(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI picked up his audience catechesis on the Profession
of Faith Wednesday morning with a reflection on how Abraham, as the father of believers,
teaches Christians to “go against he grain” in societies where God has become the
“great absentee” and “possession” the idol to be worshiped. Listen:
Speaking
to a packed Paul VI hall, despitethe storm that swept Rome all morning, Pope Benedict
said : “Faith makes us pilgrims on earth, inserted into the world and history, but
on the way to the heavenly homeland. Believing in God makes us carries of values which
often do not coincide with the prevailing fashion and opinion, it requires us to adopt
criteria and a conduct which do not belong to the common way of thinking. The Christian
should not be afraid to go "against the grain" to live his or her faith, resisting
the temptation to "conform". In many societies God has become the "great absentee"
and there are many and diverse idols now in His place, above all possession. And also
the significant and positive progress in science and technology have produced in humans
an illusion of omnipotence and self-sufficiency, and a growing self-centeredness,
which has created many imbalances within relationships and social behaviours”.
Below
a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis [original text Italian]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, in this Year of the faith, I would
like to start today to reflect with you on the Creed, the solemn profession of faith
which accompanies our lives as believers. The Creed begins, "I believe in God." It
is a fundamental affirmation, deceptively simple in its essence, but which opens the
infinite world of our relationship with the Lord and with His mystery. Believing in
God implies attachment to him, welcoming his Word and joyful obedience to His revelation.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, "Faith is a personal act - the
free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself" (n.
166). Being able to say that we believe in God is therefore both a gift and a commitment,
it is divine grace and human responsibility, in an experience of dialogue with God
who, out of love, "speaks to men as friends" (Dei Verbum, 2), speaks to us so that,
in faith and with faith, we enter into communion with Him.
Where can we hear
God speaking to us? Holy Scripture is fundamental, in which the Word of God becomes
audible for us and nourishes our life as "friends" of God. The entire Bible recounts
God’s revelation to humanity, the entire Bible speaks of faith and teaches us faith
by telling a story in which God carries out His plan of redemption and makes Himself
close to man, through many luminous figures of people who believe in Him and trust
Him, to the fullness of the revelation of the Lord Jesus.
In this regard, chapter
11 of the Letter to the Hebrews is most beautiful, which speaks of faith and highlights
the great biblical figures who lived and became a model for all believers: "Faith
is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen"(11.1). The
eyes of faith are thus able to see the unseen and the heart of the believer can hope
beyond all hope, just as Abraham, who Paul says in Romans "believed, hoping against
hope" (4.18 ). In fact I would like to focus my attention on Abraham, because he
is the first major reference point when speaking about faith in God, the great patriarch
Abraham, role model, father of all believers (cf. Rom 4.11 to 12 ). The Letter to
the Hebrews presents him as follows: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to
go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing
where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country,
dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; for he was looking
forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God"(11.8 to 10).
The
author of Hebrews refers here to the call of Abraham, narrated in the Book of Genesis.
What does God ask of this great patriarch? He asks him to leave, abandoning his country
and to go to the country that He will show him, "Go forth from your land, your relatives,
and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you" (Gen 12:1). How would
we respond to an invitation like that? It is, in fact, a departure in the dark, not
knowing where God will lead him, it is a journey that calls for obedience and radical
trust, which only faith can access. But the darkness of the unknown is illuminated
by the light of a promise: God adds a reassuring word to His command that opens a
future of life in its fullness to Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and
I will bless you; I will make your name great; ... All the families of the earth will
find blessing in you"(Gen 12,2.3). The blessing in Holy Scripture, is related primarily
to the gift of life that comes from God, and manifests itself primarily in fertility,
in a life that is multiplied, passing from generation to generation. And the blessing
is also connected to the experience of owning a land, a stable place to live and grow
in freedom and security, fearing God and building a society of men loyal to the Alliance,
"a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (cf. Ex 19:6).
So Abraham, in the
divine plan, is destined to become the "father of a multitude of nations" (Gen 17.5;
cf. Rom 4:17-18) and to enter into a new land to live. But Sara, his wife, is sterile,
unable to have children, and the country to which God leads him far from his native
land, is already inhabited by other peoples, and will never really belong to them.
The biblical narrator emphasizes this, although very discreetly: When Abraham arrived
in the place of God's promise: "the Canaanites were then in the land" (Gen 12:6).
The land that God gives to Abraham does not belong to him, he is a stranger and will
remain so forever, with all that this entails: having no intentions of possession,
always averting their poverty, seeing everything as a gift. This is also the spiritual
condition of those who agree to follow the Lord, who decide to leave, accepting His
call, under the sign of His invisible but powerful blessing. And Abraham, the "father
of believers," accepted this call, in the faith. St. Paul writes in his Letter to
the Romans: "He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become “the father of
many nations,” according to what was said, “Thus shall your descendants be.” He did
not weaken in faith when he considered his own body as [already] dead (for he was
almost a hundred years old) and the dead womb of Sarah. 20He did not doubt God’s promise
in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God 21and was fully
convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do"(Rom 4.18 to 21).
Faith
leads Abraham to on a paradoxical journey. He will be blessed, but without the visible
signs of blessing: he is promised he will become a great nation, but with a life marked
by the barrenness of Sarah his wife; he is brought to a new home but will have to
live there as a foreigner, and the only possession of the land that he will be allowed
will be that of a piece of land in which to bury Sarah (cf. Gen 23.1 to 20). Abraham
was blessed because, in faith, he was able to discern the divine blessing going beyond
appearances, trusting in God's presence even when His ways appear mysterious to him.
What
does this mean for us? When we say, "I believe in God," we say, like Abraham: "I trust
you, I entrust myself to You, Lord," but not as Someone to run to only in times of
difficulty or to whom to dedicate a few moments of the day or of the week. Saying
"I believe in God" means grounding my life in Him, letting His Word guide each day,
in the concrete choices without fear of losing something of myself. When, in the Rite
of Baptism, we are asked three times: "Do you believe?" In God, in Jesus Christ, in
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church and the other truths of faith, the triple
response is in the singular: "I believe," because it is my personal existence that
reaches a turning point with the gift of faith, it is my life that must change, convert.
Each time we participate in a Baptism we should ask ourselves how we live the great
gift of faith every day.
Abraham, the believer, teaches us faith, and, as a
stranger on earth, shows us the true homeland. Faith makes us pilgrims on earth, inserted
into the world and history, but on the way to the heavenly homeland. Believing in
God makes us carries of values which often do not coincide with the prevailing fashion
and opinion, it requires us to adopt criteria and a conduct which do not belong to
the common way of thinking. The Christian should not be afraid to go "against the
grain" to live his or her faith, resisting the temptation to "conform". In many societies
God has become the "great absentee" and there are many and diverse idols now in His
place, above all possesion. And also the significant and positive progress in science
and technology have created in humans an illusion of omnipotence and self-sufficiency,
and a growing self-centeredness, which has created many imbalances within relationships
and social behaviours.
And yet, the thirst for God (cf. Ps 63.2) has not been
extinguished and the Gospel message continues to resonate through the words and deeds
of many men and women of faith. Abraham, the father of believers, continues to be
the father of many children who are willing to walk in his footsteps and set out in
obedience to the divine call, trusting in the benevolent presence of the Lord and
accepting His blessing to be a blessing for all. It is the blessed world of faith
to which we are all called, to walk without fear following the Lord Jesus Christ.
And sometimes it is difficult journey, one that even knows trial and death, but one
that is open to life, in a radical transformation of reality that only the eyes of
faith can see and enjoy in abundance.
Saying "I believe in God" leads us, then,
to set out, to continually go beyond ourselves, just as Abraham, to bring the certainty
that comes from faith: the certainty into our daily reality, that is, the presence
of God in history, even today, a presence that brings life and salvation, and opens
us to a future with Him for a fullness of life without sunset.
Summary
in English:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our catechesis for
this Year of Faith, we now turn to the Creed, the solemn profession of our faith as
Christians. At the beginning of the Creed, we say “I believe in God”. Faith is our
response to the God who first speaks to us, makes himself known and calls us to enter
into communion with him. We hear God speaking to us in the Scriptures, which recount
the history of his revelation, culminating in the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ.
A central figure in this history of revelation is Abraham, the father and model of
all believers (cf. Rom 4:11-12). Sustained by God’s blessing and trusting in his
promises, Abraham set off into the unknown. Like Abraham, we too are called to let
faith shape our thoughts and actions in accordance with God’s saving word, even when
this runs contrary to the thinking and ways of this world. With the eyes of faith,
we discern God’s presence and his promise of eternal life beyond the realities of
this present existence. In opening ourselves to God’s blessing, we become in turn
a blessing for others.
Greeting to English speaking pilgrims
During
this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I offer a warm welcome to the faculty and
students of the Bossey Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, with cordial good wishes
for their studies. I also greet the military chaplains from the United Kingdom recently
returned from Afghanistan. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s
Audience, including the pilgrim and student groups from the United States, I invoke
God’s blessings of joy and peace.