May 12, 2009
On St. John Damascene
"God Wants to Rest in Us"
VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the
address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in St.
Peter's Square. He continued his series on great writers of the
Church in the Middle Ages, focusing today on St. John Damascene.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters:
I would like to speak today about John Damascene, a prominent
personality in the history of Byzantine theology, a great doctor in
the history of the universal Church. He is above all an eye witness
of the passage from the Greek and Syriac culture, shared in the
eastern part of the Byzantine Empire, to the culture of Islam, which
took over space with its military conquests in the territory
ordinarily recognized as the Middle or Near East.
John, born to a rich Christian family, took on while still young the
post -- perhaps also held by his father -- as the economic head of
the kingdom. Quite soon, however, unsatisfied with life at court, he
fully developed a choice for the monastic life, entering the
monastery of San Sabas, close to Jerusalem. It was around the year
700. Never leaving the monastery, he dedicated himself with all his
strength to ascesis and literary activity, without spurning a
certain pastoral activity, of which his numerous homilies give
witness. His liturgical memorial is celebrated Dec. 4. Pope Leo XIII
proclaimed him a doctor of the universal Church in 1890.
In the East, he is remembered above all for his three discourses
against those who calumniate holy images, [discourses] which were
condemned after his death by the iconoclast Council of Hieria (754).
These discourses, however, were the principal motive for his
reinstatement and canonization by the orthodox fathers gathered in
the Second Council of Nicaea (787), the Seventh Ecumenical Council.
In these texts it is possible to find the first important
theological attempts to legitimize the veneration of sacred images,
uniting to them the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God in
the womb of the Virgin Mary.
John Damascene was also one of the first to distinguish between the
public and private worship of Christians, and between adoration (latreia)
and veneration (proskynesis): The first can only be directed to God,
highly spiritual; the second on the other hand can use an image to
direct oneself to he who is represented by it.
Obviously, a saint cannot in any way be identified with the material
of which an icon is made. This distinction quickly resulted very
important to respond in a Christian way to those who claimed as
universal and perennial the observance of the severe prohibition in
the Old Testament about the use of images in worship. This was a
great discussion also in the Islamic world, which accepts this
Jewish tradition of the total exclusion of images for worship.
Christians on the other hand, in this context, considered the
problem and found a justification for the veneration of images.
Damascene wrote: "In other times, God had never been represented in
an image, being incorporeal and without a face. But given that now
God has been seen in the flesh and has lived among man, I represent
what is visible in God. I do not venerate matter, but the Creator of
matter, who has made himself matter for me and has deigned to dwell
in matter and carry out my salvation through matter. I will never
cease because of this to venerate the matter through with salvation
has come to me.
"But I do not venerate it absolutely like [I do] God! How could God
be that which has received existence from non being? ... Rather I
venerate and respect also all the rest of the matter that has
procured salvation, inasmuch as it is full of holy energies and
graces. Is not perhaps matter the wood of the cross thrice blessed?
... And the ink and the holy book of the Gospels are not matter? The
salvific altar that dispenses us the bread of life is not matter?
... And before all, is not matter the flesh and the blood of my
Lord? Should the sacred character of all of this be suppressed? Or
should it be conceded to the tradition of the Church the veneration
of the images of God and that of the friends of God that are
sanctified by the name they carry, and because of this reason are
dwelt in by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Do not be offended
therefore by matter: It is not despicable because nothing that God
has made is despicable" (Contra imaginum calumniatores, I, 16, ed.
Kotter, pp. 89-90).
We see that, because of the Incarnation, matter appears as
divinized, is seen as the dwelling place of God. This is a new
vision of the world and material realities. God has become flesh and
flesh has become truly the dwelling place of God, whose glory shines
forth in the human face of Christ. Therefore the invitations of the
doctor of the East are even today extremely current, considering the
great dignity that matter has received in the Incarnation, able to
come to be, in faith, efficient sign and sacrament of man's
encounter with God.
John Damascene is, therefore, a privileged witness of the veneration
of icons, which would come to be one of the most distinctive aspects
of Eastern theology and spirituality up to today. And nevertheless
it is a form of worship that simply belongs to the Christian faith,
to the faith in this God that has become flesh and made himself
visible. The teaching of St. John Damascene thus is inserted in the
tradition of the universal Church, whose doctrine on the sacraments
takes into account that material elements taken from nature can
change through grace in virtue of the invocation (epiclesis) of the
Holy Spirit, accompanied by the confession of the true faith.
United to these underlying ideas, John Damascene also places the
veneration of the relics of the saints, on the base of the
conviction that holy Christians, having been made participants in
the resurrection of Christ, cannot be considered simply as "the
dead." Enumerating, for example, those whose relics or images are
worthy of veneration, John specifies in his third discourse in
defense of images: "Before all (we venerate) those among whom God
has rested, the only holy one who dwells among the saints (cf.
Isaiah 57:15), such as the holy Mother of God and all the saints.
These are those who, inasmuch as possible, have made themselves
similar to God with their will and by the indwelling and help of
God, [and] are really called gods (cf. Psalm 82:6), not by nature,
but rather by contingence, as red-hot iron is called fire, not by
nature, but by contingence and through participation in the fire. It
is said, in fact: "You will be holy because I am holy" (Leviticus
19:2)" (III, 33, col. 1352 A).
After a series of references of this type, Damascene could serenely
deduce, therefore:"God, who is good and superior to all goodness,
did not content himself with the contemplation of himself, but
rather wanted there to be beings benefited by him who could come to
be participants in his goodness: For this he created out of nothing
all things, visible and invisible, including man, a visible and
invisible reality. And he created him thinking of him and making him
a being capable of thinking (ennoema ergon) enriched by the word (logo[i]
sympleroumenon) and oriented toward the spirit (pneumati
teleioumenon)" (II, 2, PG 94, col. 865A).
And to clarify later this thought, he adds: "It is necessary to
leave oneself full of awe (thaumazein) at all the works of
providence (tes pronoias erga), praise them all and accept them all,
overcoming the temptation to point out in them aspects that to many
seem unjust or iniquitous (adika), and admitting instead that God's
project (pronoia) goes beyond the cognitive and understanding
capacity (agnoston kai akatalepton) of man, meanwhile on the other
hand only he knows our thoughts, our actions and even our future"
(II, 29, PG 94, col. 964C).
Already Plato, on the other hand, said that all philosophy begins
with awe: Also our faith begins with awe at creation, at the beauty
of God who becomes visible.
This optimism of natural contemplation (physikè theoria), of this
seeing in visible creation the good, the beautiful and the true,
this Christian optimism is not a naïve optimism: It takes into
account the wound inflicted on human nature by free choice desired
by God and used inappropriately by man, with all the consequences of
widespread disharmony that have come from it. From here stems the
need, clearly perceived by the theology of Damascene, that the
nature in which the goodness and beauty of God is reflected, wounded
by our fault, "would be strengthened and renewed" by the descent of
the Son of God in the flesh, after in many ways and on many
occasions God himself had tried to show that he had created man so
that he would be not only in "being," but in "being good" (cf. La
fede ortodossa, II, 1, PG 94, col. 981).
With a passionate exclamation, John explains: "It was necessary for
nature to be strengthened and renewed and that the path of virtue
would be indicated and concretely taught (didachthenai aretes hodòn),
[the path] that banishes corruption and leads to eternal life ...
Thus appeared on the horizon of history the great sea of the love of
God for man (philanthropias pelagos) ..."
It is a beautiful expression. We see, on one hand, the beauty of
creation and on the other, the destruction caused by human fault.
But we see in the Son of God, who descends to renew nature, the sea
of the love of God for man.
John Damascene continues: "He himself, the Creator and Lord, fought
for his creature, transmitting his teaching to him with his example
... And thus the Son of God, while subsisting in the form of God,
descended from the heavens and lowered himself ... toward his
servants ... carrying out the newest thing of all, the only thing
truly new under the son, through which he manifested in fact the
infinite power of God" (III, 1. PG 94, col. 981C-984B).
We can imagine the consolation and the joy that filled the hearts of
the faithful with these words so full of fascinating images. We too
hear them today, sharing the same sentiments of the Christians of
that time: God wants to rest in us, he wants to renew nature also
through our conversion, he wants to make us participants in his
divinity. May the Lord help us to make these words the essence of
our lives.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[The Holy Father then greeted the faithful in various languages. In
English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Saint John Damascene was a towering figure in the history of Eastern
theology. He was born into a wealthy Christian family at a time when
his native Syria was already under Arab rule. He left a promising
career in government in order to enter monastic life. His best-known
works are his Discourses against the Iconoclasts, which offer an
important contribution to the proper theological understanding of
the veneration of sacred images. Saint John Damascene was among the
first to distinguish between adoration, which is due to God alone,
and veneration, which can rightly be given to an image in order to
assist the Christian to contemplate him whom the image represents.
It is true that in the Old Testament, divine images were strictly
forbidden. But now that God has become incarnate and has assumed
visible, material form in Jesus, matter has received a new dignity.
The wood of the Cross, the book of the Gospels, the altar of
sacrifice: all have been used by God to bring about our salvation.
Matter now serves as a sign and sacrament of our encounter with God.
When we participate in the sacraments, when we venerate icons, if we
do so in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit, they truly
become a means of grace. Despite human sinfulness, God has chosen to
dwell within men and women, making them holy, making them sharers in
his infinite goodness and holiness. Let us welcome him with joy into
our hearts.
I am pleased to welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors here today, including a group of Felician Sisters serving
in health care administration. Upon all of you, and upon your
families and loved ones, I invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
[And at the end of the audience, he addressed a special message in
English to the peoples of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian
Territories:]
My dear friends, this Friday I leave Rome for my Apostolic Visit to
Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. I wish this morning
to take the opportunity through this radio and television broadcast
to greet all the peoples of those lands. I am eagerly looking
forward to being with you and to sharing with you your aspirations
and hopes as well as your pains and struggles. I will be coming
among you as a pilgrim of peace. My primary intention is to visit
the places made holy by the life of Jesus, and, to pray at them for
the gift of peace and unity for your families, and all those for
whom the Holy Land and the Middle East is home. Among the many
religious and civic gatherings which will take place over the course
of the week, will be meetings with representatives from the Muslim
and Jewish communities with whom great strides have been made in
dialogue and cultural exchange. In a special way I warmly greet the
Catholics of the region and ask you to join me in praying that the
visit will bear much fruit for the spiritual and civic life of all
who dwell in the Holy Land. May we all praise God for his goodness.
May we all be people of hope. May we all be steadfast in our desire
and efforts for peace.
