Advent is time to restore eternal perspective, Pope says

November 28, 2011

The season of Advent is “a timely reminder to us that life has not only an earthly dimension, but is projected beyond,” Pope Benedict XVI told his midday audience on Sunday, November 27.

Reflecting on the day’s reading from the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Father called special attention to the words: “There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hands of iniquity.” Pope Benedict said:

How can we not be struck by this description? It seems to reflect certain aspects of the post-modern world: cities where life has become anonymous and horizontal, where God seems to be absent and only man is master, as if he were the universal architect. Building, work, economy, transport, science, technology, everything seems to depend only upon man. And at times, in this apparently perfect world, terrible things happen, either in nature or society, which make us think that God has withdrawn and has, so to say, left us to our own devices.

In spite of modern pretensions, the Pope reminded his audience: “The real master of the world is not man but God.” Advent is a time to bring that reality clearly into focus, he said.

 

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Further information:

• Life Does Not Have Only an Earthly Dimension (VIS)