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Pope Benedict XVI- Angelus |
On
Gaudete Sunday
"God Is Near as Friend and Faithful Husband"
H.H. Benedict XVI
December 16, 2007
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
"Gaudete in Domino semper" -- "Rejoice in the Lord always"
(Philippians 4:4). With these words of St. Paul, holy Mass of the
Third Sunday of Advent opens, and for this reason it is called "Gaudete."
The apostle exhorts Christians to rejoice because the coming of the
Lord, that is, his glorious return, is certain and he will not
delay. The Church makes precisely this invitation while she prepares
to celebrate Christmas and her gaze is turned always more toward
Bethlehem. In fact, we await his second coming with certain hope
because we have known his first coming.
The mystery of Bethlehem reveals to us God-with-us, God near to us,
not simply in a spatial and temporal sense; he is near to us because
he has wedded, so to speak, our humanity; he has taken our condition
upon himself, choosing to be completely like us, except in sin, to
make us like him. Christian joy thus flows from this certainty: God
is near, he is with me, he is with us, in joy and suffering, in
health and sickness, as friend and faithful husband. And this joy
remains even in trials, in suffering itself, and remains not on the
surface but rather in the depths of the person who gives himself to
God and confides in him.
Some ask themselves: But is this joy still possible today? The
answer is given by the life of men and women of every age and social
condition, happy to consecrate their existence to others! Was not
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta perhaps, in our times, an
unforgettable witness of evangelical joy? She lived in daily contact
with misery, human degradation, death. Her soul knew the trial of
the dark night of faith, and yet she bestowed the smile of God upon
all.
We read in one of her writings: "With impatience we await paradise,
where God is, but it is in our power to be in paradise beginning
here below and from this moment. Being happy with God means: loving
like him, helping like him, giving like him, serving like him" ("La
gioia di darsi agli altri," Ed. Paoline, 1987, 43).
Yes, joy enters into the heart of those who place themselves at the
service of the least and the poor. In those who love in this way God
takes up his abode and the soul is in joy. If, however, happiness is
made an idol, the wrong road is taken and it is truly difficult to
find Jesus. This, unfortunately, is the proposal of the cultures who
put individual happiness in the place of God; it is a mentality that
finds its emblematic effect in the pursuit of pleasure at all costs,
in the spread of drug use as an escape, like a refuge in artificial
paradises, which subsequently show themselves to be completely
illusory.
Dear brothers and sisters, even at Christmastime it is possible to
take the wrong road, to exchange the true feast for that one that
does not open the heart to Christ. May the Virgin Mary help all
Christians, and men in search of God, to reach Bethlehem, to meet
the Child who is born for us, for the salvation and happiness of all
men.
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
[After the Angelus, the Pope greeted the people in several
languages. In English, he said:]
I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors
present for today's Angelus. On this Third Sunday of Advent we are
called to renew our hope in Christ, the Saviour who has been
promised to us. As we look forward to his coming may we experience
the joy of his salvation. I wish you all a pleasant stay in Rome,
and a blessed Sunday!
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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