Quote of the Day

From Benedict XVI's homily given last night at the close of the Year of Saint Paul, as reported by John Allen, Jr., some direct and challenging words:

“Paul tells us [that] the world cannot be renewed without new human beings,” Benedict said. “Only if there are new human beings will there be a new world, a renewed and better world.”

From that premise, Benedict said that personal spiritual renewal requires “non-conformism,” an unwillingness to “submit oneself to the scheme of the current epoch.” Doing so, the pope said, requires a new way of thinking at odds with the values of the world, shaped by encounter with the “new man” of Jesus Christ.

“The way of thinking of the old man, the common way of thinking, is generally directed toward possessions, well-being, influence, success, fame, and so on,” Benedict said. “Thus in the last analysis, the ‘I’ remains the precise center of the world. We have to learn to think in a more profound manner,” the pope said, based on the desires of God rather than the self.

Benedict recalled Paul’s insistence upon an “adult faith,” mocking the use of that phrase to justify dissent from official Catholic doctrine.

“The phrase ‘an adult faith’ in recent decades has become a diffuse slogan,” the pope said. “It’s often used to mean someone who no longer listens to the church and its pastors, but who chooses autonomously what to believe and not to believe – a ‘do-it-yourself’ faith. This is then presented as the ‘courage’ to express oneself against the magisterium of the church.”

“In reality, however, courage isn’t needed for that, because one can always be sure of public applause,” the pope said. “What takes courage is adhering to the faith of the church, even if it contradicts the ‘scheme’ of the contemporary world.”

The Holy Father continued by stating that opposition to abortion and "gay marriage" is part of the mature faith, rooted in authentic charity, we are called to embrace and live as Catholics:

“Part of an adult faith, for example, is a commitment to the inviolability of human life from its first moment, radically opposing the principle of violence, precisely in the defense of the most defenseless of human creatures,” the pope said.

“Part of an adult faith is also recognizing marriage between a man and a woman for life as part of the design of the Creator, newly reestablished by Christ,” he said.

Read the entire piece. The Holy Father's homily was based on Ephesians 4, which includes the following passage:

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. (Eph. 4:11-16; RSV).

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles:

• Are Truth, Faith, and Tolerance Compatible? | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions.
• Faith in the Triune God, and Peace in the World | Joseph Ratzinger | From Europe: Today and Tomorrow
• On Reading the Pope | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• Authority and Dissent in the Catholic Church | Dr. William E. May
• The Source of Certitude | Thomas Dubay, S.M. | Epilogue to Faith and Certitude
• The Crisis of Faith | Father John Hardon, S.J.
• The Creed and the Trinity | Foreword to The Christian Faith: An Essay on the Structure Of the Apostles' Creed | Henri de Lubac
• What's the Point of Creeds? | Peter Kreeft | From Fundamentals of the Faith
• Understanding The Hierarchy of Truths | Douglas Bushman, S.T.L.
• Exploring the Catholic Faith! | An Interview with Diane Eriksen

Comments

[David Charkowsky]

If only I could deliver a smackdown like this and sound as peaceful and gentle as Benedict XVI...

[Rich Leonardi]

Right. He's pointed yet disarming. I think the fact that he's five-foot-'nuthin and has a gentle speaking voice helps. And brilliance is probably part of it too.

[Jack]

Ditto. He twists the knife so gently you can barely feel it until it's over.