Pope: Christ displayed his power in humble deeds 

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN NEWS) — The power of Jesus Christ is manifested in humble service and love, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Sunday Angelus address on Jan. 29.

“For man, authority often means possession, power, control, success,” the pope said to thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

“For God, however, authority means service, humility, love,” he said, “it means entering into the logic of Jesus who stoops to wash the disciples’ feet, who seeks the true good of man, who heals wounds, who is capable of a love so great as to give up his life, because he is Love.”

As is his custom, the pope appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, including children from Catholic Action of the Diocese of Rome, who annually celebrate January as the “month of peace.” At the end of the Marian prayer two of the children read out a message and released two doves, as a symbol of peace, from the pope’s window.

The pope’s comments were part of a reflection on the day’s Gospel reading in which an unclean spirit identifies Jesus Christ as the “Holy One of God,” during his travels in Galilee. The pope observed how Jesus heals both spiritually and physically through his teaching and miracles.

“In a short time, his fame spread throughout the region, which he travels announcing the Kingdom of God and healing the sick of all kinds: word and action.”

The pope then quoted the fifth-century Church father St. John Chrysostom, who noted that Jesus “alternates the speech for the benefit of those who listen, moving on from wonders to words and again passing from the teaching of his doctrine to miracles.”

The pope suggested that Jesus’ use of words immediately opened up most of those listening to “the will of the Father and the truth about themselves.” However, the scribes who “struggled to interpret the Holy Scriptures with countless reflections” were not open to his words.

Therefore, Jesus also united to his words to miraculous actions as “signs of deliverance from evil,” the pontiff explained. He further recalled how St. Athanasius, the third-century Church father, would say that the “commanding and driving out demons is not human but divine work” and demonstrates how Jesus “distanced men from all diseases and infirmities.”

“Divine authority is not a force of nature.” Instead, it is “the power of the love of God who created the universe and, in becoming incarnate in His only begotten Son, in coming down to our humanity, heals the world corrupted by sin.”

Pope Benedict finished with a quotation from Romano Guardini, the 20th-century Italian-German philosopher and theologian, who wrote that “the whole life of Jesus is a translation of power in humility ... Here is the sovereignty that lowers itself to the form of a servant.”

After praying the Angelus, the Holy Father mentioned three events which were marked on Jan. 29, including the beatification in Vienna of Hildegard Burjan, “laywoman and mother who lived between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and founded the Sisters of Social Charity. Let us give praise to the Lord for this magnificent witness to the Gospel”, the pope said.

He also noted that it was World Leprosy Day, and spoke of his desire “to express encouragement to everyone affected by the disease, and to the people who assist them and who, in various ways, strive to eliminate the poverty and marginalization which are the true causes of its continuance.”

The pope also marked International Day of Intercession for Peace in the Holy Land. “In profound communion with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Custos of the Holy Land, we invoke the gift of peace for that Land blessed by God,” Pope Benedict said.