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Chapter Six:
St. Paul---3. The
“Body” of Christ
I
Various figures are employed by the Apostle to describe
the one living organism that the faithful form in
Christ. Now he represents it as a woman, the only spouse
of Christ, now as a plant, or as an olive tree; at times
it is a single edifice which appears to have life, for
it is seen to grow and to develop itself. But these
figures have no special prominence in the writings of
St. Paul.
The contrary is true of another metaphor,
that of the human body, which is used to represent the
same union. This figure, which is very frequent and very
expressive in St. Paul, had previously been little used
in the Scriptures, and with the exception of the Stoic
philosophy, especially in the popular form, it had
remained rare in profane writings.
St. Paul employs it often. It is the figure
which he most frequently uses to designate the unity of
the Christian community. It is found even in the Great
Epistles, although it attains its full development only
in the Epistles of the captivity. In order to follow the
Apostle’s thought, we shall study the metaphor of the
“body”, first in the earlier Epistles, and then in the
later group.
II
It is in the earliest of the Great Epistles,
the First to the Corinthians, that we find most frequent
mention of the “body”. Here it occurs three times. The
references are usually brief and always incidental. Paul
speaks of the “body” only to explain or demonstrate some
other point; but he does so without explanation, as if
it were something already known. Hence the idea must
have been quite familiar to the Christians. Otherwise,
since the Apostle is so careful to present to his
neophytes only such nourishment as they can bear, he
would have added the instruction necessary for the
understanding of so sublime a doctrine.
The first mention is in the sixth chapter.
Grave abuses were beginning to creep into the community.
Paul wished to set things in order and to point out the
sinfulness of such conduct.
Know you not that your
bodies are members of Christ? Am I then to take the
members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? God
forbid! Or know you not that he that cleaveth to a
harlot is one body {with her}? “The two”, it is said,
“shall become one flesh”. But he that cleaveth to the
Lord is one spirit {with Him}. Flee from impurity. (1)
Our bodies, then, are Christ’s members; any
profanation of them is a sacrilege. To make this point
clear, Paul institutes a comparison between the union of
a man and woman in sin, and the unity which Christ forms
with His brethren. The sinner becomes one body with his
accomplice; he that loves God becomes one spirit with
Him.
“One spirit”, say the Apostle. This is not
the expression that one would expect; the entire context
should have led him to say one “body”. But he has just
used the word in connection with sin, and it seems he
dare not now apply it to things that are holy. In any
event, God who inspired the Scriptures did not will that
it should appear in such a context.
However, the phrase which is thus held back,
so to speak, at the last moment, soon makes its
appearance. We find it a few chapters further on, once
more in connection with some other subject.
This time it is a case of conscience,
concerning meats that have been offered to idols. Paul
explains that these meats can define no one so long as
they are eaten in good faith. But he warns the faithful
that to participate in the ritual repast that
accompanies the sacrifices, and in which such foods are
served, is real apostasy.
Therefore, my beloved,
flee from idolatry. I speak as to men of understanding;
judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not fellowship in the blood of
Christ? The bread which we break, is it not fellowship
in the body of Christ? We many are one bread, one body,
for we all partake of the one bread. Consider Israel
according to the flesh: have not they who eat the
sacrifices fellowship with the altar? What then do I
mean? That the idol offering is anything? Or that the
idol is anything? No; but that what the gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God; and
I would not have you enter the fellowship of devils. You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the
devils; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and
the table of devils. (2)
Here again, the argument rests upon a
comparison between a sinful union on the one hand, and
on the other, a union of salvation. These exclude each
other, explains Paul; one cannot at the same time
associate with devils and have part with Christ.
Still, these two unions are very different.
After all, the idols are nothing, and the meats that are
offered to them can unite one to nothing; it is all a
lie and a diabolical deception. But our union with
Christ is something real. It is accomplished by the
mysterious bread that gives us communion with the Body
of Christ, and which unites all the communicants into
one body: “We are one body, for we all partake of the
one bread”.
“One body.” Is Paul thinking of the unity of
a religious assembly, of a society, of the “body” of
communicants? Or, when he goes on to point out that on
the one hand all is error, and on the other, all is
truth, does he mean to say that Christian unity, and it
alone, is real, and that, nourished by one and the same
life, the faithful make up but one organism? The latter
is the conclusion that the Apostle’s ordinary thought
and customary vocabulary would seem to imply. But, taken
alone, the inspired text is not as clear as we should
wish, and so it seems that God did not will it to
possess this clearness. We should say that here again,
because of the proximity to sinful realities, the
doctrine of the Mystical Body is unable to develop
freely.
Once this undesirable association
disappears, however, the doctrine will be unfolded. We
have not long to wait, for in the twelfth chapter, where
the author gives a eulogy of charity, the supernatural
truth finds the atmosphere that it needs.
The new Corinthian converts, turbulent even
in their fervor, were eager for extraordinary graces.
Everyone desired miraculous powers and the gift of
tongues. Paul recalls them to humility. Each one, he
says, should keep his own place, and be content with the
office and the graces he has received, just as in the
body each member is satisfied with its position and
performs its duties for the benefit of all.
Now there are varieties
of gifts, but the same Spirit….To one through the Spirit
is granted utterance of wisdom; to another utterance of
knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another
faith, in the same Spirit; and to another, gifts of
healings, {still} in the one Spirit; and to another,
workings of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another
discerning of spirits, to another, {divers} kinds of
tongues, and to another, the interpretation of tongues.
But all these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
who apportioneth severally to each as He will.
For as the body is one and hath many members, and all
the members of the body, many as they are, form one
body, so also {it is with} Christ.
For in one Spirit all we, whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, were baptized into one body; and
were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not one member, but many. If the foot
say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body”,
not for all that doth it cease to be of the body.
In
the body, all is unity and mutual assistance. The
members serve one
another.
That there may be no
schism in the body, but that the members may have a
common care for each other. And if one member suffereth,
all the members suffer therewith; if a member be
honored, all the members rejoice therewith.
Now you are {together}
the body of Christ, and severally His members. And God
hath appointed sundry in the Church, first apostles,
secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; then {there are}
miracles, then gifts of healing, aptitudes to succor
{or} to govern, {and} divers kinds of tongues. Are all
apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?…(3)
So, according to the Apostle, there exists
in the Church the same diversity of functions as in a
living body. Hence he concludes that there is also the
same unity. And he continues the Epistle with the
praises of charity.
The whole of this long passage is nothing
else than a description of the Mystical Body. The
Christian community is one body; it has but one
life-giving breath, it is animated by the one Spirit.
Whoever enters the Church becomes part of a unity that
already exists, just as a grafted branch becomes part of
the living tree. So, too, in this one body all is
common. The holiness of one member becomes the glory of
all; all suffer from the pain of one; all rejoice at the
happiness of each one. Even while they each perform
their particular functions, the members live for all,
and the services thus rendered by each member to each of
the other members, seal the union of the whole.
Consequently, instead of complaining against those who
are more privileged, the Corinthians should rather have
rejoiced. For all derive benefit from whatever one
member possesses, and the very inequality of graces that
is necessary for the existence of an organized body,
tends to draw together all the members into the same
living unity, and therefore, into the same essential
dignity.
The unity of the members with Christ is
still more intimate than their union among themselves,
since the former is the cause of the latter. The entire
body, says St. Paul, is the body of Christ, or, to
translate more literally, it is “a body of Christ”.
You
are {together} body of Christ, and severally His
members.
Or again, as he says a few verses earlier:
As the body is one and
hath many members, and all the members of the body, many
as they are, form one body, so also {it is with} Christ.
(4)
Here
we have two similar formulas, that would complete each
other if they were joined by the same context. We need
only bring them together in order to have the full
expression.
This
is done by the Apostle himself, or rather, by God who
inspires the Scripture, in the Epistle to the Romans.
The passage is exactly parallel to the one we have just
read. Again the mention is incidental; again there is
question of charity, and of the too frequent failings of
jealousy and pride.
I say to each one among
you, not to think more of himself than he ought to
think, but to be sober in thought, each according to the
measure of faith which God hath assigned him. For as in
our body we have many members, and all the members have
not the same function, even so we many are one body in
Christ, and members each of the other. But we have gifts
which vary according to the grace that hath been given
us, whether of prophecy, to be used according to the
proportion of our faith; or of ministry, in ministering,
etc. (5)
Mark the formula that forms the center of
the passage:
As in our one body we
have many members, and all the members have not the same
function, even so we many are one body in Christ, and
members each of the other.
The
exposition is a combination, so to speak, of the two
expressions we met in the Epistle to the Corinthians; it
includes the beginning of the one, and the conclusion of
the other. The whole sentence forms the synthesis of
Paul’s teaching as it is given in the Epistles of that
period. In general, this teaching may be summed up as
follows: All the faithful, united together, are one;
they are one whole; they are one body.
“A
body of Christ” (soma
Christou).
The figure is not yet as precise as might be desired; at
least it has not yet been rendered familiar and definite
by frequent use. For Paul employs the word body (soma),
without the article:
a
body of Christ, a kind of body of Christ, we might add
by way of explanation.
Of
this body, Christ is the principle of unity. He gives
life and cohesion to the whole; He is the person that
possesses the whole body, and that is, in a certain
sense, its “Ego”. But, for more complete information on
this body, we must study the Epistles of the captivity.
III
In the Epistles of the captivity, the
doctrine of the Mystical Body has attained a much fuller
development. The Apostle no longer restricts himself to
mere casual reference. Here the “mystery”, that is to
say, this wonderful “body”, becomes the central thought
which he means to develop for its own sake, and which
God teaches us through him.
He enters into his subject in the very
opening lines of the letter to the Ephesians. He gives
thanks to God for having chosen us all and loved us all
in Christ, for having “recapitulaed” us all in the Son.
The term
recapitulate
(anakephalaiosasthai),
still lacks definiteness, but the context makes its
meaning clear. However, that one may grasp the
explanation, divine light is necessary.
{I pray that God} may
grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the
full knowledge of Himself, and enlighten the eyes of
your heart to know what is the hope of His calling, what
the treasures of the glory of His inheritance among the
saints, what the surpassing greatness of His power
toward us that believe, {displayed} in the working of
the might of His strength. (6)
When the eyes of their hearts are illumined
by God, the faithful can see:
With that same strength
H hath wrought in Christ, raising Him from the dead, and
seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
above every principality and power and virtue and
domination, above every name that is named not only in
this world, but also in that which is to come.
And He hath subjected
all things beneath His {Christ’s} feet, and hath given
Him for supreme Head to the Church, which is His Body,
the fullness of Him who is fulfilled in all {or,
according to the translation of Père Prat: Who gives
Himself His fullness, i.e., by making men His members}.
(7)
Now we have the metaphor in full detail.
Regenerated humanity appears in God’s eyes as one body.
Of this Body, Chris is the Head. He imparts to His whole
Body the power to grow, and in this Body appear all the
forces of the sanctification that belong to the Head.
The figure is complete. But even yet it does
not tell all. So Paul takes up the subject again in the
fourth chapter. His purpose is still to convince the
faithful that a diversity of graces, far from being a
source of division and jealousy in their “body”, should
rather contribute to its unity.
He that descended {into
the lower parts of the earth}, the same {Christ} is also
He that ascended above all the heavens, that He might
fill all things {with His presence}.
And Himself gave some as
apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as
shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints
in the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the
Body of Christ, till we all attain to the unity of the
faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to
the perfect man, to the full measure of the stature of
Christ. Thus we shall be no longer children, nor tossed
on the waves and carried around by every wind of
doctrine, through the trickery of men crafty in devising
error. Rather we shall hold the truth in charity, and
grow in all things into Him who is the head, Christ.
From Him the whole body,
welded and compacted together throughout every joint of
the system, part working in harmony with part---{from
Him} the body deriveth its increase, unto the building
up of itself in charity. (8)
The description is certainly overburdened.
Paul could not finish the sentence until he had put into
it all that clamored for expression in his soul. Phrase
follows phrase, repeating, completing, complicating the
thought. The entire passage is involved and hard to
understand. Nevertheless, the general sense, the only
one that interests us, is immediately evident. Christ is
the Head. By mysterious influences, He imparts force and
life to the whole body, to the entire Church. United and
bound together by Him, the members interchange their
blood, their energies, their assistance. And, by the
life-giving virtue of the Head, the whole body has
within itself its own principle of development and of
growth. Hence, the body lives; it lives truly, and it
effects its own development. Paul insists upon this
interior life: the body, he says, increases the body,
unto its own upbuilding. He could scarcely repeat
himself more. But the idea is even more complex; and the
text goes on to say that the principle of this growth
which the body takes on, is not the body itself, but the
Head. As Paul says, it is from Christ, by the assistance
of Christ, that the body derives its growth and builds
itself up.
The Epistle to the Colossians had already
expressed the same thought, but in a sentence that is
less involved. Take care, it insists, not to be like
those unhappy ones who will not act or believe except
according to their own liking,
Not
holding fast by the head. For from this {which is
Christ} the whole body, nourished and knit together by
means of the joints and ligaments, doth grow with a
growth that is of God. (9)
The
same role of Head is attributed to Christ in another
passage of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Here, however,
the image is twofold. Paul is now speaking, not only of
the body and its members, but also of the bridegroom and
the bride. He mingles the two comparisons, explaining
and complicating the one by the other. But the very
confusion of images adds force to the lesson of unity,
by showing how far this living unity transcends all the
representations that could be given of it.
Wives, {be subject} to
your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the
head of the wife, as Christ too is Head of the Church,
Himself being the Saviour of the Body. Well, then, as
the Church is subject to Christ, so also should wives to
their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives,
as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for
her sake, that He might sanctify her, purifying her in
the bath of water by means of the word, and that He
might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and
without blemish.
Even thus ought husbands
to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth
his own wife loveth himself. Surely no man ever hated
his own flesh, nay, he doth nourish and cherish it, even
as Christ the Church; because we are members of His
body. “For this shall a man leave father and mother, and
shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall come to be
one flesh” (Gen. 2: 24). The mystery here is great---I
mean in reference to Christ and to the Church. (10)
So Christ is the Head, the Church is His
Body, and she is “the same flesh” with Him. And this
union is the mystery, the mystery that Paul is
proclaiming in this letter, and which God is revealing
to the Christians through the preaching of Paul, a
mystery so sublime that it confers a mysterious and
sacred character upon that union which is only its
imitation, the union of husband and wife.
Still other passages in the same
Christological Epistles represent Christ as the Head.
As then ye have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built
up in Him, and established in the faith according as ye
were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that
there be no man making you his spoil by force of his
philosophy and deceitful fancies, following the
traditions of men, following the elements of the world,
and not following Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead corporally: and ye are filled
{therewith} in Him who is the head of every principality
and power. In Him again it is that ye were circumcised
with a circumcision not wrought with hands, the
stripping off of your fleshly body, in the circumcision
which is of Christ. (11)
The
lines add little to the knowledge of “the body and the
Head” that we have gleaned from the first passages we
studied. The same may be said of some other texts which
we now cite:
He hath reconciled both
{Jew and gentile} in one body to God through the cross.
(12)
{Be} careful to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and
one Spirit, as also ye were called in one hope, that of
your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism. (13)
I make up in my flesh
what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ, on behalf
of His body, which is the Church. (14)
Put on charity, the
bond, that is, of perfection. And in your hearts let the
peace of Christ stand supreme, whereunto also ye are
called as {members of} one body; and be grateful. (15)
Though these last passages have not much to
say about the Head, they do tell us something about the
body, which is the Church.
We must now say a few words concerning the
body. The Church, especially as described in the
Epistles of the captivity, is the fulfillment, the
fullness (pleroma)
of Christ, as Paul repeats. She is in the same relation
to Christ as a building to its foundations, as the stem
to the root, as the organism to the life that animates
it. The Church continues Christ; she expresses Him; she
develops all the powers of sanctification that are His.
Without her, Christ would be incomplete, like a head
without a body. The expression is strong; but the
Apostle says it over and over again: without the
faithful, Christ has not His fullness.
This fullness, it is true, adds nothing new
to Christ. As we have already seen, the body derives its
growth entirely from Him, and it is His merits, His
grace, and His holiness that are the life and the
activity of the faithful. He is the cause and the origin
in all; it is from Him that grace and strength descend
upon the whole Church, and God sees us and blesses us
only for His sake, in Him, and through Him. But He had
to have this supernatural expansion, in order that the
eyes of all might contemplate the plenitude that was not
manifest in His individual existence.
IV
The figure of the Mystical Body is more
fully developed in the Epistles of the captivity than in
the earlier Epistles. In the latter Paul spoke only of a
body composed of many members. Now he mentions the
special role of the Head, the prolongation, if we may so
speak, of the Head in the body, and the vital
interchange that takes place between the members.
Now, too, the “body” appears as a more
concrete reality. In the earlier Epistles, as we have
noted, its outline was less clear; the Apostle spoke of
it somewhat vaguely, as “body of Christ”, without the
article. Now he calls it “the body of Christ”, using the
article. This, of course, is a slight modification, but
it may indicate that the image has now become more
distinct in his mind, and that, by a more frequent use
of the figure, Paul himself has naturally come to look
upon it as something very definite.
To this modification we must add another,
which, like the first, introduces no change in the
thought expressed. In the Great Epistles, Christ
appeared to be within the whole body. He was, in a
certain sense, its “Ego”; He was the source of concord
and of unity between all the members, adapting each to
the others in Himself, like the soul or vital principle.
Now, in the Christological Epistles, Christ appears
primarily as superior to any body. He is the Head, says
Paul---the word did not appear in the earlier
letters---and it is especially from above that He
imparts life and unity to the entire organism. In his
commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Cornelius à
Lapide formulates well the difference between the two
images: “the expression, ‘ye are Christ’s’, may be
rendered thus: ‘ye are the members of which He is the
Head’, or ‘ye are the Mystical Body, of which He is the
soul’.” (16)
Though much has been said about this
difference, it is merely a question of vocabulary. The
thought has not changed. In the early Epistles, the role
of Head is attributed to Christ; only the word is
absent. Even thus early Paul declares that He is the
foundation of the entire edifice; He is the
first-fruits; it is He who distributes grace, and it is
by Him that salvation comes to us. Hence, far from being
lost in the multitude of the faithful whom He joins in
Himself, the personality of Christ ever stands out
clearly defined and transcendent, since it is like the
supreme Unity, from which all else has unity.
On the other hand, for all its novelty, the
figure of the “Head” as formulated in the Epistles of
the captivity, does not by any means exclude the role
which the great Epistles ascribe to Christ. Even when
raised up above the whole organism, He nevertheless
remains within it. He animates and gives life to the
whole; and though this whole constitutes His growth and
His fullness, yet it comes entirely from Him. In its
entirety, too, it had to be present in Him first of
all---eminenter
et causative,
as the Scholastics would say. His superiority as Head
corresponds, therefore, in every way to the superiority
that characterizes the soul, when it gives life to the
entire living being.
For the rest, it matters little to Paul
whether such be exactly the function of the head in an
organism. He is no slave to the figures he employs; he
makes them say what must be said, though he should have
to force them a bit as he goes along. In another passage
treating of the same subject, have we not seen him take
two figures that are almost irreconcilable, “to be in
Christ”, and “to possess Christ”, and combine them
without even appearing to notice the difficulty? So it
is with the figure of the head. It must tell us that
although Christ is in every respect superior to the
whole organism, He is nonetheless present everywhere
within the organism, animating it with His power. And
this is what the figure actually does express. That it
seem a trifle forced does not concern him in the least.
Moreover, the time had come, in the Epistles
of the captivity, to emphasize the pre-eminence of
Christ. In the days of the early Epistles, there was
question only of the Church. The Judaizers had wished to
subordinate her to Judaism, and Paul had to show that
she possessed a divine life, that she was a body
animated by Christ. Now, the method of attack has
changed: visionaries are striking at Christ and at His
divinity. So, it is Christ’s divinity that Paul
emphasized. He insists upon the superiority that puts
the Head above the body, without at the same time
separating the one from the other.
But whatever be the figure used, the
doctrine remains identical. Whether he exalts the
Church, as in the Great Epistles, or whether he exalts
Christ, as in the Epistles of the captivity, Paul is
always repeating the same affirmation: the Church is
united with Christ, and she is His Mystical Body.
V
In almost al the texts which treat of
Christ’s function as Head, that function is very closely
associated with His death on Calvary and with His
resurrection.
And {Christ} Himself is
the Head of the body, the Church: it is He who is the
beginning, the first-born from the dead….It hath pleased
the Father…through Him to reconcile all things to
Himself…making peace through the blood of His cross.
(17)
By one and the same act, so to speak, Christ
is both “Head of the Church and the Saviour of His
Body”, as St. Paul explains to the Ephesians. (18). He
is Head of all in the sense that:
Along with Him ye were
buried in baptism: along with Him also ye had your
resurrection through faith in the power of God, who hath
raised Him up from the dead. (19)
Since this Head attaches all the members
closely to Himself, all have died in His death and all
are risen in His resurrection. God’s great work in the
world, which is to incorporate all men in Christ, was
accomplished through the events of Good Friday and of
Easter morning. Paul marvels at the tremendous power of
God’s operation in us.
With that same strength
He hath wrought in Chris, raising Him from the dead….He
hath subjected all things beneath His feet, and hath
given Him for supreme Head to the Church. (20)
There is union and continuity between
Christ’s death and resurrection on the one hand, and His
universal power of vivification on the other. It is by
making all men partakers of the Blood which He shed and
of His life-giving Body that He gathers them all
together, through the Eucharist, into a single organism.
His death and resurrection make Him the second Adam; by
their means He has opened the door through which all
humanity is to enter; by their means He has begun in
Himself the divine alchemy that is to transform the
whole race of men. Therefore it is by their means that
He is able to incorporate into Himself this multitude of
sinful humanity; it is by their means that He has become
Head of all the members of His body.
Once more we repeat: the doctrine of the
mystical Christ does not tend to obscure the history of
the concrete Christ: on the contrary, it presupposes and
integrates that history. The events that took place at
Jerusalem during the week of the Pasch belong also to
the theoretical teaching which explains how the divine
life continues to flow, always and everywhere, into
humanity. Though these events belong to the past as far
as their material execution is concerned, yet in their
supernatural efficacy they continue to be the principle
that acts in all human events; nay, they are become in a
sense the one and perpetual event of human history.
But they possess this mystical universality
only because Christ Himself is universal and mystical;
operari sequitur
esse,
we might say in Scholastic phraseology. Jesus’ actions,
and above all, His last actions, have this universal
effect precisely because they are the actions of Jesus;
simply by being His actions, they have the same
universal and irresistible power which He possesses by
being the Man-God.
In vain will one search for a text in which
St. Paul states or implies that God conferred the
Headship on Christ only after the resurrection. On the
contrary, the Headship is mentioned many times without
any reference whatever to the resurrection. When there
is question of the latter, as is often the case, the
resurrection and death of the Saviour are represented
merely as the means whereby the Christ-life enters into
the souls of men or whereby the souls of men come into
contact with the Christ-life; it is represented as the
model of the transformation which God wills to bring
about in the faithful, or as a motive which the faithful
have to act for God; above all, it is represented as the
external revelation and manifestation of the marvelous
expansion and universal efficacy of a power that was
present in Christ from the beginning. Indeed, the
resurrection is frequently treated as an element which,
however important, has not yet been assigned to a
definite place in Paul’s teaching of the Mystical Body.
We may say in general that the resurrection
does not enter, at least primarily, into the doctrine of
the “mystery” and of the life
in Christo,
whether we consider the descriptions of the complex
organism which is the Mystical Body or the expressions
in which Paul tells us that this organism is so truly
one as to constitute a single man, one Christ.
Hence, in spite of its great importance, it
remains something secondary. The essential, ultimate,
and complete explanation of the resurrection, of its
mystical efficacy, and of all that is mystical in the
Saviour, lies in the fact that the Saviour is God. This
is why Paul’s teaching can be strictly theocentric
without being any less Christocentric: for if Christ is
the center of all in man, God is the center of all in
Christ.
In Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead corporally: and ye are filled
therewith in Him. (21)
What more could we ask? Christ Himself, the
supreme gift, is the final explanation:
He is the image of the
unseen God….And Himself is prior to all, and in Him all
things hold together.
He again is the Head of
the Body, the Church….
For in Him it hath
pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell.
(22)
All these “fullnesses” are linked together,
and each one of them lives by reason of its attachment
to the one that precedes. Since Christ possesses in
Himself the fullness of the divinity, He also possesses
in Himself the fullness of all supernatural human life;
hence we, too, are filled in Him, filled with all the
fullness of God. There is only Christ: He is the first,
the first in all; He is all, all in all; for His is God.
He is God, and we are sons of God:
For
ye are all through your faith sons of God in Christ
Jesus….
Ye are all one person in Christ Jesus.
(23)
This
divinization that is given in Christ will be treated
later on; what we shall say then will continue the
explanation which we have begun here. For the present
only one point is to be noted; namely, that just as it
was God who willed to recapitulate all things in Christ,
so, too, it is God who effects this recapitulation of
all things in Christ. To anticipate the terms of later
theology, we may say that if the Saviour is the Head
through His humanity and in His humanity, He is such
only by reason of the divinity.
1)
1
Cor. 6: 15-18.
2)
1
Cor. 10: 15-21.
3)
1
Cor. 12: 12-29.
4)
1
Cor. 12: 27, 12.
5)
Rom.
12: 3-8.
6)
Eph.
1: 18, 19.
7)
Eph.
1: 20-23.
8)
Eph.
4: 10-16.
9)
Col.
2: 19.
10)
Eph. 5: 21-32.
11)
Col. 2: 9-11.
12)
Eph. 2: 16.
13)
Eph. 4: 1-6.
14)
Col. 1: 24.
15)
Col. 3: 15.
16)
In Gal. 3: 29,
Opera,
Vol. 9 (Antwerp, 1556), p. 40.
17)
Col. 1: 18, 20.
18)
Eph. 5: 23.
19)
Col. 2: 10, 12.
20)
Eph. 1: 20-22.
21)
Col. 2: 9, 10.
22)
Col. 1: 15, 17-19.
23)
Gal. 3: 26, 29.
• Up • The Whole Christ (Introduction) • The Whole Christ: Chapter One • The Whole Christ: Chapter Two • The Whole Christ: Chapter Three • The Whole Christ: Chapter Four • The Whole Christ: Chapter Five • The Whole Christ: Chapter Six • The Whole Christ: Chapter Seven •
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