111 quotes found
"Sed non solum locum Ecclesiae zelare debemus, sed hanc quoque interiorem in nobis domum Dei; ne sit domus negotiationis, aut spelunca latronum."
"The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world."
"Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”"
"The new line went like this: Jesus, the carpenter, was a worker like the Communists. He was against the "money changers," the "capitalists," the "exploiters" of that day. That is why he drove them from the temple. The Communists are the modern day fighters against the capitalists or money changers. If Jesus were living today, he would be persecuted like the Communists who seek to do good for the common people."
"Jesus ... entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”"
"Jesus ... entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”"
"The fact that 1855 years ago Christ drove the Jewish moneychangers out of the temple, and that the moneychangers of our age enlisted on the side of tyranny happen again chiefly to be Jews, is perhaps no more than a historical coincidence. The loan-mongering Jews of Europe do only on a larger and more obnoxious scale what many others do on one smaller and less significant. But it is only because the Jews are so strong that it is timely and expedient to expose and stigmatize their organization."
"Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”"
"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."
"You must realize how bad, temporarily, capitalism had become in public opinion. I remember seeing a poll of small town attitudes in local newspapers. They asked questions like "should we nationalize the banking system?" More than half of those editors, about the most conservative group in the world, were in favor of nationalizing the banking system. Father Coughlin, the Detroit demagogue who turned anti-Semitic, complained about "fountain pen money, the perpetrator of great wealth, the money changers in the temple." It was kind of a crude expansionism. Huey Long and "every man a millionaire," or whatever it was. So I would say that Keynes thought of himself as saving the system. And lots of the New Dealers ― original New Dealers, Veblenites, technocrats ― did not like Keynesian economics. They said "that is using palliatives, it's not getting rid of the wicked capitalistic ethos." Keynes told Roosevelt when he came here in 1933 that he needed to spend so much more per month in deficit spending. He gave very precise figures with great self-confidence."
"After his victory at the Milvian Bridge, faithful to his promise, Constantine favors the church from which he has received support. Catholic Christianity becomes the state religion and an exchange takes place: the church is invested with political power, and it invests the emperor with religious power. ... The church lets itself be seduced, invaded, dominated by the ease with which it can now spread the gospel by force (another force than that of God) and use its influence to make the state, too, Christian. It is great acquiescence to the temptation Jesus himself resisted, for when Satan offers to give him all the kingdoms of the earth, Jesus refuses, but the church accepts."
"And surely what joy, what delight can ever be found that far surpasses the announcement made to that blessed Virgin and Mother of joy? Rejoice, O mother of supernatural joy! Rejoice, O nourisher of sublime joy! Rejoice, capital seat of the joy of salvation! Rejoice, cooperator of immortal joy! Rejoice, O mystical dwelling place of ineffable joy! Rejoice, O most blessed source of inexhaustible joy! Rejoice, O treasure of eternal joy who bears God! Rejoice, O most luxuriant tree of life-giving joy!"
"Florence is the centre of the world. [The Dominican convent of] San Marco is the centre of Florence, and the Annunciation frescoed there by Beato Angelico is the centre of San Marco. Therefore, the Annunciation is the centre of the world."
"The Annunciation appears as a unique moment in the world history of women: it is the moment when God, taking women as free partners in his covenant, brings them true emancipation."
"The Annunciation is the beginning of a conception, something I wanted to compare to the creative process. As for iconography, Mary is usually depicted in an enclosed garden, a symbol of virginity, an inner, intimate space that I evoked through a red carpet."
"Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”"
"Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem."
"Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord, but no sooner have they entered than a man and a woman immediately fight over him: Jesus does not belong to the temple, he belongs to man. He belongs to us, to all thirsty men and women, to those who never stop searching and dreaming, like Simeon; to those who can see beyond, like Anna, and are enchanted by a newborn baby, because they feel God as the future. Jesus is not welcomed by the priests, but by an elderly man and woman without status, two lovers of God whose eyes are clouded by old age but still lit up with desire. It is the old age of the world that welcomes the eternal youth of God into its arms. :q:it:Ermes Ronchi, Gesù, la luce preparata per i popoli, avvenire.it, 13 January 2014 (in Italian)."
"Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
"Our Lord, from the night in which he sweated (Lk 22:44), changed the sweat of labour [exerted] on a land that produces thorns and thistles (Gen 2:18) into the sweat that accompanies prayer, so that [man] might sweat in the work of righteousness."
"I remember that once, while meditating on the Passion, a thought formed in my mind with great clarity, almost without my knowing it: “The crucifiers of Christ were saved!” I began to reflect on what such a strange thought could mean and came to the conclusion that it was true. The crucifiers of Christ were saved because Jesus prayed for them. Just as they were nailing him to the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Can we imagine that the Father, who had “always” listened to Jesus' prayers during his life, would have ignored this supreme prayer, made with such determination? Of course, even in this case, man's freedom to accept or reject mercy remains. However, we cannot be certain that anyone is lost, not even Judas. Yes, Christ's crucifiers are in heaven; there they proclaim eternally the extent of God's mercy for mankind."
"To prevent the heresy of heretics who deny his true humanity, Jesus Christ wanted to subject himself to our miseries; he wanted to feel hunger, thirst, and fatigue; close to death, he showed repugnance and anguish. In short, he wanted to suffer as a man to convince us that he was also a true man."
"I am not at all surprised that the Passion has been declared an excess. And in fact, it is an excess of love on the part of Jesus Christ."
"When the Devil sees that God bends down to a man to show him mercy, to give him relief from his passions either through his word or through one of his servants, he oppresses him even more under the weight of passion and attacks him with greater force."
"The Passion is a poem of charity, humiliation, and power. No compromise, no timidity, no backing down. Threats do not move him, flattery does not flatter him: the cross is already grasped in his will, fused with the will of the Father. He who, by his name alone, terrifies the mob led by the traitor, rejects the heavenly legions and the comfort of the apostles and walks alone toward Calvary. The Lamb teaches us fortitude, the humiliated give us lessons in dignity, the condemned exalt justice, the dying confirm life, the crucified prepare glory. Our Easter witness cannot be any different. If each of us who believes in the Resurrection of Jesus were to keep faith with him before the world, which has lost the true meaning of strength and glory, with a firm and bold face, no one would dare to speak of the Gospel as a “servile” religion."
"Yes, Jesus Christ could have freed himself from the hands of the Jews and Pontius Pilate, but knowing that it was the will of his Eternal Father that he suffer and die for our salvation, he submitted himself voluntarily, indeed he went himself to meet his enemies, and allowed himself to be taken and led to his death."
"The abandonment in which the Crucified One is left by the Father makes us understand what we have been freed and saved from, namely, the definitive loss of God, which no personal effort, apart from grace, could ever have spared us."
"The crucifixion of Jesus in itself has nothing eschatological about it. Many men have been crucified throughout history. What matters is the meaning of his death. An observer sees in it only an insignificant or, strictly speaking, painful fact. For the historian, “it is hardly probable that Jesus was crucified as a messianic prophet, in the same way as other agitators.” For the non-believer, the crucifixion simply marks the end of an idealist. The bare facts are nothing; their true essence is their meaning. But meaning is always the object of revelation and election, which explains precisely why, while everyone agrees on the death of Jesus, there is absolute disagreement on its meaning, which constitutes its profound reality."
"The focus of his prayer and his ardent supplication, repeated three times with insistence and prostration, was that the Father would take “this cup” away from him [...] The truth is that “this cup” represented in Christ's eyes the ‘how’ he would have to drink the sins and infamy of humanity, the “how” he would have to appear on the cross, taking upon himself the most scandalous sins of men: adultery, murder, blasphemy. On the threshold of crucifixion, he had to decide: would he accept to be the author of all these sins, so that his crucifixion and death would be possible?"
"When the Son dies on the cross, he dies the death of all sinners and all saints. The moment of his death means for all the dead a shift to the plane of eternity, which will be experienced by each of them, since the Lord, through his death, has saved each of them. :*Adrienne von Speyr, Il mistero della morte (Das Geheimnis des Todes, 1953), translation into Italian by Giacomo Coccolini, Centro ambrosiano, Milano, 2011. ISBN 978-88-8025-820-9, p. 80."
"Every time I think of Christ's crucifixion, I sin with envy."
"Around the ninth hour, Jesus shouted in a loud voice, saying "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?""
"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre."
"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
"What the disciples observed regarding the resurrection therefore contains, in any case, an objective element that is visible to the outside world, observable, perfectly demonstrable, and verifiable: the fact of the empty tomb."
"But Tertullian himself recognizes that the dogma of the resurrection of the Christian God is identical to that of the Persian religion."
"Modern man cannot understand... how the Resurrection of Jesus could be an event that unleashed a vital force that man can now make his own through the sacraments. This seems absurd to the biologist, since death is not a problem for him. The idealist, of course, speaks of a life that escapes death, but cannot imagine that this life is given by the fact that a dead person returns to physical life. God's action, which in these conditions would give life back to man, seems to him incomprehensibly inserted into the course of nature. He cannot recognize God's action as something that touches him personally in this natural event, which is as miraculous as the resurrection of a dead person, which, on the other hand, is unbelievable."
"The resurrection of Christ contains the answer to the most universal of human aspirations: that evil and injustice will not prevail forever."
"The texts that bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus are first and foremost confessions of faith. The Gospel accounts are of a particularly difficult construction and literary genre: they presuppose the formulas of faith or the kerygma. It is impossible to reconcile the narratives of the four Gospels. Their authentic interpretation should not aim to harmonize them but should take their divergences as a starting point. This poses serious problems for the unprepared reader."
"The resurrection is not an event that concerns only the Lord, but becomes alive and effective when it takes root in the hearts of the disciples, when they cannot contain the joy in their hearts, which overflows in words of proclamation and witness."
"The events of Easter represented a veritable big bang, which, however, did not merely overturn the emotional state of his disciples (taking them from fear to enthusiasm), but above all triggered in them an enormous hermeneutical effort regarding the figure of Jesus himself, leading them from a low opinion of him to absolutely extraordinary confessions of faith."
"The resurrection of Jesus is like the first eruption of a volcano. It shows that the fire of God is already burning within the world, which will bring everything back into the ardor of its light."
":Karl Rahner, quoted in Carlo Maria Martini, Il grande vulcano dell'amore di Dio per l'uomo, omelia pronunciata durante la Messa in Duomo nel giorno di Pasqua, 23 April 2000, fondazionecarlomariamartini.it, 21 April 2020."
"Most people believe in the resurrection of Christ, but very few see it clearly."
"Christ is not only the One who rose from the dead, but also the One who raises the dead. This change in man is the clearest demonstration of the Resurrection. Man is awakened, he rises with the power of metanoia, faith, and hope."
"For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."
"(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?"
"[Given Christ's descent into hell] there is no death that cannot be recovered, not even the most damned, because who among the children of men can compare himself to the eternal Son, when it comes to the experience of eternal origin from God the Father, of eternal dependence and ever-new outpouring from him, of existence in the source of generation? Who, then, like him, can evaluate in the ultimate depth what it means to be abandoned, forsaken by the Father? What “poena damni” is comparable to this?"
"O madman of love! Was it not enough for you to become incarnate, that you also wanted to die? Was death not enough, that you also descended into hell, drawing out the holy fathers, to fulfill your truth and mercy in them? For your goodness promises good to those who serve you in truth. Therefore, you descended into limbo, to draw out of pain those who had served you and give them the fruit of their labors."
"In the descent of Holy Saturday into the underworld, in which von Speyr is given to participate mystically, Christ encountered and defeated sin, the reality hostile to God and man cast out of the world. Passing through this reality without life or breath of spirit in the extreme night of truly cadaverous obedience, Jesus carries the cross beyond sin, beyond the evil of the world. Hence von Speyr's conclusion, which reaches that of Barth and Origen: the ultimate reality cannot be man's no, but God's yes. And if Hell is so real as to cause pain and suffering (it is therefore absurd to speak of its non-existence), it is also true that, since Christ passed through it and defeated it with his obedient death, we can reasonably hope that it is empty."
"Before rising again, he ‘'descended into hell’', into the dark depths of history and matter, to give it energy and direction towards light, love, and freedom. If I begin to think that in the depths of matter and of my flesh, in the darkest parts of my being, he descended to illuminate and transfigure, to resurrect love and beauty, then I too participate in the resurrection of Christ who rises for eternity from the depths of my being, energy that ascends, seed of life, germinating life."
"The descent into hell is the ultimate consequence of the incarnation. The Son was first a simple God in himself, pure immensity. Then he became man, thousands of relationships with other men, thousands of changing and temporal states, efforts, and initiatives. He experienced all this in a fleeting destiny, in something without boundaries, which was always available to the infinity of the Father. Now he still lacks the knowledge of pure non-being God, of pure opposition to God, so to speak, of simple limitation in limitlessness."
"Your Son, Father, after dying on the cross, also accepted to be sent to hell, to the most abandoned and desolate place where no living person has ever set foot. He did this to participate more fully in all your mysteries, to show you that he is never tired of your service and is never satiated with his love for you. With this surplus of his descent into hell, he went beyond the surplus of the cross."
"After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either."
"Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him."
"Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
"After the supper with Him, the disciples of Emmaus, leaving behind their sadness and confusion, ran back to the newly born Christian community to proclaim the joyful news of their having seen the Risen Lord."
"The wayfarer who does not reveal himself and hides himself, but who nevertheless disturbs us... It is beautiful, but I think that any discussion of it spoils it. It is too indescribable: the supper was then depicted in paintings, and we see it in our minds, but even more evocative is the walk at sunset. It is the posthumous episode that touches me most, when Christ enters the house of the apostles, where there is none of the indescribable divinity of the travelling companion of Emmaus. The divinity that you do not recognise, but sense."
"Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”"
"So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God."
"And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen."
"3 Q. Why did Jesus Christ ascend into heaven?"
"1 Q. What are we taught in the Sixth Article: He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty?"
"4 Q. Why is it said of Jesus Christ that He ascended, and of His Most Holy Mother that she was assumed, into heaven?"
"In Christ ascended into heaven, in fact, it is our very humanity, the humanity he assumed in the Incarnation, that is raised to the highest splendour of its dignity."
"It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove."
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”"
"When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”"
"And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb."
"Fourthly and finally, there is the sign of circumcision, which Christ deigned to accept on this day. He wanted to be circumcised for many reasons. For himself, to show us that he had taken on a real body, knowing that there would be those who would argue that he had not taken on a real body but a fantastical one; therefore, to refute this error, he wanted to be circumcised and shed blood. For an imaginary body does not shed blood. For us, to show us that we must be circumcised in spirit."
"So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:"
"He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross — even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment."
"L'ingresso di Gesù in Gerusalemme assume il significato dell'incontro di Gesù con quella che era per gli ebrei la città per eccellenza, quella che gli arabi chiamano ancora oggi la santa, la città della promessa e della speranza."
"Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end."
"Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”"
"*Le parole di Gesù: "Dovete lavarvi i piedi gli uni gli altri", significano: dovete rendervi a vicenda i servizi di un'umile carità. Carità e umiltà, insieme, formano il servizio evangelico."
"Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”"
"Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus."
"For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain."
"Con la sua Trasfigurazione Gesù voleva confermare la fede dei suoi discepoli, dei Dodici, rivelando loro progressivamente il mistero della sua persona."
"Facci conoscere a fondo il mistero della Trasfigurazione. O, forse, taci perché non sappiamo ancora accogliere la Tua Passione?"
"Per il contesto in cui è inserita, la Trasfigurazione ha lo scopo di anticipare, agli occhi dei discepoli prescelti, la gloria dell'ultimo giorno, già concentrata in quel Gesù che vive quotidianamente con loro. Dio parla ai discepoli timorosi, essi possono, devono, ascoltare e ubbidire, essere fiduciosi e seguire Gesù sulla strada che sale a Gerusalemme verso la gloria attraverso la croce."
"And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply."
"While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table."
"Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil."
"He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."
"Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe."
"Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”"
"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time."
"In typical Palestinian masculine style, the Twelve refused to believe the women, since according to Jewish law they were not allowed to bear legal witness. It is clear that Jesus was aware of this legal norm. His first appearance to the women and the fact that he entrusted them with bearing witness to the most important event of his life cannot have been anything other than deliberate choices: this is clearly a dramatic link between a very clear rejection of the principles that placed women in a position of inferiority and the most important moment of his Gospel, namely the resurrection. Jesus' effort to link these two points is so evident that it becomes a damning indictment of the intellectual short-sightedness of men who have failed to discern its great value for two thousand years."
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
"A wonderful discovery has coloured our lives. An extraordinary event, the event of events: the ineffable, the unspeakable, the indescribable, the transcendent, the Almighty, the Exalted, the immensely unattainable, has come to dwell among us, has made himself small, fragile, palpable. For us! And that is the mystery. The mystery of our faith: the incarnation, He who is the Absolute, He who is God becomes Emmanuel, God with us, God present among us. This is the discovery that has changed our lives, that makes us dance, makes us jump, makes us rejoice, makes us smile."
"The Incarnation accomplishes two things in us: the first is that it fills us with love; the second is that it makes us certain of our salvation."
"The Word of the Eternal Father, who in his immensity encompasses all things, in order to raise mankind—fallen through sin—back to the heights of divine glory, chose to make Himself small by taking on our smallness, without relinquishing his own majesty."
"What we call the incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth is only complete in the community of believers, who have and feel the mission to proclaim his event to the world and to propose it to the world again with their testimony."
"The two main points of Christian doctrine against which the pagan opposition, and especially the Platonic polemic against Christianity, directed its weapons were the incarnation of the divinity and the resurrection of the human flesh. To the idealism of the Hellenistic Neoplatonists, bent on a mystical form, both of these doctrines, organically connected to each other, were a “stumbling block”. To believe that the divine nature could come into contact with matter was to contaminate it, because bodily matter is something negative and impure. As such, it is a vain illusion and absurd to hope that the fleshly body can become incorruptible and eternal through resurrection."
"We are called to incarnate Jesus in our lives, to clothe our lives with Him, so that men may see Him in us, touch Him, recognise Him."
"Christianity is not a thought, but the announcement of a Presence: the Incarnation is a fact that happened. Without the Madonna, we could not understand anything about religious meaning, Christian claims and the Church."
"The Incarnation, which is the greatest good that God could do for man, is also his greatest glory."
"Fragments of the schisms came back to his mind, passages from the heresies that had divided the Churches of the West and the East for centuries. Here Nestorius contested the title of Mother of God for the Virgin, since, in the mystery of the Incarnation, she had carried a human creature in her womb and not God."
"In the Incarnation of the Son of God we see forged the enduring and definitive synthesis which the human mind of itself could not even have imagined: the Eternal enters time, the Whole lies hidden in the part, God takes on a human face. The truth communicated in Christ's Revelation is therefore no longer confined to a particular place or culture, but is offered to every man and woman who would welcome it as the word which is the absolutely valid source of meaning for human life."
"In the time of Christ, multitudes shared the same fate, whereas today we do not share ours, but each suffer it on our own. It is one of the most dramatic visible symptoms of our time. A kind of prophet who must speak to the multitudes speaks on television, through the television image, finding each person closed in their own cell. What would “incarnation” be like today? Incarnation was like that because man was visible and bound to a community that shared his sufferings; man was limited in his physicality, in his body, which was so important and valued in the Eucharist. And where would the divine be incarnated today? Perhaps on the “Internet”. :*Mario Luzi, La porta del cielo. , a cura di Stefano Verdino, Fabbri Editori, R.C.S., I Classici dello Spirito, Milano, 1998, p. 48."
"The soul must always remain in continuous awareness of God, submerged and drowned, so to speak, in the infinite abyss of his love, manifested to us in the Incarnation of his Divine Word, which “ad extra” was the greatest work that an almighty God could do, and the highest heavenly Intelligences remain astonished and almost beside themselves with admiration."
"The incarnation of God is the certainty that our flesh is holy in some of its roots, that our history is sacred in some of its pages. And looking at our brother, no one can say anymore: here God ends, here man begins, because Creator and creature are embraced. Finite and infinite are within us in a prodigious mixture of intensity of plans, of vigour of transformation. God became man so that man might become God."
"Unhappiness: man's superiority over God. The Incarnation was necessary so that this superiority would not be scandalous."
"The Incarnation becomes life only if we understand that, through us, the very life of God is at stake."
"The Incarnation, therefore, does not mean that God descends to earth, where he was not, because he was already there. The Incarnation means that humanity becomes present to God, an eternally present God. It was man who was absent, not God who was not present."
"So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them."
"Maravigliando a quel celeste avviso | vanno i pastor dell'abituro in traccia, | e del nato Fanciul. Di accese tede | i campi intorno riluceano e i colli. | Poscia in città giunti all'umil presepe, | del venerando vecchio, e della casta | genitrice all'aspetto il già predetto | figlio riconosceano, e genuflessi | adorando il bambin gettan divoti | di fiori un nembo, e d'odorosi serti | la soglia ornando, in copia agresti doni | gli offrono in bella gara, e al dolce suono | alternan delle avene inno di gioja."
"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. [...]"
"Ma non lungi di là sotto alta rupe | pastorelli a guardar la gregge intesi, | tutta in pio ragionar traean la notte; | quando del ciel dalla serena parte | fragor levossi e splendor nuovo apparve; | e stuol vedeasi su lucente nube | di sembianze celesti alto appressarse, | sorvolitando per gli eterei tratti. | Istupidiro, e le tremanti membra | irrigidì dello spavento il gelo. | Ma voce udir di riconforto e pace | alto sonar: Non trepidate, o buoni, | lungi ogni tema; l'ammirando, e grande | gaudio annunziam, che voi non sol, ma tutti | lieti farà ne' secoli venturi | della terra gli afflitti abitatori."