VATICAN - Benedict XVI in Spain: “Today we are called to follow the example of the apostles, coming to know the Lord better day by day and bearing clear and valiant witness to his Gospel.”

Santiago de Compostela (Agenzia Fides) – “Brothers and sisters, today we are called to follow the example of the apostles, coming to know the Lord better day by day and bearing clear and valiant witness to his Gospel. We have no greater treasure to offer to our contemporaries.” This was the exhortation that the Holy Father Benedict XVI gave during the Mass he presided on the afternoon of Saturday, November 6, in the “Plaza del Obradoiro” of Santiago de Compostela, on the occasion of the Compostelian Jubilee Year. Reflecting on the Gospel proclaimed, the Holy Father called on everyone to “live according to the humility of Christ”: “for those disciples who seek to follow and imitate Christ, service of neighbour is no mere option but an essential part of their being...Proposing this new way of dealing with one another within the community, based on the logic of love and service, Jesus also addresses 'the rulers of the nations' since, where self-giving to others is lacking, there arise forms of arrogance and exploitation that leave no room for an authentic integral human promotion.” Turning his gaze towards all Europe, which for many centuries has traveled in pilgrimage to Compostela, Benedict XVI affirmed: “This is why we need to hear God once again under the skies of Europe; may this holy word not be spoken in vain, and may it not be put at the service of purposes other than its own. It needs to be spoken in a holy way. And we must hear it in this way in ordinary life, in the silence of work, in brotherly love and in the difficulties that years bring on.”
The morning of Sunday, November 7, the Holy Father presided the Mass for the dedication of the church and altar of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the masterpiece by architect Antoni Gaudi. Explaining, in the homily, the meaning of the rite of dedication, the Pope affirmed: “What do we do when we dedicate this church? In the heart of the world, placed before God and mankind, with a humble and joyful act of faith, we raise up this massive material structure, fruit of nature and an immense achievement of human intelligence which gave birth to this work of art. It stands as a visible sign of the invisible God, to whose glory these spires rise like arrows pointing towards absolute light and to the One who is Light, Height and Beauty itself.” Benedict XVI then highlighted the great meaning of dedicating a church to God, “at a time in which man claims to be able to build his life without God, as if God had nothing to say to him.” And yet, “Gaudí shows us that God is the true measure of man; that the secret of authentic originality consists, as he himself said, in returning to one’s origin which is God.”
The Holy Family of Nazareth, to whom the Church is dedicated, has always been considered “a school of love, prayer and work,” which is why the promoters of this church wanted to set before the world “love, work and service lived in the presence of God, as the Holy Family lived them.” Mentioning the great progress made in technological, social, and cultural spheres, Benedict XVI revealed that these should always be accompanied by moral progress, “such as in care, protection and assistance to families, inasmuch as the generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end. Only where love and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure. For this reason the Church advocates adequate economic and social means so that women may find in the home and at work their full development, that men and women who contract marriage and form a family receive decisive support from the state, that life of children may be defended as sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception, that the reality of birth be given due respect and receive juridical, social and legislative support. For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the family.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 8/11/2010)