So in thinking about tonight's conference, I got a little involved, as usual, in the thinking and reading about our dear friend Karl Barth, whom we have met before at some conferences, this time in speaking about the 40 days of this event after Easter. Karl Barth had us in his Kirchliche Dogmatik, a kind of, one would say, a reputation, a kind of answer to Rudolf Hultmann.

[01:05]

You know that Hultmann is a professor of theology in Marburg, and he has plays quite a great role in our days in what we call the int-mythological seal, the purification of Christianity from the relics of mythological elements. he wants to enhance, of course, a lot of these mythological elements to him, which is also one of the most outstanding, it's just exactly the idea of the fact of the West Wing.

[02:05]

The resurrection, according to him, belongs to a picture of the world which is in absolute contrast and contradiction to our modern world. He says, people who live in an age where television is at their disposal every night, and where we have atomic power and we have electricity and we have hospitals and we have all kinds of things, insights, you know, in the physical and the biological world, the idea of someone returning from death is a myth and therefore cannot be considered a historical fact. And what cannot be a historical fact cannot be, and should not be made, as he expressed, the law of faith or belief. And the assertion of the Resurrection as a fact would be an unsupportable burden to Madame Wilhelm.

[03:19]

But now, part in answering Burkhardt, and we simply point out the basic difference, which then immediately arises between the evidence test, the witness of gospel, gospels and reading of the reports of the resurrection, and that what Burkhardt said is still the important thing. What is important in this whole resurrection faith is the way in which it is important for the interpretation of a Christian understanding of Christian existence. So it is, let's say, that the practical aspect, not the objective. Therefore the Resurrection is then for Buddha, let us say, a symbol, symbolic mythological description of an existential happening development, and that is the breakthrough of the human mind into the understanding of the passion and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, a positive understanding as God's judgment.

[04:46]

And it is the origin development of this faith. which is the real, let us say, message of the Easter story, whether it is not in any way valid as an announcing of historical facts. That is unimportant. What is important is the description of the fact that something is changing in us and we develop, let us say, beyond the limitation and the negation of death into a vigor of positive assertion. This is certainly not the end of the fall, the evidence for the witness of the reports of the Resurrection, because the reports of the Resurrection emphasize that here an encounter takes place, that here the fire of me,

[05:50]

as man and as God, that's the important thing, as man and as God, meets the apostles, and meets them after the historical, what we may call, historical time of his earthly existence is ended with death. And there is a clear incision, and after this incision, three days, then starts a new presence and a new time, the time of revelation, of that revelation in which Christ's divinity is not anymore hidden as a mystery under the veil of His humanity, but is seen. It is the time, these 40 days, the time of manifestation, where now the end to these 40 days refers, the beginning of the first epistle of St.

[06:52]

John, refers to that. What we have seen with our eyes, what we have touched with our hands, that we announce to you, that eternal life, that the Christ Jesus with sovereign God has been manifested to us, that you also may feel and may have communion with this love. That, of course, we do. Therefore, these photo tapes are, according to Paul, absolutely the key position of the whole of the Gospels. They are not in any way an appendix, a kind of an out-of-book. I think Barth is apt to derive when he says that one would imagine a gospel which only consisted of the innovation of the 40 days.

[07:52]

But the story of the passion of our Lord, without the 40 days, would simply be in the air, would simply remain forever on the human level. But the forty days are the decisive time in which the apostles become what they really are, the foundation stones of the Church, why, become witnesses of resurrection. To the forty days are the days for which the apostles become witnesses of resurrection. They see Christ in this Christ is the same one who suffered really and truly man, because his spirit could not sit there, he could not be touched, and he could not be seen, and one could have no communion with him in, for example, the same meal.

[08:54]

Therefore, it's true son of God, made man, Jesus, story of Jesus who is there. But now, if one may say, in a new time, in the time of His Manifestation. They tossed trenches in the Lord's womb, and He housed Himself down at His feet, and He says, My Lord and my God, there is the That is the witness, that is the message, which then the apostles are ordered to announce to the entire world. Therefore, in the power of universal power, divine power, to announce this gospel to the entire world. And it is baptized, the preaching and the sacramental order.

[09:57]

Now, as I say, I was kind to thinking about things, and then thought in the end it might be just as well if I start tonight and also just start with you. We get to the point a lot of time. If we start, and we might be using the Gospel of St. John, and just start and see how this encounter, how this manifestation, how this seeing and touching So that being finally convinced of the reality of the risen saviour, how he develops, because there is no one among the evangelists, of course, John is the late, the common, he is really the one who, let us say, has absorbed the entire message. and the historical events in this contemplative spirit brought him to great inner maturity and has fused the divine revelation with the historical earthly development manifestation of it.

[11:14]

So he starts then, these 40 days on what has happened, this early on the Sunday. while it was still dark. It is important right away to notice, you know, that here at this moment John, a little more at the articulation of, for example, St. Matthew, remarked not in the early morning, but while it was still dark, Mary of Magda, this external scene manifests the inner attitude. The darkness which is in Mary's heart, Mary of Magdala, came to the tomb. So he starts, and John starts with his report of it, the sign of the tomb, of the empty tomb. The sign, and he develops then in this paragraph that I read to you, develops how this sign of the empty tomb

[12:20]

slowly dawns, not on me I meant, but then on the people, on Peter and John, who come and look. And slowly it develops its significance before them, and St. John in a wonderful way describes how that step by step, you know, dawns. Starting, therefore, while I was deep down, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb, and she saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. That is the first sign. That is when you approach the tomb from the far off. You just kind of catch sight of it. And the first thing of course that she sees, the stone has been rolled away. And that's the most external and first look from the entrance. And then, and then one can see, you know, immediately how the inner, let's say, the status, you know, in which Mary Magdalene is, this intense inner excitement, at the same time the complete involvement, one can say, in the, one would say, in the negative, I would say the historic, the full of the catastrophe

[13:47]

That just has happened. They think still, and as we've seen, still think of the Lord in terms of the flesh. Why? Because she, as the woman, was so deeply attached thus to his, to the Lord's sacred humanity, was in a heart-to-heart communication, and of course curved in the way in which she then welcomes her artist to be lifted up to the life of the Spirit, to the Sunlight just is shining then into her heart. That is not yet the case. She sees that the stone has been moved away from the entrance, and immediately because the entire, let us say, mood of the moment is that of catastrophe. The mood of the moment is that of darkness, and that means pessimism.

[14:50]

disturbance, despair of what has happened. And she immediately interprets what she sees in a very specific way, which has nothing to do with reality. It's not shaped by reality. It's just a projection of her fears when she comes and she tells her brothers, the son of Peter, and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and then makes immediately the whole story of it. They have taken the Lord. They, of course, there are these coward soldiers. There are these enemies who have inflicted all this sorrow on the Lord and on his disciples. They have taken the Lord. She hasn't seen anything. This imagination, gravity, just like the ladies outside. have taken the Lord unto His tombs, he cried.

[15:52]

And we do not know, we, the women, and we do not know where they have lain. We do not know where they See, all sorts of things, nothing of that, from stone to wood to wood, you see, think about it. But you can see that, you know, that's the darkness. These things, you know, in, what am I saying, in the historic categories, the categories of the flesh, everyone has to integrate to that. It's so close to us, just absolutely like us. Who's it animates? Who's it animating? It's something that everyone experiences, especially before only we come to that final task of which it is celebrated. So Peter and the other one set out, and they made their way in the tomb. They were running side by side.

[16:57]

This was really, they were in the same kind of inner mood in which I like them. complete on the picture of that inner sorrow, pessimism, and all that they had been through during these last days of sleeping. Maybe they were running side by side, but the other disciple outran Peter, who was the younger one. Peter ran out of breath, and reached the tomb first. The younger one, he peered in. and saw the women rabbits lying there, but did not enter." So Mary Magdalene never left. She saw the stone was wet, she ran, and she had a story of it. And then comes St. John, and St. John looks, and he sees the linen there.

[17:59]

But he cannot yet, I don't know, what is that a sign? I mean, if one, let us say, quietly thinks about it, the linen lying there immediately shows that the story of Mary Magdalene is not true. Because if they know that it is true, They have taken the cloth out of its tomb. They would have, you know, kind of carefully kind of, you know, stripping of the cloth, you know, and then put the cloth aside and left it there in the tomb, if possible. Here is certainly not the fact, you know, that there are women It does not indicate, or is quite right, an argument against the theory of faith. No problem about here, the experts in the world.

[18:59]

But you know, if Darwin's got something, he sees that, he is the winner. He's taken by surprise. And there comes the dawn, you know, for the first time. And here is something that is just beyond all human imagination, human thinking, human power. He feels it. Doesn't go into the tomb. The revels kind of stops him. Then comes Peter. He tells him, he wants to go to the shul. But there, when he gets there, he wants action. St. John wants time to think it over. Peter, by the way, goes into it, you know. Once they can see now what's the matter there. And then, see, Peter comes a little more ahead and went into it. You see, it goes step by step.

[20:01]

Mary Magdalene sees the stone wall there. There's a bishop there. St. John comes in, you know, and peers in there. He thinks, you know, he just thinks, what is it? Peter comes, runs into it, and there he sees then the little wrappings lying, and the napkin which had been over his head, not lying with the wrappings, but rolled together in a place by its perfect order, great chaos, loving chaos. All that belongs to the Lord that was in which he was wrapped, that means all that the Lord really belonged to himself. All these man-made kind of additions, you know, and the care, the love and care of Joseph are the fear and of the women who had gone for the miracle,

[21:07]

The ointment said, oh, thank you. There it was. And still, said Peter, he sees it, but he doesn't yet come to a conclusion. And there the disciple who had reached the two first went into. And then he takes the second look. See, it's always to him. Mary Magdalene was, you know, for her it was sufficient, you know, some impression and the whole explanation was right there, but in the wrong direction. The joy of coming into her, seeing something, and say just remaining outside, that feeling of something divine, something extraordinary, and say supernatural has happened. Peter Ranzig, he takes, you know, looks around very clearly in a kind of, you know, realistic, scientific way, and he analyzes the situation, doesn't come to the conclusion.

[22:27]

Yet, there he stands, John Arthur, thinking about the whole business, you know, during all this time, when he analyzes and learns. He went and reached the tomb, and he saw and believed. There it is. He saw and he believed. The sign and the faith. Saw and believed. Key words. God's glossary. And then, I don't know why, there comes the whole Emerald story and all that. Until then, they had not understood the strictness. which show that he must rise from the dead. See, so there is the sign of the empty tomb. There is the first, the beginning of the sign of the empty tomb, as such, as such. No angel there, no messenger therefore, supernatural messenger to explain or to indicate what has happened,

[23:36]

but a sign in the interpretation slowly becoming Mary Magdalene of Wall Street. St. John first kind of thing. St. Peter running in and not really coming to my conclusions. St. John then, thinking about it, going in, he saw and he finished. If they believe in them, it immediately opens a whole new perspective, all new economies of understanding. The scripture, he remembers in Isaiah, that famous sentence, and his two really glorious religious lines. There's a solemn interpretation, there's the light of the skippishes, and there's St. John the Contemplative. So the disciples went holding, but Mary stood at the tomb outside, weeping.

[24:47]

As she wept, she feared it too. It's for her what they say. It's not what they say in St. George. Taking a first glance and then thinking about it, something you see coming, surprising, capturing. It's a revelation. But for Mary Magdalene, it's her affection, her deep, inner, human affection. You must think, you must have that whole thing in the background. Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, and how the Lord loved to be taken care of by them, and how the last really good thing that he had before he went into his passion was this hospitality of those three in bed.

[25:50]

where the member, as he said, you know, may I imagine, anointed him, you know, anointed him. So there must be in the background, at least in it, there was the one place where our Lord, the Son of God made man, held really and truly at home. There he could act, What a tremendous inner reaction that has, you know, here in Berlin. That deep, you know, all her affection with Amelot. So she met. And in this assault, she peers into a tomb for somehow, maybe some consolation. Maybe there may be the apostles went away, they didn't say a word, you know, see? It's also so wonderful, you know, if you look at the structure of St.

[26:54]

John, how his sweet heart, you know, his faith is absolutely just marvelous. They live with faith, you know, but their tongues are still bound, you know. Either freedom or joy then. Why do we run from our madness? It's not there, it wasn't from the dead. It's not yet the stage, it's not yet there, not yet that way. So they go home, they are deep, you know, in wonderment, deep in wonderment, they are on the way, God has it really, but it's not yet communicated, and they cannot talk. Why? Because, she told me, in this whole interpretation of the psy, which is the first paragraph in this whole report, the personal manifestation, the personal contact had not taken place.

[28:02]

The faith of St. John and maybe St. Peter too is on the way now, thinking about it. The phrase of St. John's and the interpretation of certain factors, it's still there somehow. Somehow it is there. I wouldn't say a hypothesis. Very, very, very, you know, but not yet that radiant thing that one can pronounce to the world. That's not yet there. But that comes out, that develops out, and that develops. out of this intimate, personal encounter between Mary Magdalene and the God, between Mary and the Baboon. And then it's finished here. Now there is Mary, and of course, you know, it's so important that a work like that of St.

[29:04]

Paul, the first epistle to the Corinthians, Now we don't know the Lord anymore according to the flesh. It's such a virginal hazard. Back from these experiences of the witness, you know, how the apostle became witnesses of the resurrection in the course of the 40 days. This we don't know. Paul, of course, has met the Lord, you know, in his glory before the apostles. We don't know the Lord anymore according to the flesh. Mary has wrapped up in him, thinking of him, in this deep in our affection, but in the fire of the flesh. And she saw then two angels in the fire, sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

[30:04]

You see, she, what she needs is to get her out of that inner trance of thought in which she is kind of stuck in this for so long. And the seeking for the one who is really living, she seeks it along the day. She doesn't have time. No possibility. So through the intervention of the messenger, the angel, because who is there, you see, We have two parallel situations. One is when the world made flesh enters into this world. Now, there are no messengers. The only possible messengers, servants, which are able to convey to man are the angels, the ministers of God. Belonging to the heavenly world, they come there.

[31:06]

So also here, where the Lord has lived. And the Lord has lived, where he enters, you know, into his glory. This one step, you know, that has made, will be made, of course, in the Nativity of Christ, in this Incarnation, that this here is the Son of God made man. and was told to Joseph, to Mary, by the angel, to the shepherds the angel. Now the fact that the one who died has risen and is the Son of God who demands our adherence and our faith for eternal life, again this step, you know, too, has to be breached, has to be made possible by the messengers of God, by the angels. The apostles were not there. So, then and for there, she sees the sitting light, that is the Lord, that is God.

[32:13]

Now, seeing through the shadow and darkness of her own thinking comes that impression of a messenger of light, one at the head and one at the feet. where the body of Jesus had lain, still the smallest way in which the messengers, spiritual messengers, the divine messengers, indicate, as it were, and move, and point to the dimensions, or historical dimensions, of the one who had lain there dead. And they said to her, why are you weeping? light and joy dawn. And she answered, they have taken my lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him. You see, she really was definitely in that way, very humanly speaking, say that, hopelessly stuck in this her own explanation.

[33:20]

With these words, she turned around Turned around, there comes the conversion, and she saw Jesus standing there. Jesus standing there. But did not recognize him. You see, it's always, that's one of the characteristics of all the portrait tales, important stories, you can also read Luke, read Mark, Matthew, it's always this thing that the first encounter, the eyes are bound somehow. He is there, but he is not being recognized. So what are the 40 days? The conflict, the breakthrough of the plight of the resurrection into the minds and hearts of the citizens of the apostles to make them witnesses. And Jesus said to him, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for?

[34:22]

And there's that beautiful invitation, really, on the part of the bridegroom of her soul, on the part of her friend who offers to her the opportunity to manifest her love and her attention. Who is it you are loving? And then she, thinking it was the gardener, takes care of the tombs. She said, if it is you, sir, who removed him, I promise I'll hold General Dawson. My, maybe the gardener did something. Maybe not the enemies, them. Maybe he, maybe this is the one who removed him. Definitely, well, well, blamed him. And I will take him and carry him on my arms, carry him away. This is just this beautiful, you know, and enthusiastic, she could do it.

[35:27]

You know, I'm, once again, not very realistic. But she isn't in a realistic mood. And therefore, if I see you, I carry you on my own arms. God would have helped her, who knows? She wants to carry this complete, you know, inner, total relation. I will carry him. Of course, he doesn't carry him, he carries her. So, and therefore, Jesus answering this, is manifesting this beautiful manifestation of the absolute inner attachment to Jesus. Really, the bridegroom of her soul, Jesus answers, and the Lord said, by her name, Mary, Mary. And she turned and says, how did she hear this? She understands. Turned and said, what?

[36:28]

And she falls down, and she casts herself down. and she embraces him, you know, she holds him. Do not cling to me, do not keep me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brethren, my brothers, and tell them that I am now ascending you to my God, and you will come to my God, and to your God. Now, you see, we've come into that phase, you know, where now this personal encounter, and it brings and it enables Mary, you know, to be an apostle, to give the lap, to share what in this way she has seen, you know, and what she has experienced. That is another characteristic of the encounters between Jesus and the apostles during the 40 days.

[37:41]

Jesus is there really now as the one who is in curious with love, and therefore as the one who makes light shine out of darkness. See, that is the difference. If you consider now at the end of this little comparison, if you consider John and Peter, and if you consider then, say, Mary Magdalene, then you see right away there is a difference. John and Peter have not met the Lord. They have seen the sign, and they have been thinking about the sign. And they have, as it were, disciples beside. So in that way, at least John certainly believes. But with Mary Magdalene is now the person in common. She is being called by her name, Miriam, Miriam. And that is, of course, in name, that is an acclamation, as it were, which transforms

[38:51]

There is the moment in which she receives the joy of faith, you know, right through the Lord, addressing her and pronouncing her name. Name, that means that with her sins, all her personal, her heart, I can say. And by the Lord, the risen Lord, calling, as it were, her heart, transforms her. Therefore he immediately responds, and there she is, the apostle. And she understands, and she now tells them. So that is then the picture, you know, really, of the Church. But the whole thing in these two dialogues, you know, I want to just meditate and go step by step, because in all these things our own life is immediately involved. We are in this. What we just said in the prayer, so absolute true, Lord, we have celebrated this Feast of Easter.

[39:58]

Please, now, intervene in that way. We agree with Professor Guttmacher. And of course, the last thing we have to do is then exist into our existence, make it existential. But here St. John leads us on the existential line. We have been the same thing, you know. We have wedged in all these times. We have a grave for us, of course, a sign that we read. It's for John and Peter, the empty tomb. For us, it's the scriptures. And we read these things. Still, we don't. And we believe, God said, too. Still, the personal encounter has not taken place. So that is also something that I would wish to all those who are still celebrating these Easter days and tomorrow, the eighth day again, you know, since the first Sunday of this thing that we see already in Gospel of St.

[41:09]

John, the custom of the Sunday as it were established, the weekly feast. And the weekly feast is the weekly encounter, weekly encounter. And we see it go between Thomas and the Lord there. Thomas, the Lord, who is also in a completely different way than St. Mary Magdalene. Thomas is the skeptic. He wants it all somehow absolutely, you know, clear. Already it was dark. He wants me to see it, he wants me to touch it, to be absolutely clear about it. Why? Because by nature Thiaoouba is slow, Thiaoouba is pessimistic, kind of a low-key account. Now, just the opposite, in that way, too, of, may I mark the people? Only that, may I mark the lands high in the earth? Also, again, there's a difference in that, to be a little changed, you know, too, into another, more spiritual, you know, too.

[42:16]

So that is, therefore, then, I wish to know that. And we do that, where do we really, where does our Lord say to everyone, calls it by his own personal name? And where do we call it by Him personally? Into His office, in the media, you see. One of the essential ingredients of the 40 days is the becoming. Then it is the anticipation of what the Lord really wants, community and count. That's what He wants. Where does He get it? In Holy Eucharist. Where do we experience that? In Holy Communion, you see. And therefore, so the body of the Lord. Now there is like a Lord speaking to one.

[43:05]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ