Selections from "Jesus, The Apostles, and the Early Church" | Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger | IgnatiusInsight.com
Selections from Jesus, The Apostles, and the Early
Church | Pope Benedict XVI
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2007/benxvi_jesusapostles_sept07.asp
Based on Pope Benedict XVI's weekly teaching on the relationship between Christ and the Church,
Jesus, The Apostles, and the Early
Church tells the drama of Jesus' first disciples--his Apostles and their associates--and how they spread Jesus' message
throughout the ancient world. Far from distorting the truth about Jesus of Nazareth, insists Pope Benedict, the early disciples
remained faithful to it, even at the cost of their lives.
Beginning with the Twelve as the foundation of Jesus' re-establishment of the Holy People of God, Pope Benedict examines the story
of the early followers of Christ. He draws on Scripture and early tradition to consider such important figures as Peter, Andrew,
James and John, and even Judas Iscariot. Benedict moves beyond the original Twelve to discuss Paul of Tarsus, the persecutor of
Christianity who became one of Jesus' greatest disciples. Also considered are Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Barnabas,
Timothy, Titus, the wife and husband "team" of Priscilla and Aquila, and such key women figures as Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
Mary Magdalene, and Phoebe.
Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church is a fascinating journey back to the origins of Christianity. It reveals how Jesus'
earliest disciples faithfully conveyed the truth about the "Jesus of history" and how they laid the foundations for the Church,
through whom people today can know the same Jesus.
From "Christ and the Church" | Wednesday, 15 March 2005:
In this regard, it must be
said that the message of Jesus is completely misunderstood if it is separated
from the context of the faith and hope of the Chosen People: like John the
Baptist, his direct Precursor, Jesus above all addresses Israel (cf. Mt 15:24)
in order to "gather" it together in the eschatological time that
arrived with him. And like that of John, the preaching of Jesus is at the same
time a call of grace and a sign of contradiction and of justice for the entire
People of God.
And so, from the first
moment of his salvific activity, Jesus of Nazareth strives to gather together
the People of God. Even if his preaching is always an appeal for personal
conversion, in reality he continually aims to build the People of God whom he
came to bring together, purify and save.
As a result, therefore, an
individualistic interpretation of Christ's proclamation of the Kingdom,
specific to liberal theology, is unilateral and without foundation, as a great
liberal theologian Adolf von Harnack summed it up in the year 1900 in his
lessons on The essence of Christianity: "The Kingdom of God, insofar as it comes in single individuals, is able to enter their soul and is
welcomed by them. The Kingdom of God is the dominion of God, certainly, but it is the dominion of the holy
God in individual hearts" (cf. Third Lesson, 100 ff.).
In reality, this
individualism of liberal theology is a typically modern accentuation: in the
perspective of biblical tradition and on the horizon of Judaism, where the work
of Jesus is situated in all its novelty, it is clear that the entire mission of
the Son-made-flesh has a communitarian finality. He truly came to unite
dispersed humanity; he truly came to unite the People of God.
From "The Gift of 'Communion'" | 29 March 2006:
One might say that grace, love and communion,
referring respectively to Christ, to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, are
different aspects of the one divine action for our salvation. This action
creates the Church and makes the Church--as Saint Cyprian said in the third
century—"a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit" (De Orat. Dom. 23; PL 4,
553, cit. in Lumen Gentium, no.
4).
The idea of communion
as participation in Trinitarian life is illuminated with special intensity in
John's Gospel.
Here, the communion of love
that binds the Son to the Father and to men and women is at the same time the
model and source of the fraternal communion that must unite disciples with one
another: "Love one another as I
have loved you" (Jn 15:12; cf. 13:34); "that they may all be one...
even as we are one" (Jn 17:21-22).
Hence, it is communion of men and women with the Trinitarian God and communion
of men and women with one another.
From "Communion in Time: Tradition" | 26 April 2006:
Tradition is the
communion of the faithful around their legitimate Pastors down through history,
a communion that the Holy Spirit nurtures, assuring the connection between the
experience of the apostolic faith, lived in the original community of the disciples,
and the actual experience of Christ in his Church.
In other words, Tradition is
the practical continuity of the Church, the holy Temple of God the Father,
built on the foundation of the Apostles and held together by the cornerstone,
Christ, through the life-giving action of the Spirit: "So then you are no
longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole
structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom
you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph
2:19-22).
Thanks to Tradition,
guaranteed by the ministry of the Apostles and by their successors, the water
of life that flowed from Christ's side and his saving blood reach the women and
men of all times. Thus, Tradition is the permanent presence of the Savior who
comes to meet us, to redeem us and to sanctify us in the Spirit, through the
ministry of his Church, to the glory of the Father.
From "Peter, the Fisherman" | 17 May 2006:
Peter wanted as Messiah a
"divine man" who would fulfill the expectations of the people by
imposing his power upon them all: we would also like the Lord to impose his
power and transform the world instantly. Jesus presented himself as a
"human God", the Servant of God, who turned the crowd's expectations
upside-down by taking a path of humility and suffering.
This is the great alternative
that we must learn over and over again: to give priority to our own
expectations, rejecting Jesus, or to accept Jesus in the truth of his mission
and set aside all too human expectations.
Peter, impulsive as he was,
did not hesitate to take Jesus aside and rebuke him. Jesus' answer demolished
all his false expectations, calling him to conversion and to follow him:
"Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of
men" (Mk 8:33). It is not for you to show me the way; I take my own way and
you should follow me.
Peter thus learned what
following Jesus truly means. It was his second call, similar to Abraham's in
Genesis 22, after that in Genesis 12: "If any man would come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save
his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's
will save it" (Mk 8:34-35). This is the demanding rule of the following of
Christ: one must be able, if necessary, to give up the whole world to save the
true values, to save the soul, to save the presence of God in the world (cf. Mk
8:36-37). And though with difficulty, Peter accepted the invitation and
continued his life in the Master's footsteps.
From "John, Son of Zebedee" | 5 July 2006:
According to tradition, John
is the "disciple whom Jesus loved", who in the Fourth Gospel laid his
head against the Teacher's breast at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 13:23), stood at
the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Jn 19:25) and lastly,
witnessed both the empty tomb and the presence of the Risen One himself (cf. Jn
20:2; 21:7).
We know that this
identification is disputed by scholars today, some of whom view him merely as
the prototype of a disciple of Jesus. Leaving the exegetes to settle the matter,
let us be content here with learning an important lesson for our lives: the
Lord wishes to make each one of us a disciple who lives in personal friendship
with him.
To achieve this, it is not
enough to follow him and to listen to him outwardly: it is also necessary to
live with him and like him. This is only possible in the context of a
relationship of deep familiarity, imbued with the warmth of total trust. This
is what happens between friends; for this reason Jesus said one day: "Greater
love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.... No
longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is
doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father
I have made known to you" (Jn 15:13, 15).
From "John, the Seer of
Patmos" | 23 August 2006:
The subject of one of the
most important visions of the Book of Revelation is this Lamb in the act of
opening a scroll, previously closed with seven seals that no one had been able
to break open. John is even shown in tears, for he finds no one worthy of
opening the scroll or reading it (cf. Rv 5:4).
History remains
indecipherable, incomprehensible. No one can read it. Perhaps John's weeping
before the mystery of a history so obscure expresses the Asian Churches' dismay
at God's silence in the face of the persecutions to which they were exposed at
that time.
It is a dismay that can
clearly mirror our consternation in the face of the serious difficulties,
misunderstandings and hostility that the Church also suffers today in various
parts of the world.
These are trials that the
Church does not of course deserve, just as Jesus himself did not deserve his
torture. However, they reveal both the wickedness of man, when he abandons
himself to the promptings of evil, and also the superior ordering of events on
God's part.
From "Simon and Jude" | 11 October 2006:
John alone mentions a question he addressed to Jesus at the Last Supper: Thaddaeus
says to the Lord: "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us
and not to the world?".
This is a very timely
question which we also address to the Lord: why did not the Risen One reveal
himself to his enemies in his full glory in order to show that it is God who is
victorious? Why did he only manifest himself to his disciples? Jesus' answer is
mysterious and profound. The Lord says: "If a man loves me, he will keep
my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him" (Jn 14:22-23).
This means that the Risen
One must be seen, must be perceived also by the heart, in a way so that God may
take up his abode within us. The Lord does not appear as a thing. He desires to
enter our lives, and therefore his manifestation is a manifestation that
implies and presupposes an open heart. Only in this way do we see the Risen
One.
From "Judas Iscariot and
Matthias" | 18 October 2006:
A second question deals with the motive of Judas' behavior: why does he betray
Jesus? The question raises several theories. Some refer to the fact of his
greed for money; others hold to an explanation of a messianic order: Judas
would have been disappointed at seeing that Jesus did not fit into his program
for the political-militaristic liberation of his own nation.
In fact, the Gospel texts
insist on another aspect: John expressly says that "the devil had already
put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him" (Jn
13:2). Analogously, Luke writes: "Then Satan entered into Judas called
Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve" (Lk 22:3).
In this way, one moves
beyond historical motivations and explanations based on the personal
responsibility of Judas, who shamefully ceded to a temptation of the Evil One.
From "Saint Paul's New
Outlook" | 8 November 2006:
"Being justified" means being made righteous, that is, being accepted
by God's merciful justice to enter into communion with him and, consequently,
to be able to establish a far more genuine relationship with all our brethren: and
this takes place on the basis of the complete forgiveness of our sins.
Well, Paul states with
absolute clarity that this condition of life does not depend on our possible
good works but on the pure grace of God: "[We] are justified by his grace
as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Rom 3:24).
With these words Saint Paul expressed the fundamental content of his conversion,
the new direction his life took as a result of his encounter with the Risen
Christ.
Before his conversion, Paul
had not been a man distant from God and from his Law. On the contrary, he had
been observant, with an observance faithful to the point of fanaticism. In the
light of the encounter with Christ, however, he understood that with this he
had sought to build up himself and his own justice, and that with all this
justice he had lived for himself.
He realized that a new
approach in his life was absolutely essential. And we find this new approach
expressed in his words: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).
From "Women at the
Service of the Gospel" | 14 February 2007:
It was precisely to Mary Magdalene that Saint Thomas Aquinas reserved the special
title, "Apostle of the Apostles" (apostolorum apostola), dedicating to her this beautiful comment: "Just
as a woman had announced the words of death to the first man, so also a woman
was the first to announce to the Apostles the words of life" (Super
Ioannem, ed. Cai, 2519).
Nor was the female presence
in the sphere of the primitive Church in any way secondary. We will not insist
on the four unnamed daughters of Philip the "Deacon" who lived at
Caesarea; they were all endowed with the "gift of prophecy", as St
Luke tells us, that is, the faculty of intervening publicly under the action of
the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 21:9). The brevity of information does not permit
more precise deductions.
It is rather to Saint Paul that
we are indebted for a more ample documentation on the dignity and ecclesial
role of women. He begins with the fundamental principle according to which for
the baptized: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus" (Gal 3:28), that is, all are united in the same basic dignity,
although each with specific functions (cf. I Cor 12:27-30).
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Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, was for over two decades
the Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope
John Paul II. He is a renowned theologian and author of numerous books.
A mini-bio and full listing of his books published by Ignatius Press are
available on his IgnatiusInsight.com
Author Page.
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