VATICAN - At the general audience the Pope recalled that “predestination” to be children of God “implicates brotherhood with Christ, the Son par excellence and an attitude of intimacy with the heavenly Father whom we may invoke as Abba, “dearest father’

Wednesday, 6 July 2005

Vatican City (Fides Service) - Canticle “God our Saviour” (cfr Eph 1,3-10), vespers Monday week 3 (reading: Eph 1,3.7-8), was the subject of the teaching given by Pope Benedict XVI during the general audience this morning in St Peter’s Square in the repsence of about 20,000 visitors. Taken from the Letter to the Ephesians the hymn is a prayer of blessing addressed to God the Father and it describes the various stages of the plan of salvation brought about by Christ. “At the centre of the blessing resounds the Greek word mysterion - the Pope explained - a word usually associated with the verbs of revelation. This in fact is the great, secret plan which the Father had from all eternity and decided to actuate and reveal in the fullness of time in Jesus Christ his Son”. The Father chooses us “that we may walk holy and immaculate in love”, he destines us to be his children, he redeems us and forgives us our sins, revealing fully the mystery of salvation in Christ, he gives us an eternal heritage and as a pledge of it the gift of the Holy Spirit in view of final resurrection.
The various salvific events which succeed one another in the hymn involve the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity: “starting with the Father, the initiator and supreme artifice of the plan of salvation, then the psalmist looks on the Son who brings the plan to completion in history, and lastly the psalmist dwells on the Holy Spirit who gives his seal to the work of salvation”. The Holy Father dwelt in detail on holiness and filiation.
“The first divine gesture, revealed and acutated in Christ is the calling of believers, the fruit of God’s free iniziative undeserved … The content of the calling is holiness which is participation in the pure transcendence of the divine Being and his intimate essence of charity: ‘God is love (1 Jn 4,8.16)’”. The other lap is our predestination as children of God. “This sublime condition as children implicates brotherhood with Christ, the Son par excellence, first born of many brothers and sisters and intimacy with the heavenly Father who can now be invoked as Abba, ‘dearest father, in a relationship of spontaneity and love. Therefore we are in the presence of an immense gift made possible in accord with divine will and grace, luminous expression of love which saves.”
At the end of the audience the Pope greeted visitors in different languages. He had a special word for a delegation of Benedicine monks who had with them the Benedicine Peace Torch which the Pope blessed and he said: “This year the Torch began its pilgrimage in Moscow where it was welcomed by representatives of Patriarch Alexis II. It then went to Germany, to the monastry of Ottobeuren and to Marktl am Inn. As a symbolic sign of peace today it will rest at the tombs of the Apostles and then continue on to Norcia. Dearest Brothers may this evocative iniziative stir ever more generous commitment in Europe to witnessing to Christian values.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/7/2005, righe 31, parole 481)


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