The True Impoverishment of Man: On Benedict XVI and Bishops | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | March
17, 2011 | Ignatius Insight
The True Impoverishment of Man: On Benedict XVI and Bishops | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | March
17, 2011 | Ignatius Insight
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/schall_benedictandbishops_mar2011.asp
"This is the labor for the harvest in the field of God, in the field of
human history: to bring to men and women the light of truth, to set them free
from the lack of truth, which is the true sorrow, the true impoverishment of
man."
— Pope Benedict XVI, "In God's Field", February 5, 2011 (Episcopal
Ordination Mass in St. Peter's)
I.
On the occasion of five curial officials being raised to the
arch-episcopacy, Pope Benedict XVI's sermon was about the need of truth and the
centrality of making it known through the Church. He spoke of the Lord sending
laborers into the harvest and, drawing from Isaiah, of the Lord's anointing to
bring good tidings to the afflicted and to sooth the brokenhearted. The Pope
reminded the bishops to stand as living witnesses, as it says in the first
letter of John, to those who saw and touched the Lord. From the beginning, the
Church has seen itself as sent to all the nations, however difficult it often
is to be received in many of them. The office of Peter exists to assure the
unity of witness to what is handed down.
The field of God is spread throughout human history to all the nations.
We need to be set free from "a lack of truth." This lack is rightly called a
"sorrow" and an "impoverishment." Contrasted to this sorrow are the "glad
tidings," which, as the Pope carefully says, are not just words but include "an
event." What is this event? Here Benedict echoes the core of his book, Jesus
of Nazareth: Holy Week. The unique event is
this: "God himself has come among us." This coming is the central truth that
the followers of Christ are called upon to make known among the nations.
The Pope is aware of those who reject this truth. "Large parts of the
modern world, large numbers of our contemporaries, turn their backs on God and
consider faith something of the past." But when we look at what they implicitly
want to put in the place of faith, we still find that "a yearning that justice,
love and peace will be established at last, that poverty and suffering will be
surmounted and that human beings will find joy." So the rejection of faith does
not necessarily mean that what the faith promises is rejected or that the
fulfillment of this yearning is simply some this-worldly political kingdom.
"The longing for all these things is present in the contemporary world,
the longing for what is great and what is good. It is yearning for the
Redeemer, for God himself, even when he is denied." Such is the great paradox.
Even the denial of God is associated with a divinely established longing in our
souls. The modern world is filled with all sorts of schemes to achieve these
things. But it is careful not to consider or admit the truth of the Christian
understanding of our longing. It is precisely a yearning for "a Redeemer," as
the Pope puts it, not just for a sort of perfect order that exists somewhere
down the eons in the future beyond any of us.
Moreover, our yearning cannot be met only by ourselves. It is one of
the tenets of humanism that we want to rid ourselves of God in order that only
man remains to decide what he is. The fact is that man is something more than
himself. "The Lord makes us realize that it cannot be merely we ourselves who
send laborers into the harvest; that it is not a question of management or of
our own organizational ability." It often seems that even Church bureaucracy
gets in the way of what we are about. As the Pope noted in Deus Caritas Est, all bureaucracies need personal contact with actual
people. However useful, organizations can be cold, as their members often
rarely meet actual people.
To expand his thoughts on these topics, Benedict took up the four points
mentioned by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. He indicates "what the
fundamental elements of Christian life are in the communion of the Church of
Jesus Christ." The four points are found in the following passage from Acts
(2:42): "They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, to the breaking of
bread and to prayers." These four elements are what bishops are
about—perseverance, truth, Eucharist, and prayer.
The first element is the "devoting of themselves." It is surprising
that this devoting or preserving is separated out as "of the essence of being a
Christian." But the Pope is talking to bishops. They are not only selected to
serve but they themselves must will to devote themselves. The Christian wills
to be a Christian. And he also wills that others know accurately what this
faith is about. This requires something more than fulfilling a bureaucratic
office. The Pope tells the bishops that they are not to be wishy-washy. "The
Pastor is not to be a marsh reed that bends in the wind, a servant of the
spirit of the times." He is rather to be like a tree with deep roots, to be a
place where there is "stability and growth." It is often easier to be servants
of "the spirit of the times" rather than proper readers of the "signs of the
times." The latter is of God, the former is not.
II.
Bishops, "as priests of Jesus Christ," are to be "laborers in the
harvest of the world's history with the duty of healing by opening the doors to
the world to the lordship of God." Such a mission is to participate "in the
gift of the Holy Spirit, given to him as the Messiah, as the Son anointed by
God." All these things fit together. "The fundamental elements of Christian
life are in the communion of the Church of Jesus Christ." The truths hold us
together. The Pope recalls Blessed John Henry Newman's journeys: "the journey
of obedience to the truth, to God; the journey of true continuity which in this
very way brings progress." Our communion is not just with the people of our
time or place. If we read the canon of the Mass carefully we see we are present
before all times and places in our worship.
The book of Acts tells us to "devote ourselves to the Apostles'
teaching." Often, it seems, we do not speak clearly what we hold. What we hold
to be true "is not a vague spirituality, an undefinable sensation of
transcendence. God has acted and he himself has spoken." Catholicism strives
for clarity, not obscurity or vagueness. Our understanding of mystery is not
that it is unintelligible but that it is more intelligible than our minds have
power to grasp.
We set down creeds so that we can understand accurately what we hold.
The Pope adds of God that "He has really done something and he really said
something." In faith we entrust ourselves to God Yet, this commitment is not an
abstraction. "God to whom we entrust ourselves has a face and has given us his
Word. We may count on the permanence of His Word." Historical and philosophical
studies in the Church are precisely directed to the reality of this "he (God)
really done something and he really said something."
"The ancient Church summed up the essential core of the Apostles'
teaching in the so-called Regula fidei,
which is fundamentally identical to the Profession of Faith." This is the rule
that is still valid. We are not rigid, but we are accurate. Any slight error
can undermine the whole order. This Creed is what pastors proclaim.
In addition to teaching and holding what Christ was and taught, we
(Christians) form a communion with one another. We are not alone. In what does
this communion consist? "God made himself close to us." Our initiative was not
what made this possible. It was God's. "This is the essence of the Apostolic
Succession: to preserve communion with those who have encountered the Lord in a
visible and tangible way and thus to keep Heaven open, the presence of God in
our midst." It is though our contact with this succession that we touch God.
The third element in this teaching or guidance is "the breaking of
bread," the sacrifice on the Cross, prefigured at the Last Supper whose form we
use. "The blessed Eucharist is the center of the Church and must be the center
of our being as Christian and of our priestly life." The risen Lord comes to us
through the Eucharist, and this Eucharist opens us to others. The Eucharist
forms the community. The community does not concoct the Eucharist. This
un-bloody sacrifice handed down to us is the true way that man can worship God,
a way taught to us by God, not by man. Still, we can attend to things about
this worship: "Let us be careful that faith is always expressed in love and
justice for one another and our social conduct are inspired by faith; that
faith is lived in love."
The final element is prayer. Prayer is "never something private of my
individual 'ego' that does not concern others. Praying is essentially and also
always praying in the 'we' of God's children." We say "we" in our prayer, but
"I" in our creeds. Unless we affirm the truths in our minds and hearts, we
cannot be together in a unity that addresses the same God. Prayer is "raising
my life toward God's height." Each of us longs for the Lord. Finally, Benedict
tells the bishops: "You are called to undertake tasks that concern the
universal Church." We are servants of the truth that has been handed down to
us. We are not gods who make up our own world as if what we think we want is
better than what we are offered in Creation and Redemption.
• Biography of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Jesus of Nazareth (Part 2) available March 10, 2011
• Other Recent Books by Pope Benedict XVI
• All books by or about Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Excerpts from books by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Articles about Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
Fr.
James V. Schall, S.J., is Professor of Political Philosophy at Georgetown
University.
He is the author of numerous books on social issues, spirituality, culture,
and literature including Another
Sort of Learning, Idylls and Rambles, A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning,
The Life of the Mind (ISI, 2006),
The Sum Total of Human
Happiness (St. Augustine's Press, 2007), The Regensburg Lecture (St. Augustine's Press, 2007),
and The Mind That Is Catholic: Philosophical and Political Essays (CUA, 2008).
His most recent book from Ignatius Press is
The Order of Things (Ignatius Press, 2007). His new book, The Modern Age,
is available from St. Augustine's Press. Read more of his essays on his
website.
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