Last word on "The Lord"

So I read the last third of this great book and didn't write here about it at all! For a fact there is just too much to write about. I repeat my blanket endorsement - any Christian should read it as soon as possible. Some semi-random final thoughts:

• To go along with the Second Fall I wrote about earlier, Guardini sees the Resurrection as a Second Creation. This parallels St. Paul's teaching on the first Adam and the new Adam (Christ).
• The whole book provides a panoramic overview of the Christian life, from first things, to ordinary life (marriage, society), to the life of faith, to the end times. Hardly any aspect of Christian life is left out.
• One thing in particular that struck me was his discussion of property and wealth. The story of the rich young man always troubled me. Along with the apostles, I've always wondered, "Given such a standard, who can be saved?" From page 329:

  
  Two legitimate Christian attitudes to property are revealed. First, that based on the commandments: to own property; to be grateful for it; to manage it well and achieve something with it; to avoid dishonesty and injustice; to be decent to others and help dispel need. This order of existence is acceptable to God and leads to eternal life.... Something in the young man yearned to surpass the Law, to enter the free realm of magnanimity, of spiritual creativeness and novelty. It was this that had driven him to Christ. Hence the Lord's encouragement: if this is really your desire, go ahead and follow through! Then a special order of things is valid for you, that will help you to concentrate all the power of your love on God, to serve him not only in justice, but in the absolute freedom of the heart that has stripped itself of everything that is not he. Then away with things and follow me!

  That first calling is binding to everyone. The second path is a special vocation.
• Similarly with marriage and virginity, Guardini says there meanings are bound up with the Lord: "Both Christian marriage and Christian virginity become incomprehensible the moment the Nazarene ceases to be their essence." (p 325)
• Much of the last part of the book, especially his treatment of the Book of Revelation, talks about the Christian sense of history which has largely been lost. The history of salvation - Creation, the Fall, the promises, the prophets, the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, and the End Times - are the history of the world, and we don't know our place in the world unless we place ourselves in this arch of Christian history. In the Crucifixion Christ - the author of life, he who is life itself - descended into the depths of death and lifelessness. When he rose on the third day, he commenced to lift the world with him. As each of us grows in sanctity, as our faith matures, we rise along with Christ. In the end of times, when the world is made anew, this process will be complete - Christ will have lifted the whole world, and the world will be re-made in him (the new Heaven and new Jerusalem mentioned in Revelation).

This book more than any other I can think of, conveys the joy of the Faith - the sheer unbounded gratitude, happiness, clarity, joy of life in Christ - without hiding the demands and difficulties that go along with true Faith - being out of step with the world, the constant spiritual warfare. Only G.K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" conveys the same sense of superabundance in the face of God's limitless gifts to us. Read this book now!