Pope Benedict XVI RIP
Fr Brendan offers some reflections on the death of the Pope Emeritus:
Pope Benedict had one of the brightest of minds. He could express the faith so clearly and so beautifully. Some say that he was the most able theologian to ascend to the chair of St Peter since Pope Gregory the Great. Certainly his style articulating the faith had something in common with great Fathers of the Church.
I know some people did not warm to Pope Benedict - and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as he was - finding him too rigid. There was a ready, quick reaction to his election in the media calling him reactionary or conservative. But I don't think that is the way to think about him. He was a Catholic, and being a Catholic cannot fit readily into political categories. Being a Catholic is something nuanced that the media often get wrong.
He believed that Jesus shows us the way. He treasured his teaching and wanted to be faithful to it. He took seriously his role to be the guardian of the faith and would not yield to the latest fashions. Peter has to be a rock (cf Matthew 16).
Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are very different characters, born of very different experiences and upbringings. Pope Benedict was a European intellectual, who lived through the Second World War and the changes brought by the Second Vatican Council in which he took part. Pope Francis has a world perspective shaped by his experiences in Latin America. I would not exaggerate the differences between them. It is the same faith they express, the same love of Jesus that they share.
Anyone who sits down and spends time with the writings of Pope Benedict will see that he is not God's Rottweiler. They would experience sharp insight and clear thinking. He insisted on an intelligent faith - faith and reason always go hand in hand. But they would also experience his gentleness, humility and love. I would always encourage people to start with the book-length interviews he gave which he dictated without correction. They display the clarity and lucidity of his thought.
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I was privileged to have met Pope Benedict as a Cardinal (I am on the left in the photograph below). I found him to be very kind. I was also there amongst the crowds at St Peter’s Square on his election and at his inaugural Mass. On that occasion I remember his words very well:
“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him. The task of the shepherd, the task of the fisher of men, can often seem wearisome. But it is beautiful and wonderful, because it is truly a service to joy, to God’s joy which longs to break into the world.”
And that is what he did. The academic became a pastor and a shepherd in a new way. The shy Pope took on another job when he was looking forward retirement.
In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), Benedict spoke of love, of what it means to truly love. “Love is not merely a sentiment” he wrote. “Sentiments come and go. A sentiment can be a marvellous first spark, but it is not the fullness of love.”
And when he retired to a small monastery in the grounds of the Vatican, he gave a long interview called his ‘Last Testament.’ These are his last words of that testament in which he sums up beautifully what God is about, and what we are about:
“To be loved, and to love another are things, I have increasingly recognised as fundamental, so that one can live; so that one can say yes to oneself, so that one can say yes to another. Finally, it has become increasingly clear to me that God is not, let’s say, a ruling power, a distant force; rather he is love, and he loves me - and as such, life should be guided by him, by this power called love.”
Peter has to be a rock (cf Matthew 16), but Peter also has to learn to love (cf John 21).
When in retirement he faced criticisms about his handling of sexual abuse cases he replied with these words:
“Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life.
Even though, as I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling, I am nonetheless of good cheer, for I trust firmly that the Lord is not only the just judge, but also the friend and brother who himself has already suffered for my shortcomings, and is thus also my advocate, my ‘Paraclete.’ In light of the hour of judgment, the grace of being a Christian becomes all the more clear to me. It grants me knowledge, and indeed friendship, with the judge of my life, and thus allows me to pass confidently through the dark door of death. In this regard, I am constantly reminded of what John tells us at the beginning of the Apocalypse: he sees the Son of Man in all his grandeur and falls at his feet as though dead. Yet He, placing his right hand on him, says to him: ‘Do not be afraid! It is I…’ (cf. Rev 1:12-17)"
May Pope Benedict be brought quickly to the Lord who is not only a just judge, but a friend and brother.
May he rest in peace. Amen
