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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Christ is come! Glorify Him!
The good news is not just an historical event; by uniting his divinity with our humanity, God opened a two-way door that remains open here and now.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Bishop John Kudrick
“The beginning of the gospel (the good news) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1). It has been noted that this first sentence of St. Mark’s Gospel is not a title for the first chapter but for the entirety of the book.
Jesus’ life and death on earth, together with his resurrection, is a beginning of Good News, good news of perpetual beginning (life), rather than a progressive end (death).
The Good News is actually that the world remains in a state of beginning. Even the last book of the Bible ends with Jesus declaring “I am [both] the beginning and the end” (Rv 22:13). “The end” and “the beginning” are one and the same.
The good news is not just an event of history, that a baby was born 2000 years ago. Neither is it just that God considered us worthy of visiting us. Rather the good news is that, by uniting his divinity with our humanity, God opened a two-way door, one that remains open here and now. God continues to enter our life and invites us to begin, to become “partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4).
This good news continues, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as the members of the church unite ourselves with the holy sacrifice and proclaim with our lives salvation in Jesus Christ. This good news is always new and always good.
By the human conception and birth of Jesus Christ, Son of God, God allows us to regain that humanity that Adam and Eve knew in the Garden of Eden. He allows us to be fully human, fully alive. In this way God shows that he is God and calls us to humanity in its fullness.
Our participation is important. Christians know what is meant to be fully alive even if we don’t always live accordingly. We see lives from the perspective of “beginning” and rely on the mercy of God as we grow to full maturity in Christ.
We find the theme of beginning a number of times in Holy Scripture.
Jesus reminds us that “In the beginning of time, humanity was created male and female” (Mt 19:4), complementing each other. This serves as an icon for all right relationships.
St. John describes Jesus’ changing of water into wine as “the beginning of his miracles” (Jn 2:11). These miracles continue to this very day for those who would see them.
St. Paul connects our holiness and fidelity to the truth with “the beginning” (cf. 2 Th 2:13). He also teaches that we must share with the world our knowledge of Jesus Christ, as he refers to him as “the beginning” (cf. Col 1:18-28).
Righteous living, cooperation with God’s (miraculous) actions, remaining holy within the true faith, sharing that faith, are all part of being fully alive – signs of beginning. In this way, we may realize that, in the words of the Broadway musical “Purly,”: “The world ain’t comin’ to an end, my friend. The world’s just comin’ to a start.”
This knowledge is the source of our hope as we note losses and disappointments. This knowledge is the source of hope for our church. This knowledge is the source of hope for the world. We are for beginning, not ending.This is why we may image Jesus Christ as an infant. This is why we use the word “is” rather than “was” when we proclaim: Christ is born! Glorify him!
Bishop John Kudrick is the Bishop Parma, Ohio. www.parma.org
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VATICAN CITY, DEC 15, 2006 (VIS) - Today, Benedict XVI received His Beatitude Antonios Naguib Patriarch of Alexandria for Catholic Copts who is officially visiting the Holy See for the first time since his election in March of this year.
In his French address, the Pope asked the patriarch to give his greetings to all the bishops, priests, and faithful of his patriarchy, as well as to Cardinal Stephanos II Ghattas, Patriarch Emeritus of Alexandria.
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During his speech following the celebration of the Liturgy on the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Patriarch Bartholomew underlined the deeper meaning of every divine liturgy, which brings into communion heaven and earth, eternity and all time, past, present and future. The Holy Liturgy is the sacramental revelation of the entire truth of our faith and the place of total communion in the body of Christ.
Subsequently, His all holiness expressed his sadness over the fact that the Orthodox and Roman Catholics could not commonly conduct divine services, as well as his wish that the day will soon come for full Communion.
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VATICAN CITY, DEC 14, 2006 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, following their private meeting and after each had pronounced a public address, the Pope and His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, signed a Joint Declaration in the presence of members of the archbishop's Greek delegation and of Catholic representatives.
"We, Benedict XVI, Pope and Bishop of Rome, and Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, in this sacred place of Rome, ... wish to live ever more intensely our mission to bear apostolic witness, to transmit the faith, ... and to announce the Good News of the birth of the Lord. ... It is also our joint responsibility to overcome, in love and truth, the multiple difficulties and painful experiences of the past."
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VATICAN CITY, DEC 14, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father received His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, who is making an official visit to the Vatican. Prior to his audience with the Pope, the archbishop visited St. Peter's Basilica where he prayed at the tomb of John Paul II.
In his address, the Holy Father recalled how "following the advent of Christianity, Greece and Rome intensified their relations" and how "this gave rise to very different forms of Christian communities and traditions in the regions of the world that today correspond to Eastern Europe and Western Europe. These intense relations helped to create a kind of osmosis in the formation of ecclesial institutions. And this osmosis - in safeguarding the disciplinary, liturgical, theological and spiritual peculiarities of the Roman and Greek traditions - made the Church's evangelizing activity and the inculturation of the Christian faith fruitful."
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1. The filial meeting of the two Church leaders renews their commitment to work towards the restoration of Full Communion between the two Churches, which is God’s will and command.
2. The two Prelates recalled with gratitude their predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, as well as Ecumenical Patriarchs Athenagoras and Dimitrios, who lead the path towards the reconciliation (abatement) of the two churches, through their meetings and mutual visits, as well as the lifting of the 11th Century anathemas between Rome and Constantinople. They call on (implore) the faithful of both Churches to strengthen their prayers and endeavors towards the unity of the Churches.
- Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Sign Significant Common Declaration
- Meeting of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew with Pope Benedict XVI Comes to Hope-Filled Conclusion
- Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Pays Historic Visit to Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit
- Common Declaration by Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Bartholomew I