I chose an excerpt at random from the Holy Father's book "Jesus of Nazareth" for those of you who have not received a copy, so you can have a flavor of it This section that I opened to in random is just wonderful with its richness of explanation of the topics that weigh upon humankind at this time. This selection is a gem.
From Chapter Five: The Lord's Prayer
snips start at page 164 with this section topic
"But Deliver Us From Evil"
snip
snip
In the next-to-last petition the not set the dominant note (do not give the Evil One more room to maneuver than we can bear.)
snip
snip
Today there are on the one hand the forces of the market, of traffic in weapons, in drugs, and in human beings, all forces that weigh upon the world and ensnare humanity irresistibly. Today, on the other hand, there is also the ideology of success, of well-being that tells us, "God is just a fiction, he only robs us of our time and our enjoyment of life. Don't bother with him! Just try to squeeze as much out of life as you can." These temptations seem irresistible as well. The Our Father in general and this petition in particular are trying to tell us that it is only when you have lost God that you have lost yourself; then you are nothing more than a random product of evolution. Then the "dragon" really has won. So long as the dragon cannot wrest God from you, your deepest being remains unharmed, even in the midst of all the evils that threaten you. Our translation is thus correct to say" "Deliver us from evil," with the evil in the singular. Evils (plural) can be necessary for our purification, but evil (singular) destroys.
snip
snip
...In asking to be liberated from the power of evil, we are ultimately asking for God's Kingdom, for union with his will, and for the sanctification of his name. Throughout the ages, though, men and women of prayer have interpreted this petition in a broader sense. In the midst of the world's tribulations, they have also begged God to set a limit to the evils that ravage the world and our lives.
This very human way of interpreting the petition has entered into the liturgy: In every liturgy, with the sole exception of the Byzantine, the final petition of the Our Father is extended into a separate prayer. In the old Roman liturgy it ran thus: "Free us, Lord, from all evils, past, present, and future. By the intercession... of all the saints, give peace in our day. Come to our aid with your mercy that we may be ever free from sins and protected from confusion." We sense the hardships of times of war, we hear the cry for total redemption. This "embolism" with which the liturgy enhances the last petition of the Our Father, shows the humanity of the Church. Yes, we may and we should ask the Lord also to free the world, ourselves, and the many individuals and peoples who suffer from the tribulations that make life almost unbearable.
We may and we should understand this extension of the final petition of the Our Father also as an examination of conscience directed at ourselves - as an appeal to collaborate in breaking the predominance of "evils." But for all that, we must not lose sight of the proper order of goods and of the connection of evils with "evil." Our petition must not sink into superficiality; even on this interpretation of the Our Father petition, the central point is still "that we be freed from sins," that we recognize "evil" as the quintessence of "evils," and that our gaze may never be diverted from the living God.
snip
As an aside, notice how Pope Benedict refers to the reality of evolution. In modern times, the Catholic Church has consistently recognized that evolution is a physical reality, not inconsistent with God's definition of "days" of creation being not the 24 hour solar cycle, but a length of God's own will and reckoning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment