Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Continuing his catechesis on the Apostolic Fathers, Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his audience teaching on Wednesday 21 March to the figure of Saint Justine, philosopher and martyr, “the most important Father apologist of the 2nd century”. The Pope began by explaining that the “apologists”, “were early Christian writers who strove to defend the new religion from accusations made by the pagans and the Jews and to spread Christian doctrine in terms suited to the culture of their time”.
Born about 100 AD in Samaria, in the Holy Land, Justine sought the truth at length, frequenting various schools of Greek philosophical tradition until one day “a mysterious figure, an old man whom he met on the sea shore” led him to the Christian faith. “He opened a free school in Rome where he taught the new religion, considered the true philosophy - the Pope said in his address -. In it in fact he had found the truth and therefore the art of upright living. For this reason he was reported and decapitated in about the year 165 AD”.
In the two "Apologies" bearing his name and his "Dialogue with the Jew Tryphon" which have come down to us “Justine wishes to illustrate first of all the divine plan of creation and salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ, the Logos or eternal Word, eternal Reason, creative Reason. In his works "Justin seeks to explain, above all, the divine project of salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ, the Word of God," said the Holy Father. "All men and women, as rational beings, share in the Logos, they carry in themselves a 'seed' and can perceive some glimmers of the truth. "Thus," he added, "the same Logos that was revealed in prophetic figures to the Jews in the ancient Law, was also partially manifested as 'seeds of truth' to the Greeks. ... And because Christianity is the historical and personal manifestation of the Logos in its entirety, it follows that 'everything of beauty that has ever been expressed by anyone belongs to us Christians'."
Pope Benedict XVI recalled that “The figure and work of Justin mark the ancient Church's decisive option for philosophy, rather than the pagan religion. Philosophy represented the privileged meeting area for paganism, Judaism and Christianity on the level of criticism of the pagan religion and its false myths… Justine, and the other apologists, initialled Christianity’s firm stance for the God of the philosophers against the false god’s of the pagan religion. This stance was for the truth of being and against the myths of custom”. The Pope explained that the term consuetudo, used also by Tertullian with regard to the pagan religion, “in modern languages can be translated as ‘cultural usage’, ‘usage of the day” and he concluded: “In an epoch such as ours, marked by relativism in the debate on values and religion - and also in inter-religious dialogue -, this is a lesson not to be forgotten”.
At the end of his catechesis, the Pope greeted people in different languages and in Italian he greeted Catholics from various dioceses of Sardinia in Rome with their Bishops, the latter in Rome for their ad limina visit: “Dear Friends, the Pope said, in the recent Exhortation Apostolic I underlined the importance of the Eucharist for the life of the Church and the individual Christian. I encourage you to draw from this wondrous source of the spiritual strength necessary for remaining faithful to the Gospel and witnessing always and everywhere to God’s love. And you dear brother Bishops, "be models for the flock" (I Pt 5,3) never tire of leading the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care to be ever more generously committed to Christ personally and as a community.”
At the end of the audience, the Pope recalled that March 24 is World Tuberculosis Day. "May this anniversary," he said, "favour increased responsibility in the treatment of this sickness and an ever greater solidarity towards those who suffer from it. Upon them and their families I invoke the comfort of the Lord while encouraging the many initiatives the Church promotes in this field.".” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/3/2007 - righe 47, parole 686)
