tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786565.post2634624639580874569..comments2023-12-17T16:13:06.670-05:00Comments on In a Godward direction: Jesus and the LawTobias Stanislas Haller BSGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08047429477181560685noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786565.post-62398811648654190442012-01-10T10:20:02.171-05:002012-01-10T10:20:02.171-05:00Thanks, Jesse. This not the first time I've fo...Thanks, Jesse. This not the first time I've found myself in the same boat as Papa R, but it still comes as a surprise!Tobias Stanislas Haller BSGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08047429477181560685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786565.post-14903368023425981462012-01-09T23:35:56.554-05:002012-01-09T23:35:56.554-05:00A lovely reflection, Tobias. Thank you. There mu...A lovely reflection, Tobias. Thank you. There must have been a stirring of the waters on this subject today, because I attended a lecture this afternoon that touched on the same theme (with reference to Jesus' treatment of the commandments). The lecturer was offering an interpretation of what we mean by calling the Church a "divine mystery". He observed that the surface meaning of divine revelation will tend to be clear at the time it is revealed in a particular time and place. What makes it a "mystery" is that, because of its divine source, it will be applicable beyond that time and place -- indeed, for all times and all places -- but not in a way confined to the initial, contextually conditioned understanding. Over the course of individual lives and over the course of human history, our unfolding experience will bring out more and more depth in the single "truth" (e.g. understanding Jesus as "Son" in the light of our developing filial and parental relationships). No human being can hope ever to embrace the totality of the revelation's meaning, because we -- unlike God -- have an "expiry date". But we must always seek to bring out revelation's universal applicability.<br /><br />I think you may also be channeling <i>Papa</i> Ratzinger, whose exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (in <i>Jesus of Nazareth, Part I</i>), reaches a similar conclusion, making brilliant use of Rabbi Jacob Neusner's <i>A Rabbi Talks with Jesus</i>, including Neusner's startling declaration that Jesus takes nothing away from the Law and adds nothing to it but "Himself" (p. 105).<br /><br />There's a great passage on biblical revelation as a "complementary teaching", a corrective to the "flame" of human conscience that beneath the cloud of sin now only dimly illuminates us with an innate understanding of God's will:<br /><br /><i>The heart of this historically situated "complementary teaching" contained in biblical Revelation is the Decalogue given on Mount Sinai. As we have seen, this is by no means abolished by the Sermon on the Mount, nor is it reduced to an "old law," but <b>it is simply developed further in a way that allows its full depth and grandeur to shine forth in all its purity</b>. The Decalogue is not, as we have seen, some burden imposed upon man from the outside. It is a revelation of the essence of God himself -- to the extent that we are capable of receiving it -- and hence it is an exegesis of the truth of our being. The notes of our existence are deciphered for us so that we can read them and translate them into life. God's will flows from his being and therefore guides us into the truth of our being, liberating us from self-destruction through falsehood. (pp. 148-9)</i>Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17809446580681184264noreply@blogger.com