AUSTRALIA : YEAR OF FAITH - TRANSFORM LIVES

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
12 Oct 2012

Pope Benedict arriving in St Peter's Square for the opening of the Year of Faith

Coupled with our current Year of Grace, the Year of Faith affords us a further opportunity to transform our own lives into living images of Christ, Bishop Peter Comensoli said in his homily to mark the first day of the Year of Faith.
Speaking at the Mass that opened the Year of Faith on a day that also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council on 11 October 1962, Bishop Comensoli recalled his days as a seminarian and the collection of 12 paintings that hung in the lecture hall, and how he was reminded of them when he saw the same artworks recently at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
"Without going into their artistic merit what is intriguing about this set of pictures is that each one captures, by way of a visual image, some statement or theme from the Profession of Faith, or the Nicene Creed, which we recite each Sunday at Mass," he said, explaining that the paintings were all imaginative representations of the content of the Christian faith.
The artworks were a useful lens through which to appreciate the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI's call to the whole Church to celebrate the Year of Faith as well as the Australian Church's own celebration of the Year of Grace.
The essential content of the Christian faith had been handed down through the years in the form of scriptural texts, creedal statements, magisterial documents, liturgical books and theological theses providing depth and detail about the truth of who God is in the blessed Trinity and who God is for us, he said.
"Yet the Christian faith is not a collected body of words to be believed, even if those words are definitive for what that belief is," the Bishop said pointing out that faith itself is a "living reality."
"It is a personal encounter with the Word made Flesh, who dwelt among us, who died and rose for us, and who lives on with us in the Church," he said. "Christian faith is not faith in a creed, but faith in a person: Jesus Christ."

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What is stated in words and ideas, needs to be captured in the living picture of our lives. "This is why the truth of the Christian faith cannot be really known unless it is accompanied by friendship in Christ Jesus," he insisted and quoted the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI leading into the Synod of the New Evangelisation which began last Sunday where he said: "The question for us is God has spoken, he has really broken the great silence, he has shown himself, but how can we get this reality across to the people of today, so that it becomes salvation?"
Bishop Comensoli says the answer to the Holy Father's question lies in the fact that the proclamation of the Christian gospel is first and foremost the proclamation of one's own life lived faithfully in Christ.
Daily prayer for Christians well into the 8th Century centred on the saying of both the Lord's Prayer and The Profession of Faith.
"In establishing a special Year of Faith, Pope Benedict is encouraging us to reclaim the ancient tradition, and to plant it once again at the heart of our daily lives," he said.
A full transcript of Bishop Comensoli's homily below
Mass for the opening of the Year of Faith
Bishop Peter Comensoli
St Mary's Cathedral, 11 October 2012

Bishop Peter Comensoli

Back in the days when I was a seminarian, I used to enjoy looking at the various bits of art hanging on the walls of the seminary. One particular themed set of 12 pictures always intrigued me. I think they hung in a lecture hall, so my attentiveness to them may have had something to do with my inattentiveness to the lecturer! I had forgotten about them until only last week, when I saw them again, this time hanging in the Catholic Institute of Sydney, our Archdiocesan theological college.
Without going into their artistic merit, what is intriguing about this set of pictures is that each one captures, by way of a visual image, some statement or theme from the Profession of Faith, or the Creed, which we recite each Sunday at Mass. These pictures are, therefore, imaginative representations of the content of the Christian faith. It would be an interesting exercise to imagine how we would capture in one picture such statements as: 'I believe', 'Creator of heaven and earth', 'the Word became flesh', 'the Holy Spirit', and so on.
I mention this art work today because it strikes me as a useful lens through which we might appreciate our Holy father's call for the whole Church to celebrate a Year of Faith, commencing today on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. Coupled with our currently Year of Grace, the Year of Faith affords us a further opportunity to transform our own lives into living images of Christ. But how are we do this?
The essential content of the Christian faith has long been thought out, formulated and handed down through the years in the form of scriptural texts, creedal statements, magisterial documents, liturgical books, and such like. Through these many words a person may come to know in great depth and detail the truth about who God is in his blessed Trinity, and who God is for us.
Yet, the Christian faith is not a collected body of words to be believed, even if those words are definitive for what that belief is. Rather, Christians believe that faith itself is a living reality. It is a personal encounter with the Word made Flesh, who dwelt among us, who died and rose for us, and who lives on with us in the Church. Christian faith is not faith in a creed, but faith in a person, Jesus Christ. Therefore, what is expressed in words as a body of knowledge is manifested in lives as a personal encounter. What we confess with our minds, we live out with our bodies.
St Paul reminds us of this reality in those rather unflattering words he directs at the Christians in Galatia. "Are you mad?" he exclaims in exasperation: "Are you foolish enough to end in outward observances what you began in the Spirit?" We might feel some sympathy for the poor, harangued Galatians, but Paul's point is a valid one: an effective proclamation of the Christian faith is not going to happen through the robotic repetition of a particular set of truths, but through the power of God's Spirit, who animates and enlivens all that we believe. Any retreat from living in conformity with Christ, is a retreat into a perversion of the Christian faith, and a retreat from ennobling our culture.
In this way, we may speak of the true sign of belief, the true symbol of faith, as not the creedal statements themselves, but the person who is a living witness to them. What is stated in words and ideas, needs to be captured in the living picture of our lives. This is why the truth of the Christian faith cannot be really known unless it is accompanied by friendship in Christ Jesus. We have the saints as evidence of this, and they show us the way it is done: know Christ, love Christ, proclaim Christ.
This is the chief point that Pope Benedict has been making for some time now, and especially in his recent remarks leading into the Synod on the New Evangelisation, which began on Sunday, and today's commencement of the Year of Faith. To quote him directly: "The question for us is: God has spoken, he has really broken the great silence, he has shown himself; but how can we get this reality across to the people of today, so that it becomes salvation?"
The answer to this question lies in the fact that the proclamation of the Christian gospel - in other words, evangelization - is first and foremost a proclamation of one's own life lived faithfully in Christ. In other words, it is the path to personal conversion and holiness that matters, and it is from our personal witness that others will come to share in the salvific gift of Christ. As Pope Paul VI said in his great encyclical on the evangelizing mission of the Church: "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses."
Yet, for us to live in Christ, and for us to be personal witnesses of him to others, it is necessary for us to get to know him, and to do so thoroughly. The content of Christianity - both in faith and morals - is not something that can be taken or left, depending on one's personal preferences. The Profession of Faith is indispensible if we want to know the Christ whom we seek to love. As St Peter puts it in his first letter: "Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have."
Significantly, the daily prayer of ordinary Christians well into the 8th century was centred on saying both the Lord's Prayer and the Profession of Faith. In establishing a special Year of Faith, Pope Benedict is encouraging us, as it were, to reclaim this ancient tradition, and to plant it once again at the heart of our daily lives.
With such a task ahead of us, let me return to where I began these few thoughts: finding a way for words to become pictures so that all to see. The Year of Faith is our opportunity to discover again the words by which the Christian faith is known, and with them, to paint with our lives living pictures of Christ.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY