by

His Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal

Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

the god of history

"In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature". The statement contained in the Council’s Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum (no. 2) expresses the truth on the Triune God, who in Person enters the history of humankind and comes not only to speak to humankind about Himself, but also to show the path along which each human being can meet Him, know Him and participate in His own Trinitarian life through Him.

The transcendent God who "dwells in unapproachable light " (1 Tm 6,16), has become a God close to us, the Emmanuel, the "God is with us" (Mt 1,23), thanks to His free initiative, entering human time and places, through His eternal Word made Man. Eternity assumes created time that becomes the history of divine mercy and the history of redemption for all humankind. It is the Logos, the eternal Knowledge, Image of the invisible God and "the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being" (Heb 1,3), He who by becoming a man made manifest His Lordship over history of which He is the "Alpha and the Omega" (Ap 1,8; 21,6), "the Beginning and the End" (Ap 21,6).

The Trinity in Christ is revealed as the God of history: it is its beginning and its fulfilment, and this is the subject of this thirty-third international theological videoconference entitled: "The God of History", of the history of the cosmos, of the history of all creatures and every human being. The Word, eternally generated and eternally beloved by the Father, as God to God and Light to Light, is the beginning and the archetype of all things created by God in time. If through Him all things have been created resulting in a orderly universe - the cosmos -, it is also through Him, through His Incarnation and Resurrection, that the cosmic order of creation is renewed: it is in the Word made Flesh that all things are recapitulated and also time, which finds fulfilment in God’s eternity (see Eph 1,7-10).

Today, the speeches made by the Theologians, and in particular the paper presented by His Eminence Cardinal Georges Cottier and those by Professor Monsignor Antonio Miralles and Professor Paolo Scarafoni, speaking from Rome from the seat of the Congregation for the Clergy, emphasise the novelty of the Living God’s initiative, going beyond all human expectations: God acts out of love and the Logos becomes sarx, flesh. Eternity enters human time, which, receiving its fullness becomes capable of eternal life. This is the Christian novelty: Semitic and Greek culture considered impossible, meaningless and even sacrilegious the union of the noumenon with the contingent. As then, today, according to modern rational culture, the pléroma, perfection, cannot "mingle" with what is limited or temporal without ceasing to be perfect.

The papers will emphasise and explain that in the God incarnate, man finds his total fulfilment: the history of the world becomes the history of redemption because human life has been rendered capable of communion with the nearby God, God who came to live among human beings. We will rediscover that the exalting novelty of the Christian religion consists precisely in the truth of God’s physical presence among men, a presence that is the bearer of redemption, the consequence and the goal of the incarnation of the Word. Already during the second century, Saint Irenaeus, when referring to the Greek word "skene", tent, often spoke of the God who sets up His own tent among men; using the image of a reciprocal familiarity between God and humankind, he wrote: "the Word of God who dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to receive God, and God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of the Father" (Adversus haereses, III 20,2).

The papers by His Excellency Monsignor Müller from Regensburg, by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco from Madrid, by Professor Michael Hull from New York, and by Professor Igor Kowalewsky from Moscow, will emphasise that the theology of the Temple of God is now the theology of the Body of Christ: He is the real shekhinah, God’s place, which in Hebrew described the holy cloud, a reminder of God’s merciful presence among the Jews gathered in prayer and to study the Law. Christ is He who leads each human being to the "fullness of time" and allows him to leave his earthly borders to discover fulfilment in God’s transcendence and eternity.

Speaking from Sydney His Excellency Julian Porteous, from Taiwan Professor Louis Aldrich, from Manila Professor José Vidamor Yu, from Bogotá Professor Silvio Cajiao, from Johannesburg Professor Stuart Bate, will allow us to understand in greater depth that the Church, Christ’s sacrament, refers us to Him, raised from the dead and ascended in the glory of the Father: in Christ’s mystery, the Church is the guardian and the bestower of the sacrament of redemption already conquered forever by Her Founder. Hence the Church is also eschatology, deferring to the eternity she already contains. The Church, which is not of this world although existing in this world (see John 17, 11.14), preserves as Mary does within her sacramental womb, the shining kingdom of God’s presence.

The Theologians will explain to us that the Virgin Mary, figure of the Church, the living Ark of the New Covenant, is the new Holy tent: her fiat becomes the moment at which God finds a dwelling within the world, her yes is the gate that opens for humankind’s encounter with God. He who the world cannot hold and who cannot be enclosed by stones, dwells within the human person, entrusting Himself to this person’s free will. And priests, the holy ministers of Christ’s Church, the bearers of the new yes to the redeeming will of God who has chosen and ordained them, are the new guests invited to implement, to the four corners of the earth, the mystery of redemption fulfilled on Christ’s Cross.

In concluding this introduction I wish to address my heartfelt thanks to the Prelates and Theologians invited to speak, and remind you that they will all speak through a live Link-up from ten countries in the five Continents.

I hope you all enjoy this conference.