No matter what this past year has been like, we give thanks to God
On December 31, during Vespers in St. Peter’s basilica, Benedict XVI pointed out that the Te Deum, the hymn of thanksgiving sung during the last Vespers of the year, possesses a “profound wisdom”: “No matter what the year has been like, easy or difficult, sterile or rich in fruits, we give thanks to God.” “At times it is hard to understand this profound reality, for evil is noisier than goodness,” explained the Pope. Brutal homicides, more and more widespread violence, and grave injustices are the headline news in the newspapers, he added. “But gestures of love and service, the daily effort born with fidelity and patience still remain in the shadows.”
Benedict XVI asked that we not content ourselves only with media information in our understanding of the world, but that we plunge into silence, meditation, and calm and lengthy reflection: “We need to know how to stop and think.” “It is above all,” explained the Pope, “in the recollected conscience, where God speaks to us, that we learn to see our own acts in truth, and the evil present in and around us.” The Christian is a man of hope, he declared, even and especially in the face of the obscurity that often exists in the world and that does not come from God’s plans but from man’s bad choices, for he knows that the strength of the faith can move mountains (Matt. 17:20): the Lord can also enlighten the deepest shadows.
In the presence of the civil and religious authorities, including the Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno, the Holy Father called for a renewed “apostolic commitment” in this Year of the Faith, recalling that “the Gospel is for all men.” Indeed, the mission to evangelize is “all the more necessary when the faith risks being obscured in cultural contexts that present obstacles to its social presence and to its taking roots on a personal level.” Benedict XVI also invited political institutions and authorities to do all in their power to make it possible for “all citizens to have access to what is essential for them to live worthily.”
At the end of the celebration of Vespers, the Sixtine Chapel choir intoned the Te Deum to thank God for the past year. In keeping with the tradition, Benedict XVI then went to St. Peter’s Square to pray before the monumental nativity scene at the foot of the obelisk. A gift of the Italian region of Basilicata (southern Italy) in honor of the pope, the terra cotta statues are the work of Francesco Artese, artist of the southern school, born in 1957 in Matera, in Basilicata. The nativity is represented in the countryside of the Sassi di Matera (troglodytic habitats) and depicts the traditional rural life of Lucania. It includes the rock church of San Nicola dei Greci and the bell tower of San Pietro de Bari, from the artist’s region which boasts 154 rock churches since the high Middle Ages.
(sources: apic/imedia/vis/vatican.va – DICI#268, Jan. 18, 2013)
