Saint Ambrose on Petrine Primacy

Discussion in 'Theology and Doctrine' started by Seeker, Oct 19, 2012.

  1. Seeker

    Seeker Member

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    Consular introduced me to a Saint I did not know before (thanks a lot!) and I found this today and I thought to share it. It made me remember that I need to confess every second that Christ is Lord, specially in ambiguous and hard time!
    "immediately, not unmindful of his station, exercised his primacy, that is, the primacy of confession, not of honour; the primacy of belief, not of rank. " I want to have primacy in that sense, primacy to confess and to believe without a second thought, in Faith, in the Spirit...


    Saint Ambrose on Petrine Primacy


    The Lord says to Peter: “I say to you,” He says, “that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven” [Matt. 16:18-19]. And again He says to him after His resurrection: “Feed my sheep” [John 21:17]. On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church? (“Commentaries on Twelve of David’s Psalms”)

    [​IMG] He [Peter], then, who before was silent, to teach us that we ought not to repeat the words of the impious, this one, I say, when he heard: “But who do you say I am” [Matt. 16:15], immediately, not unmindful of his station, exercised his primacy, that is, the primacy of confession, not of honour; the primacy of belief, not of rank. That is to say: “Now let no one outdo me; now is my role; I ought to compensate for my silence; the fact that I was silent ought to be of benefit. My tongue does not have perplexities; faith should come forth without difficulty. While some were casting forth filth, although the filth of another’s impiety but proclaimed by them, who said that Christ was either Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the prophets; for that voice had filth, that voice had perplexities; while some, I say, are washing away this filth, while in some these perplexities are being eradicated, let our voice resound that Christ is the Son of God. My words are pure, in which expressed impiety has left no perplexities.”
    [​IMG] This, then, is Peter, who has replied for the rest of the Apostles; rather, before the rest of men. And so he is called the foundation, because he knows how to preserve not only his own but the common foundation. Christ agreed with him; the Father revealed it to him. For he who speaks of the true generation of the Father, received it from the Father, did not receive it from the flesh [cf. Matt. 16:16-17].
    [​IMG] Faith, then, is the foundation of the Church, for it was not said of Peter’s flesh, but of his faith, that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [Matt. 16:18]. But his confession of faith conquered hell. And this confession did not shut out one heresy, for, since the Church like a good ship is often buffeted by many waves, the foundation of the Church should prevail against all heresies.
    [​IMG] The day will fail me sooner than the names of heretics and the different sects, yet against all is this general faith – that Christ is the Son of God, and eternal from the Father, and born of the Virgin Mary. (“The Sacrament of the Incarnation of Our Lord,” 32-35, The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 44 [Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1963], pp. 230-31)
     
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  2. Evensong

    Evensong New Member

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    Great words from a neglected Father!

    Here is something St. Augustine (a pupil of St. Ambrose) said:

    Tract 124 on the Gospel of John

    "So does the Church act in blessed hope through this troubled life; and this Church symbolized in its generality, was personified in the Apostle Peter, on account of the primacy of his apostleship. For, as regards his proper personality, he was by nature one man, by grace one Christian, by still more abounding grace one, and yet also, the first apostle; but when it was said to him, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven,” he represented the universal Church, which in this world is shaken by divers temptations, that come upon it like torrents of rain, floods and tempests, and falleth not, because it is founded upon a rock (petra), from which Peter received his name. For petra (rock) is not derived from Peter, but Peter from petra; just as Christ is not called so from the Christian, but the Christian from Christ. For on this very account the Lord said, “On this rock will I build my Church,” because Peter had said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” On this rock, therefore, He said, which thou hast confessed, I will build my Church. For the Rock (Petra) was Christ; and on this foundation was Peter himself also built. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. The Church, therefore, which is founded in Christ received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven in the person of Peter, that is to say, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what the Church is essentially in Christ, such representatively is Peter in the rock (petra); and in this representation Christ is to be understood as the Rock, Peter as the Church. This Church, accordingly, which Peter represented, so long as it lives amidst evil, by loving and following Christ is delivered from evil"
     
  3. Old Christendom

    Old Christendom Well-Known Member

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    Which Father ever believed and professed that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontif?

    After all, this dogma was "infallibly defined" by Boniface VIII in the 14th century.
     
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  4. Toma

    Toma Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Not one Father so declared. Even those who believed Peter was equal to "The Rock" did not believe Pope X was equal to Peter. This is a very important point.

    Papists argue that each Bishop of Rome must be equivalent to Peter's office, if the apostolic succession is true. We can counter by saying two things:

    1. if the apostolic office of one apostle or another is passed on in its fullness, then Matthias and all his descendants are traitors because they inherit the Traitor's See.

    2. Antioch is confessed by many Fathers to be one of the Sees founded by Peter. Are the Antiochene archbishops co-Popes then?
     
  5. Old Christendom

    Old Christendom Well-Known Member

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    Ah, but Peter was martyred in Rome!

    That clinched it.
     
  6. Toma

    Toma Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Indeed, that's one of their more puzzling arguments. Peter went a lot of places and probably put quite a few episkopoi in place. They're in his line of succession, no matter what Rome wants to claim. Of course, many Fathers and Councils ratified the fact of Rome's centrality, but the early Church could believe things that were wrong. Anglicanism is liberating in that it's able to admit it.

    Using Roman logic: Judas committed suicide in Jerusalem, so maybe Matthias should've been the first Patriarch of the Holy City! :)
     
  7. Old Christendom

    Old Christendom Well-Known Member

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    Well, in all fairness, it's not the same thing. Committing suicide is a sin, while being martyred in Christ's cause is a blessing. After all, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
     
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