Summary: (Vati (http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-rediscovering-a-taste-for-the-joys-of-lif)(http://www.discerninghearts.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Pope-Benedict-XVI-w1-300x179.jpg)can Radio (http://www.news.va/en/news/audience-rediscovering-a-taste-for-the-joys-of-lif)) What really satisfies manâs deepest desire? Is the desire for God absurd, irrational in todayâs secularised world? How do we reach out to people who have lost their faith? To people who do not believe in God? How do we accompany them on their search for true good? These were the questions Pope Benedict XVI posed to 30 thousand people in St Peterâs Square for the Wednesday general audience, the third in his series for the Year of Faith. Listen: The answer, Pope Benedict XVI said, lies in rediscovering the real meaning of human desire, ecstasy and love. In rediscovering our taste for the joys of life. âWe must believe that even in our era, seemingly reluctant to the transcendent dimension, that it is possible to open a path toward an authentic religious meaning of life, showing how the gift of faith is not absurd, it is not irrationalâ Below please find a Vatican Radio translation of Pope Benedict XVIâs general Audience catechesis, the third in his series on the Year of Faith: Dear brothers and sisters, The journey of reflection that we are making together this Year of Faith leads us to meditate today on a fascinating aspect of the Human and Christian experience: man carries within himself a mysterious desire for God. In a very significant way, the Catechism of the Catholic Church opens with the following consideration: âThe desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for"(No. 27). Such a statement, which even today in many cultural contexts seems quite acceptable, almost obvious, might instead appear as a provocation in the sphere of secularized Western culture. Many of our contemporaries could, in fact, argue that they do not feel such a desire for God at all. For large sectors of society He is no longer desired, expected, but rather a reality that leaves some indifferent and not even worth wasting oneâs breath over. Actually, what we have defined as "desire for Godâ has not completely disappeared and still today, in many ways, appears in the heart of man. Human desire always tends towards certain tangible assets, which are often far from spiritual, and yet it is still faced with the question of what âtheâ good really is and as a result confront itself with something other than itself, something that man cannot create, but is called upon to recognize. What can really satisfy manâs desire?In my first encyclical, Deus caritas est, I tried to analyze how such dynamism is experienced in human love, an experience which in our era is more easily perceived as a moment of ecstasy, of going beyond oneself, as a place where man senses that he is being filled with a desire that is beyond him. Through love, men and women experience in a new way, thanks to one another, the grandeur and beauty of life and of reality. If what I experience is not a mere illusion, if I really want the good of the other as a path towards my own good, then I must be willing to de-centralize myself, to put myself at the service of the other to the point of surrendering myself. The answer to the question about the meaning of the experience of love thus passes through the cleansing and healing of the will, which is required by the very good we want for the other. We have to practise, train and even correct ourselves so that that good may be truly wanted. The initial ecstasy translates thus becomes a pilgrimage, «an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God» (Enc.
