Pope Dedicates Audience to Scottish Theologian Ahead of Summer Break
(07 Jul 10 – RV) On Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI held his last lesson on the personalities
of the Christian Church of the Middle Ages, before Summer break. The Holy Father
departs for Castel Gandolfo at 6pm Rome time this evening, where he will remain until
September 30th. Regular audiences will resume August 4th.
Torrid
Summer weather forced the papal audience indoors, with 9 thousand pilgrims form all
across the world packing the Paul VI audience hall, thankful for the solar powered
air-conditioning.
The Holy Father was full of smiles as he emerged onto the
stage, waving to the many pilgrim groups some of whom wore brightly coloured T-Shirts.
Then
as he introduced this weeks catechesis, a cheer arose from English speaking pilgrims,
as this week the Pope focused his attention on a wandering Scotsman, a brilliant thinker,
a Franciscan priest, Blessed John Duns Scotus:
“Duns Scotus is best known today
for his contribution to the development of Christian thought in three areas. First,
he held that the Incarnation was not directly the result of Adam’s sin, but a part
of God’s original plan of creation, in which every creature, in and through Christ,
is called to be perfected in grace and to glorify God for ever”.
Pope Benedict
continued that “in this great Christocentric vision, the Incarnate Word appears as
the centre of history and the cosmos. Secondly, Scotus argued that our Lady’s preservation
from original sin was a privilege granted in view of her Son’s redemptive passion
and death; this theory was to prove decisive for the eventual definition of the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception”.
“Finally, Duns Scotus paid great attention
to the issue of human freedom, although by situating it principally in the will, he
sowed the seeds of a trend in later theology that risked detaching freedom from its
necessary relation to truth”.
In comments in Italian he went on to say that
“Blessed Duns Scotus, who was born around the year 1266 in the Scottish village of
Duns, entered the Friars Minor and was ordained a priest in 1291. "His intelligence
earned him the traditional tile of 'Doctor subtilis'", said the Holy Father noting
how he taught theology at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. However,
his faithfulness to Pope Boniface VIII in the latter's conflict with Philip IV the
Fair led to him leaving France. He returned to Paris in 1305 to teach theology then
moved on to Cologne where he died in 1308.
"Because of his fame of sanctity,
his cult soon spread within the Franciscan Order, and Venerable John Paul II chose
to confirm him as a blessed on 20 March 1993, describing him as a 'cantor of the incarnate
Word and defender of the Immaculate Conception'. In this expression he summarised
Duns Scotus' great contribution to the history of theology", said Pope Benedict.
He then went on to explain that, "though aware that because of original sin Christ
redeemed us with His Passion, Death and Resurrection", Duns Scotus "makes it clear
that the Incarnation is the greatest and must sublime work of the history of salvation,
and that it is not conditioned by any contingent circumstance.
"Faithful
disciple of St. Francis, Duns Scotus loved to contemplate and preach on the Mystery
of the salvific Passion of Christ, expression of the immense love of God", the Pope
added. This love "is revealed not only on Calvary but also in the Blessed Eucharist
to which Duns Scotus was profoundly devoted", he said.
"This strongly 'Christocentric'
theological vision opens us to contemplation, to wonder and gratitude: Christ is the
centre of history and the cosmos, it is He Who gives meaning, dignity and value to
our lives".
Referring then to the Scottish blessed's view on the Virgin,
the Pope explained how, in contrast with most theologians of his time who opposed
"the doctrine according to which Holy Mary was free from original sin from the first
moment of her conception", Scotus espoused the argument of "preventive Redemption".
This held that "the Immaculate Conception represents the masterwork of Christ's Redemption,
precisely because the power of His love and His mediation ensured that the Mother
was preserved from original sin. The Franciscans enthusiastically accepted and spread
this doctrine, and other theologians - often with a solemn vow - undertook to defend
and improve it".
The Pope recalled that Duns Scotus had also tackled "the
subject of freedom and its relationship with the will and the intellect". In this
context he noted how "an idea of innate and absolute freedom (as developed after Scotus'
time) located in the will which precedes the intellect, both in God and in man, risks
leading to the idea of a God Who is not even connected to truth and goodness".
"Freedom", the Pope explained, "is authentic and helps in the construction of a truly
human civilisation only when reconciled with truth. If disconnected from truth, freedom
tragically becomes the principle that destroys the inner harmony of human beings,
a source of abuse for the strong and the violent, a cause of suffering and mourning.
Freedom ... grows and is perfected, said Duns Scotus, when man opens himself to God.
... When we listen to the divine Revelation, to the Word of God, in order to accept
it, then we receive a message which fills our lives with light and hope, and we are
truly free".
Benedict concluded the catechesis - his last until 4 August
- by highlighting how "Blessed Duns Scotus teaches us that the essential thing in
our lives is to believe that God is close to us and loves us in Jesus Christ; to cultivate,
then, a profound love for Him and His Church. We are the witnesses of that love on
this earth".
Then, taking his leave of the thousands before him, almost
as if already on holiday, Pope Benedict waved warmly with a relaxed smile at the newly
wed couples, the elderly and the sick before imparting his apostolic blessing on those
present.