Bishop Graber: Athanasius and the Church of Our Time

[Stone]

Athanasius and the Church of Our Time
by Bishop Dr Rudolf Graber
Translated from the German on the 1600th anniversary of his death

FOREWORD

THE 1600 DAY OF THE DEATH of St. Athanasius should not pass by without at least a mention of him in one of the writings. He is one of the few saints to whom history has given the nickname “the Great”. Instead of many words, we quote here what Johann Adam Möhler in his book “Athanasius the Great and the Church in His Time”, especially in the struggle with Arianism ( Mainz 1844) writes about him in the preface: “As soon as I made my first acquaintance with church history, Athanasius appeared to meof such great importance, its fates so extraordinary, its oppression for the sake of faith, its revival, its renewed fall and renewed rise, the high Christian dignity, the exaltation over every misfortune that shines out to us from its history, took my participation so much to claim that a deep longing arose in me to get to know the great man better and to study him in his own writings. The dark feeling that attracted me to these was not deceived: a rich source of spiritual nourishment flowed to me from them. But the more I compared what I found in Athanasius himself with what I found about him in other books, the more it pained me that this great church father was not so well known and recognized in wide circles for a long time. than he deserves it so much. This made me decide to work on it, to bring to light the treasures of Christian wisdom and knowledge hidden in it and to describe its entire history. “

In line with the title of this work, the title was chosen: “Athanasius and the Church of Our Time” (in the struggle with modernism).

May this humble writing help to fulfill the words which Basil the Great addressed to Athanasius in 371: “In everything the Lord works great through those who are worthy of him. We therefore hope that such a great service will be befitting you, as a result of which the confusion of the people will end, that all will submit to one another in love and that the old strength of the Church will be renewed. “

Regensburg, am Feste des hl. Athanasius -2. May 1973

+ Rudolf Graber Bishop of Regensburg



INTRODUCTION

As if the powers of the deep and the powers in the heights were destroying the church from the face of the earth. But one stood there like a rock, a breakwater, Athanasius; One jumped into the breach everywhere, Athanasius; one swung God’s sword over east and west, Athanasius “(2).

How much this great confessor moved the minds in stormy times is shown – to name just one example – the church political pamphlet of the great Görre “Athanasius” (3), which this after the arrest of the Archbishop of Cologne Klemens August Freiherr von Droste-Vischering, which was “the hour of birth of a Catholic German people” (4), published in 1838. Franz Schnabel says of this writing: “The effect of the pamphlet was overwhelming. Here spoke a brilliant and experienced journalist who knew how to put the words, how to produce the evidence and how to grasp the educated reader, so that from there the effect spread to the people. After just a few weeks, seven thousand copies were out of print “(5). The government issued a ban, but had to refrain from this project. because the resistance that was sparked was too strong. In the preface to the second edition, Görres takes a sharp stand against those who demand a “German Concilium”: “Then the good time will come and the old one will be abolished. Anyone who has had a crazy idea for fifty years, who has not found a buyer, has recently brought it to market here; for now or never “(6). This Concilium would have to be “an ecumenical one.” (7)

As preconditions for the admission of the Protestants, Görres ironically demands “that they have critically destroyed at least one chapter of the Bible; those that naturally explain at least one miracle of the Bible and therefore do it are capable of; those who have succeeded in finding and interpreting a new Jewish or Christian myth; all who have any foundation of the doctrine, then the holy synod would not fail to proceed immediately to order and establish the doctrine. A new creed would have to be designed as the foundation and foundation of the whole, of the kind that all reasonable people are allowed to profess it. In view of the advances that science has made in recent times, it cannot be difficult to bring about such a work, all the more so since some good preparatory work is already available from some quarters “(9). Görres himself then tries this Formulation of such a new creed, targeting contemporary Hegelian philosophy and making it ridiculous.

It goes beyond the scope of our introduction to go into the content of “Athanasius” in detail. Nevertheless, we cannot fail to quote a few things and leave it to the reader to discover something related to our time. Görres’ description of the lying zeitgeist is captivating : “It has come to the point where we find ourselves surrounded and surrounded by lies, as if by an atmosphere; it is breathed in and breathed out … So it happened that we are in the most important things in a fictional world walking around; in an artificial fabulous realm that we ourselves have fantasized about according to our narrow-minded views, our preconceived opinions, our shallow thoughts and poor passions; so far removed from the reality of things,that they do not even recognize each other in the bad aftermath “(10).

Görres, however, does not deal with the Cologne event alone, but goes far back in the prehistory. The removal of the old head of the empire, the emperor, should have been followed by that of the pope. But because this did not succeed, “at least for the time being … the members should separate themselves from him … As it was now court lawyers and territorial diplomats who threaded and carried out the first work, so it was court canonists and metropolitan theologians who did the other Businesses underwent themselves and Catholic priests came and sat in council everywhere during the drafting, and diligently lent a hand in the execution “(11).

So much for the “Athanasius” of the great Görres, whose 125th anniversary of death we are celebrating this year. In our century we meet the Alexandrian again in the novel by the Silesian Cosmus Flam (actually Dr. Josef Pietsch) who was wounded and lost during the siege of Breslau. , who published the work in 1930: “Athanasius comes to the big city or the animal pit” (12). In this utopian novel, which today has to be given the predicate prophetic (13), the poet describes the metropolis of part of Europe, “in which God, spirit, soul and nature have been radically switched off, where love of sex is degraded and the dictatorship of technology prevails “(14). In this city there is a small group of people who have heard of Christ and who call themselves Christian. Athanasius addressed the following words to these compromise Christians, among other things: “You want to be children of light, but you do not want to give up being children of the world. You should believe in repentance, but you believe in the happiness of the new age. You should speak of grace, but you prefer to speak of human progress. You should proclaim God, but you prefer to preach to man and mankind. You call yourselves after Christ, but you should rather name yourselves after Pilate … You are the great ruin. Because you etch in the middle. In the middle you want to sit hissing light and world. You are masters of compromise and go with the world. I tell you: rather go out into the world and leave the Master, whose kingdom is not of this world “(15). Aren’t these really prophetic words? From all that we have quoted from the works mentioned, our intention is clear. The intellectually powerful, intrepid Athanasius should also raise his voice today against what is going on in the church.

Shortly after the fateful June 30, 1934, when Hitler’s henchmen put down the alleged Röhmputsch and liquidated a number of people unpopular to the regime, such as Klausener, Gerlich, and Probst, a small but rousing booklet appeared in the Liga-Verlag in Lucerne: “ St. Ambrose and the German Bishops “. With imploring words the bishops were called upon to imitate the example of the Milanese bishop who, in 390, confronted the Emperor Theodosius and demanded repentance from him for lynching 2,000 people in the Thessalonica circus So – and this was the exhortation of that scripture – the bishops should solemnly protest against what happened on June 30, 1934. This example also shows

Before we turn to a pastoral letter of Athanasius, the situation of the church at the time of Athanasius must be touched upon in a few lines.

But let us leave St. Basilius speak, who writes in a letter from the year 371: “The heresy, which had long since been scattered by the enemy of truth, by Arius, shot up to insolent heights, and like a bitter root it sprouts perishable fruit and is already overpowering because the standard bearer the true doctrine in the individual parishes were driven out of the churches as a result of slander and offense and the authority in their administration was given to those who take captive the hearts of the simple “(16).

In a letter to Athanasius from the year 371/72 there are the telling words: “The whole Church is in dissolution” (17). Looking up at this column on the Nile gives the Bishop of Caesarea courage “from the depths of despair to hope better days “(18). Another letter, written in 372, is addressed to the bishops of Italy and Gaul to come to the rescue “before the churches are completely shipwrecked” (19), because “not only one church is endangered, not even two or three are difficult Storm affected. The evil of heresy rages almost from the borders of Illyria to Thebais. The notorious Arius first sowed the perishable seeds “(20). In the same year he speaks to thePriests of Tarsus that “the present time has a strong tendency to overthrow the Church”. (21) Exactly 1,600 years ago, in the year of the death of Athanasius, he raised the question in a letter to the Alexandrians: “Did he Lord has left his church completely? Is the last hour here, and with this the apostasy begins, so that now the man of sin, the son of perdition, the adversary, who rises above all that is called God and sanctuary, may be revealed “(22). These short quotations, which can of course be multiplied, give an idea of what the church was like back then. What the Cappadocians now describe more generally, Athanasius enumerated in detail in a pastoral letter, who is unique about the grandiose force of the style and the unspeakable pain of his writer and who should provide the framework for our treatise. Here too, of course, the historical background must be briefly outlined. Once again an Arian synod, that of Antioch in 339, had deposed the “immortal” (Athanasius) bishop of Alexandria and sent Gregory the Cappadocian in his place.

“The news of the renewed deposition of Athanasius gave the signal for a storm in Alexandria. The imperial prefect Philagrius intervened with a hard hand. On the night of March 18, 340, Athanasius was expelled from the episcopal palace. The people surrounded the churches with threatening gestures. Athanasius wanted to prevent the worst, he quickly baptized the catechumens, then he fled, and Gregory rode into the city under the protection of a warband. The Jews, Gentiles, and Arians cheered the hireling. A dull murmur and a cry of desperation went through the congregation of believers when Gregory took possession of their churches amid appalling horrors. It was Good Friday. The expelled father heard in his hiding place by the city, how the death scream of those killed by Gregor drowned out the Easter alleluia. Messengers came and told him in breathless horror that hundreds had been dragged out of the churches into the dungeons, holy virgins had been stripped in the squares in front of the sanctuaries and beaten with clubs until they collapsed, and he saw the fire in the sky burned up Christian houses of worship. He can no longer hold out, he writes a letter to all of his bishops, lines full of tremendous pain and yet also a powerful urge to fight. Once a Levite’s wife was desecrated and murdered. Then the Levite in his pain dismembered the corpse and sent the pieces to all the tribes of Israel, so that all of them might see the crime as having happened to themselves and rise like one man for vengeance, and all the tribes should be set in motion, and holy war should be broken out. So did Athanasius begin. And he goes on: “The misfortune of the Levite is nothing compared to what has now been dared against the Church”, and he invokes her in love for the Savior: “Do not overlook such iniquities, do not allow the famous The church of the Alexandrines will be trampled underfoot by the heretics – so that the faith of the church and the laws will not perish in a short time “(23).

This introduction, which is based on a gruesome event from the Book of Judges (24), is taken literally and, in the spirit of Athanasius, we try to describe what has broken through the twelve tribes of the new Israel so that they can muster up to fight resolutely against the threatening “dissolution of the Church” of which Basil spoke or against “self-destruction”, as Pope Paul VI. called it (25).

CIRCULAR LETTER FROM ST ATHANASIUS TO ALL BISHOPS, DATED 340

Athanasius sends greetings (joy) in the Lord to the fellow-bishops as a whole, the beloved gentlemen.

What we have suffered is terrible and almost unbearable; it is not possible to report on it accordingly. In order to make the horror of the events known more quickly, I thought it would be good to recall an account of the Holy Scriptures. A Levite who had been deeply disgraced on his wife – she was a Hebrew woman from the tribe of Judah – must see the excess of the crime. Shaken by the crime that had been dared against him, he divided – as the Holy Scriptures in the Book of Judges tells (chapter 19) – the body of the slain woman and sent parts to the tribes of Israel. Not he alone, but everyone should endure such a serious crime. If they suffered from it with him, everyone should avenge it too. But if they didn’t want to see any of it, so they should all be disgraced as if they themselves were the evildoers. The messengers now reported the incident. But those who heard and saw it declared: This had never happened since the days when the sons of Israel came up out of Egypt. All the tribes of Israel became agitated, and as if they had suffered it themselves, they all rallied against the wrongdoers. The criminals were defeated in war and they were all disgusting. Because the assembled multitudes did not pay attention to the tribal affiliation, but only looked with contempt at the crime. All the tribes of Israel became agitated, and as if they had suffered it themselves, they all rallied against the wrongdoers. The criminals were defeated in war and they were all disgusting. Because the assembled multitudes did not pay attention to the tribal affiliation, but only looked with contempt at the crime. All the tribes of Israel became agitated, and as if they had suffered it themselves, they all rallied against the wrongdoers. The criminals were defeated in war and were horrific to all. Because the assembled multitudes did not pay attention to the tribal affiliation, but only looked with contempt at the crime.

You, brothers, know the story and what the Scriptures clearly show with it. I do not want to elaborate on that, since I am writing to the know, and I now urge you to draw your attention to what has happened now, much worse than then. But that’s why I thought of this story so that you can compare the current events with those of that time and recognize how the present exceeds the cruelty of the past. But you may be more violent against the wrongdoers than it was then. Because the harshness of the persecution against us exceeds that too. The unhappiness of the Levite is small compared to what is assumed today in relation to the church. You haven’t heard anything worse than that in the whole world, no one has experienced greater suffering. Back then it was a single woman of the injustice, a single Levite who suffered violence. Today, however, the whole Church endures injustice, the priesthood has been reviled in high spirits, and – what is worse – the fear of God persecuted by ungodliness. At that time every tribe was terrified at the sight of part of a single woman. Today you can see the whole church cut into pieces. One sees the messengers who are sent to you and to others and report the arrogance and injustice they have suffered. Let yourselves be shaken, I swear you, not as if only we, but as if you too had been wronged. Everyone should help as if he were suffering from it himself. Otherwise the church order and faith of the church may shortly perish. Both are threatened if God does not quickly put the offenses back in order through you,

It is not only now that the church has received order and statutes. They were handed over safely and safely by the fathers. Faith did not just begin now either; it came upon us from the Lord through the disciples. Let it not be that what has been preserved in the churches from the beginning up to our time be given up in our day; may not what has been entrusted to us be embezzled by us. Brethren, as stewards of the mysteries of God, let yourselves be moved as you see how all that is stolen from others. You will hear more of the mail carriers; It urges me to show this briefly, so that you can really see that this has never happened against the churches since the day when the Lord exalted to heaven gave the disciples his commission with the words: “Go out"