Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Death and Suffering
The Joseph Ratzinger of 1977 wrote a small volume entitled Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life (Catholic Univ. of America Press), as part of a series in dogmatic theology co-authored with his confessor Johann Auer. The pocket-size book aims at giving an overview of the issues of death, immortality, resurrection, judgment, heaven, hell, and purgatory--in other words, the "last things" of eschatology.
In an eloquent series of passages, the future Pope focuses on the Christian response to pain, suffering, and death. Like John Paul the Great, Ratzinger effectively portrays the drama of the human challenge posed by the inevitable encounter with these realities.
In suffering, "man is forced to face the fact that existence is not at his disposal, nor is his life his own property" (p. 96). Man can respond either in anger to this reality or choose the Christian approach in which:
Man can respond by seeking to trust this strange power to whom he is subject. He can allow himself to be led, unafraid, by the hand, without Angst-ridden concern for his situation. And in this second case [or response], the human attitude towards pain, towards the presence of death within living, merges with the attitude we call love.
In an eloquent series of passages, the future Pope focuses on the Christian response to pain, suffering, and death. Like John Paul the Great, Ratzinger effectively portrays the drama of the human challenge posed by the inevitable encounter with these realities.
In suffering, "man is forced to face the fact that existence is not at his disposal, nor is his life his own property" (p. 96). Man can respond either in anger to this reality or choose the Christian approach in which:
Man can respond by seeking to trust this strange power to whom he is subject. He can allow himself to be led, unafraid, by the hand, without Angst-ridden concern for his situation. And in this second case [or response], the human attitude towards pain, towards the presence of death within living, merges with the attitude we call love.
