His childhood was marked by the tranquility of the Bavarian Alps, the folklore of a people dedicated to God, and became for him an authentic source of inspiration for prayer, meetings with God in the Eucharist, intense sensitivity to music. The vision of this world, of people, formed in him the smile of the silence of eternity! Certain elements of the landscape of Bavaria, its type of religiosity, will become elements of the land of its spirit!
The slaughter of nations that the Second World War represented for him was revealed in his shocking testimony in Auschwitz and other places of extermination! Joseph Ratzinger did not succumb to the wave of the then gust. He did not allow himself to be blinded by fascist propaganda, but he managed to defend himself against it! Has he healed the wound that was inflicted on our ‘elder brothers in faith’ and other nations, including Poles? Depressed, he saw no way out of the situation in which Europe found itself: suffering, he could not heal himself with the music of the piano. He found strength in prayer!
The priestly vocation is a time of experiencing the boundless presence of God. Ratzinger enters the Minor Seminary, where he meets a lot of new people from outside his town. As a priest he is happy. Surely God fascinated him. It was in his story of “becoming.” God was and is love for him and orientation towards another human being. Awareness of the importance of prayer taught him not to obscure God in the liturgy, theology and in his whole life. He knows well that prayer has the power to save.
This form of priesthood will accompany him throughout his life. The priesthood was lived by him in every single case as an “event” shaping his personality. It can be said with certainty that priestly ordination is an entry into a specific ministry, which is then exercised with even greater dedication in the episcopate. The challenges of the priestly ministry awakened in him a desire to obtain greater spiritual perfection. Ratzinger could mature not only in being there for others, but also in solitude!
Fr. Alexandre Pietrzyk Sac
Catholic Voice No. 11/ 2013
