Pope says bishops must stand for ‘God’s truth’

(January 06, 2012) Full of the courage of humility that does not give much heed to public opinion about him, the bishop must be capable of leading and showing the road to the faithful. His heart should therefore be restless and watchful, that is to say, capable of reading God’s signs and his soft and penetrating language, and able to discern the real from the apparent. This is what Pope Benedict XVI said bishops should be like, in his homily at a Mass on Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, marking the solemnity of the Epiphany, that commemorates the visit of the three Magi or wise men from the east to Baby Jesus. The Epiphany celebrates the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or non-Jews. During the Mass, Pope Benedict ordained two new archbishops: Msgr. Charles John Brown from the United States, who is appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, and Polish Msgr. Marek Solcynski, appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Georgia and Armenia. In his homily Pope Benedict reflected on the virtues of the Magi that bishops worldwide must inculcate, stressing that theirs should be the criterion of God’s truth and proclaiming and defending it in every situation – “opportune – importune”. The Pope noted the Magi’s search for Jesus was a question of truth itself, not human opinion, having to endure hardships, sacrifices and a certain amount of mockery for setting off to find the King of the Jews, at the cost of so much effort. The 84.year old Pontiff took inspiration from the Gospel narrative of the Magi to outline the qualities needed for the Church today, which is called to go before Christ who has preceded all of us, because He is the true Shepherd and star. Every bishop, the Pope said, must have the humility of bowing before the God who made Himself so concrete and simple so as to contradict our foolish pride that does not wish to see God so near and so small.