Treatise on the Love of God: Treatise on the Priesthood

By Saint John of Avila

“I invite everyone to look to Saint John of Avila [hoping] that the word and the example of this outstanding pastor will enlighten all priests and those who look forward to the day of their priestly ordination.” With these words, Pope Benedict XVI, at the 2011 World Youth Day celebration in Madrid, announced his intention to declare Saint John of Avila a Doctor of the Universal Church. This small book is in some sense an answer to the Pope’s desire “to look to” this great saint by introducing us to two of his most important treatises: On the Love of God and On the Priesthood. This present volume wants to bring this still unknown saint closer to the English-speaking world, thus helping the people of God, especially their priests, inflame their spiritual lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVE Press
• Release date: Mar 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781939018625

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NOTES

INTRODUCTION

I invite everyone to look to Saint John of Avila [hoping] that the word and the example of this outstanding pastor will enlighten all priests and those who look forward to the day of their priestly ordination.a With these words, Pope Benedict XVI, at the 2011 World Youth Day celebration in Madrid, announced his intention to declare Saint John of Avila a Doctor of the Universal Church. This small book is in some sense an answer to the Pope’s desire "to look to" this great saint by introducing us to two of his most important treatises: On the Love of God and On the Priesthood. This present volume wants to bring this still unknown saint closer to the English-speaking world, thus helping the people of God, especially their priests, inflame their spiritual lives.

Saint John of Avila was recently declared a Doctor of the Universal Church on October 7th of 2012; the concurrent publication of this work and of this declaration is just one more example of how perfectly God ordains all things. In truth, we have to say that this book, among many others, is a fruit of the Year for Priests, which Pope Benedict XVI commenced on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2009, in light of the 150th anniversary of the "dies natalis of the Curé of Ars. In particular, it is a spiritual fruit since this enterprize began so as to fulfill Pope Benedict XVI’s desire to present to the world holy priests, who are ministers capable of helping the faithful to experience the Lord’s merciful love, and [are] convinced witnesses of that love."b The two treatises that we present here fulfill both purposes: they show the experience of a man who understood and witnessed with his own life to the meaning of love and the experience of a man who by living his priestly ministry in a holy way became then and continues to be an exemplar for other priests.

In his letter announcing the Year for Priests, Benedict XVI encouraged priests to deepen their commitment to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.c For that reason, he proposed the figure of Saint John Marie Vianney, patron saint of parish priests worldwide, as a model for all priests and as an incentive to renew the immense gift of their ministry by placing their priesthood in the heart of Jesus. Following the spirit of the holy priest of Ars, who used to say, The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus,d the Pope proclaimed a Year for Priests intending to place, with heartfelt gratitude, all the priests of the world under the protection of Jesus’ heart. Just as Saint John Marie Vianney was proposed by the Pope as the model of a man’s complete identification with his priestly ministry in imitation of Christ, thus becoming the patron saint of parish priests worldwide, so too does he declare the Spanish Saint John of Avila a Doctor of the Universal Church, making this extraordinary figure and his writings a great priestly example to thus encourage priests of the third millennium on their path toward holiness in their ministry.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII declared John of Avila the patron of the secular priests in Spain. Undoubtedly, his writings have inspired many generations of Spanish priests, who continue to celebrate their priestly jubilees on May 10th, the memorial of the saint. This work wants to give that same inspiration to priests around the world, especially in English-speaking areas, by sharing with them some knowledge of the heart and thought of this great saint. Just as John of Avila’s writings were so influential at the Council of Trent, especially regarding the formation of priests, we are convinced that he can be a great help for the New Evangelization by contributing to the formation of true shepherds after the heart of Jesus (cf. Jer 3:15).

The Homily and the Bull of Canonization of the saint, given by Pope Paul VI in 1970, introduce the two treatises of Saint John of Avila presented here. With both texts, the reader will find suitable biographical notes about the saint and at the same time prophetic words about why and how John of Avila is an essential figure in the understanding of the priesthood in our modern times. The whole Church ought to be very grateful for these beautiful words of Pope Paul VI.

Finally, I do not want to conclude these brief words without noting the interesting connection between John of Avila and the Spanish city of Granada—a city in which the newly proclaimed Doctor of the Church exercised part of his apostolic ministry. Especially remarkable during his different stays in Granada was his contribution to the foundation of the Diocesan Seminary and the spiritual fruits wrought by his preaching, notably the conversion of the future Saint John of God. Nowadays, this connection with the city of Granada has been strengthened by the fact that from it the initiative to bring the Doctor, Saint John of Avila, to the English-speaking world was born.

More specifically, this project would not have been possible without the impetus of his Excellency Javier Martínez, Archbishop of Granada and member of the Commission for the Cause of Saint John of Avila as Doctor of the Church in the Spanish Catholic Conference of Bishops. Archbishop Martínez was the one with the initiative to render the main works of Saint John of Avila into modern English. In this regard, he encouraged the late Sister Joan Gormley to translate John of Avila’s main work Audi, Filia followed by his Treatise on the Priesthood, which is included in this book. We are therefore very grateful to her as well as to Rev. Mark Pilon who translated the Doctor’s other treatise On the Love of God. And finally we want to thank IVE Press for their willingness to publish this book and their great contribution in translating Pope Paul VI’s Homily and Bull of Canonization of Saint John of Avila; a special thanks goes to Mother Jesús Doliente, SSVM, for her great insights, availability and continued encouragement in the publication of this present work.

May Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Saint John of Avila, Doctor of the Church, grant many spiritual graces to all those who read this book and especially to his beloved priests.

Rev. Ildefonso Fernandez-Figares Vicioso, S.T.L.

Archdiocese of Granada, Spain

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a Benedict XVI, Homily on the Eucharist with Seminarians (World Youth Day: Madrid, 2011).

b Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Opening of the Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the Death of Saint John Mary Vianney (Saint Peter’s Basilica, 2009).

c Benedict XVI, Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the Dies Natalis of the Curé of Ars (Vatican City, 2009).

d "Le Sacerdoce, c’est l’amour du cœur de Jésus." cf. L’Abbé Bernard Nodet, éd. Xavier Mappus, Le curé d’Ars. Sa pensée—Son coeur, (Foi Vivante 1966), 98.

TREATISE ON THE LOVE OF GOD

The Mystery of Christ the Priest

God’s Love for Man

1.

God Loves Us with the Love of a Father, Mother and Spouse

What most moves the human heart to love God is to consider deeply the love that God the Father and His Most Blessed Son, our Savior, have for us.

The heart is moved by love more than it benefits from it; for one who gives a benefit to another gives something that he has, but one who loves gives himself along with what he has, and there remains nothing more to give.

Then let us now see, O Lord, if You love us; and if it is thus that You love us, just how great Your love is for us.

Fathers love their children very much. Is it then our good fortune that You love us as a Father? We have not entered into the bosom of Your heart to see this, but Your Only-Begotten Son, who descended from Your bosom (Jn 1), brought us signs of that love, and He commanded us to call you Father (Mt 6:9) on account of the greatness of the love that You have for us. Above all, He told us that we should call no man on earth father, because You alone are our Father (Mt 23:9). For just as You alone are good, by the eminence of Your sovereign goodness, thus You alone are Father; and You are Father in such a way, and You do such things for us, that in comparison to Your paternal heart, there is no one else who can be called such.

Your prophet understood this well when he said, For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up (Ps 26:10)e. You Yourself wished to be compared to parents, saying through Isaiah, Can a woman forget the child at her breast, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even though these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before Me (Is 49:15-16). And because among birds, the eagle is most well known in loving its offspring, You wished to draw an analogy between the greatness of Your love and that love of the eagle, by saying, Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions (Dt 32:11).

This love is above the love of a wife, concerning which Genesis 2:4 says, Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. But Your love surpasses this, for, according to what You say through Jeremiah (3:1ff): If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; nevertheless, return to Me, says the Lord, and I will receive thee.f

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e In certain texts, there is a fair amount of difference between the modern RSV translation and the older, Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, which is the English translation of the Latin Vulgate (which is most likely what St. John of Avila would have used as his biblical source). For example, the RSV version differs slightly from the Douay-Rheims in the numbering of Psalms. This one would be Psalm 27 in the RSV, though it appears as Psalm 26 in the Douay-Rheims version and the Latin Vulgate.

f When there are such