THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

 

RATZINGER’S IMPLICATIONS OF BELIEF IN THE TRIUNE GOD

By

Nathan D. March

 

Dr. Michael A. Hoonhout

THEO 507 Introduction to the Catholic Faith

08 October 2002

 

In Introduction to Christianity (IC), Cardinal Ratzinger raises interesting ideas concerning the unity of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the implications of man’s belief in the Trinue God of Christianity.  Whereas our class readings have dealt primarily with the nature of God as Trinity, Ratzinger reflects on the meaning and significance of belief in Trinity.

The first question he asks is “Where does the idea of God come from?” (IC pg 67) If belief presupposes a belief in something, where does the possibility of something arise?  Ratzinger presents the lived experience of humanity, both in its poverty, weakness, and limitation and in its fullness, beauty, and greatness as the impetus for the question.  (IC pg 69) “Where man experiences his solitariness, he experiences at the same time how much his whole existence is a cry for the “You” and how ill-adapted he is to be only an “I” in himself.” (IC pg 69)  Human relationships reveal his existential restlessness in creation. Yet the experience of love seems beyond mere human relationships.  Thus human existence can be the starting point for the experience of a God related to human existence. (IC 70)  Ratzinger suggests the idea of the unity is common between the three basic human notions of God, namely polytheism, monotheism, and atheism.  They differ in notion of mode and fashion in which man deals with the absolute and alternatively how the absolute relates towards him. (IC pg 72)

Israel’s daily confession of faith illustrates the uniqueness of the belief in the oneness of God.  (IC pg 73) The expression “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh, thy God, is an only God,” (Deut 6:4) presents a belief that signifies a “decision with significant consequences.” (IC pg 73) Ratzinger highlights, “it is not the registration of one view alongside others but an existential decision.” (IC pg 73). It is a decision which struggles not only to reject other gods, powers, and the absolutes which enslave man but also to entrust oneself to the God who created the world. (IC pg 74)  It is a belief in the call to a greater “You-I” relationship than the world has to offer.

The doctrine of the Trinity as the economy of “You-I” relationship internal to God himself did not arise out of mere speculation or human reason alone but rather in the person of Jesus Christ in human history and human experience. (IC pgs 114-155)  Jesus Christ presents a certain paradox to belief in the unity of God.  Christ speaks to God as someone other than himself, as Father, yet he himself is God as man. (IC pg 115)  God therefore appears as “You” and “I” in one, in relationship with each other. (IC pg 115) 

The mystery of the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity is revealed in the Incarnation, and given to us by the Holy Spirit as the fulfillment of the existential human desire for relationship.  The Trinity reveals not only the relationship between the individual divine persons but also the relationship between God and humanity.

Given the dependence of the revelation of the Trinity on human existence Ratzinger suggests it is important to consider if the relationship between man and God is a product of man’s consciousness or rather if it is given to him in order to reach beyond himself to encounter God? (IC pg 116)  He gives some examples of various failed historical attempts to wrestle with this issue and concludes that even if man cannot escape the confines of his own consciousness it does not limit God from being able to enter into man’s consciousness. (IC 116)  Conversely, God does not appear as the Son and says, “You” to the Father as a play produced for the benefit of man.  (IC pg 117).  To truly be the mediator between man and God, Christ had to be fully man and fully God such that his “You” to the Father was the expression of reality itself. (IC pg 117).  Ratzinger comments that, “God is as he shows himself; God does not show himself in a way which he is not.” (IC pg 117)

The doctrine of the Trinity not only reveals who God is but reflects man’s involvement in the development and exercise of the question itself.  In Jesus Christ, he who is both man and God has demonstrated his humanity and in the man has let himself be known. (IC pg 127).  God reveals himself through human experience and therefore it is through human experience that man must approach God.  The task of neutral observation is impossible; man cannot exist nor ask, “who is God” as a mere observer. (IC pg 125)  Only by entering into the mystery does one experience; only by participating in the relationship does one ask at all, and only he who asks receives an answer. (IC pg 125)