Preach the Gospel with Humility, Simplicity and Love

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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???

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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).

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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).

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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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Epiphany: The Light to the World

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Isaiah 60:1-3

Today is the Feast of Epiphany, the day we celebrate the wise men of the East coming to adore our Lord and bring him gifts.  This day, like all other liturgical Feast days, is full of different meanings.  For many cultures, this is the real Christmas day, the day when our Lord opened up salvation to the entire world.  As Galatians 3:28 says:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

The story of the wise men journeying to the little known and unimportant town of Bethlehem has many different elements in it.  The wise men, first of all, were aware that a King was being born because they looked beyond their own world, not living with their vision restricted just to their every day lives.  They realized there was something bigger in the universe than themselves.  When they received the sign of the brilliant star in the sky, they left all that was known and comfortable and set out to find the King for whom this star was a sign.  They gathered up all their most precious gifts and traveled across unknown lands, guided by the brilliant star.  They showed an amazing faith not seen in all of Israel.

Gentile da Fabriano: "Adoration of the Magi"

Since they were journeying to see a King, they naturally assumed that he would be born in a king's palace.   They went to the only palace in that region, which was that of the wicked King Herod.  Herod immediately advised them that the King they sought was not there, and thus they continued to follow the star.  The Star led them to a humble dwelling which did not deter them.  Matthew 2:11 says, "entering the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down, they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold (representing royalty), frankincense (representing the prayers of the faithful), and myrrh (used in embalming, which pictures the death of our Lord)." We should take note of how these men acted in the presence of the Lord.  They "fell down in worship."  They knew they were in the presence of Divinity, and they responded accordingly.  How often do we enter and leave a Church in which our Lord resides in the tabernacle, and give acknowledgement to our great Creator with no more than barely a nod of the head, and sometimes not even that much?   As St. Leo the Pope stated in a sermon,

As the Wise Men fell down and worshipped him in the manger, so let us fall down and worship him, enthroned omnipotent in heaven. As they opened their treasures and presented unto him mystic and symbolic gifts, so let us strive to open our hearts to him, and offer him from thence some worthy offering.

The gifts given by the wise men were not only to honor our Lord, but they also had a practical use, as the Holy Family would be needing these gifts to finance their flight into Egypt to escape the murderous wrath of King Herod.

Again we see the common thread of having to leave what is comfortable and journey to the unknown.  We saw this when Mary, after having just conceived the Christ Child, journeyed to her cousin Elizabeth's house for the birth of John the Baptist.  We saw the Holy Family journey from Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem where our Savior was born.  We see the wise men journey from their homes in the East across many lands to worship the Christ Child.

And as just stated, the Holy Family must journey again to the strange and unfriendly land of Egypt to escape Herod.  We are told in Matthew 2:15 that this was done "that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son."  Egypt, the land from which the ancient Israelites were freed, is synonymous with slavery.  By making that literal journey from Egypt, Christ shows that He will be with us every step of the way as we come out of our slavery to sin.  We cannot be followers of Christ unless we are willing to leave the comfort of our lives in which we are enslaved to sin and journey with Him to salvation, taking each step in faith that He will guide us to our destination.

Below is part of the homily delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on January 6, 2006 regarding the meaning of this great Feast day:

The Magi worshipped a simple Child in the arms of his Mother Mary, because in him they recognized the source of the twofold light that had guided them: the light of the star and the light of the Scriptures. In him they recognized the King of the Jews, the glory of Israel, but also the King of all the peoples.

The mystery of the Church and her missionary dimension are also revealed in the liturgical context of the Epiphany. She is called to make Christ's light shine in the world, reflecting it in herself as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

The ancient prophecies concerning the holy city of Jerusalem, such as the marvellous one in Isaiah that we have just heard: "Rise up in splendour! Your light has come.... Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance" (Is 60: 1-3), have found fulfilment in the Church.

 This is what disciples of Christ must do: trained by him to live in the way of the Beatitudes, they must attract all people to God through a witness of love: "In the same way, your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your deeds and give praise to your heavenly Father" (Mt 5: 16). By listening to Jesus' words, we members of the Church cannot but become aware of the total inadequacy of our human condition, marked by sin.

The Church is holy, but made up of men and women with their limitations and errors. It is Christ, Christ alone, who in giving us the Holy Spirit is able to transform our misery and constantly renew us. He is the light of the peoples, the lumen gentium, who has chosen to illumine the world through his Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1).

 "How can this come about?", we also ask ourselves with the words that the Virgin addresses to the Archangel Gabriel. And she herself, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, gives us the answer: with her example of total availability to God's will - "fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum" (Lk 1: 38) - she teaches us to be a "manifestation" of the Lord, opening our hearts to the power of grace and faithfully abiding by the words of her Son, light of the world and the ultimate end of history.

So be it!

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.

Faith: An Encounter With God

Faith is an encounter with God who speaks and acts in history and who converts our daily life, transforming our mentality, value judgments, choices and concrete actions. It is not an illusion, an escape from reality, a comfortable shelter, sentimentality, but is the involvement of one's whole life and is the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News capable of liberating man in his entirety.

Pope Benedict XVI

Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher (among many other accomplishments) of the 19th Century, once made a statement that has echoed down through the last couple of centuries, and which I believe applies to our time more than when Thoreau first wrote this:

Is there any other way to describe the out-of-control greed and materialism that we witnessed on Thanksgiving Day into Friday as shoppers rushed into stores shoving, pushing and fighting in order to get "stuff?"

These were the headlines from the Drudge Report:

This was the face of Black Friday mayhem, truly a picture of a dying nation:

Never in the history of mankind has a nation had such material wealth as we in the United States possess, and instead of satisfying our needs and wants, it make us even more desperate.  If we can just get the latest iPad, TV, phone, computer, shoes, clothes, etc., then we will be happy.  That will take away that terrible aching void that we carry within us and which we try so hard to drown out with all of our many amusements and distractions.  But no matter what we do, that void is still there.

The United States has been a great experiment in materialism and its complete failure to satisfy man's deepest needs.  We look at these pictures and read the stories of people reduced to a state lower than wild animals in a feeding frenzy, and we know that this cannot be what our founding fathers had in mind when they created our once great nation.  "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" just doesn't translate to people trampling over one another to get a Smartphone.

So what is it that we are truly in search of?

For the past month, a white-haired, soft spoken 85-year old man in Rome has been giving us the answers to our most profound longings.  Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the Year of Faith in October and has been following up with a series of deeply reflective talks on this subject at his weekly Wednesday audiences.  He has explained that faith is what connects us to our Creator, who is the source of every good and perfect gift, as James 1:17 tells us.  Nothing on this earth will truly satisfy and fulfill what we long for because all earthly things are temporary and will one day be gone.  If our heart is wrapped around the temporary things of this world, we will disappear with them.

The subject of this post is the talk given by His Holiness on November 14 in St. Peter's Square.  The translation is taken from the Vatican website.

The Pope began this talk by reminding us that faith initiates with God.  It is His actions that create faith in us, not anything that we do.  It is only because of God's great love and mercy in extending Himself to us that we are able to "journey towards him."  If you feel drawn to God, it is not the result of your actions but because He is working in you and drawing you, as Pope Benedict tells us in the quote from St. Augustine:  "it is not we who possess the Truth after having sought it, but the Truth that seeks us out and possesses us":

Last Wednesday we reflected on the desire for God that human beings carry deep within them. Today I would like to continue to examine this aspect, meditating briefly with you on some of the ways to attain knowledge of God. I wish to recall, however, that God’s initiative always precedes every human initiative and on our journey towards him too it is he who first illuminates us, who directs and guides us, ever respecting our inner freedom. It is always he who admits us to intimacy with him, revealing himself and giving us the grace to be able to accept this revelation in faith. Let us never forget St Augustine’s experience: it is not we who possess the Truth after having sought it, but the Truth that seeks us out and possesses us.

His Holiness goes on to tell us that even though it is God who must give us the faith we need to come to Him, there are also things we can do that will make us more open to Him.  However, just as we can make ourselves more open to God, we can also do things that will close us off from Him.  Even then, when we have let worldliness come between us and our Creator, He always remains faithful and ready to close that gap which we ourselves have created:

Nonetheless there are ways that can open the human heart to knowledge of God, there are signs that lead to God. Of course, we often risk being dazzled by the glare of worldliness that makes us less able to follow these paths and to read these signs. Yet God never tires of seeking us, he is faithful to the human being whom he created and redeemed, he stays close to us in our life because he loves us.

Pope Benedict also reminds us here of our God-given mission in life "to lead everyone to the encounter with Jesus, the one Saviour of the world."  He also says that this is not preaching to others on a street corner but "This mission shines out above all in the holiness to which we are all called."

This is a certainty [that God is always with us] that must accompany us every day, even if a certain widespread mentality makes it harder for the Church and for Christians to communicate to every creature the joy of the Gospel and to lead everyone to the encounter with Jesus, the one Saviour of the world.

However, this is our mission. It is the mission of the Church and every believer must carry it out joyously, feeling it his own, through an existence truly enlivened by faith, marked by charity, by service to God and to others, and that can radiate hope. This mission shines out above all in the holiness to which we are all called. 

As the Holy Father now tells us, few today truly understand what faith in God means because we have separated God from our daily lives.  Western society was Christian in past generations, and people's religious beliefs were a part of their everyday lives and the motivating factor behind all their actions and decisions.  This is no longer true.  It use to be the non-believer was on the outside of society.  Now it is believers who are considered outcasts and who must defend their beliefs:

Today — as we know — faith, which is all too often not properly understood and contested or rejected, encounters no lack of difficulties and trials. St Peter said to his Christians: “Always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15). In the past, in the West, in a society deemed Christian, faith was the context in which people acted; the reference and adherence to God were part of daily life for the majority. Rather, it was the person who did not believe who had to justify his or her own incredulity. In our world the situation has changed and, increasingly, it is believers who must be able to account for their faith.

Pope Benedict XVI now describes the persecution and belittlement that believers must endure from a society which rejects God as a "a mere projection of the human mind, an illusion and the product of a society already misled by so many alienating factors":

In his Encyclical Fides et Ratio Blessed John Paul II stressed that faith is also put to the test in our day, riddled with subtle and captious [meaning finding fault with every little thing and impossible to please] forms of atheism, both theoretical and practical (cf. nn. 46-47). Ever since the Enlightenment the criticism of religion has been gathering momentum; history has also come to be marked by the presence of atheistic systems in which God was seen as a mere projection of the human mind, an illusion and the product of a society already misled by so many alienating factors.

Pope Benedict XVI now shows us the danger of humans making themselves the center of their own universe, measuring everything by ourselves and cutting ourselves off from awareness of anything bigger than we are.  Atheism in our time has evolved from militant disbelief in God to dismissing God as "irrelevant." Atheists tolerate a certain belief in God as long as it remains superficial and doesn't interfere with our lives. This is actually more dangerous than outright rejection of God because we are no longer even exploring the question of God's existence and importance in our lives. Indifference completely shuts the door to God because he doesn't enter into our thoughts even in a negative way:

Moreover the past century experienced a strong process of secularization under the banner of the absolute autonomy of the human being, considered as the measure and architect of reality, but impoverished by being created “in the image and likeness of God”. A particularly dangerous phenomenon for faith has arisen in our times: indeed a form of atheism exists which we define, precisely, as “practical”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not denied but are merely deemed irrelevant to daily life, detached from life, pointless. So it is that people often believe in God in a superficial manner, and live “as though God did not exist” (etsi Deus non daretur). In the end, however, this way of life proves even more destructive because it leads to indifference to faith and to the question of God.

When we become this separated from God, shutting Him completely out of our existence, Pope Benedict says we "are reduced to a single dimension - the horizontal."  This means we do not have any kind of spiritual element in our lives at all.  This has been the cause of so much of the suffering we have seen in the last century under tyrannical dictators. As the Pope explains:  "By obscuring the reference to God the ethical horizon has also been obscured, to leave room for relativism and for an ambiguous conception of freedom which, instead of being liberating, ends by binding human beings to idols."  Pope Benedict XVI experienced this firsthand having grown up in Nazi Germany and having seen the ravages of Communism in Eastern Europe and throughout Russia.

In fact human beings, separated from God, are reduced to a single dimension — the horizontal — and this reductionism itself is one of the fundamental causes of the various forms of totalitarianism that have had tragic consequences in the past century, as well as of the crisis of values that we see in the current situation. By obscuring the reference to God the ethical horizon has also been obscured, to leave room for relativism and for an ambiguous conception of freedom which, instead of being liberating, ends by binding human beings to idols.

The idols that arise when we are cut off from our Creator and which destroy our freedom were symbolized by the three temptations experienced by Our Lord when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. The three temptations were:  for material,worldly things (changing stones into bread), willfulness and rebellion against God (Christ tempting God by throwing Himself off of a high pinnacle) and power (Satan promising Christ the world if He will worship him).  It all comes down to man making himself a god:

The temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness before his public ministry vividly symbolize which “idols” entice human beings when they do not go beyond themselves. Were God to lose his centrality man would lose his rightful place, he would no longer fit into creation, into relations with others. What ancient wisdom evokes with the myth of Prometheus has not faded: man thinks he himself can become a “god”, master of life and death.

It is only communion with God through the Church that will give us true freedom and true dignity.  We were created by and for God.  He is the one who sustains our existence through His Love.  That is our purpose and destiny in life, and to try to substitute anything else in the place of God will destroy us:

With this picture before her, the Church, faithful to Christ’s mandate, never ceases to affirm the truth about man and about his destiny. The Second Vatican Council affirms it concisely: “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and unless he entrusts himself to his Creator” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 19).

We must have faith - which is not from us but a gift from God -  in order to answer the  skeptics and atheists who challenge us with their indifference to God.  And we must answer our adversaries with "gentleness and reverence."  Our goal is to bring the concept of God back into their consciousness, to take them out of their indifference, which is so very dangerous to their eternal life, and lead them to the paths that will open them to God:

What answers, therefore, is faith required to give, “with gentleness and reverence” to atheism, to scepticism, to indifference to the vertical dimension, in order that the people of our time may continue to ponder on the existence of God and take paths that lead to him? I want to point out several paths that derive both from natural reflection and from the power of faith itself. I would like to sum them up very briefly in three words: the world, man, faith.

The Pope now gives us three paths that will open us to our Creator.  First, the physical world in which we live can be very powerful in leading us to God.  Pondering the physical creation around us, the beauty, complexity and perfection of it, is a very real path to God:

The first word: the world. St Augustine, who spent much of his life seeking the Truth and was grasped by the Truth, wrote a very beautiful and famous passage in which he said: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky... question all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful’. Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?” (Sermo 241, 2: pl 38, 1134).

I think we should recover — and enable people today to recover — our capacity for contemplating creation, its beauty and its structure. 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). Consequently a first path that leads to the discovery of God is an attentive contemplation of creation.

In something of a paradox, the Holy Father advises us to return to ourselves, not in a manner of glorifying and setting ourselves up as our own god, but to open ourselves up to the questions and longings that are innate to all people, the need for purpose in life and the realization that there is something bigger than ourselves for which we should be living.  But to do this, we have to turn off the world and find a quiet place where we can hear ourselves:

The second word: man. Again, St Augustine was to write a famous sentence in which he says that God is more intimate to me than I am to myself (cf. Confessions III, 6, 11).

Hence he formulates the invitation, “do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: the truth is higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self” (De Vera Religione, 39, 72). This is another aspect that we risk losing in the noisy and dispersive world in which we live: the ability to pause and look deeply into ourselves and to reinterpret the thirst for the infinite that we bear within us, that impels us to go further and to refer to the One who can quench it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “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” (n. 33).

The third path given to us by the Holy Father is simply a life of faith, the way in which believers "preach" to non-believers.  The Holy Father describes those who are living a life of faith:  "Those who believe are united to God and open to his grace, to the power of his love."  Again, Pope Benedict is showing that it is God who does the work in us.  Our part is to be open to God's grace.  By being open to God, we become strong witnesses for Him to the unbelieving world.

The third word: faith. We must not forget, especially in the situation of our time, that the life of faith is a path which leads to the knowledge of and encounter with God. Those who believe are united to God and open to his grace, to the power of his love. Thus their existence becomes a witness, not of themselves but of the Risen One, and their faith does not hesitate to shine out in daily life, open to dialogue that expresses deep friendship for the journey of every human being and can bring hope to people in need of redemption, happiness, a future.

The Holy Father now describes the transformative effects of faith, and that faith, "an encounter with God who speaks and works in history and converts our daily life", is more real than anything else we can ever experience in our earthly existence.  This is what we are called to share with the rest of humanity: 

Faith, in fact, is an encounter with God who speaks and works in history and converts our daily life, transforming within us mentalities, value judgments  decisions and practical actions. Faith is not an illusion, a flight of fancy, a refuge or sentimentalism; rather it is total involvement in the whole of life and is the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News that can set the whole of the person free. A Christian and a community that are active and faithful to the plan of God who loved us first, are privileged paths for those immersed in indifference or in doubt about their life and action. However, this asks each and every one to make their testimony of faith ever more transparent, purifying their life so that it may be in conformity with Christ.

The Pope declares that Christian faith is much more than an intellectual belief system.  It is about a personal relationship with the Great God and Creator of the Universe whom, as the Holy Father tells us, is actually "anxious to communicate with human beings in a tête-à-tête, in a relationship of love with them."  As Pope Benedict XVI tells us, "at the root of every doctrine or value is the event of the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, before being a moral or an ethic, is the event of love, it is the acceptance of the Person of Jesus.

Many people today have a limited idea of the Christian faith, because they identify it with a mere system of beliefs and values rather than with the truth of a God who revealed himself in history, anxious to communicate with human beings in a tête-à-tête, in a relationship of love with them. In fact, at the root of every doctrine or value is the event of the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, before being a moral or an ethic, is the event of love, it is the acceptance of the Person of Jesus. For this reason the Christian and Christian communities must first look and make others look to Christ, the true Way that leads to God.

I felt tremendous sadness when I saw the pictures over the Thanksgiving weekend of people trampling over each other just to get perishable "stuff".  Our Lord stands at our side at all times holding out his hands in mercy and love, offering us true life, the only life that will fill the tremendous void in our hearts.  But we ignore our Creator and Redeemer and are instead taken in by the things of this world which seem so alluring, so attractive.  They give us momentary thrills, but the joy and satisfaction never last, and then we are on the next thing, only to again find disappointment and emptiness.

We can accept the momentary pleasures of this world which will eventually lead to our spiritual death, or we can answer the loving and merciful call of our Creator who wishes to share Himself with us for all eternity.  That is our choice, that is what faith, God reaching out to us, is all about.

“The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and unless he entrusts himself to his Creator” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 19).