Ratzinger! The whole argument about Christ revolves around mans liberation, his salvation. But what can liberate man? Who liberates him, and to what? Put even more simply: What is human freedom? Can man become free without truth, i.e., in falsehood? Liberation without truth would be a lie; it would not be freedom but deception and thus mans enslavement, mans ruin. Freedom without truth cannot be true freedom, so without truth, freedom is not even freedom. If man is to be free, he must be like God. Wanting to be like God is the inner motive of all mankinds programs of liberation. Since the yearning for freedom is rooted in mans being, right from the outset he is trying to become like God. Indeed, anything else is ultimately too little for him . . . At first sight it may seem to be a rather parochial, merely internal Christian matter, when we speak of the prayer of Jesus as the New Testaments basic affirmation regarding his person. In reality this is precisely the point which concerns us; i.e., it is what is central to humanity. For the New Testament designates it as the place where man may actually become God, where his liberation may take place; it is the place where he touches his own truth and becomes true himself. The question of Jesus filial relation to the Father gets to the very root of the question of mans freedom and liberation, and unless this is done everything else is futile. Any liberation of man which does not enable him to become divine betrays man, betrays his boundless yearning.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:57:52 +0000
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