Register Summary

Pope Benedict XVI met with 25,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square for his general audience on Nov. 23. Because of the large number of pilgrims who have been present at general audiences each week and the lack of a facility that is large enough, Vatican officials have been forced to hold them outdoors in St. Peter's Square in spite of the increasingly cold weather.

The Holy Father's teaching focused on St. Paul's canticle extolling God's plan of salvation, which is found at the beginning of his Letter to the Ephesians. He pointed out that the canticle, the form of blessing that is characteristic of the Jewish tradition, is “part of a constant flow of praise that rises up to God, who is celebrated in our Christian faith as ‘Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Pope Benedict then went on to refer to the three verbs that St. Paul uses in his hymn. The first describes God's choice of us as his adopted children. Because we are his children, we are also brothers and sisters of his son, Jesus Christ. The second verb describes the gift of grace that the Father gives us in his only begotten Son, who is a manifestation of the Father's love that envelops and transforms us. The third verb emphasizes that God's grace has been “lavished” upon us.

“Thus, we reach the infinite and glorious depth of the mystery of God, which has been revealed by grace to those who have been called by grace and love,” the Holy Father pointed out. “It is impossible to reach this revelation merely through the gift of human intelligence and abilities.” God's intention is to gather all creation and history into the fullness that he desires, “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ,” thereby healing divisions and overcoming human weaknesses.

Pope Benedict XVI ended his reflections with a quotation from St. Irenaeus, who affirms that, since the Word of God truly becomes man, sin and death are defeated and all people are renewed in Christ.

Departing from his prepared text, the Holy Father ended his teaching with a spontaneous exhortation: “In keeping with the spirit of these words, let us pray: Yes, Lord, draw us to yourself; draw the world to yourself and grant us peace, your peace.”

Every week the Church prays the solemn hymn found at the beginning of the Letter to the Ephesians — the text we just heard — during the Liturgy of the Hours’ evening prayer. It belongs to a type of prayer called the berakoth (blessings), which we have already encountered in the Old Testament and which later spread throughout the Jewish tradition. It is, therefore, part of a constant flow of praise that rises up to God, who is celebrated in our Christian faith as “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is for this reason that the figure of Christ, in whom the work of God the Father is revealed and fulfilled, is central to this hymn of praise. In fact, the three main verbs in this lengthy yet compact canticle always lead us to the Son.

God Has Chosen Us

God “chose us in him” (see Ephesians 1:4): It is our vocation to be holy and to be his adoptive children, and to have, therefore, a fraternal relationship with Christ. This gift, which radically transforms our condition as creatures, is offered to us “through Jesus Christ” (see verse 5) as part of God's great plan of salvation in loving “accord with the favor of [the Father's] will” (see verse 5), which the apostle contemplates with awe.

The second verb, after the verb “to choose” (“he chose us”), describes his gift of grace: the “grace that he granted us in the beloved” (see verse 6). In Greek, the same roots, charis and echaritosen, appear twice in order to emphasize that God's initiative, which precedes every human response, is totally without cost. The grace that the Father bestows on us in his only-begotten Son is, therefore, a manifestation of his love which envelops and transforms us.

Finally, we come to the third main verb in Paul's canticle. Its theme is still that of God's grace, which “he lavished upon us” (verse 8). Thus, we find before us a verb denoting abundance, or, as we might say in accord with its original meaning, a verb that indicates an excessive giving, a giving without any limitations or any hesitation.

The Mystery of God

Thus, we reach the infinite and glorious depth of the mystery of God, which has been revealed by grace to those who have been called by grace and love. It is impossible to reach this revelation merely through the gift of human intelligence and abilities.

“‘What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,’ this God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

The “mystery” of God's “will” has a central goal whose purpose is to coordinate all of existence and all of history, channeling it to the fullness that God so desires: It is “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10). In this oikonomia (plan), that is, in this harmonious plan for structuring being and existence, Christ, the head of the body of the Church but also the axis in which “all things in heaven and on earth” are united, plays a dominant role. Losses and limitations have been overcome and the “fullness” that is the true goal of the plan that God has willed from the beginning has been attained.

Renewed in Christ

We find ourselves, therefore, before a grandiose portrait of the history of creation and salvation, which we now wish ponder using some words from St. Irenaeus, a great doctor of the Church from the second century, who, in a brilliant passage in his treatise, Against the Heresies, developed a well-structured meditation on exactly what Christ has united.

Christian faith, he affirms, recognizes that “there is only one God the Father and one Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who came through this plan of salvation and united all things in himself. Man, whom God has formed, is also among all these things. Thus, he has also united man in himself — he who is invisible becoming visible, he who is incomprehensible becoming comprehensible, and he who is Word becoming man” (3, 16, 6: Giá e Non Ancora, CCCXX, Milan, 1979, p. 268).

It is for this reason that “the Word of God” truly “becomes man,” not in appearance because in that case “his work would not have been true.” Instead, “he was what he appeared to be: God, who unites in him his old creature, who is man, in order to stamp out sin, destroy death and give life to man. Because of this, his works are true” (3, 18, 7: ibid., pp. 277-278). He became head of the Church in order to draw all to himself at the right time. In keeping with the spirit of these words, let us pray: Yes, Lord, draw us to yourself; draw the world to yourself and grant us peace, your peace.

(Register translation)