Tweet
Francis: "God Cannot Be God without Man." - Yes, he really said that.
n yet another of his curious pronouncements from the Vatican, Pope Bergoglio offered the following remarkable opinion at his General Audience this past Wednesday:
“We can be far, hostile; we can even say we are ‘without God.’ But Jesus Christ’s Gospel reveals to us that God cannot be without us: He will never be a God ‘without man’; it is He who cannot be without us, and this is a great mystery! God cannot be God without man: this is a great mystery!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-.../3560082/posts
The Christian Hope - 25. The fatherhood of God, the source of our Hope
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
There was something fascinating in the prayer of Jesus, the so fascinating that one day his disciples asked to be introduced. The episode is in the Gospel of Luke, which the Evangelists is that most documented the mystery of Christ "praying" that the Lord prayed. The disciples of Jesus were impressed that he, especially in the morning and evening, he retreats into solitude and "dips" in prayer. And for that, one day, they ask him to also teach them to pray (cf. Lk 11,1).
It is then that Jesus transmits what has become the Christian prayer par excellence: the " Our Father ". In fact, Luke, compared to Matthew, gives us the prayer of Jesus in a way a little 'shortened, which begins with the simple invocation: " Father " (v. 2).
The entire mystery of Christian prayer is summed up here in these words: have the courage to call God by the name of Father. It also states when the liturgy, inviting us to the communal recitation of the prayer of Jesus, uses the expression "we dare say."
In fact, to call God as "Father" is by no means a foregone conclusion. We would be inclined to use the highest titles, which seem more respectful of his transcendence. Instead, invoke him as the "Father" puts us in a relationship of trust with him, like a child who turns to his father, knowing you are loved and cared for by him. This is the great revolution that Christianity gives the religious psychology of man. The mystery of God, which always fascinates us and makes us feel small, but not scary, does not crush us, not we fear. This is a difficult revolution to be welcomed in our human soul; so much so that even in the Resurrection stories it is said that women, after seeing the empty tomb and the angel, "fled [...], because they were filled with fear and amazement" ( Mk 16.8). But Jesus reveals to us that God is a good Father, and he tells us: "Do not be afraid!".
We think of the parable of the merciful Father (cf. Lk 15.11 to 32). Jesus tells of a father who knows only love for his children. A father does not punish his son for his arrogance and is able even to give him his share of the inheritance, and let him go home. God is Father, Jesus says, but not in a human way, because there is no father in this world who would act as the hero of this parable. God is Father in his own way: good, helpless before the free will of man, only able to conjugate the verb "to love." When the wayward son, after having squandered all, finally returns to the house, the father does not apply to human justice criteria, but first of all feel the need to forgive, and his embrace makes it clear to the child that in all that long time of absence it missed, it is painfully failed in his father's love.
What an unfathomable mystery is a God who feeds on this kind of love for her children!
Perhaps it is for this reason that, evoking the heart of the Christian mystery, the apostolo Paolo can not bring himself to translate into a greek word that Jesus, Aramaic, pronounced " abba ". Twice St. Paul, in his letters (cf. Rom 8:15; Gal 4,6), touches the subject, and twice let that word untranslated, in the same form in which it flourished on the lips of Jesus, " abba "a more intimate term than" father ", and that someone translated" father, father ".
Dear brothers and sisters, we are never alone. We can be distant, hostile, we might profess "no God." But the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals to us that God can not be without us: He will never be a God "without the man"; it is he who can not be without us, and this is a great mystery! God can not be God without man: great mystery is this! And this certainty is the source of our hope , that we kept in all invocations of the Our Father . When we need help, Jesus does not tell us to resign and close in on ourselves, but to turn to the Father and ask Him with confidence. All of our needs, from the most obvious and everyday, such as food, health, work, up to the one to be forgiven and supported in temptations, are not the mirror of our solitude instead there is a Father who always looks lovingly, and that certainly does not abandon us.
Now I'll make you a deal: everyone has so many problems and so many needs. Let's think a bit 'in silence to these problems and these needs. Think also of the Father, our Father, who can not be without us, and right now we're looking at. And all together, with confidence and hope, we pray: "Our Father, who art in Heaven ..."
Thank you!
http://w2.vatican.va/content/frances...-generale.html
n yet another of his curious pronouncements from the Vatican, Pope Bergoglio offered the following remarkable opinion at his General Audience this past Wednesday:
“We can be far, hostile; we can even say we are ‘without God.’ But Jesus Christ’s Gospel reveals to us that God cannot be without us: He will never be a God ‘without man’; it is He who cannot be without us, and this is a great mystery! God cannot be God without man: this is a great mystery!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-.../3560082/posts
The Christian Hope - 25. The fatherhood of God, the source of our Hope
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
There was something fascinating in the prayer of Jesus, the so fascinating that one day his disciples asked to be introduced. The episode is in the Gospel of Luke, which the Evangelists is that most documented the mystery of Christ "praying" that the Lord prayed. The disciples of Jesus were impressed that he, especially in the morning and evening, he retreats into solitude and "dips" in prayer. And for that, one day, they ask him to also teach them to pray (cf. Lk 11,1).
It is then that Jesus transmits what has become the Christian prayer par excellence: the " Our Father ". In fact, Luke, compared to Matthew, gives us the prayer of Jesus in a way a little 'shortened, which begins with the simple invocation: " Father " (v. 2).
The entire mystery of Christian prayer is summed up here in these words: have the courage to call God by the name of Father. It also states when the liturgy, inviting us to the communal recitation of the prayer of Jesus, uses the expression "we dare say."
In fact, to call God as "Father" is by no means a foregone conclusion. We would be inclined to use the highest titles, which seem more respectful of his transcendence. Instead, invoke him as the "Father" puts us in a relationship of trust with him, like a child who turns to his father, knowing you are loved and cared for by him. This is the great revolution that Christianity gives the religious psychology of man. The mystery of God, which always fascinates us and makes us feel small, but not scary, does not crush us, not we fear. This is a difficult revolution to be welcomed in our human soul; so much so that even in the Resurrection stories it is said that women, after seeing the empty tomb and the angel, "fled [...], because they were filled with fear and amazement" ( Mk 16.8). But Jesus reveals to us that God is a good Father, and he tells us: "Do not be afraid!".
We think of the parable of the merciful Father (cf. Lk 15.11 to 32). Jesus tells of a father who knows only love for his children. A father does not punish his son for his arrogance and is able even to give him his share of the inheritance, and let him go home. God is Father, Jesus says, but not in a human way, because there is no father in this world who would act as the hero of this parable. God is Father in his own way: good, helpless before the free will of man, only able to conjugate the verb "to love." When the wayward son, after having squandered all, finally returns to the house, the father does not apply to human justice criteria, but first of all feel the need to forgive, and his embrace makes it clear to the child that in all that long time of absence it missed, it is painfully failed in his father's love.
What an unfathomable mystery is a God who feeds on this kind of love for her children!
Perhaps it is for this reason that, evoking the heart of the Christian mystery, the apostolo Paolo can not bring himself to translate into a greek word that Jesus, Aramaic, pronounced " abba ". Twice St. Paul, in his letters (cf. Rom 8:15; Gal 4,6), touches the subject, and twice let that word untranslated, in the same form in which it flourished on the lips of Jesus, " abba "a more intimate term than" father ", and that someone translated" father, father ".
Dear brothers and sisters, we are never alone. We can be distant, hostile, we might profess "no God." But the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals to us that God can not be without us: He will never be a God "without the man"; it is he who can not be without us, and this is a great mystery! God can not be God without man: great mystery is this! And this certainty is the source of our hope , that we kept in all invocations of the Our Father . When we need help, Jesus does not tell us to resign and close in on ourselves, but to turn to the Father and ask Him with confidence. All of our needs, from the most obvious and everyday, such as food, health, work, up to the one to be forgiven and supported in temptations, are not the mirror of our solitude instead there is a Father who always looks lovingly, and that certainly does not abandon us.
Now I'll make you a deal: everyone has so many problems and so many needs. Let's think a bit 'in silence to these problems and these needs. Think also of the Father, our Father, who can not be without us, and right now we're looking at. And all together, with confidence and hope, we pray: "Our Father, who art in Heaven ..."
Thank you!
http://w2.vatican.va/content/frances...-generale.html
Comment