God's Patience and the Tree of the Church
Joseph Ratzinger - An Unpublished Homily by Benedict XVI
From Scripture to Pascal: A New Volume of Papal Texts (2005–2017)
A new volume edited by the Ratzinger Foundation, collecting the Pope's texts from 2005 to 2017, has been released. We publish here a homily delivered by Benedict XVI in the private chapel of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery on July 20, 2014.
The volume, titled “God is the True Reality”: Unpublished Homilies 2005-2017, Ordinary Time (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 448 pages, €25.00), is being presented today in Rome at the Sala San Pio X (Via dell'Ospedale 1, 5:30 p.m.). Following greetings from Father Federico Lombardi, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation, and Lorenzo Fazzini, editorial director of Libreria Editrice Vaticana, remarks will be given by Monsignor Georg Gänswein—Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, and former private secretary to Benedict XVI—and Father Fabio Rosini, professor of homiletics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. The meeting will be moderated by Silvia Guidi, a journalist for L'Osservatore Romano.
The Homily
Dear friends, today, just as on last Sunday, the Lord continues His teaching with parables regarding the Kingdom of God, the Christian vision of the world, and our own lives. Of today's three parables, I would like to reflect with you on elements of just the first and second: the parable of the good seed and the weeds, and the parable of the mustard seed.
Regarding the first parable: Jesus says that the field is the cosmos; the cosmos is God's field. This implies that for the Lord, the cosmos is significant. The universe is God's creation; everything that exists comes from God and is good. Redemption is possible precisely because creation is divine and carries within itself the potential for salvation. We must be grateful for Creation; the joy of beauty must find space within us, for only in this way can we truly understand the beauty of Redemption.
Plato thought that the Creator was a kind of craftsman—a great carpenter, so to speak—who fashioned the things of the world from pre-existing matter, doing the best he could like a woodworker. In this view, the pre-existence of matter imposed a limit on his work, a resistance seen in the tangible reality that struggles against the form given by the Creator.
None of this is found in the Christian faith. As the first reading states, God created ex nihilo—from nothing. That is to say, everything comes from God; the very fabric of the cosmos is divine. It originates from God, and therefore all reality truly stems from God's goodness. We have reason to be joyful, to give thanks, and to possess faith and hope.
Yet, evil exists. The Gospel speaks to us of the enemy, and we see clearly in the world how truly destructive it is. Witnessing all the existing evil could drive us to despair—so much so that Pascal observed it is easier to despair than to hope. The Gospel, however, offers us hope. Evil does not exist on the level of being; it exists only on the level of the creature. It does not precede God, nor is it a primordial resistance against God. It is, so to speak, on a lower plane; it results solely from the will of the creature.
I believe this great hope must always remain alive in us: the knowledge that everything is from God, while evil is of a lower order and remains under God's power. Having said this, we ask ourselves: “But why is it so powerful?” The Lord answers: “Consider God's patience.” The first reading also speaks of this patience: God is gentle, and His governance is gentle. It repeats twice: “God is forgiving.” He offers the possibility of conversion, of change.
God's patience, which we often find difficult to accept, is actually for our own benefit. Let us not forget that we ourselves, in our own lives, often need His patience to move forward, to finally find the right path, and to bring the good grain to maturity. Certainly, we would like to get ahead of God because God appears to be “doing nothing,” so to speak, and we feel we must take up arms amidst all these troubles. But in doing so, we do not improve the world; we destroy it even further. God's patience is our hope. We must learn to love this patience and pray that God will remain patient.
In reality, we see that in our history, God grants significant space to evil, but there comes a time when the power of evil collapses. Think of the history of the last century, of the totalitarian regimes that possessed immense power. They were an expression of the enemy, yet they have fallen, and such powers will fall again in the future. However, God, out of love for us and for many reasons known to Him, sees our hearts; He respects us and gives us time. Let us pray tirelessly that He will help us to bear His patience, to be grateful for it, and to learn from it. Let us also pray that His patience will not be too great for us to handle.
The second parable is that of the mustard seed. It tells us that God's power in this era of the world is almost invisible. It is like a seed, a mustard seed, which can be trampled upon and seems like nothing. Think of the time of the Apostles: twelve people believing in Christ in a vast world of great cultures, of massive military and economic powers. They were a mustard seed; they were truly sheep among wolves, seemingly unable to win.
But God has another way of exercising His power over us, not through economic or military might. The grain is a symbol of hope because the grain carries within itself the potential of the future; it holds a whole life, a tree, a new world. In reality, from this grain—apparently devoid of any possibility of growth—the great tree of Christian culture, of the Christian world, grew. It has truly become a tree, and we see how the birds of the air dwell in it, birds that sing: high culture finds its home in this very tree.
There are also birds that do not belong to the tree but love to perch there and sing. Let us consider the distinction between “cultural” Christians and Christians of faith. There are people who do not share the faith but love to live within the context of Christian culture; here they sing, and here they receive hospitality. The great tolerance and joy of the Church make it a tree for many—sometimes even for some rather "odd birds."
However, this raises a question: “Yes, this is true, a huge tree has grown from this grain, but perhaps now the time has come for the tree to die. We see certain branches withering and falling to the ground; we have the impression that the time for this tree has passed. Has it not reached the end of its life?”
This question concerns us today. One might think that the era of Christian life is fading as this tree dies. It must be said, however, that in the Church, Good Friday and Easter always coexist; it is always the time of Jesus' passion and death, but He is also always the Risen One. The two realities exist together.
So too, the Church is always both grain and tree. It is not as though once the tree has grown, the time of sowing has passed. The tree was created, but the Word of God is always a small seed, lacking worldly power, yet even today it is the bearer of the future. We have seen how, in fact, great trees have withered in history: think of the great Nestorian Churches, or how the Church in Africa was once greater than all the Churches of Europe, yet the Churches of North Africa died out. Yes, large branches of the tree do die, but at the same time, the Word of God always grows anew, and the tree is renewed. Thus, it is truly always a time of hope: even today the tree of God grows. Even today it is without external power, but precisely where it lacks power, it is a sign of hope and strength for the future.
One of the key mottos is Excisa, florescit, which we could translate as: “Pruned, it blooms again.” [Note: Excisa, florescitis the ancient heraldic motto of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, where Joseph Ratzinger served as archbishop from 1977 to 1981].
In the Church today, it is a time of severe pruning. Let us pray first of all that it may also be a time of rebirth among us. Let us pray that with this great pruning, faith may be reborn with the originality, freshness, humility, and beauty of the beginning, and that today may always be a time of sowing. Let us pray to the Lord with the words of the prayer: “Lord, make us ardent with hope, faith, and charity, and help us to live always faithful to the path of Your will.” Amen!
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