We accept loyally, with an enlightened faith, the guidance and teachings of the successors of Peter and the Apostles
(Constitution 6)
Bishop Eugene’s publication for the people of his diocese of Pope Pius IX’s letter to the universal Church asking for help for the famine in Ireland, concluded with a call to support the Pope in his suffering for the Church.
Popes, until Pope Paul VI abolished it, were crowned with a tiara. This crown had its origin in the dual role of the Pope as the spiritual head of the Church and as, still in Eugene’s lifetime, the temporal ruler (king) of the Papal States. His temporal rule was finally eliminated in 1870 but the tiara remained in use until 1963.
His head wears the crown of thorns of the divine Savior under the tiara of the Pontiff-King.
A firm supporter of the divinely-instituted mission of the successor of Peter, Eugene believed that the Pope had a special understanding of the destiny of the Church, despite its sufferings.
So, like Jesus Christ from the cross, his Vicar from the throne of the Prince of the Apostles cries out to the world. His spirit, illuminated by a supernatural light that penetrates the depths of what is happening today, has an insight into the dark plots of evil. He tells us that he is constantly preoccupied with them, and that he is alarmed by them. He is like the Saviour in the Garden of Olives, when his struggles, his sufferings and the unfaithfulness of humankind presented themselves to his mind, and he was seized with fear and affliction, “distressed and agitated” (ed. Mark 14:33)
Bishop Eugene’s Circular Letter to the people of Marseilles, 12 June 1847, EO III Circular n 3
I am stunned this morning as I read Eugene’s words. I find myself interiorly “trying to walk through a mine-field” in such a way as not to set off life-killing bombs that might obliterate love.
I look at Jesus, who was a typical ;young Jewish man in the prime is life and then made to wear a crown of thorns as he carried the cross up the mount to Calvary where he would be crucified. This was no crown of power and control but rather initiated humility and death of self.
I think of Peter the first successor of the “way of Jesus, crucified and risen” and listen to Bishop Eugene’s describing the Pope sitting on the “throne of the Prince of Apostles”. The words strike my heart as I remember and think of my own distant past in a time and place of allowing anger and rage to become the dominant part of myself.
I think of Salvador Dali’s painting of Jesus the Christ, our Saviour who remains on the cross as he looks down upon the world: “…Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing”. – not just 2,000 years ago but right now in our time.
“We accept loyally, with an enlightened faith, the guidance and teachings of the successors of Peter and the Apostles.” (C 6) There is again – “with an enlightened faith”… We enter into the darkness, acknowledging it and yet continue to go deeper within it’s painful stepping stone and bloody walls that would seem to want to crush our very lives.
The how of the resurrection of Jesus and how our faith is enlightened. I ask for the forgiveness of myself trying to condemn and take control – who am I to judge? It is only in these moments that I repeat the words so often shared by Pope Francis.
Constitution 6 is not just an idealic way of being that we relegate to that “Church” There is no anything “over there”. We have been converted not on our own, but initiated by God – right here in our hearts.