Consistory and Angelus Nov. 24-25

Angelus Message – Christ the King, November 25, 2012

 

            Blessed Solemnity of Christ the King!  For the Church, this weekend was a particularly special one due to the six new cardinals that were created by Pope Benedict XVI (see below).  One is an American, Cardinal James Michael Harvey.  One is from Lebanon, Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï; one from the Philippines, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle; one from Nigeria, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan; one from India, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal; and one is from Colombia, Cardinal Salazar Gómez.  Congratulations to them! 

            In Pope Benedict XVI’s Angelus message, after the First Mass with the new Cardinals, the Holy Father spoke about the importance of the Solemnity of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which, as he teaches, sums up the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection and dominion over all.  As Catholics, we gaze with eager anticipation for the second coming of Christ, when God will be all in all, when Christ will hand over the Kingdom to His Father.  He spoke about how the mission of Jesus and His message consist in proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven, which “is first of all manifested in the very person of Christ” (Lumen Gentium, 5) in his death and resurrection.  The Holy Father instructs, “This Kingdom of Christ has been entrusted to the Church, which is the ‘seed’ and ‘beginning’ and has the task of announcing it and spreading it among all the nations with the power of the Holy Spirit.  At the end of the determined time the Lord will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father and will present to him all who have lived by the commandment of love”.  May we be among those who have lived by the commandment of love!  As we work to announce and proclaim the Kingdom of God, as the Holy Father tells us, we are to convert to the Gospel and firmly decide to follow the King, who came to serve and bear witness to the truth.  In this light, he invited all to pray with him for the newly created Cardinals, “that the Holy Spirit strengthen them in faith and in charity and fill them with him gifts so that they live their new responsibility as a further commitment to Christ and his Kingdom”. 

            Speaking to the English speakers present at the Angelus prayer, he spoke of another beatification, this one in Macas, Ecuador!  Her name is Blessed Maria Troncatti, who was a religious sister of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians.  Giving a brief history, the Holy Father explains, “She was born in Val Camonica, Italy, and was a nurse during the First World War.  She later went to Ecuador where she dedicated herself to the people of the forest, in evangelizing and human development.  Let us give thanks to God for this generous witness of hers!”

            Further, he spoke about the upcoming pilgrimage of university students to the Tomb of Saint Peter for the Year of Faith, in which he will preside at First Vespers!  Get ready, university students!

 

Image from http://salesianity.blogspot.it/2012/05/miracle-attributed-to-sr-maria.html . 

The reasonableness of faith

The reasonableness of faith as an encounter with the splendour of God’s truth.
General Audience, November 21, 2012

In last week's audience, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the relationship between faith and reason.  When greeting the English-speaking pilgrims, he said, "Far from being in conflict, faith and science go hand in hand in the service of man’s moral advancement and his wise stewardship of creation."  The Catholic perspective never places faith in opposition to reason; rather, as Blessed Pope John Paul II said in the introduction to Fides et Ratio:


"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."

 

Blessed Pope John Paul II--picture from the banner
at his beatification

In this same line of thought, Pope Benedict spoke about the fruitful relationship that is possible between faith and reason:

• Through faith we discover that the encounter with God perfects and elevates whatever is true, good and beautiful in us.

• Faith makes possible an authentic knowledge of God; this knowledge involves the whole person and gives a whole new flavor to life, a new and joyful way of being in the world.

Fideism, which Pope Benedict defines as the will to believe against reason--in other words, I believe this thing because it does not make sense--has always been rejected by Catholic tradition.  Why is this so?

God is Truth, and can therefore never be an absurdity, that is, something that I believe in because I cannot know it.  At the same time, this does not deny that God is a mystery.  But the fact that something or someone is a mystery to us does not automatically make that thing "irrational."  Rather, let's think of mystery as an overabundance of meaning, significance, and truth.  The Holy Father cited the classic example of looking into the sun: when you look directly at the sun, you only see darkness.  But we all know that this doesn't mean that the sun is dark.  Rather, it is so luminous that we are not capable of seeing all its light at the same time.

Faith allows us to look at God, but that doesn't mean that we understand all of God all at once.  It is also false to say that faith blocks the human reason, because our faith is exercised with reason: "I believe so that I may understand; I think so that I may believe." (St. Augustine)

It's important to understand this point, because from here we can see that the Catholic faith actually nurtures trust in human reason.  Again, from Fides et Ratio:

'Faith is in a sense an “exercise of thought”; and human reason is neither annulled nor debased in assenting to the contents of faith, which are in any case attained by way of free and informed choice.'

'The world is not a shapeless mass of magma, but the better
we know it and the better we discover its marvellous mechanisms
the more clearly we can see a plan,
 we see that there is a creative intelligence.
Albert Einstein said that in natural law is revealed
“an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it,
all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings
is an utterly insignificant reflection” (The World As I See It, 1949).'
--Pope Benedict XVI, General audience, November 14, 212

Once we see the connection between faith and reason, we can begin to build up a virtuous relationship between science and faith.  Scientific research brings us to ever new truths about man and the world; we see its fruits all around us and we are grateful for the amazing discoveries already reached.  A question arises though: What can faith possibly have to say to the world of science?  The two seem diametrically opposed in our world view.





A truly lived faith does not enter into conflict with science, but cooperates with it.  Faith offers the fundamental criteria for the promotion of the common good.  Seeking the true good of man includes supporting research geared at the service of life and the well-being of all.  Scientific research that promotes responsible stewardship of creation is also very important.  When science, however, attempts against or opposes the original plan of God, the effects will backfire, and man will harm himself.  Faith assures that scientific progress will always be for the good and truth of man, remaining faithful to the designs of God.

God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world.  God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself.  --Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 216

Image of Pope John Paul II from worldyouthday.com
Image of Albert Einstein from nedhardy.com
 

On the Coming of the Son of Man

Angelus Message – November 18, 2012

 

            Sunday’s Gospel, Mark 13:24-32, known as the “eschatological discourse” in which Jesus speaks of the end times, is described by Pope Benedict XVI as “probably the most difficult text in the Gospels”.  This difficultly, he acknowledges, lies in both the content and the language used.  Christ, when relating of the end times, speaks using Old Testament imagery about the tumult of nature, but does something different, too.  He adds Himself, the Son of Man, as the new center.  The Holy Father states, “The ‘Son of Man’ is Jesus Himself, who links the present with the future; the ancient words of the prophets have finally found a center in the person of the Messiah of Nazareth: he is the central event that, in the midst of the troubles of the world, remains the firm and stable point”.  Christ is our center, and in Him we trust.

            Reflecting on the words, “The sky and the earth will pass away but my words will not pass away”, the Holy Father speaks of the creative power of God’s Word.  His Word made the earth and all contained therein.  Christ is the Word, and the Word, because he is the Word made flesh, passes through his very being, his actions, and his human words, which direct and orient the “thought and path of man on earth”.  Oftentimes when we think of the end times, we think of different Hollywood movies or we think of the different, in a certain sense, worries or paranoia that develop.  The Holy Father teaches, though,

…Jesus does not describe the end of the world and when he uses apocalyptic images he does not conduct himself like a ‘visionary’.  On the contrary, he wants to take away the curiosity of his disciples in every age about dates and predictions, and wishes instead to give them a key to a deep, essential reading, and above all to indicate the right path to take, today and tomorrow, to enter into eternal life.  Everything passes – the Lord tells us – but God’s Word does not change, and before this Word each of us is responsible for his conduct.  It is on this basis that we will be judged.

He concludes saying that we all need a stable center for our life and our hope and our meaning because we find ourselves enveloped in relativism.  With the intercession and help of the Virgin Mary, may we accept this center found in Christ. 

Again, this week, the Holy Father spoke of another beatification, which took place on November 17, 2012 in Argentina!  Her name is Argentina Maria Crescencia Perez (1897-1932) of the Daughters of Mary Most Holy of the Garden.  Her motto was, “Do what God wants, want what God wants, and be where God wants”.  The Holy Father declared, “She lived in the first half of the last century and is a model of evangelical sweetness animated by faith.  Let us praise the Lord for her witness!”

Information and photo taken from http://www.sistersolg.org/pg_stsrcr_life.html.

 

Ways that bring us to the knowledge of God.

In the audience of November 14, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI meditated briefly on different ways for men and women to arrive at the knowledge of God.  As we search for God, however, we have to remember that this is not one-sided.  God’s initiative always precedes our own questioning: He illuminates, guides, and at the same time respects our freedom.

There are ways that open the heart of man to the knowledge of God, and there are signs that lead us to God.  There are also difficulties and obstacles to faith.  Let’s look at the those first.  The Holy Father mentioned three:

1. atheism
2. skepticism
3. indifference to the vertical or transcendent dimension of man

The first, atheism, isn’t so much a scientific theory of reality that denies God, although that does exist.  The Holy Father is talking about “pratical atheism”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not negated, but simply considered irrelevant for daily life.  In other words, faith in God is pretty much useless.  In this mindset, we can live our faith in a superficial way, as if God did not really exist.

The second obstacle, skepticism, considers God as a “projection” of the human spirit, an illusion, or the product of a society that is alienated from itself.  Coupled with a strong secularism, the result is an understanding of man as absolutely autonomous, the measure and maker of reality. 

The third obstacle is particularly insidious, and is a result of the processes of the first two.  Humans, separated from God, are reduced to “one dimension”, the horizontal one.  What exactly does reducing man to “one dimension” mean?  By throwing out God, man’s ethical horizon also becomes obscure, fostering relativism and an ambiguous idea of freedom.  The reducing of man and the subsequent ethical meltdown that occurs is one of the fundamental causes of the totalitarian regimes that led to such tragic consequences in the last century.

And yet, this is what we believe:

The root reason for human dignity lies in man’s call to communion with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by God’s love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator.  –Gaudium et Spes, 19

Out of the truth of our faith we respond to the obstacles we face.  “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope… (1 Peter 3:15)”

The reasons, or ways, that Pope Benedict suggests are: the world, man, and faith.  He is taking the three obstacles we encountered above and turning them into opportunities.

1.  The world

Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them; question all these things. They all answer you, 'Here we are, look; we're beautiful.'  Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable?  - Saint Augustine, Sermon 241

2.  The human person

“Do not go abroad, but return within yourself: truth dwells in the inner man.”  - Saint Augustine, De vera religione, 39, 72

We have the capacity, because we are created in the image and likeness of God, to look profoundly within ourselves and read there the thirst for the infinite that we carry within, that pushes us to go beyond and directs us to the only One who can satiate it.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 33: The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence.

3.  Faith

The person who believes is united to God, and his or her very existence becomes a witness of the Risen Lord.  Through faith, God converts us and transforms our daily life: mindsets, judgments, and concrete choices and actions.  Faith is not an escape, an illusion, a cozy blanket, a sentiment, no—none of those things.  It is the involvement of my whole life in the Gospel, the Good News that is capable of setting me free.  It requires that I purify my own life so that I may be conformed to Christ, Who is the true Way that leads to God.

On trusting God - November 11, 2012

Angelus – November 11, 2012 – On Trusting God

 

            This week, in his Sunday Angelus message in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI addressed those present and spoke about the two widows found in Sunday’s Mass readings, one found in 1 Kings 17:10-16 and the other found in the Gospel, Mark 12:41-44.  First explaining what occurred in the readings, he comments, “Both of these women are desperately poor and precisely in this situation demonstrate a great faith in God”.  Pope Benedict argues that from these two readings and these two women, a “precious teaching about faith” can be found.  He expounds, “It is about the interior attitude of those who base their lives on God, on His Word, and completely entrust themselves to Him”.  In Scripture, widows were often very poor and in need.  However, Pope Benedict urges,

 

Nevertheless, Scripture says that the objective condition of need, in this case the fact of being a widow, is not sufficient: God always asks for our adherence in faith, which is expressed in love of Him and neighbour.  No one is ever so poor that he cannot give something.  And in fact both of our widows today demonstrate their faith through acts of charity…

 

            Pope Benedict also quoted Pope Saint Leo the Great (whose feast day was November 10^th), saying, “No act of goodness is without value before God, no act of mercy is without fruit”. 

 

            He concluded his message showing how our Blessed Mother is the perfect example of how one entrusts oneself to God completely, and he asks for her help during this Year as we grow and strengthen our confidence in God and His Word.  During this next week, may we practice and live with full trust and confidence in God and His provident care. 

            While greeting those in the Square, His Holiness acknowledged the beatification of Maria Luisa Prosperi, who was beatified on Saturday in Spoleto, Italy.  She was a religious, a Benedictine abbess, who lived from 1779-1847.  She was also a mystic, “who desired to associate herself with Christ’s Passion in a singular way”. 

            Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi, pray for us!

  

Image from http://pierostradella.it/relic/M/m.htm.

The desire for God

General audience November 7, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI began this week's General audience with a quote from the Catechism:

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for." 

He reflected that such a statement could be seen as provocative in our secularized Western culture, but the fact of the matter is that every man and woman faces the question of what "the Good" is and how to obtain it. 

One way that such questions begin to surface in us is through the experience of human love.
Through love, man and woman experience in a new way, thanks to one another, the greatness and the beauty of life and reality.  If love is real, then it also calls men and women to come out of themselves in order to be with and for the other.  The "initial ecstasy" of human love is thus translated into a "pilgrimage":

Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God. - from Deus caritas est

Other human experiences also lend themselves to this movement toward a reality greater than the individual; such encounters, like friendship, beauty, and the love of truth, will call a person to go beyond his or her self.  Every desire that we experience is an echo of a fundamental desire that is never fully satisfied--the cor inquietum that Saint Augustine wrote about.  It is the desire for God.

It is possible to find again authentic religious meaning in our life, but what can help us awaken our longing for God?  Pope Benedict spoke of the pedagogy of desire, which has two main aspects.

The first thing to do is to learn (or re-learn) to taste the real joys of life.  Not every satisfaction has the same effect on us.  Some leave us bitter and empty, making life seem meaningless and even insipid.  Other satisfactions, however, will bring peace to our souls while at the same time making us more energetic and generous.  Think of friendship and solidarity with those who suffer; think of family and service that calls me out of my own little world; also the love of art, beauty, knowledge, nature...all these things vivify us, and through them will emerge the desire for God.

 The second aspect of the pedagogy of desire is never to content ourselves with the measure we have already attained.  The truest joys are those that liberate our cor inquietum, our restless heart, and make us desire a more arduous and greater good.

By educating our desires, we will learn to tend toward the Good that we cannot procure of our own strength; we will never become discouraged by the strain or by the obstacles that come from our sins.  When desire opens the door for God, this is already a sign of faith--faith that is a grace of God.

Angelus – November 4, 2012 – On God's Love

 

            Reflecting upon this Sunday's Gospel, Matthew 12:28-34, the Holy Father spoke about our Lord's great commandment to love God and our neighbor.  He reminds us that the saints are those who, by trusting in the grace of God, seek to live this law. 

            In his address, Pope Benedict XVI twice used the example of the relationship of parents with their children.  He stated, “The commandment of love can be put fully into practice by those who live in a deep relationship with God, precisely in the way that a child becomes capable of living through a good relationship to his mother and father”.  Again, he further comments, “If God's love has sunk deep roots in a person, he is able to love even those who do not merit this love, just as God loves us.  Fathers and mothers do not love their children only when they merit it: they love them always, even if, of course, they make them understand when they have made mistakes”. 

            The Holy Father teaches that above all love is a gift.  It something we all can know and experience, and it can grow and develop in our own lives.  It is a self-giving without thinking about the cost, a reaching out to the other without caving in upon oneself.  He states,

 

We learn to look upon others not only with our own eyes but with the gaze of God, which is the gaze of Jesus Christ.  It is a look that comes from the heart and does not stop at the surface; it goes beyond appearances and succeeds in grasping the expectations of the other: of being listened to, of being gratuitously attended to; in a word, of being loved.  But there is also the inverse path: opening myself to the other as he is, reaching out to him, making myself available, I open myself also to knowing God, to knowing that he exists and that he is good.

 

            Further, the Holy Father spoke about how the love of God and the love of neighbor are inseparably related.  Jesus did not invent this, but revealed it by His words and, above all, by His actions.  “In the Eucharist he grants us a twofold love, giving us himself, so that, nourished by this Bread, we love each other as he loved us.”  He ends asking, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, that we may know how to show our faith with a clear witness of love of neighbor.  Blessed Mother, pray for us!