WRITERS OF THE CHURCH OF THE EAST AND OF THE
WEST
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
AMBROSE AUPERT
Ambrose Autpert, a lesser known author; in
fact, the majority of his works were attributed to other, better known people,
from St Ambrose of Milan to St Ildefonsus, not to mention those that the monks
of Monte Cassino claimed came from the pen of an abbot of theirs of the same
name who lived almost a century later. Apart from a few brief autobiographical
notes in his important commentary on the Apocalypse, we have little information about his life. Yet,
an attentive reading of the works whose authorship the critic recognizes makes
it possible, little by little, to discover in his teaching a precious
theological and spiritual treasure for our time too.
Born into a noble family in Provence according
to his late biographer, Giovanni Ambrose Autpert was at the court of the
Frankish King Pepin the Short where, in addition to his function as official,
he somehow also played the role of tutor to the future Emperor Charlemagne. Autpert,
probably in the retinue of Pope Stephen ii, who in 753-54 went to the Frankish
court, came to Italy and had the opportunity of visiting the famous Benedictine
Abbey of St Vincent, located near the sources of the River Volturno in the
Duchy of Benevento. Founded at the beginning of the century by three brothers
from Benevento Paldone, Tatone and Tasone the abbey was known as an oasis of
classical and Christian culture. Shortly after his visit, Ambrose Autpert
decided to embrace the religious life and entered that monastery where he
acquired an appropriate education, especially in the fields of theology and
spirituality, in accordance with the tradition of the Fathers. In about the
year 761, he was ordained a priest and on 4 October 777 he was elected abbot
with the support of the Frankish monks despite the opposition of the Lombards,
who favoured Potone the Lombard. The nationalistic tension in the background
did not diminish in the subsequent months. As a result, in the following year,
778, Autpert decided to resign and to seek shelter, together with several
Frankish monks, in Spoleto where he could count on Charlemagne's protection.
This, however, did not solve the dissension at St Vincent's Monastery. A few
years later, when on the death of the abbot who had succeeded Autpert, Potone
himself was elected as his successor (a. 782), the dispute flared up again and
even led to the denunciation of the new abbot to Charlemagne. The latter sent
the contenders to the tribunal of the Pontiff who summoned them to Rome.
Autpert was also called as a witness. However, he died suddenly on the journey,
perhaps murdered, on 30 January 784.
Ambrose Autpert was a monk and abbot in an
epoch marked by strong political tensions which also had repercussions on life
within the monasteries. We have frequent and disturbing echoes of them in his
writings. He reports, for example, the contradiction between the splendid
external appearance of monasteries and the tepidity of the monks: this
criticism was also certainly directed at his own abbey. He wrote for his
monastery the Life of the
three founders with the clear intention of offering the new generation of monks
a term of reference to measure up to. He also pursued a similar aim in a small
ascetic treatise Conflictus vitiorum atque virtutum ("Combat between the vices and the
virtues"), which met with great acclaim in the Middle Ages and was
published in 1473 in Utrecht, under Gregory the Great's name and, a year later,
in Strasbourg under that of St Augustine. In it Ambrose Autpert intends to give
the monks a practical training in how to face spiritual combat day after day.
Significantly he applies the affirmation in 2 Tim 3: 12: "All who desire
to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted", no longer by external
forces but by the assault that the Christian must face within him on the part
of the forces of evil. Twenty-four pairs of fighters are presented in a sort of
disputation: every vice seeks to lure the soul by subtle reasoning, whereas the
respective virtue rebuffs these insinuations, preferably by using words of
Scripture.
In this treatise on the combat between the
vices and the virtues, Autpert sets contemptus mundi (contempt for the world) against cupiditas (greed) which becomes an important figure in
the spirituality of monks. This contempt for the world is not a contempt for
Creation, for the beauty and goodness of Creation and of the Creator, but a
contempt for the false vision of the world that is presented to us and
suggested to us precisely by covetousness. It insinuates that
"having" is the supreme value of our being, of our life in the world,
and seems important. And thus it falsifies the creation of the world and
destroys the world. Autpert then remarks that the acquisitive greed of the rich
and powerful in the society of his time also exists within the souls of monks
and thus he writes a treatise entitled De cupiditate, in which, together with the Apostle Paul, he
denounces greed from the outset as the root of all evil. He writes: "In
the earth's soil various sharp thorns spring from different roots; in the human
heart, on the other hand, the stings of all the vices sprout from a single
root, greed" (De cupiditate 1: CCCM 27b, p. 963). In the light of the present global financial
crisis, this report reveals its full timeliness. We see that it was precisely
from this root of covetousness that the crisis sprang. Ambrose imagines the
objection that the rich and powerful might raise, saying: but we are not monks,
certain ascetic requirements do not apply to us. And he answers: "What you
say is true, but for you, in the manner of your class and in accordance with
your strength, the straight and narrow way applies because the Lord has
proposed only two doors and two ways (that is, the narrow door and the wide door,
the steep road and the easy one); he has not pointed to a third door or a third
way" (loc. cit., p. 978). He sees clearly that life-styles differ widely.
Nonetheless the duty to combat greed, to fight the desire to possess, to
appear, and the false concept of freedom as the faculty to dispose of all
things as one pleases applies to the man in this world too and also to the
rich. The rich person must also find the authentic road of truth, of love, and
thus of an upright life. As a prudent pastor of souls, Autpert was thus able to
speak a word of comfort at the end of his penitential homily: "I have not
spoken against the greedy, but against greed, not against nature but against
vice" (loc. cit., p. 981).
Ambrose Autpert's most important work is
without a doubt his commentary on the Apocalypse [Expositio in Apocalypsim] in 10 volumes: this constitutes, centuries
later, the first broad commentary in the Latin world on the last book of Sacred
Scripture. This work was the fruit of many years' work, carried out in two
phases between 758 and 767, hence prior to his election as abbot. In the
premise he is careful to indicate his sources, something that was not usual in
the Middle Ages. Through what was perhaps his most significant source, the
commentary of Bishop Primasius of Hadrumetum, written in about the middle of
the sixth century, Autpert came into contact with the interpretation of the Apocalypse
bequeathed to us by Ticonius,
an African who lived a generation before St Augustine. He was not a Catholic;
he belonged to the schismatic Donatist Church, yet he was a great theologian.
In his commentary he sees the Apocalypse above all as a reflection of the mystery of the Church. Ticonius had
reached the conviction that the Church was a bipartite body: on the one hand,
he says, she belongs to Christ, but there is another part of the Church that
belongs to the devil. Augustine read this commentary and profited from it but
strongly emphasized that the Church is in Christ's hands, that she remains his
Body, forming one with him, sharing in the mediation of grace. He therefore
stresses that the Church can never be separated from Jesus Christ. In his
interpretation of the Apocalypse, similar to that of Ticonius, Autpert is not so much concerned with the
Second Coming of Christ at the end of time as rather with the consequences that
derive for the Church of the present from his First Coming, his Incarnation in
the womb of the Virgin Mary. And he speaks very important words to us: in
reality Christ "must be born, die and be raised daily in us, who are his
Body" (In Apoc., III:
CCCM, 27, p. 205). In the context of the mystic dimension that invests every
Christian he looks to Mary as a model of the Church, a model for all of us
because Christ must also be born in and among us. Under the guidance of the
Fathers, who saw the "woman clothed with the sun" of Rv 12: 1 as an
image of the Church, Autpert argues: "the Blessed and devout Virgin...
daily gives birth to new peoples from which the general Body of the Mediator is
formed. It is therefore not surprising if she, in whose blessed womb the Church
herself deserved to be united with her Head, represents the type of the
Church". In this sense Autpert considers the Virgin Mary's role decisive
in the work of the Redemption (cf. also his homilies In purificatione S.
Mariae and In adsumptione
S. Mariae). His great
veneration and profound love for the Mother of God sometimes inspired in him
formulations that in a certain way anticipated those of St Bernard and of
Franciscan mysticism, yet without ever deviating to disputable forms of
sentimentalism because he never separates Mary from the mystery of the Church.
Therefore, with good reason, Ambrose Autpert is considered the first great
Mariologist in the West. He considers that the profound study of the sacred
sciences, especially meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, which he describes as
"the ineffable sky, the unfathomable abyss" should be combined with
the devotion that he believed must free the soul from attachment to earthly and
transient pleasures (In Apoc. IX). In the beautiful prayer with which his commentary on the Apocalypse ends, underlining the priority that must be
given to love in all theological research, he addresses God with these words:
"When you are intellectually examined by us, you are not revealed as you
truly are: when you are loved, you are attained".
Today we can see in Ambrose Autpert a
personality who lived in a time of powerful political exploitation of the
Church, in which nationalism and tribalism had disfigured the face of the
Church. But he, in the midst of all these difficulties with which we too are
familiar, was able to discover the true face of the Church in Mary, in the
Saints, and he was thus able to understand what it means to be a Catholic, to
be a Christian, to live on the word of God, to enter into this abyss and thus
to live the mystery of the Mother of God: to give new life to the Word of God,
to offer to the Word of God one's own flesh in the present time. And with all
his theological knowledge, the depth of his knowledge, Autpert was able to
understand that with merely theological research God cannot truly be known as
he is. Love alone reaches him. Let us hear this message and pray the Lord to
help us to live the mystery of the Church today in our time.
SAINT ANSELM
St. Anselm was born in 1033 (or at the
beginning of 1034) in Aosta, the first child of a noble family. His father was
a coarse man dedicated to the pleasures of life who squandered his possessions.
On the other hand, Anselm's mother was a profoundly religious woman of high
moral standing (cf. Eadmer, Vita Sancti Anselmi, PL 159, col. 49). It was she, his mother, who saw
to the first human and religious formation of her son whom she subsequently
entrusted to the Benedictines at a priory in Aosta. Anselm, who since childhood
as his biographer recounts imagined that the good Lord dwelled among the
towering, snow-capped peaks of the Alps, dreamed one night that he had been
invited to this splendid kingdom by God himself, who had a long and affable
conversation with him and then gave him to eat "a very white bread
roll" (ibid., col.
51). This dream left him with the conviction that he was called to carry out a
lofty mission. At the age of 15, he asked to be admitted to the Benedictine
Order but his father brought the full force of his authority to bear against
him and did not even give way when his son, seriously ill and feeling close to
death, begged for the religious habit as a supreme comfort. After his recovery
and the premature death of his mother, Anselm went through a period of moral
dissipation. He neglected his studies and, consumed by earthly passions, grew
deaf to God's call. He left home and began to wander through France in search
of new experiences. Three years later, having arrived in Normandy, he went to
the Benedictine Abbey of Bec, attracted by the fame of Lanfranc of Pavia, the
Prior. For him this was a providential meeting, crucial to the rest of his
life. Under Lanfranc's guidance Anselm energetically resumed his studies and it
was not long before he became not only the favourite pupil but also the
teacher's confidante. His monastic vocation was rekindled and, after an
attentive evaluation, at the age of 27 he entered the monastic order and was
ordained a priest. Ascesis and study unfolded new horizons before him, enabling
him to rediscover at a far higher level the same familiarity with God which he
had had as a child.
When Lanfranc became Abbot of Caen in 1063,
Anselm, after barely three years of monastic life, was named Prior of the
Monastery of Bec and teacher of the cloister school, showing his gifts as a
refined educator. He was not keen on authoritarian methods; he compared young
people to small plants that develop better if they are not enclosed in
greenhouses and granted them a "healthy" freedom. He was very
demanding with himself and with others in monastic observance, but rather than
imposing his discipline he strove to have it followed by persuasion. Upon the
death of Abbot Herluin, the founder of the Abbey of Bec, Anselm was unanimously
elected to succeed him; it was February 1079. In the meantime numerous monks
had been summoned to Canterbury to bring to their brethren on the other side of
the Channel the renewal that was being brought about on the continent. Their
work was so well received that Lanfranc of Pavia, Abbot of Caen, became the new
Archbishop of Canterbury. He asked Anselm to spend a certain period with him in
order to instruct the monks and to help him in the difficult plight in which
his ecclesiastical community had been left after the Norman conquest. Anselm's
stay turned out to be very fruitful; he won such popularity and esteem that
when Lanfranc died he was chosen to succeed him in the archiepiscopal See of
Canterbury. He received his solemn episcopal consecration in December 1093.
Anselm immediately became involved in a
strenuous struggle for the Church's freedom, valiantly supporting the
independence of the spiritual power from the temporal. Anselm defended the
Church from undue interference by political authorities, especially King
William Rufus and Henry I, finding encouragement and support in the Roman
Pontiff to whom he always showed courageous and cordial adherence. In 1103,
this fidelity even cost him the bitterness of exile from his See of Canterbury.
Moreover, it was only in 1106, when King Henry I renounced his right to the
conferral of ecclesiastical offices, as well as to the collection of taxes and
the confiscation of Church properties, that Anselm could return to England,
where he was festively welcomed by the clergy and the people. Thus the long
battle he had fought with the weapons of perseverance, pride and goodness ended
happily. This holy Archbishop, who roused such deep admiration around him
wherever he went, dedicated the last years of his life to the moral formation
of the clergy and to intellectual research into theological topics. He died on
21 April 1109, accompanied by the words of the Gospel proclaimed in Holy Mass
on that day: "You are those who have continued with me in my trials; as my
Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom..." (Lk 22: 28-30). So it was that the
dream of the mysterious banquet he had had as a small boy, at the very
beginning of his spiritual journey, found fulfilment. Jesus, who had invited
him to sit at his table, welcomed Anselm upon his death into the eternal
Kingdom of the Father.
"I pray, O God, to know you, to love you,
that I may rejoice in you. And if I cannot attain to full joy in this life may
I at least advance from day to day, until that joy shall come to the full"
(Proslogion, chapter 14).
This prayer enables us to understand the mystical soul of this great Saint of
the Middle Ages, the founder of scholastic theology, to whom Christian
tradition has given the title: "Magnificent Doctor", because he
fostered an intense desire to deepen his knowledge of the divine Mysteries but
in the full awareness that the quest for God is never ending, at least on this
earth. The clarity and logical rigour of his thought always aimed at
"raising the mind to contemplation of God" (ibid., Proemium). He states clearly that whoever intends to
study theology cannot rely on his intelligence alone but must cultivate at the
same time a profound experience of faith. The theologian's activity, according
to St Anselm, thus develops in three stages: faith, a gift God freely offers, to be received with
humility; experience, which
consists in incarnating God's word in one's own daily life; and therefore true knowledge, which is never the fruit of ascetic reasoning
but rather of contemplative intuition. In this regard his famous words remain
more useful than ever, even today, for healthy theological research and for
anyone who wishes to deepen his knowledge of the truths of faith: "I do
not endeavour, O Lord, to penetrate your sublimity, for in no wise do I compare
my understanding with that; but I long to understand in some degree your truth,
which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may
believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, that
unless I believed, I should not understand" (ibid., 1).
Dear brothers and sisters, may the love of the
truth and the constant thirst for God that marked St Anselm's entire existence
be an incentive to every Christian to seek tirelessly an ever more intimate
union with Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. In addition, may the zeal
full of courage that distinguished his pastoral action and occasionally brought
him misunderstanding, sorrow and even exile be an encouragement for Pastors,
for consecrated people and for all the faithful to love Christ's Church, to
pray, to work and to suffer for her, without ever abandoning or betraying her.
May the Virgin Mother of God, for whom St Anselm had a tender, filial devotion,
obtain this grace for us. "Mary, it is you whom my heart yearns to
love", St Anselm wrote, "it is you whom my tongue ardently desires to
praise".
BEDE, THE VENERABLE
Sacred Scripture was the constant source of
Bede's theological reflection. After a critical study of the text (a copy of
the monumental Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate on which Bede worked has come down to us), he comments on
the Bible, interpreting it in a Christological key, that is, combining two
things: on the one hand he listens to exactly what the text says, he really
seeks to hear and understand the text itself; on the other, he is convinced
that the key to understanding Sacred Scripture as the one word of God is
Christ, and with Christ, in his light, one understands the Old and New
Testaments as "one" Sacred Scripture. The events of the Old and New
Testaments go together, they are the way to Christ, although expressed in
different signs and institutions (this is what he calls the concordia
sacramentorum). For example,
the tent of the covenant that Moses pitched in the desert and the first and
second temple of Jerusalem are images of the Church, the new temple built on
Christ and on the Apostles with living stones, held together by the love of the
Spirit. And just as pagan peoples also contributed to building the ancient
temple by making available valuable materials and the technical experience of
their master builders, so too contributing to the construction of the Church
there were apostles and teachers, not only from ancient Jewish, Greek and Latin
lineage, but also from the new peoples, among whom Bede was pleased to list the
Irish Celts and Anglo-Saxons. St Bede saw the growth of the universal dimension
of the Church which is not restricted to one specific culture but is comprised
of all the cultures of the world that must be open to Christ and find in him
their goal.
Another of Bede's favourite topics is the
history of the Church. After studying the period described in the Acts of the
Apostles, he reviews the history of the Fathers and the Councils, convinced
that the work of the Holy Spirit continues in history. In the Chronica
Maiora, Bede outlines a
chronology that was to become the basis of the universal Calendar "ab
incarnatione Domini". In
his day, time was calculated from the foundation of the City of Rome. Realizing
that the true reference point, the centre of history, is the Birth of Christ,
Bede gave us this calendar that interprets history starting from the
Incarnation of the Lord. Bede records the first six Ecumenical Councils and
their developments, faithfully presenting Christian doctrine, both Mariological
and soteriological, and denouncing the Monophysite and Monothelite, Iconoclastic
and Neo-Pelagian heresies. Lastly he compiled with documentary rigour and
literary expertise the Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples mentioned above, which earned him recognition
as "the father of English historiography". The characteristic features
of the Church that Bede sought to emphasize are: a) catholicity, seen as faithfulness to tradition while
remaining open to historical developments, and as the quest for unity in
multiplicity, in historical and cultural diversity according to the directives
Pope Gregory the Great had given to Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle of
England; b) apostolicity and Roman traditions: in this regard he deemed it of prime importance
to convince all the Irish, Celtic and Pict Churches to have one celebration for
Easter in accordance with the Roman calendar. The Computo, which he worked out scientifically to
establish the exact date of the Easter celebration, hence the entire cycle of
the liturgical year, became the reference text for the whole Catholic Church.
Bede was also an eminent teacher of liturgical
theology. In his Homilies on the Gospels for Sundays and feast days he achieves
a true mystagogy, teaching the faithful to celebrate the mysteries of the faith
joyfully and to reproduce them coherently in life, while awaiting their full
manifestation with the return of Christ, when, with our glorified bodies, we
shall be admitted to the offertory procession in the eternal liturgy of God in
Heaven. Following the "realism" of the catecheses of Cyril, Ambrose
and Augustine, Bede teaches that the sacraments of Christian initiation make
every faithful person "not only a Christian but Christ". Indeed,
every time that a faithful soul lovingly accepts and preserves the Word of God,
in imitation of Mary, he conceives and generates Christ anew. And every time
that a group of neophytes receives the Easter sacraments the Church
"reproduces herself" or, to use a more daring term, the Church
becomes "Mother of God", participating in the generation of her children
through the action of the Holy Spirit.
By his way of creating theology, interweaving
the Bible, liturgy and history, Bede has a timely message for the different
"states of life": a) for scholars (doctores ac doctrices) he recalls two essential tasks: to examine
the marvels of the word of God in order to present them in an attractive form
to the faithful; to explain the dogmatic truths, avoiding heretical
complications and keeping to "Catholic simplicity", with the attitude
of the lowly and humble to whom God is pleased to reveal the mysteries of the
Kingdom; b) pastors, for their part, must give priority to preaching, not only
through verbal or hagiographic language but also by giving importance to icons,
processions and pilgrimages. Bede recommends that they use the vulgate as he
himself does, explaining the "Our Father" and the "Creed"
in Northumbrian and continuing, until the last day of his life, his commentary
on the Gospel of John in the vulgate; c) Bede recommends to consecrated people
who devote themselves to the Divine Office, living in the joy of fraternal
communion and progressing in the spiritual life by means of ascesis and
contemplation that they attend to the apostolate no one possesses the Gospel
for himself alone but must perceive it as a gift for others too both by
collaborating with Bishops in pastoral activities of various kinds for the
young Christian communities and by offering themselves for the evangelizing
mission among the pagans, outside their own country, as "peregrini pro
amore Dei".
Making this viewpoint his own, in his
commentary on the Song of Songs Bede presents the Synagogue and the Church as
collaborators in the dissemination of God's word. Christ the Bridegroom wants a
hard-working Church, "weathered by the efforts of evangelization" there
is a clear reference to the word in the Song of Songs (1: 5), where the bride
says "Nigra sum sed formosa" ("I am very dark, but comely") intent on tilling other fields
or vineyards and in establishing among the new peoples "not a temporary
hut but a permanent dwelling place", in other words, intent on integrating
the Gospel into their social fabric and cultural institutions. In this
perspective the holy Doctor urges lay faithful to be diligent in religious
instruction, imitating those "insatiable crowds of the Gospel who did not
even allow the Apostles time to take a mouthful". He teaches them how to
pray ceaselessly, "reproducing in life what they celebrate in the
liturgy", offering all their actions as a spiritual sacrifice in union with
Christ. He explains to parents that in their small domestic circle too they can
exercise "the priestly office as pastors and guides", giving their
children a Christian upbringing. He also affirms that he knows many of the
faithful (men and women, married and single) "capable of irreproachable
conduct who, if appropriately guided, will be able every day to receive
Eucharistic communion" (Epist. ad Ecgberctum, ed. Plummer, p. 419).
The fame of holiness and wisdom that Bede
already enjoyed in his lifetime, earned him the title of "Venerable".
Pope Sergius I called him this when he wrote to his Abbot in 701 asking him to
allow him to come to Rome temporarily to give advice on matters of universal
interest. After his death, Bede's writings were widely disseminated in his homeland
and on the European continent. Bishop St Boniface, the great missionary of
Germany, (d. 754), asked the Archbishop of York and the Abbot of Wearmouth
several times to have some of his works transcribed and sent to him so that he
and his companions might also enjoy the spiritual light that shone from them. A
century later, Notker Balbulus, Abbot of Sankt Gallen (d. 912), noting the
extraordinary influence of Bede, compared him to a new sun that God had caused
to rise, not in the East but in the West, to illuminate the world. Apart from
the rhetorical emphasis, it is a fact that with his works Bede made an
effective contribution to building a Christian Europe in which the various
peoples and cultures amalgamated with one another, thereby giving them a single
physiognomy, inspired by the Christian faith. Let us pray that today too there
may be figures of Bede's stature, to keep the whole continent united; let us
pray that we may all be willing to rediscover our common roots, in order to be
builders of a profoundly human and authentically Christian Europe.
SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
St Bernard of Clairvaux, called "the last
of the Fathers" of the Church because once again in the 12th century he
renewed and brought to the fore the important theology of the Fathers. We do
not know in any detail about the years of his childhood; however, we know that
he was born in 1090 in Fontaines, France, into a large and fairly well-to-do
family. As a very young man he devoted himself to the study of the so-called
liberal arts especially grammar, rhetoric and dialectics at the school of the
canons of the Church of Saint-Vorles at Châtillon-sur-Seine; and the decision
to enter religious life slowly matured within him. At the age of about 20, he
entered Cîteaux, a new monastic foundation that was more flexible in comparison
with the ancient and venerable monasteries of the period while at the same time
stricter in the practice of the evangelical counsels. A few years later, in
1115, Bernard was sent by Stephen Harding, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, to found
the monastery of Clairvaux. Here the young Abbot he was only 25 years old was
able to define his conception of monastic life and set about putting it into
practice. In looking at the discipline of other monasteries, Bernard firmly
recalled the need for a sober and measured life, at table as in clothing and
monastic buildings, and recommended the support and care of the poor. In the
meantime the community of Clairvaux became ever more numerous and its
foundations multiplied.
In those same years before 1130 Bernard started
a prolific correspondence with many people of both important and modest social
status. To the many Epistolae of this period must be added numerous Sermones, as well as Sententiae and Tractatus. Bernard's great friendship with William,
Abbot of Saint-Thierry, and with William of Champeaux, among the most important
figures of the 12th century, also date to this period. As from 1130, Bernard
began to concern himself with many serious matters of the Holy See and of the
Church. For this reason he was obliged to leave his monastery ever more
frequently and he sometimes also travelled outside France. He founded several
women's monasteries and was the protagonist of a lively correspondence with
Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, of whom I spoke last Wednesday. In his
polemical writings he targeted in particular Abelard, a great thinker who had
conceived of a new approach to theology, introducing above all the dialectic
and philosophical method in the constructi0n of theological thought. On another
front Bernard combated the heresy of the Cathars, who despised matter and the
human body and consequently despised the Creator. On the other hand, he felt it
was his duty to defend the Jews, and condemned the ever more widespread
outbursts of anti-Semitism. With regard to this aspect of his apostolic action,
several decades later Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn addressed a vibrant tribute to
Bernard. In the same period the holy Abbot wrote his most famous works such as
the celebrated Sermons on the Song of Songs [In Canticum Sermones]. In the last years of his life he died in 1153
Bernard was obliged to curtail his journeys but did not entirely stop
travelling. He made the most of this time to review definitively the whole
collection of his Letters, Sermons and Treatises. Worthy
of mention is a quite unusual book that he completed in this same period, in
1145, when Bernardo Pignatelli, a pupil of his, was elected Pope with the name
of Eugene III. On this occasion, Bernard as his spiritual father, dedicated to
his spiritual son the text De Consideratione [Five Books on Consideration] which contains
teachings on how to be a good Pope. In this book, which is still appropriate
reading for the Popes of all times, Bernard did not only suggest how to be a
good Pope, but also expressed a profound vision of the Mystery of the Church
and of the Mystery of Christ which is ultimately resolved in contemplation of
the mystery of the Triune God. "The search for this God who is not yet
sufficiently sought must be continued", the holy Abbot wrote, "yet it
may be easier to search for him and find him in prayer rather than in
discussion. So let us end the book here, but not the search" (XIV, 32: PL
182, 808) and in journeying on
towards God.
I would now like to reflect on only two of the
main aspects of Bernard's rich doctrine: they concern Jesus Christ and Mary
Most Holy, his Mother. His concern for the Christian's intimate and vital
participation in God's love in Jesus Christ brings no new guidelines to the
scientific status of theology. However, in a more decisive manner than ever,
the Abbot of Clairvaux embodies the theologian, the contemplative and the
mystic. Jesus alone Bernard insists in the face of the complex dialectical
reasoning of his time Jesus alone is "honey in the mouth, song to the ear,
jubilation in the heart (mel in ore, in aure melos, in corde iubilum)". The title Doctor Mellifluus, attributed to Bernard by tradition, stems
precisely from this; indeed, his praise of Jesus Christ "flowed like
honey". In the extenuating battles between Nominalists and Realists two
philosophical currents of the time the Abbot of Clairvaux never tired of
repeating that only one name counts, that of Jesus of Nazareth. "All food
of the soul is dry", he professed, "unless it is moistened with this
oil; insipid, unless it is seasoned with this salt. What you write has no
savour for me unless I have read Jesus in it" (In Canticum Sermones XV, 6: PL 183, 847).
For Bernard, in fact, true knowledge of God consisted in a personal, profound
experience of Jesus Christ and of his love. And, dear brothers and sisters,
this is true for every Christian: faith is first and foremost a personal,
intimate encounter with Jesus, it is having an experience of his closeness, his
friendship and his love. It is in this way that we learn to know him ever
better, to love him and to follow him more and more. May
this happen to each one of us!
In another famous Sermon on the Sunday in
the Octave of the Assumption
the Holy Abbot described with passionate words Mary's intimate participation in
the redeeming sacrifice of her Son. "O Blessed Mother", he exclaimed,
"a sword has truly pierced your soul!... So deeply has the violence of
pain pierced your soul, that we may rightly call you more than a martyr for in
you participation in the passion of the Son by far surpasses in intensity the
physical sufferings of martyrdom" (14: PL 183, 437-438). Bernard had no doubts: "per
Mariam ad Iesum", through
Mary we are led to Jesus. He testifies clearly to Mary's subordination to
Jesus, in accordance with the foundation of traditional Mariology. Yet the text
of the Sermone also
documents the Virgin's privileged place in the economy of salvation, subsequent
to the Mother's most particular participation (compassio) in the sacrifice of the Son. It is not for
nothing that a century and a half after Bernard's death, Dante Alighieri, in
the last canticle of the Divine Comedy, was to put on the lips of the Doctor Mellifluus the sublime prayer to Mary: "Virgin Mother,
daughter of your own Son, / humble and exalted more than any creature, / fixed
term of the eternal counsel" (Paradise XXXIII, vv. 1 ff.).
These reflections, characteristic of a person
in love with Jesus and Mary as was Bernard, are still a salutary stimulus not
only to theologians but to all believers. Some claim to have solved the
fundamental questions on God, on man and on the world with the power of reason
alone. St Bernard, on the other hand, solidly founded on the Bible and on the
Fathers of the Church, reminds us that without a profound faith in God,
nourished by prayer and contemplation, by an intimate relationship with the
Lord, our reflections on the divine mysteries risk becoming an empty
intellectual exercise and losing their credibility. Theology refers us back to
the "knowledge of the Saints", to their intuition of the mysteries of
the living God and to their wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, which become a
reference point for theological thought. Together with Bernard of Clairvaux, we
too must recognize that man seeks God better and finds him more easily "in
prayer than in discussion". In the end, the truest figure of a theologian
and of every evangelizer remains the Apostle John who laid his head on the
Teacher's breast.
I would like to conclude these reflections on
St Bernard with the invocations to Mary that we read in one of his beautiful
homilies. "In danger, in distress, in uncertainty", he says,
"think of Mary, call upon Mary. She never leaves your lips, she never departs
from your heart; and so that you may obtain the help of her prayers, never
forget the example of her life. If you follow her, you cannot falter; if you
pray to her, you cannot despair; if you think of her, you cannot err. If she
sustains you, you will not stumble; if she protects you, you have nothing to
fear; if she guides you, you will never flag; if she is favourable to you, you
will attain your goal..." (Hom. II super Missus
est, 17: PL 183, 70-71).
SAINT BONIFACE, THE APOSTLE OF THE GERMANS
St Boniface, who
has gone down in history as "the Apostle of the Germans". We have a
fair amount of information on his life, thanks to the diligence of his
biographers. He was born into an Anglo-Saxon family in Wessex in about 675 and
was baptized with the name of Winfrid. He entered the monastery at a very early
age, attracted by the monastic ideal. Since he possessed considerable
intellectual ability, he seemed destined for a peaceful and brilliant academic
career. He became a teacher of Latin grammar, wrote several treatises and even
composed various poems in Latin. He was ordained a priest at the age of about
30 and felt called to an apostolate among the pagans on the continent. His
country, Great Britain which had been evangelized barely 100 years earlier by
Benedictines led by St Augustine at the time showed such sound faith and ardent
charity that it could send missionaries to Central Europe to proclaim the
Gospel there. In 716, Winfrid went to Frisia (today Holland) with a few
companions, but he encountered the opposition of the local chieftain and his
attempt at evangelization failed. Having returned home, he did not lose heart
and two years later travelled to Rome to speak to Pope Gregory ii and receive
his instructions. One biographer recounts that the Pope welcomed him "with
a smile and a look full of kindliness", and had "important
conversations" with him in the following days (Willibaldo, [Willibald of
Mainz], Vita S. Bonifatii, ed. Levison, pp. 13-14), and lastly, after conferring upon him the new name
of Boniface, assigned to him, in official letters, the mission of preaching the
Gospel among the German peoples.
Comforted and
sustained by the Pope's support, Boniface embarked on the preaching of the
Gospel in those regions, fighting against pagan worship and reinforcing the
foundations of human and Christian morality. With a deep sense of duty he wrote
in one of his letters: "We are united in the fight on the Lord's Day,
because days of affliction and wretchedness have come.... We are not mute dogs
or taciturn observers or mercenaries fleeing from wolves! On the contrary, we
are diligent Pastors who watch over Christ's flock, who proclaim God's will to
the leaders and ordinary folk, to the rich and the poor... in season and out of
season..." (cf. Epistulae, 3,352.354: mgh). With his tireless activity and his gift for organization,
Boniface adaptable and friendly yet firm obtained great results. The Pope then
"declared that he wished to confer upon him the episcopal dignity so that
he might thus with greater determination correct and lead back to the path of
truth those who had strayed, feeling supported by the greater authority of the
apostolic dignity and being much more readily accepted by all in the office of
preacher, the clearer it was that this was why he had been ordained by the
Apostolic Bishop" (Othlo, Vita S. Bonifatii, ed. Levison, lib. I, p. 127).
The Supreme
Pontiff himself consecrated Boniface "Regional Bishop", that is, for
the whole of Germany. Boniface then resumed his apostolic labours in the territories
assigned to him and extended his action also to the Church of the Gauls: with
great caution he restored discipline in the Church, convoked various Synods to
guarantee the authority of the sacred canons and strengthened the necessary
communion with the Roman Pontiff, a point that he had very much at heart. The
Successors of Pope Gregory II also held him in the highest esteem. Gregory III
appointed him Archbishop of all the Germanic tribes, sent him the pallium and
granted him the faculties to organize the ecclesiastical hierarchy in those
regions (cf. Epist. 28: S. Bonifatii Epistulae, ed. Tangl, Berolini 1916). Pope Zacchary confirmed him in his office and
praised his dedication (cf. Epist. 51, 57, 58, 60, 68, 77, 80, 86, 87, 89: op. cit.); Pope Stephen III, newly elected, received a
letter from him in which he expressed his filial respect (cf. Epist. 108: op. cit.).
In addition to
this work of evangelization and organization of the Church through the founding
of dioceses and the celebration of Synods, this great Bishop did not omit to
encourage the foundation of various male and female monasteries so that they
would become like beacons, so as to radiate human and Christian culture and the
faith in the territory. He summoned monks and nuns from the Benedictine
monastic communities in his homeland who gave him a most effective and
invaluable help in proclaiming the Gospel and in disseminating the humanities
and the arts among the population. Indeed, he rightly considered that work for
the Gospel must also be work for a true human culture. Above all the Monastery
of Fulda founded in about 743 was the heart and centre of outreach of religious
spirituality and culture: there the monks, in prayer, work and penance, strove
to achieve holiness; there they trained in the study of the sacred and profane
disciplines and prepared themselves for the proclamation of the Gospel in order
to be missionaries. Thus it was to the credit of Boniface, of his monks and
nuns for women too had a very important role in this work of evangelization
that human culture, which is inseparable from faith and reveals its beauty,
flourished. Boniface himself has left us an important intellectual corpus.
First of all is his copious correspondence, in which pastoral letters alternate
with official letters and others private in nature, which record social events
but above all reveal his richly human temperament and profound faith.
In addition he composed a treatise on the Ars grammatica in which he explained the declinations, verbs and syntax of the Latin language, but which also became for him a means of spreading culture and the faith. An Ars metrica that is, an introduction on how to write poetry as well as various poetic compositions and, lastly, a collection of 15 sermons are also attributed to him.
Although he was
getting on in years (he was almost 80), he prepared himself for a new
evangelizing mission: with about 50 monks he returned to Frisia where he had
begun his work. Almost as a prediction of his imminent death, in alluding to the
journey of life, he wrote to Bishop Lull, his disciple and successor in the see
of Mainz: "I wish to bring to a conclusion the purpose of this journey; in
no way can I renounce my desire to set out. The day of my end is near and the
time of my death is approaching; having shed my mortal body, I shall rise to
the eternal reward. May you, my dear son, ceaselessly call the people from the
maze of error, complete the building of the Basilica of Fulda that has already
been begun, and in it lay my body, worn out by the long years of life"
(Willibald, Vita S. Bonifatii, ed. cit., p. 46). While he was beginning the celebration of Mass
at Dokkum (in what today is northern Holland) on 5 June 754, he was assaulted
by a band of pagans. Advancing with a serene expression he "forbade his
followers from fighting saying, "cease, my sons, from fighting, give up
warfare, for the witness of Scripture recommends that we do not give an eye for
an eye but rather good for evil. Here is the long awaited day, the time of our
end has now come; courage in the Lord!'" (ibid., pp. 49-50). These were his last words before he
fell under the blows of his aggressors. The mortal remains of the Martyr Bishop
were then taken to the Monastery of Fulda where they received a fitting burial.
One of his first biographers had already made this judgement of him: "The
holy Bishop Boniface can call himself father of all the inhabitants of Germany,
for it was he who first brought them forth in Christ with the words of his holy
preaching, he strengthened them with his example and lastly, he gave his life
for them; no greater love than this can be shown" (Othlo, Vita S.
Bonifatii, ed. cit., lib. I, p. 158).
Centuries later,
what message can we gather today from the teaching and marvellous activity of
this great missionary and martyr? For those who approach Boniface, an initial
fact stands out: the centrality of the word of God, lived and interpreted in the faith of the
Church, a word that he lived, preached and witnessed to until he gave the
supreme gift of himself in martyrdom. He was so passionate about the word of
God that he felt the urgent need and duty to communicate it to others, even at
his own personal risk. This word was the pillar of the faith which he had
committed himself to spreading at the moment of his episcopal ordination:
"I profess integrally the purity of the holy Catholic faith and with the
help of God I desire to remain in the unity of this faith, in which there is no
doubt that the salvation of Christians lies" (Epist. 12, in S. Bonifatii Epistolae, ed. cit., p. 29). The second most important proof that
emerges from the life of Boniface is his faithful communion with the
Apostolic See, which was a firm
and central reference point of his missionary work; he always preserved this
communion as a rule of his mission and left it, as it were, as his will. In a
letter to Pope Zachary, he said: "I never cease to invite and to submit to
obedience to the Apostolic See those who desire to remain in the Catholic faith
and in the unity of the Roman Church and all those whom God grants to me as
listeners and disciples in my mission" (Epist. 50: in ibid., p. 81). One result of this commitment was the
steadfast spirit of cohesion around the Successor of Peter which Boniface
transmitted to the Church in his mission territory, uniting England, Germany
and France with Rome and thereby effectively contributing to planting those
Christian roots of Europe which were to produce abundant fruit in the centuries
to come. Boniface also deserves our attention for a third characteristic: he
encouraged the encounter between the Christian-Roman culture and the
Germanic culture. Indeed, he knew
that humanizing and evangelizing culture was an integral part of his mission as
Bishop. In passing on the ancient patrimony of Christian values, he grafted on
to the Germanic populations a new, more human lifestyle, thanks to which the
inalienable rights of the person were more widely respected. As a true son of
St Benedict, he was able to combine prayer and labour (manual and intellectual),
pen and plough.
Boniface's
courageous witness is an invitation to us all to welcome God's word into our
lives as an essential reference point, to love the Church passionately, to feel
co-responsible for her future, to seek her unity around the Successor of Peter.
At the same time, he reminds us that Christianity, by encouraging the
dissemination of culture, furthers human progress. It is now up to us to be
equal to such a prestigious patrimony and to make it fructify for the benefit
of the generations to come.
His ardent zeal
for the Gospel never fails to impress me. At the age of 41 he left a beautiful
and fruitful monastic life, the life of a monk and teacher, in order to
proclaim the Gospel to the simple, to barbarians; once again, at the age of 80,
he went to a region in which he foresaw his martyrdom.
By comparing his ardent faith, this zeal for the Gospel, with our own often lukewarm and bureaucratized faith, we see what we must do and how to renew our faith, in order to give the precious pearl of the Gospel as a gift to our time.
SAINTS CYRIL AND
METHODIUS
Attracted by his brother's example, Cyril too
decided to give up teaching and go to Mount Olympus to meditate and pray. A few
years later (in about 861), the imperial government sent him on a mission to
the Khazars on the Sea of Azov who had asked for a scholar to be sent to them
who could converse with both Jews and Saracens. Cyril, accompanied by his
brother Methodius, stayed for a long time in Crimea where he learned Hebrew and
sought the body of Pope Clement I who had been exiled there. Cyril found Pope
Clement's tomb and, when he made the return journey with his brother, he took
Clement's precious relics with him. Having arrived in Constantinople the two
brothers were sent to Moravia by the Emperor Michael III, who had received a
specific request from Prince Ratislav of Moravia: "Since our people
rejected paganism", Ratislav wrote to Michael, "they have embraced
the Christian law; but we do not have a teacher who can explain the true faith
to us in our own language". The mission was soon unusually successful. By
translating the liturgy into the Slavonic language the two brothers earned
immense popularity.
However, this gave rise to hostility among the
Frankish clergy who had arrived in Moravia before the Brothers and considered
the territory to be under their ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In order to
justify themselves, in 867 the two brothers travelled to Rome. On the way they
stopped in Venice, where they had a heated discussion with the champions of the
so-called "trilingual heresy" who claimed that there were only three
languages in which it was lawful to praise God: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The
two brothers obviously forcefully opposed this claim. In Rome Cyril and
Methodius were received by Pope Adrian ii who led a procession to meet them in
order to give a dignified welcome to St Clement's relics. The Pope had also
realized the great importance of their exceptional mission. Since the middle of
the first millennium, in fact, thousands of Slavs had settled in those
territories located between the two parts of the Roman Empire, the East and the
West, whose relations were fraught with tension. The Pope perceived that the
Slav peoples would be able to serve as a bridge and thereby help to preserve
the union between the Christians of both parts of the Empire. Thus he did not
hesitate to approve the mission of the two brothers in Great Moravia, accepting
and approving the use of the Slavonic language in the liturgy. The Slavonic
Books were laid on the altar of St Mary of Phatmé (St Mary Major) and the
liturgy in the Slavonic tongue was celebrated in the Basilicas of St Peter, St
Andrew and St Paul.
Unfortunately, Cyril fell seriously ill in
Rome. Feeling that his death was at hand, he wanted to consecrate himself
totally to God as a monk in one of the Greek monasteries of the City (probably
Santa Prassede) and took the monastic name of Cyril (his baptismal name was
Constantine). He then insistently begged his brother Methodius, who in the
meantime had been ordained a Bishop, not to abandon their mission in Moravia
and to return to the peoples there. He addressed this prayer to God:
"Lord, my God... hear my prayers and keep the flock you have entrusted to
me faithful .... Free them from the heresy of the three languages, gather them
all in unity and make the people you have chosen agree in the true faith and
confession". He died on 14 February 869.
Faithful to the pledge he had made with his
brother, Methodius returned to Moravia and Pannonia (today, Hungary) the
following year, 870, where once again he encountered the violent aversion of
the Frankish missionaries who took him prisoner. He did not lose heart and when
he was released in 873, he worked hard to organize the Church and train a group
of disciples. It was to the merit of these disciples that it was possible to
survive the crisis unleashed after the death of Methodius on 6 April 885:
persecuted and imprisoned, some of them were sold as slaves and taken to Venice
where they were redeemed by a Constantinopolitan official who allowed them to return
to the countries of the Slavonic Balkans. Welcomed in Bulgaria, they were able
to continue the mission that Methodius had begun and to disseminate the Gospel
in the "Land of the Rus". God with his mysterious Providence thus
availed himself of their persecution to save the work of the holy Brothers.
Literary documentation of their work is extant. It suffices to think of texts
such as the Evangeliarium (liturgical
passages of the New Testament), the Psalter, various liturgical texts in Slavonic, on which both the Brothers had
worked. Indeed, after Cyril's death, it is to Methodius and to his disciples
that we owe the translation of the entire Sacred Scriptures, the Nomocanone and the Book of the Fathers.
Wishing now to sum up concisely the profile of
the two Brothers, we should first recall the enthusiasm with which Cyril
approached the writings of St Gregory of Nazianzus, learning from him the value
of language in the transmission of the Revelation. St Gregory had expressed the
wish that Christ would speak through him: "I am a servant of the Word, so
I put myself at the service of the Word". Desirous of imitating Gregory in
this service, Cyril asked Christ to deign to speak in Slavonic through him. He
introduced his work of translation with the solemn invocation: "Listen, O
all of you Slav Peoples, listen to the word that comes from God, the word that
nourishes souls, the word that leads to the knowledge of God". In fact, a
few years before the Prince of Moravia had asked the Emperor Michael III to
send missionaries to his country, it seems that Cyril and his brother
Methodius, surrounded by a group of disciples, were already working on the
project of collecting the Christian dogmas in books written in Slavonic. The
need for new graphic characters closer to the language spoken was therefore
clearly apparent: so it was that the Glagolitic alphabet came into being.
Subsequently modified, it was later designated by the name
"Cyrillic", in honour of the man who inspired it. It was a crucial
event for the development of the Slav civilization in general. Cyril and
Methodius were convinced that the individual peoples could not claim to have
received the Revelation fully unless they had heard it in their own language
and read it in the characters proper to their own alphabet.
Methodius had the merit of ensuring that the work begun by his brother was not suddenly interrupted. While Cyril, the "Philosopher", was more inclined to contemplation, Methodius on the other hand had a leaning for the active life. Thanks to this he was able to lay the foundations of the successive affirmation of what we might call the "Cyrillian-Methodian idea": it accompanied the Slav peoples in the different periods of their history, encouraging their cultural, national and religious development. This was already recognized by Pope Pius XI in his Apostolic Letter Quod Sanctum Cyrillum, in which he described the two Brothers: "Sons of the East, with a Byzantine homeland, of Greek origin, for the Roman missions to reap Slav apostolic fruit" (AAS 19 [1927] 93-96). The historic role they played was later officially proclaimed by Pope John Paul II who, with his Apostolic Letter Egregiae Virtutis, declared them Co-Patrons of Europe, together with St Benedict (31 December 1980; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 19 January 1981, p. 3).
Methodius had the merit of ensuring that the work begun by his brother was not suddenly interrupted. While Cyril, the "Philosopher", was more inclined to contemplation, Methodius on the other hand had a leaning for the active life. Thanks to this he was able to lay the foundations of the successive affirmation of what we might call the "Cyrillian-Methodian idea": it accompanied the Slav peoples in the different periods of their history, encouraging their cultural, national and religious development. This was already recognized by Pope Pius XI in his Apostolic Letter Quod Sanctum Cyrillum, in which he described the two Brothers: "Sons of the East, with a Byzantine homeland, of Greek origin, for the Roman missions to reap Slav apostolic fruit" (AAS 19 [1927] 93-96). The historic role they played was later officially proclaimed by Pope John Paul II who, with his Apostolic Letter Egregiae Virtutis, declared them Co-Patrons of Europe, together with St Benedict (31 December 1980; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 19 January 1981, p. 3).
Cyril and Methodius are in fact a classic example of what today is meant by the term "inculturation": every people must integrate the message revealed into its own culture and express its saving truth in its own language. This implies a very demanding effort of "translation" because it requires the identification of the appropriate words to present anew, without distortion, the riches of the revealed word. The two holy Brothers have left us a most important testimony of this, to which the Church also looks today in order to draw from it inspiration and guidelines.
GERMANUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople does not
belong among the most representative figures of the Greek-speaking world of
Eastern Christianity. Yet, his name appears with a certain solemnity in the
list of the great champions of sacred images drafted by the Second Council of
Nicaea, the seventh Ecumenical Council (787). The Greek Church celebrates his
Feast in the liturgy of 12 May. He played an important role in the overall
history of the controversy over images during the "Iconoclastic Crisis":
he was able to resist effectively the pressures of an Iconoclast Emperor, in
other words opposed to icons, such as Leo III.
During the patriarchate of Germanus (715-730)
the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, was subjected to a dangerous
siege by the Saracens. On that occasion (717-718), a solemn procession was
organized in the city displaying the image of the Mother of God, the Theotokos,
and the relic of the True
Cross, to invoke protection for the city from on high. In fact, Constantinople
was liberated from the siege. The enemy decided to desist for ever from the
idea of establishing their capital in the city that was the symbol of the
Christian Empire and the people were extremely grateful for the divine help.
After that event, Patriarch Germanus was
convinced that God's intervention must be considered as obvious approval of the
devotion shown by the people for the holy icons. However, the Emperor Leo III,
was of the absolute opposite opinion; that very year (717) he was enthroned as
the undisputed Emperor in the capital, over which he reigned until 741. After
the liberation of Constantinople and after a series of other victories, the
Christian Emperor began to show more and more openly his conviction that the
consolidation of the Empire must begin precisely with a reordering of the
manifestations of faith, with particular reference to the risk of idolatry to
which, in his opinion, the people were prone because of their excessive worship
of icons.
Patriarch Germanus' appeal to the tradition of
the Church and to the effective efficacy of certain images unanimously
recognized as "miraculous" were to no avail. The Emperor more and
more stubbornly applied his restoration project which provided for the
elimination of icons. At a public meeting on 7 January 730, when he openly took
a stance against the worship of images, Germanus was in no way ready to comply
with the Emperor's will on matters he himself deemed crucial for the Orthodox
faith, of which he believed worship and love for images were part. As a
consequence, Germanus was forced to resign from the office of Patriarch,
condemning himself to exile in a monastery where he died forgotten by almost
all. His name reappeared on the occasion of the Second Council of Nicaea (787),
when the Orthodox Fathers decided in favour of icons, recognizing the merits of
Germanus.
Patriarch Germanus took great care of the
liturgical celebrations and, for a certain time, was also believed to have
introduced the feast of the Akathistos. As is well known,
the Akathistos is a famous
ancient hymn to the Theotokos, the Mother of God, that came into being in the Byzantine context.
Despite the fact that from the theological viewpoint Germanus cannot be
described as a great thinker, some of his works had a certain resonance,
especially on account of some of his insights concerning Mariology. In fact, various of his homilies on Marian topics are extant, and some
of them profoundly marked the piety of entire generations of faithful, both in
the East and in the West. His splendid Homilies on the Presentation of Mary
at the Temple are still living
testimony of the unwritten tradition of the Christian Churches. Generations of
nuns and monks and the members of a great number of institutes of consecrated
life continue still today to find in these texts the most precious pearls of
spirituality.
Some of Germanus' Mariological texts still give
rise to wonder today. They are part of the homilies he gave In SS. Deiparae
dormitionem, a celebration
that corresponds with our Feast of the Assumption. Among these texts Pope Pius
xii picked out one that he set like a pearl in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (1950), with which he declared Mary's Assumption a Dogma of faith. Pope Pius XII cited this text in the above-mentioned
Constitution, presenting it as one of the arguments in favour of the permanent
faith of the Church concerning the bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven.
Germanus wrote: "May it never happen Most Holy Mother of God, that Heaven
and earth, honoured by your presence, and you, with your departure, leave men
and women without your protection? No. It is impossible to think of such
things. In fact, just as when you were in the world you did not feel foreign to
the realities of Heaven so too after you had emigrated from this world, you
were not foreign to the possibility of communicating in spirit with mankind....
You did not at all abandon those to whom you had guaranteed salvation... in
fact, your spirit lives in eternity nor did your flesh suffer the corruption of
the tomb. You, O Mother, are close to all and protect all, and although our
eyes are unable to see you, we know, O Most Holy One, that you dwell among all
of us and make yourself present in the most varied ways.... You (Mary, reveal
your whole self, as is written, in your beauty. Your virginal body is entirely
holy, entirely chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God so that, even for
this reason, it is absolutely incorruptible. It is unchangeable since what was
human in it has been taken up in incorruptibility, remaining alive and absolutely
glorious, undamaged, and sharing in perfect life. Indeed, it was impossible
that the one who had become the vase of God and the living temple of the most
holy divinity of the Only Begotten One be enclosed in the sepulchre of the
dead. On the other hand, we believe with certainty that you continue to walk
with us" (PG 98, coll.
344B-346B, passim).
It has been said that for the Byzantines the
decorum of the rhetorical form in preaching and especially in hymns or in the
poetic compositions that they call troparia is equally important in the liturgical
celebration as the beauty of the sacred building in which it takes place.
Patriarch Germanus was recognized, in that tradition, as one who made a great
contribution to keeping this conviction alive, that is, that the beauty of the
words and language must coincide with the beauty of the building and the music.
I quote, to conclude, the inspired words with
which Germanus described the Church at the beginning of his small masterpiece:
"The Church is the temple of God, a sacred space, a house of prayer, the
convocation of people, the Body of Christ.... She is Heaven on earth where the
transcendent God dwells as if in his own home and passes through, but she is
also an impression made (antitypos) of the Crucifixion, the tomb and the Resurrection.... The Church is
God's house in which the life-giving mystical sacrifice is celebrated, at the
same time the most intimate part of the shrine and sacred grotto. Within her in
fact the sepulchre and the table are found, nourishment for the soul and a
guarantee of life. In her, lastly, are found those true and proper precious
pearls which are the divine dogmas of teaching that the Lord offered directly
to this disciples" (PG 98,
coll. 384B-385A).
Lastly, the question remains: what does this
Saint chronologically and also culturally rather distant from us have to tell
us today? I am thinking mainly of three things. The first: there is a certain
visibility of God in the world, in the Church, that we must learn to perceive.
God has created man in his image, but this image was covered with the scum of
so much sin that God almost no longer shines through it. Thus the Son of God
was made true man, a perfect image of God: thus in Christ we may also
contemplate the Face of God and learn to be true men ourselves, true images of
God. Christ invites us to imitate him, to become similar to him, so in every
person the Face of God shines out anew. To tell the truth, in the Ten
Commandments God forbade the making of images of God, but this was because of
the temptations to idolatry to which the believer might be exposed in a context
of paganism. Yet when God made himself visible in Christ through the
Incarnation, it became legitimate to reproduce the Face of Christ. The holy
images teach us to see God represented in the Face of Christ. After the
Incarnation of the Son of God, it therefore became possible to see God in
images of Christ and also in the faces of the Saints, in the faces of all
people in whom God's holiness shines out.
The second thing is the beauty and dignity of
the liturgy. To celebrate the liturgy in the awareness of God's presence, with
that dignity and beauty which make a little of his splendour visible, is the
commitment of every Christian trained in his faith. The third thing is to love
the Church. Precisely with regard to the Church, we men and women are prompted
to see above all the sins and the negative side, but with the help of faith,
which enables us to see in an authentic way, today and always we can rediscover
the divine beauty in her. It is in the Church that God is present, offers
himself to us in the Holy Eucharist and remains present for adoration. In the
Church God speaks to us, in the Church God "walks beside us" as St
Germanus said. In the Church we receive God's forgiveness and learn to forgive.
Let us pray God to teach us to see his presence and his beauty in the Church,
to see his presence in the world and to help us too to be transparent to his
light.
HUGH AND RICHARD OF SAINT-VICTOR
We have little information about the life of
Hugh of Saint-Victor. The date and place of his birth are uncertain; he may
have been born in Saxony or in Flanders. It is known that having arrived in
Paris the European cultural capital at that time he spent the rest of his days
at the Abbey of Saint-Victor, where he was first a disciple and subsequently a
teacher. Even before his death in 1141, he earned great fame and esteem, to the
point that he was called a "second St Augustine". Like Augustine, in
fact, he meditated deeply on the relationship between faith and reason, between
the secular sciences and theology. According to Hugh of Saint-Victor, in
addition to being useful for understanding the Scriptures, all the branches of
knowledge have intrinsic value and must be cultivated in order to broaden human
knowledge, as well as to answer the human longing to know the truth. This
healthy intellectual curiosity led him to counsel students always to give free
reign to their desire to learn. In his treatise on the methodology of knowledge
and pedagogy, entitled significantly Didascalicon (On Teaching) his recommendation was: "Learn willingly
what you do not know from everyone. The person who has sought to learn something
from everyone will be wiser than them all. The person who receives something
from everyone ends by becoming the richest of all" (Eruditiones
Didascalicae, 3, 14; PL 176, 774).
The knowledge with which the philosophers and
theologians known as Victorines were concerned in particular was theology, which requires first and
foremost the loving study of Sacred Scripture. In fact, in order to know God
one cannot but begin with what God himself has chosen to reveal of himself in
the Scriptures. In this regard Hugh of Saint-Victor is a typical representative
of monastic theology, based entirely on biblical exegesis. To interpret
Scripture he suggests the traditional patristic and medieval structure, namely,
the literal and historical sense first of all, then the allegorical and
anagogical and, lastly, the moral. These are four dimensions of the meaning of
Scripture that are being rediscovered even today. For this reason one sees that
in the text and in the proposed narrative a more profound meaning is concealed:
the thread of faith that leads us heavenwards and guides us on this earth,
teaching us how to live. Yet, while respecting these four dimensions of the
meaning of Scripture, in an original way in comparison with his contemporaries,
Hugh of Saint-Victor insists and this is something new on the importance of the
historical and literal meaning. In other words before discovering the symbolic
value, the deeper dimensions of the biblical text, it is necessary to know and
to examine the meaning of the event as it is told in Scripture. Otherwise, he
warns, using an effective comparison, one risks being like grammarians who do
not know the elementary rules. To those who know the meaning of history as
described in the Bible, human events appear marked by divine Providence, in
accordance with a clearly ordained plan. Thus, for Hugh of Saint-Victor,
history is neither the outcome of a blind destiny nor as meaningless as it
might seem. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is at work in human history and
inspires the marvellous dialogue of human beings with God, their friend. This
theological view of history highlights the astonishing and salvific
intervention of God who truly enters and acts in history. It is almost as if he
takes part in our history, while ever preserving and respecting the human
being's freedom and responsibility.
Our author considered that the study of Sacred
Scripture and its historical and literal meaning makes possible true and proper
theology, that is, the systematic illustration of truths, knowledge of their
structure, the illustration of the dogmas of the faith. He presents these in a
solid synthesis in his Treatise De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei (The Sacraments of the Christian Faith). Among
other things, he provides a definition of "sacrament" which, further
perfected by other theologians, contains ideas that are still very interesting
today. "The sacrament is a corporeal or material element proposed in an
external and tangible way", he writes, "which by its likeness makes
present an invisible and spiritual
grace; it signifies it,
because it was instituted to this end, and contains it, because it is capable of sanctifying"
(9,2: PL 176, 317). On the
one hand is the visibility in the symbol, the "corporeity" of the
gift of God. On the other hand, however, in him is concealed the divine grace
that comes from the history of Jesus Christ, who himself created the
fundamental symbols. Therefore, there are three elements that contribute to the
definition of a sacrament, according to Hugh of Saint-Victor: the institution
by Christ; the communication of grace; and the analogy between the visible or
material element and the invisible element: the divine gifts. This vision is
very close to our contemporary understanding, because the sacraments are
presented with a language interwoven with symbols and images capable of
speaking directly to the human heart. Today too it is important that liturgical
animators, and priests in particular, with pastoral wisdom, give due weight to
the signs proper to sacramental rites to this visibility and tangibility of
Grace. They should pay special attention to catechesis, to ensure that all the
faithful experience every celebration of the sacraments with devotion,
intensity and spiritual joy.
Richard, who came from Scotland, was Hugh of
Saint-Victor's worthy disciple. He was prior of the Abbey of Saint-Victor from
1162 to 1173, the year of his death. Richard too, of course, assigned a
fundamental role to the study of the Bible but, unlike his master, gave
priority to the allegorical sense, the symbolic meaning of Scripture. This is
what he uses, for example, in his interpretation of the Old Testament figure of
Benjamin, the son of Jacob, as a model of contemplation and the epitome of the
spiritual life. Richard addresses this topic in two texts, Benjamin Minor and Benjamin Maior. In these he proposes to the faithful a
spiritual journey which is primarily an invitation to exercise the various
virtues, learning to discipline and to control with reason the sentiments and
the inner affective and emotional impulses. Only when the human being has
attained balance and human maturity in this area is he or she ready to approach
contemplation, which Richard defines as "a profound and pure gaze of the
soul, fixed on the marvels of wisdom, combined with an ecstatic sense of wonder
and admiration" (Benjamin Maior 1,4: PL 196, 67).
Contemplation is therefore the destination, the
result of an arduous journey that involves dialogue between faith and reason,
that is once again a theological discourse. Theology stems from truths that are
the subject of faith but seeks to deepen knowledge of them by the use of
reason, taking into account the gift of faith. This application of reason to
the comprehension of faith is presented convincingly in Richard's masterpiece,
one of the great books of history, the De Trinitate (The Trinity). In the six volumes of which it is composed
he reflects perspicaciously on the Mystery of the Triune God. According to our
author, since God is love the one divine substance includes communication,
oblation and love between the two Persons, the Father and the Son, who are
placed in a reciprocal, eternal exchange of love. However the perfection of
happiness and goodness admits of no exclusivism or closure. On the contrary, it
requires the eternal presence of a third Person, the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian
love is participatory, harmonious and includes a superabundance of delight,
enjoyment and ceaseless joy. Richard, in other words, supposes that God is
love, analyzes the essence of love of what the reality love entails and thereby
arrives at the Trinity of the Persons, which really is the logical expression
of the fact that God is love.
Yet Richard is aware that love, although it
reveals to us the essence of God, although it makes us "understand"
the Mystery of the Trinity, is nevertheless always an analogy that serves to
speak of a Mystery that surpasses the human mind. Being the poet and mystic
that he is, Richard also has recourse to other images. For example, he compares
divinity to a river, to a loving wave which originates in the Father and ebbs
and flows in the Son, to be subsequently spread with joy through the Holy
Spirit.
Dear friends, authors such as Hugh and Richard
of Saint-Victor raise our minds to contemplation of the divine realities. At
the same time, the immense joy we feel at the thought, admiration and praise of
the Blessed Trinity supports and sustains the practical commitment to be
inspired by this perfect model of communion in love in order to build our daily
human relationships. The Trinity is truly perfect communion! How the world
would change if relations were always lived in families, in parishes and in
every other community by following the example of the three divine Persons in
whom each lives not only with
the other, but for the
other and in the other! A
few months ago at the Angelus I recalled: "Love alone makes us happy
because we live in a relationship, and we live to love and to be loved" (Angelus, Trinity Sunday, 7 June 2009). It is love that works this ceaseless
miracle. As in the life of the Blessed Trinity, plurality is recomposed in unity, where all is kindness
and joy. With St Augustine, held in great honour by the Victorines, we too may exclaim: "Vides Trinitatem,
si caritatem vides you
contemplate the Trinity, if you see charity" (De Trinitate VIII, 8, 12).
JOHN CLIMACUS
John known as Climacus, a Latin transliteration
of the Greek term klimakos,
which means of the ladder (klimax). This is the title of his most important work
in which he describes the ladder of human life ascending towards God. He was
born in about 575 a.d. He lived, therefore, during the years in which
Byzantium, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, experienced the
greatest crisis in its history. The geographical situation of the Empire
suddenly changed and the torrent of barbarian invasions swept away all its
structures. Only the structure of the Church withstood them, continuing in
these difficult times to carry out her missionary, human, social and cultural
action, especially through the network of monasteries in which great religious
figures such as, precisely, John Climacus were active.
John lived and told of his spiritual
experiences in the Mountains of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elijah
heard his voice. Information on him has been preserved in a brief Life (PG 88, 596-608), written by a monk, Daniel of Raithu. At the age of 16,
John, who had become a monk on Mount Sinai, made himself a disciple of Abba
Martyr, an "elder", that is, a "wise man". At about 20
years of age, he chose to live as a hermit in a grotto at the foot of the
mountain in the locality of Tola, eight kilometres from the present-day St
Catherine's Monastery. Solitude, however, did not prevent him from meeting
people eager for spiritual direction, or from paying visits to several
monasteries near Alexandria. In fact, far from being an escape from the world
and human reality, his eremitical retreat led to ardent love for others (Life,
5) and for God (ibid., 7). After 40 years of life as a hermit, lived
in love for God and for neighbour years in which he wept, prayed and fought
with demons he was appointed hegumen of the large monastery on Mount Sinai and
thus returned to cenobitic life in a monastery. However, several years before
his death, nostalgic for the eremitical life, he handed over the government of
the community to his brother, a monk in the same monastery.
John died after the year 650. He lived his life between two mountains, Sinai and Tabor and one can truly say that he radiated the light which Moses saw on Sinai and which was contemplated by the three Apostles on Mount Tabor!
He became famous, as I have already said, through
his work, entitled The Climax,
in the West known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent (PG 88, 632-1164). Composed at the insistent request of the hegumen of the
neighbouring Monastery of Raithu in Sinai, the Ladder is a complete treatise of spiritual life in
which John describes the monk's journey from renunciation of the world to the
perfection of love. This journey according to his book covers 30 steps, each
one of which is linked to the next. The journey may be summarized in three
consecutive stages: the first is expressed in renunciation of the world in
order to return to a state of evangelical childhood. Thus, the essential is not
the renunciation but rather the connection with what Jesus said, that is, the
return to true childhood in the spiritual sense, becoming like children. John
comments: "A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is:
innocence, fasting and temperance. Let all babes in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3: 1)
begin with these virtues, taking as their model the natural babes" (1, 20;
636). Voluntary detachment from beloved people and places permits the soul to
enter into deeper communion with God. This renunciation leads to obedience
which is the way to humility through humiliations which will never be absent on
the part of the brethren. John comments: "Blessed is he who has mortified
his will to the very end and has entrusted the care of himself to his teacher
in the Lord: indeed he will be placed on the right hand of the Crucified
One!" (4, 37; 704).
The second stage of the journey consists in
spiritual combat against the passions. Every step of the ladder is linked to a
principal passion that is defined and diagnosed, with an indication of the
treatment and a proposal of the corresponding virtue. All together, these steps
of the ladder undoubtedly constitute the most important treatise of spiritual
strategy that we possess. The struggle against the passions, however, is
steeped in the positive it does not remain as something negative thanks to the
image of the "fire" of the Holy Spirit: that "all those who
enter upon the good fight (cf. 1 Tm 6: 12), which is hard and narrow,... may
realize that they must leap into the fire, if they really expect the celestial
fire to dwell in them" (1,18; 636). The fire of the Holy Spirit is the
fire of love and truth. The power of the Holy Spirit alone guarantees victory.
However, according to John Climacus it is important to be aware that the
passions are not evil in themselves; they become so through human freedom's
wrong use of them. If they are purified, the passions reveal to man the path
towards God with energy unified by ascesis and grace and, "if they have
received from the Creator an order and a beginning..., the limit of virtue is
boundless" (26/2, 37; 1068).
The last stage of the journey is Christian
perfection that is developed in the last seven steps of the Ladder. These are the highest stages of spiritual life,
which can be experienced by the "Hesychasts": the solitaries, those
who have attained quiet and inner peace; but these stages are also accessible
to the more fervent cenobites. Of the first three simplicity, humility and
discernment John, in line with the Desert Fathers, considered the ability to
discern, the most important. Every type of behaviour must be subject to
discernment; everything, in fact, depends on one's deepest motivations, which
need to be closely examined. Here one enters into the soul of the person and it
is a question of reawakening in the hermit, in the Christian, spiritual
sensitivity and a "feeling heart", which are gifts from God:
"After God, we ought to follow our conscience as a rule and guide in
everything," (26/1,5; 1013). In this way one reaches tranquillity of soul,
hesychia, by means of which
the soul may gaze upon the abyss of the divine mysteries.
The state of quiet, of inner peace, prepares
the Hesychast for prayer which in John is twofold: "corporeal prayer"
and "prayer of the heart". The former is proper to those who need the
help of bodily movement: stretching out the hands, uttering groans, beating the
breast, etc. (15, 26; 900). The latter is spontaneous, because it is an effect
of the reawakening of spiritual sensitivity, a gift of God to those who devote
themselves to corporeal prayer. In John this takes the name "Jesus
prayer" (Iesou euche),
and is constituted in the invocation of solely Jesus' name, an invocation that
is continuous like breathing: "May your remembrance of Jesus become one
with your breathing, and you will then know the usefulness of hesychia", inner peace (27/2, 26; 1112). At the
end the prayer becomes very simple: the word "Jesus" simply becomes
one with the breath.
The last step of the ladder (30), suffused with
"the sober inebriation of the spirit", is dedicated to the supreme
"trinity of virtues": faith, hope and above all charity. John also
speaks of charity as eros
(human love), a symbol of the matrimonial union of the soul with God, and once
again chooses the image of fire to express the fervour, light and purification
of love for God. The power of human love can be reoriented to God, just as a
cultivated olive may be grafted on to a wild olive tree (cf. Rm 11: 24) (cf.
15, 66; 893). John is convinced that an intense experience of this eros will help the soul to advance far more than the
harsh struggle against the passions, because of its great power. Thus, in our
journey, the positive aspect prevails. Yet charity is also seen in close
relation to hope: "Hope is the power that drives love. Thanks to hope, we
can look forward to the reward of charity.... Hope is the doorway of love....
The absence of hope destroys charity: our efforts are bound to it, our labours
are sustained by it, and through it we are enveloped by the mercy of God"
(30, 16; 1157). The conclusion of the Ladder contains the synthesis of the work in words
that the author has God himself utter: "May this ladder teach you the
spiritual disposition of the virtues. I am at the summit of the ladder, and as
my great initiate (St Paul) said: "So faith, hope, love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love' (1 Cor 13: 13)!" (30, 18; 1160).
At this point, a last question must be asked:
can the Ladder, a work
written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today?
Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai
in such a distant time be relevant to us? At first glance it would seem that
the answer must be "no", because John Climacus is too remote from us.
But if we look a little closer, we see that the monastic life is only a great
symbol of baptismal life, of Christian life. It shows, so to speak, in capital
letters what we write day after day in small letters. It is a prophetic symbol
that reveals what the life of the baptized person is, in communion with Christ,
with his death and Resurrection. The fact that the top of the
"ladder", the final steps, are at the same time the fundamental,
initial and most simple virtues is particularly important to me: faith, hope
and charity. These are not virtues accessible only to moral heroes; rather they
are gifts of God to all the baptized: in them our life develops too. The
beginning is also the end, the starting point is also the point of arrival: the
whole journey towards an ever more radical realization of faith, hope and
charity. The whole ascent is present in these virtues. Faith is fundamental,
because this virtue implies that I renounce my arrogance, my thought, and the
claim to judge by myself without entrusting myself to others. This journey
towards humility, towards spiritual childhood is essential. It is necessary to
overcome the attitude of arrogance that makes one say: I know better, in this
my time of the 21st century, than what people could have known then. Instead,
it is necessary to entrust oneself to Sacred Scripture alone, to the word of
the Lord, to look out on the horizon of faith with humility, in order to enter
into the enormous immensity of the universal world, of the world of God. In
this way our soul grows, the sensitivity of the heart grows toward God.
Rightly, John Climacus says that hope alone renders us capable of living
charity; hope in which we transcend the things of every day, we do not expect
success in our earthly days but we look forward to the revelation of God
himself at last. It is only in this extension of our soul, in this
self-transcendence, that our life becomes great and that we are able to bear
the effort and disappointments of every day, that we can be kind to others
without expecting any reward. Only if there is God, this great hope to which I
aspire, can I take the small steps of my life and thus learn charity. The
mystery of prayer, of the personal knowledge of Jesus, is concealed in charity:
simple prayer that strives only to move the divine Teacher's heart. So it is
that one's own heart opens, one learns from him his own kindness, his love. Let
us therefore use this "ascent" of faith, hope and charity. In this way we will arrive at true life.
JOHN DAMASCENE
John Damascene, a personage of prime importance
in the history of Byzantine Theology, a great Doctor in the history of the Universal
Church. Above all he was an eyewitness of the passage from the Greek and Syrian
Christian cultures shared by the Eastern part of the Byzantine Empire, to the
Islamic culture, which spread through its military conquests in the territory
commonly known as the Middle or Near East. John, born into a wealthy Christian
family, at an early age assumed the role, perhaps already held by his father,
of Treasurer of the Caliphate. Very soon, however, dissatisfied with life at
court, he decided on a monastic life, and entered the monastery of Mar Saba,
near Jerusalem. This was around the year 700. He never again left the
monastery, but dedicated all his energy to ascesis and literary work, not
disdaining a certain amount of pastoral activity, as is shown by his numerous
homilies. His liturgical commemoration is on the 4 December. Pope Leo XIII proclaimed him Doctor of the Universal Church
in 1890.
In the East, his best remembered works are the
three Discourses against those who calumniate the Holy Images, which were condemned after his death by the
iconoclastic Council of Hieria (754). These discourses, however, were also the
fundamental grounds for his rehabilitation and canonization on the part of the
Orthodox Fathers summoned to the Council of Nicaea (787), the Seventh
Ecumenical Council. In these texts it is possible to trace the first important
theological attempts to legitimise the veneration of sacred images, relating
them to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the
Virgin Mary.
John Damascene was also among the first to
distinguish, in the cult, both public and private, of the Christians, between
worship (latreia), and
veneration (proskynesis):
the first can only be offered to God, spiritual above all else, the second, on
the other hand, can make use of an image to address the one whom the image
represents. Obviously the Saint can in no way be identified with the material
of which the icon is composed. This distinction was immediately seen to be very
important in finding an answer in Christian terms to those who considered
universal and eternal the strict Old Testament prohibition against the use of
cult images. This was also a matter of great debate in the Islamic world, which
accepts the Jewish tradition of the total exclusion of cult images. Christians,
on the other hand, in this context, have discussed the problem and found a
justification for the veneration of images. John Damascene writes, "In
other ages God had not been represented in images, being incorporate and
faceless. But since God has now been seen in the flesh, and lived among men, I
represent that part of God which is visible. I do not venerate matter, but the
Creator of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to live in matter
and bring about my salvation through matter. I will not cease therefore to
venerate that matter through which my salvation was achieved. But I do not
venerate it in absolute terms as God! How could that which, from non-existence,
has been given existence, be God?... But I also venerate and respect all the
rest of matter which has brought me salvation, since it is full of energy and
Holy graces. Is not the wood of the Cross, three times blessed, matter?... And
the ink, and the most Holy Book of the Gospels, are they not matter? The
redeeming altar which dispenses the Bread of life, is it not matter?... And,
before all else, are not the flesh and blood of Our Lord matter? Either we must
suppress the sacred nature of all these things, or we must concede to the
tradition of the Church the veneration of the images of God and that of the
friends of God who are sanctified by the name they bear, and for this reason
are possessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not, therefore, offend
matter: it is not contemptible, because nothing that God has made is
contemptible" (cf. Contra imaginum calumniatores, I, 16, ed. Kotter, pp. 89-90). We see that as a
result of the Incarnation, matter is seen to have become divine, is seen as the
habitation of God. It is a new vision of the world and of material reality. God
became flesh and flesh became truly the habitation of God, whose glory shines
in the human Face of Christ. Thus the arguments of the Doctor of the East are
still extremely relevant today, considering the very great dignity that matter
has acquired through the Incarnation, capable of becoming, through faith, a
sign and a sacrament, efficacious in the meeting of man with God. John
Damascene remains, therefore, a privileged witness of the cult of icons, which
would come to be one of the most distinctive aspects of Eastern spirituality up
to the present day. It is, however, a form of cult which belongs simply to the
Christian faith, to the faith in that God who became flesh and was made
visible. The teaching of Saint John Damascene thus finds its place in the
tradition of the universal Church, whose sacramental doctrine foresees that
material elements taken from nature can become vehicles of grace by virtue of
the invocation (epiclesis)
of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by the confession of the true faith.
John Damascene extends these fundamental ideas
to the veneration of the relics of Saints, on the basis of the conviction that
the Christian Saints, having become partakers of the Resurrection of Christ,
cannot be considered simply "dead". Numbering, for example, those
whose relics or images are worthy of veneration, John states in his third
discourse in defence of images: "First of all (let us venerate) those
among whom God reposed, he alone Holy, who reposes among the Saints (cf. Is 57:
15), such as the Mother of God and all the Saints. These are those who, as far
as possible, have made themselves similar to God by their own will; and by
God's presence in them, and his help, they are really called gods (cf. Ps
82[81]: 6), not by their nature, but by contingency, just as the red-hot iron
is called fire, not by its nature, but by contingency and its participation in
the fire. He says in fact : you shall be holy, because I am Holy (cf. Lv 19:
2)" (III, 33, col. 1352 a). After a series of references of this kind,
John Damascene was able serenely to deduce: "God, who is good, and greater
than any goodness, was not content with the contemplation of himself, but
desired that there should be beings benefited by him, who might share in his
goodness: therefore he created from nothing all things, visible and invisible,
including man, a reality visible and invisible. And he created him envisaging
him and creating him as a being capable of thought (ennoema ergon), enriched with the word (logo[i]
sympleroumenon), and
orientated towards the spirit (pneumati teleioumenon)" (II, 2, pg 94, col. 865a). And to clarify this thought
further, he adds: "We must allow ourselves to be filled with wonder (thaumazein) at all the works of Providence (tes
pronoias erga), to accept and
praise them all, overcoming any temptation to identify in them aspects which to
many may seem unjust or iniquitous, (adika), and admitting instead that the project of God (pronoia) goes beyond man's capacity to know or to
understand (agnoston kai akatalepton), while on the contrary only he may know our thoughts, our actions, and
even our future" (ii, 29, pg 94, col. 964c). Plato had in fact already said that all philosophy
begins with wonder. Our faith, too, begins with wonder at the very fact of the
Creation, and at the beauty of God who makes himself visible.
The optimism of the contemplation of nature (physike
theoria), of seeing in the
visible creation the good, the beautiful, the true, this Christian optimism, is
not ingenuous: it takes account of the wound inflicted on human nature by the
freedom of choice desired by God and misused by man, with all the consequences
of widespread discord which have derived from it. From this derives the need,
clearly perceived by John Damascene, that nature, in which the goodness and
beauty of God are reflected, wounded by our fault, "should be strengthened
and renewed" by the descent of the Son of God in the flesh, after God had
tried in many ways and on many occasions, to show that he had created man so
that he might exist not only in "being", but also in
"well-being" (cf. The Orthodox Faith, II, 1, pg 94, col. 981). With passionate
eagerness John explains: "It was necessary for nature to be strengthened
and renewed, and for the path of virtue to be indicated and effectively taught
(didachthenai aretes hodòn),
the path that leads away from corruption and towards eternal life.... So there
appeared on the horizon of history the great sea of love that God bears towards
man (philanthropias pelagos)"....
It is a fine expression. We see on one side the beauty of Creation, and on the
other the destruction wrought by the fault of man. But we see in the Son of
God, who descends to renew nature, the sea of love that God has for man. John
Damascene continues: "he himself, the Creator and the Lord, fought for his
Creation, transmitting to it his teaching by example.... And so the Son of God,
while still remaining in the form of God, lowered the skies and descended... to
his servants... achieving the newest thing of all, the only thing really new
under the sun, through which he manifested the infinite power of God"
(III, 1, pg 94, col.
981c-984b).
We may imagine the comfort and joy which these
words, so rich in fascinating images, poured into the hearts of the faithful.
We listen to them today, sharing the same feelings with the Christians of those
far-off days: God desires to repose in us, he wishes to renew nature through
our conversion, he wants to allow us to share in his divinity. May the Lord
help us to make these words the substance of our lives.
JOHN OF SALISBURY
John of Salisbury who belonged to one of the
most important schools of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages, that of
the Cathedral of Chartres in France. Like the theologians of whom I have spoken
in the past few weeks, John too helps us understand that faith, in harmony with
the just aspirations of reason, impels thought toward the revealed truth in
which is found the true good of the human being.
John was born in Salisbury, England, between
1100 and 1120. In reading his works, and especially the large collection of his
letters, we learn about the most important events in his life. For about 12
years, from 1136 to 1148, he devoted himself to study, attending the best
schools of his day where he heard the lectures of famous teachers. He went to
Paris and then to Chartres, the environment that made the greatest impression
on his formation and from which he assimilated his great cultural openness, his
interest in speculative problems and his appreciation of literature. As often
happened in that time, the most brilliant students were chosen by prelates and
sovereigns to be their close collaborators. This also happened to John of
Salisbury, who was introduced to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury the
Primatial See of England by a great friend of his, Bernard of Clairvaux. Theobald was glad to welcome John among his
clergy. For 11 years, from 1150 to 1161, John was the secretary and chaplain of
the elderly Archbishop. With unflagging zeal he continued to devote himself to
study; he carried out an intense diplomatic activity, going to Italy ten times
for the explicit purpose of fostering relations between the Kingdom and Church
of England and the Roman Pontiff. Among other things, the Pope in those years
was Adrian IV, an Englishman who was a close friend of John of Salisbury. In
the years following Adrian iv's death, in 1159, a situation of serious tension
arose in England, between the Church and the Kingdom. In fact, King Henry II
wished to impose his authority on the internal life of the Church, curtailing
her freedom. This stance provoked John of Salisbury to react and, in
particular, prompted the valiant resistence of St Thomas Becket, Theobald's
successor on the episcopal throne of Canterbury, who for this reason was exiled
to France. John of Salisbury accompanied him and remained in his service,
working ceaselessly for reconciliation. In 1170, when both John and Thomas
Becket had returned to England, Thomas was attacked and murdered in his
cathedral. He died a martyr and was immediately venerated as such by the
people. John continued to serve faithfully the successor of Thomas as well,
until he was appointed Bishop of Chartres where he lived from 1176 until 1180,
the year of his death.
I would like to point out two of John of
Salisbury's works that are considered his masterpieces, bearing elegant Greek
titles: Metalogicon (In
Defence of Logic), and Policraticus (The Man of Government). In the first of these works, not without that
fine irony that is a feature of many scholars, he rejects the position of those
who had a reductionist conception of culture, which they saw as empty eloquence
and vain words. John, on the contrary, praises culture, authentic philosophy,
that is, the encounter between rigorous thought and communication, effective
words. He writes: "Indeed, just as eloquence that is not illuminated by
reason is not only rash but blind, so wisdom that does not profit from the use
of words is not only weak but in a certain way is mutilated. Indeed, although,
at times, wisdom without words might serve to square the individual with his
own conscience, it is of rare or little profit to society" (Metalogicon,
1, 1, PL 199, 327). This is a very timely teaching.
Today, what John described as "eloquence", that is, the possibility
of communicating with increasingly elaborate and widespread means, has
increased enormously. Yet the need to communicate messages endowed with
"wisdom", that is inspired by truth, goodness and beauty is more
urgent than ever. This is a great responsibility that calls into question in
particular the people who work in the multiform and complex world of culture,
of communications, of the media. And this is a realm in which the Gospel can be proclaimed with
missionary zeal.
In the Metalogicon John treats the problems of logic, in his day a
subject of great interest, and asks himself a fundamental question: what can
human reason know? To what point can it correspond with the aspiration that
exists in every person, namely, to seek the truth? John of Salisbury adopts a
moderate position, based on the teaching of certain treatises of Aristotle and
Cicero. In his opinion human reason normally attains knowledge that is not
indisputable but probable and arguable. Human knowledge this is his conclusion
is imperfect, because it is subject to finiteness, to human limitations.
Nevertheless it grows and is perfected, thanks to the experience and
elaboration of correct and consistent reasoning, able to make connections
between concepts and the reality, through discussion, exchanges and knowledge
that is enriched from one generation to the next. Only in God is there perfect
knowledge which is communicated to the human being, at least partially, by
means of Revelation received in faith, which is why the knowledge of faith,
theology, unfolds the potential of reason and makes it possible to advance with
humility in the knowledge of God's mysteries.
The believer and the theologian who deepen the
treasure of faith, also open themselves to a practical knowledge that guides
our daily activity, in other words moral law and the exercise of the virtues.
John of Salisbury writes: "God's clemency has granted us his law, which
establishes what it is useful for us to know and points out to us what it is
legitimate for us to know of God and what it is right to investigate.... In
this law, in fact, the will of God is explained and revealed so that each one
of us may know what he needs to do" (Metalogicon 4, 41, PL 199, 944-945). According to John of Salisbury an immutable objective
truth also exists, whose origin is in God, accessible to human reason and which
concerns practical and social action. It is a natural law that must inspire
human laws and political and religious authorities, so that they may promote
the common good. This natural law is characterized by a property that John
calls "equity", that is, the attribution to each person of his own
rights. From this stem precepts that are legitimate for all peoples, and in no
way can they be abrogated. This is the central thesis of Policraticus, the treatise of philosophy and political
theology in which John of Salisbury reflects on the conditions that render
government leaders' just and acceptable.
Whereas other arguments addressed in this work
are linked to the historical circumstances in which it was composed, the theme
of the relationship between natural law and a positive juridical order,
mediated by equity, is still of great importance today. In our time, in fact,
especially in some countries, we are witnessing a disturbing divergence between
reason, whose task is to discover the ethical values linked to the dignity of
the human person, and freedom, whose responsibility is to accept and promote
them. Perhaps John of Salisbury would remind us today that the only laws in
conformity with equity are those that protect the sacredness of human life and
reject the licitness of abortion, euthanasia and bold genetic experimentation,
those laws that respect the dignity of marriage between a man and a woman, that
are inspired by a correct secularism of the State a secularism that always
entails the safeguard of religious freedom and that pursue subsidiarity and
solidarity at both the national and the international level. If this were not
so, what John of Salisbury terms the "tyranny of princes", or as we
would say, "the dictatorship of relativism" would end by coming to
power, a relativism, as I recalled a few years ago, "which does not
recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of
one's own ego and desires" (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College
of Cardinals, Homily, Mass for the Election of the
Roman Pontiff, 18 April 2005).
In my most recent Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, in addressing people of good will who strive to ensure that social and
political action are never separated from the objective truth about man and his
dignity, I wrote: "Truth, and the love which it reveals, cannot be
produced: they can only be received as a gift. Their ultimate source is not,
and cannot be, mankind, but only God, who is himself Truth and Love. This
principle is extremely important for society and for development, since neither
can be a purely human product; the vocation to development on the part of
individuals and peoples is not based simply on human choice, but is an
intrinsic part of a plan that is prior to us and constitutes for all of us a
duty to be freely accepted" (n. 52). We must seek and welcome this plan that
precedes us, this truth of being, so that justice may be born, but we may find
it and welcome it only with a heart, a will and a reason purified in the light
of God.
JOHN SCOTUS ERIGENA
John Scotus Erigena, whose origins are
nonetheless obscure. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was born at the
beginning of the ninth century, but we do not know when he left his Island to
cross the Channel and thus fully enter that cultural world which was coming
into being around the Carolingians, and in particular around Charles the Bald,
in ninth-century France. Just as we are not certain of the date of his birth,
likewise we do not know the year of his death but, according to the experts, it
must have been in about the year 870. John Scotus Erigena had a patristic culture, both Greek and Latin, at first hand. Indeed, he had direct knowledge of the writings of both the Latin and the Greek Fathers. He was well acquainted, among others, with the works of Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory the Great and the important Fathers of the Christian West, but he was just as familiar with the thought of Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom and other Christian Fathers of the East who were equally important. He was an exceptional man who in that period had also mastered the Greek language. He devoted very special attention to St Maximus Confessor and above all to Dionysius the Areopagite. This pseudonym conceals a fifth-century ecclesiastical writer, but throughout the Middle Ages people, including John Scotus Erigena, were convinced that this author could be identified with a direct disciple of St Paul who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (17: 34). Scotus Erigena, convinced of the apostolicity of Dionysius' writings, described him as a "divine author" par excellence; Dionysius' writings were therefore an eminent source of his thought. John Scotus translated his works into Latin. The great medieval theologians, such as St Bonaventure, became acquainted with Dionysius' works through this translation. Throughout his life John Scotus devoted himself to deepening his knowledge and developing his thought, drawing on these writings, to the point that still today it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish where we are dealing with Scotus Erigena's thought and where, instead, he is merely proposing anew the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius.
The theological opus of John Scotus truly did
not meet with much favour. Not only did the end of the Carolingian era cause
his works to be forgotten; a censure on the part of the Church authorities also
cast a shadow over him. In fact, John Scotus represents a radical Platonism
that sometimes seems to approach a pantheistic vision, even though his personal
subjective intentions were always orthodox. Some of John Scotus Erigena's works
have come down to us among which the following in particular deserve mention:
the Treatise "On the Division of Nature" and the expositions on "The Heavenly
Hierarchy" of St
Dionysius. In them he continues to develop stimulating theological and
spiritual reflections which could suggest an interesting furthering of
knowledge also to contemporary theologians. I refer, for example, to what he
wrote on the duty of exercising an appropriate discernment on what is presented
as auctoritas vera, or on
the commitment to continue the quest for the truth until one achieves some
experience of it in the silent adoration of God.
Our author says: "Salus nostra ex fide
inchoat: our salvation begins
with faith"; in other words we cannot speak of God starting with our own
inventions but rather with what God says of himself in the Sacred Scriptures.
Since, however, God tells only the truth, Scotus Erigena is convinced that the
authority and reason can never contradict each other; he is convinced that true
religion and true philosophy coincide. In this perspective he writes: "Any
type of authority that is not confirmed by true reason must be considered
weak.... Indeed there is no true authority other than that which coincides with
the truth, discovered by virtue of reason, even should one be dealing with an
authority recommended and handed down for the use of the successors of the holy
Fathers" (I, PL 122,
col. 513 BC). Consequently, he warns: "Let no authority intimidate you or
distract you from what makes you understand the conviction obtained through
correct rational contemplation. Indeed, the authentic authority never
contradicts right reason, nor can the latter ever contradict a true authority.
"The one and the other both come indisputably from the same source, which
is divine wisdom" (I PL 122,
col. 511 B). We see here a brave affirmation of the value of reason, founded on
the certainty that the true authority is reasonable, because God is creative
reason.
According to Erigena, Scripture itself does not
escape the need to be approached with the same criterion of discernment. In
fact, although Scripture comes from God the Irish theologian maintains,
proposing anew a reflection made earlier by John Chrysostom it would not be
necessary had the human being not sinned. It must therefore be deduced that
Scripture was given by God with a pedagogical intention and with indulgence so
that man might remember all that had been impressed within his heart from the
moment of his creation, "in the image and likeness of God" (cf. Gn 1:
26) and that the Fall of man had caused him to forget. Erigena writes in his Expositiones:
"It is not man who was
created for Scripture, which he would not have needed had he not sinned, but
rather it is Scripture, interwoven with doctrine and symbols, which was given
to man. Thanks to Scripture, in fact, our rational nature may be introduced to
the secrets of authentic and pure contemplation of God" (II, PL 122, col. 146 C). The words of Sacred
Scripture purify our somewhat blind reason and help us to recover the memory of
what we, as the image of God, carry in our hearts, unfortunately wounded by
sin.
From this derive certain hermeneutical
consequences concerning the way to interpret Scripture that still today can
point out the right approach for a correct reading of Sacred Scripture. In fact
it is a question of discovering the hidden meaning in the sacred text and this
implies a special inner exercise through which reason is open to the sure road
to the truth. This exercise consists in cultivating constant readiness for
conversion. Indeed, to acquire an in-depth vision of the text it is necessary
to progress at the same time in conversion of the heart and in the conceptual
analysis of the biblical passage, whether it is of a cosmic, historical or
doctrinal character. Indeed, it is only by means of a constant purification of
both the eye of the heart and the eye of the mind that it is possible to arrive
at an exact understanding.
This arduous, demanding and exciting journey,
that consists of continuous achievements and the relativization of human
knowledge, leads the intelligent creature to the threshold of the divine
Mystery where all notions admit of their own weakness and inability and thus,
with the simple free and sweet power of the truth, make it obligatory
ceaselessly to surpass all that is progressively achieved. Worshipful and
silent recognition of the Mystery which flows into unifying communion is
therefore revealed as the only path to a relationship with the truth that is at
the same time the most intimate possible and the most scrupulously respectful
of otherness. John Scotus, here too using terminology dear to the Christian
tradition of the Greek language, called this experience for which we strive
"theosis", or divinization, with such daring affirmations that he
might be suspected of heterodox pantheism. Yet, even today one cannot but be
strongly moved by texts such as the following in which with recourse to the
ancient metaphor of the smelting of iron he writes: "just as all red-hot
iron is liquified to the point that it seems nothing but fire and yet the
substances remain distinct from one another, so it must be accepted that after
the end of this world all nature, both the corporeal and the incorporeal, will
show forth God alone and yet remain integral so that God can in a certain way
be com-prehended while remaining in-comprehensible and that the creature itself
may be transformed, with ineffable wonder, and reunited with God" (V,
PL 122, col. 451 B).
In fact, the entire theological thought of John
Scotus is the most evident demonstration of the attempt to express the
expressible of the inexpressible God, based solely upon the mystery of the Word
made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. The numerous metaphors John Scotus used to
point out this ineffable reality show how aware he was of the absolute
inadequacy of the terms in which we speak of these things. And yet the
enchantment and that aura of authentic mystical experience, which every now and
then one can feel tangibly in his texts, endures. As proof of this it suffices
to cite a passage from De divisione naturae which touches in depth even our mind as
believers of the 21st century: "We should desire nothing", he writes,
"other than the joy of the truth that is Christ, avoid nothing other than
his absence. The greatest torment of a rational creature consists in the
deprivation or absence of Christ. Indeed this must be considered the one cause
of total and eternal sorrow. Take Christ from me and I am left with no good
thing nor will anything terrify me so much as his absence. The greatest
torments of a rational creature are the deprivation and absence of him"
(V, PL 122, col. 989a).
These are words that we can make our own, translating them into a prayer to the
One for whom our hearts long.
SAINT ODO – ABBOT OF CLUNY
St. Odo fits into that period of medieval
monasticism which saw the surprising success in Europe of the life and
spirituality inspired by the Rule of St Benedict. In those centuries there was a wonderful
increase in the number of cloisters that sprang up and branched out over the
continent, spreading the Christian spirit and sensibility far and wide. St Odo
takes us back in particular to Cluny, one of the most illustrious and famous
monasteries in the Middle Ages that still today reveals to us, through its
majestic ruins, the signs of a past rendered glorious by intense dedication to
ascesis, study and, in a special way, to divine worship, endowed with decorum
and beauty.
Odo was the second Abbot of Cluny. He was born
in about 880, on the boundary between the Maine and the Touraine regions of
France. Odo's father consecrated him to the holy Bishop Martin of Tours, in
whose beneficent shadow and memory he was to spend his entire life, which he
ended close to St Martin's tomb. His choice of religious consecration was
preceded by the inner experience of a special moment of grace, of which he
himself spoke to another monk, John the Italian, who later became his
biographer. Odo was still an adolescent, about 16 years old, when one Christmas
Eve he felt this prayer to the Virgin rise spontaneously to his lips: "My
Lady, Mother of Mercy, who on this night gave birth to the Saviour, pray for
me. May your glorious and unique experience of childbirth, O Most Devout
Mother, be my refuge" (Vita sancti Odonis, 1, 9: PL 133, 747). The name "Mother of Mercy", with which young Odo
then invoked the Virgin, was to be the title by which he always subsequently
liked to address Mary. He also called her "the one Hope of the world ...
thanks to whom the gates of Heaven were opened to us" (In veneratione
S. Mariae Magdalenae: PL 133,
721). At that time Odo chanced to come across the Rule of St Benedict and to comment on it, "bearing, while not
yet a monk, the light yoke of monks" (ibid., I, 14, PL 133, 50). In one of his sermons Odo was to celebrate Benedict as the
"lamp that shines in the dark period of life" (De sancto Benedicto
abbate: PL 133, 725), and to
describe him as "a teacher of spiritual discipline" (ibid., PL 133, 727). He was to point out with affection
that Christian piety, "with the liveliest gentleness commemorates
him" in the knowledge that God raised him "among the supreme and
elect Fathers of Holy Church" (ibid., PL 133, 722).
Fascinated by the Benedictine ideal, Odo left
Tours and entered the Benedictine Abbey of Baume as a monk; he later moved to
Cluny, of which in 927 he became abbot. From that centre of spiritual life he
was able to exercise a vast influence over the monasteries on the continent.
Various monasteries or coenobiums were able to benefit from his guidance and
reform, including that of St Paul Outside-the-Walls. More than once Odo visited
Rome and he even went as far as Subiaco, Monte Cassino and Salerno. He actually
fell ill in Rome in the summer of 942. Feeling that he was nearing his end, he
was determined, and made every effort, to return to St Martin in Tours, where
he died, in the Octave of the Saint's feast, on 18 November 942. His
biographer, stressing the "virtue of patience" that Odo possessed,
gives a long list of his other virtues that include contempt of the world, zeal
for souls and the commitment to peace in the Churches. Abbot Odo's great
aspirations were: concord between kings and princes, the observance of the
commandments, attention to the poor, the correction of youth and respect for
the elderly (cf. Vita sancti Odonis, I, 17: PL 133, 49).
He loved the cell in which he dwelled,
"removed from the eyes of all, eager to please God alone" (ibid., I, 14: PL 133, 49). However, he did not fail also to exercise, as a
"superabundant source", the ministry of the word and to set an example,
"regretting the immense wretchedness of this world" (ibid., I, 17: PL 133, 51). In a single monk, his biographer comments, were combined the
different virtues that exist, which are found to be few and far between in
other monasteries: "Jesus, in his goodness, drawing on the various gardens
of monks, in a small space created a paradise, in order to water the hearts of
the faithful from its fountains" (ibid., I, 14: PL 133,49).
In a passage from a sermon in honour of Mary of Magdala the Abbot of Cluny reveals
to us how he conceived of monastic life: "Mary, who, seated at the Lord's
feet, listened attentively to his words, is the symbol of the sweetness of
contemplative life; the more its savour is tasted, the more it induces the mind
to be detached from visible things and the tumult of the world's
preoccupations" (In ven. S. Mariae Magd., PL 133, 717). Odo strengthened and developed this conception in his other
writings. From them transpire his love for interiority, a vision of the world
as a brittle, precarious reality from which to uproot oneself, a constant
inclination to detachment from things felt to be sources of anxiety, an acute
sensitivity to the presence of evil in the various types of people and a deep
eschatological aspiration. This vision of the world may appear rather distant
from our own; yet Odo's conception of it, his perception of the fragility of
the world, values an inner life that is open to the other, to the love of one's
neighbour, and in this very way transforms life and opens the world to God's
light.
The "devotion" to the Body and Blood
of Christ which Odo in the face of a widespread neglect of them which he
himself deeply deplored always cultivated with conviction deserves special
mention. Odo was in fact firmly convinced of the Real Presence, under the
Eucharistic species, of the Body and Blood of the Lord, by virtue of the
conversion of the "substance" of the bread and the wine.
He wrote: "God, Creator of all things, took the bread saying that this was his Body and that he would offer it for the world, and he distributed the wine, calling it his Blood"; now, "it is a law of nature that the change should come about in accordance with the Creator's command", and thus "nature immediately changes its usual condition: the bread instantly becomes flesh, and the wine becomes blood"; at the Lord's order, "the substance changes" (Odonis Abb. Cluniac. occupatio, ed. A. Swoboda, Leipzig 1900, p. 121). Unfortunately, our abbot notes, this "sacrosanct mystery of the Lord's Body, in whom the whole salvation of the world consists", (Collationes, XXVIII: PL 133, 572), is celebrated carelessly. "Priests", he warns, "who approach the altar unworthily, stain the bread, that is, the Body of Christ" (ibid., PL 133, 572-573). Only those who are spiritually united to Christ may worthily participate in his Eucharistic Body: should the contrary be the case, to eat his Flesh and to drink his Blood would not be beneficial but rather a condemnation (cf. ibid., XXX, PL 133, 575). All this invites us to believe the truth of the Lord's presence with new force and depth. The presence in our midst of the Creator, who gives himself into our hands and transforms us as he transforms the bread and the wine, thus transforms the world.
He wrote: "God, Creator of all things, took the bread saying that this was his Body and that he would offer it for the world, and he distributed the wine, calling it his Blood"; now, "it is a law of nature that the change should come about in accordance with the Creator's command", and thus "nature immediately changes its usual condition: the bread instantly becomes flesh, and the wine becomes blood"; at the Lord's order, "the substance changes" (Odonis Abb. Cluniac. occupatio, ed. A. Swoboda, Leipzig 1900, p. 121). Unfortunately, our abbot notes, this "sacrosanct mystery of the Lord's Body, in whom the whole salvation of the world consists", (Collationes, XXVIII: PL 133, 572), is celebrated carelessly. "Priests", he warns, "who approach the altar unworthily, stain the bread, that is, the Body of Christ" (ibid., PL 133, 572-573). Only those who are spiritually united to Christ may worthily participate in his Eucharistic Body: should the contrary be the case, to eat his Flesh and to drink his Blood would not be beneficial but rather a condemnation (cf. ibid., XXX, PL 133, 575). All this invites us to believe the truth of the Lord's presence with new force and depth. The presence in our midst of the Creator, who gives himself into our hands and transforms us as he transforms the bread and the wine, thus transforms the world.
St Odo was a true spiritual guide both for the
monks and for the faithful of his time. In the face of the "immensity of
the vices widespread in society, the remedy he strongly advised was that of a
radical change of life, based on humility, austerity, detachment from ephemeral
things and adherence to those that are eternal (cf. Collationes, XXX, PL 133, 613). In spite of the realism of his diagnosis on the situation of
his time, Odo does not indulge in pessimism: "We do not say this", he
explains, "in order to plunge those who wish to convert into despair.
Divine mercy is always available; it awaits the hour of our conversion" (ibid.,
PL 133, 563). And he exclaims:
"O ineffable bowels of divine piety! God pursues wrongs and yet protects
sinners" (ibid., PL 133,
592). Sustained by this conviction, the Abbot of Cluny used to like to pause to
contemplate the mercy of Christ, the Saviour whom he describes evocatively as
"a lover of men": "amator hominum Christus" (ibid., LIII: PL 133, 637).
He observes "Jesus took upon himself the scourging that would have been
our due in order to save the creature he formed and loves (cf. ibid., PL 133, 638).
Here, a trait of the holy abbot appears that at
first sight is almost hidden beneath the rigour of his austerity as a reformer:
his deep, heartfelt kindness. He was austere, but above all he was good, a man
of great goodness, a goodness that comes from contact with the divine goodness.
Thus Odo, his peers tell us, spread around him his overflowing joy. His
biographer testifies that he never heard "such mellifluous words" on
human lips (ibid., I, 17: PL
133, 31). His biographer also
records that he was in the habit of asking the children he met along the way to
sing, and that he would then give them some small token, and he adds:
"Abbot Odo's words were full of joy ... his merriment instilled in our
hearts deep joy" (ibid., II, 5: PL 133, 63).
In this way the energetic yet at the same time lovable medieval abbot,
enthusiastic about reform, with incisive action nourished in his monks, as well
as in the lay faithful of his time, the resolution to progress swiftly on the
path of Christian perfection.
Let us hope that his goodness, the joy that
comes from faith, together with austerity and opposition to the world's vices,
may also move our hearts, so that we too may find the source of the joy that
flows from God's goodness.
SAINT
PETER DAMIAN
He distinguished
himself in the widest range of literary forms: from letters to sermons, from
hagiographies to prayers, from poems to epigrams. His sensitivity to beauty led
him to poetic contemplation of the world. Peter Damian conceived of the
universe as a never-ending "parable" and a sequence of symbols on
which to base the interpretation of inner life and divine and supra-natural
reality. In this perspective, in about the year 1034, contemplation of the
absolute of God impelled him gradually to detach himself from the world and
from its transient realties and to withdraw to the Monastery of Fonte Avellana.
It had been founded only a few decades earlier but was already celebrated for
its austerity. For the monks' edification he wrote the Life of the Founder, St Romuald of Ravenna, and at
the same time strove to deepen their spirituality, expounding on his ideal of
eremitic monasticism.
One detail should
be immediately emphasized: the Hermitage at Fonte Avellana was dedicated to the
Holy Cross and the Cross was the Christian mystery that was to fascinate Peter
Damian more than all the others. "Those who do not love the Cross of
Christ do not love Christ", he said (Sermo XVIII, 11, p. 117); and he described himself as "Petrus
crucis Christi servorum famulus Peter, servant of the servants of the Cross of Christ" (Ep, 9, 1).
Peter Damian addressed the most beautiful prayers to the Cross in which he
reveals a vision of this mystery which has cosmic dimensions for it embraces
the entire history of salvation: "O Blessed Cross", he exclaimed,
"You are venerated, preached and honoured by the faith of the Patriarchs,
the predictions of the Prophets, the senate that judges the Apostles, the
victorious army of Martyrs and the throngs of all the Saints" (Sermo
XLVII, 14, p. 304).
Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the example of St Peter Damian spur us too
always to look to the Cross as to the supreme act God's love for humankind of
God, who has given us salvation.
This great monk
compiled a Rule for eremitical life in which he heavily stressed the
"rigour of the hermit": in the silence of the cloister the monk is
called to spend a life of prayer, by day and by night, with prolonged and
strict fasting; he must put into practice generous brotherly charity in ever
prompt and willing obedience to the prior. In study and in the daily meditation
of Sacred Scripture, Peter Damian discovered the mystical meaning of the word
of God, finding in it nourishment for his spiritual life. In this regard he
described the hermit's cell as the "parlour in which God converses with
men". For him, living as a hermit was the peak of Christian existence,
"the loftiest of the states of life" because the monk, now free from
the bonds of worldly life and of his own self, receives "a dowry from the
Holy Spirit and his happy soul is united with its heavenly Spouse" (Ep 18, 17; cf. Ep 28, 43 ff.). This is important for us today too,
even though we are not monks: to know how to make silence within us to listen
to God's voice, to seek, as it were, a "parlour" in which God speaks
with us: learning the word of God in prayer and in meditation is the path to
life.
St Peter Damian,
who was essentially a man of prayer, meditation and contemplation, was also a
fine theologian: his reflection on various doctrinal themes led him to
important conclusions for life. Thus, for example, he expresses with clarity
and liveliness the Trinitarian doctrine, already using, under the guidance of
biblical and patristic texts, the three fundamental terms which were
subsequently to become crucial also for the philosophy of the West: processio,
relatio and persona (cf. Opusc. XXXVIII: PL CXLV, 633-642; and Opusc. II and III: ibid., 41 ff. and 58 ff). However, because theological
analysis of the mystery led him to contemplate the intimate life of God and the
dialogue of ineffable love between the three divine Persons, he drew ascetic
conclusions from them for community life and even for relations between Latin
and Greek Christians, divided on this topic. His meditation on the figure of
Christ is significantly reflected in practical life, since the whole of
Scripture is centred on him. The "Jews", St Peter Damian notes,
"through the pages of Sacred Scripture, bore Christ on their shoulders as
it were" (Sermo XLVI, 15). Therefore Christ, he adds, must be the centre of the monk's life:
"May Christ be heard in our language, may Christ be seen in our life, may
he be perceived in our hearts" (Sermo VIII, 5). Intimate union with Christ engages not
only monks but all the baptized. Here we find a strong appeal for us too not to
let ourselves be totally absorbed by the activities, problems and
preoccupations of every day, forgetting that Jesus must truly be the centre of
our life.
Communion with
Christ creates among Christians a unity of love. In Letter 28, which is a
brilliant ecclesiological treatise, Peter Damian develops a profound theology
of the Church as communion. "Christ's Church", he writes, is united
by the bond of charity to the point that just as she has many members so is
she, mystically, entirely contained in a single member; in such a way that the
whole universal Church is rightly called the one Bride of Christ in the
singular, and each chosen soul, through the sacramental mystery, is considered
fully Church". This is important: not only that the whole universal Church
should be united, but that the Church should be present in her totality in each
one of us. Thus the service of the individual becomes "an expression of
universality" (Ep 28, 9-23). However, the ideal image of "Holy Church" illustrated
by Peter Damian does not correspond as he knew well to the reality of his time.
For this reason he did not fear to denounce the state of corruption that
existed in the monasteries and among the clergy, because, above all, of the
practice of the conferral by the lay authorities of ecclesiastical offices;
various Bishops and Abbots were behaving as the rulers of their subjects rather
than as pastors of souls. Their moral life frequently left much to be desired.
For this reason, in 1057 Peter Damian left his monastery with great reluctance
and sorrow and accepted, if unwillingly, his appointment as Cardinal Bishop of
Ostia. So it was that he entered fully into collaboration with the Popes in the
difficult task of Church reform. He saw that to make his own contribution of
helping in the work of the Church's renewal contemplation did not suffice. He
thus relinquished the beauty of the hermitage and courageously undertook
numerous journeys and missions.
Because of his
love for monastic life, 10 years later, in 1067, he obtained permission to
return to Fonte Avellana and resigned from the Diocese of Ostia. However, the
tranquillity he had longed for did not last long: two years later, he was sent
to Frankfurt in an endeavour to prevent the divorce of Henry iv from his wife
Bertha. And again, two years later, in 1071, he went to Monte Cassino for the
consecration of the abbey church and at the beginning of 1072, to Ravenna, to
re-establish peace with the local Archbishop who had supported the antipope
bringing interdiction upon the city.
On the journey home to his hermitage, an unexpected illness obliged him to stop at the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria Vecchia Fuori Porta in Faenza, where he died in the night between 22 and 23 February 1072.
On the journey home to his hermitage, an unexpected illness obliged him to stop at the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria Vecchia Fuori Porta in Faenza, where he died in the night between 22 and 23 February 1072.
Dear brothers and
sisters, it is a great grace that the Lord should have raised up in the life of
the Church a figure as exuberant, rich and complex as St Peter Damian.
Moreover, it is rare to find theological works and spirituality as keen and
vibrant as those of the Hermitage at Fonte Avellana. St Peter Damian was a monk
through and through, with forms of austerity which to us today might even seem
excessive. Yet, in that way he made monastic life an eloquent testimony of
God's primacy and an appeal to all to walk towards holiness, free from any
compromise with evil. He spent himself, with lucid consistency and great
severity, for the reform of the Church of his time. He gave all his spiritual
and physical energies to Christ and to the Church, but always remained, as he
liked to describe himself, Petrus ultimus monachorum servus, Peter, the lowliest servant of the monks.
PETER LOMBARD
Peter Lombard was a theologian who lived in the 12th
century and enjoyed great fame because one of his works, entitled the Sentences, was used as a
theological manual for many centuries. So who was Peter Lombard? Although the
information on his life is scarce it is possible to reconstruct the essential
lines of his biography. He was born beween the 11th and 12th centuries near
Novara, in Northern Italy, in a region that once belonged to the Lombards. For
this very reason he was nicknamed "the Lombard". He belonged to a
modest family, as we may deduce from the letter of introduction that Bernard of
Clairvaux wrote to Gilduin, Superior of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris,
asking him to give free accomodation to Peter who wanted to go to that city in
order to study. In fact, even in the Middle Ages not only nobles or the rich
might study and acquire important roles in ecclesial and social life but also
people of humble origin such as, for example, Gregory vii, the Pope who stood
up to the Emperor Henry vi, or Maurice of Sully, the Archbishop of Paris who
commissioned the building of Notre-Dame and who was the son of a poor peasant.
Peter Lombard began his studies in Bologna and
then went to Rheims and lastly to Paris. From 1140 he taught at the prestigious
school of Notre-Dame. Esteemed and appreciated as a theologian, eight years
later he was charged by Pope Eugene ii to examine the doctrine of Gilbert de la
Porrée that was giving rise to numerous discussions because it was held to be
not wholly orthodox. Having become a priest, he was appointed Bishop of Paris
in 1159, a year before his death in 1160.
Like all theology teachers of his time, Peter
also wrote discourses and commentaries on Sacred Scripture. His masterpiece,
however, consists of the four Books of the Sentences. This is a text which came into being for
didactic purposes. According to the theological method in use in those times,
it was necessary first of all to know, study and comment on the thought of the Fathers
of the Church and of the other writers deemed authoritative. Peter therefore
collected a very considerable amount of documentation, which consisted mainly
of the teachings of the great Latin Fathers, especially St Augustine, and was
open to the contribution of contemporary theologians. Among other things, he
also used an encyclopedia of Greek theology which had only recently become
known to the West: The Orthodox faith, composed by St John Damascene. The great merit of Peter Lombard is to
have organized all the material that he had collected and chosen with care, in
a systematic and harmonious framework. In fact one of the features of theology
is to organize the patrimony of faith in a unitive and orderly way. Thus he
distributed the sentences, that is, the Patristic sources on various arguments,
in four books. In the first book he addresses God and the Trinitarian mystery;
in the second, the work of the Creation, sin and Grace; in the third, the
Mystery of the Incarnation and the work of Redemption with an extensive
exposition on the virtues. The fourth book is dedicated to the sacraments and
to the last realities, those of eternal life, or Novissimi. The overall view presented includes almost
all the truths of the Catholic faith. The concise, clear vision and clear,
orderly schematic and ever consistent presentation explain the extraordinary
success of Peter Lombard's Sentences. They enabled students to learn reliably and gave the educators and
teachers who used them plenty of room for acquiring deeper knowledge. A
Franciscan theologian, Alexandre of Hales, of the next generation, introduced
into the Sentences a
division that facilitated their study and consultation. Even the greatest of
the 13th-century theologians, Albert the Great, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and
Thomas Aquinas began their academic activity by commenting on the four books of
Peter Lombard's Sentences, enriching
them with their reflections. Lombard's text was the book in use at all schools
of theology until the 16th century.
I would like to emphasize how the organic
presentation of faith is an indispensable requirement. In fact, the individuals
truths of faith illuminate each other and, in their total and unitive vision
appears the harmony of God's plan of salvation and the centrality of the
Mystery of Christ. After the example of Peter Lombard, I invite all theologians
and priests always to keep in mind the whole vision of the Christian doctrine,
to counter today's risks of fragmentation and the debasement of the single
truths. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as the Compendium of this same Catcehism, offer us exactly this
full picture of Christian Revelation, to be accepted with faith and gratitude.
However I would like to encourage the individual faithful and the Christian
communities to make the most of these instruments to know and to deepen the
content of our faith. It will thus appear to us as a marvellous symphony that
speaks to us of God and of his love and asks of us firm adherence and an active
response.
To get an idea of the interest that the reading
of Peter Lombard's Sentences
still inspires today I propose two examples. Inspired by St Augustine's
Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Peter wonders why woman was created from
man's rib and not from his head or his feet. And Peter explains: "She was
formed neither as a dominator nor a slave of man but rather as his
companion" (Sentences 3,
18, 3). Then, still on the basis of the Patristic teaching he adds: "The
mystery of Christ and of the Church is represented in this act. Just as, in
fact, woman was formed from Adam's rib while he slept, so the Church was born
from the sacraments that began to flow from the side of Christ, asleep on the
Cross, that is, from the blood and water with which we are redeemed from sin
and cleansed of guilt" (Sentences 3, 18, 4). These are profound reflections that still apply today when
the theology and spirituality of Christian marriage have considerably deepened
the analogy with the spousal relationship of Christ and his Church.
In another passage in one of his principal
works, Peter Lombard, treating the merits of Christ, asks himself: "Why,
then does [Christ] wish to suffer and die, if his virtues were sufficient to
obtain for himself all the merits?". His answer is incisive and effective:
"For you, not for himself!". He then continues with another question
and another answer, which seem to reproduce the discussions that went on during
the lessons of medieval theology teachers: "And in what sense did he
suffer and die for me? So that his Passion and his death might be an example
and cause for you. An example of virtue and humility, a cause of glory and
freedom; an example given by God, obedient unto death; a cause of your
liberation and your beatitude" (Sentences 3, 18, 5).
Among the most important contributions offered
by Peter Lombard to the history of theology, I would like to recall his
treatise on the sacraments, of which he gave what I would call a definitive
definition: "precisely what is a sign of God's grace and a visible form of
invisible grace, in such a way that it bears its image and is its cause is
called a sacrament in the proper sense" (4, 1, 4). With this definition
Peter Lombard grasps the essence of the sacraments: they are a cause of grace,
they are truly able to communicate divine life. Successive theologians never
again departed from this vision and were also to use the distinction between
the material and the formal element introduced by the "Master of the
Sentences", as Peter Lombard was known. The material element is the
tangible visible reality, the formal element consists of the words spoken by
the minister. For a complete and valid celebration of the sacraments both are
essential: matter, the reality with which the Lord visibly touches us and the
word that conveys the spiritual significance. In Baptism, for example, the
material element is the water that is poured on the head of the child and the
formal element is the formula: "I baptize you in the name of the Father,
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Peter the Lombard, moreover, explained
that the sacraments alone objectively transmit divine grace and they are seven:
Baptism, the Eucharist, Penance, the Unction of the sick, Orders and Matrimony
(cf. Sentences 4, 2, 1).
Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is important to
recognize how precious and indispensable for every Christian is the sacramental
life in which the Lord transmits this matter in the community of the Church,
and touches and transforms us. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, the sacraments are "powers that
come forth from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They
are actions of the Holy Spirit" (n. 1116). In this Year for Priests which
we are celebrating I urge priests, especially ministers in charge of souls, to
have an intense sacramental life themselves in the first place in order to be
of help to the faithful. May the celebration of the sacraments be impressed
with dignity and decorum, encourage personal recollection and community
participation, the sense of God's presence and missionary zeal. The sacraments
are the great treasure of the Church and it is the task of each one of us to
celebrate them with spiritual profit. In them an ever amazing event touches our
lives: Christ, through the visible signs, comes to us, purifies us, transforms
us and makes us share in his divine friendship.
PETER THE VENERABLE
Peter the Venerable takes us back to the famous
Abbey of Cluny, to its decor (decorum)
and nitor (clarity) to use
terms that recur in the Cluny texts a decorum and splendour that were admired
especially in the beauty of the liturgy, a privileged way for reaching God.
Even more than these aspects, however, Peter's personality recalls the holiness
of the great abbots of Cluny: in Cluny "there was not a single abbot who was
not a saint", Pope Gregory VII said in 1080. These holy men include Peter
the Venerable who possessed more or less all the virtues of his predecessors
although, under him, in comparison with the new Orders such as Cîteaux, Cluny began to feel some symptoms of crisis.
Peter is a wonderful example of an ascetic strict with himself and
understanding of others. He was born in about 1094 in the French region of
Auvergne, he entered the Monastery of Sauxillanges as a child and became a monk
there and then prior. In 1122 he was elected Abbot of Cluny and remained in
this office until he died, on Christmas day 1156, as he had wished. "A
lover of peace", his biographer Rudolph wrote, "he obtained peace in
the glory of God on the day of peace" (Vita, I, 17; PL 189, 28).
All who knew him praised his refined meekness,
his serene equilibrium, rectitude, loyalty, reasonableness and his special
approach to mediation. "It is in my nature" he wrote, "to be
particularly inclined to indulgence; I am urged to this by my habit of
forgiveness. I am accustomed to toleration and forgiveness" (Ep. 192, in: The Letters of Peter the Venerable,
Harvard University Press,
1967, p. 446). He said further: "With those who hate peace let us always
seek to be peacemakers" (Ep. 100, loc. cit., p.
261). And he wrote of himself: "I am not the type who is discontented with
his lot... whose mind is always tormented by anxiety or doubt and who complains
that everyone else is resting while they are the only ones working" (Ep.
182, p. 425). With a sensitive
and affectionate nature, he could combine love for the Lord with tenderness to
his family members, especially his mother, and to his friends. He cultivated
friendship, especially with his monks who used to confide in him, certain that
they would be heard and understood. According to his biographer's testimony:
"he did not look down on anyone and never turned anyone away" (Vita,
1, 3: PL 189, 19); "he appeared friendly to all; in
his innate goodness he was open to all" (ibid., 1,1: PL. 189, 17).
We could say that this holy Abbot also sets an
example to the monks and Christians of our day, marked by a frenetic pace, when
episodes of intolerance, incommunicability, division and conflict are common.
His testimony invites us to be able to combine love of God with love of
neighbour and not to tire of building relations of brotherhood and
reconciliation. Effectively Peter the Venerable acted in this way. He found
himself in charge of the Monastery of Cluny in years that were far from
tranquil for various reasons, both within the Abbey and outside it, and managed
to be at the same time both strict and profoundly human. He used to say:
"One may obtain more from a man by tolerating him than by irritating him
with reproach" (Ep. 172,
loc. cit., p. 409). By virtue
of his office he had to undertake frequent journeys to Italy, England, Germany
and Spain. He found it hard to be wrenched from the quiet of contemplation. He
confessed: "I go from one place to the next, I hurry, I am anxious, I am
tormented, dragged here and there: my mind now on my own affairs and now on
those of others, not without great mental agitation" (Ep. 91, loc. cit., p. 233). Although he was obliged to navigate
between the powers and nobles who surrounded Cluny, he succeeded in preserving
his habitual calm, thanks to his sense of measure, magnanimity and realism.
Among the important figures with whom he came into contact was Bernard of
Clairvaux with whom he maintained a relationship of increasing friendship,
despite the differences of their temperaments and approaches. Bernard described
him as: "an important man, occupied with important affairs" and held
him in high esteem (Ep. 147,
ed. Scriptorium Claravallense, Milan 1986, VI/1, pp. 658-660), while Peter the Venerable described
Bernard as a "lamp of the Church" (Ep 164, p. 396), and a "strong and splendid
pillar of the monastic order and of the whole Church" (Ep. 175, p. 418).
With a lively sense of Church, Peter the
Venerable affirmed that the vicissitudes of the Christian people must be felt
in the "depths of the heart" by those who will be numbered
"among the members of Christ's Body" (Ep. 164, ibid., p. 397). And he added: "those who do not
smart from the wounds of Christ's body are not nourished by the Spirit of
Christ", wherever they may be produced (ibid.). In addition, he also showed care and concern
for people outside the Church, in particular Jews and Muslims: to increase
knowledge of the latter he provided for the translation of the Qur'an. A
historian recently remarked on this subject: "In the midst of the
intransigence of medieval people, even the greatest among them, we admire here
a sublime example of the sensitivity to which Christian charity leads" (J.
Leclercq, Pietro il Venerabile, Jaca Book, 1991, p. 189). Other aspects of Christian life dear to him
were love for the Eucharist and devotion to the Virgin Mary. On the Blessed
Sacrament he has left passages that constitute "one of the masterpieces of
Eucharistic literature of all time" (ibid., p. 267) and on the Mother of God he wrote
illuminating reflections, contemplating her ever closely related to Jesus the
Redeemer and his work of salvation. It suffices to present his inspired prayer:
"Hail, Blessed Virgin, who put execration to flight. Hail, Mother of the
Most High, Bride of the meekest Lamb. You have defeated the serpent, you
crushed its head, when the God you bore destroyed it.... Shining Star of the
East who dispelled the shadows of the west. Dawn who precedes the sun, day that
knows no night.... Pray God who was born of you to dissolve our sin and, after
pardoning it, to grant us his grace and his glory" (Carmina, PL 189, 1018-1019).
Peter the Venerable also had a predilection for
literary activity and a gift for it. He noted his reflections, persuaded of the
importance of using the pen as if it were a plough, to "to scatter the
seed of the Word on paper" (Ep. 20, p. 38). Although he was not a systematic theologian, he was a great
investigator of God's mystery. His theology is rooted in prayer, especially in
liturgical prayer, and among the mysteries of Christ he preferred the
Transfiguration which prefigures the Resurrection. It was Peter himself who
introduced this feast at Cluny, composing a special office for it that mirrors
the characteristic theological devotion of Peter and of the Cluniac Order,
which was focused entirely on contemplation of the glorious Face (gloriosa
facies) of Christ, finding in
it the reasons for that ardent joy which marked his spirit and shone out in the
monastery's liturgy.
Dear brothers and sisters, this holy monk is
certainly a great example of monastic holiness, nourished from the sources of
the Benedictine tradition. For him, the ideal of the monk consists in
"adhering tenaciously to Christ" (Ep. 53, loc. cit., p. 161), in a cloistered life distinguished by
"monastic humility" (ibid.) and hard work (Ep. 77,
loc. cit., p. 211) as well
as an atmosphere of silent contemplation and constant praise of God. The first
and most important occupation of the monk, according to Peter of Cluny, is the
solemn celebration of the Divine Office "a heavenly action and the most
useful of all" (Statutes, I, 1026) to be accompanied by reading, meditation, personal prayer and
penance observed with discretion (cf. Ep. 20, loc. cit., p.
40). In this way the whole of life is pervaded by profound love of God and love
of others, a love that is expressed in sincere openness to neighbour, in
forgiveness and in the quest for peace. We might say, to conclude, that if this
lifestyle, combined with daily work, was the monk's ideal for St Benedict, it
also concerns all of us and can be to a large extent the lifestyle of the
Christian who wants to become an authentic disciple of Christ, characterized
precisely by tenacious adherence to him and by humility, diligence and the capacity
for forgiveness and peace.
RABANUS MAURUS
Born in Mainz in about 780, Rabanus entered the
monastery at a very early age. He was nicknamed "Maurus" after the
young St Maur who, according to Book II of the Dialogues of St Gregory the Great, was entrusted by his
parents, Roman nobles, to the Abbot Benedict of Norcia. Alone this precocious
insertion of Rabanus as "puer oblatus" in the Benedictine monastic world and the
benefits he drew from it for his own human, cultural and spiritual growth, were
to provide an interesting glimpse not only of the life of monks and of the
Church, but also of the whole of society of his time, usually described as
"Carolingian". About them or perhaps about himself, Rabanus Maurus
wrote: "There are some who have had the good fortune to be introduced to
the knowledge of Scripture from a tender age ("a cunabulis suis") and who were so well-nourished with the
food offered to them by Holy Church as to be fit for promotion, with the
appropriate training, to the highest of sacred Orders" (PL 107, col. 419 BC).
The extraordinary culture for which Rabanus Maurus was distinguished
soon brought him to the attention of the great of his time. He became the
advisor of princes. He strove to guarantee the unity of the Empire and, at a
broader cultural level, never refused to give those who questioned him a
carefully considered reply, which he found preferably in the Bible or in the
texts of the Holy Fathers. First elected Abbot of the famous Monastery of Fulda
and then appointed Archbishop of Mainz, his native city, this did not stop him
from pursuing his studies, showing by the example of his life that it is
possible to be at the same time available to others without depriving oneself
of the appropriate time for reflection, study and meditation. Thus Rabanus
Maurus was exegete, philosopher, poet, pastor and man of God. The Dioceses of
Fulda, Mainz, Limburg and Breslau (Wrocław) venerate him as a saint or blessed.
His works fill at least six volumes of Migne's Patrologia Latina. It is likely that we are indebted to him for
one of the most beautiful hymns known to the Latin Church, the "Veni
Creator Spiritus", an
extraordinary synthesis of Christian pneumatology. In fact, Rabanus' first
theological work is expressed in the form of poetry and had as its subject the
mystery of the Holy Cross in a book entitled: "De laudibus Sanctae
Crucis", conceived in
such a way as to suggest not only a conceptual content but also more
exquisitely artistic stimuli, by the use of both poetic and pictorial forms
within the same manuscript codex. Suggesting the image of the Crucified Christ
between the lines of his writing, he says, for example: "This is the image
of the Saviour who, with the position of his limbs, makes sacred for us the
most salubrious, gentle and loving form of the Cross, so that by believing in
his Name and obeying his commandments we may obtain eternal life thanks to his
Passion. However, every time we raise our eyes to the Cross, let us remember
the one who died for us to save us from the powers of darkness, accepting death
to make us heirs to eternal life" (Lib. 1, fig. 1, PL 107 col. 151 C).
This method
of combining all the arts, the intellect, the heart and the senses, which came
from the East, was to experience a great development in the West, reaching
unparalleled heights in the miniature codices of the Bible and in other works
of faith and art that flourished in Europe until the invention of printing and
beyond. In Rabanus Maurus, in any case, is shown an extraordinary awareness of
the need to involve, in the experience of faith, not only the mind and the
heart, but also the senses through those other aspects of aesthetic taste and
human sensitivity that lead man to benefit from the truth with his whole self,
"mind, soul and body". This is important: faith is not only thought
but also touches the whole of our being. Since God became Man in flesh and
blood, since he entered the tangible world, we must seek and encounter God in
all the dimensions of our being. Thus the reality of God, through faith,
penetrates our being and transforms it. This is why Rabanus Maurus focused his
attention above all on the Liturgy as a synthesis of all the dimensions of our
perception of reality. This intuition of Rabanus Maurus makes it
extraordinarily up to date. Also famous among his opus are the "Hymns",
suggested for use especially
in liturgical celebrations. In fact, since Rabanus was primarily a monk, his
interest in the liturgical celebration was taken for granted. However, he did
not devote himself to the art of poetry as an end in itself but, rather, used
art and every other form of erudition as a means for deepening knowledge of the
word of God. He therefore sought with great application and rigour to introduce
his contemporaries, especially ministers (Bishops, priests and deacons), to an
understanding of the profoundly theological and spiritual meaning of all the
elements of the liturgical celebration.
He thus
sought to understand and to present to others the theological meanings
concealed in the rites, drawing from the Bible and from the tradition of the
Fathers. For the sake of honesty and to give greater weight to his
explanations, he did not hesitate to indicate the Patristic sources to which he
owed his knowledge. Nevertheless he used them with freedom and with careful discernment,
continuing the development of patristic thought. At the end of the "Epistola
prima", addressed to a
"chorbishop" of the Diocese of Mainz, for example, after answering
the requests for clarification concerning the behaviour to adopt in the
exercise of pastoral responsibility, he continues, "We have written all
these things for you as we deduced them from the Sacred Scriptures and the
canons of the Fathers. Yet, most holy man, may you take your decisions as you
think best, case by case, seeking to temper your evaluation in such a way as to
guarantee discretion in all things because it is the mother of all the
virtues" (Epistulae, I,
PL 112, col. 1510 C). Thus
the continuity of the Christian faith which originates in the word of God
becomes visible; yet it is always alive, develops and is expressed in new ways,
ever consistent with the whole construction, with the whole edifice of faith.
Since an
integral part of liturgical celebration is the word of God Rabanus Maurus
dedicated himself to it with the greatest commitment throughout his life. He
produced appropriate exegetic explanations for almost all the biblical books of
the Old and New Testament, with clearly pastoral intentions that he justified
with words such as these: "I have written these things... summing up the
explanations and suggestions of many others, not only in order to offer a
service to the poor reader, who may not have many books at his disposal, but
also to make it easier for those who in many things do not succeed in entering
in depth into an understanding of the meanings discovered by the Fathers"
(Commentariorum in Matthaeum praefatio, PL 107, col. 727 D). In fact, in commenting on the
biblical texts he drew amply from the ancient Fathers, with special preference
for Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great.
His
outstanding pastoral sensitivity later led him to occupy himself above all with
one of the problems most acutely felt by the faithful and sacred ministers of
his time: that of Penance. Indeed, he compiled the "Penitenziari" this is what he called them in which, according
to the sensibility of his day, sins and the corresponding punishments were
listed, using as far as possible reasons found in the Bible, in the decisions
of the Councils and in Papal Decretals. The "Carolingians" also used
these texts in their attempt to reform the Church and society. Corresponding
with the same pastoral intentions, were works such as "De disciplina
ecclesiastica" and "De
institutione clericorum",
in which, drawing above all from Augustine, Rabanus explained to the simple and
to the clergy of his diocese the basic elements of the Christian faith: they
were like little catechisms.
I would
like to end the presentation of this great "churchman" by quoting
some of his words in which his basic conviction is clearly reflected:
"Those who are negligent in contemplation ("qui vacare Deo
negligit"), deprive
themselves of the vision of God's light; then those who let themselves be
indiscreetly invaded by worries and allow their thoughts to be overwhelmed by
the tumult of worldly things condemn themselves to the absolute impossibility
of penetrating the secrets of the invisible God" (Lib I, PL 112, col. 1263 A). I think that Rabanus Maurus is also addressing these
words to us today: in periods of work, with its frenetic pace, and in holiday
periods we must reserve moments for God. We must open our lives to him,
addressing to him a thought, a reflection, a brief prayer, and above all we
must not forget Sunday as the Lord's Day, the day of the Liturgy, in order to
perceive God's beauty itself in the beauty of our churches, in our sacred music
and in the word of God, letting him enter our being. Only in this way does our
life become great, become true life.
RUPERT OF DEUTZ
Rupert's time was marked by
disputes between the Papacy and the Empire, because of the so-called
"Investiture Controversy" with which as I have mentioned in other
Catecheses the Papacy wished to prevent the appointment of Bishops and the
exercise of their jurisdiction from depending on the civil authorities who were
certainly not guided by pastoral reasons but for the most part by political and
financial considerations. Bishop Otbert of Lièges resisted the Pope's
directives and exiled Berengarius, Abbot of the Monastery of St Laurence,
because of his fidelity to the Pontiff. It was in this monastery that Rupert
lived. He did not hesitate to follow his Abbot into exile and only when Bishop
Otbert returned to communion with the Pope did he return to Liège and agree to
become a priest. Until that moment, in fact, he had avoided receiving
ordination from a Bishop in dissent with the Pope. Rupert teaches us that when
controversies arise in the Church the reference to the Petrine ministry
guarantees fidelity to sound doctrine and is a source of serenity and inner
freedom. After the dispute with Otbert Rupert was obliged to leave his
monastery again twice. In 1116 his adversaries even wanted to take him to
court. Although he was acquitted of every accusation, Rupert preferred to go
for a while to Siegburg; but since on his return to the monastery in Liège the
disputes had not yet ceased, he decided to settle definitively in Germany. In
1120 he was appointed Abbot of Deutz where, except for making a pilgrimage to
Rome in 1124, he lived until 1129, the year of his death.
A fertile writer, Rupert left
numerous works, still today of great interest because he played an active part
in various important theological discussions of his time. For example, he
intervened with determination in the Eucharistic controversy, which in 1077 led
to his condemnation by Berengarius of Tours. Berengarius had given a reductive
interpretation of Christ's presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist,
describing it as merely symbolic. In the language of the Church the term
"transubstantiation" was as yet unknown but Rupert, at times with
daring words, made himself a staunch supporter of the Eucharistic reality and,
especially in a work entitled De divinis officiis (On divine offices), purposefully
asserted the continuity between the Body of the Incarnate Word of Christ and
that present in the Eucharistic species of the bread and the wine. Dear
brothers and sisters, it seems to me that at this point we must also think of
our time; today too we are in danger of reappraising the Eucharistic reality,
that is, of considering the Eucharist almost as a rite of communion, of
socialization alone, forgetting all too easily that the Risen Christ is really
present in the Eucharist with his Risen Body which is placed in our hands to
draw us out of
ourselves, to incorporate us into his immortal body and thereby lead us to new life. This great
mystery that the Lord is present in his full reality in the Eucharistic species
is a mystery to be adored and loved ever anew! I would like here to quote the
words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church which bear the fruit of 2,000
years of meditation on the faith and theological reflection: "The mode of Christ's
presence under the Eucharistic species is unique and incomparable.... In the
most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the Body and Blood, together with
the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ... is truly, really, and
substantially contained'.... It is a substantial presence by which Christ, God
and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present... by the Eucharistic
species of the bread the wine" (cf. n. 1374). Rupert too contributed with his reflections to this
precise formulation.
Another controversy in which
the Abbot of Deutz was involved concerns the problem of the reconciliation of
God's goodness and omnipotence with the existence of evil. If God is omnipotent
and good, how is it possible to explain the reality of evil? Rupert, in fact,
reacted to the position assumed by the teachers of the theological school of
Laon, who, with a series of philosophical arguments, distinguished in God's
will the "to approve" and the "to permit", concluding that
God permits evil without approving it and hence without desiring it. Rupert, on
the other hand, renounces the use of philosophy, which he deems inadequate for
addressing such a great problem, and remains simply faithful to the biblical
narration. He starts with the goodness of God, with the truth that God is
supremely good and cannot desire anything but good. Thus he identifies the
origin of evil in the human being himself and in the erroneous use of human
freedom. When Rupert addresses this topic he writes pages filled with religious
inspiration to praise the Father's infinite mercy, God's patience with the
sinful human being and his kindness to him.
Like other medieval
theologians, Rupert too wondered why the Word of God, the Son of God, was made
man. Some, many, answered by explaining the Incarnation of the Word by the
urgent need to atone for human sin. Rupert, on the other hand, with a
Christocentric vision of salvation history, broadens the perspective, and in a
work entitled The Glorification of the Trinity, sustains the position that the
Incarnation, the central event of the whole of history was planned from
eternity, even independently of human sin, so that the whole creation might
praise God the Father and love him as one family gathered round Christ, the Son
of God. Then he saw in the pregnant woman of the Apocalypse the entire history
of humanity which is oriented to Christ, just as conception is oriented to
birth, a perspective that was to be developed by other thinkers and enhanced by
contemporary theology, which says that the whole history of the world and of
humanity is a conception oriented to the birth of Christ. Christ is always the
centre of the exegetic explanations provided by Rupert in his commentaries on
the Books of the Bible, to which he dedicated himself with great diligence and
passion. Thus, he rediscovers a wonderful unity in all the events of the
history of salvation, from the creation until the final consummation of time:
"All Scripture", he says, "is one book, which aspires to the
same end (the divine Word); which comes from one God and was written by one
Spirit" (De glorificatione Trinitatis et procesione Sancti spiritus I, V, PL 169, 18).
In the interpretation of the
Bible, Rupert did not limit himself to repeating the teaching of the Fathers,
but shows an originality of his own. For example, he is the first writer to
have identified the bride in the Song of Songs with Mary Most Holy. His
commentary on this book of Scripture has thus turned out to be a sort of
Mariological summa, in which he presents Mary's privileges and excellent virtues. In one
of the most inspired passages of his commentary Rupert writes: "O most
beloved among the beloved, Virgin of virgins, what does your beloved Son so
praise in you that the whole choir of angels exalts? What they praise is your
simplicity, purity, innocence, doctrine, modesty, humility, integrity of mind
and body, that is, your incorrupt virginity" (In Canticum Canticorum 4, 1-6, CCL 26, pp. 69-70). The Marian
interpretation of Rupert's Canticum is a felicitous example of harmony between liturgy and
theology. In fact, various passages of this Book of the Bible were already used
in liturgical celebrations on Marian feasts.
Rupert, furthermore, was
careful to insert his Mariological doctrine into that ecclesiological doctrine.
That is to say, he saw in Mary Most Holy the holiest part of the whole Church.
For this reason my venerable Predecessor, Pope Paul VI, in his Discourse for
the closure of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, in solemnly pronouncing Mary
Mother of the Church, even cited a proposal taken from Rupert's works, which
describes Mary as portio maxima, portio optima the most sublime part, the
very best part of the Church (cf. In Apocalypsem 1, 7, PL 169, 1043).
Dear friends, from these rapid
allusions we realize that Rupert was a fervent theologian endowed with great
depth. Like all the representatives of monastic theology, he was able to
combine rational study of the mysteries of faith with prayer and contemplation,
which he considered the summit of all knowledge of God. He himself sometimes
speaks of his mystical experiences, such as when he confides his ineffable joy
at having perceived the Lord's presence: "in that brief moment", he
says, "I experienced how true what he himself says is. Learn from me
for I am meek and humble of heart" (De gloria et honore Filii hominis. Super Matthaeum
12, PL 1168, 1601). We too, each one
of us in our own way, can encounter the Lord Jesus who ceaselessly accompanies
us on our way, makes himself present in the Eucharistic Bread and in his Word
for our salvation.
SAINT SYMEON – THE NEW THEOLOGIAN
Symeon entered the Studite monastery where,
however, his mystical experiences and extraordinary devotion to his spiritual
father caused him some difficulty. He moved to the small convent of St Mamas, also in Constantinople, of which three years
later he became abbot, hegumen. There he embarked on an intense quest for spiritual union with Christ
which gave him great authority. It is interesting to note that he was given the
title of the "New Theologian", in spite of the tradition that
reserved this title for two figures, John the Evangelist and Gregory of
Nazianzus. Symeon suffered misunderstandings and exile but was rehabilitated by
Patriarch Sergius II of Constantinople.
Symeon the New Theologian spent the last stage
of his life at the Monastery of St Marina where he wrote a large part of his
opus, becoming ever more famous for his teaching and his miracles. He died on
12 March 1022.
The best known of his disciples, Niceta
Stethatos, who collected and copied Symeon's writings, compiled a posthumous
edition of them and subsequently wrote his biography. Symeon's opus consists of
nine volumes that are divided into theological, gnostic and practical
chapters, three books of catecheses
addressed to monks, two books
of theological and ethical treatises and one of hymns.
Moreover, his numerous Letters should not be forgotten. All these works have had an important place in
the Eastern monastic tradition to our day.
Symeon focused his reflection on the Holy
Spirit's presence in the baptized and on the awareness they must have of this
spiritual reality. "Christian life", he emphasized, "is
intimate, personal communion with God, divine grace illumines the believer's
heart and leads him to a mystical vision of the Lord". Along these lines,
Symeon the New Theologian insisted that true knowledge of God does not come
from books but rather from spiritual experience, from spiritual life. Knowledge
of God is born from a process of inner purification that begins with conversion
of heart through the power of faith and love. It passes through profound
repentance and sincere sorrow for one's sins to attain union with Christ, the
source of joy and peace, suffused with the light of his presence within us. For
Symeon this experience of divine grace did not constitute an exceptional gift for
a few mystics but rather was the fruit of Baptism in the life of every
seriously committed believer.
A point on which to reflect, dear brothers and
sisters! This holy Eastern monk calls us all to pay attention to our spiritual
life, to the hidden presence of God within us, to the sincerity of the
conscience and to purification, to conversion of heart, so that the Holy Spirit
may really become present in us and guide us. Indeed, if rightly we are
concerned to care for our physical, human and intellectual development, it is
even more important not to neglect our inner growth. This consists in the
knowledge of God, in true knowledge, not only learned from books but from
within and in communion with God, to experience his help at every moment and in
every circumstance. Basically it is this that Symeon describes when he recounts
his own mystical experience. Already as a young man, before entering the
monastery, while at home one night immersed in prayer and invoking God's help
to fight temptations, he saw the room fill with light. Later, when he entered
the monastery, he was given spiritual books for instruction but reading them
did not procure for him the peace that he sought. He felt, he himself says, as
if he were a poor little bird without wings. He humbly accepted this situation
without rebelling and it was then that his visions of light began once again to
increase. Wishing to assure himself of their authenticity, Symeon asked Christ
directly: "Lord, is it truly you who are here?". He heard the
affirmative answer resonating in his heart and was supremely comforted.
"That, Lord", he was to write later, "was the first time that
you considered me, a prodigal son, worthy of hearing your voice". However,
not even this revelation left him entirely at peace. He wondered, rather,
whether he ought to consider that experience an illusion. At last, one day an
event occurred that was crucial to his mystical experience. He began to feel
like "a poor man who loves his brethren" (ptochós philádelphos). Around him he saw hordes of enemies bent on
ensnaring him and doing him harm, yet he felt within an intense surge of love
for them. How can this be explained? Obviously, such great love could not come
from within him but must well up from another source. Symeon realized that it
was coming from Christ present within him and everything became clear: he had a
sure proof that the source of love in him was Christ's presence. He was certain
that having in ourselves a love that exceeds our personal intentions suggests
that the source of love is in us. Thus we can say on the one hand that if we
are without a certain openness to love Christ does not enter us, and on the
other, that Christ becomes a source of love and transforms us. Dear friends,
this experience remains particularly important for us today if we are to find
the criteria that tell us whether we are truly close to God, whether God exists
and dwells in us. God's love develops in us if we stay united to him with
prayer and with listening to his word, with an open heart. Divine love alone
prompts us to open our hearts to others and makes us sensitive to their needs,
bringing us to consider everyone as brothers and sisters and inviting us to
respond to hatred with love and to offence with forgiveness.
In thinking about this figure of Symeon the New
Theologian, we may note a further element of his spirituality. On the path of
ascetic life which he proposed and took, the monk's intense attention and
concentration on the inner experience conferred an essential importance on the
spiritual father of the monastery. The same young Symeon, as has been said, had
found a spiritual director who gave him substantial help and whom he continued
to hold in the greatest esteem such as to profess veneration for him, even in
public, after his death. And I would like to say that the invitation to have
recourse to a good spiritual father who can guide every individual to profound
knowledge of himself and lead him to union with the Lord so that his life may
be in ever closer conformity with the Gospel still applies for all priests,
consecrated and lay people, and especially youth. To go towards the Lord we
always need a guide, a dialogue. We cannot do it with our thoughts alone. And
this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this
guide.
To conclude, we may sum up the teaching and
mystical experience of Symeon the New Theologian in these words: in his
ceaseless quest for God, even amidst the difficulties he encountered and the
criticism of which he was the object, in the end he let himself be guided by
love. He himself was able to live and teach his monks that for every disciple
of Jesus the essential is to grow in love; thus we grow in the knowledge of
Christ himself, to be able to say with St Paul: "It is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2: 20).
SAINT THEODORE THE STUDITE
Theodore's personal life, however, continued to
be eventful. With his usual energy, he became the leader of the resistance
against the iconoclasm of Leo V, the Armenian who once again opposed the
existence of images and icons in the Church. The procession of icons organized
by the monks of Studios evoked a reaction from the police. Between 815 and 821,
Theodore was scourged, imprisoned and exiled to various places in Asia Minor.
In the end he was able to return to Constantinople but not to his own
monastery. He therefore settled with his monks on the other side of the
Bosporus. He is believed to have died in Prinkipo on 11 November 826, the day
on which he is commemorated in the Byzantine Calendar. Theodore distinguished
himself within Church history as one of the great reformers of monastic life
and as a defender of the veneration of sacred images, beside St Nicephorus,
Patriarch of Constantinople, in the second phase of the iconoclasm.
Theodore had realized that the issue of the veneration of icons was calling into question the truth of the Incarnation itself. In his three books, the Antirretikoi (Confutations), Theodore makes a comparison between eternal intra-Trinitarian relations, in which the existence of each of the divine Persons does not destroy their unity, and the relations between Christ's two natures, which do not jeopardize in him the one Person of the Logos. He also argues: abolishing veneration of the icon of Christ would mean repudiating his redeeming work, given that, in assuming human nature, the invisible eternal Word appeared in visible human flesh and in so doing sanctified the entire visible cosmos.
Theodore had realized that the issue of the veneration of icons was calling into question the truth of the Incarnation itself. In his three books, the Antirretikoi (Confutations), Theodore makes a comparison between eternal intra-Trinitarian relations, in which the existence of each of the divine Persons does not destroy their unity, and the relations between Christ's two natures, which do not jeopardize in him the one Person of the Logos. He also argues: abolishing veneration of the icon of Christ would mean repudiating his redeeming work, given that, in assuming human nature, the invisible eternal Word appeared in visible human flesh and in so doing sanctified the entire visible cosmos.
Theodore and his monks, courageous witnesses in
the period of the iconoclastic persecutions, were inseparably bound to the
reform of coenobitic life in the Byzantine world. Their importance was notable
if only for an external circumstance: their number. Whereas the number of monks
in monasteries of that time did not exceed 30 or 40, we know from the Life
of Theodore of the existence
of more than 1,000 Studite monks overall. Theodore himself tells us of the
presence in his monastery of about 300 monks; thus we see the enthusiasm of
faith that was born within the context of this man's being truly informed and
formed by faith itself. However, more influential than these numbers was the
new spirit the Founder impressed on coenobitic life. In his writings, he
insists on the urgent need for a conscious return to the teaching of the
Fathers, especially to St Basil, the first legislator of monastic life, and to
St Dorotheus of Gaza, a famous spiritual Father of the Palestinian desert.
Theodore's characteristic contribution consists in insistence on the need for order
and submission on the monks' part. During the persecutions they had scattered
and each one had grown accustomed to living according to his own judgement.
Then, as it was possible to re-establish community life, it was necessary to do
the utmost to make the monastery once again an organic community, a true
family, or, as St Theodore said, a true "Body of Christ". In such a
community the reality of the Church as a whole is realized concretely.
Another of St Theodore's basic convictions was
this: monks, differently from lay people, take on the commitment to observe the
Christian duties with greater strictness and intensity. For this reason they
make a special profession which belongs to the hagiasmata (consecrations), and it is, as it were, a "new Baptism",
symbolized by their taking the habit. Characteristic of monks in comparison
with lay people, then, is the commitment to poverty, chastity and obedience. In
addressing his monks, Theodore spoke in a practical, at times picturesque
manner about poverty, but poverty in the following of Christ is from the start
an essential element of monasticism and also points out a way for all of us.
The renunciation of private property, this freedom from material things, as
well as moderation and simplicity apply in a radical form only to monks, but
the spirit of this renouncement is equal for all. Indeed, we must not depend on
material possessions but instead must learn renunciation, simplicity, austerity
and moderation. Only in this way can a supportive society develop and the great
problem of poverty in this world be overcome. Therefore, in this regard the
monks' radical poverty is essentially also a path for us all. Then when he
explains the temptations against chastity, Theodore does not conceal his own
experience and indicates the way of inner combat to find self control and hence
respect for one's own body and for the body of the other as a temple of God.
However, the most important renunciations in
his opinion are those required by obedience, because each one of the monks has
his own way of living, and fitting into the large community of 300 monks truly
involves a new way of life which he describes as the "martyrdom of
submission". Here too the monks' example serves to show us how necessary
this is for us, because, after the original sin, man has tended to do what he
likes. The first principle is for the life of the world, all the rest must be
subjected to it. However, in this way, if each person is self-centred, the
social structure cannot function. Only by learning to fit into the common
freedom, to share and to submit to it, learning legality, that is, submission
and obedience to the rules of the common good and life in common, can society
be healed, as well as the self, of the pride of being the centre of the world. Thus St Theodore, with
fine introspection, helped his monks and ultimately also helps us to understand
true life, to resist the temptation to set up our own will as the supreme rule
of life and to preserve our true personal identity which is always an identity
shared with others and peace of heart.
For Theodore the Studite an important virtue on
a par with obedience and humility is philergia, that is, the love of work, in which he sees a
criterion by which to judge the quality of personal devotion: the person who is
fervent and works hard in material concerns, he argues, will be the same in
those of the spirit. Therefore he does not permit the monk to dispense with
work, including manual work, under the pretext of prayer and contemplation; for
work to his mind and in the whole monastic tradition is actually a means of
finding God. Theodore is not afraid to speak of work as the "sacrifice of
the monk", as his "liturgy", even as a sort of Mass through
which monastic life becomes angelic life. And it is precisely in this way that
the world of work must be humanized and man, through work, becomes more himself
and closer to God. One consequence of this unusual vision is worth remembering:
precisely because it is the fruit of a form of "liturgy", the riches
obtained from common work must not serve for the monks' comfort but must be
earmarked for assistance to the poor. Here we can all understand the need for
the proceeds of work to be a good for all. Obviously the "Studites'"
work was not only manual: they had great importance in the religious and
cultural development of the Byzantine civilization as calligraphers, painters,
poets, educators of youth, school teachers and librarians.
Although he exercised external activities on a
truly vast scale, Theodore did not let himself be distracted from what he
considered closely relevant to his role as superior: being the spiritual father
of his monks. He knew what a crucial influence both his good mother and his
holy uncle Plato whom he described with the significant title
"father" had had on his life. Thus he himself provided spiritual
direction for the monks. Every day, his biographer says, after evening prayer
he would place himself in front of the iconostasis to listen to the confidences
of all. He also gave spiritual advice to many people outside the monastery. The
Spiritual Testament and the
Letters highlight his open
and affectionate character, and show that true spiritual friendships were born
from his fatherhood both in the monastic context and outside it.
The Rule, known by the name of Hypotyposis, codified shortly after Theodore's death, was
adopted, with a few modifications, on Mount Athos when in 962 St Athanasius
Anthonite founded the Great Laura there, and in the Kievan Rus', when at the
beginning of the second millennium St Theodosius introduced it into the Laura
of the Grottos. Understood in its genuine meaning, the Rule has proven to be unusually up to date. Numerous
trends today threaten the unity of the common faith and impel people towards a
sort of dangerous spiritual individualism and spiritual pride. It is necessary
to strive to defend and to increase the perfect unity of the Body of Christ, in
which the peace of order and sincere personal relations in the Spirit can be
harmoniously composed.
It may be useful to return at the end to some
of the main elements of Theodore's spiritual doctrine: love for the Lord
incarnate and for his visibility in the Liturgy and in icons; fidelity to
Baptism and the commitment to live in communion with the Body of Christ, also
understood as the communion of Christians with each other; a spirit of poverty,
moderation and renunciation; chastity, self-control, humility and obedience
against the primacy of one's own will that destroys the social fabric and the
peace of souls; love for physical and spiritual work; spiritual love born from
the purification of one's own conscience, one's own soul, one's own life. Let
us seek to comply with these teachings that really do show us the path of true
life.
WILLIAM OF SAINT-THIERRY
One of his first works is entitled De Natura
et dignitate amoris (The nature and dignity of love). In it William expressed one of his basic ideas
that is also valid for us. The principal energy that moves the human soul, he
said, is love. Human nature, in its deepest essence, consists in loving.
Ultimately, a single task is entrusted to every human being: to learn to like
and to love, sincerely, authentically and freely. However, it is only from
God's teaching that this task is learned and that the human being may reach the
end for which he was created. Indeed, William wrote: "The art of arts is
the art of love.... Love is inspired by the Creator of nature. Love is a force
of the soul that leads it as by a natural weight to its own place and end"
(De Natura et dignitate amoris 1 PL 184, 379).
Learning to love is a long and demanding process that is structured by William
in four stages, corresponding to the ages of the human being: childhood, youth,
maturity and old-age. On this journey the person must impose upon himself an
effective ascesis, firm self-control to eliminate every irregular affection,
every capitulation to selfishness, and to unify his own life in God, the
source, goal and force of love, until he reaches the summit of spiritual life
which William calls "wisdom". At the end of this ascetic process, the
person feels deep serenity and sweetness. All the human being's faculties
intelligence, will, affection rest in God, known and loved in Christ.
In other works too, William speaks of this
radical vocation to love for God which is the secret of a successful and happy
life and which he describes as a ceaseless, growing desire, inspired by God
himself in the human heart. In a meditation he says "that the object of
this love is Love" with a capital "L", namely God. It is he who
pours himself out into the hearts of those who love him and prepares them to
receive him. "God gives himself until the person is sated and in such a
way that the desire is never lacking. This impetus of love is the fulfilment of
the human being" (De Contemplando Deo 6, passim, SC 61 bis, pp. 79-83). The considerable importance
that William gives to the emotional dimension is striking. Basically, dear
friends, our hearts are made of flesh and blood, and when we love God, who is
Love itself, how can we fail to express in this relationship with the Lord our
most human feelings, such as tenderness, sensitivity and delicacy? In becoming
Man, the Lord himself wanted to love us with a heart of flesh!
Moreover, according to William, love has
another important quality: it illuminates the mind and enables one to know God
better and more profoundly and, in God, people and events. The knowledge that
proceeds from the senses and the intelligence reduces but does not eliminate
the distance between the subject and the object, between the "I" and
the "you". Love, on the other hand, gives rise to attraction and
communion, to the point that transformation and assimilation take place between
the subject who loves and the beloved object. This reciprocity of affection and
liking subsequently permits a far deeper knowledge than that which is brought
by reason alone. A famous saying of William expresses it: "Amor ipse
intellectus est love in itself
is already the beginning of knowledge". Dear friends, let us ask ourselves:
is not our life just like this? Is it not perhaps true that we only truly know who
and what we love? Without a certain fondness one knows
no one and nothing! And this applies first of all to the knowledge of God and
his mysteries that exceed our mental capacity to understand: God is known if he
is loved!
Dear brothers and sisters, this author, whom we
might describe as the "Singer of Charity, of Love", teaches us to
make the basic decision in our lives which gives meaning and value to all our
other decisions: to love God and, through love of him, to love our neighbour;
only in this manner shall we be able to find true joy, an anticipation of
eternal beatitude. Let us therefore learn from the Saints in order to learn to
love authentically and totally, to set our being on this journey. Together with
a young Saint, a Doctor of the Church, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, let us tell the Lord that we too want to live
of love. And I conclude with a prayer precisely by this Saint: "You know I
love you, Jesus Christ, my Own! Your Spirit's fire of love enkindles me. By
loving you, I draw the Father here, down to my heart, to stay with me always.
Blessed Trinity! You are my prisoner dear, of love, today.... To live of love,
'tis without stint to give. And never count the cost, nor ask reward.... O
Heart Divine, o'erflowing with tenderness, How swift I run, who all to You has
given! Naught but your love I need, my life to bless" [To live of love].
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