BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St. Peter's Square Sunday, February 20, 2011
Dear brothers and sisters !
In this seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time , scripture readings tell us about the will of God to make men partakers of his life " Be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy" - reads in the Book Leviticus (19.1). With these words, and the precepts that follow, the Lord called the people he was chosen to be faithful to Him walking on the streets and social legislation based on the commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lv 19:18). If we listen, then, Jesus, in whom God took a mortal body to be the neighbor of every man and reveal his infinite love for us, we find the same call, the same audacious goal. He says, in fact, the Lord, " Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5.48) . But who could become perfect? Our perfection is to live as children of God with humility actually doing his will. St. Cyprian wrote that "the fatherhood of God must be the same behavior as children of God, that God may be glorified and praised the good conduct of man" (De et zeal envy , 15: CCL 3rd, 83).
How can we imitate Jesus? Jesus himself says: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that ye may be sons of your Father in heaven" (Mt 5.44 to 45). Whoever receives the Lord into their lives and loves him with all my heart is capable of a new beginning. He manages to do the will of God: to build a new form of life inspired by love and destined for eternity. The apostle Paul adds: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor 3.16). If we are really aware of this reality, and our lives are deeply molded, then our witness becomes clear, eloquent and effective. A medieval author wrote: "When the whole being of man is, so to speak, mixed love of God, then the splendor of his soul is reflected in appearance" (John Climacus, Scala Paradisi , XXX: PG 88, 1157 B) in the totality of life. "Great thing is the love - we read in ' Imitation of Christ - a good which makes it slightly heavy and it bears all things calmly all things difficult. Love hopes to climb up, without being restrained by anything ground. It comes from God and only God can find rest "(III, V, 3).
Dear friends, tomorrow, February 22, will celebrate the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. To him, the first of the apostles, Christ himself entrusted the task of teacher and pastor for the spiritual leader of the People of God, so that it can rise up to heaven. I therefore urge all pastors to "assimilate the "new way of life" which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and is taken up by the Apostles "(Letter Priests Convocation Year ). We invoke the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and the Church, that teach us to love one another and to welcome us as brothers, sons of the same heavenly Father.
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