SCREENING OF A FILM ON ST AUGUSTINE
REMARKS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Swiss Hall of the Papal Residence in Castel Gandolfo
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Dear friends,
At the end of this great spiritual journey that is portrayed in the film that we have just seen, I feel the need to say "thank you" to all who have offered us this viewing. Thank you to the Bavarian Television for its generous commitment it is a great joy that a casual observation I made three years ago, began a journey that has led to this grand representation of the life of St Augustine. Thank you to Lux Vide and the RAI for this achievement.
Actually, I think that the film is a spiritual journey on a spiritual continent very distant from us, yet very close, because human drama is always the same. We have seen how, in a context so remote from ours, the reality of human life is portrayed with all its problems, its sorrows, its failures, as well as the fact that in the end the Truth is stronger than any obstacle and finds man. This is the great hope we are left with: we cannot find the Truth on our own, but the Truth, who is a Person, finds us. Externally St Augustine's life appears to end tragically: the world for which and in which he lived is destroyed. But, as the film affirms, his message has lived on and even in the ever-changing world, endures, because it comes from the Truth and it leads to Love, which is our common destination.
Thank you to everyone. Let us hope that many, in seeing this human drama, may be found by the Truth and may find Love.
© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana