Pope’s Sunday “Angelus” message

(February 1, 2010) According to Pope Benedict XVI one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible is found in the Gospel of Sunday, Jan. 31, which indicates the path to perfection. The Pope spoke of St. Paul's "hymn to charity" before praying the traditional weekly midday “Angelus” with a large crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square. The Holy Father noted how Paul says the way of perfection "does not consist in possessing exceptional qualities: speaking new languages, knowing all the mysteries, having a prodigious faith, or doing heroic deeds. Rather, it consists in charity that is, in authentic love, that love that God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The Pope explained that that while we are in this world, "charity is the Christian difference." "In the end, when we will meet God face to face, all the other gifts will disappear; the only one that will remain in eternity will be charity, because God is love and we will be like him, in complete communion with him," the Pope added. He noted how the saints, with the "variety of their spiritual gifts, and also their human characters" are "a living canticle to God’s love!"
After praying the ‘Angelus’ Pope Benedict expressed his solidarity with those suffering from Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, and those hit by job loss because of the economic crisis, and invited prayers for peace in the Holy Land. Reminding all of World Leprosy Day on the last Sunday of January, the Holy Father recalled Father Damien de Veuster who gave his life for his brother and sister lepers. Father Damien, a 19^th century Belgian priest volunteered to minister to the leper colony in Molokai, in Hawaii, where he eventually contracted the disease and died a leper. He was declared a saint by Pope Benedict last October. The Holy Father entrusted to the saint’s heavenly protection “all those who, unfortunately still today, suffer from this disease, and all those health workers and volunteers who give themselves for the sake of a world without leprosy." .
After Sunday’s “Angelus’ the Holy Father also affirmed his spiritual participation in the second annual Day of Prayer for Peace in the Holy Land. "In communion with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Custody of the Holy Land, I spiritually unite myself to the prayer of many Christians in every part of the world, and I greet from my heart all those who have come today for this observance," he said.
Pope Benedict also urged sense of responsibility from governments, employers and workers as they deal with job losses from the economic crisis. The pontiff mentioned Fiat's decision to stop auto production at a plant in Sicily, and Alcoa's move to idle a smelter in Sardinia. The Holy Father said that everything should be done to safeguard and increase employment levels, ensuring that workers have jobs that are both dignified and adequate to support their families. The pope said the economic crisis and subsequent layoffs require “a great sense of responsibility from all: businessmen, workers, governing officials.» The Pope affirmed that he joins with the Italian episcopal conference in asking "that everything possible be done to protect and increase employment, assuring families of dignified work and adequate support."
At the end of the “Angelus”, two young members of the Catholic Action movement of Rome who flanked Pope Benedict at his studio window, released two doves, as a symbol of peace, a traditional conclusion to Catholic Action’s so-called “Peace Caravan” during the month of January.