The last lesson of Benedict XVI"Ho visto Maradona, ho visto Maradona....
I remembered this song after a meeting that Monday morning when we went to pay our last respects to the late Pope Benedict XVI.
Fans of the Napoli soccer club, here in Italy, sang that song expressing their joy at having seen Maradona play soccer in their city.
When that boy came out of the basilica after having prayed before the remains of Pope Emeritus, he exclaimed to me: I have seen Ratzinger! I have seen Ratzinger!
I met him in the long line of those who set out to brave the early morning cold to pay their last respects to the late Pope.
We were among the many who came to thank him. We know we cannot write editorials, eulogies or share personal anecdotes of the Pope, but we were convinced that we knew him, that we have met him, that he has influenced us.
It turns out that my acquaintance is doing his doctoral thesis on the work of Joseph Ratzinger and so he had more ideas than I did. In short, I had a very interesting conversation with this man, let's call him Giuseppe.
Giuseppe shared a conversation he had with a friend the night before, when he informed him of his plan to go to the wake. The friend asked Giuseppe why he was going to see a dead person and he spontaneously replied, "Well, I'm going to see the living among the dead."
The queue was long with, so we had time to talk about many things revolving around Ratzinger's works mainly, to remember phrases from books or speeches we had liked, anecdotes from his personal life, scenes from Peter Seewald's biography, etc.
We were convinced that we had both met him. We spoke of his love for the liturgy, of his elegance, of how he always wore his white shirt and cufflinks well under his cassock, we remembered that in his first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's Square he wore a black sweater under his white cassock, and then it was the last time we saw him with such a sweater.
We didn't know why, but we came to the conclusion that the moments after his election as Pope must have been peculiar moments. Besides, we could not forget his red shoes. I was reminded of what Chesterton wrote about Thomas Becket in his book Orthodoxy. He said that Becket wore a garment of camel's hair under his gold dress, and got the benefit of the hair garment while the people in the street got the benefit of the gold.
We don't know what Ratzinger wore under the red shoe or his overall elegance, but we are convinced that we had the benefit of the red shoe while he had the other.
We remember the eulogy he wrote for Ida Friederike Görres, in which he asked if we could give thanks for someone's death. She convinced us to give thanks even at her own passing. So we gave thanks.
We use the words he wrote on that occasion, "Can we give thanks in this death? I think we can and should say yes. We give thanks to God that she existed, that this insightful, courageous and faithful woman was given to the Church in this century. We give thanks for her writings, for the way she was and will continue to be present to many people through her writings. We give thanks for the way God led her, step by step. And we give thanks for the death He gave her." If we substitute the "she" for "he", we see how apt her words were for that occasion.
At one point in the conversation, we mentioned his discourse on the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, which is a living hymn of stone and light in praise of the unique act of human history that is the Incarnation.
In a way, he was alluding to Victor Hugo's work on Notre-Dame. At that moment, Giuseppe commented on a text by Victor Hugo about Balzac in which he said that the work left by Balzac is elevated, solid, of granite steps, a monument. He concluded by saying that the great ones make their own pedestal; the future takes care of the statue.
Ratzinger is one of the greats. He has left his pedestal with his work and his life. We would put the statue. We already have the pedestal. We owe the statue to the future generation, we paid a part of our share in that debt of gratitude we owe Pope Benedict when we took care of the statue. We would also dare to climb the pedestal he has already built.
Just as we were talking about statues, I suggested to Giuseppe that perhaps we could start by proposing a text of his that would enter into the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours. It would be a good starting point for him, who loved the liturgy very much. Didn't we read a text of St. Paul VI the other day in the Office of Readings, I asked him rhetorically.
One thing that is evident now is that Ratzinger unites. Giuseppe and I have bonded. I started by calling him an "acquaintance". I think it is fair to say that a seed of friendship has been sown.
Not long after that, I sent him a message saying that maybe the second paragraph of Deus Caritas Est, "We have believed in God's loveThe Christian can thus express the fundamental choice of his or her life. One does not begin to be a Christian by an ethical decision or a great idea, but by the encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives a new horizon to life and, with it, a decisive orientation", could be the one who will enter into the office of readings.
He has answered me saying to be patient, to read and reread what he has written and that possibly we will find something soon. In the meantime I am reading his texts, and this is the only way to prepare the statue.
