Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday and we interrupted the course of our conferences, the Saturday conferences on the spiritual maturity. And the Sunday before that, or the Saturday before last Sunday, I think we spoke about the new factor of Christian maturity, the Holy Spirit. who is independent of the biological foundation and in a certain way upsets the biological pattern. White, in the life of Saint Benedict, finds when he abipsur pueritius su et tempere cogerent senile, when he was still a child, he had the heart of a wise old man.

[01:04]

So the pattern is upset in the spiritual life, roughly speaking, just in this way, that through the gift, the plenitude of the Holy Spirit, which we receive from the risen Christ, biological immaturity is transcended by spiritual maturity. and why logical maturity is associated with spiritual youth. I praise thee, Lord of Heaven and Earth. Hide these things from the wise and prudent, and didst reveal them to the little ones. So that supernatural fullness which is given to us as Christians enables us to be wise men and biologically children and to keep young while biologically aging.

[02:18]

So I only mention that to show the diff that there is a new factor which enters and which is different. The relation between the two factors we shall try to, just to approach later on. Today I still wanted to explain a few things about this idea of Christian maturity. It exists in its fullness in the second Adam, Christ the Lord, the exalted Christ, the second Adam, the head of a new generation, sits at the right hand of his father. Sitting is the attitude of maturity. By the fact that in him the word of God, the divine wisdom, the mirror of the Father's glory, is united to human nature in the unity of one person, by this factor of the hypostatical union, spiritual maturity is constituted in Christ in a way which is independent of his biological age.

[03:47]

It's the custom of the Eastern icons to represent the Christ child as a grown-up, as a mature human being. For example, the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Health, Our Lady of Perpetual Health, and others, always. It's the Emmanuel. As a boy, he surprises. the scribes by the wisdom of his, with the wisdom of his answers. But only really through the exaltation, his resurrection and ascension, does Christ, also as far as his human nature is concerned, enter into the full maturity. Only through his exaltation Christ becomes The way he is also called in the rule, Christus Pater, Christ the Father.

[04:51]

The way we acclaim him already on Christmas, Deus Fortis. all these acclamations and titles are titles of maturity, which Christ fully owns as God and man after his exaltation, sitting, as we say, at the right hand of God. And there, in this status of his fullness, he abounds, you know, he shares this fullness with the Church. From him we have received, from his fullness we have received grace after grace. As St. Paul describes that,

[05:53]

that maturity in everything he has subjected under his feet and himself he gave as head over the whole church which is his body and his fullness who fills everything in everything or in the Colossians all things are created through him and he in him all things have their subsistence their firmness their existence and he is the head of his church the church who is the beginning who is the first born

[06:56]

from the dead, that he may be in all things holding the primacy, because it pleased God that all fullness should dwell in him, and that through him all things should be reconciled to the Father, giving peace through the blood of his cross. to all those who are on earth and in heaven. And then you who were once alienated from him, even enemies of God in bad, evil works, now you are reconciled in the body of his flesh through his death, that you may present yourself as holy, as saints, immaculate, irreprensible, irreprensible, what is it?

[08:04]

Without fault before him. Irreprensibilis, you know. Sometimes it can jump from the Latin to the English, but sometimes it doesn't work. You never know. It's a mixture, you know. You must stay, you know, remain. All that is an accumulation of terms of maturity. immobiles aspe evange, or the other, still shorter and more precise, the word of Colossians 1.19, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, in the exalted Christ, and you are in him fulfilled, and you are, let us say,

[09:18]

absolutely mature in him. You see, there comes the, you know, it dawns on you that, let us say, problem of Christian maturity, the maturity which we do not own as human beings, which is not the fruit of our labours, which we have, as it were, not in ourselves. but which we have in Christ, who is our fullness, so that not we live, but Christ lives in us. I mean, that shows you, see, we enter Christian maturity, Christian perfection, into another plane. We'll see what this plane is. This maturity in the Christian is the fruit of of Christ's death and resurrection, which becomes ours through sacramental participation, through what we call the mysterium.

[10:27]

See, the mysterium Christi is really at the root of Christian maturity. It's not the development of what we have in earth by nature, but it is the application and our entering into somebody else's action, somebody else's reality, somebody else's fullness. We are full in Him, in Christ. St. Paul explains that so clearly when he says, How rich is God in mercy? With what an excess of love he loved us. Our sins had made dead men of us. And God, in giving life to Christ, gave it to us. In giving life to Christ, gave life to us. That's the important thing.

[11:28]

You see, there is Christ, the Wisterium Christi, the source of our maturity in him. It is his grace that saved you, raised us up to above the heavens in Christ Jesus, concedere facit, nos facit, in church, made us sit with Christ at the right hand of God. See, that is the maturity, the perfection of the mysterium, of the sacramental reality in us. not of a psychological reality. Yes, he continues, it was grace that saved you. But then he adds, with faith for its instrument. It's the same idea that was before in Fide Fundati. And here, with faith for its instrument.

[12:28]

So the act which on our part corresponds to the reality of Christ's mysterium is faith received. It did not come from yourselves. It was God's gift, not from any action of yours, or there would be room for pride. No, we are his creation. God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works for good works, but then St. Paul right away adds, remaining completely in the sphere of the mysterium, which God prepared that we should walk in them. So this new maturity is, as I say, the maturity which we have in mysterium through our participation in the redemptive work of Christ. As St. Paul explains it, We are buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ has risen from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.

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For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives unto God Thus do you consider yourselves also as dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. And do not yield your members to sin as weapons of iniquity, but present yourselves to God as those who have come to life from the dead, and your members as weapons of justice to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace. So you see that the characteristics of Christian maturity is not the maturity of self-development of inborn gifts of nature through willpower.

[14:58]

It is not either, as St. Paul explained that too, the development of maturity through obedience to the law, through a goodwill which wants to fulfill a law. But maturity is, and therefore you must also think this question, maturity is not only for an elite in aristocracy of perfect, perfect samples of the human species, of perfect species of the humankind. While, for example, children or the insane or weak-willed would be excluded from it. It's not the case. Christian maturity is not a balance acquired through training or bitter experience or hard work as the stoic wise man.

[16:05]

But Christian maturity is a gift which is given through the sacramental rebirth in Christ who died for us and rose for us. What is the reason for that? Why is the only way into maturity for the Christian, through the sacraments, through the Mysterio? The reason for this is that maturity, this fullness of being or fullness of life, is only possible in the kingdom of God. in the kingdom of God. Why? And therefore not, one can say, attainable to natural man, because natural man is dead through original sin, excluded from the kingdom of God. He is in the tenebrae, in the darkness. Therefore, by nature, children of darkness, not children of light.

[17:13]

Therefore, what is born from the flesh is flesh. Only what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Therefore, man must be reborn from above, out of water and the Spirit, born not of blood nor of the will of man, but from God. Christ's resurrection, therefore, is the only door into life and maturity. Whose souls in his flesh will harvest corruption from the flesh. Whose souls in the spirit will harvest from the spirit eternal life. Clear, absolute clear alternatives. Therefore, those who in and through the sacraments, baptism and confirmation, share in what Christ has done for us, enter into Christ's fullness, they possess sacramentally spiritual maturity, a maturity which does not depend on one's own actions, what we have done.

[18:38]

but originates from what Christ has done for us. Therefore, a Christian who dies as an infant will in that way not rise as an infant into the new world. The new world in that way is not a world of biological children, but is a world of the citizens, full citizens of the city of God. We don't meet in that way those who died as children as children It's important to realize that and to think about it. They are mature citizens of God's city through their sacramental participation in the fullness of Christ. They are filled in Him, not in themselves. The same also is true of an insane. The existence in that way of an insane is only hidden, but as soon as death comes, you know, he is, in that way, mature, enters into the maturity of Christ.

[19:51]

It's only an accidental circumstance that hinders to, that may be manifest, what he really is, or a retarded child, or anything like that. If sacramental, and therefore really, one can say, mature, through Christ, not in himself. But how is it with those who reach the, say, biological or natural maturity, freedom? They, of course, have to live the maturity which is sacramentally given to them. And you, who once were alienated in enemies, now you have been reconciled, therefore you when you remain firmly grounded in faith God has created us in Christ Jesus that means through the sacraments for good works which God prepared that we should walk in them prepared in this way because we enter

[21:06]

into that redemptive work, which is Christ's death and resurrection, which is the, what do you say, good work, the opus de, opus bon. And in that we participate sacramentally. Therefore, this sacramental life, as I say, is grasped, is accepted, you know, is realized through faith, first of all, basically. Our life as mature Christians, therefore, should be lived in the light and the power of the sacramental reality of the new man in us, which can be grasped only by faith. Faith is our acceptance of the Mysterium for us, of what Christ did for us. It's the gate to the sacramental world, baptism. And this faith, and that is how one should really think one a little about it and see it in that light, you know, of Christian maturity.

[22:17]

Faith as act, supernatural faith, is a wonderful example of an act which, at the same time, is extremely simple, as our Lord says, O Lord, I thank you that you have revealed these things to the little one, and that you hide them from the wise one. The wiser one, somebody who is in himself, The more difficult, the further away you may drift from the faith. Faith is at the same time the simplicity of the child and is also the profundity of participation in God's wisdom, highest wisdom. That is why the act of faith, of faith in itself, is something that is so tremendously rich in all simplicity. Therefore, the Church, in all her life, through the ages, is not able, that is to say, to live the fullness of the faith.

[23:24]

We speak of fides implicita and fides explicita, but in the implicit faith, the explicit faith is truly contained. That's the wonderful mystery also of the act of faith, which has as an act of full supernatural maturity is at the same time accessible to the one also who is, let us say, biologically a child, begins his life, and is at the same time also in that same fullness and simplicity in the old man, makes the faith, makes the child wise, and old in that way, and faith makes an old man always young. Faith does not know age, as St. Ambrose says so beautifully. Therefore this faith is, if one unfolds it now in all its richness, then one sees also the maturity which is contained in faith.

[24:33]

It's faith, as we have said that so often, in the resurrection. Faith must touch. the risen Savior, as Thomas did after the resurrection. Touch the risen Savior. And this faith in the resurrection is, because it touches the resurrection, has the power of the resurrection in it. Without Christ risen, faith is vain, as they say, empty, in order to suggestion something. but as soon as it touches the resurrection, participation in the fullness of Christ. Because Christ, the object of our faith, you know, is Christ as he sits at the right hand of God. And this act of faith is in itself, therefore contains in itself a specific wonderful maturity. Therefore Christian faith should never be confused, you know, with

[25:38]

gullibility, natural, or with lack of judgment, or fear to make up one's mind, or mental incapacity which shuns responsibility and therefore passes the buck onto authority. All that is childish interpretation of faith. It is not the Christian faith. But the Christian faith, in that way, is faith in the risen Christ, but a faith in the risen Christ, which also is based on inquiry. It's based on witness. Witness is not blind. If I do not see the mark of his nails in his hands, I do not put my hand under his side, I shall not believe, Thomas says. But then he does it, and he believes. But then, of course, he hears from our Lord, blessed are those who do not see and believe. But those who do not see and believe are the Christians of the second generation.

[26:43]

They are the Christians who do not see, but they believe. But why do they believe? They believe in the witness of the apostles, of the evangelists. As St. John, St. John's gospel shows you the tremendous maturity inherent in Christian faith. St. John's Gospel combines that tremendous simplicity with a profundity that no human mind is ever able to grasp. But there is St. John the witness, and he says, these things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in his name. So there is a witness. Faith comes from hearing.

[27:46]

And of course, hearing is only possible through messengers to teach us and through those who have been sent, who have therefore the authority, the exousia, to teach. So faith in that way is not simply Christian faith and arbitrary. shortcut into some kind of mental security, as people today seem to think so easily. Faith is therefore for those who are not able to carry the whole burden of mental freedom, of liberal thinking. But that is, of course, not the idea of Christian faith in the least. Faith is Christian. Faith comes from, one can say, seeing the glory of the Word made flesh.

[28:46]

We have seen His glory. Nobody has ever seen God, but the Son, who was in the Father's bosom, He has shown it to us. Therefore, faith is seeing the Father in the face of Christ Jesus, who is, of course, a historical figure, who has lived, who has existed. Surprising to see to what an extent today the whole discussion of the Christian faith by the great majority of unbelievers is completely cut off from the fact of our Lord's historical existence. That is simply a priori, treated as a myth. So faith is seeing the Father in the face of Christ Jesus. Not only that, you know, but faith is that inner armor because nobody can see the Father in the face of Christ Jesus if he does not see in Jesus the servant of God who dies for our sins, the Lamb of God pointed out by St.

[30:04]

John the Baptist, the beginning of faith. they must stay there, see the Lamb of God. That means to see the Father in the face of Christ Jesus. That means see Jesus as our peace and our conciliation with the Father. Therefore, faith in the risen Savior cannot be separated from faith in the Father of the Son. And, faith in that love which emanates from the Father through Christ in order to save us. Faith is therefore also the experience of our inability to rise into glory on our own wings. But it is the humble acceptance of Christ's love for me, therefore the renunciation of self-assurance, St. Peter's word, who did not believe as long as he was sure of himself.

[31:09]

But his last, his word later, you know that I love you. That is then the word of faith. And in this way, through this humble acceptance of Christ's love for me, faith is really sharing in Christ's life. Not I live, but Christ lives in me. Faith, therefore, in that way includes, one can say, the death of the old self, not I live. But then the glorious assurance which is based on that, but Christ lives in me. And this faith is at the same time not only this living inner contact with, between, let us say, man, naturally by nature dead, And the risen Son of Man, the one whom the Father's glory has raised from the dead, it's not only that inner contact who sees me sees the Father, it is not only this acceptance of the Father's love for me in Christ Jesus, his Son and his servant, but it is also

[32:24]

is sharing and entering into the common experience of the church. Faith in that way has a social character. It's not I only who believe, but through faith I enter into the whole of the ecclesia. It's the church that is really the column and the firmamentum veritatis, as St. Paul says. The firmamentum veritatis. So it's a social act of faith. In all these things you see, I only indicate that, that you may see the dimensions of the maturity in the act of faith, the apprenunciation of self-assurance, of that kind of, you know, kind of vain human attempt, you know, to keep what they call peace of mind or something like that. It has nothing to do with faith. Faith is transcending my own nature, the recognition of my death, you know.

[33:31]

But then the reaching out into the resurrection of Christ, his divinity, his union with the Father. and then his acceptance for what he has done for me, that I share with all those who are members of that same body and under the same head, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church as a whole. And then this faith, an act of maturity, leads then further to the act of worship. Those two things cannot be separated. Faith, the confession of faith, what is it? It's what St. Thomas says after the resurrection. After he has put his hand into the open side, he makes the proskynesis, he adores, and he says, my Lord and my God. And this act of worship is the confession of faith.

[34:34]

So in last analysis, faith really is pronouncing the divine name. Pronouncing the divine name. The highest expression of our faith is the canon of the mass. It's the crevice of the whole thing. There is the complete, you know, unity of worship and faith. That's what the ancients called theology. Theologia. to speak about God in God and out of God, not from the outside as an inquiring object, as the philosopher would do it, but in the fullness of the Spirit as sons and children to confess the Father's name. Therefore, faith and worship cannot be separated from one another.

[35:35]

And it is in worship that the Christian reaches his true and full maturity. I shall sing unto the Lord who gave me good things. I shall sing unto the Lord who gave me good things. So the next time then about that Christian worship and worship as I told you before, we want to speak about that as an existential act, not as a form, but as an existential act. But in that way, really, the fulfilment, of course,

[36:13]

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