THE WAR IN PROGRESS AND THE STRENGTH OF CALVARY. JESUS ​​CRUCIFIED IN CONTEMPORARY DRAMA WITH MARY AND JOHN THE APOSTLE

While on social, on TV, in living rooms and even in cafés, more or less bizarre and bizarre debates took place between people expressing their opinion on what happened, thus two factions were formed: the pro-Russian and the pro-Ukrainian. Given that the right to express one's opinion remains absolutely free and legitimate, here the two different partisanships continue to contrast each other with clicks, post, shouts and above all insults of various kinds. On the contrary, I decided to appeal to the right to remain silent.

Actuality

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The 24 February Russia's invasion of Ukraine has begun. We all know this from the news that have started bombarding us with images, sounds, testimonies of the new conflict that exploded while Covid19 was weakening and therefore changing from a state of pandemic emergency into a state of almost ordinary life.

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Through the general house of the Order of Friars Preachers we have contact with our Dominican brothers residing in Kiev, for humanitarian and spiritual aid. Every now and again, if circumstances permit, we exchange messages on WhatsApp and others social media. Not too often, Furthermore …

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... who knows me, You will have noticed that in this period I have never spoken in public, nor in this magazine of ours, born sui social, nor on my blog. I have spoken very little even in private about what is happening internationally. And this not only for the beautiful and long apostolic labors that occupied me for a long time in the period from the end of February to the beginning of April.; not only because I have finally concluded the defense of my doctoral thesis in sacred theology, which led me to have great inner peace and serenity, as a definitive confirmation of the mission of brother priest and theologian to which I believe the Lord directs me. All these were certainly co-essential reasons for what I will now try to explain.

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While on social, on TV, in living rooms and even in cafés, more or less bizarre and bizarre debates took place between people expressing their opinion on what happened, thus two factions were formed: the pro-Russian and the pro-Ukrainian. Given that the right to express one's opinion remains absolutely free and legitimate, here the two different partisanships continue to contrast each other with clicks, post, shouts and above all insults of various kinds. On the contrary, I decided to appeal to the right to remain silent, recognized legally in several places, according to various legal and jurisprudential nuances, just think of the well-known phrase - which represents a fact and a legal right - "I make use of the right not to respond". So I decided to remain silent, because it would be a clumsy attempt to pose a socio-political analysis of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I believe that this act is based on the virtue of prudence; prudence is therefore that virtue - a little’ intellectual and a bit’ practice at the same time – that is driver's virtues, guide of all the others, because she is the one who predisposes the right reason to the actions to be taken, according to the lesson of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Prudence is therefore the capacity that man has, with the help of grace, to rationally choose which action to implement and omit in a given circumstance. In this very delicate circumstance I believe it is prudent for me not to express judgements: in fact, not being an expert in international law or Eastern European history, I have no skills or basis to be able to give a well-founded opinion. Add to this that at the moment, even the most qualified experts, they do not have the necessary elements to be able to make judgements, because only one in the present is the fact, which is the same for this as for all wars: of the innocent, especially civilians, they are dying. By itself, don't take a stand, it is said to already take one. In this case, the position that concerns me, and for which I am praying and meditating a lot, it goes towards all those people, Ukrainians, Russian or resident in those territories, who are suffering because of the war. Because war is always a drama that has atrocious and terrible effects. These reflections go to the people who suffer death and suffering due to war and are dedicated to them. All those who suffer are in fact intimately united with the suffering Christ, also to Mary, our Most Holy Celestial Mother who suffers in seeing and experiencing all this. They are united in death, suffering, pain, loneliness and separation from loved ones. But let's see why. Jesus on the cross suddenly said an important phrase, that we all have engraved in our hearts: “Father forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing." [LC 23, 34]. This is one of Jesus' last sentences. Let us reflect on the first of the words he spoke on the cross in that terribly strong and true sentence. According to the American theologian Stanley Hauerwas, in that moment the intense relationship of love between Father and Son comes into focus first and foremost. This is the foundation of forgiveness bestowed upon man. From this unique and unrepeatable relationship comes forgiveness for each of us. Therefore God who is in himself, in the Immanent Trinity he decides to offer the gift of the Son and forgiveness and pardon for the benefit of humanity. It thus comes to meet man and in technical jargon it is said that it becomes the Economic Trinity: it brings man into the Economy of Salvation.

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And here I would like to pause with an aside to clarify: the use of Trinitarian theology that I draw from the notions of the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, don't scandalize some of our most astute readers Patmos Island. My theological foundation is rooted clearly and unavoidably in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, to follow also in the study of theological works Hans Urs von Balthasar, which I consider fruitful for my education and that of every contemporary theologian. Having said this, I clarify that in the context of Trinitarian dogmatics the concept of distinction is Rahnerian: Immanent Trinity / economical, it appears objectively more solid than that of von Balthasar. As for everything else, or the theological approach itself in and of itself, I have no doubts about who to choose and who to continue to draw from. In short, I have not become an “anonymous Rahnerian”, on the contrary: in the wake of the Dominican theological tradition in which I grew up, I think I am able to sift through evil to be able to discern and grasp even that little truth that there is in a totally disastrous and dangerous theological work like that of the theologian Karl Rahner, who however remains an undoubted and great speculative mind in the twentieth century. I close this aside by remembering that our Father Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo, with the apparent sugar-free hardness that sometimes characterizes it, in one of his articles written on the occasion of his death did not hesitate to recognize all the great speculative abilities of Hans Küng. This brother of ours highlighted how nature endowed him with brilliant abilities, therefore of superior qualities to those of the young theologian his contemporary Joseph Ratzinger. With the difference that Küng slipped into heresy by setting out to deconstruct the dogmatic system of the deposit of faith, while Ratzinger became a guardian of the doctrine of faith to whom we owe so much, starting from the great teaching of the Holy Pontiff John Paul II.

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After this necessary clarification we can then focus and meditate on Jesus. Starting from free choice, not due. In the love of the Holy Spirit, in union with the Father, Christ decides to love us until the end [cf.. GV 13, 1 ss]. In the years of public preaching, Jesus therefore takes a path of welcoming the cross, because he knows that this instrument of death can be turned upside down and become an instrument of forgiveness and grace. The consequences are truly very strong: Christ torn apart on the cross is the second Trinitarian person, which offers itself to integrate situations of death within oneself and within man, suffering, pain, loneliness from those we love. Jesus is therefore close to each of us in these situations.

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So also in the existential night longer, all those who suffer from war, in prayer they can feel embraced by Jesus in his passion. A prayerful embrace that breaks loneliness, knowing that in prayer we find inner peace even when we are far away. Jesus also breaks loneliness in his real Eucharistic presence, where he becomes intimate and close to everyone in his body, blood, soul and divinity. Precisely He who was without sin, he gave himself for us sinners to eliminate the yoke of sin. He did not consider his equality with God a divine treasure, Saint Paul tells us in one of his beautiful hymns, but he decided to strip himself - while remaining God - so that we could all participate in the divine nature [cf.. Fil 2, 6-11]. This is the final effect of so much pain.

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The glory of Christ, winner of suffering and death, then it will be our glory. We will not have suffered and cried in vain. But until then, let us not cease to be united to the Mystical Body and to the Holy Mother of Jesus. It is Jesus himself who requests it in one of his last words: «Woman, here is your son. Son, here is your mother" [GV 19,25-27]. Jesus turns first to Mary. She too is suffering, desperate. An enormous suffering, that of seeing a son condemned and killed in this terrible and unjust way. Maria is close to all mothers who are losing children in war for the same reason. Every time we pray a rosary, a dozen or even just one Ave Maria, we can turn to the Holy Virgin Mother to intercede with God for these suffering mothers. Maria, with his "yes" in the Annunciation, but also in welcoming the terrible pains of the Son, she is also our mother. I can't imagine how much fortitude the Handmaid of Nazareth had to use, how much courage in walking to Golgotha, without exploding into screams of anger and desperation. A reaction that perhaps would have been completely human and legitimate. Instead Maria, in his torment, trusts in God, living the drama of the Son and accompanying him. That Son, not only his, he now definitively gives to the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit. We in Saint John the Apostle, we are all his children. Only in this way is she a cooperator in the redemption, giving us Jesus, and accompanying him in the Passion. Even in these dark times we remain united with her. Because all of us, in John the apostle, we are called children of Mary and therefore united as children also in the other Virgin Mother: the church. And in the Church understood as The church assembled we can all cooperate for the common good, to international solidarity and help suffering populations with humanitarian aid and spiritual closeness. First of all though, if we are assembling the church, we must all learn to be a little Saint John the Apostle. Therefore, learn to reread all the events of the time we live in with a view from above. With an eagle gaze. And in addition to doing it ourselves, testify at the same time that another horizon of meaning exists, another perspective that is within us and that at the same time surpasses us. It is the contemplative gaze of all things. In this Mary is an example to us in virtues and great maternal love. Giovanni, figure of the whole Church, it is an example of the Church that welcomes and brings together all peoples, indicating to them the paths of eternity and meaning that integrate the present time. On this Good Friday let's remember it, if we truly and intimately participate in the liturgical action of the Passion of the Lord.

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sweet Jesus, Jesus love (St. Caterina da Siena)

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Rome, 15 March 2022

Passion of the Lord

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