ON THE WAY TO JESUS CHRIST
Translated by Michael J. Miller
IGNATIUS PRESS | SAN FRANCISCO |
Title of the original German edition
Unterwegs zu Jesus Christus
© 2004 by Sankt Ulrich Verlag, GmbH
Augsburg, Germany
Front cover photograph:
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
(now Pope Benedict XVI)
Celebrating a Mass in Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome during his 75th birthday, April 19, 2002
©CATHOLICPRESSPHOTO
Back cover art:
Christ’s Appearance behind Locked Doors
Duccio (di Buoninsegna) (c. 1260–1319)
From the upper section of the Maesta altarpiece.
Museo dell’Opera Metropolitana, Siena, Italy
© Scala / Art Resource, New York
Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
© 2005 Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-58617-124-7 (HB)
ISBN 1-58617-124-0 (HB)
ISBN 978-1-58617-036-3 (PB)
ISBN 1-58617-036-8 (PB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2004103530
1 The Face of Christ in Sacred Scripture: “He Who Has Seen Me Has Seen the Father”
2 Wounded by the Arrow of Beauty: The Cross and the New “Aesthetics” of Faith
3 Communication and Culture: New Methods of Evangelization in the Third Millennium
4 Christ, the Redeemer of Mankind: The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ and His Church
5 Looking at Christ: The Figure of Christ as Reflected in the Gospel Account of His Temptation
6 Daily Bread and Eucharistic Bread: A Meditation for the Feast of Corpus Christi
7 Eucharist—Communio—Solidarity: Christ Present and Active in the Blessed Sacrament
8 Universality and Catholicity
9 Is the Catechism of the Catholic Church Up-to-Date? Reflections Ten Years after Its Publication
In the midst of the crisis that has befallen Christianity in many parts of the world, the figure of Jesus of Nazareth remains astonishingly current. Even outside of Christianity he appeals to people: Islam recognizes him as a prophet; in India many people have set up an image of Jesus in their house. The Christ of the Sermon on the Mount, who moved Gandhi so deeply, has become for many non-Christians there a messenger of God’s goodness, in whom the light of eternity shines into the world. The story related by the Synoptic Gospels about the suffering woman who touched Jesus’ garments from behind and was thus healed surely takes place even today again and again in many different ways.
Yet concurrent with this manifold presence of the figure of Jesus, it is disturbing to note that, within Christianity itself, Christology has been losing its meaning. It started with the effort to rediscover the man Jesus behind the gilded background of dogma, to return to the simplicity of the Gospels. Of course, it quickly became evident that the figure of Jesus in the Gospels cannot be reduced to that of a bland philanthropist—that precisely the Jesus of the Gospels, too, bursts open the framework of what is merely human, posing ...
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About On the Way to Jesus ChristJesus Christ is as popular as ever. Films, books, and news articles ask, “Who was Jesus Christ?” Even outside of Christianity he continues to appeal to people. And yet for so many, the popular Jesus is not the Jesus of Christianity. The popular Jesus makes no demands and never challenges people. He accepts everyone and everything under all circumstances. On the Way to Jesus Christ is a series of meditations that Pope Benedict XVI wrote while he was Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The true Jesus, he writes, is the Jesus of the Gospels who “is quite different, demanding and bold. The Jesus who makes everything okay for everyone is a phantom, a dream, not a real figure. The Jesus of the Gospels is certainly not convenient for us. But it is precisely in this way that he answers the deepest question of our existence, which—whether we want to or not—keeps us on the lookout for God, for a gratification that is limitless, for the infinite. We must again set out on the way to this real Jesus.” This book also examines whether Jesus Christ is the only savior, and the Church’s responsibility to evangelize. It concludes with reflections on Jesus’ Presence in the Holy Eucharist, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s presentation of the Christian mystery as seen through the Catechism’s dynamic view of Sacred Scripture. |
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