What it Means to be a Christian

What it Means to be a Christian
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011

Significant excerpts from the book by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) – Three Sermons- Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2006 –[Published in German – 1965]

1st Sermon – Are We Saved? Or Job Talks with God:“We have new phenomena the appearance of people incapable of relating to God…: We inevitably experience time and time again how Christian reality is powerless against all other forces that influence us and make demands of us…

“Advent is our present time, “our reality” a very profound form of skepticism that fears faith will not be big enough to cope with reality…

“Insofar as we are living on a basis of selfishness, of egoism then even today we are “before Christ”. But in this of Advent, we may live less and less “before Christ” but truly with Christ and in Christ with him who is indeed Christ yesterday, today and forever. (Heb. 13:18) Amen

2nd Sermon – Faith as Service: “In a certain sense, one does not become a Christian for oneself at all; rather, one does so for the sake of the whole, for others, for everyone… Christian “salvation history” only in that way can we understand Holy Scripture at all that God wants to come to men only through other men:

“Thus being a Christian means, constantly and in the first instance, letting ourselves be torn away from selfishness of someone who is living only for himself and entering into the great basic orientation of existing for the sake of another…


3rd Sermon – Above All: Love: “The fate of all history, our fate, depends on one individual: Jesus of Nazareth.

Rabbi Hillel, “Whatever is offensive to you yourself do not do that to your neighbor. That is the whole law. Everything else is interpretation…” “Whoever loves is a Christian… For love, as it is here portrayed as the content of being Christian, demands that we try to live as God lives… he loves us not because we are good, but because he is good… be good to someone who needs our kindness, even if we do not like him…

“We have begun to accept quite seriously that we are one of many among God’s creatures, all of which turn around God as their center… Being a Christian means having love; that is unbelievable difficult, at the same time incredibly simple… By being a Christian means having love; it means achieving the Copernica revolution in our existence by which we cease to make ourselves the center of the universe with everyone else revolving around us… {The definition of Faith is on pages 74-5.}]

“The Christian is the person who does not calculate, rather he does something extra. He is in fact the lover who does not ask, “How much further can I go and still remain with the realm of venial sin, stopping short of mortal sin.” … Seeks what is good without calculation… not merely righteous is the beginning to be a Christian…

“Everyone deserves damnation and everyone is saved by grace… Adopt the attitude of the lover who does not calculate but simply – loves. God himself lives and works according the rule of superabundance of that love which can give nothing less than itself.” +++ George H. Kubeck +++