What is a Gift? 1

Fides et Ratio

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1. Jesus reveals man to himself. JPII #10 Christ the Redeemer “fully reveals man to himself”.[1]

Gift quote Jesus is the greatest gift there is. Not as a means to an end, but as the end itself, the source of all joy, the ultimate demonstration of God’s goodness and generosity.[2]

Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 8:32— “He who did not spare his own Son . . . how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”—is that Jesus himself, rather than anything else in creation, is the most costly and bountiful gift God could give. If we have been given Jesus, we will be given “all things” on his coattails.[3]

CCC #614 This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrifices.¹ First, it is a giftfrom God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself. At the same time it is the offering of the Son of God made man, who in freedom and love offered his life to his Father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for our disobedience.² [1 Cf. Heb 10:10. 2 Cf. Jn 10:17-18; 15:13; Heb 9:14; 1 Jn 4:10.]

Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit, the Pope writes, is a new way of God’s “being with” the world that goes beyond God’s self-gift in creation. This is self-giving for the world’s redemption, which is carried out in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Meditating on Christ’s saying that the Holy Spirit will “convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (Jn 16:8), the Pope proposes that the Holy Spirit comes into the world because the world has forgotten its story. The world does not know where it came from, what sustains it, or where its destiny lies, although it assumes it knows all these things. The sending of the Holy Spirit reveals to the world the truth about itself and its history.[4]

Biblical exegesis very different from other myths of creation, Gilgamesh. Man created from teeth of dragons. God has to come to reveal man to himself. Man sees his dull reflection of sin. Man reveals ourselves a sinners.

Luther dunghills covered by snow, God created man good. God has to enter into time, man is not primordially bad, fallen.

God created us good, saw us good, more bounteous goodness as gift to remind us of our goodness that can be restored by grace.

Plenary indulgence. Church presumes we are in a state of grace, Dan Burke?, should be standard.

Christ restore. Paltry view snow covered dung heaps. God omnipotent can restore things back to former pristineness.

Ex/ elements we can purify gold to original nobility. Man can restore something in nature, surely God can do that with his own creation.

[1] https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_04031979_redemptor-hominis.html #10 accessed October 28, 2024

[2] https://www.christianitytoday.com/2016/08/why-jesus-not-salvation-is-gods-greatest-gift-to-us/ accessed October 28, 2024

[3] https://www.christianitytoday.com/2016/08/why-jesus-not-salvation-is-gods-greatest-gift-to-us/ accessed October 28, 2024

[4] George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II (Harper Collins: NY 1999) 517

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