Renew your joy as a child of God

VATICAN CITY (CNA And VIS ) — Pope Benedict XVI used his Sunday Angelus address to remind Christians of the joy of being “children of God,” courtesy of baptism.

“God is the origin of the existence of every creature, and the Father in a unique way of every human being: he has a unique, personal relationship with him or her,” said the pope from the window of his apostolic palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square Jan. 8.

Earlier in the morning the pope baptized 16 infants in the Sistine Chapel to mark the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Reflecting upon that event, he observed that being a child is “the fundamental condition that binds us together,” for while “not all of us are parents,” we are all children.

“Coming into the world is never a choice; we are not asked first if we want to be born.

“Thanks to the faith, thanks to a profound and personal ‘yes’ to God as the origin and foundation of my existence, I welcome life as a gift of the Father Who is in heaven; a Parent Who, in the depths of my heart, I feel to be my Father, the Father or all my brothers and sisters in humanity, a Father Who is intensely good and faithful.

“This faith in God the Father rests upon Jesus Christ. His person and His history reveal the Father to us. To believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, enables us ‘to be reborn from above’, in other words from God Who is Love. This is the significance of the sacrament of baptism: it is a new birth which comes about thanks to the Holy Spirit.

“This Sunday concludes the period of Christmas. Let us give thanks unto God for this great mystery. God became the child of man that man might become the child of God. Let us then renew our joy at being children, born of the love of a father and a mother, and reborn in God’s love through Baptism.”

The pope urged Christians worldwide to give thanks to God for the “great mystery” of baptism which “is a source of regeneration for the Church and for the whole world.”