God's Condescension Answers Man's Autonomous Loneliness

Man's spirit is essentially transcendent.

Spiritual activity is a reference to the encounter with something which is object. This duality of the I and the object together with the effort to save, through understanding, the abyss which separates both and appropriates the other, the non-I, by the will, characterizes the human spirit as such. The "to transcend" of the I beyond itself, which continues to give itself in the consciousness of itself or in the objectifying self-knowledge of the I for the I, is essentially the spiritual life. The "intention" or reference of the knowing and of the willing toward its object is the bridge which the spirit extends between the I and the non-I by means of the acts of the understanding and the will. Only together with the other does the spirit come to be what it is in itself, to grasp itself as a proper being which has a "world." Man can only come to be himself by a singular dialectic, only before that which he is not. (24-25)

Revelation (divine condescension) fulfills man, enabling true transcendence.

The Deist notion of Transcendence is not yet that of revelation. In the latter, the God who hovers over the cosmos is at the same time the God who approaches the world in order to draw it to Himself, while man, not remaining a prisoner to the loneliness of his autonomy, presents himself as the creature who discovers in the law of his essence the idea and the norm of his Creator and gives an obedience to the law of revelation which purifies his humanitas and elevates it toward God. (31)

Theodor Steinbüchel, Die philosophische Grundlegung der katholischen Sittenlehre I, Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1938.

"Every Life Matters" ("Toda Vida Vale")

Pro-Life Argentina promotes the defense of the unborn child with this logo and the slogan salvemos las 2 vidas ("let's save the two lives") and toda vida vale.

Simple tenderness and sweet nobility!

¡Latinísimo!

Plinthos Podcast Homilies

 

Humanitas is Association with God

In faith a dialogue takes place between the person of God and the person of man. It is the reciprocal community of live exchange between the human I and the divine You, the relation which develops itself in an active and living way between two persons capable of participating and understanding, of communicating and grasping, of speaking and hearing. "To hear" means willingly ready perception, the opening of man himself to God. As such it is already personal reception of the heard, and, consequently, decision in favor of God; and since it constitutes the necessary presupposition for the accomplishment of that which God demands of man, it carries in its womb the seed of every obedience. The Pauline concept of faith holds to the distinction between ἀκούειν and ὑπακούειν, between listen and obey, and it considers it in its unity (Rom. 10:14-16). By "to speak" should be understood what happens on the part of the revealing God upon addressing himself to man, whether his word or his action.

(Plinthos translation.)

Im Glauben findet daher ein Dialog zwischen Gottperson und Menschperson statt. Er ist die gelebte Wechselgeminschaft zwischen menschlichem Ich und göttlichem Du, das aktiv-lebendig sich gestaltende Verhältnis zwischen zwei Personen, die anreden und vernehmen, mitteilen und verstehen, sprechen und hören können. "Hören" meint das bereitwillige Vernehmen, das Sichöffnen des Menschen für Gott. Es is als solches schon persönliches Hinnehmen des Gehörten und also glaubende Entscheidung für Gott und trägt den Keim alles Gehorschens in sich, sofern es die Voraussetzung bildet für die Erfüllung des Anspruches Gottes an den Menschen. Im paulinischen Glaubensbegriff ist diese Unterscheidung von ἀκούειν und ὑπακούειν, von Horschen und Gehorschen vollzogen und in ihrer Einheit gesehen (Röm 10, 14-16). "Sprechen" umgreift alles, was von dem offenbarenden Gott her in Richtung auf den Menschen geschieht, in Mitteilung und Werk dieses Gottes.

Theodor Steinbüchel, Die philosophische Grundlegung der katholischen Sittenlehre I, Düsseldorf: L. Schwann, 1938, 23.

En la fe tiene lugar, por tanto, un dialogo entre la persona de Dios y la persona del hombre. Es la recíproca comunidad de intercambio vivida entre el yo humano y el Tú divino, la relación que se va configurando a sí misma de modo activo y viviente, entre dos personas capaces de interpelar y de entender, de comunicar y de comprender, de hablar y de oír, "Oír" significa el percibir voluntariamente dispuesto, el abrirse del hombre a Dios. Como tal es ya recepción personal de lo oído, y, en consecuencia, decisión creyente a favor de Dios; y al constituir el necesario supuesto del cumplimiento de lo que Dios exige al hombre, porta en su seno el germen de toda obediencia. La concepción paulina de la fe se atiene a la distinción entre ἀκούειν y ὑπακούειν, entre escuchar y obedecer, y la contempla en su unidad (Rom. X, 14-16). Por "hablar" debe entenderse cuanto acontece por parte del Dios revelante al dirigirse al hombre, tanto su palabra como su acción.

Theodor Steinbüchel, Los fundamentos filosoficos de la moral católica I, Madrid: Gredos, 1959, 30.

Immaculata Maria

 

Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is the full acceptance and embodiment of God's act of love for the world.

"God's act of love for the world, embodied in Christ, is already performed; it is a fully accomplished fact. Now it must become fully accepted as such (in the Holy Spirit). It must become fully accepted and embodied in the Church so that the Church becomes his immaculate bride, without spot or taint, as is already the case in Mary (Sion, Ecclesia, Uxor Agni). The believing Christian, therefore, insofar as he can, must bring his existence into conformity with the range of eternal love revealed in Christ. Just as the commandments (Torah) of the Old Testament were the concrete revelation of promised grace--which men were to follow--so the objective mental outlook of the Church (scripture and dogma) is the objective articulation of grace fully revealed and actualized."

Hans Urs von Balthasar, "Truth and Life" in Dogma: Man as Man and Believer, Concilium Vol. 21, New York: Paulist Press, 1967, 89-90.

Boston and Saint Botulf

Saint Botulf (or Botolph or Botwulf) († 680) was of Anglo-Saxon origin. His highborn parents sent him and his brother Adulf to study on the continent, where both became priests. While Adulf chose to stay, Botulf returned home to England, where Anglian King Ehelmund grated him land for a monastery.

The place Botulf was given--a remote, marshy spot--was "just the sort of God-forsacken devil-possessed spot he was in search of," reports his biographer. He countered the disturbances of evil spirits, conquering the land for Christ through fasting and prayer. In 654, construction of the monastery of Ikanhoe began, and soon young men came to join him.

Botulf's reuputation for spiritual leadership spread well beyond Ikanhoe. It is written that Saint Ceolfrid, Saint Bede's master at Wearmouth Abbey, "once journeyed to the East Angles that he might see the foundation of Abbot Botulf, whose fame had proclaimed him far and wide as a man of remarkable life and learning, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit." Afterward, Ceolfrid returned to Wearmouth, "so well grounded that no one could be found better versed than he, either in ecclesiastical or in monastic traditions."

Eventually, Botulf's monastery was destroyed by invading Danes. It is thought to have been at the site of present-day Iken in Suffulk, or Boston ("Botulf's stone") in Lincolnshire.

Magnificat, ed. Sebastian White, December 2020, Vol. 22, No. 10, p. 33.