General audience, Benedict XVI illustrates the figure of Bernard of Clairvaux, the last of the Fathers of the Church. He expressed man's participation in the love of God, he devoted himself particularly to the figures of Jesus and Mary and not coincidentally is the one to whom Dante entrusts the prayer to Mary in Paradise. He fought the heresy of the Cathars and antisemitism.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "We too must recognize that man looks for and finds God better and more easily in prayer than in discussion”: this is the teaching that Benedict XVI has drawn from the life and works of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "called the last of the Fathers of the Church," the figure to whom he devoted his catechesis today in the general audience.

 Speaking to almost 40 thousand people in St. Peter's Square, the pope recalled the figure of the great Monk for whom "sometimes we claim to have resolved the fundamental questions about God, about man and the world with the powers of reason alone," but "without a deep faith in God, nourished by prayer and contemplation, from an intimate relationship with the Lord, our reflections on the divine mysteries are in danger of becoming a futile intellectual exercise, and lose their credibility".  

Born in 1090 in Fontaines in France to a "numerous and fairly well-off," family Bernard studied grammar, rhetoric and dialectic and at 20 entered the monastery of Citeaux, "a new more agile monastic foundation, but also more rigorous” than the existing ones of the time, "At only 25 years of age he chose monastic life" and "looking at the lives of other monasteries called for a sober and measured lifestyle in eating and clothing and recommended care for the poor." In 1130 he began an "extensive correspondence with many” important but humble people. To these letters, many sermons, judgements and treaties must be added. He also began "to deal with serious problems of the Holy See and the Church."

 Benedict XVI then recalled, "especially his polemical writings” and in particular those against the heresy of the Cathars who despised the material and the human body and thus despised the Creator." Instead he defended the Jews, so much so that a rabbi, Ephraim, "addressed a stirring tribute” to him.  “His sermons on the Song of Songs are renowned" and "also a very special for a pupil of his, Bernardo Pignatelli, who became Pope Eugenius III, on how to be a good pope, it remains obligatory reading for all popes". He died in 1153.  

The Pope highlighted "two central aspects” of  Bernard “which concern Jesus Christ and Mary his most holy mother". The Monk expressed "the Christian participation in the love of God," which is not a "theological novelty, but the likens the theologian to the contemplative, the mystic." "It is from this that he was given the title of doctor Mellifluus, his praise of Christ, in fact flows like honey." The abbot of Clairvaux in fact loved to repeat that "there is one name that matters, that of Jesus of Nazareth" and " food every soul is dry, if it is not sprinkled with this oil; tasteless, if not seasoned with this salt . What you write has no taste for me, if I have not read Jesus".

For Bernardo "true knowledge of God lies in a personal and profound experience of Jesus Christ. Faith is first of all an intimate personal encounter with Jesus, experience of his closeness, of his friendship and his love: only in this way can we learn to love him and know him even more: let us hope that this can happen in all of us. "  

At the same time Bernardo exalts the "Mary’s intimate participation in the redemptive work of her Son”. “In You – he writes among other things - the part of your Son’s Passion became intensity and the physical suffering of martyrdom. " He emphasizes the "privileged place of the Virgin in the economy of salvation." "It is no coincidence," said Benedict XVI, “ that Dante puts on the lips of the doctor Mellifluus  his sublime prayer to Mary: 'Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son / humble and exalted more than any other creature / fixed term of eternal counsel".  

After the audience, Benedict XVI received from the hands of Alexander, Anna, Elad and Magomed, young people of different religions (two are Orthodox, a Jew and one Muslim) from Georgia, Russia and Israel, a 14-point document "Rondine for Peace in the Caucasus", which promotes a series of future actions for peaceful coexistence of peoples in the region.

 

 

 

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