Under torrential rain, pilgrims huddled in queues to enter the Aula Paolo VI this morning for the Holy Father's General audience.
Continuing his catechetical cycle for the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on God's revelation of himself to man throughout history, culminating in Jesus Christ, in whom man finally saw the face of God. In English, he said:
At the end of the audience, the Holy Father asked the faithful to offer prayers during the coming Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which begins January 18 and will end on the Feast of the Conversion of St, Paul on January 25.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum, said that the intimate truth of all the Revelation of God shines forth for us "in Christ", who is both the mediator and the fullness of all Revelation" (No. 2).
The Old Testament tells us how God, after the creation, despite original sin, despite the arrogance of man in wanting to put himself in place of his Creator, offered once more the possibility of his friendship, above all through his alliance with Abraham and the destiny of a small people, that of Israel, that he had chosen not with the criteria of earthly power, but simply out of love.
It is a choice that remains a mystery and reveals the style of God who calls some, not to exclude others, but so that they may be a bridge that leads to him: Election is always an election for the other.
In the history of the people of Israel, we can follow the stages of a long journey during which God makes himself known, he reveals himself, he enters into their history with words and actions. For this work, he used mediators like Moses, the Prophets, the Judges, who communicated his will to the people, reminded them of their duty to be faithful to the covenant, and kept alive the expectation of the full and definitive realization of the divine promises.
It is precisely the realization of these promises that we contemplated at the Feast of the Nativity: The Revelation of God had reached its culmination, its fullness. In Jesus of Nazareth, God truly visits his people, he visits man in a way that goes beyond every expectation. He sent his only-Begotten Son. God himself became man.
Jesus does not tell us something about God, he does not just speak of the Father, but he is the Revelation of God, he is God, and thus he reveals to us the face of God.
In the Prolog to his Gospel, St. John writes: "No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is God and who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him"(Jn 1,18).
I wish to dwell on this 'revelation of the face of God'. In this respect, St. John, in his Gospel, reports a significant fact that we just heard. With his passion imminent, Jesus reassures his disciples, asking them to have no fear, and to have faith. Then he begins a dialog with them in which he speaks about God the Father (cfr Jn 14,2-9)
At a certain point, the apostle Philip asks Jesus, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us” (Jn 14,8) Philip is very practical and concrete, and says what we too would want to say: Show us the Father, we want to 'see' the Father, to see his face.
Jesus's answer is not just for Philip but also for us, and introduces us to the heart of the Christological faith. The Lord says, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14,9).
This sentence expresses in sum the novelty of the New Testament, the novelty that first appeared in that cave in Bethlehem: God can be seen, God has shown his face, he is visible in Jesus Christ.
The theme of 'the search for the face of God' is present throughout the Old Testament - the desire to know this face, the desire to see God as he is, such that the Hebrew word panim which means 'face', recurs at least 400 times, and 100 of these refer to God - 100 references to God, the desire to see the face of God.
And yet the Jewish religion prohibits images altogether, because God cannot be 'represented', as other nearby peoples did with their adoration of idols. Therefore, with this ban on images, the Old Testament seems to totally exclude 'seeing' in worship and in piety.
What did it mean then for the pious Israelite to seek the face of God, knowing that there could never be an image of him? The question is important. On the one hand, it says that God cannot be reduced to an object, like an image that one can take in the hand, nor can anyone be put in God's place.
On the other hand, it says God has a face, namely, a 'You' with which one can enter into a relationship, who is not closed in his Heaven to look down on mankind from on high. God is certainly over and above everything, but he addresses us, he listens, he sees us, he speaks, he makes alliances - he is capable of loving.
The history of salvation is the history of God with men, it is the story of that relationship with a God who revealed himself progressively to man, who made himself be known, who has shown his face.
At the start of the year, on January 1, we heard in the liturgy that most beautiful prayer of benediction over the people: "The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!" (Nm 6,24-26).
The splendor of the divine face is the very fountain of life, it is what allows us to see reality. The light of his face is our guide in life. In the Old Testament, there is a figure to whom the subject of 'the face of God' is linked in a very special way.
It is Moses, whom God had chosen to liberate his people from slavery in Egypt, to give him the Law of the covenant and lead him to the Promised Land. In Chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus, it is said that Moses had a close and confidential relationship with God: "The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a person speaks to a friend" (v 11).
By virtue of this confidential relationship, Moses asks God: "Show me your glory!", and God's reply is clear: "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name 'LORD' before you... But you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live... Here is a place near me... you may see my back; but my face may not be seen." (vv 18-23).
Thus, on the one hand, there was the dialog face to face, as between friends, but on the other, there is the impossibility, in this life, of seeing the face of God which remains hidden - our view is limited. The Fathers said that the words "you may see my back" mean - you can only follow Christ, and by following him, you will see from behind the mystery of God - God can be followed seeing his back.
Something completely new happens, however, with the Incarnation. The search for the face of God takes an unimaginable turn, because now this face can be seen: It is that of Jesus, the Son of God who became man.
In him is fulfilled the journey of the revelation of God that began with his call to Abraham. He is the fullness of this revelation because he is the Son of God. He is at once "the mediator and fullness of all Revelation" (Dei verbum, 2). In him the content of Revelation and Revelation itself coincide.
Jesus shows us the face of God and makes us know the name of God. In his priestly prayer at the Last Supper, he says to the Father: "I have revealed your name... I made known to them your name" (cfr Jn 17,6,26).
The expression 'name of God' refers to God as he who is among men. To Moses, at the burning bush, God had revealed his name - thus making himself invocable: he gave a concrete sign of his being among men.
All this finds completion and fullness in Jesus: He inaugurates a new way of God being present in history, because whoever sees him sees God, sees the Father, as he told Philip (cfr Jn 14,9).
Christianity, said St. Bernard, is "the religion of the Word of God", but not of "a written silent word, but of the Word incarnate and alive" (Homily 'super missus est', IV, 11: PL 183, 86B).
In the patristic and medieval tradition, a special formulation was used to express this reality: that Jesus is the Verbum abbreviatum (cfr Rm 9,28, referring to Is 10,23), - the abbreviated Word, the short word that is substantially the Word of the Father, who has told us everything about himself. In Jesus, the entire Word is present.
In Jesus, even the mediation between God and man finds its fullness. In the Old Testament, there is a whole line of figures who have carried out this function, especially Moses, the liberator, the guide, the 'mediator' of the covenant, as even the New Testmaent calls him (cfr Gal 3,19; Acts 7,35; GJn 1,17).
Jesus, true God and true man, is not just one of the mediators between God and man, he is the mediator of the new and eternal covenant (cfr Heb 8,6; 9,15; 12,24) ;. St Paul says, "For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human" (1 Tm 2,5; cfr Gal 3,19-20).
In him we see and meet the Father. In him, we can call God by the name "Abba, Father". In him, we are given salvation.
The desire to really know God, namely, to see the face of God, is inherent in every man, even in atheists. Perhaps we have this unconscious desire simply to see who he is, what he is, what he means for us.
But this desire can be realized by following Christ - we see his back, and we can finally see God as a friend, his face in the face of Christ. What is important is that we follow Christ not just when we need him and when we can find time in our daily occupations, but with all our life as it is.
All of our existence should be oriented towards meeting Jesus Christ, towards love for him. In which, a central place should be given to loving our neighbor, the love which, in the light of the Crucified One, makes us recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering.
This is possible only if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us in listening to his Word, in speaking to him interiorly, entering into this Word so that we truly encounter him, and of course, in the mystery of the Eucharist.
In the Gospel of St. Luke, the account about the two disciples at Emmaus is significant, they who recognized Jesus when he broke the bread, but were prepared by having travelled with him, prepared by their invitation asking him to stay with them, prepared by the dialog that had set their heart on fire. And so, at the end, they saw Jesus.
Even for us, the Eucharist is the great school at which we learn to see the face of God, in which we enter into an intimate relationship with him. And we learn, at the same time, to fix our gaze on the final moment of the story, when he shall satiate us with the splendor of his face. On earth, we are journeying towards that fullness, in the joyous expectation that the Kingdom of God will truly be realized. Thank you.
In the audience today was US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who greeted the Holy Father after the audience: