William of St. Thierry,
the "Doctor of Sweetness"
Dear brothers and sisters, in a previous
Catechesis I presented the figure of Bernard of Clairvaux, the "Doctor of sweetness", the great protagonist of the twelfth century. His biographer - a friend and admirer - was William of St. Thierry, on which I dwell in the thoughts this morning.
William was born in Liège between 1075 and 1080. Born into a noble family, has a lively intelligence and an innate love of learning, he attended schools of the famous, such as those of his home town of Reims, France. He came into personal contact with Abelard, the master that applied the philosophy to theology in the original so as to arouse many doubts and opposition. Even William
expressed misgivings, calling his friend Bernard to take a stand against Abelard. In response to the mysterious and irresistible call of God, which is the vocation to consecrated life, William entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicaise in Reims in 1113, and some years later became abbot of the monastery of Saint-Thierry, in the Diocese of Reims. At that time there was a widespread need for purify and renew the monastic life, to make it truly evangelical. William worked in this direction within their monastery, and in general the Benedictine Order. However not met little resistance in front of his reform efforts, and so, despite the contrary advice of his friend Bernard, in 1135, he left the Benedictine abbey, he stopped the black dress and wore the white one, to join the Cistercians of Signy. From then until his death in 1148, he devoted himself to prayerful contemplation of the mysteries of God, always the subject of his most deepest desires, and the composition of the writings of spiritual literature in the history of monastic theology.
One of his earliest works is entitled dignity, De Natura et amoris ( The nature and dignity of ). We have made a fundamental ideas of William, also valid for us. The main energy that moves the human spirit - he says - is love. Human nature, in its deepest essence, is to love. Ultimately, only one task is given to every human being: to learn to love, to love, sincerely, authentically, free of charge. But only in the school of God, this task is carried out and the man can achieve the purpose for which it was created. William writes: "The art of arts is the art of love ... Love is sustained by the Creator of nature. Love is a soul force, which leads as a natural place and weight in order that it is "( The nature and dignity of 1, PL 184.379). Learning to love requires a long and demanding process that is articulated by William in four stages, corresponding to ages of man: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. In this route, the person must impose asceticism effective, a strong self-control to eliminate any inordinate affection, any failure to selfishness, and unite their lives in God, source, destination and power of love, until reaching the summit of spiritual life, that William calls "wisdom." At the end of this ascetic path, one experiences a great peace and sweetness. All faculties - intelligence, will, affections - rest in God, known and loved in Christ.
In other works, William speaks of this radical call to love God, which is the secret of a happy and successful life, and which he describes as a continuing desire and growing, inspired by God Himself in the human heart . In a meditation he says that the object of that love is love with the capital "A", that is, God is he who empties into the hearts of those he loves, and makes it appropriate to receive it. It is given to satiety and in such a way that the fullness of this desire is never less. This outburst of love is the fulfillment of man "(De contemplating Deo 6, passim, SC 61bis, pp. 79-83). It is striking that William, in speaking of the love of God attaches great importance to the affective dimension. After all, dear friends, our hearts are made of flesh, and when we love God who is Love itself, not how to express this relationship with the Lord even our very human feelings, such as tenderness, sensitivity The subject? The Lord Himself, becoming man, chose to love us with a heart of flesh!
According to William, then, love has another important property: the intelligence and allows light to know God better and deeper and, in God, people and events. The knowledge that proceeds from the senses and intelligence reduces, but does not eliminate, the distance between subject and object, between me and you. The attraction and love instead produces communion to the point that there is a transformation and assimilation between the person who loves and the loved object. This reciprocity of affection and sympathy can then a much more profound than that achieved by reason alone. This explains a famous phrase of William " Amor ipse intellectus est - already in himself the principle of love is knowledge." Dear friends, we wonder: not quite so in our lives? Is it not true that we only really know who and what we love? Without a degree of sympathy do not know anyone and anything! This is especially the case in the knowledge of God and his mysteries, which exceed the capacity understanding of our intelligence: God if you know you love it!
A summary of the thought of William of St. Thierry is contained in a long letter addressed to the Carthusians of Mont-Dieu, with whom he had visited and wanted to encourage and console. The Benedictine scholar Jean Mabillon in 1690 already gave the letter is significant title Epistola aurea (golden Letter). In fact, the teachings on the spiritual life in it will be valuable to anyone who wants to grow in communion with God in holiness. In this treatise William proposes an itinerary in three stages. It should - he says - go man "animal" to "rational", to arrive at a "spiritual". What do you mean our author with these three terms? At first a person accepts the view of life inspired by faith in an act of obedience and trust. Then through a process of internalization, in which reason and will play a big role, faith in Christ is greeted with deep conviction and experience a harmonious match between what one believes and hopes and aspirations ; secret soul, our reason, our affections. This leads to the perfection of spiritual life, when the reality of faith is a source of deep joy and communion with God is real and fulfilling lives in love and only love. William founded this route on a solid vision of man, inspired by ancient Greek Fathers, especially Origen, who, with a bold speech, had taught that man's vocation is to become like God, who created him in his image and likeness. The image of God this man led him to the similarity, that is towards ever more complete identity between his own will and the divine. In this perfection, that William calls "unity of spirit" does not come with individual effort, albeit sincere and generous, why is another matter. This perfection is reached by the action of the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell in the soul and purifies, absorbs and transforms into charity every wish and every impulse of love this man. "There is another image of God, we read in the 'golden Epistle," which is that no more similarity, but unity of spirit, when man becomes one with God, a spirit, not only for the unity of the same will, but not in a position of wanting more. In this way, the man deserves to become not God but what God is, man becomes by grace what God is by nature "(Epistola aurea 262-263, SC 223, pp . 353-355).
Dear brothers and sisters, this author, we might call the "Cantore of love, charity," he taught to operate in our lives the choice of fund, which gives meaning and value to all the other choices: to love God and to love her, love our neighbor, the only way to find true joy, a foretaste of eternal bliss. Let us then to the school of the saints to learn how to love authentically and completely in order to enter into this journey of our being. With a young saint, Doctor of the Church, Teresa of the Child Jesus, we say we want to live to the Lord of love. It concludes with a prayer of this saint: "I love you, and you know it, O Jesus! The Spirit of Love me on fire with his fire. Amando Te drawn by the Father, that my heart keeps weak, no escape. O Trinity! You are a prisoner of my love. Living with love, here is a perhaps disproportionate, without asking for pay ... when you love not done the calculations. I have given everything to the Divine Heart, which is full of tenderness! And run a little. I have nothing, and my only wealth is to live for love. "
Catechesis I presented the figure of Bernard of Clairvaux, the "Doctor of sweetness", the great protagonist of the twelfth century. His biographer - a friend and admirer - was William of St. Thierry, on which I dwell in the thoughts this morning.
William was born in Liège between 1075 and 1080. Born into a noble family, has a lively intelligence and an innate love of learning, he attended schools of the famous, such as those of his home town of Reims, France. He came into personal contact with Abelard, the master that applied the philosophy to theology in the original so as to arouse many doubts and opposition. Even William
expressed misgivings, calling his friend Bernard to take a stand against Abelard. In response to the mysterious and irresistible call of God, which is the vocation to consecrated life, William entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicaise in Reims in 1113, and some years later became abbot of the monastery of Saint-Thierry, in the Diocese of Reims. At that time there was a widespread need for purify and renew the monastic life, to make it truly evangelical. William worked in this direction within their monastery, and in general the Benedictine Order. However not met little resistance in front of his reform efforts, and so, despite the contrary advice of his friend Bernard, in 1135, he left the Benedictine abbey, he stopped the black dress and wore the white one, to join the Cistercians of Signy. From then until his death in 1148, he devoted himself to prayerful contemplation of the mysteries of God, always the subject of his most deepest desires, and the composition of the writings of spiritual literature in the history of monastic theology.
One of his earliest works is entitled dignity, De Natura et amoris ( The nature and dignity of ). We have made a fundamental ideas of William, also valid for us. The main energy that moves the human spirit - he says - is love. Human nature, in its deepest essence, is to love. Ultimately, only one task is given to every human being: to learn to love, to love, sincerely, authentically, free of charge. But only in the school of God, this task is carried out and the man can achieve the purpose for which it was created. William writes: "The art of arts is the art of love ... Love is sustained by the Creator of nature. Love is a soul force, which leads as a natural place and weight in order that it is "( The nature and dignity of 1, PL 184.379). Learning to love requires a long and demanding process that is articulated by William in four stages, corresponding to ages of man: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. In this route, the person must impose asceticism effective, a strong self-control to eliminate any inordinate affection, any failure to selfishness, and unite their lives in God, source, destination and power of love, until reaching the summit of spiritual life, that William calls "wisdom." At the end of this ascetic path, one experiences a great peace and sweetness. All faculties - intelligence, will, affections - rest in God, known and loved in Christ.
In other works, William speaks of this radical call to love God, which is the secret of a happy and successful life, and which he describes as a continuing desire and growing, inspired by God Himself in the human heart . In a meditation he says that the object of that love is love with the capital "A", that is, God is he who empties into the hearts of those he loves, and makes it appropriate to receive it. It is given to satiety and in such a way that the fullness of this desire is never less. This outburst of love is the fulfillment of man "(De contemplating Deo 6, passim, SC 61bis, pp. 79-83). It is striking that William, in speaking of the love of God attaches great importance to the affective dimension. After all, dear friends, our hearts are made of flesh, and when we love God who is Love itself, not how to express this relationship with the Lord even our very human feelings, such as tenderness, sensitivity The subject? The Lord Himself, becoming man, chose to love us with a heart of flesh!
According to William, then, love has another important property: the intelligence and allows light to know God better and deeper and, in God, people and events. The knowledge that proceeds from the senses and intelligence reduces, but does not eliminate, the distance between subject and object, between me and you. The attraction and love instead produces communion to the point that there is a transformation and assimilation between the person who loves and the loved object. This reciprocity of affection and sympathy can then a much more profound than that achieved by reason alone. This explains a famous phrase of William " Amor ipse intellectus est - already in himself the principle of love is knowledge." Dear friends, we wonder: not quite so in our lives? Is it not true that we only really know who and what we love? Without a degree of sympathy do not know anyone and anything! This is especially the case in the knowledge of God and his mysteries, which exceed the capacity understanding of our intelligence: God if you know you love it!
A summary of the thought of William of St. Thierry is contained in a long letter addressed to the Carthusians of Mont-Dieu, with whom he had visited and wanted to encourage and console. The Benedictine scholar Jean Mabillon in 1690 already gave the letter is significant title Epistola aurea (golden Letter). In fact, the teachings on the spiritual life in it will be valuable to anyone who wants to grow in communion with God in holiness. In this treatise William proposes an itinerary in three stages. It should - he says - go man "animal" to "rational", to arrive at a "spiritual". What do you mean our author with these three terms? At first a person accepts the view of life inspired by faith in an act of obedience and trust. Then through a process of internalization, in which reason and will play a big role, faith in Christ is greeted with deep conviction and experience a harmonious match between what one believes and hopes and aspirations ; secret soul, our reason, our affections. This leads to the perfection of spiritual life, when the reality of faith is a source of deep joy and communion with God is real and fulfilling lives in love and only love. William founded this route on a solid vision of man, inspired by ancient Greek Fathers, especially Origen, who, with a bold speech, had taught that man's vocation is to become like God, who created him in his image and likeness. The image of God this man led him to the similarity, that is towards ever more complete identity between his own will and the divine. In this perfection, that William calls "unity of spirit" does not come with individual effort, albeit sincere and generous, why is another matter. This perfection is reached by the action of the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell in the soul and purifies, absorbs and transforms into charity every wish and every impulse of love this man. "There is another image of God, we read in the 'golden Epistle," which is that no more similarity, but unity of spirit, when man becomes one with God, a spirit, not only for the unity of the same will, but not in a position of wanting more. In this way, the man deserves to become not God but what God is, man becomes by grace what God is by nature "(Epistola aurea 262-263, SC 223, pp . 353-355).
Dear brothers and sisters, this author, we might call the "Cantore of love, charity," he taught to operate in our lives the choice of fund, which gives meaning and value to all the other choices: to love God and to love her, love our neighbor, the only way to find true joy, a foretaste of eternal bliss. Let us then to the school of the saints to learn how to love authentically and completely in order to enter into this journey of our being. With a young saint, Doctor of the Church, Teresa of the Child Jesus, we say we want to live to the Lord of love. It concludes with a prayer of this saint: "I love you, and you know it, O Jesus! The Spirit of Love me on fire with his fire. Amando Te drawn by the Father, that my heart keeps weak, no escape. O Trinity! You are a prisoner of my love. Living with love, here is a perhaps disproportionate, without asking for pay ... when you love not done the calculations. I have given everything to the Divine Heart, which is full of tenderness! And run a little. I have nothing, and my only wealth is to live for love. "
POPE BENEDICT XVI TO BE
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