According to pope Benedict XVI, “to speak to find applause, to speak orienting oneself to what men wish to hear, to speak in obedience to the dictatorship of common opinions, is considered a type of prostitution of words and soul”
The mission of the theologian, Benedict XVI said, is to “keep in present the essential words in the loquacity of our times and other times (…) For the purification of our words and therefore those of the world, we need that silence that becomes contemplation, which allows us to enter into God’s silence and thus reach the point where the Word is born, the redeeming Word”.
He continued: “Our words and thoughts should only be used that they may be heard, may find space in the world, God’s speaking, God’s Word. Thus, once again, we are invited to this path of renouncing our own words; to this path of purification, that our words may be only instruments through which God may speak, and thus God is really not the object but the subject of Theology”.
Afterwards, quoting the First Letter of Saint Peter, he recalls that “to speak to find applause, to speak orienting oneself to what men wish to hear, to speak in obedience to the dictatorship of common opinions, is considered a type of prostitution of words and soul”. However, we need not submit to this typology but, “search for obedience to the truth. I believe this to be the fundamental virtue of the theologian, this harsh discipline to obedience to truth, which make us collaborators” and “the mouths of truth”.
