Christocentrism of Charism â€“ Buggert - CarmelStream

More documents

Recommendations

Info

This Rahnerian vision of Christ can help Carmelites today to articulate in a new way the Christocentrism of our Rule and tradition. So often the Christ of classical Christology was not truly one of us. Although Phil. 2:5ff. exhorts us to have "the attitude which was that of Christ," who emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a slave, being obedient, obedient unto death, and although Heb.12:2 exhorts us to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, so often Christians do not find that Christ is truly imitable. Because Jesus has so often been presented as the big exception to the rule, one could not truly follow him. After all, he is "God." He may be like us in his human nature. But in his divine nature and person, he is quite unlike us. So often the Christ of classical Christology was not truly tempted, despite the epistle to the Hebrews saying that he himself was beset by weakness and was tempted in every way that we are and hence can sympathize with our weakness. cxliii He did not experience the negative and shadow side of human existence. He did not really have to grow in his relationship with God, as we do, even though Luke says that he grew in wisdom, age and grace before God and people (Lk.2:52). He did not have faith or have to grow in faith; he did not undergo the "dark nights" of faith as we do, even though Hebrews speaks of his faithfulness to God, a faithfulness which exceeds that of all the Old Testament witnesses, even Abraham. cxliv In fact the same epistle to the Hebrews speaks of Christ as praying with loud cries and tears to his Father who had the power to save him from death. cxlv And Hebrews also points out that Jesus had to learn obedience through his suffering and become perfected. Because he was perfectly obediently, obedient to and through his death on the cross, he became the perfect Son and High Priest. cxlvi This is not a "plastic" Jesus who is above the human fray, a Jesus who "play acts" his way 36
through the ups and downs of human experience, a gnostic or docetic Jesus who only "appears" to be human but who does not truly walk in our shoes, with all the anguish, darkness, faith, trust, love, abandonment and joy which that involves. What makes the Christ of classical Christology quite unlike us and hence quite inimitable is not only that it "added" on "divinity" to the man, Jesus, but it also distinguished and opposed within Christ the human and the divine. Moreover, it "compressed" the concrete, fleshy humanity and actual history and experience of a real live Jesus into a timeless, abstract, ahistorical, impersonal human 'nature.' When this abstract human nature, quite unaffected by and above history, is put alongside of the divine nature, and when the ultimate bearer or person of these two natures is the eternal, divine Logos, understood in a highly personal way, cxlvii it is almost certain that the genuinely historical humanity of Jesus will be lost, even though the human "nature" will be affirmed. Even such a theological genius as Thomas Aquinas has difficulty doing full justice to the genuine, historical humanity of Jesus. Thomas' Jesus in the first moment of his human existence enjoys the beatific vision, which for other human beings is the goal of their existence. Hence Thomas' Jesus is somehow both a "viator" and "comprehensor," i.e. both a pilgrim and one who has already arrived at journey's end. Moreover, through this beatific vision, Jesus knows all things. He can suffer on the cross only in virtue of a divine dispensation given to his humanity by the divine Logos, who permits Jesus to suffer on the cross. But this suffering is only bodily and not experienced in the intellectual part of his soul, i.e. psychologically. cxlviii How different is Rahner's understanding of Christ! Rahner gives us a Christ who is truly "one in being with us," as Chalcedon teaches. Rahner's Christology allows and in fact necessitates a Christ who can and must truly grow in his own relationship with his Father. Rahner's Christ is one 37
Page 1 and 2: "The Christocentrism of the Carmeli
Page 3 and 4: The Order of Carmel has its origins
Page 5 and 6: sacred scriptures and devotion to t
Page 7 and 8: This secular meaning of "in obsequi
Page 9 and 10: discover the role which the ideal C
Page 11 and 12: For la Santa, every aspect of our C
Page 13 and 14: themselves and others and will not
Page 15 and 16: describes this process of transform
Page 17 and 18: images as proximate means to union
Page 19 and 20: Crucified inwardly and outwardly wi
Page 21 and 22: own union with humanity in the Inca
Page 23 and 24: A transcendental or anthropological
Page 25 and 26: ecame human. Had there been no fall
Page 27 and 28: century Franciscan theologian, John
Page 29 and 30: God's own being to a human being. T
Page 31 and 32: of every other person. The eternal
Page 33 and 34: ahistorical essence which exists fu
Page 35: above that one of the difficulties
Page 39 and 40: instance of this theological princi
Page 41 and 42: Jesus' reign of God praxis, creatio
Page 43 and 44: disciples out of their means (Lk. 8
Page 45 and 46: The project of all Carmelites is to
Page 47 and 48: First suggestion: not any Jesus wil
Page 49 and 50: change it." clxxxv Hence the obsequ
Page 51 and 52: sharing of goods and life, an egali
Page 53 and 54: v. I will discuss below the meaning
Page 55 and 56: xxxii. Here I am indebted to Bruno
Page 57 and 58: lx. Interior Castle, 6.7.14, p. 150
Page 59 and 60: the Alpha and Omega, the all-embrac
Page 61 and 62: devotion mainly to the invisible ob
Page 63 and 64: cxxix. Hence for Rahner this capax
Page 65 and 66: cxlviii. See S.T., III, q. 14, art.
Page 67 and 68: only Jesus' proclamation but also h
Page 69 and 70: trans. Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll, N

Christocentrism of Charism â€“ Buggert - CarmelStream

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?