Cardinal von Balthasar (+ 1988) "Jesus refuses to interpret the metaphor of God's rest"

Tuesday Community Mass Intro; Fr. Aelred

Vatican’s Decree on Ecumenism says, ‘there can be no ecumenism worthy the name without a change of heart’. So our first and greatest contribution to reunion is a renewal of our own Christian lives, and a renewal of the Catholic Church. This can only come about by earnest prayer to the Holy Spirit, the principle of the Church’s unity.

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Almighty God, help us, little by little, to overcome the obstructions that, prevent a common celebration of the Eucharist. We ask this through ...   

H U von Balthasar 1905-1988

MAGNIFICAT com  

Gospel Mk 2:23-28. The Sabbath was for man not man for the Sabbath. v28.

MEDITATION   OF THE     DAY

By HAN5 UR5 VON BALTHASAR

The Son of Man and the Sabbath

Jesus refuses to interpret the metaphor of God's rest as an image of God's inactivity and thus refuses to imitate God's supposed inactivity: "My Father is working still, and I too am working" (In 5:17), precisely on the Sabbath, the day on which men are not supposed to do their work but to take time to pay attention to God's work-which for the Jews meant paying attention to the foundational act of salvation, namely, redemption from Egypt.

In this sense Jesus says that "the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath" (Mk 2:27). It is intended to make the one at rest aware of God's sav­ing activity. To do that he must elevate his authority above that of the rigid and vacuous Tradition: 'Therefore [because he has authority to make this determination] the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" (Mk 2:28).

All of this becomes fully comprehensible only if one moves from the contemplative rest of the Old Testament (including rest for the purpose of reflection) to the New Testament's contemplative rest, an active repose in the Holy Spirit that gazes on the constantly active Father and Son. It is a quietness that does not merely look at the inward, eternal vitality of God but that is indeed drawn into that activity through the Spirit. That is the only way to understand how genuine Christian con­templation can be so active and fruitful. To explain his work on the Sabbath, Jesus says that the Father loves the Son and reveals to him all that he does (In 5:20), and this not merely standing side by side but in an incom­prehensible intermingling: 'The Father who dwells in me completes his works" (In 14:10).

Cardinal von Balthasar (+ 1988) was an eminent Swiss Catholic theologian and co-founder of a religious community. His extensive writings were an important influence on Blessed John Paul II.

From: You Have Words of Eternal Life. Scripture Meditations  1991. Ignatius.