Servant of the servants of God

I remember one Sunday school lesson about an Indian boy converted to Christianity by missionaires.  I must have only been around 5 or 6 years old at the time.  I was living with an aunt and uncle (my parents had divorced - long story) and later at home I asked, "What if the Indian boy's first religion is right?  How do we know?"  My simple question ignited a brief firestorm.  "How can you ask that!?  Of course Christianity is right and those heathen religions are wrong!"  I learned not to ask that question again any time soon.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't mean to criticize my aunt and uncle.  How many of us who are Christians are prepared to answer that same question?  And to a small child?

Well, as I grew older and learned better to understand the truth of Christianity, another stubborn question arose in my mind.  What about those countless number of people who have lived and died without ever hearing about Jesus Christ?  Seriously, at the time Jesus walked the earth, there were people living on other continents who knew nothing of the Jewish religion, much less of Jesus and "The Way" as the early Christians self-identified their religion.  What happened to those people after death?  Are they saved?  Damned? 

I asked these questions and searched and never heard a satisfactory answer until I encountered Catholicism.  And within Catholicism there was one man and one book that really provided a solid, intelligent answer.  That man was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his book Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions.  In this book - a collection of essays and lectures - Ratzinger clearly affirms that Christianity is the true faith and that Christians are called to evangelize.  At the same time he recognizes that other religions are a groping after the Truth; that those other religions have attained glimpses of the Light (see Acts 17:22-31).  Yet, they are incomplete and only Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  Much of the book deals with how we as Christians ought to approach those of other faiths. 

As far as my question about the ultimate fate of those who have never heard of Jesus, Ratzinger doesn't claim to know for certain except to argue that God is love, God created those people and that God surely manifests himself to them in some way.  Christ's atonement on the cross applies to those people and their sins as well. 

 

Benedict and our times

When a man is elected to serve as Pope (a servant of the servants of God), he chooses a papal name.  Cardinal Ratzinger chose Benedict.  Why? 

Saint Benedict, called the Father of Monasticism, lived during the 5th century.  This was the time after the collapse of the Roman Empire, referred to as 'The Dark Age.'  As the Roman Empire decayed and finally died out, so did public order, learning, cultivation and the mechanical arts.  The Christian monastic system initiated by Saint Benedict maintained knowledge of reading, writing, and the agricultural and mechanical arts.  The monasteries were like burning lamps scattered across dark Europe.  They nursed the seeds of civiliation so that Europe could flower again once a measure of safety and order was re-established.

Saint Benedict

 

 

Joseph Ratzinger recognized that we are descending into another Dark Age in our time.  The general state of learning and culture is abysmal and getting worse (I defy you to roll through the television or radio channels, or scan the magazine racks at any supermarket, and tell me this isn't so).  Ratzinger knows that faithful Christians are tasked with holding fast to the wisdom and beauty of our Faith in a dark and barbaric time.  After the imminent civilisational collapse, unless Jesus returns beforehand, the Church will need to restart human culture.  Therefore, Ratzinger chose Benedict as his papal name, and he's the 16th pope to be called Benedict.

 

I was as shocked as anyone else to hear of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation.  But, I understand and respect his reasons.  The Church, the Barque of St. Peter, is sailing perilous seas and we need a captain who is mentally and physically up to the task of guiding her.  The pope realizes he is not up to this task anymore and after much prayer has decided to turn the keys over to another.

 

For those of you who are not Catholic and/or get your information on the Catholic Church from the mainstream media, please understand that the Church is not a political organization or a mega-corporation.  The media constantly talks about the upcoming conclave that will elect a new pope in terms of power struggles or political calculation.  I am not naive and I understand that the Cardinals who are about to elect the next successor to St. Peter are fallible humans, but I also understand that the Holy Spirit will guide these men as they pray and deliberate over their choice.  If the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church (Matthew 16:18), then neither will a handful of white-haired old men.