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March 2008 VOICE OF SHALOM |
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Christians have a future A distinguishing mark of Christians is the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only "good news" - the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only "informative" but "performative". That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known - it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life. Yet at this point a question arises: in what does this hope consist which, as hope, is "redemption'? The essence of the answer is given in the phrase from the Letter to the Ephesians quoted in chapter 2 verse 12: the Ephesians, before their encounter with Christ, were without hope because they were "without God in the world". To come to know God - the true God - means to receive hope. We who have always lived with the Christian concept of God, and have grown accustomed to it, have almost ceased to notice that we possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God.
Pope Benedict XVI
"Spe Salvi" | |
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