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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The General Audience this week, on September 16, was held in Paul VI Hall in the Vatican, where the Holy Father came from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. In the catechesis given in Italian, concluding the series dedicated to the great Writers of the Eastern Church and Western Medieval Church, the Pope reflected on Symeon the New Theologian, an Eastern Monk, “whose writings exercised a noteworthy influence on the theology and spirituality of the East, in particular, regarding the experience of mystical union with God.”
Born in 949 in Galatia, in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor), Symeon moved to Constantinople while he was still young, to begin studies and enter into the service of the Emperor. Feeling little attracted to the civil career, he found in Symeon the Pious, a simple monk of the Monastery of Studios, in Constantinople, a spiritual guide who helped him to resolve the doubts he was having and to embark on a path of union with God. Symeon entered the Monastery of the Studion Order, and later moved to a small convent, San Mamas, also in Constantinople, where, after three years, he became director -- the higumeno. “There he pursued an intense search of spiritual union with Christ, which conferred on him great authority,” Benedict XVI highlighted, recalling that he also “suffered misunderstandings and exile, but was restored by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius II.” He spent the last part of his life in the Monastery of Santa Marina, “where he wrote the greater part of his works,” becoming ever more famous for his teachings and miracles. He died on March 12, 1022.
The work of Symeon is contained in nine volumes, which are divided in theological, gnostic and practical chapters, three volumes of catechesis addressed to monks, two volumes of theological and ethical treatises, and a volume of hymns. There are also his many letters. “All these works have found an important place in the Eastern monastic tradition down to our day,” the Holy Father said, explaining that “Symeon focuses his reflection on the presence of the Holy Spirit in those who are baptized and on the awareness they must have of this spiritual reality...Symeon the New Theologian insists on the fact that true knowledge of God does not come from books, but from the spiritual experience, the spiritual life. Knowledge of God stems from a journey of interior purification, which begins with conversion of heart, thanks to the strength of faith and love; passes through profound repentance and sincere sorrow for one's sins; and arrives at union with Christ, source of joy and peace, invaded by the light of his presence in us. For Symeon, such an experience of divine grace is not an exceptional gift for some mystics, but the fruit of baptism in the life of every seriously committed faithful.”
Benedict XVI then revealed the pertinence of Symeon's thought today: “This holy Eastern monk calls us all to attention to the spiritual life, to the hidden presence of God in us, to honesty of conscience and purification, to conversion of heart, so that the Holy Spirit will be present in us and guide us.” All this he transmitted and shown through his own mystical experience, from the torments and struggles against temptations in his youthful days, to his reading of spiritual books in the monastery, which “did not procure the peace he longed for,” to the visions of light in which the Lord manifested Himself, up until his “intense movements of love” for the many enemies that wanted to set snares for him and harm him. “Obviously, such love could not come from himself, but must spring from another source. Symeon understood that it came from Christ present in him and all was clarified for him... Thus, on one hand, we can say that, without a certain openness to love, Christ does not enter in us, but, on the other, Christ becomes the source of love and transforms us...God's love grows in us if we are really united to him in prayer and in listening to his word, with openness of heart.”
Another element of the figure of Symeon the New Theologian that the Holy Father reflected on, was on the importance of having a spiritual guide, which “continues to be valid for all -- priests, consecrated persons and laypeople -- and especially for young people -- to take recourse to the counsels of a good spiritual father, capable of accompanying each one in profound knowledge of oneself, and leading one to union with the Lord, so that one's life is increasingly conformed to the Gospel. We always need a guide, dialogue, to go to the Lord. We cannot do it with our reflections alone. And this is also the meaning of the ecclesiality of our faith, of finding this guide.”
Concluding his catechesis, Benedict XVI synthesized Symeon the New Theologian's teachings and mystical experiences: “In his incessant search for God, even in the difficulties he met and the criticism made of him, he, in a word, allowed himself to be guided by love. He was able to live personally and to teach his monks that what is essential for every disciple of Jesus is to grow in love and so we grow in knowledge of Christ himself, to be able to say with St. Paul: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' (Galatians 2:20).” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 17/9/2009)
