IN A FEW WORDS, Fr. Joaquín Alliende L. Our founder signalled that there are two legitimate forms of faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that he is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent Man. Using the same words, we can give them a different emphasis. He is Man God. He is Man God.
What would be the emphasis of 18 October 1914?
Many Schoenstatt members will answer: Man God. This is their stated reaction to naturalistic visions of Christ. In Latin America, sometimes we have unilaterally preached a social reform Jesus. In rich countries, they have fallen even further into aberration and preach about New Age Jesus.
Fr. Kentenich: “I emphasize: The Man God”
A Marian charism, it is incarnational: It underscores that the Son of God took on our flesh and entered into the traffic of the history of a concrete people, with its own dates and geographies. Yes, “blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Hail Mary). He is not an angel, he is not only divine, he is human-divine. The Marian aspect pulls us closer. Schoenstatt lives the human warmth of the Word. We pray every night with “Heavenwards”: “…because Mary’s life has given us the norm for our daily living and brought the splendour of Christ the Sun so humanly near to us.” (Heavenwards, Concluding prayer of the Schoenstatt Office)
In 1914, “Jansenism” still permeated Catholic devotion, more so than today. Schoenstatt is the antithesis of Jansenism, a heresy that over-accentuates the “God of tremendous Majesty,” reducing the “God of infinite Goodness.”
Our centenary coincides with the year of the canonization of the Marian John Paul II. He powerfully took up the message of St. Faustina, the new champion of the Merciful Jesus, as the gateway of the third millennium. All this is a sign of the 2014 times. Perhaps there is a Kentenich key to decipher this voice of the times. He said that Schoenstatt venerates the Sacred Heart, because it is intrinsically a Movement, which from its infancy has been spiritual, because the Heart of Christ is the filial heart before the Father and before his Mother Mary.
In October, we will be given a crucifix of the bi-unity of Christ and Mary in the Original Shrine…
Translated from the Spanish by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Cape Town, South Africa
