HOMILY OF POPE PAUL VI

6 May 1973

During the Cappella Papale in St Peter’s on 6 May to commemorate the 16th centenary of the death of St Athanasius, Pope Paul VI delivered the following homily in the presence of His Holiness Shenouda III.

“That is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it We very willingly repeat this liturgical acclamation, motivated by the feast of Easter, on this present occasion in which the presence of Patriarch Shenouda III ‒ one who is himself honoured by the title of “Pope” of the venerable and most ancient Coptic Church which has its centre at Alexandria in Egypt ‒ evokes in our heart a profound emotion. Here is one who is Head of a Church which is still officially separated from us and which for centuries has been absent from the communal celebration of prayer with this Church of Rome. He is indeed Head of a Church whose origin goes back to the Evangelist Mark, whom Saint Peter calls his son (1 Pt. 5:13), and which had in Saint Athanasius ‒ the sixteenth centenary of whose blessed death we are celebrating today ‒ the invincible defender of our common Nicene faith, that is, faith in the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was proclaimed, under divine inspiration, by Simon, son of John, who was therefore transformed by Christ himself into the unchanging Peter and made by him the foundation of the whole Church. He is here, and he has come expressly and spontaneously to tie again the bonds of love (cf. Col. 3:14) in happy anticipation of that perfect unity of the spirit (cf. Eph. 3:4) which, after the recent Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, we are striving humbly and sincerely to restore. He is here with us and with this great assembly of faithful at the tomb of the Apostle Peter. How could we not rejoice and invite all of you, sons and daughters of this Roman Catholic Church, to praise the Lord with us on this extraordinary day? Do we not see that the book of the Church’s history, in which the mysterious hand of the Lord is the chief guide of men’s hands to write there “new things and old” (cf. Mt. 13:52), opens before us centuries-old pages and others which are still unused and ready to register events ‒ God willing! ‒ which will be happier ones, the records of the merciful Providence of God in the life of the Church which is still a pilgrim in time? How could we not greet this great and venerable Brother who has come from afar and who today is so close to us, our visitor, our guest, here at our altar and united with our pontifical prayer, together with his large and representative and most noble entourage?

The reading from the Holy Gospel (Lk. 24:35‒48) to which we have just listened invites us to reflect on the fundamental theme of our faith: the theme of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does not Saint Paul say: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:8)? And it seems that this Gospel narrative of the Mass that we are celebrating intends to bear witness to the reality of the fact of Christ’s Resurrection as an objective historical reality, proved even by the direct and tangible experience of the senses, even though it pertains to a supernatural order. It seems likewise to wish to stimulate us to draw directly from the observation of this unheard-of reality our indomitable and most lively faith, faith like that of Thomas, the positive man of criticism, of doubt and of verification, with his words which still resound: My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28).

How propitious is today’s liturgical reflection, celebrating as it does the glorious memory, as we have said, of Saint Athanasius, the intrepid and undaunted defender of the faith! Saint Athanasius is a Father and Doctor of the universal Church and thus merits our common commemoration.

The best way of commemorating a Saint who made an extraordinary contribution to the life of the Church at a decisive moment of her history, when heretics denied the very consubstantial divinity of the Word and hence of Christ, seems to us to be by reflecting on the heritage which he has left us, the witness of faith in his life and in his thought.

When we reflect on his life, we see a believer solidly founded on evangelical faith, a convinced defender and champion of truth and one who was ready to endure every calumny, persecution and violence. Of the forty-six years of his episcopate, he spent twenty in repeated exile; this very city of Rome gave him shelter for three years during his second exile, from April 339 till October 346, in the time of Pope Julius, (337‒352).

Always and everywhere and before all men, before the powerful and those in error, he professed faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, true God and true man; therefore the Eastern liturgical tradition describes him as a “column of the true faith” (Apolytikion of 2 May) and the Catholic Church numbers him among the Doctors of the Church.

He was indeed a man of the Church, a vigilant and attentive pastor. He dedicated his entire life to the service of the Church, not only his own Church of Alexandria but the whole Church, bringing everywhere the warmth of his faith, the edifying example of his unswervingly consistent life and the call to prayer which he had learned from the monks of the desert, amongst whom he was several times obliged to take refuge.

The divinity of Christ is the central point of Saint Athanasius’ preaching to the men of his time, who were tempted by the Arian crisis. The definition of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) ‒ according to which Jesus Christ is the Son of God, of the same substance as the Father, true God from true God ‒ was the constant point of reference of his teaching. Only if one accepts this doctrine can one speak of redemption, of salvation and of the reestablishment of communion between man and God. Only the Word of God perfectly redeems; without the Incarnation, man would remain in the state of corrupt nature, from which penance itself could not free him (cf. De Incarnatione, PG, 25, 144, 119).

Freed by Christ from corruption and saved from death, man is reborn to new life and acquires once more the pristine image of God, in which he had been created in the beginning and which sin had corrupted. “The Word of God” declares Saint Athanasius, “came himself, so that, being the Image of the Father, he might create man anew in the image of God” (ibid.).

Saint Athanasius evolves this theology, centering it on the sharing of redeemed man in the very life of God, through baptism and sacramental life. He even declares, in a forceful expression, that the Word of God “became man so that we might be divinized” (ibid.).

This new creation restores what sin had compromised: the knowledge of God and a radical change of life.

Jesus Christ reveals the Father to us and makes him knowable: “The Word of God became visible with a body so that we might be able to form an idea of the invisible Father” (ibid.).

From this new knowledge of God follows the need for moral renewal. Saint Athanasius calls for it strongly: “Whoever wishes to understand the things of God must purify himself in his way of life and resemble the Saints by the similarity of his own actions, so that united with them in the conduct of his life he may be able to understand what has been revealed to them by God” (ibid.).

We are thus brought to the centre of the Christian event: redemption by the work of Jesus Christ, the radical renewal of man with his restoration to the image and likeness of God, restored communion of life between man and God, also expressed in a profound change of conduct.

This is the sublime message which Saint Athanasius the Great today addresses also to us: to be strong in faith and consistent in the practice of the Christian life, even at the cost of grave sacrifices. It is up to us to accept this message, to meditate on it, examine it closely and put it into practice in our lives.

Through the prayers of Saint Athanasius, Father and Doctor of the Church, may God grant us ‒ us too today ‒ the grace to be able worthily to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he is the Saviour of the world.

And finally we would wish to address a word to the faithful whom we see here present.

Faithful of the Roman Parish of Saint Athanasius, we are happy to see you present for this great ceremony. We greet you all and ask you to take our greetings and our blessing to the entire parish community. We urge you especially to honour the memory of the great patron of your parish: Saint Athanasius. To honour him in what way? With the commemoration of his life and the profession of his faith. With the love of Christ the Eternal Word of God, Son of God and Son of Man, our Teacher and our Saviour. And with a sincere and faithful commitment to the Church of Christ and with a practical charity towards our neighbour. Are we understood? To all of you and to your Parish Priest we impart our special Apostolic Blessing.

(Information Service 22 (1973/IV) pp.4‒5. Reproduced in special issue of Information Service 76 (1991/I) pp.3‒4).