(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his first general audience of the Year
of Faith with a question: “Where do we believe Jesus comes from? How can the small
and weak child have brought such radical novelty to the world to change the course
of history?”. Emer McCarthy reports Listen: After
the audience he tweeted a message to his millions of followers: “When we entrust ourselves
to the Lord completely, everything changes. We are children of a Father who loves
us, and never leaves us. Below a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s
catechesis
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
the Nativity of the Lord
once again illuminates the darkness that often surrounds our world and our hearts
with his light, bringing hope and joy. Where does this light come from? From the stable
in Bethlehem, where the shepherds found "Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a
manger" (Lk 2:16). Before this Holy Family, another and deeper question arises: how
can the small and weak child have brought such radical novelty to the world to change
the course of history? Is there not something mysterious in its origin that goes beyond
that stable?
Again and again the question of the origin of Jesus emerges, the
same one posed by the prosecutor Pontius Pilate during the trial: "Where are you from?"
(Jn 19:29). Yet the origin is very clear. In the Gospel of John, when the Lord says:
"I am the bread which came down from heaven," the Jews react muttering, "Is this not
Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say,
'I have come down from heaven'?" (Jn 6.42). And, a little later, the citizens of Jerusalem
are deeply opposed to Jesus’ claim Messiahship, stating “But we know where he is from.
When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from." (Jn 7 , 27). Jesus himself
points out how inadequate their claim to know his origin, and with this already offers
an indication to know where he comes from: "You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true"(Jn
7:28). Of course, Jesus was from Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, but what is known about
his true origin?
In the four Gospels answer to the question "where" Jesus is
from clearly emerges, his true origin is the Father, He comes entirely from Him, but
in a different way from any prophet sent by God who preceded him. This originates
in the mystery of God, who "no one knows", it is already contained in the infancy
narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which we are reading in this Christmas
season. The angel Gabriel announces: "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be
called holy, the Son of God"(Lk 1:35). We repeat these words every time we recite
the Creed, the profession of faith: "et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria
Virgine," "by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary".
In this sentence we bow our heads for the veil that hid God is, so to speak, lifted
and his unfathomable and inaccessible mystery touches us directly: God becomes Emmanuel,
"God with us." When we listen to the Masses composed by the great masters of sacred
music, I think of the example of Mozart's Great Mass, we immediately notice how they
linger especially on this phrase, as if to try to express in the universal language
of music that which words can not: the great mystery of God who becomes incarnate,
who becomes man.
If we carefully consider the expression "through the Holy
Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary," we find that it includes four subjects
that interact. The Holy Spirit and Mary are explicitly mentioned, but it is understood
"He," that is, the Son, became flesh in the womb of the Virgin. In the profession
of faith, the Creed, Jesus is referred to by different names: "Lord, ... Christ, the
only Son of God ... God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God ... consubstantial
with the Father" (Nicene- Constantinople Creed). We see then that "He" refers to another
person, the Father. The first subject of this sentence is, therefore, the Father who
with the Son and the Holy Spirit, is the one God.
This affirmation in the Creed
is not about the eternal being of God, but rather speaks of an action which takes
part in the three divine Persons and that is realised “ex Maria Virgine”. Without
her, the entry of God into human history would not have come to its end and that which
is central to our profession of faith, would not have taken place: God is a God with
us. Thus Mary belongs in an essential way to our faith in the God who acts, who intervenes
in history. She offers her whole person, "agrees" to become the dwelling place of
God.
Sometimes, even in the journey and life of faith we can feel our poverty,
our inadequacy in the face of the witness to offer the world. But God chose a humble
woman, in an unknown village, in one of the most distant provinces of the great Roman
Empire. Always, even in the midst of the most difficult problems to face, we must
trust in God, renewing faith in His presence and action in our history, like in that
of Mary. Nothing is impossible with God! With him, our lives always walk on solid
ground and are open to a future of firm hope.
Profess in the Creed: "through
the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary," we affirm that the Holy Spirit as
the power of the Most High God has worked in a mysterious way in the Virgin Mary's
conception of the Son of God. The Evangelist Luke records the words of the Archangel
Gabriel: "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you" (1.35). Two references are obvious: first, at the time of creation.
At the beginning of the Book of Genesis we read that "the spirit of God was hovering
over the waters" (1.2), it is the Creator Spirit who gave life to all things and human
beings. What happens in Mary, through the working of the divine Spirit, is a new creation:
God, who called being from nothing, with the Incarnation gives life to a new beginning
of humanity. The Church Fathers often speak of Christ as the new Adam, to mark the
beginning of the new creation of the birth of the Son of God in the womb of the Virgin
Mary. This makes us reflect on how the faith brings even to us a novelty so powerful
as to make us be born anew. In fact, Baptism is the beginning of Christian life, when
we are born again as children of God, to share in the filial relationship that Jesus
has with the Father. And I would like to point out that Baptism is received, we "are
baptized" – it is passive - because no one is capable of becoming a child on their
own: it is a gift that is freely given. St. Paul recalls this adoptive sonship of
Christians in a central passage of the Letter to the Romans, he writes: "For those
who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.For you did not receive
a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, “Abba,Father!” The Spirit itself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God"(8:14-16). Only if we open ourselves to God,
like Mary, only if we entrust our lives to the Lord as a friend in whom we trust completely,
everything changes, our life takes on a new meaning and a new face: that of the children
of a Father who loves us and never abandons us. Finally, I would add a further
element in the words of the Annunciation. The angel says to Mary: "The power of the
Most High will cover you with its shadow." It 'a reminder of the holy cloud that during
the Exodus journey, stopped over the Tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant, which
the people of Israel brought with them, and that indicated the presence of God (cf.
Ex 40 ,40,34-38). Mary is the new holy tabernacle, the new Ark of the Covenant: with
her "yes" to the words of the Archangel, God receives a home in this world, He whom
the universe can not contain comes to dwell in the womb of a virgin.
So let
us return to the question with which we began, the origin of Jesus, synthesized by
Pilate's question: "Where are you?". From these considerations it appears clear from
the beginning of the Gospels, what the true origin of Jesus is: He is the Only Begotten
of the Father, he comes from God. We are before the great and disconcerting mystery
that we celebrate at Christmas time: the Son of God, through the Holy Spirit, was
born of the Virgin Mary. This is an announcement that always sounds new and carries
hope and joy to our hearts, because each time it gifts us the certainty that, even
though we often feel weak, poor, unable to face the challenges and evil of the world,
the power of God always works and works wonders in weakness. His grace is our strength
(cf. 2 Cor 12:9-10). * * * * * When we profess the mystery of the incarnation
in the Creed, we bow our heads in awe and adoration. We acknowledge that the incarnation
is the work of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, brought about through Mary’s
free cooperation. The incarnation is the beginning of the new creation. Conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is the new Adam who offers humanity rebirth
in the waters of Baptism, by which we become sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.
During this holy season, may we welcome the Saviour into our hearts, allow God’s power
to strengthen and transform our weakness, and bear joyful witness to the dawning of
the new creation.
I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors
present, including pilgrims from Norway, Japan, Vietnam and the United States. Upon
you and your families I invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy, peace and prosperity for
the year which has just begun. Happy New Year!