|
"Have
a 'Kenotic' Christmas"
Part 8
Fairfield County Catholic, December
20, 2008
Search though we may, we will never find
in the letters of Saint Paul any heartwarming description of
that first Christmas night. We look in vain for images of a star-lit
winter’s night through which a young couple traveled toward Bethlehem.
We do not meet the unaccommodating innkeeper. We neither hear
the angels nor see the shepherds approaching the manger to see
the Babe in swaddling clothes. We do not meet the mysterious
kings who came from afar.
Nowhere does Saint Paul paint an image
of the Virgin Mother and her husband, Joseph, caring for the
newborn Son, the Prince of Peace, the long-desired of the ages.
He simply says, “. . . when the fullness of time had come, God
sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom
those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.” Paul
adds, “As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of
His Son into our hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are
no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir,
through God” (Galatians 4:4-7).
At this point, you might be tempted
to imagine Saint Paul’s saying to us, “Have a merry, theoretical
Christmas!” It seems as if Saint Paul’s words are far removed
from the warmth and humanity that we associate with the birth
of Jesus.
But let’s not sell Saint Paul short, especially
in this Year of Saint Paul! What he is doing in Galatians and
in the other passages we are about to consider is helping us
see the truth and beauty that lay behind the Christmas scene
which the Evangelists Matthew and Luke, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, have depicted in their Gospels.
To demonstrate this point,
we can reflect on the foregoing passage from Galatians together
with what is known as the “kenotic” hymn in Philippians 2:6-11.
It is called “kenotic” after the Greek word “to empty.”
In this
passage, Saint Paul exalts the Son of God who “emptied” Himself,
who “took the condition of a slave” by assuming our humanity
and dying on the Cross – all for the sake of our salvation. We
will refer also to a few other passages along the way so, as
I have suggested in past columns, you may want to have your New
Testament at the ready.
Returning for a moment to Galatians 4:4-7:
first we notice that it deals with an event in human history.
The Incarnation is not a myth but, rather, God’s breaking into
human history by becoming one of us. That is why Saint Paul in
Galatians speaks of the Lord’s birth as taking place “in the
fullness of time.” In the last installment of this series, we
focused on God’s mysterious plan for the salvation of the world.
Saint Paul’s phrase in Galatians, “the fullness of time” can
be understood in reference to that plan which unfolded in human
history.
The birth of the Savior took place in “God’s good
time,” the time determined in the hidden counsels of God for
the Son to reveal the Father in human history. Conversely, from
the human point of view, the birth of Jesus took place at the
juncture of history marked by a faithful remnant that longed
intensely for the Messiah. As we are about to see, however, God
visited His people and fulfilled the promise He had made to Abraham
and his descendents in a manner that far exceeded all expectations
(cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 422).
For
in our passage from Galatians, Paul goes on simply to say, “God
sent His Son.” Here Saint Paul wants to tell us that God the
Father took the initiative in sending us His Son. He is giving
of Himself to us. This means that the Son whom the Father sent
existed before human history began, indeed from all eternity.
This is referred to as the “pre-existence” of Christ.
We can
see this truth even more clearly in other passages from Saint
Paul. For example, in Romans 8:3, we read: “God sent His Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering.” In 1 Corinthians
8:6 we read that “. . . there is one God, the Father, from whom
all things come and for whom we live; and one Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom everything was made and through whom we live.” We
can also cite Colossians 1:15: “[The beloved Son] is the image
of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures. In Him
everything in heaven and on earth was created, things visible
and invisible . . . ”
We can hear the strong and mighty echoes
of these early professions of faith, re-affirmed when on Sunday
we recite the Nicene Creed and profess our faith in “the only
Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.”
We can further
enrich our reflections on this passage from Galatians by turning
now to Philippians 2:6-11. Here we read, “Though [Christ]
was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God something
to be grasped at.” Saint Augustine tells us that the phrase “the
form of God” does not imply that Christ was an inferior semblance
of God: “He was not in any way unequal to the Father. He was
not in any respect inferior” (On Faith and the Creed,
no. 5).
This interpretation fits well with other passages
from Paul which speak of Christ’s preexistence. And it is important
for us to reflect on this – not merely as a cold and abstract
point of doctrine – but rather in a prayerful effort to take
in something of the magnitude of the gift. The Father sent His
Son and Christ the Son, for His part, did not cling to His equality
with the Father but rather emptied Himself for us in loving obedience.
As noted earlier, this whole passage in Philippians
is called “the kenotic” hymn which refers to the Greek word for
“emptied” (ékènosen). We should also reflect prayerfully on what
it means to say that God’s Son “emptied Himself ” and “took the
condition of a slave.” Here, Saint Paul does not mean to say
that the Son of God jettisoned His divinity when He became
man. Rather, His glory as God was hidden within our human nature.
As the 4th century bishop, Hilary of Poitiers, comments: “This
occurred not by a loss of his power and nature but by an assumption
of a new condition . . . .” (On the Trinity, 9.38)
If you would,
let’s now switch back to our passage from Galatians and read
the next phrase. Here, we read that God’s Son was “born of a
woman, under the law.” This is the only reference that Saint
Paul makes to Mary and it is an indirect reference. While Paul
does not dwell on Mary, his teaching on Christ has enabled the
Church through the centuries to understand Mary’s role and her
privileges in salvation history more profoundly.
In the passage
we are studying, Saint Paul teaches us that Jesus’ humanity was
not merely an appearance. He truly became man. Likewise, in the
parallel passage from Philippians, Saint Paul tells us that Christ
“emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human
likeness; and found in human appearance” (Philippians 2:7). By
this Saint Paul does not mean to say that Jesus only appeared
to man but, in fact, was fully human. As the second-third century
author, Tertullian, commented, “. . . in this case, figure, likeness,
and form all point to the reality of his humanity. He is truly
God, as the Son of the Father, in his figure and image. He is
truly man, as the Son of man, found in the figure and image of
man.” (Against Marcion, 5.20)
The point to take away
is this: we won’t appreciate the Father’s gift of His Son if
we deny or downplay either His Son’s divinity or His humanity.
Christ is truly “the Son of God and the Son of Mary.” We won’t
really appreciate how, in accord with the Father’s saving will,
the Son “humbled himself.” Saint John Chrysostom put it this
way: “The measure of [Christ’s] sublimity corresponds with the
depth of His humility” (Homily on Philippians, 8.11).
In Galatians, Saint Paul indicates that Christ
assumed our human condition by being born “under the law.” This
is used to indicate human servitude. We were not really free
to embrace the truth and beauty of what the law taught because
of our enslavement to sin.
In Philippians, Paul is more explicit.
He speaks of Christ as being born in “the form of a slave.” This
spells out more clearly the wondrous fact that Christ assumed
our human condition. To quote Saint John Chrysostom once again,
“With few exceptions, [Christ] had all our common human properties.
The exceptions: He was not born from sexual intercourse. He committed
no sin . . . .”
Indeed, these “exceptions” show us the transformation
which Christ came to bring about in us through the redemption.
A final point to note is the obedience of Christ,
His oneness with the Father’s saving will, His utter and complete
cooperation with the Father’s plan of redemption. In Galatians,
Paul speaks about Christ as coming to deliver us from servitude
to the law. In Philippians, Paul tells us that Christ “humbled
Himself, becoming obedient to death, death on a cross.”
All of
this gives us a privileged window into the inner life of the
Trinity wherein the Father gives Himself wholly to the Son and
Son reflects perfectly the Father’s love in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
God’s inward life is a life of humble self-giving.
The Incarnation is not an exception to the rule of how God is
but, rather, the revelation of how God is! It also reveals to
us how we should become. An index of this is found in the Beatitudes
which reveal for us the heart of God in Christ: the God of Jesus
Christ is poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart, hungering for
our holiness, the giver of peace, and persecuted in those who
suffer for the sake of the Kingdom (cf. Acts 9:4).
When we have
in us “the mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:5), then we will finally
embrace the law of God not as a matter of servitude but as it
truly is, the law of love, the graced expression of that dignity
shared by those called to adoption as the Father’s beloved sons
and daughters.
All of this should be consoling to us, particularly
in this Christmas season when so many people find themselves
in difficult circumstances. We think of those who have lost their
jobs and others who find themselves financially stretched and
even imperiled. We find these uncertain times unsettling, even
frightening.
Perhaps it is against this backdrop that we appreciate
more deeply the utterly generous, the true, and the lasting gift
that the Father gave us and all humanity on that first Christmas
night. He didn’t give from His surplus; He gave us His Son, all
that He had. In a sense, it could be said that not only the Son
but, indeed, the Father “emptied” Himself, by giving us His beloved,
only begotten Son.
So as you sing Christmas carols and look upon
beautiful Nativity scenes and take part in the liturgy of Christmas,
listen for these words:
“In the wonder of the Incarnation, your
eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new and radiant
vision of your glory. In Him we see our God made visible and
so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see” (1st Christmas
Preface).
With the teaching of Saint Paul before our eyes,
Scriptural accounts of the first Christmas and the Liturgy itself
will overflow with truth, joy, beauty, and good cheer!
May you
and your loved ones have a truly blessed Christmas!
Back to top
"Jesus
Christ is Lord!"
Part 9
Fairfield County Catholic, January
17, 2009
One Sunday afternoon, back in the days when
I was a newly-ordained priest, I returned to the parish rectory
and found the pastor deep in conversation with a parishioner.
I had enough sense to keep moving, but also enough peripheral
vision to see there was a Bible on the table and all manner of
pamphlets. So I went to my room and went about my business.
After
about an hour, there was a knock at the door. It was the pastor.
He looked drained and distraught.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
He told me that the parishioner he had been speaking to was leaving
because the Catholic Church does not acknowledge Christ as Lord
and Savior. “I really tried hard to show her that nothing is
more basic to the Church than Christ as Lord,” he said, adding,
“I even used quotes from the epistles of Saint Paul!”
My pastor’s
concern for this parishioner and his love of the Lord and His
Church made a deep impression on me. A few months later, we celebrated
when that parishioner returned to the parish and resumed her
active role. In the meantime, we both had taken a look at our
preaching and teaching to ensure that Jesus Christ was always
front and center.
That episode, early in my priesthood, inspired
the particular Pauline theme I propose to treat in this column:
the ways in which Saint Paul spoke of Jesus Christ as Son of
God and Lord.
In my column just before Christmas, I dealt with
one of the great hymns to Christ in the New Testament, Philippians
2:1-6, which concludes with the ringing affirmation, “Jesus Christ
is Lord!” If you don’t mind, I’ll return to that hymn but also
several other passages in Saint Paul which at least give us a
sampling of how the great Apostle to the Gentiles spoke of Jesus.
I want to do this not only because we need to speak of Jesus
as Saint Paul did but, more importantly, because we need to have
the same vivid faith as Paul had in Christ as Son of God and
the Lord.
Let us begin with the very idea of the Name of
Jesus. The best place to start is, indeed, Philippians 2:9-10.
Here Saint Paul celebrates the humility of Jesus in assuming
our humanity and in dying on the Cross for our salvation in obedience
to the Father’s saving will. He immediately adds: “Because of
this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above
every other name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bend
. . . .”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums
up the content of this passage when it says that “[t]he name
‘Jesus’ signifies that the very name of God is present in the
person of his Son, made man for the universal and definitive
redemption from sins” (CCC, 432).
In fact, Jesus is
the Latin form of the Greek Iesous which, in turn, is
derived from the Hebrew Jeshua or Joshua meaning
“Yahweh is salvation.” This meaning is confirmed in Romans 3:24-25
where Saint Paul writes that those who are saved by faith “.
. . are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation. . . .” Thus,
the Apostle Peter and Saint Paul are in accord in preaching that
name apart from which there is no salvation (cf. Acts 4:12).
Allow me to add a liturgical note regarding the
Holy Name of Jesus. From the foregoing, it is clear that devotion
to the Holy Name of Jesus has deep Scriptural roots. Saint Bernardine
of Siena (1380-1444) effectively preached the Holy Name of Jesus
and helped to popularize the use of “IHS,” the first three letters
of the Savior’s name in Greek. Largely as the result of his preaching,
this abbreviation began to appear over entrances to houses and
public buildings. A liturgical feast day was instituted in the
15th century by the bishops of Belgium, England, Scotland, and
Germany and extended to the whole Church in 1721 (cf. Ildefonso
Shuster, The Sacramentary,
Vol. III, London: Burns & Oates, 1927, pp. 323-324).
In the
most recent edition of the Roman Missal, the Church has once
again set aside a specific day, January 3, to celebrate the Holy
Name of Jesus. We should ensure that reverent devotion to that
Name by which we are saved is a deep and constant part of our
spiritual life, just as we must take care not to use the Lord’s
name in vain, for example, by swearing.
Many times throughout
his letters Saint Paul refers to Jesus as “Christ.” The Catechism
of the Catholic Church reminds us that “[t]he word ‘Christ’
comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah,
which means anointed” (CCC, 436).
In much of the New
Testament that meaning is explicit. Saint Paul retains that specific
meaning in various passages where he refers to Christ’s redemptive
suffering and death. An example is 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I
handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
. . .” In many other passages, however, the distinctive meaning
of the word “Christ” does not come into view. It functions more
like a proper name and is often used in combination with the
name of Jesus in the recognizable phrase, “Jesus Christ our Lord”
(see, for example, 1 Timothy 1:2; Romans 1:3) or “Christ Jesus
our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1) (cf. L. Cerfaux, Christ in the
Theology of Saint Paul, New York, Herder & Herder, 1958,
p. 482).
Saint Paul also frequently refers to Jesus as “the
Son of God.” In fact, this name for Christ was the core of the
earliest preaching of Saint Paul. We read in Galatians 1:15-16:
“. . . when [God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart
and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son
to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles. . . .” Here
Saint Paul is referring to his “conversion” and calling on the
road to Damascus where he encountered the Risen Son of God. Saint
Luke in the Acts of the Apostles 9:20 relates that almost immediately
after that encounter Saint Paul begins to proclaim Jesus, saying,
“He is the Son of God.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
reflecting on those two passages, teaches us that “. . . from
the very beginning, this acknowledgement of Christ’s divine sonship
will be the center of the apostolic faith. . . ”(CCC,
442).
There are three ways in which the title “Son of
God” expresses the nucleus of the faith handed on by the Apostles.
First, this is the principal title which expresses the pre-existence
of the Redeemer. This means that the Son of God is coeternal
with the Father. There was never a time when He did not exist.
Recall, for example, Galatians 4:4-6 where Saint Paul says: “.
. . when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born
of woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption. . . .” The clear implication
of this passage is that the Son existed before time. We see something
similar in Romans 8:3. In a passage reminiscent of the hymn in
Philippians 2:6-13, Saint Paul speaks of God’s “. . . sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
. . . .”
Second, Saint
Paul uses “Son of God” to refer to Christ’s role in the creation
of the world. Consider Colossians 1:15-16. Referring to God the
Son, Paul repeats a Christological hymn that speaks of Him as
“the firstborn of all creation” and then says, “in him were created
all things in heaven and on earth.”
Since we encounter this passage
frequently in the Church’s liturgy, it is important for us to
understand it. The phrase “firstborn of all creation” means that
the Redeemer’s Sonship antedates creation. It does not mean that
Christ is the first among God’s creatures but, rather, that He
is their Creator: “All things were created through him and for
him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together”
(Colossians 1:16). It is also unlikely that Saint Paul is offering
a leisurely treatise on creation; rather, he is setting the stage
for Jesus as the source of the Church: “He is head of the body,
the Church” (Colossians 1:18). The firstborn, namely the Son,
begets many sons and daughters in His Church.
This brings us
to the third use of the phrase “Son of God”: it refers to Christ
after His death and resurrection. Staying with the hymn from
Colossians, we see that Paul refers to Christ as “the firstborn
of the dead” (v. 18). Having affirmed a Sonship that precedes
creation, Saint Paul now proclaims the Sonship that stems from
His resurrection.
Saint Paul does something similar in other
passages. For example, in Romans 1:3, he introduces himself and
says he’s writing to the Church at Rome about “the gospel of
[God’s] Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but
established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of
holiness through the resurrection of the dead.” The word “establish”
does not mean that Jesus “became” the Son of God when He rose
from the dead but, rather, that He was “revealed to be” the Son
of God in power. The Son was the creator of all things before
He was redeemer of all things. In any case, creation and redemption
are the work of one who is God.
In some respects, we have saved
the best title for last: Jesus as Lord (Kyrios). I say
this because in his letters Saint Paul called Jesus “Lord” 222
times; he referred to Jesus as the Son of God only 27 times (c.f.
Jean Galot, S.J., Who Is Christ, Gregorian U. Press,
1980).
Clearly, we can only deal with a few passages where
Saint Paul speaks of Jesus as Lord. It is also clear, however,
that the Lordship of Jesus is central to his proclamation of
the Gospel and thus it must be a central and constant affirmation
in our prayer and life of faith.
Where, then, does the term “Lord”
come from and what does it mean in the writings of Saint Paul?
In answering these questions, we should remember that Paul, before
he was a Christian, was a Greek-speaking Jew and a well-trained
rabbi. Throughout his life, he addressed God as Lord (Adonai). Kyrios was
also the name for God in the Greek translation of the Old Testament
known as the Septuagint (thus called because it was
translated by 70 scholars; it is abbreviated as LXX). A native
of Tarsus on a mission to Greek-speaking Gentiles, Paul would
also have been familiar with the so-called “secular” use of the
term kyrios in the mystery religions and in the cult
of the Emperor (cf. Reginald Fuller, The Foundations of New
Testament Christology, Chas. Scribners & Sons, 1965,
pp. 230-231; also Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the
New Testament, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1963, pp.
195 ff).
However, Paul did not borrow the term “Lord” from
the pagan cults of his day. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6,
Saint Paul disparages idols; “there are,” he writes, “many ‘gods’
and many ‘lords’, yet for us there is “one God the Father . .
. and one Lord, Jesus Christ.” Instead, he used the term in a
manner consistent with the Old Testament: in Saint Paul the term
“Lord” consistently indicates that he regarded Jesus as divine;
the name “kyrios” indicates equality with God (cf. Werner
Foester and Gottfried Quell, “Kurios in the New Testament,” Bible
Key Words, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958, pp. 94
ff.).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums
up the evidence this way: “By attributing to Jesus the divine
title ‘Lord,’ the first confessions of the Church’s faith affirm
from the beginning that the power, honor, and glory due to God
are also due to Jesus, because ‘he was in the form of God’ (Philippians
2:6) and the Father manifested the sovereignty of Jesus by raising
him from the dead and exalting him into his glory” (CCC,
449). The Catechism also teaches that, from the beginning,
the Church has asserted Christ’s lordship over the world and
over history (CCC, 450). These two paragraphs in the Catechism outline
the three principal ways Saint Paul uses the term “Lord” in his
writings.
First, as noted already, Kyrios is used
to indicate “equality with God” as in Philippians, where Paul
also uses the expression “in the form of God.” In fact, the use
of the term “Lord” often occurred in a worship-setting where
the early Christians called upon Jesus as Lord (cf. Werner Kramer, Christ,
Lord, Son of God, London, SCM Press, 1966, p. 16g ff)
and worshipped him as God.
In 1 Corinthians 16:22, for example,
Saint Paul writes: “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him
be accursed. Marana tha.” Here Paul cites the Aramaic
phrase which means, “Come, Lord Jesus!” This reminds us that
the use of the word “Lord” in Saint Paul comes from biblical
roots rather than the pagan cults. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 Saint
Paul contrasts blaspheming against Jesus with confessing Him
as Lord: “. . . no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the
Holy Spirit.” Paul’s hymn in the Letter to the Ephesians addresses
Jesus as Lord in praise and worship: “Praised be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Ephesians 1:3).
Saint Paul
also makes it a point to use the term “kyrios” in connection
with the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:21;
11:27).
Most often, Jesus is called Lord because of His
victory over sin and death in the resurrection. This shines forth
very clearly in Philippians where Jesus is exalted as Lord precisely
because He submitted to the Cross (cf. Philippians 2:9-11). For
the same reason, Paul exhorts the Romans to confess Jesus as
Lord: “. . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Truly He is “Lord both of the
dead and the living” (Romans 14:9).
Finally, the term “Lord”
must be understood as key in the Father’s mysterious plan for
the redemption of the world, as in Ephesians 1:10. All things
are to be summed up and consummated in Jesus as Lord.
All of which
brings us back to the story that got us started – the parishioner
who almost left the Church because she wasn’t entirely sure that
we Catholics confess Jesus as Lord. In this complex and troubled
world in which so many unworthy things tend to preoccupy us,
we truly must confess Jesus as Lord.
This is not fundamentalism,
but it is fundamental to our identity as believing, practicing
Catholics. Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Savior and Lord, must
be the foundation of our lives.
And we can tell that He is when
pray from the heart each day, attend Mass on Sunday when the
Lord gives us Himself as food and drink, seek reconciliation,
and strive to lead lives of integrity and generosity.
May we
truly say with our lips and our lives, in the power of the Holy
Spirit, “Jesus Christ is Lord!”
Back
to top
"The
Work of Our Redemption"
Part 10
Fairfield County Catholic, February
7, 2009
When Saint Augustine Cathedral was renovated
in 2003, a new altar was installed. Built on a limestone base,
it incorporates shades of rose-colored marble with a dark green
marble top. Across the front in gold letters are inscribed the
words, “Pascha nostra immolatus est Christus,” which
means, “. . . our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.”
Taken from 1 Corinthians 5:7, these few words sum up Christ’s
saving work: His sacrificial death by which we are delivered
from the grip of sin and death. These words recall the deliverance
of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt and the subsequent
Jewish celebration of the Passover. They identify Christ with
that deliverance and its fulfillment. Now it is Christ Himself
who is the Lamb of Sacrifice. By dying on the Cross and rising,
He accomplishes our definitive deliverance from sin and death.
What’s more, these few words also describe what the Eucharist
captures and celebrates – namely, the saving sacrifice of Christ,
crucified and risen.
Isn’t it amazing how much Saint Paul could
pack into a phrase!
What the Apostle packed into a phrase will
take me a whole column just to sketch. After all, the death and
resurrection of Christ was the main content of Saint Paul’s preaching.
Everything he said about the identity of Jesus, the Church, and
Christian conduct flowed from his bedrock resolution to preach
Christ crucified (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:23). As we
have seen in previous columns, Paul formed this conviction as
the result of his encounter with the Risen Lord on the road to
Damascus. It was confirmed yet again after his dialogue with
the Athenians. In this attempt to preach the Gospel, Saint Paul
observed how religious the people of Athens were, and he noted
that they even had an altar to an unknown God.
The Apostle made
use of this to introduce them to the true and living God. His
sophisticated audience seemed to follow his line of reasoning
until he spoke of Christ’s Resurrection. Some scoffed, and others
told him they would hear of this “some other day” (cf. Acts 17:16-34).
After that, Saint Paul went to Corinth resolved to know and to
preach “nothing . . . except Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians
2:2). This was not Saint Paul’s “fallback” position but, rather,
the driving force of his life and ministry. His preaching and
writing brim with the significance and power of Christ’s death
and resurrection.
To understand more fully the significance of
Christ’s death and resurrection in Saint Paul, we should start
with creation. In my last column (entitled, “Jesus Christ is
Lord!”) we saw how Paul spoke of Christ as the pre-existent Son
and Lord through whom the world was made. For example, in Colossians
1:16-17, we read, “. . . all things were created through him
and for him. . . and in him all things hold together. . . .”
Before that, in a column entitled “Mystery!”, we focused on Paul’s
teaching of an overarching plan for the salvation of the world,
a plan which emerged from the hidden counsels of God (cf., for
example, Ephesians 1:9-10). Both themes prepare us to understand
what Saint Paul said about the conditions that prevailed before
Christ’s intervention in history to accomplish His saving work
– namely, His death and resurrection.
As usual, Paul did not
write in a merely theoretical vein about creation. Instead, he
sought to show us that even pagans could know of God through
his works, through creation; then he would lead them to know
God through Christ, crucified and risen. To do so, he drew on
his vast knowledge of Scripture as well as his cosmopolitan experience
– both of which were transformed by his encounter with the Lord.
A Greek-speaking Jewish rabbi who came of age in
the Hellenistic world, Saint Paul knew a thing or two about pagans
– and he is not inclined to let them off the hook. For example,
in Romans 1:20, Paul writes, “Ever since the creation of the
world, [God’s] invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity
have been able to be understood and perceived in what he made.”
Thus, human reason is capable of discovering the Creator, as
the Church teaches to this very day. Unfortunately, pagans, as
a rule, got lost in false reasoning and devolved into idol worship.
Echoing the Book of Wisdom (Chapters 13 and 14), Saint Paul thus
speaks of the foolishness of human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:23 ff.).
In Romans he goes further, saying of them, “. . . they became
vain in their reasoning and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the
glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal
man or of birds, or of four-legged animals and of snakes” (Romans
1:21-23). This led to all manner of moral degradation, which
Paul goes on to describe at some length.
Suffice it to say that
the sinful behavior Paul cites is not much different from the
moral perversion that stems from contemporary idolatry (cf. Romans
1:24 ff.).
By contrast, Paul’s approach to Judaism,
though mixed, is decidedly more positive. After his encounter
with the Risen Lord, Saint Paul read the Scriptures (what we
call the Old Testament) with new eyes. He continued to see the
providential hand of God in the life of the Chosen People. Unlike
the pagans, they expressly believed in the one true God, for
He revealed Himself to them, gave them the law, and entered into
covenants with them. Indeed, the Israelites were the teachers
of the human race in their belief in the one true God and in
the wisdom their law embodied. In fact, in Romans 9:1-5, Saint
Paul speaks of the anguish he feels over his separation from
his “kin according to the flesh.” He writes, “They are Israelites;
theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of
the law, the worship, and the promises; theirs the patriarchs,
and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah.”
Paul
could write so movingly about these things because he was steeped
in the Mosaic Law understood not merely as a series of legal
prescriptions but precisely as “Torah” – that is, God’s revelation
of self which gave rise to a whole way of life (cf. Raymond E.
Collins, The Power of Images in Saint Paul, Collegeville,
MN., Liturgical Press, 2008, p. 21). Thus, the Torah was understood
by observant Israelites as the living Word of God, already “an
intensely living reality . . . an event, a personal intervention
in their existence” (Louis Bouyer, Eucharist, Notre
Dame University Press, 1968, pp. 31-32). In this profound, spiritual
sense, Saint Paul, upon his conversion, could see Christ and
His intervention in history as the fulfillment of the law. In
this sense, Paul would teach the revealed Word of God to his
co-workers such as Timothy, just as a Jewish father would have
imparted knowledge of the Torah to his sons (cf. Collins, op.
cit., p. 62).
However, Paul was also more than familiar with
a narrower approach to the Mosaic Law which tended to extract
the rules (halakah) from the revelation – to the impoverishment
of both. Recall that Paul was himself a Pharisee, a lay expert
in the law, trained under Gamliel the Elder.
As we saw in the
first of these columns that dealt with his “conversion,” Paul
regarded strict observance of the law as key to salvation. He
was skilled in the kinds of argumentation with which the Pharisees
tried to trap Jesus. By training and conviction he saw Christianity
as a consummate threat to authentic Judaism. This got the better
of Paul. By his own admission he became “a zealot for his ancestral
traditions” (cf. Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:6). This led him
to persecute the followers of Christ. Later, Paul would come
to account his former Pharisaical way of life “as loss and rubbish”
(Philippians 3:7-8).
All of which brings us back to Saint Paul’s
proclamation of Christ crucified in Corinthians 1:22-25 where
we read,“For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but
we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness
to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Paul does not
find salvation either in philosophy as such or in slavish adherence
to the law but, rather, by faith in Christ, a theme we will look
at separately in a future column.
The renowned Pauline scholar,
Lucien Cerfaux, recommends that, in studying Christ’s death and
resurrection in Saint Paul, we do better to reverse the usual
order and instead begin with the Resurrection and then consider
the death of Christ (cf., e.g., The Christian in the Theology
of Saint Paul, New York, Herder & Herder, 1967, p.
43). This isn’t because Paul de-emphasized or devalued the Cross
– far from it. Nor did he separate the Resurrection and the Cross
or play one off against the other – as if one were saved exclusively
by the Cross or exclusively by the Resurrection. Rather, one
is saved both by Cross and Resurrection, by “Christ our pasch”
(1 Corinthians 5:7).
Why, then, begin with the Resurrection instead
of the Cross? We do so for the simple reason that this was the
way Paul first learned the Gospel.
After all, it was the Risen
Christ whom Christ encountered on the way to Damascus. His core
proclamation was “the Son of God raised from the dead.” In 1
Corinthians 15:3-4, Paul tells us that he received the content
of his preaching from the Apostles: “For I handed on to you as
of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for
our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
. . ”
Indeed, Paul takes the stubborn Corinthians to
task for their lack of faith in the Resurrection. He tells them
that if Christ had not been raised from the dead, then his preaching
and their faith are in vain: “If for this life only we have hoped
in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Corinthians
15:19). For faith in the resurrection clearly means the unshakeable
belief that Christ has come to life again. Transformed by the
glory of God, He emerged from tomb and was seen by the Apostles
and “last of all” (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:8) by Saint Paul.
The
Risen Christ did not jettison the body which was crucified; His
Risen Body exhibited the five wounds. At the same time, the Resurrection
was more than a physical miracle; it was and is a spiritual reality.
It is the imperishable life of God in the One like us who had
died and was raised. It was God’s victory over sin and death
in and through our humanity (cf. Romans 6:9-10). It established
Jesus, “descended from David according to the flesh. . . as Son
of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through the
resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). Thus He acquired dominion
and power not only over His followers but, indeed, over all creation
(see Philippians 2:9-11).
Saint Paul sees the Resurrection as
the preview of what is to come. He came to understand, if somewhat
gradually, that the Resurrection would not immediately lead to
the fulfillment of all God promised. Rather, he came to see the
enduring power of the Resurrection in the present time, among
those who believe and, indeed, in the whole universe. It is sharing
in the Resurrection that transforms one’s life right now in preparation
for the day of the Lord, when Christ will be “all in all.” While
even the pagans have the law of God “written in the hearts” (Romans
2:15) and thus have knowledge of right and wrong, it is under
the influence of the life-giving Spirit who raised Jesus from
the dead that we can truly lead a life that is holy and pleasing
in God’s eyes (cf. Romans 8:11).
If Saint Paul wrote tellingly
of the power of the Resurrection, so, too, does he proclaim the
centrality and power of the Cross. An early profession of faith
found in 1 Corinthians 15:3 states simply: “Christ died for us
in accordance with the Scriptures.” That same confession of faith
goes to speak of the Resurrection (as we saw above). In 1 Corinthians
2:2 Saint Paul says he came solely to preach “Christ and him
crucified.” Earlier, in 1 Corinthians 1:18 he contrasts the word
of human wisdom with the word of the Cross. It was for this “crucified
word” that Saint Paul was sent.
There are many passages in which
Saint Paul speaks of the death of Christ. Among the most vivid,
however, is Galatians, both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Chapter
2 discusses the Council of Jerusalem and decisions reached regarding
Jewish and Gentile converts. Paul goes on to remind the Galatians
that they are justified “not by the works of the law” (Galatians
2: 16) but by faith in Christ. Paul reiterates that he has given
up that way of life – indeed, he has died to it. Then adds, “I
have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but
Christ lives in me. . . . I live by faith in the Son of God who
has loved me and has given himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Here Saint Paul speaks in a very deeply personal
way of Christ’s gift of self on the Cross by which he found newness of life.
This is a passage we can never meditate on enough! It helps us
see the depth of the Crucified Savior’s love for us, the lengths
to which he went to save us.
Saint Paul’s words become stern
in Chapter 3 where he rebukes the Galatians for losing sight
of Christ’s gift of self. “O senseless and foolish Galatians!
Who has bewitched you – you before whose eyes Christ was publicly
portrayed as crucified?” (Galatians 3:1-2) This way of speaking
– “publicly portrayed as crucified”– may seem needlessly roundabout
and chronologically out of step. After all, the Gospel was preached
to the Galatians decades after the crucifixion.
Why does Paul
say that he “publicly portrayed Christ as crucified” before the
eyes of the Galatians – as if he were showing them a movie? Well,
perhaps this gives us some idea of the power and immediacy of
Paul’s preaching. He wanted the Galatians to fix their attention
on the crucifixion not as an event locked in the past but as
a powerful intervention in their lives, especially through the
Eucharist which “proclaims the death of the Lord until he comes”
(1 Corinthians 11:26).
But there is a deeper, more theological
motive. As Father Raymond Collins explains (op. cit., pp 90-91),
the words “publicly portrayed” have a specific meaning. Crucifixions
were meant to send a very clear public message: “This could happen
to you!” This message was very often directed at runaway slaves;
if caught, crucifixion was their fate. By contrast, the Cross
sends its own unique message: the means by which slaves were
put to death is the very means by which we are ransomed from
slavery to law and slavery to our own passions. The “curse” which
Jesus endured for our sake has become our ransom! (cf. Galatians
3:13, ff.).
In this way, we were reconciled to God;
the forces of sin and death were defeated; the unity of Jews
and Gentiles in Christ was made possible; the naked demands of
the law were abolished; sin is forgiven; “the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit” (2 Corinthians 13:13) is made accessible.
“Pascha
nostra immolatus est Christus!” Praised be Jesus Christ!
Back
to top
"The
Holy Spirit, Part 1"
Part 11
Fairfield County Catholic, February
21, 2009
In the late 1970s, when I was a newly ordained
priest, the first of the Star Wars movies was released.
At that time I was helping prepare a class of eighth-graders to
receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
After listening to my explanation
of the Holy Spirit, one of the students blurted out, “May the ‘Force’
be with you!” Not only had he decided that “the Force” was the
equivalent of the Holy Spirit, he also pegged me as a Jedi.
I did
my level best to straighten things out before the bishop arrived
at the parish for Confirmation!
Maybe I’ll have more success now
if I allow Saint Paul to help us know the Holy Spirit more deeply.
True to form, Saint Paul did not write an abstract treatise about
the Holy Spirit. However, he does use the word “spirit” or “pneuma”
numerous times. The word “spirit” is used 375 times in the New
Testament. Some 141 of these references are in Saint Paul’s writings.
Saint Paul uses this word variously. Sometimes he
uses it to refer to the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity;
at other times to describe the power of the Holy Spirit; and at
still other times to describe what our lives are like once we have
encountered the Risen Lord who imparts His life-giving Spirit.
Saint Paul’s usages of the word “spirit” are connected
to the meanings of that term in the Old Testament. For that reason,
I suggest we take a brief detour to review what the word “spirit”
means in the Old Testament.
The Hebrew word for “spirit” is rûah.
In the first instance it refers to the wind and its effects. This
invisible yet powerful force of nature was an indicator of God’s
mysterious presence and activity. For example, it was “a strong
east wind” that parted the waters of the Red Sea so that God’s
people could escape from the Egyptians (Exodus 14:21, ff). In Genesis
1:2, we read how God’s rûah or
spirit moved over the waters at creation. It is not hard for us
to see why in the New Testament the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost is described as “a strong driving wind” (Acts 2:2).
Rûah not
only means “wind” – it also means “breath.” It refers to God’s
life-giving spirit and to the breath of life. Genesis 6:17, for
example, says that God blew “the breath of life” into Adam’s nostrils.
We may remember the vision of the “dry bones” in Ezekiel 37:9.
God’s spirit came from “the four winds” and brought the dry bones
to life. In the New Testament, the Risen Lord “breathed” upon
the Apostles, thus imparting the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive
sins (see John 20:23).
In the Old Testament, the word “spirit”
can also refer to the higher human faculties of reason and will.
A good example is Psalm 77:6. In a moment of spiritual crisis,
the psalmist pours out his lament: “I consider the days of old;
the years long past I remember. In the night I meditate in my heart.
I ponder and my spirit broods.” This same word can also refer to
the seat of decision making – where plans are made. For example,
in Haggai 1:14, we read how the Lord stirred the spirit of the
Governor of Judah, Zerubbabel, to make plans to rebuild the temple
after the Exile. One’s inward spirit can either be humble and steadfast
before God, as in Isaiah 57:15 and Psalm 51:12; or full of pride,
anger, or other unruly emotions, as in Job 4:9.
It will be important
to keep this usage in mind when, in a future column, we study Saint
Paul’s depiction of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit
in the heart of each person.
The Old Testament, of course, speaks
often 10 February 21, 2009 of the spirit of the Lord. There are
numerous examples of how the spirit of the Lord directs the leaders
of God’s people and inspires prophets to utter His authentic word
to the people. Jeremiah complains that the false prophets – those
who told the people only what they wanted to hear – were but “wind”
(Jeremiah 5:13).
By contrast, the true prophets were aware of being
filled with God’s spirit so that they could rightly instruct the
people and turn their hearts toward God. After the Exile, expectations
ran high for the coming of a messiah who would be fully endowed
with the spirit of God. Most of us, for example, are familiar with
Isaiah 61:1-3: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. . .” In Luke
4:18, Jesus will proclaim Himself the fulfillment of that prophecy.
In the Old Testament the spirit of the Lord was not
yet understood to be a distinct person in the Trinity. Nonetheless,
the spirit was clearly seen as an extension of God in His work
of creating and redeeming.
Parenthetically, let me note that the
same is true of God’s word. It was not yet seen as a distinct person
yet was a powerful extension of God Himself.
The most important
breakthrough in the New Testament is the revelation of the Trinity:
One God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus revealed
Himself as the Son of God made man. Crucified and risen, Christ
imparts the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, to the Church, and even
to creation. Living in the Spirit is how we experience that “newness
of life” that Christ won for us.
As noted earlier, Saint Paul did
not work out a systematic Trinitarian theology, but he understood
the Spirit to be personal. Saint Paul closes his second letter
to the Corinthians with a Trinitarian formula: “The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with all of you” (13:14). At the beginning of Mass,
the priest will often greet the congregation using these words.
At 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Saint Paul tells us that “. . .there are
different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit.”
These
passages accord with others in the New Testament, most notably
the baptismal formula found in Matthew 28:19 and the reference
to the Holy Spirit at the Council of Jerusalem described in Acts
15:28. It is the writings of John that most clearly portray the
Holy Spirit as a distinct person and not a merely impersonal “force.”
Taken together, the writings of the New Testament
planted the seed of later Trinitarian doctrine and theology.
Although
Saint Paul does not work out precisely how the Spirit is related to Christ
and to the Father, he frequently describes the activity of the
Holy Spirit. In doing so, he sometimes uses the word “spirit” in
a manner reminiscent of the Old Testament rûah, that is
to say, to refer to the power of God. At other times, he uses “Spirit”
to refer to the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ,
in the Church, and in the lives of individual believers.
In the
remainder of this column, we will focus only on what Saint Paul
tells us about the Spirit in the life of Christ. In the next installment
of this series we will look at the work of the Spirit in the life
of the Church and individual believers through the Pauline lens.
The New Testament, as a whole, makes it clear that
the Spirit of God rested on Jesus from the beginning. He was “conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit” (see Luke 1:35; Nicene Creed)
and was “exalted by the Holy Spirit” in His baptism in the Jordan
(for example, Mark 1:10-11) and in the Transfiguration (for example,
Matthew 17:1-9). In both events the Holy Spirit confirms Jesus’
divine Sonship. Jesus is led by the Spirit to fulfill the mission
entrusted to Him by the Father. Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit
(Luke 10:21). His preaching and miracles manifest the Spirit emerging
from within Himself.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will
overcome the forces of sin and death. Indeed, the Holy Spirit came
down “into the very heart of the sacrifice that is offered on the
Cross” (John Paul II, Wednesday Catechesis, June 10, 1998; see
also On the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Church and the World,
especially paragraphs 19-21).
For his part, Saint Paul confirms
that Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
that is, through power of the Holy Spirit. Again, this is not Paul’s
“theory” about the resurrection. Rather he is speaking of how we
have access Christ’s saving power, are justified, and lead a truly
Christian life. Thus in Romans 6:4 we read: “We were, indeed, buried
with him through baptism into his death, so that, just as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might
live in newness of life.” The word “glory” is, in fact, a reference
to the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord
referred to the shekinah, that is, the luminous cloud
that signaled the presence of the spirit of the Lord. In Romans,
8:11, Saint Paul continues to teach about the role of the Holy
Spirit in the Resurrection. This time it is in the context of life
according to the Spirit, a way of life leading to eternal glory:
“. . . If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give
life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells
in you.”
The “one” who raised Jesus from the dead was the
Father. The way in which the Father accomplished this was the mediation
of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit unites us to Christ’s resurrection
and will impart life to our mortal bodies.
In addition, Saint Paul
makes it clear that the Resurrection was more than the resuscitation
of Jesus’ crucified body. Rather, His body undergoes a marvelous
change due to the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is how Saint Paul
opens his letter to the Romans. He proclaims himself an apostle
of the Gospel about God’s Son, “. . .descended from David according
to the flesh but established as Son of God in power according to
the spirit of holiness through the resurrection from the dead.
. .” (Romans 1:4). Saint Paul maintains the continuity between
Jesus’ earthly life and His risen life, while not hesitating to
assert its newness.
Elsewhere, Saint Paul tells us, in effect,
that the Risen Lord was brimming with the living- giving power
of the Holy Spirit. So convinced is Saint Paul of this truth, that
he makes a statement which, at first glance, may be confusing:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Here Saint Paul is not
denying the distinction between Christ and the Holy Spirit. Nor
does he mean to say that Christ and the Holy Spirit are simply
two of the ways in which the One God can appear. Nor does Saint
Paul set life in the Spirit over against the teaching and redeeming
work of Christ, as if one were dynamic and the other static. What
he does teach is that the Spirit comes from within the Risen Lord
and is bequeathed to believers, as on the first Easter Sunday when
Jesus breathed on the Apostles and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”
and then empowered them to forgive sins (John 20:23 as in supra;
see also Matthew 16:19; 18:18).
Raised by the glory of God, Christ
is so filled with the Holy Spirit that Saint Paul accurately speaks
of being redeemed and sanctified either in Christ or in the Holy
Spirit. When one is mentioned, the other is not excluded. As a
result, we will find Saint Paul saying that we live “in Christ”
(Galatians 2:17) or “in the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Nonetheless,
the distinction between Christ and the Holy Spirit remains. For
while we are in this world we remain apart from Christ (2 Corinthians
5:6); nonetheless, the Spirit of Christ already lives within us
(Romans 8:9).
Saint Paul, unlike the Gospels, does not provide
us with a description of the extraordinary properties of the body
of the Risen Lord (for example, the ability to defy gravity, pass
through locked doors, yet able to be seen and touched). Nonetheless,
Saint Paul teaches that in the Eucharist we receive Jesus’ glorified
Body as spiritual food (1 Corinthians 10:3).
In a future column
we will discuss more fully Saint Paul’s teaching on the Eucharist.
In just a few days, we will enter upon the season
of Lent, leading to Holy Week and Easter. Lent is a penitential
season when we prepare to enter more deeply into the death and
resurrection of Jesus. With the help of Saint Paul, we have been
studying the Paschal Mystery of Christ, sometimes called “the masterpiece
of the Holy Spirit” (John Paul II, Wednesday Catechesis, June 10,
1998).
My hope and prayer is that, in this Year of Saint
Paul, we will allow Saint Paul to remain as our guide through these
grace-filled seasons, per crucem ad lucem! Encountering
the Risen and Exalted Lord, may we say in the power of the Holy
Spirit, “Jesus is Lord!” (1 Corinthians 12:23).
Back
to top
"Living
in the Holy Spirit, Part 2"
Part 12
Fairfield County Catholic, April
4, 2009
This series on Saint Paul was interrupted by the
necessity of focusing on Bill #1098 raised by the Judiciary Committee
of the Connecticut State Legislature. As you recall, this legislation
would have forced the Catholic Church to reorganize its parish
corporations in a manner contrary to the teaching and discipline
of the Church. I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of opposition
to that patently unconstitutional bill which was an affront to
religious liberty. Although many serious challenges to religious
liberty and sound morality remain in this legislative session,
let us resume our reflections on Saint Paul with “the glorious
freedom of God’s children” (Romans 8:21).
The last installment
of this series focused on the role of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s
life and mission. This column will focus on the role of the Holy
Spirit in the life of the Church and in our lives as individual
members of the Body of Christ. For that reason, I entitled it,
“Living in the Holy Spirit.” I offer these reflections as many
men and women are preparing for Baptism and Confirmation at the
Easter Vigil and also in the course of sharing the Sacrament of
Confirmation with hundreds upon hundreds of young people throughout
Fairfield County.
Through the lens of Paul’s writings, I will try
to show how the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church, guiding her
preaching and teaching, animating the celebration of the sacraments,
and giving impetus to her missionary and pastoral life. It is the
Holy Spirit who imparts to each of us the new life Christ won for
us by His Cross and Resurrection; the Spirit who incorporates us
into the Body of Christ and enables us to live as His disciples;
and the Spirit who imparts to us gifts and vocations by which we
can build up the Church, the Body of Christ.
We begin with the
role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church according to
Saint Paul. The New Testament teaches that the Kingdom of God was
inaugurated with the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ
followed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (see,
for example, Matthew 16:18; John 7:39; Acts 2:33). Indeed, as the
Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “By his coming, which
never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the
‘last days,’ the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited
though not yet consummated” (no. 732). The epoch of the Church
is the epoch of the Spirit who was given us by Christ. The Holy
Spirit makes the Church the great sacrament of Christ until the
end of the ages. The Spirit does so by making present to us the
mystery of Christ and thus enables us to share in the redemption
Christ won for us. Because of this, we look forward in hope to
communion – eternal life and joy – with the Trinity.
The patron
of our diocese, Saint Augustine, proclaimed in a sermon, “What
the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of
Christ which is the Church” (Sermon 267 quoted in the Catechism
of the Catholic Church, no. 243). Like an invisible bond, the Holy
Spirit joins together the members of the Church with their head
who is Jesus Christ. The Spirit dwells in the Body of Christ as
a whole as well as in the members of that body, that is to say,
the baptized (Ibid., see also Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis,
DS 1608).
This profound understanding of the Church has its
roots principally in the teaching of Saint Paul. In 1 Corinthians
12:13 we read, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and
all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also with
Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether
Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to
drink of one Spirit.” Similarly, we find Saint Paul urging the
Ephesians to live in humility, charity, and forbearance with one
another, “striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called
to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”
(Ephesians 4:2-6). Thus, it is the Holy Spirit who unites and animates
the Church though not without our cooperation.
Saint Paul teaches
us the importance of working for the unity of the Church by placing
the teaching and mission of the Church ahead of all merely personal
considerations and by repenting of sinful behavior that attacks
and undermines her oneness and apostolic vitality. In that spirit,
Saint Paul writes: “Defer to one another out of reverence for Christ”
(Ephesians 5:21). \Saint Paul also compares the Church to a temple
in which the Holy Spirit dwells. Writing to the Corinthians both
as individuals and as a localization of the Church (in modern terms,
a diocese), Saint Paul asks: “Do you not know that you are the
temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians
3:16). Writing to the Ephesians, Saint Paul speaks of how the Church
is being built up into “the household of God.” In Christ, he says,
“you are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the
Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).
Again, we find this Pauline teaching
on the Church reflected in the Catechism which states: “The Holy
Spirit makes the Church ‘the temple of the living God’” (no. 797;
see 2 Corinthians 6:16). In the same paragraph, the Catechism reminds
us of the famous words of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (d. 200 A.D.)
on the Holy Spirit and the Church: “For where the Church is, there
also is God’s Spirit; where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church
and every grace.”
Membership in the Church, the Body of Christ
and the temple of the Holy Spirit, is not merely a matter of being
registered, important as that is. The invitation to membership
is the preaching of the Word of God and the charity of those who
are already members of the Church (Ephesians 4:16). The door is
Baptism through which the Holy Spirit “forms Christ’s Body” (see
the Catechism, no. 798; 1 Corinthians 12:13). In addition, the
baptized are “sealed” by the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul, in Ephesians
1:13, describes this “sealing” thusly: “In [Christ] you also, who
have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
. . .” Later, in the same letter, Saint Paul will warn the Ephesians:
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were
sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). Paul proceeds
to describe the angry and malicious behavior which grieves the
Holy Spirit, and urges them instead to be forgiving and compassionate
(verses 31-32).
The Church continues to speak of being “sealed
in the Spirit of God.” In administering the Sacrament of Confirmation,
the bishop anoints candidates about to complete his or her initiation
into the Church and says: “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy
Spirit.” In biblical terms this means that one’s life is permanently
consecrated to Christ by the Holy Spirit; it is a pact in which
we surrender our lives to Christ and allow ourselves to be incorporated
into the Church, the Body of Christ, and thus into the new and
everlasting covenant of his Blood. As we read in 2 Corinthians
1:22: “[Christ] has also put his seal upon us and given the Spirit
in our hearts as a first installment” (see, supra, Ephesians 1:13-14).
Thus Confirmation is not “graduation” from religious
studies and the practice of the faith but, rather, the beginning
of life-long participation in the life and mission of Christ’s
Body through the power of the Holy Spirit. In spite of the diligence
and pastoral love of priests, deacons, and catechetical leaders,
far too many of our young people do not return to Mass and the
Sacraments following Confirmation, nor do they continue growing
in prayer and knowledge of the faith. Sadly, many are not encouraged
to do so by their parents. In some cases, this may amount to living
“according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit” (see Romans
8:1-17; we shall treat this theme below).
This is a serious pastoral
problem that demands our prayer, time, and attention. Among other things,
we must focus on evangelizing and catechizing families, including
many parents whose attachment to the faith is, at best, minimal.
To those who remain open to the Holy Spirit and allow
him to work in their hearts, he also distributes many gifts. Saint
Paul describes these gifts in several passages. An example is 1
Corinthians 12:4-13, often read at Confirmation. Here Saint Paul
speaks of different gifts and ministries that are given by the
Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. These include gifts of wisdom,
knowledge, faith, miracles, and healing. In addition, the Spirit
gives to some in the community gifts of prophecy and distinguishing
one spirit from another, that is, discernment of spirits. To still
others the gift of tongues and interpreting of tongues is given.
Let’s pause over this passage for a moment.
In Confirmation, the
seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are bestowed. This list of gifts
is taken from Isaiah 11: 1-3: wisdom, understanding, knowledge,
right judgment, courage, reverence, and fear of the Lord or wonder
and awe. The list(s) of the Spirit’s gifts provided by Paul varies,
though in his writings he refers extensively to all that is meant
by the seven gifts listed in Isaiah.
By contrast, some of Paul’s
gifts may sound esoteric; yet these charisms are given to the sake
of the unity, vitality, and mission of the Church – and never for
the aggrandizement of the one who possesses them. For example,
what could miracles and healing refer to? Some would say to physical
cures and exorcism. What constitutes the gift of prophecy? These
are words of truth and love the Spirit inspires for the encouragement
and strengthening of the community of faith and for the sake of
the Church’s mission.
Discernment of spirits seems to refer to
the ability to distinguish a true utterance from a false or misleading
one. What Paul means by the gift of tongues is the subject of much
discussion. Here it does not seem to be the ability to speak foreign
languages but perhaps rather exuberant utterances of praise and
thanks to God which defy ordinary human speech. The meaning and
appropriateness of this form of prayer is also gauged by still
another gift, namely, that of interpreting tongues, imparting to
the community something of what those utterances mean. The Spirit
can bring us into realms of prayer “too deep for words,” including
forms of contemplative prayer, but never in a fashion disconnected
from the Church, her pastors, and the common good of the community
(For a helpful discussion on the subject of “allotment of the Spirit’s
gifts” see, Raymond F. Collins, First Corinthians, Sacra Pagina 7, Collegeville, MN: 1999, pp. 448- 456 and pp. 489 ff).
Next,
and finally, let us ask how the Spirit operates in individual believers.
In posing this question, we are not separating person from community
but rather recognizing that every member who lives according to
the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ contributes to building up of the
Body and Christ; person and community are related inseparably.
Thus, we are not surprised to discover that Saint Paul teaches
that the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple both in the Church herself
and also in individual members of the Church (see 1 Corinthians
3:16; 6:19; Ephesians 2:22). This occurs because of incorporation
into Christ through Baptism (see Ephesians 4:5; Colossians 2:12)
and involves a thorough-going transformation of the baptized person
such that Paul describes him or her as “a new creation”: “Whoever
is in Christ is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; see also Galatians
3:27; Ephesians 4:24; Romans 15:16). Thus the Church’s baptismal
rites refer to the newly baptized as “a new creation”
Life as a
new creation might be described as “life in the Spirit.” Saint
Paul refers to newly baptized Christians as having the “law of
the Spirit” written on their hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:2-11).
Indeed, it is the Spirit who is the source of holiness (2 Thessalonians
2:13) which prompts believers to “set [their] heart(s) on what
pertains to higher realms where Christ is seated at God’s right
hand” (Colossians 3:14). This means that they are to live according
to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Saint Paul expresses
this idea various ways, especially in his letter to the Romans,
Chapter 8.
In making the contrast between “spirit and flesh,”
Saint Paul is not condemning the body. In fact, Saint Paul has
two Greek words for “body” – “soma” which is a more neutral word;
and “sarx” (flesh) which refers to the body as the arena or locus
of disordered human passions such as lust and anger. While still
in our human bodies, however, we can truly live according to the
Spirit. This includes a spirit of prayer (see, for example, Galatians
4:6 and Philippians 1:19; Romans 8:16). According to Paul, the
spirit of love flows from the Risen Christ into the soul of the
baptized: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). That spirit
of love seeks to build up the Church in love.
In Galatians 5:22,
Saint Paul lists the fruits of the Holy Spirit which are “outcomes,”
the sure signs of whether or not one is living according to the
Spirit. These include “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol.” When those qualities
are lacking, it is doubtful we are living “according to the Spirit.”
However, Saint Paul does not leave us in doubt. Previously, at
verses 19 through 21, Saint Paul lists “the works of the flesh”
and leaves little to the imagination. These include: “immorality,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry,
jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions,
factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.”
So long as we live “according to the flesh,” we truly
cannot love one another; all we do is to tear down the Church as
well as ourselves and our loved ones.
As Lent comes to its conclusion
and we enter upon Holy Week, it is urgent that we reflect on the
ways in which we may be living according to the flesh and then,
even at the 11th hour, seek forgiveness of Christ in the power
of the Holy Spirit, that mercy available to us in the Sacrament
of Penance. Then, freed from sin and walking in the power of the
Spirit we will welcome yet again into our hearts the mystery of
the Lord’s resurrection and truly embrace that newness of life
His sacrificial love has made possible.
As we celebrate the Easter
season we must open our hearts again and again to the Risen Lord
and ask Him to breathe His Spirit ever more deeply into the depth
our souls and the daily life and mission of our diocese. If enough
of us do this, we will be living in the Spirit – not merely as
individuals but indeed as a community of faith, worship, and service.
Back
to top
"Understanding
the Church with Saint Paul"
Part 13
Fairfield County Catholic, April
25, 2009
The word “church” means many things to many people. To some it
means a building where worship is conducted. Many think of church
as their parish. Others think of the Church as a world-wide institution
organized into dioceses and parishes. For some the Church is identified
with her works of charity and education. Still others use the word
to describe various denominations and religions. All these ways
of using the word “church” are, to some degree, legitimate. However,
this word signifies something more profound.
In fact, the Second
Vatican Council (1962- 1965) taught extensively on the Church.
It produced and published a dogmatic constitution on the Church
entitled Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations), as well
as a pastoral constitution on the Church entitled Gaudium et
Spes (Hope and Joy) – known as The Church in the Modern
World. And in one way or another, all 16 documents of the
Second Vatican Council deal with the Church.
What’s more, the teaching
of Vatican II on the Church drew deeply from the Scriptures and
from centuries of teaching on the Church. In continuity with the
Church’s entire Tradition, the Second Vatican Council sought to
proclaim the Church’s self understanding so as to address “the
joy and hope, the grief, and anguish” of our times (Gaudium
et Spes, 1). The Council’s teaching on the Church is summarized
and presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and
is also clearly reflected in Church law, that is, the Code
of Canon Law.
Saint Paul was one of the principal Scriptural
sources from which the Second Vatican Council drew in describing
how the Church should be understood. Thus, in this Year of Saint
Paul, it seems worthwhile to spend a little time studying what
Saint Paul taught regarding the Church.
In turning to Saint Paul,
we find the basic themes of the theology of the Church. Of course,
in the space of a newspaper column, those themes can only be surveyed.
Nevertheless, I hope this survey will help your reflection on what
Saint Paul wrote about the Church and aid you in studying the Vatican
II documents (see especially Lumen Gentium, chapter 1,
no. 7) as well as the sections of the Catechism that deal
with the Church (especially article 9, nos. 197-975). I also hope
that this essay will serve as a reminder of the deep and complementary
meanings contained in the word “church.”
Well, where to begin?
Let’s start with the word itself. Saint Paul gave us the first
New Testament texts that apply the Greek word for “church” to the
followers of Christ, namely, those gathered for instruction and
worship and committed to living the new life which the Savior made
possible by His death and resurrection. This occurred in the oldest
text in Christianity, the First Letter to the Thessalonians, written
about 50 or 51 A.D., about twenty years after Christ’s Resurrection.
In Chapter One, he extends the greetings of “Paul, Silvanus, and
Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:1). In his First Letter
to the Corinthians (written 55-56 A.D.), Saint Paul addresses “the
church of God that is in Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:1). In fact,
Saint Paul typically opens his letters with greetings to the church
in a particular place. However, it is understood that these are
not independent churches but rather localizations of “the Church
of God” – places where the whole Church is present. In other places,
Saint Paul refers to the Church as a whole. For example, in 1
Corinthians 15:19, he writes, “I persecuted the Church of God.”
Thus Saint Paul clearly understood the term “church” to refer to
the Church as a whole as well as to the Church as a whole localized
in a particular place such as Corinth or Ephesus (what we know
as a diocese).
Saint Paul’s description of Christ’s followers as
church was by no means sheer invention. Here we need to recall
again that Saint Paul was a rabbi, steeped in the law and the prophets.
By conviction and training, he grew into adulthood firmly convinced
that Israel was “the assembly of God.” Indeed, the Greek word for
“church” is “ekklïsia” which means “an assembly called
together,” a usage found frequently in the Greek translation of
the Old Testament (see, Catechism of the Catholic Church,
no. 751).
From this word we derive the English word, “ecclesial”
to describe that which pertains to the Church. “Ekklïsia”
is also akin to the word, “sunagoge” or “synagogue,” the
center where Jews assembled for worship and instruction (see, for
example, Deuteronomy 23:1-3; 1 Chronicles 28:9, and Numbers 16:3);
as a rule, however, Saint Paul did not employ this word to refer
to the Christian community.
In passing, it should be noted that
the English word for church as well as the German word, “kirche,”
come from the Greek word “kyriake” which means “what belongs
to the Lord” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 751;
see J. Auer and J. Ratzinger, Dogmatic Theology, no. 8, The
Church The Universal Sacrament of Salvation, Washington,
DC: CUA Press, 1993, pp. 25-26). This usage is also found in
Saint Paul (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 3:16 ff;
below we will discuss Paul’s use of the image “temple” to describe
the Church).
Before becoming a Christian, Saint Paul was convinced
that those who followed Christ and the “new way” had betrayed the
Chosen People God had convoked and formed as his own. That is why
he persecuted Christians. After encountering the Risen Lord, Saint
Paul understood that Christianity was not a rejection of what God
had promised and begun for the people of Israel but, rather, the
fulfillment of God’s promises and the extension of His saving love
to all the peoples of the world.
Throughout his life, however, Saint Paul
would remain deeply concerned, even conflicted, over the question
of the Jews who had not accepted the way of Christ (see, for example,
Romans, Chapters 9 and 11). Nonetheless, Paul did not hesitate
to refer to the followers of Christ, Jewish and Gentile converts,
as the assembly of God, that is, the Church of God who now share
in Israel’s inheritance (see, for example, Ephesians 1:14).
Indeed,
both Jews and Greeks had been “called together” by God to share
in the redeeming work of His Son by the preaching of the Word and
by the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. This community, gathered
together by God, became the Church of God.
Let us linger over this
question a bit longer. Following the Second Vatican Council it
was common to refer to the Church principally as “the people of
God” (see Lumen Gentium, Chapter II). Saint Paul refers
to the Church as the “laos theou” – the people of God
– in several instances – for example, in Romans 9:24 and 1 Corinthians
6:16. This title originally belonged to the people of Israel but
Saint Paul shows how God, in fidelity to His own Word, has conferred
this distinction on those who have been called together in Christ.
Thus it has been suggested that Saint Paul, as well
as the evangelists (authors of the Gospels), saw the Christian
community “as the ancient people of God reconstituted, Israel renewed
and revivified” (Eric C. Jay, The Church: Its Changing Image through Twenty Centuries,
London: S.P.C.K., 1977, p. 12). This impression is reinforced by
Saint Paul’s tendency to use the term “Church of God” or “churches
of God” in place of “the people of God,” as we noted earlier in
this column. To repeat, this phrase refers to the redeemed and
worshipping community on the local level but as part of the overall
Church of God which comes from Christ. We find this phrase in 1
Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 10:32;
11:16; 15:9; and Galatians 1:13. These communities are comprised
of “the elect,” that is, those who are chosen (see Romans 8:33)
and those who are called (Romans 1:6).
Saint Paul often refers
to members of these communities as “the holy ones” (see, for example,
Ephesians 1:18). This does not mean that they were an elite group,
far removed from struggle, but rather that they were part of that
people whom God the Father “delivered from the power of darkness
and transferred . . . to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians
1:13).
And we know this from our own experience. As members
of the Church we already share in holiness of Christ – but not
yet fully. We still struggle with temptation, sin, and other obstacles.
Nonetheless, we trust in the final triumph of Christ’s truth and
love in the Kingdom of Heaven.
We now turn to what is regarded
as Saint Paul’s principal way of describing, even defining, the
Church, namely, the Body of Christ. We began to deal with this
image in the last installment of this series. It expresses the
actual union of Christ, the head of the Church, with His body,
that is, the members of the Church. And it is Saint Paul’s way
of describing the solidarity of the members of the Church, one
with another.
Christians form “one body in Christ” (Romans 12:5).
Christ’s Spirit is the animating principle of His Body. The next
column in this series will cover Saint Paul’s teaching on Baptism
and Eucharist; there we will make the link between the Church as
the Body of Christ and the Eucharistic Body of Christ in the writings
of Saint Paul.
For now, let us note in passing that Saint Paul
may have borrowed the image of the Church as a body from Stoic
philosophy which understands the state “through the image of an
organically structured body” (see J. Auer and J. Ratzinger, op.
cit., p. 41). Saint Paul first described the Church as the Body
of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, a chapter on the variety of spiritual
gifts which Holy Spirit has given to the members of the Church.
Saint Paul shows how various roles of service and
gifts of the Spirit work together for the common good of the Church.
Among other things, Saint Paul is trying to curb that all-too-human
tendency which he detected in the church at Corinth to use spiritual
gifts for one’s self-aggrandizement. But at a deeper level, he
is expressing our oneness with Christ and through Him our solidarity
with one another in the Church. Thus, he reminds the Corinthians
that a single body has many parts which need to cooperate with
one another: “If a foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand I
do not belong to the body,’ it does not for this reason belong
any less to the body” (1 Corinthians 12:15). After describing at
length how the parts of the body cooperate, Saint Paul adds: “Now
you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Corinthians
12: 27) and he goes on to describe various gifts and roles of service
within the community.
Saint Paul further develops his description of the
Church as the Body of Christ in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians
4:15-20, Saint Paul says: “. . . living the truth in love, we should
grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the
whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body’s
growth and builds itself up in love.” Here we have a compact yet
nicely worked out description of the Church as the Body of Christ.
Paul exhorts the Ephesians not merely to know the truth but to
live it so as to add to the number of Christians and thus build
up the Body of Christ.
Colossians 1:18, a text which is part of
a hymn celebrating the preeminence of Christ’s redeeming work,
refers to Christ “head of the body, the Church.” In Christ, the
head of the Church, there is found the fullness of divinity; and
those who are members of Christ’s body are also filled with His
divine life (see Colossians 2:9; Ephesians 3:19). This sets the
notion of the Church within the whole panorama of creation and
salvation history. So while the Church is, for want of a better
term, a sociological group, it reaches far beyond the confines
of space and time.
Indeed, Ephesians, Colossians, as well as First
and Second Timothy, place the Church squarely within the realm
of “mystery,” that is, God’s overarching plan of salvation originating
in His secret counsels but revealed in history through Christ (a
theme dealt with in an earlier column).
Scripture scholars have
debated whether Saint Paul’s phrase, “Body of Christ,” was merely
a figure of speech or a comparison somehow grounded in reality.
Today, most scholars believe that Saint Paul was not just employing
a simile. Rather, his phrase, “Body of Christ,” functions almost
as an essential definition of the Church in Paul. By this image,
Saint Paul indicates a mystical, though real, identification among
Christ’s Body in which He lived, died, and rose from the dead,
the Eucharist, and the Church (see L. Cerfaux, The Church in
the Theology of Saint Paul, New York: Herder and Herder,
1959, pp. 278-279). In other words, Saint Paul is speaking about
our actual incorporation into Christ; this is the Church’s deepest
reality.
Let us touch on two further images which Saint Paul
uses to describe the Church. First, in 2 Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians
5:22-23, Saint Paul speaks of the Church as “the bride of Christ.”
In using this image, Saint Paul draws on Old Testament passages
which speak of the Lord’s spousal love for His people, Israel (see,
Hosea 1-3; Isaiah 54:1-8; the Song of Songs) as well as references
to Christ as “the bridegroom” (see Mark 2:19). The reference from
Second Corinthians is, indeed, to the local church at Corinth.
The reference to Ephesians, however, is to the whole
Church. Saint Paul situates the mutual love which spouses owe one
another in the context of the life-giving and redeeming love of
Christ for the Church. It reads, in part: “Husbands, love your
wives as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the Church in splendor, without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without
blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
The “body” imagery seen above also
comes into play in this passage. Most importantly, this passage
taps into the rich and beautiful theology of the covenant by which
God weds Himself to His people and by which His people understand
themselves as partaking in the paschal wedding feast. As members
of God’s people, we share in a love that is faithful, perpetual,
and fruitful. We are part of the intimate union between Christ
and His Church.
The final image to be considered here is the Church
as “God’s building” or “temple.” In various places, Saint Paul
speaks about “building up the Church,” especially in his letters
to the Corinthians. This is the work of every member of the Church.
In Ephesians, Paul combines the idea of building
up the Church with the notion of the Body of Christ: we are to
build up the Body of Christ (see Ephesians 4:12; 4:16). In both
First Corinthians and Ephesians Saint Paul refers to the Church
as “God’s building.” Consider, for example, Ephesians 2:19-22:
“So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are
fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household
of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole
structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred to the
Lord; in him you are also being built together into a dwelling
place for God in the Spirit.”
This passage brings together many
strands. It makes reference to the notion of the people of God:
“you are fellow citizens.” It makes reference to the members of
the Church as “the holy ones.” It speaks of the Church as built
upon “the foundation of the apostles and prophets” but held together
by Christ, as did the image of the Body of Christ. And it references
the fact the Church is, indeed, a worshiping community.
Of course,
individual members of the Church can betray the Church’s holiness
and undermine her mission. In all these images of the Church there
is the clear sense that the Lord has founded His Church, poured
His divine life into her, and endowed her with the message and
the means, most especially His holiness, to continue His mission.
But there is also the sense that the Church is not
yet complete as she journeys through history and is disfigured
by the sinfulness of her members. As Saint Ambrose wrote, “the
Church is wounded not in itself but in us” (see Avery Dulles, “Should
the Church Repent?” First Things, December,
1998; see also the Catechism,
no. 825).
In that light, we understand the initiative of Pope
John Paul II in the Jubilee Year of 2000 to undertake what he called
a “purification of memory” leading to repentance for those things
in the Church’s history which are opposed to the holiness of Christ
at the heart of her own being.
Viewed through the lens of Saint
Paul, the Church is a paradoxical union between the human and divine.
The Church is human and thus journeys through time, subject to
the forces of history. But because the Church is divine, she presses
ahead, full of hope, toward a goal beyond history. In her prayer
and travail, the Church keeps her eyes fixed on that Kingdom where
God will be all in all (see 1 Corinthians 15:28; see also Henri
de Lubac, The Church: Paradox and Mystery, New York: Alba
House, 1969).
Back
to top
"Baptism,
Eucharist, and the Church"
Part 14
Fairfield County Catholic, May
9, 2009
During the season of Easter, we continue to give thanks for those
who were baptized during the Easter Vigil. We seek to deepen their
commitment to the Lord and to His Church. Conscious of our reliance
on God’s grace, we seek to encourage them to lead a life worthy
of the calling they have received (Ephesians 4:1). It is also the
principal season for Confirmations; young people all over Fairfield
County are completing their initiation into the Church by receiving
the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We pray that they will continue
as faithful members of the Church. First Communions are also under
way throughout the parishes in the diocese. Many pastors are reporting
large First Communion Classes.
So while the sacraments are always
at the heart of the Church’s life, we might think of these fifty
days after Easter as an intensely sacramental period.
With that
in mind – and following upon our last installment which focused
on the Church as the Body of Christ – I would like devote this
column to Saint Paul’s teaching on Baptism and Eucharist. More
specifically, I will try to focus on how the baptized are incorporated
into Christ and thus into His Body, the Church, and how the Eucharist,
the sacramental Body of Christ, builds us – the Church understood
as the Body of Christ. The overall goal is two-fold: to deepen
our love for the Church’s sacramental life, and to understand more
fully what Saint Paul teaches concerning the sacraments of Baptism
and Eucharist.
Baptism
Saint Paul provides us
with the earliest written theology of Baptism. Indeed, he gives
it a prominent place in his writings. What he says about it no
doubt reflects the understanding and practice of the earliest Christian
communities.
Indeed, in the Acts of the Apostles, written by Saint
Paul’s friend and companion, Saint Luke, we see the basic importance
of Baptism for the Christian community and also get a glimpse of
how it was administered. Furthermore, references to Baptism are
found throughout Saint Paul’s letters. Some of these references
are direct, while others are oblique. Suffice it to say that his
letters are suffused with baptismal references and theology.
For
our purposes, it’s best to concentrate only on the main texts.
One of the most basic in the Church’s liturgy is Romans 6:1-4:
“What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin
that grace may not abound? Of course not! How can we who died to
sin yet live in it? Or are you unaware that we who were baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed
buried with him through baptism into his death, so that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too might live in newness of life.”
In the passage just quoted, Saint Paul presumes
that his readers already know the basic proclamation of the Gospel
of Christ (kerygma, in Greek), which he handed on to them,
namely, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures;
that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). These few verses are
thought to be an early baptismal profession of faith which Saint
Paul “handed on” (paradosis, in Greek) in his preaching
and also included in his first letter to the Corinthians.
In any
event, in his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul presumes that the
audience is thoroughly familiar with this basic proclamation which,
at the same time, forms the heart and soul of what baptized Christians
believe and profess. Indeed, in Paul’s thought, baptism and faith
go hand in hand. There is no baptism without faith, and without
baptism faith is incomplete (see Romans 8:9-11). That is why the
Church, in baptizing infants, stresses the importance of the faith-commitment
of the parents and godparents.
Faith and baptism open the door
to grace; that is to say, a participation in what we profess, namely,
the death and resurrection of Christ. As in the Acts of the Apostles
so, also, for Paul, baptism is a washing in water that 24 May 9,
2009 cleanses from sin. In a passage warning the Corinthians against
severe moral failings, Saint Paul adds: “This what some of you
used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit
of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
This washing, sanctification,
and justification takes place because we are baptized “in the name
of the Lord Jesus,” that is to say, in the presence and power of
Jesus. In Romans, Saint Paul tells us that we were baptized “into”
the death of the Lord. The preposition “into” (eis, in
Greek) is highlighted to show its significance. It means that by
baptism we are made to be participants in the death of the Lord;
we share in it. Baptism is more than merely a mental remembrance
or reflection on the Lord’s death; it is more than associating
ourselves with His death. On the contrary, baptism means entering
into the death of the Lord.
Thus Paul goes on to say that “by baptism
into his death we were buried with him” (Romans 6:4). Just a few
verses later, Saint Paul goes on to say, “We know that our old
self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body (sarx,
in Greek) might be done away with, that we might no longer be in
slavery to sin” (v. 6), a thought that is echoed many places in
Saint Paul’s writings. What we have here is a sense of realism:
baptism as a rite that brings us into actual if mystical contact
with the death and resurrection of the Lord which, in turn, transforms
us.
This transformation is captured in the word “likeness”
(homoioma,
in Greek). In a certain sense, the death and resurrection of Christ
are reproduced in us through baptism. As Father Burkhard Neunhauser,
O.S.B., commented, “In and through this likeness of Christ’s death,
the baptismal candidate enters into the most intimate association
with the Lord crucified, and in consequence, with the risen Lord
as well” (Baptism and Confirmation, New York: Herder & Herder,
1964, p. 28).
Elsewhere, Saint Paul describes likeness to the Lord’s
death and resurrection as “putting on Christ” (see Galatians 3:27).
This is reflected in the baptismal rite of the Church when the
newly baptized are clothed with the white baptismal garment. The
priest or deacon says to them, “You have become a new creation
and have clothed yourselves in Christ.”
To “put on” Christ or to
be “clothed” in Christ does not mean a mere external resemblance
to Christ – as one might “put on” a costume and pretend to be someone
else. On the contrary, it means assuming a new existence. One is
made new, as we see in Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10. With
echoes of Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus, Saint Paul tells
us that the newly baptized person is “reborn” (2 Corinthians 5:17;
Galatians 6:15). Indeed, Saint Paul teaches us that through likeness,
that is, participation in the death and resurrection of Christ,
we experience “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). This newness of life
is given to us by the Holy Spirit.
As we saw previously, when Saint
Paul says that Jesus “was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father” (v. 4), the word “glory” refers to the Holy Spirit.
One who shares in the resurrection of Christ therefore shares in
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. This
newness of life the Risen Lord has breathed upon us. It entails
freedom from the slavery of sin; this spelled out in the remainder
of Romans 6. Such freedom is essential for sharing the common life
of the Christian community.
And this brings us to the relationship
of baptism to the Church as the Body of Christ. In the last installment
we reflected on Christ as head of the Church. He is the “new Adam”
(see Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22; Philippians 2:5-11),
the founder of a redeemed humanity. In the words of one author,
“By His death and resurrection, He reversed Adam’s Fall and recovered
the dominion over creation which Adam lost. Thus He ushered in
the New Age and Himself became the first fruits and firstborn of
a new creation” (L.S. Thornton, “The Body of Christ in the New
Testament,” in The Apostolic Ministry, London: Hodder & Stoughton,
1957, p. 75). What’s more, the Lord, “who is head of His body the
Church” (Colossians 1:18), shares the new, divine life He won for
us by His death and resurrection with the members of His body and
continues to incorporate new members through baptism. Sharing in
the death and resurrection of Christ through the power of the Holy
Spirit, the baptized become members of the one body of Christ.
Thus Saint Paul writes, “there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism”
(Ephesians 4:5). Through baptism we share a common faith and we
all partake of what the Lord has done for us. We are united with
the Lord and with one another in “dying to sin” and “living for
God” (Romans 6:4, 6).
Sharing in the death and resurrection of
the Lord through the Spirit transcends our divisions of race, nationality,
and gender as through our baptismal grace we seek to respond to
a common call to holiness of life.
Thus in Galatians 3:27-28, Paul
writes, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for
you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
While in other passages Saint
Paul speaks of the diversity of the members of the Body of Christ,
he never compromises what he says about the unity of the members
with one another in Christ their head. Nor does he ever comprise
his warnings to the effect that “an unsound member of the body
endangers the health of the whole” (Thornton, op. cit.,
p. 55; see Romans 6 in toto).
Eucharist
If,
through Baptism, new members are incorporated into the Body of
Christ, it is through the Eucharist that the Church, understood
as the Body of Christ, is built up in love. Just as Saint Paul
provided us with the earliest texts explaining Baptism, so also
Saint Paul provides us with the earliest theology of the Eucharist.
The writings of Saint Paul are filled with Eucharistic references
and allusions, but, as with Baptism, we do well to anchor our discussion
in two texts which figure most prominently in the Church’s liturgy
on occasions such as Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi. Both are
from First Corinthians:
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is
it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we
break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because
the loaf of bread is one, we though many, are one body, for we
all partake of the one loaf ” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
“For I
received from the Lord, what I also handed on to you, that the
Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after
he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also the cup, after
supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this,
as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of
the Lord until he comes” (1 Corinthians 10:23-26).
Let us begin
with the second of these texts in an effort to paint a coherent
picture. These verses (vs. 23-26) are the oldest written account
of the institution of the Eucharist (see R. Collins, First
Corinthians, in Sacra Pagina, no. 7, Collegeville,
MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999, p. 425). Saint Paul penned these
words in 55 – 57 A.D., during his two year stay at Ephesus. But
these words are based on his preaching at Corinth in 49 or 50.
Furthermore, Paul makes a point of telling us that he is handing
on what he received.
In the previous section on baptism, we noted
in passing the Greek word for “tradition” or “handing on,” namely,
“paradosis.” In the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
“paradosis” is a rabbinic term referring to the passing
on of a tradition. This tradition traces itself back to the historical
Jesus (ca. 30) and to the teaching and practice of the very first
Christian communities (see Acts of the Apostles 2:42). Thus, the
renowned theologian, Joachim Jeremias, called the Eucharistic words
of consecration “the primeval rock of tradition” (The Eucharistic
Words of Jesus, London: SCM Press, 1973, p. 189).
We can
thus see how fundamental the Eucharist, the “breaking of bread,”
was to the Church from the very beginning. In the Acts of the
Apostles 2:42 (passim), Saint Luke writes, “They devoted
themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal
life, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.” Pope John
Paul II reminded us that tradition discerns the presence of Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, at these earliest Eucharistic gatherings
(Ecclesia de
Eucharistia, no. 53). If, indeed, the Eucharist is bedrock
to tradition, and Mary, the Mother of God, saw the need to attend
the Eucharist, what can be said of the current tendency of far
too many Catholics to casually absent themselves from Sunday Eucharist?
In the passage at hand, Saint Paul recounts the institution
of the Eucharist much as Saint Luke does in his Gospel, but in
continuity as well with saints Mark and Matthew. Like all these
sacred writers, Saint Paul has tapped into a common source and
cites it now as he attempts to instruct and correct the Corinthians
who dallied with idolatry and displayed crass selfishness at the
meal preceding the Eucharist. Saint Paul reminds them that the
Eucharist truly is the Body and Blood of the Lord sacrificed for
the sake of our salvation.
Here and in the other accounts of the
institution of the Eucharist, we arrive at the basis for the Church’s
teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Based
on what Christ said and did at the Last Supper and upon the earliest
Eucharistic gatherings of the primitive Church, we profess that
the Eucharistic bread is, in fact, the true Body of the Lord and
that the cup is truly the Blood of Christ in which the new covenant
was sealed.
In this passage, Saint Paul employs a word play between
“handing on” the Church’s Eucharistic tradition and the “handing
over”, that is, the betrayal of Christ (see Thornton, op. cit.,
pp. 94 ff.). And in using the word “Lord” (kyrios,
in Greek), Saint Paul subtly reminds us that the one betrayed is
now risen.
Twice Saint Paul uses the word “remembrance” (anamnesis,
in Greek). He conveys Jesus’ command, to do this – the Eucharistic
action – “in remembrance of me.” This is not just a matter of recalling
past events. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they
become, in a certain way, real and present.
As the Catechism
of the Catholic Church teaches, “When the Church celebrates
the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made
present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all remains ever
present” (no. 1363).
In 1 Corinthians 5:7, Paul proclaims, “Christ,
our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” and so reminds us that the
substance of our sacrifice is the substance of our Eucharistic
meal.
We ingest what we proclaim and proclaim what we ingest:
the Lord’s Pasch.
Turning now to 1 Corinthians 10:16-17,
we can deepen our understanding of “the Real Presence” and how
the Eucharist builds up the Church. Saint Paul says of the “cup
of blessing” – “is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?”
And of the Eucharistic bread – “is it not a participation in the
body of Christ?” The word “participation” is a key idea. In Greek
it is “koinonia,” which is the word for “communion.” Thus
we refer to the Holy Eucharist as “Holy Communion.” The communion
established by reception of the Eucharist is not merely a meeting
of the minds nor does it depend on the feeling or experience of
the recipients. Rather, it is “real” communion in the sense that
it exists independently of what we may think or feel; thus, not
feeling like we want to go to Mass is never a good reason to stay
away.
As Father Lucien Cerfaux wrote, “Union with the Lord
in the Eucharist is . . . a religious reality of primordial importance.
We have a real, almost physical, contact with the body and blood
of the Lord” (The Christian in the Theology of Saint Paul,
New York: Herder and Herder, 1967, p. 335).
We can also easily
see that communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord unites us
not only with Christ but also with one another: “Because the loaf
of bread is one, we though many, are one body, for we all partake
of one loaf ” (v. 17). Thus there is a direct link between the
Eucharistic Body of the Lord and the Church as the Body of Christ.
Our communion with the Lord is the “source and summit”
of the communion that is the Church. As you recall, the phrase
“the Body of Christ” is Saint Paul’s “definition” of the Church.
Christ is the Head and we are the members. As members of the Body
of Christ we have differing vocations and gifts, but all of them
are work together harmoniously. The Eucharist, which is a true
and real participation in the Body and Blood of Christ, builds
up the Church, which is His Body. There is thus a real though mystical
(sacramental) identification between the Incarnate Christ, crucified
and risen, and the Eucharistic Body of the Lord, which in turn
forms and constitutes the Church as His Body, that is the whole
Christ, head and members.
These few reflections only scratch the
surface. I hope, however, that what you have read will spur you
on to further reading, reflection, and prayer. Most of all, I hope
it will contribute to a spirit of praise and thanksgiving for the
Lord’s sacramental presence in our midst.
As the opening prayer
for Mass on the Second Sunday of Easter puts it, “Give [us] still
greater grace, so that all may truly understand the waters in which
they were cleansed, the Spirit by which they were reborn, and the
blood by which they were redeemed.”
Back
to top
"Saint
Paul and the Priesthood"
Part 15: The Finale
Fairfield County Catholic, June-July,
2009
At the end of June, the Year of Saint Paul draws
to a close, and so will this series on Saint Paul. There remains
so much more about Saint Paul to study, such as his teaching on
justification by grace.
The point of this series has been simply
to prompt a prayerful and thoughtful reading of Saint Paul’s letters.
It also aimed to help us listen ever more attentively to the passages
from Saint Paul when they are proclaimed in the liturgy. Above
all, I am grateful to Pope Benedict XVI for his wisdom and pastoral
love in dedicating this year to the Apostle to the Gentiles. In
his own travels and his tireless proclamation of the Gospel, our
Holy Father is like a modern-day Saint Paul.
There is one more
aspect of Saint Paul’s writings I’d like to treat – the priesthood.
This is not an obvious Pauline theme. In fact, some would say that
Saint Paul never really deals with the priesthood in his letters.
That theme, it is said, can be found in the Letter to the Hebrews
which most contemporary scholars do not attribute to Saint Paul.
Be that as it may, it is true that Saint Paul never wrote a treatise
on the priesthood nor did he make it a theme of his letters. Nonetheless,
there is abundant evidence that Saint Paul understood his apostolic
ministry in priestly terms. With the help of several authors, I
will try to point this out in the paragraphs that follow.
I chose
to treat this question for two reasons. First, if we miss or neglect
the references in Saint Paul to priesthood, we will misunderstand
much of what he is saying to us. Second, we are at the juncture
between the “Year of Saint Paul” and the “Year for Priests,” which
begins on June 19, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. This year marks
the 150th anniversary of the death of Saint John Vianney. Known
as the Curé of Ars, he is the patron of parish priests. During
this forthcoming anniversary year, Pope Benedict invites us to
focus on the beauty of the priestly vocation and its importance
in the life of the Church.
What better way to begin the Year for
Priests than by looking at the priesthood through the eyes of Saint
Paul?
And let’s begin somewhat more precisely with the
“I” of Saint Paul, for he describes his ministry in personal terms
– the person of Christ and his own “persona.” Indeed, Saint Paul
might well be seen as a primary source for the Church’s teaching
that the ordained priest acts in the person of Christ the Head.
Without ceasing to be a unique person, the priest efficaciously
reproduces the words and deeds of Christ, especially His death
and resurrection, by proclaiming the Word of God, by celebrating
the Mass and the Sacraments, and by manifesting pastoral charity.
The “I” of the priest becomes the living, human instrument of Christ’s
love by which He continues to be present to His people and act
on their behalf.
How does Saint Paul help us to understand that
teaching? We start with an obvious fact: Saint Paul often writes
in the first person. We would expect this because Paul’s writings
take the form of letters which he addressed to specific Christian
communities. In those letters, he continues to proclaim the Gospel
but also to answer questions, settle disputes, and correct error
and infidelity. So, naturally, he often used the personal pronoun
“I.”
Sometimes, however, his use of the first person wasn’t
simply stylistic. Rather, in using the word “I” he identifies himself
both with Christ and with the Church. To put it a bit more precisely,
Saint Paul is aware of taking on a new identity rooted in the Church’s
oneness with Christ. For example, throughout the entire Letter
to the Galatians, Saint Paul speaks in the first person but not
as a casual correspondent. Instead, he speaks as the one who had
formed them in Christ. “My children,” he writes, “for whom I am
in labor until Christ be formed in you.” In fact, throughout his
letters, we see that Paul’s strong personality doesn’t fade away
but, rather, is identified with Jesus Christ whose Gospel he proclaims
and whose mission he continues.
In Galatians 2:19-20, Saint Paul alludes to his calling and his
transformation through his encounter with the Risen Lord on the
road to Damascus: “For through the law, I died to the law that
I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I
live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me
and given himself up for me.” Saint Paul has laid aside his former
way of life as an expert in the Jewish law. Here and elsewhere,
Paul also distances himself from a legalistic understanding of
the Jewish priesthood. In this passage, Paul speaks boldly about
a personal identification with Christ crucified as the foundation
to his mission as an Apostle. He identifies himself with the sacrifice
of the New Covenant which is the content of his teaching as also
the celebration of Baptism and the Eucharist. Similarly, in Romans
Paul tells us that he proclaims the Gospel “with his spirit” (Romans
1:9).
Paul makes it plain that his personal identification
with Christ and his sacrificial offering has nothing to do with
egotism but, rather, the opposite: he was called through the undeserved
grace of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, after describing his former
persecution of the Church of God, he adds, “But by the grace of
God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.”
Paul is aware that his ministry is effective not through the sheer
force of his personality but, rather, because Christ is at work
in and through him.
In another passage, 2 Corinthians 4, Saint
Paul offers a dramatic summary of his ministry. In 4:7, he adds,
“But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing
power may be of God and not from us.” Here Saint Paul speaks of
his frailty and thus his need to surrender all the more fully to
the inherent holiness of his calling (see Dermot Power, A Spiritual
Theology of the Priesthood, Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1998,
pp. 77-78).
Ordained a priest for 33 years, I daily contemplate
the gap between my unworthiness and the holiness of my office,
even as I ask God to make my weakness the instrument of his transforming
love, “for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Saint Paul speaks of his ministry in other ways that
demonstrate its priestly character. Take, for example, the word
“ministry.” In Romans 15:15-16, Saint Paul reminds his readers
that his ministry came about “. . . because of the grace given
me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing
the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering
up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
Here Paul uses the Greek word “leitourgon” which is translated
as “minister.” We readily see that the word for “liturgy,” with
its priestly connotations, is embedded in the Greek word for “ministry.”
Paul goes on to describe his work as “priestly service.”
This phrase
links Paul’s ministry to Christ’s priestly offering of himself
on the Cross. Saint Paul further tells us the goal of his ministry
– so that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable. He
is concerned lest they fall back into a way of life that alienates
them from God and renders their offering displeasing to God.
In
this passage Saint Paul is concerned with the ongoing sanctification
of those to whom he preached the Gospel. Thus Paul employs here
the language of Israel’s worship to describe his ministry and its
goal. While this is not yet a full-fledged description of the distinction
between ordained clergy and laity, it nonetheless forms a basis
for that teaching (see Brenden Byrne, S.J., Romans, in Sacra Pagina,
Vol. 6, Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996, pp. 435-436; Scott
Hahn, Catholic
New World, April 26- May 9, 2009, p. 16).
There remain three
other references in Saint Paul which help us see that he understood
his apostolic ministry in priestly terms.
The first is 2 Corinthians
5:18-21, where Saint Paul speaks of his “ministry of reconciliation”
as well as his ambassadorship on behalf of Christ. This passage
reads: “. . . All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself
through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely,
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting
their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message
of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God
were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.” Here Saint Paul tells us that his ministry
is rooted in Christ’s ministry of reconciliation, that is, the
initiative of God to reconcile the world to himself (see also Colossians
1:20) in and through the death of Christ on the Cross (see, Romans
5:10; see Jan Lambrecht, S.J., Second Corinthians in Sacra
Pagina, Vol. 8, Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1999, pp.
104-105).
As an ambassador, Paul speaks and acts in the place
of Christ. So united was the “I” of Paul to the “I” of Christ,
that he not only represented Christ but indeed made him present.
Indeed, in 2 Corinthians 2:10, Saint Paul speaks of forgiving “in
the presence of Christ” or even “in the person of Christ.” Saint
Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek to Latin, rendered
the Greek phrase “en prospero Christou” as “in persona Christi”
(see Hahn, op. cit., p. 17). Fundamental to Catholic teaching on
the priesthood is that the priest acts in the very person of Christ,
Head and Shepherd of the Church.
A second reference is 1 Corinthians
4:1 where Paul describes himself and his coworkers “. . . as servants
of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” The notion of
steward is similar to that of ambassador. The theologian, Jean
Galot, tells us that “a steward is a person who takes the place
of another, who acts in another’s name” (Jean Galot, The Theology
of the Priesthood, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1984,
p. 99). Galot also tells us that the steward is not a mere functionary
but is endowed with considerable authority to continue the mission
entrusted to him. Paul is the steward of Christ’s mission to reveal
“the mystery,” the hidden plan of God for the salvation of the
world, which is revealed in the proclamation of the Gospel and
communicated through the sacraments (see my previous column, “Mystery,”
December 6, 2008). There is a link between the Greek word for “mystery”
and the Latin word for “sacrament.” Early Latin versions of the
Bible used the word “sacrament” to translated the Greek word “mysterion”
or “mystery” (see L. Bouyer, Dictionary of Theology, Tournai:
Desclee, 1965, p. 393). Indeed, to celebrate a “sacrament” is to
enter into the mystery of God’s loving plan of redemption. Thus,
at the beginning of Mass, the priest will often say, “to celebrate
these mysteries worthily . . .” And the Eastern churches still
refer to the sacraments as “mysteries.”
A final group of references
are passages where Paul styles himself as God’s co-worker (see
Galot, op. cit., pp. 100-101). Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians
3:9, “For we are God’s coworkers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
As we have seen in previous installments of this series, Saint
Paul refers to the Church as God’s temple. Just as surely, Paul
speaks of himself as the one who put in place the foundation for
the Church in the places where he visited and preached the Gospel.
Paul has a priestly sense of cooperating with God in building up
the Church.
This, I daresay, is what brings most priests the
greatest joy.
To conclude, we now need to look at Paul’s ministry
from ten thousand feet. Amid all the foregoing priestly references
in Paul’s writings, we see the broad outline of the role a bishop
or priest, namely, to proclaim the Gospel, to celebrate the Sacraments,
most especially the Eucharist, and to guide God’s people in the
ways of holiness and truth – in a word, “to teach, sanctify, and
govern.” In a very real sense, Saint Paul continues to do that
from his place in heaven.
We have been fortunate to spend this
past year meditating on the teaching and example of Saint Paul.
May he continue to inspire us as, now, under the leadership of
Pope Benedict XVI, we turn our attention to the priesthood of Jesus
Christ.
Back
to top
|
|
Column 2: