'Lumen fidei', balm for a humanity in crisis
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The encyclical "Lumen fidei" is a real balm to heal the wounds of man and the world today. With scholarly - but not heavy - language, and often with poetic climaxes, the text unfolds in four chapters revealing the power that faith in God and the God of Jesus Christ has in supporting the unity of mankind (eliminating wastefulness); solidarity with others (eliminating fear), in building social coexistence (eliminating utilitarianism and homologation) (see paragraph 51). Even science is sustained by faith to work with confidence in front of the cosmos (n. 34). Not only that: faith, in showing God as the source of reality, helps us to discover that man is the guardian and not master of nature, and founds an ecology that sees the human being at the center of creation, not as a toxic waste to be eliminated (No. 55).
In recent times, Benedict XVI - whose influence deeply permeates the text - and Pope Francis have often affirmed that the crisis that grips our contemporary society, before being economic " is a crisis of humanity".
"Lumen fidei" analytically traces this "crisis of humanity" which stems from a refusal of the one God, the need to assert oneself, which end up falling into the trap of idolatry and polytheism (which disintegrates into a myriad of unconnected instants... . a plethora of paths leading nowhere and forming a vast labyrinth ", no. 13).
In this way, all peoples experiences are in danger of being depleted: justice, established by a self-centered ego without a higher criteria, betrays its premises, and "their lives become futile and their works barren " (No. 19)
Modernity that sought to "build a universal brotherhood based on equality...cannot endure" (n. 54). Love becomes an " an experience associated with the world of fleeting emotions, no longer with truth " (n. 27)
The human crisis is all here: in cancelling out questions regarding the complete truth and in reducing the truth to technology, to science, to what man is capable of building: "Nowadays this appears as the only truth that is certain, the only truth that can be shared, the only truth that can serve as a basis for discussion or for common undertakings. Yet at the other end of the scale we are willing to allow for subjective truths of the individual, which consist in fidelity to his or her deepest convictions, yet these are truths valid only for that individual and not capable of being proposed to others in an effort to serve the common good. "(n. 25).
This gives rise to the "dictatorship of relativism", "in which the question of universal truth - and ultimately this means the question of God - is no longer relevant."
Reading the encyclical, one is increasingly convinced that in today's world what is in crisis is not primarily faith (Mass attendance, participation in the sacraments, respect for the Church and for the apostolic succession, ...), but mankind who is drowning in his Promethean demands and failures. And it is this desire to do without God that is leading to a trivialization of faith as "an illusion", "consolation", "private issues", "subjective experience".
"Lumen fidei" is also a guidebook to what faith is. First, the faith of Abraham (8-11), on whose path we can find ourselves closely accompanied by Jews and Muslims: a gift-encounter with the God-person, the offer of a promise that gives meaning to the present and future, and the discovery of goodness and love that surrounds us and the cosmos. Faith in Jesus Christ is the fullness of this path: in the light and love of Jesus "to the very end" we find confirmation that the love of God illumines even the darkness of death and offers the certainty of a future in the light of the resurrection (Nos. 15-18).
All of these annotations are not written a dogmatic or scholarly style, but emerge as if from a long meditation. Even the "crisis of humanity" is not described with the essence of condemnation or theorem, but with compassion and sorrow.
"The light of love proper to faith - reads no. 34 - ..... born of love, it can penetrate to the heart, to the personal core of each man and woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others. One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, since believers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth which embraces and possesses us. Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and dialogue with all".
Of course, some misconceptions are clarified and delineated in the encyclical: faith is the faith of the Church (and not of the individual, without mediation); faith is one (and one or the other article of faith cannot be cancelled at will) that theology must be produced within the faith of the Church, that apostolic succession is necessary as an aid to the guaranteed bond with the gift of truth and love of Jesus Christ. But everything is seen as a consequence of the "light of faith ....that is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence " (n. 4).
The pervasive tone is awe for the gift of truth and love that comes from Jesus Christ, which makes it impossible not to announce it to the world, through the company man: " There is no human experience, no journey of man to God, which cannot be taken up, illumined and purified by this light. The more Christians immerse themselves in the circle of Christ's light, the more capable they become of understanding and accompanying the path of every man and woman towards God " (No. 35).
This mission, journeying with believers and non-believers, leads to the building "of the city", of coexistence among men: "The God who is himself reliable gives us a city which is reliable... The light of faith is capable of enhancing the richness of human relations, their ability to endure, to be trustworthy, to enrich our life together. Faith does not draw us away from the world or prove irrelevant to the concrete concerns of the men and women of our time. Without a love which is trustworthy, nothing could truly keep men and women united"(n. 51).
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02/10/2021 16:25
