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Pope Benedict XVI- General Audiences |
General
Audience
On Ambrose Autpert, "1st
Mariologist of the West"
"Christ Must Daily Be Born, Die, and Rise in Us"
H.H. Benedict XVI
April 22, 2009
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Church lives in people and whoever wants to get to know the Church,
to understand its mystery, must consider the people who have lived and
who continue to live its message, its mystery. It is for this reason
that I have spoken in the Wednesday catecheses of people from whom we
can learn what the Church is. We started with the Apostles and the
Fathers of the Church and have slowly arrived to the eighth century, the
period of Charlemagne. Today I would like to talk about Ambrose Autpert,
a relatively unknown author: His works were in fact largely attributed
to other better-known personalities, from St. Ambrose of Milan to St.
Ildephonsus, not to mention those that the monks of Montecassino have
held as coming from the pen of a certain one of their abates who lived
almost a century later. Apart from some brief autobiographical
references inserted in his great commentary on the book of Revelation,
we have little definite information about [Autpert's] life. Careful
reading of the works that critics gradually recognized as his authorship
allows for the discovery in his teaching of a theological and spiritual
treasure precious also for our times.
Born in Provenza, from a distinguished family, Ambrose Autpert --
according to his biographer, John -- was an official at the court of
King Pepin the Short. He also played, in some way, the role of tutor to
the future emperor Charlemagne. Probably as one following Pope Stephen
II, who in 753-54 had gone to the court of the Franks, Autpert travelled
to Italy and was able to visit the famous Benedictine abbey of St.
Vincent, located at the source of the Volturno, in the Duchy of
Benevento. Founded at the beginning of that century by the three
Beneventan brothers Paldone, Riceman and Tasone, the abbey was known as
a haven of classical and Christian culture. Shortly after his visit,
Ambrose Autpert decided to embrace the religious life and entered the
monastery, where he could train in an appropriate manner, especially in
matters of theology and spirituality, according to the tradition of the
Fathers. Around the year 761 he was ordained a priest and on October 4,
777, he was elected abbot with the support of the French monks and
despite the opposition of some monks in favor of Lombard Potone.
The tension due to nationalistic divisions did not quiet in the months
ahead, and as a result, Autpert, a year later in 778, intended to step
down and retire with some French monks to Spoleto, where they could
count on the protection of Charlemagne. This, however, did not eliminate
the dissension in the monastery of St. Vincent, and some years later,
when the abbot who succeeded Autpert died and Lombard Potone was elected
as successor (a. 782), the conflict flared up again, which eventually
lead to the denunciation of the new abbot to Charlemagne. The contenders
were referred to the court of the Pope, who summoned them to Rome.
Autpert was also called as a witness, but suddenly died during the trip,
perhaps killed, January 30, 784.
Ambrose Autpert was a monk and abbot in an age marked by strong
political tension, tensions which also had repercussions on life inside
the monasteries. Of this we have frequent and concerned echoes in his
writings. He denounces, for example, the contradiction between the
beautiful outer appearance of the monasteries and the monks'
lukewarmness; certainly his own abbey was included in this criticism.
For his monastery he wrote the life of the three founders with the clear
intention to offer the new generation of monks a benchmark with which to
compare themselves. He also wrote the brief ascetic treatise "Conflictus
vitiorum et virtutum" [Conflict between the vices and virtues] with the
same intention, which had great success in the Middle Ages and was
published in 1473 in Utrecht under the name of Gregory the Great, and a
year later in Strasbourg under the name of St. Augustine. With these
writings Ambrose Autpert intended to train the monks specifically on how
to address the spiritual battle on a daily basis. In an important way he
applies the truth expressed in 2 Timothy 3:12: "All those who want to
live fully in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," no longer external
persecution, but he refers to the assault of the forces of evil that
Christians must face within themselves. He presents 24 pairs of
combatants in a kind of juxtaposition: each vice tries to persuade the
soul with subtle reasoning, while the respective virtues refute such
insinuations preferably using the words of Scripture.
In this treatise on the conflict between vice and virtue, Autpert
opposed the vice of "cupiditas" [greed] to the virtue of "contemptus
mundi" [contempt of the world], which becomes an important element in
the spirituality of the monks. This contempt of the world is not a
contempt of creation, beauty and goodness of creation and the Creator,
but a contempt of the false vision of the world presented and insinuated
to us by our own greed. This greed affirms that the value of "having" is
the supreme value of our being, of our living in the world and our image
of ourselves as important. And so greed falsifies the creation of the
world and destroys the world. Autpert notes that the desire for profit
of the rich and powerful in the society of his time also exists within
the souls of the monks and because of this he wrote a treatise titled
"De cupiditate" [On Greed], in which, with the Apostle Paul, he
denounces from the outset the vice of greed as the root of all evil. He
writes: "From the soil of the earth several sharp spines sprout from
various roots, however, in the heart of man, the sting of all the
defects come from a single root, greed" (De cupiditate 1: CCCM 27B, p.
963 ).
I offer this reflection, which, in light of this global economic crisis,
is revealed in all its relevance. We see that from this very root of
greed this crisis is born. Ambrose foresaw the objection that the rich
and powerful would raise, saying: but we are not monks, these ascetic
standards don't apply to us. And he answers: "It is true what you say,
but also for you, in your own way and to the best of your ability, the
hard and narrow way applies to you, because the Lord has proposed only
two doors and two ways -- i.e. the narrow gate and the wide, the hard
and comfortable; he did not indicate a third door or a third way"(ibid,
p. 978). He saw clearly that the life styles are very different. But
even for the man in this world, even for the rich it is necessary to
fight against greed, against the desire to possess, to appear, against
the false notion of freedom as the right to dispose of everything
according to one's own will. Even the rich must find the authentic path
of truth, of love and in this way the path of moral rectitude. So
Autpert, as a prudent shepherd of souls, knew then to say at the end of
his preaching of repentance a word of comfort: "I have not spoken
against the greedy, but against greed, not against nature, but against
vice" (lc, p. 981).
The most important work of Ambrose Autpert is his commentary on
Revelation in ten books: it constitutes, after centuries, the first
extensive comment in the Latin world on last book of Sacred Scripture.
This was the fruit of a long work, which took place in two stages
between 758 and 767, therefore before his election as abate. In the
preface, he indicates precisely its sources, which is completely
abnormal in the Middle Ages. Through its perhaps most significant
source, the comments of the Bishop Primasio Adrumetano, written around
the middle of the sixth century, Autpert comes into contact with the
interpretation of Revelation of the African Tycho, who had lived a
generation before St. Augustine. He was not a Catholic; he belonged to
the schismatic church of the Donatists, however, he was a great
theologian. In his commentary, he saw the mystery of the Church reveal
itself, above all in the book of Revelation. Tycho had reached the
conviction that the Church was a body with two parts: One part, he says,
belongs to Christ, but there is another part of the Church that belongs
to the devil. Augustine read this commentary and benefitted from it, but
strongly emphasized that the Church is in the hands of Christ, it
remains his body, forming with him a single entity, a participant in the
mediation of grace. He emphasizes therefore that the Church can never be
separated from Jesus Christ.
In his reading of Revelation, which is similar to that of Tycho, Autpert
is interested not so much in the second coming of Christ at the end of
time, but in the consequences for the Church of his first coming, the
Incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary. It tells us something very
important: In reality, Christ, "must daily be born, die, and rise in us
who are his body." (In Apoc. III: CCCM 27, p. 205). In the context of
the mystical dimension that surrounds every Christian, he looks to Mary
as a model of the Church, a model for us all, because also in us and
between us Christ must be born. On the basis that the Fathers saw in the
"woman clothed with the sun" of Revelation 12:1 the image of the Church,
Autpert argues: "The blessed and pious Virgin [...] daily gives birth to
new people, from which is formed the General Body of the Mediator. It is
not therefore surprising that she, in whose blessed womb the Church
itself deserved to be united to his head, represents the image of the
Church."
In this sense Autpert sees a decisive role of the Virgin Mary in the
work of Redemption -- see also his homilies in the occasions of the
purification and the assumption of the Blessed Virgin. His great
reverence, and his deep love for the Mother of God at times inspired
formulations that somehow anticipate those of St. Bernard and the
Franciscan spirit, but without diverging toward questionable forms of
sentimentalism, because he never separated the mystery of the Church
from Mary. With good reason then Ambrose Autpert is considered the first
great mariologist in the West. The piety that, in his view, must free
the soul from attachment to earthly and transient pleasures, he believes
should be united with the deep study of the sacred sciences, especially
the meditation of Sacred Scripture, which he describes as a "deep sky,
an unfathomable abyss" (In Apoc.IX). In the beautiful prayer with which
he concludes his remarks on the book of Revelation, emphasizing the
priority which in every theological search for truth relies on love, he
speaks to God with these words: "When you are scrutinized intellectually
by us, you're not discovered as you truly are; it's only when you are
loved that we reach you."
We can see today in Ambrose Autpert a person who lived in a time of
intense 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 that we also experience, was able to discover the
true face of the Church in Mary, in the saints. And so he was able to
understand what it means to be Catholic, Christian, to live the Word of
God, to enter into this abyss, and so 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 body at the present time. And with all his theological
experience, the depth of his knowledge, Autpert understood that with
mere theological research God can not be known as he really is. Only
love can reach him. Let us listen to this message and ask the Lord to
help us live the mystery of the Church today, in this our time.
[The Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In English, he
said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I would like to speak about the writings of a little-known author
from the eighth century -- the Benedictine monk and abbot Ambrose
Autpert. The turbulence of the times in which he lived affected life
within the monasteries, and many of Autpert's writings summon his
brethren to rekindle the fervor of their monastic vocation. One of his
most widely-read works is his "Conflict between the vices and the
virtues," designed to assist his monks in their daily spiritual
struggle. For each of twenty-four vices threatening the soul, he
indicated the corresponding virtue that would help the Christian to
overcome temptation. Observing the widespread thirst for power and
wealth in society of that time, he taught that greed is the root of all
vices, and he urged his contemporaries to seek the narrow gate that
leads to life. In his extensive commentary on the Book of Revelation,
viewed as a treatise on the Church, Autpert taught that Christ must "be
born, die and rise again every day in us, his body." Hence the Virgin
Mary serves as a model of the Church. Indeed, Autpert is considered the
first great Marian theologian in the West, and he writes with an almost
mystical love for the Blessed Virgin. Love, he says, is the key to our
knowledge of God. Intellectual study may point the way, but only when we
love God do we truly know him. Following Autpert's teaching, let us
strive to grow daily in our love for God.
I am pleased to welcome the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here
today, including groups from Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia,
Australia, Canada and the United States of America. I extend a special
greeting to the young people from India. Upon all of you, and upon your
families and loved ones, I invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
[After the greetings, the Holy Father continued in Italian:]
I now greet the young, the sick and the newly married. May the Risen
Lord fill with his love the hearts of each of you, dear young people, so
that you will be ready to follow him with the enthusiasm and freshness
of your age; sustain you, dear sick people, in the serene acceptance of
the burden of suffering; guide you, dear new spouses, in forging,
through mutual and faithful self giving, families replete with the
perfume of evangelical sanctity.
Finally, I would like to say a special word to the youth of the
International Youth Center of San Lorenzo, who remember today the 25th
anniversary of the delivery of the Cross of the Holy Year to the youth
of the world. It was, in fact, April 22, 1984, when at the end of the
Holy Year of Redemption, the beloved John Paul II entrusted to the youth
of the world the great cross of wood, which by his own desire, was kept
at the high altar of the basilica of St. Peter's during the special
Jubilee Year. Since then, the cross was accepted in the International
Youth Center of San Lorenzo, and from there began to travel to the
continents, opening the hearts of many young men and women to Christ the
Redeemer. This its pilgrimage continues still, especially in preparation
for World Youth Day, so much so as to be known now as "the World Youth
Day Cross." Dear friends, I entrust this cross to you again! Continue to
carry it to every corner of the earth, so that the next generation may
also discover the mercy of God and have the hope in Christ crucified and
risen renewed in their hearts!
[Translation by Matthew Pollock]
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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