true face. Help us to become people "with whom you are pleased" – people according to your image and thus people of peace.

Once the angels departed, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened for us (cf. Lk 2:15). The shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem, the Evangelist tells us (cf. 2:16). A holy curiosity impelled them to see this child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Saviour, Christ the Lord. The great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts and given them wings.

Let us go over to Bethlehem, says the Church’s liturgy to us today. Trans-eamus is what the Latin Bible says: let us go "across", daring to step beyond, to make the "transition" by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has come across to us. Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.

Let us go over to Bethlehem: as we say these words to one another, along with the shepherds, we should not only think of the great "crossing over" to the living God, but also of the actual town of Bethlehem and all those places where the Lord lived, ministered and suffered. Let us pray at this time for the people who live and suffer there today. Let us pray that there may be peace in that land. Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom. Let us also pray for the countries of the region, for Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and their neighbours: that there may be peace there, that Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.

The shepherds made haste. Holy curiosity and holy joy impelled them. In our case, it is probably not very often that we make haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing. Why should we not also be moved by curiosity to see more closely and to know what God has said to us? At this hour, let us ask him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity and the holy joy of the shepherds, and thus let us go over joyfully to Bethlehem, to the Lord who today once more comes to meet us. Amen.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

ON THE FAITH OF MARY, THE VIRGIN MOTHER OF CHRIST

"Marys Faith [] Combines Complete Trust in the Lords Promises with a Certain 'Unknowing'"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 19, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today in Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the journey of Advent, the Virgin Mary has a special place as the one who in a unique way waited for the fulfillment of the promises of God, accepting Jesus in faith and in the flesh, the Son of God, in full obedience to the  divine will. Today I would like to reflect with you briefly on Mary's faith, beginning from the great mystery of the Annunciation.

"Chaire kecharitomene, ho Kyrios meta sou", "Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Lk1:28). These are the words - recounted by the Evangelist Luke - with which the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary. At first glance, the term chaîre, "rejoice", looks like a normal greeting, common in the Greek world, but this word, when read against the background of the biblical tradition, takes on a much deeper meaning. This same term is present four times in the Greek version of the Old Testament, and always as a proclamation of joy at the coming of the Messiah (cf. Zeph 3:14; Joel 2:21; Zech 9:9; Lam 4:21). The angel's greeting to Mary is thus an invitation to joy, a deep joy, it announces the end of the sadness that there is in the world in front of the limits of life, suffering, death, wickedness, the darkness of evil that seems to obscure the light of the divine goodness. It is a greeting that marks the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News.

But why is Mary invited to rejoice in this way? The answer lies in the second part of the greeting: "The Lord is with you." Here, too, in order to understand the meaning of the expression we must turn to the Old Testament. In the Book of Zephaniah, we find this expression "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, ... the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst ... The Lord, your God, in your midst is a mighty savior" (3:14-17). In these words there is a double promise made to Israel, to the daughter of Zion: God will come as a savior and will dwell in the midst of his people, in the womb - as they say - of the daughter of Zion. In the dialogue between the angel and Mary, this promise is fulfilled to the letter: Mary is identified with the people espoused to God, she is truly the daughter of Zion in person; in her is fulfilled the expectancy for the final coming of God, in her the Living God makes his dwelling.

In the angel's greeting, Mary is called "full of grace"; in Greek the word "grace," charis, has the same linguistic root as the word "joy." In this expression, it also clarifies further the source of Mary's delight: the joy comes from grace, it comes, that is, from communion with God, from having a so vital a connection with Him, from being the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, totally shaped by the action of God. Mary is the creature who in a unique way has opened the door to her Creator, she has placed herself in his hands, without reserve. She lives entirely from and in the relationship with the Lord; she is in an attitude of listening, attentive to recognize the signs of God in the journey of her people; she is inserted into a history of faith and of hope in the promises of God, which constitutes the fabric of her existence. And she submits freely to the word received, to the divine will in the obedience of faith.

The Evangelist Luke narrates the story of Mary through a fine parallel with the story of Abraham. As the great patriarch is the father of believers, who responded to God's call to leave the land in which he lived, his safety, to begin the journey to a land unknown and possessed only in the divine promise, so Mary relies with full trust in the word that the messenger of God announces and becomes a model and mother of all believers.

I would like to emphasize another important point: the opening of the soul to God and to his action in faith also includes the element of darkness. The relationship between human beings and God does not erase the distance between Creator and creature, it does not eliminate what the Apostle Paul said before the depth of the wisdom of God, "How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Rom 11:33). But the one who - like Mary - is totally open to God, comes to accept the will of God, even if it is mysterious, even if it often does not correspond to our own will and is a sword that pierces the soul, as the old man Simeon will say prophetically to Mary, when Jesus is presented in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:35). Abraham's journey of faith includes the moment of joy for the gift of his son Isaac, but also the time of darkness, when he has to go up to Mount Moriah to carry out a paradoxical act: God asks him to sacrifice the son he had just given him. On the mountain, the angel tells him: "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me"(Gen 22:12); Abraham's full trust in the God who is faithful to his promises exists even when his word is mysterious and difficult, almost impossible to accept. So it is with Mary, her faith lives the joy of the Annunciation, but also passes through the darkness of the crucifixion of the Son, to reach the light of the Resurrection.

It is no different for the journey of faith of each one of us: it encounters moments of light, but also meets with moments where God seems absent, his silence weighs on our hearts and his will does not correspond to our own, to what we would like. But the more we open ourselves to God, welcome the gift of faith, put our trust in Him completely - like Abraham and like Mary - the more He makes us able, us with his presence, to live every situation of life in peace and in the assurance of his faithfulness and of his love. But this means going out of oneself and one's projects, because the Word of God is a lamp to guide our thoughts and our actions.

I would like to pause once more to dwell on one aspect that emerges in the infancy narratives of Jesus narrated by St. Luke. Mary and Joseph bring their son to Jerusalem, to the Temple to present him to the Lord and consecrate him as required by the law of Moses, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord" (Lk 2:22-24). This gesture of the Holy Family acquires a more profound sense if you read it in the light of the evangelical knowledge of Jesus when he is twelve, who, after three days of searching, is found in the Temple discussing scripture with the teachers. To the words full of Mary and Joseph's concern: "Son, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety", corresponds the mystery of Jesus' answer: "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?"(Lk 2:48-49). That is, in the property of the Father, in the Father's house, like a son is.Mary must renew the deep faith with which she said "yes" at the Annunciation; she must accept that precedence that the true Father of Jesus has; she must leave that Son whom she generated free to follows his mission. And Mary's "yes" to the will of God, in the obedience of faith, is repeated throughout her life, until the most difficult moment, that of the Cross.

Faced with all this, we can ask ourselves: how was Mary able to live this path beside her Son with such a strong faith, even in the moments of darkness, without losing full trust in the action of God? There is an underlying attitude that Mary assumes in the face of what happens in her life. At the Annunciation she is disturbed by hearing the angel's words - it is the fear a person feels when touched by the closeness of God - but it is not the attitude of those who are afraid in front of what God may ask. Mary reflects, she ponders the meaning of this greeting (cf. Lk1:29). The Greek word used in the Gospel to define this "reflection", "dielogizeto", evokes the root of the word "dialogue." This means that Mary comes into intimate dialogue with the Word of God that has been announced, she does not consider it superficially, but pauses, she lets it her penetrate her mind and her heart to understand what the Lord wants from her, the announcement's meaning. We find another hint of Mary's interior attitude in front of the action of God, again in the Gospel of St. Luke, at the time of the birth of Jesus, after the adoration of the shepherds. Luke affirms that Mary "treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart"(Lk 2:19), in Greek the term is symballon, we could say that She "held together", "put together" in her heart all the events that were happening; she placed each single element, every word, every fact within the whole and compared it, guarded it, recognizing that everything comes from the will of God. Mary does not stop at a first superficial understanding of what happens in her life, but is able to look deeper, she allows herself to be questioned by the events, processes them, discerns them, and gains that understanding that only faith can provide. It is the profound humility of the obedient faith of Mary, who welcomes into herself even what she does not understand of the action of God, leaving it to God to open her mind and heart. "Blessed is she who believed in the word of the Lord"(Lk 1:45), exclaims her relative Elizabeth. It is precisely because of this faith that all generations will call her blessed.

Dear friends; the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord which we will soon celebrate, invites us to live this same humility and obedience of faith. The glory of God is not manifested in the triumph and power of a king, it does not shine in a famous city, in a sumptuous palace, but dwells in the womb of a virgin, it reveals itself in the poverty of a child. The omnipotence of God, also in our lives, acts with the force, often silent, of the truth and of love. Faith tells us, then, that the defenseless power of that Child in the end overcomes the noise of the powers of the world. Thank you!

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, As part of our catechesis for this Year of Faith, it is fitting, during these last days of Advent, to consider the faith of Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ.  At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel greets Mary with an invitation to rejoice because the Lord is with her.  

This joy is that of the messianic hope of God’s people, the daughter of Zion, now being fulfilled in her.   It is also the fruit of the grace which fills Mary’s heart and shapes her obedience to God’s word.  Mary’s faith, like that of Abraham, combines complete trust in the Lord’s promises with a certain "unknowing".

In her life Mary knew, as we do, that God’s will can seem at times obscure and far from our expectations; it involves embracing the mystery of the Cross. It is significant that at the Annunciation Mary ponders in her heart the meaning of the Angel’s message. Her example reminds us that faith while fully obedient to the Lord’s will, also must seek daily to discern, understand and accept that will.  In this holy season, may Our Lady’s prayers help us to grow in a humble, trusting faith which will open the door to God’s grace in our hearts and in our world.

***

I offer a warm welcome to Japanese pilgrims from the Diocese of Kagoshima.  My cordial greeting also goes to Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience I invoke God’s blessings for a happy and holy celebration of the coming feast of Christmas! Thank you. 

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana 

*** 

In the climate of calm expectation, characteristic of these days close to the feast that celebrates the coming of God among men, I am pleased to greet with affection the faithful of the Italian language. In particular, I greet the Community of the Legionaries of Christ and the new priests; the Association "City of the Crucified One," of Gravina in Puglia, the delegation from the Municipality of Bolsena; and the Matese Bagpipers from Boiano, accompanied by the Archbishop of Campobasso, Mons. Giancarlo Bregantini.

I urge everyone to make your commitment to prayer and good works more intense in these days, so that Christmas may fill our hearts with the joy that only Christ can give.

A special greeting to young people, the sick and the newlyweds. Dear young people, especially you students of the Capriotti Institute of San Benedetto del Tronto, approach the mystery of Bethlehem with the same sentiments of faith and humility as Mary. Dear sick people, draw from the manger scene that joy and that inner peace that Jesus comes to bring in the world. And you, dear newlyweds, contemplate the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth, to impress the virtues practiced in it on your journey of family life.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

ON THE UNFOLDING OF GOD'S SELF-REVELATION

"God Continues to Draw Near to Us"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 12, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today in Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the last catechesis I spoke of God's revelation, as a communication He makes of Himself and of his plan of kindness and love. This Revelation of God inserts itself in time and in the history of mankind: history that becomes "the arena where we see what God does for humanity. God comes to us in the things we know best and can verify most easily, the things of our everyday life, apart from which we cannot understand ourselves."(John Paul II, Enc. Fides et Ratio, 12).

St. Mark the Evangelist reports, in clear and concise terms, the initial moments of Jesus' preaching: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15). What illuminates and gives full meaning to the history of the world and of man begins to shine in the cave of Bethlehem; it is the mystery that soon we will contemplate at Christmas: the salvation which is realized in Jesus Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, God shows his face and asks man to choose to recognize and follow him. God's revelation of himself in history to enter into a relationship of loving dialogue with man, gives a new meaning to the whole human journey. History is not just a succession of centuries, years, days, but is the time of a presence that gives it full meaning and opens it to a solid hope.

Where can we read the stages of this Revelation of God? The Holy Scripture is the best place to discover the events of this journey, and I would like - once again - to invite everyone, in thisYear of Faith, to take the Bible in hand more often to read and meditate on it and to pay more attention to the Readings in Sunday Mass; all this constitutes a precious food for our faith.

Reading the Old Testament, we see how God's interventions in the history of the people that He has chosen for himself and with whom he makes a covenant are not facts that pass and fall into oblivion, but become "memory", together they constitute the "history of salvation", kept alive in the consciousness of the people of Israel through the celebration of the saving events. Thus, in the Book of Exodus, the Lord tells Moses to celebrate the great moment of liberation from slavery in Egypt, the Jewish Passover, with these words: "This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance"(12:14). For the whole people of Israel to remember what God has done becomes a sort of constant imperative so that the passage of time may be marked by the living memory of past events, which thus, day by day, forms that history again and makes it present. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses speaks to the people, saying, "But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children"(4:9). And to us he also says: "Be careful not to forget the things that God has done with us."Faith is nourished by the discovery and the memory of the God who is always faithful, who guides history and is the secure and stable foundation on which to build one's life. The song of the Magnificat, too, which the Virgin Mary raises to God, is a lofty example of this history of salvation, of this memory that makes and keeps present the action of God. Mary exalts the merciful action of God in the concrete journey of her people, his fidelity to the covenant promises made to Abraham and his descendants; and all this is a living memory of the divine presence that never fails (cf. Luke1:46-55 ).

For Israel, the Exodus is the central historical event in which God reveals his powerful action. God frees the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt so that they can return to the Promised Land and worship Him as the one true God. Israel does not start out on a journey in order to become a people like any other - to have its own independence as a nation - but to serve God in worship and in life, to create for God a place where man is in obedience to Him, where God is present and adored in the world; and, of course, not only for them, but to bear witness in the midst of other peoples. And to celebrate this event is to make it present and current, because God's work never diminishes. He is faithful to his plan of liberation and continues to pursue it, so that man can recognize and serve his Lord and respond with faith and love to his action.

God thus reveals Himself not only in the primordial act of creation, but entering into our history, in the history of a small nation that was neither the largest nor the strongest. And this Revelation of God that progresses in history culminates in Jesus Christ: God, the Logos, the creative Word which is the origin of the world, became incarnate in Jesus and showed the true face of God. In Jesus every promise is fulfilled, in Him the culmination of God's history with humanity takes place. When we read the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, narrated for us by St. Luke, we see how it becomes clear that the person of Christ illuminates the Old Testament, the whole history of salvation and shows the great unified design of the two Testaments, shows the way of its uniqueness. In fact, Jesus explains to the two lost and disappointed wayfarers that he is the fulfillment of every promise: "And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself"(24:27). The Evangelist relates the exclamation of the two disciples after recognizing that this travelling companion was the Lord: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"(v. 32).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the stages of divine Revelation, concisely showing their development (cf. nos. 54-64): God has called man from the beginning to intimate communion with Him and even when man, for his disobedience, lost his friendship, God did not abandon him to the power of death, but many times has offered to men his covenant (cf. Roman Missal, Euch. Prayer IV). The Catechism traces God's journey with man from the covenant with Noah after the flood, to the call of Abraham to leave his land to make him the father of a multitude of nations. God formed Israel as his people, through the event of the Exodus, the Sinai covenant and the gift, through Moses, of the Law, to be recognized and served as the one true and living God. With the prophets, God guides his people in the hope of salvation, We know - through Isaiah - of the "second Exodus", the return from the Babylonian exile to their own land, the re-establishment of the people; at the same time, however, many remain dispersed and so begins the universality of this faith. At the end they no longer expect just a king, David, a son of David, but a "Son of man," the salvation of all peoples. Encounters between the cultures occur, first in Babylon and Syria, and then also with the Greek multitude. Thus we see how the way of God grows, becomes more open to the mystery of Christ, the King of the universe. In Christ, Revelation is finally realized in its fullness: He himself becomes one of us.

I have paused to remember the action of God in human history, to show the stages of this great plan of love witnessed in the Old and New Testaments: a single plan of salvation addressed to all humanity, progressively revealed and realized by the power of God, where God always reacts to human responses and finds new beginnings of a covenant when man goes astray. This is crucial for the way of faith. We are in the liturgical season of Advent, which prepares us for Christmas. As we all know, the word "Advent" means "coming", "presence", and originally meant specifically the arrival of the king or emperor to a particular province. For us Christians it means a wonderful and overwhelming reality: God himself has crossed his Heavens and stooped down to man; he has forged an alliance with him entering into the history of a people; He is the king who descended into this poor province that is Earth, and has made a gift to us of his visitation by taking on our flesh, becoming man like us. Advent invites us to follow the path of this presence and reminds us again and again that God has not withdrawn from the world, he is not absent, he has not abandoned us to ourselves, but comes to us in different ways, which we need to learn to discern. And we, too, with our faith, our hope and our charity, are called every day to see and bear witness to this presence, in a world often superficial and distracted, to make shine in our lives the light that illuminated the cave of Bethlehem. Thank you.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing our catechesis for this Year of Faith, we now consider the unfolding of God’s self-revelation and his saving plan. The Scriptures show us its development in the history of Israel, especially in the events of the Exodus and the establishment of the Covenant. Down the centuries Israel cherished and celebrated the memory of these saving events and, through the prophets, learned to look forward to a new and eternal Covenant destined for all mankind. The one divine plan, realized gradually in human history, culminated in the coming of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. In this Advent season, we are invited to contemplate this progressive revelation of God’s saving plan and to realize that, in Christ, God continues to draw near to us. Amid the distractions and superficiality of our world, may we learn, in faith, hope and love, to recognize and bear witness to his presence, radiating in our lives the light and joy which filled the stable of Bethlehem.

I offer a cordial welcome to the newly professed Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity. My greeting also goes to the group of visitors from Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

I extend a cordial welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims. I greet in particular the religious of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions and the musicians of the 20th edition of the Christmas Concert sponsored by the Foundation "Don Bosco in the world." Dear brothers, may the Year of Faith encourage you to continue the mission to bring to everyone and everywhere the Gospel of salvation. I joyfully welcome the members of ANFASS of Catania and encourage them in their service to people in need.

Finally, a thought for the young, the sick and newlyweds. Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas and the patron saint of the new evangelization. Dear young people, at the school of Mary learn to love and hope; dear sick people, may the Blessed Virgin be for your a comfort and companion in your suffering; and you, dear newlyweds, entrust to the Mother of Jesus your marital journey.

Pope Sends First Tweet

At the end of the General Audience, immediately after the blessing, the Holy Father sent live from a tablet his first tweet:

Benedict XVI @ Pontifex

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

The tweet was also published in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French on the respective accounts:  @Pontifex_it @ Pontifex_es; @ Pontifex_pt; @ Pontifex_de; @ Pontifex_pl; @ Pontifex_ar; @ Pontifex_fr.

The Pope was assisted in sending the tweets by Thaddeus Jones, of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and by Claire Díaz-Ortiz, of Twitter. Also present were two students fromVillanova University currently working at the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Mika Rabb and Andrew Jadick, as well as Mexican journalist Katia Lopez-Hodoyan.

Today, the Holy Father will respond via twitter to three different questions that have been chosen from those submitted and which come from three different continents.

The first question-answer pair was sent shortly after sending the introductory tweet: 

How can we celebrate the Year of Faith better in our daily lives?

By speaking with Jesus in prayer, listening to what he tells you in the Gospel and looking for him in those in need.

The second and third question-answer pairs will be posted later in the day, spaced a few hours apart.

[Translation by Peter Waymel]

ON ADVENT

"The Virgin Mary Perfectly Incarnates the Spirit of Advent"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 2, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today the Church begins a new liturgical year, a journey that is subsequently enriched by the Year of Faith, which we observe 50 years after the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The first part of this journey is Advent, constituted, in the Roman Rite, by the 4 weeks that precede the Christmas of the Lord, that is, the mystery of the Incarnation. The word “advent” means “coming” or “presence.” In the ancient world it indicated the visit of the king or emperor to a province; in the language of Christianity it refers to the coming of God, to his presence in the world; a mystery that involves the entire cosmos and all of history, but that knows 2 culminating moments: the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ. The first is precisely the Incarnation; the second his glorious return at the end of time. These 2 moments that are chronologically distant – and it is not given to us to know how distant – touch each other in their depths, because with his death and resurrection Jesus has already realized that transformation of man and the cosmos that is the final goal of creation. But before the end, it is necessary that the Gospel be preached to all nations, Jesus says in the Gospel of St. Mark (cf. Mark 13:10). The Lord’s coming continues, the world must be penetrated by his presence.

Our collaboration is required in this permanent coming of the Lord in the proclamation of the Gospel; and the Church, which is like the Bride to be, the Betrothed of the crucified and risen Lamb of God (cf. Apocalypse 21:9), in communion with her Lord collaborates in this coming of the Lord in which his glorious return already begins.

The Word of God reminds us of all this today, describing the conduct that is necessary to ready for the Lord’s coming. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus says to the disciples: “Do not let your hearts be weighed by dissipation, drunkenness and the troubles of life ... be vigilant, therefore, praying at all times” (Luke 21:34, 36). So, sobriety and prayer. And the apostle Paul also invites us to “grow and superabound in love” among ourselves and toward others, to make our hearts strong and blameless in sanctity (cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). In the midst of the upheavals of the world, or in the deserts of indifference and materialism, Christians welcome the salvation that comes from God and bear witness to it with a different way of living, like a city set on a hill. “In those days,” the prophet Jeremiah announces, “Jerusalem will live in peace and be called ‘the Lord our justice’” (33:16). The community of believers is a sign of God, of his justice, which is already present and active in history but is not yet fully realized, and because of this is always awaited, invoked, sought with patience and courage.

The Virgin Mary perfectly incarnates the spirit of Advent; this spirit is one of listening to God, of profound desire to do his will, of joyous service to our neighbor. Letting ourselves be guided by her, so that the God who comes does not find us closed and distracted, but can, in each one of us, extend a part of his kingdom of love, of justice and of peace.

[Following the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted in various languages those present in St. Peter’s Square. In Italian he said:]

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today in Kottar, India, Devasahayam Pillai, a faithful layman, who lived in the 19th century and died a martyr, was proclaimed blessed. Let us join in the joy of the Church in India and pray that this newly beatified son of the Church sustain the faith of the Christians of that great and noble country. Tomorrow the International Day of Rights of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated. Every person, even with his physical and psychological limits, also grave ones, is always an inestimable value and is considered as such. I encourage the ecclesial community to be attentive and welcoming toward these brothers and sisters. I exhort legislators and governments to safeguard persons with disabilities and to promote their full participation in the life of society.

[In English he said:]

I welcome all gathered here today to pray with me. I especially greet the people of Kottar who celebrate today the beatification of Devasahayam Pillai. His witness to Christ is an example of that attentiveness to the coming of Christ recalled by this first Sunday of Advent. May this holy season help us to centre our lives once more on Christ, our hope. God bless all of you!

[Concluding in Italian, he said:]

I wish everyone a peaceful Sunday and a good Advent journey. Happy Advent, have a good Sunday, everyone. Thank you.

[Translation by Joseph Trabbic]