The Tuesday issue of OR makes up for yet another widespread media display of ignoring the Pope's spiritual message when they have no topical newspeg to hang it on....
God and the world:
A road of light
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from the Dec. 13-14 issue of
The media, distracted by appwearances that are often futile, have not paid much attention to the visit of Benedict XVI to one of the parishes in his Diocese - a tiny community, at the extreme eastern edge of Rome, on a cold December morning. These December pastoral vists have become a tradition that has not been abandoned by the Bishops of Rome.
And for them, the Pope celebrated Mass and then spoke to them - an important homily delivered extemporaneously.commenting on the question that John the Baptist, from his prison cell, asked his disciples to pose to Jesus:
"Are you he who is to come? Or should we await another?" is the question in the Gospel for the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, whose liturgical color pink expresses the joy of waiting for the birth of the Lord.
Speaking like ancient preachers and capturing the attention of those present, Benedict XVI discarded his prepared text to make it more actual - looking back at the history of recent centuries, recalling the many prophets, ideologs and dictators who answered that question, saying "Not Jesus, but we, can change the world." And they did change it, the Pope says, leaving behind a void and great destruction - and obviously "It is not they" whom the world awaits.
For this, we should ask Christ himself, from whom Benedict XVI imagines his reply, "Look at what I've done. I did not cause a bloody revolution, I have not changed the world by force, but I have lit so many lights that form a great way of lights through the millennia".
Lights which have been lit in the shadows and travails of every day, for men and women like Naximilian Kolbe, Damian de Veuster and Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "because it is not violent revolution in the world nor great promises that change the world - but the silent light of truth", coming from that God near us, who gives us the certainty that we will not be forgotten, as though man were simply a product of chance.
To this God, the Pope said, in words that everyone unerstood, we must come close. To become "one of the small lights' lit by him in history, and thus to bear, in the diligent vigil of waiting, Light to the world. The Light who came to enlighten every man.
As Peter Seewald said of the Pope himself after their last interview, "He has seen the Light of the world, and he reflects it to every man".
Since yesterday, I have a sudden work 'emergency' that will keep me away from the Forum till later today.