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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGb2G-wNkGI
The Editor, 24.12.2023 in Prague
We quote below some paragraphs from Peter Strasser, university professor who teaches philosophy at the University of Graz. They appear in his book recently published by Sonderzahl in 2022: “Apokalypse und Advent – Warum wir dagewesen sein werden” (Apocalypse and Advent – Why we will be here and there). The Swiss press Neue Zuercher Zeitung published them in these days before Christmas.
God himself enters our world
Greatness and misery, and the suffering of so many continue to characterize our world. That is why, if I want to pass on to my granddaughters the essence of Christmas – I allow myself a personal confession here – I stick to the Christmas books I have read to my own children. It is the story of the child in the manger, in the stable in Bethlehem, lovingly protected by his parents Joseph and Mary, admired by the shepherds, adored by the Magi… and overhead is the star of Bethlehem that protects everything.
Today, the scenario has changed, but the Christian religion is still very much a sign of contradiction (as the religious scholar and theologian Adolf Holl put it): A vision of God as warrior fuels apocalyptic fantasies in which only the fight against the omnipresent evil promises salvation.
However, the child in the manger counteracts this vision: he is here. He is the sign of redemption that now underlines its sense of peace. In the splendor of the star the restlessness of time stops: “Nunc stans”, the vibration of the moment is stilled – it is the moment of security in the stable. With the coming of the “Son of Man” For the one who believes, the world is renewed from its depths.
Consolation of the sublime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3uyMuZNv6E
The splendor of redemptive security shines through the centuries. What is that new thing in the world? It is the mystery to which Christianity bears witness in the story of God’s incarnation. As we embrace the child, we too are welcomed and loved by him. This is how I would answer my granddaughters if they asked me why we wish each other “Merry Christmas”, disregarding the fact that they are still very young and do not speak. But they will ask me sometime anyway, because they know they are loved.
Comments
Hans Jonas, a German Jewish professor of philosophy, said that after Auschwitz it is no longer possible to believe in God as before. And this could be extended to even greater catastrophes in quantity and gravity that occur today: the 60 million abortions since 1945, the refusal to have children in exchange for greater apparent personal freedom, and so many other deadly crimes for millions of souls. In the face of this sullen panorama it is impressive to see how the teachings of Jesus Christ assure us that his Mercy is still infinitely greater, ready to forgive sinful people one by one, if they ask him for forgiveness.
This is therefore the great message of Bethlehem: to have faith and hope, otherwise one’s own soul will be lost in a sorrowful eternity, far from God.
The worst of all evils, however, is to be a victim of certain environmental influences, which can rise up as impenetrable barriers that hinder one from knowing and believing in God. These interferences act as crystals that deform reality because of ideologies, prejudices and all kinds of errors and lies. Unfortunately, these barriers are the cause of atheism and the dissolution of the moral principles that we all have in our conscience. But no one can judge the measure of personal responsibility of others, because no one can know and weigh all the elements of judgment, only God, who has forgiven the good thief hanging next to him on the cross.
Even in such a situation, God moves to conversion, always being able to raise the dead, like Lazarus.Función de la religión en USA
