Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Church: An Effect Not Greater Than Its Cause

"Our reflections on Julicher's exegesis of the parables have already led us to the conclusion that no one would have been condemned to the Cross on account of such harmless moralizing...

The anonymous community[of early Christians] is credited with an astonishing level of theological genius--who were the great figures responsible for inventing all this? No, the greatness, the dramatic newness, comes directly from Jesus; within the faith and life of the community it is further developed, but not created. In fact, the "community" would not even have emerged and survived at all unless some extraordinary reality had preceded it."

-Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

1 comment:

Pauli said...

B16: "...the dramatic newness, comes directly from Jesus; within the faith and life of the community it is further developed, but not created. In fact, the "community" would not even have emerged and survived at all unless some extraordinary reality had preceded it.

Right on as always and of course. I suppose you can have the Eucharist and not have community but you can't have any real community apart from the Holy Eucharist.