A Simple Reflection on Chapter Nine of Bursa’s Because He Has Spoken to Us
A Simple Reflection on Chapter Nine of Bursa’s Because He Has Spoken to Us
I've been studying my friend's insightful book on postmodern catechesis and evangelization. It examines the theologies of Rahner and Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), highlighting Benedict's elegance as a solution to modern catechetical challenges.
The book offers an important perspective on postmodern catechesis and evangelization.
Check it out—it’s worth it.
Because He Has Spoken to Us by Brad Bursa, PhD
I was particularly struck by Bursa’s Chapter Nine called Freedom—Sin—Death. He writes, “Original sin exists on the level of relationship and signifies the original and fundamental broken relationship between Creator and creature, and the aftermath of the fundamental disunion—a network of broken relationships". Yes, Original Sin jacks everything up…between us and God and others. Everything hinges on relationality and sin creates a wound that only God can heal.
Ratzinger writes:
[…]when the network of human relationships is damaged from the very beginning, then every human being enters into a world that is marked by relational damage. At the very moment that a person begins human existence, which is a good, he or she is confronted by a sin- damaged world. Each of us enters into a situation in which relationality has been hurt. Consequently each person is, from the very start, damaged in relationships and does not engage in them as he or she ought. Sin pursues the human being, and he or she capitulates to it.1
Left unguided, we often misapply our God-given freedoms, leading to a paradoxical and despairing condition akin to a personal hell, as noted by Bursa. This concept echoes the existentialist philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, the French atheist, who examined comparable themes. It is so appropriate that this chapter brings Sartre into the picture.
I haven’t read Sartre since graduate school but it makes sense that he is in a chapter about freedom, sin and death. "As Sartre sees it, every human being is alien to the other; human being objectify one another. Is there a way out? Is there an exit (exitus) from this ubiquitously lonely and maddening situation?” Yes, the only way out of this mess is a relationship with Christ, the Divine Logos, who heals and restores all things. Why? Because “of ourselves we cannot come to terms with ourselves.” (Ratzinger)
Reflecting on this chapter, I recognize the resemblance between Sartre's portrayal of human existence, marked by daunting freedom and existential distress, and Catholic theology's understanding of human responsibility. Without God and community, this responsibility becomes an isolated struggle to find purpose in a seemingly empty universe. Sartre’s insights inadvertently align with Catholic thought and merit serious consideration—of course, I could be wrong.
As I think about this Chapter and Sartre, I cannot help to think about many of the self-help Catholic writers and their well intentioned self-help books. I am not punking on them—many have been instrumental in a helping a many rediscover their relationship with Christ. As I see it, Sartre and the self-help authors present visions of human life and freedom, but they walk divergent paths—both are on a quest for meaning. Bursa effectively highlights, through Ratzinger's lens, that the essence of human life and freedom lies in restoring relationships, guiding us back to communion with God.
These self-help authors risks propelling one towards a new Pelagianism—an overemphasis on human ability to achieve salvation without divine grace. Catchy bromides risk echoing an ancient heresy, suggesting that virtue and holiness are products of self-effort rather than gifts of grace. The human quest for meaning is not a solo endeavor nor a self-help project; it is a cooperative dance with grace struggling towards a recovery of relationship to God—a reditus.
Yes…authentic human freedom is not found in the vacuum of self-creation, but in the paradox of surrender to divine providence—where true liberation and fulfillment are discovered. It is here that Sartre’s existentialism, for all its secular bravado, unexpectedly converges with a core Catholic conviction: that the human person is a pilgrim in the world, fashioning an identity through choices that bear eternal weight.
Let’s face it, no amount of self-help Pelagian-pull-yourself-up by the bootstraps platitudes can restore us to a relationship with God and neighbor. I’ll stop ranting and get off my stream of consciousness horse. Christ invites us to renounce the cult of self-reliance and enter into a divine friendship.
Ratzinger, In the Beginning, 73.