… let us remain in thanksgiving - it is more edifying -
to keep alive in us a love for Rome. Quella roma, onde Cristo e romano. We know
well this beautiful line from Dante: “That Rome, whose Christ is Roman.”
Without meaning to, the poet expressed a profound truth.
The philosopher Etienne Gilson had some beautiful
reflections on this thought of Dante:
Here, we are at the heart of Dante’s political ideas in
their most universal and philosophical form. […] Dante wished to demonstrate a
truth that he rightly considered new and original, and that still is so today
in its essence, if not in its realization: a single world, united under the
authority of a free Emperor, and a single global Church, united under an
equally single and free pope, this pope and this Emperor each depending only on
God. So the empire, but what empire?
In Dante’s eyes, the question did not arise, for his
Monarchy traces its history to give its titles. This empire already exists as a
seedling; it is the empire of Rome. […] Is Empire not the vocation proper to
Rome among all peoples? Others have art, others have science, others have
eloquence, “but you, Rome, remember to impose your empire on all peoples; your
art will be to make peace reign among the nations, sparing the vanquished and
slaying the proud” (Aeneid, VI, 851-853).
In the poet’s broader Christian perspective, Rome’s
providential role in the political unification of the globe becomes the role
she plays at the same time in the great work of universal redemption. It is not
for nothing that Jesus Christ wished to be born in the Roman Empire, at the
time when political peace reigned among the peoples. The Roman Empire, Virgil
and the Aeneid are three inseparable moments of the genesis of the Sacred
Poem.” (Etienne Gilson, Dante et Beatrice)
Dom Gueranger sang with admiration of the Romanity of the
Church, and Louis Veuillot, in the name of Constantine’s Donation, proudly
exclaimed: “Rome is the pope’s.” It is true, but, as Fr Calmel so wisely
wrote, “The Church is not the mystical body of the pope; the Church with the pope is the Mystical Body of Christ,” and the Church was not given to him, but
entrusted to him: in the Church, the pope remains ever the servant, and not the
master. It is Rome who preaches the immutable truth to which the pope must
faithfully lend his voice.
If the pope is the visible Vicar of Jesus who has
ascended to the invisible heavens, he is no more than the vicar: vices gerens;
he fills the spot, but he remains someone else. The grace by which the Mystical
Body lives does not come from the pope.”
Christ became Roman when the Church became Roman, when
Rome was baptized by the blood of the martyrs and became Christian, and the
homeland of all Christians. It was the martyrs who took possession of Rome, to
give it to Jesus Christ, long before Constantine gave it to the pope. Yes, Rome
is the pope’s, but Rome belongs first to Jesus Christ.
The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is Roman. And
St Pius X wisely added these amplifications to the four traditional marks of
the Church, in January 1907: The Church is called one, holy, Catholic,
apostolic, Roman, and I would add, persecuted. Did Jesus Christ not say so? It
is one of the Church’s characteristics to be always persecuted. Persecution is
the sign that we are truly the children of the Church of Jesus Christ.”
And Archbishop Lefebvre wished his priests to be “Roman”.
In the early days of the Society, he would send young priests to spend six
months in Rome to acquire the spirit and the sense of the Catholic and Roman
Church, and to deepen the mystery of their Holy Mass… May they leave Rome with
an indefectible attachment to Peter and to his successors, insofar as they are
truly his successors and behave as such” (letter, September 15, 1977).
The last chapter of his Spiritual Journey [pp.71-73] is
another homage to the Romanitas of the Church: "God, Who leads all things,
has in His infinite wisdom prepared Rome to become the Seat of Peter and center
for the radiation of the Gospel. […] 'Romanitas' is not a vain word. […] Let us
love to see how the ways of Divine Providence and Wisdom pass through Rome. We
will conclude that one cannot be Catholic without being Roman. […] God willed
that Christianity, case in a certain way in the Roman mold, receive from it a
vigorous and exception expansion.”
It is because he was a Roman citizen that St Paul,
having made an appeal to Caesar, came to Rome to die, but it was Jesus Christ
Himself who willed that St Peter be crucified in Rome. And Christ became Roman
when Peter and Paul baptized Rome’s soil with their blood. That is why we love
Rome as we love the Church and Jesus Christ, and we are Roman with all our
heart because that is where St Peter and St Paul planted the roots of the
Holy Church, whose head is Jesus Christ, whose soul is the Holy Ghost, whose
heart is the Virgin Mary and whose sinful members we all are.
It is Rome that preserves for us the Faith and the truth
for which the martyrs died. It is Rome that sings the glory of Jesus Christ.
And the Roman Church is beautiful and holy, despite the sinners that we are,
because she still reveals to us today the sweet face of Jesus Christ, King of
souls, of families, and of peoples.
O Roma Felix…
Blessed Rome, you who were consecrated
By the glorious blood of these two princes!
Purpled with their blood, you alone
Surpass all other beauties of the world.
(Aurea luce,
Vespers hymn, June 29 - Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, Patrons of Rome)
