February 2: Presentation of the
Lord – Purification of Our Lady
“Sign of Contradiction”
Simeon:
“Behold, he is set for the fall and the rising of
many in Israel, and as a sign of
contradiction; and for your part a sword will pierce your soul, so that the
thoughts of many hearts may be laid bare.” (Lk. 2, 34 -35).
John
Paul II: “The times in which we are living provide particularly strong
confirmation of the truth of what Simeon said: Jesus is both the light that
shines for man kind and at the same time
a sign of contradiction. If not – on the threshold of the last quarter-century
before the second millennium, after the second Vatican Council, and in the
face of the terrible experiences the
human family has undergone and is still undergoing – Jesus Christ is once again
revealing himself to men as the light of
the world, has he not also become at
tone and the same time that sign which,
more than eer, men are resolved to oppose?”
(…)
“In
men of today there undoubtedly is one form of contradiction which one may
illustrate with the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Cf. Lk. 16, 19-31). Jesus is
on the side of Lazarus. His kingdom will come in this world in accordance with
the program of the beatitudes (cf. Mt. 5, 3-10), and we know that the poor are
the blessed ones (Lk. 6, 20), the poor in spirit (Mt. 5, 3), the meek, those
who hunger and thirst for justice and those who weep. Those who take pity, too,
are blessed. The great poverty of many peoples, first and foremost the poverty
of the peoples of the Third World, hunger, economic exploitation, colonialism –
which is not confined to the Third World – all this is a form of opposition to
Christ on the part of the powerful, irrespective of political regimes and
cultural traditions. This form of contradiction of Christ often goes
hand-in-hand with a partial acceptance of religion, of Christianity and the
Church, an acceptance of Christ as the element present in culture, morality and
even education. Dives appealed to Abraham and turned to him as Father (Lk. 16,
24).
“Certainly
there s in this world a powerful reserve of faith, and also a considerable
margin of freedom for the Church’s mission. But often it iis no more than a
margin. One need only take not of the principal tendencies governing the means
of social communication, one need only pay heed to what is passed over in
silence and what is shouted aloud, one need only lend an ear to what encounters
most opposition, to perceive that even where Christ is accepted there is at the
same time opposition to the full truth of his Person, his mission and his
Gospel. There is a desire to ‘re-shape’ him, to adapt him to suit mankind in
this era of progress and make him fit in with the programme of modern civilization
– which is a program of consumerism and not of transcendental ends. There is
opposition to him from those standpoints, and the truth proclaimed and recorded
in his name is not tolerated (cf. Acts 4, 10, 12, 18) This opposition to Christ
which goes hand-in-hand with paying him lip-service – and it is to be found also among those who call
themselves his disciples – is particularly symptomatic of our own times.
“Yet
that is not the only form of contradiction of Christ. Alongside what can be
called ‘indirect contradiction’ – an incidentally there are many variations on
it, many shades and blends – alongside that there is another form of contradiction probably
arising out of the same historical basis as the first one – and therefore more
or less a result of that first one. It is a form of direct opposition to
Christ, an undisguised rejection of the Gospel, a flat denial of the truth
about God, man and the world as proclaimed by the Gospel. This denial sometimes
takes on a brutal character. We know that there are still some countries where
churches of all denominations are closed, where priests are sentenced to death
for having administered baptism. Perhaps in those areas of persecution there
are still traces of the ancient Christian catacombs, of the circuses where
witnesses to Christ were thrown to the lions. But present-day persecution, the
kind typical of these last years of the 20th century, occurs in a
context quite different from that of ancient times, and it therefore has a
quite different significance.
“We
are living in an age in which the whole
world proclaims freedom of conscience and religious freedom, and also in an age
in which the battle against religion –
defined as ‘the opium of the people’ – is being fought in such a way as to avoid, as far as possible,
making any new martyrs. And so the program for today is one of face-saving
persecution: persecution is declared non-existent and full religious freedom is
declared assured. What is more, this program has succeeded in giving many
people the impression that it is on the side of Lazarus against therich man
that it is therefore on the same side as Christ, whereas in fact it is above all
against Christ. Can we really say: ‘above all’? We would so much like to be
able to affirm the opposite. But unfortunately the facts demonstrate clearly that
the battle against religion is being fought, and that this battle stil
constitutes an untouchable point of dogma in the program. It also seems as if,
for the attainment of the ‘heaven upon earth,’ it is most of all necessary to
deprive man of the strength he draws on in Christ (cf. Rom. 1, 16; 1 Cor. 1,
18; 2 Cor. 13, 4; Phil. 4, 16): this ‘strength’ has indeed been condemned as
weakness, unworthy of man. Unworthy … worrisome, rather. The man who is strong
with the strength given him by the faith does not easily allow himself be
thrust into the anonymity of the collective (cf. 2 Cor. 12, 9).
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