Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope. Show all posts
29 August 2009
04 May 2008
18 April 2008
It burns...
When Jesus talks about fire, he means in the first place his own Passion, which was a Passion of love and was therefore a fire; the new burning bush, which burns and is not consumed; a fire that is to be handed on.
Jesus does not come to make us comfortable; rather he sets fire to the earth; he brings the great living fire of divine love, which is what the Holy Spirit is, a fire that burns. In an apocryphal saying of Jesus that has been transmitted by Origen, he says: Whoever comes close to me comes close to the fire. Whoever comes close to him, accordingly, must be prepared to be burned.
It burns, yet this is not a destructive fire but one that makes things bright and pure and free and grand. Being a Christian, then, is daring to entrust oneself to this burning fire. Christ is the one who brings peace. And I would say that this is the saying that is preeminent and determinative.
But we only properly comprehend this peace that Christ brings if we do not understand it in banal fashion as a way of cheating one's way out of pain, or out of the truth and the conflicts that truth brings with it.
If the Church simply aims to avoid conflict, merely to ensure that no disturbances arise anywhere, then her real message can no longer make any impact. For this message is in fact there precisely in order to conflict with our behavior, to tear man out of his life of lies and to bring clarity and truth. Truth does not come cheap. It makes demands, and it also burns.
Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus does not come to make us comfortable; rather he sets fire to the earth; he brings the great living fire of divine love, which is what the Holy Spirit is, a fire that burns. In an apocryphal saying of Jesus that has been transmitted by Origen, he says: Whoever comes close to me comes close to the fire. Whoever comes close to him, accordingly, must be prepared to be burned.
It burns, yet this is not a destructive fire but one that makes things bright and pure and free and grand. Being a Christian, then, is daring to entrust oneself to this burning fire. Christ is the one who brings peace. And I would say that this is the saying that is preeminent and determinative.
But we only properly comprehend this peace that Christ brings if we do not understand it in banal fashion as a way of cheating one's way out of pain, or out of the truth and the conflicts that truth brings with it.
If the Church simply aims to avoid conflict, merely to ensure that no disturbances arise anywhere, then her real message can no longer make any impact. For this message is in fact there precisely in order to conflict with our behavior, to tear man out of his life of lies and to bring clarity and truth. Truth does not come cheap. It makes demands, and it also burns.
Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI
16 April 2008
04 April 2008
A man in white...
Pope Pius XIII(partly funny, partly sad)
(the funny part being the conclave apparently taking place in the banquet room of the local Motel 6)
03 April 2008
Do you hear what I'm saying?
"You applaud, even though you don't understand me," quipped Pope John Paul II during a mass in Central Park, New York City after he recited a prayer in Polish to the applauding English-speaking crowd (October, 1995).
Will it happen again in two weeks?
Even if Benedict speaks in crystal clear English - will they hear? Will they understand? And will they clap for it?
Or will they just clap?
Will it happen again in two weeks?
Even if Benedict speaks in crystal clear English - will they hear? Will they understand? And will they clap for it?
Or will they just clap?
01 April 2008
19 March 2008
17 March 2008
16 March 2008
My God's bigger than your.... death?
Passover was celebrated at home. Jesus did this too. But after the meal he got up and went out, and he overstepped the bounds of the law by going beyond the Brook Kidron which marked the boundary of Jerusalem.
He went out into the night. He did not fear the chaos, did not hide from it, but plunged into its deepest point, into the jaws of death: as we pray, he "descended into hell". Faith always means going out together with Jesus, not being afraid of the chaos, because he is the stronger one. He "went out" and we go out with him if we do the same.
Faith means emerging from the walls to build places of faith and of love in the midst of the chaotic world by the power of Jesus Christ. The Lord "went out" - it is a sign of his power. He went out into the night of Gethsemane, the night of the cross and the grave. He is the "stronger man" who stands up against the "strong man" - death.
The love of God - God's power - is stronger than the powers of destruction. So this very "going out," this setting out on the path of the Passion, when Jesus steps outside the boundary of the protective walls of the city, is a gesture of victory. The mystery of Gethsemane already holds within it the mystery of Easter joy. Jesus is the "stronger man."
There is no power that can withstand him now; no place where he is not to be found. He summons us to dare to accompany him on his path; for where faith and love are, he is there, and the power of peace is there which overcomes nothingness and death.
Benedictus
Benedict XVI
He went out into the night. He did not fear the chaos, did not hide from it, but plunged into its deepest point, into the jaws of death: as we pray, he "descended into hell". Faith always means going out together with Jesus, not being afraid of the chaos, because he is the stronger one. He "went out" and we go out with him if we do the same.
Faith means emerging from the walls to build places of faith and of love in the midst of the chaotic world by the power of Jesus Christ. The Lord "went out" - it is a sign of his power. He went out into the night of Gethsemane, the night of the cross and the grave. He is the "stronger man" who stands up against the "strong man" - death.
The love of God - God's power - is stronger than the powers of destruction. So this very "going out," this setting out on the path of the Passion, when Jesus steps outside the boundary of the protective walls of the city, is a gesture of victory. The mystery of Gethsemane already holds within it the mystery of Easter joy. Jesus is the "stronger man."
There is no power that can withstand him now; no place where he is not to be found. He summons us to dare to accompany him on his path; for where faith and love are, he is there, and the power of peace is there which overcomes nothingness and death.
Benedictus
Benedict XVI
11 March 2008
pope
is he at leisure, maybe reading?at work, maybe writing or signing some document?
at prayer?
is there a difference?
does it matter?
09 March 2008
Not your Grandma's Jesus....
A Jesus who agrees with everyone and everything, a Jesus without his holy anger, without the hardness of truth and genuine love is no the real Jesus as he is depicted in the Scriptures, but a pitiable caricature. A concept of "Gospel" that fails to convey the reality of God's anger has nothing to do with the Gospel of the Bible.
True forgiveness is something quite different from weak indulgence. Forgiveness is demanding and requires both parities, the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven, to do so with all their minds and hearts. A Jesus who sanctions everything is a Jesus without the cross, for such a Jesus would not need the torment of the cross to save mankind.
As a matter of fact, the cross in being increasingly banished from theology and reinterpreted as just a vexatious mischance of a purely political event. The cross as reconciliation, as a means of forgiving and saving, is incompatible with a certain modern mode of thought. Only when the relationship between truth and love is rightly comprehended can the cross be comprehensible in its true theological depth.
Forgiveness has to do with truth. That is why it requires the Son's cross and our conversion.
Forgiveness is, in act, the restoration of truth, the renewal of being, and the amusement of the lies that lurk in every sin; sin is by nature a departure from the truth of one's own nature and, by consequence, from the truth of the Creator God.
Benedictus
Benedict XVI
True forgiveness is something quite different from weak indulgence. Forgiveness is demanding and requires both parities, the one who forgives and the one who is forgiven, to do so with all their minds and hearts. A Jesus who sanctions everything is a Jesus without the cross, for such a Jesus would not need the torment of the cross to save mankind.
As a matter of fact, the cross in being increasingly banished from theology and reinterpreted as just a vexatious mischance of a purely political event. The cross as reconciliation, as a means of forgiving and saving, is incompatible with a certain modern mode of thought. Only when the relationship between truth and love is rightly comprehended can the cross be comprehensible in its true theological depth.
Forgiveness has to do with truth. That is why it requires the Son's cross and our conversion.
Forgiveness is, in act, the restoration of truth, the renewal of being, and the amusement of the lies that lurk in every sin; sin is by nature a departure from the truth of one's own nature and, by consequence, from the truth of the Creator God.
Benedictus
Benedict XVI
11 February 2008
He's h-e-r-e!
"God does not abandon us...his love comes to us where we are, with our misery and our weakness, to offer us a new possibility of goodness."
Papa Bene - Letter to Romans on Education
Papa Bene - Letter to Romans on Education
09 February 2008
04 February 2008
Pope Floats!
"In the Mainz Carnival procession today, a reference to the document on the nature of the Church - the Pope lights the Catholic candle, while backing into the Protestant candle - not a candle in the proper sense of the word."
All theological statements aside, WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU FIND ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE A POPE FLOAT???
All theological statements aside, WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU FIND ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE A POPE FLOAT???
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