Pope Benedicts XVI’s main point.
In 6 Sundays in Ordinary time, ( 19 – 25 Sundays in Ordinary time) the Gospels taught an important lesson missed by most seminaries that caused them to teach theology wrongly which became the main reason for the crisis of Faith in the Church today.
There are two levels of knowledge in man. The first is natural; the second is supernatural. The first, natural knowledge is everything man can naturally learn, like everything learned in schools and everything learned by the senses. This knowledge can be learned by man and can be taught by man or books. There can be different degrees in this level of knowledge; we can have grade school, high school, college, masters and so on. But they all remain in the natural knowledge. That Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary living in Nazareth….is a human knowledge the same way we know Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison.
Then there is the supernatural level. In this level are the truths of Divine Revelation, the truths about the Catholic Church, who is Jesus, the teachings of Christ, the way to Union with God and happiness. Man in his natural faculties cannot learn any of this and neither can any man teach these truths. Only God can teach these truths. That Jesus is the Son of the Living God which is the mystery of the Incarnation is a supernatural knowledge and Christ said:: ‘ No flesh and blood can teach this truth but My Father in Heaven.’ This truth falls in the supernatural level. Only God can teach this. The listener must also be in the supernatural level….or must have the supernatural and theological virtue of Faith.
Note that in the Gospel in the 25th Sunday in Ordinary time the CROWD knew Christ as a prophet just like the prophet Jeremiah. They were in the natural level and their knowledge of Christ was in the natural level. But when Christ questioned them on the mystery of the Incarnation, “And who do you say I am?” They, led by Peter, answered correctly: “You are the Son of the Living God.” And Christ complimented them: “No man had taught you this but My Father in Heaven.” Knowledge of the Incarnation, a supernatural truth, showed that the apostles had Faith and where in the supernatural level (in which all of them were since the time Christ called them to follow Him). But the apostles were NOT high enough in the supernatural level so they could not understand Christ when He presented to them the mystery of the Redemption : ‘The Son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men who will put him to death.’ And the Gospel states: “And they failed to understand His words.” The Apostles had Faith, they were in the supernatural level, how come they did not understand His words? Because Christ had not yet explained it to them! Christ had to teach them. Christ had to explained it to them before they could understand it. They had not gone high enough in the supernatural life to be able to understand the mystery of the Redemption. How can they go higher and thus make Christ, not the theology professor, explain it to them?
Let us go back to the Mystery of the Incarnation. The crowd because they remained in the natural level recognized the historical Christ only. The Apostles recognized the supernatural Christ, the God-Man because they had done something that raised them up from the natural level to the supernatural level. What is this? Christ, Himself said in the Gospel (24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), to understand the Incarnation “he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Note that Christ did NOT say “Teach them the Mystery of the Incarnation.” He, in effect, said: if you want to rise from the natural level and go up to the supernatural level and understand the mystery of the Incarnation……”deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.” Note WHAT is taught and WHAT is learned. “Deny yourself…”is taught. “The Incarnation” is learned.
So in Theology class, I must not teach the Mystery of the Incarnation….because the seminarians will not understand it being still in the natural level. I must teach them “to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Christ.” That is what I must teach. If I do it well, the seminarians will be raised to the supernatural level, received the supernatural theological virtue of Faith and will KNOW Jesus Christ, the God-man. And that is Faith…….but a weak or small Faith. Faith must increase and be perfect.
The Gospel continues and states that Christ presented the Mystery of Redemption to the Apostles, “and they will put Me to death,” and the Gospel says “they failed to understand His words.” So Christ said: ‘for you to understand the mystery of Redemption, I should NOT explain it to you. What you must do is to go higher in the supernatural level. To do this you must ‘Welcome this child for My sake.’ Notice what I did not teach, namely “Redemption.” Note what Christ wants me to teach “To welcome children for Christ’s sake.” If I teach this latter well, then the seminarians will understand the mystery of Redemption and know how the Sacrifice of the Mass can save souls.
In the Gospel, the Apostles remain ignorant of the Mystery of Redemption… why Christ had to go and be crucified. And Peter showed his ignorance as something out of place that made Christ call him ‘Satan.’ It will still take some time before Christ tells them why He should die. See, you cannot rush studying theology because God is the teacher and He loves to take His time even when He is in a rush. This will explain why Pope Benedict keeps on repeating the word ‘contemplation’ in his ‘New Evangelization.”
Evangelization does not consist in teaching natural truths. Neither does it consist in teaching supernatural truths. Evangelization is teaching HOW to rise from the natural level and go up to the supernatural level. As the Gospel states: ‘unless the Father draws us up….’ To rise up to the supernatural level is an act of grace and it is up there where God teaches us. No flesh and blood can teach up there…in the school of the Lord’s service.
In his ‘New Evangelization’ Pope Benedict noted that the method by which seminarians studied Divine Revelation was wrong. We should not teach seminarians the Mystery of the Incarnation. We teach them ‘to deny themselves, to take up their crosses and follow Christ.’ If they obey they will know the mystery of the Incarnation, they will know the supernatural Christ and believe in the True Christ, (not the mere historical Christ). In the New Evangelization Pope Benedict does NOT want us to teach seminarians the Mystery of the Redemption, why Christ had to suffer, why we have to suffer and how the Sacrifice of the Mass saves souls. He wants us to teach souls how to “welcome children for the sake of Christ.”
But where can we get the knowledge on how “to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ” and how ‘to welcome Children for the sake of Christ?’ From the Fathers of the Church. Nowhere else! And the Holy Father had re-written all these information for us today. And so we have no good reason to Evangelize in the wrong way AGAIN as what has been happening for the last 400 years……unless we are overcome by the spirit of DISOBEDIENCE…….and still use the “wrong method” and “wrong contents” as he mentioned in his address on the year 2000 in Rome to catechists.