Advertisements ad

December 21, 2008

Paul wanted us to be ‘thoroughly Christified’ The Apostle wants us, not to simply admire the accomplishment of Christ, but rather swim in it, participate in it

By Father Robert Barron

CONTRIBUTOR

In a previous article, I considered the life and times of Paul the Apostle, the great saint whom Pope Benedict XVI has invited us to examine with special attention this year. In this piece, I would like to explore the teaching of this pivotal figure.

By far the most important theme in the preaching and teaching of Paul is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. When he appeared in the Areopagus, the public forum in ancient Athens, Paul spoke the word “anastasis” (resurrection) so often that the people thought he was proclaiming a new god by that name.

Paul says very little in his letters about the teachings of Jesus or his miracles or his public life, but he speaks over and over again about his resurrection from the dead.

There were many views abroad at the time concerning what happened to someone after death. Some Jews would have said that the dead go the shadowy realm of Sheol; others, such as the Sadducees, held that the body simply decays at death and life comes to an end. Still other Jews would have looked forward to the general resurrection of all the righteous at the end of time. Many Greeks would have followed the Platonic teaching that the soul escapes from the body at death and goes to a celestial realm.

Paul would have been acquainted with all of these theories, but he proclaimed none of them in regard to Jesus. He didn’t say that Christ had gone to the shadowy underworld, or that his soul had gone to be with God, or that he was waiting for the final resurrection. Rather, he declared that Jesus, who had been crucified and buried was alive again in a transfigured body.

And Paul appreciated this resurrection as the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel. Covenant, law, Torah and temple were all designed to reconcile divinity and humanity, to bring the divine grace to long-suffering Israel.

All of them were fulfilled — and more than fulfilled — in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Paul realized that this risen Christ, the Messiah of the Jews, must be announced as the Lord of all the nations, which is precisely why Paul travelled so widely and evangelized so passionately.

The Apostle was convinced, furthermore, that the risen Christ was like a field of force, an energy, or to use one of his favorite words, dynamis (power). The idea was to enter into Jesus’ body and thereby be transformed into a new person.

To the Galatians, Paul wrote, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” If ancient Israel was taught to follow the law, Paul now says, “enter into Christ, who is himself the embodiment of the law.” If ancient Israel was taught to enter into the covenants of Abraham, Moses and David, Paul now says “live in Christ who is himself the fulfillment of the covenants.” It is only in this context that we can begin to understand the vexed and complex theme of justification in St. Paul, an issue that split the western church in the 16th century.

When he was a student of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, the young Paul would have often heard the Hebrew term mispat, which means justice or right order. It designated the state of an upright person in the presence of the righteous God, a state made possible by the laws and covenants of Israel. But since these were fulfilled by and taken up into Christ, they are no longer, Paul realized, the privileged means of righteousness. Rather, Christ is.

As Paul says over and again, it is not by the works of the law that we are saved, but by faith in Christ, entering into his dynamis, the power of his risen body.

But notice, please, that this entrance into the body of Jesus involves both faith (which is to say trust) and action. Paul wants us thoroughly Christified, which is to say, conformed to Christ’s body, soul, mind, passion and spirit. He wants us, not simply admiring the accomplishment of Christ from the outside, but rather swimming in it, participating in it.

This is why the Catholic Church has always resisted Luther’s reading of Paul on justification. Whereas Luther — and most Protestant thinkers after him — interpreted Paul as saying we are justified by faith alone, Catholic theology has interpreted Paul as teaching that we are justified by faith, working through love. Indeed, in one of his most lyrical passages, Paul says, “if you have faith great enough to move the mountains, but have not love, you are nothing” (1 Cor. 13). Faith opens the door to Christ, but love is participation in Jesus.

So what is Paul’s essential message? If you want to find peace and righteousness, surrender fully to the dynamis, the power, of Jesus Christ.

Barron will continue his examination of St. Paul in the next edition of the Catholic New World. He adapted the text from a November Mission Chicago talk. Barron is the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. For more of his writings visit www.wordonfire.org.