Lent and the Holy Face

As we celebrate today the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ, you might considering making use of some of the devotional prayers offered at the web site of il Volto Santo, the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello. As you go to prayer today, remember what the Lord Jesus said to Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli of the Holy Face:

I wish that my face, which reflects the deep pains of my soul, the sorrow and love of my heart, be better honored: who contemplates me consoles me.

Let us seek to console him today by asking him to strengthen our devotion to his Holy Face.

In his book On the Way to Jesus Christ, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger used a few pages (27-30) to reflect on the devotion to the Holy Face, which he says "reached its apex in Thérèse 'of the Child Jesus' and 'of the Holy Face.'" In the two titles which the Little Flower chose for her name he discerned two aspects of the self-emptying of the Son of God:

Whereas the first title represents the lovable side of this descent, the second one emphasizes the aspect of the Passion, for in this world the face of Christ is a "bleeding Head, so wounded"; precisely in this way it manifests the mystery of God's love and the true face of God.

In the devotion to the Holy Face, Ratzinger sees three main points. The first is that of discipleship, "or following after Christ, the orientation of one's entire life toward the encounter with Jesus." As such, the Feast of the Holy Face is placed profoundly just before the beginning of the season of Lent, in which our aim is to closer to Him who died for us so that we might behold the glory of his Resurrection.

The second point, he says, is that of a liturgical piety, for it is in the Eucharist that "we behold him whom they have pierced, the bleeding head so wounded," "in which the struggle of Moses upon the mountain is continually made present to us." Such a liturgical piety also involves "a very personal devotion to the Passion, the interior encounter with Jesus, and also popular devotions." This is only natural since the two images of the Holy Face we have are on the Shroud of Turin, in which the body of Jesus was wrapped in the tomb and displays his face in death," and the Veil of Manoppello, which was placed on his face on top of the shroud and displays his wounds, yes, but more so his Resurrection.

The third point is eschatological, by which he means "an approach to the Lord who is to come, to that 'awakening' in which he himself will satisfy us with the sight of him, with the vision of the triune God." As we seek to prepare ourselves to celebrate the coming solemnity of Easter with the joy and gladness that is fitting for the Resurrection of the Lord, we also seek to prepare ourselves to be found worthy on the Last Day when he will at last raise our mortal bodies from the dust.

In each of the way, devotion to the Holy Face will help us to live well these coming days of penance. Let us ask the Lord to help us honor him, that be reflecting on and adoring his Holy Face we might become ever more like him.

Ratzinger on hope

The following passages are taken from Pope Benedict XVI, The Yes of Jesus Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope and Love (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1991). They may be a hint of what we can expect to find on the morrow.

“I think one can only understand the true nature of Christian hope and can only live it afresh if one sees through for what they are its imitations and distortions [ideological optimism] that are trying to foist themselves on to it. The greatness and the reasonableness of Christian hope come to light again only if we liberate ourselves from the pinchbeck allure of their secular imitations” (p. 44).

“The goal of Christian hope is the kingdom of God, that is the union of the world and man with God through an act of divine power and love” (p. 46).

“[T]he justification of Christian hope is the incarnation of God’s word and love in Jesus Christ” (p. 47).

“The aim of Christian hope, by contrast, is a gift, the gift of love, which is given us beyond all our activity: to vouch for the fact that this thing that we cannot control or compel and that is yet the most important thing of all for human beings does exist, and that we are not clutching at thin air in waiting insatiably for it, we have the interventions of God’s love in history, most powerfully in the figure of Jesus Christ in whom God’s love encounters us in person” (p. 47).

“The hope of faith, on the other hand, reveals to us the true future beyond death, and it is only in this way that the real instances of progress that do exist become a future for us, for me, for every individual” (p. 49).

“Jeremiah the pessimist showed himself to be the true bearer of hope. For the others everything had necessarily to have come to an end with this defeat: for him everything at this moment was beginning anew. God is never defeated, and his promises do not collapse in human defeats: indeed, they become greater, as love grows to the extent that the beloved has need of it” (p. 51-52).

“The theory put forward by many scholars that all great prophets have been prophets of doom is false. But it is correct that their genuinely theological hope did not coincide with superficial optimism and that, as bearers of true hope, these great figures were at the same time relentless critics of current parodies of hope” (p. 52-53).

“The sermon on the mount is a word of hope. In fellowship with Jesus what is impossible becomes possible: the camel goes through the eye of a needle (Mark 10:25). In being one with him we become capable too of fellowship with God and thus of conclusive salvation. To the extent that we belong to Jesus his qualities are realized in us too – the beatitudes, the perfection of the Father” (p. 63-64).

“To hope is to fly, said Bonaventure: hope demands of us a radical commitment…. The supernatural, the great promise, does not push nature to one side. Quite the contrary: it calls forth the commitment of all our energies for the complete opening up of our being, for the unfolding of all its possibilities” (p. 65).

“The concluding formula of liturgical prayers, ‘through Christ our Lord,’ corresponds to the fact that Christ is realized hope, the anchor of our hoping” (p. 66).

“Those who despair do not pray any more because they no longer hope: those who are sure of themselves and their own power do not pray because they rely only on themselves. Those who pray hope in a goodness and in a power that transcend their own capabilities. Prayer is hope in execution” (p. 66-67).

“Learning to pray is learning to hope and thus learning to love” (p. 68).

“Hope is … the certainty that I shall receive that great love that is indestructible and that I am already loved with this love here and now” (p. 70).

“Christian tradition is aware of two attitudes that are fundamentally opposed to hope: despair and presumption” (p. 70).

Ratzinger's "On Hope"

A good friend from college and a reader of the blog kindly sent word that Communio has linked to an article by Joseph Ratzinger from 1985 entitled, "On Hope." Do have a look, and a read.