THEOLOGIAN SPEAKS OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CHRISTOLOGY

THEOLOGIAN SPEAKS

OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

IN CHRISTOLOGY

 

 

On April 6, 2011, Fr. Felicisimo Martinez, OP. gave a talk on “Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus: Recent Development in Christology” to an audience of students and professors at the University of Saint Joseph in Macau. The lecture was organized by the School of Christian Studies, an extension of the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Lisbon.  Fr. Felicisimo (Prioro, Leon, Spain, 1943) is a Dominican priest, a well-known speaker and writer, particularly on themes of Christology and theology of religious life. He is a visiting professor of the University of Saint Joseph, the Catholic University of Macau, where he is now teaching “Doctrine of God.”

Hereafter we present a brief summary – the personal synopsis of a brother – of the well-received lecture of Fr. Felicisimo.

Through the Lenten season, Christians prepare for the celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. This celebration, however, should not be separated from the incarnation of Jesus. We speak of the total Jesus, of his life, death and resurrection. We speak of the historical Jesus and the Jesus of faith.

Jesus is both divine and human – and not one without the other. His human condition has often been forgotten or sidelined. Indeed, Christ assumed the whole of our humanity, except sin. Hence, Jesus, then, suffered also our limitations, temptations; his faith, his mission was not perfectly clear from the beginning of his life.  This knowledge of the full humanity of Jesus should lead us Christians to be committed to the humanization of all peoples, to the defense and promotion of human dignity an rights; to the peaceful fight for justice and to be with the marginalized; to the realization that sin is inhuman. We never forget that the historical Jesus is the same as the Risen Lord.

Christology includes soteriology or Christ’s salvation. In the life of Jesus, all his acts –not only his passion, death and resurrection – are salvific. These salvific acts are associated with the sacrifice of the of Jesus on the Cross, but also, and above all, with love – with faith and love. Christology today interprets the passion and death of Jesus thus: first, the relationship of his passion and death to his whole life (his passion and death seen as a “logical” consequence of his faithful life and love); his passion and death are interpreted as fidelity and love and not just as sacrifice (yes to his renunciation and suffering, but because of love: love and faith matter most.  This faith and this love help us face injustices not violently but – like Gandhi – peacefully.

Certainly, the resurrection of Christ has a profound salvific dimension. The resurrection is the central mystery of our faith. Without the resurrection Christian faith is not possible. The resurrection of Christ is interpreted in different ways, but what matters are the following points: the resurrection of Jesus is not a physical event, but a meta-empirical one (another dimension); the resurrection is a real event, but a meta-historical one. One can only believe in the resurrection. We have to retrieve the theological dimension of the resurrection, which is perhaps the most innovative point of recent Christology. Moreover, we have to underline that the real subject of the resurrection is God: Jesus is the Risen Lord; God the Father through the Holy Spirit raised him up from the dead. God is the God of life – of full life.

 

Finally, the speaker said that the resurrection of Jesus proves him right: Jesus did not fail. Through Jesus and in Jesus, God saves us mainly by reason of his love. Thus God does justice to the victims of injustice – to the living and the dead. We have to hear the clamor of the victims. Resurrection means that God brings our life to fullness – to the fullness of our identity.

 

After the lecture, there was a lively open forum where some of the difficult questions on Jesus were raised and answered convincingly, truthfully and kindly by the excellent speaker, Fr. Felicisimo Martinez. What matters most for us Christians – and this was emphasized by speaker and reactors – is that we fix our eyes on Jesus – on his life, death and resurrection –, and work with others for the humanization of the world. (FGB)