7 Meditations that are good for All Seasons

7 Meditations that are good for All Seasons **
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Saturday, March 13, 2010

1.) We need the living Christ, whom we can know only through our encounter with him. But encounter presumes actual presence – the Real Presence, which, in turn, requires the Sacrament and the Church that alone is authorized to give us the Sacrament, the Church that Christ himself willed into existence and continues to support.

2.) There are many persons who live in conflict with themselves. This aversion for oneself, this inability to accept oneself and to be reconciled with oneself is far removed from the self-abnegations that the Lord asks of us. If we fail to love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbor… It is true, moreover, that only when we gave accepted ourselves can we address a genuine Yes to anyone else.

3.) Our way to the other leads by way of God. Without this intermediary of our unity, we will always be separated from one another by abysses that no good will can bridge.

4.) It is a fundamental tenet of morality – perhaps today the most fundamental tent – that the end never justifies the means. What is wrong in itself continues to be wrong however noble the end toward which it is directed… Whatever is done in the name of terrorism affects us precisely as Christians and calls for a Christian response? In the last analysis, all the acts of terrorism that label themselves in one way or another as Marxist share a single characteristic: that man wants to appropriate to himself the role of Divine Providence, to usurp the position of God – the story of paradise and the serpent has an uncanny relevance in our day.

5.) Christianity is no longer tied to the past: it is firmly rooted in today. That was the electrifying thought that Pope John XXIII himself summarized in the word ‘aggiornamento’… Christianity is not linked to any past: Jesus Christ is “yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8)

6.) A Christianity that believes it has no other function than to be completely in tune with the spirit of the times has nothing to say and no meaning to offer. It can abdicate without more ado.

7.) The conversation between Jesus and the teacher of the law deals with a question that concerns all of us. How do I live as I ought? What must I do to make a success of my life? I must remember that God put me in this world for a purpose and that he will one day demand an account of what I have done with my life… if we fail to keep before our eyes God’s standard, the standard of eternity, then egoism is the only guideline left…
Hence the first guideline is: live not for yourself alone: live under the eye of God; live in such a way that he will be pleased with you and you will some day be eternally welcome in the company of God and his saints.

** Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “Co-Workers of the Truth” Meditations- Mar 5-11th