Thursday, February 14, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:
Penitent, Psalms 1:1-6, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Luke 9:22-25, St Valentine, Via Flaminia Roma, Paenitentiam Agere, Catholic Catechism Part One Section 2 The Creeds Chapter 2 Article 3:1 The Son of God Became Man
Good Day Bloggers! Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!
Heed the Solemnity of Lent! As the Psalm says: “The
Lord is my Shepherd! I lack nothing. In grassy meadows he lets me lie.
By tranquil streams he leads me to restore my spirit. He guides me in
paths of saving justice as befits his name. Even were I to walk in a
ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side.
Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me. You prepare a table
for me under the eyes of my enemies.” (Ps 23, 1.3-5).
Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
The world begins and ends everyday for someone. We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will,
make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in
Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Prayer For the Holy Election of Our New Pope
May the Lord preserve the sanctity of the enclave as they embark on electing our new Holy Father, give him life, and make him blessed upon earth, and deliver him not to the will of his enemies.
LET US PRAY:
O God, the Shepherd and Ruler of all the faithful, in Thy mercy look down upon Thy servant, (Our New Pope), whom Thou will appoint to preside over Thy Church, and grant we beseech Thee that both by word and example he may edify those who are under his charge; so that, with the flock entrusted to him, he may attain life everlasting. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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February 2, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
January 25, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your prayer be as strong as a living stone, until with your lives you become witnesses. Witness the beauty of your faith. I am with you and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your prayer be as strong as a living stone, until with your lives you become witnesses. Witness the beauty of your faith. I am with you and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
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Today's Word: penitent pen·i·tent [pen-i-tuh
nt]
Origin: 1325–75; Middle English < Medieval Latin pēnitent-, Latin paenitent- (stem of paenitēns ), present participle of paenitēre to regret; replacing Middle English penaunt < Anglo-French;
adjective
1. feeling or expressing sorrow for sin or wrongdoing and disposed to atonement and amendment; repentant; contrite.
noun
2. a penitent person.
3. Roman Catholic Church . a person who confesses sin and submits to a penance.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 1:1-6
1 How blessed is anyone who rejects the
advice of the wicked and does not take a stand in the path that sinners
tread, nor a seat in company with cynics,
2 but who delights in the law of Yahweh and murmurs his law day and night.
3 Such a one is like a tree planted near
streams; it bears fruit in season and its leaves never wither, and
every project succeeds.
4 How different the wicked, how different! Just like chaff blown around by the wind
6 For Yahweh watches over the path of the upright, but the path of the wicked is doomed.
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Today's Epistle - Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15 'Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster.
16 If you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am laying down for you today, if you love Yahweh your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
17 But if your heart turns away, if you
refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other
gods and serving them,
18 I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live for long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live,
20 in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country which Yahweh swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give them.'
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Today's Gospel Reading - Luke 9: 22-25
He said, 'The Son of man is destined
to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and
scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.' Then,
speaking to all, he said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine,
let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. Anyone
who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life
for my sake, will save it. What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole
world and forfeit or lose his very self?
Reflection
• Yesterday we enter into the time of
Lent. Up until now the daily Liturgy followed the Gospel of Mark, step
after step. Beginning yesterday until Easter, the sequence of the
reading of the day will be given by the ancient tradition of Lent and of
the Preparation for Easter. From the very first day, the perspective is
that of the Passion, Death and Resurrection and of the sense which this
mystery has for our life. This is what is proposed in the rather brief
text of today’s Gospel. The text speaks of the Passion, Death and
Resurrection of Jesus and affirms that the following of Jesus
presupposes that we carry our cross after Jesus.
• Before, in Luke 9, 18-21, Jesus asks: “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They answered giving the different opinions: “John the Baptist”, “Elijah or one of the ancient prophets”. After having heard the opinions of others, Jesus asks: “Who do you say I am?” Peter answers: “The Christ of God!”, that is, the Lord is the one expected by the people.! Jesus agreed with Peter, but he orders and charges them not to say this to anyone. Why did Jesus forbid this? Because at that time everybody was expecting the Messiah, but each one according to his own mind: some as king, others as priest, doctor, warrior, judge or prophet! Jesus thinks in a different way. He identifies himself with the Messiah, servant and suffering, announced by Isaiah (42,1-9; 52,13-53, 12).
• The first announcement of the Passion. Jesus begins to teach that he is the Messiah, the Servant and affirms that, as Messiah, Servant announced by Isaiah, soon he will be put to death in the carrying out of his mission of justice (Is 49, 4-9; 53, 1-12). Luke usually follows the Gospel of Mark, but here he omits Peter’s reaction who advised Jesus against or tried to dissuade him to think in the suffering Messiah and he also omits the hard response: “Far from me, Satan! Because you do not think as God, but as men!” Satan is a Hebrew word which means accuser, the one who draws away the others far from the path of God. Jesus does not allow Peter to get away from his mission.
• Conditions to follow Jesus. Jesus draws conclusions valid even until now: “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow me”. At that time the cross was the death penalty which the Roman Empire gave to marginalized criminals. To take up the cross and to carry it following Jesus was the same as accepting to be marginalized by the unjust system which legitimized injustices. It was the same as to break away from the system. As St. Paul says in the letter to the Galatians: “The world has been crucified for me and I to the world” (Ga 6, 14). The cross is not fatalism, neither is it an exigency from the Father. The Cross is the consequence of the commitment freely assumed by Jesus to reveal the Good News that God is Father, and that, therefore, we all should be accepted and treated as brothers and sisters. Because of this revolutionary announcement, he was persecuted and he was not afraid to deliver his own life. There is no greater proof of love than to give one’s life for the brother.
Personal questions
• Everybody was waiting for the
Messiah, each one in his/her own way. Which is the Messiah whom I expect
and which people today expect?
• The condition to follow Jesus is the cross. How do I react before the crosses of life?
• The condition to follow Jesus is the cross. How do I react before the crosses of life?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: St Valentine
Feast Day: February 14
Patron Saint: affianced couples, against fainting, bee keepers, happy marriages, love, plague, epilepsy
Attributes: birds; roses; bishop with a crippled or a child with epilepsy at his feet; bishop with a rooster nearby; bishop refusing to adore an idol; bishop being beheaded; priest bearing a sword; priest holding a sun; priest giving sight to a blind girl
Saint Valentine baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano
Today, Saint Valentine's Day, also known as the Feast of Saint Valentine, is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion, as well as in the Lutheran Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6 and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30. Notwithstanding, because of the relative obscurity of this western saint in the East, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) may celebrate their name day on the Western ecclesiastical calendar date of February 14.
Identification
In the Roman Catholic Church the name Valentinus does not yet occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. But it already can be found in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, which was compiled, from earlier local sources, between 460 and 544. The feast of St. Valentine of February 14 was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among all those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implies, nothing was yet known to him about his life.The Catholic Encyclopedia and other hagiographical sources speak of three Saint Valentines that appear in connection with February 14. One was a Roman priest, another the bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) both buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city. The third they say was a saint who suffered on the same day with a number of companions in the Roman province of Africa, for whom nothing else is known.
Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they may refer to one single person. According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni, Bishop Valentine was born and lived in Interamna and was imprisoned and tortured in Rome on February 14, 273, while on a temporary stay there. His body was buried in a hurry at a nearby cemetery and a few nights later his disciples came and carried him home.
Τhe Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church's official list of recognized saints, for February 14 gives only one Saint Valentine; a martyr who died on the Via Flaminia.
Other Saint Valentines
The name "Valentine", derived from valens (worthy, strong, powerful), was popular in Late Antiquity. About eleven other saints having the name Valentine are commemorated in the Roman Catholic Church. Some Eastern Churches of the Western rite may provide still other different lists of Saint Valentines. The Roman martyrology lists only seven who died on days other than February 14: a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18). It also lists a virgin, Saint Valentina, who was martyred in 308 (July 25) in Caesarea, Palestine. All eight were outstanding lovers of God and people, able to hear and to support anyone who is in love.Hagiography and testimony
Saint Valentine of Terni oversees the construction of his basilica at
Terni, from a 14th century French manuscript (BN, Mss fr. 185)
Another popular hagiography describes Saint Valentine as the former Bishop of Terni, a city in southern Umbria, in what is now central Italy. While under house arrest of Judge Asterius, and discussing his faith with him, Valentinus (the Roman pronunciation of his name) was discussing the validity of Jesus. The judge put Valentinus to the test and brought to him the judge's adopted blind daughter. If Valentinus succeeded in restoring the girl's sight, Asterius would do anything he asked. Valentinus laid his hands on her eyes and the child's vision was restored. Immediately humbled, the judge asked Valentinus what he should do. Valentinus replied that all of the idols around the judge's house should be broken, the judge should fast for three days, and then undergo baptism. The judge obeyed and as a result, freed all the Christian inmates under his authority. The judge, his family and forty others were baptized. Valentinus was later arrested again for continuing to serve Jesus and was sent to the prefect of Rome, to the emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a liking to him until Valentinus tried to lead Claudius to Jesus, whereupon Claudius refused and condemned Valentinus to death, commanding that Valentinus either renounce his faith or he would be beaten with clubs, and beheaded. Valentinus refused and Claudius' command was executed outside the Flaminian Gate February 14, 269.
Churches named Valentine
Saint Valentine was not exceptionally more venerated than other saints and it seems that in England no church was ever dedicated to him. There are many churches containing the name of Valentine in other countries.A 5th or 6th century work called Passio Marii et Marthae made up a legend about Saint Valentine's Basilica (it:Basilica di San Valentino) being dedicated to Saint Valentine in Rome. A later Passio repeated the legend and added the adornment that Pope Julius I (357-352) had built the ancient basilica S. Valentini extra Portam on top of his sepulchre, in the Via Flaminia.
This church was really named after a 4th century tribune called Valentino, who donated the land it's built in. It hosted the martyr's relics until the thirteenth century, when they were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica decayed.
In the Golden Legend
The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to deny Christ before the "Emperor Claudius"[26] in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of "Valentine", "as containing valour".St. Valentine's Day
English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine's identity, suggested that Valentine's Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia (mid-February in Rome). This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Valentine's Day", documented in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer. He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here that the bishop was a patron of lovers.
Relics and liturgical celebration
Shrine of St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland
In 1836, some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a casket, and transported to the procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love.
Also in 1836, Fr. John Spratt, an Irish priest and famous preacher, was given many tokens of esteem following a sermon in Rome. One gift from Pope Gregory XVI were the remains of St. Valentine and "a small vessel tinged with his blood." The Reliquary was placed in Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, and has remained there until this day. This was accompanied by a letter claiming the relics were those of St. Valentine.
Another relic was found in 2003 in Prague in Church of St Peter and Paul at Vyšehrad. Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the Stephansdom in Vienna, in Balzan in Malta and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus' church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland. There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words 'Corpus St. Valentin, M' (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK, in one of the side altars in the main church.
Saint Valentine remains in the Catholic Church's official list of saints (the Roman Martyrology), but, in view of the scarcity of information about him, his commemoration was removed from the General Calendar for universal liturgical veneration, when this was revised in 1969. It is included in local calendars of places such as Balzan in Malta. Some still observe the calendars of the Roman Rite from the Tridentine Calendar until 1969, in which Saint Valentine was at first celebrated as a simple feast, until 1955, when Pope Pius XII reduced the mention of Saint Valentine to a commemoration in the Mass of the day. It is kept as a commemoration by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who — in accordance with the authorization given by Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007 — use the General Roman Calendar of 1962 and the liturgy of Pope John XXIII's 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, and, as a Simple Feast, by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who use the General Roman Calendar as in 1954.
February 14 is also celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in other Christian denominations; it has, for example, the rank of 'commemoration' in the calendar of the Church of England and other parts of the Anglican Communion.
References
- Johannes Baptista de Rossi et Ludovicus Duchesne, ed., Martyrologium Hieronymianum: ad fidem codicum adiectis prolegomenis. Ex Actibus Sanctorum Novembris, Tomi II, pars prior. Bruxellis 1894. lxxxii, 195 p. S. Valentinus, p. 20.
- De Voragine, Jacobus. The Life of Saint Valentine. In Legenda Aurea, compiled around 1275
- Thurston, Herbert. St. Valentine. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.15. 1912.
- Hülsen, Christian. 1927. Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo: cataloghi ed appunti. Florence. CXV, 640 p. (On-line text).
- Thurston, Herbert. 1933. St. Valentine, Martyr. In Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol. II, pp. 214–217. New York . 409 p..
- Aigrain, René. 1953. Hagiographie: Ses sources, ses méthodes, son histoire. Paris 1953.
- Amore, Agostino. 1966. S. Valentino di Roma o di Terni?, Antonianum 41 (1966), pp 260–77.
- Kellogg, Alfred. 1972. Chaucer's St. Valentine: A Conjecture. In Kellogg, Chaucer, Langland, Arthur. 1972, pp. 108–145.
- Amore, Agostino. 1975. I martiri di Roma. Roma, Antonianum, 1975. 322 p.
- Kelly, Henry Ansgar 1986. Chaucer and the cult of Saint Valentine. Leiden, the Netherlands. 185 p.
- Martyrologium Romanum 2001. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001, p. 141 (February 14). 773 p.
- In Search of St. Valentine. Scotsman.com blog, 14 February 2005.
- Oruch, Jack B. 1981. St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February, Speculum 56 (July 1981), pp 534–565.
- Schoepflin, Maurizio and Seren, Linda. 2000. San Valentino di Terni : storia, tradizione, devozione. Morena (Roma), 2000. 111 p.
- Paglia, Vincenzo. 2007. Saint Valentine's Message. Washington Post, February 15, 2007.
- Saint Valentine: Biography. Diocese of Terni. 2009.
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Today's Snippet I: Via Flaminia
Today the same route, still called by the same name for much of its distance, is paralleled or overlain by Strada Statale (SS) 3, also called Strada Regionale (SR) 3 in Lazio and Umbria, and Strada Provinciale (SP) 3 in Marche. It leaves Rome, goes up the Val Tevere ("Valley of the Tiber River"), strikes into the mountains at Castello delle Formische, ascends to Gualdo Tadino, goes over the divide at Scheggia Pass, 575 m (1,886 ft), to Cagli. From there it descends the eastern slope waterways between the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the Umbrian Apennines to Fano on the coast and goes north parallel to Highway A1 to Rimini.
This route, convenient to ancients, is far from it to heavy modern traffic between north Italy and the capital. It remains a country road, while the traffic crosses by railway and autostrada through dozens of tunnels between Florence and Bologna, a shorter, more direct route under the ridges and nearly inaccessible passes.
History
It was constructed by Gaius Flaminius during his censorship (220 BC). Sources mention frequent improvements being made to it during the imperial period. Augustus, when he instituted a general restoration of the roads of Italy, which he assigned for the purpose among various senators, reserved the Flaminia for himself, and rebuilt all the bridges except the Pons Mulvius, by which it crosses the Tiber, 3 km (2 mi) north of Rome (built by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus in 109 BC), and an unknown Pons Minucius. Triumphal arches were erected in his honour on the former bridge and at Ariminum, the latter of which is still preserved. Vespasian constructed a new tunnel through the pass of Intercisa (Furlo), in 77, and Trajan, as inscriptions show, repaired several bridges along the road.In the Middle Ages it was known as the Ravenna road, as it led to the then more important city of Ravenna. Following the end of the Exarchate of Ravenna, it fell into disuse during the Lombard period, but was partially reconstructed in the Renaissance era and continued to be of military importance down to the Napoleonic era and World War II. As the SS 3 (Strada Statale 3) it remains one of the principal highways from Rome to the Adriatic.
The importance of the ancient Via Flaminia is twofold: during the period of Roman expansion in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Flaminia became, with the cheaper sea route, a main axis of transportation by which wheat from the Po valley supplied Rome and central Italy; during the period of Roman decline, the Flaminia was the main road leading into the heartland of Italy: it was taken by Julius Caesar at the beginning of the civil war, but also by various barbarian hordes, Byzantine generals, etc. A number of major battles were therefore fought on or near the Via Flaminia, for example at Sentinum (near the modern Sassoferrato) and near Tadinum (the modern Gualdo Tadino). In the early Middle Ages, the road, controlled by the Eastern Empire, was a civilizing influence, and accounted for much of what historians call the "Byzantine corridor".
Ancient route
Via Flaminia at Carsulae
The Via Flaminia starts at Porta del Popolo in the Aurelian Walls of Rome: Via del Corso (Via Lata), which connects the Campidoglio
to the gate, can be considered the urban stretch of the Via Flaminia.
The road then runs due north, considerable remains of its pavement being
extant under the modern road, passing slightly east of the site of the Etruscan Falerii (Civita Castellana), crossing the Tiber into Umbria over a bridge some slight vestiges of which can still be seen, the "Pile d' Augusto". From there it made its way to Ocriculum (Otricoli) and Narnia
(Narni), where it crossed the Nera River by the largest Roman bridge
ever built, a splendid four-arched structure to which Martial alludes,[1] one arch of which and all the piers are still standing; and went on, followed at first by the modern road to Casuentum (San Gemini) which passes over two finely preserved ancient bridges, through Carsulae to Mevania (Bevagna), and thence to Forum Flaminii (S. Giovanni Profiamma). Later, a more circuitous route from Narnia to Forum Flaminii was adopted, increasing the distance by 12 Roman miles (18 km) and passing by Interamna Nahars (Terni), Spoletium (Spoleto) and Fulginium (Foligno) — from which a branch diverged to Perusia (Perugia).
From Forum Flaminii the Flaminia went on to Nuceria Camellaria (Nocera Umbra) — whence a branch road ran to Septempeda and thence either to Ancona or to Tolentinum (Tolentino) and Urbs Salvia (Urbisaglia) — and Helvillum (site uncertain, probably Sigillo, but maybe Fossato di Vico), to cross the main ridge of the Apennines, a temple of Jupiter Apenninus standing at or near the summit of the pass according to one ancient author. From there it descended to Cales (Cagli), where it turned north-east following the gorges of the Burano River.
The narrowest pass was crossed by means of a tunnel chiseled out of solid rock: a first tunnel apparently of the 3rd century BC was replaced by an adjacent tunnel by Vespasian. This is the modern Gola del Furlo, the ancient name of which, Intercisa, means "cut through" with reference to these tunnels. The modern 2‑lane road, the SS 3 Flaminia, still uses Vespasian's tunnel, the emperor's dedicatory inscription still in place; remnants of the earlier tunnel can also be seen.
The Flaminia emerged from the gorges of the Apennines at Forum Sempronii (Fossombrone) and reached the coast of the Adriatic at Fanum Fortunae (Fano). Thence, it ran north-west through Pisaurum (Pesaro) to Ariminum (Rimini). The total distance from Rome was 210 Roman miles (311 km) by the older road and 222 (329 km) by the newer. The road gave its name to a juridical district of Italy from the 2nd century onwards, the former territory of the Senones, which was at first associated with Umbria (with which indeed under Augustus it had formed the sixth region of Italy called Umbria et Ager Gallicus), but which after Constantine was always administered with Picenum.
From Forum Flaminii the Flaminia went on to Nuceria Camellaria (Nocera Umbra) — whence a branch road ran to Septempeda and thence either to Ancona or to Tolentinum (Tolentino) and Urbs Salvia (Urbisaglia) — and Helvillum (site uncertain, probably Sigillo, but maybe Fossato di Vico), to cross the main ridge of the Apennines, a temple of Jupiter Apenninus standing at or near the summit of the pass according to one ancient author. From there it descended to Cales (Cagli), where it turned north-east following the gorges of the Burano River.
The narrowest pass was crossed by means of a tunnel chiseled out of solid rock: a first tunnel apparently of the 3rd century BC was replaced by an adjacent tunnel by Vespasian. This is the modern Gola del Furlo, the ancient name of which, Intercisa, means "cut through" with reference to these tunnels. The modern 2‑lane road, the SS 3 Flaminia, still uses Vespasian's tunnel, the emperor's dedicatory inscription still in place; remnants of the earlier tunnel can also be seen.
The Flaminia emerged from the gorges of the Apennines at Forum Sempronii (Fossombrone) and reached the coast of the Adriatic at Fanum Fortunae (Fano). Thence, it ran north-west through Pisaurum (Pesaro) to Ariminum (Rimini). The total distance from Rome was 210 Roman miles (311 km) by the older road and 222 (329 km) by the newer. The road gave its name to a juridical district of Italy from the 2nd century onwards, the former territory of the Senones, which was at first associated with Umbria (with which indeed under Augustus it had formed the sixth region of Italy called Umbria et Ager Gallicus), but which after Constantine was always administered with Picenum.
Remains
Extant remains of the road consist of rare patches of pavement (by far the largest is an intermittent stretch about 800 meters long at Rignano Flaminio in the northern Lazio), but for the most part of bridges, listed here in order from Rome:- From Rome to Narni:
- the Milvian Bridge (now Ponte Milvio)
- the Pile di Augusto
- Ponte Sanguinaro S of Narni
- the great bridge at Narni
- Along the western branch:
- Ponte Caldaro, damaged in World War II
- Ponte Calamone both before Sangemini
- Ponte Fonnaia near Acquasparta
- a bridge just outside Acquasparta, on which was built the church of S. Giovanni de Butris
- Ponte del Diavolo at Cavallara near Bastardo
- Along the eastern branch:
- Ponte Sanguinaro in Spoleto
- scant remains of a bridge at Pontebari
- After the branches rejoin at S. Giovanni Profiamma:
- bridge-like structure at Pieve Fanonica
- Le Spugne near Nocera Umbra
- three bridges in the comune of Fossato di Vico (one of which, however, belongs properly to a branch road off the main trunk of the Flaminia)
- Ponte Spiano in Costacciaro
- an imposing bridge at Villa Scirca, blown up in World War II
- five bridges in the comune of Cantiano, near Pontedazzo and Pontericcioli
- Ponte Mallio (or Manlio) at Cagli, which appears to be partly of pre-Roman (Umbrian) construction
- Gallery at Furlo Pass
Sport
The road was used as part of the individual road race cycling event for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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Today's Snippet II: PAENITENTIAM AGERE
PAENITENTIAM AGERE
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE JOHN XXIII
ON THE NEED FOR THE PRACTICE
OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR PENANCE
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE JOHN XXIII
ON THE NEED FOR THE PRACTICE
OF INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR PENANCE
JULY 1, 1962
To His Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries who are at Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.
1. Doing penance for one's sins is a first step towards obtaining forgiveness and winning eternal salvation. That is the clear and explicit teaching of Christ, and no one can fail to see how justified and how right the Catholic Church has always been in constantly insisting on this. She is the spokesman for her divine Redeemer. No individual Christian can grow in perfection, nor can Christianity gain in vigor, except it be on the basis of penance.
2. That is why in Our Apostolic Constitution officially proclaiming the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council and urging the faithful to make a worthy spiritual preparation for this great event by prayer and other acts of Christian virtue, We included a warning to them not to overlook the practice of voluntary mortification.(1)
A Request Repeated
2. That is why in Our Apostolic Constitution officially proclaiming the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council and urging the faithful to make a worthy spiritual preparation for this great event by prayer and other acts of Christian virtue, We included a warning to them not to overlook the practice of voluntary mortification.(1)
A Request Repeated
3. And now, as the day for the opening of the Second Vatican Council draws nearer, We wish to repeat that request of Ours and dwell on it at greater length. In doing so We are confident that We are serving the best interests of this most important and solemn assembly. For while admitting that Christ is present to His Church "all days, even unto the consummation of the world,"(2) we must think of Him as being even closer to men's hearts and minds during the time of an Ecumenical Council, for He is present in the persons of His legates, of whom He said quite emphatically "He who hears you, hears me."(3)
4. The Ecumenical Council will be a meeting of the successors of the Apostles, men to whom the Saviour of the human race gave the command to teach all nations and urge them to observe all His commandments.(4) Its manifest task, therefore, will be publicly to reaffirm God's rights over mankind, whom Christ's blood has redeemed, and to reaffirm the duties of redeemed mankind towards its God and Saviour.
Calls to Penance in the Bible
4. The Ecumenical Council will be a meeting of the successors of the Apostles, men to whom the Saviour of the human race gave the command to teach all nations and urge them to observe all His commandments.(4) Its manifest task, therefore, will be publicly to reaffirm God's rights over mankind, whom Christ's blood has redeemed, and to reaffirm the duties of redeemed mankind towards its God and Saviour.
Calls to Penance in the Bible
5. Now we have only to open the sacred books of the Old and New Testament to be assured of one thing: it was never God's will to reveal Himself in any solemn encounter with mortal men—to speak in human terms—without first calling them to prayer and penance. Indeed, Moses refused to give the Hebrews the tables of the Law until they had expiated their crime of idolatry and ingratitude.(5)
6. So too the Prophets; they never wearied of exhorting the Israelites to make their prayers acceptable to God, their supreme Overlord, by offering them in a penitential spirit. Otherwise they would bring about their own exclusion from the plan of divine Providence, according to which God Himself was to be the King of His chosen people.
7. The most deeply impressive of these prophetic utterances is surely that warning of Joel which is constantly ringing in our ears in the course of the Lenten liturgy: "Now therefore, says the Lord, Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments... Between the porch and the altar the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall weep and say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people, and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them."(6)
8. Nor did these calls to penance cease when the Son of God became incarnate. On the contrary, they became even more insistent. At the very outset of his preaching, John the Baptist proclaimed: "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(7) And Jesus inaugurated His saving mission in the same way. He did not begin by revealing the principal truths of the faith. First He insisted that the soul must repent of every trace of sin that could render it impervious to the message of eternal salvation: "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(8)
9. He was even more vehement than were the Prophets in His demands that those who listened to Him should undergo a complete change of heart and submit in perfect sincerity to all the laws of the Supreme God. "For behold," He said "the kingdom of God is within you."(9)
10. Indeed, penance is that counterforce which keeps the forces of concupiscence in check and repels them. In the words of Christ Himself, "the kingdom of heaven has been enduring violent assault, and the violent have been seizing it by force."(10)
11. The Apostles held undeviatingly to the principles of their divine Master. When the Holy Spirit had descended on them in the form of fiery tongues, Peter expressed his invitation to the multitudes to seek rebirth in Christ and to accept the gifts of the most holy Paraclete in these words: "Do penance and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."(11) Paul too, the teacher of the Gentiles, announced to the Romans in no uncertain terms that the kingdom of God did not consist in an attitude of intellectual superiority or in indulging the pleasures of sense. It consisted in the triumph of justice and in peace of mind. "For the kingdom of God does not consist in food and drink, but in justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."(12)
Penance and Baptismal Innocence
12. However, a rude awakening is in store for the person who thinks that penance is necessary only for those aspiring to membership in the kingdom of God. He who is already a member of Christ must learn of necessity to keep a rein upon himself. Only so will he be able to drive away the enemy of his soul and keep his baptismal innocence unsullied, or regain God's grace when it is lost by sin.
13. To become a member of Holy Church by baptism is to be clothed in the beauty with which Christ adorns His beloved Bride. "Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her; that he might sanctify her, cleansing her in the bath of water by means of the word of life; in order that he might present to himself the Church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she might be holy and without blemish."(13)
14. This being so, well may those sinners who have stained the white robe of their sacred baptism fear the just punishments of God. Their remedy is "to wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb"(14)—to restore themselves to their former splendor in the sacrament of Penance—and to school themselves in the practice of Christian virtue. Hence the Apostle Paul's severe warning: "A man making void the law of Moses dies without any mercy on the word of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishments do you think he deserves, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant through which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?... It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."(15)
The Bride of Christ, Holy and Unsullied
15. Certainly, Venerable Brethren, when one views the faith which distinguishes the Church, the sacraments which nourish and perfect her, the universal laws and precepts which govern her, the unfailing glory that is hers by reason of the heroic virtue and constancy of so many of her elect, there can be no doubt that the Bride of Christ, so dear to her divine Redeemer, has always kept herself holy and unsullied.
Her Forgetful Children
Her Forgetful Children
16. But of her children there are some who nevertheless forget the greatness of their calling and election. They mar their God-given beauty, and fail to mirror in themselves the image of Jesus Christ. We cannot find it in Us to threaten or abuse them, for the love We bear them is a father's love. Instead We appeal to them in the words of the Council of Trent—the best restorative for Catholic discipline. "When we put on Christ in baptism (Gal. 3.27), we become in Him an entirely new creature and obtain the full and complete remission of every sin. It is only with great effort and with great compunction on our part that we can obtain the same newness and sinlessness in the sacrament of penance, for such is the stipulation of divine justice. That is why the holy Fathers called penance 'a laborious kind of baptism'."(16)
Penance in the Prayers of the Church
Penance in the Prayers of the Church
17. The very frequency with which this call to penance is reiterated makes it imperative for Christians to recognize it as coming from the divine Redeemer for the purpose of bringing about their spiritual renewal. It is transmitted to us by the Church, in her sacred liturgy, in the teaching of the Fathers and the precepts of the Councils. "Make our souls to glow in Thy sight with desire of Thee."(17) "Help us to repress our worldly appetites, that we may the more easily obtain the blessings of heaven."(18) That is how the Catholic Church prays to God's Supreme Majesty in these ancient prayers from the Lenten liturgy.
Earlier Councils and Calls to Penance
Earlier Councils and Calls to Penance
18. Can we wonder, then, that Our predecessors, when they were preparing the ground for an Ecumenical Council, made a point of exhorting the faithful to perform salutary acts of penance?
19. Consider, for example, the words of Innocent III before the Fourth Lateran Council: "To your praying add fasting and almsgiving. It is on these wings that our prayers fly the more swiftly and effortlessly to the holy ears of God, that He may mercifully hear us in the time of need."(19)
19. Consider, for example, the words of Innocent III before the Fourth Lateran Council: "To your praying add fasting and almsgiving. It is on these wings that our prayers fly the more swiftly and effortlessly to the holy ears of God, that He may mercifully hear us in the time of need."(19)
20. Before the Second Ecumenical Council of Lyons, Gregory X wrote to all his prelates and chaplains commanding them to observe a three-day fast.(20)
21. And finally, Pius IX exhorted all the faithful to prepare themselves worthily and joyously for the First Vatican Council by ridding their souls of every stain of sin and the punishment due to sin. "It is certain," he said, "that men's prayers are more pleasing to God if they go up to Him from a pure heart; from souls, that is, that are free from all sin."(21)
Prayer and Penance for the Coming Council
22. We too, Venerable Brethren, on the example of Our predecessors, are most anxious that the whole Catholic world, both clerical and lay, shall prepare itself for this great event, the forthcoming Council, by ardent prayer, good works, and the practice of Christian penance.
23. Clearly the most efficacious kind of prayer for gaining the divine protection is prayer that is offered publicly by the whole community; for Our Redeemer said: "Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there am I in the midst of them."(22)
24. The situation, therefore, demands that Christians today, as in the days of the early Church, shall be of "one heart and one soul,"(23) imploring God with prayer and penance to grant that this great assembly may measure up to all our expectations.
25. The salutary results we pray for are these: that the faith, the love, the moral lives of Catholics may be so re-invigorated, so intensified, that all who are at present separated from this Apostolic See may be impelled to strive actively and sincerely for union, and enter the one fold under the one Shepherd.(24)
Specific Steps to be Taken
23. Clearly the most efficacious kind of prayer for gaining the divine protection is prayer that is offered publicly by the whole community; for Our Redeemer said: "Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there am I in the midst of them."(22)
24. The situation, therefore, demands that Christians today, as in the days of the early Church, shall be of "one heart and one soul,"(23) imploring God with prayer and penance to grant that this great assembly may measure up to all our expectations.
25. The salutary results we pray for are these: that the faith, the love, the moral lives of Catholics may be so re-invigorated, so intensified, that all who are at present separated from this Apostolic See may be impelled to strive actively and sincerely for union, and enter the one fold under the one Shepherd.(24)
Specific Steps to be Taken
26. To achieve greater unanimity in this prayer, Venerable Brethren, We would have you organize a solemn novena to the Holy Spirit in all the parishes of your diocese immediately preceding the Ecumenical Council. The object of this novena will be to beg for an abundance of heavenly light and supernatural aid for the Fathers in council. To all who join in this novena We impart from the Church's treasury a plenary indulgence, obtainable on the usual conditions.
27. Then, too, a public act of prayer and propitiation might fittingly be arranged in every diocese and, in conjunction with it, a special course of sermons, to serve as a fervent invitation to the faithful to redouble their works of mercy and penance. By this means they may hope to propitiate Almighty God and thus obtain by their prayers that renewal of Christian life which is one of the principal aims of the coming Council. As Our Predecessor Pius XI so aptly observed: "Prayer and penance are the two potent inspirations sent to us at this time by God, that we may bring back to Him our wayward human race that wanders aimlessly without a guide. They are inspirations that will disperse and remedy the first and foremost cause of all rebellion and unrest, man's revolt against God."(25)
Internal Repentance
28. Our first need is for internal repentance; the detestation, that is, of sin, and the determination to make amends for it. This is the repentance shown by those who make a good Confession, take part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice and receive Holy Communion. The faithful should be specially encouraged to do this during the novena to the Holy Spirit, for external acts of penance are quite obviously useless unless accompanied by a clear conscience and the detestation of sin. Hence Christ's severe warning: "Unless you repent you will all perish in the same manner."(26) God forbid that any of Our sons and daughters succumb to this danger.
Outward Acts of Penance
Outward Acts of Penance
29. But the faithful must also be encouraged to do outward acts of penance, both to keep their bodies under the strict control of reason and faith, and to make amends for their own and other people's sins. St. Paul was caught up to the third heaven—he reached the summit of holiness—and yet he had no hesitation in saying of himself "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection."(27) On another occasion he said: "They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires."(28) St. Augustine issued the same insistent warning: "It is not enough for a man to change his ways for the better and to give up the practice of evil, unless by painful penance, sorrowing humility, the sacrifice of a contrite heart and the giving of alms he makes amends to God for all that he has done wrong."(29)
30. External penance includes particularly the acceptance from God in a spirit of resignation and trust of all life's sorrows and hardships and of everything that involves inconvenience and annoyance in the conscientious performance of the obligations of our daily life and work and the practice of Christian virtue. Penance of this kind is in fact inescapable. Yet it serves not only to win God's mercy and forgiveness for our sins, and His heavenly aid for the Ecumenical Council, but also sweetens, one might almost say, the bitterness of this mortal life of ours with the promise of its heavenly reward. For "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us."(30)
Voluntary Acts as Part of External Penance
31. But besides bearing in a Christian spirit the inescapable annoyances and sufferings of this life, the faithful ought also take the initiative in doing voluntary acts of penance and offering them to God. In this they will be following in the footsteps of our divine Redeemer who, as the Prince of the Apostles said, "died once for sins, the Just for the unjust; that he might bring us to God. Put to death indeed in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit."(31) "Since, therefore, Christ has suffered in the flesh," it is only fitting that we be "armed with the same intent."(32)
32. It is right, too, to seek example and inspiration from the great saints of the Church. Pure as they were, they inflicted such mortifications upon themselves as to leave us almost aghast with admiration. And as we contemplate their saintly heroism, shall not we be moved by God's grace to impose on ourselves some voluntary sufferings and deprivations, we whose consciences are perhaps weighed down by so heavy a burden of guilt?
33. And who does not know that this sort of penance is the more acceptable to God in that it springs not from the natural infirmities of soul or body, but from a free and generous resolve of the will, and as such is a most welcome sacrifice in God's sight?
A Share in the Work of Eternal Salvation
34. Finally, the object of the Ecumenical Council, as everyone knows, will be to render more effective that divine work which our Redeemer accomplished. Christ our Lord accomplished it by being "offered... because it was his own will."(33) He accomplished it not merely by teaching men His heavenly doctrine, but also, and more especially, by pouring out His most precious blood for their salvation. Yet each of us can say with St. Paul: "I now rejoice in my sufferings... and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church."(34)
35. Let us then be alert and generous, and take full advantage of this opportunity of offering up our sorrows and sufferings to God "for building up the body of Christ,"(35) the Church. No fairer, no more desirable fate could befall us than to be given a share in that work which has as its object the eternal salvation of men who have strayed far too often from the right path of truth and virtue.
A Necessary Repudiation
36. Jesus Christ taught us self-discipline and self-denial when He said: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."(36) Yet there are many people, alas, who join instead the immoderate quest for earthly pleasures, thus debasing and weakening the nobler powers of the human spirit. It is all the more necessary, therefore, for Christians to repudiate this unworthy way of life which gives frequent rein to the turbulent emotions of the soul and seriously endangers its eternal salvation. They must repudiate it with all the energy and courage displayed by the martyrs and those heroic men and women who have been the glory of the Church in every age of her history. If everyone does this, each in his own station in life, he will be enabled to play his individual part in making this Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, which is especially concerned with the refurbishing of Christian morality, an outstanding success.
37. So much for the subject of Our letter, Venerable Brethren, and it is Our confident hope that both you yourselves and, at your instigation, all Our sons throughout the world, both clerical and lay, will give a whole-hearted and generous response to Our fatherly appeals. Everyone wants the forthcoming Ecumenical Council to give all possible impetus to the spread of Christianity. It must give louder and louder utterance to that "word by which the kingdom is preached" mentioned in the parable of the sower,(37) and help to bring about the wider extension of "the kingdom of God" in the world. But all this must depend to a large extent on the dispositions of the souls which the Council will be endeavoring to inspire to truth and virtue, to the worship of God both in private and in public, to a disciplined life and to missionary zeal.
38. Do your utmost, Venerable Brethren; explore every avenue that is open to you; have no hesitation in mustering all your authority and available resources in an effort to persuade the faithful under your charge to purify their souls by penance and to enkindle them with the fervor of piety. The "good seed" which the Council will scatter far and wide over the Church in those days must not be allowed to go to waste; it must find its way into hearts that are ready and prepared, loyal and true. If such is the case, then the forthcoming Council will indeed be for the faithful, a fruitful source of eternal salvation.
39. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."(38) These are words which We consider most applicable to that period of time which will shortly be upon us when the Ecumenical Council is in session. But when God in His Providence decrees to give His supernatural gifts to men, He does so in the measure of their own individual desires and dispositions. Hence Our long-continued insistence on the spiritual preparation of Christians for this great event. Hence, too, the supreme importance of giving heed to this final invitation of Ours addressed to those who are willing to be guided by Our demands.
High Hopes
40. We, Venerable Brethren, must lead the way; and may all the faithful—especially priests, monks and nuns, children, the sick and the afflicted—join us in praying and doing penance, that God may give His Church the abundance of light and grace that is so necessary for her at this time. For will not Almighty God surely be lavish with His gifts, after receiving so many gifts from His children; gifts which breathe the scent of myrrh, the sweet fragrance of their filial devotion?
41. Then, too, what a wonderful, what a heartening spectacle of religious fervor it will be to see the countless armies of Christians throughout the world devoting themselves to assiduous prayer and voluntary self-denial in response to Our appeals! This is the sort of religious fervor with which the Church's sons and daughters should be imbued. May their example be an inspiration to those who are so immersed in the affairs of this world as to be neglectful of their duties towards God.
42. If you can implement these desires of Ours; if when you leave your dioceses to come to Rome for the Council, you can come laden with such spiritual riches as these, then we may hope indeed to see the dawning of a new and fairer age for the Catholic Church throughout the world.
A Blessing
43. Buoyed up by this assurance, Venerable Brethren, We lovingly impart to you and to all the clergy and faithful committed to your loyal care, that pledge of heaven's graces, that earnest of Our fatherly good will, Our Apostolic Blessing.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 1st day of July, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1962, the fourth of Our Pontificate.
JOHN XXIII
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 1st day of July, the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1962, the fourth of Our Pontificate.
JOHN XXIII
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One: Profession of Faith, Sect 2 The Creeds, Ch 2 Art 3:1
CHAPTER TWO
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF
GOD
Article 3
"HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT, AND WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
Paragraph 1. THE SON OF GOD BECAME MAN
I. WHY DID
THE WORD BECOME FLESH?
456
With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: "For us men and for our
salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became
incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."
457
The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God,
who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins":
"the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world", and
"he was revealed to take away sins":Jn 4:10
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead,
to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it
to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us
the light; captives, we awaited a Saviour; prisoners, help; slaves, a
liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to
descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and
unhappy a state?St. Gregory of Nyssa, Orat. catech 15: PG 45, 48B
458
The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: "In this the
love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the
world, so that we might live through him."I Jn 4:9 "For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life."Jn 3:16
459
The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me." "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no
one comes to the Father, but by me." Mt 11:29;
⇒ Jn 14:6 On the mountain of the
Transfiguration, the Father commands: "Listen to him!"Mk 9:7; cf. Dt 6:4-5
Jesus is the model for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love
one another as I have loved you."Jn 15:12 This love implies an effective
offering of oneself, after his example.Mk 8:34
460
The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine
nature":2 Pt 1:4 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son
of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the
Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of
God."St. Irenaeus,
Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1, 939 "For the Son of God became man so that we might
become God."St. Athanasius, De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make
us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might
make men gods."St. Thomas
Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1-4
II. THE
INCARNATION
461
Taking up St. John's expression, "The Word became flesh",Jn 1:14
The Church calls "Incarnation" the fact that the Son of God assumed a
human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St.
Paul, the Church sings the mystery of the Incarnation: Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of
God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. and
being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.Phil 2:5-8; cf. LH, Saturday,
Canticle at Evening Prayer
462
The Letter to the Hebrews refers to the same mystery:
Consequently, when Christ came
into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you
have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Lo, I have come to do your will, O
God."Heb 10:5-7, citing Ps 40:6-8 (7-9 LXX)
463
Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of
Christian faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God."Jn 4:2
Such is the joyous conviction of the Church from her beginning whenever she
sings "the mystery of our religion": "He was manifested in the
flesh."1 Tim 3:16
III. TRUE
GOD AND TRUE MAN
464
The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God
does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply
that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He
became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true
man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of
faith against the heresies that falsified it.
465
The first heresies denied not so much Christ's divinity as his true humanity
(Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic times the Christian faith has insisted on
the true incarnation of God's Son "come in the flesh". I Jn 4:2-3 But
already in the third century, the Church in a council at Antioch had to affirm
against Paul of Samosata that Jesus Christ is Son of God by nature and not by
adoption. the first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed
that the Son of God is "begotten, not made, of the same substance
(homoousios) as the Father", and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that
the Son of God "came to be from things that were not" and that he was
"from another substance" than that of the Father.Council of
Nicaea I (325): DS 130, 126
466
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine
person of God's Son. Opposing this heresy, St. Cyril of Alexandria and the
third ecumenical council, at Ephesus in 431, confessed "that the Word,
uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became
man."Council of Ephesus (431): DS 250 Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine
person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his
conception. For this reason the Council of Ephesus proclaimed in 431 that Mary
truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her
womb: "Mother of God, not that the nature of the Word or his divinity
received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin, but that, since
the holy body, animated by a rational soul, which the Word of God united to
himself according to the hypostasis, was born from her, the Word is said to be
born according to the flesh."Council of Ephesus: DS 251
467 The Monophysites affirmed
that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine
person of God's Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical
council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed: Following
the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the
same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body;
consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as
to his humanity; "like us in all things but sin". He was begotten
from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for
us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the
Mother of God.Council of Chalcedon (451): DS 301; cf. ⇒ Heb
4:15
We confess that one and the
same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures
without confusion, change, division or separation. the distinction between the
natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to
each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person
(prosopon) and one hypostasis.Council of Chalcedon: DS 302
468
After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's human nature a kind of
personal subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical council, at Constantinople
in 553, confessed that "there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is
our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity."Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 424 Thus everything in
Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper
subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death:
"He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God,
Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity."Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 432; cf. DS 424; Council of
Ephesus, DS 255
Ephesus, DS 255
469
The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true God and true man. He
is truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God and Lord, became a man
and our brother: "What he was, he remained and what he was not, he
assumed", sings the Roman Liturgy.LH, 1 January, Antiphon for Morning Prayer; cf. St. Leo the Great,
Sermo in nat. Dom. 1, 2; PL 54, 191-192 and the liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only-begotten Son and Word of God,
immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become incarnate of the
holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change became man and
were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have crushed death, you
who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
save us!"Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Troparion O monogenes
IV. HOW IS
THE SON OF GOD MAN?
470
Because "human nature was assumed, not absorbed",GS 22 # 2 in the
mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of
centuries to confess the full reality of Christ's human soul, with its
operations of intellect and will, and of his human body. In parallel fashion,
she had to recall on each occasion that Christ's human nature belongs, as his
own, to the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it. Everything that
Christ is and does in this nature derives from "one of the Trinity".
The Son of God therefore
communicates to his humanity his own personal mode of existence in the Trinity.
In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of
the Trinity:Jn 14:9-10
The Son of
God. . . worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a
human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has
truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.GS 22 # 2
Christ's
soul and his human knowledge
471
Apollinarius of Laodicaea asserted that in Christ the divine Word had replaced
the soul or spirit. Against this error the Church confessed that the eternal Son
also assumed a rational, human soul.Damasus 1: DS 149
472
This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human
knowledge. As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was
exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This
is why the Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and
in stature, and in favour with God and man",Lk 2:52 and would even
have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn
only from experience.Mk 6 38;
⇒ 8 27; ⇒ Jn
11:34 This corresponded to the reality of his
voluntary emptying of himself, taking "the form of a
slave".Phil 2:7
473
But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine
life of his person.Cf. St.
Gregory the Great, "Sicut aqua" ad Eulogium, Epist. Lib. 10, 39 PL 77, 1097 Aff.; DS 475 "The human nature of God's Son, not by
itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself
everything that pertains to God."St. Maximus the Confessor, Qu. et dub. 66 PG 90, 840A Such is first of all the case
with the intimate and immediate knowledge that the Son of God made man has of
his Father.Mk 14:36 The Son in his human knowledge also showed the divine
penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.Mk 2:8
474
By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ
enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal
plans he had come to reveal.Mk 8:31 What he admitted to not knowing in this
area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal.Mk 13:32
Christ's
human will
475
Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the
Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations,
divine and human. They are not opposed to each other, but co-operate in such a
way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that
he had decided divinely with the Father and the Holy Spirit for our
salvation.Council of Constantinople III (681): DS 556-559 Christ's human will "does not resist or oppose but
rather submits to his divine and almighty will."Council of Constantinople III: DS 556
Christ's
true body
476
Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was
finite.Cf. Council of the Lateran (649): DS 504 Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the
seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its
representation in holy images to be legitimate.Cf. Cal 3:1; cf. Council of Nicaea II (787): DS 600-603
477
At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that in the body of Jesus
"we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we
cannot see."Roman Missal, Preface of Christmas I The individual characteristics of Christ's body
express the divine person of God's Son. He has made the features of his human
body his own, to the point that they can be venerated when portrayed in a holy
image, for the believer "who venerates the icon is venerating in it the
person of the one depicted".Council of Nicaea II: DS 601
The Heart
of the Incarnate Word
478
Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his agony and his
Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . .
loved me and gave himself for me."Cal 2:20 He has loved us all with a
human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins
and for our salvation,Jn 19:34 "is quite rightly considered the chief
sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually
loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without
exception.Pius XII, Enc. Haurietis aquas (1956): DS 3924; cf. DS 3812
IN BRIEF
479 At the time appointed by
God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and
substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine
nature he has assumed human nature.
480 Jesus Christ is true God
and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one
and only mediator between God and men.
481 Jesus Christ possesses
two natures, one divine and the other human, not confused, but united in the
one person of God's Son.
482 Christ, being true God
and true man, has a human intellect and will, perfectly attuned and subject to
his divine intellect and divine will, which he has in common with the Father
and the Holy Spirit.
483 The Incarnation is
therefore the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in
the one person of the Word.
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