DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Sunday, September 14, 2014 23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Psalter 1 (Red) Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Readings: Num 21:4b-9; Ps 78:1-38; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 3:13-17 Response: Do not forget the Works of the Lord Rosary: Joyful Mysteries Verse Highlight: He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS This feast was observed in Rome before the end of the seventh century. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross, which had been placed on Mt. Calvary by St. Helena and preserved in Jerusalem, but then had fallen into the hands of Chosroas, King of the Persians. The precious relic was recovered and returned to Jerusalem by Emperor Heralius in 629. The lessons from the Breviary tell us that Emperor Heraclius carried the Cross back to Jerusalem on his shoulders. He was clothed with costly garments and with ornaments of precious stones. But at the entrance to Mt. Calvary a strange incident occurred. Try as hard as he would, he could not go forward. Zacharias, the Bishop of Jerusalem, then said to the astonished monarch: Consider, O Emperor, that with these triumphal ornaments you are far from resembling Jesus carrying His Cross. The Emperor then put on a penitential garb and continued the journey. This day is also called the Exaltation of the Cross, Elevation of the Cross, Holy Cross Day, Holy Rood Day, or Roodmas. The liturgy of the Cross is a triumphant liturgy. When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent over the people, it was a foreshadowing of the salvation through Jesus when He was lifted up on the Cross. Our Mother Church sings of the triumph of the Cross, the instrument of our redemption. To follow Christ we must take up His cross, follow Him and become obedient until death, even if it means death on the cross. We identify with Christ on the Cross and become co-redeemers, sharing in His cross.We make the Sign of the Cross before prayer which helps to fix our minds and hearts to God. After prayer we make the Sign of the Cross to keep close to God. During trials and temptations our strength and protection is the Sign of the Cross. At Baptism we are sealed with the Sign of the Cross, signifying the fullness of redemption and that we belong to Christ. Let us look to the cross frequently, and realize that when we make the Sign of the Cross we give our entire self to God — mind, soul, heart, body, will, thoughts. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Notburga Patron servants and peasants Birth: 1265 - Death: 1313 Patroness of poor peasants and servants in the Tyrol. Born in Rattenberg, in the Tyrol, she was the daughter of peasants. At eighteen she became a servant in the household of Count Henry of Rattenberg When Notburga repeatedly gave food to the poor, she was dismissed by Count Henry?s wife, Ottilia, and took up a position as a servant to a humble farmer. Meanwhile, Henry suffering a run of misfortune and setbacks, wasted no time restoring Notburga to her post after his wife died. Notburga remained his housekeeper for the rest of her life, and was famous for her miracles and concern for the poor. READINGS FROM THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE: READING 1, Numbers 21:4-9 4 They left Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Suph, to skirt round Edom. On the way the people lost patience. 5 They spoke against God and against Moses, Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is neither food nor water here; we are sick of this meagre diet. 6 At this, God sent fiery serpents among the people; their bite brought death to many in Israel. 7 The people came and said to Moses, We have sinned by speaking against Yahweh and against you. Intercede for us with Yahweh to save us from these serpents. Moses interceded for the people, 8 and Yahweh replied, Make a fiery serpent and raise it as a standard. Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will survive. 9 Moses then made a serpent out of bronze and raised it as a standard, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent and looked at the bronze serpent survived. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 78:1-2, 34-35, 36-37, 38 1 [Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say. 2 I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past. 34 Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him, 35 recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer. 36 They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him; 37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. 38 But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath, READING 2, Philippians 2:6-11 6 Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. 7 But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, 8 he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross. 9 And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names; 10 so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus 11 and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. GOSPEL, John 3:13-17 13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man; 14 as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up 15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. 16 For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Oh Father who wanted to save man by the Cross of Christ, your Son, grant to us who have known on earth his mystery of love, to enjoy in Heaven the fruits of his redemption. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. ON READING 1: Numbers 21:4-9 (The Bronze Serpent) The people continue to complain against Moses, this time because they have to go right around Edom. But their protest is also directed against God. When they are punished, Moses once again intercedes on their behalf. The events covered in this account may have taken place in the region of Araba, where copper mines existed from the 13th century BC onwards. In the town now called Timna, an Egyptian shrine has been unearthed which contained a copper =serpent, indicating that some sort of magical power was attributed to these serpents. This passage in Numbers is interpreted in Wisdom 16:5-12, where the point is emphasized that it was not the bronze serpent that cured them but the mercy of God; the serpent was a sign of the salvation which God offers all men. The bronze serpent is mentioned later, in the Gospel, as typifying Christ raised up on the cross, the cause of salvation for those who look at him with faith: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life (Jn 3:14-15) When Christ is raised above all human things, he draws them towards himself; so his glorification is the means whereby all mankind obtain healing for evermore. ON READING 2: Philippians 2:6-11 (Hymn in Praise of Christs Self-Emptying) The Apostles recommendation, Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when He was offering Himself in sacrifice -- sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the divine majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were; cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. It requires us all, in a word, to die mystically with Christ on the Cross, so that we may say with the same Apostle: I have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:19) Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 22). In what he says about Jesus Christ, the Apostle is not simply proposing Him as a model for us to follow. Possibly transcribing an early liturgical hymn (and) adding some touches of his own, he is -- under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- giving a very profound exposition of the nature of Christ and using the most sublime truths of faith to show the way Christian virtues should be practiced. This is one of the earliest New Testament texts to reveal the divinity of Christ. The epistle was written around the year 62 (or perhaps before that, around 55) and if we remember that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 may well have been in use prior to that date, the passage clearly bears witness to the fact that Christians were proclaiming, even in those very early years, that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, crucified, died and buried, and risen from the dead, was truly both God and man. The hymn can be divided into three parts. The first (verses 6 and the beginning of 7) refers to Christs humbling Himself by becoming man. The second (the end of verse 7 and verse 8 ) is the center of the whole passage and proclaims the extreme to which His humility brought Him: as man He obediently accepted death on the cross. The third part (verses 9-11) describes His exaltation in glory. Throughout St. Paul is conscious of Jesus divinity: He exists from all eternity. But he centers his attention on His death on the cross as the supreme example of humility. Christs humiliation lay not in His becoming a man like us and cloaking the glory of His divinity in His sacred humanity: it also brought Him to lead a life of sacrifice and suffering which reached its climax on the cross, where He was stripped of everything He had, like a slave. However, now that He has fulfilled His mission, He is made manifest again, clothed in all the glory that befits His divine nature and which His human nature has merited. The man-God, Jesus Christ, makes the cross the climax of His earthly life; through it He enters into His glory as Lord and Messiah. The Crucifixion puts the whole universe on the way to salvation. Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful example of humility and obedience. We should learn from Jesus attitude in these trials, St. J. Escriva reminds us. During His life on earth He did not even want the glory that belonged to Him. Though He had the right to be treated as God, He took the form of a servant, a slave (cf. Philippians 2:6-7). And so the Christian knows that all glory is due God and that he must not use the sublimity and greatness of the Gospel to further his own interests or human ambitions. We should learn from Jesus. His attitude in rejecting all human glory is in perfect balance with the greatness of His unique mission as the beloved Son of God who becomes incarnate to save men (Christ Is Passing By, 62). Though He was in the form of God or subsisting in the form of God: form is the external aspect of something and manifests what it is. When referring to God, who is invisible, His form cannot refer to things visible to the senses; the form of God is a way of referring to Godhead. The first thing that St. Paul makes clear is that Jesus Christ is God, and was God before the Incarnation. As the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed professes it, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before time began, light from light, true God from true God. He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped: the Greek word translated as equality does not directly refer to equality of nature but rather the equality of rights and status. Christ was God and He could not stop being God; therefore, He had a right to be treated as God and to appear in all His glory. However, He did not insist on this dignity of His as if it were a treasure which He possessed and which was legally His: it was not something He clung to and boasted about. And so He took the form of a servant. He could have become man without setting His glory aside -- He could have appeared as He did, momentarily, as the Transfiguration (cf. Matthew 17:1ff); instead He chose to be like men, in all things but sin (cf. verse 7). By becoming man in the way He did, He was able, as Isaiah prophesied in the Song of the Servant of Yahweh, to bear our sorrows and to be stricken (cf. Isaiah 53:4). He emptied Himself, He despoiled Himself: this is literally what the Greek verb means. But Christ did not shed His divine nature; He simply shed its glory, its aura; if He had not done so it would have shone out through His human nature. From all eternity He exists as God and from the moment of the Incarnation He began to be man. His self-emptying lay not only in the fact that the Godhead united to Himself (that is, to the person of the Son) something which was corporeal and finite (a human nature), but also in the fact that this nature did not itself manifest the divine glory, as it ought to have done. Christ could not cease to be God, but He could temporarily renounce the exercise of rights that belonged to Him as God -- which was what He did. Verses 6-8 bring the Christians mind the contrast between Jesus and Adam. The devil tempted Adam, a mere man, to be like God (Genesis 3:5). By trying to indulge this evil desire (pride is a disordered desire for self-advancement) and by committing the sin of disobeying God (cf. Genesis 3:6), Adam drew down the gravest misfortunes upon himself and on his whole line (present potentially in him): this is symbolized in the Genesis passage by his expulsion from Paradise and by the physical worlds rebellion against his lordship (cf. Genesis 3:16-24). Jesus Christ, on the contrary, who enjoyed divine glory from all eternity, emptied Himself: He chooses the way of humility, the opposite way to Adams (opposite, too, to the way previously taken by the devil). Christs obedience thereby makes up for the disobedience of the first man; it puts mankind in a position to more than recover the natural and supernatural gifts with which God endowed human nature at the Creation. And so, after focusing on the amazing mystery of Christs humiliation or self-emptying (kenosis in Greek), this hymn goes on joyously to celebrate Christs exaltation after death. Christs attitude in becoming man is, then, a wonderful example of humility. What is more humble, St. Gregory of Nyssa asks, than the King of all creation entering into communion with our poor nature? The King of kings and Lord of lords clothes Himself with the form of our enslavement; the Judge of the universe comes to pay tribute to the princes of this world; the Lord of creation is born in a cave; He who encompasses the world cannot find room in the inn...; the pure and incorrupt one puts on the filthiness of our nature and experiences all our needs, experiences even death itself (Oratio I In Beatitudinibus). This self-emptying is an example of Gods infinite goodness in taking the initiative to meet man: Fill yourselves with wonder and gratitude at such a mystery and learn from it. All the power, all the majesty, all the beauty, all the infinite harmony of God, all His great and immeasurable riches. God whole and entire was hidden for our benefit in the humanity of Christ. The Almighty appears determined to eclipse His glory for a time, so as to make it easy for His creatures to approach their Redeemer. (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 111). Jesus Christ became man for us men and for our salvation, we profess in the Creed. Everything He did in the course of His life had a salvific value; His death on the cross represents the climax of His redemptive work for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, He did not experience death due to the fact of being born; rather, He took birth upon Himself in order to die (Oratio Catechetica Magna, 32). Our Lords obedience to the Fathers saving plan, involving as it did death on the cross, gives us the best of all lessons in humility. For, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, obedience is the sign of true humility (Commentary on Phil., ad loc.). In St. Pauls time death by crucifixion was the most demeaning form of death, for it was inflicted only on criminals. By becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross, Jesus was being humble in the extreme. He was perfectly within His rights to manifest Himself in all His divine glory, but He chose instead the route leading to the most ignominious of deaths. His obedience, moreover, was not simply a matter of submitting to the Fathers will, for, as St. Paul points out, He made Himself obedient: His obedience was active; He made the Fathers salvific plans His own. He chose voluntarily to give Himself up to crucifixion in order to redeem mankind. Debasing oneself when one is forced to do so is not humility, St. John Chrysostom explains; humility is present when one debases oneself without being obliged to do so (Hom. on Phil., ad loc.). Christs self-abasement and his obedience unto death reveals His love for us, for greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). His loving initiative merits a loving response on our part: we should show that we desire to be one with Him, for love seeks union, identification with the beloved. United to Christ, we will be drawn to imitate His life of dedication, His unlimited love and His sacrifice unto death. Christ brings us face to face with the ultimate choice: either we spend our life in selfish isolation, or we devote ourselves and all our energies to the service of others (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 236). God highly exalted Him: the Greek compounds the notion of exaltation, to indicate the immensity of His glorification. Our Lord Himself foretold this when He said, He who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11). Christs sacred humanity was glorified as a reward for His humiliation. The Churchs Magisterium teaches that Christs glorification affects his human nature only, for in the form of God the Son was equal to the Father, and between the Begetter and the Only-begotten there was no difference in essence, no difference in majesty; nor did the Word, through the mystery of incarnation, lose anything which the Father might later return to Him as a gift St. Leo the Great, Promi- sisse Me Memini, Chapter 8). Exaltation is public manifestation of the glory which belongs to Christs humanity by virtue of its being joined to the divine person of the Word. This union to the form of a servant (cf. verse 7) meant an immense act of humility on the part of the Son, but it led to the exaltation of the human nature He took on. For the Jews the name that is above every name is the name of God (Yahweh), which the Mosaic Law required to be held in particular awe. Also, they regarded a name given to someone, especially if given by God, as not just a way of referring to a person but as expressing something that belonged to the very core of his personality. Therefore, the statement that God bestowed on Him the name which is above every name means that God the Father gave Christs human nature the capacity to manifest the glory of divinity which was His by virtue of the hypostatic union: therefore, it is to be worshipped by the entire universe. St. Paul describes the glorification of Jesus Christ in terms similar to those used by the prophet Daniel of the Son of Man: To Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve His Kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14). Christs lordship extends to all created things. Sacred Scripture usually speaks of heaven and earth when referring to the entire created universe; by mentioning here the underworld it is emphasizing that nothing escapes His dominion. Jesus Christ can here be seen as the fulfillment of Isaiahs prophecy about the universal sovereignty of Yahweh: To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear (Isaiah 45:23). All created things come under His sway, and men are duty-bound to accept the basic truth of Chris- tian teaching: Jesus Christ is Lord. The Greek word Kyrios used here by St. Paul is the word used by the Septuagint, the early Greek version of the Old Testament, to translate the name of God (Yahweh). Therefore, this sentence means Jesus Christ is God. The Christ proclaimed here as having been raised on high is the man-God who was born and died for our sake, attaining the glory of His exaltation after undergoing the humiliation of the cross. In this also Christ sets us an example: we cannot attain the glory of Heaven unless we understand the supernatural value of difficulties, ill-health and suffering: these are manifestations of Christs cross present in our ordinary life. We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this way, even unto death on a cross (Philippians 2:18); that is why God exalted Him. If we obey Gods will, the cross will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christs life will be fulfilled step by step in our own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no matter how many (St. J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 21). ON THE GOSPEL: John 3:13-17 Z(The Visit of Nicodemus - Continuation) The text proposed to us by the Liturgy has been taken from the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It should not surprise us that the passage chosen for this celebration forms part of the fourth Gospel, because, it is precisely this Gospel which presents the mystery of the cross of the Lord, as the exaltation. This is clear from the beginning of the Gospel: “as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up” (Jn 3, 14; Dn 7, 13). John explains the mystery of the Incarnate Word in the paradoxical movement of the descent-ascent (Jn 1, 14.18 ; 3, 13). In fact, it is this mystery which offers the key for the reading in order to understand the evolution of the identity and of the mission of the passus et gloriosus of Jesus Christ, and that we may well say that this is not only valid for the text of John. The Letter to the Ephesians, for example, uses this paradoxical movement to explain the mystery of Christ: “Now, when it says, ‘he went up’, it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth” (Ef 4, 9). Jesus is the Son of God who becoming Son of man (Jn 3,13) makes known to us the mysteries of God (Jn 1, 18 ). He alone can do this, in so far as he alone has seen the Father (Jn 6, 46). We can say that the mystery of the Word who descends from Heaven responds to the yearning of the prophets: who will go up to heaven to reveal this mystery to us? (cf. Dt 30, 12; Pr 30, 4). The fourth Gospel is over fool of references to the mystery of he who “is from Heaven” (1 Co 15, 47). The following are some quotations or references: Jn 6, 33. 38 .51. 62; 8, 42; 16, 28-30; 17, 5. The exaltation of Jesus is precisely in his descent to come to us, up to death, and the death on the Cross, on which he was lifted up like the serpent in the desert, which, “anybody… who looked at it would survive” (Nm 21,7-9; Zc 12,10). John reminds us in the scene of the death of Jesus of Christ being lifted up: “They will look to the one whom they have pierced” (Jn 19, 37). In the context of the fourth Gospel, to turn and look means, “to know”, “to understand”, “to see”. Frequently, in John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about his being lifted up: “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He” (Jn 8,28); “when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all peoples to myself. By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die” (Jn 12, 32-33). In the Synoptics also Jesus announces to his disciples the mystery of his condemnation to death on the cross (see Mt 20, 27-29; Mk 10, 32-34; Lk 18 , 31-33). In fact, Christ had “to suffer all that to enter into his glory” (Lk 24, 26). This mystery reveals the great love which God has for us. He is the Son given to us, “so that anyone who believes in him will not be lost, but will have eternal life”, this Son whom we have rejected and crucified. But precisely in this rejection on our part, God has manifested himself to us his fidelity and his love which does not stop before the hardness of our heart. And even in spite of our rejection and our contempt he gives us salvation (cf. Acts 4, 27-28), remaining firm in fulfilling his plan of mercy: God, in fact, has not sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him”. John 3:13, This is a formal declaration of the divinity of Jesus. No one has gone up into Heaven and, therefore, no one can have perfect knowledge of Gods secrets, except God Himself who became man and came down from Heaven -- Jesus, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of Man foretold in the Old Testament (cf. Daniel 7:13), to whom has been given eternal lordship over all peoples. The Word does not stop being God on becoming man: even when He is on earth as man, He is in Heaven as God. It is only after the Resurrection and the Ascension that Christ is in Heaven as man also. John 3:14-15, The bronze serpent which Moses set up on a pole was established by God to cure those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents in the desert (cf. Numbers 21:8-9). Jesus compares this with His crucifixion, to show the value of His being raised up on the cross: those who look on Him with faith can obtain salvation. We could say that the good thief was the first to experience the saving power of Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Israel, the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise that very day (cf. Luke 23:39-43). The Son of God took on our human nature to make known the hidden mystery of Gods own life (cf. Mark 4:11; John 1:18; 3:1-13; Ephesians 3:9) and to free from sin and death those who look at Him with faith and love and who accept the cross of every day. The faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance of the truths He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God (cf. 1 John 5:1), sharing His very life (cf. John 1:12) and surrendering ourselves out of love and therefore becoming like Him (cf. John 10:27; 1 John 3:2). But this faith is a gift of God (cf. John 3:3, 5-8 ), and we should ask Him to strengthen it and increase it as the Apostles did: Lord increase our faith! (Luke 17:5). While faith is a supernatural, free gift, it is also a virtue, a good habit, which a person can practice and thereby develop: so the Christian, who already has the divine gift of faith, needs with the help of grace to make explicit acts of faith in order to make this virtue grow. John 3:16-21, These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christs death is the supreme sign of Gods love for men (cf. the section on charity in the Introduction to the Gospel according to St. John: pp. 31ff above). For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of Gods kindness, mercy and love for us. God is love (1 John 4:16), that is, love poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth, which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be seen in this light. (He) loved me, St. Paul writes. Each of us can and must repeat it for himself -- He loved me, and gave Himself for me Galatians 2:20) (Paul VI, Homily on Corpus Christi, 13 June 1976). Christs self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love for us: If it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed us, that He loves us so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son for us (John 3:16), that He waits for us -- every day! -- as eagerly as the father of the prodigal son did (cf. Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt that He wants us to respond to Him with all love? The strange thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget Him, and busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant promptings of His grace (St. J. Escriva, Friends of God, 251). Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encoun-ter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This is why Christ the Redeemer fully reveals man to himself. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. The one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must appropriate and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he gained so great a Redeemer, (Roman Missal, Exultet at Easter Vigil), and if God gave His only Son in order that man should not perish but have eternal life. Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christs mystery, the Church knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection (Bl. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, 10). Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to sharing in His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light, and sets us on the road to salvation. He who does not believe is condemned already (verse 18 ). The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life and death. For it is only by putting to death that which is old that we can come to newness of life. Now, although this refers primarily to people, it is also true of various worldly goods which bear the mark both of mans sin and the blessing of God. No one is freed from sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above himself or completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has acted as a leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it always offers itself as a leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and peace (Vatican II, Ad Gentes, 8 ). FINAL PRAYERS: Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2,11) O God, Who didst will to hallow the standard of the life-giving Cross by the Precious Blood of Thine only-begotten Son; grant, we beseech Thee, that they who rejoice in honoring the same holy Cross, may rejoice also in Thine ever-present protection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. It is by God’s mercy that we are saved. May we never tire of spreading this joyful message to the world. -- Pope Francis Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 21:15:46 +0000
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