No, I answer. That's not my tradition, answer. You see, this last time I choose a rather entertaining topic. Odo Castle's work is... No, it's not dead, evidently. This thing came out in 1960 and it's being translated and appears in English this year. So I thought it might be interesting to get an resume of the contents of this book. It's Das Christliche Kultmysterium, Christian Cult Mystery. And this is a new edition, 1960, which has been done by Burkhard Neuenhäuser. Wade's old classmate and pal of mine.

[01:02]

We were together in Rome, and he had to suffer, you know, because I would make these sudden decisions about going here and going there, and he couldn't keep pace with it. It was a terrible time to adjust himself to the spontaneous improvisations that we did on our travels. but he survived, as we can see here. And then he has amplified this material here, the book, with an appendix which he calls Out of the Fullness of the Mystery of Christ. And those are excerpts which are here for the first time published by Otto Kassel's conferences. He was very, his main activity really consisted in teaching the nuns in Hersteller and he gave a tremendous amount of conferences there and they all have been taken down and so they constitute a great and very valuable material which also

[02:20]

supplements, what he publishes in his books. Now, this year is concerned, you know, with various, has various chapters. The first is a kind of a little chapter on the general position of the mysterium in our modern, let's say, religious attitudes. and then the second on the function of the cult mystery in Christianity, then the third chapter on pagan and Christian mysteries, a comparison between the two, and the fourth on the holy year of the church, and the fifth the holy day of the church. So if we go to the first, you know, I'll just give you a few ideas. Onukazu starts from the, let us say, general spiritual situation after the First World War and then also under the influence, beginning of the crisis of Nazism.

[03:36]

And he points out that the Renaissance in the history of Western civilization represents a victory of what we may call humanism. Man becomes again in some way the norm of all things, and the Western civilization under the influence of the Renaissance becomes gradually more and more an anthropocentric civilization, civilization centered on this. And that also immediately, of course, brings with it, you know, that the main emphasis in all various fields is put on human efforts in the field of truth and revelation on human ratio and in the personal life on the human effort. The human ratio also extends to the whole field of religion and Christian religion and there eliminates progressively more and more the sense of the mystery.

[04:53]

Religion is rationalized and it turns therefore rather into immorality, rules of good behavior. like the golden rule, what you don't want to be done until you don't do it to anybody else. And be kind to everybody, including animals, unitarians. They are, of course, also a product of that period. And then, however, you know, happens certainly the tremendous catastrophe of the First World War. which, of course, represents a terrific blow to this self-assured security of the bourgeois and destroys the myth of this constant, automatic progress and shakens the faith in the golden age of universal Kant.

[06:01]

So, therefore, under this disappointment, general disappointment, and the crisis which is produced, or the crisis sees a certain conversion to a new appreciation of the Mysterium. while a human-centered religious attitude had, let's say, tended to kind of bring God into the categories of our human norms. So now one again sees in a deeper way the Mysterium Dei. God Himself as the first form of the Mysterium, as the Holy One. God Himself is first, is the Mysterium.

[07:10]

He is the Holy One, the One who is far from us, beyond us. And in face of Him, man feels and realizes his uncleanness, as Isaiah the prophet, when he sees the mysterium tremendum of the divine majesty, the kabot, the glory, present in the temple, God a devouring fire. This dimension of the mysterium again, through the very historic cruel realities of the life, arises before man. But then at the same time also the other aspect of the Mysterium of God, that's the Holy One, Benslow, that He reveals His heart, not only shows for His Majesty, but also reveals His heart, reveals His heart to the poor in spirit.

[08:26]

in selfless love, the mystery of grace. So God is again, let's say, experienced in one way as the voice which smashes rocks and in the other way as the voice of quiet silence, as the judge and as the savior. and this in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms and the Old Testament. That is the mysterium Dei, which again comes into the foreground, a religion or an attitude which is in awe and is at the same time to enjoy the foreground. That is therefore the first, shall we say, aspect, or let us say the first mysterium, that of God himself.

[09:30]

But then the second mysterium that Olof Kassel here points out as playing an important role in this turn of the times, when I call it that way, is the revelation of God in Christ. the one who thrones in an inaccessible light, whom no human being has ever seen or is ever able to see, has become man, and we have seen his glory. That is, therefore, the second mystery. I shall never kill you, Ephraim, because I am God and not man. That was the prophecy in all scenes. And this Mysterium of God's grace, this Mysterium of His love, becomes visible in the Son of God incarnate, who dies for us, but we are still His enemies.

[10:35]

Therefore, Christ as person is a Mysterium, because He reveals what is invisible of God in the form of his flesh, and first of all, through his actions. Through his actions. And in these actions, in two ways. One, by emptying himself, or through his, as we call it in the article that we are just reading, the ex inanitio, in his incarnation and death. as is the quiet voice, the glory that hides itself, the lamb that is brought to the slaughter and does not speak, the emptying of itself, and then also his exaltation, through which then his glory is revealed.

[11:43]

So his descent, his death, revealing his agape, his saving love, and his exaltation, his glory. But this glory is revealed, and that is an aspect which, by the Odo, emphasizes again and again, by no means one should ever think that... That is the attitude, by the way. A little... Let's see... proposed by Father Prim, you know, of the Society of Jesus, that once the Mysterium is revealed, the mysterium ceases to be a mysterium. And there, of course, now, O Lukács comes in and says, no, that's just not the case. That's just the thing. If that would be the case, then the mysterium would be an intellectual thing.

[12:45]

But that is not the case. The mysterium remains a mysterium also when it is revealed, because it is revealed only to the poor in spirit. It's revealed only to those who believe. earns the object of the mysterium, remains in that way completely transcendent, it remains a grace, it remains divine, does never lose that character. And that is, of course, what is meant with the word mysterium, not an intellectual mystery, but the divine essence, a divine being, a divine life, that is the mysterium. And there, of course, remains mysterium also in and after the Revelation. So, then the Apostles reveal this mysterium of the Lord's glory to the ecclesia, to the ecclesia, to the company of those who are called, not to the world, to the ecclesia, to the chosen ones who believe.

[13:58]

in the spirit, and the apostles are witnesses of the resurrection, but not only pointing to it through the word or the preaching, but initiating into the power of the resurrection. That is the important thing. Therefore, the apostles bring not only the word, the kerygma, the word of preaching, but they bring Christum, at whom crucifixum, Christ and whom him crucify, not only through the kerygma, but also through the sacramental annunciation of the death of Christ. As often as we celebrate this, we announce the death of the Lord until he comes, says Sigmund. And there is, of course, then the third, let us say, layer or form of the Mysterium, this concept, and that is Christ saving actions,

[15:11]

insofar as they are being continued in the church through symbolic visible forms. Christ is not anymore, after his ascension, among us according to the flesh. And therefore, as St. Leo says, whatever was visible of him just passed into the sacrum. Therefore, Christ's person, Christ's actions and his saving power pass into the cult mystery. As St. Ambrose says, I find you in your mysteries. I find you in your mysteries. Inveniute, in mysteriest mysteries. So, then, that is the first introductory remark.

[16:12]

Then comes the main chapter, and that is then the function of the cult mystery in Christianity. And then the first thing that Father Odo explains is that Christianity is not as a humanistic civilization would like to make us think, you see. A religion. What is a religion? Today one says a denomination. That's terrible. It's worse. Or a belief. If faith, I am of the Protestant faith, I am of Catholic faith. But belief, Christianity is not only a belief in dogmatically established truth. Christianity is not a system of truth.

[17:14]

But one would say not only, because all these elements are also contained really in Christianity, but it is not a system of two, nor is it a body of rules, nor is it, and at least of all, a sentiment, a sentiment which would be free from any norms of believing or acting that is the lowest denomination. That's the lowest form of concept one can have of Christianity. To Saint Paul, Christianity is in the sense of a divine economy, which proceeds from the Father, enters into this world,

[18:17]

and then leads this world back to the Father. That is ego. I came from the Father, I entered into the world, I leave the world, I return to the Father. That is the mystia, that is Christianity. Christianity in Christ himself. Christianity is, first of all, the person of the Word of God made man, and this is his incarnation, death, resurrection, and the sending of the Spirit to his church. So, therefore, to say Christianity is a Mysterio means that it is a manifestation, or let us say better, a communication in which God the Father communicates Himself for our salvation through the redemptive actions of the gardener, which then make it possible to the Church

[19:40]

to enter into his divine life by dying and rising with him. That is Christianity as a mystery. And there you see that Christianity are insolently connected, these two things, you know, what Christ does as the head and what we the members do knew Him, His Pascha and our Pascha, His sacrifice and our sacrifice. In other words, you know, this Mysterium as a saving communication on the part of God saving communication on the part of God.

[20:41]

He stopped through the incarnation of the Lord Christ, participated in sacramentally by the church. Christ the head has once and for all offered himself and now sits at the right hand of the Father. But the Church is still here on earth, and therefore makes up in herself what is still lacking, as St. Paul says, in the Christ's suffering. Or in other words, makes his sacrifice her own, and thus shares in Christ's Spirit. See, we must have that clear. Mysterium is there. The aim and purpose of the Mysterium is that the Church, or the unity, the body of the believers, participate in the Spirit.

[21:53]

But the Spirit is, of course, divine life. It's not human life. It's not human virtues. It's not morality, but divine life. More than morality. Now, it is clear, if we ask, how is this participation affected, then we must say this participation is affected not through any, let us say, moral imitating on our part of Christ as an exemplar. because then we would be thrown back on ourselves. No. The first way in which this participation is effected is through faith. Faith is that act in which we open up to the supernatural reality, to grace, to the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[23:02]

Faith is, for that matter, a transcendent act in which fairness transcends itself, and therefore faith in itself also is already a grace. But faith alone does not yet incorporate the believer into the body of Christ. This is only done through, and there we meet the cult mystery, baptism. Faith, you know, is there before baptism. But baptism is needed. For what is baptism needed? For the incorporation into the body of Christ. Therefore, there is the code mystery, and this code mystery is the participation in the divine path. The steady ontological, or as we say in our modern theological language, habitual,

[24:06]

part of the patient in the divine life. It is the current mystery, it is baptism through which we really become consortes divine naturae. Consortes divine naturae. So, why Christ has been made sin for us. In his death and through his death sin is killed. That is the gate of salvation. That is our opportunity, so to speak. We cannot make ourselves partakers of the Holy Spirit, as I say, by dying in the way Christ died, as I say, by having the punishment of the cross inflicted upon us. We cannot, you know, participate in the Spirit by imitating in a human way Christ as a moral model.

[25:18]

Because we cannot reach in any way through our action the goal which is the ployment, which is God's life. Only one death opens the way into the blind man and that is Christ's death on the cross. The only death that opens the way into the blind man because it is the death of the God-man. Therefore it is a death which in itself is and takes place on a higher plane. So it is Christ's death which is the only door of salvation. He alone, Christ, the God-man, is the Redeemer. That means He alone is the bridge between mankind and the Spirit, between mankind and God. His death, His redemption, then, must take place in us that we may pass into the Spirit. But this, His death, sharing His death, is not done

[26:29]

through a mere application, which would find us passive. Or, let us say, which would find us open in a mere negative way. The famous proverb, non ponentes obige, not putting any obstacle into the way. Nor is this participation done through in justification through faith alone. No. We share Christ's exaltation through an active participation. But in the death of Christ. But how can God and man really become co-workers in this way? Each in his own order God as the master, let's say, as the principal cause, and man as receiving, at the same time, acting partner.

[27:44]

Now, this is the function of the cult mystery in Christianity. That means through the sacred actions which we perform, but which at the same time the Lord performs with us through the instrumentality of his priests. We call that then the sacrament. Only in this way Christ is not only an external model which we should imitate, but he becomes himself our life, or should I say our death and our life. And we become his death and his life. Now, this teaching then, which Father Otto says, is not, certainly not an invention. It is found in Holy Scripture. And I just indicate, you know, you probably know the main places, let us say, Logi, Classici.

[28:51]

Well, this is Romans 6.3 and the following on baptism. the famous sin that we are planted into the likeness of Christ's death. In this way, we die with him to sin. A death to sin is only the death of Christ, nothing else. We cannot, of our own power, die to sin. Impossible. Only the death of Christ is really death to sin. And that is, we enter into it through the Sacrament of Sacrament. That is the teaching of St. Paul in Romans 6. Then there is the other one. I'll just give that as Colossians 3, 1 to 4. That is, if we have died with Christ, then we also sit with Christ in heavenly places. And this doctrine then is explained in a more, let us say,

[30:00]

explicit warning by Cyril of Jerusalem in his Mystagogical Catechesis, in the third Mystagogical Catechesis, in the fifth chapter, and the following. I'll just give you a little bit of the thing in which he... explains it so that you, in the hope that you may see it a little more clearly. Saint Sarah of Jerusalem there explains in Mystic Gothic Athecesis, as you know, the introduction, initiation into the mysteries which take place in the Easter week after baptism has been administered, after the sacraments have been received. Then the true nature of the sacraments is then revealed to the baptized Christian in the Easter week.

[31:07]

And there, Sarah of Jerusalem, in one of these catechesis to the neophytes, then says this. Oh, strange, even paradoxical fact. Not in historical reality did we die. Not in historical reality have we been buried. And not in historical reality have we risen after the crucifixion. But what has been done with us was an imitation in an image. But an image, the salvation of which was reality. Christ has really been, and historically been, crucified, really been buried, and really rose. But all this he has given to us as a gift that we, through the participation in the image of his suffering, may gain salvation in reality.

[32:28]

What great love of man is revealed there. Christ received in his holy hands and in his feet the nails and he suffered the pain and then he gave to me without pain and without suffering through the participation in his suffering the salvation. Now nobody should believe that baptism is only or nothing but the grace of the remission of sins or the grace of the adoption of sons, as the baptism of John only gave us the remission of sins. On the contrary, we as Christians know exactly that baptism is truly, being truly, being the purification of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, but also the image of the suffering of Christ, of the passion of Christ.

[33:48]

And for this reason, St. Paul has told us, don't you know, don't you realize, and then he quotes Romans, And all this he said with relation or with reference to the opinion that baptism would give us remission of sins and would give us the adoption of sons, but without being the communion of the real sufferings of Christ through sacramental imitations. that we now may know that Christ, everything that He took upon Himself, has suffered for our sake and for our salvation in reality, and not only according to some theatrical performance. and in order to show us that also we are really participants in his suffering.

[34:51]

Therefore, St. Paul cries out with such clarity, now, if we have been planted into the image of his death, then we also take part in his resurrection. Very pointedly, The word implanted is used here because here is the true vine planted. Because since here is the true vine planted, so also are we, through the participation in the baptism of his death planted into him and therefore give much attention pay the keen attention to the meaning of the words of the apostle he has not said we are planted into his death but he has said we are planted into the image of his death

[36:05]

Reality, historical reality, is the death in Christ, because there really the soul was separated from the body. And through a historical reality also was his burial, because his body was put into the linen cloth, And everything was done in him in historical reality. But you have the image of his death and the image of his suffering. But of his salvation you do not receive an image but the reality. So these words are interpreted by Otto Carson, I just have his resume, The Christ Mystery, which is performed in our Lord in full historical and essential truth.

[37:10]

It is performed in us first in a symbolic form. But these symbolic forms are not merely external images, but they are filled with the reality of the new life that Christ's suffering has gained for us. This specific participation in the life of Christ, which is on one hand symbolic, and on the other, real. This kind of participation the ancients called mystical. Mystical or sacramental, as we would say, is a medium between the mere external simple and the pure historical reality. For example, in the Apostolic Constitutions, it is said of the martyr,

[38:17]

who dies unbaptized for Christ, it is said of him, he dies through the experience with the Lord. But we others die with him in the image, in the typos. This is not said And this does not want to say only that the baptized Christian only carries in itself in some way an external picture of the death of Christ. but that in him the death of Christ mystically, that means in sacramental form, is performed while the martyr takes part in the death of Christ or shares the death of Christ in full natural historical reality.

[39:19]

That the sacrament does not only give the grace of the new life but also the communion of the sufferings through imitation. This Cyril has emphasized together and with the words of St. Paul. And therefore we call these rites, sacred rites, which imitate the Christ mystery and mediated to us, give participation in them to us. We call them mysteries. When St. Paul, in the first epistle of the Corinthians, the fourth chapter of the first verse, calls the apostle the dispensatore's mystery all day, so certainly he first means the Christ mystery that he announces in his character first and immediately, not the sacrament of mysteries, but also the

[40:32]

the word itself does not exclude also the sacred rites through which we are taken in and drawn into the Christ mystery as it is evident from the interpretation which the Council of Trent has given to this word dispensatoris mysteriorum te. The Lord has been made through His Passion, Pneuma, Spirit, and therefore we must mystically enter into His Passion, share it. He has been made through His Passion, Pneuma, Spirit, therefore also we, through the mystical Passion in Baptism, and through the spiritual resurrection which is connected with it. So also we are filled with the Pneuma and we ourselves become spiritual

[41:36]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_92.77