Part II: The Papal Posse/Papal Hanging Mob Attacks Pope Francis

In my last post, HERE, I began to review the EWTN World Over broadcast regarding the Apostolic Exhortation, GAUDETE ET EXSULTATE.  I showed how the self-labeled Papal Posse, consisting of Raymond Arroyo, Robert Royal and Fr. Gerald Murray, clearly have no clue as to what they are talking about.  I renamed this group the Papal Hanging Mob because it seems that is what they would like to do with Pope Francis.  They criticize and condemn Pope Francis on almost everything he says and does.  The "Papal Posse" seem intent on turning Catholics against the Holy Father.  They don't seem realize that their comments only prove everything the Pope has written.  Pray for their souls.

I was only able to get into the first few minutes of the broadcast in my first post.  I am picking up here where I left off.  Here is the video.  I am starting at about 15:30 in the video.

The Failure of the Traditional Latin Mass

When Pope Benedict XVI made the Traditional Latin Mass freely available through Summorum Pontificum in 2007, we were told by the traditionalists that this would revitalize the Church. The Novus Ordo Mass almost destroyed the Church, but the Traditional Latin Mass will save her. The TLM will draw people like a magnet. Churches will once again fill up, people will return to the Sacraments. The future is with the Traditional Latin Mass. Save the Liturgy, Save the World. Right?

It has now been almost 11 years since the implementation of Summorum Pontificum, the Motu Proprio that allows the TLM to be celebrated at any time. Below is a chart showing the growth of the TLM in the USA through 2015. As the chart says, 92% of US dioceses have at least one TLM every week:

Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Greatest Evangelist In History

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the greatest stories in human history.  It is also one of the greatest proofs of the existence of God and His overwhelming and incredible love for mankind.

In the 16th Century, Catholic missionaries were in Mexico trying to convert the Aztec Indians from their pagan religion to Christianity.  The Aztecs engaged in barbarous practices including human sacrifice where they would literally cut the heart out of a living person.  As one source relates:

The victim was stretched out over the sacrificial stone. In seconds, a priest with an obsidian knife broke open his chest and ripped out his still beating heart, dashing it against the sacrificial stone.

Preaching the Gospel Does NOT Mean Proselytizing

Right before He ascended to heaven, Jesus Christ gave us what is now called the "Great Commission", as found in Matthew 28:19-20:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

That seems pretty straightforward - we are commanded to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ throughout all the world.  And certainly the Church has been engaged in that mission from the time of her inception in the First Century.  Many have paid the ultimate price in preaching the Gospel, starting with Our Lord.

However, Pope Francis has told us on more than one occasion that proselytizing doesn't work.  He has called it "nonsense."

Of course, Pope Francis has been roundly condemned by many on the Catholic internet for this statement. Many have interpreted the Holy Father's statement as a rejection of Christ's command to preach the Gospel. But is that what he is saying? Is the Holy Father telling us to reject the clear command of Matthew 28?

EWTN Again Attacks and Distorts the Message of Pope Francis

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

Go and learn the meaning of the words,

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Matthew 9

A few weeks ago, I did a blog post in which I showed that Raymond Arroyo of EWTN led the "Papal Posse", consisting of Robert Royal and Father Gerald Murray, in a discussion about Pope Francis's attitude towards marriage. I clearly showed how they manipulated and outright lied regarding Pope Francis's statements, totally changing the true meaning of Pope Francis's message regarding the marriage crisis in the 21st Century.

Well, Arroyo and the "Papal Posse" (better referred to as the "Papal Hanging Mob") were at it again on the World Over broadcast of September 15, 2016. This time they went after the Holy Father for his response to guidelines written by the Bishops of Argentina. The subject of these guidelines was implementation of the papal exhortation, Amoris Laetitia. Once again, Arroyo and his "Papal Posse" gave us half quotes and poor translations, never allowing us to see anything in context, and they once again slandered Pope Francis and misrepresented his message of hope to the world.

Pope Francis and Sharing the Eucharist with Non-Catholics: A Lesson in Evangelization

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It seems hardly a day goes by that the Catholic blogosphere is not in an uproar over some statement or action by someone whom they feel is threatening to destroy the Church. The offender is more than likely a member of the Church hierarchy - priest, bishop, cardinal. Of course the ranting and raving really starts when the guilty party is Pope Francis. A standard prayer of Catholic bloggers seems to be that Pope Francis be permanently silenced - not that they wish him any harm!

One of the latest items of contention is the Holy Father's answer to a Lutheran woman married to a Catholic. The question, as translated by Edward Pentin from Italian into English, was as follows:

My name is Anke de Bernardinis and, like many people in our community, I'm married to an Italian, who is a Roman Catholic Christian. We’ve lived happily together for many years, sharing joys and sorrows. And so we greatly regret being divided in faith and not being able to participate in the Lord's Supper together. What can we do to achieve, finally, communion on this point?

Before I get to the "offensive" response by Pope Francis, it is important to take a closer look at this question.  Here is a Lutheran woman who has been happily married to a Catholic man for many years.  As she relates, it is a great sadness to her and her husband that they do not share the same faith, and more specifically, that they cannot participate in the "Lord's Supper" together.  She is asking the earthly head of the Catholic Church how they can achieve this unity.

Nearly every Catholic blogger has said the answer is simple: become a Catholic! And certainly that is true. But look again at the question. The woman has been married to a Catholic for many years. We can safely assume that she and her husband have discussed this division between them, and her husband, and many others no doubt, told her that only members in good standing in the Church can participate in the Sacraments. But she has not, as far as we can tell, made any moves to become Catholic. The fact that she is talking with the Pope and asking him questions shows that she has respect for the Catholic Church. But up this point, that has not been enough to give her the courage to walk away from her own faith and become a Catholic. She wants to know how she and her husband get over this seemingly insurmountable barrier between them.

Pope Francis obviously took all of this into account when he answered her. His goal - as should be the goal of all of us - is to bring people into the church, not set up roadblocks that will keep them out. The Holy Father could have taken the easy way out and given the technically correct answer that she had no doubt heard many times before. Pope Francis wanted to do something that would make her take that step she has feared for so many years:  to think outside her own personal box and to approach the problem in a different way, since obviously what she has been doing has not been working.

The Message From Pope Francis: The Danger of Fundamentalism

Pope Francis in East Harlem, Manhattan
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I have been completely enthralled with Pope Francis on his visit to Cuba and the United States this past week.  I actually took the week off from work so that I could follow his as closely as possible, and I have not been disappointed.  Whatever you may think of Pope Francis, there is no denying that he is completely genuine.  It was amazing to see how accessible he made himself to the crowds, despite all attempts by security to keep the crowds away.  I remember in 2008 when Pope Benedict XVI visited NYC.  No one could get near him.

Not so with Pope Francis.

Pope Francis in East Harlem, Manhattan

Pope Francis and the homeless in Washington D.C.
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 All in all, I think he has been an amazing representative for Jesus Christ.

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Pope Frances in Washington D.C.
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I have listened rather closely to the Holy Father's speeches and homilies, and have found them filled with wisdom, spiritual enlightenment, gentle yet firm correction, and great love for people.

There are so many different issues concerning his speeches that I could discuss, but I was especially struck by one particular statement he made in his speech to the United States Congress:

All of us are quite aware of, and deeply worried by, the disturbing social and political situation of the world today. Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. 

Are We Judge Or Healer?

There has been a lot of buzz on Catholic websites and blogs during the last couple of weeks over two speakers at two different Catholic high schools. Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P. gave a speech about Catholic teaching on sexuality to a Catholic high school in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sister Jane is an experienced speaker and has never met with controversy in any of her previous talks. However, this time something went wrong, and as the Charlotte Observer reported on April 2:

Nearly 1,000 parents gathered at Charlotte Catholic High School on Wednesday night to air complaints about a recent speech to students by a nun who made what many considered inflammatory comments about gays and lesbians, divorce and single parenthood.

So many parents lined up to speak that the meeting with high school officials, the school’s chaplain and the Diocese of Charlotte’s vicar of education lasted more than an hour longer than scheduled.

The article goes on to state:

Diocese spokesman David Hains acknowledged after the meeting that the Rev. Matthew Kauth, the school’s chaplain, apologized to the parents for a March 21 speech by Sister Jane Dominic Laurel that was not the one he expected her to give.

Hains also said the high school committed to developing new policies that would better scrutinize visiting speakers in the future. He said the school also wants to do a better job of communicating with parents ahead of time when such speeches will deal with sensitive subjects such as sexuality.

“Parents should have been better informed,” Hains said.

Most Catholic bloggers and websites immediately rushed to support Sister Jane against charges made by the parents and students of this high school. Father Z typified many of the responses by Catholic bloggers to this situation. I don't mean to pick on Father Z. I am using his posts because I think they are representative of the thinking of many Catholics. He posted several times on this issue, always in support of Sister Jane. On his first post, entitled, "Sister explains the situation. Spittle-flecked nutty, bullying, intimidation ensue" [HERE], Father Z wrote this:

This is [what] we are going to experience for a long-time, friends. If we Catholics (read: faithful to the teachings of the Church concerning faith and morals) actually dare to speak in public about the Church’s doctrine favorably or attempt to govern our lives by it, the blow-back will be instantaneous, relentless, savage.

There is one big problem with this statement:  neither Father Z nor anyone else who was not at Sister Jane's talk knows exactly what she said.  And we will never know specifically what she said because there was no recording and no transcript of her remarks.  As the title to Father Z's post implies, he feels, even though he does not know exactly what was said, that the problem is entirely with those who were in Sister Jane's audience, and it has nothing to do with her.

In a subsequent post entitled, "Nun Under The Bus", which you can read HERE, Father Z wrote:

I suspect [emphasis mine] that what happened, to build this up into such a thing, is that parents heard vague reports – I say vague because teens are such great sources of accuracy in reporting – about her remarks from their politically-correctly conditioned children and, stung in conscience, got out the pitchforks and torches.

This is a very inflammatory statement on Father Z's part, which he admits is based on assumption, not actual knowledge.   In this same post, Father Z ironically wrote, "Surely there is something of a mob mentality building, and swiftly."  Canonist Dr. Ed Peters was the first to comment, and he made a very wise statement:

My hunches are almost exactly like unto yours, but hunches don’t cut it in the kinds of battles around us now. No one who has not heard (apparently there is no recording) or who has not read (apparently there was no text) Sister’s talk CANNOT weigh in on what she said, for the simple reason that they don’t KNOW what she actually said. Lesson: Keep a record, people.

Unfortunately, neither Father Z nor any of his readers heeded this statement by Dr. Peters, as you will see if you read the comments.  

Sister Mary Sarah, O.P., President of Aquinas College, posted a statement [HERE] on the school website which read in part:

The events around the recent talk by Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, O.P. in Charlotte, NC have produced a great deal of speculation from many sides. Among the commentators, there are few who were actually present to hear the talk, which was not recorded.

. . .

We believe it is our privilege to bring the best aspects of our faith tradition to bear on the moral and cultural questions of the present age. In her presentation, Sister Jane Dominic spoke clearly on matters of faith and morals. Her deviation into realms of sociology and anthropology was beyond the scope of her expertise. Sister is a trained theologian from a Pontifical University and has the credentials to contribute to scholarly bodies of work. This she has done in the past with distinction. The unfortunate events at Charlotte Catholic High School are not representative of the quality of Sister’s academic contributions or the positive influence that she has had on her students. The students at Charlotte Catholic were unprepared, as were their parents, for the topic that Sister was asked to deliver. The consequence was a complete misrepresentation of the school’s intention to bring a message that would enlighten and bring freedom and peace.

Of course, for those who already had their minds made up, this statement by Sister Mary Sarah will make no difference.  Typical of one comment from Father Z's post:

I am just a sinner who reads the CCC and tries his best to live the teachings of our Church. But from my perspective, and the available reporting, I would take Sr. Jane Dominic over Sr. Mary Sarah, hands down. As I recall, we are here to afflict the comfortable, not cater to their delusions.

Why do we feel we need to take sides? The person who posted does not know either Sr. Jane or Sr. Mary Sarah, yet he has already made up his mind that he will "take Sr. Jane Dominic over Sr. Mary Sarah, hands down." Why is he pitting one against another? Why is he making the judgment that Sr. Mary Sarah is somehow the "bad guy" in this situation?

Another very similar situation happened just recently involving Father Rocky Hoffman, executive director of Relevant Radio, who gave a talk to teens at a Rhode Island school on sexuality. You can read about this story HERE. Once again, parents protested against the speech as being divisive. Once again, Catholic bloggers and websites, without knowing exactly what was said, rushed to judgment to support Father Hoffman and condemn those who complained against him.

As in the situation with Sr. Jane, the school involved in Father Hoffman's situation also apologized for the comments made by Father. In an email sent from the school to the parents:

My intention in inviting him here was to have a priest articulate Church teaching in a manner that was pastorally appropriate, doctrinally sound, and deeply respectful of the trust the students showed in bringing these questions forward for answer. My prior knowledge of Fr. Hoffman and his program gave every reason to expect this outcome,” [Principal David] Carradini wrote. “My expectations, and those of the faculty and staff, were not met, and for that I am deeply sorry. Several of the answers provided were not entirely representative of the full breadth of Church teaching on a number of complex and sensitive issues. Several members of the student body, faculty, and staff – including me – were personally offended by his manner of presentation.

This statement, like the one by Sr. Mary Sarah, only brought out more condemnation from many Catholics, who are convinced that all of these people are Catholic in name only and really want to destroy the Church.  Many Catholics look at these fellow Catholics as the enemy.

The world is in very bad shape right now. People have completely lost almost all sense of right and wrong, good and bad. What use to be completely taboo in our culture is now accepted and even embraced. For those of us who are trying to live according to traditional moral values and, most especially, for Catholics, the world has become an alien, antagonistic and hateful environment in which we have no place. Here in the United States, even our government is trying to force us to violate our own beliefs with such actions as the HHS mandate. And it is much worse in other parts of the world where Christians are paying the ultimate price for their beliefs.

The question is, how do we deal with this situation?  Who is our real enemy here?  

As I write this, we are beginning Holy Week in which we commemorate the great Sacrifice of our Creator who poured out His Precious Blood on the cross to save all mankind from sin, and that includes those Catholic parents who are seemingly protesting against Catholic orthodox teaching. When Our Lord was hanging on the Cross and the last drops of His Precious Blood were pouring out of Him after having been brutally beaten on every inch of His Body, He looked down at those who had inflicted this unspeakable punishment, and said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Does this mean we should never point out sin, that we should never let people know when they have strayed from eternal truth?  Absolutely not.  But it does mean that we may have to re-think HOW we present the truth of the Gospel to this post-Christian world.  We can't just say, as far too many have, that if people won't listen, then let them burn in hell.  This completely defeats everything for which Jesus died such an excruciatingly painful and humiliating death. 

We have to realize that many people are victims of our anti-God culture.  In one interview he gave, Pope Francis said the Church is like a field hospital:

“I can clearly see that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds and warm the hearts of faithful, it needs to be by their side. I see the Church as a field hospital after a battle. It’s pointless to ask a seriously injured patient whether his cholesterol or blood sugar levels are high! It’s his wounds that need to be healed. The rest we can talk about later. Now we must think about treating those wounds. And we need to start from the bottom.”

In this regard, Father Kevin Cusick, a chaplain for the Marines, wrote a fascinating article explaining just what a field hospital does.  You can read his article HERE.  Father Cusick explains the function of a field hospital:

Why does a field hospital exist? Where there is a war or a battle there will be the wounded and the dead. In support of the fight the field hospital must function to keep as many as possible in the battle for total victory. Those whose wounds can be treated on the spot and sent back out to join the others in battle continue to be force-multipliers and better enable the military unit to achieve its objective. In more serious cases the wounded will need to be transferred to the rear for more intensive surgery or therapy.

Father Cusick explains how a field hospital functions in aiding those who have been injured.  He then explains how this relates to the statement by Pope Francis:

What is Pope Francis getting at when he compares the Church to a field hospital in a war zone? I believe he wants us to remember that our faithful often have wounds, though we cannot see them, perhaps, and those wounds have tremendous spiritual and other effects on human beings that hamper a full, free and joyful relationship with God as offered in the Church. I believe he wants us to adapt our care to include sensitivity to those wounds that prevent others from partaking fully in the Church’s life and the Lord’s healing from sin and other realities that hurt them and burden them.

I think far too often many of us look at others who are spiritually wounded, whose spiritual legs are broken, and we condemn them because they can't walk like we can. But is this how Our Lord looked on those who were so spiritually lost? Think of Luke 13:34, when Jesus said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the [city] that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen her brood under her wings, and ye would not." 

From Father Cusick:

If we Catholics are to now see ourselves as workers in a field hospital, what kind of mindset do we need? We must be concerned with customer care. We must be ready to meet others where they are before we know what they need, to get where they need to be. We need to be with them enough to “have the smell of the sheep” on us, as Pope Francis says. In this way we will be able to truly care for them, to prescribe not some arbitrary medicine but to focus on their real needs. This way others will begin to experience the love of Christ truly present already in the Church and in the local church of the parish.

If parishes are to be like field hospitals, what kind of things do they need to do differently? We must always operate with the knowledge that grace builds on nature. If families or children are not getting to Sunday Mass, if families are not attending together, there may be human reasons underlying the symptom that need to be treated first. Parenting skills must be dealt with before parents are prepared to see they are leaders in the home, the first teachers of our children in the ways of faith, and then to act on that God-given role. Our witness must be one which compels our recently confirmed young people to pursue their faith and to continue to attend Mass. Our religious education must be effective in handing on the truths of faith to our young people, and so on.

Our proclamation of the Gospel and teaching of the Faith will not have effect without a knowledge of those we are sent to serve. We must take the time to examine and diagnose the spiritual illness before able to effectively offer a cure. This takes time and love.

These are very wise and loving words, from someone who truly cares about others. I think that far too often we are more concerned with being right than helping others. We are so quick to condemn, to point the finger, to write people off as hopeless. We hear bits and pieces of situations, and we think we know all the facts and can accurately judge what is happening.

Like Dr. Peters, I suspect that both Sister Jane and Father Hoffman gave very orthodox talks on Catholic teaching.  I don't believe this is the issue at all.  I believe the issue is whether these talks in the format in which they were presented were helpful to those who heard them.  The answer seems to be an obvious no.  So do we just walk away from these people?  Or do we, instead, try to find another way to reach them, because it would seem that they are obviously among the spiritually wounded.  

We need to ask ourselves what our purpose is as Christians.  Is it just to uphold our own righteousness and look down on those who don't agree with us?  Where would any of us be if Our Lord had done that?  Our Lord has shown great patience and love with us, gently correcting us and leading us in the right way.  Don't we owe that to others for whom He also died?      

Credit:  rustyrev.wordpress.com

Preach the Gospel with Humility, Simplicity and Love

Credit:  mudpreacher.org

Speaking about God means communicating with strength and simplicity, by one’s word and life, what is essential: the God of Jesus Christ, the God who has shown us a love so great that it became incarnate, died and rose for us; that God who asks us to follow him and to let ourselves be transformed by his immense love in order to renew our lives and our relationships; the God who has given us the Church, to walk together and, through the Word and the Sacraments, to renew the entire City of men, so that it may become the City of God.

Pope Benedict XVI

It's hard to escape the fact that, to use an old worn-out saying, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  There are many indications of this, but in my mind one of the leading indicators is the fact that we continue to kill our unborn babies.  Last year in the United States alone, we killed over one million of our babies.  There have been 60 million babies legally killed in this country since 1973.  That's 60 million potential tax payers and job creators and all of their children and grandchildren who are not here to contribute to our society.  And we wonder why we have an economic crisis?  Hello???

Credit:  abolishhumanabortion.com

Some hold out hope that we can still salvage western civilization, such as pointing to the liberal Salon.com article entitled, "2012 Was An Unmitigated Disaster For Abortion Rights" which, from a pro abortion point of view, laments the fact that many states in the US are tightening restrictions on abortion.  As far as I'm concerned, this is throwing bones at those of us who are pro life and hoping it will keep us quiet while the babies continue to die by the thousands every day.  I live in New York City, the abortion capital of the United States, where over 40% of all pregnancies end in abortion, and in some parts of the city the rate is 60%, resulting in the murder of approximately 89,000 babies every year.  It has been 40 years since the killing of our unborn children was made legal through Roe v. Wade (abortion has been legal in New York since 1970), and in all that time there has not been one serious challenge to that law. Politician after politician promises us that they will do everything to defeat abortion, and yet last year Planned Parenthood received a record high $542 million in taxpayer money and performed 334,000 abortions.  To placate the public, Congress immediately introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.  If you're interested in making a quick and sure buck, bet that this bill will never see the light of day.

Abortion is hardly the only evil in our society.  It is only a matter of time now before same sex marriage is legal throughout the United States.  Our president is actively campaigning for it, breaking his oath to uphold the law of the land by saying he will not defend the Defense of Marriage Act.  No one calls him on this, and now even the Republicans are telling us to get use to it, as per Newt Gingrich:

It is in every family. It is in every community. The momentum is clearly now in the direction in finding some way to... accommodate and deal with reality. And the reality is going to be that in a number of American states—and it will be more after 2014—gay relationships will be legal, period.

The destruction of the family - the foundation of any society - is now complete, and there is no going back on this, as Newt Gingrich forcefully told us.  God has been so completely pushed out of the public square that He is not even allowed to be a part of the celebration of His own birth.  With God out of the way, anything can and will go.  We are seeing the legalization of drugs and euthanasia, and at the same time, we are seeing the persecution of Christianity, exemplified by the HHS mandate.  We are sliding down the hill at a breathtaking pace to our own destruction.

What do we, as Christians, do in the face of the disintegration of our society?  Do we just walk away and leave people to a doomed fate?  Hardly.  Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, told us just the opposite on November 28, 2012 in another of a continuing series of talks regarding the Year of Faith.  This message is entitled "On Bearing Witness to the Christian Faith."  In this message, he discusses the reasons and methods we should use to bring the saving message of the Gospel to an anti-God world.

Credit:  Diocese of
Colorado Springs

The Holy Father starts out by asking the question of how we can reach others with the Gospel message, especially those who are so separated from God that He is not even a thought in their day:

The main question that we ask today is: how can we speak of God in our time? How can we communicate the Gospel, to open roads to his saving truth in the hearts, that are often closed, of our contemporaries and in their minds, sometimes distracted by the many lights of society? Jesus himself, the Evangelists tells us, in announcing the Kingdom of God asked himself this question. "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use?" (Mk 4:30).

Credit:  excellentquotations.com

Pope Benedict reminds us that we cannot do anything unless God speaks to us first.  God is actually calling to us at every moment, but are we listening?  Forget that sappy song that Bette Midler sang, "God is watching us from a distance."  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The reality is that our Lord is right next to us, just as He hung next to the thieves on the cross, ready and willing to offer us His Mercy and Love as soon as we ask.  Christ would have willingly offered forgiveness to both thieves, but only one opened his heart to Our Savior.  Our Lord can't do anything unless we also turn to Him, and ask Him for His Mercy, just as the good thief on the cross, St. Dismas, did.

How can we speak of God today? The first answer is that we can speak of God, because He has spoken with us. The first condition of speaking of God is therefore to listen to what God himself has said. God has spoken to us!  God is therefore not a distant hypothesis about the origin of the world, nor a mathematical intelligence far away from us. God cares for us, loves us, has personally entered into the reality of our history, he has communicated himself to the point of becoming incarnate.

It is an amazing thing that the great Creator God of the Universe, who has no need of anything or anyone, should actually come to our earth as one of us so that we can be saved and spend eternity with Him.  This is how King David expressed God's amazing love for us in Psalm 8:3-4:

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained ;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Thus, God is a reality of our lives, he is so great that he even has time for us, he cares for us. In Jesus of Nazareth, we encounter the face of God, who came down from Heaven to immerse himself into the world of men, into our world, and to teach the "art of living", the road to happiness, to free us from sin and make us children of God (cf. Eph 1:5, Rom 8:14).

"Jesus came down from heaven to immerse himself in the world of men."  Think about that!  It's like an elephant taking notice of a bunch of ants and saving them from destruction.  God has even less need of us than an elephant does of an ant, yet He loves us in a way that I will never understand as long as I live.  He poured His life out in utter agony upon the Cross so that we may live.  Why do we ever doubt Him?

The next statement from the Holy Father puts in one sentence the reason why Jesus came to earth as a man and gave His life for us:

Jesus came to save us and show us the good life of the Gospel.

We've all heard this so many times that it doesn't mean that much.  But read it again and think about it. The One who created the universe and everything in it came to save us and give us to the opportunity to share eternal bliss with Him.

Foot washing is a symbol of
doing small things with great love

The Holy Father now tells us that in order to bring this saving message to our poor, sick world, we have to meet people where they live.  Give them this message in a way that they can relate to it.  And realize that just as everything that God does starts very small and humbly, so we must be humble and small.  As Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things; only small things with great love."

Speaking of God means first of all being clear about what we must bring to the men and women of our time: the God of Jesus Christ as the answer to the fundamental question of why and how should we live. We must not fear the humility of small steps and must trust in the yeast that penetrates the dough and mysteriously causes it to grow (cf. Mt 13:33). In speaking of God, in the work of evangelization, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we need to recover simplicity, to return to the essentials of the announcement: the Good News of God-Love who comes close to us in Jesus Christ to the point of the Cross and who in the Resurrection gives us hope and opens for us a life that has no end, eternal life. (...)

Pope Benedict now gives us the example of one of the Church's greatest saints, St. Paul, who was unceasing in his efforts to bring the Gospel to the world.  St Paul gave an example of love that absolutely astounds me:  "I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." (Rom. 9:1-3).  Do we love others enough that we would give up own salvation if it would save them?  I'm glad I don't have to answer that question because I don't think it would be pretty.

The Holy Father shows us that St. Paul never pointed to himself but always to Christ and His Saving Gospel.

That exceptional communicator who was the apostle Paul gives us a lesson that goes right to the heart of faith with great simplicity.

In the First Letter to the Corinthians he writes: "When I came among you, I did not set out to announce the mystery of God with eloquent speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified "(2:1-2).

Credit:  college-ethics.blogspot.com

Paul did not try to promote himself in any way.  His whole mission was to promote the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was not interested in becoming a celebrity, as we too often see in Christian media, even among Catholics.  He did absolutely nothing to promote any of his own ideas or himself personally, but put all his efforts into preaching only the message of Jesus Christ.

Thus, the first thing is that Paul is not talking about a philosophy that he has developed, he’s not speaking about ideas that found elsewhere or invented, but he speaks of a reality of his life, of God who came into his life, he speaks of a real God who lives, who spoke with him and will speak with us, he speaks of Christ crucified and risen.

The second thing is that Paul is not seeking himself, he does not want to create a fan base, he does not want to go down in history as the head of a school of great knowledge, he is not self-seeking. Rather, St. Paul proclaims Christ and wants to gain people for the true God. Paul speaks only with the desire to preach what has entered into his life and that is the true life that conquered him on the road to Damascus.

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St. Paul taught us to spread the Gospel through our humility, always keeping in mind that we were sinners destined for hell, and it is only the merciful grace of Jesus Christ that opens the doors of salvation to us.  As St. Paul warned us, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."  (I Cor. 10:12).  We must be engaged in the spiritual battle for our souls every moment of every day lest we leave space for the devil to enter in, and that means always putting Christ at the forefront of everything we do and say. There is no other successful way to reach out to others with the saving message of the Gospel.

So, to speak of God means to give space to the One who makes him known, who reveals his face of love, it means expropriating oneself offering it to Christ, knowing that we are not able to gain others to God, but we must await them from God himself, must implore them from Him. Speaking of God is thus born from listening, from our knowledge of God which is realized in familiarity with him, in the life of prayer and according to the Commandments.

Communicating the faith, for St. Paul, does not mean bearing himself, but stating openly and publicly what he has seen and heard in his encounter with Christ, what he has experienced in his life which has been transformed by that encounter: it means bringing Jesus whom he feels present within himself and who has become the true direction of his life, to make it clear to all that the world needs Him and that He is decisive for the freedom of every man.

St. Francis

We often hear a quote by St. Francis, "Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words."  I recently found out that St. Francis never actually said this, but he did say very similar things:

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”

“…As for me, I desire this privilege from the Lord, that never may I have any privilege from man, except to do reverence to all, and to convert the world by obedience to the Holy Rule rather by example than by word.”

Our words have no meaning if we are not living a life that backs them up. Word alone do not change people's minds.  It is when they see the words in action that their hearts are changed.  The best way to bring people to Christ is to allow our Lord to work in our lives, to "make room for Him, in the confidence that He acts in our weakness", as Pope Benedict XVI says:

The Apostle is not content with merely proclaiming words, but involves his whole life in the great work of faith. To speak of God, we must make room for Him, in the confidence that He acts in our weakness: to make room for Him without fear, with simplicity and joy, in the profound conviction that the more we put Him at the center and not ourselves, the more our communication will be fruitful.

The Holy Father also chides Christian communities.  If they are promoting their own messages and their own gospels, and not keeping God at the center of their lives, they are doing far more harm than good:

This also applies to the Christian communities: they are called to show the transforming action of God's grace, overcoming all individualism, closure, selfishness, indifference and by living out the love of God in their everyday relations. Are our communities really like this?

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The Holy Father now turns to Jesus Christ Himself, and examines the ways and methods He used in preaching the Gospel.  Pope Benedict shows us that Christ reached out to people with love and compassion, meeting them on their own level.  It is interesting that the only people our Lord ever publicly condemned were the religious leaders, the Pharisees, because they were stealing people's souls through their hypocrisy.   Think of the woman taken in adultery, or the woman at the well, or Mary Magdalene.  They were all sinners condemned by society, yet they found full acceptance from Jesus Christ who called for them to turn from their sinful lives and accept His forgiveness and love.  The first man chosen to be an apostle was Matthew, a despised tax collector who regularly cheated people.  These people were not converted because Christ told them they were lousy sinners on their way to hell.  They were converted because they experienced the saving love of Jesus Christ.  This is what we must bring to our sin sick world:

At this point we must ask ourselves how Jesus communicated. Jesus, in his uniqueness, speaks of his Father – Abbà – and of the Kingdom of God, with eyes full of compassion for the hardships and difficulties of human existence. He speaks with great realism and, I would say, that the essential feature of Jesus’ proclamation is that it makes clear that our life and the world are worthy of God.

Jesus shows that in the world and in creation there appears the face of God and this shows us how in the everyday events God is present in our lives. Both in the parables of nature, the mustard seed, the field with different seeds, or in our lives, for instance in the parable of the prodigal son, Lazarus and other parables of Jesus.

Woman at the well
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Christ showed people that he cared for them personally.  We, too, must show people that we genuinely care about them and want what is best for them.  Often that will mean pointing out the wrong direction they are headed in.  Christ did not hesitate to tell the woman at the well that she was involved in a sinful relationship with the man with whom she was living at that time (John 14):  "You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband."  He told her outright that he had what she needed:  "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  We must be bold in what we tell people, but we must do it in humility and love:

From the Gospels we see how Jesus is interested in every human situation he encounters, he is immersed in the reality of the men and women of his time, with full confidence in the Father's help. And that really in this story, in a hidden way, God is present and if we are attentive we can meet him.

Even with our Lord Himself, it was not just His Words, as powerful as they were, that converted people, but His actions and the way He lived His life as well:

And the disciples, who live with Jesus, the crowds who meet him, see his reaction to different problems, they see how he speaks, how he behaves, they see in him the action of the Holy Spirit, the action of God. In Him announcement and life are intertwined: Jesus acts and teaches, always starting from an intimate relationship with God the Father.

This style becomes an essential indication for us Christians: our way of living in faith and charity becomes a speaking of God in the present time, because it shows, with a life lived in Christ, the credibility, the realism of what we say with words, which are not just words, but show the reality, the true reality. And in this we must be careful to read the signs of the times in our epoch, that is, to identify the potentials, the desires, the obstacles encountered in contemporary culture, in particular the desire for authenticity, the yearning for transcendence, the sensitivity for safeguarding creation, and to communicate without fear the response that faith in God offers.

The Year of Faith is an opportunity to discover, with our imaginations animated by the Holy Spirit, new paths on the personal and community level, so that everywhere the power of the Gospel may be wisdom of life and the orientation for existence.

To bring people to our Lord we must share His love and saving compassion that we have seen in our own lives with others.   We need to speak out against the sin in people's lives, but we must let them know of a God who loves them so much He actually came to earth and died for them:

Speaking of God, therefore, means showing through one’s words and life that God is not a competitor for our life, but rather is its true guarantor, the guarantor of the greatness of the human person. Thus, we return to where we started: speaking about God means communicating with strength and simplicity, by one’s word and life, what is essential: the God of Jesus Christ, the God who has shown us a love so great that it became incarnate, died and rose for us; that God who asks us to follow him and to let ourselves be transformed by his immense love in order to renew our lives and our relationships; the God who has given us the Church, to walk together and, through the Word and the Sacraments, to renew the entire City of men, so that it may become the City of God. Thank you.

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Pope Benedict XVI: Man loses himself without God

Let us pray that all find in Christ the meaning of life and the foundation of true freedom: without God, in fact, man loses himself. The testimonies of those who have gone before us and have dedicated their lives to the Gospel confirm it forever. It is reasonable to believe our existence is at stake. It is worth spending oneself for Christ, He alone satisfies the desires of truth and of goodness rooted in the soul of every man: now, in the time that passes, and in the endless day of blessed Eternity.
Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has continued his series of Wednesday audiences regarding The Year of Faith and continues to give great insight into what faith is and what it means in our lives. In a talk given on November 21, the theme of his address was that it is through faith we come to knowledge not only of God but also of ourselves.

The Holy Father also made a rather startling statement: "It is reasonable to believe our existence is at stake." This should cause us all to truly listen to His Holiness' words and take them to heart. Faith is about our very existence.

There is an Aesop Fable entitled the "The Crow and the Serpent" which I believe illustrates the statement made by His Holiness:  A crow in great want of food saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying down, greedily seized him. The Serpent, turning about, bit the Crow with a mortal wound. In the agony of death, the bird exclaimed: “O unhappy me! who have found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my destruction.”

'I have found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my destruction."  How often has this been true for us individually and for the entire world?  How often have we told ourselves if I can just get that particular job, buy that house or car, marry that person, make this amount of money, then I will be fulfilled and happy.  But when we actually achieve these goals, we far too often find that not only are we not fulfilled, but these very things we worked so hard to achieve are destroying our lives.   How many times have political leaders, and most certainly all dictators, come into power promising to be our saviors and in reality turned out to be the ones who cause misery and suffering?  All addictions - from drugs and alcohol to work or even a personal relationship - start out as pleasurable and something that will bring deep joy and meaning to our lives, and end up instead wreaking great havoc.

So is there anything in this world that will not become the "source of our destruction"?  This is in essence the theme of Pope Benedict's talk on November 21 in Rome when he continued in his series regarding the Year of Faith.  Pope Benedict explains to us that "without God, in fact, man loses himself."  The Holy Father shows that in order for anything in this life to be successful, it must be centered around faith, which is our relationship with God.  Anytime our lives are not centered on our Creator, we are walking a destructive path.  As the Pope has explained in earlier talks, it is through faith that we have a relationship with God, but it is a relationship that can only be initiated by God.  Faith is a gift we receive from our Creator and not something we can manufacture on our own.  This makes us completely dependent upon our merciful God, who always stands ready to pour His Love out upon us.  Our Lord told us, as recorded in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.

The Holy Father began his November 21 talk by describing the joy, liberation and peace that comes from believing in and communicating our faith.  Is is faith that "enhances, refines and elevates what is true, good and beautiful in man."  It is only through faith - an encounter with the Great God - that "man comes to know who God is and, in knowing him, discovers himself, his origin, his destiny, the greatness and dignity of human life".  Rodney King gave us the famous question, "Why can't we all just get along?"  The simple answer is that unless God is at the central core of our lives, nothing will work:

We go forward in this Year of Faith, bearing in our hearts the hope of rediscovering how much joy there is in believing and of finding the enthusiasm to communicate to all the truths of the faith. These truths are not a simple message about God, a piece of information about Him. Instead, they express the event of God's encounter with men, a salvific and liberating event, that fulfills the most profound aspirations of man, his desires for peace, brotherhood and love. Faith leads to discover that the encounter with God enhances, refines and elevates what is true, good and beautiful in man. It thus happens that, while God reveals himself and lets himself be known, man comes to know who God is and, in knowing him, discovers himself, his origin, his destiny, the greatness and dignity of human life.

The Vicar of Christ explains to us that Faith is not just a detached part of our lives but "an authentic knowledge of God involving the whole human person".  Faith is "the knowledge of God-Love", and it is through the love of God that "we overcome the horizons of our selfishness and open ourselves to the true values of life." Pope Benedict XVI also tells us that knowledge of God through faith is not just an intellectual exercise, not just another philosophy to explore, but faith is vital in our lives, as vital to our spiritual lives as air is to sustaining us physically. Faith "makes one see, it opens the eyes, allowing one to know all of reality, beyond the narrow perspectives of individualism and subjectivism that disorient consciences."  Faith is not just an exercise in intellectual gymnastics, but the very basis of our existence:

Faith allows an authentic knowledge of God involving the whole human person: it is a "knowing", a knowledge that gives flavor to life, a new taste to existence, a joyful way of being to the world. Faith is expressed in the gift of self to others, in the fraternity that creates solidarity, capable of loving, defeating the loneliness that makes us sad. This knowledge of God through faith is therefore not only intellectual, but vital. It is the knowledge of God-Love, thanks to his own love. The love of God thus makes one see, it opens the eyes, allowing one to know all of reality, beyond the narrow perspectives of individualism and subjectivism that disorient consciences. The knowledge of God is, therefore, an experience of faith and implies, at the same time, an intellectual and moral way: deeply touched by the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in us, we overcome the horizons of our selfishness and open ourselves to the true values ​​of life.

One of the great mysteries of life is bird migration

The Pope now explains what he calls the "reasonableness" of faith.  As the Holy Father explains, faith is never "against reason."  Faith is never about believing in absurdity.  "God, in fact, is not absurd; if anything He is a mystery."  There are many things in life that are a mystery.  Life itself is a mystery.  How does a human being start as a tiny egg the size of the period at the end of a sentence and grow to be a living, breathing human being?  How does a bird travel thousands of miles to a place he has never been before? We are surrounded by mysteries that we cannot explain.  The greatest mystery of all is how God can change a sinful human being completely cut off from Him into a perfect, sinless saint.  Pope Benedict also explains, as St. John of the Cross did in "Dark Night of the Soul" that often it seems that the closer we become to God, the more darkness we are in, which both St. John of the Cross and Pope Benedict XVI compare to looking directly at the bright sun and being blinded by it.  It may seem like we are in darkness but in truth we are in the brilliant light of God:

Today I want to focus on the reasonableness of faith in God. The Catholic tradition has from the beginning rejected fideism, which is the will to believe against reason. Credo quia absurdum (I believe because it is absurd) is not a formula that interprets the Catholic faith. God, in fact, is not absurd; if anything, He is mystery. Mystery, in turn, is not irrational, but the overabundance of sense, of meaning, of truth. If, when looking at the Mystery, one's reason sees darkness, it is not because there is no light in the mystery, but rather because there is too much of it. Just as when a man turns his eyes to look directly at the sun, he sees only darkness; but who would say that the sun is not bright? On the contrary, it is the source of light. Faith allows us to look upon the "sun" that is God, because it is a welcoming of his revelation in history and, so to speak, truly receives all the brightness of the mystery of God, recognizing the great miracle: God has approached man and has offered himself to be known by man, deigning to stoop the creaturely limits of his reason (cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 13).

Just as the brilliance of the sun can physically blind us,
so the brilliance of God can seem to spiritually blind us

Pope Benedict XVI goes on to explain that not only does faith never go against reason, faith actually "opens new horizons for [reason], immeasurable and infinite."  Many accuse those with strong faith of being closed to learning and growing.  As Pope Benedict XVI says, "The exact opposite is true, as the great masters of the Catholic tradition have shown."  Faith does not mean turning our brain off.  In fact, Pope Benedict tells us that "Intellect and faith are not strangers or antagonists before divine Revelation; rather, both are conditions for understanding its meaning, to receive its authentic message, approaching the threshold of the mystery."  In fact, "new fruitful vitality comes to rational human thought from the ingrafting of the principles and truths of the Christian faith."  Faith is about constantly learning and growing and expanding ourselves, never being content with our spiritual state in life:

At the same time, God, with his grace, enlightens reason, opens new horizons for it, immeasurable and infinite. For this reason, faith is a strong incentive to seek always, to never stop and never grow quiet in the inexhaustible discovery of the truth and of reality. The prejudice of some modern thinkers is false, according to which human reason would be as if blocked by the dogmas of faith. The exact opposite is true, as the great masters of the Catholic tradition have shown. St. Augustine, before his conversion, sought the truth restlessly in all the available philosophies, finding them all unsatisfactory. His painstaking rational search was for him a significant pedagogy for the encounter with the Truth of Christ. When he says, "believe, in order to understand, and understand, the better to believe" (Sermons, 43, 9: PL 38, 258), it is as if he were recounting his own life experience. Intellect and faith are not strangers or antagonists before divine Revelation; rather, both are conditions for understanding its meaning, to receive its authentic message, approaching the threshold of the mystery.

St. Augustine, along with many other Christian authors, witnesses to a faith exercised through the use of reason; he thinks and invites us to think. Following in his wake, St. Anselm will say in his Proslogion that the Catholic faith is fides quaerensintellectum [rough translation:  to seek to understand], where the search for understanding is an act within belief itself. It will be especially St. Thomas Aquinas - thanks to this tradition - who will confront the reason of the philosophers, showing how much new fruitful vitality comes to rational human thought from the ingrafting of the principles and truths of the Christian faith.

Isaiah 1:18

The Holy Father flatly states:  "The Catholic faith is therefore reasonable and also nourishes confidence in human reason."  In fact, we cannot know truth without faith and reason together:  "In the irresistible desire for truth, only a harmonious relationship between faith and reason is the right path that leads to God and the fulfillment of self."  In fact, faith must be combined with reason to bring us to God.  It is never a matter of faith or reason but faith and reason:   "In the irresistible desire for truth, only a harmonious relationship between faith and reason is the right path that leads to God and the fulfillment of self."

The Catholic faith is therefore reasonable and also nourishes confidence in human reason. The First Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, affirmed that reason is able to know God’s existence with certainty through the way of creation, while there belongs to faith alone the possibility of knowing "easily, with absolute certainty and without error "(DS 3005) the truths concerning God, in the light of grace. The knowledge of the faith, furthermore, is not opposed to right reason. Blessed Pope John Paul II, in fact, in the Encyclical Fides et ratio, summed it up thus: "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"(no. 43). In the irresistible desire for truth, only a harmonious relationship between faith and reason is the right path that leads to God and the fulfillment of self.

Alexander the Great who conquered many nations

The images of heroes in our world are those who are strong and mighty, able to vanquish all of their enemies with their cunning, skill and strength.  Yet, when the God who created the universe came to this earth as a man to die for our sins and to vanquish the Enemy, he did so not with mighty armies or cunning strength, but with love and humility, dying the disgraceful death of a criminal on a cross, so tortured and beaten that he barely looked human.  In this physically wretched state, there was not up to that time and has not since been a more resounding victory than this - the victory over sin and death.  This goes against all human reason and wisdom.  As the Holy Father says:  "God saved the world not with an act of power, but through the humiliation of his only Son: according to human standards, the unusual manner used by God clashes with the demands of Greek wisdom. Yet, the cross of Christ has its logic, which St. Paul calls: ho logos toustaurou, "the word of the cross" (1 Cor 1:18)."

The saving power of Jesus Christ

This doctrine can be easily recognized throughout the New Testament. St. Paul, writing to the Christians of Corinth, says: "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles" (1 Cor 1:22-23). In fact, God saved the world not with an act of power, but through the humiliation of his only Son: according to human standards, the unusual manner used by God clashes with the demands of Greek wisdom. Yet, the cross of Christ has its logic, which St. Paul calls: ho logos toustaurou, "the word of the cross" (1 Cor 1:18). The term 'logos' means both reason and word and, if it alludes to the word, it is because it expresses verbally what reason elaborates. Thus, Paul sees in the cross not an irrational event, but a salvific fact that has its own reasonableness, which can be recognized in the light of faith.

The Holy Father reminds us that we have no excuse to deny God as He has made Himself known through His creation. "Since the creation of the world, God's invisible perfections - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from the things he has made."

At the same time, he has such confidence in human reason that he wonders at the fact that many, while seeing the beauty of the works wrought by God, are determined not to believe in Him: "In fact", he writes in his Letter to the Romans, "since the creation of the world, God's invisible perfections - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from the things he has made "(1:20). In this way, St. Peter, too, exhorts Christians in the Diaspora to worship "the Lord Christ in your hearts, always ready to respond to anyone who asks you for an account of the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3:15). In a climate of persecution and of a strong need to witness to the faith, believers are asked to justify their adherence to the word of the Gospel with well-grounded reasons; to give the reasons for our hope.

Pope Benedict now speaks of the "virtuous relationship between science and faith."  This goes against the beliefs of most people who feel that science is all about facts and faith is based on emotions.  The Holy Father tells us that not only can faith and science come together, but it can be a "virtuous relationship".  He encourages studies that will improve man's life and bring him to a greater knowledge of the creation "not to exploit it foolishly, but to guard it and make it inhabitable."  Rather than condemning true science, the Pope encourages it:  "If science is a valuable ally of the faith for understanding God's plan in the universe, faith permits scientific progress to occur always for the good and the truth of man, while staying true to this same plan."

On these premises regarding the fruitful link between understanding and believing, rests the virtuous relationship between science and faith. Scientific research always leads to the knowledge of new truths about man and the cosmos. We see this. The true good of humanity, accessible in faith, opens the horizon in which its journey of discovery must move. Those studies, for instance, should therefore be encouraged, which are placed at the service of life and which aim to eradicate disease. Also important are the investigations to discover the secrets of our planet and the universe, in the knowledge that man is at the summit of creation not to exploit it foolishly, but to guard it and make it inhabitable. So faith, truly lived, is not in conflict with science; rather, it cooperates with it, offering basic criteria that promote the good of all, asking science to give up only those attempts which - in opposition to God's original plan - can produce effects that turn against man himself. For this reason, too, it is reasonable to believe: if science is a valuable ally of the faith for understanding God's plan in the universe, faith permits scientific progress to occur always for the good and the truth of man, while staying true to this same plan.

The Holy Father reminds us of this statement of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:  "God, who alone 'made heaven and earth' (Ps 115:15), can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in a relation to himself (no. 216)."  We can never have complete knowledge of anything without faith, which is a living relationship with our Creator.  To search for any truth without the revelation of God is the source of destruction.

That is why it is crucial for people to open themselves to faith and to know God and his plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. In the Gospel, a new humanism is inaugurated, an authentic "grammar" of man and of all reality. The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: "God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created order and governs the world. God, who alone "made heaven and earth" (Ps 115:15), can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in a relation to himself"(no. 216).

As  Hosea 4:6 tells us, we are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Certainly we have much scientific and technical knowledge, but without a relationship with our Creator, that knowledge actually becomes the source of our destruction, just as in the fable of the crow and Serpent.  This is why the Pope says in this talk that our very existence is at stake.  This is why evangelization is so important.  We who have the knowledge of life are obligated to bring that knowledge to the world:

We are confident then that our commitment to the evangelization will help give new centrality to the Gospel in the lives of many men and women of our time. Let us pray that all find in Christ the meaning of life and the foundation of true freedom: without God, in fact, man loses himself. The testimonies of those who have gone before us and have dedicated their lives to the Gospel confirm it forever. It is reasonable to believe, our existence is at stake. It is worth spending oneself for Christ, He alone satisfies the desires of truth and of goodness rooted in the soul of every man: now, in the time that passes, and in the endless day of blessed Eternity. Thank you.

These talks by the Holy Father are a great source of light in our increasingly dark and dying world.  The world is daily distancing itself more and more from our Creator and cutting itself off from the only true source of Life.  The Catholic Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the only Church founded by Jesus Christ who died and rose to save the world from darkness and death, must not shrink from bringing this saving message to suffering mankind, or their blood will be on our hands.

It is worth spending oneself for Christ, He alone satisfies the desires of truth and of goodness rooted in the soul of every man: now, in the time that passes, and in the endless day of blessed Eternity.