Obedience to God and freedom of Man
Synthesis of the Pope’s homily to the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission gathered in Rome for its Plenary Assembly.
Synthesis of the Pope’s homily to the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission gathered in Rome for its Plenary Assembly.
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, during the homily he celebrated on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome pointed out that Peter’s response before the Sanhedrin – very similar to that uttered by Socrates before the Athenian courts – namely, that man owes the primacy of obedience to God alone - should serve as a beacon in a world lured with the prospective of freedom understood as full autonomy. This conception of freedom is nothing but an ontological, political and practical lie. If God did not exist the only authoritative voice to remain would be that of the collective majority, however unfortunate occurrences in history have shown that man can reach a common position to endorse even what is evil is essence.
The obedience of the numerous martyrs who in the history of the church have opposed the rule of dictatorships (which could not accept a God above their ideologies) is an act of liberation in which the freedom given by Christ reaches the whole of mankind.
Even today, the Pope asserted, there exist a number of dictatorships, and the subtle (or in some instance, less subtle) acts of aggressions against the Church illustrate this point clearly.
Subsequently the Pope pointed out that to be in communion with Christ means to embark on a journey towards eternal life. We should not be afraid to tackle this point since a Christianity which refuses to mention this fundamental element would be only part-Christianity.
His holiness explained the nexus between grace and penitence – a word which has been placed in the shadow in the last decades as it was deemed to be too rigorous. In the wake of the attacks hurled by the world when speaking on the sins committed by church-members, the Church experiences an occasion of grace and penitence, that it is necessary to do penance, recognize what is mistaken, opening oneself to forgiveness and transformation.
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