The fact that Christ is both human and divine, that he existed from all eternity and has promised to stay with believers until the end of time, gives Christians the strength they need to live meaningful and upright lives, Pope Benedict XVI said."This is important: The eternal God was born of a woman and remains with us each day. Trusting in this, we live. And trusting in this, we find the pathway for our lives," the pope said Oct. 3 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.
Immediately before the audience, the pope returned to the Vatican from his summer villa at Castel Gandolfo where he had been since late July.
During the audience, Pope Benedict greeted 21 seminarians studying at Rome's North American College and hundreds of their family members and friends.
On the eve of their ordination to the transitional diaconate, the pope told the seminarians, "May God continue to strengthen you as you strive to serve his people."
In his main audience talk, the pope discussed the teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria, the fourth-century bishop and doctor of the church known especially for his defense of the teaching that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, one person with two natures.
St. Cyril's strident insistence on the unity of Christ eventually led to the ouster of Nestorius as bishop of Constantinople, the pope said. But after the Council of Ephesus, St. Cyril elaborated "a theological formula of compromise and reconciliation" with those who held the Nestorian position.
The pope described as "significant" St. Cyril's insistence on "the clarity of the doctrine of our faith," while also intensely seeking "unity and reconciliation."
"St. Cyril wrote many books, but I don't want to speak about that now, but about the gist of what he taught us: that faith is, above all, an encounter with Jesus," the pope told the estimated 21,000 people at the audience.
"St. Cyril was a firm and untiring witness of Jesus Christ, incarnate word of God, underlining his unity most of all."
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