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„Błogosławieni ubodzy duchem…” (Fragment przemówie− nia wygłoszonego 2 lipca 1980 roku w Faveli Vidigal w Rio de Janeiro)

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Paweł II J.

Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL

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2011

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vol. 24

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issue 4 (96)

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In his address to the poor inhabitants of the Favela Vidigal, Rio de Janeiro, delivered during the apostolic travel to Brazil in 1980, the Holy Father John Paul II addressed the issue of poverty, which, he stressed, is not the will of God. The Pope explicated the sense of the seven beatitudes, in particular of the for−mulation “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Mt 5: 3), and referred that formulation to the others: “the clean of heart” (Mt 5: 8), “they who mourn” (Mt 5: 4), “they who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Mt 5: 6), “the meek” (Mt 5: 5), “the peacemakers” (Mt 5: 9), “they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (Mt 5: 10), and “the merciful” (Mt 5: 7). The poor in spirit – he repeated – are those who are the most merciful, generous, magnanimous and noble. Christ’s words about the poor in spirit must not be understood as an encouragement to disregard social inequality or the entire social question. This question assumes a different shape in different times and has its specific dimension also in Brazil. In fact, Christ’s words about the poor in spirit uncover all these problems to the world and they are a simultaneous warning for the rich: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way” (Lk 6: 24−26). Everywhere in the world, also in Brazil, the Church wants to be the Church of the poor and to grasp the entire truth of Christ’s words, she wants to teach this truth and to act accordingly. She wants to teach the truth inherent in the beatitudes to all: both to the rich and to the poor. Thus she offers encouragement to the poor, stressing that they are particularly close to God and to his Kingdom, and that while living in poverty, they must protect their human dignity and keep their hearts open to others. The Pope clearly said that the Church speaks to everyone. She is the universal Church, the Church of the Mystery of the Incarnation. She is not the Church of one social class or a caste, and she speaks only in the name of the truth in her possession. Yet the Church of the poor does not want to introduce tension amongpeople. The struggle she wants to serve is the noble struggle for truth and justice, for real good. Thus she declares solidarity with every human being. Following her way, the Church does not want to serve any political elites, but address all the political, economic and social systems. She has her own language, which has its roots in the Gospel and she does not want to introduce into it any elements contrary to her message. She stresses that only a just society is a justified one. A society which does not make the effort to be more just jeopardizes its own future. All of this is included in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, in its one verse: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Extract from the address delivered in Favela Vidigal in Rio de Janeiro on 2 July 1980; source text: Jan Paweł II, “Błogosławieni ubodzy duchem,” in: Nauczanie papieskie, ed. E. Weron, SAC, and A. Jaroch, SAC, vol. 3 (1980), part 2,Pallottinum, Poznań–Warszawa 1986, p. 12−16. Summarized by Dorota Chabrajska

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Czas – historia – wieczność (Fragmenty Listu apostolskiego Tertio millennio adveniente oraz encykliki Fides et ratio)

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Paweł II J.

Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL

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2012

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vol. 25

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issue 3 (99)

EN

In Christianity time has a fundamental importance. Within the dimension of time the world was created; within it the history of salvation unfolds, finding its culmination in the “fullness of time” of the Incarnation, and its goal in the glorious return of the Son of God at the end of time. In Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, time becomes a dimension of God, who is himself eternal. With the coming of Christ there begin “the last days” (cf. Heb 1:2), the “last hour” (cf. 1 Jn 2:18), and the time of the Church, which will last until the Parousia. From this relationship of God with time there arises the duty to sanctify time. This is done, for example, when individual times, days or weeks, are dedicated to God, as once happened in the religion of the Old Covenant, and as happens still, though in a new way, in Christianity. In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil the celebrant, as he blesses the candle which symbolizes the Risen Christ, proclaims: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, all time belongs to him, and all the ages, to him be glory and power through every age for ever.” He says these words as he inscribes on the candle the numerals of the current year. The meaning of this rite is clear: it emphasizes the fact that Christ is the Lord of time; he is its beginning and its end; every year, every day and every moment are embraced by his Incarnation and Resurrection, and thus become part of the “fullness of time.” For this reason, the Church too lives and celebrates the liturgy in the span of a year. The solar year is thus permeated by the liturgical year, which in a certain way reproduces the whole mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption, beginning from the First Sunday of Advent and ending on the Solemnity of Christ the King, Lord of the Universe and Lord of History. Every Sunday commemorates the day of the Lord’s Resurrection. Against this background, we can understand the custom of Jubilees, which began in the Old Testament and continues in the history of the Church. Jesus of Nazareth, going back one day to the synagogue of his home town, stood up to read (cf. Lk 4:16-30). Taking the book of the Prophet Isaiah, he read this passage: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those whoare bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (61:1-2). The Prophet was speaking of the Messiah. “Today,” Jesus added, “this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21), thus indicating that he himself was the Messiah foretold by the Prophet, and that the long-expected “time” was beginning in him. The day of salvation had come, the “fullness of time.”All Jubilees point to this time and refer to the Messianic mission of Christ, who came as the one anointed by the Holy Spirit, the one sent by the Father. It is he who proclaims the good news to the poor. It is he who brings liberty to those deprived of it, who frees the oppressed and gives back sight to the blind (cf. Mt 11:4-5; Lk 7:22). In this way he ushers in a year of the Lord’s favour, which he proclaims not only with his words but above all by his actions. The Jubilee, a year of the Lord’s favour, characterizes all the activity of Jesus; it is not merely the recurrence of an anniversary in time. God’s Revelation is therefore immersed in time and history. Jesus Christ took flesh in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4); and two thousand years later, I feelbound to restate forcefully that “in Christianity time has a fundamental importance” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, Section 10). It is within time that the whole work of creation and salvation comes to light; and it emerges clearly above all that, with the Incarnation of the Son of God, our life is even now a foretaste of the fulfilment of time which is to come (cf. Heb 1:2).The truth about himself and his life which God has entrusted to humanity is immersed therefore in time and history; and it was declared once and for all in the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth. The Constitution Dei Verbum puts it eloquently: “After speaking in many places and varied ways through the prophets, God «last of all in these days has spoken to us by his Son» (Heb 1:1-2). For he sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all people, so that he might dwell among them and tell them the innermost realities about God (cf. Jn 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, sent as «a human being to human beings […] speaks the words of God» (Jn 3:34), and completes the work of salvation which his Father gave him to do (cf. Jn 5:36; 17:4). To see Jesus is to see his Father (Jn 14:9). For this reason, Jesus perfected Revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making himself present and manifesting himself: through his words and deeds, his signs and wonders, but especially through his death and glorious Resurrection from the dead and finally his sending of the Spirit of truth” (Section 4). For the People of God, therefore, history becomes a path to be followed to the end, so that by the unceasing action of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:13) the contents of revealed truth may find their full expression. This is the teaching of the Constitution Dei Verbum when it states that “as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly progresses towards the fullness of divine truth, until the words of God reach their complete fulfilment in her” (Section 8). History therefore becomes the arena where we see what God does for humanity. God comes to us in the things we know best and can verify most easily, the things of our everyday life, apart from which we cannot understand ourselves. In the Incarnation of the Son of God we see forged the enduring and definitivesynthesis which the human mind of itself could not even have imagined: the Eternal enters time, the Whole lies hidden in the part, God takes on a human face. The truth communicated in Christ’s Revelation is therefore no longer confined to a particular place or culture, but is offered to every man and woman who would welcome it as the word which is the absolutely valid source of meaning for human life. Now, in Christ, all have access to the Father, since by his Death and Resurrection Christ has bestowed the divine life which the first Adam had refused (cf. Rom 5:12-15). Through this Revelation, men and women are offered the ultimate truth about their own life and about the goal of history. As the Constitution Gaudium et Spes puts it, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light” (Section 22). Seen in any other terms, the mystery of personal existence remains an insoluble riddle. Wheremight the human being seek the answer to dramatic questions such as pain, the suffering of the innocent and death, if not in the light streaming from the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection? Extracts from the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (Sections 10-11)of 10 November 1994 and encyclical Fides et Ratio (Sections 11-12) of 14 September 1998.The title comes from the editors. © Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1994, 1998http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_10111994_tertio-millennio-adveniente_en.htmlhttp://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jpii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.html

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List Ojca Świętego Jana Pawła II do Episkopatu Kościoła Katolickiego na 1800 rocznicę I Soboru Konstantynopolitańskiego i na 1550 rocznicę Soboru Efeskiego

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Paweł II J.

Vox Patrum

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1981

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vol. 1

5-20

EN

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness John Paul ii to the bishops of the Catholic Church for the 1600th anniversary of the first Council of Constantinople and the 1550th anniversary of the Council of Ephesus.

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List Ojca Świętego Jana Pawła II do Episkopatu Kościoła Katolickiego na 1800 rocznicę I Soboru Konstantynopolitańskiego i na 1550 rocznicę Soboru Efeskiego.

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Źródło prawdziwej radości (Katecheza wygłoszona pod− czas audiencji generalnej 19 VI 1991)

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Paweł II J.

Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL

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2011

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vol. 24

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issue 1 2(93 94)

EN

We have already heard many times from St. Paul that “joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5:22), as are love and peace, which we have discussed in earlier catecheses. It is clear that the Apostle is speaking of the true joy which fills the human heart, and certainly not of a superficial, transitory joy, which worldly joy frequently is. It is not difficult for an observer who operates solely on the level of psychology and experience to discover that degradation in the area of pleasure and love is in proportion to the void left in man from the false and deceptive joys sought in those things which St. Paul called the “works of the flesh”: “immorality, impurity, licentiousness [...] drinking bouts, orgies and the like” (Gal 5:19, 21). One can add to these false joys (and there are many connected with them) those sought in the possession and immoderate use of wealth, in luxury, in ambition for power, in short, in that passion for an almost frantic search for earthly goods which can easily produce a darkened mind, as St. Paul mentions (cf. Eph 4:18−19), and Jesus laments (cf. Mk 4:19). Paul refers to the pagan world to exhort his converts to guard against wickedness: “That is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:20−24). It is the “new creation” (cf. 2 Cor 5:17), which is the work of the Holy Spirit, present in the soul and in the Church. Therefore, the Apostle concludes his exhortation to good behavior and peace in this way: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). If a Christian “grieves” the Holy Spirit who lives in his soul, he certainly cannot hope to possess the true joy which comes from him: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” (Gal 5:22). Only the Holy Spirit gives a profound, full and lasting joy, which every human heart desires. The human person is being made for joy, not for sadness. Paul VI reminded Christians and all our contemporaries of this in the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino. True joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit. In the Letter to the Galatians Paul has told us that joy is connected with love (cf. Gal 5:22). Therefore, it cannot be an egotistical experience, the result of a dis− ordered love. True joy includes justice in the kingdom of God, which St. Paul says “is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). It is a matter of Gospel justice, which consists in conformity to the will of God, obedience to his laws and personal friendship with him. Apart from this friend− ship there is no true joy. Rather, as St. Thomas explains: “Sadness, as an evil or vice, is caused by a disordered love for oneself, which […] is the general root of all vices” (Summa Theol., II−II, q. 28, a. 4, ad 1; cf. I−II, q. 72, a. 4). Sin is particularly a source of sadness, because it is a deviation or almost a distortion of the soul away from the just order of God, which gives consistency to one’s life. The Holy Spirit, who accomplishes in man the new righteousness in love, removes sadness and gives joy, the joy which we see blossoming in the Gospel. Gospel is an invitation to joy and an experience of true and profound joy. At the annunciation, Mary was invited: “Rejoice, full of grace” (Lk 1:28). This is the summation of a whole series of invitations formulated by the prophets of the Old Testament (cf. Zech 9:9; Zep 3:14−17, Joel 2:21−27, Is 54:1). Mary’s joy is realized with the coming of the Holy Spirit, who was announced to Mary as the reason for rejoicing. At the visitation, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and with joy, participating naturally and supernaturally in the rejoicing of her son who was still in her womb: “The infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Lk 1:44). Elizabeth perceived her son’s joy and showed it, but according to the evangelist, it is the Holy Spirit who filled both of them with this joy. Mary, in turn, exactly at that moment felt rising in her heart that song of rejoicing which expresses the humble, clear and profound joy which filled her, almost as a realization of the angel’s “rejoice”: “My spirit rejoices in God my savior” (Lk 1:47). In these words, too, Mary echoed the prophets’ sound of joy, such as in the Book of Habakkuk: “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord and exult in my saving God” (Hab 3:18). A continuation of this rejoicing took place during the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple, when Simeon met him and rejoiced under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, who had made him desire to see the Messiah and compelled him to go to the Temple (cf. Lk 2:26−32). Then, the prophetess Anna, as she was called by the evangelist, who therefore presents her as a woman consecrated to God and an interpreter of his thoughts and commands according to the tradition of Israel (cf. Ex 15:20; Jgs 4:9; 2 Kgs 22:14), by praising God expresses the interior joy which in her, too, takes its origin from the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 2:36−38). In the Gospel texts which concern the public life of Jesus, we read that at a certain moment he himself “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Lk 10:21). Jesus expressed joy and gratitude in a prayer which celebrates the Father’s loving kindness: “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will” (Lk 10:21). In Jesus, joy assumes all its force in enthusiasm for the Father. The same is true for the joys inspired and sustained by the Holy Spirit in human life. Their hidden, vital energy directs individuals toward a love which is full of gratitude to the Father. Every true joy has the Father as its final goal. Jesus invited his disciples to rejoice, to overcome the temptation to sadness at the Master’s departure, because this departure was the condition planned by God for the coming of the Holy Spirit: “It is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). It will be the Spirit’s gift to provide the disciples with a great joy, even the fullness of joy, according to Jesus’ intention. The Savior, after inviting the disciples to remain in his love, said: “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete” (Jn 15:11; cf. 17:13). It is the task of the Holy Spirit to put into the disciples’ hearts the same joy that Jesus had, the joy of faithfulness to the love which comes from the Father. St. Luke attests that the disciples, who had received the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit at the time of the ascension, “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the Temple praising God” (Lk 24:52−53). In the Acts of the Apostles, it turns out that after Pentecost a climate of profound joy came to pass in the apostles. This was shared with the community in the form of exultation and enthusiasm in embracing the faith, in receiving Baptism and in community life, as can be seen in the passage: “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people” (Acts 2:46−47). The Acts notes: “The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). The sufferings and persecutions which Jesus predicted in announcing the coming of the Paraclete−Consoler (cf. Jn 16:1 ff.) would come soon enough. But according to Acts, joy lasts even during trials. One reads that the apostles, brought before the Sanhedrin, were flogged, warned and sent home. They returned “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus” (Acts 5:41−42). Moreover, this is the condition and the lot of Christians, as St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians: “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess 1:6). According to Paul, Christians reproduce in themselves the paschal mystery of Christ, whose foundation is the cross. But its crowning glory is “joy in the Holy Spirit” for those who persevere in the time of trial. It is the joy of the beatitudes, particularly the beatitude of the mourning and the persecuted (cf. Mt 5:4, 10−12). Did not Paul the Apostle say: “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake” (Col 1:24)? And Peter, in his turn, urged: “But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly” (1 Pet 4:13). Let us pray to the Holy Spirit that he may always enkindle in us a desire for the good things of heaven and enable us one day to enjoy their fullness: “Grant us virtue and its reward, grant us a holy death, give us eternal joy.” Amen.

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Wielka praca nad mową (Fragment homilii wygłoszonej 6 czerwca 1991 roku podczas Mszy św. w Olsztynie w ramach czwartej pielgrzymki Jana Pawła II do Polski)

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Paweł II J.

Ethos. Kwartalnik Instytutu Jana Pawła II KUL

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2012

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vol. 25

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issue 1 2(97 98)

EN

The eighth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” stresses that being truthful is a duty to be observed by human beings in their relations with others, as well as throughout their presence in social life. The commandment in question in particular reflects the fact that man was created in the image and likeness of God, who is truth. Thus human actions must be in accord with the requirements of truthfulness. Truth is good, whereas lies, hypocrisy and falsehood are evil, which human beings experience in various dimensions of their lives. The question of truthfulness in social and public life was particularly significant in Poland after 1989. After the breakdown of communism, the freedom of speech was restored and diverse views and standpoints could be publicly expressed. However, neither the freedom of speech, nor public expression of one’s viewsas such, can guarantee the freedom of the word that is thus being said. The freedom of speech is of little use if the words being said are not free, if they are tethered by egocentrism, deceit, guile, or even the hatered and contempt of others, of human beings who have a different skin color, a different religion or different views. There is little benefit from speech or from writing unless the words they employ are meant to seek, express and share truth rather than win debates or defend one’s position at any cost, even if it should be completely wrong. Sometimes though words may express truth in a way that is humiliating to truth itself. For instance, one may happen to be telling the truth in order to justify one’s lie. A grave disorder is introduced in social life through attempts to employ truth in the service of deceit. Truth is humiliated whenever it is not told for the sake truth itself or whenever there is no love for the human being inherent in it. The eighth commandment cannot be observed in social life unless it presupposes kindness, mutual trust and respect for all the differences that enrich the community. The climate of falsehood and deceit in social life results from treating human beings as objects or means to some end; it enters social life with every word said in order to negatively affect others, as in the case of defamation or slander, or to introduce moral disorder. Throughout the communist period Poles were forbidden to say truth publicly, and after 1989 social life needed to be madefree from falsehood. The virtue of veracity needed to be restored in order that it might shape human life as well as the media and the worlds of culture, politics and economy. While the eighth commandment proclaims that truth is a good for human beings and that each human being has the right to truth, there happen to be rightful exceptions to this rule. We admire those who will not reveal the truth even in the face violence being done to them, if they know that this truth might harm innocent human beings. Oppressors have no right to truth in such cases. In the contemporary society, one can view the media as either bearing witness to truth or not doing so. The power of modern media calls for the responsibility for the words they transmit. If the media do not accept this responsibility, they become evil and start manipulating the public opinion, much as they may be giving the impression to the contrary. One can see thus that the eighth commandment opens the human being to a whole range of existential dimensions. Yet bearing witness to truth is costly. Jesus Christ said: “For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world – to testify to the truth” (J 18:37). While it is true that human beings are free to tell untruth, they will not be truly free unless they speak truth. Christ gives a clear response to this situation: „The truth will set you free” (J 8:32). Thus one might say that human life is an aspiration to freedom through truth. This fact is very important in the current times. While we relish the freedom of speech, as well as other freedoms it implies, we tend to forget that essentially there is no freedom without truth. Only truth can make us free. Outside truth, freedom is no longer freedom, but merely its appearance which makes the human being vulnerable to enslavement. Summarized by Dorota Chabrajska

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„Błogosławieni ubodzy duchem…” (Fragment przemówie− nia wygłoszonego 2 lipca 1980 roku w Faveli Vidigal w Rio de Janeiro)

Czas – historia – wieczność (Fragmenty Listu apostolskiego Tertio millennio adveniente oraz encykliki Fides et ratio)

List Ojca Świętego Jana Pawła II do Episkopatu Kościoła Katolickiego na 1800 rocznicę I Soboru Konstantynopolitańskiego i na 1550 rocznicę Soboru Efeskiego

Źródło prawdziwej radości (Katecheza wygłoszona pod− czas audiencji generalnej 19 VI 1991)

Wielka praca nad mową (Fragment homilii wygłoszonej 6 czerwca 1991 roku podczas Mszy św. w Olsztynie w ramach czwartej pielgrzymki Jana Pawła II do Polski)