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Skriven 2007-01-04 22:02:36 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                               VIS-Press releases

OPENING OUR HEARTS AND MINDS TO CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, JAN 3, 2007 (VIS) - In his first general audience of this year,
held this morning in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, the Pope pointed out how the
atmosphere of Christmas "invites us to rejoice for the birth of the Redeemer."

"Those who pause in meditation before the Son of God lying defenseless in the
manger cannot but marvel at this humanly incredible event; they cannot but
share the wonder and the humble abandonment of the Virgin Mary, whom God chose
as the Mother of the Redeemer precisely because of her humility.

"In the Child of Bethlehem," the Holy Father added, "all mankind discovers
itself to be gratuitously loved by God. In the light of Christmas, the infinite
goodness of God is made plain to each of us. In Jesus, the heavenly Father
inaugurated a new relationship with us: He made us 'sons in the Son'."

"However, the joy of Christmas does not make us forget the mystery of evil
(mysterium iniquitatis), the power of the dark that seeks to obscure the
splendor of divine light, and unfortunately we experience this power of
darkness every day. ... This is the drama of the rejection of Christ which,
today as in the past, shows and expresses itself in many different ways."
Indeed, "perhaps the ways of refusing God in the modern age are even more
insidious and dangerous: from outright rejection to indifference, from
scientistic atheism to the presentation of a modernized or post-modernized
Jesus, a human Jesus, reduced in various ways to being a simple man of His time
and deprived of His divinity; or perhaps a Jesus so idealized as to appear as a
character of legend."

Yet, Pope Benedict said, "only the Child lying in the manger possesses the real
secret of life. For this reason He asks for acceptance, for space to be made
for Him among us, in our hearts, in our houses, in our cities and in our
societies," In this "we are helped by the simplicity of the shepherds and the
quest of the Magi, who through the star scrutinized the signs of God, [and by]
the docility of Mary and the prudent wisdom of Joseph."

"At the beginning of this new year, let us reawaken our commitment to open our
minds and hearts to Christ, sincerely demonstrating to Him our will to live as
His true friends. Thus will we become collaborators in His plan of salvation
and witnesses of the joy He brings, that we may spread it abundantly about us.
... Let us accompany Jesus, walk with Him, and thus the new year will be happy
and good."
AG/CHRISTMAS/...VIS 070103 (450)

SUMMARY

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