Spe Salvi facti sumus—in hope we were saved

A few hours ago the Holy See released Pope Benedict XVI’s second encyclical letter, Spes Salvi. [HERE in English translation] The central theme is redemption, a subject not alien to the law and therefore no stranger to Catholic legal thought and theory.

The Holy Father begins his letter by relying on a theme in the Pauline corpus, Romans 8:24, “in [this] hope we were saved…” In essence, the Pope’s fundamental point is about the goal of redemption for humanity and the corresponding responsibility of hope in the reaching this objective—an objective that relies on but does not depend ultimately on human institutions such as the law. The letter illustrates the right relation between God and human enterprise in this endeavor. This is justice, pure and precise. And proceeding to this justice requires hope and patience on behalf of the human family—as Benedict states, “The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” This strikes me as a crucial element of our work in and through the Mirror of Justice project—the name of which derives from one of Mary’s titles and influences the Pope’s encyclical as will be pointed out toward the end of my posting today.

The Holy Father uses the images of the downcast, the slave, and those on the margins of society to reinforce the theme of hope in the one who came to save us all so that we may be redeemed and live with Him forever. Benedict takes note of the human alternatives that exist in this word to achieve one type of freedom that can liberate the marginalized—an endeavor with which the law has a great interest. But as he argues throughout the letter, the forms of liberation that rely solely on human resources are imperfect: “Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a ‘not yet’. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.” For Benedict, there must be a renunciation of exclusive reliance on the things of this world to provide authentic relief to those who suffer in this world:

Faith gives life a new basis, a new foundation on which we can stand, one which relativizes the habitual foundation, the reliability of material income. A new freedom is created with regard to this habitual foundation of life, which only appears to be capable of providing support, although this is obviously not to deny its normal meaning. This new freedom, the awareness of the new “substance” which we have been given, is revealed not only in martyrdom, in which people resist the overbearing power of ideology and its political organs and, by their death, renew the world. Above all, it is seen in the great acts of renunciation, from the monks of ancient times to Saint Francis of Assisi and those of our contemporaries who enter modern religious Institutes and movements and leave everything for love of Christ, so as to bring to men and women the faith and love of Christ, and to help those who are suffering in body and spirit. In their case, the new “substance” has proved to be a genuine “substance”; from the hope of these people who have been touched by Christ, hope has arisen for others who were living in darkness and without hope. In their case, it has been demonstrated that this new life truly possesses and is “substance” that calls forth life for others.

For this to make sense, the Pope acknowledges that redemption, and the human role in it (through hope in God) must understand what life, including eternal life, means. This is where the role of Jesus’s salvific mission must be taken into account for it means something to the existence of every person whose life begins in this world but will continue elsewhere. Inspired by the writing of Henri de Lubac, the Pope distills the essence of human existence by identifying the individual and social nature of hope, faith, salvation, and redemption: “salvation has always been considered a ‘social’ reality.” For Benedict, sin—the product of human free will—destroys the unity of the human race by fragmenting the person and the society in which he or she lives. This factor is quite characteristic of our materialistic and individualistic world today as expressed in the famous dictum of Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe, and the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State” or, I suppose, any other human institution. But the Pope sees a remedy to this problem of fragmented liberty: it is redemption which reestablishes the unity in which individuals come together in a union that begins to take shape in the community of believers. In this context, the Social doctrine of the Church has much to provide every person of good will who recognizes the difficulties which the Casey perspective generates but who is motivated to look for enduring solutions to the conundrums the Casey outlook leaves in its wake. In N. 16 of Spes Salvi, Benedict specifically addresses this problem and the transforming role that Christian “faith-hope” can have on the present age. In doing so, he critiques the Caseyesque rationale by stating,

a disturbing step has been taken: up to that time, the recovery of what man had lost through the expulsion from Paradise was expected from faith in Jesus Christ: herein lay “redemption”. Now, this “redemption”, the restoration of the lost “Paradise” is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level—that of purely private and other-worldly affairs—and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. Thus hope too… acquires a new form. Now it is called: faith in progress. For Bacon, it is clear that the recent spate of discoveries and inventions is just the beginning; through the interplay of science and praxis, totally new discoveries will follow, a totally new world will emerge, the kingdom of man.

It is this “kingdom of man” in which Benedict argues the purely political departs from the exercise of right reason that leads all to the eternal life and the Kingdom of God. He relies upon illustrations from the French Revolution and Marxist theory and praxis to make his point convincing. While promising “freedom,” both of these political events removed authentic freedom for reason. Here the Pope inserts one of the most significant elements of the encyclical letter:

[R]eason is God’s great gift to man, and the victory of reason over unreason is also a goal of the Christian life. But when does reason truly triumph? When it is detached from God? When it has become blind to God? Is the reason behind action and capacity for action the whole of reason? If progress, in order to be progress, needs moral growth on the part of humanity, then the reason behind action and capacity for action is likewise urgently in need of integration through reason's openness to the saving forces of faith, to the differentiation between good and evil. Only thus does reason become truly human. It becomes human only if it is capable of directing the will along the right path, and it is capable of this only if it looks beyond itself. Otherwise, man's situation, in view of the imbalance between his material capacity and the lack of judgement in his heart, becomes a threat for him and for creation. Thus where freedom is concerned, we must remember that human freedom always requires a convergence of various freedoms. Yet this convergence cannot succeed unless it is determined by a common intrinsic criterion of measurement, which is the foundation and goal of our freedom. Let us put it very simply: man needs God, otherwise he remains without hope.

What is critical to the success of the Holy Father’s proposition are two further realizations. The first is that right state of human affairs cannot be guaranteed by human-designed structures alone even while acknowledging their merits. Second, it is essential to understand the essence of human freedom: “the kingdom of good will never be definitively established in this world. Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last for ever is making a false promise; he is overlooking human freedom. Freedom must constantly be won over for the cause of good. Free assent to the good never exists simply by itself. If there were structures which could irrevocably guarantee a determined—good—state of the world, man’s freedom would be denied, and hence they would not be good structures at all.”

At this point he returns to the issue of human redemption and reminds us that it is not “science” that redeems us; rather, it is love, specifically the love of God in Jesus Christ, the one who came to save us all. Moreover, this love is the source of all life—both now and in the future. This love characterizes a crucial relation in human beingness, relation with our Savior. But this love which takes us into the eternal life also has a role in the life of this world. As Benedict states: “[Christ] commits us to live for others, but only through communion with him does it become possible truly to be there for others, for the whole.”

As he concludes this encyclical letter, Pope Benedict reminds us that to protest against God in the name of “justice” is not a helpful pursuit. It is through prayer entwined with knowing and dealing responsibly with human suffering and degradation that the human person makes an extraordinary discovery: a world without God is a world without hope; and only God can provide the justice that sustains hope in the better future—the eternal life—for one and all. “God is justice and creates justice. This is our consolation and our hope. And in his justice there is also grace. This we know by turning our gaze to the crucified and risen Christ. Both these things—justice and grace—must be seen in their correct inner relationship.”

As I mentioned, Mary, the Mirror of Justice, is identified by the Holy Father as one having a critical role in our hope and redemption. As Benedict suggests, “Life is like a voyage on the sea of history, often dark and stormy, a voyage in which we watch for the stars that indicate the route. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by—people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way. Who more than Mary could be a star of hope for us?” For she is our Mirror of Justice, who leads us into our right relation with God and with one another.    RJA sj