Heart to Heart

The Spiritual Christology of Joseph Ratzinger

McGregor

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781498224147
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In Behold the Pierced One, Joseph Ratzinger recounts how the composition of a 1981 paper on the Sacred Heart of Jesus had led him to "consider Christology more from the aspect of its spiritual appropriation" than he had done previously. Upon realizing that this same year was the 1300th anniversary of the Third Council of Constantinople, he decided to study the pronouncements of this Council, and came to believe "that the achievement of a spiritual Christology had also been the Council's ultimate goal." Ratzinger's conclusion in attempting to define a spiritual Christology was that "the whole of Christology--our speaking of Christ--is nothing other than the interpretation of his prayer: the entire person of Jesus is contained in his prayer." The spiritual Christology subsequently developed by Ratzinger is one of communio. Indeed, it is one of theosis. Through a personal and ecclesial participation in the prayer of Jesus, exercised in purity of heart, and consummated in the eucharistic celebration, one comes into communion with Jesus Christ and all the members of his Body, so that eventually one can say truly, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20).

Evaluation

8

Assessing Ratzinger’s Christological Theses

Prayer as an Integrating Principle of Ratzinger’s Spiritual Christology

The burden of the previous section has been that Jesus of Nazareth is an exercise in theoria, in beholding. However, Ratzinger’s theoria is more than Aristotle’s.780 It is not just an activity of the mind, but of the heart. It is a “heart to heart” beholding—the believer’s heart beholding the pierced heart of Jesus, who, since he is the one nearest to the Father’s heart, reveals that heart in his own. Nor is it an isolated beholding. It is a personal beholding in a corporate personality, the Body of Christ. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Christ lives in the believer, and the believer lives in Christ. Christ prays in the believer, and the believer prays in Christ. Nor is it a contemplative beholding alone. It is a “lived Christology,” not just a “prayed Christology.” Christ lives in the believer, and in his Body, and continues to love through them.781

This personal and corporate beholding, leading to a lived Christology, leads in turn to knowledge and love of the one beheld. An integrating principle of this beholding is communion with God the Father through prayer. This is a communion with the prayer of Jesus. The seven theses are meant to contribute to this integration. They cover the prayer of Jesus’ entire life, including the prayer of his Passion, death and Resurrection, the prayer of the believer, the prayer of the church, dogma as the conceptualization of what the prayer of Jesus reveals, the role of the will of Jesus in his prayer, and the role of prayer for the theologian. Prayer is an integrating principle of the seven theses. It remains to be seen how effectively Ratzinger applies this integrating principle, and how sufficient it is for a spiritual Christology.

The Personal and Ecclesial Theses

The seven theses propose an exercise in theoria. In assessing the validity of the theses, and Ratzinger’s skill and consistency in applying them, it is logical to assess the personal, ecclesial and hermeneutical theses first, since they pertain to the interpretation of the other four theses. Furthermore, since a Christian participates in Christ simultaneously as an individual and as a member of his Body, and the personal and ecclesial theses together constitute the first principle of Ratzinger’s spiritual Christology, although one could examine them separately, here they will be examined together.

Descending and Ascending with Jesus

The infancy of the personal and ecclesial theses can be seen in Ratzinger’s earlier Christology. In that Christology, the Alpha is faith. The birthplace of faith in Jesus is identified as the Cross. Ratzinger moves back from the Creed to the Cross, and his knowledge of the Cross comes from the “tradition,” the oral and written testimony of the Apostles. Yet we also find the beginnings of the personal thesis—we come to know God as our Abba through participation in the prayer of Jesus. In Ratzinger’s spiritual Christology it is brought out even more forcefully and explicitly that we come to know the Father, we come into communion with the Father, not just through a personal faith in Jesus but by participation in his prayer. We also find in this spiritual Christology a re-casting of the Omega of Ratzinger’s earlier Christology. Our theosis takes place through participation in the prayer of Jesus. The humanity of Jesus himself is divinized through his dialogue with the Father, and the divinization of our humanity takes place through participation in this dialogue.

We have seen in The God of Jesus Christ how Ratzinger approached the nature of the Incarnation via the mysteries of Jesus’ life, working on the premise that it is the totality of a person’s life which reveals who that person is. There he asserted that this approach to the mysteries, first and foremost, must be one of contemplative prayer. Furthermore, he also indicated that our divinization comes through sharing in the obedience of Jesus the Son in handing himself back to the Father, his “obedience unto death” (Phil 2:8). When our “body,” our humanity, has entered into this prayer of Jesus, and this prayer has taken flesh in our daily lives, we become the “body of Christ.” We “descend” and “ascend” with him in his obedience to his Father. The ascent to God takes place precisely in the descent of loving obedience. Communion with Jesus in his ascent and descent means communion in God’s will. Thus: “Communion with him is filial communion with the Father . . . It is entry into the family of those who call God Father and who can do so because they belong to a ‘we’—formed of those who are united with Jesus and, by listening to him, united with the will of the Father.”782 Ultimately, it is in the Cross that God descends and reveals his true divinity. Our ascension to God can only happen when we follow him on his descending path. When Jesus prays, and this includes the “prayer” of the Cross, his whole humanity is taken up into communion with the Father. This is why he who sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. John 14:9). As Ratzinger says:

We have said that in Jesus’ filial communion with the Father, his human soul is also taken up into the act of praying. He who sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. John: 14:9). The disciple who walks with Jesus is thus caught up with him into communion with God. And that is what redemption means: this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, which had been there as a possibility and an expectation in man, God’s image and likeness, since the moment of creation.783

An essential element of this descent and ascent with Jesus, this stepping beyond the limits of human nature, is our integration into a new corporate personality. We have seen Ratzinger emphasize the prayerful element of this incorporation, how Christ prays as both head and body, uniting us with him when he prays as head, and uniting himself with us, with “all of our struggles, our voices, our anguish, and our hope.”784 This union is made manifest in Jesus’ prayer on the Cross, and encompasses past, present, and future. Because he continues to pray in the church, Jesus continues to suffer in the church, and the church to suffer in Jesus. As Ratzinger asserts:

Jesus’ agony, his struggle against death, con...