Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI
on the Occasion of Christmas Greetings
to the Roman Curia
December 21, 2012
Gathered
together in San Clementine Hall, Pope Benedict XVI met with all of the members
of the College of Cardinals, Representatives of the Roman Curia and the
Governorate to extend his Christmas greeting to all. In his message this year, particularly
pertinent to our time and our culture, he reflected upon some of the events
from this past year, along with the different challenges posed to the Church
today. More specifically, he reflected
upon the breakdown of the family, reflected in the misunderstanding of the
human person and God-given dignity and identity of the human person, along with
the question and need for dialogue and proclamation of the Word of God in our
world today.
To
begin, Pope Benedict, reflecting upon this past year, mentioned the importance
of his journeys to both Mexico and Cuba, which he called “unforgettable
encounters with the power of faith” even amidst the countries' economic
problems and violent struggles. He
recalled with great joy the liturgies that took place in both countries. Further, he mentioned the Meeting of Families
which took place in Milan, as well as his visit to Lebanon where he consigned
the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation which offers signposts pointing to peace
and unity to the churches and societies in the Middle East. Lastly, he mentioned the Synod on the New
Evangelization which took place in October and the opening of the Year of
Faith, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican
Council. The Holy Father mentioned how
all of these various events spoke to several fundamental themes of our time,
two of which he brought to light: the theme of the family and the nature of
dialogue, with an observation of the question of the new evangelization.
First,
the Holy Father commented upon the joy of the gathering in Milan which
reflected that the family is still strong and vibrant today, but he did not
neglect the difficulties and the crisis threatening the very structure and
foundation of family life today, especially in the West. He noticed from the Synod in October that the
importance of the family for the transmission of the faith and of the family “as
the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence”
was highly emphasized. In light of this,
he argued that the family is not just about a social construct, but is about
man himself, “about what he is and what it takes to be authentically
human”. Of course, he argued, the challenges are manifold, beginning with
the question of man's capacity to make a commitment or to avoid commitment. The Holy Father stated:
Man's refusal to make any commitment – which is
becoming increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of
freedom and self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means
that man remains closed in on himself and keeps his “I” ultimately for himself,
without really rising above it. Yet only
in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other,
to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed
through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key
figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, and child –
essential elements of the experience of being human are lost.
The
Holy Father went on to say that the very notion of being itself, of what it
means to be a human being, is being challenged today. A new philosophy entrenched in our culture
speaks of gender today not as an element of nature given by God as a gift, but
rather what the individual makes it to be and what the individual chooses for
him or herself. People today are denying
their nature and their identity. God no
longer creates, but the person creates for oneself what one is. The complementarity of man and woman is called
into question and the creation story is no longer seen as valid. If this is so, than the creation of the
family is also no longer a reality and the dignity of each of the spouses, and likewise
the child, is lost. Pope Benedict
explained:
When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to
create oneself, then necessarily the Maker Himself is denied and ultimately man
too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the
core of his being. The defense of the
family is about man himself. And it
becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.
The
next question His Holiness addressed involved the question of dialogue and
proclamation. Beginning with dialogue,
Pope Benedict XVI directed that he sees three main areas of dialogue for the
Church today: dialogue with states, dialogue with society, and dialogue with
religions. The Church speaks on the
basis of the light given her by faith, but also from the memories of human
experience and human condition from history – revelation and human
experience. This does not exclude her or
make her unable to speak to our world today, but rather, “By entering
into the thinking and understanding of mankind, this knowledge broadens the
horizon of reason and thus it speaks also to those who are unable to share the
faith of the Church”. The Church
does not have answers for individual questions arising from the state or the
society, but she will wrestle for answers that best correspond to the truth of
the human condition, upholding the fundamental values of the human condition
clearly, and this can stimulate political action.
In
speaking about dialogue of religions, the Holy Father argued that it is “a
necessary condition for peace in the world and it is therefore a duty for
Christians as well as other religious communities”. This dialogue involves a dialogue simply
about life, which includes the concrete problems of coexistence and shared
responsibility for the society, state, and for humanity. He exhorted all that it is necessary to learn
to accept the other in his otherness and his otherness of thinking. The dialogue needs to be about the shared
responsibility for justice and peace, and this is bound to go beyond the
practical and into the ethical struggle for the truth, for the human
being.
Today,
the Holy Father mentioned that there are two fundamental rules for
interreligious dialogue, which he believes are correct but still superficial:
1) dialogue aims at understanding, not conversion, and 2) both parties must
remain consciously within their identity.
The truth is key, and it is important for both parties to be searching
and always drawing closer to the truth, which is one. The Holy Father beautifully stated:
I would say that the Christian can afford to be
supremely confident, yes, fundamentally certain that he can venture freely into
the open sea of the truth, without having to fear for his Christian
identity. To be sure, we do not possess
the truth, the truth possesses us: Christ, who is the truth, has taken us by
the hand, and we know that his hand is holding us securely on the path of our
quest for knowledge. Being inwardly held
by the hand of Christ makes us free and keeps us safe: free – because if we are
held by him, we can enter openly and fearlessly into any dialogue – because he
does not let go of us, unless we cut ourselves off from him. At one with him, we stand in the light of
truth.
Lastly,
the Holy Father ended his message by prayerfully looking at Saint John's Gospel
1:35-39 in regards to the subject of proclamation, or evangelization. First, he explained, the calling of the
disciples here begins with a simple proclamation, “Behold the Lamb of God”,
which is followed by listening and following behind Jesus, which is not yet
discipleship but rather a curiosity or a movement of seeking. The third act is when Jesus turns around to
them and asks them what they are seeking.
They give their response and show their openness and readiness to
continue further, and Jesus replies, “Come and see”, inviting them to come with
Him and have their eyes opened with Him.
The Holy Father concluded, saying:
The word of proclamation is effective in situations
where man is listening in readiness for God to draw near, where man is inwardly
searching and thus on the way towards the Lord.
His heart is touched when Jesus turns towards him, and then his
encounter with the proclamation becomes a holy curiosity to come to know Jesus
better. As he walks with Jesus, he is
led to the place where Jesus lives, to the community of the Church, which is
His Body. That means entering into the
journeying community of catechumens, a community of both learning and living,
in which our eyes are opened as we walk.
“Come and see!”
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