01-06-2007 - Traces, n. 6 Jesus of Nazareth A Fact that Happened in Human History Four hundred pages to show that the Jesus of the Gospels is true, real, and historic. The Pope’s new book is a passionate witness of his personal search for “the face of the Lord” by Andrea Tornielli Benedict XVI has written a book to explain that “the Jesus of the Gospels” is the true Jesus, the real, historic Jesus, who walked the roads of Palestine two thousand years ago, that same Jesus whom we can meet today thanks to the witness of those who have been attracted by the beauty of the Christian experience, by His friendship, and who experience His love. In 400 pages divided into 10 chapters, Joseph Ratzinger (when he began the book he was still a Cardinal–he finished it as Pope) uses the method of modern exegesis so as to “foster the growth [in the reader] of a living relationship” (p. xxiv) with Christ, in the conviction that in order to understand Him it is necessary to start off from His “communion with the Father.” The title of the book is Jesus of Nazareth (Doubleday, New York, 2007); right from the start, the Pope points out that the release of this book was not an act of the Magisterium, and “[e]veryone is free, then, to contradict me”(p. xxiv). It is a deep and passionate meditation on Jesus and His life, the fruit–as the author explains–of a “long gestation,” that fights off all attempts to reduce the figure of Christ by presenting Him as a revolutionary, a moralist, or a mere teacher of the Hebrew religion–all those reductions most popular in the best-seller lists today. From the Baptism to the Transfiguration This volume examines the first part of Jesus’ life, from His Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration. A second volume is foreseen which will deal with the central mystery of the Christian faith, the Death and Resurrection, with a chapter on the infancy narratives as well. Throughout this work, from the introduction on, Ratzinger stresses the importance of history. He explains, “For it is of the very essence of biblical faith to be about real historical events. It does not tell stories symbolizing suprahistorical truths, but is based on history, history that took place here on this earth”(p. xv). In another passage, commenting on how meticulous Luke is in dating the beginning of Jesus’ public life, he adds, “We are not meant to regard Jesus’ activity as taking place in some sort of mythical ‘anytime,’ which can mean always or never. It is a precisely datable historical event having the full weight that real historical happenings have…” (p. 11). This is why Benedict XVI says he is “convinced, and I hope the reader will be,” that the Jesus of the Gospels is “a historically plausible and convincing figure”(p. xxii). This book is an essay and a personal witness, the witness of that “intimate friendship” that ties Jesus’ followers to their Master. It would be quite misleading, though, on the basis of this consideration, and the fact that here the Pope is not speaking ex cathedra, to relegate this book to the ranks of subjective devotional meditations. Quite the contrary. The Pope has chosen to present himself “in the sphere of public debate” as Cardinal Christoph Schönborn stressed during the presentation of the book in the Vatican, so as to enter into dialogue with all those who are asking for and seeking the truth. He does this by contesting the reduction of Jesus to a cloudy shadow, the fruit of the last two centuries of historical criticism of Scripture, a “dramatic situation for faith, because its point of reference is being placed in doubt”(p. xii). The Antichrist After an initial chapter dedicated to Jesus’ Baptism, the Pope describes the temptations with which the devil put Jesus to the test, explaining, for example, that if you put God aside “on account of more important things,” like the great social questions, “it is precisely these supposedly more important things that come to nothing. It is not just the negative outcome of the Marxist experiment that proves this. The aid offered by the West to the developing countries has been purely technically and materially based, and not only has left God out of the picture, but has driven men away from God” (p. 33), with the pride of presumptuousness. Speaking of two other temptations, Benedict XVI makes his own the motif of Vladimir Soloviev’s short story, The Antichrist: “[S]criptural exegesis can become a tool of the Antichrist. …The alleged findings of scholarly exegesis have been used to put together the most dreadful books that destroy the figure of Jesus and dismantle the faith” (p. 35). Today, “the Antichrist, with an attitude of scholarly excellence, tells us that any exegesis that reads the Bible from the perspective of faith in the living God, in order to listen to what God has to say, is fundamentalism; he wants to convince us that only his kind of exegesis, the supposedly purely scientific kind, in which God says nothing and has nothing to say, is able to keep abreast of the times”(p. 36). Another consideration, very relevant today, is tied to the temptation of power: “The struggle for the freedom of the Church, the struggle to avoid identifying Jesus’ Kingdom with any political structure, is one that has to be fought century after century. For the fusion of faith and political power always comes at a price: faith becomes the servant of power and must bend to its criteria” (p. 40). Knowing the road A basic point is the answer to the question about what novelty and what good Jesus brought into the world, since after His revelation the messianic hope of, finally, a better world of justice and peace seems not to have been accomplished. “The answer is very simple: God. …He has brought God, and now we know His face, now we can call upon Him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope, and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little”(p. 44). Face-to-face dialogue A lot of room is given in the book to Christ’s relationship with Judaism, and the Pope develops this, commenting on the Sermon on the Mount, taking his cue from a book by a great erudite Jewish rabbi, Jacob Neusner (A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. An Intermillennial Interfaith Exchange, Doubleday, New York, 1993). Ratzinger shows that it is not correct to present Jesus as a “liberal” who intended to mitigate the harsh meticulosity of the Law’s prescriptions; instead, the Nazarene comes to bring the old Law to perfection–“Jesus understands Himself as the Torah” (p. 110). And the Pope affirms that “it would be good for the Christian world to look respectfully at this obedience of Israel [to the Torah] and thus to appreciate better the great commandments of the Decalogue, which Christians have to transfer into the context of God’s universal family and which Jesus, as the ‘new Moses,’ has given to us” (p. 122). Ratzinger explains further that, “in practice, the figure of Jesus has certainly shattered all the categories available” and “He lives before the face of God… in the most intimate unity with the Father. …We have to start here if we are truly to understand the figure of Jesus….” (p. 6). He could therefore only be understood by starting off from the mystery of God. This is the key for understanding the whole book. “Jesus’ teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from ‘face-to-face’ dialogue…. It is the Son’s word. Without this inner grounding, His teaching would be pure presumption” (p. 7). “The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with Him into communion with God” (p. 8) Joseph Ratzinger: Benedict XVI Jesus of Nazareth $24.95 / 374 pp. (Doubleday, New York, 2007)