THE SIGNIFICANCE OF „PERSON” IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH AGAINST IDEOLOGY ACCORDING TO JOSEPH RATZINGER / BENEDICT XVI

Abstract

According to J. Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, the hermeneutical centre of Scripture, which reveals the salvifi c history of God with men, is the mystery of Christ and the Church (Christus et Ecclesia, cf. St. Augustine). The reciprocal relationship is a relationship of Love, that is, a personal relationship. The Christian faith does not refer to an idea, but to a Person. At the beginning of being a Christian is the encounter with the Person of Christ. Jesus is the name of God, which means „God saves”. J. Ratzinger saw two periods in the formation of the concept of person in theology: (1) the transition from substance to subsistence (hypostasis), (2) the transition from subsistence to relation, so that the person is not only self-existence, but relational self-existence, relational subsistence (relatio subsistens). The human person is a unity of body and soul, corpore et anima unus (Gaudium et Spes, 14). According to J. Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, the creation of man in the image and likeness of God means that the human person as relational subsistence is constituted in relation to God and fellow human beings. The image of God expresses not only reason and freedom, as has been emphasised so far, but likeness to God the Person (Communio Personarum) means that reference to God and reference to neighbour constitute the human person, constitute his or her constitutive structure as a relational being (communio personarum). This means that the human person without a relationship to God and neighbour cannot live. Love God and neighbour, do this and you will live! (cf. Lk 10:27-28). Like John Paul II, Benedict XVI believed that authentic democracy is only possible in a state governed by the rule of law and based on a correct conception of the human person. Without being an ideology, the Christian faith does not believe that it can encapsulate the diverse socio-political realities in a rigid schema and recognises that human life in history is realised in diff erent ways, which are by no means perfect (Centesimus annus, 46). Ideologies refer to ideas and use persons to achieve an end. The Church Fathers saw the conclusive signifi cance of the coming of the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father who became Man. Therefore, a relationship with the Person of Jesus protects us from all ideologies. The Church, as the Bride of the Lamb, is instituted to help man enter into this relationship.