Book review of the book Jesus of Nazareth by Benedict

Today we're gonna be reviewing today  is Jesus of Nazareth the infancy  narratives this is a book by Joseph  ratzinger pope Benedict the sixteenth that he released actually not too long  ago it was part of a three-part series  that he produced collectively called  Jesus of Nazareth so the first book was  Jesus of Nazareth and basically focused  on the public ministry of Jesus so  basically everything from the beginning  of the public ministry up until kind of  like the holy week entry into Jerusalem  sort of time period the second book was  all about holy week the true - um the  death and resurrection of Jesus talked a  lot about the passion a lot about those  things and this book is the infancy  narratives it's a little bit shorter  than the other two and it focuses  specifically on what we know about the  beginning portions of Jesus's life so  the description that pope Benedict the  16th gives of what he's trying to do  with these books I've always thought is  really  interesting on the back of the paperback  edition of the first Jesus of Nazareth  book that i have it has a quote from him  saying that this book is his personal  search for the face of Jesus and i  really think that that shines through in  all three of these books in it you can  really see pope who is i mean of  undeniable intelligence he's somebody  who is extremely well-read someone who's  obviously spent a lot of time praying  and meditating and reading and studying  and pondering over the course of his  life and trying to kind of discover  things and fit things together  who is Jesus and he's really taking on a  lot of the so-called historical Jesus  movements in a lot of modern exegesis  and basically what that is is look let's  take a look at the actual texts and the  actual first person second person  secondary sources and everything and  take a look at who the historical person  of Jesus is is he who's presented in the  gospels or is he some other person that  you know the gospels kind of  mythologized or they embellished a lot  of the things about him and this is kind  of what pope Benedict is taking on  looking for this real person of Jesus  who truly existed in the past and trying  to discover who he was what kind of a  person he was in his humanity and what  kind of what we can learn about him from  all of the things that are at our  disposal there's a quote i think it was  by peter kreeft I'm not quite sure but  what he said was true theology is  theology that's done on one's knees  meaning that true theology is the fruit  of prayer and i really think that that  shines through in this entire trilogy i  think that it's very clear that this is  not book knowledge on the part of both  pope Benedict's  part it's very steeped in meditation and  in prayer and in really trying to think  about the pieces and understand who this  often mysterious person often difficult  to fully come to true comprehension of  of Jesus is who is he and it's very  clear throughout this writing that this  is truly the fruit of prayer and the  fruit of meditation it's not simply an a  to be sort of a thing it's not simply  logic and study but it's very very  heavily influenced by meditation and  contemplation on not only what other  people have studied and written written  about but also the pope's own  reflections and meditations as well he  highlights different pieces of the  different evangelists stories and how  they come together and he paints a  picture of Jesus of who he is and the  fulfillment of Israel's promises it's  not simply a book about Jesus but places  him in a larger context of what this  meant for the time for the people of  Israel and it even drives into the  present - what this means for we as the  church now Jesus wasn't simply some  person who existed 2,000 years ago if we  truly believe what the church teaches we  believe that he is god and the actions  the identity and the pieces that we put  together about Jesus don't only simply  affect things all those years ago but in  fact stretches all the way through the  centuries and affects us intimately here  and now in the present situations of our  lives in the present situation of the  church and in every situation that we  find ourselves in  so let's talk a little bit about the  good and the bad about this book i read  the first Jesus of Nazareth book and  probably junior year of college  maybe senior year i don't remember  exactly when but i remember it basically  blew me out of my socks i mean it was  really unbelievable to read what the  pope had written about this central part  of Jesus's life from the beginning of  his public ministry to the entry in  Jerusalem before his passion and i  remember reading just page after page of  these meditations and explanations and  kind of puzzling UV all of these things  that Jesus did and said and i can't help  but feel like that first book in the  trilogy still sets the bar this book  doesn't seem like rushed or slouchy by  any stretch of the imagination but  comparing it to that first book in the  trilogy i really think that that's the  best honestly and I'll review the other  two here as we go but it seemed fitting  right as i wrapped up this book at the  end of advent to do that while it was  still fresh in my mind at this point so  it does seem to be this book the infancy  narratives seems to be a little bit more  historical rather than spiritual because  the first Jesus of Nazareth was very  very spiritual in nature it was very  unpacking the meeting of the our father  unpacking the meaning of the beatitudes  and what this would have meant for the  Israeli and everything it was very  spiritual and applicable to the  spiritual life even today and i felt  like this book still certainly was and  there's still certainly plenty of meat  in there but not as much as that first  book i will say this about Benedict the  16th - he has the ability to be  intelligent and profound and still easy  to read that's a trait that's not fairly  common among a lot of writers either  today or in the past i mean that's just  the very difficult thing to do  he's not overly verbose he's very direct  him to the point but he still packs a  tremendous punch and he's still very  very intelligent in how he writes and  what he says the book is very well  researched he cites so many other  authors it's not even funny and he more  than just citing the authors really  appears to understand what it is that  they're saying and he agrees with other  authors and other speakers and he  disagrees with them as well and points  out his own counter arguments to things  so it's not simply you know this big  long works cited page because the  professor said that he had to have you  know 12 sources or whatever it's really  taking these other authors and really  synthesizing what they had to say and  bringing it in so that he really can  create a more fully fleshed out image  and a more fully fleshed out idea of  what it is that he's meditating on and  thinking about it's not too long of a  read as well which is a great thing  especially for advent being a shorter of  the liturgical seasons and it's not too  difficult of a read either despite the  fact that Benedict the sixteenth writes  very well when he writes at a very high  level it's not very hard to read i will  tell you this though it may not be the  fastest read that you've ever done there  will be a lot of times where you'll put  the book down and kind of think about  what you've read you might you know read  two or three paragraphs and have to set  it aside and kind of chew on things for  a little while it is very deep and very  profound but it is a great prep during  advent and i was really happy that i had  the opportunity to read it during this  past advent season so let's talk a  little bit about the key takeaways from  this book here i want to just kind of  run through this a little bit and maybe  cite some quotes and everything i really  appreciated his section on the  genealogies  and even especially just how he talked  about all of the gospel passages he  really made a good point of saying that  the gospels weren't really supposed to  be and aren't play-by-play blow-by-blow  accounts of Jesus's life but rather each  of the evangelists has a vantage point  and an audience that they're trying to  reach so even when they explain certain  elements of Jesus's life and recount  certain events there are subtle  differences in all of the accounts and  it's not necessarily because they are  supposed to be blow-by-blow accounts and  therefore they can't be true because  they recorded the things you know things  that maybe were slightly off from one  another but rather each evangelist was  trying to highlight certain points of  who Jesus was  Jesus was a divine person so no  evangelist would ever be able to fully  encapsulate who Jesus was and what it  was that he was actually doing instead  each one brings particular parts into  focus each one each evangelist uses  their own sort of lens to shine a light  on particular aspects of who this person  of Jesus was for the benefit of the  audience that they were writing to and  for our benefit as well it's not simply  to explain how Jesus was the fulfillment  of all the promises that god made to  Israel it was actually his redemption of  the human race and who he was as a  divine person and we get all of those  through Matthew mark Luke and john in  each of their own separate ways in  particular the discussion that kind of  leads things off is the discussion about  the genealogy of Jesus it's the first  piece in Matthew it's one of the early  pieces in Luke and we even catch a  different sort of a glimpse of a  genealogy at the beginning of the gospel  of st. John so what the focus is on here  is he says in Matthew's genealogy it  leads the gospel and it acts as almost  like a header  of things it focuses on Abraham and on  David  Matthew was writing to a predominantly  Jewish audience so focusing more on  Abraham and David and how the promise  passed through Abraham through David and  is now fulfilled in the person of Jesus  Christ makes a lot of sense when you're  writing to a predominantly Jewish author  it makes a lot of sense to frame the  entire gospel and Jesus's life in that  sort of context to really bring out the  elements that Jesus is priest prophet  and king and that he is the fulfillment  of all of these promises to make a great  nation to make a great family to make a  great people  Luke's genealogy is a little bit  different though Luke begins all the way  at Adam and he goes through Abraham and  David still but there's a slight  difference there in that he doesn't  begin with Abraham as Matthew does and  the pope points out that there's a  different audience for Luke than there  is for Matthew and I'll put in a direct  quote here from the book he's talking  about how st. Luke is discussing and  writing to a more diverse audience than  saint Matthew was there were a lot of  pagans a lot of Greeks that might have  been reading Luke's gospel he says  Luke's genealogy is correctly grasped  here in underscore this is my  parenthetical note here in underscoring  this notion of going all the way back to  Adam the pope says quote Jesus takes  upon himself the whole of humanity the  whole history of man and he gives it a  decisive reorientation towards a new  manner of human existence end quote so  this is the proper way the pope says to  understand the differences in those two  genealogies in going all the way back to  Adam  Luke is speaking about not only simply  the promises fulfilled to Israel but the  reorientation and the salvation of all  the human race all the way down the ages  all the way through up to Jesus in whom  the human race finds redemption and  salvation now the st. John's genealogy  is a little bit different and what I'm  talking about here when i reference st.  John's genealogy is john chapter 1 verse  1 and onwards and that's the passage  that begins in the beginning was the  word and the word was with god and the  word was god  this is not a genealogy in the  conventional sense of this person was  this person's father and this person  fathered this person in inductive at  Dada down the line what this is  attesting to is the divine genealogy if  you will of Jesus john is presenting  Jesus as the only begotten son of the  father eternally existing with him and  being god himself he identifies Jesus as  existing since before time began so to  speak being with the father and being  one with the father that there was no  distinction we get the glimpse into his  divine personage and again as we go on  down that genealogy we hear that the  word was made flesh and dwelt among us  there's a little bit of an interesting  reflection on that word dwelt among us  and I'll read directly from the book  again quote Jesus is so to speak the  tent of meeting he is the reality for  which the tent and the later temple  could only serve as signs earlier the  pope referenced the fact that dwelt  among us means pitched his tent among us  literally in the original language the  tent of meeting was the tabernacle it  was the place where the Israeli would  set up and  god's presence would dwell among them  literally and truly it would be with  them so what st. John is pointing out in  his genealogy is not only who Jesus is  but he's also pointing out the fact that  in this act of the incarnation Jesus god  himself dwells among us again truly  bodily and substantially this is one of  the great takeaways in these different  genealogies that we have is that we can  obtain and understand a little bit more  about him through each of these gospel  writers and what differences and in what  pieces they're attempting to highlight  and bring into focus for us so i really  appreciate another section of this book  that details the difference between the  annunciation to Mary and the  announcement to Zachariah the Zechariah  is a priest of Israel and it's come to  be his turn to offer sacrifice for the  temple and for the people of Israel and  he is inside the holy of hold's  something that a priest would only ever  be able to do once in his lifetime the  holy of ho lies was the place where the  presence of god truly dwelt and when he  goes in to offer the sacrifice he finds  the angel Gabriel who announces the  birth of john the baptist to Elizabeth  who has been barren there's a difference  here with the annunciation of Mary it's  a similar sort of a circumstance where  Mary a poorer Israelite woman is in  prayer and the angel Gabriel again comes  to her and announces the birth of a  child there's a difference in how Mary  and Zechariah respond however Zachariah  responds with fear and Mary reacts with  a striving to understand we often read  the two and kind of think that the  reactions are similar  which it's understand the pole why we  kind of become confused as to why the  consequences of the action are different  between the two but when we read it a  little bit closer we realize that  Zechariah reacts with fear and with  doubt that these things can actually be  accomplished Mary instead asks for a  question on the particulars she realizes  that she has not been with man she knows  not a mad and she's understandably  confused as to how she could be with  child  whereas Zechariah says that no i don't  think that this is truly possible and in  both cases god proofs both of them  incorrect he says this will happen for  all things are possible with god  and in that we have the difference  between the trust of Mary who reflects  on all these things in her heart and the  doubt of Zachariah who becomes mute and  is not able to speak until the birth of  his son this trust of Mary this  reflecting got all these things in her  heart makes her an image of the church  she listens to what it is that god says  and far from being the arbiter or making  decisions about what is and what isn't  she reflects on these things and  transmits them to others she ponders  she grows to understand the depth and  the breadth of what's being told to her  without attempting to manipulate or  control it without attempting to make  the message something that it's not and  i really think that that was a beautiful  section - along with Mary here we have  the figure of saint Joseph who receives  images and dreams he receives messages  from an angel while he's sleeping who is  telling him various things you know the  people seek the child's life take the  child and the mother and flee he  receives another message take them here  and it really opens up Joseph as someone  who discerns and who responds to god's  will  he discerns in that he's thinking about  these things praying about these things  been attempting to ascertain where they  come from and attempts to respond to  them as best that he can so another  section of what the pope says here he  says quote once again this shows us an  essential quality of the figure of st.  Joseph his capacity to perceive the  divine and his ability to discern only a  man who is inwardly watchful for the  divine only someone with a real  sensitivity for god and his ways can  receive god's message in this way so in  this we really get an image of what this  holy family must have been like we have  Mary who's receiving the annunciation  from Gabriel we have Joseph who's being  visited by an angel in the dream and  they're both discerning reflecting in  their heart  praying attempting to understand things  that are divine they're attempting to  understand what it is that god is  calling them to and i really believe  that that's a beautiful image and  something that is that can help us  because we often wonder oh well how  could i be one of these saints what pope  is telling us that it takes an inward  watchfulness to be cognizant and  conscious of the movements of the divine  in our souls that they do in fact happen  that they are in fact there that god  does speak to us but it takes  playfulness watchfulness  and a real desire to understand a real  striving to continue to work through all  of the questions that we have without  doubt but with faith instead there was  another section that I'd like to  highlight and it's talking about the  name that's given to Jesus by the angel  Jesus comes from yeshiva which means  Yahweh saves this is the entire mission  encapsulated in one word of what god  wishes to do to Israel and to his people  he wishes to save and with leaving the  infancy narrative for a second the pope  actually brings in the story of the  paralytic where Jesus is ministering to  people in a house that's extremely  crowded they can't get this paralytic to  him to be healed so they go up on the  roof they open up the roof and let the  paralytic down and here's what the pope  says about that in the passage concerned  both the criticism of the scribes and  the silent expectation of the onlookers  is acknowledged Jesus then demonstrates  his ability to forgive sins by ordering  his the sick man to take up his pallet  and walk away healed at the same time  the priority of forgiveness of sins as  the foundation of all true healing is  clearly maintained man is a relational  being and if his first fundamental  relationship is disturbed his  relationship with god then nothing else  can truly be in order i really think  that this at least when i was reading it  helped to put things in perspective of  what this Christmas story what this  incarnation of god is what Jesus's  mission is the mission and the healing  of people isn't so much to point to the  physical healing of the body but the  healing of relationship by the firsts in  the relationship with god in humanity  was  severed and damaged but this incarnation  of god himself  to save his people is not simply one to  make people materially prosperous or to  make them happy in the earthly sense it  is to repair a relationship that's been  broken by sin by selfishness by anger by  lust by agreed what-have-you but this is  the mission it's to save people and i  think in today's world we have a  tendency to focus on the bodily aspects  we have a tendency to focus on things  that are immediate and obvious and close  we focus on things like bank accounts  and technology and bodily health without  really stopping to understand and think  about and ponder relationships that we  have with one another and most  importantly relationships between us and  god that's the purpose of the healing  that's the purpose of salvation that is  what salvation is it's to mend at the  relationship that was broken by sin and  restore us to true son ship and god so  the response of the shepherd's is  another thing after the nativity occurs  the shepherd's received the message from  the angel that there will be a babe  wrapped in swaddling clothes and that  god has come to visit his people and  they will know him because he's a babe  in the manger wrapped in swaddling  clothes there's a holy curiosity by  these shepherds these shepherds who were  not very high class citizens in fact  they were kind of rough and tumble  people their testimony was not  admissible in Jewish courts even that's  kind of they were pretty low on the  totem pole so why announce to these  people well partially because the poor  the downtrodden they are more likely to  you to listen to and to understand  and the word of god because they won are  probably fairly bored out in the field  in the middle of the night but - they  have a greater reliance on god because  they don't have anything for themselves  they aren't caught up in the egoism of  the rest of the world they aren't so  finicky in particular about the way that  their life has to be they aren't  concerned and consumed with temporal  affairs constantly and i think when they  go to meet Mary they go to meet the holy  family there's three things about their  response that i think are particularly  poignant for today's world they leave in  the haste to go find the child Jesus i  think that that's important because  there are a lot of times in today's  world where spiritual things come along  and we think hey you know I've got time  and you know I'll become a saint  tomorrow you know I'll pray tomorrow oh  i don't have the time today but instead  it's a recognition that we need to hurry  that we need to not delay until tomorrow  in all of these things that the goodness  of god is so great and the desire to  love us from god is so great that it  demands our response and that in making  haste to run off to god is the greatest  thing that a human being can do so it's  to move quickly and to strive ardently  for holiness the second thing that the  shepherd's do is that they make known  the message this is what was said that  they make known the message to the holy  family of what they had heard from the  angel that they would find the king of  Israel wrapped in swaddling clothes and  laid in the manger and that there would  be peace on earth and goodwill and  towards man they make known the message  i think that this is crucial for us in  our day and age to to make known the  message of god not to be you know  necessarily banging the war drum on the  corners of streets but to really show  other people how wonderful life that we  have found in Christ is to show that the  graces that god has bestowed on us are  fantastic and that the life that we live  certainly has its sorrows but it is  filled with wonderful joy it's to make  know the message and finally they leave  with joy i think that that's something  crucial today too because there are so  often times where i think a lot of  people go to mass sighs no i certainly  do sometimes and you know it's just  another thing that we're doing we go to  mass and we leave really no different  than when we started in the first place  you know it's basically oh hey great i  did this thing perfect that'll you know  i can check that box off so i don't go  to hell i think when we really stop and  think about it though  the shepherd's leave with joy precisely  because of what they found there and at  the mass we are guaranteed to find Jesus  he humbles himself by trans  substantiating himself into bread and  then offering him is very self to us in  a holy communion i think a lot of times  because the mass is vile commonly  celebrated in the vernacular we think  that because we understand that the  words of mass we understand what's going  on at mass but we really don't if we sit  back and think about it  this is a wondrous marvelous exchange  that we are seeing take place we are  seeing a ripple if you will of the  incarnation we are seeing Jesus himself  offering himself on the altar we are  seeing him through the species of the  bread and wine  and we are truly looking at him and  truly taking him into our being and if  we allow him in there and allow  ourselves to trust and to offer  ourselves to him as he offers himself to  us we will be filled with joy  we will leave with joy and we will never  be the same because we can't be no human  being could contain god within  themselves instead god must enter into  us and push our heart out in myriad ways  and make it larger and bigger and more  capable of love  and finally the section that i think is  a key takeaway for this book is this  final quote that he's talking about the  finding of the child of Jesus in the  temple so Jesus the Foley family go up  to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice when  Jesus is about 12 years old and the holy  family believes that he's somewhere in  the caravan they make it a day away from  Jerusalem and they realized that Jesus  isn't there so they go back and they  search for him and on the third day they  find him in the temple and here's what  the pope writes about kind of the  thought process of Jesus and what's  happening in this situation Jesus is  freedom is not the freedom of a little  of the liberal it is the freedom of the  son and thus the freedom of the truly  devout person as son Jesus brings a new  freedom not the freedom of someone with  no obligations but the freedom of  someone totally united with the father's  will someone who helps mankind to attain  the freedom of inner oneness with god so  what we see from this statement and  these things that are happening here is  it's not that Jesus is you know  disrespecting his parents it's not that  he's you know purposely causing them  fright or harm or psychological distress  or anything like that but rather what we  see is Jesus as the son who is  pointing us to the father don't you know  that i must be in my father's house he's  not only revealing himself as the son  but also showing us what it is to truly  be free despite the fact that he's given  his parents quite the start he is  following the father's will he is  learning about the Israelite faith he is  teaching people about the Israelite  faith and he is experiencing and showing  this experience of inner oneness with  god we are called to join Jesus in this  oneness and we experienced that through  the holy Eucharist and we experience it  through prayer the holy spirit comes to  our aid when we pray and brings us into  that divine life the entire piece of the  incarnation here is to bring humanity  into divinity to kind of swallow up the  sins and the errors of our human  waywardness and repair and heal us that  we might be partakers in the divine love  that we might be partakers in this love  and oneness that Jesus shares with the  father this is the great message of  catholic

 that god became  man so that man may become god not to  become god in some weird mythological  sense but to be partakers and to  participate in the divine life itself to  be one with god that we might be truly  of one mind and heart in Christ  sohal that i think those are the key  takeaways of this book it's only about a  hundred and thirty pages so the fact  that i spent you know this long talking  to you about it really is a testament to  how much meat and substance there is  inside of this book i can't imagine what  it'll be like when i review the first  Jesus of Nazareth book  but i would really encourage you to take  a look at this book it's by pope  Benedict xvi it's Jesus of Nazareth the  infancy narratives it's available on  amazon or wherever you get your books  pretty much every good catholic  bookstore will have it or they could get  it for you you might even be able to  pick up a copy at the library and be  able to borrow it from them but i really  highly recommend this book I'd give it  eight and a half stars out of ten so  please take a look use it for your  advent preparations next year so cheers  to pope Benedict the 16th for his many  years of service to the church for his  wonderful exposition of the faith may  god bless and guide him and may god  bless and guide all of us and until next  time stay in the state of grace and god  bless friends