Divine Revelation Was it because young Joseph Ratzinger’s f irst encounter with God happened in the liturgy that his entire theology seems, above all, to flow out of contemplating God? We know that as a small child he received a little missal, which delighted him and transported him into a world whose beauty and mystery he could already sense. And it is enough to immerse oneself in his works to observe what we could call the “primacy of God” in his theology: everything begins because God speaks. Revelation finds its source in God, who freely chooses to speak to the men he creates and saves by his incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Word. “The novelty of biblical revelation consists in the fact that God becomes known through the dialogue which he desires to have with us.”84 The future Benedict XVI’s dissertation on Bonaventure focused precisely on the concept of revelation. It would enable the young theologian to bring a decisive and original contribution to the preparatory text for the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of Vatican II. In the summer of 1962, Cardinal Frings asked Ratzinger to study the first schema85 on the sources of revelation, called De Fontibus, and to write a report on it. Ratzinger was very critical. At stake, theologically, was the following: when does revelation happen? Behind such a question could be found the Lutheran problem of Sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”). Can divine revelation be strictly identified with Scripture? In that case, we would only be able to teach what could be found in Scripture. Could we say, on the contrary, that revelation encompasses Scripture? Or rather, could it be contained partially in Scripture and partially in Tradition? Ratzinger had found in Bonaventure the idea that revelation never strictly designates Scripture, but rather that it must be understood in the plural as the acts of revelation through which God reveals himself in history to whoever receives them: “Revelat ion precedes Scr ipture and becomes deposited in Scripture, but is not simply identical with it. This in turn means that revelation is always something greater than what is merely written down.”86 It is “God’s approach to man,” which “is always greater than what can be contained in human words, greater even than the words of Scripture. Scripture is the essential witness of revelation, but revelation is something alive; something greater and more: proper to it is the fact that it arrives and is perceived.… Revelation has instruments; but it is not separable from the living God, and it always requires a living person to whom it is communicated. Its goal is always to gather and unite men, and this is why the Church is a necessary aspect of revelation.”87 THE PRIMACY OF GOD: IN THE BEGINNING, GOD SPEAKS HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE ELABORATION OF THE SCHEMA ON DIVINE REVELATION AT VATICAN II, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 84 Benedict XVI, Apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini, 6. 85 The schemata (plural of schema) were the preparatory texts given to the bishops to serve as a basis for their reflection and exchanges. 86 Milestones, p. 109. 87 Ibid., p. 127. 1 Thus, there are not several sources of revelation, but rather a single source, who is God. God speaks through people who, under the action of the Holy Spirit, put down his words in writing; and this divine Word is carried by the living Tradition, which involves the people who receive this Word, respond to it, and are always making progress, through the same Holy Spirit, in the contemplation of revealed realities. It is easy to recognize the contribution of the young German peritus in the definitive schema of Dei Verbum.88 After becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger would give the Church a splendid apostolic exhortation on the Word of God, Verbum Domini, a substantial meditation on the dogmatic constitution of Vatican II. The Bavarian pope was a musician. During the period when he lived in Traunstein, which he considered the most beautiful time in his life, he could go with Georg to Salzburg, where concert tickets, just before the war, were sold at a more affordable price. He was thus able to hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and fall in love with Mozart. Later, having become pope, when he would contemplate God ’s work in revelation, he loved to present the image of “a symphony of the word, a single word expressed in multiple ways,”89 of which Christ is the soloist. God created the world by his Word, and the book of nature has told us who he is from the beginning. The beauty of the world is the first place where his Word allows itself to be deciphered. “Scripture tells us that everything that exists does not exist by chance but is willed by God and part of his plan, at whose center is the invitation to partake, in Christ, in the divine life. Creation is born of the Logos and indelibly bears the mark of the creative Reason which orders and directs it; with joy-filled certainty the psalms sing: ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth’ (Ps 33:6); and again, ‘he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth’ (Ps 33:9). All reality expresses this mystery…. Thus sacred Scripture itself invites VERBUM DOMINI: THE SYMPHONY OF THE WORD 88 “It was pleasing to God in his goodness and his wisdom to reveal himself in person and to make known the mystery of his will (cf. Ep 1:9), thanks to which men, through Christ, the Word made flesh, have access in the Holy Spirit to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (cf. Ep 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4)” (DV 1). “Holy Tradition and holy Scripture are thus related and communicate closely with each other. For both, flowing out of the same divine source, form a single whole and are directed to the same end” (DV 9). 89 Verbum Domini, 7. The beauty of the world is the first place where the Word of God waits to be read. From Le Combes, a cabin in the Aosta Valley, a unique panorama of the Alpine summits is offered to the pope. Here, in July 2005. © Akg 68 • BENEDICT XVI BENEDICT XVI • 69 B E N E D I C T X V I ’ S Thought
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMzNzY=