To Look on Christ

To Look on Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love by Joseph Ratzinger, 111 pages

This is a written adaptation of a retreat preached by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1986.  Although inspired to some extent by the work of Josef Pieper, these talks are not primarily philosophical or theological investigations, but are rather intended to be practical advice for a life truly lived, that is, a life of virtue.  Accordingly, although the text is full of Ratzinger's customary erudition, it is his incisiveness that is more powerfully on display here.

As in so much of his work, Ratzinger's reflections begin with his diagnosis of materialistic man as fundamentally superficial and closed in on himself.  Humility is necessary for openness, and fortitude to seek a truth that lies beyond (and behind) appearances.  Faith is necessary, not only for communion with God, but for community with our neighbors as well, indeed the two are interdependent, since a proper understanding of God develops out of trust in those who have experienced His action in their lives.  Ratzinger distinguishes the theological virtue of hope from the optimism of ideologues who trust in the supposedly irresistible progress of history, which he contends conceals a deeper, itching despair, not because that trust is absurd, but because the longed-for utopia, even if attainable, would not satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart.  For finally, everything has its proper end in the ultimate Love - faith is faith in that Love, hope is hope for that Love - the Love that is Life and the Light of the World.