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Pope Benedict XVI- General Audiences |
General
Audience
On St. Ignatius of Antioch
"Truly a Doctor of Unity"
H.H. Benedict XVI
March 14, 2007
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Like last Wednesday, today we are talking about the protagonists in the
young Church. Last week, we spoke about Pope Clement I, third successor
to St. Peter. Today, we will talk about St. Ignatius, who was "the third
bishop of Antioch in Syria, from the year 70 to 107," the year of his
martyrdom.
At that time, Rome, Alexandria and Antioch were the three great cities
of the Roman Empire. The Council of Nicaea mentions the three
"primacies": that of Rome, and Alexandria and Antioch participate, in a
certain sense, in a "primacy."
St. Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch, which is now located in Turkey.
Here, in Antioch, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles, a blossoming
Christian community was emerging: Its first bishop was the apostle Peter
as is stated in tradition, and "there for the first time the disciples
were called Christians" (Act 11:26).
Eusebius of Caesarea, a fourth-century historian, dedicates an entire
chapter of his Storia Ecclesiastica to the life and works of Ignatius
(3,36).
"From Syria," he writes, "Ignatius was sent to Rome to be thrown to the
animals, because of his testimony to Christ. Traveling through Asia,
under the severe care of the guards" (which he calls "ten leopards" in
his Letter to the Romans, 5:1), "in each city where he stopped, with
preaching and admonitions, he reinforced the Churches; above all, he
would exhort heatedly to watch out for heresy, which were beginning to
come about and recommended not straying from the apostolic tradition."
The first stop on Ignatius' trip toward martyrdom was the city of
Smyrna, whose bishop was St. Polycarp, a disciple of St. John. Here,
Ignatius wrote four letters, respectively to the Church of Ephesus,
Magnesia, Tralles and Rome.
Eusebius continues: "Having left Smyrna, Ignatius came to Troas, and
from there sent new letters": two to the Churches of Philadelphia and
Smyrna, and one to Bishop Polycarp.
Eusebius completes the list of letters, which have come to us from the
first-century Church like a precious treasure. Reading these texts, one
can feel the freshness of the faith of the generation that had still
known the apostles. We can also feel in these letters the ardent love of
a saint. Finally from Troas, the martyr reached Rome, where, in the
Flavian Amphitheater, he was thrown to the lions.
No other Church Father expressed as intensely as Ignatius the wish for
union with Christ and life in him. This is why we have read the Gospel
of the vine, which according to the Gospel of St. John is Jesus.
Two spiritual currents can be found in St. Ignatius: St. Paul's tending
toward union with Christ and St. John's concentrating on life in him. In
turn, these two currents merge into "imitation of Christ" many times
proclaimed by Ignatius as my or our God.
Therefore Ignatius begs the Roman Christians to not postpone his
martyrdom, because he was "impatient to join Jesus Christ." And
explains: "It is beautiful for me to die going toward ('eis') Jesus
Christ, rather than reigning to the ends of the earth. I look for him,
who died for me, I want him, who was resurrected for us. … Let me
imitate the Passion of my God!" (Romans 5-6).
In these expressions of burning love we can see the specific
Christological realism typical of the Church of Antioch, evermore
attentive to the incarnation of the Son of God and his true and concrete
humanity. Ignatius writes to the Smyrnaeans, "He is truly of the line of
David … truly born of a virgin … truly was he nailed for us" (1,1).
Ignatius' irresistible tension toward union with Christ founds a real
"mystique of unity." He defines himself as "a man who has been given the
duty of unity" (Philadelphians 8,1).
For Ignatius, union is "above all a prerogative of God who being three,"
is one in absolute union. He often repeats that God is union and only in
God can this be found in the pure and original state. The union to be
reached in this world by Christians is but an imitation, the closest
possible to the divine archetype. In this way, Ignatius elaborates a
vision of the Church, closely recalling certain expression of the Letter
to the Corinthians by Clement of Rome.
For example, he writes to the Christians of Ephesus: "Wherefore it is
fitting that you should run in accordance with the will of your bishop,
a thing you also do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God,
is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp.
Therefore in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. And
do ye, man by man, become a choir, that being harmonious in love, and
taking up the song of God in unison you may with one voice sing"
(4,1-2).
And after having advised the Smyrnaeans to not "undertake anything
regarding the Church without the bishop" (8,1), he confides to Polycarp:
"I offer my life for those obeying the bishop, the presbyters and the
deacons. May I, with them, have a part with God. Work together one with
the other, fight together, run together, suffer together, sleep and wake
together as administrators of God, his assessors and servants. Please
him under whom you fight and from whom you receive grace. May none of
you be found deserting. May your baptism remain a shield, faith as a
helmet, charity as a lance, patience as armor" (6,1-2).
In general, in Ignatius' letters, we can see a sort of constant and
fruitful dialectic between the two aspects characteristic of Christian
life: on one hand the hierarchical structure of the ecclesial community,
and on the other hand, the fundamental union that links all the faithful
in Christ. Therefore the roles cannot be opposed. On the contrary, the
insistence on communion of the faithful among themselves and with their
pastors is continually formulated through eloquent images and analogies:
the harp, the chords, the tone, the concert, the symphony. The specific
responsibility of the bishops, the presbyters and the deacons in the
building of the community is evident. To them above all, the invitation
to love and union is valid.
Ignatius writes to the Magnesians, taking up Jesus' prayer during the
Last Supper: "Be as one. One supplication, one mind one hope in love. …
Come all to Jesus Christ as the only temple of God, as the one altar; he
is one, and proceeding from the one Father, he remained in union with
him, and returned to him in union" (7,1-2).
Ignatius was the first one in Christian literature to give the Church
the adjective "Catholic," that is, "universal." He states: "Where Jesus
Christ is, so is the Catholic Church" (Smyrnaeans 8,2).
It is in the service of union to the Catholic Church that the Christian
community of Rome exercises a sort of primacy in love: "In Rome, it
presides worthy of God, venerable worthy of being called blessed. …
Presiding over charity, who bears the law of Christ and the name of
Father" (Romans, prologue).
As we can see, Ignatius is "truly a doctor of unity": unity of God and
unity of Christ (despite the various heresies that had begun to spread
and divided humanity and divinity in Christ), unity of the Church, unity
of the faithful "in faith and charity, of which there is nothing more
excellent" (Smyrnaeans 6,1).
In conclusion, the realism of Ignatius invites the faithful of yesterday
and today, invites us all, to a progressive synthesis between
configuration to Christ (union with him, life in him) and dedication to
his Church (union with the bishop, generous service to the community and
the world).
In other words, one must achieve a synthesis between communion of the
Church within itself and the mission of proclamation of the Gospel to
others, until one dimension speaks through the other, and believers are
evermore "in possession of that indivisible spirit that is Jesus Christ
himself" (Magnesians 15).
Imploring this "grace of union" of the Lord, and with the conviction of
presiding charity throughout the Church (cf. Romans, prologue), I wish
you the same desire that ends the Letter by Ignatius to the Trallians:
"Love one another with an undivided heart. My spirit is offered in
sacrifice for you not only now, but also when you have reached God. … In
Christ may you be found without sin" (13). And we pray that the Lord may
help us in achieving this unity and to be found without sin, because
love purifies the spirit.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[After the audience, the Pope greeted visitors in various languages. In
English he said:]
I welcome all the English speaking visitors present today, including the
Cardinals and Bishops of the Vox Clara committee, gathered in Rome to
advise the Congregation for Divine Worship on the new English
translation of the Roman Missal. I thank them and their assistants for
their important work. Upon all of you I invoke God's abundant blessings
of joy and peace.
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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