Repentance. From Jesus's own adoption of repentance at his baptism and the opening word of his preaching, the theme winds its way through his ministry and into our lives. We see Peter, the exemplar of repentance, and the unfortunate Judas, caught up in remorse. We look at sins both personal and collective, and at God forgiving and healing. Above all we see Jesus taking on the sin of the whole world and bringing the kingdom of God so very close, this kingdom of love which brings us to our knees in adoration. This book tellingly brings home the wonderful, humble love of God to be found in Jesus.
In these meditations Daniel Bourguet enables us to draw alongside the thief on the cross and enter his dialogue with Christ; he guides us downward into the darkness of hell through a reading of Psalm 88; and finally we discover on Easter morning both the confusion and then faith of Mary Magdalene as she meets the Risen Lord (John 20). Bourguet's confidence in the biblical text means that he engages with it and follows wherever it leads, however risky . . . and he emerges–with us–miraculously enriched.
To love is to live and to live is to love; this is God's intention for humanity. However, humanity falls ill along the way; its love of God and neighbor becomes diseased, infected with other loves, the love of money, of pleasure. . . . To these malaises God becomes our physician; he draws alongside us to heal and to restore us to fullness of life. The author enables us to rediscover this obscured face of God, the face of God our physician, full of compassion and very attentive–a God before whom it is best to lay bare all our ills in order to be healed.
In this little book Daniel Bourguet guides our meditations on three scriptural passages that lead the reader along the pathway ordained by Christ into the depths of his being. Successively, the disciple first follows behind Jesus along the way of perfect love (Mark 1:14-20); then experiences what it is to bear the yoke with Christ and there find rest (Matt 11:28-30); and finally enters the mystery of communion in which he is in Jesus and Jesus abides in him (John 15:1-17). It is a pathway passing from vocation to struggle and then to fellowship, but leading always to joy.
The tenderness of God is not a theme that can be approached just to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, but is an unfathomable mystery that leads us deep into the heart of God.
A deep thirst for tenderness means that many, both young and old, are prepared to do almost anything if only this thirst can be quenched. Many of us go far astray without knowing or even suspecting that the most extraordinary tenderness is that of God, and that indeed he is the source of all tenderness. This volume is the fruit of many years of prayer and thought. Throughout these meditations on lesser-known biblical texts, the reader will engage with the compassionate, merciful God, a God with all the tenderness of both mother and father. In this way, the reader will be opened up to new vistas onto the mystery of God's humble, delicate tenderness.
The author, Daniel Bourguet, addresses readers as a friend on a potentially difficult pathway along which we need to proceed one step at a time. We have to know exactly where we are since it is easy to lose our way, but we discover and are led through 150 doorways into a marvelous edifice. This is no scholarly discussion of prayer but a steady progress towards prayer from a pure heart.
God's silence during the passion is certainly a silence towards man, but in particular God was silent towards Christ in his perfect and complete humanity. It is also the silence of the Father towards the Son . . . At first sight this silence is troubling and perhaps shocking, suggesting that God is in fact absent. However, the author invites us to go beyond this first impression–and the silence turns out to be of tremendous richness, overwhelming depth, and surprising beauty. We are invited to refocus our attention and discover what the Father is saying in a completely new way. These pages sing with love for God, and our meditation of the passion narratives draws us into deep contemplation of the One they celebrate, the Crucified.