The Introduction to Christianity by Joseph RatzingerFeminine mystical figures. The experience of God as incarnationTitling a book Better than that is risky and quite a statement of intent. But for José Luis Retegui, a young diocesan priest from Madrid, the Catholic religion is not just one among other religions and visions of existence. It is the best of all because, in his opinion, a better one cannot be imagined.
God, the best possible future
God has been pretentious and wanted to share with us, as Christ affirms at the Last Supper, the glory that He enjoyed before the creation of the world. If we elevate the two protagonists of every religion, God and man, to their maximum expression, we get the truth defended by the Catholic Church.
God has every imaginable perfection (all-powerful, infinite, omniscient...), his creation overflows with wisdom. Man is called to be like God by baptism because God has become like us in the incarnation. Life after death is all God's happiness forever. Can one imagine a better alternative? Christianity is the total union between God and man. Not in the future, but today and now, every time we partake of the Eucharist. By faith we believe in what man would not have dared to imagine or ask God for.
The truest religion
Better than that begins by affirming that the Catholic religion is the truest religion. In the first place, because it is the only one in which God has become man and has communicated to us the truth that only He knows. Moreover, this truth has been demonstrated by miracles and extraordinary deeds, from two thousand years ago to the present day. To think that all the miracles that have been corroborated by witnesses are invented perhaps requires even more faith.
Retegui takes an optimistic approach in a world where there is so much evil and suffering. In his opinion, the Catholic vision of evil is the most positive that can be conceived: Thanks to the Cross, we believe that "evil is good" because it allows us, like Christ, to love God and others more intensely. Moreover, we will suffer in this life only those evils that God permits in order to obtain greater good. Evil has an expiration date: Christ has annihilated it on the Cross, it is like a fish out of water giving its last breath.
Evil
Above all, we Catholics identify and have the tools to fight the only evil that should concern us: sin. All other evils can come in handy in this short period of life on earth. Christ has shown us how to transform pain into love. Evil to some extent is like smelly manure; it can be thrown away, however, if we bury it in our field it will make the plants flourish.
The work has a positive and uncomplicated tone, which brings freshness to the way of transmitting the faith in our time. It shows how Christianity offers the best vision of man, so that we are not just a collection of cells that will disappear after death. Moreover, the most modern movements are actually very ancient. Nature worship, yoga, karma, reincarnation... are much older than Christianity.
Maria
At the end of the book it is argued that the Virgin Mary is the proof that our created world is the best imaginable. This is a long-standing philosophical debate. Leibniz argued that this world is the best of all possible worlds, otherwise God would have created a better one. St. Thomas Aquinas rightly objected that this world is improvable and finite, God could have created a better universe, for example, with a larger size.
Mary is the answer to this apparent contradiction: God could have designed a more perfect universe, but not a more perfect creature than the Virgin Mary. The best of all possible worlds, God has concentrated it in a woman of Nazareth. The human being is called to be like God, she is the only one without any sin or imperfection. Therefore, the Virgin Mary is the reflection on earth of God's perfection.
