In the recent compilation of homilies of Benedict XVI during his time as Pope Emeritus, collected in the volume The Lord takes us by the hand (Encuentro, Madrid 2025), explains - with the theological wisdom that characterizes him - that the Christian novelty is not properly monotheism, but the closeness of the living and true God, who is a relationship of love.
Indeed, ancient paganism and that of primitive religions commonly believed in a single, but distant god; good, but alien to the vicissitudes of our poor existence. Therefore, they sought to ingratiate themselves with what they considered to be dark demonic forces dominating the world through the superstitious recourse to magic. In this way they tried to escape from the dark fear, but they did not really succeed.
We could add that modern atheistic ideologies, for their part, accept divinity as an idea - a sort of supreme law ordering the cosmos, valid in any case as a subjective or emotional instance - but completely alien to the world. That is why its many followers, in order to maintain the priority objective of health and temporal well-being, put all their trust in science, economics, politics, etc., and when all this fails, existential anguish inevitably arrives.
The Christian novelty is precisely the revelation and presence of a God who is absolutely transcendent, but at the same time close, who takes care of his creatures, especially men, with a heart of mercy: who cares for each one with delicate providence, who incarnates himself in the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth to redeem us from evil and offer us the gift of eternal life.
The originality of the message revealed in the history of salvation, which culminates in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, consists in presenting a God who is himself a relationship, a family, and who invites his children to enter into his relationship of love, friendship and interpersonal communion.
In this way, the Christian overcomes the fear and existential anguish of the ancient and modern pagan, and lives with the certainty of faith, in full confidence, peace and inner joy.
The following are some of Benedict XVI's masterful paragraphs:
«The novelty of the biblical revelation is that God, that distant, silent God, knows us, and that the distant God becomes God who is close to us.
«This great, distant God, this God who has become close, becomes so close that he becomes man! He becomes one of us: it is impossible to be closer».
«He not only has relationship, but he is relationship, he is not only geometry of the world, but he is love, and love always indicates relationship, and the greatest reality is not geometry, but love. God is love and therefore he is relationship, and since he is relationship, he can also have relationships, involve us in his relationality, in the mystery of his love.».
«God, the true power, knows me, loves me, the ultimate power is good, and that is why we know that it is good to live, because we are in the hands of this God.».
«This one God is not an idle God, who lives only in himself, in his eternal bliss, but he is a great God, so great that he also knows us, that he takes care of us. The novelty is that this one true God is also the God for us and with us».
God has gone out of himself and, precisely because he has gone out of himself, we can enter into God».
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