(Vatican Radio) Faith as a conscious, free and passionate adhesion and man's encounter
with limitation. These were the themes of Wednesday morning’s meditations led by Cardinal
Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, in the presence
of Pope Benedict and the Roman Curia. Emer McCarthy reports:
The Cardinal
began with Psalm 131, a short Pslam, and "sort of symbol of a childhood spirituality"
where we find the characteristics of the believer, he who "places his hope in God".
However,
that Psalm opens with the antipode of faith, it speaks of “pride, haughtiness, absolute
self-sufficiency, placing ourselves on a par with God, This is original sin".
Freedom,
is the other key word for the Christian. And it is in the image of the "weaned child",
typical of Eastern symbolism, that the psalmist celebrates a faith that is adherence
and at the same time choice. A child now grown up, weaned from the mother who nourishes
him, separated by an act of love and freedom:
"A faith that is adherence, consciously
adhering, freely adhering, intensely and passionately adhering. Undoubtedly, not for
nothing, 'like a weaned child' is repeated twice and then the last verse is a call
to all Israel, to hope, and to trust in the Lord. We should also learn from the great
history of spirituality, above all we have to learn this, we who have reached perhaps
a level of responsibility, dignity, even within the Church, or who hold roles of some
importance and who at times are called to make decisions that affect people. Probably
the temptation creeps in, slowly and subtly, to look down on others from on high".
By remaining childlike we can nurture our faith he continues, citing the example
of little St. Therese of Lisieux as well as Christ’s teaching. He said they teach
us how to trust and remain pure, like children:
"They trustingly put their
hands in the hands of adults, this is the great drama. The shame of paedophilia is
also there, because the child, out of trust, spontaneously abandons himself to the
adult, to his father. Spontaneously he puts his hand in that of the other, but it
is also important to discover why. He has a symbolic vision of reality - as we know
- not an analytical one, so the child is able to realize certain truths. And this
is why listening to them really is a lesson especially for us, because they bring
us back to basics, they ask us those famous whys which we often do not know how to
respond to and yet which are so important. Therefore from the human point of view
it is important to find, follow, listen to this child in us, but especially from the
inner clarity of the Faith, trust, abandonment". “I go to him as a baby goes to his
mother so that he can fill me and invade all and take me in his arms (Elisabeth of
the Trinity)”, he concluded.
In the second meditation, Cardinal Ravasi focused
on man as a frail creature, tested by the pain of living, distressed, man who is experiencing
the limitation and the finitude of his person. "Shadow", "breath" – we pray in Psalm
39 – we cry and ask for "the number of my days." Harsh words and of great relevance,
noted the Cardinal, in a world where there is a superficial atmosphere, a sort of
"narcosis which eliminates the big questions":
"Just think of the television,
which is the true and great Moloch within our homes. We already know all about fashion,
about what we should eat, how we should dress, choose, etc. but we no longer have
a voice that shows us the path and meaning of this life, especially when it is so
fragile, so miserable. That is why it is important to come back again to the great
themes. Have the courage to propose great thoughts, I think one of the great problems
of today's youth is that they are no longer able to find meaningful answers and so
they allow themselves to drift and be swayed by contemporary society".
The
Cardinal spoke of the need to have a sense of our human limitations to help in overcoming
contemporary superficiality, but Cardinal Ravasi also emphasized the need to return
to the "poor, simple naked prayer" and invited people to question the meaning of suffering
" not only with comforting, second-hand and cold words
"Some who were not
believers, perhaps begin to cry out. There exists, therefore, a sort of 'paideia',
also of pedagogy that is realized in pain. But …in the end pain itself presents us
with an element of crisis: a crisis with the world and a crisis with God”. “What is
your life? You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears (James
4,14)”
But – concluded the cardinal – “despite the darkness, the Christian
experience always opens up to a horizon of light where darkness never has the last
word.”