By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The second volume of “Jesus of Nazareth” by Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to be released on March 11 and will complete the pontiff’s portrait of “the face of the Lord.”
The Universe Catholic Weekly is reporting that Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week – From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrecton, completes the work of the personal search of Joseph Ratzinger for the face of the Lord.
The first volume, Jesus of Nazareth – From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration was released in 2007.
As the pope makes clear in the introduction to the first volume, this portrait should not be considered an official document of the Church’s Magisterium but should be seen as the fruit of his own personal research. So “everyone is free, then, to contradict me,” he writes.
His aim is pastoral, not merely academic, “to help foster (in the reader) the growth of a living relationship” with Jesus Christ. “I hope that I have been granted an insight into the figure of Our Lord that can be helpful to all readers who seek to encounter Jesus and to believe in Him,” he writes in the second volume.
The second book focuses on the last week of Jesus’ life on earth and explores questions that have intrigued scholars both inside and outside of the Church for centuries.
One of the most widely publicized of these questions is one concerning whether or not the Jews killed Jesus, a claim the pope refutes in the book. The Holy Father breaks down the infamous passage from St. Matthew’s gospel in which “the Jews” demand the execution of Jesus and shout to Pontius Pilate, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.”
Even though this text has been a cornerstone for anti-Semitism for centuries, the pope says Matthew was referring to the mob in the courtyard, not to the Jewish people in general.
And the blood of Jesus does not represent “a curse but rather redemption, salvation,” the pope writes. “It was not poured out against anyone. It is poured out for many, for all.”
The book also addresses questions about whether Jesus actually celebrated the Jewish Passover, or if he was slaughtered like the sacrificial lambs on the eve of that Passover. Why would Pilate sentence him to death if he believed Jesus was innocent? And how could one of Jesus’ personally chosen apostles betray him?
The Holy Father doesn’t just address these questions, he also links them to current issues facing the Church and the world today.
For instance, Judas’ betrayal is linked to the infidelity that has existed in teh Church from the time of Christ to the current day.
Pilate’s inner struggle is likened to the struggle between politics and truth, peace and justice, and points to the important questions that must be raised in relation to the world of politics and society today.
The book, which will be released the first week of Lent, is considered to be an ideal companion for priests and faithful as they prepare for Holy Week and Easter.
The book can be pre-ordered from Ignatius Press.
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