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SHORT WRITINGS FROM TAIZ

18Brother John

I Have Come

Tat Tey MayHave Lie

Te ollowing pages will develop three simple af rmationsthat attempt to oer a starting-point or reection on themeaning o the Christian aith.


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down. urning back is impossible: an angel with a amingsword bars the way. And who can make their home in abarren waste? Tereore, says the Letter to the Hebrews:

Surrounded as we are by such a great cloud o wit-nesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin thatclings so closely, and let us run with perseverance therace that lies ahead o us, ocusing our eyes on Jesus,

who inaugurates our aith and brings it to comple-tion, who or the sake o the joy that lay beore him

endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and hastaken his seat at the right hand o the throne oGod. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

***

Let us conclude by recapitulating our three theses andattempt to show more clearly how they t together.

We began by claiming that Christianity is a Lie. Tismeans that it is not a second-level reality, in other wordsa reection on lie, an understanding o lie, a philoso-

phy, an ideology or even a theolog y, but a simple, rst-

level reality, a lie to be lived. More precisely, it is a way olie, and it is also what makes this way possible, an innerdynamism. And this inner dynamism or lie is Godsown Lie, his personalized energy, oen reerred to inthe Bible as the Holy Spirit. Te New estament showsthis Lie ully present in Jesus o Nazareth, who came inthe ullness o the Spirit and who communicated this

Spirit to us through his lie, death and resurrection.

Second, this Lie is quintessentially lie with others.rue lie is shared lie; in the deepest part o our soul webelong to God and to Gods creation, and thereore to

one another. Ethics ollows ontology: i we are indeedone in Christ, then our way o lie must attempt to mir-ror this. Otherwise we accept as inevitable a permanentcontradiction between our true identity and our empiri-cal sel.

And nally, this Lie is not destroyed by death, butrather conquers death by revealing its true meaning in

Gods plan, by removing what St. Paul calls its sting (c.1 Corinthians 15:55-56). When ear is cast out by love,dying is shown to be the other side o living, an expres-sion o trust and love by which we abandon ourselves tothe movement o Lie. God constantly invites us to leavebehind what we have attained, in order to enter into a

wider communion. As Gregory o Nyssa, a Christian tea-

cher o the ourth century, put it: with God we go romone beginning to another, in an endless series o newbeginnings.


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Ateliers et Presses de aiz, 71250 aiz, FranceDL 1143 juillet 2012 ISSN : 2101-731X ISBN 9782850403262Achev dimprimer en aot 2012 imprimerie Bureautique 71, 71000 Mcon

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