Monday, December 7, 2009

Pope Benedicts Thoughts on John the Baptist and Mary (Advent 2009 Full Text)




The evangelist shines the spotlight on John the Baptist, who was the precursor of the Messiah, and with great precision, he traces the space-time coordinates of Johm's preaching. Luke writes: "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert" (Lk 3,1-2). Two things call our attention. The first is the abundance of references to all the political and religious authorities of Palestine in 27/28 BC. Evidently, the evangelist wished to impress on his reader or listener that the Gospel is not a legend but the account of a true story, that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure situated in that precise context..............


Jesus himself is the Divine Word made flesh in the virginal womb of Mary. In him, God reveals himself fully - he has told us and given us everything, opening to us the treasury of his truth and his mercy. St.Ambrose continues: "May the Word then come down, so that the earth, which was once a desert, may produce its fruits for us" (ibid.). Dear friends, the most beautiful flower germinated from the Word of God is the Virgin Mary.


She is the first fruit of the Church, God's garden on earth. But while Mary is the Immaculate, whom we shall celebrate as such two days from now, the Church continually needs to purify herself because sin undermines all of her members.

Always underway in the Church is the battle between the desert and the garden, between sin which aridifies the earth and the grace that irrigates in order to produce abundant fruits of holiness. Let is therefore pray to the Mother of the Lord so that she may aid us, in this season of Advent, to 'set straight' our lives, allowing ourselves to be guided by the Word of God. ..............


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