3 Meditations from Pope Benedict XVI

3 Meditations from Pope Benedict XVI
In pursuit of the truth – Feast of the Triumph of the Cross – Mon., Sept. 14, 2009

There is no doubt that the Pope's book, Co-Workers of the Truth is a classic. These are Meditations for Every Day of the Year. The following are excerpts from 3 days in August and September.

1,) God wills that everyone be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is not to be separated from the truth… And what value can there be in a salvation that is based neither on truth nor on true moral freedom? The Bible sets a higher value on mankind. It tells us that God created us for the truth. The joyfulness of its message is precisely this: that we encounter in Jesus Christ the one genuine truth about God and ourselves. – August 29th

2,) But the real heart of Christianity is, and will always be, love of neighbor… If we are able by our love to give meaning to another person, to just one other person, our life will have been infinitely worth while… Only by helping to liberate others are we ourselves liberated; only by sheltering others do we ourselves receive shelter; only by caring for others will be ourselves find someone to care for us… Perhaps we are so antagonistic today, so notably helpless in our efforts to be Christian, because it is so often ourselves that we are attempting to help. – September 10th

3,) In the Christian catalogue of virtues, despair – that is, the radical opposite of faith and hope – is listed as a sin against the Holy Spirit, because it fails to take into account his power to heal and to forgive and thus rejects redemption. Correspondingly, in the new religion, “pessimism” is the sin of all sins, for doubt with regard to optimism, progress, and utopia is a frontal attack on the spirit of the current age: …

All of this was brought to my mind again by the debate occasioned by the publication in 1985 of my “Report on the State of the Church” {published in English as The Ratzinger Report. An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1985)}.

The indignation aroused by this simple book climaxed in the condemnation: a pessimistic book. In many places, attempts were even made to prevent the sale of it because a heresy of such magnitude was just not to be tolerated…

It was once again evident that there is no greater sin against the spirit of the age than to put oneself in the position where one can be accused of the lack of optimism. The question was certainly not: “Is what has been said true or not true? Are the diagnoses right or wrong? I have been able to find no evidence that anyone took the trouble to investigate such outmoded questions. The criterion was very simple: “Is it or is it not optimistic?” And given this criterion, the book was of course, condemned. – September 13th

George H. Kubeck
St. Teresa of Avila wrote: “Christ has no body on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours. Ours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out upon the world, ours are feet with which He goes about doing good, ours are the hands with which He blesses His people.”