"Thus faith is the finding of a 'You' that bears me up and amid all the unfulfilled -- and in the last resort unfulfillable -- hope of human encounters gives the promise of an indestructible love which not only longs for eternity but guarantees it.  Christian faith lives on the discovery that not only is there such a thing as objective meaning, but this meaning knows me and loves me, I can entrust myself to it like a child that knows all its questions answered in the 'You' of its mother.  Thus in the last analysis believing, trusting and loving are one, and all the theses around which belief revolves are only concrete expressions of the all-embracing about-turn, of the assertion 'I believe in You' -- of the discovery of God in the countenance of the man Jesus of Nazareth."

--  Ibid.


This is Ratzinger's unique Christian existentialism!  This is how he has successfully demonstrated the perfect correspondence between object of the Christian faith and the deepest desires of the human heart -- it is an encounter with a Person, who alone can fill it.  This is why faith matters, even in the day-to-day living -- it bears our existence up and keeps it from sinking into despair (especially in this dreadful weather!!!).