Passionist International Bulletin

seminar on the memoria passionis“Ineffable is His name.” “The new God is farbeyond master and slave, far beyond a despoticaffirmation or a humble negation. In order to avoidsectarian dogmatism, one ought not to correct oneexcess by another defect. The final meaning of thetext leaves us no other option than to give preferenceto the language of ‘serving’”.The “meontología” which the cross inauguratesand which the servant radicalizes has as its finalityis not so much to show us new attributes of God,but to make us remain in his nothing which givesrise to selfless commitment and service. The logicof the Cross would be incomplete if it were limitedto a syntax of the Pauline trio—logos, foolishness,weakness, or to a study of the semantics of thedivine names. “It should lead to a ‘pragmaticscheme’ which clarifies what is our action.”The Christological revelation of the “enigmaticSelf” who identifies himself with those whoare not. (Mt.25,31-46)Referring to the text of Mt.25, 31-46, Fr. Bretonaffirms: “I believe that Christian theology, in thelight of the theologia crucis, must take up the questionof the Final Judgment....I believe that the “I”of the Final Judgment is for me, in the light of theCross, the fundamental object of a new theology, ifit is in fact to have a fundamental object.” 2 “Thisreciprocity, which joins Christ with the poor person,changes our ‘image of God, of mankind, andof history’. It is impossible not to find in the essenceof the Final Judgment the well-recognized themesunderlying a ‘theology of the Cross’: foolishnessand weakness of God proclaimed in the messageof the Crucified One, kenosis or impoverishmentof Christ (cf, 1 Cor. 1 and Phil. 2).The nature of the periscope is very peculiar:“The Final Judgment, in the scene which Matthewlays out, is one way of conceiving the whole of thisworld and of history.” Secondly, what this judgmententails shows itself to be rather surprising.What is essential is not found in religiosity, or ingreat achievements of culture, but, rather, in thosethings that make up daily living: eating, drinking,dressing. Thirdly, the account of Matthew brings usto an unheard “revelation”: the surprising conjoiningof the anonymous multitude of the disinheritedand an enigmatic “I”, who is the Son of Man. Thiskenosis, which we see in the hymn of Philippians 2,is one of the key words for an interpretation ofChrist, of God, and of the world. The “I-Christ”crucified is absolutely the same “I-Christ” who recognizesthe kenosis in humanity’s weakness andsuffering.By means of this identification, Christ isbecoming, moving, on an exodus. The “I-Christ” ofMt. 25 is realized from two fronts: a divine principleon the one hand, and with a suffering humanityon the other. This identity draws from the excess ofNothingness because it is Absolute. Equally, it14From the movie “Jesus of Nazareth”of Franco Zeffirelli