George A. Sprecace M.D.,
J.D., F.A.C.P. and Allergy Associates of New
London,
P.C.
www.asthma-drsprecace.com
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ZENIT, The world seen from Rome
News Agency
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Pope: Nothing to Fear About the Future
Cardinal Bertone Sends Papal Message to Rimini Meeting
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 23, 2011 (Zenit.org).- It is possible to look to the
future
with confidence -- because Christ has wrenched man's destiny from
darkness.
This is the affirmation Benedict XVI is sharing with the Meeting of
Friendship
Among Peoples, which is under way this week in Rimini, Italy.
In a papal message of Aug. 10, sent by the Pope's secretary of state,
Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, the Holy Father stated that man cannot live without
the
certainty of his destiny.
The message was a reflection on existence and certainty, as the theme
of this
32nd Rimini Meeting is And existence becomes an immense certainty.
On what certainty can man reasonably found his existence? the message
asked.
What is, at bottom, the hope that does not deceive? With the advent of
Christ
the promise that nourished the hope of the people of Israel attains its
fulfillment, it assumes a personal face. In Christ Jesus, man's destiny
was
wrenched definitively from the nebulosity that surrounded him. Through
the Son,
in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father unveiled to us definitively
the
positive future that awaits us.
Cardinal Bertone said that the Risen Christ is the ultimate and
definitive
foundation of existence, the certainty of our hope.
Only the certainty that is born of faith enables man to live the
present
intensely and, at the same time, to transcend it, perceiving in it the
reflection of the eternal to which time is ordered, he stated. Only the
recognized presence of Christ, source of life and destiny of man, is
capable of
reawakening in us the nostalgia of Paradise and thus to project the
future with
confidence, without fear and false illusions.
The papal message asserted that Christians today are more than ever
called to
give reason for the hope that is in us.
The Church, rendering present in time the mystery of God's eternity, is
the
appropriate subject of this certainty, the cardinal explained. In the
ecclesial
community the pro-existence of the Son of God is reached; in it eternal
life,
to which all existence is destined, can already be experienced.
Heaven, he continued, is the definitive fulfillment of friendship with
Christ
and among ourselves.
Citing a French religious, Cardinal Bertone said that heaven is, in
truth,
where Christ is. Thus the heart that loves desires no other joy than to
live
always close to the beloved.
Thus, he stated, existence, is not a blind proceeding, but it is a
going to the
one we love. Hence, we know where we are going, toward whom we are
directed,
and this orients the whole of our existence.
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