The Holy Father spoke these words at the lectio divina which he delivered yesterday at Paul VI audience hall (translation that of blog author.)
"Certainly, in these last decades we have seen another use of the word 'adult faith'. One speaks of 'adult faith' that is emancipated from the Magisterium of the Church: Until I am no longer under the mother, I am a boy, I need to free myself; when I have freed myself from the Magisterium, I am finally an adult.
"But the result is not an adult faith, the result is dependence upon the currents of the world, upon the opinions of the world, upon the dictates of the means of communication, upon the opinions of what everyone thinks and wants. It is not true emancipation, the emancipation from the Body of Christ!
"On the contrary, it is to fall under the dictatorship of the currents, of the winds of the world. The true emancipation is properly to liberate oneself from this dictatorship, in the liberty of the sons of God that believe together in the Body of Christ, with the risen Christ, and to see reality thus, and to have the capacity to respond to the challenges of our times.
"It seems to me that we must pray much to the Lord, that He might help us to be liberated in this sense, to be freed in this sense, with a faith which is truly adult, that sees, that makes one see and able to help others to arrive at true perfection, at the true stage of adulthood, in communion with Christ.
"In this context there is the beautiful expression "dell’aletheuein en te agape", to be truly in charity, is to live the truth, to be truth in charity: the two concepts go together. Today the concept of truth is somewhat under suspicion because some combine truth with violence.The truth cannot be imposed with other means, if not by itself. The truth must arrive solely transmitted of itself, with its own light. Without truth we are blind in the world, and we need a path.
"The great gift of Christ is properly that we see the Face of God, and, also if in an enigmatic way, very insufficiently, we know the goal, the essence of the truth in Christ, in His Body. And knowing this truth, we grow also in charity that is the legitimization of the truth and which shows us what truth is. This is to say really that charity, love, is the fruit of the truth – the tree is known by its fruit – and if there is not love, also the truth is not properly appropriated, seen; and where there is the truth, love is born.
"Thanks to God, we see it in every age: notwithstanding the negative facts, the fruit of love has always been present in Christianity and it is today! We see it in the martyrs, we see it in the many sisters, brothers and priests that humbly serve the poor, the sick, that are the presence of the love of Christ. And thus are the great sign that here is the truth. We pray to the Lord that He will help us to carry the fruit of love and to be thus witnesses of the truth. Thank you."
The complete text of the Holy Father's address in Italian is available at the Vatican website.
Video is available at this link.
No comments:
Post a Comment