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Vatican City,
6th July 2005 (CNA)
- In his general audience earlier today in
St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged
nearly 15,000 listeners to realize that all are
children of God the Father who, in light of
Christ, “can now be invoked as 'Abba,'…in a
spontaneous and loving relationship."
The Holy Father focused today’s scripture
catechesis on the canticle in St. Paul's Letter to
the Ephesians (1, 3-14), "God the Savior,” calling
it “a prayer of blessing addressed to God the
Father" that outlines "the various stages of the
plan of salvation achieved through the action of
Christ."
The Pope stressed the fact that, "The
Father first chooses us that we might walk holy
and blameless in love, then destines us to be His
children; He also redeems us and forgives our
sins, and makes the mystery of salvation in Christ
fully known to us; finally He gives us the eternal
inheritance, offering us a guarantee in the gift
of the Holy Spirit until the final
resurrection."
Benedict then discussed a sort of Catholic
idea of predestination saying that the Father
"choose[s] the believers, a free and gratuitous
initiative of God.”
“In principle, then,” he continued,
“'before the foundation of the world,' in the
eternity of God, divine grace was ready to enter
into action. The content of this call is
'sanctity,' in other words participation in the
transcendent purity of the divine Being and in His
intimate essence of 'charity,' 'God is
love'."
"Following this course,” he said, “we move
towards the next stage, which has also been
contemplated in the divine plan for all eternity:
our 'predestination' as children of God.”
Perhaps reaching the crux of his argument
the Pope noted that, “Elsewhere in his writings,
St. Paul exalts this sublime condition of being
children, which implies brotherhood with Christ -
the Son par excellence, 'first-born among many
brothers' - and intimacy with the heavenly Father
- Who can now be invoked as 'Abba,' Father, in a
spontaneous and loving relationship."
The Holy Father concluded today’s teaching
by referring to St. Ambrose, who wrote that God is
above all rich in mercy because in Christ "He
redeemed everyone and, as architect of nature,
transformed us who by the nature of flesh were
children of rage and subject to punishment, that
we should be children of peace and of
charity."
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