November 25, 2012 - Nativity of Our Lord

HOLY FATHER’S
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Last Wednesday we reflected on the desire for God that
the human being carries deeply within himself. Today I
would like to continue and deepen this aspect meditating
briefly on some paths to knowing God, remembering,
however, that God's initiative always precedes any action
of man, and even in the journey towards Him, it is He
who first enlightens us, guides us and leads us, always
respecting our freedom. And it is always He who allows
us enter into his intimacy, revealing and gifting Himself
us the grace to be able to welcome this revelation in faith.
Let us never forget the experience of St. Augustine: it is
not we who seek or possess the Truth, but the Truth that
seeks us out and posses us.
However, there are paths that can open the human heart
to knowledge of God', there are signs that lead to Him.
Of course, often we are in danger of being dazzled by
the glitter of worldliness, which make us less able to
travel these paths or to read those signs. However, God
does not tire to look for us, He is faithful to the humanity
He created and redeemed, He remains close to our
lives, because He loves us. And 'this a certainty that
must accompany us each and every day, even if certain
widespread mentalities make it increasingly difficult for
the Church and the Christian to communicate the joy of
the Gospel to all creatures and all lead to an encounter
with Jesus, the one Saviour of the world. This, however,
is our mission, the mission of the Church and every
believer must live it joyfully, feeling it to be his or her own,
through a life truly animated by faith, marked by charity,
service to God and to others, and capable of radiating
hope. This mission shines above all in the holiness to
which all are called.
Today difficulties and trials are not lacking for the faith,
often poorly understood, challenged, rejected. St. Peter
said to his Christians: "Always be ready to respond, but
with gentleness and respect, to anyone who asks you for
the hope that is in your hearts" (1 Pt 3:15). In the past, in
the West, in a society that is considered Christian, faith
was the environment in which we moved; the reference
POPE BENEDICT XVI
ST. PETER'S SQUARE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012
and adhesion to God were, for most people, part of
everyday life. Rather, it was those who do not believe that
had to justify their disbelief. In our world, the situation
has changed and, increasingly, the believer must be able
to account for the reasons of his faith. Blessed John Paul
II, in the Encyclical Fides et Ratio, emphasized how
faith is put to the test in these times, crossed by subtle
and insidious forms of theoretical and practical atheism
(cf. nn. 46-47). From the Enlightenment onwards, the
criticism of religion has intensified, history has also been
marked by the presence of atheistic systems, in which
God was considered a mere projection of the human
mind, an illusion, and the product of a society already
distorted by alienation. The last century has seen a strong
and growing secularism, in the name of the absolute
autonomy of man, considered as a measure and artifice
of reality, but depleted of his being created "in the image
and likeness of God." In our time there is a particularly
dangerous phenomenon for the faith: there is in fact a
form of atheism that we define, as 'practical', which does
not deny the truths of faith or religious rituals, but simply
considers them irrelevant to everyday existence, detached
from life, useless. Often, then, people believe in God in
a superficial way, but live "as if God did not exist" (etsi
Deus non daretur). In the end, however, this way of life
is even more destructive, because it leads to indifference
towards faith and the question of God
In reality, man is separated from God, is reduced
to a single dimension, the horizontal, and this very
reductionism is one of the fundamental causes of
totalitarianism that have had tragic consequences in the
last century, as well as the crisis of values ​that we see
in our current reality. By obscuring reference to God,
the ethical horizon is also obscured, to make room for
relativism and an ambiguous conception of freedom,
which instead of being liberating ends up binding man
to idols. The temptations Jesus faced in the desert prior
to his public ministry, represent well the "idols" that
fascinate man, when he does not look beyond himself.
When God loses centrality, man loses his proper place,
he no longer finds his place in creation, in relationships
with others. That ancient wisdom evoked in the myth of
Prometheus is still relevant: man thinks he can become