| Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.Cap Things Revealed to the Little Ones Pontificial Household Preacher Comments on Sunday's Reading |
ROME, JULY 4, 2008 - This Sunday’s Gospel, among the most intense and profound of
Gospel passages, has 3 parts: a prayer -- "I bless you, Father" -- a declaration of Jesus
about himself -- "Everything has been given to me by my Father" -- and an invitation --
"Come to me all who labor."
I will limit my remarks to the first element, the prayer, because it contains a revelation of
extraordinary importance: "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
kept these things hidden from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to the little
ones. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure."
The Pauline Year has just begun and the best comment on these words of Jesus is what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians: "Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were
wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
"Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of
the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those
who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human
being might boast 11 before God" (1:26-29).
Christ’s and Paul’s words shed a singular light on today’s world. It is a situation that is
repeated. The wise and the intelligent keep their distance from faith, they often look with
pity upon the crowds of believers who pray, who believe in miracles, who crowd around
Padre Pio. Not all scholars do this, certainly, and perhaps not even the majority of them,
but undoubtedly the most influential ones do, the ones who have the most powerful
microphones, the group with the access to the major media.
Many of them are honest and intelligent persons and their position is more the fruit of
education, environment and life experience, than of resistance to truth. So, I am not
judging individuals. I know some such persons and I hold them in great esteem. But this
should not stop us from pointing to the heart of the problem. The closure to every
revelation from above, and thus to faith, is not caused by intelligence but by pride, a
special pride that refuses all dependence and claims an absolute autonomy.
They entrench themselves behind the magic word "reason" but in reality it is not the
famous "pure reason" that demands it, nor is it demanded by a "sovereign" reason. It is
demanded rather by an enslaved reason, by wings that have been clipped.
Consider what certain philosophers who cannot be accused of a lack of intelligence and
dialectical ability have said on this score. Blaise Pascal observed: "Reason’s supreme act
is in recognizing that there are an infinite number of things that surpass it."
Soren Kierkegaard wrote: "It has always been said that science, which seeks to
understand, is not satisfied when it is claimed that this or that thing cannot be understood.
Here is the mistake.
"The opposite must be said: if human science does not want to admit that there is
something that it cannot understand, or -- to put it more precisely -- that there is
something that it can clearly ‘understand that it cannot understand,’ then there are
problems.
"Therefore it is the task of human knowledge to understand that there are things that it
cannot understand and what these are."
Those who do not admit this ability of going beyond are putting limit on reason and
humiliating it. But this is not what the believer does since he is open to this possibility of
transcending.
What I have said explains why modern thought, after Nietzsche, no longer values "truth,"
but rather the "pursuit" of truth and thus sincerity, which has replaced truth. Sometimes
this attitude is taken to be one of humility -- being content with what philosophers like
Gianni Vattimo call "weak thought" -- but this is a superficial judgment.
So long as the person is seeking, he is the one who is the protagonist, he is the one who
sets down the rules of the game. But once truth is found, it is truth that takes the throne
and the seeker must bow before truth and this requires -- when it is a matter of
transcendent truth -- the "sacrifice of the intellect."
Jesus’ statements in John’s Gospel -- "I am the truth"; "No one comes to the Father but
through me"; "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will give you
rest" -- are provocations to our contemporary culture. But these are invitations not
reproofs and they are also addressed to those who are tired of seeking and finding
nothing, to those who have gone through life knocking up against the rock of mystery.
The psychologist C.G. Jung, in a book of his, says that all patients of a certain age to came
to him suffered from something that could be called an "absence of humility" and could
not be healed until they acquired an attitude of respect in the face of a reality greater than
them, that is, an attitude of humility.
Jesus also repeats to the many honest intelligent and wise people of the world of today
his invitation full of love: "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will
give you rest and that peace that you seek in vain in your tormented reasoning."
Gospel passages, has 3 parts: a prayer -- "I bless you, Father" -- a declaration of Jesus
about himself -- "Everything has been given to me by my Father" -- and an invitation --
"Come to me all who labor."
I will limit my remarks to the first element, the prayer, because it contains a revelation of
extraordinary importance: "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you
kept these things hidden from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to the little
ones. Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure."
The Pauline Year has just begun and the best comment on these words of Jesus is what
Paul says in 1 Corinthians: "Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were
wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
"Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of
the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those
who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human
being might boast 11 before God" (1:26-29).
Christ’s and Paul’s words shed a singular light on today’s world. It is a situation that is
repeated. The wise and the intelligent keep their distance from faith, they often look with
pity upon the crowds of believers who pray, who believe in miracles, who crowd around
Padre Pio. Not all scholars do this, certainly, and perhaps not even the majority of them,
but undoubtedly the most influential ones do, the ones who have the most powerful
microphones, the group with the access to the major media.
Many of them are honest and intelligent persons and their position is more the fruit of
education, environment and life experience, than of resistance to truth. So, I am not
judging individuals. I know some such persons and I hold them in great esteem. But this
should not stop us from pointing to the heart of the problem. The closure to every
revelation from above, and thus to faith, is not caused by intelligence but by pride, a
special pride that refuses all dependence and claims an absolute autonomy.
They entrench themselves behind the magic word "reason" but in reality it is not the
famous "pure reason" that demands it, nor is it demanded by a "sovereign" reason. It is
demanded rather by an enslaved reason, by wings that have been clipped.
Consider what certain philosophers who cannot be accused of a lack of intelligence and
dialectical ability have said on this score. Blaise Pascal observed: "Reason’s supreme act
is in recognizing that there are an infinite number of things that surpass it."
Soren Kierkegaard wrote: "It has always been said that science, which seeks to
understand, is not satisfied when it is claimed that this or that thing cannot be understood.
Here is the mistake.
"The opposite must be said: if human science does not want to admit that there is
something that it cannot understand, or -- to put it more precisely -- that there is
something that it can clearly ‘understand that it cannot understand,’ then there are
problems.
"Therefore it is the task of human knowledge to understand that there are things that it
cannot understand and what these are."
Those who do not admit this ability of going beyond are putting limit on reason and
humiliating it. But this is not what the believer does since he is open to this possibility of
transcending.
What I have said explains why modern thought, after Nietzsche, no longer values "truth,"
but rather the "pursuit" of truth and thus sincerity, which has replaced truth. Sometimes
this attitude is taken to be one of humility -- being content with what philosophers like
Gianni Vattimo call "weak thought" -- but this is a superficial judgment.
So long as the person is seeking, he is the one who is the protagonist, he is the one who
sets down the rules of the game. But once truth is found, it is truth that takes the throne
and the seeker must bow before truth and this requires -- when it is a matter of
transcendent truth -- the "sacrifice of the intellect."
Jesus’ statements in John’s Gospel -- "I am the truth"; "No one comes to the Father but
through me"; "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will give you
rest" -- are provocations to our contemporary culture. But these are invitations not
reproofs and they are also addressed to those who are tired of seeking and finding
nothing, to those who have gone through life knocking up against the rock of mystery.
The psychologist C.G. Jung, in a book of his, says that all patients of a certain age to came
to him suffered from something that could be called an "absence of humility" and could
not be healed until they acquired an attitude of respect in the face of a reality greater than
them, that is, an attitude of humility.
Jesus also repeats to the many honest intelligent and wise people of the world of today
his invitation full of love: "Come to me all you who labor and have heavy burdens and I will
give you rest and that peace that you seek in vain in your tormented reasoning."