Merry Christmas to all, my belated greetings

I, a non Catholic, was struck by Pope Benedict’s message at midnight mass and want to share some of his very moving fomily

The Fathers of the Church offer a remarkable commentary on the song that the angels sang to greet the Redeemer. Until that moment the Fathers say the angels had known God in the grandeur of the universe, in the reason and the beauty of the cosmos that come from him and are a reflection of him. They had heard, so to speak, creation’s silent song of praise and had transformed it into celestial music. But now something new had happened, something that astounded them. The One of whom the universe speaks, the God who sustains all things and bears them in his hands he himself had entered into human history, he had become someone who acts and suffers within history. From the joyful amazement that this unimaginable event called forth, from God’s new and further way of making himself known say the Fathers a new song was born, one verse of which the Christmas Gospel has preserved for us: “Glory to God in the highest heavens and peace to his people on earth.” We might say that, following the structure of Hebrew poetry, the two halves of this double verse say essentially the same thing, but from a different perspective. God’s glory is in the highest heavens, but his high state is now found in the stable what was lowly has now become sublime. God’s glory is on the earth, it is the glory of humility and love. And even more: the glory of God is peace. Wherever he is, there is peace. He is present wherever human beings do not attempt, apart from him, and even violently, to turn earth into heaven. He is with those of watchful hearts; with the humble and those who meet him at the level of his own “height,” the height of humility and love. To these people he gives his peace, so that through them, peace can enter this world. – Pope Benedict midnight mass 2008

Gloris in Excelsis Deo!

entagor on December 26, 2008 at 12:34 PM