Showing posts with label Jesus of Nazareth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus of Nazareth. Show all posts
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Jesus of Nazareth-The Infancy Naratives
In his new book, Jesus of Nazareth--The Infancy Narratives, the Holy Father goes into the heart of the infancy narratives in the Gospels and brings out some aspects of those narratives which are helpful in changing and molding our attitudes to life. He has followed in this book the same method he has employed in the other two books of the same name. He goes into an exegetical explanation of the passages, examines them in the background of OT references and then applies them to contemporary life. Compared with the other two books, this book is a short introduction to the Gospel accounts of the birth of the Lord. But there are some reflections which are fresh and beautiful. He calls this book" a small antechamber to the two earlier volumes on the figure and the message of Jesus of Nazareth."
On the genealogy presented in Mathew's Gospel, the Holy Father points out that although the genealogy traces the male line, "prior to Mary who appears at the end, four women are mentioned by name: Tamar,Rahab,Ruth and the wife of Uriah." He mentions first the traditional interpretation emphasizing the mission of Jesus as the justification of sinners since these were considered sinners. The Holy Father then points out that 'through them the world of the Gentiles enters the genealogy of Jesus---his mission to Jews and Gentiles is made manifest."
"The final sentence turns the whole genealogy around. Mary is a new beginning.Her child does not originate from any man, but is a new creation,conceived through the Holy Spirit.'
"Our true genealogy is faith in Jesus , who gives us a new origin, who brings us to birth from God."
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Advent--the Coming of the Lord
In the last chapter of the book ,Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Father speaks of the coming of the Lord as it is expressed in the words"Maran Atha." He reminds us of the need to be vigilant as well as trusting. He points out that the knowledge of the protection of the Lord makes us joyful.
"The Lord is "on the mountain" of the of the Father. Therefore,He sees us.Therefore He can get into the boat of our life at any moment.Therefore we can always call on him; we can always be certain that he sees and hears us.
Keeping one's gaze freely fixed upon God in order to receive from him the criterion of right action and the capacity for it--that is what matters.
Vigilance means first of all openess to the good, to the truth , to God, in the midst of an often meaningless word and in the midst of the power of evil.It means that man tries with all his strength and with great sobriety to do what is right; it means that he lives, not according to his wishes, but according to te signpost of faith.
St.Bernard of Calirvaux speaks of a three fold advent of Christ, the first coming in flesh , the second in spirit and power and the last in his glory.Bernad bases his thesis on John 14: 23" If a man loves me , he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
"The middle coming(adventus medius) takes place in a great variety of ways.The Lord comes through his word; he comes in the sacraments, especially in the most Holy Eucharist;he comes into my life through words or events.
He comes also through the lives of great saintly figures--through Francis and Dominicin the 12th and 13th centuries and through Teresa of Avila,John of the Cross,Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.
We have to pray , Come, Lord Jesus.
His hands remain strethched out over the world.The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us.They are a gesture of opening up, tearing the world open so that heaven may enter in, may become 'present within it.
"In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us.That is the lasting motive of Christian joy."(Last words of the Book.)
"The Lord is "on the mountain" of the of the Father. Therefore,He sees us.Therefore He can get into the boat of our life at any moment.Therefore we can always call on him; we can always be certain that he sees and hears us.
Keeping one's gaze freely fixed upon God in order to receive from him the criterion of right action and the capacity for it--that is what matters.
Vigilance means first of all openess to the good, to the truth , to God, in the midst of an often meaningless word and in the midst of the power of evil.It means that man tries with all his strength and with great sobriety to do what is right; it means that he lives, not according to his wishes, but according to te signpost of faith.
St.Bernard of Calirvaux speaks of a three fold advent of Christ, the first coming in flesh , the second in spirit and power and the last in his glory.Bernad bases his thesis on John 14: 23" If a man loves me , he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
"The middle coming(adventus medius) takes place in a great variety of ways.The Lord comes through his word; he comes in the sacraments, especially in the most Holy Eucharist;he comes into my life through words or events.
He comes also through the lives of great saintly figures--through Francis and Dominicin the 12th and 13th centuries and through Teresa of Avila,John of the Cross,Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.
We have to pray , Come, Lord Jesus.
His hands remain strethched out over the world.The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us.They are a gesture of opening up, tearing the world open so that heaven may enter in, may become 'present within it.
"In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us.That is the lasting motive of Christian joy."(Last words of the Book.)
Sunday, November 25, 2012
The meaning of the Cross--Pope Benedict
The Holy Father probes the meaning of the Cross and Suffering in his book,"Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two." The Holy Father attempts to find a theological reason for the suffering of Christ while emphasizing at the same time that Cross is a mystery beyond our comprehension.
In the following words, we find a cogent explanation of the meaning of the suffering of Christ.It has often baffled people why Jesus could not save mankind through a miracle instead of going through the abyss of such a great suffering.
"One thing was astonishingly clear: with the cross of Christ, the old Temple sacrifices were definitively surpassed.Something new had happened."
"The Temple sacrifces, the cultic heart of Torah were a thing of the past.Christ had taken their place.The Temple remained a venerable place of prayer and proclamation.Its sacrifices, though, were no longer relevant for Christians."
In Romans 3;25, St.Paul draws upon a tradition of the earliest Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem, referring to the Crucified Jesus as "hilasterion."(the name given to the covering of the Ark of Covenant on which the expiatory blood was sprinkled on the great day of atonement....)
Christians interepreted it in a different way:"It is not through the blood of animals touching a holy object that God and man are reconciled.In Jesus' passion , all the filth of the world touches the infinitely pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ, and hence, the Son of God himself.
While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty make it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one--then the pure one, is the stronger. Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of the infinite love.
The reality of evil and injustice ---this reality exists, through our sin.it cannot be simply be ignored; it must be addressed.but here it is not a cruel God demanding the infinite.it is exactly the opposite.God himself becomes the locus of reconciliation.God himself "drinks the cup" of every horror to the dregs and thereby restores justice through the greatness of his love, which through suffering , transforms darkness.
"Obedience had replaced the Temple sacrifices here;living within and on the basis of God's word had been recognized as the right way to worship God....Prayer, the self-opening of the human spirit to God, is true worship.God is rightly venerated when we live in obedience to his word and hence thororoughly shaped by his will, thoroughly godly."
Again and again our obedience proves patchy.Our own will imposes itself repeatedly.The logos himself, the Son, becomes flesh :he takes on a human body.In this way a new obedience becomes possible, an obedience that surpasses all human fulfillment of the commandments...Only the incarnate Word, whose love is fulfilled on the Cross, is perfect obedience.Our own morality is insufficient for the proper worship of God.
The Incarnate one bears us all within himself and in this way he gives what we ourselves would not able able to give.
What does this means for me?What does it mean for my path as a human being?
The mystery of the Cross does not simply confront us; rather, it draws us in and gives a new value to our life.
Paul in his letter to the Romans,Ch.12: ..".Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God..."
It is our physical existence that must be penetrated by the word and must become a gift to God.
True worship is the living human being, who has become a total answer to God.and true priesthood is therefore the ministry of word and sacrament that transforms people into an offering to God and makes the cosmos into praise and thanksgiving to the Creator and Redeemer.
In the trials of our life we are slowly burned clean; we can become bread, to the extent that the mystery of Chrsit is communicated through our life and suffering...
Ultimately the Cross is a mystery that defies analysis in terms of our rational formulae.the darkness and irratioanlity of sin and the holiness of God, too dazzling for our eyes, come together in the Cross, transcending our power of understanding.
The mystery of atonement is not to be sacrifieced on the altar of overweening rationalsism."the Son of Man came not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."(Mk.10:45)
In the following words, we find a cogent explanation of the meaning of the suffering of Christ.It has often baffled people why Jesus could not save mankind through a miracle instead of going through the abyss of such a great suffering.
"One thing was astonishingly clear: with the cross of Christ, the old Temple sacrifices were definitively surpassed.Something new had happened."
"The Temple sacrifces, the cultic heart of Torah were a thing of the past.Christ had taken their place.The Temple remained a venerable place of prayer and proclamation.Its sacrifices, though, were no longer relevant for Christians."
In Romans 3;25, St.Paul draws upon a tradition of the earliest Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem, referring to the Crucified Jesus as "hilasterion."(the name given to the covering of the Ark of Covenant on which the expiatory blood was sprinkled on the great day of atonement....)
Christians interepreted it in a different way:"It is not through the blood of animals touching a holy object that God and man are reconciled.In Jesus' passion , all the filth of the world touches the infinitely pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ, and hence, the Son of God himself.
While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty make it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one--then the pure one, is the stronger. Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of the infinite love.
The reality of evil and injustice ---this reality exists, through our sin.it cannot be simply be ignored; it must be addressed.but here it is not a cruel God demanding the infinite.it is exactly the opposite.God himself becomes the locus of reconciliation.God himself "drinks the cup" of every horror to the dregs and thereby restores justice through the greatness of his love, which through suffering , transforms darkness.
"Obedience had replaced the Temple sacrifices here;living within and on the basis of God's word had been recognized as the right way to worship God....Prayer, the self-opening of the human spirit to God, is true worship.God is rightly venerated when we live in obedience to his word and hence thororoughly shaped by his will, thoroughly godly."
Again and again our obedience proves patchy.Our own will imposes itself repeatedly.The logos himself, the Son, becomes flesh :he takes on a human body.In this way a new obedience becomes possible, an obedience that surpasses all human fulfillment of the commandments...Only the incarnate Word, whose love is fulfilled on the Cross, is perfect obedience.Our own morality is insufficient for the proper worship of God.
The Incarnate one bears us all within himself and in this way he gives what we ourselves would not able able to give.
What does this means for me?What does it mean for my path as a human being?
The mystery of the Cross does not simply confront us; rather, it draws us in and gives a new value to our life.
Paul in his letter to the Romans,Ch.12: ..".Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God..."
It is our physical existence that must be penetrated by the word and must become a gift to God.
True worship is the living human being, who has become a total answer to God.and true priesthood is therefore the ministry of word and sacrament that transforms people into an offering to God and makes the cosmos into praise and thanksgiving to the Creator and Redeemer.
In the trials of our life we are slowly burned clean; we can become bread, to the extent that the mystery of Chrsit is communicated through our life and suffering...
Ultimately the Cross is a mystery that defies analysis in terms of our rational formulae.the darkness and irratioanlity of sin and the holiness of God, too dazzling for our eyes, come together in the Cross, transcending our power of understanding.
The mystery of atonement is not to be sacrifieced on the altar of overweening rationalsism."the Son of Man came not be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."(Mk.10:45)
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