VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI dedicates his weekly catechesis to the figure of Saint Hilary of Poitiers, who “consecrated his life to defending faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God as the Father, who generated him from all eternity”

Thursday, 11 October 2007

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “To oppose Aryans who considered the Son of God Jesus a creature, albeit excellent, but only a creature, Hilary consecrated his whole life to defending faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God as the Father, who generated Him from all eternity”. Pope Benedict XVI said this during his general audience on Wednesday 10 October: his catechesis was in fact dedicated to the presentation of one of the greatest Church Fathers of the West, Saint Hilary of Poitiers, who lived in the 4th century.
Although we have little information on his life, from ancient sources we learn that Hilary was born in Poitiers around the year 310, from a well to do family, who provided him with a sound literary education. The environment in which he grew up was probably not Christian. Baptised around the year 345, he was elected bishop of his own town from 353-354. In the years that followed Hilary wrote his first work “Comment on the Gospel of Matthew”, the oldest extant comment in Latin of this Gospel. In 356 Hilary assisted as a Bishop at the Synod of Béziers, in the south of France, dominated by pro-Arian bishops who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. These "false apostles" asked the emperor Constanz to exile the Bishop of Poitiers. Thus Hilary had to leave Gaul during the Summer of 356. Exiled in Phrygia, today Turkey, Hilary found himself in a religious context dominated by Arianism.
“Here too his concern as a Bishop drove him to work strenuously to re-establish Church unity- said Pope Benedict -, on the basis of the true faith formulated by the Council of Nicea. He started his most important and well known dogmatic work: “De Trinitate” (On the Trinity). In it Hilary exposes his personal journey towards knowledge of God and taking care to demonstrate that Scripture clearly reveals the divinity of the Son and his equality with the Father and not only in the New Testament but in many parts in the Old Testament, in which the mystery of Christ already appears. With the Arians he insists on the truth of the names of Father and Son and develops his Trinitarian theology starting from the formula for Baptism given us by the Lord himself ". In his years of exile Hilary wrote “The Book of the Synods”, in which he comments for his brother Bishops of Gaul the confessions of faith and other documents of synods which gathered in the West about the middle of the 4th century. “Always firmly opposed to radical Arians, Saint Hilary showed a conciliatory spirit- the Pope said -, which strove to understand those who had not yet arrived helping them with great theological intelligence, to reach full faith in the true divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
On returning to his homeland in 360 or 361, Hilary resumed pastoral activity in his Church showing “fortitude in the faith and gentleness in interpersonal relations”. In the last years of his life he composed his Treatises on the Psalms, a comment on fifty eight Psalms in which he sees “the transparency of the mystery of Christ and of his Body the Church”. Hilary died in 367 and in 1851 Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed him Doctor of the Church.
Summarising the fundamental element of the Bishop's teaching the Holy Father said “Hilary found the starting point for his theological reflection in baptismal faith”. At the end of his treaty on the Trinity he asks God to grant that he may always remain faithful to the faith of baptism: “This is a characteristic of the book: reflection becomes prayer and prayer returns to reflection. The whole book is a dialogue with God ”.
After greeting visitors in different languages Pope Benedict XVI asked those present to pray for a good outcome of the 10th plenary session of the International Mixed Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole, taking place in Ravenna, Italy “which is treating a theological theme of particular ecumenical interest: ‘Ecclesiological and canonical consequences of the sacramental nature of the Church-Ecclesial communion, conciliarity and authority’. I ask you to pray with me that this important meeting may help the journey towards full communion between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and that soon we may be able to share the Lord's Chalice together.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 11/10/2007 - righe 49, parole 724)


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