Sober Intoxication of the Spirit Part Two - Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap.

Sober Intoxication of the Spirit Part Two (eBook)

Born Again of Water and the Spirit

Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap. (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
160 Seiten
Servant (Verlag)
978-1-63582-361-5 (ISBN)

Baptism by water is the new birth. Baptism of the Spirit renews that birth and is 'a conscious awareness and a powerful experience of its meaning and its potentialities,' as Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa explains in this rich discussion of how the Holy Spirit makes all things new. In this followup to the bestselling first volume, Fr. Cantalamessa explores the themes of ongoing conversion, our transformation in faith, and our need to focus always on eternity.

Baptism by water is the new birth. Baptism of the Spirit renews that birth and is "e;a conscious awareness and a powerful experience of its meaning and its potentialities,"e; as Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa explains in this rich discussion of how the Holy Spirit makes all things new. In this followup to the bestselling first volume, Fr. Cantalamessa explores the themes of ongoing conversion, our transformation in faith, and our need to focus always on eternity.

CHAPTER TWO

“Then You Will Know That I Am”

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, / and the pride of men shall be brought low; / and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:17). In this verse from the word of God, “that day” means “this very day.” Today, the haughtiness of man must be brought low and the Lord alone must be exalted! When we gather together at Easter Vigil, we look like a great procession of lights or an enormous torchlight procession that enters a church: Everyone has his own candle. There are so many little lights that are moving. The little light that each of us holds is our “I.” Everyone has a role that sets him or her apart and makes him or her visible: someone presides, someone sings, someone prays, someone preaches. The angels, who discern spiritual reality on all occasions, witness a sea of fluttering lights.

But then the omnipotent word of God summons us all to extinguish the lights so that there might be one single Light among us. The Easter candle in the darkened church is lit as a symbol of Christ risen from the dead, and then the Lord, and only he, is truly exalted. Then, just as it happened when the temple of Solomon was dedicated (see 1 Kings 8:11b), the glory of God will come down and fill that place.

For some time now, there has been a word that I sense I must proclaim to the Church; it has been entrusted to me, and in a certain sense I am responsible for it. It was a gift due to the prayers of some cloistered sisters. There are several cloistered monasteries who have received the grace of the charismatic renewal as a whole community, adapting it to their particular vocation, and now they are the most beautiful flowers hidden at the heart of the charismatic renewal itself. They received from the renewal, but they give even more in return to the renewal with their silent prayer and their docility to the Spirit. Some time ago, shortly before Easter, I was celebrating Mass in one of these monasteries. The text for the Gospel Reading, John 8, included the verse in which Jesus says, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he [Greek: “I am”], and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me” (John 8:28).

The fact that the words “I am” were written with capital letters in my lectionary was the spark that provoked an unexpected revelation. These two words, in fact, “exploded” inside me. Since that day I feel them resonating inside and outside of me, in time and beyond time, like a majestic and solemn melody: It is the cry of the Risen One who proclaims, “I am, I am!” That experience led to a personal Easter for me. Now I must make you hear that cry; I am not sure how to succeed in doing that with my very limited abilities, but I must do it. I cry out to all of you in the name of Jesus, “Ephphatha! Open yourselves up! Open yourselves up to receive this cry from Jesus that saves you.” It establishes the truth of all things, because the real truth about all things is that God “is” and that man “is not”; God is everything, and man, without God, is nothing.

I am convinced that this cry of the Risen One, “I am,” has something important to say to us at this very point in our history. But first let us try to understand its meaning better in the light of the Gospel of John and the rest of the Bible.

Jesus often uses the expression “I am” in the Gospel of John, and it almost always refers to the event of the cross: “When you have lifted up the Son of man”—that is, when you will have crucified him— “then you will know that I am!” All of the Gospel of John can be described as a long preparation for the scene at Calvary. Everything is oriented to that “hour,” beginning with the exclamation of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29). In chapter 13 of this same Gospel, we read, “I tell you this now, before it takes place [he is speaking of his betrayal and his death], that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he” (John 13:19). In John 18:4–5, the Gospel writer reports this dialogue at the time of Jesus’ arrest:

“Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he!” [Here and elsewhere the English translation says, “I am he,” but in the original Greek it is always the same expression, Egō eimi, which means simply, “I am.”]… When he said to them, “I am he” [“I am!”], they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:4–6)

It was those two words, “I am,” that made his enemies draw back and fall to the ground because of the dazzling power of the Divine Being, who, at least for an instant, was free to manifest himself.

But what is so unique and mysterious about these two words? Why are they written with capital letters in some Gospel translations? It is really only a subject, “I,” and a verb, “am.” This is the simplest proposition in any human language, as basic as bread in relation to other food. The secret is that “I am” is the name of God, and, according to the Bible, the mystery of his Person and his power is enclosed in that name. We never say these two words alone; we say, “I am a man, I am a woman, I am tired, etc.” We never just say, “I am.” Only God can say that without adding anything.

“I am who I am!” God said to Moses, and added, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14–15, NAB). The meaning of this divine name is “I am he who truly exists, he who is, who is alive, who saves.” This is the opposite of idols who have no substance outside the mind of man.

But listen to how God explains his name in certain passages in the Bible. In the Song of Moses, in Deuteronomy, we read:

Where are their gods…?

…

See now that I, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me. (Deuteronomy 32:37a, 39)

In Isaiah God says, with similar emphasis,

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other god besides me,

a righteous God and a Savior;

there is none besides me.

…

For I am God, and there is no other.

By myself I have sworn. (Isaiah 45:21–23)

Only one person in the whole universe can say these three words together: “I am God.” Amos said of God, “The lion has roared; / who will not fear?” (Amos 3:8). Here, then, is the roar of the lion that makes heaven and earth tremble. Satan was cast down by this roar, “Who is like God?” There is a verse from Psalm 46 that I like very much: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). God is inviting us in a fatherly way to “stop”—the older, Vulgate translation says vacate, “take a vacation”—in order to understand the one thing it is necessary to know: He is God!

When Jesus said his own “I am,” then, he was attributing the divine Name to himself, and it is as though he said, “I am God!” He who is the “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2; see Mark 12:7) has inherited even the Name from the Father. His vindication of the Divine Name is based on something prior, that is, on his preexistence as the Word: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1a). In fact, Jesus once said, “before Abraham was, I [AM]” (John 8:58). But more often that title is based on a future event, on the Paschal event: “When you have lifted up the Son of man…” (John 8:28). But there is a big difference: After his death and resurrection, Jesus is “He Who Is,” not just as the Word of God but also as a man. That is the unheard-of truth: A man shares the same name as God!

Only on the cross does Jesus of Nazareth reveal who he truly is. But how is this possible? On the cross, Jesus is “he who is not,” “a worm, and no man” (Psalm 22:6), “one from whom men hide their faces” (Isaiah 53:3b). But this is exactly where the mystery is. Jesus’ being was based completely on his not being or doing anything of himself, on his total and absolute dependence on the Father: “Then you will know that I am he [Greek: “I am”], and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me.” Jesus is the “I am” because he is the Obedient One. Paul says that because he “emptied himself ” and “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,” God has exalted him and given him the name (see Philippians 2:6–11). What name? Not only the name of Jesus but also the name Lord, Kyrios, Adonai, and, in addition, the name that cannot be spoken, Yahweh, He Who Is!

He Gave Up His Spirit

Let us follow John, who takes us to Calvary to meditate on the moment when all of this happened. Jesus had said, “When you have lifted up the Son of man,” but now the Son of man is lifted up. What new thing takes place? In John 19:30 we read, “and he bowed his head and gave up his...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.2.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
ISBN-10	1-63582-361-7 / 1635823617
ISBN-13	978-1-63582-361-5 / 9781635823615

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