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Pope Benedict XVI- Angelus |
Angelus Message
On All Saints' Day
"Everything Passes, Only God Does Not Change"
H.H. Benedict XVI
November 1, 2006
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today we celebrate the solemnity of All Saints, and tomorrow we
commemorate the faithful departed.
These two deeply felt liturgical observances offer us a singular
opportunity to meditate on eternal life. Does modern man still look
for this eternal life or does he think that it belongs to a
mythology that we have moved beyond?
In this our time, more so than in the past, we are so absorbed by
earthly things that it is hard for us to think of God as a
protagonist in history and in our own lives. Human existence,
however, by its very nature, is directed toward something greater,
which transcends it. The yearning in human beings for the fullness
of justice, truth and happiness is irrepressible.
Faced with the enigma of death, there is alive in many the desire
and the hope to find their loved ones again up above. Just as
powerful is the belief in a final judgment which will re-establish
justice, the expectation of a definitive confrontation in which each
will be allotted what he deserves.
"Eternal life," however, does not mean for us Christians simply a
life that lasts forever, but rather a new quality of existence fully
immersed in the God's love, which frees us from evil and death and
which puts us in everlasting communion with all the brothers and
sisters who share in the same love.
Consequently, eternal life can already be present in the center of
earthly and temporal life when, through grace, the soul is joined to
God, its ultimate foundation. Everything passes, only God does not
change. A Psalm says: "My flesh and my heart diminish; but the rock
of my heart is God, God is my lot forever" (Psalm 72[73]:26).
All Christians, called to sanctity, are men and women who live
anchored solidly in this "rock"; they have their feet on the earth
but their heart is already in heaven, definitively dwelling with the
friends of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, we meditate on this reality with our soul
turned toward our final and definitive destiny, which gives meaning
to the circumstances of our daily lives. Let us revive the joyous
sentiment of the communion of saints and allow ourselves to be drawn
by them to the goal of our existence: the face-to-face encounter
with God.
Let us pray that this be the inheritance of all the faithful
departed, not only of our own loved ones but also of all souls,
especially those most forgotten and most in need of divine mercy.
May the Virgin Mary, queen of all saints, guide us to choose eternal
life in every moment -- the "life of the world to come," as we say
in the Creed; a world already inaugurated by the resurrection of
Christ and whose coming we can hasten with our sincere conversion
and works of charity.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[At the end of the Angelus the Pope greeted pilgrims in several
languages. In English, he said:]
I offer a warm welcome to all the English-speaking visitors gathered
for this Angelus prayer.
Today's solemnity of All Saints invites us to rejoice in the
fellowship of the saints, to imitate their example and to strive to
share in their eternal reward. Through their prayers, may all of us
be strengthened in our fidelity to the Gospel and its promises. God
bless you all!
Look at the One they
Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
