Dogma and Preaching by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Author:Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586173272
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2012-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

b. The Individual and the Whole

The Church and this association, which derives its vitality from the fundamental impetus of the Church’s faith and attempts to bring it to bear on a particular place, are concerned about universal brotherhood, nothing more and nothing less. But, one might ask now what is actually being accomplished? Who is actually being reached? In this connection, a passage from the Chronicle seems to me to be important. In the year 1903, we read: “A sort of pimp asked a lady of the train-station mission about the ‘purpose of the association’ and, after listening to her reply, said, ‘That’s ridiculous; you get one woman, while I can have ten or more every day.’ Having said that he disappeared. . . . And this one—honored ladies! Do you still find it ridiculous to wait for this one at the train station—to wait, even if it takes a hundred hours a month, so that you seem to wait in vain for ninety-nine of them: What is that one? The entire price of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ! And for you. . . what is that one for you? Saint Chrysostom gives you the answer: ‘Nothing in the world equals the value of a single soul. . . .’ ”8

This language may sound rather lofty, but it expresses something decisive and lasting that can easily escape our view today, given the mass misery that confronts us and given the impact of the social problem upon us. I had already mentioned at the start that nowadays people object to the service of Christian brotherly love by questioning whether it bypasses necessary changes to the situation, whether it helps the individual but overlooks the collective problem. The Church, so the saying goes, distributes umbrellas, whereas it is a question of changing the overall weather conditions. Now, although this very same comparison is apt to recall the limitations of such efforts, there is certainly no disputing that the concern is justified in principle. No doubt there must be a decisive effort to build the technopolis as a city of man and to employ on such a future-oriented collective task all the resources that it deserves.

But man is not just raw material for the future; he himself is the ultimate purpose. And he is never exhaustively defined by circumstances; rather, he always remains a new question extending into infinity that demands a personal answer that can never be planned completely in advance. That is why there will never be circumstances that make personal, caring, and loving action on man’s behalf superfluous. That is why concern about the future can never become an excuse for wear and tear on the present and why the fight for the collectivity can never replace dealing with the individual. Hence, besides planning and perhaps militant efforts also for the future of society as a whole, there must be a struggle on behalf of man here and now as well, in the circumstances and possibilities of today, for the individual who is in need and at risk today.

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