Third Advent Sermon: Jesus Christ is the living God
By Pope
Jesus Christ is the definitive place of the encounter between God and man. The third Advent sermon for the Pontifical Household, preached in the presence of the Holy Father, revolved around the idea of this âbridge,â which unites the eternity of the Father with our existence in time. âJesus Christ,â said Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, âis the living God.â Christ gave His life as âa ransom,â and for love of all human beings, without distinction.
God welcomes the just
âMore than the salvation of those who have not known Christ,â Fr Cantalamessa said, âwe need to be concerned, I believe, about the salvation of those who have known him but live as though he never existed, completely forgetting their baptism and estranged from the Church and every religious practice.â With regard to the former, he said, âScripture assures us that âGod shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Himâ.â
The humility of God
Father Cantalamessa insisted that Godâs âoffer of salvation is universalâ: God desires the salvation of all human persons, not only those who know that He is their Saviour. âGod is humble in creating,â he said. âHe does not put His label on everything, the way people do. It is not written within creatures that they are made by God; that is left for them to discover.â
In the Holy Spirit, Jesus reveals the Father
âThe Holy Spirit is the true âliving environmentâ ⌠in which every authentic Christian theology is born and developed,â the Papal preacher said. âJesus is still the one who continues to reveal the Father in the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is now the Spirit of the Risen One, the Spirit who continues and carries out the work of the earthly Jesus.â Unlike the idols of pagan religions, the living God, said Fr Cantalamessa, âis a âGod Who breathesâ, and the Holy Spirit is His breath.â And, he affirmed, this is true also of Christ: âThe Holy Spirit is âthe breath of the Risen Oneâ in history.â
God is real
The Spirit of the living God, said Fr Cantalamessa, âcreates in the depths of a person that state of grace through which one experiences a great âilluminationâ one day and discovers that God exists, that He is real.â Those who seek God elsewhere, âonly in the pages of books, or through human reasoning,â need to hear the words of the angel to the woman at the empty tomb: âWhy do you seek the living among the dead?â
âAnd the Word was made fleshâ
Father Cantalamessa ended his sermon by calling to mind the Prologue of the Gospel of St John. âA meditation on the role of Christ as the unique revealer of the Living God cannot conclude in a worthier mannerâ than with that Gospel passage â considered not as a reading to be commented upon, but as âa hymn of praise that now springs up in our hearts to the glory of the most Holy Trinityâ: âIn the beginning was the Word⌠and the Word was with God, and the Word was God⌠The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among usâŚâ
Read the full text of Father Raniero Cantalamessaâs for 2018 at his .
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