Pasqua: l’irruzione dell’inaspettato

Leonardo Boff

I cristiani celebrano a Pasqua quello che significa: il passaggio. Nel nostro contesto, è il passaggio dalla delusione all’irruzione dell’inaspettato. Qui la delusione è la crocifissione di Gesù di Nazaret e l’inaspettato, la sua risurrezione.

Lui fu uno che passò per il mondo facendo del bene. Più che le dottrine, introdusse pratiche sempre legate alla vita dei più deboli: guariva i ciechi, purificava i lebbrosi, faceva camminare gli zoppi, rimetteva in salute molti ammalati, sfamava le folle e perfino risuscitava i morti. Conosciamo la sua tragica fine: un complotto ordito tra religiosi e politici lo portò alla morte sulla croce.

Coloro che lo seguirono, apostoli e discepoli, con la tragica fine della crocifissione furono profondamente frustrati. Tutti, tranne le donne che lo seguivano, iniziarono a tornare alle loro case. Delusi, poiché speravano che portasse la liberazione di Israele. Tale frustrazione appare chiaramente nei due discepoli di Emmaus, probabilmente una coppia che camminava piena di tristezza. Si lamentarono con qualcuno che si uni a loro lungo il cammino: «Avevamo sperato che fosse lui a liberare Israele, ma sono passati tre giorni da quando l’hanno condannato a morte» (Lc 24,21). Questo compagno si rivelò poi come Gesù risorto, dal modo in cui benedisse il pane, lo spezzò e lo distribuì.

La risurrezione era fuori dall’orizzonte per i suoi seguaci. C’era un gruppo in Israele che credeva nella risurrezione alla fine dei tempi, ma la risurrezione intesa come un ritorno alla vita come è sempre stata.

Ma con Gesù è successo l’inaspettato, perché nella storia possono sempre succedere l’inaspettato e l’improbabile. Solo che l’inaspettato qui è di un’altra natura, un evento davvero improbabile e imprevisto: la resurrezione. Essa deve essere ben capita: non si tratta della rianimazione di un cadavere come quello di Lazzaro. La resurrezione rappresenta una rivoluzione nell’evoluzione. La buona fine della storia umana è anticipata. Significa l’emergere inaspettato del nuovo essere umano, come dice san Paolo, del “nuovo Adamo”.

Questo evento è davvero la realizzazione dell’inaspettato. Teilhard de Chardin, la cui mistica è tutta incentrata sulla resurrezione come novità assoluta all’interno del processo di evoluzione, lo definì un fatto “eccezionale” di qualcosa, quindi, che muove l’intero universo.

Questa è la fede fondamentale dei cristiani. Senza la risurrezione le comunità cristiane non esisterebbero. Perderebbero il loro evento fondatore e fondante.

Infine, va notato che i due più grandi misteri della fede cristiana sono strettamente legati alle donne: l’incarnazione del Figlio di Dio con Maria (Lc 1,35) e la risurrezione con Maria di Magadala (Gv 20,15). Una parte della Chiesa, la gerarchica, ostaggio del patriarcato culturale, non ha attribuito a questo fatto singolare alcuna rilevanza teologica. È sicuramente nel piano di Dio e dovrebbe essere accolto come qualcosa di culturalmente innovativo.

In questi tempi bui, segnati dalla morte e persino dall’eventuale scomparsa della specie umana, la fede nella risurrezione ci squarcia un futuro di speranza. Il nostro fine non è l’autodistruzione all’interno di una tragedia, ma la piena realizzazione delle nostre potenzialità attraverso la risurrezione, l’emergere dell’uomo e della donna nuovi.

Buona Pasqua a tutti quelli che credono e anche a coloro che non riescono a credere.

Leonardo Boff há scritto La risurrezione di Gesù e la nostra nella morte, 2008.

(traduzione in italiano di Gianni Alioti)

Ostern: der Einbruch des Unerwarteten

                                    Leonardo Boff

Christen feiern an Ostern, was es bedeutet: den Übergang. In unserem Zusammenhang ist es der Übergang von der Enttäuschung zum Ausbruch des Unerwarteten. Hier ist die Enttäuschung die Kreuzigung von Jesus von Nazareth und das Unerwartete, seine Auferstehung.

Er war jemand, der durch die Welt ging und Gutes tat. Mehr als Lehren führte er Praktiken ein, die immer mit dem Leben der Schwächsten verbunden waren: Er heilte die Blinden, reinigte die Aussätzigen, ließ die Lahmen gehen, machte viele Kranke gesund, stillte den Hunger vieler Menschen und ließ sogar die Toten auferstehen. Wir kennen sein tragisches Ende: Ein Komplott zwischen religiösen und politischen Führern führte ihn in den Tod am Kreuz.

Diejenigen, die ihm folgten, Apostel und Jünger, waren über das tragische Ende der Kreuzigung zutiefst enttäuscht. Alle, außer den Frauen, die ihm ebenfalls folgten, kehrten in ihre Häuser zurück. Sie waren enttäuscht, denn sie erwarteten von ihm die Befreiung Israels. Diese Enttäuschung zeigt sich deutlich bei den beiden Emmausjüngern, wahrscheinlich ein Ehepaar, das voller Traurigkeit unterwegs war. Jemandem, der sich auf dem Weg zu ihnen gesellte, sagten sie: “Wir hofften, dass er es sei, der Israel befreien würde, aber es sind drei Tage vergangen, seit er zum Tode verurteilt wurde” (Lk 24,21).

Die Auferstehung lag außerhalb des Horizonts seiner Anhänger. Es gab eine Gruppe in Israel, die an die Auferstehung glaubte, aber die Auferstehung am Ende der Zeit als Rückkehr zum Leben, wie es immer war, verstand.

Aber mit Jesus geschah das Unerwartete, denn in der Geschichte kann das Unerwartete und Unwahrscheinliche immer eintreten. Nur das Unwahrscheinliche und Unerwartete ist hier von anderer Natur, ein wirklich unwahrscheinliches und unerwartetes Ereignis: die Auferstehung. Es muss klar sein: Es handelt sich nicht um die Wiederbelebung eines Leichnams wie bei Lazarus. Die Auferstehung stellt eine Revolution innerhalb der Evolution dar. Das gute Ende der Menschheitsgeschichte wird vorweggenommen. Sie bedeutet den unerwarteten Einbruch des neuen Menschen, wie der heilige Paulus sagt, des “novissimus Adam”(1 Cor 15,45).

Dieses Ereignis ist in Wirklichkeit die Verwirklichung des Unerwarteten. Teilhard de Chardin, dessen Mystik sich um die Auferstehung als absolute Neuheit im Evolutionsprozess dreht, nannte sie ein “Ungeheures”, also etwas, das das ganze Universum in Bewegung setzt.

Das ist der grundlegende Glaube der Christen. Ohne die Auferstehung würden die christlichen Gemeinschaften nicht existieren. Sie würden ihre Gründung und ihr Gründungsereignis verlieren.

Schließlich sei darauf hingewiesen, dass die beiden größten Geheimnisse des christlichen Glaubens eng mit Frauen verbunden sind: die Menschwerdung des Gottessohnes durch Maria (Lk 1,35) und die Auferstehung durch Maria von Magadala (Joh 20,15). Ein Teil der Kirche, die hierarchische, die dem kulturellen Patriarchalismus verhaftet ist, hat dieser singulären Tatsache keine theologische Bedeutung beigemessen. Das ist sicherlich in Gottes Plan und sollte als etwas kulturell Innovatives begrüßt werden.

In diesen dunklen Zeiten, die vom Tod und sogar vom möglichen Aussterben der menschlichen Spezies durch eine nukleare Katastrophe geprägt sind, eröffnet uns der Glaube an die Auferstehung eine Zukunft der Hoffnung. Unser Ende ist nicht die Selbstzerstörung in einer endgültigen Tragödie, sondern die volle Verwirklichung unserer Möglichkeiten durch die Auferstehung: der Einbruch des neuen Menchen.

Frohe Ostern für alle, die glauben können, und auch für diejenigen, die nicht glauben können.

Leonardo Boff ist Theologe und hat geschrieben: Die Auferstehung Christi und unsere im Tod, Vozes 2012.

Easter: the irruption of the unexpected

                                      Leonardo Boff

Christians celebrate at Easter what it means: the passage. In our context, it is the passage from disappointment to the bursting forth of the unexpected. Here the disappointment is the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the unexpected, his resurrection.

He was someone who went through the world doing good. More than doctrines, he introduced practices always linked to the life of the weakest: he healed the blind, purified lepers, made the lame walk, restored health to many of the sick, satisfied the hunger of multitudes, and even resurrected the dead. We know his tragic end: a plot hatched between religious and political leaders led him to his death on the cross.

Those who followed him, apostles and disciples, were deeply frustrated by the tragic end of the crucifixion. Everyone, except the women who also followed him, began to return to their homes. They were disappointed, because they expected him to bring deliverance to Israel. Such frustration appears clearly in the two disciples at Emmaus, probably a couple who were walking along full of sadness. To someone who joined them on the way, they complain: “We were hoping that it was he who would free Israel, but three days have passed since he was condemned to death” (Luke 24:21).This companion was later revealed to be the resurrected Jesus, recognized in the way he blessed the bread, broke it and distributed it.

The resurrection was outside the horizon of his followers. There was a group in Israel that believed in the resurrection but at the end of time, the resurrection understood as a return to life as it always was is.

But with Jesus the unexpected happened, for in history the unexpected and the improbable can always occur. Only the improbable and unexpected here is of another nature, a really improbable and unexpected event: the resurrection. It must be well understood: it is not the reanimation of a corpse like Lazarus’. Resurrection represents a revolution within evolution. The good end of human history is anticipated. It signifies the unexpected irruption of the new human being, as St. Paul says, the “novissimo Adam”.

This event is really the realization of the unexpected. Teilhard de Chardin whose mystique is all centered on the resurrection as an absolute novelty within the process of evolution called it a “tremendous”, something, therefore, that stirs the whole universe.

This is the fundamental faith of Christians. Without the Resurrection the Christian communities would not exist. They would lose their founding and founding event.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the two greatest mysteries of the Christian faith are intimately linked to women: the incarnation of the Son of God with Mary (Luke 1:35) and the resurrection with Mary of Magadala (John 20:15). Part of the Church, the hierarchical one, hostage to cultural patriarchalism, has not attributed any theological relevance to this singular fact. It is surely in God’s design and should be welcomed as something culturally innovative.

In these dark times, marked by death and even with the eventual disappearance of the human species by a nuclear cataclysm, faith in the resurrection rips us a future of hope. Our end is not self-destruction within a final tragedy but the full realization of our potentialities through resurrection: the irruption of the new man and woman.

Happy Easter to all those who can believe and also to those who cannot.

Leonardo Boff is a theologian and wrote: The resurrection of Christ and ours in death, Vozes 2012.

Easter: the irruption of the unexpected

Christians celebrate at Easter what it means: the passage. In our context, it is the passage from disappointment to the bursting forth of the unexpected. Here the disappointment is the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the unexpected, his resurrection.

He was someone who went through the world doing good. More than doctrines, he introduced practices always linked to the life of the weakest: he healed the blind, purified lepers, made the lame walk, restored health to many of the sick, satisfied the hunger of multitudes, and even resurrected the dead. We know his tragic end: a plot hatched between religious and political leaders led him to his death on the cross.

Those who followed him, apostles and disciples, were deeply frustrated by the tragic end of the crucifixion. Everyone, except the women who also followed him, began to return to their homes. They were disappointed, because they expected him to bring deliverance to Israel. Such frustration appears clearly in the two disciples at Emmaus, probably a couple who were walking along full of sadness. To someone who joined them on the way, they complain: “We were hoping that it was he who would free Israel, but three days have passed since he was condemned to death” (Luke 24:21).This companion was later revealed to be the resurrected Jesus, recognized in the way he blessed the bread, broke it and distributed it.

The resurrection was outside the horizon of his followers. There was a group in Israel that believed in the resurrection but at the end of time, the resurrection understood as a return to life as it always was is.

But with Jesus the unexpected happened, for in history the unexpected and the improbable can always occur. Only the improbable and unexpected here is of another nature, a really improbable and unexpected event: the resurrection. It must be well understood: it is not the reanimation of a corpse like Lazarus’. Resurrection represents a revolution within evolution. The good end of human history is anticipated. It signifies the unexpected irruption of the new human being, as St. Paul says, the “novissimo Adam”.

This event is really the realization of the unexpected. Teilhard de Chardin whose mystique is all centered on the resurrection as an absolute novelty within the process of evolution called it a “tremendous”, something, therefore, that stirs the whole universe.

This is the fundamental faith of Christians. Without the Resurrection the Christian communities would not exist. They would lose their founding and founding event.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that the two greatest mysteries of the Christian faith are intimately linked to women: the incarnation of the Son of God with Mary (Luke 1:35) and the resurrection with Mary of Magadala (John 20:15). Part of the Church, the hierarchical one, hostage to cultural patriarchalism, has not attributed any theological relevance to this singular fact. It is surely in God’s design and should be welcomed as something culturally innovative.

In these dark times, marked by death and even with the eventual disappearance of the human species by a nuclear cataclysm, faith in the resurrection rips us a future of hope. Our end is not self-destruction within a final tragedy but the full realization of our potentialities through resurrection: the irruption of the new man and woman.

Happy Easter to all those who can believe and also to those who cannot.

Leonardo Boff is a theologian and wrote: The resurrection of Christ and ours in death, Vozes 2012.