"Our dear brother": an Anglican thanksgiving for Benedict XVI

And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom ...

There is a deeply catholic, ecumenical emphasis to the commemoration of the faithful departed in the Prayer for the Church Militant: "all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear". All. Irrespective of the theological school to which they subscribed. Irrespective of the ecclesiastical polity in which they lived (or governed). Irrespective of confessional disagreements. We give thanks for all who, having confessed the faith of Christ in their earthly lives, now rest in the fullness of the heavenly kingdom.

Hooker points to how an understanding of the Church invisible underpins this generous, catholic, ecumenical emphasis:

That Church of Christ which we properly terme his body mysticall, can be but one, neither can that one bee sensiblie discerned by any man, in as much as the partes thereof are some in heaven alreadie with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (albeit their naturall persons be visible) we do not discerne under this propertie, whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Onely our mindes by intelletuall conceipt are able to apprehend, that such a reall body there is, a body collective, because it containeth an huge multitude; a body mysticall, because the mysterie of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we reade in scripture concerning the endlesse love and the saving mercy, which God sheweth towardes his Church: the onely proper subject thereof is this Church - LEP III.1.2.

And so it is that with the commemoration of the faithful departed in the Prayer for the Church Militant, we give thanks for the life and witness of Benedict XVI, formerly Bishop of Rome. There have been, quite rightly, many words of praise for the great scholarship of Benedict XVI and gratitude for the gift of his theological insight. However, amongst all that has been said in recent days, a simple phrase from the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh captured the very heart of Benedict's life: "a humble disciple of our common Lord".  Words written by Benedict in the last months of his earthly life encapsulated this:

Quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life. Even though, as I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling, I am nonetheless of good cheer, for I trust firmly that the Lord is not only the just judge, but also the friend and brother who himself has already suffered for my shortcomings, and is thus also my advocate, my “Paraclete.” In light of the hour of judgement, the grace of being a Christian becomes all the more clear to me. It grants me knowledge, and indeed friendship, with the judge of my life, and thus allows me to pass confidently through the dark door of death.

Departed this life in thy faith and fear.

Alongside the humble faith and trust of Benedict XVI, Anglicans also have particular reasons to give thanks for his ministry and teaching. Firstly, with the other Churches of the Reformation, we give thanks for a Bishop of Rome who - no doubt shaped by his German background, and influenced by his knowledge of and relationship with Lutheranism - discerned the meaning of the Reformation. The Ratzinger who was active in securing the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification was the Benedict XVI who remarkably affirmed in 2008:

Being just simply means being with Christ and in Christ. And this suffices. Further observances are no longer necessary. For this reason Luther's phrase: "faith alone" is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. 

Something of the significance of this is also indicated by comments made by N.T. Wright regarding the encyclical Spe Salvi: "if a Pope had said this loud and clear in Germany in, say, 1517, the entire course of European history would have been different". Benedict XVI, who came from the lands in which the Reformation emerged, was the Pope who grasped the meaning of the Reformation and how it has profoundly and richly shaped the witness of Christian churches across the globe.

Secondly, we give thanks for Benedict XVI's commitment to continued prayer and dialogue with the Anglican Communion. At Solemn Vespers in the Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio with Archbishop Rowan Williams in 2012, Benedict in his homily grounded the Anglican-Roman Catholic relationship in continued shared prayer:

This Roman Camaldolese Monastery has developed with Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, especially since the Second Vatican Council, links that now qualify as traditional. Today, for the third time, the Bishop of Rome is meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury in the home of Saint Gregory the Great ... We hope that the sign of our presence here together in front of the holy altar, where Gregory himself celebrated the eucharistic sacrifice, will remain not only as a reminder of our fraternal encounter, but also as a stimulus for all the faithful – both Catholic and Anglican – encouraging them, as they visit the glorious tombs of the holy Apostles and Martyrs in Rome, to renew their commitment to pray constantly and to work for unity, and to live fully in accordance with the "ut unum sint" that Jesus addressed to the Father.

As Benedict said regarding the Finnish Lutheran-Roman Catholic relationship, shared prayer is "the royal door of ecumenism" which "reinforces our bonds of communion". This was also evident in his words at Evening Prayer in Westminster Abbey in 2010:

May these moments of prayer and friendship confirm us in love for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and in common witness to the enduring power of the Gospel.

Finally, on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Benedict XVI declared:

you have offered to your subjects and to the whole world an inspiring example of dedication to duty and a commitment to maintaining the principles of freedom, justice and democracy, in keeping with a noble vision of the role of a Christian monarch.

This praise for an Anglican monarch, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, consecrated in the context of an Anglican holy Eucharist at the coronation, has - to say the least - considerable historical significance.  It is difficult not read this as recognition of the contribution Anglicanism can make (in this and other polities) to shaping a social and constitutional order in which we are "godly and quietly governed".

In the face of death, we do not name the sins of others. We do not revisit the theological and ecclesiastical disagreements we have had with them.  We do not chastise them for their failures. This is not merely good manners.  It is a recognition that before the Just Judge, I can never point at another and attempt to name what I think are their sins. Before the Just Judge, I will not be correcting what I have thought to be the theological or ecclesiastical errors of another. The loving, righteous gaze of the Judge exposes my sins, my failures, my betrayals, my foolishness, my pride, reminding me that I am one with the fellow-Christian who has now passed through the gate of death, one with them in sin and failure, one with them in utter reliance upon grace alone.

And so, in the context of Anglican liturgy, we prayerfully give thanks for Benedict XVI, bishop, theologian, fellow ecumenical pilgrim and, above all, employing the phrase Cranmer's burial rite uses at each graveside, "our dear brother".