Great dialogue between Pope and author, and my old thoughts!

Hat tip to Kevin Knight at New Advent http://www.newadvent.org/ for this link:

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=153041&eng=y

"Franz Michel Willam, the Theologian the Pope Has Rescued from OblivionAuthor in 1932 of a famous life of Christ, he had been forgotten by everyone. Benedict XVI cites him in "Jesus of Nazareth," and an Austrian scholar explains why. Based on unpublished correspondence between the two:" is the lead article, embedding this article following:

"Ratzinger and the "chaplain" theologian. An unpublished correspondence by Philipp Reisinger The Austrian Franz Michel Willam is today certainly the least-known among the authors cited by Benedict XVI in the preface to his book “Jesus of Nazareth.” Who was he? And why does the pope recall him? Only a few know about the correspondence, kept in the convent of Thalbach in Bregenz, Austria, between the university professor Joseph Ratzinger and Franz Michel Willam, who was 33 years older than him."

This is an exciting read, as it shows the process of fruitful thought and dialogue between two of the great biographers and theologians of the life of Jesus Christ.... yet it is from a different and I'd argue a better time of Christian thought. Read the article and you'll see what I mean, this is before the time when there were "dueling intellectuals" and also "I've got to dig up a fossil of Jesus before I believe" "historics."
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Another thing I'd like to point out about this article is the discussion of "simplicity:"

snip
"Willam, who had discovered and brought forth simplicity as the dominant idea in Pope John XXIII, presented in this way • in a letter to Bishop Paulus Rusch – what was for him the central passage in Ratzinger’s article: “The theory of simplicity finds in Joseph Ratzinger the following formulation: there exists the simplicity of comfort, which is the simplicity of imprecision, a lack of richness, life, and completeness. There also exists the simplicity of the origin, which is true richness. Renewal is simplicity, not in the sense of a selection or reduction, but rather a simplification in the sense of a becoming-simple, of moving toward that true simplicity which is the mystery of being.”

When I was a freshman in university, in the early 1970's, one of my dorm mates asked me if life was "simple" or "complex." I replied "simple" which surprised her and drove her crazy, since she of course in reflection of those presumptuous times, assumed the answer was "complex." This resulted in a year long informal canvassing by her and others of my friends of their friends and acquaintances of whether they believed life was simple or complex. Nearly everybody replied "complex." When presented with this I'd always reply that they were mistaken, and that life is "simple." This does not mean that one does not find oneself in some very sticky situations indeed, but that does not mean that life is complex. Life is simple and it always has been, but humankind and their thoughts and deeds make it appear to be "complex." The ersatz survey ended as our freshman year concluded and my dorm mate said to me in exasperation, "Life is complex - YOU are simple!"

Hmm. If anything the years continue to show me true. There is God and there is the physical world. There is separation from God and its consequences on human behavior, and there is union with God and it's easing of life's challenges and assurances of being on the path to the Kingdom of God. There is prosperity and there are shortages, of both spiritual and material commodities. There is charity and there is mean spirited withholding. There is a measured span of all mortal beings, and there is God's eternity. Life is simple, for as William references Ratzinger's thought on this, "which is the simplicity of imprecision, a lack of richness, life, and completeness. There also exists the simplicity of the origin, which is true richness..." Life is simple (and thus incredibly rich) in its origin, and then the mission of existing in life is very simple precisely because all is not spelled out for one. One has a life span and one has choices, some that one can make for one's self, and some that are made for one by others. Living life and understanding the simple yet profound relationship between humanity and God is the only certainty. Complexity results from humans' efforts to manipulate, to try to "have it all," and to delude themselves that there is a hidden plan, a map, secret lore that gives them all the "answers" and enables one to know and make the "right choices." Complexity is in human's minds, it is not the nature of life. The simplicity of life is it's beauty and it's power, and to be simple does not mean it is not profound and deep.