In this section Benedict is talking about the Triune God. I just pick the book up and started where it opened. I did not get any further than that one page.
Benedict is in the midst of making the point that although Jesus states that "The Son can do nothing of his own accord." he also states that "I and the Father are one." I have heard certain churches quote this first verse as meaning that Jesus was less than the Father, however when you connect it to the second verse you find that they compliment or finish one another. The Son does nothing of his own accord because he is one with the Father.
This is important for me because Jesus also tells us that, "Apart from me you can do nothing." And if we are in him than we too are connected to the Father. Jesus prays , "that they (those who belong to him) may be one even as we are one." ( Jesus the Son and God the Father)
This teaching has always been hard for me, but making this connection has made things more clear. Because if Jesus is one with the Father, then there is a loss of his "I" of , his "me", of his "mine". I am reminded of another teaching, "You must die to yourself before you have life in you". For me, these ideas are difficult to think about, much less to actualize. I fear the loss of my "self." I have always believed that God created me as an individual because my individuality is important to him. But just as God the Father and God the Son are two persons, so are we invited to be Jane the Christian and Pope Benedict the Christian, two individuals and yet one in Christ and therefore in the Father.
Maybe this is easier for the Catholic mind that grew up recognizing the Church of God as a physical reality, a presence in the world whose unity of thought and belief fleshes out a "body" with Christ as its head. But I grew up with the Protestant faith. With this great idea that the Holy Spirit will help me "interpret the scriptures" an idea that has lead to anything but unity. I think I can see why, because this idea is founded on "me", "mine", "I". A position that even Jesus, the Christ was unwilling to take.
When I read the scriptures now, I ask "what does the church have to say about this?" Funny thing, verses that the protestants skip over as mysterious and therefore unknowable this side of heaven, become clear and the whole begins to open up. And as it opens up, it also draws me deeper. I am realizing that there is no part of the me in myself that I would not give up in order to find this unity to which Christians are called.
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