Mary, the Art of Perception that breaks the mould

(Lk 2:19) (Lk 1:26-38)

 

For a life from the authentic I to the unknown Culmination

 

"Now Mary kept and treasured all - really all - these event-words, putting them together and comparing them in her heart" [sense of the Greek text].

What about her, her Son, and all the others?

He wanted to understand the essential affinities - with the soul and elsewhere: the meaning of the strange and simple happenings. Golden rule for us too.

In the portrait of Jesus suckling, his silence did not linger - and he did not allow himself to be demotivated: he dug.

That is why he knew far more expressive things than many minds - sublime and yet incapable of breaking out of automatisms, already flooded with remarkable doctrines and traditions.

We are willingly there too, with Mary; in a culture that invades our senses and pollutes our souls with noisy opinions, with models that are apparently eloquent but which bring us to our knees: stressful and futile.

All emphatic, impactful reproductions - but external.

Yet they overflow into the inner, and despite glittering appearances, lock the personality into a confined space of unhealthy habits, only to be exhibited.

In fact, we force ourselves to run from one side to the other, often acting out prototypes. Precisely, forcibly intrigued by plans, organigrams and thoughts, even devout ones, which however become forms of personal and social trivialisation.

We are becoming accustomed to the fear of our discreet, reserved, non-gossipy, secluded, hidden side, all our own and close to the Source: in a word, guardian of the Calling by Name - which wants to pause to return to the ancient Listening of the new.

A side we do not yet know: it never has the same tone as always. It is all our own, but it alludes to real encounters.

By sharpening our inner vision, we grasp our source and the meaning of history; and its folds - so we can still give birth to the precious world within and without us.

We do this from the intangible that pivots the essence. And guards the Fire within.

 

For a stretch - ever so briefly - the official pundits delude us that we are at the centre of the world.

They want to inoculate us with a false sense of prominence and permanence that quickly fades away; in reality, they overwhelm us.

We feel the need for a rediscovery of being and essence, not dissolved in the realm of night and illusion [to have power appear, to hold back rise dominate]. Without escapes, nor rhythms that do not belong to us.

We seek involvement, and distance.

We want to 'perceive' like Mary and like the shepherds - disconcerted by the religious opinions of others - in order to become and be reborn, and to become again. Recovering the frenzies, the surprises, the wounds; without dispersing the Centre.

 

"Taking refuge" in a secret space was not for her a rediscovery of the self expected by all, stereotypical and adequate as always.

Rather, she was expressing her being - escaping from conventional ways.

In order to live intensely, she did not wish to enter the nomenclature - then to be normal, and subservient - rather to get away from it, but to stay there. So she did not exclude anything.

She also recognised herself in those vagabonds.

Never would she have imagined herself the (acting) protagonist of a tradition that placed her on pedestals, forms, solemn attributes, and constraints - the very ones that would have made her sweetly but decisively rebellious.

She did not revisit herself to bask in it, but to verify and reactivate her 'way' - which she did not want to lose: it could be overwhelmed by external opinions and buried by [impelling but horizonless] circumstances.

She did not want to lose her address within common, homologated goals, losing sight of what she really was, and introduce her into the sky of the timeless - nor did she want to resemble the majority, or be above them.

The one we built for her was not her home.

Mary did not look out into reality and into us today [to help us look at 'our' Mystery] with a conformist face; sweetened and artefactual, or intimist, swampy.

 

His soul was always on the move. To know the unknowable, she would never stop - even without knowing in advance where to go.

Her character did not want the certainties of accommodation. Without wavering, even within herself she preferred to intuit and live the Passion of love.

He allowed himself to be guided and saved, but from his own sacred centre, sanctuary of the God-Con. He who unlocks, sets us free.

He could not allow his Vocation to be covered by idols, nor by any plot, which was nevertheless unfolding.

In the 'here and now' he found his affinity from his very being as a wayfarer, who by advancing put hardships behind him.

As she developed her inner eye, she also transmuted her inner self to find the step of the Annunciation hidden in the misfits, which still led her on.

Only this lasted her over the years - not the functional side. 

He did not dream of a quiet life, but rather of understanding his personal mission.

 

Without naivety, she questioned the meaning of intimate callings, happenings, and her own motives - alien only to the anxiety of pleasing everyone.

She wished to understand how best to fit in, moving towards the new promised land [cf. Lk 1:29: "But she was greatly troubled by the Word and wondered what greeting this was"; Lk 1:34: "How shall this be?"].

The stillness within was not uniform, but filled with the vicissitudes and unpredictable 'news'.

Never to become a model: an expired identity document - plastered, dogmatic. Never an icon of privilege, and ostentatious - like a woman who extinguishes her consciousness, and becomes identified, empty, disjointed.

In the midst of others - even the lazy, indiscreet ones - Maria let herself be, perceiving the inaudible sounds of the silence of the soul.

Notes that produced her figure and - even better - her evolution and Destination, without disturbing her with separate intentions.

Removing her gaze from conformist intention.

 

To really exist, intensely, she changed or broke through; she recovered history but listened to the inside of herself.

Grasping her own deep layers, perceiving herself in her innermost voices, she became aware of the meaning of her life, and of the unfolding story.

In the intervals of thought, he reactivated the energy of the 'gaze'.

And without mortification, he would bring his attention to another dimension, gradually entering the Wind that ceaselessly disengaged it.

In this way, he learnt not to expect something aligned with normal intentions and predictions, nor with social and cultural rankings: he had to enter into the events, and detach himself (to contemplate their importance and depth).

Mysteriously - thus scrutinising without doing too much - he read the 'notes', chose the right registers; he interpreted the score.

Epiphany of God in a creature utterly devoid of hieratic or courtly style; rather, delicate and gypsy.

She did not rush to put things in place: she sensed 'inside' the summary life, rather than leading it and organising it, or arranging it.

She waited for her eminent self to lead the strange, non-directed, non-voluntarist path that was unfolding, truly all eccentric and unexemplary.

 

She did not act to please.

We also learn in her: to see the domestic God happen, the 'visits' we would not expect; the intensity of different colours.

They then lead us to a different look into the soul too; involved and detached.

Like the surrounding reality, Maria was not always the same.

She did not have in mind a champion to be pursued to the end, only to find herself chronicled in the exemplarity of others - uprooted, external, dissipated and discharged.

Situations and emotions had value, not only and not primarily on the basis of the - now useless - paradigm register with which they were interpreted.

In the hope of things present and in their sensitive listening, they were acquiring fluidity.

In this way, it passed unforced from the religion of the fathers to the Faith, to the risk of friendship in the unpredictable proposal of the one Father.

Retreating into the Abode of the Spirit, within a Hope that unveiled itself wave by wave, she learned to understand relationships and inner energies, unpacked.

Once listened to and taken in, they could deviate, and take precisely the unexpected path.

 

Step by step, the attentive eye, ear and heart also introduce us - like Mary - into a territory of suspension of closed intentions. Where the love and destiny of the Newness of God dwells.

It expands the Vision not just from around.

By deploying his losing himself in the We, not selectively, but only from his own sacred centre, the horizon also expanded in the sensation of infinity in action.

In the contemplation of events, she would flesh out and even reinvent the figure of the heart that had guided her there.

She was still reinterpreting the expressive image of her Vocation. And she changed her destiny - giving no weight to one-sided angles.

No obligations and chiselled intentions - against the tide but natural, without the laceration of titanic efforts.

So even the hardships brought her closer to her Mission as Mother of the new humanity, in her Son.

 

And each one equally rediscovers the energy of the primordial suggestion that leads him, so that in Meditation he re-embraces the Calling that still wants to snatch him from the mire.

Echo of the primordial Call that is woven into the events and is already the Destination.

Witness every moment to be rediscovered in the "intimate and full void" to be made within, to wait for something we do not know what it is first.

Mary let herself be traced in time by Love without a patent.

Such are the Dreams of creatures totally immersed in true passions, which grasp, anticipate and actualise the timelessness in time. 

She did not give up wondering what - with its many facets - was inhabiting her and silently guiding her.

 

We still imagine her (v.19) 'as with eyes closed': a situation our culture often ignores.

She did not think of the efficient causes: it was to rediscover otherwise her opening the door to visitors, and to every new thing by astonishment.

She was already nursing, not only her Son; at the same time she was feeding herself.

Not out of vain intimism did she rediscover the subtle Mystery nested in the different - and the raw, changing - unpredictable within and without.

Without realising it, she was already nourishing the world, preserving herself.

True, she comes to us and in us, tending the nest of essence and history... without any appearance of banners and shop windows - respecting only what happens.

Similarly, her entire Family becomes the true fruitful lady of an impossible Feast of the Announcement around - which we do not understand where it came from (Lk 1:20).

Certainly from nothing external. Therefore decisive.

Totally adherent to the circumstances and present in herself, she became completely - in the clear and spontaneous movements, also of others.

 

Certainly he had no people around him who could boast of screens. Only strange individuals, but who ceaselessly let their vital instincts emerge.

They too did not tell each other beforehand where to go. That is why they found themselves in an incessant pregnancy.

All they had in store was the experience of distance; often frost and rejection.

They never knew a figure who helped them to recognise themselves completely, and to look at things from the point of view of the timeless gentleness they had discovered.

Even capable of tending to the wider and more inclusive global [we would say, to the helpful eternity of the angelic condition].

Instead, here they are set ablaze by the everlasting Flame - that of the whole world (past, present and future) that knows how to recover and stay hidden, apart but in the cosmos - as the dawn and day of the Lord.

In the culture of the time, the condition of the spirits of the heavenly throne service, who glorified and praised God (v.20) "for all that they had heard and seen".

 

Before the domestic Church Family, in Mary and Jesus the shepherds have a decisive experience.

No longer of one-sided lack and judgement, but of rebirth in esteem; of another world, available and inclusive - of another kingdom, unison without uniformity.

The Mother of God is a possibility to strive for the eternal present, no longer exclusive: but like a dance, where the changing whole puts one perfectly at ease - with no tracks to retrace.

Society's oddballs, pilgrims and prairie dogs, skilled only in transhumance, had perhaps never had the ability to recognise the ecstasy of being well and intensely in the brief.

Perhaps they had never had the experience of recognising in an accurate creature their own sensitive, tender and feminine side.

Appearance that in the authentic Woman Church becomes the guardian and differently announcer [in the shaky] of the treasure chest of Life.

From the warmth of Mary and the Cradle, amidst their labyrinths, they now bring to their own secluded place an exciting blessing, and the indestructible intimate side; even elsewhere.

To question us too.

 

We seek a silent soul, for an art of rebirth.

Here was Maria: she had noticed, as she meditated, that others reflexively did too.

When she carved out preparatory energies, even those around her disposed themselves in a more balanced, fuller way to the Announcement.

He walked through life to guard and nurture new fathers and mothers of humanisation.

Not to comment, but to intuit and dissolve; not to extinguish the dreaming side with the 'up to date', old side.

His realm of truthfulness that cures the I and the Thou was the heaven and earth of new powers.

Reliable virtues because they sprang from the Silence of the Way that was completely renewing her - loving contradictions.

Because everything can now happen, regenerate; and each day bring its tide (of the unseen) in the presence of Spirit, without routine.

A genuine soul, devoid of pretense, can do it.

For an adventure that pushes away continuity, filled with foundational Eros; for a direct exploration to the unknown Culmination.

 

 

Maria: Slowing down a little, one is born

 

Whoever does not follow innate intuition, a more radical call of the self, or stunning proclamations [Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15] does not develop his destiny, does not move; does not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

It is true that the shepherds find nothing extraordinary or prodigious, except a family reduced to an ordinary condition, which they know.

But it is that simple hearth that draws them into the new Project, and into the proclamation of its scandalous unconditional Mercy - which did not electrocute them for impurity.

Archaic religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable, remorseless beings. Now they are free from identification. 

They have another eye - like the one from the first time. An eye that will take them one hundred per cent.

Exodus facing a defenceless image of God, they do not bother to engage in ethical discipline: it would crumble them.

Rather, they enjoy the awe of a simply human reality - in a mysterious relationship of mutual recognition.

 

A baby in a manger, an unclean place where beasts would play.

Strange that the modest sign convinces them, that it makes them regain esteem, and makes them evangelisers - perhaps not even assiduous evangelisers.

Like Calvary (to which it refers), the Resolute Manifestation of the Eternal is a paradox.

But the affective geography of this Bethlehem devoid of conformist circuits remains intact, because it is spontaneously rooted in us.

There is a sense of immediacy, without any particular entanglement or ceremony.

The Child is not even worshipped by the now 'pure' gazes of the little, vilified prairie dogs and transhumance - as, conversely, the Magi will do (Mt 2:11).

They did not even know what it meant, reflecting Eastern court ceremonials - like the kissing of red slippers.

[This is why Pope Francis rejected them, along with the ermine - after Paul VI had had the courage to lay down the pluridirigist sign of tiaras, with its three overlapping crowns; a little more intricate was the affair of the anachronistic gestatorial chair].

The wretched of the earth and the distant of the flocks are those who hear the Announcement, readily verify it, and found the new divine lineage.

People untroubled by static judgement - men in the midst of all; no longer at high altitude.

 

In the meantime, Mary sought the meaning of surprises and thus regenerated, for a new way of understanding and 'being' together - to give birth also to the inner world of a different people of fullness.

She would put facts and Word together, to discover the common thread.

And to remain receptive; not to be conditioned by the convictions of the devout and inflexible fences, which would give her no escape.

The Mother herself, though taken by surprise, prepared herself for God's eccentricity, without departing from time and her real condition.

 

Her figure and that of the shepherds question us, demand the courage of an answer - but after having allowed the same kind of inner Presences to flow: worthy visitors, allowed to express themselves.

 

Like us, you too had to move from the beliefs of the fathers to Faith in the Father.

From the idea of love as reward to that of 'gift'.

From the practice of cults and closures that do not make one at all intimate with the Eternal, to the opening of the mind and of the exits.

He did not achieve this without effort, but rather by enduring the resistance of his arid environment.

Jesus was indeed circumcised - a useless rite that according to custom claimed to change the Son of God into the son of Abraham.

 

The Good News proclaims a reversal: what religion had considered distant from the Most High is very close to Him; indeed, it corresponds fully to Him.

Never before imagined.

In the Annunciations of the Gospels, the adventure of Faith is opened wide.

And the new Child has a Name that expresses the unprecedented essence of Saviour, not executioner.

His whole story will also be fully instructive from the point of view of how to internalise uncertainties and discomforts: these "no moments" and precariousness that teach us how to live.

In fact, we too, like Mary, 'recognise' the presence of God in the enigmas of Scripture, in the Little One 'wrapped in bandages' - even in the ancestral echo of our inner worlds.

And we let ourselves go - we don't really know where. But so is the Infinite, the immense Secret, the inexplicable Breath, in its folds.

 

The wise Dream that inhabits the human knows of ancient humus, but its echo is reborn every day, in the tide of being that directs one to really 'look', without veils.

A conformist demeanour of 'seeing things' would not solve the problem.

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, it is necessary to re-establish oneself in silence, like the Virgin; to build a sort of hermeneutic island that opens different doors, that introduces other lights.

Within her sacred circuit, the Mother of God also valorised innate transformative energies, precisely by rooting them in questions...

Thus returning to her primordial being and to the sense of the Newborn - an image steeped in primordial meaning and vital wave, dear to many cultures.

 

Mary entered an Elsewhere and did not leave the field of the real.

She was 'inside' her Centre, unhurried - searching for the Sun drowned in her being and which returned, emerged, resurrected; from within, it made her exist beyond.

Thus she did not allow herself to be absorbed in energy by the conformist ideas of others or by [external] situations that wanted to break the balance.

In her veracious solitude - filled with Grace - that higher and hidden self in essence came more and more to her. She made herself a new Dawn and guide. 

He did not want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around him - none capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of the drugs of procedures, dehumanising the Enchantment.

The happy magic of that Frugolo of flesh brought her Peace.

Dreams sustained and conveyed its nest and inner core - making new life flow from the core of its Person, and the youth of the world.

 

"Now Mary kept all Words-events by comparing them in her heart".

(Lk 2:16-21)

 

In the cages of our devotion, perhaps there is still no place for Jesus who offers himself. He continues to be born a child like the others, distant and poor, rejected.

Only those on the margins of society seem capable of waiting, openness to the mystery, and searching: keeping watch at night (v.8), passing by and seeing (v.15), coming in haste (v.16), praising (v.20).

The Mother is already making her way from the religiosity of the fathers to the Faith in the Father: Contemplative who listens, meets her deepest states and tries not to miss anything.

Those who are nobodies but feel anxious searching and prayerful hearts can sing a new song.

In this way, he will be able to decipher the signs of the divine Presence inscribed in events, and welcome Christ into his inner dwelling (v.7) [cf. commentary on the Prologue of John].

In the simplicity of the Son - in the Freedom of children - the Eternal God points out to the wretched and abandoned multitudes a new Way, capable of valuing the limits and even the eccentricities of each one.

 

Throughout the first century, both in Palestine and Asia Minor [Johannine and Lucan churches] the different schools of theology and servants of God - of traditional Judaism, of Jesus, of the Baptist - confronted each other in alternative ways.

Where there were communities of Jews, there was no lack of controversy between Christians and various (more or less radical) observers of the religion of the fathers - as well as people who had been baptised by John, or at least in contact with his pupils. The Master and the first apostles had also been.

Rather than confusion, there was real competition between the group of Christ's disciples and those of the Baptizer.

This, even though both proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God, and proposed social justice and the forgiveness of sins in practical life - instead of through rituals and sacrificial gestures at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Yet, thanks to the Son, the apostles grasped the depth of the Father's heart, which never resembles a justicialist, but works exclusively for the good and the promotion of life.

Hence in the Faith they themselves achieved inexplicable recoveries - precisely by gratuitously integrating the weak sides of people - without works of mortification of the insecure woman and man, nor claiming impossible preventive perfections.

 

Even today, precisely from the dark sides of our personality, the Father creates in the Spirit of the Beatitudes 'his' Newness, which turns the tables.

A completely unexpected change, impossible to imagine and propose; at least on the basis of prejudices or established ideas - all of which compete with self-esteem and joie de vivre.

The God of unconditional and guilt-dispelling love was precisely the exclusive prerogative of the new people of Faith in Christ, who had overcome the accusatory, moralistic and fussy cloaks of established custom.

Even then, diversity brought into play the question of the purifications required by the 'creeds' accepted by the cultural paradigm, and by identity rituals.

Jesus seemed completely alien to the mentality of the cultic ablutions of tradition.

It was the habit of life with Him that regenerated souls in the round, even from the eccentricities of each one.

Precious uniquenesses, interpreted as a sign of vocational exceptionality.

 

He taught the wretched and those condemned by religion how to get back on their feet by appealing to the different faces lurking in each one's soul: taking them on and investing them rather than denying them.

Personalities all... not pre-emptively sterilised; souls also with extravagant expressions, or with unconscious, shaky, unexpressed sides - in which Jesus taught to discover the traits of the personal missionary call.

And precisely 'from' here - it seems incredible - we too are sent to the Annunciation.

All this remains fundamental every day.

In fact, the [pious or avant-garde] proposals may present themselves in dignified forms - but they remain only outposts of the new quality leap.

The latter, capable of astonishment and all humanising: without the tare of feeling marked for life by external opinions.

Obviously, these forms of familial looseness and immediacy towards the Eternal God aroused the envy of the veterans still caged in the old fears of retribution, in the heap of works of law, of personal efficiencies unaware of open Grace, of personal Gift.

In no fulfilment, but in Christ alone, his friends and brothers recognised the Voice of the loving God.

He does not distinguish a priori 'superiorities': between the pure and the impure, the able and the unable, friends and foes; the chosen, the predestined, and the not.

 

In short, in our real life we do not wait for a phenomenon Messiah who continually upsets and oppresses us, filling us with fears and deviations to be corrected [which sap all energy]. 

Let us only look for a Friend who allows us to express ourselves in an unprecedented way and have a long - even undeserved - hope.

Let us be like the shepherds: no one has ever understood what convinced them, except the amazement of unpredictable gratuitousness (vv.15-18.20).

Paradoxically ready to found a new people - without too many regulations and clichés - starting from how and where each one found himself.

By now, we too no longer need the imprimatur of ideological sectarianism, without openness to the surprise of the surprising Incarnation, which makes the 'inadequate' gasp with joy...

Our most childish oddities [cf. commentary on the Prologue of John] can bring the human condition closer to the divine one.

So they have the approval of the Lord of all cosmos.

And Mary: the Question that is the Answer

(Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21)

 

We ask ourselves: in this time, what can make us intimate with the Lord?

[A certain Christopher changed history by sailing backwards...].

The shepherds experience the preference of a true and excessive Love, by blessing of the eccentric - and Wonder.

Preference that is not granted in exchange for merits, but because of needs.

Lk wants to emphasise that - by praising and glorifying God (v.20) just as the Angels do - the imperfect and defaulters paradoxically find themselves closer to the divine throne than the ever-arrogant position of the most sterile, or the most 'performing'.

We too are surprised to know a Father who, instead of incinerating us because of our insecurities, not only shrouds us in 'light' (v.9), but also builds his Newness on those very insecurities.

We all thought we were born to be pious and obedient children, or great 'phenomena' [narcissists].

Instead of putting us under stress, the Father wants us to rediscover the pleasure and wonder of gratuitousness and togetherness. Without models first - and minding obligations, ways, times, places, duties, reverences, prostrations and kissing of any kind!

God knows that we are surrounded by spheres, stimuli, moves, chores, which take us away. But neither does he demand a minimum of his own, for he does not act like the wayward child who wants the big slice of cake at snack time [corresponding to his rank].

The relationship with Him is not a continual effort, to be laboriously kept up with. It is a lightening, and even strengthening in the counterweights.

 

In Advent we have already emphasised: that of the Lord Who Comes is a Ray that does not intrude into the horizon of normal expectations, adapting itself to our external dreams - those that live of expected goals, and then become a torment.

In the arc of life, the encounter with such wise Light that pierces the darkness of night is in the difficulties that force us to shift our gaze, in the failure that compels us to regenerate creativity, in the bewilderment that makes us contact new ways of being.

The life of Faith does not endure the demon of 'perfection' imagined by archaic religions.

They willingly replace all gratuitousness with a sense of adult duty - which inevitably gives birth to nerve-wracking and even compensatory strategies [thank God, today less and less hidden].

 

According to Chinese thought, in order to gain polish and escape a polluted and worn-out servility, the saints 'are taught by beasts the art of avoiding the harmful effects of domestication, which life in society imposes'.

Indeed: 'Domesticated animals die prematurely. And so do men, whom social conventions forbid to obey spontaneously the rhythm of universal life'.

"These conventions impose continuous, self-interested, exhausting activity [whereas it is appropriate] to alternate between periods of slow life and jubilation".

"The saint does not submit himself to retreat or fasting except in order to achieve, through ecstasy, to escape for long journeys. This liberation is prepared by life-giving games, which nature teaches".

"One trains oneself for the paradisiacal life by imitating the amusements of animals. To sanctify oneself, one must first brutalise oneself - that is to say, learn from children, from beasts, from plants, the simple and joyful art of living only in view of life."

[M. Granet, The Chinese Thought, Adelphi 2019, kindle pp. 6904-6909].

 

The 'shepherds' immediately place both guilt and the obligatory time of fulfilment in the background of their real existence, retaining their charge and enthusiasm.

In this way, for us too, nothing in life seems an insurmountable wall any more - apart from the prejudice of the 'just' [those of the 'conditional': the 'ifs', the 'buts'].

Even routine does not take away energy and drive - how come? Because spontaneous souls do not need to take care of the external look, to please the opinion of others; so on.

Without even realising it, having no artificial screens to hold up, the genuine can face life head-on, and get off on the right foot.

Thus, attracting great opportunities for change.

 

They may not go too deep, but they listen to needs.

And they expand their space without asking permission from those who will never grant it; they sense the essentials that flow from freedom of mind and code.

Their 'having to be' has no artificial expectations: it is simple attunement with nature and with themselves.

A decisive position, because on such a ray they are able to see the weak side as a container of great strength, which activates capacities capable of building a whole other destiny.

They do not pose the problem of having to look good, or of not being what they are. Then they have plenty of time, and are seen to be orderly and good-natured, with no discomfort; in harmony with everyone.

They follow their story, and without too many expectations or intentions, they learn to trust the flow of events, even intimate ones.

They know how to welcome as worthy guests all their inner states, without feeling guilty.

In their own motives, they are 'clear'. So they do not fall into neuroses.

The encounter with serene Authenticity has retrained them.

Light that has conquered self-esteem.

They feel empowered instead of targets. And the regained confidence makes them open and welcoming towards others.

They have realised that they must rely on deeper knowledge than that inoculated by the prejudices of decision-makers.

God is the exact opposite of the veterans' catechism: it is only the encounter with Him that purifies - not the apparent vice versa.

 

We too wish to open ourselves to the new Mystery. Experience that is preparing the womb of our souls at this time.

We are in a transhumance full of discoveries and adventures: we can learn how to be with what is coming and reinterpret it, learning to walk on our own legs and putting our attitudes into action.

Side by side with the shepherds, who ceaselessly put energies back into circulation - our lives can turn out to be much richer than the affair of the precise and impeccable.

We want to turn routine into an adventure that glimpses the authentic Sacred in the small Seed that inhabits us.

We will do this without too much efficiency: perhaps we will also build a regenerating highland refuge, to train intuition - and from there recreate the Vision, and the world.

 

No one this year should feel inadequate, excluded from the action of God's Love and the ability to radiate it.

As in the Gospel of Easter morning, we can peer into the darkness and sense even amidst signs of death the great energies of Life.

 

The world of shadows is no longer in the same trim as before.

 

Among the humbled, even Mary is astonished, but seeks to understand and makes her own way. Indeed, she understands that the Answer is already in the Question.

Comparing within herself Word and events around her Son, she realises that in the 'problem' (which surprised her) there was already the energy of the 'solution'.

 

Who is Jesus?

The contrast between the extraordinary figure of the awaited and misunderstood Messiah, and the obtuseness of the elusive judgement of popular doctrines, ended up leaving things as they were.

Indeed, worse: it encapsulated the Mystery - the most normal one in the world [but one that remains forever]: the humanity of God.

And he lost his 'whereabouts'.

He could not understand the Person of Christ from the things he knew or by trying to frame him in the familiar criteria of the First Testament; in the common feeling, with the magical models of the time.

His Master pupil could not be satisfied with an improvement of the situation.

He had to replace it, announcing the Truth of the Father; of the authentic man and woman.

Proposing a germ of an alternative world to the ruthless and pyramidal society; the one that establishes what to think and say, how one must be and behave.

 

God intends to bring out and enhance the intuition of consciences more than to impose duties or cravings for analysing behaviour.

This is the incredible.

 

Each religious group enclosed the Messiah in its own interpretative model, consonant with an environment tinged with ancient hopes: defence of goods and customs, well-being at the expense of others, expansion, prodigies.

The children's revolution poses an issue that seeks its Way Elsewhere - after all around the corner, but not relegated 'inside' a corner.

For to question the Person of Christ is already to begin to overcome petty, habitual interpretations, and to embrace the irruption of God.

The ever-childlike Lord will overturn the fortunes, the destiny of man's kingdom, and its claims that cage the soul, immobilising life.

The knowledge of his story, the adhesion to his Person, and the Action of the Spirit, will not allow the fixed thoughts, attachments, clichés, window dressing that then impregnate the whole soul, depriving it of intoxication and fruitfulness, to persist in Mary's mind.

It is in the Son that she becomes a Mother, a totally personal Presence, a new Sense.

Maternity hers, of innate Wisdom, that opens horizons: in the authentic Church she is leading us to different Dreams of being.

 

Woman who wants to express herself by humanising.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As in a mosaic, today's liturgy contemplates different events and messianic situations, but attention is especially focused on Mary, Mother of God. Eight days after Jesus' birth, we commemorate the Mother, the Theotokos, the one who gave birth to the Child who is King of Heaven and earth for ever (cf. Entrance Antiphon; Sedulius).

The liturgy today meditates on the Word made man and repeats that he is born of the Virgin. It reflects on the circumcision of Jesus as a rite of admission to the community and contemplates God who, by means of Mary, gave his Only-Begotten Son to lead the "new people". It recalls the name given to the Messiah and listens to it spoken with tender sweetness by his Mother. It invokes peace for the world, Christ's peace, and does so through Mary, Mediatrix and Cooperator of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 60-61).

We are beginning a new solar year which is a further period of time offered to us by divine Providence in the context of the salvation inaugurated by Christ. But did not the eternal Word enter time precisely through Mary? In the Second Reading we have just listened to, the Apostle Paul recalls this by saying that Jesus was born "of woman" (Gal 4: 4).

In today's liturgy the figure of Mary, true Mother of Jesus, God-man, stands out. Thus, today's Solemnity is not celebrating an abstract idea but a mystery and an historic event: Jesus Christ, a divine Person, is born of the Virgin Mary who is his Mother in the truest sense.

Today too, Mary's virginity is highlighted, in addition to her motherhood. These are two prerogatives that are always proclaimed together, inseparably, because they complement and qualify each other. Mary is Mother, but a Virgin Mother; Mary is a virgin, but a Mother Virgin. If either of these aspects is ignored, the mystery of Mary as the Gospels present her to us, cannot be properly understood.

As Mother of Christ, Mary is also Mother of the Church, which my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI chose to proclaim on 21 November 1964 at the Second Vatican Council. Lastly, Mary is the Spiritual Mother of all humanity, because Jesus on the Cross shed his blood for all of us and from the Cross he entrusted us all to her maternal care.

Let us begin this new year, therefore, by looking at Mary whom we received from God's hands as a precious "talent" to be made fruitful, a providential opportunity to contribute to bringing about the Kingdom of God.

In this atmosphere of prayer and gratitude to the Lord for the gift of a new year, I am pleased to address my respectful thoughts to the distinguished Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See who have desired to take part in today's solemn Celebration.

I cordially greet Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my Secretary of State. I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and express to them my deep gratitude for the commitment with which they daily promote these values, so fundamental to social life.

For this World Day of Peace, I addressed the customary Message to the Governors and Leaders of Nations, as well as to all men and women of good will. Its theme this year is: The human person, the heart of peace.

I am deeply convinced that "respect for the person promotes peace and that, in building peace, the foundations are laid for an authentic integral humanism" (Message for World Peace Day, 1 January 2007, n. 1).

This commitment is especially incumbent on every Christian who is called "to be committed to tireless peace-making and strenuous defence of the dignity of the human person and his inalienable rights" (Message, n. 16). Precisely because he is created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1: 27), every human individual without distinction of race, culture or religion, as a person is clothed in God's same dignity. For this reason he should be respected, nor can any reason ever justify an arbitrary use of him, as if he were an object.

In the face of the threats to peace that are unfortunately ever present, the situations of injustice and violence that persist in various areas of the earth and the continuing armed conflicts often overlooked by the majority of public opinion, as well as the danger of terrorism that clouds the serenity of peoples, it is becoming more necessary than ever to work for peace together. This, as I recalled in my Message, is "both gift and task" (n. 3): a gift to implore with prayer and a task to be carried out with courage, never tiring.

The Gospel narrative we have heard portrays the scene of the shepherds of Bethlehem, who after hearing the Angel's announcement go to the grotto to worship the Child (cf. Lk 2: 16). Should we not look again at the dramatic situation marking the very Land in which Jesus was born? How can we not entreat God with insistent prayers for the day of peace to arrive as soon as possible in that region too, the day on which the current conflict that has lasted far too long will be resolved?

If a peace agreement is to endure, it must be based on respect for the dignity and rights of every person. I express to the representatives of the nations present here my hope that the International Community will muster its forces so that a world may be built in God's Name in which the essential human rights are respected by all. For this to happen, people must recognize that these rights are not only based on human agreements but "on man's very nature and his inalienable dignity as a person created by God" (Message, n. 13).

Indeed, were the constitutive elements of human dignity entrusted to changeable human opinions, even solemnly proclaimed human rights would end by being weakened and variously interpreted. "Consequently, it is important for international agencies not to lose sight of the natural foundation of human rights. This would enable them to avoid the risk, unfortunately ever-present, of sliding towards a merely positivistic interpretation of those rights" (ibid.).

"The Lord bless you and keep you... lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Nm 6: 24, 26). This is the formula of the Blessing we heard in the First Reading, taken from the Book of Numbers. The Lord's Name is repeated in it three times. This gives one an idea of the intensity and power of the Blessing, whose last word is "peace".

The biblical term shalom, which we translate as "peace", implies that accumulation of good things in which consists the "salvation" brought by Christ, the Messiah announced by the Prophets. We Christians therefore recognize him as the Prince of Peace. He became a man and was born in a grotto in Bethlehem to bring peace to people of good will, to all who welcome him with faith and love.

Thus, peace is truly the gift and commitment of Christmas: the gift that must be accepted with humble docility and constantly invoked with prayerful trust, the task that makes every person of good will a "channel of peace".

Let us ask Mary, Mother of God, to help us to welcome her Son and, in him, true peace. Let us ask her to sharpen our perception so that we may recognize in the face of every human person, the Face of Christ, the heart of peace!

[Pope Benedict, homily January 1st, 2007]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. Let us give thanks to God, who has given us the opportunity to begin another year. As I beseech him to protect and give his grace to everyone, I offer my most cordial wishes to all for a happy New Year 2000!

On Christmas night, we listened once again to the angels' message: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased" (Lk 2: 14). This is the proclamation of hope which I wanted once again to present in my traditional Message for today's World Day of Peace. God loves us and he gives everyone the hope of a new time, a time of salvation and peace.

2. Yes, Christ is our peace. He calls us to love every human being without discrimination, turning our hearts and minds to thoughts of peace and removing the temptation of violence and war. The Jubilee which has just begun is a pressing invitation to love in view of a reconciled humanity.

Let us cross the threshold of a new year with a commitment to make our contribution so that peace can become the daily language of peoples. The Gospel teaches us that dialogue, cooperation, respect for life and solidarity are effective instruments for creating new relationships between peoples and countries, between rich and poor, believers and non-believers.

From every part of the earth rises a heartfelt plea for peace. Let us pray that it does not go unheard. At this moment, my thoughts turn to those who are victims of violence, to those who feel lonely and abandoned.

May Christ, the incarnate Son of God, enlighten human hearts with the gift of peace. You, Son of the Most High, were born for everyone. You are the same yesterday, today and for ever!

3. The first day of the year is placed under the special protection of Mary. Let us begin the Year 2000 under the loving gaze of the Mother of God, who gives Christ, the Prince of Peace, to the world. May she spread the mantle of her motherhood over all of us, protect us from evil and free us from hatred and violence. May she accompany humanity on the ways of peace. May every person discover in others, beyond every border, the face of brothers and sisters, friends, members of the same family.

Mary, Mother of God, make us apostles of peace!

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus January 1st, 2000]

“But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman” (Gal 4:4). Born of woman: Jesus came in this way. He did not appear in the world as an adult but, as the Gospel tells us, he was “conceived in the womb” (Lk 2;21). It was there that he made our humanity his own: day after day, month after month. In the womb of a woman, God and mankind are united, never to be separated again. Even now, in heaven, Jesus lives in the flesh that he took in his mother’s womb. In God, there is our human flesh!

On the first day of the year, we celebrate this nuptial union between God and mankind, inaugurated in the womb of a woman. In God, there will forever be our humanity and Mary will forever be the Mother of God. She is both woman and mother: this is what is essential. From her, a woman, salvation came forth and thus there is no salvation without a woman. In her, God was united to us, and if we want to unite ourselves to him, we must take the same path: through Mary, woman and mother. That is why we begin the year by celebrating Our Lady, the woman who wove the humanity of God. If we want to weave humanity into this our time, we need to start again from the woman.

Born of woman. The rebirth of humanity began from a woman. Women are sources of life. Yet they are continually insulted, beaten, raped, forced to prostitute themselves and to suppress the life they bear in the womb. Every form of violence inflicted upon a woman is a blasphemy against God, who was born of a woman. Humanity’s salvation came forth from the body of a woman: we can understand our degree of humanity by how we treat a woman’s body. How often are women’s bodies sacrificed on the profane altars of advertising, of profiteering, of pornography, exploited like a canvas to be used. Yet women’s bodies must be freed from consumerism; they must be respected and honoured. Theirs is the most noble flesh in the world, for it conceived and brought to light the love that has saved us! In our day, too, motherhood is demeaned, because the only growth that interests us is economic growth. There are mothers who risk difficult journeys desperately seeking to give a better future to the fruit of their womb, yet are deemed redundant by people with full stomachs but hearts empty of love.

Born of woman. The Bible tells us that woman come onto the scene at the height of creation, as a summation of the entire created world. For she holds within herself the very purpose of creation: the generation and safekeeping of life, communion with all things, care for all things. So it is with the Mother of God in today’s Gospel. The text tells us, “But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (v. 19). She kept all these things: joy at the birth of Jesus and sadness for the lack of hospitality shown in Bethlehem; the love of Joseph and the amazement of the shepherds; the promise and the uncertainty of the future. She took everything to heart, and in her heart, she put everything in its right place, even hardships and troubles. In her heart, she lovingly set all things in order and entrusted everything to God.

In the Gospel, Mary does this a second time: at the end of the hidden life of Jesus, we are told that “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (v. 51). This repetition makes us realize that “keeping in her heart” was not something nice that Our Lady did from time to time, but something habitual. Women typically take life to heart. Women show us that the meaning of life is not found in making things but in taking things to heart. Only those who see with the heart see things properly, because they know how to “look into” each person: to see a brother apart from his mistakes, a sister apart from her failings, hope amid difficulty. They see God in all persons and things.

As we begin this new year, let us ask ourselves: Do I know how to see with the heart? Do I know how to look at people with the heart? Do I take to heart the people with whom I live? Or do I tear them down by gossip? And above all, do I put the Lord at the centre of my heart, or other values, other interests, like advancement, riches, power? Only if we take life to heart will we know how to take care and overcome the indifference all around. So let us ask for the grace to live this year with the desire to take others to heart and to care for them. And if we want a better world, a world that will be a peaceful home and not a war field, may we take to heart the dignity of each woman. From a woman was born the Prince of peace. Women are givers and mediators of peace and should be fully included in decision-making processes. Because when women can share their gifts, the world finds itself more united, more peaceful. Hence, every step forward for women is a step forward for humanity as a whole.

Born of woman. Jesus, newly born, was mirrored in the eyes of the woman, in the face of his mother. From her, he received his first caresses; with her, he exchanged the first smiles. With her began the revolution of tenderness. The Church, looking at the Baby Jesus, is called to continue that revolution. For she too, like Mary, is both woman and mother. The Church is woman and mother, and in Our Lady, she finds her distinctive traits. She sees Mary immaculate, and feels called to say no to sin and to worldliness. She sees Mary fruitful, and feels called to proclaim the Gospel and to give birth to it in people’s lives. She sees Mary a mother, and she feels called to receive every man and woman as a son or daughter.

In drawing close to Mary, the Church discovers herself, she finds her centre and her unity. The enemy of our human nature, the devil, seeks instead to divide, to highlight differences, ideologies, partisan thinking and parties. But we do not understand the Church if we regard her by starting with structures, programmes and trends, ideologies and functions. We may grasp something, but not the heart of the Church. Because the Church has a mother’s heart. And we, as her sons and daughters, invoke today the Mother of God, who gathers us together as a people of believers. O Mother, give birth to hope within us and bring us unity. Woman of salvation, to you we entrust this year. Keep it in your heart. We acclaim you, the Holy Mother of God. All together now, for three times, let us stand and acclaim the Lady, the Holy Mother of God. [with the assembly] Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God!

[Pope Francis, homily January 1, 2020]

Rough life’s power

(Jn 1:1-18)

 

Gialal al-Din Rumi, mystic and lyric Persian of the thirteenth century, writes in his poem «The Inn»:

 

 

The human being is an Inn,

someone new is coming every morning.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

a few moment of awareness comes from time to time,

as an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome everyone, spend time with all!

even if there is a crowd of sorrows

that devastates the house violently

stripping it of all the furniture,

 

likewise, treat each guest with honor:

it could be that he’s freeing you

in view of new pleasures.

 

To dark thoughts, to shame, to malice,

go meet on the door laughing,

and invite them in.

 

Be grateful for everything that comes,

because everything was sent

as a guide to the afterlife.

 

 

We recognize in this poem-emblem some keystones of discernment, underlying the existential paradoxes of the Incarnation theology.

A Sufi mystic helps to understand the supporting pillars of our Journey, better than many one-way evasive doctrines.

They are identical laws of the soul already expressed in the famous Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: raw life is filled with powers.

Incarnation: our most intimate fulcrums distinguish the adventure of Faith from the one-sided existence of the believer in God.

The experience of fullness in the world is launched from our own slums of the soul. As a Zen aphorism [collected in Ts'ai Ken T'an] suggests: «Too pure water has no fish».

 

Jn writes that the Logos became «flesh» in the Semitic meaning of a being full of limits, unfinished; for this reason voted to the relentless search of sense (partial until death).

The weakness of all of us is not redeemed by admiring a heroic model and imitating it off scale, but in a process of recovering the whole being and our history.

In short, there are no Gifts of the Spirit that do not pass through the human dimension.

Already here and now we thrive of a precious Word’ seed. His authentic Tent is in-us and in all the stimuli.

The more we manage to maximize our creatural and humanizing reality, the more we will be on the path towards the divine condition - rooted on earth of the priceless lineage generated by the Logos.

Wisely, we will not do it by becoming winners, but by hosting what comes from Providence, from people and emotions (even from inconvenience) without prejudice.

Not the Ten Words - a typical Semitic category - but the One inclusive Word (Dream and Sense of Creation) is at the foundation of the Father’s Work.

The Logos that takes root is qualitative, not partial, nor centred on a single name: One because Unitary.

 

Religions do not welcome all guests [they will prove to be much more fruitful than we imagine] knocking at the interior inn.

 

The story of Jesus of Nazareth suggests that sin has instead been torn apart, that is: imperfection is not an obstacle to communion with Heaven, but a spring.

Discomforts do not make us inadequate: they set us on the road.

The Lord has destroyed the feeling of insufficiency of carnal condition and the humiliation of the unbridgeable distances.

 

«Word» End on univocity.

 

 

To internalize and live the message:

 

How do you start your days? Welcome your guests (even the void)? Or do you face them with excess of judgment?

 

 

[December 31, seventh day between the Octave of Christmas]

Power of raw life

(Jn 1:1-18)

 

Gialal al-Din Rumi, a 13th century Persian mystic and lyricist (founder of the Sufi confraternity of dervishes) writes in his poem 'The Inn

 

The human being is an inn,

every morning someone new arrives.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

a moment of awareness arrives from time to time,

like an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome them all, entertain them all!

Even if there is a crowd of sorrows

violently ravaging the house

stripping it of all furniture,

 

still, treat every guest with honour:

it may be that he is freeing you

in view of new pleasures.

 

To gloomy thoughts, to shame, to malice,

go to the door laughing,

and invite them in.

 

Be thankful for everything that comes,

for everything has been sent

as a guide to the hereafter.

 

 

We recognise in this poem-emblem some keys to discernment, underlying the existential paradoxes of the theology of the Incarnation.

A Sufi mystic helps to understand the pillars of our Path, far better than many evasive one-way doctrines.

They are identical laws of the soul already expressed in the famous Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: raw life is filled with powers.

Synthesis of underlying themes that specify Life in the Spirit in comparison to common religious experience.

Incarnation: our innermost fulcrums distinguish the adventure of Faith from the believer's one-sided existence in God.

Waking up in the morning, there is a new arrival in our 'inn' - not always overtly uplifting.

But in the many-roomed inn reception there must be a welcome, so that the unplanned encounter can open us up, become an aspect, or motive and engine of the decisive encounter - perhaps also unexpected.

Happenings, situations, insights, advice, relationships, even strange emotions, new realisations, other projects that we had not previously imagined or were simply unexpressed, come to visit us and leave us amazed.

Guests are to be welcomed, they have their dignity and they all express sides of ourselves: we are bound to welcome each one of them; even the anger, the sadness, the fears.

Missionaries know well that doubts are more fruitful than certainties, and that insecurity is safer than all 'certainties'.

The crowd of guests can call into question what is in our dwelling or inn, and sweep away all or part of it - even the foundations.

By being patient enough to honour each tenant - be they ancient memories or scapegoating utopias - we prepare our souls for an experience of fullness of being, launched from our own slums (muck become sprout territory).

Beginning with respect for our different boundaries and because of them, each new or re-emerging presence focuses us on listening to all the chaos that we are - chaos that prepares the delights that belong to us, and only in this way engage.

Our eternal side - which has pitched a tent in us - sends things so that by perceiving, welcoming, becoming aware, we can prepare the development of the soul, of our Home.

Evolution whose principles [and opportunities to step forward towards the completion of our full and divine personality] we simply find innate, within, and not in extrinsic adhesions - typical of external civilisation and of not a few expressions of faith reduced to religion.

 

The Prologue of John only reiterates the eternal pillars of a Wisdom that is revealed but natural, within the reach of all because it narrates love, even in the inner journey; difficult to understand only for those who allow themselves to be influenced by opinions and coded, abbreviated catechisms.

The Gospel reassures: it is News in our favour, because it makes us aware that the "lords" who come along are Gifts that clean up the dwelling, and if they throw it away, it is only to strengthen our essence, chiselling an unrepeatable Vocation: the one capable of recovering every shred of our history and making it a masterpiece.

It would be impossible to take the road to full Happiness if we did not gather and assume every shred of our being scattered in the world and in time, making every expectation, every moment, every oscillation even broken, meaningful and divine.

The Logos has countless Seeds already planted in us: they are all mouldable energy polarities; not crystalline. Points of tension. Many of them seemingly unsteady, but restarting at the destination of completeness.

Provisionalities called to become fixed points - then wobbly again, because only through processes of fluctuation are the dynamics that will lead to total growth triggered - with other moments of Exodus.

 

As a Zen aphorism [collected in Ts'ai Ken T'an] suggests: "Water that is too pure has no fish".Jn does not write that the Logos became 'man', but 'flesh' in the Semitic sense of a being full of limits, unfinished; for this reason devoted to the incessant search for meaning, partial to the point of death.

The weakness of women and men is not redeemed by admiring a heroic model and imitating it off the scale, but in a process of recovery of the whole being and of our history.

There are no Gifts of the Spirit that do not pass through the human dimension.

Already here and now we thrive on the earth of a precious seed of the Word. His authentic Tent is in us and in all motives.

The more we can bring our creaturely and humanising reality to its fullest, the more we will be on the path to the divine condition. Rooted on the earth of the inestimable lineage generated by the Logos.

To make us conscious and dilate life, the Eternal asks that we host the proposals with which it bursts in, with the sole purpose not to condition us but to complete us, and increase the self-confidence with which we face the present and activate the future, face to face.

We will not do this by becoming winners, but by welcoming what comes from Providence, from people and emotions (even from discomforts) without prejudice - not even that of always seeming to be accompanied by many people, being seen on the outside as confident, strong, performing.

Scenarios that invade life and take away the essential Perception of being present to minimal acts and relationships, to looking in and out. Clear awareness of self, of the human, of the world that guides towards our direction and our true nature.

 

Not the Ten Words - a typical Semitic category - but the One inclusive Word, Dream and Meaning of Creation, are the foundation of the Father's Work.

The Logos that takes root is qualitative, not partial, nor centred on a single name: One because it is One.

 

The story of Jesus of Nazareth suggests that sin has been shattered, i.e.: imperfection is not an obstacle to communion with Heaven, but a spring.

Imperfections do not make us inadequate: they set us on our way.

The Lord has annihilated the sense of inadequacy of the carnal condition and the humiliation of unbridgeable distances.

The Creator's 'initial' project is to share his own Life with all humanity. In this way, the Lord enters the world with confidence, without fear of contamination, nor cuts and separations - prejudice typical of the archaic mentality.

The Plan of Salvation is realised and has its summit in the defence, promotion, expansion of our relational quality of life.

Therefore: "Light of men" (v.4) will no longer be - according to the convictions of the time - the arid regulations of the Law, but rather "Life" in its complete fullness. Spontaneous, real and unrefined: raw, therefore full of power.

 

The Tao Tê Ching (xix), which considers the most celebrated virtues to be external, writes: "Teach that there is something else to adhere to: show yourself simple and keep yourself raw".

Master Wang Pi comments: 'Formal qualities are totally insufficient'.

And Master Ho-shang Kung adds: "Forget the regularity and creation of the saints; return to what was at the Beginning".

 

Thus in the Paths of Faith, it is no longer outwardness or convention that dictates the path and wisdom in the discernment of spirits.

Each has its own innate desire for fulfilment and totality of expression: this will be the sole criterion of our path.

Such will remain the intimate Light that guides our steps; such the Word of the invisible Friend who leads us and acts as a canon.

 

"And the Light shines in the darkness" (v.5)!

Just like a plant, which neither takes root nor expands in a distilled environment.

So what does not have or limit life does not proceed from God, the Living One, the promoter of all that expresses and unfolds exuberance.

Our vocation is to stand alongside the integral life, with its opposite sides making a covenant.

 

Religions do not welcome all guests [they turn out to be far more fertile than we imagine] who knock on the inner hotel.

But it is not with the parameters of established thought that one can understand or discover what complete Life is, because Life is always expansive, lush and new, full of facets.

Hence the need for constant change, from the old.

In short, the single non-negotiable principle is the real good of the concrete man; the rest escapes our foresight.

The classic risk is that: in the name of a God of the past [doctrine, customs, disciplines, ways of thinking and doing] we fail to notice and recognise the invitation, the empathic energy; the divine virtue that protrudes Present.

 

In order to welcome the ever new and bubbling, we must allow access to all our soul 'guests' - who will allow us to meet ourselves; even the neuroses.

He who lives proposes a profound Exodus, to become ever-born again. Man's going is not subject to a Master, not even a heavenly one.

We do not exist 'for' God, as is believed and preached in ancient devotions. They clog us up with external or intimist forms; they block the development of personality.

They do not allow us to draw on "our" own strength.

 

The Father asks to be accepted, not obeyed. In this way we will live by Him, and with Him and like Him we will go out to meet our brothers and sisters, managing also to make ourselves Food for our neighbour - without restless constraints that depersonalise.

Here are at work the new Shrines of flesh and blood that have replaced, supplanted, that of stone.

Presences, meeting places between history, joy and vertigo; between human and divine nature. Centres of irradiation of Love without conditions - nor reductions.

No longer precisely named heights, inaccessible and distant places to go - on pain of exclusion - but images and likenesses of a God who comes to find us at home, where we are.

It is the same marginality encountered within - now without hysteria - that infallibly points us to the existential peripheries of others, which we are called to frequent, regenerate, sublimate, move, resurrect.

The new relationship with God is no longer founded on discrepant purity and obedience, lavished on rigid precepts and unquestioning conformity.

Rather, in personal vicissitudes and in the conviviality of differences, similarity to the Word will take over.

 

Patriarch Athenagoras confessed:

"We need Christ, without him we are nothing. But he needs us to act in history. The entire history of humanity from the resurrection onwards, and even from the origins onwards, constitutes a kind of pan-Christianity. The ancient covenant involves a whole series of covenants that still exist side by side today. And so the covenant of Adam, or rather of Noah, subsists in the archaic religions, those of India especially, with their cosmic symbolism [...].

We know that light radiates from a face. It took the covenant of Abraham, and it needed to be renewed in Islam. That of Moses subsists in Judaism [...].

But Christ recapitulated everything. The Logos who became flesh is he who creates the universe and manifests himself there, and he is also the Word who guides history through the prophets [...].

That is why I consider Christianity the religion of religions, and I happen to say that I belong to all religions'.

 

It is the Dream of each and all, in Christ already introduced into the bosom of the Eternal One who is convincing and lovable, because He is Comprehensive [not in the sense of paternalism eventually good-naturedly bestowed, but of Being].

As Pope Francis pointed out:

"In life bears fruit not he who has so many riches, but he who creates and keeps alive so many bonds, so many relationships, so many friendships through the different 'riches', that is, the different Gifts with which God has endowed him."

Only in this way will we - all of us in the Son - become special Events of the Word-flesh: small fish, but with full rights to the pre-eminence of the Logos... coryphaeans of impossible recoveries.

 

We have in common the displacement. Fine "Word" on univocity.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

How do you start your days? Do you welcome your guests (even emptiness)? Or do you face them with excessive judgement?

 

 

Light and Treasure

 

Spark of beauty and humanism, or no future

(Jn 8:12-20)

 

In all religions the term Light is used as a metaphor for the forces of good.

On the lips of Jesus [present in his intimates] the same word stands for a fulfilment of humanity (even of the religious institution) according to the divine plan, recognisable in his own Person.

The distinction between light and darkness in Christ is somehow not comparable to the more conventional dualist binomial - about good and evil. The Creator's activity is multifaceted.

The evangelical term therefore does not designate any static fixed judgement on what is usually assessed as 'torch' or 'shadow', 'correct' or 'wrong' and so on.

There is room for new perceptions and reworkings. Nor are we always called upon to fight against everything else, and the passions.

Classical moral, pious or general religious evaluations must be overcome, because they remain on the surface and do not grasp the core of being and becoming humanising.

Not infrequently, the most valuable things arise precisely from what disturbs standardised thinking.

The same mind that believes it is only in the light is a one-sided, partial, sick mind; bound to an idea, therefore poor.

God knows that it is the incompletenesses that launch the Exodus, it can be the insecurities that keep us from crashing into the patterns... that make us lose who we are.

In fact, the energies that invest created reality have an entirely positive potential root.

Sunsets prepare other paths, ambivalences give the 'la' to impossible recoveries and growths.

 

"Light" was in Judaism the term that designated the righteous path of humanity according to the Law, without eccentricity or decline.But with Jesus, it is no longer the Torah that acts as a guide, but life itself [Jn 1:4: "Life was the Light of men"] that is characterised by its varying complexity.

Thus, even the "world" - that is, (in Jn) first and foremost the complex of the institution (so pious and devout) now installed and corrupted: it must return to a wiser Guide, one that illuminates real existence.

 

The appeal that Scripture addresses to us is very practical and concrete.

But in contexts with a strong structure of mediation between God and man, spirituality often tends towards the legalism of customary fulfilments.

Jesus is not for grand parades, nor for solutions that cloak people's lives in mysticism, escapism, rituals or abstinence.

All of this was perhaps also the fabric of much of medieval spirituality - and the assiduous, ritualistic, beghine spirituality of days gone by.

But in the Bible, God's servants do not have haloes. They are women and men normally inserted in society, people who know the problems of everyday life: work, family, bringing up children....

The professionals of the sacred, on the other hand, try to put a pretty dress on very ungodly things - sometimes cunning minds and perverse hearts. Cultivated behind the magnificent respectability of screens and incense.

To do this, Jesus understands that he must drive out both merchants and customers (Jn 2:13-25) and supplant the fatuous glow of the great sanctuary.

 

During the Feast of Tabernacles, huge street lamps were lit in the courtyards of the Temple in Jerusalem.

One of the main rituals consisted in staging an admirable night procession with lit fairies - and in making the great lamps shine (they rose above the walls and illuminated the whole of Jerusalem).

It was the appropriate context to proclaim the very Person of Christ as the authentic sacred and humanising Word, the place of encounter with God and the torch of life. There was nothing external and rhetorical about it.

But in that "holy world" marked by the intertwining of epic, religion, power and interest, the Master stands out - with contrary evidence - precisely in the place of the Treasury (the real centre of gravity of the Temple, v.20) as the true and only Extreme Point that pierces the darkness.

The Lord invites us to make our own his own sharply missionary path: from the shrine of stone to the heart of flesh, as free as that of the Father.

Clear call and intimate question that never goes out: we feel it burning alive without being consumed.

There is no need to fear: the Envoy is not alone. He does not testify to himself, nor to his own foibles or utopian derangements: his Calling by Name becomes divine Presence - Origin, Path, authentic "Return".

 

Do we look like pilgrims and exiles who do not know how to be in "the world"? But each of us is (in Faith) like Him-and-the-Father: overwhelming majority.

By Faith, in the authentic Light: Dawn, Support, Friendship and unequivocal, invincible leap, which rips through the haze.

It bursts from the core, assuming the same shadows and being reborn; bringing our dark sides alongside the roots.

Intimate place and time (outside of all ages) from which the outgoing Church springs forth: here it is from the jewels and sacristies, to the peripheries Spark of beauty and humanism, or without a future

And from the sacred society of the outside, to the hidden Pearl that genuinely connects the present with the 'timelessness' of the Free - even if here and there it undermines so much theology with its preceptistic, greedy and cunning meaning, neither plural nor transparent.

In the end, it is all simple: the full wellbeing and integrity of man is more important than the one-sided 'good' of doctrine and institution - which advocates it without even believing in it.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

In what situations do I consider myself a "Witness"?

What is the torch in my steps? Who is my Present Light?

 

 

Mysticism of Coversion-Light: the unseen spaces of growth

 

Waiting and Receiving (the taste of God, in Rebirth)

(Jn 12:44-50)

 

"He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath he that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day" (v.48).

"And I know that his Commandment is the Life of the LORD. The things therefore that I proclaim, as the Father has spoken to me, so I proclaim" (v.50).

We are at the end of the Book of Signs (Jn 2-12) which is followed by the so-called time of the Hour.

The particular Gospel passage of Jn 12 acts as an inclusion to the Prologue, and introduces the final drama of Christ - with all the weight of unbelief already perceived.

But it is a primordial imprint, also for us, generated to life by the animation in the Spirit of the Son, to be sent to the Annunciation (of likeness, not obedience).

Like Him we are in God, and together... for the women and men of every time and culture.

Therefore, Jesus' "cry" (v.44) is a privileged "clamour", of decisive self-presentation, as well as of unprecedented revelation of the very Life of the Eternal already present here (v.50) within ourselves.He who acts in the name of Risen Love, brings forth the glad tidings of resurrection and deliverance, and the definitive approval of the Father.

We are no longer in the world as a function of God (as in religions) but live with Him and of Him - for the Message and Mission: the complete humanisation, emancipation, redemption of mankind.

Father and Son are One. Jesus reflects God, brings Him closer to us; He reveals and communicates Him to us, without a gap.

So for us "Seeing" Christ means believing him, that is, grasping the glorious outcome of a life that seemed destined for insignificance.

The indispensable Light of the Lord not only dispels the darkness, but uncovers, encounters and transforms it from within. And unbelief becomes Faith - like a Womb of gestations, gifts of new Creation.

Our fate and quality of believing life is tightly decided in the confrontation between two motions: pious life, or Vision-Faith. The latter able to unleash dilations and ministerial imperatives.

This dilemma acts as a dividing line: between a life as saved now, and doubt about future destiny. A question typical of empty spirituality - or of romantic visions that after the first enthusiasms lead to groping in the dark, in dissatisfaction.

Original adherence to Christ is in the state of the Task, germinated in the bosom - not planned at the table nor prepared on the sidelines without the faces, the ways, and with only national or local history - or mannerisms.

In Christ we do not eagerly cling to ourselves, to the conforming environment, to ancient knowledge or to the most reassuring fashion. We are prepared for an itinerary of continuous beginnings, as if on the trail of guide-images (changing, but knowing where to go).

We will encounter the Action of God that saves... precisely in the unexpected territories that transcend the sanctuary of habits. And in the ways that gloss over our old intentions - though in themselves confessional, plausible, or even noble.

The Law chock-full of chiselled verdicts is outdated (v.47). Christ did not come to accuse us of inadequacy and punish us: on the contrary, to make us invent ways - and unheard-of torches.

Criterion of 'judgement' is the Word and his Person, transparency of the Father - absolute, genuine and free coincidence. He as the Eternal One comes for surpassing Life; and new Light.

Not to regard him as a seal of exception, a step and rhythm to be reinterpreted, and not to give him space as an intrinsic trait, motive and motor, is to dissipate in vain the best energies - which make us wander, yes, but to lead to fullness.

 

The world is not all there is: there is a clarity (v.46) that makes one feel at home and can dispel all disturbance, closure and darkness.

This is the great 'conversion', the mindset to be renewed, enjoying the Call to the full.

Life in Christ is not - as in various archaic religious forms - restricted against oneself and the world.

It is to assert the Action of the Father (vv.43-44.49-50) who has disposed that even eccentricities, hardships, discomforts may convey to us the idea, the taste, of a different fulfilment; open spaces of unexpressed growth.

The Inner Friend mysteriously leads to the crumbling of the proud self that rushes to adjust according to conventional and other people's opinions - so that we allow ourselves to radiate.

It is this eminent and intense Self of uniqueness that will make us grasp the astonishing (impossible) fruitfulness of victory in defeat, of triumph through loss, of life amidst signs of death.

By thinning out the Call of Darkness, we risk pushing away the new Light, a further genesis of ourselves, an evolution different from the usual expectations - which would really comfort and fulfil us.

By removing the perception of wounds we risk annihilating the healing and rebirth process of the soul.

This is the new decisive Conversion: the true emptying out of one's own plans, ideas and tastes, in order to be inspired by the unthinkable divine Work within us - which does not want to weaken the self but strengthen it with other capacities.

The fullness of extraordinary Light is in Christ a simple (but inverted) self-denial: granting space and time to that Totality that does not take over the Person.

As in Jesus, then it will allow for authenticity and much more than minimal wavering lights, products of a small brain (which does not evolve).

Struggling with symptoms would end up chronicising them - with the drug of ancient or immediately at hand remedies.

It would make us become external and extinguish the inner Genesis, which tinkles with the Coming Work.

In Christ we know the secret of welcoming conversion: the kingdom we do not see can take care of us and the world (vv.47-48).

It is this reference to the Mystery (which calls) that congenital Seed that realises the evolution of the cosmos and of each one, because it possesses the Sense of springing authenticity - and it will bear its Fruit.In the Faith "spark, / which expands into flame then lively / and like a star in heaven in me sparkles" (Dante, Paradise c.XXIV).

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

What light did you anticipate cured you and vice versa chronicled your situation? What external crutch has addicted you and made you lame?

Spiritual meaning of Christmas

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

On this very day, the days of Advent that directly prepare us for the Nativity of the Lord begin: we are in the Christmas Novena which in many Christian communities is celebrated with liturgies rich in biblical texts, all oriented to fostering the expectation of the Saviour's Birth. Indeed, the whole Church focuses her gaze of faith on this Feast that is now at hand, preparing herself, as she does every year, to join in the joyful singing of the Angels who will announce to the shepherds in the heart of the night the extraordinary event of the Birth of the Redeemer, inviting them to go to the Grotto in Bethlehem. It is there that the Emmanuel lies, the Creator who made himself a creature, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a poor manger (cf. Lk 2: 13-16). 

Because of the atmosphere that distinguishes it, Christmas is a universal celebration. In fact, even those who do not profess themselves to be believers can perceive in this annual Christian event something extraordinary and transcendent, something intimate that speaks to the heart. It is a Feast that praises the gift of life. The birth of a child must always be an event that brings joy; the embrace of a newborn baby usually inspires feelings of kindness and care, of emotion and tenderness. Christmas is the encounter with a newborn baby lying in a humble grotto. In contemplating him in the manger, how can we fail to think of all those children who continue to be born today in great poverty in many regions of the world? How can we fail to think of those newborn infants who are not welcomed, who are rejected, who do not manage to survive because of the lack of care and attention? How can we fail to think also of the families who long for the joy of a child and do not see their hope fulfilled? Unfortunately, under the influence of hedonist consumerism Christmas risks losing its spiritual meaning and being reduced to a mere commercial opportunity for purchases and the exchange of gifts! However, it is true that the difficulties, the uncertainties and the financial crisis itself that numerous families have had to come to terms with in recent months and which is affecting all humanity could be an incentive to rediscover the warmth of simplicity, friendship and solidarity: typical values of Christmas. Stripped of its consumerist and materialistic encrustations, Christmas can thus become an opportunity for welcoming, as a personal gift, the message of hope that emanates from the mystery of Christ's Birth. 

However, none of this enables us to fully grasp the ineffable value of the Feast for which we are preparing. We know that it celebrates the central event of history: the Incarnation of the divine Word for the redemption of humanity. In one of his many Christmas Homilies, St Leo the Great exclaims: "Let us be glad in the Lord, dearly-beloved, and rejoice with spiritual joy that there has dawned for us the day of ever-new redemption, of ancient preparation, of eternal bliss. For as the year rolls round, there recurs for us the commemoration of our salvation, which promised from the beginning, accomplished in the fullness of time will endure for ever" (Homily XXII). St Paul returns several times in his Letters to this fundamental truth. For example, he writes to the Galatians: "When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law... so that we might receive adoption as sons" (4: 4). In the Letter to the Romans he highlights the logic and the demanding consequences of this salvific event: "If we are children of God... then [we are] heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him" (8: 17). However, in the Prologue to the fourth Gospel, it is above all St John who meditates profoundly on the mystery of the Incarnation. And it is for this reason that the Prologue has been part of the Christmas liturgy since the very earliest times. Indeed, in it are found the most authentic expression and the most profound synthesis of this Feast and of the basis of its joy. St John writes: "Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis / and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1: 14). 

At Christmas, therefore, we do not limit ourselves to commemorating the birth of a great figure: we do not simply and abstractly celebrate the birth of the man or in general the mystery of life; even less do we celebrate only the beginning of the new season. At Christmas we commemorate something very tangible and important for mankind, something essential for the Christian faith, a truth that St John sums up in these few words: "The Word became flesh". This was a historical event that the Evangelist Luke was concerned to situate in a well-defined context: in the days when the decree was issued for the first census of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was Governor of Syria (cf. Lk 2: 1-7). Therefore, it was on a historically dated night that the event of salvation occurred for which Israel had been waiting for centuries. In the darkness of the night of Bethlehem a great light really was lit: the Creator of the universe became flesh, uniting himself indissolubly with human nature so as truly to be "God from God, Light from Light" yet at the same time a man, true man. What John calls in Greek "ho logos" translated into Latin as "Verbum" and Italian as "il Verbo" also means "the Meaning". Thus we can understand John's words as: the "eternal Meaning" of the world made himself tangible to our senses and our minds: we may now touch him and contemplate him (cf. 1 Jn 1: 1). The "Meaning" that became flesh is not merely a general idea inherent in the world; it is a "Word" addressed to us. The Logos knows us, calls us, guides us. The Word is not a universal law within which we play some role, but rather a Person who is concerned with every individual person: he is the Son of the living God who became man in Bethlehem. 

To many people, and in a certain way to all of us, this seems too beautiful to be true. In fact, here it is reaffirmed to us: yes, a meaning exists, and the meaning is not a powerless protest against the absurd. The meaning has power: it is God. A good God who must not be confused with any sublime and remote being, whom it would never be possible to reach, but a God who made himself our neighbour and who is very close to us, who has time for each one of us and who came to stay with us. It then comes naturally to ask ourselves: "However could such a thing be possible? Is it dignified for God to make himself a child?". If we are to seek to open our hearts to this truth that illuminates the whole of human existence we must bend our minds and recognize the limitations of our intelligence. In the Grotto of Bethlehem God shows himself to us as a humble "infant" to defeat our arrogance. Perhaps we would have submitted more easily to power and wisdom, but he does not want us to submit; rather, he appeals to our hearts and to our free decision to accept his love. He made himself tiny to set us free from that human claim to grandeur that results from pride. He became flesh freely in order to set us truly free, free to love him. 

Dear brothers and sisters, Christmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence. The approach of this Solemnity helps us on the one hand to reflect on the drama of history in which people, injured by sin, are perennially in search of happiness and of a fulfilling sense of life and death; and on the other, it urges us to meditate on the merciful kindness of God who came to man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and to enable him to partake in his friendship and his life. Therefore let us prepare ourselves for Christmas with humility and simplicity, making ourselves ready to receive as a gift the light, joy and peace that shine from this mystery. Let us welcome the Nativity of Christ as an event that can renew our lives today. The encounter with the Child Jesus makes us people who do not think only of themselves but open themselves to the expectations and needs of their brothers and sisters. In this way we too will become witnesses of the radiance of Christmas that shines on the humanity of the third millennium. Let us ask Mary Most Holy, Tabernacle of the Incarnate Word, and St Joseph, the silent witness of the events of salvation, to communicate to us what they felt while they were waiting for the Birth of Jesus, so that we may prepare ourselves to celebrate with holiness the approaching Christmas, in the joy of faith and inspired by the commitment to sincere conversion. 

Happy Christmas to you all!

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 17 December 2008]

1. In the previous catechesis we showed, on the basis of the synoptic Gospels, how faith in the divine sonship of Christ is being formed by revelation of the Father in the consciousness of his disciples and listeners, and first of all in the consciousness of the apostles. To create the conviction that Jesus is the Son of God in the strict and full (not metaphorical) sense of this word, contributes above all the testimony of the Father himself, who "reveals" in Christ his Son ("my Son") through the theophanies that took place at the baptism in the Jordan and then during the transfiguration on the mountain. We have also seen how the revelation of the truth about the divine sonship of Jesus reaches through the work of the Father the minds and hearts of the apostles, as appears in the words of Jesus to Peter: "Neither flesh nor blood has revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17).

2. In the light of this faith in the divine sonship of Christ, a faith that gained much greater strength after the resurrection, one must read the entire Gospel of John, and particularly its Prologue (Jn 1:1-18). It is a singular synthesis expressing the faith of the apostolic Church: of that first generation of disciples, to whom it was given to have contact with Christ, either directly or through the apostles who spoke of what they had personally heard and seen and in whom they discovered the fulfilment of all that the Old Testament had foretold about him. What had already been revealed previously, but in a certain sense was covered with a veil, now, in the light of the facts of Jesus, and especially on the basis of the Easter events, gained transparency, became clear and comprehensible.

In this way, the Gospel of John (which among the four Gospels was written last) constitutes in a sense the most complete account of Christ as the Son of God - Son 'consubstantial' with the Father. The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus to the apostles, who was to "teach them all things" (cf. Jn 14:26), truly enables the evangelist "to fathom the depths of God" (cf. 1 Cor 2:10) and express them in the inspired text of the Prologue.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made of all that exists" (Jn 1:1-3). "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14) . . . "He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not recognise him. He came among his people, but his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:10-11). "To those, however, who did receive him, he gave power to become children of God: to those who believe in his name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12-13). "God no one has ever seen: it is the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who has revealed him" (Jn 1:18).

4. John's Prologue is certainly the key text, in which the truth about Christ's divine sonship finds its full expression. He who in time "became flesh", that is, man, is from eternity the Word Himself, that is, the only-begotten Son: the God "who is in the bosom of the Father". He is the Son "of the same substance as the Father", he is "God from God". From the Father he receives the fullness of glory. He is the Word "through whom all things were made". And therefore everything that exists owes to him that "beginning" of which the Book of Genesis (cf. Gen 1:1) speaks, the beginning of the work of creation. The same eternal Son, when he comes into the world as the "Word who became flesh" brings with him to humanity the fullness "of grace and truth". He brings the fullness of truth because he instructs about the true God whom "no one has ever seen". And he brings the fullness of grace because to all who receive him, he gives the strength to be born again of God: to become children of God. Unfortunately, the evangelist notes, "the world did not recognise him" and although "he came among his people", many "did not receive him".

5. The truth contained in the Johannine Prologue is the same truth we find in other books of the New Testament. Thus for example we read in the Epistle "to the Hebrews" that God "in these days has spoken to us through his Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he also made the world. This Son, who is the radiance of his glory and the stamp of his substance, and who upholds all things by the power of his word, after he has cleansed us from sins, is seated at the right hand of the majesty in the highest heaven" (Heb 1:2-3).

6. The Prologue of the Gospel of John (like the Epistle to the Hebrews), therefore expresses in the form of biblical allusions, the fulfilment in Christ of all that was said in the old covenant, beginning with the Book of Genesis through the law of Moses (cf. Jn 1:17) and the prophets to the books of wisdom. The expression "the Word" (who "in the beginning was with God") corresponds to the Hebrew word "dabar". Although the term 'logos' is found in Greek, the matrix is first and foremost Old Testament. From the Old Testament it simultaneously borrows two dimensions: that of "hochma" (wisdom), understood as God's "plan" regarding creation, and that of "dabar" (logos), understood as the realisation of that plan. The coincidence with the word 'logos', taken from Greek philosophy, facilitated the approach of these truths to minds formed by that philosophy.

7. Remaining now within the sphere of the Old Testament, precisely in Isaiah we read: the "word that came forth from my mouth shall not return to me without effect, without having done what I desire and without having accomplished that for which I sent it" (Is 55:11). Hence it appears that the biblical "dabar-word" is not only "word" but also "fulfilment" (deed). It can be said that already in the books of the old covenant there appears some personification of the "Word" (dabar, logos), as well as of "Wisdom" (sofia).

Indeed, we read in the Book of Wisdom:

(Wisdom) "is initiated into the knowledge of God and chooses his works" (Wis 8:4), and elsewhere: "With you is Wisdom, who knows your works, who was present when you created the world; she knows what is pleasing to your eyes and what is conformable . . . Send her from the holy heavens, from your glorious throne, that she may assist me and be with me in my labour, and that I may know what is pleasing to you" (Wis 9:9-10).

8. We are thus very close to the first words of John's Prologue. Even closer are those verses from the Book of Wisdom that say: "While a profound silence enveloped all things, and the night was in the middle of its course, your almighty word from heaven, from your royal throne . . . came into the midst of that land of extermination, bearing as a sharp sword your inexorable command" (Wis 18:14-15). However, this "word" alluded to in the wisdom books, that wisdom which from the beginning is with God, is considered in relation to the created world that it orders and directs (cf. Prov 8:22-27). "The Word" in John's Gospel, on the other hand, is not only "in the beginning", but is revealed as being all addressed to God (pros ton Theon) and being himself God! "The Word was God". He is the 'only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father'-that is, God-the-Son. He is in person the pure expression of God, the "radiation of his glory" (cf. Heb 1:3), "consubstantial with the Father".

9. It is precisely this Son - the Word who became flesh - to whom John bears witness at the Jordan. Of John the Baptist we read in the Prologue: "There came a man sent from God, and his name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness to the light . . ." (Jn 1:6-7). That light is precisely Christ - as the Word. We read again in the Prologue: "In him was life, and the life was the light of men" (Jn 1:4). This is "the true light, the light that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9). The light that "shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not receive it" (Jn 1:5).

Therefore, according to the Prologue of John's Gospel, Jesus Christ is God, because He is the only-begotten Son of God the Father. The Word. He comes into the world as the source of life and holiness. Truly here we are at the central and decisive point of our profession of faith: 'The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us'.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 3 June 1987]