The genuine Christian approach — which professes the resurrection of all flesh — has always quite logically opposed 'dis-incarnation' without fear of being judged materialistic. We can, therefore, rightly speak of a Christian materialism, which is boldly opposed to those materialisms which are blind to the spirit.

What are the sacraments, which people in early times described as the footprints of the Incarnate Word, if not the clearest expression of this way which God has chosen in order to sanctify us and to lead us to heaven? Don't you see that each sacrament is the love of God, with all its creative and redemptive power, given to us through the medium of material things? What is this Eucharist which we are about to celebrate if not the Adorable Body and Blood of our Redeemer, which is offered to us through the lowly matter of this world (wine and bread), through the elements of nature, cultivated by man as the recent Ecumenical Council has reminded us.

It is understandable, my children, that the Apostle should write: All things are yours, you are Christ's and Christ is God's. We have here an ascending movement which the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts, wants to call forth in this world: upwards from the earth to the glory of the Lord. And to make it clear that in such a movement everything is included, even what seems most commonplace, St Paul also wrote: in eating, in drinking, do everything for God's glory.