the curia informs - Passio Christi

THE CURIA INFORMS
Breton observes (and Balthasar restates) in him we
find, with regard to the Passion, a harmonic fusion
between affective theology of Franciscan origins and
a theology of transcendence via Tauler, in the style of
Pseudo Dionysius. However, the underpinning of it
all is the “logos tou Staurou” (the Word of the Cross),
the wisdom of God and the folly of the world, the
word that is the beginning of a certain logic of the
Cross that in fact, constitutes a new theology. The
Passion of Jesus, the supreme work of Divine Love –
of which the Founder loved to speak – is already the
self-manifestation of God.
This year how should we as Passionists approach
the complexity and the profundity of the Pauline
message Usually, when one speaks about the theologia
crucis that is contained in the writings of St.
Paul the Apostle, it logically refers to the first four
chapters of the Letter to the Corinthians. It is here
that for first time there is reference to a logos and to
a sophia of the Cross and it is there that the theology
of the Cross in founded. Another step of great importance
is that of the so-called “kenosis” of Phil. 2: 1-
11. Based on this “kenosis”, a new image of God is
being developed today, i.e. a true and precisely new
Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome
theology and also a new anthropology. There is nothing
more timely today that this issue.
However, rather than dwell on what is obvious it
would be good to reflect on other elements that are
strictly aligned with the spirituality of the
Congregation. For example, let us study some points
concerning apostolic suffering.
We can ask: in reality, what does this passage
mean today: “We are… always carrying about in the
body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
also be manifested in our body. For we who live are
constantly being given up to death for the sake of
Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in
our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in
you.” (2 Cor. 4:10-12). And also: “For as I see it,
God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like
people sentenced to death, since we have become a
spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings
alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are
wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you
are held in honor, but we in disrepute.” (1Cor.4:9-10)
In these expressions we can see a theological realization
of the overwhelming paternity and maternity
in the Spirit that characterized the relationship of
Paul with his disciples: “Even if you
have ten thousand teachers”, he wrote,
“only I am your father” (cf. 1 Cor.4:15);
and, “my children once again I am in the
pangs of childbirth” (cf. Gal.4:19).
However, this is the paternity and maternity
that every authentic parent experiences
today, every parent in the broad
sense, in order to arrive, as Lévinas
would say, at a point of passivity that is
more passive than any passivity and the
responsibility of a hostage. Other scholars,
such as Derrida and Marion, furthered
these reflections to the point of
applying them to God himself and other
witnesses, such as Charles de Foucauld,
Etty Hillesum, Edith Stein, Marthe
Robin and, even closer to us, Gemma
Galgani, who experienced them in the
lived reality. There is strong agreement
in all of this.
This is an age in which we are moving
toward a society without parents, but
within which there arises from our very
soul, especially that of the young, a cry
of appeal for parents: maternity, filialness,
belonging. Paul is not merely a
congenial thinker, the theoretician of a
new faith, nor even purely the herald of
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July 2008 - PIB n. 17