VATICAN CITY, OCT. 9, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The following is a summary of the Holy Father’s address to the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The summary was released by the Holy See Press Office.
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MEDITATION BY THE HOLY FATHER
The Pillars of New Evangelization are the Confessio and the Caritas, beginning with the Evangelium, on a path that leads to making the good fire of the annunciation emerge and be offered to others. This was explained by the Pope in the reflection during the Hour of Terce this morning, stating that only God is the source of this path, which then needs human commitment. Starting with the Evangelium, precisely, and returning to prayer, upon which cooperation with God is founded.
Because God shows Himself in the figure of Jesus, who is the Word, with a content which asks only to enter in us. The willingness to suffer also belongs to the Christian confession, said the Holy Father: Confessio carries within it the concept of martyrology, in the sense that it expresses the willingness to bear witness even up to the sacrifice of life. And it is this that guarantees our credibility. The Confessio should remain in heart and mouth. It must necessarily become public, because the faith carried within must be communicated to others, proclaimed, with the courage that derives from intelligence.
Because God, the Pope stated, is not only a spiritual essence. He enters in the life and senses of man. Thus in the Confessio the force of our senses is necessary, which are mutually penetrated in the symphony of God.
All of this presupposes Caritas, which is love that becomes ardor. According to the Pope, it is the flame that kindles others and becomes the fire of charity.
The Christian must not be tepid: this is the greatest danger. Going back to Scripture and the Fathers of the Church, the Pope explained that Fire, Spirit, is light, color, and force. God’s power is the power of transformation. Thus vigor creates the movement of Caritas, which becomes fundamental for Evangelization.
Besides even in the word Evangelium, we find the meaning of a proclamation of a victory, of a good and of joy, which in the context of Evangelization should become justice, peace and salvation.
Changing the meaning of the word from ancient Roman culture, the Holy Father explained how Evangelium is in itself a message of power, renewal and salvation. A word that is still valid today, when many men ask themselves if behind the clouds of history there is a God, if this is a hypothesis or a reality.
For the Christian, the Pope asserted, God exists and this existence is the source of salvation; but there is more, because God loves us, He spoke and showed Himself.
This, for the Holy Father, is again the basis of the proclamation, it is again the message that the Church must offer. Never forgetting prayer, because if God does not act, the Pope added, men’s actions are insufficient. In other words, only God can begin a path of renewal; men are to deal with the job of cooperating with willingness, putting themselves in play with their whole being, thus making the presence of God visible.
[Original text: Italian]
