VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI’s eagerly awaited second volume of his book Jesus of Nazareth goes on sale around the world on March 10, coinciding with the beginning of Lent.
The second of three volumes, it will focus on Christ’s Passion and Resurrection and is subtitled Holy Week, From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection.

The new work, which can be pre-ordered on Amazon as both a Kindle and print edition, follows the first volume, released in 2007, that covered the birth and childhood of Jesus.

In its advance publicity material, the U.S. publisher of the book, Ignatius Press, says the second volume will challenge “both believers and unbelievers to decide who Jesus of Nazareth is and what he means for them” and “dares readers to grapple with the meaning of Jesus’ life, teaching, death and resurrection.”

Benedict has been keen from the outset to make clear that the work contains his own thoughts and reflections and nothing more. In the foreword of the first volume, he wrote that the book is “in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search for the face of the Lord. Everyone is free, then, to contradict me.”

He began writing it in the summer of 2003, but as he wrote in 2007, it has had “a long gestation” dating back to the 1950s when, he said, biblical scholars began reconstructing Jesus in their own image.  With this book, he said he has tried “to go beyond the purely historical-critical exegesis so as to apply new methodological insights that allow us to offer a proper theological interpretation of the Bible.”

The Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, has said it has already printed 300,000 copies of the Italian edition of the new volume. Published in several languages, the Italian version runs to 446 pages and contains 10 chapters.

The new volume will be officially presented at the Vatican Press Office in the afternoon of March 10 by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, as well as Claudio Magris, a well known scholar and writer in Italy. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, Daniele Garrone, a Waldensian pastor, and the Italian philosopher and former mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, presented the first volume in 2007.

With this volume, Benedict will have produced three books during his pontificate. In addition to the first instalment of Jesus of Nazareth, he worked with German journalist Peter Seewald to produce Light of the World last year, a record of a series of interviews which took place last summer at Castel Gandolfo. Both books quickly became best-sellers.

All of this is in keeping with Benedict’s past record as a prolific writer. The books he wrote as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and before he came to Rome, are well known, in particular such works as Introduction to Christianity — a still highly respected and oft-cited text — and The Spirit of the Liturgy, which argues for greater sacrality in divine worship. He has also been no stranger to giving book-length interviews, first to Italian journalist Vittorio Messori, for the 1985 book The Ratzinger Report, and then to Peter Seewald, later published as Salt of the Earth and God and the World.

Third Volume Expected

Benedict had hoped the Jesus of Nazareth project was something he would complete once he had retired as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. After he had reached the age of 75 — the usual retirement age for bishops — he asked Pope John Paul II if he could be relieved of his duties so that he could focus on the book. John Paul said No, preferring to have him by his side until the end of his pontificate.

Yet, despite his heavy schedule as John Paul II’s successor, Benedict has said he has used his free time to make progress with the book. He decided to publish it in instalments as “I do not know how much more time or strength I am still to be given.”

The Holy Father works meticulously, writing in long hand rather than using a computer, and drawing on a large variety of books in his much cherished library.

Last summer, papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi revealed that the Pope was writing the third volume of Jesus of Nazareth. The third and final volume will seek to shed light on the story of Jesus’ childhood from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Register correspondent Edward Pentin writes from Rome.

 

The mystery of the betrayer

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of Jesus of Nazareth, courtesy of The Maximus Group, representing Ignatius Press:

The account of the washing of the feet presents us with two different human responses to this gift, exemplified by Judas and Peter. Immediately after the exhortation to follow his example, Jesus begins to speak of Judas. John tells us in this regard that Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified: “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (13:21).

John speaks three times of Jesus’ being “troubled”: beside the grave of Lazarus (11:33, 38), on “Palm Sunday” after the saying about the dying grain of wheat in a scene reminiscent of Gethsemane (12:24–27), and finally here.

These are moments when Jesus encounters the majesty of death and rubs against the might of darkness, which it is his task to wrestle with and overcome. We shall return to this “troubling” of Jesus’ spirit when we consider the night spent on the Mount of Olives.

Let us return to our text. Understandably, the prophecy of the betrayal produces agitation and curiosity among the disciples. “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus: so Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, ‘Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.’

So lying thus, close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him: ‘Lord, who is it?’ Jesus answered: ‘It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it’ ” (13:23–26).

In order to understand this text, it should be noted first of all that reclining at table was prescribed for the Passover meal. Charles K. Barrett explains the verse just quoted as follows: “Persons taking part in a meal reclined on the left side; the left arm was used to support the body, the right was free for use. The disciple to the right of Jesus would thus find his head immediately in front of Jesus and might accordingly be said to lie in his bosom.

Evidently he would be in a position to speak intimately with Jesus, but his was not the place of greatest honor; this was to the left of the host. The place occupied by the beloved disciple was nevertheless the place of a trusted friend”; Barrett then makes reference to a passage from Pliny (The Gospel according to Saint John, p. 446).

Jesus’ answer, as given here, is quite unambiguous. Yet the evangelist says that the disciples still did not understand whom he meant. So we must assume that John retrospectively attributed a clarity to the Lord’s answer that it lacked at the time for those present. John 13:18 brings us onto the right track. Here Jesus says, “The Scripture must be fulfilled: ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me’ ” (cf. Ps 41:9; Ps 55:13). This is Jesus’ classic way of speaking: he alludes to his destiny using words from Scripture, thereby locating it directly within God’s logic, within the logic of salvation history.

At a later stage, these words become fully transparent; it is seen that Scripture really does describe the path he is to tread — but for now the enigma remains. All that can be deduced at this point is that one of those at table will betray Jesus; it is clear that the Lord will have to endure to the end and to the last detail the suffering of the just, for which the Psalms in particular provide many different expressions. Jesus must experience the incomprehension and the infidelity even of those within his innermost circle of friends and, in this way, “fulfill the Scripture”. He is revealed as the true subject of the Psalms, the “David” from whom they come and through whom they acquire meaning.

John gives a new depth to the psalm verse with which Jesus spoke prophetically of what lay ahead, since instead of the expression given in the Greek Bible for “eating”, he chooses the verb trogein, the word used by Jesus in the great “bread of life” discourse for “eating” his flesh and blood, that is, receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist ( Jn 6:54–58). So the psalm verse casts a prophetic shadow over the Church of the evangelist’s own day, in which the Eucharist was celebrated, and indeed over the Church of all times: Judas’ betrayal was not the last breach of fidelity that Jesus would suffer. “Even my bosom friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (Ps 41:9). The breach of friendship extends into the sacramental community of the Church, where people continue to take “his bread” and to betray him.

Jesus’ agony, his struggle against death, continues until the end of the world, as Blaise Pascal said on the basis of similar considerations (cf. Pensées VII, 553). We could also put it the other way around: at this hour, Jesus took upon himself the betrayal of all ages, the pain caused by betrayal in every era, and he endured the anguish of history to the bitter end. John does not offer any psychological interpretation of Judas’ conduct. The only clue he gives is a hint that Judas had helped himself to the contents of the disciples’ money box, of which he had charge (12:6). In the context of chapter 13, the evangelist merely says laconically: “Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him” (13:27).

For John, what happened to Judas is beyond psychological explanation. He has come under the dominion of another. Anyone who breaks off friendship with Jesus, casting off his “easy yoke”, does not attain liberty, does not become free, but succumbs to other powers. To put it another way, he betrays this friendship because he is in the grip of another power to which he has opened himself.

True, the light shed by Jesus into Judas’ soul was not completely extinguished. He does take a step toward conversion: “I have sinned”, he says to those who commissioned him. He tries to save Jesus, and he gives the money back (Mt 27:3–5). Everything pure and great that he had received from Jesus remained inscribed on his soul — he could not forget it.

His second tragedy — after the betrayal — is that he can no longer believe in forgiveness. His remorse turns into despair. Now he sees only himself and his darkness; he no longer sees the light of Jesus, which can illumine and overcome the darkness. He shows us the wrong type of remorse: the type that is unable to hope, that sees only its own darkness, the type that is destructive and in no way authentic. Genuine remorse is marked by the certainty of hope born of faith in the superior power of the light that was made flesh in Jesus.

John concludes the passage about Judas with these dramatic words: “After receiving the morsel, he immediately went out; and it was night” (13:30). Judas goes out — in a deeper sense. He goes into the night; he moves out of light into darkness: the “power of darkness” has taken hold of him (cf. Jn 3:19; Lk 22:53).