Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale540

nant, to offer, in union with him, our own daily sacrifices for the salvation of

the world.

In today's liturgy the Church reminds us that, like this altar, we too have

been consecrated, set "apart" for the service of God and the building up of his

Kingdom. All too often, however, we find ourselves immersed in a world that

would set God "side". In the name of human freedom and autonomy, God's

name is passed over in silence, religion is reduced to private devotion, and

faith is shunned in the public square. At times this mentality, so completely

at odds with the core of the Gospel, can even cloud our own understanding of

the Church and her mission. We too can be tempted to make the life of faith a

matter of mere sentiment, thus blunting its power to inspire a consistent

vision of the world and a rigorous dialogue with the many other visions

competing for the minds and hearts of our contemporaries.

Yet history, including the history of our own time, shows that the ques-

tion of God will never be silenced, and that indifference to the religious

dimension of human existence ultimately diminishes and betrays man him-

self. Is that not the message which is proclaimed by the magnificent archi-

tecture of this cathedral? Is that not the mystery of faith which will be

proclaimed from this altar at every celebration of the Eucharist? Faith tea-

ches us that in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, we come to understand the

grandeur of our own humanity, the mystery of our life on this earth, and the

sublime destiny which awaits us in heaven.2 Faith teaches us that we are

God's creatures, made in his image and likeness, endowed with an inviolable

dignity, and called to eternal life. Wherever man is diminished, the world

around us is also diminished; it loses its ultimate meaning and strays from its

goal. What emerges is a culture, not of life, but of death. How could this be

considered "progress"? It is a backward step, a form of regression which

ultimately dries up the very sources of life for individuals and all of society.

We know that in the end - as Saint Ignatius of Loyola saw so clearly -

the only real "standard" against which all human reality can be measured is

the Cross and its message of an unmerited love which triumphs over evil, sin

and death, creating new life and unfading joy. The Cross reveals that we find

ourselves only by giving our lives away, receiving God's love as an unmerited

2 Cfr Gaudium et Spes, 24.