I had high hopes about this item which seems to be based on an advance look at the manuscript of the Pope's new book, but I now wish I had not wasted time translating it because Cervo's language is far from crystalline and his thinking appears non-linear. So while he purports to outline what is contained in the book, the points he claims to be underscored by the Pope are far from clearly articulated (in which sense, my translation must be considered approximative as I had to try and make sense of his statements)...
Joseph Ratzinger's inquiry
into the childhood of Jesus
by Martino Cervo
Translated from
November 12, 2012
The immersion of Joseph Ratzinger (who insists on signing his secular name to his trilogy on JESUS OF NAZARETH) in the mysteries of the Gospel almost to the point of 'self-identification', is reminiscent of Caravaggio's 'carnality' in his paintings of Gospel subjects.
As when, in Chapter 2 of his third book on the life of Jesus (which
Libero is able to anticipate, before it comes out soon from Rizzoli), he describes the stupefaction of Joseph when he learns about the pregnancy of Mary, his promised spouse, 'although she had not known man'.
Sources who have read the manuscript of
L'Infanzia di Gesu (The childhood of Jesus) - the Pope's foreword and two brief excerpts from the book were released before the Frankfurt Book Fair last month - the theologian Pope re-reads the Annunciation, noting how Joseph, a just man, loves Mary despite the blow of his great disappointment - which he initially perceived, not wrongly, as a betrayal - that Mary was pregnant but not by him.
Nonetheless, Joseph does not represent an exteriorized or pharisaic legalism, because he strives to find a unity between love and the law. This seems to be one of the most surprising passages of this new book by the Pope - a sort of prequel to the first two volumes.
In which he had focused on the two phases of Jesus's public ministry and preaching: 'From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration', in Vol. 1 (2007), and 'From the entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, in Vol. 2 (2011).
He had expressed the hope that God would allow him time to complete his inquiry into the life of Jesus by 'recovering' the early years of Jesus's life. As this third volume shows, Providence did give him the time he needed.
The text is necessarily shorter than the first two volumes - it has four chapters and an epilogue that reviews the texts of Matthew and Luke, from the Annunciation to the episode of Jesus in the temple discussing Scriptures with the priests.
Once more, we are struck by the humility of the Pope who offers his 'little book'
[and the whole trilogy, for that matter] as if he were just another Biblical exegete who is open to dialog
[and even contestation] by his peers.
The Pope has two concerns: on the one hand, the merciless and continual historical contextualization of the Gospels; on the other hand, the natural consideration that an approach to the Gospels is not credible if it ignores questions such as: Is it true what the Gospels say? Does it affect us at all, personally, today? If so, how?
Anchored to the rationality in which the Christian faith is embedded, Benedict XVI delves into the roots of Jesus's claim that he is the Son of God. In fact, in Chapter 1, he starts not with the Annunciation but from Pilate's question to Jesus; "Where do you come from?"
Pilate's question was, not biographical curiosity. The problem of problems is about the nature of a man who dared attribute divine prerogatives to himself - the remission of sins. In fact, much is known about many of his [prominent] contemporaries, but his claim to divinity is an unbreachable mystery.
Joseph Ratzinger combines the attitude of an erudite who ventures into fascinating references to the Old Testament with the passion of a lover who focuses his knowledgeable attention on Jesus. In the Pope's books, the truth of history and the truth of faith are entwined. If the first fails, the second would be in vain; but without the truth of faith, everything about Jesus would be reduced to a comforting memory, whereas, the Pope notes, using a surprising
[and trendy] English word, "redemption is not 'wellness'".
In the second chapter, in which he looks into the Annunciation, Ratzinger's approach is somewhat reminiscent of Vittorio Messori's
Ipotesi su Gesu. It is a true and proper inquiry which confronts the question of the sources used by the evangelists, the historical dating of the events, to their historic and geographical references, in a continuous underscoring that, in order to have a complete experience of the faith of which Joseph Ratzinger is now the leader, the historicity of the New Testament cannot be denied .
Rather, it is dualism which must be discarded from the start: Jesus is a new beginning firmly set within the Jewish tradition - someone who cannot be understood without it, but who is also totally and uniquely Another.
It is precisely the figure of Mary who incarnates the new beginning for the human story: the greatest revolution in human history is generated in the heart of a humble girl from a poor family of observant Jews.
For Joseph Ratzinger, Our Lady is the kernel of this novelty": starting from the Angel's greeting - he chooses 'chaire' found in the Greek texts, the language of Logos, over 'shalom' meaning peace in the Hebrew texts, and translates 'chaire' as "Rejoice!". The dialog with Mary opens all of mankind to salvation. No longer is salvation only for the chosen people, but for the entire human community, the whole world.
But what does the Annunciation contain? Benedict XVI introduces a new category - that of the event itself: God who saves with his presence, as the ancient words from the Old Testament take on a new life to tells us the story of the salvation which now accompanies man.
The turning point in the relationship between the divine and the human is the womb of a woman, a womb that is freely available. Mary's obedience is humble and magnanimous at the same time in making the greatest of all human decisions about man's own destiny.
Those who have read these pages speak of the Pope's ardent writing, a moving hymn to the woman Dante called "(you who are) the daughter of Your Son".
Joseph is the first witness of this monumental 'deference' of God to the Yes of an adolescent girl. After Mary, he is the first to confront the humanly incredible, finding himself a father-to-be in the most unexpected way.
The Pope then dwells on a specially delicate point: the super-imposition of the Messianic intervention of salvation with that of man's personal redemption. The promise of Jesus immediately transcends any 'political' content , becoming at once less 'socially relevant'
[for the Jews and human society at large] and yet infinitely more radical.
At stake was not the liberation of Israel in the historical context
[the Jews believe in a Messiah who will redeem them, but do not believe Jesus was that Messiah], but the redemption of man in every time and place.
The event of Jesus was unfathomable to the Jewish mind: Joseph Ratzinger writes that the mission of the Jewish Messiah did not correspond to an immediate expectation of messianic salvation. Through a long and complex telling of the history of Israel and its people, he recounts how the promises made by Isaiah (which he carefully dates to 733 BC), caught the Israelites off guard, only to become actual flesh and blood centuries later in the womb of Mary.
This, says the Pope, was quite scandalous to the Jewish mind, just as it is simply 'unacceptable' to what the author calls 'the modern spirit'. He refers here to a concept dear to his papacy:
that the powers-that-be claim God can operate on ideas and thoughts but not on 'matter'. [?????] A troubling concept, says the Pope.
Chapter 3 is a sweeping account of the Christian fact, which the Pope nails down with historical, chronological and even geographical coordinates.
He confronts the issue of freedom and grace which, he says, compenetrate each other. In prophetic tones, he says this indicates the great mission for the Church he leads: man is called on to take part in the love of Christ, but not as someone devoid of his own ill. The believer's task is to make sure that the glory of Christ is neither soiled nor misrepresented by the world.
Chapter 4 begins with the Magi, symbols of reason and knowledge, kneeling in adoration of the Baby who is God, and concludes with a great re-reading of the episode in the Temple (in which his concerned parents find their 'missing' twelve-year-old boy discussing Scriptures with doctors of the law), a lightning glimpse of the Passion that would culminate his mission.
The freedom of Jesus, Ratzinger writes, is "not that of the liberals". Because, he thought and learned as a man among men, but he responded to Another who determined his life and human fate.
The Pope concludes that whoever comes close to Jesus must necessarily be caught up in the mystery of his Passion, and that this, fundamentally, is what Christianity is.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2012 01:18]