In the Nov. 10th address to the Fifth
National [Italian] Ecclesial Congress, dedicated this year to the theme “In Jesus Christ, the new humanism,"
Pope Francis made two points explaining how we fail to live the following
statement:
“Faced with the ills or
the problems of the Church, it is useless to seek solutions in conservatism or
fundamentalism, in the restoration of outdated forms and conduct that have no
capacity for meaning, even culturally. Christian doctrine is not a closed system
incapable of generating questions, doubts and uncertainties, but it is living,
it knows how to disturb and to encourage. Its face is not rigid, it has a body
that moves and develops, it has tender flesh; Christian doctrine is called
Jesus Christ.”
Francis
speaks of two temptations:
1) seeking security for the self. We
do not want to risk not being in control. Reducing knowledge to conceptual
rationalism appears as rational orthodoxy as be all and end all. The
liberal-conservative split exists because we have reduced reality (Christ) to a
conceptual horizon where we are secure. I am orthodox; you are not.
The pope says it this way: “The first is that of Pelagianism, which leads the Church
not to be humble, selfless and blessed. … Often it leads us even to assuming a
style of control, of hardness, normativity. Rules give to the Pelagian the
security of feeling superior, of having a precise orientation. In this it finds
its strength, not in the soft breath of the Spirit.”
2) The test of the concepts is logic,
not experiential “seeing.” The way we know reality (Christ) is always and
ultimately by doing what He does. Only becoming gift for others gives us an
experiential knowledge of the Person of Christ such that we can say: “You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16, 16).
Benedict
XVI tried to get this across using the wrong horizon: theological concepts and
was overwhelmed as a result of building on sand pace his knowing it. Deeper
holiness was needed. Francis said:
“A
second temptation is the gnosticism that leads us to place our trust in logical
and clear reasoning that, however, loses the tenderness of our brother's flesh.
… The difference between Christian transcendence and any other form of gnostic
spiritualism resides in the mystery of the Incarnation. Not putting into
practice, not leading the Word to reality, means building on sand, remaining in
the pure idea and degenerating into intimisms that do not bear fruit, that
render its dynamism sterile”.
All of the above was clear to Benedict XVI. The problem was how to get it across by living it. Francis is doing this now - and suffering incomprehension from both sides.
Ross Douthat's Erasmas lecture on October 26th is a perfect example of not understanding the correct epistemological horizon
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