Echoes John Chrysostom's Emphasis on Formation
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says that childhood is the most important stage of life and the time to impress God's law upon the soul.
The Pope said this today during his reflection on St. John Chrysostom at the general audience in St. Peter's Square. The Holy Father continued with his series of catecheses on the Fathers of the Church.
St. John Chrysostom was born around the year 349 and died in 407, thus the Pontiff noted that this year marks the 16th centenary of his death.
"Chrysostom is counted among the most prolific Fathers," he said. "His is an exquisitely pastoral theology, in which there is constant concern for the coherence between the thought expressed by the word and lived existence.
"The two things, knowledge of the truth and rectitude of life, go together: Knowledge must become life. Every one of his discourses aimed at developing in the faithful the exercise of intelligence, of true reason, in order to understand and put into practice moral needs and precepts of the faith."
Personal development
Benedict XVI highlighted Chrysostom's teaching on the stages of life, explaining that the saint "tried to assist, through his writings, the integral development of the person, in the physical, intellectual and religious dimension. The various phases of growth are comparable to as many seas in an immense ocean."
The Pope noted that the first stage of life is the most important.
"'In this first stage inclinations to vice and virtue begin to show,'" the Holy Father said. "That is why God's law must be impressed on the soul from the beginning 'as on a table of wax.' In fact this is the most important age.
"We must be aware how important it is that in this first phase of life the major orientations that give the right perspective to existence truly enter into man. Chrysostom therefore recommends: 'From a very young age, arm children with spiritual weapons.'"
The Holy Father noted the second and third stages that St. John Chrysostom spoke of: adolescence and then engagement and marriage.
Of this latter stage, the Bishop of Rome said that the saint "recalls the goals of marriage, enriching them -- with an appeal to the virtue of temperance -- with a rich tapestry of personalized relationships. Spouses who are well prepared block, in this way, the road to divorce: Everything is carried out joyfully and one can educate their children to virtue.
"When the first child is born, this is 'like a bridge; the three become one flesh, so that the child links the two parts, and the three make up 'one family, a little Church.'"
Benedict XVI said this teaching "is important today more than ever."
"Let us pray," he concluded, "that the Lord render us docile to the lessons of this great teacher of the faith."
ZE07091910 - 2007-09-19