Some people like to introduce a PhD as “a doctor, but not the kind who helps people.” What a delicious phrase! Layers of assumptions and presumptions mixed with chunks of pride on a thick passive-aggressive foundation cemented with the ooze of condescension to all parties except the speaker. It’s the phrase that Screwtape would almost certainly use to introduce Ambrose of Milan.
Ambrose wasn’t a medical doctor. He was a lawyer and (gulp!) a politician, the Roman governor of Aemilia-Liguria (Northern Italy). He wasn’t a baptized Christian. At age 34, he was still hanging out in catechumen class. But as governor he was summoned to a church to break up a riot between Milan between the Arian and the Nicene factions over the appointment of the next bishop. He issued a plea for order and charity that was apparently so persuasive and charming, that one of the assembly cried “Ambrose for bishop!” The cry spread throughout the gathering; the formerly hostile factions united in their election of Ambrose as Bishop of Milan; and everyone was happy with the outcome.
Everyone, that is, except Ambrose. Ambrose did not want to be bishop. He wanted to be what he was. He wasn’t even BAPTIZED for goodness sake. So like any good human he did what came naturally: He fled. Hiding in the house of a fellow politician, he did what came naturally to a politician, he appealed to authority, the emperor, to invalidate the election.
The emperor however found himself in the unusual and delightful position of having a disparate and fractious group of people think that one of his political appointees was…HOLY. The emperor shot back a letter to Ambrose and more importantly Ambrose’s host that he was enchanted by his own perspicuity and wisdom in appointing a governor who was bishop material and Ambrose should get that miter on post haste. Ambrose was still unwilling, but his host was unwilling to buck the emperor and so turned Ambrose over to the authorities. Eight days later, on December 7, 374, Ambrose was baptized and ordained.
Once in though, Ambrose bloomed where he was planted. Now that he WAS bishop, he set out to be the best bishop he could be. He took the vow of poverty and got rid of his possessions, he melted down the gold of the church and put the money to care of the poor, and he set out to learn and teach all he could about Christianity. He wrote
“..men learn before they teach, and receive from Him what they may hand on to others.
But not even this was the case with me. For I was carried off from the judgment seat, and the garb of office, to enter on the priesthood, and began to teach you what I myself had not yet learned. So it happened that I began to teach before I began to learn. Therefore I must learn and teach at the same time, since I had no leisure to learn before.”
And learn and teach he did exceedingly well so well that for the wisdom, orthodoxy, and eloquence of his understanding of Christianity and his teaching he is one of the four doctors of the Western church, men who laid the theological foundations for the Christian faith. His sermons were apparently of unrivaled eloquence and persuasiveness so persuasive that a young North African who heard them found that they had demolished his final reservations about Christianity, so he asked to be instructed and baptized by Ambrose. The convert’s name was Augustine, and he too went on to become a Doctor of the Church.
Music
As Mollie has mentioned, Ambrose was an accomplished hymnodist, and his “Savior of the Nations, Come” is one of the great Advent hymns.
Food
The legend has it that, when Ambrose was a baby, his father saw a swarm of bees land on the baby’s face and leave a spot of
Be all you can be! http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?picture=red-rose-with-beeℑ=2656
honey on his lips, thereby predicting Ambrose’s great eloquence as an orator. Thus the bee is often depicted as a symbol of Ambrose and he is the patron saint of beekeepers and candle makers among other things. So what could be more appropriate for this saint than some ambrosia? But substitute honey for the sugar.
You could also try not eating. Ambrose was famous for his fasting and abstemiousness, eating on on Saturdays and Sundays.
Crafts
Why not make a symbol of the Light to which Ambrose so often pointed? Try your hand at a rolled beeswax candle, perhaps as the Christ Candle for your Advent wreath. What you, ask, is an Advent wreath? Ah yes…
