On the Life of St. Bede

On the Life of St. Bede

He "Contributed Effectively to the Making of a Christian Europe"

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave on the life of St. Bede during today's general audience in Paul VI Hall.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The saint on whom we reflect today is called Bede. He was born in Northeast England, in fact in Northumbria, in the year 672/673. He himself narrates that, when he was seven years old his parents entrusted him to the abbot of the neighboring Benedictine monastery, to be educated. "In this monastery," he recalls, "I lived from then on, dedicating myself intensely to the study of Scripture, while observing the discipline of the Rule and the daily effort to sing in church, I always found it pleasant to learn, teach and write" (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, V, 24). In fact, Bede was one of the most illustrious figures of erudition of the High Middle Ages because he was able to make use of many precious manuscripts that his abbots, who went on frequent trips to the Continent and to Rome, were able to bring back to him. His teaching and the fame of his writings enabled him to have many friendships with the principal personalities of his time, who encouraged him to continue in his work, from which so many benefited. Falling ill, he did not cease to work, always having an interior joy that was expressed in prayer and song. He concluded his most important work, "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People," with this invocation: "I pray, O good Jesus, who benevolently has allowed me to draw from the sweet words of your wisdom, that I may reach you one day, source of all wisdom, and to always be before your face." Death came to him on May 26, 735: It was Ascension day.

Sacred Scriptures were the constant source of Bede's theological reflection. Having made a careful critical study of the text (we have a copy of the monumental Codex Amiatinus of the Vulgate, on which Bede worked), he commented on the Bible, reading it in a Christological vein, namely, re-uniting two things: On one hand, he listened to what the text was saying exactly, he really wanted to listen and understand the text itself; on the other hand, he was convinced that the key to understanding sacred Scripture as the unique Word of God is Christ and with Christ, in his light, one understands the Old and the New Testament as "a" sacred Scripture.

The events of the Old and New Testament go together, they are together the path toward Christ, though expressed in different signs and institutions (it is what he calls "concordia sacramentorum"). For example, the tent of the covenant that Moses raised in the desert and the first and second temple of Jerusalem are images of the Church, new temple built on Christ and the Apostles with living stones, cemented by the charity of the Spirit. And, as was the case for the construction of the ancient temple of Jerusalem, even pagan people contributed, making available valuable materials and the technical experience of their master builders, thus apostles and masters not only from ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin stock contributed to the building of the Church, but also new peoples, among which Bede is pleased to enumerate the Iro-Celts and the Anglo-Saxons. St. Bede witnessed the universality of the Church grow, which is not restricted to a certain culture, but is made up of all the cultures of the world which must open themselves to Christ and find in him their point of arrival.

Another topic loved by Bede is the history of the Church. After having taken interest in the period described in the Acts of the Apostles, he reviewed the history of the Fathers of the Church and the councils, convinced that the work of the Holy Spirit continues in history. In the "Cronica Maiora," Bede traces a chronology that would become the basis of the universal calendar "ab incarnatione Domini." Up to then, time was calculated from the foundation of the city of Rome. Bede, seeing that the true point of reference, the center of history is the birth of Christ, gave us this calendar that reads history beginning with the Lord's Incarnation. He registered the first six ecumenical councils and their development, presenting faithfully the Christian, Mariological and Soteriological doctrine, and denouncing the Monophysite and Monothelite, iconoclastic and neo-Pelagian heresies. Finally, he wrote with documentary rigor and literary expertise the already mentioned "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," for which he is recognized as "the father of English historiography." The characteristic traits of the Church that Bede loved to evidence are: a) its catholicity, as fidelity to tradition together with openness to historical developments, and as the pursuit of unity in multiplicity, in the diversity of history and cultures, according to the directives that Pope Gregory the Great gave to the apostle of England, Augustine of Canterbury; b) its apostolicity and Romanness: In this regard he considers of primary importance to convince the whole Iro-Celtic Churches and that of the Picts to celebrate Easter uniformly according to the Roman calendar. The calculation elaborated scientifically by him to establish the exact date of the Easter celebration, and thus of the entire cycle of the liturgical year, became the text of reference for the whole Catholic Church.

Bede was also an illustrious teacher of liturgical theology. In the homilies on the Sunday Gospels and those of feast days, he develops a true mystagogy, educating the faithful to celebrate joyfully the mysteries of the faith and to reproduce them consistently in life, while expecting their full manifestation of the return of Christ, when, with our glorified bodies, we will be admitted in offertory procession to 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." In fact, every time that a faithful soul receives and guards the Word of God with love, in imitation of Mary, he conceives and generates Christ again. And every time that a group of neophytes receives the Easter sacraments, the Church is "self-generated," or to use a still more daring expression, the Church becomes "Mother of God," participating in the generation of her children, by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks to this way of making theology, interlacing the Bible, the 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 scrutinize the wonders of the Word of God to present it in an attractive way to the faithful; to show the dogmatic truths avoiding the heretical complications and keeping to the "Catholic simplicity," with attention to the small and humble to whom God is pleased to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom.

b) For pastors, that for their part, must give priority to preaching, not only through the verbal or hagiographic language, but also valuing icons, processions and pilgrimages. Bede recommends to them the use of the vernacular, as he himself does, explaining in Northumbria the "Our Father," and the "Creed" and carrying forward until the last day of his life, the commentary to John's Gospel in the common language.

c) For consecrated people who are dedicated to the Divine Office, living in the joy of fraternal communion and progressing in the spiritual life through ascesis and contemplation, Bede recommends to take care of the apostolate -- no one has the Gospel just for himself, but must regard it as a gift also for others -- either by collaborating with the Bishops in pastoral activities of various types in favor of the young Christian communities, or being available to the evangelizing mission to the pagans, outside their own country, as "peregrini pro amore Dei."

Placed in this perspective, in the commentary to the Canticle of Canticles, Bede presents the synagogue and the Church as collaborators in the propagation of the Word of God. Christ the Spouse desires an industrious Church, "bronzed by the fatigues of evangelization" -- clear is the reference to the word of the Canticle of Canticles (1:5), where the Bride says: "Nigra sum sed formosa" (I am brown, but beautiful) -- attempts to till other fields or vines and to establish among the new populations "not a provisional bell but a stable dwelling, namely, to insert the Gospel in the social fabric and the cultural institutions. In this perspective, the saintly Doctor exhorts the lay faithful to be assiduous to the religious instruction, imitating those "insatiable evangelical multitudes who did not even give the Apostles time to eat." He teaches them how to pray constantly, "reproducing in life what they celebrate in the liturgy," offering all actions as spiritual sacrifices in union with Christ. To parents he explains that also in their small domestic realm they can exercise "the priestly office of pastors and guides," by giving Christian formation to the children and states that he knows many faithful (men and women, spouses and celibates) "capable of an irreproachable conduct that, if suitably pursued, could approach daily Eucharistic communion ("Epist. ad Ecgbertum," ed. Plummer, p. 419).

The fame of holiness and wisdom that Bede enjoyed already in life, served to merit him the title of "Venerable." He is thus called also by Pope Sergius I, when he wrote his abbot in 701 requesting to make him come temporarily to Rome for consultation on questions of universal interest. The great missionary of Germany, Bishop St. Boniface (d. 754), requested the archbishop of York several times and the abbot of Wearmouth to have some of his works transcribed and to send him to them so that they and their companions could also enjoy the spiritual light he emanated. A century later Notkero Galbulo, abbot of St. Gall (d. 912), being aware of the extraordinary influence of Bede, equated him with a new sun that God had made arise not in the East but in the West to illumine the world. Apart from the rhetorical emphasis, it is a fact that, with his works, Bede contributed effectively to the making of a Christian Europe, in which the different populations and cultures amalgamated among themselves, conferring on them a uniform physiognomy, inspired by the Christian faith.

Let us pray that also today there be personalities of Bede's stature, to keep the whole Continent united; let us pray so that all of us are willing to rediscover our common roots, to be builders of a profoundly human and genuinely Christian Europe.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then greeted the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on the early Christian writers of East and West, we now turn to Saint Bede the Venerable. A monk of the monastery of Wearmouth in England, Bede became one of the most learned men of the early Middle Ages and a prolific author, while also gaining a reputation for great holiness and wisdom. His scriptural commentaries highlight the unity of the Old and New Testaments, centred on the mystery of Christ and the Church. Bede is best known, however, for his historical writings, in which he traced the history of the Church from the Acts of the Apostles, through the age of the Fathers and Councils, and down to his own times. His Ecclesiastical History recounts the Church’s missionary expansion and growth among the English people. Bede’s rich ecclesial, liturgical and historical vision enable his writings to serve as a guide for the Church’s teachers, pastors and religious in living out their vocations in the service of the Church’s mission. His great learning and the sanctity of his life, earned Bede the title of "Venerable", while the rapid spread of his writings made him a highly influential figure in the building of a Christian Europe.

I offer a warm welcome to the pilgrimage group from the Diocese of Arlington led by Bishop Paul Loverde, and to the School Sisters of Notre Dame taking part in a program of spiritual renewal. I also greet the many student groups present. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially the visitors from England, Ireland, Sweden, Japan and the United States, I cordially invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Papal Address on Day for Consecrated Life

Papal Address on Day for Consecrated Life

"Paul Lives For, With and In Christ"

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.

A Mass was held in St. Peter's Square to mark the 13th World Day of Consecrated Life. The Pope delivered this message after the Mass.

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Your Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I meet you with great joy at the end of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, on this liturgical Feast which for 13 years now has gathered men and women religious for the Day for Consecrated Life. I cordially greet Cardinal Franc Rodé, with special gratitude to him and to his collaborators at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for their service to the Holy See and to what I would call the "cosmos" of consecrated life. I greet with affection the men and women Superiors General present here and all of you, brothers and sisters who, with your witness as consecrated persons modeled on the Virgin Mary, carry Christ's light in the Church and in the world. In this Pauline Year, I make my own the Apostle's words: "I give thanks to my God every time I think of you which is constantly, in every prayer I utter rejoicing, as I plead on your behalf, at the way you have all continually helped promote the gospel from the very first day" (Phil 1: 3-5). In this greeting addressed to the Christian community of Philippi, Paul expresses the affectionate remembrance he cherishes of all who live the Gospel personally and toil to pass it on, combining the care of their interior life with the effort of the apostolic mission.

In the Church's tradition, St Paul has always been recognized as father and teacher of those, called by the Lord, who have chosen unconditional dedication to him and to his Gospel. Various religious Institutes are named after St. Paul and draw from him a specific charismatic inspiration. One can say that he repeats to all consecrated men and women a forthright and affectionate invitation: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11: 1). What in fact is consecrated life other than a radical imitation of Jesus, a total "sequela" of him? (cf. Mt 19: 27-28). Well, in all this Paul represents a sound pedagogical mediation: imitating him in the following of Jesus, dear friends, is the privileged way to correspond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the Church.

Indeed, from his own voice we can recognize a lifestyle that expresses the substance of consecrated life inspired by the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. He sees the life of poverty as the guarantee of a Gospel proclamation carried out totally gratuitously (cf. 1 Cor 9:1-23), while at the same time he expresses concrete solidarity to his brethren in need. In this regard we all know of Paul's decision to support himself with the work of his hands and of his commitment to collecting offerings for the poor of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Thes 2: 9; 2 Cor 8-9).

Paul is also an apostle who, in accepting God's call to chastity, gave his heart to the Lord in an undivided manner to be able to serve his brethren with even greater freedom and dedication (cf. 1 Cor 7: 7; 2 Cor 11: 1-2). Furthermore, in a world in which the values of Christian chastity were far from widespread (cf. 1 Cor 6: 12-20) he offered a reliable reference for conduct. Then concerning obedience it suffices to note that doing God's will and the "daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor 11: 28) motivated, shaped and consummated his existence, rendered a sacrifice that found favor with God. All this brought him to proclaim, as he wrote to the Philippians: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1: 21).

Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life is the mission.

He belongs wholly to Jesus in order, like Jesus, to belong to all; indeed, to be Jesus for all: "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor 9: 22). In him, so closely united to the person of Christ, we recognize a profound capacity for combining spiritual life and missionary action. In him the two dimensions refer to each other reciprocally. And thus we can say that he belongs to the ranks of those "mystical builders" whose existence is both contemplative and active, open to God and to the brethren, in order to carry out an effective service to the Gospel. In this mystic and apostolic tension, I would like to remark on the Apostle's courage as he faced the sacrifice of confronting terrible trials, even to the point of martyrdom (cf. 2 Cor 11: 16-33) and on his steadfast faith based on the words of his Lord: "my grace is enough for you, for in weakness power reaches perfection" (2 Cor 12: 9-10). His spiritual experience thus appears to us as a lived-out expression of the Paschal Mystery, which he investigated intensely and proclaimed as a form of Christian life. Paul lives for, with and in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ", he writes, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2: 20); and again: "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil 1: 21).

This explains why he does not tire of urging us to behave in such a way that Christ's word may dwell within us in its richness (cf. Col 3: 16). This brings to mind the invitation addressed to you in the recent Instruction on The Service of Authority and Obedience, to seek "every morning... a living and faithful contact with the Word which is proclaimed that day, meditating on it and holding it in [your] heart as a treasure, making of it the root of every action and the primary criterion of each choice". I therefore hope that the Pauline Year will nourish still more in you the determination to accept the testimony of St Paul, meditating every day upon the word of God with the faithful practice of lectio divina, praying with "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness..." (Col 3: 16). May he also help you to carry out your apostolic service in and with the Church with a spirit of communion without reservation, making a gift of your own charisms to others (cf. 1 Cor 14: 12), and witnessing in the first place to the greatest charism which is charity (cf. 1 Cor 13).

Dear brothers and sisters, today's liturgy urges us to look at the Virgin Mary, the "consecrated one" par excellence. Paul speaks of her with concise but effective words that describe her greatness and her task: she is the "woman" from whom, in the fullness of time, the Son of God was born (cf. Gal 4: 4).

Mary is the Mother who today presents her Son to the Father at the Temple, also continuing in this action the "yes" she spoke at the moment of the Annunciation. May she once again be the mother who accompanies and sustains us, God's children and her children, in carrying out a generous service to God and to the brethren. To this end, I invoke her heavenly intercession as I warmly impart the Apostolic Blessing to all of you and to your respective religious families.

© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On the Spiritual Ladder of John Climacus

On the Spiritual Ladder of John Climacus

"A Great Symbol of the Life of the Baptized"

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave during today's general audience in Paul VI Hall.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

After 20 catecheses dedicated to the Apostle Paul, I would like to take up again today the presentation of the great writers of the Church of East and West in the Middle Ages. And I propose the figure of John called Climacus, a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klímakos, which means ladder (klímax).

This is the title of his principal work [rendered in English "Climax," or "Ladder to Perfection"], in which he describes the ascent of human life toward God.

He was born around 575. His life unfolded in the years in which Byzantium, capital of the Roman Empire of the East, experienced the greatest crisis of its history. Suddenly the geographical layout of the empire changed and the torrent of barbarian invasions brought all of its structures to crumble. Only the structure of the Church remained, which in these difficult times continued with its missionary, humanistic and socio-cultural activities, especially through the network of monasteries, in which operated great religious personalities, as was precisely John Climacus.

Among the mountain of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elias heard his voice, John lived and narrated his spiritual experiences. An account of him has been conserved in a brief biography (PG 88, 596-608), written by the monk Daniel of Raithu: At age 16, John, monk at Mt. Sinai, became a disciple of the abbot Martyrius, an "elder," that is to say, "a wise one." Toward age 20, he chose to live as a hermit in a cave at the foot of a mountain, in the region of Tola, eight kilometers from the feet of the current monastery of St. Catherine.

But solitude did not keep him from meeting people who desired a spiritual guide, or from visiting certain monasteries close to Alexandria. His hermitic withdrawal, in fact, far from being flight from the world and human reality, led him to an ardent love for others (Life, 5) and for God (Life, 7). After 40 years of hermitic life lived in the love of God and for others, years in which he cried, prayed and fought against the demons, he was named abbot of the great monastery of Mt. Sinai and thus returned to the cenobitic life in the monastery.

But a few years before his death, nostalgic for the hermitic life, he transferred to a brother, a monk of the same monastery, the guidance of the community. He died after the year 650. The life of John developed between two mountains, Sinai and Tabor, and truly it can be said of him that he radiated the light that Moses saw on Sinai and the apostles contemplated on Tabor.

He became famous, as I already mentioned, with his work "The Ladder" (klímax), called in the West the "Ladder of Paradise" (PG 88, 632-1164). Composed because of the insistent petitions of the abbot of the nearby monastery of Raithu, close to Sinai, "The Ladder" is a complete treatise of the spiritual life, in which John describes the path of a monk, from the renunciation of the world till the perfection of love. It is a path that -- according to this book -- takes place through 30 steps, each one of which is united to the one that comes after.

The path can be summarized in three successive phases: the first shows the rupture with the world with the aim of returning to the state of Gospel childlikeness. The essential, therefore, is not the rupture, but the union with which Jesus has called, the return to the true childlikeness in the spiritual sense, the coming to be like children. John comments: "A good foundation is that formed by three bases and three columns -- innocence, fasting and chastity. All the newborns in Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:1) should begin with these three things, following the example of physical newborns" (1,20; 636).

The voluntary separation from dear people and places permits the soul to enter into deeper communion with God. This renunciation leads to obedience, which is the path of humility through humiliations -- which are never lacking -- on the part of humans. Juan comments: "Blessed is he who has mortified his own will to the end and has entrusted the care of his person to his master in the Lord: He will be placed at the right of the Crucified One" (4,37; 704).

The second phase of the path is made up of spiritual combat against the passions. Each step of the ladder is united with a principal passion, which is defined and diagnosed, indicating as well the therapy and proposing the corresponding virtue. The whole of these steps undoubtedly constitutes the most important treatise of the spiritual strategy that we possess. The fight against the passions is seen in a positive light -- it's not viewed as a negative thing -- thanks to the image of the "fire" of the Holy Spirit:

"All those who undertake this beautiful fight (cf. 1 Timothy 6:12), difficult and arduous […] should know that they have come to throw themselves in a fire, if they truly desire that the immaterial fire dwells in them" (1,18; 636). The fire of the Holy Spirit, which is the fire of love and truth. Only the strength of the Holy Spirit assures victory. But, according to John Climacus, it is important to be aware that the passions are not evil in themselves; they become so because of the poor use that human freedom makes of them. If they are purified, the passions open to man the path toward God with energies unified by asceticism and grace and "if they have received from the Creator an order and principle … the limit of virtue is endless" (26/2,37; 1068).

The last phase of the path of Christian perfection is developed in the last seven rungs of the ladder. These are the highest phases of the spiritual life, able to be experienced by the "esicasti," the solitary ones, who have arrived to tranquility and interior peace. But they are phases accessible as well to the most fervent cenobites. Of the three first ones -- simplicity, humility and discernment -- John, in line with the desert fathers, considers the latter the most important, that is, the capacity to discern.

Every action should be submitted to discernment, everything depends in fact on deep motives, which it is necessary to explore. Here one enters into the depths of the person and tries to awaken in the hermit, in the Christian, the spiritual sensitivity and the "sense of the heart," gifts of God: "As guide and rule of all things, after God, we should follow our conscience" (26/1,5, 1013). In this way, one arrives to the tranquility of the soul, the "esichía," thanks to which the soul can peer into the abyss of divine mysteries.

The state of tranquility, of interior peace, prepares the "esicasta" for prayer, which in John is double: "corporal prayer" and "prayer of the heart." The first is proper to one who must avail of postures of the body: extend the hands, express groans, strike the chest, etc. (15,26; 900); the second is spontaneous, because it is an effect of awakening the spiritual sensitivity, gift of God to whom is dedicated the corporal prayer. In John, this takes the name of "Jesus prayer" (Iesoû euché) and it is made up of the invocation of the name of Jesus, a continuous invocation like breathing: "The memory of Jesus becomes one with your respiration, and then you will discover the truth of the esichía," of interior peace (27/2,26; 1112). In the end, prayer becomes something very simple, simply the word "Jesus" becomes one with our breathing.

The last rung of the scale (30), full of the "sober intoxication of the Spirit" is dedicated to the supreme "trinity of virtues": faith, hope and above all, charity. Regarding charity, John speaks also of eros (human love), figure of the matrimonial union of the soul with God. And he chooses yet again the image of fire to express the ardor, light and purification of love by God. The strength of human love can be reoriented toward God, as the good olive tree can be grafted onto the wild olive (cf. Romans 11:24) (15,66; 893).

John is convinced that an intense experience of this eros makes the soul advance more than the hard fight against the passions, because its power is great. Thus the positiveness of our path prevails. But charity is seen as well in direct relation with hope: "The strength of charity is hope: Thanks to it we hope for the recompense of charity … hope is the gate of charity … the absence of hope destroys charity: our troubles are linked to it, with it we sustain ourselves in our problems and thanks to it we are surrounded by the mercy of God" (30,16; 1157). The end of "The Ladder" contains the synthesis of the work with the words the authors puts in the mouth of God himself. "May this ladder teach you the spiritual disposition of the virtues. I am at the top of this ladder, as that great mystic of mine said (St. Paul): Now therefore three things remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13)" (30,18; 1160).

At this point, a last question arises: "The Ladder," a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago: Can it say something to us today? The existential itinerary of a man who always lived on the mountain of Sinai in a time so long ago: Can it be current for us? At first glance, it seems the answer should be "no" because John Climacus is very far from us. But if we look a little closer, we see that such a monastic life is only a great symbol of the life of the baptized, of Christian life. It shows, to say it one way, in large letters what we write every day with little letters. It is a prophetic symbol that reveals what is the life of the baptized, in communion with Christ, with his death and resurrection. For me, it is of particularly importance the fact that the culmination of the scale, the last rungs are at the same time the fundamental, initial, simplest virtues: faith, hope and charity.

These are not virtues accessible only to moral heroes, but are the gift of God for all the baptized. In them our life too grows. The beginning is also the end; the starting point is also the arriving point: The whole path goes toward an ever more radical fulfillment of faith, hope and charity. In these virtues, the ladder is present. Fundamentally is faith, because this virtue implies that I renounce arrogance, my thoughts, the pretension to judge for myself, without entrusting myself to others.

This path toward humility, toward spiritual childlikeness is necessary: It is necessary to overcome the attitude of arrogance that makes one say: I am better, in this age of mine of the 21st century, than what those who lived then knew. It is necessary, instead, to entrust oneself only to sacred Scripture, the Word of the Lord, approach with humility the horizon of faith, to thus enter into the enormous vastness of the universal world, of the world of God.

In this way, our soul grows, the sensitivity of the heart toward God grows. Precisely John Climacus says that only hope makes us capable of living charity. Hope in which we transcend the things of each day; we do not hope for the success of our earthly days but we hope finally for the revelation of God himself. Only in this extension of our soul, in this self-transcendence, our life is made great and we can bear the tiredness and disillusionment of each day, we can be good to others without expecting a reward.

Only if God exists, this great hope to which I tend, can I take the little steps of my life each day and thus learn charity. In charity, the mystery of prayers is hidden, of the personal knowledge of Jesus: a simple prayer that alone tends to touch the heart of the divine Teacher. And thus one's heart opens, learns from him his own goodness, his love. Let us use, therefore, this ladder of faith, of hope and of charity, and we will thus arrive to true life.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then greeted the people in several languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we recommence our catechesis on the great Christian writers of both East and West. John Climacus, whose name means "ladder", was born around 575, and wrote an outstanding tract near Mount Sinai on the spiritual journey leading from renunciation of the world to perfection in love. The journey takes place in three stages. The first involves detachment from worldly goods in order to return to a state of Gospel innocence and enter into a deeper communion with God. In the second phase, the soul engages in a spiritual battle with the passions by cultivating virtues corresponding to each. When purified, these passions can show us the way to God through self-denial and grace. In the third phase, John emphasizes the importance of discernment: we must examine every aspect of our behaviour in order to ascertain our deepest motivations and reawaken a "sense of the heart".

This leads to tranquillity of soul – esichía – which prepares us to probe the depths of the divine mysteries. The last "rung" of the ladder consists in faith, hope and charity. John’s account of charity includes eros, or human love, which points towards the nuptial union of the soul with God. May John’s spiritual "ladder" remind all of us who share in the death and resurrection of Christ through Baptism that we are called to continual conversion and purification with the help of the Holy Spirit.

I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially pilgrims from Japan, Taiwan, Denmark, England, Ireland and the United States. God bless you all!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

On Paul's Death and Heritage

On Paul's Death and Heritage

"The Figure of St. Paul Is Magnified Beyond His Earthly Life"

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general audience in Paul VI Hall.

He concluded today his series of catechesis on St. Paul.

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Dear brothers and sisters:

The series of our catechesis on the figure of St. Paul has arrived to its conclusion: We wish to speak today of the end of his earthly life. Ancient Christian tradition testifies unanimously that the death of Paul came as a consequence of martyrdom suffered here in Rome. The writings of the New Testament do not take up this fact. The Acts of the Apostles ends its report indicating the Apostle's condition as a prisoner, who nevertheless could receive all those who visited him (cf. Acts 28:30-31).

Only in the Second Letter to Timothy do we find these, his foreboding words: "For I am at the point of being poured out like a libation, and the time of my releasing the canvas [departure] is at hand" (2 Timothy 4:6; cf. Philippians 2:17). Two images are used here, the liturgical one of sacrifice, which he had already used in the Letter to the Philippians, interpreting martyrdom as part of the sacrifice of Christ; and the seafaring [image] of casting off: two images that together discreetly allude to the event of death, and of a bloody death.

The first explicit testimony about the end of St. Paul comes to us from the middle of the 90s of the first century, and therefore, something more than 30 years after his death took place. It comes precisely from the letter that the Church of Rome, with its bishop, Clement I, wrote to the Church of Corinth.

In that epistolary text, the invitation is made to have the example of the apostles before our eyes, and immediately after the mention of Peter's martyrdom, it reads thus: "Owing to envy and discord, Paul was obligated to show us how to obtain the prize of patience. Arrested seven times, exiled, stoned, he was the herald of Christ in the East and in the West, and for his faith, obtained a pure glory. After having preached justice in the whole world, and after having arrived to the corners of the West, he accepted martyrdom before the governors; thus he parted from this world and arrived to the holy place, thereby converted into the greatest model of patience" (1 Clement 5,2).

The patience of which it speaks is the expression of his communion with the passion of Christ, of the generosity and constancy with which he accepted a long path of suffering, to the point of being able to say: "I bear the marks of Jesus on my body" (Galatians 6:17).

We heard in the text of St. Clement that Paul had arrived "to the corners of the West." It is debated whether this refers to a trip to Spain that Paul would have carried out. There is not certainty about this, though it is true that St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans expresses his intention to go to Spain (cf. Romans 15:24).

It is very interesting, in the letter from Clement, the succession of the two names of Peter and Paul, even though these will be inverted in the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century. When speaking of the Emperor Nero he wrote: "During his reign Paul was beheaded precisely in Rome and Peter was there crucified. The report is confirmed by the names of Peter and of Paul, which even today are conserved in their sepulchers in this city" (Hist. Eccl. 2,25,5).

Eusebius later would continue relating a previous declaration of a Roman presbyter by the name of Gaius, who dates back to the beginnings of the second century: "I can show you the trophies of the apostles: If you go to the Vatican or the Via Ostiense, there you will find the trophies of the founders of the Church" (ibid. 2,25,6-7).

The "trophies" are the sepulchral monuments, and these are the same sepulchers of Peter and Paul that even today we venerate, after two millenniums in the same place: here in the Vatican regarding St. Peter, in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiense regarding that of the Apostle to the Gentiles.

It is interesting to point out that the two great apostles are mentioned together. Though no ancient source speaks of a contemporary ministry of theirs in Rome, the successive Christian awareness, on the basis of their common burial in the capital of the empire, will also associate them as founders of the Church of Rome. Thus it is read, in fact, in Irenaeus of Lyons, from the end of the second century, regarding the apostolic succession in the distinct Churches: "It would be tedious to enumerate the successions of all the Churches, we do take the very great and very ancient and well-known Church, the Church founded and established in Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul" (Adv. Haer. 3,3,2).

Let us leave aside the figure of Peter and concentrate on that of Paul. His martyrdom comes recounted for the first time in the Acts of Paul, written toward the end of the second century. These report that Nero condemned him to death by beheading, carried out immediately afterward (cf. 9:5). The date of the death varies according to the ancient sources, which place it between the persecution unleashed by Nero himself after the burning of Rome in July of 64 and the last year of his reign, in 68 (cf. Jerome, De Viris Ill. 5,8).

The calculation depends a lot on the chronology of Paul's arrival in Rome, a discussion that we cannot get into here. Successive traditions would pin down two other elements. One, the most legendary, is that the martyrdom took place on the Acquae Salviae, on the Via Laurentina, with a triple bounce of the head, each one of which caused a current of water to spring out, due to which even today the place is called "Tre Fontane" (Acts of Peter and Paul of Pseudo Marcellus of the fifth century).

The other, in consonance with the ancient testimony already mentioned, of the presbyter Gaius, is that the burial occurred "not only outside of the city, in the second mile of the Via Ostiense," but more precisely "in the field of Lucina," who was a Christian matron (Passion of Paul of Pseudo Abdias, of the sixth century).

There in the fourth century, the emperor Constantine erected a first church, later enormously amplified after the fourth and fifth century by Emperors Valentinianus II, Theodosius and Arcadius. After the fire of 1800, there was erected the current Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

In any case, the figure of St. Paul is magnified beyond his earthly life and his death; he has left in fact an extraordinary spiritual heritage. He as well, as a true disciple of Jesus, became a sign of contradiction. While among the so-called ebionites -- a Judeo-Christian current -- he was considered as an apostate of the Mosaic Law, already in the book of Acts of the Apostles, there appears a great veneration for the Apostle Paul.

I would like now to set aside the apocryphal literature, such as the Acts of Paul and Thecla and an apocryphal collection of letters between the Apostle Paul and the philosopher Seneca. It is important to confirm that very soon the Letters of St. Paul enter into the liturgy, where the prophet-apostle-Gospel structure is determinant for the form of the liturgy of the Word. Thus, thanks to this "presence" in the liturgy of the Church, the thought of the Apostle at once becomes spiritual nourishment for the faithful of all times.

It is obvious that the fathers of the Church and afterward all the theologian have drawn form the Letters of St. Paul and his spirituality. He has remained during the centuries, until today, as true teacher and apostle to the Gentiles. The first patristic commentary that has arrived to us regarding a writing of the New Testament is from the great Alexandrian theologian Origen, who comments on the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans.

This commentary is unfortunately conserved only in part. St. John Chrysostom, besides commenting his letters, has written of him his seven memorable panegyrics. St. Augustine owes him the decisive step of his own conversion and he will return to Paul during all of his life. From this permanent dialogue with the Apostle derives his great Catholic theology and also for Protestants of all times. St. Thomas Aquinas has left us a beautiful commentary on the Pauline letters, which represents the most mature fruit of medieval exegesis.

A true point of inflection was verified in the 16th century with the Protestant Reformation. The decisive moment in Luther's life was the so-called Turmerlebnis (1517) in which in one moment he encountered a new interpretation of the Pauline doctrine on justification. An interpretation that liberated him from the scruples and anxieties of his preceding life and that gave him a new, radical confidence in the goodness of God, who pardons everything without condition. From that moment, Luther identified the Judeo-Christian legalism condemned by the Apostle with the order of life of the Catholic Church. And the Church appeared to him as an expression of the slavery to the law to which he opposed the liberty of the Gospel. The Council of Trent, between 1545 and 1563, deeply interpreted the question of justification and encountered in the line of all Catholic tradition the synthesis between law and Gospel, conforming to the message of sacred Scripture read in its totality and unity.

The 19th century, gathering the best heritage of the Enlightenment, witnessed a new renovation of Paulinism, now above all in the plane of scientific work developed for the historical-critical interpretation of sacred Scripture. Let us set aside here the fact that also in that century, as in the 20th, there emerged a true and proper denigration of St. Paul. I think above all of Nietzsche, who poked fun at the theology of humility in St. Paul, opposing to it his theology of the strong and powerful man. But let us leave that aside and look at the essential current of the new scientific interpretation of sacred Scripture and the new Paulinism of that century.

Here is emphasized as central above all the Pauline thought of the concept of liberty: In this is seen the heart of the thought of Paul, as on the other hand, Luther had already intuited. Now, nevertheless, the concept of liberty was reinterpreted in the context of modern liberalism. And later, the differentiation between the proclamation of St. Paul and the proclamation of Jesus was strongly emphasized. And St. Paul appears almost as a new founder of Christianity. It is certain that in St. Paul, the centrality of the Kingdom of God, determinant for the proclamation of Jesus, is transformed in the centrality of Christology, whose determinant point is the Paschal mystery. And from the Paschal mystery, come the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, as a permanent presence of this mystery, from which the Body of Christ grows, and the Church is built.

But I would say, without entering here into details, that precisely in the new centrality of Christology and the Paschal mystery, the Kingdom of God is fulfilled, the authentic proclamation of Jesus is made concrete, present, operative. We have seen in the preceding catechesis that precisely this Pauline novelty is the deepest fidelity to the proclamation of Jesus. In the progress of exegesis, above all in the last 200 years, the convergences between Catholic and Protestant exegesis also grow, thus bringing about a notable consensus precisely in the point that was at the origin of the greatest historical dissent. Therefore a great hope for the cause of ecumenism, so central for the Second Vatican Council.

Briefly, I would like at the end to still point out the various religious movements, arising in the modern age in the heart of the Catholic Church, that refer back to St. Paul. That's what came about in the 16th century with the Clerics Regular of St. Paul, called the Barnabites; in the 19th century with the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, better known as the Paulist Fathers; and in the 20th century with the multifaceted Pauline Family, founded by Blessed James Alberione; to not speak of the secular institute of the Company of St Paul.

Substantially, there remains luminous before us the figure of an extremely fruitful and deep apostle and Christian thinker, from whose closeness, every one of us can benefit. In one of his panegyrics, St. John Chrysostom made an original comparison between Paul and Noah, expressing it like this: Paul "did not place together the shafts to build an ark, instead, in place of uniting tablets of wood, he composed letters, and thus dug out of the waters not two or three or five members of his own family, but the entire inhabited world that was about to perish" (Paneg. 1,5).

Precisely still and always the Apostle Paul can do this. To tend toward him, as much to his apostolic example as to his doctrine, would be therefore a stimulus, if not a guarantee, to consolidate the Christian identity of each one of us and for the renewal of the whole Church.

[During his greetings, the Holy Father added:]

The situation in Sri Lanka continues to cause worry.

News of a worsening of the conflict and the growing number of innocent victims moves me to offer a pressing appeal to the combatants to respect humanitarian law and people's freedom of movement."

May they do everything possible to guarantee assistance for the wounded and security for civilians, and permit their urgent food and medical needs to be satisfied."

May Our Lady of Madhu, so venerated by Catholics and also by members of other religions, hasten the day of peace and reconciliation in that dear country.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[To the English-speakers, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Concluding our catechesis on Saint Paul today, we look briefly at the end of his earthly life and his ongoing legacy. Though there is no account of Paul’s death in the New Testament, a strong tradition holds that he was martyred in Rome during the reign of Nero and buried along the Via Ostiense on the site of the present Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Saint Clement of Rome, in a first-century letter to the Corinthians, extols Paul’s patience in suffering as a model for all Christians to imitate. Paul himself alluded to his agony in sacrificial terms when he wrote: "for I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand" (2 Tim 4:6). Paul’s writings have inspired countless commentaries through the centuries. New studies continue to shed light on his character, the churches he founded and the Gospel he preached. Paul was a generous apostle and an original thinker,but not the "new founder" of Christianity, as some have claimed. By listening to his teaching, may we be strengthened in our commitment to Christ, so as to take part joyfully in the Church’s mission of evangelization!

I am pleased to greet the English-speaking visitors present at today’s audience. I particularly welcome students from the Bossey Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies in Geneva, as well as pilgrims from Hong Kong and the United States of America. God bless you all!

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