Pope Benedict on Jesus of Nazareth
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
5 Aug 2007
What difference has Jesus made? What did he bring us? Pope Benedict replies, "The answer is very simple. God. He has brought God". While world peace is elusive and poverty still has not been eliminated, Jesus has revealed to the whole world the one true God, previously known only to the Jewish people.
Popes are usually quite busy and the eighty year old Pope Benedict XVI is no exception, although he is now on holidays in the hills outside Rome at the papal villa of Castelgandolfo overlooking Lake Albano.
He himself writes most of his sermons and speeches, receives a steady stream of visitors, religious and secular, signs off on a multiplicity of policy and doctrinal issues and supervises the administration of the tiny Vatican State.
On top of all this he has just produced a deep and learned 370 page book on Jesus of Nazareth, the fruits of his life-long search for the face of the Lord. Before the English version appeared, 1.5 million copies had already been sold. Another volume is on the way.
In our distracted and conflicted age many are unable to identify the core truth claims of the Catholic Church. Critics like painting the Church as reactionary; opposed to cloning, to artificial contraception, homosexual activity and to married clergy and not standing for much else. These issues are not unimportant, but the Christian fundamentals are love, hope and faith.
Benedict’s first major letter proposed the central Christian claim that God is love; a love which includes Eros. This large volume, which is not easy reading and is well suited to meditation, takes up the second most important Christian truth that Jesus Christ, our friend, brother and Redeemer is the only Son of God.
Christians don’t follow principles or ideas. We are followers of Jesus of Nazareth and accept his teachings.
Scripture scholars are a mixed bag and have done more damage than any other group of theologians, except perhaps some moralists, by destroying simple faith and putting nothing in its place. But their many different arguments need to be answered.
Pope Benedict succeeds well in his defence of gospel truth showing that we can trust the New Testament, because the real historical Jesus is at the heart of the Christ of faith, explained and defended in the tradition.
Christianity is not a philosophy or mythology, but a flesh and blood religion rooted in history. Especially in an educated society, Christians have to explain and defend these historical claims using the best scientific methodology. Such studies are vital, useful but also limited as the many different theories about the New Testament during the last 150 years have demonstrated.
No young theologian could have written this volume because there is too much learning and too much kindly wisdom. It is the end product of a lifetime of scholarship, prayer and decent living. Pope Benedict knows Jesus of Nazareth well.
