Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI has compared ‘blindness’ towards God in modern society with the hostility faced by Jesus Christ.

During the Angelus on Sunday, the Holy Father (above) recalled how Jesus was rejected by those in his hometown of Nazareth upon his return and was unable to perform any miracles there, aside from healing a few sick people.

“The miracles of Christ are not a display of power, but signs of the love of God, which is made present where it encounters the Faith of man,” the Pope said.

“In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that if we live with an open and simple heart, nourished by true faith, we can recognise the presence of God in our lives and follow his Holy will.”

The Holy Father described the events in that day’s Gospel, where Jesus faced hostility from people in his home town of Nazareth as ‘understandable’ and that ‘familiarity at the human level makes it difficult to go beyond that and be open to the divine dimension.’

“While we too always seek other signs, other wonders, we do not realise that he is the real sign, God made flesh; he is the greatest miracle of the universe: all the love of God hidden in a human heart, in a human face,” he added.

This was the Pope’s first Angelus of the year at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. He also spoke of an inter-religious prayer service that was taking place at the former concentration camp of Majdanek, in Poland.

Following the Angelus, he told a group of French pilgrims ‘not to take a holiday from God’ and remember to pray and go to Mass on Sundays during the summer.