Christ my poetry

All of Benedict’s discourses on the Fathers of the Church have been excellent, but I found today’s, on Paulinus of Nola, particularly affecting. Teresa Benedetta has translated:

The Pope, as he always does, begins with an overview of Paulinus’ life: born in Aquitane, educated, entered into civil service, converted to Christianity, married, had a son who died soon after birth, with his wife embraced a life of asceticism lived in community in Nola in Campania, called by the people of Nola to be their bishop, poet. The Pope can take it from here:

He had not left poetry at all, but now drew his inspiration from the Gospel, as he says int his verse: “For me the only art is faith, and Christ my poetry” (“At nobis ars una fides, et musica Christus”: Carme XX, 32).

His poems are songs of faith and love, in which the daily stories of ordinary men and great events are seen as part of the story of salvation, as the story of God with us. Many of these compositions, the so-called ‘Carmi natalizi’ (Birthday peoms), are linked to the annual feast of the martyr Felix whom Paulinus had chosen to be his heavenly patron.

In remembering St. Felix, he meant to glorify Christ himself, convinced that the intercession of the saint had obtained for him the grace of conversion: “In your light, oh joyous one, I have loved Christ” (Carme XXI, 373).

He wanted to express this same concept in widening the space of the sanctuary with a new basilica, which he ordered decorated such that the paintings, with appropriate captions, would constitute for the pilgrims a visible catechism.

He explained his plan in a poem deidcated to another great catechist, St. Niceta of Remesiana, as he accompanied him on a visit of his different churches: “Now I would like you to contemplate the pictures which unfold in a long series on the walls…It seemed useful to us to represent sacred subjects in pictures throughout the house of Felix, in the hope that, on seeing these pictures, the image may inspire further interest in the amazed minds of country folk” (Carme XXVII, vv. 511.580-583).

Even today we can still admire what remains of those paintings, which give the Saint of Nola full right to being among the referernce points of Christian archaeology.

In the ascetic community of Cimitile, life went on in poverty and prayer, everything imemrsed in ‘lectio divina’ – Scripture that was read, meditated, assimilated, was the light under wich the Saint of Nola scrutinized his own soul in its drive to perfection.

To those who admired his decision to abandon material wealth, he reminded them that the gesture was still far from representing full conversion: “The abandonment or the sale of the temporal goods one possessed does not constitute the fulfillment but only the beginning of the course to be run… It is not the goal but only the starting point. In fact, the athlete does not win until he strips himself, because he takes off his clothes to begin the struggle, and only he who has fought out of duty is worthy of being crowned victor” (cfr Ep. XXIV, 7 to Sulpicio Severo).

Besides asceticism and the Word of God, there was charity: in the monastic community, the poor were at home. Paulinus did not limit his help to alms: he welcomed them as if they were Chtrist himself. He had reserved for them a part of the monastery, and doing so, it seemed to him that he was not giving as much as receiving, in the exchange of gifts between the hospitality that is offered and the prayerful gratitude of the recipients.

He called the poor his ‘patrons’ (cfr Ep. XIII,11 to Pammachio) and, observing that they were lodged in the lower floor, he loved to say that their prayers made up the foundation of the house (cfr Carme XXI, 393-394).

St, Paulinus did not write theological treatises, but his poems and his dense epistolary are rich with a theology that was lived, interwoven with the Word of God that was constantly scrutinized as light for life.

In particular, there emerges a sense of the Church as a mystery of unity. Communion was lived by him above all through a distinctive practice of spiritual friendship. Paulinus was a true master of this, making his life a crosssroads of chosen souls: from Martin of Tours to St. Jerome, from Ambrose to Augustine, from Deplhin of Bordeaux to Njceta of Remesiana, from Vitritius of Rouen to Rufinus of Aquileia, from Pammachius to Sulpicius Severus, and so many others, well-known or less.

Hidden among all this are the intense pages he wrote to Augustine. Beyond the contents of the individual letters, one is impressed by the warmth with which the Saint of Nola sings about friendship itself as a manifestation of the only Body of Christ animated by the Holy Spirit.

Here is a significant excerpt at the start of the correspondence between the two friends: “It is not to be wondered if we, though far apart, are present to each other, and without having met, we know each other, because we are members of the same body, we have one head, we are flooded by the same grace, we live of the same bread, we walk along one path, we live in the same house” (Ep. 6, 2).

We can see it is a beautiful description of what it means to be a Christian, to be the Body of Christ, to live in the communion of the Church.The theology of our time has found precisely in the concept of communion the key to approaching the mystery of the Church.

The testimony of St. Paulinus of Nola helps us to feel the Church as it is presented to us by the Second Vatican Council – as a sacrament of intimate union with God, and therefore the unity of us all, and finally, that of the entire human race (cfr Lumen gentium, 1).

In this perspective, I wish you all a good Advent season.

Related:

One of the aspects of Benedict’s papacy a lot of people have appreciated has been his question and answer sessions with various groups – clergy, seminarians, youth, First Communicants.

OSV has gathered the Q & A’s of Pope Benedict’s papacy so far into a single volume – the publication date is early February.