Pope offers thanks for 2009, encourages solidarity in 2010
(January 1, 2010) As 2009 came to a close and a new year was about to be ushered
in, Pope Benedict XVI invited the world's Christians to look beyond the passage of
time toward eternity. Presiding over an evening prayer service with Eucharistic adoration
and the singing of a special hymn of thanksgiving to God on December 31, the pope
said that with the birth of Christ earthly time was "touched by Christ" and took on
a "new and surprising meaning: it became the time of salvation and grace." The prayer
service in St. Peter's Basilica was the pope's first public liturgy in the basilica
since Christmas Eve when a mentally disturbed woman leapt over a barrier and knocked
the pope down as he processed to the altar. Italian state and military police were
out in force New Year's Eve, keeping everyone out of St. Peter's Square until they
showed their ticket for the liturgy and passed through a metal detector or were cleared
by an officer with a metal-detecting wand. After the prayer service, the pope went
by pope-mobile into St. Peter's Square where, under an increasingly heavy rain, he
visited the Vatican's Nativity scene. While the Swiss Guard band played Christmas
hymns, the pope entered the grotto housing the larger-than-life-sized figures of the
Holy Family and knelt in prayer. In his homily, the pope said people must look
back at the past year and forward to the New Year recognizing that God has transformed
human history into the history of salvation. "The various events of our lives -- important
or small, simple or undecipherable, joyful or sad" -- should be understood in the
context of God's great love for each person and the invitation he extends to everyone
to set out toward "a goal that is beyond time itself: eternity," the pope said. "God
became human and gives human beings the unheard of possibility of being children of
God," he said. "This fills us with great joy and leads us to raise our praises to
God. With our voices, our hearts and our lives, we are called to say our thanks to
God for the gift of his son, who is the source and fulfilment of all the other gifts"
with which God has blessed humanity, the pope said. Pope Benedict encouraged Catholics
to make a New Year's resolution to spend more time reading the Bible so that they
could become more credible witnesses to God's loving plan of salvation. "The word
believed, proclaimed and lived gives rise to acts of solidarity and sharing," he said.
While thanking Catholics for their acts of charity in 2009, the pope said he wanted
"to encourage everyone to continue their commitment to alleviating the difficulties
in which many families still find themselves because of the economic crisis."