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The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
WOF 479: Bishop Barron on the Theology of Balthasar (10 of 12)
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We bring you the tenth lesson of Bishop Barron’s lecture series on one of the most important and influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century, Han Urs von Balthasar. We will come to understand his life, his theology, and his ongoing...
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Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm your host, Matthew Petrusic. We are continuing our walk through Bishop Barron's lecture series on one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century, Hans Urs von Balthasar. Enjoy.
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We've been looking at the Herlichkeit, the Glory of the Lord, and at the Theodramatik, the Theodrama. So being entranced by the form of Christ and then being drawn into the acting area opened up by divine and human freedom. Now, in some ways, all this comes together in the book that I mentioned in the very first lecture. Remember when I got that book at the Procure bookstore in Paris and brought it down to the Seine and looking up at Notre Dame, read it? Well, that was the Mysterium Paschale, the Paschal Mystery, Balthazar's reflection on the three days, meaning Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday. Because, see, in many ways, that's where it all happens. That's the form he's talking about. That's the glory, the beauty of the Lord. It's also where divine and human freedom come together in a most compelling way. So everything we've been saying in some ways now is moving toward this meditation. Think, too, of the influence of Adrienne von Speier. So in her mystical experience, she often at Easter time, would go into these intense experiences of entering into the dying and rising of Jesus, but especially into what she called the being dead of the Son of God, the death of Jesus and his burial. This had a lot to do with Balthasar's reflections on the third day, the one that's most often overlooked. He said, in our meditations on Holy Week, there's a lot about Holy Thursday, a lot on Good Friday, of course, a lot on Easter Sunday. But that third day of Holy Saturday is often the most overlooked. He wants to bring that into clearer focus. And that's the point of the Mysterium Paschale. Here's how the book opens. And for those with a theological bent, this is very interesting because he highlights one of the great debates in the history of Christian theology. It's often called the Thomist, Scotist problem. Thomist, Thomas Aquinas, Scotist, referring to Duns Scotus, Aquinas said, the reason for the Incarnation and the Passion is to deal with sin. So think of the Felix Culpa tradition, right? Oh, happy fault that won for us such a Savior. The reason Jesus came was to free us from the power of sin. The implication seems to be, if we had not sinned, there would not have been an incarnation. Then there's the Scotus position, Duns Scotus who argues in many texts that even if we hadn't sinned, God would have become incarnate precisely to display his full glory. So those two traditions now we can debate. I think there are texts within both Aquinas and Scotus that kind of argue the other side. But generally speaking that's a distinction we can make. Here is Balthazar's I think great contribution is to say both those theories are one sided and in fact the best way to think about it is to bring them together. Nowhere is the divine glory more fully revealed than than in the acrobatic act of love by which God goes all the way to God forsakenness to save us from our sins. In other words, don't drive a wedge between dealing with sin and displaying glory. In fact, that's where the hairlish kite, the glory of God is fully revealed. And so in many ways the book I think is an attempt to show this reconciliation of the Thomist Scotist problem. I refer to it now a couple times. But this going into God forsakenness, that's the heart of the matter for Balthasar, the Son sent on mission. As we've seen, his whole identity is his mission. But what's the trajectory of his mission all the way down to go into our humanity, which means into our fallen and compromised humanity, which means into our greatest alienation from God, which means into what frightens us the most, the Son of God going all the way down so as to rescue those who have wandered far from God. It's in that acrobatic act of love that God's glory is most revealed. That's the heart of the matter here. Now with that in mind, he'll draw attention to how the Gospels insist upon the centrality of the Passion and the death of Jesus. Not to read it the way it's often read in a lot of contemporary theology as a sort of unhappy accident of the life and ministry of Jesus. Like the real heart of it is his preaching and his teaching. And boy, wasn't it too bad that the people at that time couldn't take it and so they put him to death. No, no. From the beginning, the dying of Jesus is seen as the whole reason and trajectory of the Incarnation. Here he quotes favorably Martin Kaler, the Protestant biblical scholar who in a very often quoted line said that the Gospels are passion narratives with long introductions. And that's true just in a literal sense. I mean the Gospels are dominated by the Passion. And then they have these introductions about the life and teaching of Jesus. Clearly, in the Bible, the dying and rising of Jesus is seen as the primary fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. I mean, that's where all of the Old Testament strands are gathered together and recapitulated. Or think here of Paul. All I preach is Christ, in him crucified. Notice how conspicuous by its absence any reference to Jesus preaching is in Paul. Here's the first great Christian preacher we know. He hardly ever mentions the teaching of Jesus, his parables or his miracles. What does he talk about all the time, obsessively, is the passion and death and resurrection of Jesus. I preach one thing, Christ and him crucified. The Synoptics. It's not just true in John, but the Synoptics too. That little word dei, DEI in Greek, which means necessity, the obligation of the cross. It was for that that he came is emphasized over and over again. And think of in John's Gospel, everything leading to the cross. When the Son of Man is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself. That's the whole trajectory, that's the whole momentum of the Gospel of John is toward the cross, toward the Passion. Furthermore, says Balthazar, this is clearly echoed in the patristic tradition. I think he's dead right about that. You can't read the Church Fathers without seeing this theme. Here's a summary from Pope Leo the Great, one of the really important early theologians. I'll say in his beautiful Latin, nec alia fuit de filio causa n ascendi quam ut cruci possita figi. Which means there is no other cause for the birth of the Son of God than that he might be fixed to a cross. Now, that might sound macabre, but it's reflected in the Gospels themselves. When you read those infancy narratives, they are filled with references to the cross. You see it too if you go to Chartres Cathedral, and it's on many other medieval cathedrals. Christmas is not sentimentalized. In fact, the depiction of Christmas on Chartres is Mary sitting very austerely, the Christ child wrapped up and placed on a slab as though to be sacrificed. It's exactly what he's saying here. There was no other reason for the Son of God to be born than he might be affixed to a cross. It's not macabre. It's just the theological theodramatic truth that the purpose of the Incarnation was to go all the way down. See, as an act of love, you know, Balsar considers as many others in the 20th century do the kenosis hymn in Paul to the Philippians. Kenosis in Greek, emptying. Right though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather, there's the word kenosis, rather emptied himself and took the form of a slave. Being born in the likeness of men, he was known to be of human estate. And it was thus that he humbled himself obediently, accepting even death, death on a cross. Now see, watch that. In the form of God in the morphe tute. But he empties himself of that and becomes one of us. So that's the first level of the kenosis. But then the second kenosis, he emptied himself further, accepting death. Yes, but then even death on a cross. In the ancient world, there was no more humiliating way to die than the cross. This horrific form of execution reserved for slaves and the most despised of criminals. That's how low the Son of God went in the downward trajectory of the incarnation. Now, again, why not because the Father is cruel and so on, but to send the Son to the very limits of Godforsakenness that he might find those who have wandered far from Him. Something else from this Philippian hymn that's so important for Balthazar. One of his Criticisms of the 20th century in theology was so many people put a stress on our movement up to God, the ascent of the human spirit toward God. Rahner's transcendental anthropology being a good example of that. But he insisted it's just the opposite. Christian theology really begins with the great descent of God toward us. You remember Kierkegaard, religiousness A and B. Here's a very good example of a Religiousness B. Things begin with the great descent of God into our human condition. That's what this book is really about. Okay, so with that as an introduction, let's turn now to the substance of his treatment. What he's going to do is engage in a kind of liturgical reflection. So Catholics know about this. When you move through the events of the Easter triduum of the three days, you enter into the Holy Thursday, then Good Friday, moving through Holy Saturday and into the Easter vigil, Balthasar is going to do now a sort of disciplined theological reflection on this liturgical process. But what he's doing again is following the trajectory downward. As the Son of God is moving into ever greater abandonment, he commences relatively in self control and command. But as he moves through the days, he's going down into ever greater powerlessness. And he'll be following this descent and reflecting on it theologically. So things begin now with the first of the three days, namely Holy Thursday, the establishment of the Eucharist. So in the Synoptic gospels, clearly we hear this great stress on this is my body, this is my blood. What's happening here? But the signaling of his radical self gift. Jesus is not about aggrandizing the ego. Think of so many programs of worldly success, whether it's an ancient world or in our world. It means filling up the ego, attaining some high position. But at the climax of his life, Jesus says, no, my life is all about becoming food for you, becoming drink for you. He's not to be fed, but to feed. But then it's also got that very strong sacrificial dimension. This is my body given for you. Well, that's the language of the temple, isn't it? The language of the sacrificed animal. And then even more intensely, this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Well, that's all temple talk, isn't it? Someone would bring the animal to the temple, the animal would be killed, the blood would be caught in bowls. And the idea was, what's happening to that animal by right should be happening to me. It's a sign of reparation, begging God for forgiveness. So Jesus identifies himself with the sacrificed animal. My blood will be poured out for you. What he's signaling now is the whole meaning of what he's about to do. It's all about feeding the world, giving drink to the world, sacrificing himself on behalf of the world. The trajectory of his mission in which his identity consists is a downward trajectory, not an upward one. So that's the way the world works. Fill myself up, don't sacrifice, make other people sacrifice, don't feed, but be fed. Right? But Jesus at the beginning of the three days signals this kenotic or self emptying stance. Now if you look in the Gospel of John, you're not going to find the classic Last Supper account. You don't find a take and eat, this is my body. Take and drink, this is my blood. That's in chapter six of John. You'll find a lot of that reflection. But in John, what do you find eloquently is the washing of the feet, this beautiful gesture which we reenact every Holy Thursday liturgically. Jesus bends down low, performing this menial task that was beneath the dignity even of a slave. They say Jesus going, as it were, all the Way down underneath the dirty feet of his disciples, signaling the self offering of his life, becoming a servant. Yes, even to that point. So see, the Last Supper motifs are meant to be a sort of interpretive key by which we read the rest of the Passion. Moving now from the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples crossed the Kidron Valley. They go up to the Mount of Olives and they come to the garden of Gethsemane. Here's where the Passion, properly speaking, begins. Balthasar remarks in the Gospel of Mark how Jesus falls to the ground, overcome by the weight of sin. Now the anticipation of his own death. Yes, but see, the mystical and theological tradition is always read more than that. Jesus taking upon himself the stance and attitude of the sinner, moving into the space, psychologically and spiritually, of the one who is alienated from God. Now mind you, Jesus is not a sinner. If he were, he'd need a Savior too, and then we'd be getting nowhere. He's not a sinner, but yet, as Paul says, he becomes sin. So taking upon himself this attitude and feeling of the sinner, that's what's happening in the Garden of Gethsemane. How beautiful. Balthazar says, as a symbol of his fundamental aloneness. See, that's what sin is, isn't it? Sin is isolation. It's the refusal of community. It's wandering far from God. As a symbol of his aloneness, he isolates himself from his disciples, then even from Peter, James and John, who are his kind of intimate band. He absents himself even from them and goes into a sort of cosmic loneliness. What he feels at this point, Balthazar says, is the timor Gehennalis, the fear of Gehenna. Now we're getting close to the heart of the sort of fascinating reflection of Balthazar here, that Jesus goes all the way down, yes, to the limits of Godforsakenness, even to the fear of Gehenna. And Gehenna symbolizes here ultimate alienation from God. God goes into God forsakenness. Does it mean he's lost contact with the Father? No. No, because it's out of love that the Father sends the Son. It's in love that the Son accepts the mission. It's the Spirit who is the love between Father and Son that keeps them connected. So don't imagine that there's a severance, that God has split himself apart, that the Son has lost contact with the Father. That isn't it. But out of Love identifies psychologically and spiritually with those who have wandered away from God. He assumes, even Balthazar says The pena damni call it the penalty of the damned. Now again, I know we're kind of skating on thin ice, and he's doing it very much on purpose here. I think it's a meditation on Paul's claim that Christ becomes sin, not a sinner. So don't make that mistake. Like he becomes a damned sinner. No, no. But he experiences the suffering, the pain, the penalty even of the damned. That's the full extent of what's happening in the Garden of Gethsemane. Notice, please. It's an expression of Christ's obedience to his Father in that endlessly fascinating and eloquent line of Jesus, begging that this cup might pass from him. And yet, Father, not my will, but yours be done. Now go right back to what I said a few lectures ago about finite and infinite freedom. Where does Christ find. Now this is in his human nature, find his freedom. But precisely in surrender. Even at this awful moment, even accepting this awful mission, surrender to the will of the Father. Here's a last point now about Gethsemane. Balzar says that in a way, all attempts to explain away what Jesus is feeling here, all attempts to tidy it up and make perfect sense of it are wrong headed. That in a way, he's willingly entered into this chaotic space. And we all know it. We're all sinners. We all know what it's like to move into the space of alienation from God. That's where the Son of God begins to go. Now let me just say this as I close this lecture. Why? Why does he go there? So that even as we run as far as we can away from God, where are we running? Into the arms of God. You see what I mean? The Father sends the Son so far out that there's no place we can run where God can't find us.
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Matthew Patrucic here again. Thanks so much for joining us on the Word on Fire show. As always, if you'd like to learn more about how Word on Fire can help you grow closer to Christ and become a better evangelist with and for others, visit institute.wordpressfire.org that's institute.WordPress.org we'll see you next time. And God bless and protect you.