It’s Not Too Good To Be True
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 9:05 PM
I can never read this Pope’s preaching without thanking God for sending us such a man.
He has such a lovely soul that pours itself out before us in his teaching. How can we not love a God who can raise up people who can speak to us of God in the way the Pope did at yesterday’s papal audience inaugurating the pre-Christmas novena?
Postponing further audiences on St. Paul until after Christmas, Benedict XVI instead took the opportunity to help us celebrate the time during which
The entire Church, in effect, turns its gaze of faith toward this approaching feast, readying itself, like each year, to unite to the joyful song of the angels, who in the heart of the night will announce to the shepherds the extraordinary event of the birth of the Redeemer, inviting them to draw close to the cave of Bethlehem.
Once again the Pope makes the claim that Christmas is for everyone, not Christians only:
Christmas is a universal feast. Even those who do not profess to be believers, in fact, can perceive in this annual Christian celebration something extraordinary and transcendent, something intimate that speaks to the heart.
Here are two other extracts that struck me. After sneaking in a Pauline reference, Benedict XVI says:
At Christmas, then, we are not limited to commemorating the birth of a great personality; we do not celebrate simply and in the abstract the mystery of the birth of man or in general, the birth of life; neither do we celebrate only the beginning of a great season. At Christmas, we remember something very concrete and important for man, something essential for Christian faith, a truth that St. John summarized in these few words: “The Word was made flesh.”
Later he’ll observe:
To many people, and in some way to all of us, this seems too beautiful to be true. In effect, here it is reaffirmed for us: Yes, there is meaning, and this meaning is not an impotent protest against the absurd. The Meaning is powerful: It is God. A good God, who is not to be confused with some lofty and distant power, to which it is impossible to ever arrive, but rather a God who has made himself close to us and to our neighbor, who has time for each one of us and who has come to stay with us.
RTWT, you won’t be sorry. A few moments of meditation on Benedict’s words just might make it “feel” a little more like Christmas to you. (Worked for me, anyway!)
The cycle of Pauline audiences will continue after Christmas. For now, we’re on Christmas break from our little seminar. You can catch up on past reading here, though.
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