Pope Calls Us All To Live Our Lives By Faith and Not Be Afraid to Go Against the Tide

By Pope Benedict XVI
1/24/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The Christian should not be afraid to go against the grain to live his or her faith, resisting the temptation to conform.

It is the blessed world of faith to which we are all called, to walk without fear following the Lord Jesus Christ. And sometimes it is difficult journey, one that even knows trial and death, but one that is open to life, in a radical transformation of reality that only the eyes of faith can see and enjoy in abundance.

Pope Benedict XVI

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VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - We present the official Vatican Translation of Pope Benedict's Wednesday Catechetical teaching to the Pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter's Square in its entirety below:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Year of the faith, I would like to start today to reflect with you on the Creed, the solemn profession of faith which accompanies our lives as believers. The Creed begins, "I believe in God." It is a fundamental affirmation, deceptively simple in its essence, but which opens the infinite world of our relationship with the Lord and with His mystery.

Believing in God implies attachment to him, welcoming his Word and joyful obedience to His revelation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, "Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals himself" (n. 166).

Being able to say that we believe in God is therefore both a gift and a commitment, it is divine grace and human responsibility, in an experience of dialogue with God who, out of love, "speaks to men as friends" (Dei Verbum, 2), speaks to us so that, in faith and with faith, we enter into communion with Him.

Where can we hear God speaking to us? Holy Scripture is fundamental, in which the Word of God becomes audible for us and nourishes our life as "friends" of God. The entire Bible recounts God's revelation to humanity, the entire Bible speaks of faith and teaches us faith by telling a story in which God carries out His plan of redemption and makes Himself close to man, through many luminous figures of people who believe in Him and trust Him, to the fullness of the revelation of the Lord Jesus.

In this regard, chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews is most beautiful, which speaks of faith and highlights the great biblical figures who lived and became a model for all believers: "Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen"(11.1). The eyes of faith are thus able to see the unseen and the heart of the believer can hope beyond all hope, just as Abraham, who Paul says in Romans "believed, hoping against hope" (4.18 ).

In fact I would like to focus my attention on Abraham, because he is the first major reference point when speaking about faith in God, the great patriarch Abraham, role model, father of all believers (cf. Rom 4.11 to 12 ). The Letter to the Hebrews presents him as follows:

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God"(11.8 to 10).

The author of Hebrews refers here to the call of Abraham, narrated in the Book of Genesis. What does God ask of this great patriarch? He asks him to leave, abandoning his country and to go to the country that He will show him, "Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you" (Gen 12:1). How would we respond to an invitation like that? It is, in fact, a departure in the dark, not knowing where God will lead him, it is a journey that calls for obedience and radical trust, which only faith can access.

But the darkness of the unknown is illuminated by the light of a promise: God adds a reassuring word to His command that opens a future of life in its fullness to Abraham: "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great; ... All the families of the earth will find blessing in you"(Gen 12,2.3).

The blessing in Holy Scripture, is related primarily to the gift of life that comes from God, and manifests itself primarily in fertility, in a life that is multiplied, passing from generation to generation. And the blessing is also connected to the experience of owning a land, a stable place to live and grow in freedom and security, fearing God and building a society of men loyal to the Alliance, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (cf. Ex 19:6).

So Abraham, in the divine plan, is destined to become the "father of a multitude of nations" (Gen 17.5; cf. Rom 4:17-18) and to enter into a new land to live. But Sara, his wife, is sterile, unable to have children, and the country to which God leads him far from his native land, is already inhabited by other peoples, and will never really belong to them. The biblical narrator emphasizes this, although very discreetly: When Abraham arrived in the place of God's promise: "the Canaanites were then in the land" (Gen 12:6).

The land that God gives to Abraham does not belong to him, he is a stranger and will remain so forever, with all that this entails: having no intentions of possession, always averting their poverty, ...

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1 - 10 of 10 Comments

vance
3 months ago
Great article. This is encouragement for us to firm our resolve to live our faith and promote our faith in an ever hostile environment.
Tom McGuire
3 months ago
Abraham had two sons. When Sara did not produce an offspring she encouraged Abraham to have a son with Hannah. Ismael, son of Abraham, also is to share in his inheritance. That means that those for centuries considered enemies of followers of Jesus share in the faith of Abraham. Instead of the condemning, what about going against the culture of violence and find a way to reconcile with our brothers and sisters who are considered descendants of Ismael.
DLL
3 months ago
It is actually people of faith who are in and out with the tide and going with the current as that is Gods natural order for things. Today the heathen culture has reversed things so that going against the current is what they are trying to make everybody do. This is the chaos of our times. The only leader that I have full respect for is Pope Benedict. Praise God for the good Popes in my lifetime. Popes Paul.John Paul 2 and the present one. They represent the voice of reason. Very good post Mike Robertson. We must pray for the President and Democrats because they simply are full of themselves,thinking they are HOT and they are NOT. Today the press will ignore the march for life as will the President. If a million people were at the march it would still be magically ignored. This is how we can now judge our government as inherently evil as it is confirmed in sin as some sort of a strange human right. It was not long ago that self righteous groups like the KKK were hanging and burning blacks and calling it the right thing to do because they didn't consider them human anyway. That friends happened in our good old USA. So forget the old adage that says my country right or wrong. According to Disney David Crockett was supposed to have said be sure you are right than go ahead. Is the USA right about abortion should they go ahead with the practice? The issue was a lie to the medical community in the first place because viability was determined 24 weeks because with nursing care after that it was possible for the baby to survive outside the womb. It was evidently always okay to abort at any time during the pregnancy. If people knew that 40 years ago abortion might not have been so readily approved. It is too bad ultrasound has been a tool for abortionists. Such a wonderful tool now in the hands of demons. Still don't lose hope even in our fellow Catholics as still we are one body in Christ. Still as Catholics we all will never be one completely,until we learn the meaning of the words"Jesus I Trust In You". That is why we all must go to Mass as current affairs are what they are but Jesus is the 2nd person of the most Holy Trinity. Jesus Saves as He has taught us all that God is Love.
mike robertson
3 months ago
It is Faith which will enable us to survive what we face today. We have a chilling atmosphere as Catholics in America which I have never had to endure in my 50+ years of life. Thanks to Catholic democrats, we have a "leader" who voted for the killing of girls and boys outside of their mom's womb even after they survive the attempt to kill them in the womb. The Catholic democrats' candidate is trying to shut down Catholic and other Christian institutions under his "health care" plan. He has a frightening aversion to the Holy Name of God. He would not allow it at the inaugural invocation and refused to thank Our Lord on Thanksgiving. He calls marriage what God calls an abomination. He boasted to a Muslim audience that America is not a Christian nation. He has a frightening aversion to economic progress. We see the brutal consequences of his Third World socialist basket case policies: higher unemployment and poverty along with lower incomes and wealth. If this is what Catholic democrats call "compassionate, social justice", please keep it to yourselves and allow those of us who want to work to have a free market economy which will provide jobs.
rafaelmarie
3 months ago
WELL IN THAT CASE WE NEED TO DENOUNCE ISLAM AS COMING FROM HELL!

AND WE NEED PAPAL EXCOMMUNICATION ON ALL PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR OBAMA BECAUSE THEY HAVE COMMITTED A MORTAL SIN FOR VOTING FOR A PRO-ABORTION PRESIDENT AND COMMITTED ANOTHER WORSE SIN OF SACRILEGE BY GOING TO HOLY COMMUNION IN THAT STATE!

I WILL LEAVE IT TO THE CLERGY WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO FOR ALLOWING IT!

GOD KNOWS WHAT HE WILL DO!
Robert
3 months ago
Attn Bill Sr:

Thank you. Thank you for saying what needs to be said.
Bill Sr.
3 months ago
Our Lord came and was seen as a humble but faithful servant of Father in heaven teaching the ways of the Father of Love but also acknowledging the ever invisible presence of the devious deception of Evil opposed to His Will, promising us that whoever would believe in Him shall be worthy of the unseen Glory of God awaiting redeemed mankind.
We may consider what we see as our modern western society the height of human achievement and marvel at our accomplishments but at the same time are we not also witnessing the unforeseen collapsing of it both morally and structurally?
Far too often in recent history we seen how leaders have avoided the moral challenges in the light of truth and chosen do their work in the cool comfort of darkness where their deeds are less visible and the sleepy eyed gatekeepers have often been unwilling to sound the alarm for fear of disturbing the peace. As a result decisions have been made, choices are in place, and worst of all we have changed our language and vocabulary to fit an agenda contrary to our conscience. An unborn child is no longer a human being. Killing it is not a crime it is a right. Pregnancy is a disease or at the very least, as our own president has declared, it is a punishment for poor hygiene practice. Preventing pregnancy is praised and to be rewarded by a benevolent Federal government with free contraception for women and young school aged girls. All the while the same government disallows any mention of God in all its public schools and buildings. Religious liberty is no longer constitutionally protected but subject to the interpretation of bureaucrats in Washington. Free speech is soon to be a thing of the past as power hungry elitists and legislators have assumed the role of judges of vocabulary allowed to determine what can be publicly permissible speech. Every Christian value which helped build the shinning city on the hill is being challenged or cast aside to establish the Utopia of fools and it is time for us to unmask and reveal the Evil presence in the public policies proposed by the blind or misguided individuals perpetuating the corruption of our culture. The most potent weapon of Evil is our unwillingness to recognize its existence among us.
Pray the hearts of the faithful will be opened that they may be able to see the unseen and unmask and reveal the Evil presence among us today.
jh
3 months ago
Beautiful explanation.
abey
3 months ago
That indeed is where the challenge lies today, the challenge against a complacent living, which life is but to the Apostasy against the very soul. The challenge to keep the word of God in the Spirit & Truth of it which is but to go against the tide of the day, to the race against time, for the pitfalls to the complacency come not from the front but from the rear like a sweeping Boar tide unaware, to run against it & this can only be done through the word of God. The way to resist, the call that was given in the very beginning to keep away from the forbidden fruit by the commandment of God, to the Power of Resistance. This is still the call of life unto this day against the tides of temptations both in the body & spirit, to not making it into a mere "intellectual" poetry but to the Challenge by the heart & soul in the spirit & truth of the word like St Jerome by his vision standing before the Council of Christ , observed.
Sister claudia Rodriguez S.deM.
3 months ago
Personalmente me gusto mucho por que nuestro Santo Padre Benedicto XVI nos alienta nos fortaleze y sobre todo esta guiado por el Espiritu Santo, Es nuestra guia nos ensena con su ejemplo a confiar solo en nuetro Senor Jesucristo.
Que Dios los bendiga.

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