Justice and Relationship

Sorry for the delay. I am still in process of changing jobs and moving to a different state. I will get back into original thoughts as soon as I can. For now you can see some of what inspires my thought process.

2/5/10                  Justice

The Pope went on to reflect on Christ as the justice of God. Christ's justice, he said, "is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. [...] It is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in himself the 'curse' due to man so as to give in return the 'blessing' due to God." 

In this scheme, the Holy Father acknowledged, it seems that "each one receives the contrary of his 'due.'"

But, he said, "In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in his Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need. [...] Humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from 'what is mine,' to give me gratuitously 'what is his.'"

2/11/10          

 St Anthony

Relationship with God

Anthony of Padua, or of Lisbon as he is also known, defined prayer "as a relationship of love, which leads man to a dialogue with the Lord", and he described four "attitudes" which must characterise it: "trustingly opening our hearts to God, affectionately conversing with Him, presenting Him our needs, and giving Him praise and thanks. In this teaching of St. Anthony", the Pope explained, "we see one of the specific traits of Franciscan theology; ... that is, the central role of divine love which enters the sphere of the affections, of the will, of the heart, and which is the source of a spiritual knowledge that surpasses all other knowledge".