Catechesis 10: For Candidates For Baptism On ‘And In One Lord, Jesus Christ’
CATECHESIS 10: For candidates for baptism On ‘and in one Lord, Jesus Christ’
Reading: 1 Cor 8.5ff: ‘Yet although there are so-called ‘gods’ in heaven or on earth, for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things exist and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, and we too exist through him…’
1 Those who have been taught to believe ‘in one God the Father Almighty’ ought also to believe ‘in his Only-begotten Son’. For one cannot both deny the Son and have the Father. ‘I am the Door’, Jesus says. ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’ (Jn 10.9); if you deny the door, you are shut off from knowledge of the Father. ‘No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals him’ (Mt 11.27); if you deny the revealer, you remain in ignorance. There is a saying in the Gospels: ‘the one who does not believe in the Son will not have life, but God's anger rests upon him’ (Jn 3.36); for God is angry when his Son is slighted. A king regards it as a serious offence if even one of his soldiers is dishonoured, and if a bodyguard or a friend is dishonoured his anger is all the greater; but if it is the king's only son who is insulted, who will appease the father's anger at this?
2 So if you wish to show reverence for God, you should adore his Son, or else the Father will not accept your worship. For the Father proclaimed from heaven: ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’ (Mt 3.17). The Father took pleasure in his Son, and if you do not do the same, you do not have life. Do not be led astray like the Jews, who say craftily: ‘There is one God alone.’ No, besides knowing that there is one God, you must know too that he has an Only-begotten Son. I am not the first to say this: the Psalmist speaking for the Son says: ‘The Lord said to me: “You are my Son”’ (Ps 2.7). Pay attention then, not to what the Jews say, but to what the prophets say. Are you surprised that the people who stoned the prophets disregard what they say?
3 So believe ‘in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God’. We say that Jesus Christ is one Lord to preserve our belief that he is the Only-begotten Son. We say he is one in case anyone might suppose that he is a second Lord. We say he is one to prevent the many names by which his power is described leading you to an impious belief in many sons. For he is called the Door; but don't imagine the title refers to a wooden door; it refers rather to a spiritual, living door which determines who may enter. He is called the Way: not a way that is walked on, but one that leads to our Father in heaven. He is called a Sheep (Is 53.7; Acts 8.32): not a dumb animal, but the one who purified the world from its sins with his precious blood, the one who was led to the shearer and knew when to be silent. But conversely this sheep is called the Shepherd, who said, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ (Jn 10.11): sheep in his humanity, shepherd by the mercy of the godhead. Do you need proof that there can be sheep in the spiritual sense? He says to the apostles: ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep amid wolves’ (Mt 10.16). Again he is called Lion, though not a man-eating one, signifying by this name his royal, strong and resolute character. He is given this title in contrast with our enemy the roaring lion who swallows the victims it has tricked (1 Pet 5.8). For when the Saviour came, he did not change the gentle side of his nature, but as the powerful lion of the tribe of Judah he saved believers and trod the enemy under foot. He is called Stone: not the inanimate stone which men have quarried, but the Corner-stone, by whom the ‘believer…will not be put to shame’ (1 Pet 2.4, 6).
4 He is called Christ: yet he was not anointed by human hands; he was anointed by the Father to an eternal, superhuman priesthood. He is called the Dead one (Apoc 1.18): yet he did not remain among the dead like all the rest in the Underworld; he alone was ‘free among the dead’ (Ps 87.6 (LXX) (88.5)). He is called ‘Son of Man’; yet he did not derive his origin like each of us from the earth, but he will come on the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead (Dan 7.13–14; Mt 24.30). He is called Lord, though not in the loose sense, like lords among men. His proper name was Jesus, a title derived from the saving art of the healer. He is called Son, not by an act of adoption but by natural birth. Our Saviour thus has many titles; and so to prevent this multiplicity of titles leading you to think there are many sons, and because of the errors of the heretics who say among other things that Christ, Jesus, the Door, etc. are not one and the same, the Creed takes the precaution of giving you its precise formulation: ‘in one Lord Jesus Christ’. For although there are many titles, they belong to a single individual.
5 The Saviour provides for our needs, for each in a different way. For those who lack joy, he is the Vine; for those who need to enter, he is the Door; for those who need to pray, he is the Mediator and the High Priest. Again, for those who are sinners, he becomes the Sheep to be slain on their behalf. He becomes ‘all things for all men’ (1 Cor 9.22), while remaining what he is by nature. For while continuing to hold the unchangeable dignity of Son, he adapts to our weaknesses like a skilled doctor or a sympathetic teacher. He is Lord literally; he did not gain the rank of lord by advancement but possesses it by nature. He is not called Lord in the loose sense as we are, but he is literally Lord, because he rules over his own handiwork by his Father's decree. The lordship we exercise is over human beings who share our rank and our feelings, even over our elders, for often a young ruler has authority over those who are old. But the lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ is not like this, for he was Creator before becoming Lord. First he made everything according to his Father's will, and only then is Lord of the things he made.
6 Though born in David's city, he is Christ the Lord. Do you need proof that before he became man he was Christ the Lord with his Father, so as not only to accept what we say on faith, but to have the evidence of the Old Testament? Go to the first book, Genesis. God says: ‘Let us make man’, not ‘according to my image’ but ‘our image’. And after the creation of Adam it says: ‘And God made the man; in the image of God he made him’ (Gen 1.26–7). The text does not restrict the divine dignity to the Father alone, but included the Son, to show that man is not only the work of God but also of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Lord who works with the Father did so also at Sodom, according to the text: ‘And the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrha from the Lord out of heaven’ (Gen 19.24). Again, the same Lord was seen by Moses in so far as he was able (cf. Exod 3.2, 6; 33.20). For the Lord is gracious, and always adapts to our weaknesses.
7 To prove to you that it was he whom Moses saw, listen to the evidence of Paul's words: ‘For they drank from the prophetic rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ’ (1 Cor 10.4). And again: ‘By faith Moses left Egypt’ (Heb 11.27). And a little further on: ‘He considered abuse suffered for Christ greater wealth than the treasures of the Egyptians.’ It was Moses too who said to him: ‘Show yourself to me’ (Exod 33.13 (LXX)). Do you notice that the prophets saw Christ in their own day, but each according to his capacity? ‘Show yourself to me so that I may recognize you.’ ‘No one shall see my face’, he replied, ‘and live’ (Exod 33.20). So because no one could see the face of the godhead and live, he assumed the face of manhood, so that we might see it and live. When he did choose to reveal even this with some little degree of majesty so that his face shone like the sun, his disciples fell to the ground in terror (cf. Mt 17.6). Although the brightness of his bodily face was proportionate to the disciples’ capacity and not to his energy and power, it terrified them and they could not bear it; how then could anyone gaze at the majesty of his godhead? What you desire, Moses, the Lord says to him, is something great. I acknowledge your longing. Although your desire cannot be fulfilled, ‘I will do for you what you ask’ (Exod 33.17), only according to your capacity. ‘See, I will set you in the cleft of the rock’ (Exod 33.22). Since you are small, you will remain in a small space.
8 Please understand clearly what I now have to say because of the Jews. I intend to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. Thus the Lord says to Moses: ‘I shall pass before you in my glory, and in your presence I shall call upon the name of the Lord’ (Exod 33.19). Lord that he is, what does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord? Observe how he was hinting at the sacred doctrine concerning the Father and the Son. Again, in the subsequent verses it says explicitly: ‘And the Lord came down in a cloud and stood before him there, and called upon the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before his face saying: ‘The Lord, the Lord, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in mercy and true, observing justice and doing deeds of mercy for thousands, taking away wickedness and injustice and sin’ (Exod 34.5–7). Moses then bowed down to the ground and worshipped before the Lord who had called upon the Father; ‘Walk alongside us, Lord’, he said (Exod 34.8–9).
9 This then is the first proof; let me give you another clear one. ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand”’ (Ps 109 (110).1). The Lord says this to the Lord, not to a slave: to the Lord of all, who is his Son to whom he has given authority over all things. ‘It is clear that all this does not include the One who had given him the authority over all things…that God may be all things to everyone’ (1 Cor 15.27–8). The Only-begotten Son is Lord of all things; he is the Father's obedient Son, who did not usurp his lordship but received it by nature from the one who gave it freely. The Son did not usurp it; nor was the Father grudging in sharing it. For the Son himself said: ‘All things have been handed over to me by my Father’ (Lk 10.22). To say they have been handed over to me does not mean that I did not possess them before. I have the right to keep them; I am not robbing the one who handed them over.
10 Thus the Son of God is the Lord. The child born in Bethlehem of Judaea is the Lord, as the angel told the shepherds: ‘I bring you good tidings of great joy…today Christ the Lord is born to you in David's city’ (Lk 2.10–11). In another passage one of the apostles has this to say on the subject: ‘the message which he sent to the sons of Israel, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ; he is the Lord of all’ (Acts 10.36). When the text says ‘of all’, do not subtract anything from his lordship. Angels and archangels, principalities and powers, every creature named by the apostles, all fall under the Son's lordship (cf. Col 1.16). He is lord of the angels, as you read in the gospels: ‘then the devil left him, and the angels came and served him’ (Mt 4.11). It does not say ‘they assisted him’, but ‘they served him’, which is the function of a slave. When the Virgin was about to conceive him, Gabriel acted as a servant, taking this service to be his proper privilege. When Jesus was about to travel to Egypt to overthrow the gods of Egypt made by human hands, the angel appeared once more to Joseph in a dream. After the crucifixion and the resurrection, an angel announced the good news, and like a true servant told the women: ‘Go and tell his disciples that he is risen, and is going ahead of you into Galilee. See, this is my message to you’ (Mt 28.7). It was as if he said: ‘I have not disobeyed my orders. I ask you to testify that I have told you. If you ignore my message, I shall not be to blame, but you will be for your negligence.’
It follows that he is the one Lord Jesus Christ, about whom today's reading says: ‘Although there are so-called “gods” in heaven or on earth…for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things exist and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, and we too exist through him.’
11 Jesus Christ has two names: he is called Jesus because he saves, Christ because he is the Priest. Realizing this, Moses, the most inspired of all the prophets, gave these two titles to the two most specially chosen men. He changed the name of his own successor in authority from Auses [Hoshea] to Jesus [Joshua] (Num 13.16); and he gave his own brother Aaron the added name of Christ. Thus through two specially chosen men he signified the priestly and royal prerogatives of the one Jesus Christ who was to come. For Christ is the High Priest like Aaron, since he ‘did not take upon himself the glory of becoming High Priest, but it was given him by the one who said to him: “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek”’ (Heb 5.5–6; cf. Ps 109 (110).4). Jesus the son of Nave [Joshua the son of Nun] also prefigured him in many ways. His rule over the people began at the Jordan, where Christ began to preach the good news after his baptism. The son of Nave appointed twelve men to divide the people's inheritance; Jesus sent out twelve apostles throughout the world to be heralds of the truth. The first Jesus saved the harlot Rahab because she believed; the true Jesus said: ‘See, the tax-gatherers and the harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before you’ (Mt 21.31). Under the Jesus who was a type a shout was enough to bring down the walls of Jericho (Jos 6.20); because Jesus said: ‘A stone will not be left upon a stone’, down fell the Jewish Temple which stood facing us. This is not to say that it was his prediction caused the downfall of the Temple; it was rather the sin of the evil people.
12 There is one Lord Jesus Christ—a glorious name which the prophets proclaimed indirectly in advance. The prophet Isaiah said: ‘See, the Saviour is coming with his reward’ (Is 62.11 (LXX)). The Hebrew name ‘Jesus’ means ‘Saviour’; but the inspired prophet concealed the name because he foresaw that the Jews would seek to murder the Lord, and did not want direct knowledge of his name to prepare them for their conspiracy. He was given the name Jesus openly not by human choice but by the angel, who did not come on his own authority but was sent by the power of God. ‘Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife’, the angel said to Joseph, ‘for what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus.’ The angel at once gave the reason for the name: ‘He will save his people from their sins’ (Mt 1.20–1). Consider, how can one who is not yet born have a people, if he did not exist before he was born? Again, the prophet says in his person: ‘While I was still in my mother's womb he gave me my name’, referring to the angel's prediction that he would be called Jesus. He goes on to refer to Herod's plot, saying: ‘He has hidden me under the shadow of his hand’ (Is 49.1–2).
13 So Jesus’ name in Hebrew means ‘Saviour’, but in Greek it means ‘Healer’. For he is the physician of bodies and the healer of spirits. He cures physical blindness and gives light to people's minds. He heals visible lameness and guides the steps of sinners towards repentance, saying to the paralytic both ‘Do not sin any more’ and ‘Pick up your mattress and walk’ (Jn 5.14, 12). Since it was the sin of his soul which caused the paralysis of his body, he first healed the soul to prepare for the healing of the body. So if you are sick in soul through sin, you have a physician. If there is anyone here of little faith, let him say to Jesus: ‘Help my unbelief (Mk 9.24). If anyone is suffering from bodily illness, do not be without faith, but come forward (he heals these illnesses too) and acknowledge that Christ is Jesus.
14 The Jews accept that he is Jesus, but do not yet accept that he is Christ. That is the point of the Apostle's words: ‘Who is a liar, if not one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?’ (1 Jn 2.22). Christ is the High Priest who ‘holds an inviolable priesthood’ (Heb 7.24); his priesthood had no beginning in time, nor will another succeed him in it, as you heard me say last Sunday at the Eucharist when I was preaching on the text: ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’ (Ps 109 (110).4; Heb 7.17). He did not receive the high priesthood through physical succession or an anointing with man-made oil, but from his Father before time began; and he is greater than other priests in so far as he was appointed with an oath. ‘Whereas others became priests without an oath, he did so with an oath through the one who said: “The Lord has sworn and will not repent of his oath”’ (Heb 7.21). The Father's will by itself was guarantee enough for him, but he has a double reason for assurance, since the Father's will is accompanied by an oath, ‘so that through two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we’ who accept Jesus Christ the Son of God ‘might have strong encouragement’ for faith (Heb 6.18).
15 When this Christ came, though the Jews denied him, the demons acknowledged him. However his ancestor David was not unaware of him when he said: ‘I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed’ (Ps 131 (132).17). Some people have interpreted the ‘lamp’ as the shining light of prophecy, others as the flesh he took from the Virgin, according to the Apostle's saying: ‘We have this treasure in earthenware vessels’ (2 Cor 4.7). The prophet was not unaware of him when he said: ‘and announcing his Anointed to mankind’ (Amos 4.13 (LXX)). Moses knew him, Isaiah knew him, Jeremiah knew him; there was not one of the prophets who did not know him. Even the demons recognized him, for when he rebuked them, the text says, ‘they knew him to be the Christ’ (Lk 4.41). The high priests did not know him, but the demons acknowledged him. The high priests did not know him, but the Samaritan woman proclaimed him, saying: ‘Come and see the man who has told me everything I have done. Surely he is the Christ?’ (Jn 4.29).
16 This is Jesus Christ, who ‘appeared as the High Priest of the good things to come’ (Heb 9–11), who with divine generosity allowed us to share his own title. Although human kings cannot share with other men the title of king which they hold, Jesus Christ the Son of God allowed us to be called Christians. However someone may say: ‘Christian is a new name without precedent, and what is unfamiliar is often opposed because of its strangeness.’ The prophet forearmed us with an answer to this objection when he said: ‘My servants will be given a new name which shall be a blessing over the earth’ (Is 65.15–16 (LXX)). Let us question the Jews: ‘Do you serve the Lord or not? Show us then your new name. For you were called Jews and Israelites at the time of Moses and the other prophets, after the return from Babylon and up to the present time. So where is your new name? Because we serve the Lord we have a new name—new, it is true, but the “new name” which shall be a blessing over the earth.’ This name has taken hold of the whole world. The Jews have spread within a certain area, but Christians within the confines of the whole world, for it is the name of the Only-begotten Son of God which is proclaimed.
17 Do you want proof that the apostles knew Christ's name and proclaimed it, or rather had Christ himself within them? Paul says to his listeners: ‘Are you looking for proof that Christ is speaking in me?’ (2 Cor 13–3). Paul proclaims Christ. Who is Paul? The one who had persecuted him (cf. Acts 9–5). How amazing! The former persecutor proclaims Christ. Why? Was he bribed to do so? But there was no one to bribe him. Was it because he saw Christ in person and was overawed by him? But he had already been taken up into heaven. He went out bent on persecution, and after three days in Damascus the persecutor had become the herald. What is the significance of his evidence? Any other person would call friends as witnesses in his cause; I have called before you a former enemy as a witness. Are you still unconvinced? The evidence of Peter and John is impressive, but it is open to suspicion because they were friends. But who will doubt the truth of the former enemy who then gave his life?
18 While I am on the subject, I am truly amazed at the dealings of the Holy Spirit. Why did he determine that the other apostles should write so few letters, while he allowed Paul, the former persecutor, to write fourteen? It cannot be true that he restricted the grace granted to Peter or John because they were not so great. Rather it was to make the lesson unmistakable that the former enemy and persecutor was allowed to write more for the sake of our faith. ‘They were all astonished at Paul and said: “Isn't this the former persecutor? Didn't he come here to put us in chains and take us to Jerusalem?”’ (cf. Acts 9.21) ‘Don't be astonished’, Paul says, ‘I know that it causes me pain to kick against the goad. I know that I am not fit to be called an apostle, because in my ignorance I persecuted God's church. I thought that to proclaim Christ was to overthrow the law. I didn't know that he came to fulfil the law, not to overthrow it. But God's grace in me was superabundant’ (cf. Acts 26.14; 1 Cor 15.9; Mt 5.17; 1 Tim 1.14).
19 Dearly beloved, there are many true testimonies concerning Christ. The Father bears witness to his Son from heaven. The Holy Spirit bears witness descending in bodily form as a dove. The archangel Gabriel bears witness announcing the good news to Mary. The Virgin Mother of God bears witness. The blessed place of the manger bears witness. Egypt bears witness, which gave a home to its master when he was still young in body. Simeon bears witness, who took him in his arms and said: ‘Now, Master, you let your servant depart according to your word in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation’ (Lk 2.29–30). The prophetess Anna, the austere and most devout ascetic, bears witness to him (cf. Lk 2.36–8). John the Baptist bears witness to him, John, the greatest of the prophets, the herald of the new covenant, who so to speak joined in his own person the two covenants, the old and the new. The River Jordan bears witness. Of all seas the Sea of Tiberias bears witness. The blind bear witness, the lame bear witness, the dead restored to life bear witness. The demons bear witness saying: ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus? We know who you are, God's Holy One’ (Mk 1.24). The winds, which were muzzled at his command, bear witness. The five loaves multiplied for the five thousand bear witness. The holy wood of the cross, still to be seen among us today, bears witness; its fragments were taken from here by the Faithful and now virtually fill the whole earth. The palm-tree in the valley bears witness, which provided the palms for the children who greeted Christ there. Gethsemani bears witness, which all but reveals Judas to the mind's eye. Holy Golgotha, which rises above us here, bears witness. The Holy Sepulchre and the stone still lying there bear witness. The sun bears witness, shining today, but at the moment of the saving passion suffering eclipse. The darkness which fell there from the sixth to the ninth hours bears witness. The light which shone from the ninth hour till evening bears witness. The holy Mount of Olives from which he ascended to the Father bears witness. The rain-clouds which received the Master bear witness. The gates of heaven bear witness, according to the Psalmist's words: ‘Raise your gates, you rulers, lift yourselves up, you eternal gates, and the king of glory will enter’ (Ps 23 (24).7 (LXX)). His enemies bear witness, including blessed Paul, for a short time his enemy, for long his servant. The twelve apostles bear witness, proclaiming the truth not only by their words but by their torture and death. Peter's shadow bears witness, which healed the sick in Christ's name (Acts 5.15). The handkerchiefs and aprons bear witness, which likewise through Paul healed the sick by Christ's power (Acts 19.12). The Persians and the Goths and all the gentiles bear witness, who died for him though they had not seen him with the eyes of the body. The demons driven out by the Faithful bear witness to this day.
20 With such a great number and variety of witnesses (and there are even more who could be mentioned) can anyone now fail to believe in the Christ whom their testimony supports? Let those who have so far been lacking in faith believe now; let those who already believe grow in faith, believing in our Lord Jesus Christ and understanding who it is they are named after. You have been given the name of Christian; take good care of that name. Do not give grounds for blasphemy against our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Let your good works shine out more brightly before men, so that those who see them may give glory in Jesus Christ our Lord to our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5.16), to whom is the glory now and for ever, world without end. Amen.