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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – As the First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year, before the recitation of the Angelus with the faithful gathered in Saint Peter's Square on November 30, the Holy Father Benedict XVI invited the faithful to reflect on the dimension of time. He said: “We all say 'I don't have time' because the rhythm of daily life has become too frenetic for everyone. The Church has 'good news' to announce about this too: God gives us his time. We always have little time. Especially in regard to the Lord, we do not know how to find him, or, sometimes, we do not want to find him. And yet God has time for us! This is the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover with an ever new wonder. Yes: God gives us his time, because he has entered into history, with his Word and his works of salvation, to open it to eternity, to make it into a covenant history.” From this perspective time is already, in itself, “a basic sign of God's love. It is a gift that man can, like everything else, appreciate or, on the contrary, squander.”
The Pope then mentioned the three great “hinges” of time, that span salvation history: creation, Incarnation-redemption, and 'parousia,' the final coming that also includes the universal judgement. The Pope explained that “These three moments, however, are not to be understood simply in chronological succession.” In fact, is realized along the whole arc of cosmic becoming to the very end of time. So also with the Incarnation-redemption, which occurred at a determinate historical moment, nevertheless, its effect extends over the time that preceded it and all of the time that follows it. And the Final Coming and the Last Judgment, exercise their influence on the conduct of men of every age.
The liturgical season of Advent “invites us to awaken the expectation of Christ's glorious return; then, nearing Christmas, it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our salvation. But the Lord comes constantly into our lives. How opportune, then, is Jesus' call, which is more powerfully proposed than ever this Sunday: 'Be vigilant!'. It is addressed to the disciples, but also to 'everyone,' because everyone, at the hour that God alone knows, will be called to give an account of his own life.” Then, prior to the recitation of the Angelus, he referred to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus' Mother, as the Icon of Advent.
Following the Angelus, the Pope recalled that November 30 marks the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, patron of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with whom the Church of Rome feels linked “by a special fraternal bond.” According to tradition, a delegation was sent by the Holy See to visit Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and Benedict XVI expressed his hope that heavenly blessings may be bestowed upon all the faithful of the Patriachate.
The Pope then mentioned the recent tragic events in India and in Nigeria, with these words: “I would like to invite you to join in prayer for the numerous people killed, wounded or in any way harmed in the brutal terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and the fighting that has broken out in Jos, Nigeria. The causes and the circumstances of these tragic events are different but the horror and the disapproval of the explosion of such cruel and senseless violence must be the same. Let us ask the Lord to touch the hearts of those who falsely believe that this is the way to resolve local or international problems and let us all feel encouraged to offer an example of meekness and love to build a society worthy of God and man.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 1/12/2008)
