Today, September 17, as our Church celebrates the Memorial of Robert Bellarmine, bishop, we are invited to read and reflect on a passage from the book of Ezekiel (10:18-22, 11:14-25), entitled "The glory of the Lord abandons the condemned city". Our treasure, which follows, is from On the ascent of the Mind to God, by Saint Robert Bellarmine, bishop.
Saint Robert Bellarmine was born in 1542. When he was ordained in 1570, the study of Church history and the fathers of the Church was in a sad state of neglect. A promising scholar from his youth in Tuscany, he devoted his energy to these two subjects, as well as to Scripture, in order to systematize Church doctrine against the attacks of the Protestant Reformers. He was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain.
His most famous work is his three-volume Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith. Particularly noteworthy are the sections on the temporal power of the pope and the role of the laity. Bellarmine incurred the anger of monarchists in England and France by showing the divine-right-of-kings theory untenable. He developed the theory of the indirect power of the pope in temporal affairs; although he was defending the pope against the Scottish philosopher Barclay, he also incurred the ire of Pope Sixtus V.
Bellarmine was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds that "he had not his equal for learning." While he occupied apartments in the Vatican, Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food available to the poor. He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the army and he used the hangings of his rooms to clothe poor people, remarking, "The walls won't catch cold."
Among many activities, Bellarmine became theologian to Pope Clement VIII, preparing two catechisms which have had great influence in the Church.
The last major controversy of Bellarmine's life came in 1616 when he had to admonish his friend Galileo, whom he admired. He delivered the admonition on behalf of the Holy Office, which had decided that the heliocentric theory of Copernicus was contrary to Scripture. The admonition amounted to a caution against putting forward—other than as a hypothesis—theories not yet fully proven. This shows that saints are not infallible.
Robert Bellarmine died in Rome in 1621, He was canonized a saint in 1930 and was made a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI on September 17, 1931.
The Ascent of the Mind to God, stands apart from Bellarmine's Apologetic works. The Ascent proposes 15 steps of a ladder, beginning with man, the microcosm of all creation, being a development of Homo creates est which are found in the first principle of St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises. Moving the microcosm, he turns his attention to the macrocosm, nature, the elements, the heavens, and then the heavens above, the angels and the very nature of God. St. Robert stops at each step to search out the vestige of God within creation, and to challenge the soul to consider its final end at each turn.
In response to the rebellion of Jehoiakim of Judah in 601 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian ruler, besieged Jerusalem. When Jehoiakim's successor, Jehoiachin, surrendered in 597, Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah king and deported to Babylon Jehoiachin and the royal family, along with members of the upper class, including Ezekiel the priest. Five years later, as Zedekiah planned his own revolt against Babylon, Ezekiel became the first prophet to be commissioned outside Judah or Israel. Before Jerusalem is destroyed in 587 B.C., Ezekiel is concerned to convince his audience that they are responsible for the punishment of exile and to justify the Lord's decision to destroy their city and Temple. Later, Ezekiel argues that the Judahites who embrace his preaching are the people whom the Lord has chosen as a new Israel, enlivened by a new heart, imbued with new breath, and restored to a re-created land, Temple, and covenant relationship. Ezekiel is clear on one point: the Lord punishes and restores for one reason—for the sake of his name, in order to demonstrate once and for all that he is Lord.
