Defender of the Faith: Pope Speaks about Heroic Saint During Weekly Audience

(25 June 08 - RV) On a scorching Wednesday in Rome, Pope Benedict arrived into St Peter’s Square wearing a Red wide brimmed Saturno hat to protect from the heat and the Sun.

After warmly greeting the crowds gathered the Holy Father chose another early Saint of the church this week. The Saint in question was Saint Maximus the Confessor.


In today’s catechesis we turn to Saint Maximus the Confessor, a heroic defender of the Church’s faith in the true humanity of Christ amid the bitter theological controversies of the seventh century. Born in Palestine, Maximus became a monk and lived in Constantinople, Roman Africa and Rome itself. In his preaching and writings he defended the mystery of the incarnation and opposed the monothelite heresy, which refused to acknowledge the presence of an integral human will in Jesus Christ.

The Pope went on to talk about God’s saving plan for us and how it inspired the theology of this Saint.


Maximus clearly understood that our salvation depends on Christ’s complete humanity, which necessarily includes a human will capable of freely cooperating with the divine will in achieving the work of our redemption. The salvation of man, and indeed the entire cosmos, is central to the theology of Saint Maximus. Through the incarnation of the Son of God, the whole universe is now redeemed and unified. Christ is thus the one absolute Value, to whom all worldly values are directed. This vision of a “cosmic liturgy”, centred on the Incarnate Lord, ought to inspire the efforts of Christians today to make our world conform ever more fully to its ultimate meaning and goal in God’s saving plan.

 

While speaking in Italian the Pope the courage of St Maximus was an important value just like Tolerance, Freedom and Dialogue are values that today are justly defended, but he said they must been seen in relation to the person of Christ in order to have significance.


Earlier in the morning Pope Benedict had blessed a new statue of Saint Luigi Orione in a niche outside the Vatican Basilica.

The ceremony was the culmination of initiatives that the monks of his order “the little works of Divine Providence” have promoted since Saint Luigi’s Canonisation on May 16 2004.

Don Luigi founded schools, farming colonies, and charitable organisations and was known for his work with orphans and the poor

During the audience the Holy Father greeting members of Saint Luigi Orione’s order saying that the inauguration of this statue constituted a renewed stimulus to continue on the road taken by their founder


In a final greeting in English the Pope had a special welcome for pilgrims from International Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons.

  I offer a warm welcome, together with the assurance of my closeness in prayer, to the group of pilgrims from the International Foundation for the Service of Deaf Persons. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those from England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Iceland, Sweden, Pakistan and the United States of America, I cordially invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.