Pope says joyful faith creates a better world

(Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006) Pope Benedict held an open air mass on Tuesday in the city of Regensburg in Germany saying faith is not something to be dreaded but is to be lived in joy to create a better world. An enthusiastic crowd estimated by police at more than 260,000 waved yellow and white Vatican flags as the Pope arrived at Islinger grounds outside the Bavarian city. Organisers had expected up to 350,000 people. The 79-year Pope, wearing gold and white vestments on the fourth day of his trip home, celebrated mass from a huge altar platform topped by a white canopy.
The Pope’s homily pivoted around the theme of his current visit – “Those who believe are never alone.” He said that this was indeed true as ‘faith brings us together and gives us a reason to celebrate. It gives us joy in God, joy in his creation, joy in being together.”
The Pope said that questions linked with faith appear to be too complicated but deep down, it was quite simple. The Apostles’ Creed, in which everything essential is expressed, is what the Church offers to us as our faith, he said, as it speaks of God, the creator and source of all that is, of Christ and his work of salvation, and it culminates in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.
Firstly, the Pope said the Creed affirms our belief in God, the Beginning and End of human life. We believe in a God who enters into a relationship with us human beings, who is our origin and future. Consequently, faith is, always and inseparably, hope, which is the certainty that we have a future and will not end up as nothing. And faith is love, since God’s love is contagious.
Secondly, the Creed is not a collection of propositions; it is not a theory. It is anchored in the event of Baptism, in which Jesus Christ adopts us as his brothers and sisters, welcoming us as sons and daughters into God’s own family - one great family in the universal communion of the Church. That is why, those who believe are never alone, the Pope said.
He said that attempts had been made in history to deny God's existence through the use of reason but it had failed. He said that since the enlightenment in the 18th century, some sectors of the scientific world had tried to seek "an explanation of the world in which God would be unnecessary." He added: "When God is subtracted, something does not add up for man, the world, the whole vast universe." Reiterating some of his past statements, Pope Benedict dismissed the notion that man and reason could be "nothing more than a chance result of evolution."
“Belief in God is what the first section of the Creed especially affirms – the Creator Spirit, creative Reason, the source of everything that exists, including ourselves.” “The second section of the Creed tells us that this creative Reason is Goodness, it is Love, who has taken on a human face – i.e. Christ.” “Today,” the Pope pointed out, “when we are faced with diseases associated with religion and reason, and the ways God’s image can be destroyed by hatred and fanaticism, it is important to state clearly the God in whom we believe, and to proclaim confidently that this God has a human face.” “Only this can free us from being afraid of God - which is ultimately at the root of modern atheism,” the Pope said. Only this God saves us from being afraid of the world and from anxiety before the emptiness of life.
The Pope also spoke of the last judgement and the resurrection of the dead which are articles of faith in the Creed. “Judgement,” the Pope said, “infuses fear but at the same time we would desire justice for all those unjustly condemned, for all those who suffered in life, who died after lives full of pain so that in the end everyone will find happiness, and everything will be shown to have meaning.” This triumph of justice makes truth and love prevail finally. Rather than instilling fear in us, faith calls us to accountability. We are not meant to waste our lives, misuse them, or spend them selfishly. In the face of injustice we must not remain indifferent and thus end up as silent collaborators or outright accomplices. We need to recognize our mission in history and to strive to carry it out. What is needed is not fear, but responsibility and concern for our own salvation, and for the salvation of the whole world.