VATICAN CITY, 11 FEB 2009 (VIS) - In his general audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope began a new series of catecheses dealing with the great writers of the Eastern and Western Church during the Middle Ages. The focus of his attention today was St. John Climacus, who was born in 575 and died some time after 650.
"Amid the mountains of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elijah heard His voice, John lived and recounted his spiritual experiences", said the Holy Father. "At the age of around twenty he decided to live as a hermit in a cave at the foot of the mountains, in a place known as Tola some eight kilometres from the current monastery of St. Catherine. ... After forty years of hermitic life ... he was appointed as 'hegumen' of the great monastery of Mount Sinai".
The saint "became famous for his work the 'Scala' (Klimax), ... a complex treatise on spiritual life in which John describes the monk's path from renouncing the world to perfection of love, a path which, according to the book, has thirty steps".
"This path", the Pope continued, "may be summarised in three phases: the first is expressed in a break with the world in order to return to the state of evangelical infancy, ... which is true infancy in the spiritual sense".
The second phase, Benedict XVI explained, "consists of the spiritual struggle against the passions". For John Climacus "it is important to be aware that passions are not bad in themselves, they become so through the bad use that man's freedom makes of them. If purified, the passions open man to the way that leads to God".
"The last phase of the path, covering the last seven steps of the 'Scala', is Christian perfection", said the Pope. "The first three of these steps are simplicity, humility and discernment, of which John, in harmony with the Desert Fathers, feels the last to be the most important, discernment. ... In this way it is possible to achieve tranquillity of heart ('esichia'), thanks to which the soul can approach the abyss of the divine mysteries. ... The state of tranquillity, of inner peace, prepares the adept for prayer, which in John has a dual function: 'bodily prayer' and 'prayer of the heart'".
The last of the thirty steps is dedicated to "faith, hope and, above all, charity. John also speaks of charity as 'eros' (human love), an image of the nuptial bond between the soul and God. ... John is convinced that an intense experience of 'eros' makes the soul progress much more than the harsh struggle against the passions".
"Can the existence of a man who spent all his life on Mount Sinai so long ago", asked the Holy Father, "still say anything to us today? At first glance the answer may appear to be no, ... but if we look a little closer we see that the monastic life is simply a symbol of the baptismal life, of Christian life".
The Holy Father highlighted the importance of the fact that the last steps of the "Scala" correspond to the fundamental virtues: faith, hope and charity. "They are not accessible only to moral heroes but are a gift of God to all the baptised, in them our life grows", he said.
"Faith is fundamental because ... it means renouncing our own arrogance, ... rejecting the pretension of judging alone without entrusting ourselves to others. ... What we must do is entrust ourselves only to Sacred Scripture, the Word of the Lord, look with humility to the horizon of the faith so as to enter into the vastness of the universal world, the world of God".
"Through hope we transcend everyday life", Pope Benedict concluded. Thus "our lives become great and we can support our daily fatigue and disappointments, we can be good to others without expecting any reward. Only when there is God - the great hope to which we are drawn - can we take the little steps of our lives and so learn charity. In charity is hidden the mystery of prayer, of personal acquaintance with Jesus".
AG/ST. JOHN CLIMACUS/... VIS 20090212 (710)
"Amid the mountains of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elijah heard His voice, John lived and recounted his spiritual experiences", said the Holy Father. "At the age of around twenty he decided to live as a hermit in a cave at the foot of the mountains, in a place known as Tola some eight kilometres from the current monastery of St. Catherine. ... After forty years of hermitic life ... he was appointed as 'hegumen' of the great monastery of Mount Sinai".
The saint "became famous for his work the 'Scala' (Klimax), ... a complex treatise on spiritual life in which John describes the monk's path from renouncing the world to perfection of love, a path which, according to the book, has thirty steps".
"This path", the Pope continued, "may be summarised in three phases: the first is expressed in a break with the world in order to return to the state of evangelical infancy, ... which is true infancy in the spiritual sense".
The second phase, Benedict XVI explained, "consists of the spiritual struggle against the passions". For John Climacus "it is important to be aware that passions are not bad in themselves, they become so through the bad use that man's freedom makes of them. If purified, the passions open man to the way that leads to God".
"The last phase of the path, covering the last seven steps of the 'Scala', is Christian perfection", said the Pope. "The first three of these steps are simplicity, humility and discernment, of which John, in harmony with the Desert Fathers, feels the last to be the most important, discernment. ... In this way it is possible to achieve tranquillity of heart ('esichia'), thanks to which the soul can approach the abyss of the divine mysteries. ... The state of tranquillity, of inner peace, prepares the adept for prayer, which in John has a dual function: 'bodily prayer' and 'prayer of the heart'".
The last of the thirty steps is dedicated to "faith, hope and, above all, charity. John also speaks of charity as 'eros' (human love), an image of the nuptial bond between the soul and God. ... John is convinced that an intense experience of 'eros' makes the soul progress much more than the harsh struggle against the passions".
"Can the existence of a man who spent all his life on Mount Sinai so long ago", asked the Holy Father, "still say anything to us today? At first glance the answer may appear to be no, ... but if we look a little closer we see that the monastic life is simply a symbol of the baptismal life, of Christian life".
The Holy Father highlighted the importance of the fact that the last steps of the "Scala" correspond to the fundamental virtues: faith, hope and charity. "They are not accessible only to moral heroes but are a gift of God to all the baptised, in them our life grows", he said.
"Faith is fundamental because ... it means renouncing our own arrogance, ... rejecting the pretension of judging alone without entrusting ourselves to others. ... What we must do is entrust ourselves only to Sacred Scripture, the Word of the Lord, look with humility to the horizon of the faith so as to enter into the vastness of the universal world, the world of God".
"Through hope we transcend everyday life", Pope Benedict concluded. Thus "our lives become great and we can support our daily fatigue and disappointments, we can be good to others without expecting any reward. Only when there is God - the great hope to which we are drawn - can we take the little steps of our lives and so learn charity. In charity is hidden the mystery of prayer, of personal acquaintance with Jesus".
AG/ST. JOHN CLIMACUS/... VIS 20090212 (710)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment