Bruno Forte - Face to Face with Jesus: Reflections for a Disciple

Praise for

Face to Face with Jesus

This is a small book that will have a big impact on your life. Archbishop Bruno Forte combines the knowledge of a theologian with the passion of a devoted disciple to create a book that is a must-read for any believer. Youll encounter Christ in a deeper, more personal way after walking through the Gospel of Mark with Archbishop Forte.

Jennifer Fulwiler, author of ConversionDiary.com

Archbishop Fortes spiritual interpretation of the Gospel of Mark is informed by historical and literary insights as well as the stages of spiritual growth that call for conversion, right choice, and loving union with God. By reading the story as an initiation into the life-long journey of faith for catechumens, Archbishop Forte provides a valuable pastoral resource for RCIA and Adult Faith Formation groups.

Pheme Perkins, PhD, professor of theology, Boston College

In Face to Face with Jesus, Archbishop Bruno Forte, an outstanding theologian and preacher, opens up the Gospel of Mark in a way that helps readers discoverthrough the eyes of the first followers of Jesusthe Christian way of life. We are invited into a guided spiritual exercise by a master catechist who welcomes those who feel their relationship with Jesus may have grown cold or could be stronger to rediscover the fire of their faith. In Face to Face with Jesus, the Gospel of Saint Mark comes alive as a manual of Christian living for all those seeking to know the fullest expression of human love found only in the Risen Lord.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, DC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Forte, Bruno.

[Ma voi, chi dite che io sia? English]

Face to face with Jesus : reflections for a disciple / Bruno Forte ; with a foreword by Scott Hahn.

pages cm

ISBN-13: 978-0-8198-2723-4

ISBN-10: 0-8198-2723-1

1. Bible. Mark--Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.

BS2585.52.F6713 2014

226.30709--dc23

2013029408

Originally published by Edizioni San Paolo, Milan in Italian as Ma voi, chi dite che io sia?: In cammino con Ges nel Vangelo di Marco.

Copyright under original name Ma voi, chi dite che io sia? by Edizioni San Paolo s.r.l.- Cinisello Balsamo (MI).

Translated by Bret Thoman

Unless otherwise noted the scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations from the New American Bible, Revised Edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [second edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpts from The Word for Living: Sacred Scripture and the Beauty of God Pastoral Letter for 20062007, by Bruno Forte, copyright 2007, ZENIT at http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/archbishop-bruno-forte-on-scripture. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Rosana Usselmann

Cover art by D. Buoninsegna, Jesus Opens Eyes of a Man Born Blind

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

P and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright 2014, translation, Daughters of St. Paul

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491. www.pauline.org

Printed in the U.S.A.

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

This little book contains the meditations of the spiritual exercises for everyone that I gave to a large and attentive crowd over the course of three evenings during Lent of 2012 in a large church in Chieti, Italy. I dedicate the following pages to those listeners, as well as to all who will imitate them in their desire to walk with Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.

Contents

Foreword

L ong before I was a theologianand even before I called myself a ChristianI was a musician. Though I spoke not a word of Italian, I knew the word forte because it appeared often on sheet music. To a musician, forte means strong, bold, loud. You see it on music that aims to make an impression.

It's a word that suits this book and its author. Archbishop Bruno Forte is an eminent churchman, a world-renowned scholar, and a passionate Christian man.

His zeal is evident in his manifold accomplishments. He holds doctorates in both philosophy and theology, and he has taught in both disciplines at prestigious universities throughout Europe. He is a prolific author, best known for his eight-volume Simbolica Ecclesiale and four-volume Dialogica. For a solid decade he served on the Churchs International Theological Commission, the elite group of theologians who advise the Holy See in doctrinal matters of major importance. He was one of the founding members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Since 2004 he has been Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto in Italy.

He is a scholar of the first rank, but before he is a scholar, he is a pastor, and before he is a pastor, he is a disciple. Yet these various roles do not divide his life. I know him only through his work, but his words are the product of a remarkably integrated life. He writes with the depth of a man who has spent long years in research, but also with the passion of a preacher who spends hours on his knees in prayer. In the pages of his work, he seems to say to us the words that the disciples said at Emmaus: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? (Lk 24:32 RSV).

Archbishop Forte is a scholar unashamed of his love for Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who has inspired the man to earn two doctorates and write so many books. Archbishop Forte is the rare scholar who cannot help but use exclamation points when he discusses matters of divine revelation. God Speaks! he proclaims in a subheading in one of his pastoral lettersas if the fact would be ill-served by an unadorned declarative sentence.

That pastoral letter, written in 2006, bore an evocative title: The Word for Living: Sacred Scripture and the Beauty of God. It is a rich document, written to address what the Archbishop recognizes as a postmodern crisis, a longing that is frustrated and unfulfilled. God permits this for a reason, he explains, quoting the Prophet Amos: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11 RSV). The Archbishop continues: