Trust God, have confidence in new year, Pope says
January 02, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI closed out the year 2011 by exhorting the faithful to trust in God, and overcome worries about passing problems.
On December 31, the Holy Father presided at a Vespers service and the traditional singing of the Te Deum in thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year. In his homily, the Pope spoke about the proper Christian attitude toward the passage of time.
We look toward the new year, the Pope observed, “with some trepidation, with our perennial desires and expectations.” There are many reasons for uncertainty about the future, he said, and young people “have an especially keen sense of the present disorientation.”
However, in light of the Gospel message, Christians should not be troubled by such concerns, the Pope explained:
Reflecting on our life experience, we are continually astonished by how ultimately short and ephemeral life is. So we often find ourselves asking: what meaning can we give to our days? What meaning, in particular, can we give to the days of toil and grief? … But there is an answer: it is written on the face of a Child Who was born in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, and is today the Living One, risen for ever from the dead. From within the fabric of humanity, rent asunder by so much injustice, wickedness and violence, there bursts forth in an unforeseen way the joyful and liberating novelty of Christ our Savior.
In the light of Christ, the Pope said, there is “no more room for anxiety in the face of time that passes, never to return; now there is room for unlimited trust in God.”
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