I make notes on the topic of the implementation of the Council and the diocesan structures.
Rosary; Vespers
Meditation 2: ‘The Church has been seen as “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”’ (L[umen] G[entium] 4).
A continuation of the meditation on the mystery of God oriented towards the reality of the Church (Myst. Ecclesiae [The mystery of the Church]) in accordance with my own plan for the retreat (‘philantropia’). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead and the inexpressible mystery of the personal union in the Trinity simultaneously carry out this wonderful mission which shapes the divine reality of the Church. The Church is born and lives by the principle of this mission; it is the Church’s foundation, so to speak. Through this mission and in this mission humankind partakes in the divine unity, which brings about the unity of people in the Church and through the Church. First, it is an inner unity of man established by truth and love, and then the principle of communality among people.
The entire Church – and its every part – receives this unity from the mission of the divine Persons. The mystery of the universal Church and the particular Church.6
The divine mission is shared by people in the Church in various ways.
Matins of the following day; The Way of the Cross; Rosary; Compline; Examination of conscience
11 August
Morning intentions; Lauds; Prime; Holy Mass; Thanksgiving (and Rosary)
Reading: (Catechism); (Congr. pro Clericis [Congregation for the Clergy])
Prayer for the gifts of the Holy Spirit
Meditation 3: ‘If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.’7
The human ‘I’– the dignity of the person, and the human body, and all flesh, and all material goods are from the Father, from God. And the entire order of ends and needs to which these goods correspond is also from God. The triple concupiscence, however, comes from the world. Father–God guarantees (as was said yesterday) good, the value of every creature (bonum in se [good in itself]). The creature which follows the proper needs assigned to it does not lose its proper value. The three forms of concupiscence – each of them differently – lose sight of this value (e.g. the value of the human ‘I’ or the body or other visible creatures). At the same time, they lose the correspondence of values to real needs; they lose the order of ends. The tragedy of concupiscence (including the pride of life) lies in the very fact that – when losing this order – it diminishes the value of creatures for whom it strives blindly.
This is fostered by the human sensual energy (disordered) and the limitation of the thought horizon, which has something in common with the ‘fallen spirit’ when it comes to the pride of life. However, it (pride) is also ‘of this world’. In summary: the lack of possibility to see creatures and oneself, the body, material goods from God’s perspective. Seeing them from this perspective enhances their value and ennobles the striving for them; it balances the needs and desires for created goods.
The analysis has proved that the ‘triple concupiscence’ constitutes a strictly theological category characteristic of revelation. It cannot be equated with psychological or other similar categories, e.g. ‘the lust of the flesh’ cannot be identified with ‘sex appeal’ nor the pride of life with the drive for importance.
Adoration: The glorification of the One who is ‘Primogenitus omnis creaturae … in Quo omnia constant …’ [‘the Firstborn of all creation … in Him all things hold together …’].8 The fixing of our eyes on Him will entirely revise our attitude to creatures and help us leave the limiting perspectives of the triple concupiscence, and enter into God’s perspective.
Reading: Gilson, ‘The concept of God in the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas’;9 ‘The Implementation of the Council and the diocesan structures’ (cont.)
The Way of the Cross (according to the psalms); Rosary
Prandium [lunch]
Meditation 4: In the light of the reflection on the triple concupiscence – self-reflection and inner judgement.
(a)‘the meaning that the Lord God will give to me’ – trust, a desire to serve, but … restlessness
(b) once again the judgement of conduct (experimentum) in se and quoad alios [in oneself and in relation to others]
(c) the implementation of the ‘Church of the poor’, how to work for it?
(By the way, matters such as the evaluation of character: reflexivity, complementarity, the question of ‘personality’, etc.)
Matins of the following day (memorial of St Clare); Rosary (of the day); Penitential psalms
Imploratur sinceritas conscientiae et rectum de omnibus iudicium (de Dom. XI: … ut dimittas, quae conscientia metuit, et adicias, quod oratio non praesumit) [Prayer for honest conscience and right judgement on everything (from the eleventh Sunday: … pour forth your mercy upon us, so that you set aside those things which our conscience fears, and apply what our prayer dares not)]10
Veni S. Spiritus [Come, Holy Spirit]; Compline
12 August: Memorial of St Clare
Morning intentions; Lauds; Prime; Holy Mass; Thanksgiving (Rosary)
Reading: (S. Congr. pro Clericis respons. [Response from the Congregation for the Clergy])
Meditation 5: God – the world. Love is of God; lust is of the ‘world’. Love refers to the relation with ‘bonum in se’ [good in itself] of every single thing, and the situating of it in its true order of ends and needs. Lust changes this order into an order of pure ‘usefulness’ (utility) and in this way diminishes ‘bonum in se’ (value) of the human being and every created thing. It is against this background that the work of salvation undertaken by the Church as the work of God can be explained. Salvation consists in the bringing of love into the ‘world’. Because, if only lust remained in the world and in the creation, then the world, and man in it, would be doomed to a kind of ‘self-destruction’ of value – their own value, the value of all creatures.
This tension on the one hand, and the work of salvation on the other, constitute the deepest principle of conjunction: the Church and the world.
Salvation is the work of God carried out by the Man who was the Son of God, that is, by Christ. The fact that Christ was a prophet, priest and king is not only a historical accumulation of attributes and functions, but it also points to the relevant aspects and characteristics of the work of salvation. And this is why these characteristics still have to abide in the Church as the people of God, since it is the sign and the sacrament of the salvation of the ‘world’ (above all, the salvation of humankind).
Prophecy is the expression of God’s truth. It is the truth about God Himself and about creation.
