Pope Benedict in Cuba:True obedience of faith is true liberty

Pope Benedict's sermon from yesterday's Mass of the Solemnity of the Annunciation included a number of key themes. One that drew my attention was the theme of true human liberty being that of following God's will. God's will is, of course, obedience to the Church. For obedience to the Church is obedience to Christ. 

"The expression, “became flesh” points to our human reality in most concrete and tangible way. In Christ, God has truly come into the world, he has entered into our history, he has set his dwelling among us, thus fulfilling the deepest desire of human beings that the world may truly become a home worthy of humanity. On the other hand, when God is put aside, the world becomes an inhospitable place for man, and frustrates creation’s true vocation to be a space for the covenant, for the “Yes” to the love between God and humanity who responds to him. Mary did so as the first fruit of believers with her unreserved “Yes” to the Lord. 

Pope Benedict and President Castro

 God has created us as the fruit of his infinite love;  hence, to live in accordance with his will is the way to encounter our genuine identity, the truth of our being, while apart from God we are alienated from ourselves and are hurled into the void. The obedience of faith is true liberty, authentic redemption, which allows us to unite ourselves to the love of Jesus in his determination to conform himself to the will of the Father. 

Dear brothers and sisters, I know with what effort, boldness and self-sacrifice you work everyday so that, in the concrete circumstances of your country, and at this moment in history, the Church will better present her true face as a place in which God draws near and encounters humanity".