Benedict XVI: On the Year of Faith (4)
Throughout the Year of Faith, we will publish short texts from the writings of Pope Benedict and other theologians on faith. We publish here a fourth short text from Benedict XVI’s letter, Porta Fidei (The Gate of Faith).
The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face of an offence received and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all this finds fulfillment in the mystery of his Incarnation, in his becoming man, in his sharing our human weakness so as to transform it by the power of his resurrection.
Through faith, we can recognize the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love. … It is .. his love that impels us to assist him whenever he becomes our neighbor along the journey of life.
(Faith) is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us. … Faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end. …
May this Year of Faith make our relationship with Christ the Lord increasingly firm, since only in him is there the certitude for looking to the future and the guarantee of an authentic and lasting love. Let us entrust this time of grace to the Mother of God, proclaimed “blessed because she believed” (Lk 1:45).
