In John’s Gospel, the Lord says: “I have come so that you may have life, and have life in abundance.” A life in abundance is not, as some may think, to consume everything, to have everything, to do everything one pleases. In such a case, we would live for dead things, we would live for death.
Life in abundance is to be in communion with true life, with infinite love. It is this way that we truly enter into the abundance of life and we become bearers of life even for others.While I disagree with the Pope about alot (embarrassing that I need to trot out my liberal resume after quoting him) he has some profound ideas. We don't hear much about his critiques of our consumer culture in the North American press.
This part of the homiliy is precisely why religion matters to me. It offers me an alternative to our cultural assumptions and, as David Tracy puts it, "subverts the ego". We are inundated with ads demonstrating how happy this cream or that car will make you. The implied message that all of us are inadaquate unless we consume. The Pope correctly points out by doing this, "we live for dead things."
Freedom to purchase what you want and do what you want is certainly freedom but not the kind I'm curious about. The freedom to be who we are and love others boundlessly is the freedom that I attempt to be orientated to and this homiliy speaks about. Most spiritual disciplines and authentic religions attempt to,"subvert the ego." Cracking us open to be available to the Other and in doing so, practice boundless love--this is true freedom.
2 comments:
It strikes me that Benedict is exactly right to criticize certain aspects of our cultural condition, but I would wonder what you might say about the other side of this critique. The constructive dimension that says more than simply how we ought not to live, but how we ought to live. What is the positive vision that you or Benedict offer? Benedict's description seems abstract and formal enough to accomadate a wide variety of perspectives. In a word, where is the connection between kataphaticism and apophaticism, between concrete, determinate social commitments and an awareness that these commitments are touched by finitude?
With the brief excerpt that I took from his talk, I did an injustice to the positive approach he did offer:
via: http://freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354537&p=22
Here is a translation of the homily delivered extemporaneously by the Holy Father yesterday at the Mass he celebrated in San Lorenzo di Piscibus to mark the 25th anniversary of the International Youth Center based there.
Lord Cardinals,
venerated brothers in the Episcopate and priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!
It is a great joy for me to be able to commemorate with you - in this beautiful Romanesque church - the 25th anniversary of the International Youth Center, which the beloved John Paul II wanted to be located close to St. Peter's Basilica and inaugurated by him on March 13, 1983.
The Holy Mass that is offered here every Friday evening constitutes for many young people who are here from various parts of the world to study in Roman universities, an important spiritual appointment and a significant occasion to be in touch with the cardinals and bishops of the Roman Curia, as well as with the bishops from five continents who come to Rome for their 'ad limina' visits.
As you recalled, I came here myself not a few times to celebrate the Eucharist when I was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it was always a beautiful experience to meet boys and girls from so many regions of the earth who find this place an important hospitality center and reference point.
It is to you, above, all dear young, people, that I address my greetings, and I thank you for the wearm welcome you showed today. I also greet all the others who have chosen to attend this solemn but also familial celebration.
I particularly greet the cardinals and prlates present. Allow me to cite, in particular, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, titular of this Church, San Lorenzo in Piscibus; and Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, whom I thank for the kind expressions of welcome addressed to me before the Mass began.
I greet Mons. Josef Clemens, Secretary of the Council for the Laity,
and the team of young people, priests and seminarians who run this Center under the guidance of the Council's Youth Section, as well as all those who contribute to the Center in various ways.
I refer to the associations, movements and communities represented here, with a special mention of the Emmanuel Community, which has coordinated the Center's activities for 20 years with great faithfulnees, and which has created a Mission School in Rome, attended by some of the young people here today.
I greet the chaplains and the volunteers who have worked for the past 25 years in the service of the youth. To each and everyone, my affectionate greeting.
Now let us come to the Gospel today, dedicated to a great and fundamental topic: What is life? What is death? How should we live? And how should we die?
St. John, to make us better understand the mystery of life and Jesus's response, uses for this unique reality of life two different words to indicate the different dimensions of the reality we call 'life': the (Greek) words bios and zoé.
Bíos, as we can easily deduce, refers to this great biocosmos, the biosphere that comprises primitive single cells to the most organized and most developed organisms - this great tree of life in which are developed all the possibilities of the bios.
Man belongs to this tree of life. He is part of the cosmos of life which begins with a miracle - a vital core develops within inert matter into the reality of a living organism.
But man, although he is part of this great biocosmos, transcends it because he is also part of that reality that St. John calls zoé. It is a new level of life in which the being opens up to consciousness.
Of course, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a coma, even at the stage of an embryo. But if he lives only biologically, then all the potentialities of his being cannot be realized and developed.
Man is called on to open up to new dimensions. He is a conscious being. Of course, even animals have 'consciousness', but only of what pertains to their biologic life.
Man's consciousness goes beyond that. He wants to know everything, all of reality, reality in its totality. He wants to know what is his being, what is this world. He has a thirst to know the infinite, he wants to get to the source of life, he wants to drink at this source and find life itself.
Thus we touch a second dimension of life: man is not only a cosncious being, he also lives in relationships of friendship and love. Beyond the dimension of knowing truth and ebing, there exists, inseparable from it, the dimension of relationship, of love.
In this, man approaches ever closer to the fountain of life from which he wants to drink in order to have life in abundance, to have life itself.
We can say that all science is one great battle for life, above all, the science of medicine. Ultimately, medicine is a search for an antidote to death, a quest for immortality. But can we find the medicine that will assure us immortality? That is the question posed by the Gospel today.
Let us try to imagine what would happen if medicine did find this prescription against death, the prescription for immortality. Even in such a case, it would still have to do with medical means within the biosphere, medicine that is useful for our spiritual and human life, but by itself, still confined to the biosphere.
It is easy to imagine what would happen if man's biological life were without end, if man were immortal. We would find ourselves in an 'old world', a world full of aged people, a world that would leave little room for the young, for the renewal of life.
So we understand that this is not the immortality that we aspire to. This is not the possibility of drinking at the fountain of life that we all desire.
At this point in which, on the one hand, we understand that we cannnot hope for an infinite prolongation of biological life, while on the other hand, we desire to drink at the fountain of life to enjoy 'life without end', the Lord intervenes and speaks to us from the Gospel to say: "I am the Resurrection and the Life: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; whoever lives and believes in me, will not die in eternity".
"I am the Resurrection": To drink at the fountain of life is to enter in communion with this infinite love which is the source of life. Encountering Christ, we enter into contact - better, into communion -
with life itself, and we would then have crossed the threshold of death, because we are in touch - beyond biological life - with true life.
The Fathers of the Church called the Eucharist the drug of immortality. That is so, because in the Eucharist, we enter into contact and communion with the resurrected Body of Christ - we enter the space of life that has been resurrected, of eternal life.
We enter into communion with this Body which has immortal life, and therefore we ourselves, now and for always, enter the space of life itself.
Thus, this Gospel is also a profound interpretaiton of what the Eucharist is and invites us to really live the Eucharist so that we can be transformed in the communion of love. This is the true life.
In Johm's Gospel, the Lord says: "Ihave come so that you may have life, and have life in abundance." A life in abundance is not, as some may think, to consume everything, to have everything, to do everything one pleases. In such a case, we would live for dead things, we would live for death.
Life in abundance is to be in communion with true life, with infinite love. It is this way that we truly enter into the abundance of life and we become bearers of life even for others.
Prisoners of war who had been in Russia for ten years or more, exposed to cold and hunger, would say upon returning: "I could survive because I knew I was being awaited. I knew there were persons who waited to see me back, that I was neeeded and awaited." This love that awaited them was the effective medicine of life against all ills.
In truth, we are all awaited. The Lord awaits us but more than that, he is present and holds his hand out to us. Let us accept the Lord's hand and pray to him that he may grant us to live truly, to live the abundance of life and thus be able to communicate to our contemporaries this true life, this life in abundance. Amen.
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