JESUS CHRISTUS

A classic meditation on Christ by the author of The Lord

Romano Guardini

EXCEPT FOR A few places where the older translations are more appropriate, the biblical quotations used in this translation are from Msgr. Ronald Knox’s translation of the New Testament (Sheed and Ward: New York, 1944).

Nihil obstat:

J. Gerard Kealy, D.D.

Censor theol. deput.

Imprimatur:

Albert Gregory Meyer, S.T.D., S.S.L.

Archbishop of Chicago

June 15, 1959

First published in Germany under the title Jesus Christus, Geistliches Wort by Werkbund-Verlag Würzburg 1957. First published in the United States by Henry Regnery Company, 1959.

© 2012 by Ave Maria Press, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, without written permission from Christian Classics™, Ave Maria Press®, Inc., P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556.

Founded in 1865, Ave Maria Press is a ministry of the United States Province of Holy Cross.

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Paperback: ISBN-10 0-87061-257-3

ISBN-13 978-0-87061-257-2

E-book: ISBN-10 0-87061-269-7

ISBN-13 978-0-87061-269-5

Cover image: Baptism of Christ by Alessandro Allori, photo credit Scala/Art Resource, NY.

Cover design by John R. Carson.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Guardini, Romano, 1885-1968.

[Jesus Christus, geistliches Wort. English]

Jesus Christus / Romano Guardini.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-87061-257-2 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-87061-257-3 (pbk.)

1. Catholic Church--Sermons. 2. Sermons, German. I. Title.

BX1756.G85J43 2011

232--dc23

2011045443

Contents

Foreword: An Introduction to Jesus Christus by Robert Krieg

His Mother

Passage

Failure

The Sacred Authority

Christ the Healer

Jesus and Faith

The Will of the Father

Jesus’ Solitude

The Nearness of the Father

Time and Eternity

The Love of Jesus

The Risen Christ

Heaven

Foreword

An Introduction to Jesus Christus

The focal point of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ, the divine Word who “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). Two millennia ago, the Lord Jesus proclaimed the coming of God’s reign through his words, deeds, and very person. Rejected by the religious and civil authorities in Jerusalem, he suffered and died on a cross, but rose from the dead to eternal life. Now, alive in the Holy Spirit, Christ remains invisibly present to us, and he will return in glory with God’s “new heaven and a new earth” (Rv 21:1). At Mass, we acknowledge this “mystery of faith” when we declare: “We proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection until you come again.”

This sacred mystery is the focal point of Jesus Christus (first published in 1957). This book was meant by its author Romano Guardini (d. 1968) to challenge “our ignorance” concerning “who Jesus is” so that we will attain “a fresh impression” of “the figure of Christ” (pp. 49–50). Toward this aim, it consists of thirteen “meditations” concerning “God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures ...