Last Wednesday we had the pleasure of hearing a talk by
Dr. William Schmitt on Pope Benedict XVI. Dr. Schmitt earned his Doctorate of
Sacred Theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute. He taught at the
Casa Balthasar, a house in Rome for men discerning vocations and was the
managing editor of the journal Communio:
International Catholic Review from 1996 to 1998. He is now the headmaster
of Trivium School in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Dr. Schmitt studied under Joseph
Cardinal Ratzinger’s patronage, and came to know him during his visits to the
Casa Balthasar. Thus, his presentation to us was on the importance of
conversion in the thought of Benedict XVI.
Dr. Schmitt began by outlining a definition of
conversion. We tend to think of it more in the terms of switching from one
religion to another, and not the same as growing in or losing one’s faith.
Conversion can happen in a single moment (as it did for St. Paul) or it can
take a lifetime (as it did for St. Augustine). However it happens, conversion
gives new light to the convert’s life.
Because of his papal office, Pope Benedict XVI tended to
be viewed more as an apologist for the faith than as a theologian. The pope,
however, had been a university professor for much of his life. Thus, he ought
to be seen in light of both his ministry and his scholarship. He is a man who
ponders what he believes and sees theology as a vocation. The pope is
especially interested in how the classical world and the people of the Old
Testament came to interact with the Gospel their understanding of conversion.
He is also sees the modern person as one transformed in conversion, and sees
conversion as a door to a more profound understanding of the human person.
Conversion is a central theme to Benedict XVI, and one he
often returned to. He thinks it the principle of the New Evangelization, and
that the Second Vatican Council (at which he was an expert consultant) called
on the whole Church to convert.
Dr. Schmitt greatly admires Pope Benedict, not just as a
great theologian but as a man who plays the piano and works hard, and as one
free of any personal ambition. He once told Dr. Schmitt that he would have
preferred to be a parish priest than a bishop. In his humility, the pope
displayed his deep, internal disposition to God’s grace.
The Greek word that often appears in the New Testament
for “convert” is metanoein (μετανοεῖν), one translation of which is
“repent.” The word comes to mean not just a turning from one’s past life of sin
toward God, but also a turning of one’s whole conduct. This Christian
understanding, however, borrows heavily from classical, pagan notions of
conversion. There were two Greek words for conversion: metanoia (μετάνοια),
which means “change of heart,” and epistrophe
(ἐπιστροφή), a Platonic term meaning
“a turn to the form of the Good.”
Think of the allegory of the cave from Plato’s Republic: the philosopher turns the
people imprisoned in the cave away from the false shadows and toward the light
of the Good. He helps them begin the ascent to the truth. This turn to goodness is the essence of
conversion to Plato. For Pope Benedict, epistrohpe
is a turning to our innermost depths and finding the divine in ourselves. That
is, it is the discovery of the soul. This ancient idea comes to have an
enormous influence on Christianity.
In the modern world, however, we tend to think of
repentance as something others need to do, not ourselves. We are scared of
insulting others, and it seems as if the idea of repentance has become
obsolete. We experience a dichotomy between the urgings of our innermost senses
and the immediacy of our sense perceptions. Thus, we can fall into two extremes
of either overemphasizing strict moralism or denying the existence of sin. In
modernity, we tend toward the latter extreme. For example, Friedrich Nietzsche,
the nineteenth century German philosopher and atheist) hated the idea of
conversion and thought it foreign to Christianity. He finds the Gospel is
lacking in calls to repentance and instead thinks it only proclaims tidings of
joy. Dr. Schmitt commented that Nietzsche would have been horrified to see the
“new men” who have tried to reconcile his “gospel” with the real one.
Conversion involves the entire person, both heart and
mind, and is like a vow to follow the will of God. It happens when our lives
are weighed and found wanting. For Pope Benedict, conversion is intimately tied
to relationships. Aristotle thought that relations were accidental, random
interactions with people nearby and not necessary to being human. For Pope
Benedict, however, to be human is to
have relationships. We see this in the person of Christ: the Son is the Son
because of His relation to the Father, and vice versa; it is not an accidental
relationship, but ineluctable to His person. Sin, as Origen of Alexandria
noted, is divisive. This is the opposite of modernity’s disdain for
relationships. Heaven is nothing but communion, with God and with our fellow
humans.
St. Augustine described conversions as homo incurvatus in se ipsum, “man turned
in to his very self.” What we find in that very self is God, the Thou who
reveals Himself and redeems us. From that proceeds the need to love the others
who share in our divinely-oriented humanity. Conversion is also paradox in that
it is a very real experience but also a continuous one. Due to this tension
between its singularity and continuity, conversion has an element of
uncertainty and mystery. Thus, we work out our salvation in fear and trembling,
always trusting in God’s mercy. This constant turning, however, is central to
Christianity.
Dr. Schmitt proposed a comment on this theology of
conversion, in that Cardinal Ratzinger never seemed to get into the source of
conversion. Conversion is in the call made by Christ, the living God, and in
man’s response to that call. Dr. Schmitt felt that Cardinal Ratzinger did not emphasize
this call (though he added that the answer may very well be swimming about in
Cardinal Ratzinger’s vast sea of scholarship).
This turning is central to the economy of salvation. We
might ask why Christ was baptized in the Jordan if he was without sin. Pope
Benedict that Christ’s baptism was a foreshadowing of the cross where he was
baptized. Christ offers up our sins to the Father; he turns and addresses Him.
In this turn is the death and resurrection of Christ, wherein the entire world
was reoriented toward God. This turn is in all the Sacraments, and is the foundational Christian act.
Dr. Schmitt concluded that, for Pope Benedict, conversion
is a transformation of the entire person, but it must be done every day. Each
day we need to reorient ourselves toward God, and find the strength to say no
to ourselves.
As a final thought, he said that Pope Benedict XVI had an
attitude of service animated by his humility, a humility which comes about only
by constant conversion.
We thank Dr. Schmitt for all the time and effort he put
into his presentation. We were honored to hear such an erudite talk from such a
distinguished scholar and teacher.
