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February 12 - March 31, 2018
If scholarly exegesis is not to exhaust itself in constantly new hypotheses, becoming theologically irrelevant, it must take a methodological step forward and see itself once again as a theological discipline, without abandoning its historical character.
Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves, not humanity, but inhumanity.
In the combination of worship and trade, which Jesus denounces,
Eschatological
killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you!
Caesarea
Thousands of pilgrims were pouring into Jerusalem. John of Gischala, one of the rival leaders of the rebellion, smuggled armed fighters, disguised as pilgrims, into the Temple, where they began to massacre the followers of his opponent, Eleazar ben Simon, and so once again the sanctuary was defiled with innocent blood (cf. Mittelstaedt, Lukas als Historiker p. 72). Yet this was only a foretaste of the unconscionable cruelties that ensued as the fanaticism of one side and the mounting anger of the other spiraled into ever-increasing brutality. There is no need
God grants to evil and to evildoers a large measure of freedom—too large, we might think. Even so, history does not slip through his fingers.
There are two possible responses to this situation, two ways of reading the Old Testament anew after the year 70: the reading in the light of Christ, based on the Prophets, and the rabbinical reading.
“From the beginning, Christians simply did not take part in Temple worship. . . . The destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 did not therefore constitute a religious problem for Christians”
From the content, it is clear that all three Synoptic Gospels recognize a time of the Gentiles: the end of time can come only when the Gospel has been brought to all peoples. The time of the Gentiles—the time of the Church made up of all the peoples of the world—is not an invention of Saint Luke: it is the common patrimony of all the Gospels.
if possible, to fulfill the mission within his own lifetime—
So they must have known Jesus’ commandments regarding love of enemies and renunciation of violence.
apocalyptic enthusiasm.
If any one will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are walking in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living”
When all is said and done, the future will not place us in any other situation than the one to which our encounter with Jesus has already brought us.
Indeed, they are intended to deter us from mere superficial curiosity about observable phenomena
present the Last Supper as a Passover meal, and thus they appear to be using a chronology that differs from John’s by one day.
exitus and reditus,
For Plotinus and his successors, the “going out”, which is their equivalent of the divine act of creation, is a descent that ultimately leads to a fall: from the height of the “one” down into ever lower regions of being. The return then consists in purification from the material sphere, in a gradual ascent, and in purifications that strip away again what is base and ultimately lead back to the unity of the divine.
namely, that unlike Adam, who had tried to grasp divinity for himself, Christ moves in the opposite direction, coming down from his divinity into humanity, taking the form of a servant and becoming obedient even to death on a cross
In the cultic ordering of all religions, purification regulations play a major part: they give man a sense of the holiness of God and of his own darkness, from which he must be liberated if he is to be able to approach God.
Faith cleanses the heart. It is the result of God’s initiative toward man. It is not simply a choice that men make for themselves. Faith comes about because men are touched deep within by God’s Spirit, who opens and purifies their hearts.
“If I, then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (Jn 13:14-15).
sacramentum
An act of purification of us by jesus
exemplum:
Jesus acting in example of how we should behave, role model
“He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12).
Jesus’ action becomes ours, because he is acting in us.
If I could underline this twice I would
It has been argued that the new element—moving beyond the earlier commandment to love one’s neighbor—is revealed in the saying “love as I have loved you”, in other words, loving to the point of readiness to lay down one’s life for the other.
To be a Christian is primarily a gift, which then unfolds in the dynamic of living and acting in and around the gift.
he transforms his violent death into the free offering of his life (cf. 10:18).
The point is this: guilt must not be allowed to fester in the silence of the soul, poisoning it from within. It needs to be confessed. Through confession, we bring it into the light, we place it within Christ’s purifying love (cf. Jn 3:20-21).
In confession, the Lord washes our soiled feet over and over again and prepares us for table fellowship with him.
The structure of the ritual described in Leviticus 16 is reproduced exactly in Jesus’ prayer: just as the high priest makes atonement for himself, for the priestly clan, and for the whole community of Israel,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me” (Heb 10:5; cf. Ps 40:6). The
“Eternal life” is not—as the modern reader might immediately assume—life after death, in contrast to this present life, which is transient and not eternal. “Eternal life” is life itself, real life, which can also be lived in the present age and is no longer challenged by physical death. This is the point: to seize “life” here and now, real life that can no longer be destroyed by anything or anyone.
But of course the key to life is not any kind of recognition, but to “know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”
This life, which John calls zōē as opposed to bios, is man’s goal.
Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control.
First we are told that the Father sent his Son into the world and consecrated him (cf. 10:36).
Consecration means that God is exercising a total claim over this man, “setting him apart” for himself, yet at the same time sending him out for the nations.
But this completion means sacrifice. In the sacrifice he is, in the manner of God, so against the world that he is at the same time for it”
hence consecration takes place through union of will and union of being with him.
“He [made] his name dwell there.”
The revelation of the name is a new mode of God’s presence among men, a
these can at best only bear witness to the real unity, as on the other hand they can also give a false impression of unity.
Does this mean that ecumenism is rendered superfluous, since unity is created in proclamation and is not hindered through the schisms of history?
One essential element of this unity has already emerged from our considerations thus far: it depends on faith in God and in the one whom he sent: Jesus Christ.
the accounts of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist are caught up in a dense undergrowth of mutually contradictory hypotheses, which seem to make access to the real event virtually impossible.
our task instead is to become acquainted with the figure of Jesus, and we leave the details to the experts.
