Sunday, June 1, 2008

2Cor 3, 12-17 The Spirit of the Lord is freedom

(2Cor 3, 12-17) The Spirit of the Lord is freedom
[12] Therefore, since we have such hope, we act very boldly [13] and not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites could not look intently at the cessation of what was fading. [14] Rather, their thoughts were rendered dull, for to this present day the same veil remains unlifted when they read the old covenant, because through Christ it is taken away. [15] To this day, in fact, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, [16] but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed. [17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(CCC 702) From the beginning until "the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4), the joint mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this reason, when the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ (Cf. 2 Cor 3:14; Jn 5:39, 46). By "prophets" the faith of the Church here understands all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in living proclamation and in the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books) and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular the Psalms) (Cf. Lk 24:44).

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