PONTIFICATE

Benedict XV
The Christian life is marked by an encounter with Jesus
By Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi

The Theologian P
A
s you can assuredly understand from his background as a theologian and his exhaustive papal contributions to date, it is easy to understand how history will most likely label Pope Benedict XVI as The Theologian Pope. In this article, my focus is the theological vision of our Holy Father during these past six years of his pontificate as revealed in his encyclicals and speeches during his many trips abroad. At the outset, I would suggest that for Benedict one clear overarching and consistent approach to his teaching and the direction of his theological vision is summed up in the expression of an encounter with Jesus Christ. It is, if you will, seemingly his fundamental hermeneutic, his way of approaching our relationship with God. By way of example, already in his first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), Pope Benedict writes: Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction (DCE, No. 1). And that encounter is with Jesus. That is the basis of our friendship with Him, as a follower of Jesus, a personal relationship and an encounter. In his beautiful homily given at Regensburg, Germany, in 2006, speaking of the Apostles Creed, he writes: The Creed is not a collection of propositions; it is not a theory. It is anchored in the event of Baptism a genuine encounter between God and man (emphasis added). For him, the Creed is thus primarily an encounter with Christ and not only a way of expressing the content of our faith. Speaking of the role of sacred Scripture in the life of a follower of Jesus, in his 2010 post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Verbum Domini (Word of the Lord), Benedict writes: The Christian life is essentially marked by an encounter with Jesus Christ, who calls us to follow him (emphasis added) (VD, No. 72). In one of his first homilies after his election, as if to set the tone for his papacy, he says: There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him (emphasis added) (Sunday Homily, April 24, 2005). In addition to his many homilies, Benedict XVI has to date issued three papal encyclicals. It is to them that I now turn our attention as we seek to understand more deeply his theological vision. His first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) was issued on Dec. 25, 2005. In that letter, Benedict teaches: The Church cannot neglect the service of charity any more than she can neglect the Sacraments and the Word (DCE, No. 22). Social charity is constitutive of the Gospel. It is not a footnote. The Pope reminds us in that first encyclical letter, God is Love, that love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God, God who is love (DCE, No. 39). As baptized followers of Jesus, by participating in the Eucharist, His greatest gift of love to us, you and I become involved in the dynamic of His act of sacrificial giving. We become the love we receive in His body and blood broken and poured

Social Charity Not a Footnote

10 The Priest July 2012

IN BRIEF
Social charity not a footnote Formation of the heart Barriers to an encounter with the living God Need for well-formed laity Not another program, but an encounter

Pope

VI:

Pope Benedict XVI

CREDit LiNE

July 2012 The Priest 11

out for us. We are thus able to love sacrificially in a new and powerful way. Benedict points us to Christs death on the Cross: This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ (cf. 19:37), we can understand the starting point of this encyclical letter: God is Love (1 Jn 4:8). It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move (DCE, No. 12). This is not simply theology. It becomes very practical in our lives as His followers.

We are wired to love precisely because He poured His love ... into our very beings in the power of His Holy Spirit.
ly; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life (SS, No. 2). His third great encyclical letter is Caritas in Veritate, (Charity in Truth), issued on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, 2009. This is an encyclical that develops and continues the long social justice tradition of our Church, a tradition for which we can be justly proud as Catholics. It is promulgated to return to a fresh reading of Populorum Progressio more than 40 years after its publication by Pope Paul VI. In fact, the second chapter is entitled Human Development in our Time. It is a most challenging encyclical letter. At the outset, I wish to reflect on the meaning of the title Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). What is the Pope saying with this title? How does this add to the social teaching of our Church? How does the title give us the key to the entire lengthy encyclical? Properly understood, charity is not simply an emotional word. It is not simply a sentiment or something we do for people out of the kindness of our hearts. The Pope asserts that the concept of charity has been misconstrued and emptied of meaning (CV, No. 2). It is so much more than the common understanding of the word. The Pope is talking about a truth-filled charity. Hence the title Charity in truth. He is trying to recoup the uniquely Christian meaning of charity by linking it fundamentally to Christ himself and reattaching it as a consequence to ethical living. In the first line of the letter, he asserts: Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity (CV, No. 1). It all goes back to the fact that we were loved by God at the outset (and

Benedict reminds us, from a Christian perspective, that for those who work with the poor, a formation of the heart is required, an encounter with God in Christ which awakens [our] love and opens [our] spirits to others. As a result, love of neighbor will no longer be for [us] a commandment imposed, so to speak, from without, but a consequence deriving from [our] faith, a faith which becomes active through love (DCE, No. 31). The second encyclical, entitled Spe Salvi (On Christian Hope), was promulgated on Nov. 30, 2007, and follows naturally from his letter on love. The meaning of the title of the encyclical is that we are saved by hope. The Pope underscores that what distinguishes Christians is that we have a future. Our life will not end in emptiness. He writes that the Christian message is not only informative but performative. For Benedict XVI that means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open (SS, No. 2) In one of the most memorable lines of the entire encyclical, the Pope writes: the one who has hope lives different12 The Priest July 2012

Formation of the Heart

continue to be loved by God) in creation and in redemption and as privileged members of His living Body in every sacramental encounter we have with the living Christ in and through the Church. We are wired to love precisely because He poured His love, and continues to do so, into our very beings in the power of His Holy Spirit. This truth-filled love is indeed an integral part of our DNA. It is inbuilt. This gift of love by God for us must be understood as the principle of gratuitousness and be operative at every level of our human relationships. Charity is love received and given (CV, No. 5). Benedict writes, moreover, that the human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension (CV, No. 34). Understood accordingly, Charity is at the heart of the Churchs social doctrine (CV, No. 2). It is moreover integral to authentic human development as it applies, by way of example, to economics, the environment, globalization, business ethics, labor, immigration and every aspect of the pro-life protection all of which are covered in this encyclical.

Now we turn to three of Benedict XVIs foreign trips. We can learn much about his theological and pastoral priorities from these travels and particularly from his homilies and addresses given during his trips. As examples, we will never forget the wonderful visit to our Nations capital in April 2008 or his visit to Great Britain in September 2010 or his recent visit to Zagreb in Croatia. Upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., on that most beautiful April day in 2008, he made it clear from the beginning of his visit that he came to confirm us in the faith. Upon returning to Rome, he indicated that the American experience had been cause for his own confirmation in the faith. What a beautiful tribute!

Barriers to an Encounter with the Living God

In his address to the American bishops at Washington, while reiterating that America is a land of great faith, he highlighted three challenges that face our country. He called them barriers to an encounter with the living God. They include secularism, materialism and individualism. It is good to reflect continually on how these barriers affect our relationship with the Lord Jesus in our lives. From all of the prior media hype, Pope Benedicts visit in September 2010 to Great Britain was destined to be unwelcoming. It ended up just the opposite. In fact, it was quite successful. The Popes personal success came not only from what he said but also by the authority, kindness, simplicity, tenderness and humility of how he spoke and how he acted. In the Vicar of Christ, we could see anew the face and heart of Jesus. During that journey, he often made mention of the role of the laity in the Church and world and the need for a well-formed laity. Quoting the Second Vatican Council in his homily at Westminster Cathedral, he spoke of the indispensable role of the laity in carrying forward the Churchs mission through their efforts to serve as a leaven of the Gospel in society and to work for the advancement of Gods Kingdom in the world. The Pope described the Gospel not as a constriction of human freedom, but as the truth which liberates our minds and enlightens our efforts to live wisely and well. In his speech at Westminster Hall, he exposed the emptiness of secularism. In Westminster Hall, the same hall where the trial of St. Thomas More took place six centuries earlier, Pope Benedict also stated that . . .there are those who argue paradoxically with the intention of eliminating discrimination that Christians in public roles should be required at times to act against their conscience. He stated further that these are wor-

rying signs of a failure to appreciate not only the rights of believers to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, but also the legitimate role of religion in the public square. At the beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman during that same journey, and speaking again of the laity, Pope Benedict quoted Newman, I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash

in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. The theme of conscience, a perennial theme of Benedicts, was raised

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again in Croatia on June 4, 2011. He said, If, in keeping with the prevailing modern idea, conscience is reduced to the subjective field to which religion and morality have been banished, then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to collapse in on itself. If, on the other hand, conscience is rediscovered as the place in which to listen to truth and good, the place of responsibility before God and before fellow human beings in other words, the bulwark against all forms of tyranny then there is hope for the future. I wish in conclusion to emphasize the repeated significance placed by our Holy Father on the New Evangelization, a seed planted by his beloved predecessor. This outreach is the challenge of encountering Christ personally, which is so essential to the theological and pastoral approach of this Pope as was underscored at the beginning of this article. As it has been said so often, the New Evangelization is not another program but, at its heart, an encounter with a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ. The Church must make the Person of Jesus Christ and a personal encounter with Him central to her thinking, knowing that He will give His Spirit and provide the force to announce and proclaim the Gospel in new ways which can speak to todays cultures (Lineamenta, The New Evangelization, No. 5). In Pope Benedicts many homilies, encyclicals and speeches during his foreign trips in the past six years, it has become so clear that this body of theology is being transformed into a beautiful pastoral and theological gift to the Church and the world. T P
MSGR. VAGHI is pastor of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Md., and a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He serves as chaplain of the John Carroll Society, a group of professional men and women in service of the Archbishop of Washington. He fourth and newest book in the Pillars of Faith catechetical series is The Prayer We Offer.

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