Open Reflections

για Ελληνικά πατήστε εδώ

Rising again!

In this month of April which we are soon leaving behind us and at this time of the pandemic that spread darkness and uncertainty on our future and on our planet, we are all called to be strong, to surpass ourselves, to see the “big picture” and not to ignore the positive things that take place; and they are many: we see solidarity, self-discipline, self-sacrifice and vigilance vis-à-vis the dangers, visible and invisible, surrounding us.

The afore-mentioned virtues are not new, neither are they specific to a particular culture; they are universal and remind us of our common humanity.

Under these shadows which, for a while, hide the sun, we look forward for the light to rise.

Humanity participated in the Passion of the Son of Man as it passed through this dark tunnel during Len.

He who took on Himself our mortal nature willingly shares our pain and sin and even death. Christ accepts our sufferings so that He may draw us to His Resurrection. After the Cross there is the Resurrection!

In the living memory and experience of the Church the Resurrection is the event which remains alive, present, inundating the world by its splendour,and truth.

The People of God keeps within its memory the light of the Resurrection (St. Pope John-Paul II, Athens, May 2001). This is our strength and our hope.

 

Did you know…

Memory (Mνήμη in Greek), Martyrium (= witness / martyrdom, Μαρτυρία in Greek) and Merimna (=care, Μέριμνα in Greek) come from the Indo-European root (sn)mr-.

In Sanscrit (s)mer- (=to remember), Indo-European smarati (=memory, anamnesis / recall), in Latin memoria (=memory).

Historical research may be defined as the care to keep the memory and the witness of the past, however it never is 100 % objective. It does depend both on the knowledge of the events and on their interpretation.

∗

In the Church’s liturgy we deal with another manner of  “memory” and recall (anamnesis).

The liturgy does not only recalls events through the History of Salvation, but, also, actualises, i.e. renders present, the self-same events!

This is the “eternal today” we hear as we celebrate the Word of God and the His presence in the Church: “Today Christ is Risen!”, “Today the Lord ascends to Heaven””, “Today Christ feeds the thousands” and so on, according to the liturgical feast of the day.

 

The Mind of Christ

Memory for the Christian is a very noble and lofty sanctuary, not to be defiled by human sin. (Saint John-Paul II, Athens. Greece, May 2001).

Indeed, we who are now living in the times of the Resurrection, and that is not only during the Paschal season) have to take care as to what do we allow to remain strong in our memory.

We are capable, up to a point, to check the way we keep what enters our memory, the things that caused us bitterness and anger, frustration and sadness and trouble in general. We cannot “forget”, but we can place them in the bigger picture of reality, stripped of their emotional burden. This burden limits our freedom as children of God. This is not an easy task. United to the Risen Lord and with the power of His Resurrection we begin to discern the bigger picture, the amazing world surrounding us, the Beauty that beckons to us and the Divine Love that embraces us. This is an Act of Faith!

Saint Paul tells us: We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgement: For who knows the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.  (1 Cor. 2, 12-16).

 

We received the Holy Spirit

As it is written;

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Cor. 29-12).

 

THE CHURCH IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” “To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the body are joined one with the other and with their exalted head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the members.” The Holy Spirit makes the Church “the temple of the living God”:

Indeed, it is to the Church herself that the “Gift of God” has been entrusted. . . . In it is in her that communion with Christ has been deposited, that is to say: the Holy Spirit, the pledge of incorruptibility, the strengthening of our faith and the ladder of our ascent to God. . . . For where the Church is, there also is God’s Spirit; where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace.

The Holy Spirit is “the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the Body.” He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God’s Word “which is able to build you up”; by Baptism, through which he forms Christ’s Body; by the sacraments, which give growth and healing to Christ’s members; by “the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts”; by the virtues, which make us act according to what is good; finally, by the many special graces (called “charisms”), by which he makes the faithful “fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church.”

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, §787 and  §798)

click here for Greek