The Image of Christ in Benedict XVI’s Works

Abstract

The image of Christ in the trilogy Jesus of Nazareth is perfectly clear and systematic. From the beginning to the end it is pervaded with the perspective of the Divine unity of the Father and the Son. The Divine Child is an expression of the deepest humility of the Supreme Being, the new Moses is the fulfillment of the promises made by the Lord of History, and God’s Son is the Christus totus of the whole economy of salvation. Incarnation, Death and Resurrection are three acts of the same theatrum personae of the eternal Logos, who, becoming a man, elevated our humanity to the heavenly heights.

This growing triad of the image of Jesus Christ may be also defined on the plane of the promise: God’s Child was a revelation of God's promise, the new Moses was the realization of the promise, and God’s Son by His sacrifice became the fulfillment of the promise. In other words, the Incarnation revealed God’s mystery and drew a sketch of the whole picture, the teaching and healing Jesus filled the original sketch with contents giving it basic colors, but the real contrast and the center of this picture is Christ on the throne of the cross.

So the image of Christ is one and eternally the same: our living Lord and our living God. Hence Joseph Ratzinger Benedict XVI is a real protector of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, defending Him from the degenerated world of the West.