Source:
Traditio Liturgica: La risonanza della Parola
(terrible translation. The original was Italian)
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One of the most recurrent themes in the Catholic World is what Sacred Scripture, read in the Church, has its own particular resonance.
This theme is, in fact, that his ancient and traditional, not coincidentally the liturgy is interwoven with biblical expressions and back passages of the new and the old testament.
Before the invention of the printing press was normal read sacred scripture only in Church, before the Assembly of the faithful, since it was the only time he could do.
The invention of the printing press was a revolution that today there nougaty. Stole the Sacred Scripture in the Church handing it to the individual and his free interpretation. Is the invention of printing which, somehow, helped to give a real impetus to the Lutheran doctrine.
The free interpretation of Scripture can lead to same results and consequently to destructive results for the faith and the Church itself because it elevates the individual conscience above the ecclesial consciousness
<1>. Well aware of this, the Church at first forbade the reading of Scripture in individual sense because it had to continue to resonate in the ecclesial Assembly within which it was believed there was still the correct mindset to be able to interpreting
<2>.
In a liturgy which has preserved the sense of the sacred, in the higher meaning of the term, and a vivid awareness of this, scripture will resonate in the most profound and spiritual, whether it be proclaimed in the language fluently spoken or an ancient liturgical language. In a liturgy in which the sense of the sacred was shattered with all the ensuing simplification, inevitably there will be a repercussion in'biblical interpretation.
I will mention one fact poor soundproof lately and that clearly expresses what I am saying.
Cathedral of Gemona (Udine). Evening mass accompanied by the singing of the Alps.
Reads a passage from an Apostolic Epistle in which, among other things, they say: "if we do not love the next we see, how can we love God whom we can't see?" (1 Jn 4, 21).
The Interior of the Church had an atmosphere that take me back to that of a Berlin Protestant, which I visited a couple of years ago. Absolutely everything suggested to me that the biblical passage were to be understood only humanly: loving your neighbor meant sovvenirlo in a social sense and, on the other hand, the same opening prayer of the priest suggested this. In that courtroom Church Scripture resounded, Yes, but with a meaning all too human, so human that one could not help wondering what could possibly serve the Church.
Only through my monastic settlements I could understand that the passage of 1 Jn 4, 21 evokes a love not human, to which the Christian is enabled by the grace of God because ordinarily the priests today talking about this and may never even suspected. As a result, the "resonance of the word" in Gemona he elevated but not detract from the human spirit. This is how experimentally I could hear. Instead, the end of that resonance is always to rouse the spirit, our innermost sphere, not only the reason of Tickle or our psyche from us by imprisonment in the mirror room of our mind. The resonance (or catechesis, from the Greek
katecheo) involves the elevation of human in the divine, not the lowering of the divine in human!
It is no coincidence that in Holy Scripture use two Greek terms to indicate the term "word":
logos and
rema. The
logos is the creative Word, just pronounce creates: "Let there be light and there was light" (Gen 1, 3). Christ makes of
logia, or pronunciation of words that give life and
Logos is, however, an alternative way to call Christ himself because "in him was life" (Jn 1, 4)
<3>. In the consciousness of the old church when the man is sanctified in Christ, becomes another Christ for pardon and can, at times, speaking of the
logia, or the "creative words," otherwise such miracles. Miracles are real facts, not purely allegorical tales. If they were pure allegories God would be powerless, could not operate
logy or
mirabilia Dei and would like us that simple human words we utter. Therefore God would no longer God or, more simply, God would not exist!
The healings and miracles performed in the name of Christ indicate that the individual makes
logy and Evangelical case where the Apostles there succeed does disgusting Christ himself because they show that, despite his physical presence, have not yet been permeated by his grace because of the hardness of their heart (Mt 17, 14 ff.). In fact, those who have faith as a mustard seed, you can also do wonderful things (Lk 17, 6; Mt 17, 20).
Another scriptural term to indicate "word" is
rema.
Rema is but a
flatus vocis, our ordinary way of speaking, a word of her does not create anything, indeed, sometimes destroys. That is how the Act of speech is uncoupled from the creative act and the land, because of disobedience Adamič, divorced from the sky.
The "word of God" is not and will never be human, but only
rema, the word
logos, God's Word. The Holy Bible is not its a collection of
logia, because it only contains words printed in their bare materiality, but is a true and authoritative witness of divine, the real existence of
logia such creative acts throughout the history of Salvation that continues into the present. The Church and evangelisation are not matter of
rowing, words only, but of
logy, creative and divine words.
As a result, "if we do not love the next we see, how can we love God whom we can't see?" (1 Jn 4, 21), can never be interpreted strictly psychological and spiritual human but only high, divine. The Church is in the world to bring the spirit of God, not for secular spirit reclining or pleasure to various Scalfari.
And that's why the place par excellence where it guards the Sacred Scripture is the sanctuary or altar, not anywhere: the revelation, in fact, descended from God, although I am also human Word, not a mere man. Establish the Church as a building in the traditional order, means obeying a symbolic order that brings us back to these basic truths as the symbolism speaks always and in every age the human spirit, even if reason doesn't comprehend immediately. That's why in a church building cannot exist the sanctuary as a place normally closed to lay
<4>.
Furthermore, the distinction of the biblical term "word" between
logos and
rema, has strong consequences in ecclesial and liturgy because clearly shows that the divine plan will never be human, as much as man can be made in part a sharer in Christ alone. Their confusion and overlap, in the end, a deep confusion in understanding the faith and the figure of Christ.
In an ecclesial context in which all psychologized — and Humanized, in which "love for one's neighbor" means give him spectacularly to eat in san Petronio in Bologna (just to give just one example of which we give an image), the presence of Grace for which was formed the Church, can be seriously dimmed. It is also an indirect confession that today you are powerless to operate the
logy evangelicals, if you still believe that once they are operated. You rely on, so only human contrivances. But if the path leading up to the sky is obscured and mistaken manner, that the Church in these circumstances can only turn the senselessness and be like salt unsalted: good only to be trampled by men (Mt 5, 13)
<5>.
In principle, these analyses do not move with the intention of condemning people or environments but record of factual: operate certain choices widely secularized societies, the Church is detached from the Gospel with its lifeblood from the trunk only. As a consequence will turn to religious and sterility lower
logy Evangelicals in puri
rowing. The road to agnosticism is thus widely Esplanade and, accordingly, certain communities will always have less authentic faithful and will replace the remaining with social workers or atheists in fact to which provide any justification. That's what means the barren fig tree which, therefore, is cursed by Christ and immediately dies (Mt 21, 19). The Gospel relates that Christ can also curse and it must always be remembered ...
Despite its complexity, everything is simple and logical for who knows this to see and have the honesty to admit it: the current crisis in Western Christianity comes from a crisis of faith. In fact, not only no longer believes as before but it is not believed at all.
