Henri Boulad
“Do not be afraid of evil, for it can also bring you good.” (Arab proverb)
Everything is grace. From the very beginning of the cosmos' existence, everything is grace because creation is a free gift. Creation is grace, the first of all graces, a divine gift.
“But sin entered the world, and through sin death.” (Romans 5:12)
Evil has manifested itself in space and time, entered history, and is still a part of it. The gift of the grace of creation was tainted. Evil grew, thrived, became stronger, and culminated in the greatest of all human sins, which is called the cross or Golgotha.
“Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (Romans 5:20b)
Thanks to this cross, thanks to this Crucified, total redemption of the fallen world has been accomplished. Following the free gift of creation came the free gift of redemption. Since then, the new human race has been heading in countless ways toward another goal of creation, moving toward a new heaven and a new earth. (cf. Revelation 21)
On the days of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the beginning of this new humanity took place. The hour of its birth was the fulfillment of the promise we read about in Isaiah, whom God assured: “Behold, I am doing something completely new…” (Isaiah 43:19)
Redemption on Golgotha is this new creation and above all – it is the re-creation of man. All this happens by the effect of grace: according to this, all creation from the moment of the shining light until the complete transformation and fulfillment of the history of the universe is drawn into the divine stream of grace! We will recognize the free divine gift that pours forth on both sides: back to the beginning and toward the new goal of creation. This spring of grace burst forth on the hill of Golgotha, just as it once did from the rock in the parched desert when Moses touched it.
It is not uninteresting to read about creation. God begins with the creation of heaven, earth, and then light. Then he calls to life “plants that bear seeds, and various kinds of trees that bear fruit,” and “sets shining luminaries” upon the heavenly vault. What a marvelous fresco. Then it began in the sea “teeming with life,” after which God created “birds,” “wild and tame beasts,” and finally “man,” who is to begin a new era. He is something completely different, other…
The New Testament, on the other hand, starts with the last link in this human line, who also opens a new era: Through him, the new Adam, God’s people slowly begin to form and move towards the goal of universal history, to the “new heaven over the new earth.”
We have the impression that something is increasingly narrowing in on itself here, in order for everything to be concentrated into the focus of an immense event, so that from here it can unfold and spread to many people. (144,000 is a symbolic number that means immensely many).
Excerpt from the book of the same name by Henri Boulad, SJ,
published by the Carmelite Publishing House.
About the author of this book
Fr. Henri Boulad, SJ, born in 1931 in Alexandria, was ordained a priest in 1963. He holds a degree in philosophy and theology. He completed advanced studies in the USA, where he studied ascetic and mystical theology and psychology at the University of Chicago, where he also habilitated in psychology.
In 1967 he returned to Egypt, where he wanted to serve his country “until exhaustion,” as he would say. As an enthusiastic teacher, he preaches, writes, and organizes numerous conferences. In 1975 he was appointed provincial of the Jesuits in Alexandria. In the same year, he began implementing a plan to assist the lepers, which both young Muslims and Christians participated in with great enthusiasm. As this movement gained significance, he entrusted it to the organization Caritas, of which he later became the director. He began to delve deeper into youth pastoral care, organizing various themes for conferences: The Wisdom of the Heart, Having and Being, Freedom, Sexuality, Love, Why Existence?, The Evolution of Man and the Universe in a Teilhardian Perspective, Death, Islamic-Christian Dialogue, God in the Heart of the World. In 1979 he was appointed regional superior and later president of the Assembly of Superiors in Egypt.
“I am an ambitious fool, an enthusiast, I have a clear awareness of my fragility and weakness. I want to change the face of Egypt and the whole world, refusing to set any limits to my dreams and desires, for I believe that God can allow a massive harvest of LOVE to bloom and ripen on the manure heap of my person and my life.”
