This is one of the articles in the Toscana Oggi special for the Holy Father's first apostolic visit to the region when he visits Arezzo this weekend. Mons. Coda is a leading Italian theologian and is currently the secretary of the Pontifical Academy for Theology. Loppiano, a district of Val d'Incisa near Florence, is the first 'permanent citadel' of the Focolari Movement founded by the late Chiara Lubich in 1964 and has become a center of encounters among people of various faiths and cultures.
The theologian Pope
who leads us to God
by Mons. Piero Coda
President
Istituto Universitario «Sophia» of Loppiano
Translated from
It has become almost habitual to call Benedict XVI the theologian Pope. Which without doubt he is, and a world-class one. But in what sense? To look deeper into this is not secondary because it could reveal a new and gratifying look at the heart of his ministry.
First of all, it must be said that Benedict XVI is not a theologian only because - before becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and then called to Rome to the CDF - he was one of the most brilliant professors of theology in the Catholic world. And was already so before the Second Vatican Council, in which he participated as a theological expert, but most especially afterwards.
Nor is it because, in the exercise of his service as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the universal Church, he has been giving us stupendous 'lessons' of a theology that is dense but at the same time within reach of everyone, nourished as it is by the Word of God and modelled on the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, of the great Doctors and saints.
Rather, Benedict XVI is a theologian Pope above all because in everything that he says and does, he has been following a precise objective: that of contributing to open to everyone an access of light and joy towards the mystery of God in the highest who, in Jesus, descended to us and who, thanks to the grace of the Holy Spirit poured into the hearts of the faithful, illuminates our steps, gives meaning and vigor to our actions.
“Behold," the Lord said in the Book of the Apocalypse, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me"
(3,20).
Pope Benedict XVI, with passion, tenacity and mastery, wants us all - children, young people and adults, believers and people who are still seeking, to listen to this invitation, for us to open the door to Jesus and learn to converse with him.
Is it not this return to the pulsing heart of the Christian faith, and therefore to the God who revealed himself as Love in Jesus who offered himself to us as the certain anchor of hope - which animates his encyclicals, and which has led him to call for a year of Faith that starts this fall?
And this, not just to rekindle and feed the fire and the light of the presence of God in the intimacy of every man, but to cause the beauty and efficacy of this presence shine forth in the variegated fabric of our society, where persons live out their lives, their affections and their work.
Just think of the encyclical
Caritas in veritatis in which God's love for us in Jesus, and our love for him in response, is deployed in a fascinating and demanding plan for a social, economic, and political renewal at all levels.
But allw me to recall some episodes that I experienced firsthand and which allowed me to see this inspiration in action. The first goes back 15 years.
Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the CDF, was to meet an illustrious Japanese philosopher of the Buddhist tradition, Prof.
Masao Abe of Kyoto. Not being able to do it himself, he asked me to do so in his stead.
I therefore found myself at the CDF offices for this meeting which was very important to him: the subject was to be the originality of 'the face of God' as revealed in Jesus, about whom the professor was seeking to learn more. Our conversation that morning was rich and profound, and the cardinal, to whom I reported the meeting in detail, was very happy about it.
This came back to mind spontaneously years later when I saw Benedict XVI pause in silence next to a Muslim imam, in the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, during his apostolic visit to Turkey.
And this is one of the royal ways of life and of the mission of the Church that the Pope shows us: to bear witness to all, in peace and with love, the face of God that Jesus has shown us.
A second episode - which all of us, in some way, have been able to see, at least on TV - was his prayer vigil with the young people at World Youth Day in Madrid. That was when the Pope, after a sudden thunderstorm, knelt before the Eucharist on the altar, and drew with him a multitude of young people who in silence, and motionless for quite a while, joined him in prayer.
What could be greater and more decisive than to lead the faithful to the contemplation and experience of God, he who became flesh in Jesus and gives himself to us in the Eucharist?
A third episode took place last year, and it also had a young person, a blind one, as protagonist. I was in St. Peter's Square for the Wednesday General Audience with the students of the Istituto Universitario Sophia of Loppiano, of which I have been president since 2008.
Some of us, representing our delegation, were presented to the Pope later. When it was our turn, Caelison, a blind youth from Brazil, said to the Pope when he shook his hand: "I have met Jesus, the light, and I wish with my companions to bring him to everyone as you always ask us to do". The Pope looked at him with his penetrating eyes, realized that he was blind, and embraced him with warmth.
That is Benedict XVI, the theologian Pope of friendship with God.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/05/2012 12:54]