First Major Text of Benedict XVI Ratzinger following resignation
On Catholic Faith, Missions, and World's Religions - Full translation by Rorate
Message of the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
for the naming of the reformed Aula Magna
of the Pontifical Urbaniana University
October 21, 2014
I would like to in the first place express my heartfelt thanks to the Rector and to the academic authorities of the Pontifical Urbaniana University,
to the staff and to the student representatives, for their proposal to
name the rebuilt Aula Magna [Main Hall] in my honor. I would like to
thank in a special way the Chancellor of the University, Cardinal
Fernando Filoni, for having organized this initiative. It is a cause of
great joy for me to be able in this way to be always present amidst the
work of the Pontifical Urbaniana University.
In the course of a number of visits that I
was able to make as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, I was always struck by the atmosphere of universality in the
very air that one breathes in this University, where young men and
women coming from practically all the countries of the world are
preparing for service to the Gospel in the whole world of today. I also
see today facing me in this lecture hall, a community formed by so many
young people, a community that makes us see in a living way the
stupendous reality of the Catholic Church.
This definition of the Church as
“Catholic”, which has been part of the Creed since ancient times,
possesses something of Pentecost. Let us remember that the Church of
Jesus Christ has never related to only one people or only one culture,
but that from the beginning she was ordained to the whole of mankind.
The last words of Jesus to his disciples were: “Make all people my
disciples”. (Mt. 28:19). And at the moment of Pentecost the Apostles
spoke in many languages, in this way being able to manifest, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, all the fullness of their faith.
From that time the Church has grown in a
real way on every Continent. Your presence, dear students, reflects the
universal face of the Church. The prophet Zechariah had announced a
messianic reign that would extend from sea to sea and that would be a
kingdom of peace. (Zc. 9:9) And in fact, wherever the Eucharist is
celebrated, as from the Lord, and men, become among themselves one
body, there is present something of that peace that Jesus Christ had
promised to give to his disciples. That you, dear friends, be
collaborators with this peace is becoming more and more urgent within a
violent and lacerated world in which Christ’s peace needs to be built up
and safe-guarded. For this reason the work of your University is so
important, in which you desire to learn how to draw closer to Christ in
order to be able to become His witnesses.
The Risen Lord gave this task to his
Apostles, and through them disciples of every time, to carry his Word to
the ends of the earth and to make all men his disciples. The Second
Vatican Council, reprising in the Decree “Ad Gentes” a constant
tradition, has illuminated the profound rationale for this missionary
effort and has called upon the Church of today to take on this task with
renewed strength.
But is this still possible? Many ask this
question, both inside and outside the Church. Is this mission really
possible in the world as it is today? Would it not be more appropriate
that all religions get together and work together for the cause of peace
in the world? The counter-question is: Can dialogue substitute for
mission? Today many have the idea, in effect, that religions should
respect each other, and, in dialogue with each other, become a common
force for peace. In this way of thinking, most times there is a
presupposition that the various religions are variants of one and the
same reality; that “religion” is a category common to all, which assumes
different forms according to different cultures, but expresses,
however, one and the same reality. The question of truth, which at the
beginning of Christianity moved Christians more than anything else, in
this mode of thinking is placed within parentheses. It presupposes that
the authentic truth about God, in the last analysis, is unobtainable,
and that at best one can make present what is ineffable only with a
variety of symbols. This renunciation of truth seems convincing and
useful for peace among the religions of the world.
This is, however, lethal to faith. In
fact, faith loses its binding character and seriousness, if everything
is reduced to symbols that are at the end interchangeable, capable of
referring only from afar to the inaccessible mystery of the divine.
Dear friends, understand that the question
of mission places us not only in confrontation with the fundamental
questions of faith but also with the question of who man is. In the
context of a brief address meant to greet you all, obviously I am not
able to try to analyze in an exhaustive way this set of problems that
today we all face. I would like, however, at least to touch on the
direction upon which we should embark with respect to our task at hand.
I
1. The common opinion is that
religions are, so to speak, side by side as the Continents and the
individual Countries on a map. This, however, is not exactly true.
Religions are in a state of movement on the level of history, just as
are peoples and cultures. There are religions that are “on hold”. The
tribal religions are of this type. They have their moment in history
and nevertheless are waiting for a greater encounter that brings them to
fullness.
As Christians, we are convinced that, in
silence, they are waiting for the encounter with Jesus Christ,
the light that comes from him, that alone is able to lead them in a
complete way to their truth. And Christ is waiting for them.
The encounter with him is not a barging in of a stranger
that destroys their
own culture and their own history. It is
instead the entrance to something greater, towards which they are
journeying. Consequently this encounter is always at the same time a
purification and a maturation. Furthermore, the encounter is always
reciprocal. Christ waits on their history, their wisdom, the way they
see things.
Today we see ever more clearly another
aspect as well: while in countries with a great Christian past,
Christianity in many ways has become tired, and some of the branches of
the great tree that grew from the grain of mustard seed of the Gospel
have withered and fall to the ground, but from the encounter with Christ
in the religions that are looking forward in expectation new life is
springing forth. Where at first there was only tiredness, new
dimensions of faith are arising and bringing joy.
2. Religion in itself is not a unitary
phenomenon. It always involves a number of distinct
dimensions. On the one side there is the prominence of reaching out
beyond this world towards the eternal God. On the other side we find
elements that have arisen from the history of men and from their
practice of religion. Among these elements certainly there are
beautiful things but also things that are base and
destructive, wherever the egoism of man has taken over religion and,
instead of an opening, has transformed religion into a closure within
its own space.
Therefore, religion is never simply a
phenomenon that is only positive or only negative. Both aspects are
en-mixed within it. From its beginnings the Christian mission has
discerned in a very marked way especially those negative elements in
pagan religions that it encountered. For this reason, the Christian
proclamation at its very beginning was extremely critical of religion.
Only by overcoming those traditions that the Christian faith understood
as demonic could the faith develop its power of renewal. On the basis of
these types of elements, the Evangelical theologian, Karl Barth placed
religion and faith in opposition, and adjudicated religion in an
absolutely negative way as an arrogant behavior of man that tries, on
his own initiative, to lay hold of God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer took up
this formulation in his advocating a
Christianity “without religion”. Without doubt we are dealing with a
unilateral way of seeing things that cannot be accepted. And
nevertheless it is correct to affirm that every religion, to remain on
the side of what is right, at the same time must also be always critical
of religion. This is clearly valid, from its origins and according to
its nature, for the Christian faith, which, on the one hand, looks with
great respect upon the great expectations and deep richness of
religions, but, on the other hand, the Christian faith looks at what is
negative with a critical eye. It stands to reason that the Christian
faith again and again must develop such a critical power even with
respect to its own religious history.
For us Christians Jesus Christ is the
Logos of God, the light that helps us to distinguish between the nature
of religion and its distortion.
2. In our time the voice of those who
want to convince us that religion as such is obsolete is becoming louder
and louder. They say that only critical reason should be the basis
for man’s actions. Behind similar conceptions stands the conviction
that with the positivist way of thinking reason in all its purity has
achieved supremacy in a definitive way. In reality, even this way of
thinking and living is historically conditioned and bound to a specific
historical culture. To consider it as the only valid way of thinking
about things diminishes man in some way, taking away from him
dimensions that are essential for
his existence. Man becomes smaller, not greater when there is no longer
any room for an ethos, that, by its authentic nature, goes beyond
pragmatism, when there is no longer any room for the gaze turned towards
God. The proper place for positivistic reason is in the great spheres
of technology and economics, but this does not exhaust all that is
human., And so it is up to us who believe to open wide the doors again
and again that, beyond mere technology and pure pragmatism, lead to the
wonderful greatness of our existence in the encounter with the living
God
II
1. These reflections, perhaps a bit
difficult, should show that even today, in a world that is profoundly
changed, the task of communicating the Gospel to others remains a
reasonable one. And, moreover, there is a second way, more simple, to
justify this undertaking today. Love demands to be communicated. Truth
demands to be communicated. Whoever has experienced great joy cannot
keep it simply for himself. He must pass it on to others. The same
thing is true for the gift of love, through the gift of recognizing the
truth that manifests itself.
When Andrew met Christ, he could not do
anything but say to his brother: “We have found the Messiah” (John
1:41). And Philip, who was also given the gift of this encounter, could
not do anything but to say to Nathaniel that he had found him of whom
Moses and the Prophets had written (John 1:45). We proclaim Jesus Christ
not to get as many members as possible for our community, and least of
all for the sake of power. We speak of Him because we feel that we have
to share that joy with others that has been given to us.
We will be credible proclaimers of Jesus
Christ when we have encountered him in the depths of our existence,
when, within the encounter with Him, we are given the great experience
of truth, of love, and of joy.
2. The deep tension between the mystical
offering to God, in which one gives oneself totally to him, and the
responsibility to one’s neighbor and for the world created by God, is a
natural part of religion. Martha and Mary are always
inseparable, even if, time to time, the accent can fall on one or the
other. The point of encounter between the two poles is the love in
which we touch God and his creatures at the same time. “We have come to
know and believe in the love that God has for us”. (I John 4:16) This
phrase expresses the authentic nature of Christianity. That love, which
is realized and reflected in multiform ways in the saints of all times,
is the authentic proof of the truth of Christianity.
[Translation by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, DPhil]
1 comment:
More of this :), Deo Gratias
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