LUMEN FIDEI — TROENS LYS
Pave Frans har fredag 5. juli sluppet sin første encyklika, et dokument som — passende nok i Troens år — omhandler Tro.
Encyklikaen er på 84 sider, og er basert på manuskriptet pave emeritus Benedikt XVI etterlot seg da han offisielt trakk seg fra embetet 28. februar i år. Dette var teksten som opprinnelig skulle avslutte Ratzingers tredelte arbeid om de teologale dyder, etter encyklikaene om kjærlighet (Deus caritas est, 2006) og håp (Spe Salvi, 2007).
Nå utgis den i stedet altså av pave Frans.
— Det er en encyklika skrevet med fire hender, for å si det slik, fordi pave Benedikt begynte arbeidet med den og ga det videre til meg, sa paven nylig.
Fra forordet:
There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God.
Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.
On the one hand, it is a light coming from the past, the light of the foundational memory of the life of Jesus which revealed his perfectly trustworthy love, a love capable of triumphing over death. Yet since Christ has risen and draws us beyond death, faith is also a light coming from the future and opening before us vast horizons which guide us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth of communion. We come to see that faith does not dwell in shadow and gloom; it is a light for our darkness. Dante, in the Divine Comedy, after professing his faith to Saint Peter, describes that light as a “spark, which then becomes a burning flame and like a heavenly star within me glimmers”.
It is this light of faith that I would now like to consider, so that it can grow and enlighten the present, becoming a star to brighten the ho- rizon of our journey at a time when mankind is particularly in need of light.
***These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue— are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own. The Successor of Peter, yesterday, today and tomorrow, is always called to strengthen his brothers and sisters in the priceless trea-sure of that faith which God has given as a light for humanity’s path.
En norsk oversettelse kommer på St. Olav forlag høsten 2013. I mellomtiden kan du lese hele dokumentet på engelsk online, eller laste ned som PDF.