From the Holy Father's June 6, 2007, General Audience on St. Cyprian, "the first Bishop in Africa to obtain the crown of martyrdom", whose feast is celebrated today:
The numerous treatises and letters that Cyprian wrote were always connected with his pastoral ministry. Little inclined to theological speculation, he wrote above all for the edification of the community and to encourage the good conduct of the faithful.
Indeed, the Church was easily his favourite subject. Cyprian distinguished between the visible, hierarchical Church and the invisible mystical Church but forcefully affirmed that the Church is one, founded on Peter.
He never wearied of repeating that "if a man deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, does he think that he is in the Church?" (cf. De unit. [On the unity of the Catholic Church], 4).
Cyprian knew well that "outside the Church there is no salvation", and said so in strong words (Epistles 4, 4 and 73, 21); and he knew that "no one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother" (De unit., 6). An indispensable characteristic of the Church is unity, symbolized by Christ's seamless garment (ibid., 7): Cyprian said, this unity is founded on Peter (ibid., 4), and its perfect fulfilment in the Eucharist (Epistle 63, 13).
"God is one and Christ is one", Cyprian cautioned, "and his Church is one, and the faith is one, and the Christian people is joined into a substantial unity of body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be severed. And what is one by its nature cannot be separated" (De unit., 23).
Indeed, the Church was easily his favourite subject. Cyprian distinguished between the visible, hierarchical Church and the invisible mystical Church but forcefully affirmed that the Church is one, founded on Peter.
He never wearied of repeating that "if a man deserts the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, does he think that he is in the Church?" (cf. De unit. [On the unity of the Catholic Church], 4).
Cyprian knew well that "outside the Church there is no salvation", and said so in strong words (Epistles 4, 4 and 73, 21); and he knew that "no one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother" (De unit., 6). An indispensable characteristic of the Church is unity, symbolized by Christ's seamless garment (ibid., 7): Cyprian said, this unity is founded on Peter (ibid., 4), and its perfect fulfilment in the Eucharist (Epistle 63, 13).
"God is one and Christ is one", Cyprian cautioned, "and his Church is one, and the faith is one, and the Christian people is joined into a substantial unity of body by the cement of concord. Unity cannot be severed. And what is one by its nature cannot be separated" (De unit., 23).
That audience and 35 others are available in book form:
Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine
Pope Benedict XVI
Following his best selling book, Jesus of Nazareth, and his talks published in Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church, Pope Benedict's Church Fathers presents these important figures of early Christianity in all their evangelical vitality, spiritual profundity, and uncompromising love of God. Benedict tells the true story of Christianity's against-all-odds triumph in the face of fierce Roman hostility and persecution. He does this by exploring the lives and the ideas of the early Christian writers, pastors, and martyrs, men so important to the spread of Christianity that history remembers them as "the Fathers of the Church".
This rich and engrossing survey of the early Church includes those churchmen who immediately succeeded the Apostles, the "Apostolic Fathers": Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyon. Benedict also discusses such great Christian figures as Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, the Cappadocian Fathers, as well as the giants John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine. This book is a wonderful way to get to know the Church Fathers and the tremendous spiritually rich patrimony they have bequeathed to us. Continue reading...
St Cyprian's letter to St Cornelius in the Office of Readings contains a striking and powerful affirmation of faith in the reality of the Church as the Body of Christ, of the real mystical unity of each member of the Church with all other members. If this was believed today, our Church would be very different. World Youth Day helps to give young (and older) people some experience of this reality but it needs to be articulated more. If it had been believed better, our sexual abuse problems would not have turned into international scandals. Laity would not have felt so abandoned by modish clerics and bishops who sometimes even today adopt an us and them mentality. Clerics have often been cast as employees or professional arm of the Church, as institution or enterprise, and laity as the clients and rate payers. How different Parish and School life would be if Catholics believed in the Body of Christ.
"Let us then remember one another, united in mind and heart. Let us pray without ceasing, you for us, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve the strain of these great trials."
Its not just platitudes.
Posted by: celeste | Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 10:38 PM