HEART TO HEART

In Behold the Pierced One, Joseph Ratzinger recounts how the composition of a 1981 paper on the Sacred Heart of Jesus had led him to consider Christology more from the aspect of its spiritual appropriation than he had done previously. Upon realizing that this same year was the 1300th anniversary of the Third Council of Constantinople, he decided to study the pronouncements of this Council, and came to believe that the achievement of a spiritual Christology had also been the Councils ultimate goal. Ratzingers conclusion in attempting to define a spiritual Christology was that the whole of Christology--our speaking of Christ--is nothing other than the interpretation of his prayer