VATICAN CITY (CNS) If people recognise their own blindness and pride, Jesus will heal them, help them live better lives and, therefore, improve the world around them, Pope Benedict XVI said. Commenting March 2 on the Gospel story of Jesus healing the man born blind, Pope Benedict said the story shows that Jesus "came into the world to exercise judgment, to separate the blind who can be healed from those who will not let themselves be healed because they presume they are healthy."
Addressing pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the midday recitation of the Angelus March 2, the pope said, "Let us allow ourselves to be healed by Jesus, who can and wants to give us the light of God."
"We confess our blindness, our shortsightedness and especially that which the Bible calls ‘the great sin’: pride," he said.
Speaking in English, the pope said that the light Jesus brings can "cure us from the darkness of confusion and sin present in this world."
Meeting university students March 1, the pope said all Christians must honestly and sincerely look at what in their lives and in their societies promotes a Gospel-inspired "civilization of love" and at those things which work against it.
The pope led the recitation of the rosary with the university students at the Vatican and hundreds of their peers joining them through a video satellite connection from five other cities in Europe and from Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador and Washington.
Pope Benedict told the students they are called to work together to renew their societies with Gospel values.
He said the values of love, truth, freedom and justice "are capable of ensuring that differences are not a motive for division or conflict, but for mutual enrichment."