“Reading all of the arguments and the dissections of Bible scholars that Father Martin reports on questioned me about how far we are able to approach Scripture with the ‘hunger’ of those who know that word is truly and effectively the Word of God”. This was written by Pope Francis in the preface, anticipated by Vatican News, to the new book by U.S. Jesuit Father James Martin entitled “Lazarus, Come Out!” due out tomorrow. In the pages of the book, Pope Francis' preface reads, “one glimpses a truth of Christianity that is always relevant and fruitful: the Gospel is eternal and concrete, it concerns our intimate and inner life as well as history and daily life. Jesus did not just speak of eternal life; he gave it. He not only said 'I am the resurrection', he also raised Lazarus, who had been dead for three days. Christian faith is the ever-present interpenetration of the eternal and the contingent, heaven and earth, the divine and the human”. “Lazarus, finally,” we read, “is all of us. Father Martin, in this aspect adhering to the Ignatian tradition, makes us identify with the story of this friend of Jesus. We, too, are his friends; we, too, are sometimes 'dead' because of our sin, our shortcomings and unfaithfulness, the discouragement that disheartens and annihilates our souls. But Jesus is not afraid to come near us, even when we 'stink' like a dead man buried for three days. No, Jesus is not afraid of our death or our sin. He only stops at the closed door of our heart, that door that opens only from the inside and which we double-lock when we think God can no longer forgive us”. “An American writer, who died in 2023, left an admirable description of what ‘God's work’ is'. Cormac McCarthy, novelist, had one of his characters speak this way in one of his books: He said he believed in God even as he doubted the human claim to know God's thoughts. But a God incapable of forgiveness would not even be God. Yes, indeed it is so: God's business is to forgive”.
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