ANGELUS OF 1/4/09
The Epiphany of Our Lord
Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's words at Angelus today:
Dear brothers and sisters,
The liturgy today re-proposes for our meditation the same Gospel proclaimed on the Feast of the Nativity, namely, the Prologue to St. John's Gospel.
After the clamor of the preceding days with the race to acquire gifts, the Church invites us to contemplate anew the mystery of the Nativity of Christ, in order to grasp its profound significance and importance for our life.
It is a wonderful text which offers a vertiginous synthesis of the entire Christian faith. It starts from a height: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1,1).
Then comes the unheard-of and humanly inconceivable news: "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (Jn 1,14a). Not as a rhetorical figure but as an experience that had been lived! Conveyed to us by John, an eyewitness: "And we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1,14b).
These were not the learned words of a rabbi or a doctor of the law, but the passionate testimony of a humble fisherman who, attracted as a youth to Jesus of Nazareth, in three years of a shared life with him and with the other apostles, experienced love - so much as to describe himself as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved". He saw him die on the Cross and appear resurrected, and then with the others, received his Spirit.
From all this experience, meditated in his heart, John drew an intimate certainty: Jesus is the Wisdom of God incarnate. He is the eternal Word who made himself a mortal man.
For a true Israelite, who knows Holy Scriptures, this was not a contradiction, but rather the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament: In Jesus Christ is the fullness of the mystery of a God who speaks to men as to friends, who revealed himself to Moses in the Law, to the sages and the prophets.
Knowing Jesus, being with him, listening to his preaching, and seeing the signs he worked, the disciples came to recognize that all Scripture was realized in him.
As a Christian author would affirm later: "All of divine Scripture constitutes a single book, and this unique book is Christ - it speaks of Christ and finds its fulfillment in Christ" (Ugo di San Vittore, De arca Noe, 2, 8).
Every man and every woman needs to find a profound sense for his own existence, and for this, books do not suffice, not even the Sacred Scriptures alone.
The Baby of Bethlehem reveals and communicates to us the true 'face' of the good and faithful Lord who loves us and never abandons us even in death.
"No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is God and who is at the Father's side, has revealed him" (Jn 1,16).
The first to open her heart and to contemplate 'the Word made flesh' was Mary, the mother of Jesus. A humble girl from Galilee thus became the 'Seat of Wisdom'.
Like the apostle John, each of us is invited to 'take her into our home' (cfr Jn 19,27) in order to know Jesus more profoundly and to experience his faithful and inexhaustible love.
This is my wish for each of you, dear brothers and sisters, at the start of this new year.
After the prayers, he said:
The Patriarchs and the Heads of the Christian Churches in Jerusalem today, in all the Churches of the Holy Land, invite the faithful to pray for an end to the conflict in the Gaza Strip and to implore for justice and peace in their land.
I join them in this and I ask you to do the same, remembering, as they tell us, "the victims, the injured, those whose hearts are broken, who live in anguish and fear, so that God may bless them with comfort, patient and peace that come from him".
The tragic news which comes to us from Gaza show how the rejection of dialog leads to situations which weigh unspeakably on populations that are once again the victims of hatred and war.
Hatred and war are not solutions to problems. Even more recent history confirms this.
Let us pray, then that "the Baby in the manger... may inspire the authorities and responsible officials on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian, to immediate action that will put an end to the present tragedy."
I am glad to greet the participants in the international congress on "Don Bosco's preventive system and human rights" organized by the Salesians. This is a very important subject because the educative aspect is very decisive even in the field of human rights. I therefore wish you profitable work and assure you of my prayers.
I also welcome with joy the many seminarians who have come from different countries for a formative encounter by the Focolari movement. Dear young people, I bless your path with all my heart. May the Virgin Mary watch over you always.
In English, he said:
I cordially greet all the English-speaking visitors gathered for this Angelus prayer!
In these first days of the New Year, as the Church celebrates the birth of the Saviour, let us pray that the peace proclaimed by the angels at Bethlehem will take ever deeper root in human hearts, banish all discord and violence, and inspire the human family to live in harmony and solidarity.
Upon you and your loved ones I invoke the Lord’s abundant blessings!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/01/2009 15:13]