Shortly after the death of Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022), his book What is Christianity. A spiritual testament (La Esfera de los libros, 2023, Kindle edition) was published, which compiles his theological contributions written after the election of Pope Francis. As is his custom, in the preface he makes a brief and precise summary of the content of each of the chapters that make up the book. In each text, he calmly reflects on religions, the fundamental elements of the Christian religion, dialogue with the Jews, the Church, the priesthood, the Eucharist, natural law, Veritatis Splendor, and actions that are evil in themselves, among other topics. It is a book to think about and a good guide to orient oneself in this journey of the century.
We are familiar with Benedict XVI’s call to expand rationality to account for reality fully. Positivist reason, with its emphasis on technique and pragmatism, is not the only valid way of thinking. Reducing rationality to these aspects leads to “belittling man, depriving him of essential dimensions of his existence.” It is necessary to broaden the cognitive horizon to understand the transcendent dimension of the human being in his encounter with the living God. Hence, from its beginnings, the vocation of the universality of Christianity is based on the opening of religion to philosophy, conceiving itself “not as a religion, but primarily as a continuation of philosophical thought, that is, of man’s search for truth.”
This rational root of religion has been forgotten in our time, to the point that the Christian religion is considered a continuation of the religions of the world and conceived itself as a religion among the others or above them. Thus, the “seeds of the Logos,” of which Clement of Alexandria speaks as the tension towards Christ of pre-Christian history, are generically identified with religions, while Clement of Alexandria himself considers them part of the process of philosophical thought in which human thought advances gropingly towards Christ (p. 39). This rationality inherent in the Christian message is of great importance in contemporary cultural dialogue and debate, since many crucial issues of human existence have their foundation in the same rational condition of reality. Therefore, the presence of the Christian vision in the public sphere, for example, in the field of life or the morality of the human act, has a component rooted in these “seeds of the Logos,” proper to the grammar of creation. Reason and faith are the two wings to rise to the truth.
In tune with the Jubilee of hope of this year 2025, Benedict XVI points out that “the entire Old Testament constitutes a book of hope. At the same time, however, it is imperative that this hope is expressed in many ways. It is also true that hope is less and less related to earthly and political power and that the sense of passion is increasingly placed in the foreground as an essential element of hope” (p. 65). A hope whose decisive form is Moses. From this perspective, “the time of the Church no longer appears as the time of a world definitively redeemed, but the time of the Church is for Christians what the forty years in the desert were for Israel” (p. 82). That is to say, it is not a time of return to paradise, where harmony reigns and wrongs are righted. It is rather a time of pilgrimage in which there is no lack of bitter experiences of the defeat of love and truth, knowing that evil does not have the last word, because we are anchored in theological hope that does not disappoint.
We also know that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways. The wheat and the tares are in the same field. God has immense patience, he takes charge of the vicissitudes of the freedom he has given us. Learning from his patience is not an easy task. The temptation to put an end to evil by force is a temptation that haunts political action. It is understandable that when faced with certain disorders we say “enough is enough”, “let us cut off these evils with a heavy and drastic hand”. Together with these difficult situations, the love of friend and enemy resounds in our ears: what do we do, what is the correct path? These are delicate practical decisions and, certainly, we have to do something, but not all means are morally valid. The path of justice is long, it requires creativity and must take into account the use of lawful and proportionate means in accordance with human dignity. God’s patience is too much for us, however, it is good for us to take it into account to mitigate our impatience and find the right remedy that will restore social health to our time.
In these times when we are seeking to find our own identity and to live authentically, I have found Benedict XVI’s reflection on the priesthood gratifying. He takes the text of Canon II of the Mass, where it says “astare coram te tibi ministrare” (to be in your presence and to serve you). Priests – the Pope Emeritus indicates – “did not receive any plot of land in the Holy Land, because they lived from God and for God. They did not dedicate themselves to the ordinary work necessary for the sustenance of daily life. Their profession was “to be in the presence of the Lord”, to look at him, to live for him (…). If this expression is now found in the canon of the Mass immediately after the consecration of the gifts, after the entrance of the Lord into the assembly gathered to pray, then for us this indicates that the Lord is present, that is, it indicates the Eucharist as the center of priestly life” (p. 127).
The second task of the priest is to serve. “What the priest does in the celebration of the Eucharist is to serve, to perform a service to God and a service to men. The worship that Christ rendered to the Father consisted in giving himself up to death for men. The priest must insert himself into this worship, into this service. Thus, the word “to serve” implies many dimensions. Certainly, serving includes firstly the correct celebration of the liturgy and of the sacraments in general, carried out with interior participation (…). And, since the Christian liturgy, by its nature, is always a proclamation, we must be familiar with the word of God, love it and live it. Only then can we explain it adequately. “To serve the Lord”: precisely, the priestly service also means learning to know the Lord in his word and to make him known to all those whom he entrusts to us” (p. 129).
The servant must fulfill the words: “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Lk. 22:42). The priest does not invent the Church nor does he announce himself, but God and his word. For, “the only washing that can truly purify men is the truth, it is Christ himself. And he is also the new tunic hinted at in the external garment of worship. “Sanctify them in the truth.” Which means: immerse them entirely in Jesus Christ so that what Paul pointed out as the fundamental experience of his apostolate may be applied to them: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). In this way…, priestly ordination means being purified and impregnated again and again by Christ, so that it is He who speaks and acts in us, and less and less we ourselves” (p. 133).
Benedict XVI described himself as a cooperator of the truth. A truth that, rather than taking it, takes us and becomes a path of life. God is Truth and Love. Without God, the world loses its meaning and human beings are left adrift, lacking the criteria of good and evil. When we deny a creative and founding intelligence and love at the beginning of the human adventure, we not only lose the transcendent meaning of life; we also lose the measure of what is human.
