November 25, 2012 - Nativity of Our Lord

"god" himself, master of life and death.
Faced with this framework, the Church, faithful to Christ,
never ceases to affirm the truth about man and his
destiny. The Second Vatican Council succinctly states:
"The root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to
communion with God. From the very circumstance of his
origin man is already invited to converse with God. For
man would not exist were he not created by Gods love
and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully
according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love
and devotes himself to His Creator. "(Gaudium et Spes,
19).
What answers, then is the faith called to give with
"gentleness and respect", to the atheism, skepticism and
indifference towards the vertical dimension, so that the
man of our time can continue to question himself about
the existence of God and continue to travel along the
paths that lead to Him I would like to mention some
ways, resulting both from natural reflection and the
power of faith. I would like to very briefly sum them up
in three words: the world, man, faith.
First: the world. St. Augustine, who in his life long sought
the Truth and was seized by the Truth, has a beautiful
and famous page, in which he affirms: " Question the
beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea,
question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing
itself, question the beauty of the sky… question all
these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful."
Their beauty is a profession. These beauties are subject
to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One
who is not subject to change "(Sermo 241, 2: PL 38,
1134). I think we need to recover and restore to our
contemporaries the ability to contemplate creation, its
beauty, its structure. The world is not a shapeless magma,
but the more we know, the more we discover the amazing
mechanisms, the more we see a pattern, we see that
there is a creative intelligence. Albert Einstein said that
the laws of nature “reveal such a superior reason that all
rational thought and human law is but a very insignificant
reflection by comparison “(The World as I see it, Rome
2005). Thus a first path leading to the discovery of God is
careful contemplation of creation.
The second word: man. Again St. Augustine, has a
famous quote that says that God is closer to me than I
am to myself (cf. Confessions, III, 6, 11). From here he
formulates the invitation: "Do not go outside yourself,
come back into yourself: truth dwells in the heart of
man" (True Religion, 39, 72). This is another aspect
that we risk losing in the noisy and distracted world in
which we live: the ability to stop and take a deep look
within ourselves and read that thirst for the infinite that
we carry within, pushing us to go further and towards
that Someone who can satisfy it. The Catechism of the
Catholic Church states: "with his openness to truth and
beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the
voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite
and for happiness, man questions himself about God's
existence"(n. 33).
The third word: faith. Especially in the reality of our
times, we must not forget that a path to knowledge and
encounter with God is the life of faith. He who believes
is united with God, is open to His grace, to the power
of charity. So his existence becomes a witness not of
himself, but of the Risen Christ, and his faith is not afraid
to show itself in everyday life, it is open to dialogue that
expresses deep friendship for the journey of every man,
and knows how to bring the light of hope to the need
for redemption, happiness, and future. Faith, in fact, is
an encounter with God who speaks and acts in history
and which converts our daily life, transforming our
mentality, system of values, choices and actions. It is not
illusion, escapism, a comfortable shelter, sentimentality,
but involvement in every aspect of life and proclamation
of the Gospel, the Good News which can liberate all
of man. A Christian, a community that is industrious
and faithful to the plan of God who loved us first, are
a privileged path for those who are indifferent or doubt
His existence and His action. This, however, requires
that each one of us render our witness of faith more
transparent, purifying our life to conform it to Christ.
Today many have a limited understanding of the
Christian faith, because they identify it with a mere
system of beliefs and values ​and not so much with the
truth of God revealed in history, eager to communicate
with man face to face, in a relationship of love with
Him. In fact, the foundation of every doctrine or value
is the event of the encounter between man and God in
Christ Jesus. Christianity, before being a moral or ethical
value, is the experience of love, of welcoming the person
of Jesus. For this reason, the Christian and Christian
communities must first look to and help others to look to
Christ, the true path that leads to God.