Pope: Advent, when the "Plan of God" is revealed
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The season of Advent, in which we find ourselves, is that in which, despite our difficulties, the certainty is renewed that "God is present and in the world to bring his plan of love to fulfilment", for which "we exist in the mind of God before the creation of the world, to be His children in Jesus Christ."
This is "God's plan for humanity" of which Benedict XVI spoke to eight thousand people present in the Paul VI Hall for the general audience. The last not accompanied by a Papal tweet, given that next Wednesday he will use this medium. His account @ pontifex on the first day of opening drew over 500 thousand "followers."
The Pope indicated in the Letter to the Ephesians the "manner" in which we should live this liturgical season. Paul elevates a prayer of blessing to God, the theme of which is "God's plan for man, defined in terms full of joy, wonder and thanksgiving, as a plan of benevolence, mercy and love."
Saint Paul " looks at his work in the history of salvation, culminating in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus, and he contemplates how Heavenly Father has chosen us even before the creation of the world, to be his sons in his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:14 s.; Gal 4:4 f.). Therefore we exist from eternity in God, in a major project that God has kept within himself and decided to implement and to reveal in "the fullness of time" (cf. Eph 1:10). St. Paul helps us to understand, then, how all creation and, in particular, man and woman are not the result of chance, but a loving plan to respond to the eternal reason of God with the creative and redemptive power of his Word which creates the world. This first statement reminds us that our vocation is not simply to exist in the world, being inserted in history, or even just being a creature of God, it is something greater: it is being chosen by God, even before the creation of the world, in the Son, Jesus Christ. In Him we exist, so to speak, already. God contemplates us in Christ, as adopted children".
God's " benevolent plan", which is qualified by the Apostle as "plan of love", is called "the mystery" of God's will, "has not been kept, so to speak, in the silence of God in the height of his heaven, but He has made it known by engaging with the man, to whom He has not only revealed something, but His very self. He has not simply communicated a set of truths, but He communicated Himself to us, to the point of becoming one of us, to being incarnate. "
In this perspective, the act of faith "is man's response to God's Revelation, which is made known, which shows His loving plan for humanity, and is, to use an expression of St. Augustine, allowing ourselves be grasped by the truth that is God, a truth that is love . This is why St. Paul emphasizes that we owe God, who has revealed His mystery, "obedience of faith" (Rom 16:26; see 1.5, 2 Cor 10: 5-6), the attitude with which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals, and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him" (Dei Verbum, 5). Obedience is not an act of coercion, it letting go, surrendering to the ocean of God's goodness All this leads to a fundamental change in the way we deal with the whole of reality, everything appears in a new light, it is therefore a true "conversion," faith is a "change of mentality" because the God who has revealed Himself in Christ, and has made known His plan, seizes us, draws us to Himself, becomes the meaning that supports life, the rock on which it can find stability. "
Finally at the end of the audience, Benedict XVI launched a new appeal for the Democratic Republic of Congo from where "I continue to receive reports of a serious humanitarian crisis": "a large part of the population lack the primary means of subsistence and thousands of inhabitants have been forced to leave their homes to seek refuge elsewhere". "I renew my call for dialogue and reconciliation, and ask the international community to work to provide for the needs of the population."
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