Wednesday General Audience: Discerning God’s presence in a distracted world

Wednesday General Audience: Discerning God’s presence in a distracted world

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last catechesis I spoke of God’s revelation as His communicating of Himself and His loving plan. This Revelation of God is inserted into human time and history: a history that becomes “the arena where we see what God does for humanity. God comes to us in the things we know best and can verify most easily, the things of our everyday life, apart from which we cannot understand ourselves”(John Paul II, Enc. Fides et Ratio, 12).
The Evangelist Mark reports, clearly and synthetically, the initial moments of Jesus’ preaching: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). What illuminates and gives full meaning to the history of the world and man begins to shine in the cave of Bethlehem; it is the mystery that we will soon contemplate at Christmas: Salvation which is realized in Jesus Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, God shows his face and asks man to decide to recognize and follow Him. God’s revealing Himself in history in order to enter into a relationship of loving dialogue with man, gives new meaning to the entire human journey. History is not just a succession of centuries, years, days, but it is the time of a presence that gifts it full meaning and opens it up to a solid hope.read...