|
Pope Benedict XVI- General Audiences |
General
Audience
On Gregory the Great
"He Was a Man Immersed in God"
H.H. Benedict XVI
May 28, 2008
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Last Wednesday I spoke about a Father of the Church little known in the
West -- Romanus the Melodius. Today I wish to present the figure of one
of the greatest fathers in the history of the Church, one of the four
doctors of the West, Pope Gregory, who was bishop of Rome between the
years 590 and 604, and who merited on the part of tradition the title "magnus"
-- great.
Gregory was truly a great Pope and great doctor of the Church! He was
born in Rome, around 540, of a rich patrician family of the "gens Anicia,"
which was distinguished not only for its nobility of blood, but also for
its attachment to the Christian faith and for the services rendered to
the Apostolic See. Two Popes proceeded from this family: Felix III
(483-492), great-great grandfather of Gregory, and Agapitus (535-536).
The house where Gregory grew up was built on the "Clivus Scauri,"
surrounded by the majestic building that attested to the greatness of
ancient Rome and the spiritual strength of Christianity. To inspire him
with lofty Christian sentiments he counted, moreover, with the examples
of his parents, Gordian and Sylvia, both venerated as saints, and those
of his paternal aunts Emiliana and Tarsilia, who lived in the house as
consecrated virgins in a shared journey of prayer and ascesis.
Gregory soon entered an administrative career, which his father had also
followed, and in 572 he reached the top, becoming prefect of the city.
This office, complicated by the sadness of that time, allowed him to
apply himself to a vast range of administrative problems, gleaning from
them light for his future endeavors. In particular, a profound sense of
order and discipline were instilled in him. When he became Pope, he
would suggest to bishops to take as model in the management of
ecclesiastical affairs the diligence and respect of the laws proper to
civil employees.
That life did not satisfy him, and it was not long before he decided to
leave all civil posts to retire to his home and begin the life of a
monk, transforming the family home into the monastery of St. Andrew in
Celio.
From this period of monastic life, a life of permanent dialogue with the
Lord and listening to his word, there remained in him a constant
nostalgia which repeatedly and increasingly appears in his homilies. In
the midst of relentless pastoral concerns, he would recall it several
times in his writings as a happy time of recollection in God, of
dedication to prayer, and of serene immersion in study. He was thus able
to acquire that profound knowledge of sacred Scripture and of the
Fathers of the Church of which he was to make use later in his works.
However, Gregory's cloistered retirement did not last long. The valuable
experience that matured in civil administration, at a time weighed down
by problems, the relationships he had developed with the Byzantines, the
universal esteem he had won, led Pope Pelagius to appoint him deacon and
to send him to Constantinople as his "apocrisiario" -- today we would
say apostolic nuncio -- to help overcome the last remains of the
monophysite controversy, and above all to obtain the emperor's support
in the effort to contain the Lombard invaders.
His stay in Constantinople, where he again took up the monastic life
with a group of monks, was most important for Gregory, as it allowed him
to gain direct experience in the Byzantine world, as well as to address
the problem of the Lombards, which would later acutely test his ability
and energy in the years of his pontificate.
After some years, he was recalled to Rome by the Pope, who appointed him
his secretary. They were difficult years: constant rains, rivers
bursting their banks and famine afflicted many areas of Italy and Rome
itself. In the end, the plague was unleashed, which caused numerous
victims, among them also Pope Pelagius II. The clergy, the people, and
the Senate were unanimous in electing Gregory as Successor to the See of
Peter. He tried to resist, even seeking to flee, but it was all to no
avail: In the end, he had to give in. It was the year 590.
Recognizing in all that had happened the will of God, the new Pontiff
began to work immediately with determination. From the beginning he
revealed a singularly lucid vision of reality against which he should be
measured, an extraordinary capacity for work in addressing both
ecclesial as well as civil issues, a constant balance in his decisions,
including the difficult ones that his mission imposed on him. An ample
documentation is kept of his governance thanks to the Register of his
letters -- approximately 800 -- which reflect the daily confrontation of
complex questions that arrived on his desk. They were questions that
came from bishops, from abbots, from clergymen, and also from civil
authorities of all orders and degrees.
Among the problems that afflicted Italy and Rome at that time there was
one of particular relevance in both the civil as well as ecclesial
ambits: the Lombard question. To it the Pope dedicated all possible
energy in the hope of a truly peaceful solution. Unlike the Byzantine
emperor, who began from the assumption that the Lombards were only rude
and predatory individuals who had to be defeated or exterminated, St.
Gregory looked on these people with the eyes of the Good Shepherd,
concerned about proclaiming to them the word of salvation, establishing
with them relations of fraternity oriented toward a future peace founded
on reciprocal respect and peaceful coexistence among Italians,
imperalists and Lombards. He was concerned with the conversion of young
peoples and immigrants in Britain and the Lombards were the privileged
beneficiaries of his evangelizing mission. Yesterday we celebrated the
liturgical memorial of St. Augustine of Canterbury, leader of a group of
monks whom Gregory sent to Britain to evangelize England.
To obtain an effective peace in Rome and Italy, to which the Pope was
fully committed -- he was a real peacemaker -- he undertook a close
negotiation with the Lombard King Agilulfo. This conversation led to a
period of truce that lasted some three years -- 598-601 -- after which
it was possible to stipulate in 603 a more stable armistice. This
positive result was achieved thanks also to parallel contacts that, in
the meantime, the Pope maintained with Queen Theodolinda, who was a
Bavarian princess and, unlike the heads of other German peoples, was a
Catholic -- profoundly Catholic.
Preserved is a series of letters of Pope Gregory to this queen, in which
he expresses his esteem and friendship to her. Theodolinda succeeded,
little by little, in directing the king toward Catholicism, thus
preparing the way to peace. The Pope also took the trouble to send her
the relics for the basilica of St. John the Baptist, which she had built
in Monza, and did not fail to send her congratulations and precious
gifts for the same cathedral of Monza on the occasion of the birth and
baptism of her son, Adaloaldo. This queen's vicissitude constitutes a
beautiful testimony of the importance of women in the history of the
Church.
In the end, the objectives on which Gregory constantly focused were
three: to contain the expansion of the Lombards in Italy, to remove
queen Theodolina from the influence of schismatics, and to reinforce the
Catholic faith, as well as to mediate between the Lombards and
Byzantines in the hope of an agreement that would guarantee peace in the
peninsula and consist at the same time of an evangelizing action among
the Lombards themselves. Therefore, his constant orientation in the
complex situation was twofold: to promote agreements on the
diplomatic-political level, and to spread the proclamation of the true
faith among the peoples.
Along with his purely spiritual and pastoral action, Pope Gregory was
also an active protagonist of a multi-faceted social activity. With the
income of the conspicuous patrimony that the Roman See had in Italy,
especially in Sicily, he purchased and distributed wheat, assisted those
in need, helped priests, monks and nuns who lived in indigence, paid the
ransom for citizens who had been made prisoners of the Lombards, and
obtained armistices and truces. Moreover, he carried out -- both in Rome
as well as in other parts of Italy -- a determined effort for
administrative reorganization, giving precise instructions so that the
goods of the Church, useful for its subsistence and evangelizing work in
the world, could be managed with absolute rectitude and according to the
rules of justice and mercy. He demanded that tenant farmers be protected
from the abuses of the managers of lands that were the property of the
Church and, in case of fraud, that they be speedily indemnified, so that
the face of the Bride of Christ not be contaminated with dishonest
profits.
Gregory carried out this enormous activity despite his delicate health,
which often obliged him to stay in bed for long days. The fasts he
engaged in during the years of monastic life had caused him serious
digestive problems. Moreover, his voice was very weak, so much so that
he often had to entrust the deacon with the reading of his homilies so
that the faithful of the Roman basilicas could hear him. In any case he
did everything possible to celebrate the "Missarum sollemnia" on feast
days, that is, solemn Mass, and then he would meet personally with the
people of God, who greatly appreciated him because they saw in him the
authoritative reference to obtain certainty: It was no accident that he
was soon attributed the title "consul Dei." Despite the most difficult
conditions in which he had to act, he succeeded in winning, thanks to
the holiness of his life and his rich humanity, the trust of the
faithful, obtaining for his time and for the future truly great results.
He was a man immersed in God: The desire for God was always alive in the
depth of his soul and precisely because of this he was always very close
to his neighbor, to the needs of the people of his time. During a
disastrous and desperate time, he was able to create peace and hope.
This man of God shows us the true fonts of peace, from which true hope
comes, and so becomes a guide also for us today.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[At the end of the Audience, the Pope greeted pilgrims in several
languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today's catechesis we turn to Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who
governed the Church of Rome at the end of the sixth century and is
venerated as a Doctor of the Church. Born of a noble Roman family,
Gregory entered the civil service, in which he rose to the dignity of
Prefect of the City, and then embraced the monastic life. Gregory's
learning and experience, and his outstanding personal gifts, led to his
appointment as the papal representative to the imperial court in
Constantinople, and then as the Pope's secretary. In the year 590,
Gregory was elected Pope. His papal ministry was marked by tireless
energy and a clear vision of the grave problems facing civil society and
the Church. Gregory made every effort to contain the Lombard invasion,
to provide for the evangelization of that people, and to establish peace
throughout Italy. In addition to his preaching, teaching and pastoral
activity, he also reorganized the management of the Church's goods and
ensured a more effective administration of her charitable works. At a
time of great social instability, and despite his frequent ill health,
Gregory proved an effective, prudent and saintly pastor, whose life and
teaching continue to inspire us today.
I offer a warm greeting and prayerful good wishes to the participants in
the Christian-Hindu symposium being held these days in Castel Gandolfo.
Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those from England,
Scotland, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Canada and the
United States, I cordially invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of
the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary
