Look to the End!

Look to the End
Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007
A wise man listens to this pope; the Cinop doesn’t care.
“In the end God will have the last word in world history and he is truth and love.
“Will the good continue to have meaning and power in the world?

“There is a general feeling that the power of darkness is on the increase, and that the good is powerless.

“The tendency of the world is to judge in favor of the violent, the brutal, not the saintly. For we see it: what rules the world now is money, the atom bomb, and the cynicism of those to whom nothing is sacred.

“What we fear nowadays is the darkness that emanates from man, and in this fear we have finally discovered true darkness – more fearful in this century of man’s inhumanity than could ever have been imagined by the generations that preceded us.
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“Power has become the sign of our times. Meekness, gentleness, are not greatly appreciated.

“I think we have no choice but to relearn our love for others, our respect for others. I think we must work together to relearn the virtues associated with freedom – such virtues as love of truth, reverence for the interior uniqueness of the person, reverence for Tradition, reverence for God.
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“Respect for human dignity and regard for the human rights of every individual – these are the fruits of belief in the Incarnation of God. That is why belief in Jesus Christ is the basis of all progress.

“It is from Christian humanism, from the humanism of the Incarnation, that the uniqueness of Christian culture has evolved.

“Christian culture can never be exclusively a culture of possession.

“After all, God’s Son became man. He lived in a human body, he rose from the dead in a human body, and in a human body he ascended into heavenly glory. That is the highest imaginable honor to which matter can aspire.

“That is why Christian culture is careful to let each person live in dignity and receive his proper share of the material goods of this earth. But man’s highest good is not material possessions. We in the West know from experience how worship of consumer goods can rob a man of his dignity. He falls prey to egoism.

“That is why Christian culture prefers moral values to material ones. That is why reverence for God is publicly endorsed in Christian culture. The great cathedrals and churches are an expression of this conviction that the worship of God is a public and universal good of mankind, and in fact, it is precisely in showing reverence for God that the human being reverences himself.”

The above are selected excerpts from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Co-Workers of the Truth,” Meditations for Every Day of the Year, Ignatius Press, 1992, Jan. 10th-12th.
George H. Kubeck, posted in the early mornings – www.cinopsbegone.blogspot.com/