杏MAP导航

By Linda Bordoni

Each year the Vatican schedules a series of Advent reflections, offered each Friday morning by the papal preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa. Delivered in the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace, the meditations are attended by the 杏MAP导航, the Roman Curia, and vicar and auxiliary bishops of Rome.

Reflecting on the second verse of Psalm 42: 鈥淢y soul thirsts for God, the living God鈥�, Father Cantalamessa said that caught up by daily tasks and problems to be faced, 鈥渨e risk losing sight of鈥�, or putting to the side our personal relationship with God.

This relationship, he explained, is what allows us to face situations and problems 鈥渨ithout losing peace and patience鈥�.

Let us seek God, not aliens from outer space

Describing the living God as 鈥渁 constant and reassuring presence鈥�, Cantalamessa pointed out that men and women of our time are passionate in their search for the existence of aliens and signs of life on other planets. He said it is a legitimate interest but lamented the fact that very few 鈥渟eek and study signs of the living God who created the universe, entered into its history and lives in it鈥�.

He is in our midst, he continued, and we neglect Him in order to dedicate ourselves to the search for 鈥渉ypothetical beings who, in the best of cases, could do very little for us, certainly not save us from death鈥�.

Cantalamessa explained that all the promises made by the Son of God are 鈥渋nfallibly kept,鈥� that and he invited believers never to forget that God is not an abstraction, but a reality.

The search for the face of the living God

Studding his reflection with examples and quotations, Cantalamessa focused on the stories of converts: men and women, he said, in whom the 鈥渟park鈥� of the intellect has led to 鈥渆nlightenment鈥�. They are those, he continued, 鈥渢o whom the existence of God has suddenly revealed itself, at a certain point in their lives, 鈥渁fter having tenaciously ignored or denied it鈥�.

Cantalamessa warned however against the temptation to bridle and constrain the divine in a definition, even though it may be based on the Bible.

What we can do, he said, is to go beyond the 鈥渇aint signs of recognition that men have traced on the surface鈥� and shatter the limitations posed by 鈥渙ur ideas of God鈥� allowing His perfume to emanate and spread 鈥渇illing the house鈥�.

鈥淭he divine is an absolutely different category from any other, which cannot be defined, but only hinted at; it can only be spoken of through analogies and contrasts. An image that the Bible uses to speak to us of God is that of a rock鈥� he said.

God is here and that's enough!

Fr Cantalamessa concluded his sermon recalling one of the moments of darkness and discouragement in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi following 鈥渟ome of the deviations he saw around him stemming from the primitive lifestyle of his friars鈥� and said he was reanimated by the certainty that 鈥淕od is here, and that is enough鈥�.

鈥淟et us learn, he urged,  to repeat these simple words also when, in the Church or in our lives, we find ourselves in situations that are similar to those of Francis: God is here and that鈥檚  enough鈥�.