Father of Europe

Monday we celebrated St Columban here at Milford… and really, I have never known too much about him. Until now, I had only heard the general drift of how Columban had suffered for the faith, and how he had gone on to found a monastery at Iona and worked to evangelize Europe. Very nice. But to hear the Irish themselves talk of Columban: Wooooh! Controversies, religious wars, bloodshed and thousands of deaths. Columban is pictured by them as less zealous and more rash in his youth. His evangelizing mission seems more the result of a deep conversion of heart and a response born of repentance and compassion. The stories were fascinating -- a surprising, swash-buckling saga even! I never expected to hear what I was hearing.

And I heard two sermons and three dinner conversations about St Columban that day and the next… But as it often happens, once you have become aware of someone, you begin to hear of him all the time. In today's general audience, Pope Benedict centered his talk on the figure of Columba. He had this to say:

St Columban's message is concentrated in a firm appeal to conversion and detachment from earthly goods, with a view to the eternal inheritance. With his ascetic life and conduct free from compromises when he faced the corruption of the powerful, he is reminiscent of the severe figure of St John the Baptist. His austerity, however, was never an end in itself but merely the means with which to open himself freely to God's love and to correspond with his whole being to the gifts received from him, thereby restoring in himself the image of God, while at the same time cultivating the earth and renewing human society. I quote from his Instructiones: "If man makes a correct use of those faculties that God has conceded to his soul, he will be likened to God. Let us remember that we must restore to him all those gifts which he deposited in us when we were in our original condition. "He has taught us the way with his Commandments. The first of them tells us to love the Lord with all our heart, because he loved us first, from the beginning of time, even before we came into the light of this world" (cf. Instructiones XI).

The Irish Saint truly incarnated these words in his own life. A man of great culture - he also wrote poetry in Latin and a grammar book - he proved rich in gifts of grace. He was a tireless builder of monasteries as well as an intransigent penitential preacher who spent every ounce of his energy on nurturing the Christian roots of Europe which was coming into existence. With his spiritual energy, with his faith, with his love for God and neighbour, he truly became one of the Fathers of Europe. He shows us even today the roots from which our Europe can be reborn.

Europe. Of course, Pope Benedict spends a lot of time speaking about Europe, inviting leaders and peoples not to turn their back on their Christian heritage. Does post-modern necessarily mean "post-christian"?

It was an interesting general audience from what I have seen on the internet at the Vatican website. More on this later. It is getting late.