Categories: bible, spiritual-writings
Date: 02 March 2007 08:25:32
Through my reading of the Navarre Bible Text and Commentary on Ephesians 4:8-9 (as part of the Captivity Epistles book), I found this quote from an address by Pope Paul VI on February 3, 1965:
The Word of God, through whom all things were made, was made flesh, so that as a perfect man he could save all men and sum up all things in himself. The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the desires of history and civilisation, the centre of mankind, the joy of all hearts, and the fulfilment of all aspirations.
The second sentence in particular struck me while I was reading last night, and I re-read and re-read it: the focal point of the desires, the joy of all hearts, the fulfilment of all apsirations. Beautiful phrases, and so very true. It gave me new insight into the verse of one of my favourite hymns, O come, O come Emmanuel:
O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace.
Our longing, our hope, our deep desire, is Christ Himself: and this desire and longing comes also with the great promise of peace: peace and unity with God, and the command to make peace and be united, in love, to those around us. And as we journey towards Pascha, the feast of feast and the joy of joys, how right that we ponder more deeply Him who is Joy itself, and who indeed is the "joy of all hearts", and that we consider how we may show the practical love of Christ to all of those around us.