episodes-of-the-life-of-jesus

"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."

"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."

"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. [...]"

"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."

"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?"

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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.”"

"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."

"3 Q. Why did Jesus Christ ascend into heaven?"

"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)."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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?""

"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."

"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.”"