Clerical Celibacy understood throught the Christological, Ecclesiological, Pastoral and Eschatological effects of the priesthood

          For years, people, both inside and outside the Church have called for the Church to lift Her ancient practice of priestly celibacy. This cry gained support with the drop in the number of vocations to the priesthood following the Second Vatican Council and was reenergized by the despicable heterosexual, homosexual and pedophilia abuses by some of the Church’s priests. The Roman Catholic Church’s discipline of celibacy for Her priests has been a common practice from the 4^th century and has been solemnly sanctioned since the second Lateren Council in 1139, which not only forbade priests to marry but also declared all marriages of priests at the moment null and void.

Priestly celibacy is just that, a discipline, not a requirement for Holy Orders. While celibacy is not a necessity to be ordained, this discipline is for the greater good of the Church and Her ministers. By understanding the Christological, Ecclesiological, Pastoral, and Eschatological effects of priestly celibacy, the beauty of the Church’s discipline shines through clearly.

            Before one can come to see the beauty of a celibate priesthood, one must have a clear understanding of what celibacy is. In his article Celibacy is the issue, Thomas Lederer defines celibacy as “A freely chosen dynamic state, visibly vowed, that  involves an honest and sustained attempt to live without direct sexual gratification in order to serve others productively for a spiritual motive.”[1] This choice of the priest is a freely chosen life of sacrifice for Christ and His Church; following the teachings of Christ “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.”[2] This laying down of his life by the priest is a lifelong lifestyle choice, which must be assed not only on the human, sexual level, but most of all as a work of grace in response to the Divine initiative.

It was Christ himself who encouraged those who could, to take on the celibate state. “Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it."[3] The priest should desire an intimate relationship with Christ, an intimacy he wishes to share only with Christ for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and with no one else.

The vow of celibacy unites the priest more closely to Christ. It calls for a complete abandonment of one’s life to Him. Just as the married man signifies a love without reservation to his spouse, so too does celibacy signify a love of Christ without reservation. This love of Christ and his Church is so great that the priest is actually betrothed to Her in an exclusive bond.

The priest is called to model his life after Christ who is the Great High Priest. No priest has a priesthood of his own; rather he shares in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Christ did not act as a priest simply at certain functions, but rather His whole life was dedicated to His Father as a priest. Christ himself lived a celibate life, which signified his total dedication to God and His people. In the same state of celibacy the priest is called to live a life of complete dedication to God and his people. By living a celibate life, the priest demonstrates his trust, that Christ alone is sufficient and he places his entire trust in Him.

This complete love of Christ is a charity which is open to all people. The priest demonstrates this charity to his people, to whom he is called to be an Alter Christus, another Christ. His total offering of himself to Christ gives the priest complete liberty to live his life as a life of service, to be a man for others. It is the calling of all priests to live the motto of the late Pope John Paul II, Totus Tuus, totally yours.

The priest is to be seen as an image of Christ. Christ Himself loved the Church so much that He offered Himself up for Her. In a similar way the priest offers himself up completely for the Church.

The role of the priest is to be a mediator between God and man. His primary role is to offer sacrifice to God for his people. The priest belongs exclusively to Christ. It is the priest who shares Christ with us enabling us to share Him with others. The priest gives up his life and joyfully embraces celibacy out of this sacrificial love. Through the gift of celibacy the priest becomes a man for others.

St. Paul himself notes the freedom celibacy brings. “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided.”[4] The sharing in celibacy frees the minster from the bonds of flesh and blood. He has no children or famial responsibilities. He renounces the fatherhood proper to the married life seeking fatherhood, the fatherhood of Christ’s children. Celibacy enables the priest to serve, his children, Gods people, with a love that is undefiled and undistracted. This permits him to spend himself fully for others, which guarantees him a greater freedom and flexibility in his pastoral ministry.

This explanation of celibacy leads one to look towards the eschaton, the end times. In a world today that so often only looks at the present moment the example of the celibate priest forces people to consider the eschaton. Society today is fascinated with priestly celibacy. By foregoing much of this world’s expression of love, he makes a testimony that love does not cease at the end of our life on this earth, but rather a greater love is yet to come. Furthermore by consecrating his life to celibacy for Christ’s sake, the priest makes a very bold statement. He claims he believes in the Faith of the Catholic Church. By living this counter – cultural lifestyle the priest is a walking reminder of life after this world.

Priestly celibacy should not be seen as simply a job requirement to be a priest. Celibacy is in itself a vocation. God calls both men and women to a celibate life. The call to celibacy does not necessarily mean God is calling a person to the priesthood, however those whom God calls to the priesthood he also gives the vocation of celibacy.

Holy Orders is not a right. For those whom God does not give the vocation to celibacy, they should not present themselves for Holy Orders. The Church does not impose this charism on any one; rather She invites those who are called to share in it. A candidate for Holy Orders makes his commitment to priestly celibacy at his Deaconate Ordination. The bishop asks the candidate, “In the presence of God and the Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?”[5] The Church does not force men to be priests; She invites them to enter into the ministerial priesthood of their own free choice.

The beauty of celibacy does not pull a cloud over the beauty of the married conjugal act. Celibacy is not a denial of sexuality. Both celibacy and marital sex when moderated by chastity are good and beautiful lifestyles. Those who argue that there is no beauty or that the counter – cultural lifestyle of priestly celibacy is out of date, clearly do not understand the Church’s teaching on celibacy. By understanding the Christological, Ecclesiogical, Pastoral, and Eschatological effects of priestly celibacy as pointed out above, those critics of priestly celibacy can come to see clearly the reason for priestly celibacy and the good it brings about, not only for the priest, but for Christ’s Church.

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[1] Lederer, Thomas. Celibacy is the Issue. On line resources, http://www.arthurstreet.com/ 25 th May2003

[2][2] John 15 13

[3][3] Mt 19:12

[4] 1Cor 7:32 - 34

[5] Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II. "Rite of Deaconate Ordination." In The Rites of the Catholic Church, 30 -31. Collegeville: Pueblo Books, 1991.

Book Review of Jean Corbon’s Wellspring of Worship

Jean Corbon’s book entitled The Wellspring of Worship, attempts to demonstrate the unity between the Liturgy and our Christian lives. He correctly points out that this unity between the liturgy and life can only be properly understood if we have a proper understanding of the great gift God gives to us in the liturgy. He achieves this goal by demonstrating to his audience that the liturgy is the source from which we, like the woman at the well, draw from the fountain of living water.[1]

Fr. Corbon’s book, The Wellspring of Worship, highlights four important themes, namely the Trinitarian aspect of the liturgy, the relationship of our earthly liturgy to the heavenly liturgy, man’s participation in this eternal Trinitarian liturgy and the situation of the liturgy in the Church. This short paper intends to address these four principal themes by expressing their relevance to the liturgy and will conclude with a short personal analysis of important insights received in reading this work.  

Jean Corbon stresses ad nauseam, in The Wellspring of Worship, the Trinitarian dimension of the liturgy. The Trinity, being a community of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is an outpouring of love amongst the three. It is exactly in this outpouring of love amongst the persons of the Trinity that the work of salvation is achieved through the passion, death and resurrection of Christ and through which we are invited to accept Christ and our salvation won by Him for us.

Since we were created by God, who desired to create us in his own image, at the heart of every person is an outpouring of love within the Trinity which leads to a natural desire for God that we are free to either accept or reject. From the beginning of creation this communion of love, the Trinity, reveals himself to those created in the image of God. Throughout salvation history up to today the Trinity has been at work drawing all men back to the Father.

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit prepared for the Word, the only Son of the Father, Jesus Christ, and the fullness of truth by gathering a community that learned how to accept and enter into covenants. In the fullness of time the Father sent His only Son to be born of a woman and the Word became flesh born of the Virgin Mary who freely accepted the invitation of the Father to be the Godbearer. It is from the Fiat of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ entered into the world and the union of the Divine and the Human springs forth. In the incarnation the two worlds the Divine and the Human are united making our salvation possible. In the Kenosis, the self-emptying of Christ, we find the unity between the Annunciation and the horrors of the Passion, through which the gates of heaven are reopened to humanity.

It is in Christ’s resurrection that we find the first revelation of the wellspring of the liturgy. “On the day of Easter the river of life becomes liturgy as it spreads out from the tomb to the Body of Christ.”[2] On Easter, the day that Jesus conquers His death and thereby bestows His life on mankind, the economy of salvation takes the form of liturgy. The Resurrection of Jesus is not an event of the past that happened in one moment of history from which the world has moved on but rather a death that will never pass away because Jesus did not rise from the dead only to die again but rather, in rising from the dead, passed through death. Through uniting ourselves to the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit we to will pass through death to eternal life.

 The manifestation of the Resurrection is made present at the moment of the Ascension. When Jesus ascends to the Father, humanity and Christ become one, united in the Body of Christ. This union, however will not be completed until all the members of the Body of Christ are drawn back to the Father.

It is exactly in this return to the Father that the liturgy finds its essence. Since Christ’s life is the act of love through which all things return to life, all men are drawn back to the Father we find at the heart of the liturgy the Father. Christ is united to the Father and reflects the glory of God, who is the wellspring which gives life.

The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost marked a new beginning. The Holy Spirit brought with him the Body of Christ, the Church, and the eternal liturgy becomes manifest in the world. In the new community of believers the Holy Spirit, promised by Christ before his Ascension and sent by the Father comes to draw all people to the Father. Because the Holy Spirit gives life by drawing all people to communion the liturgy finds its proper embodiment in the Church. The Church thus truly becomes “the manifestation of the Spirit of Christ in a new community of men and women who have entered into life because the Spirit has brought them into communion with the living body of the Son of God.”[3]

It is exactly in this manifestation that the liturgy finds its proper place. Understanding this one realizes that the liturgy is not a creation of the Church but rather that the Church is the liturgy as it exists in our mortal humanity. The Church is the instrument through which the heavenly liturgy is brought to humanity. Truly “the Church is as it were the human face of the heavenly liturgy, the radiant and transforming presence of the ehavenly liturgy in our present time.”[4]

Fr. Corbon’s frequent insistence on the Trinitarian nature of the liturgy in his book Wellspring of Worship is useful for gaining a deeper understanding of who is at work in the liturgy. By understanding the Trinitarian dimension of the liturgy I have come to a deeper understanding of my current role in the liturgy as well as the role of the priest. By understanding the trinity as a communion of love and my participation in that communion through Christ, the truth of the title The Wellspring of Worship is demonstrated. By understanding the liturgy being rooted in the communion of love that is the Trinity I see clearly that the connection between the liturgy and my life rests in the fact that the liturgy is the wellspring, the source from which my entire existence springs and is refreshed. It becomes clear that “when cut off from the source a liturgical celebration becomes self-contained, as it were without any vital link to before and after.”[5]

            While Corbon’s book Wellspring of Worship is useful for understanding the liturgy on a contemplative level it is often very difficult to follow because Fr. Corbon writes in a way that is uncommon to a western reader. His writing at times appears vague and utilizes unfamiliar vocabulary. He provides a short dictionary of terms in the first chapter and frequently footnotes to assist the reader in understanding.

In an era where Catholics have stopped attending the Church’s liturgies and an era where others have attempted to the defy the Church by making unauthorized changes to the liturgy because they fail to see a correlation between their life and the liturgy this book is a timely reflection for all Catholics. While this work is difficult to understand at times if the reader is willing to struggle through the work and overcome his western prejudices Fr. Corbon’s book has much to offer Roman Catholics.

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[1] (Jn 4:1-26)

[2] Pg 52 

[3] Pg 75

[4] Pg 76

[5] Pg 23-24

Luke 9:23-24 An Exegesis

             In Luke 9:23-24 the author writes, “Then he [Jesus] said to all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’” (Lk 9:23-24 NAB) This passage is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching on discipleship and prefigures Christ’s passion while giving a sure way to reach eternal life. This short paper will explain the true meaning of this passage through a brief study of the historical and literary background, what the Church Fathers, Doctors and modern exegetes have understood from the passage, a study of the word “deny”, a comparison with other relevant passages from Sacred Scripture to the text, and how the text is used in the Church’s liturgy and teaching.     

            Scholars are unable to attribute an exact date for Luke’s gospel but most attribute its composition to sometime around 70-80 A.D. Scholars debate who the real author may be but there is a strong consensus that the author of Luke is also the author of Acts of the Apostles. [1] Unlike other biblical authors who wrote to specific audiences, it is most likely that the author of Luke intended his work to be for a general readership.[2] Amongst this general readership an important audience was any Gentile who did not feel comfortable entering Christianity because he saw it as a form of Judaism.[3]

The author heavily stresses the theological truth that Christ came to bring salvation to all peoples. More specifically this gospel demonstrates that Christ came to seek after and save those who were lost.[4] The author of Luke, throughout his gospel, calls all people, Jew and Gentile alike, to discipleship. He calls all people to follow Christ, and in doing so he calls them to follow God.  More specifically he demonstrates that Christ calls all people who want to be his disciples to model their lives after his.[5]

This message conflicted with the contemporary view of many early Christians that Christ came to save his chosen people, the Jews. Some members of the early Church saw Christianity as a form of Judaism. While St. Paul would later refute this claim when he made it clear that a Gentile did not need to be circumcised to be a member of the Church, many early Gentiles around the time of the composition of the Gospel of Luke would have struggled to join a church that resembled in many ways the Jewish religion. [6]

Understanding the author and his intentions in light of the historical circumstances shines great light upon these verses of the Gospel of Luke. Understanding that the author intended to call all, Jews and Gentiles alike, to discipleship after Christ’s own example leads one to see the exact purpose of the passage. This is emphasized in the authors use of the word “anyone” to symbolize that all are called, not just the Jews. The author also uses the demonstration of taking up one’s own cross, in essence following what Christ will do when He surrenders His will to the Father’s during His passion and death.

Taking a close look at the literary composition of this background one quickly sees this passage is a conditional passage. “If anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Lk 9:23 NAB) Using the word “if”, the author makes it clear that the Christ is not commanding anyone to do anything but is inviting his followers to a way of life, one that will bring them fulfillment. In making the passage conditional, Christ makes it clear that anyone who holds up his end of the deal by taking up his cross will be fulfilled.[7] 

            Moving beyond historical and literary analysis one realizes clearly that this brief, two - verse passage from the Gospel of Luke is loaded with meaning. The Church Fathers and Doctors, using the literal, allegorical, moral and analogical senses, saw much meaning in this passage. Modern exegesis, using the advances in the secular sciences, finds a different yet important meaning. Understanding both the patristic and medieval exegesis as well as the modern exegesis sheds a bright light on what Christ was teaching in this passage.

St. Bonaventure, himself a commentator from the medieval age with a good understanding of what the Church Father’s said about this passage, points out that Christ did not command but invited people to follow him. He explains that the cross represents penance and sees the importance of daily penance, because Christ challenges everyone to take up there crosses daily. Further, he explains the danger someone puts himself in when they trust themselves more than God. Often times they love themselves more than God and lose God and in doing so actually lose themselves. Most importantly, Bonaventure clearly states that to really live one’s life to the fullest one must allow Christ to save it and for Christ to save it the person must be willing to expose his life to worldly loss following after the example of Christ.[8]

Modern psychology opens this passage up to a whole new level of meaning. Modern exegetes using psychology realize that this passage is not calling the disciple to suppress his ego. Man is not called to suppress himself; he is not called to be a stoic. Rather, he is called to form his ego after the example of Christ.  This passage calls man to give over control of his destiny and to open “oneself to true self-knowledge by laying aside their image constructed from worldly illusions about the meaning of life.” [9] One is called to leave behind his old self and conform himself totally to Christ. This is important because the stakes are important. If one takes up their cross daily he will be rewarded with eternal life, but if he doesn’t he risks losing eternal life.[10]

            It seems obvious that the word “deny” is one of the most important words in the passage. The word, deny appears 52 times in the Revised Standard Bible.  It is used 46 times in the New Testament and only 6 times in the Old Testament. Luke, like the other two synoptic gospel writers, uses the word only 7 times.[11]It stems from the Greek word aparneomai which means to repudiate or to renounce someone or something.[12]

            St. Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, uses “denial” in a very similar manner: “If we endure, we shall also reign with him, if we deny him, he will also deny us, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Tim 2:12-13 NAB). These words from St. Paul explain one aspect of Christ’s teaching in the Gospel of Luke. St. Paul teaches that Christ always remains faithful to his people, but if they do not pick their cross by denying themselves then it is they who deny Christ.  Anyone who wants to be a disciple of Christ is called to be Christ-like; and since Christ picked up his cross so too his disciples are called to deny themselves and pick up their crosses.

            There are parallel passages in each of the other two synoptic gospels. The Gospel of Mark phrases the passage in a slightly different way. “And he called to him the multitude of his disciples and said to them, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.” (Mk 8:34-35 NAB) The author of Mark’s gospel mentions that Christ directed this saying to those who were already following him. The author shows that it is not simply enough to follow behind Christ, but rather one must walk in His footsteps by totally surrendering himself in taking up his cross. The author of Matthew has the same saying but also in a slightly different way: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt:10:38-39 NAB) Matthew more than Luke and Mark stresses the importance of denying everything, even loved ones, to follow Christ.

            While there are multiple parallel passages in the New Testament there are no direct parallel passages in the Old Testament. This is to be expected because Christ is calling his disciples to a radical new form of discipleship. In the Old Testament God formed a covenant with his people in which the people upheld their end by obeying the law. Christ has come into this world to fulfill that old law. He has adopted all Christians as his brothers. Through his passion, death, and resurrection he saves his people. Following the example of Christ, his disciples, those who desire to follow him, must likewise take up their cross. It is no longer good enough to offer animal sacrifice; one must deny himself to truly follow Christ.

            This passage from Luke is often cited by the Catholic Church as the means to turning towards and following Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes the importance of this passage and its teaching on conversion. The Catechism of the Catholic Church cites this exact passage in its discussion on conversion and calls this passage the “surest way of penance.”[13]

            The passage from Luke is not used in the current Catholic Liturgy. The parallel passage from the Gospel of Matthew is used on the 13^th Sunday of Ordinary Time during year A. On the 13^th Sunday of Ordinary Time in year A Mt 10:38-39 is paired with 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a and Rom 6:3-4, 8-11. In the reading from the second book of Kings, Elisha comes to visit a woman. Upon visiting her he prophesizes that when he returns to visit her in a year she will be with child. This passage is clearly a pre-figuration of the Visitation. Read with the other readings it is easy to see that God desired to send His Son born to a holy woman to save the human race. This Son is destined to die for the sins of the world. Likewise if anyone dies to sin he is destined to live with Him forever. The reading of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is a reminder that all who were baptized into Christ were also baptized into his death. St. Paul exhorts the Romans, “as to His death, He died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:3-4, 8-11 NAB) This exhortation from St. Paul paired with the Gospel of Matthew reminds the hearer that Christ died for our sins that we may live with Him forever in heaven. Just as Christ died we too must also die to sin so that we can live with Him. There is no better way to die to sin that to surrender oneself over to hime who defeated sin, Christ.   

            These short two verses from the Gospel of Luke are packed full of meaning. In these verses Christ lays out a direct way to achieve salvation through discipleship. Through understanding the historical and literary background, what the Church Fathers, Doctors and modern exegetes have understood from the passage, the word “deny”, other relevant passages to the text, and how the text is used in the Church’s liturgy and teaching the full weight of this passage begins to shine through. Through this study one is able to more clearly discern what the path of discipleship really is.

1.     Raymond E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Anchor Bible, 1997),226.
2.     Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Luke (Collegeville:The Liturgical Press, 1991),3.
3.     D.L. Bock, “Luke, Gospel of,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B Green, Scot McKnight et al. (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1992), 497.
4.      Bock, “Luke, Gospel of,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, 500.
5.      Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 23-24.
6.     Green, The Gospel of Luke, 23-24.
7.     William F. Arndt, Bible Commentary The Gospel According to Luke (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 259-260. 
8.     Bonaventure. Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, trans. Robert J. Karris, (New York: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2003), 836-840.
9.      Dianne Bergant, and Robert J Karris, (eds), The Collegeville Bible Commentary (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1989), 954.
10.     Dianne Bergant, The Collegeville Bible Commentary, 954.
11.     Catholic Bible Concordance RSV, Catholic Edition. Emmaus Road Publishing, 2009.
12.     Mark D. Given, “Deny,” The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, ed. Katharine D. Sakenfeld et al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2007), 100-101.
13.     Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2^nd ed. (Washington DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000,) 1435.

St. Ambrose on Preaching

            St. Augustine’s conversion chronicled in his famous work The Confessions has fascinated mankind for almost 1600 years. It is clear to anyone who reads The Confessions that an integral factor in the conversion of St. Augustine was the preaching of St. Ambrose of Milan. Bertand de Margerie S.J., in his 1995 work An Introduction to the History of Exegesis, correctly points out that “the Church and mankind are indebted to the hermeneutic development by Ambrose of Milan for the conversion and Christian writings of St. Augustine of Hippo.”[1]This short paper aims to explore the preaching of St. Ambrose.

            St. Ambrose was born in 340 A.D. in Treves to a Christian family at which time his father was administering the Gallic provinces as the prefect.[2] By the time he had grown into a young man he had moved to Rome with his widowed mother.[3] In Rome he undertook a liberal arts education in preparation for a civil career composed of studies in rhetoric, jurisprudence, the works of Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus, and the study of Greek.[4] After studying the liberal arts he began his political career and was assigned to act as governor over the provinces of Ligui and Aemilla. Having successfully administered these provinces he was called to Milan.[5]

            It was in Milan that the life of the promising young career of Ambrose changed course forever. After the death of the Arian bishop of Milan, Auxentius, a revolt broke out in the city over who should be the next bishop. Ambrose, himself only a catechumen, was sent by the emperor to put down the revolt. While he was in the process of solving the question of who should be the next bishop, Catholics and Arian onlookers alike both shouted out his name, nominating him for the position of bishop. Ambrose who was sent as a diplomat of the emperor to find a new bishop, not to become the new bishop, considered his sins too great to be named bishop and tried to flee the city twice, only to be captured and returned each time by the citizens. Realizing that he was called to be the bishop he insisted on finding a Catholic bishop, not an Arian bishop, to baptize him and moved through the ecclesiastical grades very quickly, in only eight days after being baptized he was consecrated a bishop. Ambrose quickly came to be known as a holy bishop and a powerful preacher.[6]

            At the time that St. Ambrose was elected bishop, he was the most senior magistrate in northern Italy. He was well educated in politics and culture but he was ignorant of ecclesiastical matters, most importantly of Sacred Scripture. While not educated in the ways of churchmen, his liberal arts education, “his knowledge of Greek, -rare at that time- his habit of learning by heart, his exegetical aptitude resulting from the practice of reading and interpreting the literal and allegorical sense of a poetical text, and above all its moral meaning,” left St. Ambrose with the basic skills required for his new ministry as bishop.[7]

Even though St. Ambrose entered his new ministry without a good knowledge of Sacred Scripture, he knew well the importance of Sacred Scripture.[8]  Following the example of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, preaching became St. Ambrose’s top priority.[9] Knowing the necessity, in his role as bishop, to preach on the Word of God, St. Ambrose quickly began to study the Word of God.[10]

            Ambrose came to know the Scriptures intimately. In his sermons, the saint, frequently quoted Scripture verbatim which demonstrates how familiar he had become with the Word of God. This frequent recourse to the words of Scripture was an important for St. Ambrose because he believed that the “bible’s mode of expression was the most appropriate for pastoral speech.”[11] Ambrose believed that the bible, being the inspired word of God, was the most perfect way to instruct the faithful.

            St. Ambrose believed that the effective preacher was one who taught the faithful to participate in Divine Life by teaching them how to live as God’s people. As bishop he instructed his clergy that their primary duty as priests was to educate their people in the virtues of character. While the content of the sermon was important, St. Ambrose knew that if the preacher did not live an exemplary life his preaching would be much less effective, or worse even a potential cause of scandal.

While the preacher’s actions must agree with the way he acts, his use of rhetoric is also important. St. Ambrose believed in taking the middle road of rhetoric. The preacher’s rhetoric should not be too elaborate or too simplistic; rather it should be of a level that is dignified but understandable by everyone. St. Ambrose’s sermons, “while lacking in excitement and superficial charm, were eloquent and perceptive, full of sound learning and solid instruction, and possessing in a marked degree the power of convincing those who heard them.”[12] St. Ambrose strove to appeal his audiences’ practical mind, not to their emotions.

            St. Ambrose was greatly indebted to his predecessors, the Church Fathers of the East, for his style and content of delivering homilies. St. Ambrose, following the Eastern Fathers, truly believed that God inspired the texts of the Scriptures.[13] With this trust he drew his sermons from the practice of scriptural meditation known as lectio devina. “The method of lectio devina served to guide all of Ambrose’s preaching and writings, which stemmed precisely from prayerful listening to the Word of God.”[14] Through the practice of lectio devina the preacher opens himself up to what God desires to tell his people and in doing so truly becomes the mouthpiece of God, not his own.

In his meditation he was attuned to the allegorical method of biblical interpretation. In fact “Ambrose the exegete is often dependent on Origen, particularly in his way of allegorizing.”[15] While the allegorical level of interpretation was important for both Origen and St. Ambrose, neither of them ignored the historical or literal levels of interpretation.[16] In the application of the allegorical meaning of a biblical passage to his homily, Ambrose, proclaimed a spiritual sense, which concerned Christ, or his Church.[17] Like the Fathers, the spiritual meaning of the text always related to the profession of Faith and to the communion of the Church.[18]

Beyond the allegorical level of biblical interpretation, St. Ambrose also brought the use of Christian Platonic exegesis of Scripture into the Western Church.  St. Ambrose used the allegorical level and harmonized it with the Bible using this Platonic sense. It was precisely in this harmonizing of the Word of God with Platonic thought that drew St. Augustine to listen to St. Ambrose’s sermons and eventually led him to the Church.[19]

Many of St. Ambrose’s homilies are addressed to his local Church in Milan and are often aimed at rooting out the heresies prevalent in Milan. The majority of the saint’s homilies can be categorized as addressing the influence of the world, the truth that the Old Covenant ceaselessly prepares the image of the New Covenant and that following Christian ethics leads to eternal life. Of particular concern to St. Ambrose was the heresy of Marcion, which claimed that the Old Testament was not the inspired Word of God. One common way St. Ambrose addressed the errors of Marcion was by interpreting the Old Testament in light of St. Paul’s theology.[20]

St. Ambrose never envisioned himself as a clergyman, nor did he have any formal training for his role as Bishop, but he became an effective preacher by using the skills he formed during his formal liberal arts training and by listening to what God was saying through the Scriptures. St. Ambrose, in his method of preaching, expressed the belief, held from the earliest days of the Church that “human beings at every level of spiritual development can be enlightened and energized by the power of the word of God.”[21] Preaching, for Ambrose, began with the Sacred Texts in an attempt to live in conformity with the Divine Texts.

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1.     Bertrand de Margerie S.J., An Introduction to the History of Exegesis Volume II The Latin Fathers, trans. Pierre de Fontnouvelle, (Petersham: St Bede’s Publications, 1995), 76.

2.     Pope Benedict XVI., The Fathers (Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor , 2008), 129.

3.     Paulinus, The Life of St. Ambrose, trans. John A Lacy, Fathers of the Church 15 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1957), 34-36. 
4.     Frend, W.H.C. The Rise of Christianity. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 618.

5.     Paulinus, The Life of St. Ambrose, trans. Lacy, 34-36.
6.   Paulinus, The Life of St. Ambrose, trans. Lacy, 34 - 43.

7.   Margerie S.J. An Introduction to the History of Exegesis Volume II The Latin Fathers, trans Fontnouvelle ,76.

8.     Benedict XVI, The Fathers, 130.

9.     Craig Alan Satterlee, Ambrose of Milan’s Method of Mystagogical Preacing (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 93.

10.    Benedict XVI, The Fathers, 130.

11.    Satterlee, Ambrose of Milan’s Method of Mystagogical Preaching, 92.

12.    Satterlee, Ambrose of Milan’s Method of Mystagogical Preaching, 89.

13.    Broz, Jarolsav. “From Allegory to the Four Senses of Scripture Hermeneutics of the Church Fathers and of the Christian middle Ages.” In Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Exegesis by Petr Pokorny, & Jan Roskovec, 302 – 309. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002. 302.

14.    Benedict XVI, The Fathers, 130.

15.    Margerie S.J. An Introduction to the History of Exegesis Volume II The Latin Fathers, trans Fontnouvelle ,77.

16.    Margerie S.J. An Introduction to the History of Exegesis Volume II The Latin Fathers, trans Fontnouvelle ,78 - 79.

17.    Walter M Werbylo, Integrating Patristic and Modern Exegesis of Scripture (Front Royal: Christendom Press), 2009. 232.

18.    Broz, “From Allegory to the Four Senses of Scripture Hermeneutics of the Church Fathers and of the Christian middle Ages.” 303.

19.    Freud, The Rise of Christianity, 618 & 664.

20.    Margerie, An Introduction to the History of Exegesis Volume II The Latin Fathers, 78 & 89.  
                21.    Broz,“From Allegory to the Four Senses of Scripture Hermeneutics of the Church Fathers and of the Christian Middle Ages.” 306.