Pope Benedict Gives Weekly Audience in Front of Horrid Art- Plus Talks Paul

I don't think I am alone on this but I so wish the Vatican would consider getting rid of this "masterpiece" in the background. I am sure to do so would create some kind of made up controversy and some Vatican so and so would in a uproar but at the very least Children and people with heart conditions would not be frightened.

Horrid Religious artwork/scenes or not the Pope gave his weekly Wednesday Audience. Thanks to the Ratzinger Forum for the pics from today ad well as the quick translation. There is a little greeting to the people in the crowd that is left out and I will try to update later with that

THE HOLY FATHER'S CATECHESIS, 1/14/09 #18 in the Pauline Cycle

Dear brothers and sisters:

Among the Letters in the Pauline epistolary, there are two - those to the Colossians and to the Ephesians - which may be considered 'twins' to some degree. In fact, one and the other have expressions that are only found in them. It has been estimated that more than one third of the words in the Letter to the Colossians are also found in the Letter to the Ephesians. For example, while one reads in Colossians the literal invitation to "sing(ing) psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (Col 3,16), in Ephesians, it is recommended equally to "address one another (in) psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts" (Eph 5,19).

We can meditate on these words: The heart should sing, and therefore, even the voice, with psalms and hymns, in the tradition of prayer by the whole Church of the Old and New Testaments. We can thus learn to be together, with ourselves and among ourselves, and with God. Moreover, in both Letters, one finds a so-called 'domestic code', absent in the other Pauline letters, namely, a series of recommendations addressed to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves (cfr Col 3,18-4,1 e Eph 5,22-6,9, respectively).

Why is the Vatican Christmas Tree still up?

Even more important is to note that only in these two letters is the title of 'kefale', chief, given to Jesus Christ, This title is used on two levels: first of all, he is the one who governs, the one who leads, the responsible person who guides the Christian community as its leader and its Lord (cfr Col 1,18: "He is the head of the body, the church"). The other meaning is that he is like the head, which innervates and animates all the members of the body to which it is attached (in fact, according to Col 2,19, one must "hold closely to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and bonds, achieves the growth that comes from God"). Therefore, he is not only the one who commands but also one who is organically connected to us, from which we get the strength to act in the right way.

In both cases, the Church is considered subject to Christ, whether it is to follow his supreme guidance - the commandments - or to receive all the vital influences that emanate from him. His commandments are not mere words, or orders - they are vital forces that come from him to help us. This idea is particularly developed in Ephesians, where even the ministers of the Church, instead of being led back to the Holy Spirit (as in 1 Cor 12) are directly ordained by the risen Christ: it is him who equipped "some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers" for the work of ministry (Eph 4,11). It is from him that "the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love" (Eph 4,16).

Christ, in fact, completely wishes to "present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5, 27). This tells us that the strength with which he builds the Church, by which he leads it, by which he gives the right direction to the Church, is his love itself. Thus, the first significance is Christ as head of the Church: both as to its leadership, and above all, as inspiration and organic vitalization by virtue of his love.

In a second sense, Christ is considered not only as the head of the Church, but as the head of all celestial powers and the entire cosmos. Thus in Colossians, we read that Christ "despoiling the principalities and the powers, (he) made a public spectacle of them, leading them away in triumph by it" (2,15). Analogously, in Ephesians, we find it written that with his resurrection, God placed Christ "far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come" (1,21).

With these words, the two Letters deliver to us a highly positive and fecund message, namely - that Christ does not fear any eventual rival because he is superior to any other power that would presume to humiliate man. Only he "loved us and handed himself over for us" (Eph 5,2. Thus, if we are joined to Christ, we should not fear any enemy nor any adversity. But this also means that we should be firmly with him without loosening our hold.

For the pagan world, which believed in a world full of spirits that are mostly dangerous and against which one had to defend oneself, the announcement that Christ is the only winner, and that he who is with Christ should not fear anyone, appeared as a true liberation. The same is true for paganism today, since the present followers of similar ideologies see the world full of dangerous forces. One must announce to them that Christ is the winner, so that whoever is with him, who stays joined to him, should not fear anything or anyone. I think this is important even for us, that we must learn to face all our fears, because he is above every domination - He is the true Lord of the world.

The entire cosmos itself is subject to him, and converges toward him, as to its own head. Famous words from the Letter to the Ephesians speak of God's plan "to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth" (1,20). Therefore, there is not, on the one hand, the great material world, and on the other, that small reality in the history of our planet, the world of persons. Everything is one in Christ. He is the head of the cosmos - even the cosmos was created by him, it was created for us, insofar as we are united with him.

It is a rational and personalistic view of the universe. I would say it is not possible to conceive a vision more universalistic than that which pertains alone to the risen Christ. Christ is the Pantocrator, to whom all things are subject. And we think precisely of Christ the Pantocrator who fills the absidal dome in Byzantine churches, sometimes shown seated above the entire world, or on a rainbow, to show his equiparation to God himself, at whose right hand he is seated (cfr Eph 1,20; Col 3,1), which therefore also shows his unequalled role as the conductor of human destinies.

Such a vision is conceivable only on the part of the Church, not that it wishes to unduly appropriate to itself something which does not appertain to it, but in another double sense: in that the Church recognizes that Christ is greater than her, given that his lordship extends beyond the confines of the Church; as well as the fact that only the Church is described as the Body of Christ, not the entire cosmos.

All this means that we must positively consider earthly realities, which Christ sums up in himself, and at the same time, that we must live in its fullness our specific ecclesial identity which is most homogeneous to the identity of Christ himself. There is also a special concept, which is typical of these two Letters - the concept of 'mystery. There is aone reference to the 'mystery of God's will' (Eph 1,9) and other times, to the 'mystery of Christ'(Eph 3,4; Col 4,3), and directly, to the "mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2,2-3). This refers to the inscrutable divine design concerning the destinies of men, peoples and the world. With such language, the two Epistles tell us that the fulfillment of the mystery is in Christ. If we are with Christ, even if we cannot intellectually understand everything, we know that we are in the nucleus of the 'mystery' and on the way of truth.

It is he, in his totality, not only in one aspect of his person or one moment of his existence, who brings tto fulfillment that unfathomable divine plan of salvation: that which is called 'the manifold wisdom of God' (Eph 3,10), since in him "dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily" (Col 2,9). Henceforth, therefore, it is not possible to think of God's favor, to adore God and his sovereign disposition, without personally facing Christ in person, in whom that 'mystery' is incarnated and can be perceived tangibly. One thus comes to contemplate "the inscrutable riches of Christ" (Eph 3,8), which are beyond every human comprehension. Not that God has not left any imprint of his passage [through earth], since Christ himself is the trace of God, his maximum imprint. But this makes us aware of "the breadth and length and height and depth" of this mystery "which surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3, 18-19).

Mere intellectual categories are inadequate for this, and in acknowledging that many things are beyond our rational capacities, we must entrust ourselves to humble and joyous contemplation not only with the mind but also with the heart. The Fathers of the Church, moreover, tells us that love understands more than reason alone. A last word must be said about the concept, earlier referred to, about the Church as the spousal partner of Christ. In the second Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul compared the Christian community to a fiancee, writing: "I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor 11,2).

The Letter to the Ephesians develops this image, specifying that the Church is not only the promised bride, but is the real spouse of Christ, who has, so to say, conquered her, and did so at the cost of his life - as the text says, "handed himself over for her" (Eph 5,25). What could be a greater demonstration of love than this? Further, he is concerned about her beauty: not just for that already acquired with baptism, but that which should grow every day thanks to a life that is unexceptionable, 'without wrinkle or stain', in its moral comportment (cfr Eph 5,26-27). From this, it is a short step to the common experience of Christian matrimony.

Rather, it is not even clear what the initial point of reference was for the author of the Letter: whether it is the Christ-Church relationship, in which light one must think of the union between man and woman, or whether it is the experiential fact of conjugal union, in which light one must think of the relationship between Christ adn the Church. But both aspects illuminate each other reciprocally. We learn what matrimony is, in the light of communion with Christ and the Church; and we learn how Christ unites himself to us, by thinking of the mystery of matrimony.

In any case, our Letter places us almost halfway between the prophet Hosea, who indicated the relationship between God and his people in terms of a marriage that has already taken place (cfr Hos 2,4.16.21), and the Visionary of the Apocalypse who looks ahead to the eschatological encounter between the Church and the Lamb as a joyous and indefectible nuptial (cfr Ap 19,7-9; 21,9). There is a lot more that can be said, but I think that with what has been said today, one can understand that these two Letters are a great catechesis from which we can learn not only how to be good Christians, but also how to truly become human beings.

If we begin to understand that the cosmos is the imprint of Christ, we will learn our correct relationship to the cosmos, with all the problems of conserving creation. We will learn to see it with reason, but a reason moved by love, and with the humility and respect which allow us to behave correctly. And if we consider the Church as the Body of Christ, that Christ gave himself for her, we will learn to live a reciprocal love with Christ, the love that unites us to God and which makes us see in the other the image of Christ, Christ himself. Let us pray that the Lord helps us meditate well on the Sacred Scriptures, on his Word, and thus truly learn how to live well.