The Meaning in 2010

The Meaning in 2010
Pope Benedict XVI *

“This Child is God’s Son”, as one of our beautiful old Christmas carols has it. Here the outrageous has happened, the inconceivable and yet the always expected, even the necessary: God has entered our world.

He has established a union with man so inseparable that this man truly is God from God, light from light, and yet always true man as well.

The meaning of the world has come to us in such a real way that it can be touched and seen (Jn l). For John’s “Word”, in Greek, stands at the same time also for “the meaning”. Thus we would be entitled to translate “the meaning has become flesh”.

But this “meaning” is not merely a general idea inherent in the world. This meaning relates to us. This meaning is a message, addressed to us. This meaning knows us, challenges us, guides us.

This meaning is not some general principle, in which we might play a certain part. No it addresses each one of us personally. It is itself a Person: the living God’s own Son, born in stable in Bethlehem.

* Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Co-Workers of the Truth,” – December 30th - Meditations for Every Day of the Year – 1992, Ignatius Press, San Francisco

Everything Made New *
Revelation 21: 5-8

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look I am making all things new!” And then he said to me. “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega – the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water
of life without charge!

All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But cowards who turn away from me, and unbelievers, and the corrupt and the murderers, and the immoral, and those who practice witchcraft and idol worshipers, and all liars – their doom is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

* “The Best of the Bible” – 365-Must-Read Bible Passages – December 30th - Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Wheaton, Illinois, 1996, The Livingston Corp.