Pope: 'We Can Speak of God Because He Has Spoken With Us'

By Junno Arocho

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 29, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Continuing his catechesis series on faith, Pope Benedict XVI focused his weekly General Audience on communicating the Christian faith to others. The Holy Father addressed thousands of pilgrims gathered at Paul VI Hall.

Regarding the question on how to speak of God today, the Holy Father stated that "we can speak of God because He has spoken with us."

"The first condition of speaking of God is therefore to listen to what God himself has said. God has spoken to us! God is therefore not a distant hypothesis about the origin of the world, nor a mathematical intelligence far away from us. God cares for us, loves us, has personally entered into the reality of our history, he has communicated himself to the point of becoming incarnate," the Holy Father said.

The Pope also emphasized the importance of being clear as to what must be brought to today's men and women, which is, God as the answer to the question of why and how should we live.

"In speaking of God, in the work of evangelization, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we need to recover simplicity, to return to the essentials of the announcement: the Good News of God-Love who comes close to us in Jesus Christ to the point of the Cross and who in the Resurrection gives us hope and opens for us a life that has no end, eternal life," the Pope said.

Citing the First Letter to the Corinthians, Pope Benedict said that St. Paul did not preach a philosophy or an idea that was developed, nor did he preach to seek fame or glory but speaks of a real God who lives and "wants to gain people for the true God."

"Paul speaks only with the desire to preach what has entered into his life and that is the true life that conquered him on the road to Damascus," the Holy Father said.

"So, to speak of God means to give space to the One who makes him known, who reveals his face of love, it means expropriating oneself offering it to Christ, knowing that we are not able to gain others to God, but we must await them from God himself, must implore them from Him."

Concluding his catechesis, Pope Benedict XVI called on faithful to speak of God with one words and life that God is not a competitor for our life, "but rather is its true guarantor." The Holy Father also stated that in speaking about God, it is essential to convey the love of God who became incarnate, died and rose for us.

Pope Benedict ended his general audience addressing youth, the sick and the newlyweds, calling on them to look forward to the upcoming Advent season.

"May the season of Advent that is about to begin be a stimulus for you, dear young people, to rediscover the importance of faith in Christ; may it help you, dear sick people, to face your suffering with your gaze turned towards the Infant Jesus; may it increase in you, dear newlyweds, the sense of God's presence in your new family," the Holy Father said.