The Concept of Person as Relation in the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger. 
Mary Clare Piecynski

A prevailing theme throughout the theology of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger is the concept of person as relation.  Ratzinger, through his many works, expounds on the idea that the three Persons of the Trinity and the human persons exist through relation.  The Persons of the Trinity, according to Ratzinger, differentiate from each other only through their relation to the other Persons.  Further, Cardinal Ratzinger develops the idea of the human person, made in the image of God, as existing as a being in relation, in human and divine relationships.  Man moreover, only truly fulfills his capacity for relationship through entering into union with the Trinity, of whom he is made in the image.  Further, Ratzinger asserts that while on earth, man enters into a relationship with God primarily through receiving the Eucharist. 
A central point of Joseph Ratzinger’s theology is the Catholic dogma that the three Persons of the Trinity exist from all eternity by their relationships with each other and that the mutual relationships are of the Trinitarian essence.  Ratzinger explains that the manner in which God can be one substance and yet three Persons is through the mutual relations of each Person which are not on the level of substance, but relation, so the Persons constitute one God, not three.  For Cardinal Ratzinger writes, “In God, person is the pure relativity of being turned toward the other; it does not lie on the level of substance—the substance is one—but on the level of dialogical reality, of relativity toward the other.”  
Not only does relationship constitute the very essence of the Trinity, but also the Persons of the Trinity are distinguished only through relationship.  Each Person of the Trinity exists only by being in relationship to the other two Persons.  For instance, Ratzinger writes that the Father is only Father by his relation to the Son since “‘Father’ is purely a concept of relationship.  Only in being for the other is the Father; in his own being is himself he is simply God.  Person is the pure relation of being related, nothing else.”   Therefore, the three Trinitarian Persons are by their essence in relation to one another and only by their relationship are distinct from the other Persons. 
The relationship between the three Trinitarian Persons is revealed through the mission of the Son in the world.  Jesus Christ discloses to man the life of God, revealing how the Persons of the Trinity are in relation.  Cardinal Ratzinger writes that through Christ’s work on earth, he shows his relationship in the Trinity in that Jesus receives everything from the Father while giving himself totally back to the Father and to us for our salvation.  Ratzinger explains this by stating that Jesus “does not speak and act from himself but from Another: it is of his very essence that he comes from this Other.  His entire existence is a “‘sending’, a ‘mission’, i.e., a relationship.”   Further, in the Gospel of John in particular, the description of Jesus Christ by is “the total relativity of his existence.  When Jesus is put completely into this category, this means that his existence is explained as completely relative, nothing other than ‘being from’ and ‘being for’.”   Jesus Christ, then through his earthly mission, shows man the relativity between the three Persons of the Trinity. 
Man, as the glory of the Trinitarian earthly creation, made in the image of God, exists like God through relation.  Man fulfills his capacity towards relationship by entering into communion with other men and, most importantly, to God.   The modern view of freedom however, denies the idea that man is dependent on and exists only through relationships, rather emphasizing an individual’s independence from others.  Ratzinger describes this theory by writing that “the implicit goal of all modern freedom movements is, in the end, to be like a god, dependent on nothing and nobody, with one’s own freedom not restricted by anyone else’s.”   The most obvious example of this autonomous conception of freedom is Descartes assertion “I think therefore I am” wherein the autonomy of the individual is stressed in opposition to being in relation with others. 
This autonomous idea of freedom is erroneous since, as Joseph Ratzinger affirms, “the pure ‘Cogito ergo sum,’ the person independent of relation with others, that being does not exist.  Humanity belongs to man only in the web of history that impinges on the individual through speech and social communication.”   Furthermore, Ratzinger writes, the desire for a freedom of absolute autonomy is in fact a great perversion of freedom since it presents the person as the anti-god, being in radical opposition to God’s nature as relation, in whom man is in the image.  Hence, because humanity, like God, exists as a “being for, from and with constitute the basic anthropological shape.  Whenever people try to free themselves from this, they are moving, not toward divinity, but toward dehumanizing, toward the destruction of being itself through the destruction of truth.”   In addition, Cardinal Ratzinger makes clear that in Christianity “there is not such thing as the mere individual, that, on the contrary, man is himself only when he is fitted into the whole: into mankind, into history, into the cosmos, as is right and proper for a being who is ‘spirit in body’.”   In summary, rather than the modern view of freedom, present in Descartes statement “I think therefore I am”, the Christian presentation of freedom is more akin to “I am thought, therefore I am” , referring to the true nature of the human person as a being in relation to others.
Cardinal Ratzinger writes that a fundamental characteristic of man’s nature, as made in the image of God, is the capability to enter into relationship with another.  For, he explains, “When we say that man is the image of God, it means that he is a being designed for relationship; it means that, in and through all his relationships, he seeks that relation which is the ground of his existence.”   Moreover, when Ratzinger states that men are beings in relationship he does not merely mean that they have the capacity for relationship, but rather, that human individuals exist only through relating with others.  Ratzinger emphasizes, “Relativity toward the other constitutes the human person. The human person is the event or being of relativity” and that “Man is a being that can only ‘be’ by virtue of others” , namely, a man only exists in by being in relation to others.  In summary, Joseph Ratzinger maintains that man is a creature whose nature is designed for relationships and who exists only through relationship.
While one can see though general experience that persons exist in relation to one other, the most vivid example of the essential nature of relationship is between an unborn child and his mother.  Ratzinger writes that the unborn child is a clear example of a person’s necessity of relationships because “the being of another person is so closely interwoven with the being of this first person, the mother, that for the moment it can only exist at all in bodily association with the mother.”   Thus, the child’s obligatory relationship with the mother is therefore a graphic example of the fundamental nature of human existence in general.  Like the unborn child, the adult exists from and for another since every person has received his being from another and is called to be for others in relation.  Ratzinger further explains this reality by stating that the human person can exist only with the other person and from him and is thus forever dependent.”
This call to relationship set forth by Ratzinger is made complex by the fact that the human person exists as body/soul composite where the body is both boundary and bridge.    Ratzinger points out that the sign of the individual is having a specific body, unlike any other, and so the body exists as a sign of separation since bodies cannot coexist but rather collide.   The body though, Ratzinger goes on to affirm, is also a bridge since it is the means by which persons enter into relationship.  For it is through the body that man enters into relationships with others, by bodily communication.  Thus, a person can only encounter and get to know another by encountering him through his physical body.   In essence, the human body remains distinct from others yet has the capacity to enter into relationships with others.
Man, having existed in relationship since the beginning of the world, has only in the past 2000 years from the life and example of Jesus Christ learned the true depths to which relationships can exist.  Jesus Christ as the new Adam, who as Vatican II proclaims, fully reveals the mystery of man, discloses the meaning of human existence which is to exist in relation to others and first and foremost, to be in relation with God. Therefore, Ratzinger can state that Jesus Christ exists “as the true fulfillment of the idea of the human person, in which the direction of meaning of this being comes to light for the first time.”   Ratzinger explains that Jesus by his exemplary life and of his total self-giving in relationship with humanity and his Father makes known to humanity what it is to be truly human.  For, Ratzinger states, “the being of Jesus as Christ is a completely open being, a being ‘from ‘ and ‘toward’…this being is pure relation (not substantiality) and, as pure relation, pure unity.”   It is only through Jesus Christ therefore that man knows the true meaning of his desire for relationship. 
Moreover, Ratzinger writes that while Christ shows man that he is to go out of himself to enter into relationships with other men, Christ also reveals that man’s desire for relationship is only fulfilled through entering into communion with the Trinity.  For that reason, Ratzinger explains that man is “not a substance that closes itself in itself, but the phenomenon of complete relativity, which is, of course, realized in its entirety only in the one who is God.”   Thus, precisely because man is a being in relation, made in the image of the Trinity, which is total self-giving and being for others, man’s completes his ability for relationship only through a relationship with that Trinity.  Ratzinger explains that this is true because “man is finally intended for the other, the truly other, for God; he is all the more himself the more he is with the entirely Other, with God.”   Man then, is a being whose relational existence is only complete through a relationship with the Triune God.
Man can enter into a relationship with the eternal Godhead, not out of human initiative but through the action of God in time, especially in the Incarnation, which allows man to come into contact with the divine.  The possibility of a Christian being able to enter into relationship with God comes about through Jesus Christ, who through his life and death brings the immutable God into physical contact with transient humanity.  Ratzinger explains that Jesus Christ “is God’s witness, through whom the intangible has become tangible, the distant has drawn near…he is the presence of the eternal itself in this world.”   Therefore, Ratzinger rightly asserts that the fundamental aspect to Christianity is its personal character that revolves around the truth of “‘I believe in you.’  It is the encounter with the man Jesus, and in this encounter it experiences the meaning of the world as a person.”   Through this belief in a Person, Christ draws us into communion with the Trinity that raises man up beyond himself in the most authentic relationship possible for man.  Ratzinger explains that Christ brings this relationship about since he is “The one, is thee the ‘we’ into which Love, namely the Holy Spirit, gathers us…toward the common ‘you’ of the one Father.”   Thus, Christ brings man into contact with humanity so that humanity can enter into a relationship with the Trinity. 
Christ creates this relationship between man and God specifically through the Last Supper and his sacrifice on the cross where his death destroyed the power of sin and ushered in a new relationship between God and man.  During the Last Supper, Christ gave man the Eucharist, the essential like between earthly humanity and God.  Ratzinger writes that through “the words of institution at the Last Supper Jesus transforms death into the spiritual act of affirmation, into the act of self-sharing love, into the act of adoration, which is offered to God, then from God is made available to men.”   From the Last Supper Christ went to his death upon the cross, the event that brought about the salvation of the world and took humanity into a right relationship with God.   Ratzinger states that in Christ’s death on the cross, God’s expanse of love “spans existence so completely that it unites the distant and the near, bringing God-forsaken man into relation with God.”   Moreover, Ratzinger explains that through the cross, the crucifixion is “a process of opening, in which the scattered man-monads are drawn into the embrace of Jesus Christ, in to the wide span of his outstretched arms, in order to arrive, in this union, at their goal, the goal of humanity.”   Hence, for Ratzinger, the connection between the Last Supper and the Cross is that Christ’s death is transformed through the Last Supper into an event that continues through the ages bringing man into relationship with God.
For Ratzinger then, the profound relationship between man and God, made possible through the Last Supper and cross, is formed specifically through the Eucharist instituted at the Last Supper, where man and God unite.  Therefore, the relationship between man and God on earth comes to its quintessential form within the sacrament of the Eucharist.  In the Eucharist, God comes to earth to dwell within man and to enter into an intimate relationship with humanity.   
Ratzinger uses two main analogies to describe how the Eucharist creates the relationship between man and God.  The first analogy is that of eating where two different subjects become mutually penetrated and the food assimilates into the body of the person.  Likewise, Ratzinger compares eating to the unity that occurs through the Eucharist, where the Jesus Christ becomes man’s food, saying that “Communion means the fusion of existences…my ‘I’ is ‘assimilated’ to that of Jesus, it is made similar to him in an exchange that increasingly breaks through the lines of division.”   The second analogy Ratzinger uses to explain the Eucharist is that of marriage.  Ratzinger describes that like in marriage two persons unite in such a way as to overcome their division, so with the Eucharist, the communicant and Christ join in an intimate union so profound that St. Paul could exclaim, “It is no longer I, but Christ who lives within me.”  In the Eucharist though, the union with the person and Christ is more intense and complete than the union achieved in marriage since in the Eucharist man remains united to God.  Thus, through these two examples, of consuming food and marriage, Ratzinger illustrates how the Eucharist creates a meaningful relationship between man and God.
Ratzinger also addresses the fact that the Eucharist not only draws men into the very life of God but also allows men to enter into a profound relationship with his fellow men in the Body of Christ, the Church.  Ratzinger writes that by Christ instituting the Eucharist, he is drawing men “into his relationship with God…These disciples become a ‘people’ through communion with the Body and Blood of Jesus, which is simultaneously communion with God.”   Moreover, Ratzinger depicts the innermost meaning of the Eucharist to be when Christians “receiving the one bread, enter into this one heart and thus become a living organism, the one Body of the Lord” thereby creating a profound relationship with each another.  Hence, through the Eucharist God brings man into relation with one another through the one Bread making the one Body of Christ.
The Eucharist, Ratzinger writes, not only brings man into relationship with the Trinity and builds communion with the Body of Christ but also transforms man’s entire existence.  Ratzinger beautifully describes this transformation when he states that the Eucharist is a sacramental relationship that “detaches man from his own material and transitory world and lifts him up into the being of God…being related to God means a new and profoundly transformed level of existence for man.”   It would impossible for man by coming into contact with divinity to remain unchanged, to have his existence not transformed.  Ratzinger writes that this transformation takes place in the Eucharist because “to celebrate the Eucharist means to enter into the openness of a glorification of God that embraces both heaven and earth, an openness effected by the Cross and Resurrection.”   The Eucharist, Ratzinger stresses, changes man’s life by drawing him into the very life of the Trinity because “man is most fully man, indeed the true man, who is most unlimited, who not only has contact with the infinite—the Infinite Being!—but is one with him: Jesus Christ.”   Most importantly, the Eucharist brings heaven to man, since as Ratzinger writes, “the reality of heaven only comes into existence through the confluence of God and man.  Heaven is to be defined as the contact of the being ‘man’ with the being ‘God’.”   Hence, the Eucharist allows man to entire the closest possible relationship with God since the Eucharist is the very contact between man and God.  In summary, the Eucharist transforms man’s existence by bringing his life into contact with the Trinitarian life, the purpose for which God created man.
In conclusion, Cardinal Ratzinger’s theology presents the idea of relation as constituting the very essence of personhood, whether it is the relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity or the life of the human person on earth.  According to Ratzinger, while the Persons of the Trinity derive their distinctions only through relation, the human person exists through a life of relationship, between other men and God.  Furthermore, through the life and death of Jesus Christ, man and God are able to enter into a deep and abiding relationship affected especially through the Eucharist.  Lastly, for Joseph Ratzinger, the concept of person as relation constitutes a fundamental aspect to understanding the Trinity, man, and the relationship between God and humanity.