2cornucopias

Archive for the ‘06 Scripture & Theology’ Category

, ,

Each Human Being Is A Miracle of God

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/11/09 at 9:46 AM

Vatican City, 23 May 2012 (VIS) – “God is our Father because He is our Creator. Each one of us, each man and each woman, is a miracle of God, desired by Him and known personally by Him. … For Him we are not anonymous and impersonal, we have a name. The Holy Spirit, which speaks within us and says ‘Abba! Father!’, leads us to this truth, communicating it to the most intimate depths of our being and filling our prayer with serenity and joy”. These words were pronounced this morning by the Holy Father to more than 20,000 faithful filling St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience.

The Holy Father focused his catechesis on two passages from the Letters of St. Paul, wherein the Apostle speaks of the power of the Holy Spirit which enables us to call God “Abba”, our Father. The Pope explained that “that great master of prayer which is the Holy Spirit teaches us to address God with the affectionate terms of children, calling Him ‘Abba, Father’. This is what Jesus did, even at the most dramatic moment of His earthly life. He never lost faith in the Father and always invoked Him with the intimacy of a beloved Son”.

The Holy Spirit, gift of the risen Christ, “places us in a filial relationship with God, a relationship of profound trust, like that of children; a filial relationship analogous to that of Jesus though different in origin and importance. Jesus is the eternal Son of God Who became flesh, while we become God’s children in time through faith in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation”.

The Holy Father went on: “Perhaps mankind today does not perceive the beauty, greatness and profound consultation contained in the word ‘Father’ with which we can address God in prayer, because often the paternal figure is not sufficiently present or positive in daily life”. Yet, the Pope explained, “the love of Jesus, the only-begotten Son Who even gave Himself on the cross, reveals the true nature of the Father: He is Love”.

In his Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul tells us that the the Spirit cries out within us saying ‘Abba! Father!’, while in his Letter to the Romans he writes that we ourselves make this cry in the Spirit. The Apostle, Benedict XVI explained, “wants us to understand that Christian prayer is never unidirectional, from us to God. … Rather, it is an expression of a reciprocal relationship in which it is always God Who acts first. It is the Spirit which cries within us, and we too can cry out because the impulse comes from the Holy Spirit. … This presence opens our prayers and our lives to the horizons of the Trinity and the Church”.

“When we address the Father in our hearts, in silence and meditation, we are never alone. … We are within the great prayer of the Church, we are part of a great symphony which the Christian community in all places and times raises to God. … Prayer guided by the Spirit causes us to cry out ‘Abba! Father!’ with Christ and in Christ. It makes us part of the great mosaic of the family of God, in which everyone has an important place and role, profoundly united to all things”.

The Pope concluded his catechesis by exhorting the faithful: “When we pray, let us learn to appreciate the beauty of being friends, or rather children, of God, invoking Him with the confidence and trust of a child addressing his parents who love him. Let us open our prayers to the action of the Holy Spirit, that it may cry out within us: ‘Abba! Father!'”.

VIS 120523

, ,

The Closeness of God Transforms Reality

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/09/29 at 9:11 AM

The Holy Father dedicated his catechesis during this morning’s general audience to Psalm 23 which begins with the words: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. “Addressing the Lord in prayer implies a radical act of confidence, the awareness of entrusting oneself to God Who is good”, he said.

Psalm 23 is an example of such confidence. “The Psalmist expresses his tranquil certainty that he will be guided and protected, sheltered from all danger because the Lord is his shepherd. … The image evokes an atmosphere of trust, intimacy, tenderness. The shepherd knows his sheep individually, he calls them by name and they follow him because they recognise and trust him. He takes care of them, protects them like a treasure, and is ready to defend them in order to guarantee their wellbeing, to ensure they live in peace. They shall want nothing if the shepherd is with them”.

The Psalm describes the oasis of peace to which the shepherd leads his flock. The setting is a desert landscape, “yet the shepherd knows where to find pasture and water, which are essential for life, he knows the way to the oasis in which the soul can be ‘restored’ with new energies to start the journey afresh. As the Psalmist says, God guides him to ‘green pastures’ and ‘still waters’ where all things are in abundance. … If the Lord is the shepherd, even in the desert, a place of scarcity and death, we do not lose our certainty in the radical presence of life”.

The shepherd adapts his rhythms and his needs to those of his flock. “If we walk behind the ‘Good Shepherd'”, the Pope said, ” however difficult, tortuous and long the paths of our life may seem, we too can be certain that they are right for us, that the Lord guides us and that He is always close”.

Hence the Psalmist adds: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me”. Benedict XVI explained how, although the Psalmist here uses a Hebrew expression which evokes the shadows of death, he nonetheless proceeds without fear because he knows the Lord is with him. “This is a proclamation of unshakeable trust and encapsulates a radical experience of faith: the closeness of God transforms reality, the darkest valley loses all its perils”.

This image concludes the first part of the Psalm and opens the way to a change of scene. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows”. The Lord is now presented “as the One Who welcomes the Psalmist with generous hospitality. … Food, oil, wine are the gifts that enable us to live, they bring joy because they lie beyond what is strictly necessary, an expression of the gratitude and abundance of love”. In the meantime the enemies look on powerlessly because “when God opens His tent to welcome us, nothing can harm us”.

The Psalmist goes on “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long”. The Psalmist’s journey “acquires fresh meaning and becomes a pilgrimage towards the Temple of the Lord, the holy place in which he wishes ‘to dwell’ forever”. Likewise, living near God and His goodness is what all believers long for, the Holy Father said.

This Psalm has accompanied the entire history and religious experience of the People of Israel, but only in Jesus Christ is its evocative strength “fulfilled and fully expressed: Jesus is the ‘Good Shepherd’ Who goes in search of the lost sheep, Who knows His sheep and gives His life for them. He is the way, the way that leads to life, the light that illuminates the dark valley and overcomes all our fears. He is the generous host Who welcomes us and saves us from our enemies, preparing the banquet of His Body and His Blood for us, and the definitive banquet … in heaven. He is the regal Shepherd, King in meekness and mercy, enthroned on the glorious seat of the cross”.

Psalm 23 invites us to renew our trust in God, the Pope concluded, “to abandon ourselves completely in His hands. Let us, then, trustingly ask the Lord to allow us always to walk on His paths, even along the difficult paths of our own times, as a docile and obedient flock; let us ask Him to welcome us into His house, at His table, and to lead us to ‘still waters’ so that, in welcoming the gift of His Spirit, we may drink from His spring, source of that living water which ‘gushes up to eternal life'”.

AG/                                                                                                   VIS 20111005 (810)

,

Jesus Prayed

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/09/27 at 9:11 AM

The individual human soul a temple of God – this opens to us an entirely new, broad vista. The prayer life of Jesus was to be the key to understanding the prayer of the church. We saw that Christ took part in the public and prescribed worship services of his people… And this is precisely how he transformed the liturgy of the Old Covenant into that of the New.

But Jesus did not merely participate in public and prescribed wor­ship services. Perhaps even more often the Gospels tell of solitary prayer in the still of the night, on open mountain tops, in the wilderness far from people. Jesus’ public ministry was preceded by forty days and forty nights of prayer (Mt 4,1-2). Before he chose and commissioned his twelve apostles, he withdrew into the isolation of the mountains. By his hour on the Mount of Olives, he prepared himself for his road to Golgotha. A few short words tell us what he implored of his Father during this most dif­ficult hour of his life, words that are given to us as guiding stars for our own hours on the Mount of Olives. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine” (Lk 22,42). Like lightning, these words for an instant illumine for us the innermost spiri­tual life of Jesus, the unfathomable mystery of his God-man existence and his dialogue with the Father. Surely, this dialogue was life-long and uninterrupted.

Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

, ,

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/08/08 at 9:11 AM

We should remember that the highest and most important title for Jesus is «Son». Now to what extent was this designation already linguistically prefigured in the way Jesus talked about himself?… Unquestionably it lies in the attempt to summarize in one word the overall impression given by his life. Now, the whole direction of his life, its root and term, lay in the name «Abba» – ‘Daddy’. He knew he was never alone; up to his last cry on the cross he was wholly directed toward the Other, towards him whom he called Father. This is what made it possible for his true title of nobility to be neither «King» nor «Lord» nor any other attribute of power, but one word that we might equally translate by «child».

And so we can say that, if childhood holds such a pre-eminent place in Jesus’ preaching, it is because it is so closely linked to his own, most personal mystery: his sonship. His highest dignity, pointing to his divinity, is not, in the end, a power he possesses for its own sake but consists in the fact that he is turned towards the Other – towards God his Father…

Man wants to become like God (Gn 3,5) and must become so. But each time that – as in the everlasting dialogue with the serpent in Paradise – he tries to attain this by freeing himself from the tutelage of God and his creation to rely only on himself and to put himself in this position; each time, in a word, that he becomes completely adult, completely emancipated, and wholly rejects childhood as a state of life, he ends up in nothingness because he rejects his own truth, which is to be dependent. It is only by preserving what is most essential to childhood and the existence of a son, lived first of all by Jesus, that he enters into divinity with the Son.

Vatican Service (VIS)

, ,

Jesus in the Gospel According to St. John

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/06/14 at 9:11 AM

Jesus in the Gospel According to St. John In his Gospel, St. John records a three-word powerful sentence: “He explains Him.” (1:18)  The SON explains the FATHER.  John reveals the person of Jesus intimately, perceiving His inner most thoughts and emotions. If one wants to understand the true meaning of life, if one seeks eternal life, if one longs to know God, one will find all those desires fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in all the Gospels.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten the apostles so that they recorded, with divine authority, God’s truth. The Synoptic Gospel were recorded earlier than John’s Gospel, and they simply recorded what Jesus did and what He said, however, St. John gives special emphasis to what Jesus meant in his very theological gospel.

Each Gospel writer had a goal and specific audience in mind, which guided him to select certain miracles or signs to point to the different aspects of eternal truth. All four portrait painters of Jesus had one goal, expressed by John: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” ( 20:31) When you do read the Gospels and meditate on them, seek to find the heart of Jesus, the meaning of His words and miracles.  Try to define what Jesus Christ is to you personally.   Look into your own heart.

John’s Gospel reveals Jesus’ divinity as well as His humanity. Jesus is now in heaven in His human resurrected body which although invisible  to us, is nonetheless is as real as you are. Peter knew what was what when he said to our Lord: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (6: 66-69.)  When Thomas, the strict monotheistic Jew, recognized the full glory of the Risen Jesus’ person, he exclaimed in faith: “My Lord and my God”.  (20:28.)

Christ is a living, though invisible person, who has come to make knowledge become light and life in you.  Trust Him.  Expect Him to show you  how He can help you now.  Expect Him to enable you to see whatever changes you can make in your life for your own good.

, ,

The Dying Prayer of Our Lord

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/03/30 at 9:11 AM

 

Vatican City, (VIS) – The prayer of Jesus at the moment of His death, as narrated by St. Mark and St. Matthew was the theme of Benedict XVI’s catechesis during his general audience….

“In the structure of the narrative”, the Pope said, “Jesus’ cry rises at the end of three hours of darkness, which had descended upon the earth from midday to three o’clock in the afternoon. Those three hours of darkness were, in their turn, the continuation of an earlier period which also lasted three hours and began with the crucifixion. … In biblical tradition darkness has an ambivalent meaning: it is a sign of the presence and action of evil, but also of the mysterious presence and action of God Who is capable of vanquishing all darkness. … In the scene of Jesus’ crucifixion darkness envelops the earth, the darkness of death in which the Son of God immerses Himself, in order bring life with His act of love”.

“Insulted by various categories of people, surrounded by a darkness covering everything, at the very moment in which He is facing death Jesus’ cry shows that, along with His burden of suffering and death apparently accompanied by abandonment and the absence of God, He is entirely certain of the closeness of the Father, Who approves this supreme act of love and of total giving of Self, although we do not hear His voice from on high as we did in earlier moments”.

Yet, the Holy Father asked, “what is the meaning of Jesus’ prayer? The cry addressed to the Father: ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” He explained that “the words Jesus addresses to the Father are the beginning of Psalm 22, in which the Psalmist expresses the tension between, on the one hand, being left alone and, on the other, the certain knowledge of God’s presence amongst His people. … The Psalmist speaks of a ‘cry’ to express all the suffering of his prayer before the apparently absent God. At moments of anguish prayer becomes a cry.

“This also happens in our own relationship with the Lord”, the Pope added. “In the face of difficult and painful situations, when it seems that God does not hear, we must not be afraid to entrust Him with the burden we are carrying in our hearts, we must not be afraid to cry out to Him in our suffering”.

“Jesus prays at the moment of ultimate rejection by man, at the moment of abandonment. However, He is aware that God the Father is present even at the instant in which He is experiencing the human drama of death. Yet nonetheless, a question arises in our hearts: how is it possible that such a powerful God does not intervene to save His Son from this terrible trial?”

The Holy Father explained that “it is important to understand that the prayer of Jesus is not the cry of a person who meets death with desperation, nor that of a person who knows he has been abandoned. At that moment Jesus appropriates Psalm 22, the Psalm of the suffering people of Israel, at that moment He takes upon Himself not only the suffering of His people, but also that of all men and women oppressed by evil. … And He takes all this to the heart of God in the certainty that His cry will be heard in the resurrection. … His is a suffering in communion with us and for us, it derives from love and carries within itself redemption and the victory of love.

“The people at the foot of Jesus’ cross were unable to understand, they thought His cry was a supplication to Elijah. … We likewise find ourselves, ever and anew, facing the ‘today’ of suffering, the silence of God – many times we say as much in our prayers – but we also find ourselves facing the ‘today’ of the Resurrection, of the response of God Who took our sufferings upon Himself, to carry them with us and give us the certain hope that they will be overcome”.

“In our prayers”, the Holy Father concluded, “let us bring God our daily crosses, in the certainty that He is present and listens to us. The cry of Jesus reminds us that in prayer we must cross the barrier of ‘self’ and our own problems, and open ourselves to the needs and sufferings of others. May the prayer of the dying Jesus on the cross teach us to pray with love for so many brothers and sisters who feel the burden of daily life, who are experiencing moments of difficulty, who suffer and hear no words of comfort, that they may feel the love of God Who never abandons us.

Vatican Information Services

, ,

“Forgiving”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/03/13 at 9:11 AM

The first word our Lord spoke on the cross was a prayer for those who were crucifying him; thus he carried out what Saint Paul wrote: «In the days of his flesh he offered prayer and sacrifice» (Heb 5,7). It is true that those who were crucifying our divine Savior did not know him… for if they had known him they would not have crucified him (1Cor 2,8). Therefore our Lord, seeing the ignorance and weakness of those torturing him, began to make excuses for them and offer this sacrifice to his heavenly Father for them – for prayer is a sacrifice…: «Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do» (Lk 23,34). How great was the flame of love burning in our sweet Savior’s heart, since amidst the strongest of his pains, at the time when the strength of his sufferings seemed to take from him even the ability to pray for himself, he came, through the strength of charity, to forget himself but not those he had created…

By this he wanted to make us understand the love he bore for us, a love that could not be lessened by any kind of suffering, and to teach us, too, what our hearts ought to be with regard to our neighbor…

Now, since this divine Lord had been occupying himself in asking forgiveness for us, it is absolutely certain that his request was granted. For his divine Father honored him too much to refuse him anything he asked.

St. Francis de Sales


, ,

Pope Address USA Bishops on Crisis of Marriage and the Family

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/03/09 at 11:03 AM

Vatican City, 9 March 2012 (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican Benedict XVI received a group of prelates from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who have recently competed their “ad limina” visit. Extracts of his English-language remarks to them are given below:

“In this talk I would like to discuss … the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and, more generally, of the Christian vision of human sexuality. It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost”.

“In this regard, particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage. The Church’s conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defence of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation. Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike.

“In our conversations, some of you have pointed with concern to the growing difficulties encountered in communicating the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family in its integrity, and to a decrease in the number of young people who approach the Sacrament of Matrimony. Certainly we must acknowledge deficiencies in the catechesis of recent decades, which failed at times to communicate the rich heritage of Catholic teaching on marriage as a natural institution elevated by Christ to the dignity of a Sacrament, the vocation of Christian spouses in society and in the Church, and the practice of marital chastity”.

“On the practical level, marriage preparation programmes must be carefully reviewed to ensure that there is greater concentration on their catechetical component and their presentation of the social and ecclesial responsibilities entailed by Christian marriage. In this context we cannot overlook the serious pastoral problem presented by the widespread practice of cohabitation, often by couples who seem unaware that it is gravely sinful, not to mention damaging to the stability of society. I encourage your efforts to develop clear pastoral and liturgical norms for the worthy celebration of matrimony which embody an unambiguous witness to the objective demands of Christian morality, while showing sensitivity and concern for young couples”.

“In this great pastoral effort there is an urgent need for the entire Christian community to recover an appreciation of the virtue of chastity. … It is not merely a question of presenting arguments, but of appealing to an integrated, consistent and uplifting vision of human sexuality. The richness of this vision is more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters; these in fact constitute a powerful and destructive form of counter-catechesis for the young. … Chastity, as the Catechism reminds us, involves an ongoing “apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom”. In a society which increasingly tends to misunderstand and even ridicule this essential dimension of Christian teaching, young people need to be reassured that “if we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing, of what makes life free, beautiful and great”.

“Let me conclude by recalling that all our efforts in this area are ultimately concerned with the good of children, who have a fundamental right to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. Children are the greatest treasure and the future of every society: truly caring for them means recognising our responsibility to teach, defend and live the moral virtues which are the key to human fulfilment. It is my hope that the Church in the United States, however chastened by the events of the past decade, will persevere in its historic mission of educating the young and thus contribute to the consolidation of that sound family life which is the surest guarantee of intergenerational solidarity and the health of society as a whole”.

 

Copyright © Vatican Information Service Vatican City

, ,

“They returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth”

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2012/01/13 at 12:00 AM

Pope Paul VI: Homily at Nazareth on 05/01/64 (breviary) 

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus – the school of the Gospel. The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and penetrate the meaning – at once so deep and so mysterious – of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation…

How gladly would I become a child again, and go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths…

First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us, besieged as we are by so many uplifted voices, the general noise and uproar, in our seething and over­sensitized modern life.
May the silence of Nazareth teach us recollection, inwardness, the disposition to listen to good inspirations and the teachings of true masters. May it teach us the need for and the value of preparation, of study, of meditation, of personal inner life, of the prayer which God alone sees in secret (Mt 6,6).

Next, there is a lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character. Let us learn from Nazareth that the formation received at home is gentle and irreplaceable. Let us learn me prime importance of the role of the family in the social order.

Finally, there is a lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the ‘Carpenter’s Son’ (Mt 13,55), in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work; here I would restore the awareness of the nobility of work, and reaffirm that work cannot be an end in itself, but that its freedom and its excellence derive, over and above its economic worth, from the value of those for whose sake it is undertaken. And here at Nazareth I want to greet all the workers of the world, holding up to them their great pattern, their brother who is God. He is the prophet of all their just causes, Christ our Lord.

, , , ,

Christmas: Eternity Enters into Confines of Time and Space

In 06 Scripture & Theology on 2011/12/24 at 9:11 AM

 VATICAN CITY, 21 DEC 2011 (VIS) – “The greeting on everyone’s lips during this period is ‘Merry Christmas! Happy Christmas Holidays!’. Let us ensure that, also in our modern societies, this exchange of good wishes does not lose its profound religious significance, and the feast does not become overshadowed by external factors”, said Benedict XVI.

“With the Christmas liturgy the Church introduces us into the great Mystery of the Incarnation”, the Pope told faithful gathered in the Paul VI Hall. “Christmas, in fact, is not simply the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, it is the celebration of a Mystery which has marked and continues to mark the history of man: God came to dwell amongst us, He became one of us. … During Midnight Mass on Christmas Night we will intone these words in the responsorial Psalm: ‘Today the Saviour is born for us’. … By indicating that Jesus is born ‘today’, the liturgy underlines that His birth touches and permeates all of history. … Of course, the redemption of humankind took place at a specific and identifiable moment of history: in the event of Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus is the Son of God … Who became flesh. Eternity entered into the confines of time and space, making it possible to meet Him ‘today’. … When, in liturgical celebrations, we hear or pronounce the phrase: ‘Today the Saviour is born for us’, we are not using an empty conventional expression, what we mean is that ‘today’, now, God is giving us the possibility to recognise and accept Him, as did the shepherds of Bethlehem, so that He can also be born into and renew our lives”.

Reflecting on the birth in Bethlehem in the light of the Paschal Mystery because, Pope Benedict said, “both Christmas and Easter are feasts of redemption. Easter celebrates redemption as a victory over sin and death. It marks the culminating moment when the glory of the Man-God shines like the light of day. Christmas celebrates redemption as the entry of God into history, when He became man in order to bring man to God. It marks, so to speak, the starting point when the first light of dawn begins to appear”.

“Even the seasons of the year in which these two great feasts fall, at least in some areas of the world, can help us understand this aspect. Easter coincides with the beginning of spring when the sun triumphs over the cold and the fog and renews the face of the earth. Christmas comes at the very beginning of winter when the light and heat of the sun are unable to awaken nature, covered in a shroud of cold under which, nonetheless, life is pulsating”.

“At Christmas we encounter the tenderness and love of God Who is attentive to our weakness and sin, and lowers Himself to our level. … Let us live this Christmastime with joy. … Above all, let us contemplate and experience this Mystery in the celebration of the Eucharist, which is the heart of Christmas. There Jesus is truly present, the true Bread descended from heaven, the true Lamb sacrificed for our salvation. I wish all of you and your families a truly Christian Christmas. May the exchange of greetings on that day be an expression of our joy in knowing that God is near us, and that He wishes to follow the journey of life with us”.

Copyright © Vatican Information Service Vatican City        VIS 20111221 (690)