Spe Salvi as a discernment tool, part 2

Pope Benedict has a very readable style, but it is thick with thought. So it takes time and patience to move through the letter. In reading his letter you will be able to begin to appreciate his love for God and the Church.

Sometimes when we think about God we unconsciously think of God in human terms and concepts. So we might be tempted to see Jesus in light of a social revolution, in that, Jesus is going to teach us how to be a better society. But the encounter is SO MUCH more. When we encounter Christ, we encounter the Lord of Lords. In this encounter we are transformed, we are no longer simply human, but we have the ability to participate with the Divine. In this encounter we are made anew and so being in the community of the Church we now become brothers and sisters. While we might not share the same DNA or bloodlines, but we are one family in that we belong to God. Pope Benedict uses examples from St. Paul and St. Gregory of Nazianzen to illustrate the wonder of this encounter. St. Paul discusses the difference between life in God and life in the “elemental spirits of the universe” in Colossians 2:8. St. Gregory puts forth the idea that once the Magi followed the star to Christ, astrology ended because God was moving the star. Christ, not the laws of nature, governs the universe.

Pope Benedict then points out the image of Christ holding a staff and the Book of the Gospels that was very important to the early Christians and marked their tombs. Christ is the true philosopher and the shepherd. The philosopher was one that helped a person live authentically; they helped a person discern. The shepherd was perceived to have the simple and tranquil life. These symbols linked with Christ showed that He knew how to help us be authentic and that He knew the path through death to eternal life. As the philosopher and shepherd He is the truth and the path.

Pope Benedict then returns to the recurring theme of the link between faith and hope. In Hebrews 11:1, he points out that faith is a substance. Meaning that it is something real; we in the Catholic Church know it is a theological virtue. A theological virtue is supernatural and is infused in us by God, so faith is not something you and I can learn or gain possession by ourselves. Faith must come from God. And as Pope Benedict points out this supernatural gift gives us something of heaven now; it makes the future present in the now. Or as he writes, “the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future (#7).” He points out further in Hebrews 10:34 how we are to take security in the gift of this new substance that is faith. We might lose the information on our hard drive, we might lose our cell phone, we might be stripped of our possessions, but we cannot lose the supernatural gift of faith given by God.

Pope Benedict then points about the difference of endurance and shrinking in Hebrews 10: 36 and 39. Endurance is defined as the ability to wait patiently through activity and shrinking is defined as lacking courage. So we need to be people who have the ability to wait for the arrival of what we have already begun to share in and that is Heaven. This takes courage!