As we ramble through the writings of the secular media on this document, it's hard NOT to notice how they blow right past the title, "THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL" (emphasis Pope Francis). Somehow we keep getting propelled into the later sections of this masterpiece by those who are racing to convince the world that this is finally the pope who is going to change the Catholic Church and save us all from those who want to send us back into the dark ages. These secularists have managed to change "Evangelii Gaudium" into "Sanctum est Partitio Opum".
Tonight we will go through a few of the first numbers of Evangelii Gaudium and talk about how these first points that the pope makes actually set the stage for joyfully spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
My wife and I listened to a magnificent exposition of Dominus Iesus tonight. Since it is only audio, I scoured google images for a nice picture of the signing of Dominus Iesus for you to look at as you listen.
I think Ratzinger looks stunning in this photo. What an amazing leader.
Just a few notes and highlights.
-Reductionism. Turning Jesus into Mohammad or Joseph Smith. It is erroneous to claim that Jesus was just lake any other religious figure in history. Modern secular philosophers do this in order to advance a "coexist bumper sticker" mentality. This mentality ends up spreading the false idea that man is not an exceptional animal, and that even our own universe is not an exceptional universe. That everything is only ordered toward life and rational thought by way of random chance.
-The "coexist bumper sticker" also leads to this saying, “all rivers lead to the same ocean” as an attempt to validate every religion that ever was or will be concocted by man.
-Ratzinger is calling Catholics to refute erroneous and reductive interpretations of sacred scripture. -"The Second Vatican Council states that Christ “the new Adam...‘image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15) is himself the perfect man who has restored [mankind's] likeness to God"
-"In the process of discovering and appreciating the manifold gifts — especially the spiritual treasures — that God has bestowed on every people, we cannot separate those gifts from Jesus Christ, who is at the centre of God's plan of salvation".
-It is important to acknowledge the gifts that other religions truly posses. As missionaries to these other religions, we must locate the specific gift and then explain how Christ is the origin and fulfillment of that gift. The story of Beowulf is a great example of how Christian missionaries met and educated the Nores people on the level of their own understanding. Christ comes out to meat us where we are. He does not stand off afar and wait for us to see Him and go to where we should be.
-"No one, therefore, can enter into communion with God except through Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit".
-How do we address our culture on these matters today?
