CHAPTER 3

Today we are experiencing something of a renaissance of early Christianity. Nor should one wonder that an age like ours, which feels its very foundations shaking, should look back to the beginnings of Christian history where principles were distinct and tangible, contrasts sharp and clear, forms fresh and vigorous. The main value in this turning back to early Christianity ought not to be seen in the fact that we here meet with examples of great holiness and courageous witness (these can be found in all ages), nor in the relatively high level of religious-moral life in these Christian communities; but rather in the pristine spirit and single-mindedness of its Christian life and in the clarity of its ideals – ideals not broken up and watered down, but dynamically alive in the consciousness of the faithful, providing the assurance and impetus needed for the conquest of a pagan world.

ST. PAUL

If we would like an idea of the teaching method employed by the first generation of Christians, we cannot do better than turn to St. Paul. The immediate impression we get from his letters and the accounts about him in Acts is that of a wholly Christ-centered preaching. Christ appears everywhere, not only in all important questions of dogma and moral but even in those touching small, incidental events in the life of the early communities.

Fr. Fernand Prat, in The Theology of St. Paul, feels that the substance of Pauline teaching can be summed up in the words: Christ, the Savior, who gives those who believe in Him a participation in His life and death. From the height of the risen, glorified Christ, St. Paul goes on to see the whole, newly established Kingdom of God: the structure of the Church, the sacraments, the life of grace, the final fulfillment. The way in which St. Paul constantly links these teachings to Christ, so often treated in a certain isolation today, deserves our special attention. A few references will suffice.

The Church is none other than the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:23), communicating the life of the risen Christ and continuing it on earth as His "Body," which is permeated with His Spirit, and His spotless Bride which He has won for Himself (Eph. 2-5); Paul, an apostle and servant of Jesus Christ, works for the building-up of this Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12f.); individuals are joined to this holy community by faith, called simply "faith in Christ," "receiving Christ" (Col. 2:5f.).

This union is effected by Baptism, which is a death and burial of the sinful man with Christ and a resurrection unto new life with Him (Rom. 6:3ff.).

This new life brought to the world by Christ – the life of grace – is variously described as possessing the Holy Spirit, being led by Him (Rom. 8:14), as a sanctification, so that the baptized are simply called "saints" and the temple of God. This Spirit who is sent to dwell in us is the Spirit of Christ; through Him we are able to call God, "Father," as adopted sons and co-heirs with Christ, called to suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:9-17). The essential character of the Christian’s grace-life is expressed in the constantly recurring expressions, a life "with Christ," and "in Christ’ use times. – a union not only with the glorified Christ but a life of the great organism, unto which Christ is extended in His Church: for the faithful are incorporated into the Mystical Christ and thus carry out their life, their prayer and their struggles "in Him." According to the context, this life will involve habitual grace (a remaining in Christ) and actual grace (an acting in Christ); and growth in grace and faith is a growth in Christ (Eph. 4:15 ff.), a being formed unto Christ (Gal. 4:19).

The central core of Paul’s teaching on salvation, as well as marginal points, is illumined by Christ. God is not simply the Almighty Creator; He is "the Father" by whose eternal purpose and initiative all things are to be brought together in Christ. The first man is seen in the perspective of the New Adam (Rom. 5: 12-21); the Law is "our pedagogue unto Christ" (Gal. 3:24). The end of the world is the day of Christ; the history of mankind will be concluded when everything is subjected to Him and He turns over the Kingdom to His Father "that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:24-28). Moral life is constantly referred to Christ; from Him it receives its decisive motivation. It is battle-service for Christ, to whom allegiance was sworn in Baptism, a following of Christ, an acquiring of the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5f.). The chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which treat of practical matters, are particularly illustrative of the close connection between morals and the dogma of Christ. Membership in the Mystical Body of the Lord involves a new obligation of brotherly love (12: 12ff.). Concerning the dissensions at Corinth, the Apostle replies: "Has Christ been divided?" (1:13). His warning against impurity rests on the basis, "Your bodies are members of Christ" (6:15). To give scandal to a brother is to sin against Christ who has died for him (8:11). The worship of idols is impossible because one "cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils" (10:21). Relying on the conviction that his faithful have a vital awareness of this way of thinking, Paul also believes that there is no need for many commands and precepts, and thus it is that he dares to place such stress on freedom in Christ.

In this entire context we should constantly bear in mind that it is Paul indeed who surpasses the other witnesses of the primitive Church in the power of expression; and yet not only will the most important features of his thought appear again in their writings but his very modes of speech, namely, the predilection for seeing and depicting the Church, grace and salvation from the viewpoint of Christ. This is particularly true of the First Epistle of St. Peter and the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Of great value for the present inquiry is the existence in early Christian literature of systematic summaries of Christian teaching, especially since they did not serve a scientific purpose but rather the interests of proclaiming the Christian message, thus enabling us to see what doctrinal points were stressed and how they were joined together into a unified whole.

The beginnings of such summaries are to be found in apostolic times. They take on the form of a primitive compendium of the content of faith during the course of the second century with the appearance of the Apostles’ Creed, intended from the outset, it would seem, as a pre-baptismal profession of faith. As this Creed has been the basis of catechesis to this day, we are most justified in turning our special attention to it.

The basic schema of the Apostles’ Creed is based on the trinitarian baptismal formula (Matt. 28:19), together with a confession of faith in Christ. The baptismal formula soon developed into a tri-partite profession of faith (for example, the papyrus of Der-Balyzeh; cf. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n.1), and Christological formulas on the person and work of Christ were in evidence from apostolic times (see St. Paul, 1 Cor. 15:3; St. Ignatius of Antioch, Trall. 9, Smyrn. 1, Magnes. 11). This latter "Christ-kerygma" was soon joined to the baptismal creed, in all likelihood as a defense against the heresies of second century Gnosticism. The most important form of this enlarged Creed is the old Roman Symbolum Apostolicum which differs but slightly from our present Apostles’ Creed.

This Roman Creed, embracing the basic trinitarian schema into which another tri-partite formula based on the key-words God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit has been woven, offers the outline to which Christian teaching has ever turned, down to our own day: (1) the doctrine about God the Creator, one and triune; (2) the doctrine about Jesus Christ, the Mediator between God and man; (3) the doctrine about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the other benefits of the Redemption. The duality, God and Christ, is given with God’s design to send a Redeemer to man; it is a duality that dominates the entire New Testament. The origin and finality of the Redemption suggests a third section – on the effects of Christ’s salvific work. Though various concepts were available here, for example, that of life (see John 17:3), the Church (see St. Clement, Epistle to the Corinthians, I, 59, 4), the resurrection (see Tertullian, The Prescription of Heresies, 23), that of the Holy Spirit finally prevailed in the Creed. We have, then, a compendium of the whole of Christian teaching, with an emphasis on the Holy Trinity, making it particularly acceptable as a baptismal profession of faith.

If this Creed is to be properly understood, however, we must take the two tri-partite formulas as our point of departure and recognize that behind the trinitarian formula, and caused by it, there stands a second tri-partite formula, that of the economy of salvation, forming with the former a compendium of the entire teaching of faith. Only then will we understand how symmetrically the old Roman Creed was fashioned.

In the profession of faith in God two attributes are added: "Father," not in an exclusively trinitarian sense but also in that of the Our Father; and "the Almighty," that is, He who rules over all.

In the profession of faith in Christ two attributes are also added: "Son of God" and "Our Lord," which set in relief the Messianic dignity of His humanity and point up the relationship of Christ to those who are His own. At this point in the Creed the "Christ-kerygma" is inserted by means of two relative clauses, the first dealing with the Incarnation and the second with the work of Redemption. These are the two mysteries which stand at the center of the two great liturgical cycles of Christmas and Easter. Emphasis, most properly, is on the Redemption and Easter in Creed and liturgy respectively. With a few bold strokes the Creed sets before us the triduum crucifixi, sepulti, suscitati, leading us from the depths of Christ’s abasement to His glorious Easter triumph, on to His ascent to the Father’s throne, indeed, to His return as Judge at the end of time. The mystery of salvation is described not as vicarious satisfaction, to which theology now gives the central position, but under the image, so dear to the Fathers, of the Savior’s struggle and victory, with a suggestion of the Pauline idea of our participation therein.

The fruits of the Redemption are gathered together in the third section. At the beginning stands the Holy Spirit, the uncreated grace. The communication of the Holy Spirit is the short expression for the new life brought to the world by Christ (John 7:39). For over three centuries this was the most favored term for grace, whose supernaturality and gratuity could have found no clearer expression in Christian preaching. What we now call habitual grace was seen then as an inhabitation of the Holy Spirit, actual grace as His activity. The mightiest revelation of divine grace on earth is the Church, the assembly of those called by God; hence it most aptly follows the Holy Spirit. Holiness, as a reflection of the Holy Spirit living within her, is appropriately singled out from the other attributes of this Church. Ontological holiness – the sum total of the Church’s habitual grace, powers, authority – is primarily intended, and from this moral holiness obviously proceeds.

The community thinking of the early Church is reflected in this conception of the Church as the work of grace, as well as in the consideration of grace as it is found in the Church. Scientific analysis tends to the treatment of grace in the individual. Yet we should not forget that according to Catholic teaching grace comes to the individual through the Church’s mediation. It is especially through the sacraments that grace flows out from the Church to individuals. Although the sacraments of the living are implied in the "holy Church," only those which effect "the remission of sins" are expressly mentioned, particularly Baptism.

The resurrection of the mesh forms the conclusion of the Creed – the glorious resurrection according to the thought-pattern of the early Church (the punishment of the wicked is implied in the advent of the Judge) – in which the new life receives its final fulfillment. Noteworthy in the Creed are the parallels between the history of the Savior and the salvation-history of the just: Christ – born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, the just – born of the Holy Spirit and the Church; Christ – who underwent a baptism of suffering and death and then rose gloriously, the just – who must first be buried in death to sin with Him in Baptism so that they may then share in His resurrection.

GREGORY THE GREAT

The world of the Fathers offers most striking examples of a preaching entirely dominated by the message of Christ and presented with pristine power and clarity. One example must suffice here – the Ezechiel homilies of Gregory the Great who, though he appears at the close of the patristic period, carries on the spirit of the preceding centuries. The homilies considered here (treating Ezechiel 1:1-4; 3; 40:1-40; 47), preached to the people from the autumn of 593 A.D. on, are typical of the approach of the Fathers both in their dependence upon Sacred Scripture and in the type of material they chose from it. Though these homilies of Gregory will not aid the exegete, they will reveal the preacher’s heart and his conception of the Christian mystery as he speaks to his people. Here Christ is the central theme from beginning to end, not merely from the usual modern standpoint of His Person but especially from that of Mediator between God and man whose unique character illumines the entire breadth of human life and the "almighty God" who has created all and who "calls mankind to the joy of eternal light" (II, 4, 20).

Always taking the Person of the Lord as his starting point, Gregory finds in the prophet’s images the wondrous union of the divinity and humanity (for example, in the species electri of 1:4), with the assumption of the humanity (found in the "firmament" of 1:22) as the beginning of our salvation. In Ezechiel’s images (for example, those of "the four living creatures," 1:5-10) he regularly sees, in whole or in part, the sequence of Christ’s saving acts – incarnation, suffering on the cross, death, burial, resurrection, ascension. Christ’s resurrection is normally introduced in connection with His sufferings, and their soteriological import are seen under the figure of a victorious struggle, rather than that of satisfaction and merit – His own hard won victory over death and our liberation from sin. Again and again Gregory’s thought turns to the glorified Redeemer, who at the side of His Father, is our support and helper – not a piece of past history but the highest actuality, toward whom we constantly strive. In the prophet’s images, too, Gregory finds the dynamic relationship between Christ and His own. Thus, in the "man whose appearance was that of bronze" and who standing in the gateway was told, "Son of man, look carefully... and pay strict attention to all that I will show you" (40: 3-4), he discovers the risen Christ who is always looking at the building of His holy Church. It should not surprise us that this pastoral Pope returns constantly to the "holy Church" which he regards in the context of the glorified Christ, who surrounds her with walls (40:5), who is His Body and His Bride, a spiritual edifice built upon Him as on a very high mountain (40:2), with the living stones of the faithful. In this and similar contexts Gregory comes to speak of the work of the Holy Spirit, who is seen in the Christological context of the gift of the Son – the fire He willed to pour out on all the peoples of the world.

This is not to say that Gregory knew only a Church of love, not one of law. The entire lifework of the great Pontiff gives us a most clear insight into the latter aspect. But in his homiletic teaching, the pastor recognized the importance of developing within his people a vivid awareness of the grace-laden nature of the Church, an awareness which would at once be the basis for their fulfillment of the claims of law and authority. Into this total structure, then, he introduced the moral life of the faithful, pointing out that they can do nothing of themselves but, responsive to Christ who has called them to Himself and to His Church, they should seek to fulfill faith in love and preserve it with every kind of virtue (the true measurements of the prophet’s new temple, 40:5).

These Ezechiel homilies supply us with a corrective to the incomplete view we have of Gregory from our reading in the Breviary of the medieval choice of passages which stress commandment and virtue. The dominant topic of his preaching, allegorical indeed and seemingly disorganized, was a luminous vision of a unified salvation history, in which all human effort must ever be seen in relation to the work of Christ, the Mediator, who leads us to God.

It would be appropriate at this point to round out the picture of the early Christian proclamation of the faith with one final feature: the proclamation which was linked with the liturgical life of the Church. But it is right here that we meet Gregory the Great once again. His influence on the definitive form of the Roman liturgy was most pronounced. So strong, in fact, that we could reasonably expect that the liturgy which he lived and helped to shape would reveal under this other form a basic thought-pattern similar to the one we found in his sermons. This liturgy, happily, is not merely something of the past but a reality which in its essentials is a priceless possession of ours today. In fact, it stands as the most significant link binding our own times with early Christianity. Consequently, in outlining a positive program in the last part of the book, it will suffice to take as our regular point of departure the sacred traditions which have come down to us in the liturgy from the early days of the Church.

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