|
From Inside the
Vatican's website:
For a thousand years
the arms of the Munich archbishops have displayed a Moor,
wearing a crown. No one knows how he got there. Ratzinger
regards him as a symbol of the Church's universality, which
knows no distinctions of race or class, since "all are one in
Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28).
Ratzinger added two personal symbols. The first is a scallop
shell, the pilgrim's emblem (still given to pilgrims at
Compostela), a reminder that "we have here no lasting city"
(Heb. 13:14). The shell also reminds Ratzinger of his
theological mentor and the subject of his doctoral dissertation,
St. Augustine. Walking along the seashore as he reflected on the
mystery of the Trinity, Augustine came on a child who had dug a
hole in the sand and was trying to pour the sea into it with a
shell. Augustine realized that his efforts to understand the
mystery of God were as futile as the child's attempt to get the
sea into the hole. "The shell reminds me of my great master
Augustine, of my theological work, and of the vastness of the
mystery which surpasses all our learning." These words place
their writer in the Church's central theological tradition,
along with such greats as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. All that
we can know of God is always far less than what, in this life,
we can never know.
The second symbol, a bear with a pack on his back, is connected
with a legend about Munich's first bishop, St. Korbinian.
Traveling to Rome, Korbinian encountered a bear which attacked
the horse which was carrying the saint's luggage. As punishment
Korbinian made the bear carry his pack to Rome before releasing
him. The bear reminds Ratzinger of Augustine's meditation on
Psalm 72 (73). By a coincidence, which the new Pope will not
have failed to notice, this psalm was in the Breviary Office of
Readings on the day the Conclave began. Ratzinger writes about
it as follows:
"The psalm speaks about the testing of faith, which seems to
bring no earthly reward. The person who is faithful to God does
not necessarily enjoy success. Often the cynic seems to prosper
most. Why? The psalmist finds his answer as he stands before God
and sees how insignificant material prosperity and success are,
and what really counts and saves: 'I was stupid and did not
understand, no better than a beast in your sight.'
"Augustine takes the 'beast' in this verse to be a draft animal.
He compares his work as a bishop to that of an ox pulling a
wagon. ... Augustine had chosen a scholar's life — only to find
that God harnessed him to his wagon, to pull it through the
world. How often Augustine rebelled against all his petty
duties, which took him away from what he knew was his deepest
calling. The psalm helped him overcome his bitterness. It
enabled him to say: 'Yes, Lord, I am a beast, a pack animal, an
ox — but that is how I serve you, you hold me in your hand.' As
the farmer's ox is close to him and works for him, so Augustine
realized that his humdrum duties brought him close to God. He
was doing the Lord's work, closer to him than all others,
essential to him.
"Isn't Korbinian's bear, compelled against his will to carry the
saint's pack, a picture of my own life? 'I am no better than a
beast in your sight' — but a beast close to God. What more can I
say about my bishop's years? The legend says that Korbinian set
the bear free once he reached Rome. It doesn't tell us whether
the animal went to the Abruzzi Mountains or returned to the
Alps. Meanwhile I have carried my pack to Rome and wander for
some time now through the streets of the Eternal City. When
release will come I cannot know. What I do know is that I am
God's pack animal, and as such close to him."
The new Pope's reflections eight years ago take on special
poignancy when we know that some years ago he asked Pope John
Paul II to release him from his duties in Rome to return to
Germany and his first love, theological study and teaching. John
Paul asked Ratzinger to stay on. "We're both getting old,
Joseph," he told him. "We must continue to work together."
Now the cardinals have told Joseph Ratzinger that he must carry
his pack to the end. |
