On The Path of St. James
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Monday, November 08, 2010 4:00 PM
For a pope who intended not to travel much, Benedict XVI sure gets around.
This weekend he took a quick hop to northern Spain to observe the jubilee of Santiago de Compostela and to dedicate a new church.
In his principal homily of the journey, the Pope asks what Christianity can offer Europe.
What is the specific and fundamental contribution of the Church to that Europe which for half a century has been moving towards new forms and projects? Her contribution is centred on a simple and decisive reality: God exists and he has given us life. He alone is absolute, faithful and unfailing love, that infinite goal that is glimpsed behind the good, the true and the beautiful things of this world, admirable indeed, but insufficient for the human heart. Saint Teresa of Jesus understood this when she wrote: “God alone suffices.”
Before going further, I’d just like to note that the Pope frequently asks some variation of this question, “What’s so great about Christianity?” I note it because when he asked the same question of Islam at Regensberg near the beginning of his pontificate, Islamic extremists and secular media alike chose to read it as an insult. But for the pope it was no insult at all—he poses the same question to himself and to Christianity all the time. He likes to get to the heart of the matter—and for a highly secular country like Spain, isn’t that the heart of the matter? What good is Christianity?
Returning to the text: He laments the fact that in the 19th century, Europe began to believe that God and human freedom were antagonists.
Drawing from a reading of the day, he shows that this position makes no sense:
how could God have created all things if he did not love them, he who in his infinite fullness, has need of nothing (cf. Wis 11:24-26)? Why would he have revealed himself to human beings if he did not wish to take care of them?
He then goes on to suggest that conditions for “man” have not improved under the regime of extreme skepticism of God, and that Christianity protects man from becoming inhumane:
Allow me here to point out the glory of man, and to indicate the threats to his dignity resulting from the privation of his essential values and richness, and the marginalization and death visited upon the weakest and the poorest. One cannot worship God without taking care of his sons and daughters; and man cannot be served without asking who his Father is and answering the question about him.
He therefore calls the disciples of St. James to be courageous in leading Europe not to fear God, but to open itself once again to his grace:
The Europe of science and technology, the Europe of civilization and culture, must be at the same time a Europe open to transcendence and fraternity with other continents, and open to the living and true God, starting with the living and true man. This is what the Church wishes to contribute to Europe: to be watchful for God and for man, based on the understanding of both which is offered to us in Jesus Christ.
Print Blog
Email a FriendPost a Comment
By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.
