Foreword by Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City The Word...is solid, it is the true reality on which one must base ones life. Let us remember the words of Jesus: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Humanly speaking, the word, my human word, is almost nothing in reality, a breath. As soon as it is pronounced it disappears. It seems to be nothing. But already the human word has incredible power. Words create history, words form thoughts, the thoughts that create the word. It is the word that forms history, reality. ...The Word of God is the foundation of everything, it is the true reality. And to be realistic, we must rely upon this reality. We must change our idea that matter, solid things, things we can touch, are the more solid, the more certain reality. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount the Lord speaks to us about the two possible foundations for building the house of ones life: sand and rock. The one who builds on sand builds only on visible and tangible things, on success, on career, on money. Apparently these are the true realities. But all this one day will pass away. We can see this now with the fall of large banks: this money disappears, it is nothing. And thus all things, which seem to be the true realities we can count on, are only realities of a secondary order. The one who builds his life on these realities, on matter, on success, on appearances, builds upon sand. Only the Word of God is the foundation of all reality, it is as stable as the heavens and more than the heavens, it is reality. All things come from the Word, they are products of the Word. In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning the heavens spoke. And thus reality was born of the Word, it is creatura Verbi. All is created from the Word and all is called to serve the Word. This means that all of creation, in the end, is conceived of to create the place of encounter between God and his creature, a place where the history of love between God and his creature can develop....In serving the Lord we achieve the purpose of being, the purpose of our own existence... We are always searching for the Word of God. It is not merely present in us. Just reading it does not mean necessarily that we have truly understood the Word of God. The danger is that we only see the human words and do not find the true actor within, the Holy Spirit...the Holy Spirit that speaks to us today in the words from the past. We must always look for the Word within the words. Therefore, exegesis, the true reading of Holy Scripture, is not only a literary phenomenon, not only reading a text. It is a movement of my existence. Only by conforming ourselves to the Mystery of God, to the Lord who is the Word, can we enter within the Word, can we truly find the Word of God in human words. Let us pray to the Lord that he may help us search the word, not only with our intellect but also with our entire existence. Special thanks to LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA for their permission to publish His Holiness Pope Benedict XVIs
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 16:28:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015