What It Means to Be a Christian: Three Sermons

Joseph Ratzinger is a brilliant man and a kind pastor. He seeks the truth (in the teaching of the Church revealed through Scripture and the Tradition) and proclaims it, recognizing that the truth is a life-giving gift of God to his people. The world opposes and even rages against the truth, but Joseph Ratzinger teaches it nonetheless, knowing it is a gift which brings us life.This short 86 page book is a series of sermons given in 1964, first to a congregation of Catholic students. Who could ever have guessed at the time that standing before them was a gifted world-class theologian and later Pope. Briefly, the three sermons focus on salvation, faith as service, and love. What a gift Ratzinger is to the Church and the world. Read these homilies as a gift for yourself.We read and discussed this in our parish book club with a very positive response.

I like the way Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict writes; I can understand him, I often feel he is having a personal conversation with me. I got the book because, to put it simply, it is not alwyas easy to be a Christian, and I wanted to learn anything he had to say on the subject of What it Means to be a Christian. Read the book, it is very worthwhile, even if you already know the answer: to be a Christian means to love.

As unexpected and uplifting in content as his "Introduction to Christianity,"only more accessible, in that it's a very short work, written in plain-spoken language, where the author asks the same tough questions that many of us have, questions that might seem too ordinary or too directly critical of Christianity to be honestly addressed by a prominent mainline theologian. Ratzinger wades right in, first asking such questions, and then, more importantly, providing answers that are utterly grounded in Sacred Scripture and Church teaching, but sometimes way outside the box of an awful lot of misguided catechesis. He goes to the heart.It's always a kind of shock to find Ratzinger's incisive reflections on questions like who is saved/damned, believer/unbeliever/ christian/non- or un-christian. He asks questions I have asked, and still ask about what it means to be a Catholic christian, and his answers speak the truth in a way my heart and conscience can understand.Here, he states categorically and challengingly that only the one who loves is a Christian.So, then, if love is enough, why all this dogma; if love is enough, why am I asked for faith, too; if Christ is the Redeemer, why is the world still so miserably unredeemed; what does it really mean to be a Christian; why do I have to be the one with the hard job?In "What it Means to Be a Christian," Ratzinger asks these questions, and others just as necessary, because, he says, to ignore or evade or avoid them is a betrayal of our own faith. We're not called upon to live in a pietistic comfort-zones, or take refuge in a faith that draws the blinds on reality so as to feel less pressured in our real exterior and interior lives. And, his answers are so direct, so clarifying, engaging, and grounded in un-self-protective truth, that I find myself upheld in my questions, validated in my hopes, and encouraged in my struggles to believe that my part really does matter.This short, very readable text offers an invaluable map of the real terrain of what it means to be a Christian. And, it provides the genuine Catholic answers, from the heart and mind of our world's foremost Catholic theologian and teacher. While these sermons were originally preached a long time ago, it's incredibly uplifting and empowering to see that now, decades later as Pope, Benedict XVI hasn't changed his mind or heart a whit.

Given the anti-Catholic reviews on this (and other Catholic book pages) by folks who have never read the texts they are posting reviews on, I thought I would actually buy and read this book. I've read through the book this week, and must say it was well worth it.Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in this series of sermons is not speaking to the North American Fundamentalist, it should be pointed out. In fact, his sermons are not even addressed specifically to Americans. It is certainly not a treatise on justification as some may think from the title. Cardinal Ratzinger is very aware of the decay of European society and the decline of Christian values and spiritual well being in Europe. Many of his texts, this one included, calls us back from secularism and individualism. He calls Christians to service to the Gospel message, to be heralds in the world and not to lose that important missionary zeal. He notes that the true Christian does not only become a Christian for the salvation of his own soul, but for others as well:"Becoming a Christian is not taking out an individual insurance policy; it is not the private booking of an entry ticket into heaven, so that we can look across at other people and say, 'I've got something the others haven't got; I've got salvation arranged for me that they don't possess.' Becoming a Christian is not at all something given to us so that we, each individual for himself, can pocket it and keep our distance from those others who are going off empty-handed." (pg 54)The intent of the text is not to say "This is how you become a Christian", but to address Christians and say "You are called to live a life of service to the Gospel, to work in the vineyard of the Lord, this is what it means to be a Christian".An entire text is well worth reading, Protestant or Catholic.

I came across this book by accident but it changed my life. Ratzinger's words touched so many of the questions I struggle with and helped me see my questions in a while new light. I can't say enough about the depth and wisdom of this simple, accessible, and profound book. Everyone (especially every Catholic) who wonders how their faith fits life in the contemporary world should read this book.

I had to read this book twice, not because it was written in a fancy way, but because I needed some time to realize what then Cardinal Ratzinger was saying. The time spent reading this book was really worthy. Ratzinger is not merely a preacher, a theologian, concerned only with abstract questions. He is a Pastor, someone interested in guiding His people and teach us the way to Christ. His explanation of Advent as a Contemporary reality and of love as the true characteristic required to be a Christian is touching, insightful and merciful. A must read.