‘I Have a Mustard Seed, and I’m Not Afraid to Use It’
All who love the Free World heard with sadness today’s news of the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, whose physical infirmity caused him to step down from the chair of St. Peter. As the shepherd of the founding institution of the West, Benedict personally embodied its best traditions. He is one of the last men living to have assimilated the fullness of European culture, a member of the “heroic generation” of Catholic theologians that included Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar.
We will remember many acts of intellectual courage from this pope. One in particular comes to mind today, namely his speech at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. In the face of great controversy, Benedict cited the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologue: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” And he added:
The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. “God,” he says, “is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature.” . . .The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. . . . The editor [of the Greek text from which Benedict is quoting], Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practice idolatry.
Benedict’s commitment to theological truth as he understood it at the expense of political correctness is unique among today’s religious leaders.
Jewish communities in particular have reason for sadness at Benedict’s abdication. He is a true friend of the Jewish people. As Israeli journalist Assaf Sagiv wrote in the Autumn 2009 issue of the quarterly journal Azure on the occasion of the pope’s May 2009 visit to Israel:
Benedict XVI—the former Joseph Ratzinger—is actually one of the best friends the Jewish people has ever had in Vatican City. On the eve of the pope’s visit, Aviad Kleinberg, a scholar of Christian history and a columnist for the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, attempted to remind his readers of this. Ratzinger, he explained, “was the confidant of Pope John Paul II, and his immense theological authority was a critical aspect of the previous pope’s moves…. John Paul and Ratzinger buried once and for all not only the accusation of the Jews’ murdering the messiah, but the entire theological theory that the Christians replaced the Jews and are now the Chosen People and that the New Testament annuls the Old Testament. The Old Testament is still valid, declared the two, and the Jewish people is still God’s chosen and beloved people.”
I wrote at the time on the website of the religious magazine First Things where I was then an editor:
Benedict’s unprecedented efforts to draw near to Judaism as a religion were summarized by the Bonn University theologian Karl-Heinz Menke, who argues that His Holiness is the first pope since St. Peter to read the whole of the Gospels as a Jewish work. From a theological standpoint, the Jewish people have had no better friend in the Vatican since the founding of Christianity.
In particular, the first volume of Benedict’s book Jesus of Nazareth drew extensively on the writing of Rabbi Jacob Neusner, who showed that Jesus’ statements in Matthew 12 were a radical Christological declaration. Although Orthodox Jews well may take issue with some Neusner’s formulations, as Rabbi Meir Soloveichik observed, the pope’s literary dialogue with the American rabbi evinced his commitment to uncovering the Hebrew sources of Christianity.
On a personal note: As a graduate student poring through Renaissance texts on music and mathematics, I encountered then Cardinal Ratzinger’s writings on music. Subsequently the first fruits of my research were published by the Vatican’s music journal Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra, and I sent a copy of the manuscript to the cardinal, then head of the Sacred Congregation of the Faith in Rome. To my surprise I received a cordial letter from Ratzinger with a couple of helpful suggestions; the great man had not only taken the time to acknowledge an unsolicited paper from a graduate student, but had read it as well. I had the privilege to see his kindness and generosity first hand.
Years later I opened a copy of Der Spiegel at the Narita Airport transit lounge and read a summary of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s just-published book Die Salz von der Erde, published in English as The Salt of the Earth. It contained this stunning assertion:
We might have to part with the notion of a popular Church. It is possible that we are on the verge of a new era in the history of the Church, under circumstances very different from those we have faced in the past, when Christianity will resemble the mustard seed [Matthew 13:31-32], that is, will continue only in the form of small and seemingly insignificant groups, which yet will oppose evil with all their strength and bring Good into this world.
The courage of this statement from a prince of the Church touched me. “I have a mustard seed and I’m not afraid to use it,” I summarized Ratzinger’s attitude towards the attrition of faith in the West just before his election in 2005. The West has lost a great spiritual leader. We will be hard put to find another like him.
*****
Images courtesy shutterstock / Natursports / Christian Jung
More from David P. Goldman at PJ Lifestyle:
Why J.R.R. Tolkien’s Enduring Popularity Is a Cause for Hope in Our Popular Culture
Why You Won’t Find the Meaning of Life
Related at PJ Media:
If life hands you a mustard seed,make mustard
I find it very interesting that you should quote from that passage from “Salt of the Earth” in regards to the mustard seed. I read that book myself, and for some odd reason, upon hearing of the pope’s resignation today, that passage immediately sprang to mind, even though it’s been a long time since I last read the book! (I think it was long before Ratzinger even became pope.)
I wonder if this is not the time where the reality of the mustard seed church begins. I hope it is not, but all the signs point to a new, world wide persecution of Christians that has not been witnessed since the old Roman Empire. It sounds so strange to say that in this time of tremendous moral relativism, but true Christians stand condemned already in accord with that philosophy, as we can be anything but moral relativists. As a matter of fact, our very existence, let alone our beliefs, stand in utter condemnation and contempt of the relativists who command every strata of society in the West. The center cannot hold…
And of course, we also have to contend with that most ancient and persistent of Christian persecutors, the followers of Islam, who are hell bent on re-exerting their old jihad against all who are not Muslim.
Yes, it’s dark times indeed for the popular church, both Protestant and Catholic alike, but for those who are the true followers of Jesus, who will even follow him to his death, this may very well be their Finest Hour.
Alexander the Great
Thank you for writing this article.
We are losing another TRUE revolutionary, one who dares yell from the roof
“God is Love”
His record is not entirely unblemished. Consider that this Pope had a great opportunity when he went to Cuba to do a great thing and refused despite all public pleas. He celebrated mass with the murderers of the regime, which would have been bad enough, but he refused to meet with the Ladies in White or any other brave dissidents against the Castros in Cuba.
But he did visit the island, which he could well have neglected without being an inadequate Pontife for.
He is supposed to dine with the sinners.
David, I always like your writings and agree Benedict a good and decent man who I believe has been an effective leader for Christianity. But there is no way in “hell” that Benedict was unique amongst Christian leaders at the expense of political correctness.
For instance, Albert Moehler cleaned house at Southeast Theological Seminary, and booted every liberal theologian to the curb under incredible duress from the mainstream media. David Jeremiah of San Diego has been a constant and outspoken critic of leftist theology. Seven conservative Anglican leaders refused recently to take Holy Communion with the head of the U.S. branch of the church, who supports ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions. Billy Graham has never wavered in his outspoken belief the Bible is inerrant word of God. A local Presbyterian Church lost their church home under threat and simply walked away from one of the most beautiful churches in all of the United States because they wouldn’t bend to liberal theology.
I could give hundreds of recent examples.
There are literally thousands of leaders both Catholic and Protestant, and mostly Protestant, who have not bowed to Baal and kissed the ring of political correctness. Benedict may only be the most visible.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember that, after Benedict cited the Byzantine emperor Manuel II the Muslims kicked up a fuss about their poor insulted feelings as usual and the braveleader of the Christian world hastily apologized. Basically for telling the truth, and to people who are maltreating, discriminating and murdering his followers all over the world. Sorry, not impressed by his “courage”.
Since Christianity was born out of disenfranchisement, and PC as well, one might think they’d be bedfellows yet they are not. Both seek to subvert a world that is uncaring but the ways they get there is the dealbreaker.
The irony is that although Christianity is based on a being who resides somewhere behind the stars, and PC is based on real social trends, it is PC which is more out of touch with reality, since Christianity believes one “renders unto” reality, and PC ignores it wholesale.
Both are based in faith, something Christians understand about themselves and the advocates of PC do not. Advocates of PC do not even associate themselves as being politically correct in the first place.
What does it mean to abide by faith and not you do so, and adopt tenets of a religion that is promoted as empirical? Liberals love to portray Christians as confused, yet Christians know that, despite their larger mystical faith, water is still wet, and sand dry. Christians know what works and what doesn’t.
I long ago stopped being surprised that some Jews considered crumbs to be seven course meals when it came to,
” interfaith dialogue “.
Here we have a man ( Ratzinger ) , with an admitted Nazi past, lauded to the rafters. Did he do some good? Sure. Did he attempt to whitewash his own past as well the past of his predecessors? Absolutely.
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/promoting-pius-xii/2009/12/30/
For such a mixed record the bells of adulation have a hollow ring.
Let me leave you with a bit of Christian wisdom. It has been expunged from Catholic liturgy however it will stand forever as the prayer of a truly honest and G-d fearing man of great character who was not afraid to look at the past with open eyes.
” We are conscious today that many centuries of blindness have cloaked our eyes so that we can no longer see the beauty of Thy chosen people, nor recognize in their faces the features of our privileged brethren. We realize that the mark of Cain stands on our foreheads. Across the centuries our Brother Abel has lain in blood which we drew or shed tears we caused forgetting Thy love. Forgive us for the curse we falsely attached to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we knew no what we did…”
Pope John XIII
A 14 year old forced to join the Nazi youth in a dictatorship, after his father resisted Nazism. Your accusation is deeply offensive, and uncompelling. Try harder at defending this sort of bile, or better yet, apologize.
That Ratzinger was 14 years old does not exonerate him. There were thousands of people his age or less that that fought the Nazi regime.
http://books.google.co.il/books?id=OIiEmlY0mXAC&pg=PA25&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
You want to give him a pass and find excuses. Sad.
Another “Ratzinger is a Nazi” rant.
This makes me sad. I used to consider you an individual who’s postings were worth reading and consideration.
Not any more.
I did not call him a Nazi. I said he had a Nazi past. A truth he himself did not wish to hide. If the truth is too difficult for you to handle and the presentation of it disturbs you the flaw lies with you, not with me.
Menahem,
you should weight carefully the epithets as ” nazi past ” when you stick them on someone like Card.Ratzinger.He was fourteen, in a dictatorial crumbling regime.He had no choice but to be enrolled an anti-aircraft defense unit.I do not see some attachment to the nazi doctrine in that behaviour he had to obey at age 14.Now compare his destiny with that of Gunther Grass also aged 15 who VOLUNTEERED to enter the waffen SS. their ongoing life proved that those two characters were different at the beginning until the end; Grass is a violent antisemite maskerading in antizionist.Ratzinger is a peace searching leader who praised the jewish people and its cultural distinctive character.Grass thinks Israel is more dangerous than Ahmadinejad.The real nazi is Grass , not Ratzinger.
Anyways his resign is mysterious, as he is healthy, contrary to what he said as a excuse, there must be some hidden things that we don’t know, there was a scandal last year, when his personal secretary was involved
some significant part of Italians would agree with you, Vatican helped the Nazis to win, it was for the good cause to fight the communists
I believe Pope John Paul covered that in “faith and Reason”
I pray there are benign reasons for the Popes resignation.I suspect not.
At first I was suspicious. But the longer I pondered it, and assuming Benedict is solid and I believe he is, what better way to have a voice in the succession of his successor?
I’m going to hope the best and believe Benedict did this for all the right reasons. And if he is incapable of meeting the physical demands, it’s the moral choice too.
Ratzinger deliberately and consciously allowed the sexual abuse of children by predatory priests, This not only destroyed their lives but destroyed their faith and the faith of their families. It is horrific that he put the needs of these criminal men and the needs of his vastly wealthy institution over the needs of individuals. He is not a good and decent man.
Beyond Reason seems to also be beyond verifying libellous statements: “Ratzinger deliberately and consciously allowed the sexual abuse of children by predatory priests . . .” Documentation, please.
#7
“They will hate you because they have hated Me.”
Some things are sooo predictable.
Re: the sexual abuse of minors…the pope was not sure these accusations were true. Accusing priests of molesting and harming young children is the go-to accusation from communists, aimed against priests. John Paul 2 had grown up under both Nazis and Communists. Ratzlnger had grown up under Nazis. They had seen this maneuver already.
Dawkins is floating it now- saying that teaching religion is child abuse. It’s an old maneuver. It obscures physical child abuse—but it’s a standard maneuver. That’s what the popes thought they were dealing with.
and, I defer to Ms Jeannette, who writes about American communists recruiting homosexual communists to join the Catholic Church. Since the spouse’s first college roommate was both communist, and gay, and heading to seminary- I’m willing to believe Ms Jeannette has not come up with a wild, wooly story. The spouse petitioned to change rooms at the dorm- nobody needs someone making unwanted passes at one while one sleeps- and the spouse is rigidly against attending a catholic church, to protect the kids. It’s a lot of damage done to their good name.
Communist social workers had snatched Greek children from their (right-wing, religious) families during World War 2- and had never returned them. They secreted them in Poland. They had continued to do this- JP2 had met these poor, lost souls.
JP2 had also become a priest when it was a fantastically difficult, dangerous calling. It was hard for him to imagine a man freely abusing his position as “alter Christus” to prey upon innocent children- for the charges to be true.
And, second, these men would have been kicked out of faith formation early on, except for loose governance in American seminaries. Honestly, there was a huge corruption of seminaries in all sorts of faiths, this century. There was a brutal lowering of standards, there was an openness to brokenness and depravity that awes me- like a bottomless lake in an unlit cavern at the bottom of a mine-shaft…
I mean, as a lay-person, not a pastor, I wonder how these places manage to justify keeping on and studying some of the people that they keep. Paul Tillich? Preyed on innocent young women. He said Christianity would serve Marx. How is he still studied? Why are his books still on the shelf? how is Desmond Tutu an honored bishop? He preached ” Communism today! Communism Tomorrow! Communism Forever!” In pop culture, Scott Peck- preyed on innocent young women, in his travels while preaching. His books might be on the shelf- but there needs to be a note saying he missed the boat on one thing- let’s take a moment to see if he missed something else. He’s not reliable.
And, last but not cold comfort least- Christians and Jews were the first ones, ever, to consistently say that we ought not prey on children at all. Criticism from people who do believe in predation…. the criticism should come from within the walls of the church- the priests, the laity, the magisterium- not from drive-by, secular, bystanders. The bystanders tend to have bloody hands- (I’m looking at you, BBC) (Jane Addams) ( Simone de Beauvoir) ( Chairman Mao) (Hillary Clinton)( I’m putting helplessness in the face of the Rwandan genocide, and Waco, on Hillary’s hands) ( Simone de Beauvoir was a predator who lured her female high school students into sexual affairs) ( she was fired, then she went on to be a philosopher) ( Jane Addams had affairs with her female social-worker colleagues. They would want a relationship, and she would just use them, and then discard them. A male pastor doing the same thing would be censured, defrocked and fired.)
You have put me in mind of a detail from our own late unpleasantness between the States, ari: Jefferson Davis was completely confident that he could dismiss all those Northern atrocity stories of brutal slaveholders as pure propaganda – because the Davises never abused their slaves. They didn’t even permit whips on their property; all of them spent their lives in that segment of plantation society that prided themselves on gentle paternalism. I can easily see how truly good men like JPII and Benedict could not suspect others of a temptation they never felt themselves, especially when it was useful as a false charge. But as they say, even paranoids have real enemies…
I was in New Orleans, working among the street children that a few priest preyed upon- one of the worst scandals in the USA. The street kids knew it was dangerous to go to this one shelter; the beat-walking, starting policemen knew this was a dangerous shelter. They knew- why didn’t anyone at all ask them?
The policemen would take the under-age kids with some intelligence to particular stripper- bars, or look the other way on fairly horrific abuse, to keep kids out of these people’s hands. This includes foster-care, for people who are all up about the state and social workers being saintly light-workers.
The normal condition of children outside of their caring family is prey. Christians, and Jews, were the first,ever, to care for them in their innocence, in the Roman era. They kept with it- missionaries persuaded other religions to show care, as well. Some Christians might fall out of grace, and behave horrifically- but they are failing the standard the church set, not the standards of the world. We don’t get bent about chlldren born in Thai brothels, for instance. We still read Arthur C. Clarke, despite allegations about him. We still ship using DHL. Nobody has really worked to save children selling themselves in Pakistan, or India. In Africa, it’s religious-types building safe-havens for former child soldiers.
So, you could get rid of the church, to root out pedophiles, but you’d just make it easier all around for pedophiles to cavort in darkness.
And, again, none of the “do untos” ever listened to the “done untos.” That’s the failing, that’s the weakness. Jesus said to let the little ones come unto him. The church didn’t listen to what they had to say. That’s the sin.
Benedict never wavered on birth control, abortion and ordaining women.
The Holy Spirit watched over Benedict in his faithfulness to traditoinal doctrine in these areas. We couldn’t have asked for more from a man trying to exemplify holiness in a profane world.
The child sex abuse horror will be with the Church for a long, long time. No one can take away the suffering of those children, my brother was one when he was 12.But all we can do is pray that each can somehow forgive as my brother had to do in order to live a more epaceful life.
But as we remember the sins of those preists we must also remember that 55 million American babies have been killed in the womb since 1973. The Pope stood fast against this holocaust. We can only hope his stalwart stance against abortion will somehow be seen in God’s eyes as deserving of forgiveness.
As a Catholic I do not think Benedict’s resignation bodes well for the future of our Church. I can’t help but think this is a very dangerous time to step down.