Romano Guardini - "The Lord"
“The person of Jesus is
unprecedented and therefore measurable by no already existing norm. Christian
recognition consists of realizing that all things really began with Jesus
Christ; that he is his own norm – and therefore ours – for he is truth.
“Christ’s effect upon the world can be compared with
nothing in its history save its own creation: ‘In the beginning God created heaven
and earth.’ What takes place in Christ is of the same order as the original act
of creation, though on a still higher level. For the beginning of the new creation is as far superior to the love which created the stars, plants, animals and
men. That is what the words mean: ‘I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and
what will I but that it be kindled?’ (Lk. 12, 49). It is the fire of new becoming;
not only ‘truth’ or ‘love,’ but the incandescence of new creation…. Down, down
through terrible destruction he descends, to the nadir of divine creation
whence saved existence can climb back into being.
Now we understand what St. Paul meant with his ‘excelling knowledge
of Jesus Christ:’ the realization that this is who Christ is, the Descender. To
make this realization our own is the alpha and omega of our lives, for it is
not enough to know Jesus only as the Savior. With this supreme knowledge
serious religious life can begin, and we should strive for it with our whole
strength and earnestness, as a man strives to reach his place in his
profession; as a scientist wrestles with the answer to his problem; as one
labors at his life work or for the hand of someone loved above all else.
Are these directives for saints? No, for Christians… One
day he will come. Once in the stillness of profound composure you will know:
that is Christ! Not from a book or the word or someone else, but through him.
He who is creative love brings your intrinsic potentialities to life. Your ego
at its profoundest is he” (Romano Guardini, “The Lord,” Regnery [1954] 306); [2002]
357-358).
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