Questions on the Bible and the Christian Faith

“What is best in our life grows out of a simple trust in God.”

To commemorate Brother Roger’s birthday, Brother Emile wrote the following meditation.In a time of trial, we can sometimes latch onto a verse from a psalm or from the gospel as to a life preserver. And perhaps the more the words we are using are simple and direct, the more helpful they are. One person may say : “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear ?” Another will remember (...)

15 May 2020

Are the differences between Christians a problem or an asset?

This article is a reflection on a passage from the "Letter 2012 - Towards a new solidarity", in which Brother Alois wrote:It must be recognized that we Christians often obscure this message of Christ. In particular, how can we radiate peace if we remain divided? The contemporary world takes the individual as a starting-point. Our contemporaries have a strong sense of the equality, or even the similarity, of all human beings, and so they are impatient with all natural or cultural (...)

10 June 2012

The Church

Before becoming a word of the creed, of theology and of the catechism, “Church” is a biblical word. What follows is not a meditation on the Church, but an attempt to discover how the readers of the New Testament understood that word, in the hope of restoring to it something of its first freshness. The word ekklesia appears over two hundred times in the Greek Bible read by most of the Christian of the first centuries. What may surprise us is that it is found almost as many times in the Old (...)

18 June 2009

Can we really make the world better?

After a twentieth century in which so many fine dreams have been disappointed and so many hopes diverted, how can we talk about what we can do to change the world or make it better? Is disenchanted discourse our only option? Could resignation be wisdom? Should abdication be taken for lucidity? Must we join the ranks of fatalists to be intelligent? Will whoever gives the best of their energies be doomed one day to say, like the suffering servant of Isaiah: “I wore myself out for nothing?” (...)

18 June 2009

If God is present in everyone, what does faith add?

Confronted with the miracle of life, with our bodies so well “knit together” (Psalm 139), many people conclude that human beings are animated by a kind of divine spark. It is surprising that our modern mentality, so strongly marked by science, comes to the same conclusions as the “medicine” of the Old Testament. Yes, according to the Bible, God gives a Breath to human beings, and in that Breath of life God can become present (see Genesis 2). Breath and Spirit are the same word in Biblical (...)

9 May 2009

Do we have the right to be happy when others are suffering?

God’s breath in us is profound joy. When we are happy, we are in harmony with God. But when others suffer, our happiness is not in harmony with their suffering. That is why the apostle Paul writes, yes, “rejoice with those who are joyful” but also “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). Joy is certainly what we are made for. But when confronted with the suffering of others, it is by weeping that we are in the truth. Happiness can wound those who are excluded from it. The satisfaction of (...)

16 February 2009

What is needed for a true dialogue between Christians of different confessions?

Being in dialogue with Christians of other confessions means learning to become partners rather than adversaries. Dialogue is not a process of making mutual concessions, as in diplomacy. The important thing is to seek together to discover as fully as possible the face of Christ, his will for the world, for the Church, for the entire human family. No tradition can claim to possess everything of Christ. When we become aware of this, we discover that we need one another so that Christ’s face (...)

11 October 2008

Freedom: Am I still free if I obey a call from Christ?

“While passing by” (Mark 1:16 & 2:14), Jesus noticed his first disciples and called them. In this “passing by” there is a breath of freedom. Jesus had no fixed strategy; he saw his future disciples and called them. He said very little to them about his expectations for them, very little also about what they could expect from him. They would discover it little by little. Jesus wanted them to be just as free as he was. Or rather; free in the same way as he was. “You, follow me!” are the last (...)

2 July 2008

Does forgiving mean forgetting?

There are wounds we do not forget. In certain tragic situations, the road to healing seems to involve becoming more deeply aware of the wrong done rather than forgetting. The evil is not purged—it remains in any case—but rather it is held before one so that little by little it can be immersed in love and then transformed. If the Old Testament speaks of God’s anger, that is because God is hurt and his love towards Israel is wounded by the unfaithfulness of his people. The most extraordinary (...)

7 May 2008

Mercy

“Happy the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Jesus promises nothing else to the merciful than what they are already living—mercy. In the other beatitudes, the promise contains something more, leads further: those who weep will be comforted; the pure of heart will see God. But what more could God give to the merciful? Mercy is the fullness of God and of human beings. The merciful are already living God’s own life.“Mercy” is an old word. In the course of its long history it has (...)

7 May 2008

How can we concile diversity and reconciliation?

When it is a question of reconciliation between individuals or groups in the name of faith, sometimes the fear is expressed that this may lead to a uniformity that would damage what is distinctive about each party. Will we not lose what is most authentic in our own way? Still worse, is not the strongest party in danger of swallowing up the others by imposing its own vision of things? This fear misunderstands the vision of unity which is characteristic of the Bible and which is at the (...)

14 February 2008

What Is Distinctive About the Christian Faith?

Although faith is generally seen as a religion, since it concerns our relationship with that Absolute called God, that notion does not seem to be very helpful in order to grasp its unique character. Should it then be called a spirituality? Yes, in the sense that it offers a personal and lived-out way of penetrating the meaning of life more deeply. This way, however, is not left to the discretion of each individual; it is not made up of elements that we can take or leave according to our own (...)

14 November 2007

How does the New Testament speak about faith?

In the New Testament, faith takes first of all the form of a movement. It is a concrete step a person takes, that of “coming to Jesus.” Perhaps we could even say that before being a “movement towards” it is more fundamentally a thirst, a desire: “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink, whoever believes in me” (John 7:37). If Saint John parallels “coming to” and “believing in” (cf. 6:35), he knows at the same time that this “coming to Jesus” depends in the final analysis upon a secret (...)

4 October 2007

Death: How can we say that Jesus died “for us”?

What seemed to be self-evident in the Jewish tradition and in the New Testament creates a difficulty in these days of strong individualism. Contrary to the feeling of “each for himself”, every human being was considered as representative of humanity, humanity envisaged as a unity, not abstractly but as a reality of a spiritual order. This is difficult for us to imagine today. We do, however, have experiences of close human solidarity, of profound communion, in which we feel that all humanity (...)

4 October 2007

What does it mean to evangelize?

In these days of marketing, we have learned to mistrust those who promise us good things. In this context, the New Testament verb “to evangelize” can frighten us. We are embarrassed to propose our faith to someone else, as if we were trying to sell something. And we are so deeply concerned to respect others that we do not want to give the impression of imposing our own ideas or to try and convince others. Especially when it is a question of a subject as intimate as trust in God. But do we (...)

21 June 2007

If God is merciful, why does the Bible contain threats?

The Bible draws a portrait of a God who is Love and who wants human beings to have life in fullness. Although this conviction comes to us through Jesus Christ, it is already found throughout the Scriptures of Israel. The Bible begins with the story of creation, placing at center-stage a God who, far from keeping back what he has for himself, desires to share everything with other beings that he will call into existence. After this we find the heart of the faith of Israel, the epic of the (...)

26 May 2007

Why did Jesus keep Judas in his close circle until the end?

If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he keep him in the circle of his close companions until the end? Among the many disciples who followed him, Jesus designated twelve to be closest to him, to share and continue his mission. He took very seriously the formation of this group of twelve apostles, praying an entire night beforehand. But at a certain moment, Jesus realized that one of the twelve, Judas, had changed his attitude. Jesus understood that Judas was becoming (...)

21 March 2007

What does the Bible say about the attitude of believers to wider society?

Church and State: What does the Bible say about the attitude of believers to wider society? The Bible deals with this question through the theme of the city. In the Book of Genesis, cities are viewed with mistrust. Cain, the man of violence, is the first person to build a city (see Genesis 4:17). Babel and Sodom are places where human beings seek false autonomy, turning their backs on the Source of their existence. Believers, on the contrary, walk in the steps of Abraham (see Genesis (...)

29 November 2006

Why did Jesus tell his disciples not to judge?

“Judge not, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Is it possible to put this Gospel saying into practice? Do we not have to judge, if we do not want to give up trying to change what is not right? But this invitation of Jesus penetrated deep into people’s hearts. The apostles James and Paul, different in so many ways, echo it using almost the same words. James writes, “Who are you to judge your neighbour?” (...)

17 October 2006

What is the place of human beings in the universe?

The ancient world saw the universe as a three-story house. Upstairs was heaven, where God and his angels lived. Underneath there was the kingdom of the dead, and in the middle was the earth, inhabited by plants, animals and human beings. In such a universe, the importance of human beings was self-evident. Situated between the world of the divine and the created world, they were called to be mediators between the two. Modern science has radically transformed this way of seeing. Lost as we (...)

23 June 2006

Freedom: Is everything that happens decided by God in advance?

For many people today, faith in an all-powerful and all-knowing God is hard to reconcile with true freedom of choice exercised by human beings. If God knows everything that will happen and has a plan for creation, what is the use of racking our brains to try and make authentic choices? First of all, the notion of a divine “plan” does not mean that there is a kind of book in which everything is written down ahead of time. It simply expresses the truth that the existence of the universe and our (...)

22 June 2006

What does it mean to “welcome God’s kingdom like a child”?

One day, people brought children to Jesus so he could bless them. The disciples were displeased. Jesus got angry and told them to let the children come to him. Then he said, “Whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will certainly not enter it” (Mark 10:13-16). It is useful to remember that, earlier, Jesus had said to the same disciples, “The mystery of God’s kingdom has been entrusted to you” (Mark 4:11). Because of God’s kingdom, they left everything and followed Jesus. (...)

13 March 2006

The mystery of Christmas

The accounts of the birth of Christ are inexhaustible. All through our life, our faith finds resources in them for nourishing itself and converting itself to become more and more a faith in the God of the Gospel. There, Christians find their God and discover themselves, and the truth of their own heart. Christmas introduces us to the paradoxes with which the Gospel is strewn from beginning to end: the infinite God is there in a little child; the Almighty God is present in the weakness of a (...)

9 December 2005

Must a Christian believe in the existence of hell?

Must a Christian believe in the existence of hell? There was a time when Christian preaching included an obligatory mention of hell to shake up lukewarm or incorrigible believers. In our day the very notion of such a place of punishment scandalizes people, so incompatible does it seem to be with faith in a God of love. Could Christ really consent to the definitive loss of someone for whom he gave his life to the end? Any reflection on the meaning of this difficult doctrine must begin with a (...)

23 November 2005

The Eucharist seen by a 2nd century Christian

An expert in early Christian writings has pointed out that it was necessary to wait for the ninth century to find a treatise on the Eucharist. Before that time, although references to the Eucharist are frequent and of major importance, it was never the object of an independent work. For the first Christians, the Eucharist was never viewed in isolation. It was always linked to the entire mystery of the faith, and indeed represented a synthesis of it. If an essential aspect of the faith is (...)

4 July 2005

Different religions and the Gospel

Does the Gospel concern Christians only? According to the words of Christ, the Gospel is for all humanity: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). But the idea of mission is embarrassing to many. Must the entire world adopt the Christian religion? Does not missionary activity conceal a desire to dominate? The expansion of Christianity sometimes went hand in hand with wars of conquest. Jesus sent out his disciples “like lambs in the midst of wolves” (Luke (...)

11 May 2005

The Eucharist

What did Jesus want to express by leaving us the Eucharist? The heart of the Christian message is the proclamation of communion, a life shared with God that results in solidarity among human beings, all sons and daughters of the same Father. In his life on earth as one of us, Jesus did not only invite human beings to open themselves to this message; he lived it out in his own existence: “I have come from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me. And the will of the (...)

17 March 2005

Faith

Why must we have faith to be saved? “The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Romans 1:16). Salvation means being freed from all that disfigures, diminishes or destroys life. And the power that God uses to save is “the gospel of his Son” (Romans 1:9). This gospel, good news, reveals a God who gives everything—forgiveness, life, joy. That is why salvation is not limited to those who would fulfill certain conditions. It is for the good and the wicked, the wise and (...)

18 November 2004

Baptism

Is baptism necessary to enter the Christian life? To understand the meaning of baptism in all its fullness, it is necessary to see how it was practiced by the early disciples of Christ. During the first Christian Pentecost, those who listened to Peter were “cut to the heart” when they realized that they had been unable to see in Jesus the One sent by God. Full of regret, they asked the apostles, “What should we do?” And Peter replied, “Change your hearts and let each of you be baptized in the (...)

1 October 2004

Should we regret our sins?

Should we regret our sins? When the apostle Peter realized what he had done by denying Christ, he "wept bitterly" (Matthew 26:75). A few weeks later, on Pentecost day, he reminded the residents of Jerusalem how scandalous it was that Jesus, an innocent man, was executed. "Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘What are we to do, brothers?’" (Acts 2:37). Regret clings to wrongdoing like a shadow we can get rid of only with difficulty. Regret is (...)

17 August 2004

Christian hope

What is the source of Christian hope? At a time when people often have trouble finding reasons to hope, those who place their trust in the God of the Bible need more than ever to "give to anyone who asks an account of the hope that is in [them]" (1 Peter 3:15). They have to understand what is specific about the hope that comes from faith, in order to root their lives in it. Even if by definition hope refers to the future, for the Bible it is rooted in the present, in God’s today. In the (...)

27 July 2004

The Cross

Why did an instrument of death become the symbol of Christianity? Death is the greatest enigma of the human condition. All we have built up for years and years, all that is beautiful in human life, seems to go up in smoke in the space of a moment. And then, at the very centre of the Christian faith, we find the symbol of a violent death. In fact, from the beginning, death has never been at the centre of the Gospel. Faith begins with the proclamation of a Life more powerful than death: “He is (...)

27 July 2004

Fear of the Lord

What relationship with God is expressed by the words “to fear God”? Different words are used to express a relationship with God. We can believe in God, love him, and serve him. Sometimes we hear the words “to fear God.” This expression is hard to understand, but since it is not rare in the Bible, it is worth reading a few texts attentively in order to try and grasp their meaning better. First of all, there is fear as a background of all religions. Manifestations of the divine generate strong (...)

27 July 2004

The commandments

Why does Jesus call the commandment to love one another a “new” commandment? Jesus spoke of a “new” commandment only once. On the eve of his passion, he said to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34). In what way is this commandment new? Is not mutual love required by the previous commandment: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)? Jesus offers a new measure for love. He says (...)

16 April 2004

The suffering of the innocent

What does the Bible tell us about the suffering of the innocent? The objection of Ivan Karamazov, in the well-known novel by Dostoyevsky, remains for many people the greatest obstacle to faith in a God of love. Can we still trust in God in a world where children are tortured? If God is good, how can he permit the innocent to suffer? A witness to the spiritual searching of human beings down through the ages, the Bible itself attempts to come to grips with this question. The psalms depict the (...)

27 November 2003

Love of enemies

Why is love of enemies so central to the Gospel? In the sixth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, immediately after the Beatitudes, Jesus urges his disciples at length to respond to hatred with love (Luke 6:27-35; cf. Matthew 5:43-48). Situated in that context, this text shows that for Luke, love of one’s opponents is what characterizes the disciples of Christ. Jesus’ words depict two ways of living. The first is that of “sinners,” in other words, those who behave without reference to God and his Word. (...)

27 July 2003