Message for Lent 2010-Pope Benedict XVI

[Bookcat]

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091030_lent-2010_en.html

 

[simple_soul]

*Dear Bookcat,

Thank you so much for sharing. I will be reflecting on these thoughts of Pope Benedict exspecially this part:*

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: “But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3, 21-25). What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that “expiation” flows from the “blood” of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the “curse” due to man so as to give in return the “blessing” due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his “due”? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from “what is mine,” to give me gratuitously “what is His.” This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the “greatest” justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected. Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

*I believe what I bolded to be one of the most profound things God has ever graced me with understanding.

Thank you again for sharing,

 

[japhy]

“the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected” … one of the most profound things God has ever graced me with understanding.

The reminds me of a quote by Meister Eckhart: “How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid?”

 

[jburnetti]

If the Pope is encouraging us to contemplate justice for Lent, how about contemplating this. How come 50% of the flock (the women) are not eligible for the highest positions of responsibility in the Church? Is that just? How come married men aren’t either? Is that just? How come married men whose wives die are? Was it the women who were tainting them? What would Jesus say? Would Pope Teresa have had an even bigger impact than Mother Teresa? What if the Holy Spirit is female? What will she say when she looks you in the eye?

 

[Marie5890]

If the Pope is encouraging us to contemplate justice for Lent, how about contemplating this. How come 50% of the flock (the women) are not eligible for the highest positions of responsibility in the Church? Is that just? How come married men aren’t either? Is that just? How come married men whose wives die are? Was it the women who were tainting them? What would Jesus say? Would Pope Teresa have had an even bigger impact than Mother Teresa? What if the Holy Spirit is female? What will she say when she looks you in the eye?

Ummm, have you read the Bible??

 

[Bookcat]

Even the first and last lines are …a great description of what we are to do during Lent (and other times…)

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel.
**
May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice**

 

[jburnetti]

Um. Yes I’ve read the Bible. Where does it say no women allowed? Don’t you think Pope Teresa could have had a wider impact than Mother Teresa?

 

[Bookcat]

Um. Yes I’ve read the Bible. Where does it say no women allowed? Don’t you think Pope Teresa could have had a wider impact than Mother Teresa?

Yes it is sad that Men do not have the great gift of being able to carry a baby for nine months and give birth…

and that Men can not be consecrated virgins and symbolize the Church …

and that God gave women and not men the ability to feed their babies at the breast…

and that a man could not have been the Mother of God …and that Mary is more honored than Joseph…



God has an order in the world…he decided to give Mothers a certain role he did not give men…and vice a versa

Jesus decided to ordain men…not women…it was his call. (there are more reasons of course…I point you to the document by Pope John Paul II)

 

[Bookcat]

getting back on topic…

Even the first and last lines are …a great description of what we are to do during Lent (and other times…)

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel.

May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice

 

[jburnetti]

If Mary is more honored than Joseph, why does the Bible spend so much time on Joseph’s lineage? Shouldn’t they be tracing Mary’s family tree?

 

[japhy]

If Mary is more honored than Joseph, why does the Bible spend so much time on Joseph’s lineage? Shouldn’t they be tracing Mary’s family tree?

Because that’s how genealogies were done.

The Blessed Virgin is highly honored in Scripture and by the Church.