The Pope’s annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia

Every year the Pope meets with members of the Roman Curia to “exchange Christmas greetings”; the address the Holy Father gives on this occasion is usually a round-up of sorts, highlighting the events and themes the Pontiff sees as particularly critical from the previous year.

In this year’s address, Pope Benedict looked back on 2011 and saw its major ecclesial events as relating to a single theme: “how do we proclaim the Gospel today? How can faith as a living force become a reality today?”

Interestingly, while specific mention was made of his visits to Africa, Germany, and Croatia—as well as October’s interfaith gathering in Assisi—it was World Youth Day in Madrid that Pope Benedict highlighted as “new evangelization put into practice” and a “remedy against faith fatigue.” The Holy Father then elaborated on five specific aspects of World Youth Day that he sees as illustrative of the event’s importance for the Church; ultimately, more than half of the 2,500-word address was given over to expounding on the significance of the summer’s events in Madrid.

Some excerpts from the Holy Father’s remarks:

Firstly, there is a new experience of catholicity, of the Church’s universality. This is what struck the young people and all the participants quite directly: we come from every continent, but although we have never met one another, we know one another. We speak different languages, we have different ways of life and different cultural backgrounds, yet we are immediately united as one great family. Outward separation and difference is relativized. We are all moved by the one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom true humanity and at the same time the face of God himself is revealed to us. We pray in the same way. The same inner encounter with Jesus Christ has stamped us deep within with the same structure of intellect, will and heart. And finally, our common liturgy speaks to our hearts and unites us in a vast family. In this setting, to say that all humanity are brothers and sisters is not merely an idea: it becomes a real shared experience, generating joy. …

For me, one of the most important experiences of those days was the meeting with the World Youth Day volunteers … And here something fundamental became clear to me: these young people had given a part of their lives in faith, not because it was asked of them, not in order to attain Heaven, nor in order to escape the danger of Hell. They did not do it in order to find fulfilment. They were not looking round for themselves. There came into my mind the image of Lot’s wife, who by looking round was turned into a pillar of salt. How often the life of Christians is determined by the fact that first and foremost they look out for themselves, they do good, so to speak, for themselves. And how great is the temptation of all people to be concerned primarily for themselves; to look round for themselves and in the process to become inwardly empty, to become “pillars of salt”. But here it was not a matter of seeking fulfilment or wanting to live one’s life for oneself. These young people did good, even at a cost, even if it demanded sacrifice, simply because it is a wonderful thing to do good, to be there for others. …

A further important element of the World Youth Days is the sacrament of Confession, which is increasingly coming to be seen as an integral part of the experience. … Again and again my soul is tarnished by this downward gravitational pull that is present within me. Therefore we need the humility that constantly asks God for forgiveness, that seeks purification and awakens in us the counterforce, the positive force of the Creator, to draw us upwards.

Finally, I would like to speak of one last feature, not to be overlooked, of the spirituality of World Youth Days, namely joy. Where does it come from? How is it to be explained? Certainly, there are many factors at work here. But in my view, the crucial one is this certainty, based on faith: I am wanted; I have a task; I am accepted, I am loved. … Ultimately we need a sense of being accepted unconditionally. Only if God accepts me, and I become convinced of this, do I know definitively: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being. If ever man’s sense of being accepted and loved by God is lost, then there is no longer any answer to the question whether to be a human being is good at all. Doubt concerning human existence becomes more and more insurmountable. Where doubt over God becomes prevalent, then doubt over humanity follows inevitably. We see today how widely this doubt is spreading. We see it in the joylessness, in the inner sadness, that can be read on so many human faces today. Only faith gives me the conviction: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being, even in hard times.

The full text of the Holy Father’s address to the Roman Curia can be read here.