The number one trusted online resource for Catholic values
Menu
A+ A A-

They took offence at him

  • SERVANT OF GOD MONSIGNOR LUIGI GIUSSANI

It is not pessimism that makes us say these things. 


phariseeBut if Jesus said, as the world hated me, so it will hate you, not only are we responsible for the hatred for Christ, but, since we are his people, we, too, are victims of the world's hatred....

The last capillary of this hatred for Christ is our self, forgetful and indifferent.  The most relevant, most decisive end point, is in me, in us, in our mind and heart.  The refusal begins there, forgetfulness is generated and cultivated there, absence and inhospitality harden there — in us, in me.  It is a hatred we do not necessarily express outwardly, but we clearly live more and more estranged from him.  Even a very Christian family can live in an unchristian way from morning till night.  You don't need to kill or to break all of the Ten Commandments at once to be unchristian. What makes us unchristian is the absence of Christ.

The absence of Christ is the absence of his life.  This tends to produce an indifference to reality that becomes lack of responsibility for your own personal and collective existence.  It becomes amorality.  The outcome of this is to give in to whomever shouts loudest, to whomever has most power.  But this indifference to reality originates in indifference to the experience of faith, because it is through this that God stirs the soul and calls us to responsibility.  Thus life is lost in the confusion in which everything becomes licit and in which everything becomes hostile.  Suffering is increased and we are consumed by rebellion or cynicism instead of being stirred to collaboration for rebuilding a people.

This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.

Please show your appreciation by making a $3 donation. CERC is entirely reader supported.

dividertop

Acknowledgement

guissani Servant of God Monsignor Luigi Giussani. "They took offence at him." excerpt from Generating Traces in the History of the World: New Traces of the Christian Experience (Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010).

This excerpt appeared in Magnificat.

Reprinted with permission of McGill-Queen's University Press.

The Author

guissaniguissani1Monsignor Luigi Giussani (1922-2005), as a result of his encounters with young people, began a method of communicating the Christian faith, starting from the fundamental needs of human experience. He founded the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation in 1954. His books include Generating Traces in the History of the World: New Traces of the Christian Experience The Risk of Education: Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, Is It Possible To Live This Way? Volume 1: Faith, Is It Possible To Live This Way? Volume 2: Hope, Is It Possible To Live This Way? Volume 3: Charity, The Religious Sense, The Journey to Truth is an Experience, and Why the Church?

Copyright © 2010 McGill-Queen's University Press