Initially, Augustine thought that once he was baptized, in the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the perfection bestowed by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning about the Sermon on the Mount - that is, now that we are Christians, we live this ideal permanently - was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day, that Augustine died.
This attitude of profound humility before the only Lord Jesus led him also to experience an intellectual humility. Augustine, in fact, who is one of the great figures in the history of thought, in the last years of his life wanted to submit all his numerous works to a clear, critical examination. This was the origin of the Retractationum ("Revision"), which placed his truly great theological thought within the humble and holy faith that he simply refers to by the name Catholic, that is, of the Church. He wrote in this truly original book: "I understood that only One is truly perfect, and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely realized in only One - in Jesus Christ himself. The whole Church, instead - all of us, including the Apostles -, must pray everyday: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (De Sermone Domini in Monte, I, 19, 1-3).
Benedict XVI, February 27, 2008
Showing posts with label Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI's Response
God saves us. That is the center of the teaching of Benedict XVI addressed to Christians, mired in difficult problems, often groping in the fog, prey to the latest attack on God as the enemy of man. The pope is aware of this attack and goes down to the mudd.
In his summary of the year to the Curia, the Pope remembering his trip to the Czech Republic, said, "we need to worry that man shelved the question of God, an essential issue of his existence..." He pointed out that the people who consider themselves agnostic or atheist feel a natural apprehension when hearing about a new evangelization, because they fear they will be converted into an object of mission, or they fear giving up their freedom of thought and will. But even so, says Benedict XVI, the question of God remains even if they dare not go near it. And remembering the space in the temple of Jerusalem that the Gentiles had to pray to a God they sought but did not yet know, the Pope has created this unique proposal: "I think the Church today should also open a "courtyard of the gentiles," where people can somehow cling to God, without yet knowing him -before they have found access to the mystery in the Church." We cannot remain indifferent about this proposal of faith in this historic moment.
During New Year's Mass, the Pope pronounced a very original and thought-provoking homily on God's face and the faces of men. According to him, the face is the expression par excellence of the person, since it brings out the feelings, thoughts and intentions of the heart. And even though God is by nature invisible, the Bible refers constantly to his face because he is a God who reveals himself, who converses with his people, with men, and makes himself known. This trend finds its ultimate development in God taking the human face of Jesus. And from here the Pope transitions to ask the great question [that turns the attack on God as enemy of man, upside down]: "who but God can safeguard the depth of the human face?"
It is impossible not to remember the memorable speech before the statue of the Immaculate Conception, when he spoke of a social life that makes us see only the surface, and in which we lose depth in perceiving the human faces that compose that social reality. In such a loss, human beings become interchangeable commodities. If man silences his thirst for meaning, if he censors his desire for an endless hug, for justice and happiness beyond his own strength, then man loses the ability to go within himself, and ends up a part of a sad mechanism of mere survival.
God is the source and destiny of man, but also the way and the historical resource his adventure. "Whoever has the heart empty, sees only flat images, lacking any depth ... however, the more we are inhabited by God, the more will we be able to see the face of the other, in our brothers and sisters. And thus, we stop seeing the other as means to and end, as rival or enemy, but as another I." In Spe Salvi, great document for Christians in this tumultuous start of the century, the Pope says: "Our hope is in God, not in the generic sense of a religious or faith covert fatalism. We trust in the God who has revealed fully in Jesus Christ His will to be with us, to share our history ... This is the great hope that encourages and sometimes corrects our human hopes."
It is reasonable to have hope because history has meaning and direction, because despite many dramatic twists and turns, it is met by God's love, a love which has gone to the unthinkable in becoming flesh and dwelling among us. However, that divine plan is not satisfied automatically but requires the free acceptance of every man and woman. So Benedict XVI says that 2010 will be more or less "good" not according to the best of circumstances that each one dreams, but to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace. What a difference comapred to the many idle talks during these days, but mostly what a breath of fresh air, what a hymn to freedom and to the the infinite value of every human life! What a calm and reasonable certainty about the future! Precisely what we all need.
Original Article in Spanish by Jose Luis Restan
Posted by Carlos J. Medina (Translated with Google's help)
In his summary of the year to the Curia, the Pope remembering his trip to the Czech Republic, said, "we need to worry that man shelved the question of God, an essential issue of his existence..." He pointed out that the people who consider themselves agnostic or atheist feel a natural apprehension when hearing about a new evangelization, because they fear they will be converted into an object of mission, or they fear giving up their freedom of thought and will. But even so, says Benedict XVI, the question of God remains even if they dare not go near it. And remembering the space in the temple of Jerusalem that the Gentiles had to pray to a God they sought but did not yet know, the Pope has created this unique proposal: "I think the Church today should also open a "courtyard of the gentiles," where people can somehow cling to God, without yet knowing him -before they have found access to the mystery in the Church." We cannot remain indifferent about this proposal of faith in this historic moment.
During New Year's Mass, the Pope pronounced a very original and thought-provoking homily on God's face and the faces of men. According to him, the face is the expression par excellence of the person, since it brings out the feelings, thoughts and intentions of the heart. And even though God is by nature invisible, the Bible refers constantly to his face because he is a God who reveals himself, who converses with his people, with men, and makes himself known. This trend finds its ultimate development in God taking the human face of Jesus. And from here the Pope transitions to ask the great question [that turns the attack on God as enemy of man, upside down]: "who but God can safeguard the depth of the human face?"
It is impossible not to remember the memorable speech before the statue of the Immaculate Conception, when he spoke of a social life that makes us see only the surface, and in which we lose depth in perceiving the human faces that compose that social reality. In such a loss, human beings become interchangeable commodities. If man silences his thirst for meaning, if he censors his desire for an endless hug, for justice and happiness beyond his own strength, then man loses the ability to go within himself, and ends up a part of a sad mechanism of mere survival.
God is the source and destiny of man, but also the way and the historical resource his adventure. "Whoever has the heart empty, sees only flat images, lacking any depth ... however, the more we are inhabited by God, the more will we be able to see the face of the other, in our brothers and sisters. And thus, we stop seeing the other as means to and end, as rival or enemy, but as another I." In Spe Salvi, great document for Christians in this tumultuous start of the century, the Pope says: "Our hope is in God, not in the generic sense of a religious or faith covert fatalism. We trust in the God who has revealed fully in Jesus Christ His will to be with us, to share our history ... This is the great hope that encourages and sometimes corrects our human hopes."
It is reasonable to have hope because history has meaning and direction, because despite many dramatic twists and turns, it is met by God's love, a love which has gone to the unthinkable in becoming flesh and dwelling among us. However, that divine plan is not satisfied automatically but requires the free acceptance of every man and woman. So Benedict XVI says that 2010 will be more or less "good" not according to the best of circumstances that each one dreams, but to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace. What a difference comapred to the many idle talks during these days, but mostly what a breath of fresh air, what a hymn to freedom and to the the infinite value of every human life! What a calm and reasonable certainty about the future! Precisely what we all need.
Original Article in Spanish by Jose Luis Restan
Posted by Carlos J. Medina (Translated with Google's help)
Monday, October 26, 2009
A few words on Faith by Pope Benedict XVI
Often I've thought of introducing someone to the faith in the same way that I would introduce her to some academic topic. Yet in thinking that way I forget that the essence of faith is not believing in facts, even facts about God, but about coming into a relationship with God. The Holy Father expresses this point in the following way:
"One does not really know a person if one knows about this person secondhandedly. To proclaim God is to introduce to the relation with God: to teach how to pray. Prayer is faith in action. And only by experiencing life with God does the evidence of His existence appear" ("The New Evangelization: Building the Civilization of Love").
Along the same lines he says the following in The Process of Spiritual Growth:
Never begin with thinking alone. For if you try to pull God toward you in the laboratory of rational thought, and to attach him to you in what is to some extent a purely theoretical fashion, you find you can't do it. You always have to combine the questions with action. Pascal once said to an unbelieving friend: "Start by doing what believers do, even if it still makes no sense to you." You can never look for faith in isolation; it is only found in an encounter with people who believe, who can understand you, who have perhaps come by way of a similar situation themselves, who can in some way lead you and help you. It is always among us that faith grows. Anyone who wants to go it alone has thus got it wrong from the very start.
Carlos J. Medina
"One does not really know a person if one knows about this person secondhandedly. To proclaim God is to introduce to the relation with God: to teach how to pray. Prayer is faith in action. And only by experiencing life with God does the evidence of His existence appear" ("The New Evangelization: Building the Civilization of Love").
Along the same lines he says the following in The Process of Spiritual Growth:
Never begin with thinking alone. For if you try to pull God toward you in the laboratory of rational thought, and to attach him to you in what is to some extent a purely theoretical fashion, you find you can't do it. You always have to combine the questions with action. Pascal once said to an unbelieving friend: "Start by doing what believers do, even if it still makes no sense to you." You can never look for faith in isolation; it is only found in an encounter with people who believe, who can understand you, who have perhaps come by way of a similar situation themselves, who can in some way lead you and help you. It is always among us that faith grows. Anyone who wants to go it alone has thus got it wrong from the very start.
Carlos J. Medina
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Caritas in Veritate
The Holy Father has finally published his much awaited encyclical Caritas in Veritate.
He refers to St. Augustine in this paragraph:
"As I said in my Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, history is thereby deprived of Christian hope, deprived of a powerful social resource at the service of integral human development, sought in freedom and in justice. Hope encourages reason and gives it the strength to direct the will. It is already present in faith, indeed it is called forth by faith. Charity in truth feeds on hope and, at the same time, manifests it. As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us. Truth — which is itself gift, in the same way as charity — is greater than we are, as Saint Augustine teaches."
"As I said in my Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi, history is thereby deprived of Christian hope, deprived of a powerful social resource at the service of integral human development, sought in freedom and in justice. Hope encourages reason and gives it the strength to direct the will. It is already present in faith, indeed it is called forth by faith. Charity in truth feeds on hope and, at the same time, manifests it. As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us. Truth — which is itself gift, in the same way as charity — is greater than we are, as Saint Augustine teaches."
Posted by Carlos J. Medina
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