God saves us. That is the center of the teaching of Benedict XVI addressed to Christians, mired in difficult problems, often groping in the fog, prey to the latest attack on God as the enemy of man. The pope is aware of this attack and goes down to the mudd.
In his summary of the year to the Curia, the Pope remembering his trip to the Czech Republic, said, "we need to worry that man shelved the question of God, an essential issue of his existence..." He pointed out that the people who consider themselves agnostic or atheist feel a natural apprehension when hearing about a new evangelization, because they fear they will be converted into an object of mission, or they fear giving up their freedom of thought and will. But even so, says Benedict XVI, the question of God remains even if they dare not go near it. And remembering the space in the temple of Jerusalem that the Gentiles had to pray to a God they sought but did not yet know, the Pope has created this unique proposal: "I think the Church today should also open a "courtyard of the gentiles," where people can somehow cling to God, without yet knowing him -before they have found access to the mystery in the Church." We cannot remain indifferent about this proposal of faith in this historic moment.
During New Year's Mass, the Pope pronounced a very original and thought-provoking homily on God's face and the faces of men. According to him, the face is the expression par excellence of the person, since it brings out the feelings, thoughts and intentions of the heart. And even though God is by nature invisible, the Bible refers constantly to his face because he is a God who reveals himself, who converses with his people, with men, and makes himself known. This trend finds its ultimate development in God taking the human face of Jesus. And from here the Pope transitions to ask the great question [that turns the attack on God as enemy of man, upside down]: "who but God can safeguard the depth of the human face?"
It is impossible not to remember the memorable speech before the statue of the Immaculate Conception, when he spoke of a social life that makes us see only the surface, and in which we lose depth in perceiving the human faces that compose that social reality. In such a loss, human beings become interchangeable commodities. If man silences his thirst for meaning, if he censors his desire for an endless hug, for justice and happiness beyond his own strength, then man loses the ability to go within himself, and ends up a part of a sad mechanism of mere survival.
God is the source and destiny of man, but also the way and the historical resource his adventure. "Whoever has the heart empty, sees only flat images, lacking any depth ... however, the more we are inhabited by God, the more will we be able to see the face of the other, in our brothers and sisters. And thus, we stop seeing the other as means to and end, as rival or enemy, but as another I." In Spe Salvi, great document for Christians in this tumultuous start of the century, the Pope says: "Our hope is in God, not in the generic sense of a religious or faith covert fatalism. We trust in the God who has revealed fully in Jesus Christ His will to be with us, to share our history ... This is the great hope that encourages and sometimes corrects our human hopes."
It is reasonable to have hope because history has meaning and direction, because despite many dramatic twists and turns, it is met by God's love, a love which has gone to the unthinkable in becoming flesh and dwelling among us. However, that divine plan is not satisfied automatically but requires the free acceptance of every man and woman. So Benedict XVI says that 2010 will be more or less "good" not according to the best of circumstances that each one dreams, but to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace. What a difference comapred to the many idle talks during these days, but mostly what a breath of fresh air, what a hymn to freedom and to the the infinite value of every human life! What a calm and reasonable certainty about the future! Precisely what we all need.
Original Article in Spanish by Jose Luis Restan
Posted by Carlos J. Medina (Translated with Google's help)
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