As the Church and the world mourn the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, we lift him in prayer to the Lord whom he served his entire life with such great devotion and faith; we also ponder his spiritual legacy with gratitude.
He generously served as a priest, theologian, bishop, cardinal, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and as the supreme pontiff for almost eight years.
His whole life was a gift to the Church and contributed to the understanding and flourishing of the Catholic faith.
A theologian
While St. John Paul II was a profound philosopher, Pope Benedict was a theologian of the highest intellectual caliber.
The author of 65 books — most memorably his triptych on the life of Christ — he was able to make theologically complex ideas understandable and clear without diluting their integrity and profundity.
His contribution to the intellectual life of the Church is inestimable, especially in the proper understanding of the Second Vatican Council and its implementation.
Having served as a theological advisor to his own bishop at the council, Benedict is the last pope who was present at its deliberations and knew first-hand the nature of the debates and the formulation of the conciliar documents.
Through the years, he emphasized the continuity and convergence of Vatican II with the Tradition and doctrine of Catholicism, in line with the development of the faith.
Pope Benedict rightfully emphasized the liturgy, especially the celebration of the Eucharist, as the source and center of the Church’s life.
His desire for reverence, beauty, and transcendence in the Church’s public prayer has rippled throughout the world, enhancing the proper embrace of the Novus Ordo Mass, even while allowing greater latitude for the celebration of the Extraordinary Form.
In his seminal volume, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Benedict reminds us that the worship of God is the most fundamental human act from which flows the proper understanding of the human person, culture, morality, and artistic expression.
He makes the point that Moses demanded freedom for the Israelites so that they may worship God on the holy mountain as their consciences demanded.
Pope Benedict lifted up beauty as a transformative means of evangelization.
The beauty of art, architecture, the intellectual life, the saints, the natural world, and the human person all point us to the Creator as the One who is eminently and infinitely beautiful in His Being.
Beauty contains within itself a prophetic power of transcendence in a consumerist world of utility, pragmatism, and materialism.
He especially pointed to the lives of the saints as artistic creations of holiness, which point humanity to the Lord by their radiance of fundamental goodness.
Humility and simplicity
Above all, or perhaps woven through all of Pope Benedict’s gifts and accomplishments, was his deep and abiding humility and simplicity.
More than once, he asked St. John Paul to release him from his duties, so that he could retire to Germany and write.
He certainly never sought the papacy or the limelight, as one senses that he would have much preferred to stay in the background.
Yet, he embraced the task which the Lord had entrusted to him until he felt that he could no longer fulfill the demanding duties of the papacy.
People will endlessly debate Pope Benedict’s controversial decision to retire in 2013, but no one can doubt he made such a difficult determination only after much thought and prayer in a complete sincerity of heart and intention.
When asked at an audience by a parish priest to share his wisdom on catechesis, Pope Benedict offered the following: “Without taking a long circuitous route, we can reach the heart of the Word. And we must also bear in mind, free of oversimplifications, that the Twelve Apostles were fishermen, tradesmen, from the province of Galilee. They had no special training, no knowledge of the great Greek and Latin world. Yet they went to every part of the Empire, and even beyond the Empire, as far as India, and proclaimed Christ with simplicity and with the power of the clarity of what is true. It is important, in my view, not to lose the simplicity of the truth. God exists. God is not a distant, hypothetical being. Rather, God is close; He has spoken to us, He has spoken to me. Thus, we simply say what He is and how our understanding of Him can and must be naturally explained and developed. Let us not lose sight of the fact that we are not proposing reflections; we do not propose a philosophy, but rather we propose the simple proclamation of God who has acted. And He works within me too.” (February 26, 2009)
May the Lord give Pope Benedict XVI the great reward of his labors!
May he rest in peace.