Joseph Ratzinger BEAUTY CHURCH 6

Sorry for the bad translation

The essence of true reform

The activist, who wants to build everything by itself, is the opposite of the one who admires (the 'admirer'). He narrows the scope of their reason and thus loses sight of the mystery. The more the Church extends the scope of things decided by itself and self-made, the more narrow it is for us all. In it the full size, liberating, is not constituted by what we do ourselves, but from what is given to us all.
What does not come from our will and invent, but is before them, a coming to us of what is unthinkable, what is more greater than our hearts. "The reformatio, that which is necessary in every age, is not the fact that we can reshape always New "our" Church as we like, we can invent it, but in the fact that we always blown away again support our own development, in favor of pure light from above that which is at the same time ' burst of pure freedom.

Let me tell you what I mean with an image, an image that I found in Michael Angelo, who takes his part in this ancient concepts of mysticism and Christian philosophy. With the eyes of the artist, Michelangelo saw already in the stone before him the image-guide who secretly waiting to be freed and brought to light. The task of the artist - in his view - was only to take away what still covered the image. Michelangelo conceived as a genuine artistic action to bring to light a set at liberty, not as a do. The same idea applies but the scope of anthropology, was already in St. Bonaventure, which explains the way through which man becomes truly himself, taking his cue from the comparison with the carver of images, ie with the sculptor. The sculptor does not do something, says the great Franciscan theologian. His work is rather a ablatio: This consists in taking away what is inauthentic. In this way, through the ablative, it appears nobilis form, that is the figure precious. So the man, that shine in him the image of God, must above all and first of all accept the purification, through which the sculptor, God, frees him from all the waste that obscure
the authentic look of his being, making it look just like a block of rough stone, but instead he dwells in the divine form.

If we understand correctly, we can find in this picture also the role model for the reform of the Church. Certainly, the Church will always need new structures to support human, to speak and operate at all times in history. These church institutions with their legal form, far from being something bad, on the contrary, in some degree, simply necessary and indispensable.
But they get older, are likely to arise as the most important thing, and so distract the eye from what is truly essential. For this they must always be taken away again, as scaffolding become superfluous. Reform is always a ablatio again: a take away, to make it visible form nobilis, the face of bride and together with it also the face of the bridegroom himself, the living Lord. Such ablative, such a "negative theology", is a path toward a goal of completely positive. Only then penetrates the Divine, and only thus stands a congregatio, an assembly, a gathering, a purification, pure that community might wish: a community where "I" is no longer against another "I", a " self against another self. Rather that give themselves, quell'affidarsi with confidence, which is part of love, becomes the mutual receive all good and all that is pure. And so each is the word of the generous Father, who to his eldest son is jealous is reminiscent of what the content of every freedom and every utopia realized: "All that is mine is yours ..." (The 15.31 ; dr.Gv 17.1).

True reform is therefore an ablative, as such becomes congregatio. Let us grasp in a somewhat 'more concrete idea of the fund. At first we had opposing activist approach to the admirer, and we were cast in favor of the latter. But what does this contrast? The activist, who always wants to do, places his business above all. This limits the scope of its horizon feasible, of what may become the subject of his work. Properly speaking, he sees only the objects. It is not able to perceive what is greater than he, as this would limit its activities. He shrinks the world to what is empirical. The man is amputee. The activist built himself a prison, against which he then protest loudly.
But the real surprise is a "No" to the limitation in what is empirical, in what is only the aldiqua. It prepares the man at the time of faith, which opens the horizon before the Eternal, the Infinite. And only that which has no limits is large enough for our nature, only the unlimited is appropriate to the vocation of our being. Where this horizon disappears, every trace of freedom becomes too small and all the releases, which in turn can be proposed, is a tasteless substitute, which is never enough. The first, basic ablative, which is necessary for the Church, is always again an act of faith itself. That act of faith that tears down barriers and opens the finite space to come up with the endless sea. Faith takes us "far away in boundless lands", as they say in the Psalms. The modern scientific thought has ever imprisoned in positivism, condemning it to pragmatism.

Thanks to him we can achieve many things you can travel from the moon and even further nell'illimitatezza of the cosmos. However, despite this, one is always at the same point, because the actual border, the border of the quantity and feasible, is not exceeded.

Albert Camus described the absurdity of this form of freedom in the emperor Caligula, everything is at its disposal, but all things are too tight. In his mad desire to have more and more, and greater things, he cries, I want the moon, give me the moon!

Now, meanwhile, has become possible for us to have in some way, even the moon. But until you open the actual border, the border between earth and heaven, between God and the world, the moon is just another piece of land, and do not reach us even one step closer to freedom and the fullness we desire.

The fundamental liberation that the Church can give us is it to be in the horizon of the Lord is come out from the limits of our knowledge and our power. The faith itself, in all its grandeur and magnitude, it is therefore essential to reform over and over again that we need and, since then we have it again and again to test those institutions that we ourselves have done in the Church. This means that the Church must be the bridge of faith, and that it - especially in his worldly associational life - can not become an end in itself. It's released today here and there, even in high ecclesiastical circles, the idea that a person is much more Christian than what is involved in church activities. It leads to a kind of therapy ecclesiastical activity, get busy, everyone is trying to assign a committee or, in any case, at least some commitment within the Church. In some way, so you think, there must always be an ecclesial activity, we must speak of the Church or you must do something to it or in it. But a mirror that reflects only your self is no longer a mirror, a window instead of allowing a free look to the distant horizon, is interposed as a screen between the observer and the world, has lost its meaning. It can happen that someone engaged continuously and church group activities, however, is by no means a Christian. Can happen to someone else instead of just simply living the Word and Sacrament and practice the love that comes from faith, without being ever appeared in church committees that have never dealt with the news of ecclesiastical politics, without having been part of synods and without Cast in them, and yet he is a true Christian.
It is a Church that we need more human, but more of a Church of God, only then it will be truly human. And so all that is man-made, within the Church, must be recognized in its pure nature of service and retire before the most important thing and that's the main thing. The freedom that we rightly expect from the Church and the Church, is not realized due to the fact that we introduce in it the principle of majority. It does not depend by the fact that the majority of the widest possible prevail over the minority more small as possible, it depends instead on the fact that no one can impose its own will on others, but all recognize related word and the will of the One who is our Lord and our freedom.

In the Church, the atmosphere becomes cramped and stifling the bearers of the ministry if they forget that the Sacrament is not a sharing of power, but instead of expropriation in favor of him myself, in the person to whom I must speak and act. Where the liability is consistent with increasing the growing autoespropriazione, there is no slave of; dominates the Lord and because there is the principle that: "The Lord is the Spirit. But where the Spirit of the Lord there is liberty "{2 Cor 3:17).
The more equipment we build, are also the most modern, the less there is room for the Spirit, the less there is room for the Lord, and there is even less freedom. I think we should, from this point of view, up in the Church at all levels of an examination of conscience unconditionally. At all levels, this examination of conscience should have a very concrete, and bear with 'him a ablatio leaving again reveal the true face of the Church. It could give us all a sense of freedom and of being at home in a whole new way.