Scottish Catholic Observer

To believe in God means allowing His Commandments to guide us in ways that may go against society, Pope Benedict XVI said today.

‘To believe in God makes us bearers of values that often do not coincide’ with those of popular culture, the Pope said at his weekly general audience.

“A Christian must not be afraid to go against the current in order to live his faith, resisting the temptation of conformity,” he said.

Beginning a series of Year of Faith audience talks about the creed, Pope Benedict said that ‘believing in God implies adhering to him, accepting his word and joyfully obeying’ his commandments.

Believers today, like Abraham in the Old Testament, must show trust in the God they profess to believe, even when God’s ways appear mysterious, he said.

The Holy Father asked the estimated 2000 visitors and pilgrims gathered for his audience to imagine how they would have responded to a call like that God gave to Abraham, asking him to leave his home and set out for a land God would show him only later.

“In fact, he set off in the dark without knowing where God would lead him. It was a journey that required that radical obedience and trust that only faith could give him,” the Pope said. “When we affirm ‘I believe in God,’ we are saying like Abraham, ‘I trust you, I entrust myself to you, Lord.’”

Real trust means turning to God not just ‘in moments of difficulty’ or ‘a few minutes each day or each week,’ he said.

“To say ‘I believe in God’ means building my life on him, letting his word guide each of my days, each concrete choice, without fear that I will lose myself.”