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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today I wish to speak of St. Isidore of Seville,
younger brother of Leander, bishop of Seville, and
great friend of Pope Gregory the Great. This
relation is important because it leads us to keep in
mind a cultural and spiritual approach that is
indispensable to understanding Isidore's
personality. In fact, he owed much to Leander, a
very exacting, studious and austere person, who had
created around his younger brother a family context
characterized by ascetic demands proper of a monk
and the rhythms of work required by serious
dedication to study.
In addition, Leander was attentive to prepare in
advance what was necessary to address the
political-social situation of the moment: In those
decades, in fact, the Visigoths, barbarians and
Arians, had invaded the Iberian Peninsula and taken
over territories belonging to the Roman empire. It
was necessary to win them over to Romanism and
Catholicism. Leander and Isidore's home had quite a
rich library of classical, pagan and Christian
works. Isidore, who felt attracted simultaneously to
both one and the other, was taught, therefore, to
develop, under the watchfulness of his elder
brother, a very strong discipline in dedicating
himself to their study with discretion and
discernment.
In the bishop's residence in Seville one lived,
therefore, in a serene and open climate. We can
deduce this from Isidore's cultural and spiritual
interests, as they emerge from his works themselves,
which contain an encyclopedic knowledge of the pagan
classical culture and in-depth knowledge of
Christian culture. Thus can be explained the
eclecticism that characterizes Isidore's literary
output, which extends with great ease from Marcial
to Augustine, and from Cicero to Gregory the Great.
Indeed, the interior struggle that the young Isidore
had to endure, having become his brother Leander's
successor in the episcopal chair of Seville in 599,
was not light. Perhaps the impression of excessive
voluntarism that one detects when reading the works
of this great author -- regarded as the last of the
Christian fathers of antiquity -- is due precisely
to this constant struggle with himself. A few years
after his death, which occurred in 636, the Council
of Toledo of 653 described him as: "Illustrious
teacher of our time and glory of the Catholic
Church."
Isidore was without a doubt a man of accentuated
dialectical oppositions. And, also in his personal
life, he experienced a permanent interior conflict,
rather like that which St. Gregory the Great and St.
Augustine had already noted, between the desire for
solitude, to dedicate themselves solely to
meditation on the word of God, and the exigencies of
charity toward his neighbors, for whose salvation,
as bishop, he felt responsible.
He wrote, for example, in connection with persons
responsible for the Churches: "The person
responsible for a Church -- "vir ecclesiasticus" --
must on one hand allow himself to be crucified to
the world with the mortification of the flesh and,
on the other, accept the decision of the
ecclesiastical order, when it stems from the will of
God, to dedicate himself to governance with
humility, even if he does not wish to do it"
(Sententiarum liber III, 33, 1: PL 83, col 705 B).
He then adds just another paragraph: "The men of God
-- "sancti viri" -- do not in fact desire to
dedicate themselves to worldly things and lament
when, by a mysterious plan of God, they are
entrusted with certain responsibilities. They do
anything to avoid it, but accept that which they
wish to flee, and do that which they would have
wished to avoid. In fact, they enter into the secret
of the heart and therein try to understand what the
mysterious will of God requests. And when they
realize that they must submit to God's plans, they
humble their hearts under the yoke of the divine
decision" (Sementarium liber III, 33, 3: PL 83,
coll. 705-706).
To better understand Isidore, we must recall, first
of all, the complexity of the political situations
of his time, to which I have already made reference:
During the years of his childhood he had experienced
the bitterness of exile. Despite this, he was
permeated with apostolic enthusiasm: He experienced
the rapture of contributing to the formation of a
people who were finally rediscovering their unity,
whether on the political or the religious plane,
with the providential conversion of Erminigild, the
heir to the Visigothic throne, from Arianism to the
Catholic faith.
However, we must not underestimate the enormous
difficulties he faced in adequately addressing very
grave problems such as those of relations with the
heretics and the Jews -- a whole series of problems
that appear very concretely also today, above all,
if we consider what happens in certain regions in
which it seems that situations somewhat similar to
those of the Iberian Peninsula of the 6th century
have reappeared. The wealth of cultural knowledge
that Isidore possessed allowed him to constantly
confront the Christian novelty with the Greco-Roman
classical heritage, even if, beyond the precious
gift of synthesis, it seems he also had that of
"collatio," namely, of compilation, which was
expressed in an extraordinary personal erudition,
not always ordered as might have been desired.
To be admired, in any case, is his persistent desire
not to neglect anything of that which human
experience had produced in the history of his
homeland and of the whole world. Isidore did not
wish to lose anything that was acquired by man in
ancient times, whether pagan, Jewish or Christian.
We should not be surprised, therefore, if, in
pursuing this purpose, at times he was not
successful in passing on adequately, as he would
have wished, the knowledge he possessed through the
purifying waters of the Christian faith.
In fact, however, in Isidore's intentions, the
proposals he makes are always in harmony with the
Catholic faith, which he firmly upheld. In the
discussion of several theological problems, he shows
perception of their complexity and often suggests
with acuity solutions that take up and express the
complete Christian truth. This enabled believers
through the course of the centuries and up to our
times to benefit with gratitude from his
definitions. A significant example of this matter is
offered to us by Isidore's teaching on the
relationships between the active and contemplative
life.
He writes: "Those who seek to attain the repose of
contemplation must first train themselves in the
stage of the active life; and thus, freed from the
dross of sins, will be able to exhibit that pure
heart which, alone, allows one to see God"
(Differentiarum Lib II, 34, 133: PL 83, col 91A).
The realism of a true pastor convinces him however
of the risk that the faithful run of reducing
themselves to being one-dimensional men. Hence, he
adds: "The middle way, composed of both ways of
life, is generally more useful to resolve those
tensions that often are acute by the choice of only
one kind of life and are better tempered by an
alternation of the two ways" (o.c., 134: ivi, col
91B).
Isidore looks for the definitive confirmation of a
correct orientation of life in the example of Christ
and says: "Jesus the Savior offers us the example of
the active life when, during the day he dedicated
himself to offer signs and miracles in the city, but
he showed the contemplative life when he withdrew to
the mountain at night and dedicated himself to
prayer" (o.c. 134: ivi).
In the light of the example of the divine Teacher,
Isidore could conclude with this precise moral
teaching: "Therefore, the servant of God, imitating
Christ, must dedicate himself to contemplation
without denying himself the active life. To behave
otherwise would not be right. In fact, as we must
love God with contemplation, so we must love our
neighbor with action. It is impossible, therefore,
to live without the presence of one and the other
way of life, nor is it possible to love if one has
no experience of one or the other" (o.c., 135: ivi,
col 91C).
I hold that this is the synthesis of a life that
seeks the contemplation of God, dialogue with God in
prayer and the reading of sacred Scripture, as well
as action in the service of the human community and
of one's neighbor. This synthesis is the lesson that
the great bishop of Seville leaves us, Christians of
today, called to witness to Christ at the beginning
of a new millennium.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[The Pope then greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today's catechesis we turn to Saint Isidore of Seville, the brother of Saint Leander and a contemporary and friend of Saint Gregory the Great. Isidore lived during the Visigothic invasions of Spain, and he devoted much energy to converting the barbarian tribes from heresy and preserving the best fruits of classical and Christian culture. His encyclopedic, albeit somewhat eclectic, learning is reflected in his many writings, including the Etymologies, which were widely read throughout the Middle Ages. Isidore worked to bring the richness of pagan, Jewish and Christian learning to the rapidly changing political, social and religious situations in which he lived. Throughout his life, he was torn between his devotion to study and contemplation, and the demands made by his responsibilities as a Bishop, especially towards the poor and those in need. He found his model in Christ, who joined both the active and contemplative life, and sought to "love God in contemplation and one's neighbor in action" (Differentiarum Liber, 135). This is a lesson which is as valid today as it was in the life of the great Bishop of Seville.
I am pleased to welcome the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles gathered in Rome for their General Chapter, and the participants in the Rome Seminar of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. I also warmly greet a group of survivors of the Holocaust who are present at today's Audience. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those from England, South Africa, Australia, Vietnam and the United States, I cordially invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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