On the Way to Jesus Christ

by Pope Benedict XVI

Publisher:

Ignatius

, 2005

Overview

Jesus Christ is as popular as ever. Films, books, and news articles ask, “Who was Jesus Christ?” Even outside of Christianity he continues to appeal to people. And yet for so many, the popular Jesus is not the Jesus of Christianity. The popular Jesus makes no demands and never challenges people. He accepts everyone and everything under all circumstances.

On the Way to Jesus Christ is a series of meditations that Pope Benedict XVI wrote while he was Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The true Jesus, he writes, is the Jesus of the Gospels who “is quite different, demanding and bold. The Jesus who makes everything okay for everyone is a phantom, a dream, not a real figure. The Jesus of the Gospels is certainly not convenient for us. But it is precisely in this way that he answers the deepest question of our existence, which—whether we want to or not—keeps us on the lookout for God, for a gratification that is limitless, for the infinite. We must again set out on the way to this real Jesus.”

This book also examines whether Jesus Christ is the only savior, and the Church’s responsibility to evangelize. It concludes with reflections on Jesus’ Presence in the Holy Eucharist, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s presentation of the Christian mystery as seen through the Catechism’s dynamic view of Sacred Scripture.

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Key Features

• Offers a series of meditations on the Jesus of the Gospels
• Examines how Jesus answers the deepest questions of our existence
• Explores whether Jesus Christ is the only savior

Contents

• The Face of Christ in Sacred Scripture: “He Who Has Seen Me Has Seen the Father”
• Wounded by the Arrow of Beauty: The Cross and the New “Aesthetics” of Faith
• Communication and Culture: New Methods of Evangelization in the Third Millennium
• Christ, the Redeemer of Mankind: The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ and His Church
• Looking at Christ: The Figure of Christ as Reflected in the Gospel Account of His Temptation
• Daily Bread and Eucharistic Bread: A Meditation for the Feast of Corpus Christi
• Eucharist–Communio–Solidarity: Christ Present and Active in the Blessed Sacrament
• Universality and Catholicity
• Is the Catechism of the Catholic Church Up-to-Date? Reflections Ten Years after Its Publication

Top Highlights

“Looking at icons, and in general at the great masterpieces of Christian art, leads us on an interior way, a way of transcendence, and thus brings us, in this purification of sight that is a purification of the heart, face to face with beauty, or at least with a ray of it. In this way it brings us into contact with the power of the truth. I have often said that I am convinced that the true apologetics for the Christian message, the most persuasive proof of its truth, offsetting everything that may appear negative, are the saints, on the one hand, and the beauty that the faith has generated, on the other. For faith to grow today, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to come in contact with the beautiful.” (Page 38)

“Life. Thereby the Eucharist becomes seeing, as happened in an exemplary manner to the disciples at Emmaus.” (Page 29)

“Yes, you can see God. Whoever sees Christ sees him” (Page 14)

“Personally, I always find particularly moving the commentary on this passage that Gregory of Nyssa gives. Being able to see God only from the back—what else does that mean, he says, but that we can only encounter God by walking after Jesus; that the only way we can see him is by following Jesus, which means walking behind him and thus going along behind God’s back.¹³ The way that God is seen in this world is by following Christ; seeing is going, is being on the way for our whole life toward the living God, whereby Jesus Christ, by the entire way that he walked, especially by the Paschal Mystery of his suffering, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, presents us with the itinerary.” (Pages 26–27)

Praise for the Print Edition

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has written a brief but compelling invitation to know Jesus Christ as he really is: bold, demanding, merciful, strong, and the answer to our deepest longings. This is a must-read book for anyone serious about deepening his or her faith.

—Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Denver

Product Details

• Title: On the Way to Jesus Christ
• Author: Joseph Ratzinger
• Translator: Michael J. Miller
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 191
• Christian Group: Catholic
• Resource Type: Monographs
• Topic: Doctrine of Christ

About Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI was the 265th pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship.