POPE: CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN SOMEONE, NOT SOMETHING

Pope Benedict XVI (C) and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone greet Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano (R) before he offered a concert to celebrate the sixth anniversary of his pontificate in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican May 5, 2011.

VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The Christian faith is not based on believing in something, but in Someone, Benedict XVI says.

The Pope affirmed this Thursday in an address following a concert in honor of his 6th anniversary as the Successor of Peter. He was elected April 19 and installed April 24, 2005.

The concert was offered to the Pope by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. The orchestra and choir of the Opera Theatre of Rome, respectively conducted by Maestro Jesús López Cobos and Maestro Roberto Gabbiani, performed Antonio Vivaldi's "Credo RV 591" and Gioachino Rossini's "Stabat Mater."

The Holy Father reflected on the beginning and ending words of the creed: "Credo" and "Amen."

"What does 'I believe' mean?," he asked, indicating that it can mean to accept something among one's convictions, to trust someone and to be certain.

"When, however, we say it in the Creed," he said, "it assumes a more profound meaning. It is to affirm with confidence the real meaning of the reality that sustains us, that sustains the world; it means to accept this meaning as the solid ground on which we can be without fears; it is to know that the foundation of everything, of ourselves, cannot be created by us, but can only be received."

The Holy Father added that Christian faith is not "'I believe something,' but 'I believe in Someone,' in the God who revealed himself in Jesus."

"In him I perceive the real meaning of the world," the Pontiff said, "and this believing involves the whole person, who is on the way to him."

"The word 'Amen,' which in Hebrew has the same root as the word 'faith,' takes up this same concept: to lean with confidence on God, the solid base."

In regard to Vivaldi's piece, Benedict XVI pointed out three things, beginning with the unusual characteristic of the composer's vocal production: the absence of soloists.

"In this way, Vivaldi wishes to express the 'we' of the faith. The 'I believe' is the 'we' of the Church that sings, in space and time, as a community of believers, its faith; 'my' affirmation 'I believe' is within the 'we' of the community," he reflected.

Then he pointed out "the two splendid central pictures: Et incarnatus est and Crucifixus. Vivaldi pauses, as was customary, at the moment in which God who seems far away becomes close, is incarnated and gives himself to us on the cross."

He noted how it expresses "the profound sense of wonder in face of this Mystery and invite[s] us to meditation, to prayer."

"A last observation. In his first meeting with Vivaldi, Carlo Goldoni, great exponent of the Venetian theater, pointed out: 'I found him surrounded by music and with the breviary in hand.' Vivaldi was a priest and his music is born from his faith."

The Pope went on to describe Gioacchino Rossini's "Stabat Mater" as "a great meditation on the mystery of Jesus and on the sorrow of Mary."

"Rossini's religiosity expresses a rich gamut of feelings in face of the mysteries of Christ, with a strong emotive tension."

Rossini's work, he added, is characterized by "an emotive intensity that becomes a sincere prayer," "a simple and genuine faith."

"Dear friends, may this evening's pieces nourish our faith," said the Pope at the end of his address, as he reiterated to everyone his gratitude for the event and requested that they remember to "pray for my ministry in the Vineyard of the Lord."

And His Holiness is absolutely right. We believe in the Father and Son and their promises of Eternal Life if we follow Their guidance.

The thing that strikes me the most about liberals, and of course I am not talking about all of them as I know there are Christian liberals out there, is that when they shut God out of their lives, they become very angry, vindictive and self loathing. They have shut out the Love of the Father and Son and their lives become empty and meaningless without them.

I am far from perfect but I know the Father and Son love me and I love them. That belief and faith got me through 4 combat tours. Without them I would never have kept my sanity given all the things I saw and was essentially thrust into doing.

Well said, and thank you for your service to this nation. We say we are “one nation, under God”; but we act as if we are our own gods.

This is not so. God has created man for His purpose; and we are freest as men and women when we are aligned with His purposes. God does not make men into robots, but our skills and talents will be used for His purposes.

Christ’s Incarnation, perfect life, and sacrificial death reconciled the holiness of God with His love, enabling we sinners to be reconciled to Him and truly become ourselves as we are meant to be.

Wonderful post! BXVI is truly a theological Einstein of our times. His address in London is unrivaled. Just like our physical attributes are minds are finite too. And what is unreachable by scientific inquiry based on empirical evidence can nonetheless be accommodated by a faith based on human reason and experience through the Word made flesh as in the Son of Man and Son of God.

The Great Commission to teach was to instruct a single Truth not multiples versions of his Gospel. Hence the Credo, in the belief of the The One True Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. The rest is heresy. BXVI’s pontificate is to bring back civilization to its true anchor- the See of St. Peter.

I am not talking about all of them as I know there are Christian liberals out there, is that when they shut God out of their lives, they become very angry, vindictive and self loathing. They have shut out the Love of the Father and Son and their lives become empty and meaningless without them.

Thank you for articulating this fact so well. Throughout history, each time a nation has shut God out, they soon collapsed.

In his Pro Eligendo homily, delivered at the mass before the cardinals met in conclave to elect a successor to JPII, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made an astute observation. Speaking on the Letter to the Ephesians, he noted: (emphasis, mine)

How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.
Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires.

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