www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology [I]Crossing the Threshold of Faith[/I]

I was touched by the suggestion to honor Pope John Paul II by reflecting on his teachings, and hope to carry the suggestion forward.

I would like to follow the suggestion of Pani Rose to reflect on the Theology of the Body, and I would be eager to learn more about the various apologies that the Pope offered in the name of the Church. Unfortunately both of those would require a fair amount of time and effort on my part, precluding an immediate response.

However I already own a copy of Crossing the Threshold of Faith, which has the additional advantages of being very accessible to all readers, and it addresses a wide range of topics that have already been discussed in this Forum.

This is my summary of the section "How This Book Came to Be" pp. v-ix
The book originated with a series of 20 questions proposed by Italian journalist Vittorio Messori, prepared for a TV Interview which did not come to be because of the Pope�s scheduling constraints. In late April 1994 Signore Messori was presented with a hand written manuscript of the Pope�s responses to his questions. He undertook the editorial responsibilities, which he described as minimal, with the exception of the insertion of additional questions. (Italics in the text are said to reflect underlining by John Paul II.) The final result is a series of 35 chapters (not numbered in the book), most of which are only a few pages long.

What I would suggest is taking one of these chapters each day for the next month. I am willing to post a brief resume/reaction on each chapter to start the discussion.

I will plan on posting the chapter headings on Sunday April 10, and I will start postings Monday and continue as long as there is interest.

Phil,

Christ is Risen!

What a great idea.

You mean "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," right?

I just started to reread it this morning.

In Christ,

John

I will get my book down and re-read it, I am sure it will take on greater meaning.

Pani Rose

These are the 35 chapters (unnumbered in the book) of John Paul II's "Crossing the Threshold of Hope."

1. �The Pope�: A Scandal and A Mystery

2. Praying: How and Why?

3. How Does the Pope Pray?

4. Does God Really Exist?

5. �Proof�: Is It Still Valid?

6. If God Exists Why Is He Hiding?

7. Is Jesus the Son of God?

8. What Has Become of the �History of Salvation�?

9. The Centrality of Salvation

10. Why Is There So Much Evil in the World?

11. Why Does God Tolerate Suffering?

12. What does �To Save� Mean?

13. Why So Many Religions?

14. Buddha?

15. Muhammed?

16. Judaism?

17. A Minority by the Year 2000

18. What is the �New Evangelization�?

19. Is There Really Hope in the Young?

20. Was God at Work in the Fall of Communism?

21. Is Only Rome Right?

22. In Search of Lost Unity

23. Why Divided?

24. The Church and the Council

25. A �Dialogue of Salvation�

26. A Qualitative Renewal

27. The Reaction of the �World�

28. Does �Eternal Life� Exist?

29. What is the Use of Believing?

30. Human Rights

31. The Defense of Every Life

32. The Mother of God

33. Women

34. �Be Not Afraid�

35. Crossing the Threshold of Hope

1. �The Pope�: A Scandal and A Mystery pp. 3-14

pp. 3-4 �The Question� �Confronted with the Pope, one must make a choice. The leader of the Catholic Church is defined by the faith as the Vicar of Christ � according to many others � [T]he Pope is not God�s representative. � Confronted with you, one must wager �that you are either the mysterious living proof of the Creator of the Universe or the central protagonist of a millennial illusion.

p. 4 Your question is infused with both a lively faith and a certain anxiety. I state right from the outset: �Be not afraid!� �

p. 5 Christ addressed this invitation many times to those he met. � The words Christ uttered are repeated by the Church. And with the Church, they are repeated by the Pope.

Of what should we not be afraid? We should not fear the truth about ourselves. � Do not be afraid of men!

p. 6 Have no fear when people call me the �Vicar of Christ,� when they say to me, �Holy Father,� or �Your Holiness� or titles similar to these, which seem even inimical to the Gospel.

Every time Christ exhorts us to have no fear, He has both God and man in mind. He means, Do not be afraid of God, who, according to the philosophers, is the transcendent Absolute. �

p. 7 Christ is the sacrament of the invisible God � a sacrament that indicates presence. God is with us. � Do not be afraid of God who became a man! �

Peter � was afraid, instead, for the Son of God as a man. �
p. 8
p. 9 Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ could have confidence in Peter.

Against this � historical background, expressions such as �Supreme Pontiff� � are of little importance. What is important originates in the Death and Resurrection of Christ. What is important is that which comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. � [Peter and] Paul became authentic witnesses of Christ, faithful unto the shedding of their blood.

The Church professes: �You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.� �
p. 10 This Revelation is definitive: one can only accept it or reject it. �
� Peter himself had difficulties in this respect �
Is it any wonder that even those who believe in one God, of whom Abraham was witness, find it difficult to have faith in a crucified God? �

p. 11 You rightly assert that the Pope is a mystery.
You also contend that, confronted with such a mystery, that is, confronted with the Pope � one must choose; and for many the choice is not easy. But was it easy for Peter? Was it easy for any of his successors? Is it easy for the present Pope? To choose requires man�s initiative. � This choice, therefore is not only a human initiative but also an act of God, who works and reveals himself through man.

p. 12 Do not be afraid of God�s mystery; do not be afraid of His love; and do not be afraid of man�s weakness or of his grandeur!

Once again concerning names: The Pope is called the �Vicar of Christ.� This title should be considered within the entire context of the Gospel. �
p. 13 �
From this perspective, the expression �Vicar of Christ� assumes its true meaning. More than dignity it alludes to service. �
� With regard to the Church entrusted to him, each Bishop is Vicarius Christi �
p. 14. Saint Augustine, who often repeated, �Vobis sum episcopus, vobiscum christianus� (I am a bishop for you, I am a Christian with you.� �) On further reflection, christianus has far greater significance than episcopus, even if the subject is the Bishop of Rome.

p. 6 Have no fear when people call me the �Vicar of Christ,� when they say to me, �Holy Father,� or �Your Holiness� or titles similar to these, which seem even inimical to the Gospel.

In my simple mind this is somehow explained more clearly in the Lemba Tribe in South Africa. These people professed Judism, but it was not until science could use DNA testing that it was proved. They are a lost tribe. http://www.sdjewishjournal.com/stories/mar04_1.html

That is how people will someday understand the Vicar of Christ, suddenly the DNA in the Gospels will all make sence to people who are blinded by the arrogance of this world.

p. 5 Christ addressed this invitation many times to those he met. � The words Christ uttered are repeated by the Church. And with the Church, they are repeated by the Pope. Peter � was afraid, instead, for the Son of God as a man . � p. 9 Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ could have confidence in Peter.

I had never thought about it in that way before. Since the Holy Spirit was not there, he was not able to fully understand, he saw only with human eyes, and then only by grace and mercy was he able to profess Jesus Christ as Lord. This makes it much clearer as to how we understand through grace. Those who have never known Christ, but know of him, and they only know because of the grace and mercy to understand.

To choose requires man�s initiative. � This choice, therefore is not only a human initiative but also an act of God, who works and reveals himself through man. Here to me he is pointing clearly to man's free will to choose. All to often we choose not to be incumbered by what we see are confines. It is like disciplinig a solider, if the DI says that is ok sonny, you will be ok...wow he never learns how, he is leaving it up to the will of the person. But if he says Soldier! then the person moves in accordance with the instrutors will. God in his mercy calls up Soldier, but allows us to go forward in the grace of discipline, so that we accomplish his will. If opened to his desire, I believe ultimately it is to enter the Sacramental Church, as is evident by so many Protestant Clergy comeing home. When one finds the truth the truth shall set them free in deed. Hence: p. 12 Do not be afraid of God�s mystery; do not be afraid of His love; and do not be afraid of man�s weakness or of his grandeur!

2. Praying: How and Why?

p. 16. Your question concerns prayer: you are asking the Pope how he prays, And I thank you. Perhaps it is worth starting with Saint Paul�s Letter to the Romans. The Apostle comes to the heart of the matter when he writes, �The Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings� (cf. Rom 8.26)

What is prayer? It is commonly held to be a conversation. In a conversation there is always an �I� and a �thou� or �you.� � The �Thou� is more important, because our prayer begins with God. � prayer reflects all created reality; it is in a certain sense a cosmic function.

Man is the priest of all creation. �
Romans 8:19-26!

p. 17 In prayer, then, the true protagonist is God. � The protagonist is the Holy Spirit who �comes to the aid of our weakness.� We begin to pray, believing that it is our own initiative that compels us to do so. Instead we learn that it is always God�s initiative within us, just as Saint Paul has written. This initiative restores us to our true humanity; it restores us to our unique dignity.

One can and must pray in many different ways � The Book of Psalms is irreplaceable. We must pray with �inexpressible groanings� in order to enter into <p. 18> rhythm with the Spirit�s own entreaties. � Prayer is always an opus gloriae (a work, a labor of glory)

� Man achieves the fullness of prayer not when he expresses himself, but when he lets God be most fully present in prayer.

3. How Does the Pope Pray? pp. 19 - 26
p. 19. � I would like to return to the previous question: How � and for whom � does the Pope pray?

You would have to ask the Holy Spirit! The Pope prays as the Holy Spirit permits him to pray. I think he has to pray in a way in which , deepening the mystery revealed in Christ, he can better fulfill his ministry. �

For what does the Pope pray? What fills the interior space of his prayer?

p. 20 The subject of the Pope�s prayer is the phrase thatbegins the last document of the Second Vatican Council, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: Gaudium et spes, luctus et angor hominum huius temporis (The joy and the hope, the grief and the anguish of the people of our times.)

� What is the gospel? It is a grand affirmation of the world and of man, because it is the revelation of the truth about God. God is the primary source of joy and hope for man. �

The Gospel, above all else, is the joy of creation. � God the creator seems to say of all of creation: �It is good that you exist.� And his joy spreads especially through the �good news.� according to which good is greater than all that is evil in the world. Evil, in fact, is neither fundamental nor definitive. This point clearly distinguishes Christianity from all forms of existential pessimism.

Creation was given and entrusted to humankind as a duty, representing not a source of suffering but <p. 21> the foundation of a creative existence in the world.

This essential joy of creation is, in turn, supplemented by the joy of salvation, by the joy of redemption. �

Therefore the cause of our joy is to give us the strength to defeat evil and to embrace the divine filiation which constitutes the essence of the Good News. �
p. 22
The work of redemption is to elevate the work of creation to a new level. �

Because the Pope is a witness of Christ and a minister of the Good News, he is a man of joy and a man of hope, a man of the fundamental affirmation of the value of existence, the value of creation, and of hope in the future life. � The Gospel teaches us to call good and evil by name, but it also teaches: �Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good� cf. Rom 12:21).

Here Christian morality is fully expressed. If this morality, however, strives towards values, if it brings a universal affirmation of good, it can be nothing but extraordinarily demanding. �
p. 23
The Pope, like very Christian, must be keenly aware of the dangers to which man is subject in the world � And it is precisely in this struggle for the victory of good in man and the world that the need for prayer arises.

The Pope�s prayer, however, has an added dimension. In his concern for all the churches every day the Pontiff must open his prayer, his thought, his heart to the entire world. �

Prayer in our time, prayer in the twentieth century, should also be discussed. � We must look at the immensity of good that has spring from the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, and, at the same time, not lose sight of the mystery of sin, which is continually expanding.
p. 24
� This profound truth presents a perennial challenge for prayer. It shows how necessary prayer is for the world and for the Church, because in the end it constitutes the easiest way of making God and His redeeming love present in the world. �
�
The Church prays that everywhere the work of salvation will be accomplished through Christ. ..

The Church and the Pope pray for the people to whom this mission must be particularly entrusted � <p. 25> they pray for vocations � not only for religious and priestly vocations but also for the many vacations to holiness among God�s people amid the laity.

The Church prays for the suffering. �

The Church prays for the dead �

Prayer is a search for God, but it is also a revelation of God. �
p. 26
� Through prayer God reveals Himself above all as Mercy � that is, Love that goes out to those who are suffering. � A person who prays professes such a truth and in a certain sense makes God, who is merciful Love, present in the world.

4. Does God Really Exist? pp. 27-31
p. 28 �from a human perspective can (and how can) one come to the conclusion that God really exists?

Your question ultimately concerns Pascal�s distinction between �the God of the Philosophers (the rationalist libertines) � and the God of Jesus Christ � Only the God of Jesus Christ is the living God. � the God of the philosophers is the fruit of human thought, of human speculations, and capable of saying something about God.

p. 29 St, Thomas, however, did not abandon the philosophers� approach. He began his Summa Theoogica with the question �An Deus sit?� � �Does God exist?� (cf. I.q.2,a.3). You ask the same question. This question has proven to be very useful. Not only did it create theodicy, but this question has reverberated throughout a highly developed Western civilization.

At this point it is necessary to cite an entire passage from the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council:
This passage of the Council is immensely rich. One clearly sees that the response to the question �An Deus sit?� is not only an issue that touches the intellect; it is at the same time an issue that has a strong impact on <p. 31> all of human existence. � Questioning God�s existence is intimately united with the purpose of human existence. Not only is it a question of intellect, it is a question of the will, even a question of the human heart � St. Thomas celebrates all of the richness and complexity of each created being, and especially of the human being. � he continues, in fact, to be the master of philosophical and theological universalism. In this context, his quinque viae � that is, his �five ways� that lead toward a response to the question �An Deus sit?� � should be read.

5. �Proof�: Is It Still Valid? pp. 32-36
p. 32 Is this kind of thinking still relevant today for the man who asks himself about God, His existence, His essence?

I would say today more so than ever, certainly more so than in recent times. � Contemporary man has rediscovered the sacred, even if he does not always know how to identify it.
p. 33

�
If we put ourselves in the positivist perspective, concepts such as God or the soul simply lose meaning. In terms of sensory experience, in fact, nothing corresponds to God or the soul.

In some fields this positivist view is fading. �
The fact that human knowledge is primarily a sensory knowledge surprises no one. � nihil est in intellectu, quod prius non fuerit in sensu. (�nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses�). Nevertheless, the limits of these �senses� are not exclusively sen<p.34>sory. We know, in fact, that man � also knows objects globally � for example, not only all the parts that comprise the object �man� but also man in himself (yes, man as a person). He knows, therefore extrasensory truths, or in other words, the transempirical. �

It is therefore possible to speak from a solid foundation about human experience, moral experience, or religious experience. � Man recognizes himself as an ethical being, capable of acting according to the criteria of good and evil, and not only those of profit and pleasure. He also recognizes himself as a religious being, capable of putting himself in contact with God. �
p. 35
� contemporary thought has made notable advances toward the ever more complete discovery of man �
�
For contemporary thought, the philosophy of religion is very important � We are witnesses of a symptomatic return to metaphysics (the philosophy of being) through an integral anthropology. One cannot think adequately about man without reference, which for man is constitutive, to God. Saint Thomas defined this as the actus essendi (essential act) in <p. 36> the language of the philosophy of existence. The philosophy of religious experience expresses this with the categories of anthropological experience.

The philosophers of dialogue, such as Martin Buber and the aforementioned L�vinas, have contributed greatly to this experience. � the path passes not so much through being and existence as through people and their meeting each other, through the �I� and the �Thou�. This is a fundamental dimension of man�s existence, which is always a coexistence.

Where did the philosophers of dialogue learn this? Foremost they learned it from their experience of the Bible. �

Our faith is profoundly anthropological, rooted constitutively in coexistence, in the community of God�s people, and in communion with this eternal �Thou.� ...

Phil someone just brought my copy back, now I have to catch up with you. Thanks for what you are doing.

Pani Rose

6. If God Exists Why Is He Hiding? Pp. 37-41
p. 37 God then, the biblical God, exists. �Why doesn�t he reveal Himself more clearly? �
� Wouldn�t it be simpler if His existence were evident?

The question you ask � and which many ask � � stem from another source, <p. 38> one that is purely rationalist, one that is characteristic of modern philosophy �

How different from the approach of St. Thomas, for whom it is not thought that determines existence but existence, �esse� which determines thought. I think the way I think because I am that which I am � a creature � and because He is He who is, the absolute uncreated Mystery. If He were not Mystery, there would be no need for Revelation, or more precisely, there would be no need for God to reveal Himself.

Your questions would only be legitimate if man, with his created intellect and within the limits of his own subjectivity, could overcome the entire distance that separates creation from the Creator, �

The thoughts that concern you � are expressed by a series of questions. They are not only yours. � <p. 39> These are questions that belong to the repertory of contemporary agnosticism. Agnosticism is not atheism; �

Nevertheless your questions contain statements that re-echo the Old and New Testaments.
�
�
God�s revelation comes about in a special way by his �becoming man.� �
<p. 40> � It is precisely in this birth, and then through the Passion, the Cross, and the Resurrection that the self-revelation of God in the history of man reached its zenith � the revelation of the invisible God in the visible humanity of Christ.

Even the day before the Passion, the apostles asked Christ, �Show us the Father� (Jn 14.8) His response remains fundamental � �� the Father and I are one� (cf. Jn 14.9-11; 10:30)

Christ�s words are far reaching. We are almost at the point of that direct experience to which contemporary man aspires. �

� Could God go further in His stooping down, in His drawing near to man, thereby expanding the possibilities of our knowing Him? In truth, it seems that He has gone as far as possible. He could not go further. In a certain sense, God has gone too far! � <p. 41> � Man was no longer able to tolerate such closeness, and thus the protests began.
...
� {God} was not mindful of the fact that such an unveiling would in a certain sense obscure Him in the eyes of man, because man is not capable of withstanding an excess of the Mystery. He does not want to be pervaded and overwhelmed by it. Yes, man knows that God is the one in whom �we live and move and have our being� (Acts 17.28); but why must that be confirmed by His Death and Resurrection? Yet Saint Paul writes, �If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty too, your faith� (1 Cor 15.14).

7. Is Jesus the Son of God? pp. 42-49
p. 42 From the �problem� of God, let�s move on to the �problem� of Jesus, as in fact you have already begin to do.
Why isn�t Jesus simply considered a wise man like Socrates? Or a prophet like Muhammad? Or enlightened like Buddha? How does one maintain the unprecedented certainty that this Jew condemned to death in an obscure province is the Son of God, of one being with the Father? This radical Christian claim has no parallel in any other religious belief. Saint Paul himself defined it as �a scandal and madness.�

Saint Paul is profoundly aware that Christ is absolutely original and absolutely unique. If he were only a wise man like Socrates, if he were only a <p. 43> �Prophet� like Muhammad, if he were �enlightened� like Buddha without any doubt he would not be what he is. He is the one mediator between God and humanity.

He is the mediator because he is both God and man. He holds within himself the entire intimate world of divinity, the entire Mystery of the Trinity �

But at the same time, Christ is so human! Thanks to this, the entire world of men, the entire history of humanity, finds in Him its expression before God. �

Christ is unique! �
�
p. 44
� He is the eternal witness to the Father, and to the love that the Father has had for His creation from the beginning. �

From the beginning Christ has been at the center of the faith and life of the Church and also at the center of her teaching and theology. �
p. 45
� It could be said that from the very beginning there was a Christological focus in Christianity.

� A Marian dimension and Mariology in the Church are simply another aspect of the Christological focus.

� The uniqueness of Christ � is the center of the Church�s faith �
p. 46
p. 47
p. 48
� The Christology of the New Testament is �explosive.� The Fathers, the great Scholastics, the theologians of the ensuing centuries did nothing other than return, always with renewed wonder, to the heritage they had received, in order to grow in a deeper understanding of it.

You will remember that my first encyclical on the Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis) appeared a few months after my election �
� The encyclical aims to be a great hymn of joy for the fact that man has been redeemed in Christ � redeemed <p. 49> in spirit and in body. The redemption of the body subsequently found its own expression in the series of catecheses for the Wednesday Papal audiences: �Male and female he created them.� Perhaps it would be better to say: �Male and female He redeemed them.�

I am committed to completing these summaries, as I hope to use them in the future. I am unsure of the value of posting them serially here. The end result will be a WORD file, and it may be more efficient if those who are interested simply get the file when it is finished.

I am willing to keep posting here chapter by chapter, but I will not do so unless there is some expression of interest from other members.

Phil Yevics,

A good work that you are doing!

It does take a lot of "Faith", to comment upon John Paul II's "Crossing the threshold of Hope"

Hope we all grow in "Faith" while reading your comments.

Shestelle