The Journey to Peace: Reflections on Faith, Embracing Suffering, and Finding New Life - Softcover

Bernardin, Joseph Cardinal

 
9780385501026: The Journey to Peace: Reflections on Faith, Embracing Suffering, and Finding New Life
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0385501021 ISBN 13: 9780385501026
Verlag: Image, 2003

Inhaltsangabe

Excerpts from the homilies of the late Archbishop of Cincinnati focus on the relevance of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection to the lives of modern believers. Reprint.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joseph Louis Bernardin served as Archbishop of Cincinnati and President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. He became a cardinal in 1983 and was Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996. Widely recognized as both a church and civic leader, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom shortly before he died.

Alphonse P. Spilly, C.PP.S., served as special assistant to Cardinal Bernardin from 1984 to 1996. He assisted with The Gift of Peace and edited the two-volume Selected Works of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. He is director of the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Jeremy Langford edited The Gift of Peace and two biographical photobooks of the Cardinal by John H. White, This Man Bernardin and The Final Journey of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. He is editor-in-chief of Sheed & Ward Book Publishing and is earning a master's degree as a Bernardin Scholar at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.


From the Hardcover edition.

Aus dem Klappentext

nal Bernardin (1928-1996) touched millions of people through his passionate witness, humble wisdom, and spiritual writings. In the final months of his life he shared his personal reflections in The Gift of Peace, a modern classic about finding inner peace in the face of life's greatest trials. As part of his rich legacy, The Gift of Peace has become an international bestseller and has brought courage, healing, faith, hope, and love to people of all backgrounds throughout the world. Cardinal Bernardin's legacy is continued here in The Journey to Peace, a special collection of his previously unpublished spiritual reflections.

Using the Stations of the Cross as a framework, The Journey to Peace reveals the extraordinary faith, wisdom, and compassion of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Through these excerpts from his homilies, Cardinal Bernardin helps readers understand the relevance of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection to their own lives,

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First Station

JESUS IS CONDEMNED

TO DEATH

To be condemned for a serious crime that one has committed is a terrifying moment in one's life. To be condemned for a crime that one has not committed--to be condemned when one is innocent--is both a grave injustice and a personally humiliating moment.

In the Old Testament, prophets who proclaimed God's word to his people often experienced opposition, ridicule, condemnation and even death. Jesus knew his Jewish tradition well and understood that his mission and message would be opposed by some, even the majority of his listeners. But he remained faithful to his mission and assented to his Father's will.

Throughout his life, Cardinal Bernardin also paid the price many times for remaining faithful to his pastoral mission. An influential figure, Bernardin spoke out publicly against nuclear weapons, abortion, euthanasia. He called for a consistent ethic of life and for common-ground dialogue. At times he met opposition and made enemies. He also knew the sting of false accusation. But he accepted these hardships as the necessary price of being a believer, and he encouraged us to do the same.

The First Station of the Cross stands in sharp contrast with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem only a few days earlier. Then some of his disciples, caught up in the excitement of the event, had loudly proclaimed,

"Blessed is he who comes as king

in the name of the Lord!"

(Luke 19:38).

Now Jesus stands alone; his disciples have scattered. And the crowd calls for the death penalty: "Crucify him!"

Pilate addressed them again, for he wanted Jesus to be the one released.

But they shouted back, "Crucify him, crucify him!" He said to them for the third time, "What wrong is this man guilty of? I have not discovered anything about him that calls for the death penalty. I will therefore chastise him and release him." But they demanded with loud cries that he be crucified, and their shouts increased in violence. Pilate then decreed that what they demanded should be done. He released the one they asked for, who had been thrown in prison for insurrection and murder, and delivered Jesus up to their wishes.

(LUKE 23:20-25)

Jesus Accepted the Price of

Being a Prophet

The Gospels often portray Jesus as an itinerant prophet who is led by God's Spirit. Like the lives of the prophets of old, Jesus' life is not his own. It belongs entirely to his Father who sent him into the world with a prophetic, saving, reconciling mission. Prophetic ministry is often difficult because the prophet's message falls on deaf ears, is unpopular or countercultural, or is resisted with outright hostility. Moreover, people sometimes--wittingly or unwittingly--try to lure a prophet from his God-given mission. . . .

Jesus often confronted serious obstacles to his mission. Let's focus our attention on this dimension of his prophetic ministry. If we are truly united with the Lord, we will experience both his joys and sorrows, his peaceful moments as well as the tense ones. I am particularly impressed with the way Jesus responded to pressures, hostility, intrigue, fickleness, shallowness, indifference. Despite the fact that he is God's Son, Jesus had to grapple with the diverse forces of his day--just as we do. That is why--if we want to understand ourselves and our own ministry better--we must first focus on Jesus and learn from his ministry.

At various times and in diverse ways, Jesus faced the fierce hostility of both demons and humans. As we know from the events during the last week of his public ministry, a very fine line divided the crowd chanting "hosannas" from those demanding his death. Particularly intense was the hostility of those whose very task and purpose in life were challenged by his message. At times only Jesus' moral authority was challenged. At other times, however, his very life was threatened!

Grappling with difficult issues and people each day is part and parcel of our ministry. We cannot reasonably expect to escape from it. Why? Because the message we proclaim often goes against the grain; it is not what some people want to hear. In many instances it goes against the mores of the moment. But it helps us to know that this was very much a part of Jesus' own life and ministry--that he, too, had to deal with it each day. He was able--but not without considerable cost to himself--to confront successfully the hostility of the crowds and demons as he went about proclaiming the Good News. (May 16, 1990)

O God, my strength and my shield, give me the integrity and the courage to proclaim the risen Lord and his gospel faithfully. Help me acquire the perspective of faith when I encounter opposition to your word, so that I may be united with your Son in his humiliation and suffering for your greater glory.

The Burden of the Cross Is Heavy Indeed

Allow me to share with you some of what I have learned about the truth of this during the past three and a half months. On Thursday, November 11, [1993], the media carried the story that I was going to be sued in a sexual misconduct case. I had heard rumors of such a suit earlier in the day but did not know what the specific allegation entailed. You can imagine how I felt! The next morning, Friday, as I was reciting the Rosary as part of my morning prayer, I began to meditate on the sorrowful mysteries. When I began with the "agony in the garden," I was suddenly able to understand much more deeply than ever before what that moment meant in Jesus' life. I felt very close to him in his agony, and also asked the Father, "Why me?"

The past three and a half months have been very painful. I was very embarrassed by the charges, which I knew were absolutely false. I had to stand--literally before the entire world--again and again to declare my innocence. Fortunately, I received a great outpouring of support from throughout the Archdiocese and, indeed, the entire country and the world. But I was also very disturbed by those who seemed, on the mere basis of the widely publicized charge, to assume that I was guilty.

The love and prayers of so many friends were a great comfort to me. But I would not have survived the burden of this cross had it not been for the time I spent in prayer each day. Ultimately, it was only my intimacy with the Lord--which grew and deepened these past few months--that enabled me to have a sense of inner peace, which in turn allowed me to continue my pastoral ministry each day. As I said earlier, this is a great mystery, but our suffering can bring us very close to Jesus. And that makes all the difference in the world! (March 6, 1994)

My God, your beloved Son encountered the mystery of suffering throughout his life, but, when he stood before Pilate, he entered into that mystery more deeply. Help me to accept suffering in my life by uniting myself more closely with the risen Lord through prayer each day.

With God's Love We Lack Nothing

The question "Why me?" has been asked by countless people through the ages. That question crossed my mind, I assure you. As you know, [in November 1993] I had suffered the humiliation of a false accusation of sexual misconduct. So when I discovered that I had cancer [in June 1995], I wondered why God had also allowed this to happen to me. We often tend to assume for some reason that when hardship or tragedies occur, God has punished or abandoned us. But in his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul lays that assumption to rest once and for all. No creature--absolutely no one--can separate us from God's all-powerful love that comes to us through his Son, Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). No adversity can prevent our access to God's love. God has not rejected or abandoned us. His love for us is absolute, not conditional. And if we have God's love, we have all we need. We lack nothing. (September 14,...

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Verlag
Image
Erscheinungsdatum
2003
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0385501021
ISBN 13 
9780385501026
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
176
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
CMN Printpool Inh. Mathis Neumann
https://www.also.com/ec/cms5/en_6000/6000

Friedrich-Karl-Str. 9
Hamburg
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Deutschland

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