Pope Benedict XVI’s second volume on the life of Jesus is likely to be completed next spring, a Vatican spokes­man said.

The book is expected to cover Christ’s childhood, Passion, death and resurrection. The first volume, “Jesus of Naz­areth,” was published in 2007.

Father Federico Lombardi told Cath­o­lic News Service Sept. 13 that next spring was a “realistic” target date for completion. He added that readying the manuscript for publication and translating it into other languages may delay it.

The pope has been working on the volume over the last two years, mostly during summer vacations. When he broke his right wrist in July, he was said to have been particularly disappointed because it meant he couldn’t write.

The 448-page first volume covered the life of Christ from the time of his baptism in the Jordan River to the transfiguration before his disciples. In it, Pope Bene­dict said Christ must be understood as the Son of God on a divine mission, not as a mere moralist or social re­for­mer.

The book said that while Christ did not bring a blueprint for social progress, he did bring a new vision based on love. (source)

Every Easter season we read the passage of Luke’s Gospel about two disciples on their way to Emmaus, a town outside Jerusalem. This Gospel account is about a journey that often reflects our own lives. On this journey a man joins the two disciples of Jesus as they walk and discuss the terrible events that had just happened to Jesus in Jerusalem. They do not recognize this man but they welcome him. The stranger inquires of them why they seem so sad. And they ask ‘have you not heard what they did to Jesus the Nazarene? A prophet mighty in in deeds and word!’

And then this stranger explains the Scriptures to them starting with Moses and all the prophets.

He asks: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his Glory?”
So well did this man interpret the scriptures for them that their hearts were burning within them, yet they still did not recognize that this man who joined them was Jesus, their Lord and Messiah.

Isn’t our faith sometimes like this? We try living with Christian values, with Christian ideals, and yet we often live our lives without recognizing that Christ is with us on our journey.

Unfortunately we as Christians often do not know our sacred story, our holy past, because of this we do not know who we are.

Questions of who I am, where do I come from, why am I the way I am, are fundamental and existential questions!
We need to ask this about our Christian identity too. We must not be cut off from our sacred past. Cardinal Ouellete of Quebec has often spoken to the youth telling them that they should know their heritage, know who they are, and who they are called to be.

This Easter, during the Saturday night vigil, after reading many passages of sacred scripture, (our sacred story of salvation), 11 people became Catholic, four were Baptized, then confirmed with five others, and two made a profession of Catholic faith. It was a beautiful celebration, it was a celebration of the light of the risen Christ we had come to encounter.

To get to this point of entering the Church each of these people had to discover the sacred story of the faith, and thus discover too who they were before God; they were called to encounter Christ who was calling them to be disciples.

Jesus gives us complete freedom however to invite him into our lives, to be Children in the Risen Son. Like the disciple at Emmaus, we must not miss our chance to invite him to stay with us. When the the three travelers arrived in Emmaus, Jesus seems to take his leave of them, but the two Disciples ask him to stay and eat supper with them. Lucky for us Jesus hesitates long enough for them to call out to him. Jesus is always waiting for us to call out to him. It is only when Jesus breaks bread with the two that they recognize him.

What does it mean to have the name of Christian? It means that our hearts should be burning within at our encounter with the risen Lord. This can only happen if we come to recognize him. Like the disciples of Emmaus we will recognize him at the breaking of the bread.

Christ is risen and he is among us. Our sacred story, the history that gives us our identity, is celebrated and given full significance at the breaking of the bread, at the Eucharistic Table, where we know that Christ is manifesting himself. Christ is coming to our encounter.

The whole episode of this Gospel passage of Emmaus is a foreshadowing of our Eucharistic liturgy, of the way we are called to allow Christ to assure us of his continued work of grace in our lives. We celebrate his word and then we renew ourselves at his divine supper. Only then can we too go out and proclaim truly ‘the Lord is risen indeed, and has shown himself to us; we have encountered him, we have celebrated him together. We know who we are, we are his brothers and sisters, disciples and Children of God.

The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology is a non-profit research and educational institute that promotes life-transforming Scripture study in the Catholic tradition. The Center serves clergy and laity, students and scholars, with research and study tools — from books and publications to multimedia and on-line programming.

Salvationhistory.org is a highly recommended website featuring selected audio programs by Scott Hahn, the well-known Catholic author and biblical teacher.

I don’t personally know Fr. Durkin, but I found his homilies to be very – hum – different from what we typically hear in our parishes Listen to his latest homily, “The Rich Man’s Steward“, to see what I mean.

Other talks and homilies by Fr. Durkin can be found here.

With regards to Scott Hahn’s book Reasons to Believe, I knew ahead of time that it would be orthodox (i.e. faithful to the teaching of the Catholic Church). What I did not know was if this book would be dynamically orthodox. In other words, would Hahn simply re-cover material already examined elsewhere? That would already be valuable, assuming he did it in his characteristically palatable way, as good introductions are always useful. But I was really hoping this book push the envelope — and I was not disappointed. In fact, Hahn has managed to accomplish both.

The purpose of Hahn’s book is to help the reader to “understand, explain, and defend the Catholic faith”. The first two parts, therefore, are really an introduction to certain basic elements of theology and apologetics. Part I covers the philosophical background to the Catholic faith, and this is important, because a conversion of the heart to Christ often first requires a conversion of the mind to the possibility and content of Truth. Part II then tackles some specific Catholic doctrines, like the Church, the Eucharist, the Papal office, etc., and shows how the Catholic teaching is rooted in the Bible. I’ll be honest and say that, up until this point, the book had not “wowed” me. Again, it was covering a lot of the “same old” material, and in fact there was a lot of even more “hot-button” material it was not covering. For example, it would have been nice to have a section on explaining the Catholic teaching on human sexuality — a very, *ahem*, touchy subject at the best of times.

But Hahn’s book got lifted from “B” to “A” status when I began to read part III, which covers what is called “salvation history”. Simply put, Hahn masterfully presents a big-picture outline of God’s plan for human history. He weaves together Biblical “threads” to form a narrative “tapestry” that is just brilliant. I have been reflecting on these questions for years now, and I learned something new page after page. For example, did you know that in the early days of the dynasty of David, King Solomon established an exalted place for his mother? The “Queen Mother” was a member of the royal court, with the right to the ear of her son. Given that Jesus is actually the several-generations-later successor of David and Solomon, it certainly puts a new spin on the role of Mary as an intercessor in Heaven. For myself, I know a book is good when it nourishes my prayer life, and I can tell you that I have not prayed the 5th glorious mystery of the Rosary the same way since.

In the end, the interesting thing is this: if you are not too confident of your intellectual grasp of Catholic teaching, this book is actually a really good and simply-written introduction. And, on the other hand, if you *are* blessed with a certain amount of theological culture, this book has the possibility of taking you even further in the exploration of the mystery. So what can I say? Get it and read! My rating: A

It goes without saying that this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but solely an expression of my personal search “for the face of the Lord”…Everyone is free, then, to contradict me.

“Fair enough,” I thought, and I decided then and there that I was going to review this book as critically as I would any other. As a quick survey of my reviews would show, I am tough to please. And so, from the start of my reading this book I took careful margin notes (as I always do), looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly. About a third of the way through, though, I knew this one was going to get a rating somewhere in the A-range, simply from the experience itself of reading the book. For as I read it, I would find myself drifting off from the text into prayer and contemplation. I found myself falling in love with Christ all over again, growing closer to him in a way that seemed almost tangible. Any book that can do that, I figure, deserves an “A”.

Please don’t misunderstand, this did not happen at every paragraph. There are parts of the book that can be very dry and technical, and to be sure your average reader needs to have a strong background in the Bible and in Christian theology to “get” everything the book has to offer. But in this book, one does not need to sift a lot of textual sand to find literary gems. At times, Pope Benedict amazes with the depth of theological insight, which just makes the story and person of Jesus come alive. At other times, he shares the depth of his faith and devotion to Christ, and the reader finds himself discovering a Person that Benedict clearly not only knows, but loves. To put it simply, this book is one of the clearest examples of *theology* that I have ever found, and “theology” understood in the proper sense as “faith seeking understanding”. Pope Benedict is clearly intelligent — that much we all already knew — but in his book it becomes clear that his intelligence is clearly at the service of something — or, more accurately, Someone — far greater. He is tracing a path for all theologians and persons of faith — for theologians, that they never forget the faith that drives their quest to understand, and for everyone else, that they might discover how the use of reason does not diminish faith, but can strengthen and deepen it.

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is particularly significant for two reasons. First of all, it is going to spark a HUGE debate within the exegetical community about HOW to do Biblical study. Pope Benedict regularly compares modern Biblical scripture scholars with the — ahem — the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day. Not all, of course, simply those who undertake to study the Bible without considering that it is actually inspired by the Holy Spirit and so has only one true Author. He regularly points out what he considers major flaws and shortcomings in some elements of their method, and is essentially issuing a call for the Church to once again rediscover the field of Biblical theology as distinct from exegesis — so as to rescue Biblical theology, you might say, from those who sometimes seem they can only see the trees and not the forest. Pope Benedict has thrown down the gauntlet to the exegetes of the world to show how their rational conclusions are genuinely “theological”, springing from faith and leading back to it.

The second major impact that this book will have, in my opinion, is within the Protestant community, particularly the Evangelicals. Two things come out crystal clear within Jesus of Nazareth: the Pope knows and loves the Bible, and the Pope knows and loves Jesus. Protestants struggling with the the interpretations of classical liberal Protestant exegesis are going to find this book a safe harbour for their Biblical faith. Of course, a key issue they will face is that this is a Catholic harbour (you don’t get much more Catholic than a book written by a Pope!) — but it will be more than just “any port in a storm”. I think the Evangelical Protestant community is going to discover that Pope Benedict is a true brother in Christ, and this will cause a lot of barriers and prejudices to be dropped. I expect great things to happen in Catholic-Protestant relations thanks to this book.

What more can I say? Thank you, Doubleday, for sending me this gem. My rating: A+.

With that background, I’d like to call your attention to something suggested by one of the readers of Adventus.org: Mark’s Gospel Live, a “performance” of that particular gospel by the Rev. Joseph Morris. I don’t know anything about him, nor about his church, but the idea looks interesting. If anyone has had an experience of this particular work of art, please drop a comment!

I know that this particular reading sparks controversy sometimes over how it describes how wives and husbands should act together. Despite this, I like this reading, especially for the above-mentioned passage. After all, the rest of the reading is just an in-depth explanation of how to give ourselves to each other; and Paul’s main point is that it MUST be mutual, to the glory of God.

When I think about it, how completely counter-cultural and revolutionary that line is right now! Submit!? You mean, let the other person have their way, an indefinite number of times? Unthinkable! We are so afraid that others will take advantage of us if they see us yielding… or that we will be seen as spineless if we don’t make sure that we make our position very clear and never give more than what our position describes and requires…

Being subject to each other is completely incompatible with a society that seeks its own advantage. It completely clashes with the mindset of appearing strong. It is in exact opposition to our mistrust of people’s intentions towards us. It just doesn’t work; you can’t give freely to people who will automatically take advantage of you, or worse, who will immediately think that you are taking advantage of them when you’re not.

But then, how will we break the cycle of power struggles unless we choose to disengage by giving ourselves completely, without counting the cost? Surely we might get hurt sometimes, but is it not the real way in which Love will be able to grow to its fullness? Isn’t that what we desire, and why we resist being taken advantage of in the first place? Because we are worth more than that! We are worth it, that someone would give themselves completely to us out of love for us (isn’t that what the Lord did first?)!

I may sound like societal ideas of power are taking over; but actually, that’s not true of much I observe around me. Many people sacrifice themselves for others…to their hurt…The child who gives away his last candy (this might probably happen tonight)… The doctor who spends those extra hours needed to care properly for his patient… The mother who cooks extra food for her neighbour…

Let us dare to be subject to one another!