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THE SCALLOP SHELL AND THE BEAR
For a thousand years the arms of the Munich archbishops have displayed a Moor, wearing a crown. No one knows how he got there. Ratzinger regards him as a symbol of the Church’s universality, which knows no distinctions of race or class, since “all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
Ratzinger added two personal symbols. The first is a scallop shell, the pilgrim’s emblem (still given to pilgrims at Compostela), a reminder that “we have here no lasting city” (Heb. 13:14). The shell also reminds Ratzinger of his theological mentor and the subject of his doctoral dissertation, St. Augustine. Walking along the seashore as he reflected on the mystery of the Trinity, Augustine came on a child who had dug a hole in the sand and was trying to pour the sea into it with a shell. Augustine realized that his efforts to understand the mystery of God were as futile as the child’s attempt to get the sea into the hole. “The shell reminds me of my great master Augustine, of my theological work, and of the vastness of the mystery which surpasses all our learning.” These words place their writer in the Church’s central theological tradition, along with such greats as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. All that we can know of God is always far less than what, in this life, we can never know.
The second symbol, a bear with a pack on his back, is connected with a legend about Munich’s first bishop, St. Korbinian. Traveling to Rome, Korbinian encountered a bear which attacked the horse which was carrying the saint’s luggage. As punishment Korbinian made the bear carry his pack to Rome before releasing him. The bear reminds Ratzinger of Augustine’s meditation on Psalm 72 (73). By a coincidence, which the new Pope will not have failed to notice, this psalm was in the Breviary Office of Readings on the day the Conclave began. Ratzinger writes about it as follows: "The psalm speaks about the testing of faith, which seems to bring no earthly reward. The person who is faithful to God does not necessarily enjoy success. Often the cynic seems to prosper most. Why? The psalmist finds his answer as he stands before God and sees how insignificant material prosperity and success are, and what really counts and saves: ‘I was stupid and did not understand, no better than a beast in your sight.’
"Augustine takes the ‘beast’ in this verse to be a draft animal. He compares his work as a bishop to that of an ox pulling a wagon… Augustine had chosen a scholar’s life — only to find that God harnessed him to his wagon, to pull it through the world. How often Augustine rebelled against all his petty duties, which took him away from what he knew was his deepest calling. The psalm helped him overcome his bitterness. It enabled him to say: ‘Yes, Lord, I am a beast, a pack animal, an ox — but that is how I serve you, you hold me in your hand.’ As the farmer’s ox is close to him and works for him, so Augustine realized that his humdrum duties brought him close to God. He was doing the Lord’s work, closer to him than all others, essential to him.
“Isn’t Korbinian’s bear, compelled against his will to carry the saint’s pack, a picture of my own life? ‘I am no better than a beast in your sight’ — but a beast close to God. What more can I say about my bishop’s years? The legend says that Korbinian set the bear free once he reached Rome. It doesn’t tell us whether the animal went to the Abruzzi Mountains or returned to the Alps. Meanwhile I have carried my pack to Rome and wander for some time now through the streets of the Eternal City. When release will come I cannot know. What I do know is that I am God’s pack animal, and as such close to him.”
The new Pope’s reflections eight years ago take on special poignancy when we know that some years ago he asked Pope John Paul II to release him from his duties in Rome to return to Germany and his first love, theological study and teaching. John Paul asked Ratzinger to stay on. “We’re both getting old, Joseph,” he told him. “We must continue to work together.”
Now the cardinals have told Joseph Ratzinger that he must carry his pack to the end.
THE SCALLOP SHELL AND THE BEAR
For a thousand years the arms of the Munich archbishops have displayed a Moor, wearing a crown. No one knows how he got there. Ratzinger regards him as a symbol of the Church’s universality, which knows no distinctions of race or class, since “all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
Ratzinger added two personal symbols. The first is a scallop shell, the pilgrim’s emblem (still given to pilgrims at Compostela), a reminder that “we have here no lasting city” (Heb. 13:14). The shell also reminds Ratzinger of his theological mentor and the subject of his doctoral dissertation, St. Augustine. Walking along the seashore as he reflected on the mystery of the Trinity, Augustine came on a child who had dug a hole in the sand and was trying to pour the sea into it with a shell. Augustine realized that his efforts to understand the mystery of God were as futile as the child’s attempt to get the sea into the hole. “The shell reminds me of my great master Augustine, of my theological work, and of the vastness of the mystery which surpasses all our learning.” These words place their writer in the Church’s central theological tradition, along with such greats as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. All that we can know of God is always far less than what, in this life, we can never know.
The second symbol, a bear with a pack on his back, is connected with a legend about Munich’s first bishop, St. Korbinian. Traveling to Rome, Korbinian encountered a bear which attacked the horse which was carrying the saint’s luggage. As punishment Korbinian made the bear carry his pack to Rome before releasing him. The bear reminds Ratzinger of Augustine’s meditation on Psalm 72 (73). By a coincidence, which the new Pope will not have failed to notice, this psalm was in the Breviary Office of Readings on the day the Conclave began. Ratzinger writes about it as follows: "The psalm speaks about the testing of faith, which seems to bring no earthly reward. The person who is faithful to God does not necessarily enjoy success. Often the cynic seems to prosper most. Why? The psalmist finds his answer as he stands before God and sees how insignificant material prosperity and success are, and what really counts and saves: ‘I was stupid and did not understand, no better than a beast in your sight.’
"Augustine takes the ‘beast’ in this verse to be a draft animal. He compares his work as a bishop to that of an ox pulling a wagon… Augustine had chosen a scholar’s life — only to find that God harnessed him to his wagon, to pull it through the world. How often Augustine rebelled against all his petty duties, which took him away from what he knew was his deepest calling. The psalm helped him overcome his bitterness. It enabled him to say: ‘Yes, Lord, I am a beast, a pack animal, an ox — but that is how I serve you, you hold me in your hand.’ As the farmer’s ox is close to him and works for him, so Augustine realized that his humdrum duties brought him close to God. He was doing the Lord’s work, closer to him than all others, essential to him.
“Isn’t Korbinian’s bear, compelled against his will to carry the saint’s pack, a picture of my own life? ‘I am no better than a beast in your sight’ — but a beast close to God. What more can I say about my bishop’s years? The legend says that Korbinian set the bear free once he reached Rome. It doesn’t tell us whether the animal went to the Abruzzi Mountains or returned to the Alps. Meanwhile I have carried my pack to Rome and wander for some time now through the streets of the Eternal City. When release will come I cannot know. What I do know is that I am God’s pack animal, and as such close to him.”
The new Pope’s reflections eight years ago take on special poignancy when we know that some years ago he asked Pope John Paul II to release him from his duties in Rome to return to Germany and his first love, theological study and teaching. John Paul asked Ratzinger to stay on. “We’re both getting old, Joseph,” he told him. “We must continue to work together.”
Now the cardinals have told Joseph Ratzinger that he must carry his pack to the end.