Thank you, William.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: WILLIAM … To: Fr Donald ... Sent: Thu, 2 June, 2011 22:32:41Subject: Re: [Blog] Epilogue "Jesus of Nazareth II"
Dear Father Donald,
What a reading you present to us! I have been quite enthralled. For me, there are four 'gems':
One particularly personal passage in this Epilogue which brings out for me Pope Benedict's statement that the book represents his personal approach - Can we pray, therefore, for the coming of Jesus? Can we sincerely say: "Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!"? Yes, we can. And not only that: we must! We pray for anticipations of his world-changing presence. We pray to him in moments of personal tribulation: Come, Lord Jesus, and draw my life into the presence of your kindly power. We ask him to be close to those we love or for whom we are anxious.and he adds in the awareness of his calling: We ask him to be present and effective in his Church. [292]*edit
The images of revelation that he applies are quite out of the orbit of my Lectio... The cloud presents Jesus' departure.. as his entry into the mystery of God. It evokes an entirely different order of magnitude, a different dimension of being; [282] and later in the text Pope Benedict brings its meaning out for us...The words of the message, handed on by the witnesses, are the cloud that brings Christ into the world—here and now: [291 ]and so appealing is the image of the Lord on the mountain of the Father. Therefore he sees us. Therefore he can get into the boat of our life at any moment. [284]
Pope Benedict brings out the significance of the meaning of Jesus' words in a way far beyond my level of awareness... the Lord says the opposite: now [Mary Magdelene] cannot touch him or hold him... the old manner of human companionship and encounter is over. From now on we can touch Jesus only "with the Father". Now we can touch him only by ascending... In his communion with the Father, he is accessible and close to us in a new way. [285] Benedict XVII brings the meaning to us: if we enter fully into the essence of our Christian life, then we really do touch the risen Lord, then we really do become fully ourselves. Touching Christ and ascending belong together. And let us not forget that for John the place of Christ's "exaltation" is his Cross and that our own ever-necessary "ascension", our "going up on high" in order to touch him, has to be travelled in company with the crucified Jesus. [286]
Benedict XVII acknowlegdes the inherent tension in Christian expectation of the Lord's return... Are we to expect [Jesus], or do we prefer not to? [290] Benedict XVII shows us where to look....Marana tha(Lord, come!), or Maran atha (the Lord has come). This twofold reading brings out clearly the peculiar nature of the Christian expectation of Jesus' coming... Christians pray for Jesus' definitive coming, and at the same time they experience with joy and thankfulness that he has already anticipated this coming and has entered into our midst here and now. [289] And he concludes with words that raise my eyes to gaze upon our ascending Lord with new sense of expectation: Jesus' presence will be definitively fulfilled: the presence is not yet complete. It pushes beyond itself. It sets us in motion toward the definitive... [290] and he concludes with the key to our understanding - it is an eschatology of the present. [291]
Reading this masterpiece, the Ascension is no longer a remote 'event' on a hilltop so many years ago: it is happening before our eyes, it is happening to us.
Thank you Father.
… in Our Risen Lord,
William
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