Jesus of Nazareth

Что такое Абсолют? Существует ли Бог?

God is the Father who cares, forgives and reigns

Личный БогСказано прямо

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus does not discuss God's existence: as a first-century Galilean Jew he presupposes it, and radicalises it as relationship. Asked about the first commandment he quotes the Shema: the Lord is one, and is to be loved with all one's heart (Mk 12:29–30). He addresses God as Father, and Mark preserves the Aramaic word Abba in the Gethsemane prayer (Mk 14:36); he teaches people to ask for daily bread and forgiveness (Mt 6:9–13; Lk 11:2–4) and describes a Father who knows what is needed before it is asked and who clothes the lilies of the field. The heart of his preaching is the Kingdom of God, the sovereignty of that God breaking into history. The Absolute is, in these texts, someone who sees, hears, forgives and acts.

Кто я? Существует ли истинное «я»?

One's life is worth more than the world; whoever gives it up gains it

Сотворённая бессмертная душаСледует из учения

The Synoptic Gospels record no theory of the self, but they do contain statements about the worth of the person before God. Jesus asks what it profits someone to gain the whole world and lose their life (psyche), and states that whoever wishes to save it will lose it, and whoever loses it for his sake and the gospel's will save it (Mk 8:35–37). In Matthew he urges not fearing those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul (Mt 10:28), and assures that even the hairs of one's head are numbered (Mt 10:30). The self thus appears as a unique life, known by God, not reducible to the body, found in self-giving rather than self-assertion. Christian tradition later developed, with Greek categories, the doctrine of the created, immortal soul.

Почему мы страдаем?

He gives no theory of pain: he heals it, shares it and announces its end

Отделённость от БогаСледует из учения

The Synoptic Gospels do not attribute to Jesus a systematic explanation of suffering, and in one passage he expressly rejects the most common explanation of his time. Told of some Galileans killed by Pilate and of eighteen people crushed by the tower of Siloam, he asks whether they were more guilty than others and answers no, though he adds a call to repentance (Lk 13:1–5). In other scenes, however, he links healing to the forgiveness of sins (Mk 2:1–12). His response to pain is above all practical: he heals the sick, eats with the excluded, declares the poor and those who weep blessed (Lk 6:20–21) and announces a Kingdom that reverses their lot. In Gethsemane he asks that the cup pass and accepts it (Mk 14:36). The theology of redemptive suffering comes later.

Что происходит после смерти?

God is not God of the dead but of the living: the dead will rise

Вечная жизнь и воскресениеСказано прямо

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus shares with the Pharisees the Jewish hope in the resurrection of the dead. When the Sadducees, who denied it, put to him the case of the woman married in turn to seven brothers, he answers that those who rise will be like angels and that God is not God of the dead but of the living. His parables announce a final judgement with two destinies — eternal life or punishment — decided by one's conduct towards the least, and that of the rich man and Lazarus describes an immediate fate after death. In Luke he promises the crucified wrongdoer to be with him that very day in paradise. The Gospel of John, later and more theological in composition, puts on his lips that he himself is the resurrection and the life. His followers' faith in his own resurrection is the centre of the later tradition.

Как достигается освобождение или спасение?

Repent and receive the Kingdom of God, which comes as gift and demands deeds

Через благодать и любовьСледует из учения

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus's central proclamation is that the Kingdom of God has come near and that one must repent and believe (Mark 1:15). Entry into the Kingdom is presented as a gift: to the question of who can be saved, he answers that for humans it is impossible, but not for God (Mark 10:27), and the Kingdom belongs to those who receive it like children. At the same time, the same texts demand a concrete response: doing the Father's will, renouncing binding wealth, forgiving, and in the judgement scene of Matthew 25 the criterion is works of mercy towards the least. Grace and conduct thus appear intertwined, without the doctrinal systematisation that came later.

Нужен ли учитель?

Follow him, the one Teacher; among disciples, all are brothers

НезаменимСказано прямо

According to the gospels, Jesus acted as an itinerant teacher who called people to follow him (Mark 1:17) and formed a group of disciples. Personal following is the centre of his proposal: knowing a doctrine is not enough, one must go after him. At the same time, in Matthew 23:8-10 he forbids his disciples to be called rabbi, father or teacher, because they have only one Teacher and are all brothers. John's gospel takes the centrality of his figure further by presenting him as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). The position is therefore that of an indispensable and unique teacher, who at the same time relativises any human authority among those who follow him.

Реален ли мир?

The Father cares for lilies and birds; the world is His work

Благое и реальное творениеСказано прямо

In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks of the natural world as a creation God cares for: the Father feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:26-30), makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). His parables draw on seeds, harvests, nets and yeast, with no trace of the material world being illusory or evil in itself. The danger lies not in creation but in attachment to wealth and anxious worry. John's gospel uses «world» in another sense, often as the human order that rejects God, though it also states that God so loved the world that He gave His Son.

Что такое любовь?

Loving God and neighbour sums up the Law; the enemy too

Любовь к Богу и ближнемуСказано прямо

According to Mark's Gospel, when asked about the first commandment Jesus joins two texts of the Torah: to love God with all one's heart (Deuteronomy 6:5) and one's neighbour as oneself (Leviticus 19:18), and declares that there is no greater commandment. Luke illustrates who one's neighbour is with the parable of the Samaritan, which turns the despised foreigner into a model of active compassion. The most radical feature of the Synoptics is love of enemies: in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus asks his hearers to love those who persecute them and pray for them, so as to be children of the Father, who makes the sun rise on the evil and the good. John's Gospel, composed later, formulates a new commandment — love one another as I have loved you — and defines the greatest proof of love as laying down one's life for one's friends.

Свободны ли мы или всё предопределено?

A call to conversion that presupposes freedom, under a providence that cares for everything

Подлинная свобода волиСледует из учения

The gospels contain no doctrine of free will, but their very form presupposes it. According to Mark, Jesus' preaching begins with a call: the time is fulfilled, repent and believe in the good news (Mk 1:15). That demand for change, the parables of decision and the judgement according to what each did with the hungry and the stranger (Mt 25:31-46) only make sense if the person can respond or refuse. Alongside this, the synoptics transmit a radical trust in providence: not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing, and even the hairs of the head are counted (Mt 10:29-31). Jesus does not reconcile the two in theory; he lives them as filial trust and responsibility at once.

Зачем медитировать или молиться?

Praying in secret to the Father, calling him Abba, with a child's trust

Дружба с БогомСказано прямо

The gospels show Jesus withdrawing to pray alone, at dawn or by night (Mk 1:35; Lk 6:12), and attribute to him a teaching on prayer centred on the filial relationship. In the Sermon on the Mount he asks for prayer in secret, without heaping up words, because the Father knows what we need, and teaches the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6:5-13). In Gethsemane he calls him *Abba*, an Aramaic term of family intimacy (Mk 14:36). The Gospel of John, later and more theological in composition, has him tell the disciples that he no longer calls them servants but friends (Jn 15:15). Prayer is neither technique nor rite, but personal trust in a Father who listens, joined to conformity with his will.

Может ли разум познать предельное?

He argues from Scripture, yet what is revealed is hidden from the wise

Писание и рассуждениеСледует из учения

The gospels show Jesus debating with scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees using the tools of the Jewish exegesis of his time. Facing the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, he reproaches them for knowing neither the Scriptures nor the power of God and argues from the burning-bush passage: God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and is not God of the dead but of the living (Mk 12:24-27). Luke presents him explaining to the disciples at Emmaus what the Scriptures said about him (Lk 24:27). But the synoptic tradition also attributes to him a thanksgiving because the Father has hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little ones (Mt 11:25-27). Reason interprets Scripture; knowledge of the Father is a gift.

Уйти от мира или преобразить его?

Retreats for prayer and a mission among the sick, the poor and sinners

Действовать в миреСледует из учения

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus did not found a separate community like that of Qumran nor live as a hermit, although he withdrew to deserted places to pray. His mission unfolds in the villages, synagogues, houses and roads of Galilee, among the sick, the poor, tax collectors and sinners, with whom he shares table fellowship, which earns him criticism. He sends his disciples to heal and proclaim the kingdom, and in the parable of the last judgement he makes care for the hungry, the stranger, the sick and the prisoner the decisive criterion. At the same time, he refuses to turn his message into a political programme: asked about the tribute, he answers that one should give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. The kingdom he proclaims transforms human relations here, but is not identified with any power of this world.

Manresa, Barcelona · España

Cova de Sant Ignasi: Spiritual Exercises in Manresa

Centre d'Espiritualitat Cova de Sant Ignasi (Compañía de Jesús)

In a cave above the Cardoner river at Manresa, Ignatius of Loyola spent long months in prayer in 1522 and 1523 and there conceived his Spiritual Exercises, a method of contemplation centred on the life of Jesus that is still practised worldwide. The site is now a Jesuit spirituality centre offering silent prayer retreats, courses of the Exercises and visits, and it is the goal of the Ignatian Way that sets out from Loyola. It is one of the most established paths in the Christian tradition for contemplating the Gospels in retreat, open to people of any background.

Taizé, Borgoña · Francia

Taizé Community

Communauté de Taizé

Taizé is an ecumenical monastic community founded by Brother Roger in a small Burgundy village, where brothers from different Christian confessions live together. Every week it welcomes thousands of young people, as well as adults and families, to share common prayer three times a day, with its simple, repetitive chants, reflection on biblical texts in small groups and community life. Far from proselytism, its approach centres on the Gospel and on what the community calls a pilgrimage of trust on earth, which also continues in European youth meetings held in different cities.

Jerusalén, Belén, Nazaret, Cafarnaún y otros santuarios · Israel y Palestina

The Holy Land with the Franciscan Custody

Custodia de Tierra Santa (Custodia Terrae Sanctae)

Since the fourteenth century, the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land have looked after many of the places linked to the life of Jesus of Nazareth: the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. Its website brings together information on pilgrimage, visiting each shrine and services for pilgrims, such as the office that coordinates group celebrations and a Christian information centre in Jerusalem. It is the historical reference for visiting the settings of the Gospels, whatever one's confession.