Pope’s Mission Intention for December 2012

December 01, 2012: The mission intention of Pope Benedict XVI for the month of December 2012: That Christ may reveal himself to all humanity with the light that shines forth from Bethlehem and is reflected in the face of his Church.
As Pope Benedict XVI said in his homily on the solemnity of the Epiphany: the glory of the Lord shines on the holy City and attracts first of all his own children, displaced and dispersed, but also, at the same time, the pagan nations who come to Zion from all sides as to a common homeland, enriching it with their goods. However, there are many questions.

In what sense is Christ still the lumen gentium, the Light of the peoples, today? What point has the universal journey of the peoples toward God reached? Is it in a phase of progress or of regression?

The Holy Father then reiterated that ‘the whole of the Second Vatican Council was truly stirred by the longing to proclaim Christ, the Light of the world, to contemporary humanity. In the heart of the Church, from the summit of her hierarchy, emerged the impelling desire, awakened by the Spirit, for a new epiphany of Christ in the world, a world that the modern epoch had profoundly transformed and that, for the first time in history, found itself facing the challenge of a global civilization in which the centre could no longer be Europe or even what we call the West and the North of the world.

Christ is light, and light cannot darken but can only illuminate, brighten and reveal. No one, therefore, should be afraid of Christ and his message! Let yourself be enlightened by him, all peoples of the earth; let yourselves be enveloped by his love and you will find the way of peace.

We can receive no greater gift from another than to be chosen as a dearly loved friend. So we can adequately begin to celebrate Christmas only when we ponder and take to heart the words of Jesus to Nicodemus, ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life’. Then we begin to appreciate the prophecy of Isaiah taken up by Matthew, ‘The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light’.

Our minds must grow in knowing and appreciating the fundamental truth of humanity, our absolute dependence on God and his absolute self-giving in loving us. And our hearts must grow in reflecting that love by our self-giving for God and for one another. From the manger of Bethlehem to his Sermon on the Mount to the Cross of Calvary, this was what Jesus taught, by word and example.

So, won for us by the love of Christ’s total self-giving, the Holy Spirit of Adoption unites us with him as dearly loved sons and daughters of the Father. It is to shine the light of this Sonship deep within our minds and hearts that Christ comes to us today and every day, and so empowers us, by the gift of his Holy Spirit, in our turn to reflect the light of God’s love to others. He comes to be our Way to the Father, the Truth of our loving relationship with him, and our sharing in the very Life of God.