1. Salvation (from corruption) and Ethics.
2. The appropriation of salvation in Christ and the mystical conception of the Church.
3. The Church and the Eucharist.
4. The Church or the Community.
6. Relative observations concerning the origin and basis of the episcopate.
The
key to understanding the ecclesiology of St.
Ignatius is clearly his presuppositions
concerning salvation. As will be indicated, the
Church as the body of Christ exists, according
to St. Ignatius, for the sole purpose of
salvation in Christ. Thus his ecclesiology
without at least a general examination of his
soteriology would be incomprehensible.
In
the extant writings of St. Ignatius one cannot
find any systematic exposition of soteriology.
This is quite natural since he is writing to
baptized Christians primarily concerning
internal Church unity and order, against certain
heretics, and also concerning his impending
martyrdom. Nevertheless, in order that the
soteriological basis of St. Ignatius' doctrine
of the visible manifestation of the Church be
understood, this paper shall deal with: 1)
salvation (from corruption) and ethics, 2) the
appropriation of salvation in Christ and the
mystical conception of the Church, 3) the Church
and the Eucharist, 4) the Church or the
Community, 5) the clergy, 6) relative
observations concerning the origin and basis of
the episcopate, 7) the basis for the equality of
bishops, and 8) concluding remarks.
1) Salvation (from corruption [ 1 ] ) and Ethics.
St.
Ignatius writes that "the virginity of Mary and
her offspring, as well as the death of the Lord,
seized (elaven) the prince of this world: three
thunderous mysteries wrought in the silence of
God... Henceforth all things were in a state of
tumult because He meditated the abolition of
death." (Ign. Eph. 19) The abolition of death is
non other than the seizure of Satan and was
accomplished by these three mysteries. Satan
here is closely related to death. By means of
death and corruption the devil rules a captive
humanity. (Heb 2:14-15.) "The sting of death is
sin." (I Cor. 15:56.) "Sin reigned in death." (Rom.
5:21.) Because of the tyrant death man is unable
to live according to his original destiny of
selfless love. [ 2 ]
He now has the instinct of self-preservation
firmly rooted within him from birth. Because he
lives constantly under the fear of death he
continuously seeks bodily and psychological
security, and thus becomes individualistically
inclined and utilitarian in attitude. Sin is the
failure of man to live according to his original
destiny of selfless love which seeks not its own
and this failure is rooted in the disease of
death. Because death in the hands of Satan is
the cause of sin, the kingdom of the devil and
sin is destroyed by the "abolition of death." (Ign.
Eph. 19.)
For
Ignatius death and corruption is an abnormal
condition which God came to destroy by the
incarnation of His Son. The cosmology of St.
Ignatius is neither monophysite or monothelite.
Besides the will of God and the good, there
exist now the temporary kingdom of Satan, who
rules by death and corruption, and man oppressed
by the devil but at the same time supported by
God and free, at least according to will, to
follow the one or the other. The world and God
has each his own character - the world death,
and God life. (Ign. Mag. 5.) Nevertheless, the
material world is neither evil, nor the product
of the fall. It exists now under the power of
corruption (Rom. 8:20-22), but in Christ is
being cleansed. Our Lord was "born and baptized
that by His passion He mighty purify the water."
(Ign. Eph. 18.) Life and immortality are not
proper to man, but to God. "For were He to
regard us according to our works we should cease
to be." (Ign. Mag. 10.) God Himself was
manifested in the flesh "for the renewal of
eternal life." (Ign. Eph. 19.) Christ is the
source of life (Ign. Eph. 3; Mag. 1; Smyr. 4)
and "breathes immortality into the Church" (Ign.
Eph. 17) "apart from whom we do not possess the
true life." (Ign. Tral. 9.)
In
the epistles of St. Ignatius the idea of natural
immortality as a proper element of man's soul is
completely absent. Both those before and after
Christ have the death and resurrection of Christ
as their source of life. Christ raised the
prophets (Ign. Mag. 9) who "were saved through
union with Jesus Christ." (Ign. Phil. 5.) He "the
High Priest .. to whom the Holy of Holies has
been committed ... is the door of the Father by
which enter in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and the prophets, and the apostles, and the
Church." (Ign. Phil. 9.) For the athletes of God
"the prize is incorruption and eternal life." (Ign.
Pol. 2.) "The gospel is the ornament of
incorruption." (Ign. Phil. 9.) The Church has
now peace by the flesh and blood and passion of
Jesus Christ. (Ign. Tral. salutation.) The death
of Christ "seized" the devil (Ign. Eph. 19) and
as such is the source by which life was renewed
(Ign. Mag. 9) that "by believing in His death
you may escape from death." (Ign. Tral. 2.) "The
passion of Christ ... is our resurrection." (Ign.
Smyr. 5.) Those who ignore the death and the
fleshly resurrection of Christ "have been denied
by Him, being the advocates of death rather than
of the truth." (Ign. Smyr. 5.) He who doen not
confess him a "bearer of flesh ... has in fact
altogether denied Him, being a bearer of death."
(Ibid.) "... if they believe not in the blood of
Christ, then to them there is judgment." (Ibid.
6.) "Those, therefore, who speak against this
gift of God, in the midst of their disputes,
incur death." (Ibid. 7.)
St.
Ignatius emphatically and persistently points
out the absolute necessity of faith in the real
historical facts of the incarnation of God from
the Virgin and of the death and fleshly
resurrection of the God-man. (Tral. 2,9,10; Phil.
8,9; Smyr. 1,2,3,4,7.) "I desire to guard you...
that you fall not upon the hooks of vain
doctrine, but that you attain to full assurance
in regard to the birth, and passion, and
resurrection which took place in the time of the
government of Pontius Pilate.: (Mag. 11.) Faith
in the flesh and spirit (Smyr. 3) of Christ is
the very basis of the whole structure of New
Testament and ancient Christian ethics. The life
of selfless love and the successful struggle
against the powers of death and the devil are
impossible without communion with the real life-giving
and resurrected flesh of the Lord. "Consider
those who are of a different opinion with
respect to the grace of Christ which has come
unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God.
They have no regard for love, etc. ..." (Ibid.
6.) Most probably St. Ignatius is here referring
to heretics with dualistic doctrines who ignore
the true nature of material creation and by
consequence the real meaning of death and
corruption. It is possible to suppose that
Ignatius is here exaggerating the inadequate
ethics of the heretics he has in mind. Such a
judgment is especially tempting when one
realizes the fact that some of the heretics
attacked by Ignatius admired and respected the
Orthodox, even as happens today. "For what does
any one profit me if he commends me but
blasphemes my Lord, not confessing that He is
possessed of flesh?" (Ibid. 5.) Such a value
judgment, however, concerning such possible
exaggeration can be made only when one uses as
criteria ethical theories foreign to the basis
of Ignatius' thought. The ethical criteria of St.
Ignatius cannot be judged according to theories
of natural moral law which conceive of man's
quest for security and happiness as normal. It
is quite obvious that Ignatius unites the
possibility of a Christian ethic not to natural
utilitarian principles of happiness, but solely
to the resurrected flesh of Christ. This
relationship of Christian ethics to the physical
death and resurrection of Christ must be
comprehended for an adequate understanding of
the presuppositions of Ignatian ecclesiology.
Satan
rules parasitically in creation and man by death.
(Rom. 8:20-22; Heb. 2:14.) The children of God "through
fear of death were all their lifetime guilty of
bondage." (Heb. 2:15.) Because the rule of Satan
consisted in the physical and material reality
of death and corruption, the destruction of
Satan could be brought about only by a real
resurrection of the flesh - not by the escape of
the soul from creation to some other supposed
reality. By the indwelling of the life-giving
flesh of Christ the faithful are liberated from
slavery to the devil and by prayer, fasting, and
corporate selfless love are enabled to overcome
the consequences of death, viz. sin, by the
grace of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit. "...the
believing have in love the character of God the
Father by Jesus Christ, by whom, if we are not
in readiness to die into His passion, His life
is not in us." (Mag. 5.) Both the ontological
reality and the ethical meaning of the
incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ,
are necessarily united and inseparable. The
denial of the one leads to the rejection of the
other. If the ontological and material power of
"him that had the power of death, that is, the
devil" (Heb. 2:14) has not been destroyed in the
death and resurrection of Christ, then sin is
still reigning. "If Christ be not raised ... you
are yet in your sins." (I Cor. 15:17.) The
struggle of Christians against sin and for
salvation through selfless love would be useless
and senseless. "Let us eat and drink for
tomorrow we die." (Ibid. 15:32.) Besides the
ethical implications of Christ's not having
risen, there would be no hope of life after
death. "Then they also which are fallen asleep
in Christ are perished. If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable." (Ibid. 15:18-19.) Therefore those
who deny the real birth, death and resurrection
of the incarnated Word of God are "advocates of
death" and "bearers of death" and "their names"
are "unbelief." (Smyr. 5.)
Christian
ethics, therefore, for St. Ignatius is not a
mere matter of preserving imagined innate moral
laws of a supposed natural world for the
attainment of personal happiness, whether
immanent or transcedental. What is considered a
natural quest for security and happiness is
really a life according to the dictates of death,
or the flesh dominated by death, constantly
seeking bodily and psychological security of
existence and worth. "... let no one look upon
his neighbor after the flesh, but do you
continually love each other in Jesus Christ." (Mag.
6.) Love in Christ differs sharply from the "kata
sarka" eudaimonistic and utilitarian love of so-called
natural humanity. Christian love "seeks not its
own." (Rom. 14,7:15, 1-3; I Cor. 13,5:5, 15:10,
24, 29-11, 1:12, 25-26:13, 1ff: II Cor. 5,14-15;
Gal. 5, 13:6, 1; Eph. 4,2; I Thes. 5,11.) "...exhort
my brethren, in the name of Jesus Christ, that
they love their wives, even as the Lord the
Church." (Ign. Pol. 5.) This love is such that
Christ "pleased not himself" (Rom. 15:3) but "He
died for all, that they who live should no
longer live for themselves." (II Cor. 5:15.) For
this reason a Christian wedding which has as its
motive selfless love in Christ "is a great
mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church." (Eph. 5:32.) That is, it is a great
mystery for Christians only, not because those
outside the Church are not married, but because
a Christian wedding takes place in another
dimension. Therefore, "it becomes both men and
women who marry, to form their union with the
approval of the bishop, that their marriage be
according to God, and not after their own lust."
(Ign. Pol. 5.)
Because
of the character of the principle of sin,
perfection in this age is attained to not fully
but in part according to the quality of the war
carried against the powers of the devil. Good
works are not part of a business agreement
between God and man whereby God is obligated to
reward external and utilitarian acts of charity.
Rather good works are the product of the double
struggle waged against the devil and for non-utilitarian
selfless love for God and the neighbor.
[ 3 ]
Therefore communion of divine life through the
human nature of Christ is not enough for
salvation. The mystical (sacramental) life is
not a magical guarantee of eternal life.
Christians must also wage an intense war against
Satan. " ... if we endure all the assaults of
the prince of this world and escape them we
shall attain to ( or enjoy) God." (Mag. 1)
It
is only when one perceives the inseparable bond
which exists in the Bible and ancient Church
between the destructive powers of death,
corruption and disease, and the person of Satan
that he can comprehend the attitude of the first
Christians toward death and martyrdom. "... they
touched Him and believed, being supported by
both His flesh and spirit. For this cause also
they despised death, for they were found above
death." (Smyr. 3.) He who fears death and is
thereby s slave to its consequences is incapable
of living according to Christ "by whom, if we
are not in readiness to die into His passion,
His life is not in us." (Mag. 5.) The canons of
the Church are quite severe for those who would
reject Christ because of fear.
[ 4 ] The rejection of
Christ for fear of death was considered as a
fall into the hands of the devil.
[ 5 ] Thus the persistent
desire of St. Ignatius not to be hindered in his
impending martyrdom was not the product of
eschatological enthusiasm or psychopathic
disturbances, but clearly the consequence of the
realization of the inseparable relationship
existing between death and Satan, who, with man
as his co-worker, is himself the cause of
ethical and physical evil. Condemned to death
according to law already dead, it was impossible
for St. Ignatius to seek to avoid martyrdom.
This would have meant slavery to Satan. "The
prince of this world would fain carry me away (or
capture me), and corrupt my disposition (or
opinion ) toward God. Let none of you, therefore,
who are in Rome help him." (Ign. Rom. 7.)St.
Ignatius was not a psychopath. On the contrary
he had a keen understanding of biblical
demonology (II Cor. 2:11) which not only
dominated his own approach to faith and practice,
but also regulated the whole theology of the
ancient Church concerning martyrdom. "Pray for
me that I may attain ... If I shall suffer you
have wished well to me; but if I am rejected you
have hated me." ( Ign. Rom. 8.) "... let cutting
off of members; let shatterings of the whole
body; and let all the evil torments of the devil
come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ."
(Ibid. 5.)
2) The appropriation of salvation in Christ and the mystical conception of the Church.
By
the victory of Christ over death and Satan he
who believes in the flesh of Christ is restored
to the communion of the life and love of God in
union with his neighbors and loves "nothing but
God only." (Ign. Eph. 9, 11; Mag. 1.) "It is
therefore befitting that you should in every way
glorify Jesus Christ, who had glorified you,
that by a unanimous obedience you may be
perfectly joined together in the same mind, and
in the same opinion, and may all speak the same
thing concerning the same thing." ( Ign. Eph.
2.) For St. Ignatius the primary characteristic
of Christians is their corporate and selfless
spirit of love and their complete unanimity of
faith. (Ign. Eph. 20; Tral. 12; Phil. sal.; Pol.
6.) Faith and love for each other is one
identical reality, as well as the beginning and
the end of life in Christ. (Ign. Eph. 14.) Unity
with each other in love is "a type and evidence
(of teaching) of immortality." (Mag. 6.) "All
these things together are good if you believe
with love." (Ign. Phil. 9.) Faith is to "be
gathered together (synaxis) unto God." (Mag. 10.
Therefore in your concord and harmonious love
Jesus Christ is sung." (Ign. Eph. 4.) Only in
such a harmony of love can we know that we are
partakers of God. (Ibid.) Therefore salvation
and sanctification can be accomplished only by a
unity of love with each other in the life of
Christ. (Ign. Eph. 2.)
For
Ignatius man does not have life of himself. Only
God is self-life (autozoe). Man lives be
participation. Because man is held captive in
death by the devil his communion with God is of
a distorted nature and ends in the grave. The
act of restoration of permanent and normal
communion between God and man can be
accomplished only by a real resurrection of man
by God Himself. (Ezek. 37:12ff.) "Who alone hath
immortality." (I Tim. 6:16.) This immortality of
God, however, is not to be separated in its
bestowal upon creation, from God's energy of
love. Therefore, "the drink of God, namely His
Blood, ... is incorruptible love and eternal
life." (Ign. Rom. 7.) The love of God is not a
relationship (to pros ti) dominated by ulterior
motivations. If God were within the realm of
happiness and so dominated thereby, then all His
relationships, if such could really exist, would
be necessary. [ 6 ]
The life of God the Father, however, who by
essence generates the Son and projects the
Spirit, is personal and selfless love, which by
grace and in complete freedom through the Son
and in the Spirit creates ex nihilo, sustains,
saves, and sanctifies creation, not by created
means, but by His own uncreated energy.
Salvation is not a mere restoration of proper
relations between God and man. On the contrary
man is saved by being restored to life which is
given to created beings only by God. Saving
grace, therefore, is the very uncreated life-giving
energy of God which vivifies and justifies man
by defeating the devil. [ 7
] The flesh of Christ is the source of
life and justification [ 8
] not as flesh per se, but because it
is the flesh of God. It is for this reason that
St. Ignatius can say, "I desire the drink of God,
namely His Blood." (Ign. Rom. 7; also Eph. 1.)
[ 9 ]
Moralistic
doctrines of atonement whereby man is already in
possession of an immortal soul, so that
salvation is a matter of changing the
disposition of God toward man, and man toward
God, by balancing the business interest of each,
are completely missing from the thought of
Ignatius. Atonement is not a simple adjustment
and rearrangement of divine and human
psychologies. Neither is it an intellectual
problem of identifying human concepts with the
immutable prototypes of God's essence which all
together comprise truth. It is not the proper
relationship of two immortalities, that of God
and man, that is at stake, but rather the
restoration of a lost immortality now bound to
death, and as a consequence morally corrupted.
It is only by participation in the divine life
and love of God in Christ through corporate love
of neighbors that one may attain to immortality,
be justified, and avoid death. (Ign. Eph. 20;
Rom. 7; Smyr. 7.) It is exactly for this reason
that those who live in Christ with selfless love
for each other are "stones in the temple of the
Father, prepared for the building of God the
Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument
of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use
of the Holy Spirit as a rope... You, therefore,
as well as your fellow-travellers, are God-bearers,
temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of
holiness, adorned in all respects with the
commandments of Jesus Christ." (Ign. Eph. 9;
also 15; Mag. 12; Phil. 7.) Christians do
everything together "in the Son, and in the
Father, and in the Spirit." (Mag. 13.)
St.
Ignatius' mystical conception of the Church as
the body of Christ is not a result of personal
enthusiasm for a mystical union with God as
happens with certain philosophical types who
individualistically seek ever more clear visions
of eternal truths contained in the essence of
the one by the soul's transcending or
penetrating material phenomena and uniting with
reality. The mysticism of Ignatius has nothing
to do with philosophical or natural mysticism
which operates according to the presupposition
that reality consists in overcoming the material
so that two natural immortalities, the soul and
God, may again become one. For Ignatius this
world is itself reality because it was created
by God to be reality and proof of this is the
resurrection of Christ in history for the
salvation of history and time, not from history
and time. In sharp contrast to his
spiritualistic adversaries, Ignatius presents a
mysticism completely Christocentric and indeed
Sarkocentric - only the flesh and blood of the
resurrected God-man are the source of life and
resurrection of all men of all ages. (Ign. Eph.
1, 7, ,19, 20; Mag. 6, 8; Smyr. 1, 3; Pol. 3;
Mag. 9; Phil. 5,9.) The human nature of God is
none other than salvation itself - namely 1) the
restoration of immortality to those who partake
corporately in selfless love, 2) the
justification of man by the destruction of death
and man's accusor and captor, the devil, and 3)
the granting of the power to defeat the devil by
struggling to attain to selfless love for God
and neighbor through the flesh of Christ. The
Christocentric and flesh-centered mysticism of
Ignatius is not a simple luxury of the more
enthusiastically inclined, but on the contrary
an absolute necessity for salvation, and
constitutes the very basis of his ecclesiology,
which is indeed that of the New Testament and
ancient Church.
3) The Church and the Eucharist.
Man
is saved by communion of divine life through the
human nature of Christ by love of neighbor, but
"where there is division and wrath, God does not
dwell." (Ign. Phil. 8.) "He who does not love
his brother remains in death... And this is His
commandment, That we should believe in the name
of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another,
as He commanded us. And he that keeps His
commandments dwells in Him and He in him. And
hereby we know That He abides in us by the
Spirit which He has given us." (I John 3:23-24.)
Therefore, "avoid all divisions as the beginning
of evils." (Ign. Smyr. 7.) "Do not err, my
brethren. If any man follows him that makes a
schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." (Ign. Phil. 3.)
Participation
of the love of God in union with each other,
which is indeed communion of divine life, can be
weakened and even destroyed by man's inattention
to the ways of Satan. "Flee therefore the wicked
devices and snares of the prince of the world.
lest at any time being oppressed by his will,
you grow weak in your love." (Ign. Phil. 6.) "Be
not anointed with the bad odour of the teaching
of the prince of this world; do not let him lead
you away captive from the life which is set
before you." (Ign. Eph. 17.) "For there are many
wolves (heretics who pluck the weak from the
Church) that appear worthy of credit, who, by
means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive
those that are running towards God; but in your
unity they shall have no place." (Ign. Phil. 2.)
Because of unity with each other in the love of
Christ Satan cannot prevail since love is the
blood of Christ and eternal life by which the
devil is destroyed. "Take heed, then, often to
come together to give thanks to God and show
forth His praise. For when you assemble
frequently in the same place (epi to auto), the
powers of Satan are destroyed and the
destruction at which he aims is prevented by the
unity of your faith." (Ign. Eph. 13.) "Let no
man deceive himself: if any one be not within
the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God...
He, therefore, that does not assemble in the
same place (epi to auto), has already manifested
his pride and condemned himself." (Ign. Eph. 5.)
"He that is within the altar is pure, but he
that is without is not pure." (Ign. Tral. 7.)
[ 10 ]
The
visible Church (both visible and invisible
Church constitute one continuous reality for
Ignatius), then, is composed of those baptized
faithful who conduct an intense war against
Satan and the consequences of his power rooted
in death by their unity of love with each other
in the life-giving human nature of Christ, and
manifest this unity and love in the corporate
Eucharist in which their very life and salvation
is rooted. In other words, the Church has two
aspects, one positive - love, unity, and
communion of immortality with each other and
with the saints in Christ, and one negative -
the war against the Satan and his powers already
defeated in the flesh of Christ by those living
in Christ beyond death awaiting the general (or
second) [ 11 ]
resurrection - the final and complete victory of
God over Satan. Christology is the positive
aspect of the Church, but is conditioned by
biblical demonology, which is the key negative
factor which determines both Christology and
Ecclesiology, both of which are incomprehensible
without an adequate understanding of the work
and methods of Satan. "For this purpose was the
Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the
works of the devil." (I John 3:8.)
From
this twofold aspect of the Church it is quite
obvious that baptism is not a magical guarantee
against the possibility of becoming once again a
slave to the devil and thus being excluded from
the body of Christ. (I Cor. 5:1-13; II Thes.
3:6-14; II Tim. 3:5; Rom. 11:21; "me toinyn
tharromen hoti gegonamen hapax tou somatos." St.
John Chrysostom, 3rd Homily on Ephesians, 4.)
Selfless love, the sine quo non of salvation (I
Cor. 13:1 ff.), is not something which can be
acquired by a mere intellectual decision, or by
a sentimental disposition to an idea of good in
general, or by a psychological conviction that
one has become the object of irresistible grace
and so predestined. On the contrary, true non-utilitarian
and selfless love is formed in the faithful by
the power of the death and resurrection of
Christ through an intense effort at self denial
by spiritual exercise and by unconditional war
against Satan. On this side of death the body of
Christ is the Church of the Passover
continuously crossing the Red Sea opposite those
of Pharo (the devil) by participation in the
death and resurrection of the Lord epi to auto.
At each Eucharist the chosen people, the New
Zion, gather together triumphantly on the banks
of the Red Sea opposite those of Pharo and
glorify God for the salvation already granted
and simultaneously await the final victory. On
the difficult and dangerous road to the Land of
Promise, from Sunday to Sunday, and from day to
day, one may fall into the hands of Satan and be
cut off from the body of Christ. At each
gathering "epi to auto" by means of each
Eucharist, the body of Christ, the Church this
side of death, is in the process of formation -
the Word made flesh is being formed in the
faithful by the Holy Spirit (I John 3:23-24),
and thus the Church, although already the body
of Christ, is continuously becoming what she is.
[ 12 ]
4) The Church or the Community.
Since
for Ignatius the Eucharist is the formative and
manifest center of corporate love unto
immortality, and at the same time the weapon
which insures the continues defeat of the devil,
it is quite clear that the corporate liturgy is
the very pivotal point of faith in action, the
participation of which is the only sure sign of
continuous communion with God and neighbor unto
salvation. This unity of selfless love in Christ
with each other and the saints is an end in
itself - not a means to another end. The
existence of any other utilitarian and
eudaimonistic motive other than unconditional
selfless love for God and neighbor in Christ
simply means slavery to the powers of Satan.
"... love nothing except God." (Ign. Eph. 9, 11;
Mag. 1.)
In
the Eucharistic life of selfless love is thus
understood as an end in itself and the only
condition for continual membership in the Church,
it follows that the relationship of one
community to another cannot be one of
inferiority or superiority. Nor can one
community be considered a part to another
community because the fullness of Christ is to
be found in the Eucharist which itself is the
highest and only possible center and
consummation of the life of unity and love. "
...whether Jesus Christ is, there is the
Catholic Church." (Ign. Smyr. 8.)
[ 13 ] Besides, the devil
is not destroyed by an abstract idea of unity
and love. He can be defeated only locally by the
unity of faith and love of real people living
together their life in Christ. An abstract
federation of communities whereby each body is a
member of a more general body reduces the
Eucharist to a secondary position and makes
possible the heretical idea that there is a
membership in the body of Christ higher and more
profound than the corporate life of local love
for real people and thus the whole meaning of
the incarnation of God and the destruction of
the Satan in a certain place and at a certain
time in history is destroyed. Each individual
becomes a member of the body of Christ
spiritually and physically at a special time and
in a certain place in the presence of those to
whom he is about to be joined.
[ 14 ] Those who share in
one bread are one body. (I Cor. 10:17.) This
sharing in one bread cannot happen in general,
but only locally. There, are, however, many
liturgical centers each breaking one bread, but
together totaling many breads. Nevertheless
there are not many bodies of Christ, but one.
Therefore each community having the fullness of
Eucharistic life is related to other communities
not by a common participation in something
greater than the local life in the Eucharist,
but by an identity of existence in Christ. "...wherever
Jesus Christ is there is the Catholic Church." (Ign.
Smyr. 8.) [ 15 ]
5) The Clergy.
The
three orders of the clergy "have been appointed
according to the mind of Jesus Christ, which (clergy)
He has established in security, after His own
will, and by His Holy Spirit." (Ign. Phil. sal.;
also Eph. 3:6; Phil. 4.) Since the Holy
Eucharist is "the medicine of immortality," it
follows that unity with those who have been
entrusted with the proper liturgy of and
teaching concerning the mysteries is an
absolutely necessary condition for salvation.
Thus "be united to your bishop and to those that
preside over you as a type and teaching of
immortality." (Ign. Mag. 6.) All things
pertaining to the Church must be done
corporately with the bishop, presbyters, and
deacons (Mag. 4, 6, 7; Pol. 6) because the life
of unity epi to auto is centered in them. (Ign.
Eph. 2, 4, 5: Tral. 7; Phil. sal; Pol. 6.) Unity
in the bishop is an image of the Church's unity
with Christ and of Christ with the Father. (Ign.
Eph. 5; Mag. 2, 13; Tral, 7; Phil. 2, 3: Smyr.
8, 9.) Subjugation to the bishop is an icon of
subjugation to God, Christ, and each other. (Ign.
Eph. 5, 20; Mag. 2, 13; Phil. 7.)
According
to the thought of Ignatius there exists an
inseparable relationship between the bishop and
the Eucharist. Unity with the bishop and unity
with each other in the one bread within the
altar is precisely one identical reality. There
is one flesh of the Lord, one cup, one altar, as
there is one bishop. "Take heed, then, to have
but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup unto unity of His
blood, one altar, as there is one bishop, along
with the presbytery, and deacons, my fellow-servants,
so that whatever you do, you may do it according
to God." (Ign. Phil. 4; also to be interpreted
in the light of this passage: Eph. 20; Mag. 7;
Tral. 7; Phil. sal.) The liturgy is a
distinctive characteristic of the office of the
bishop under whose personal surveillance all
mysteries must be performed. "Let no man do
anything connected with the Church without the
bishop. Let that be deemed a firm Eucharist
which is under the bishop, or one to whom he has
entrusted it." (Smyr. 8.) Only in case of
necessity could the Eucharist be administered
under the surveillance of a presbyter. This is
clearly indicated by the fact that, "It is not
lawful without the bishop either to baptize or
to celebrate an agape." (Ibid.) Such a claim
that even the agape cannot be held without the
bishop would be incomprehensible and extremely
fantastic if it were not presupposed that in the
thought and experience of St. Ignatius each
liturgical center necessitated the existence of
a bishop-that the relationship of one bishop to
each liturgical center was an inseparable
reality.
For
a further clarification of the essential
relationship of the office of one bishop to one
Eucharistic center, St. Ignatius offers up the
fact that the local unity of Christians in
Christ epi to auto is clearly and visibly imaged
by unity in the person, or office, of the bishop.
Unity in the bishop is a living image of unity
in Christ. "It is manifest, therefore, that we
should look upon the bishop even as we would
upon the Lord Himself." (Ign. Eph. 6.) "... take
heed to do all things in the harmony of God with
the bishop presiding in the place of God." (Mag.
6) " For when you are subject to the bishop as
to Jesus Christ you appear to me to live not
after the manner of men but according to Jesus
Christ... " (Tral. 2.) "... let all reverence
... the bishop as Jesus Christ." (Ibid. 3.) "Wherever
Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
(Smyr. 8.) It is obvious beyond any doubt that
St. Ignatius is here borrowing the concept of
the bishop as the image of Christ from the
liturgical practise of the Church. He never
refers to the presbyters as icons of Christ or
in the place of God as he no doubt would have
had they been in communities without bishops the
regular and proper administrators of the
mysteries and the center of local life in Christ
epi to auto. On the contrary he always refers to
them corporately in the plural as "presbyters"
or "presbytery" in the place of the apostles (Mag.
6; Tral. 2, 3: Phil. 5; Smyr. 8.) and as a "council
of God." (Tral. 3.) It would have been complete
nonsense for Ignatius to compare the presence of
the Catholic Church in Christ with the presence
of the multitude in the bishop (Smyr. 8) if each
local community did not possess a bishop. Is it
possible that Ignatius believed that Christ is
not present in all His glory in the Eucharist
administered under a presbyter? This is hardly
the case since he insists that "wherever Jesus
Christ is there is the Catholic Church." (Smyr.
8.)
According
to Ignatius the faithful are not saved through
the bishop as an individual as such as having
some sort of magical power. The Church as the
very body of Christ has God Himself operating
salvation in Christ by His Spirit in the
corporate mysteries. Herein lies the whole
theology of the "epiclesis" whereby the
community is continuously vivified and justified
by the Spirit in the life of love by the flesh
of Christ, whereby the devil is continuously
judged a false accusor and destroyed, and
whereby the world is constantly reproved of sin
because of lack of such faith as would lead it
to the community of salvation living by
corporate love in Christ. (John 16:7-11.) The
saving grace of God is His own uncreated energy
because only He Who has the power to create ex
nihilo can vivify and thereby justify man by
slaying the devil. Thus the bishop is the sine
quo non of salvation, not as an individual as
such, being some sort of magical means between
God and man, [ 16 ]
but as the necessary center of corporate life in
Christ epi to auto, to whom, together with the
presbytery and diaconate, has been entrusted the
faithful and correct administration of and
teaching concerning the corporate mysteries.
When St. Ignatius says of the bishop, presbytery,
and diaconate, that "apart from them there is no
Church" (Tral. 3), he clearly means that "apart
from them there is no local community."
Within
the framework of the above-mentioned
presuppositions the reasons are apparent why
Ignatius can most emphatically claim "he who
does anything without the knowledge of the
bishop worships the devil." (Smyr. 9.) "Flee,
therefore, those evil offshoots which produce
death-bearing fruit whereof if any one tastes he
instantly dies." (Tral. 11.) The altar and the
bishop are inseparable. He who is not subject to
the bishop is outside of the altar. He who is
outside of the altar is not subject to the
bishop. "Let no man deceive himself: if any one
be not within the altar, he is deprived of the
bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two
possesses such power, how much more that of the
bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that
does not assemble with the Church has already
manifested his pride and condemned himself...
Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in
opposition to the bishop in order that we may be
subject to God." (Ign. Eph. 5.) "...one flesh,
...one cup, ...one altar, as there is one bishop..."
(Ign. Phil. 4.)
As
the center of unity in the mystagogical life the
bishop is an absolute necessity for salvation.
But his ministry is not something independent of
the ministry of the faithful. The bishop obtains
"the ministry which belongs to the community (or
people - ten diakonian ten eis to koinon
anekousan), not of himself, neither be men, nor
through vainglory, but the love of God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (Ign. Phil.
1.) The representatives of one community to
another are not appointed by the bishop, but
elected by a council. "It is fitting, O most
blessed in God Polycarp, to assemble a council
most befitting of God and elect someone whom you
greatly love ..." (Pol. 7.)
6) Relative observations concerning the origin and basis of the episcopate.
The
idea that the bishop is now what the apostles
once were is completely missing from the
epistles of Ignatius. Peculiarly enough it is
the presbyters who are always compared to the
apostles. One finds in the thought of Ignatius a
distinction between apostles and bishops. The
apostles could command in a general manner,
while the jurisdiction of a bishop is limited to
one community. "Shall I, when permitted to write
on this point, reach such a height of self-esteem,
that though being a condemned man, I should
issue commands to you as if I were an apostle?"
(Tral. 3: or according to the longer version, "I
do not issue orders like an apostle.") "I do not,
as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you.
They were apostles; I am but a condemned man;
they were free, while I am even until now a
servant." (Ign. Rom. 4.) It is quite evident
that Ignatius is here giving expression to the
mentality and attitude of an age still living in
the shadow of the great apostles not long dead,
which are did not dare compare the office of a
bishop with that of an apostle. For Ignatius the
bishop is the liturgical center of a local group
of faithful who gather together in love epi to
auto. An apostle was one who traveled everywhere
establishing Churches. St. Paul writes, "Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel."
(I Cor. 1:17.) St. Ignatius writes, "It is not
lawful without the bishop either to baptize or
the celebrate an agape." (Smyr. 8.) The origin
of the episcopate cannot be understood when one
compares bishops with apostles and tries to
prove that they differ only in name. On the
contrary, the source and basis for the
episcopate is to be found in the litourgical
practise of the Church and in the doctrine of
the Church as defined in this same liturgical
life and conditioned by the biblical doctrines
of Christology and demonology. Only when one
grasps the meaning of corporate communion of
immortality and love through Christ epi to auto
as the only condition for salvation, can one
understand the life and doctrine of the
primitive Church.
Because
all the faithful communicated at every Eucharist,
and since it was necessary to maintain the
various orders of catechumens and penitants, it
is quite obvious that the presbytery and
diaconate were absolutely necessary as
concelebrants of the bishop and as a council to
help in regulating the penitants, in preparing
the catechumens, and in general ruling the
community and teaching. What distinguishes the
clergy from the rest of the community is not any
individual power to administer the mysteries as
intermediates between God and man. The whole
community is the body of Christ in which God
Himself operates salvation in the corporate
mysteries. The special distinction of the clergy
lay rather in its responsibility to keep the
communicating members of the body of Christ from
the pollution of the devil by properly
regulating the entrance into the Church of new
members through baptism by continuously
preserving the life of the body by keeping
beyond its limits the evil spirit of division
and individualistic and ulterior motivations.
The clergy are not over the local body, but
themselves members of the local body who are
given the special charisma of being the center
of unity and the regulating force which protects
and increases (Eph. 4, 11-13) the life of
corporate love in Christ. To Polycarp Ignatius
writes, "Maintain your position with all care
... preserve the unity than which nothing is
better." (Pol. 1.)
7) The basis for equality of bishops.
The
origin of the patristic insistence on the
equality of all bishops (e. g. St. Cyprian,
Sententiae Episcoporum, op. 1) can be understood
only in terms of the presuppositions 1) that the
corporate eucharistic life locally manifested is
an end in itself, 2) that individual communities
are related to each other by their identity of
existence in Christ, 3) that the fullness of
Christ dwells in the faithful who gather
together in the life of Christ epi to auto, and
4) that the episcopate is an inseparable part of
this local life epi to auto. The order of the
episcopate was not something that existed in
itself, or itself, and over or apart from the
local Church. It was definitely within the
Church, and since the visible Church could be
defined only in terms of the body of Christ
locally manifested in its mystagogical life, the
episcopate was definitely of local character.
The existence of bishops in the smallest and
remotest villages of the empire cannot be
explained otherwise than in terms of the
necessity to have a bishop and council of
presbyters within and responsible for the life
of each eucharistic center. Therefore bishops
were equal because communities were equal. One
local manifestation of the body of Christ could
not be more body of Christ or less than another.
Likewise the living image of Christ (the bishop)
could not be more image or less image than
another image because Christ, whose image the
bishops are, is identically One and Equal with
Himself.
Communities
without bishops appeared for the first time in
large cities where the overgrown Christian
population could not be accommodated any longer
in one liturgical center. Whereas in the city of
Alexandria the various liturgical centers at
first had each a bishop (P. Trembelas, Taxeis
Cheirothesion kai Cheirotonion, Athens 1949, p.
26-29, n.), in Rome not only were presbyters
appointed to the different liturgical centers,
but were originally not given permission to
administer the Eucharist. Rather a portion of
the already consecrated elements was sent from
the bishop's liturgy to the faithful gathered
together at the lesser centers. When finally the
presbyters did receive permission to celebrate
the liturgy, the bishop of Rome continued to
send a portion of the consecrated elements from
his own liturgy to be put into the chalices of
the lesser eucharistic centers. This practise
continued in Rome until the 14th century and did
not completely disappear until 1870. (Dom G. Dix,
op. cit. p. 21.) Thus the Churches in Rome very
early lost the meaning of the Eucharist as an
end in itself and vividly introduced the idea
that the office of the bishop is rather
something in itself and that somehow the
elements consecrated at the bishop's liturgy
were somewhat superior to those consecrated at
the liturgy of presbyters.
Most
probably because of the initial refusal of the
original city communities to install bishops in
the newly-founded communities of the same city,
it became normal in cities to have local
Churches with presbyters celebrating the liturgy.
When this became a normative practise in the big
cities, the bishop of the city became much more
authoritative than the village bishop who was
still the bishop of one community. This, plus
the fact that the bishop of the city was very
influentially situated, obviously introduced the
idea that he was somehow more important than the
village bishop. Gradually the village bishop was
deprived of some of his most important functions
and subjected to the surveillance of the city
bishop. "... even though they may have received
episcopal ordination (cheirothesian) ... let
them dare not ordain neither presbyters nor
deacons without the city bishop to whom he and
his village is subject." (Canon 10 of Antioch;
Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, Peri Chorepiscopon,
Athens 1935, p. 8-10). In the Church of North
Africa of the late 4th century one could still
find small village communities with a bishop and
only one presbyter. (Canon 55 of Carthage, H.
Alibizatos, The Holy Canons, Athens 1949, p.
254.) Progressively, however, St. Ignatius'
conception of the bishop in terms of the local
eucharistic life as an end in itself is either
mitigated or completely forgotten, and the
episcopate conforms to the political structure
of the empire. Because the city Churches had
become accustomed to the existence of
communities with presbyters celebrating the
mysteries, it is obvious that the village bishop,
having already been deprived of his rights to
ordain his own presbyters and deacons, was in
reality of no more importance than a presbyter
of a city Church. [ 17
] Thus the city bishops could see no
reason why the village Churches should have a
bishop at all since the city communities were
functioning quite well with presbyters.
Therefore, "one must not establish bishops in
the town and villages, but travelers: those,
however, already established must do nothing
without the opinion of the bishop in the city."
(Canon 57 of Laodicia.) Very characteristic of
the new mentality is the 6th canon of the
Council of Sardica: "It is forbidden to simply
establish a bishop in some town, or small hamlet,
where only one presbyter suffices. For it is not
necessary to establish bishops there, that the
name and authority of the bishop may not be
cheapened."
8) Concluding Remarks.
The
ecclesiology of St. Ignatius rests exclusively
and harmoniously upon the biblical teaching
concerning salvation and its appropriation. The
resurrected flesh and blood of God (Ign. Rom. 7;
Eph. 1) is the only source of immortality, of
unity with each other in Christ, and of power to
struggle for selfless love and simultaneously
defeat the devil. Salvation is not magical. God
Himself saves those who gather together in the
life of selfless love with their clergy epi to
auto. The visible Church is composed of those
only who continuously share in the corporate
eucharistic life. This life of selfless love for
God and neighbor is an end in itself. Good works
are not, therefore, performed for utilitarian
motivations as part of a divine-human business,
but rather are expressions of the struggle for
selfless love, as well as a most effective
weapon against Satan. God has no need of man's
acts of charity. It is man who needs good works,
prayer and fasting as a spiritual exercise for
selfless love and as an effective means of
remaining attentive and spiritually alert
against the attacks of Satan. Justification by
faith alone is a non-biblical myth (Eph.
6:11-17) of sentimental magic based on the false
presupposition that salvation is primarily and
essentially a matter of divine internal
psychology. [ 18 ]
Beyond the life of unity centered in the
corporate Eucharist as an end in itself there is
no Church and only God can know if there is any
salvation. Where the Church is not locally
manifested and being formed by God epi to auto
there is the rest humanity being carried to and
fro by the prince of this world. "I pray not for
the world, but for them which Thou hast given me."
(John 17:9)
As
all other things pertaining to the Church, the
clergy aslo exists for the sole purpose of
preserving and increasing the life of unity and
love epi to auto in the flesh and blood of
Christ. "Maintain your position with all care
... preserve the unity, than which nothing is
better." (Pol. 1.) The authority of the clergy
is founded exclusively upon the mysteries of
unity in Christ and not at all upon any imagined
personal power of magic. The clergy as such
cannot save. Only the resurrected flesh of
Christ saves when received in unity and selfless
love for each other epi to auto. Even within the
corporate life of the mysteries it is Christ and
not the Church that saves. The Church locally
manifested is herself being saved by the Father
Who continuously sends His Spirit to form the
body of Christ gathered epi to auto. (epiclesis,
John 16:7-11; I John 3:23.)
In
the Constantinopolitan Synods of 1341 and 1351 (John
Karmiris, The Dogmatic and Symbolic Monuments of
the Orthodox Catholic Church, Athens 1952, vol.
1, p. 294ff.) the Orthodox Church vigorously
condemned all magical understandings of
salvation which might conceive of the saving
grace or energy of God as something created,
stored quantitatively within a so-called bank of
grace, and distributed quantitatively through
sacramental acts and indulgences, by proclaiming
the biblical and patristic teaching that God
Himself saves men directly by His own uncreated
energy. The very basis of all Orthodox doctrine
concerning Trinity, Christology, Ecclesiology,
and Soteriology is the fact that God creates,
sustains, and saves creation not by created
means, but by His Own life-giving energy. Only
God can be the source and subject of His
uncreated energies. The divine energies are
neither the essence of God (God is not actus
purus), for this would mean that God acts by
essence and not by will (pantheism), nor
hypostatic (individual entities), for this would
either reduce God to a mere platonic
conglomeration of ideas, or to a neo-platonic
source of emanating creatures, thereby confusing
the Son and the Spirit with such creatures. (A
good example of such views concerning divine
energies may be found in the teachings of the
heretics attacked by St. Irenaeus.) The divine
energies are not creatures, but precisely the
creating, life-giving, justifying, uncreated
energy of God. [ 19 ]
Therefore grace cannot be manipulated and
distributed by man who can only partake of this
uncreated light of God in the corporate life of
selfless love in the flesh of Christ locally
manifested and formed by God Himself in real
people epi to auto. This fact is extremely clear
in the thought of St. Ignatius and is repeated
by the whole patristic tradition of the East,
and is especially re-emphasized by the anti-scholastic
polemics of the 14th century.
The
position of modern Orthodox theology, therefore,
concerning ecclesiology cannot be dogmatically
different from that of St. Ignatius.
Unfortunately, however, the traditional doctrine
of salvation and its appropriation has been in
recent centuries much obscured by the invasion
of many Western and especially Latin
presuppositions used dishonestly in a convenient
way both to combat Protestantism and to justify
nationalism which is another form of papism in
so far as the limits of the Church are extended
beyond the corporate mysteries to something else.
Whereas in the 14th century Nicholas Cabasilas
could say that "the Church is indicated in the
mysteries" (Migne, P. G. t. 150, col. 452), many
modern Orthodox think of the Church as something
peculiar to their national character and
identify her boundaries with those of the nation,
and thereby the Church is reduced to some sort
of national institution. [
20 ] Because in their conception
the Church is of a wider range than the
corporate life within the mysteries as an end in
itself and more or less identical with the
national character, it has become quite common
to uncritically accept some form of the
individualistic magical interpretations of Holy
Orders common to the Roman and Anglican Churches.
Since holy order, and especially that of the
episcopate, are conceived of as something
loosely connected to or almost detached from the
corporate life of love epi to auto, it is only
natural that the priesthood be interpreted as in
itself having individual powers apart from the
laity. Such an attitude has been further
intensified by the heretical idea that all
baptized Christians are members of the body of
Christ even though they are hardly go to Church
to communicate and have not the slightest desire
to struggle for selfless love and fight the
devil epi to auto as they solemnly swore in
baptism.
In
this day and age of Ecumenical discussions
concerning Christian unity, when one sees
heterodox seeking truth and admitting the
theological sins of their fathers, Orthodoxy
must make her contribution. She will never be
able to do this, however, if she does not first
drop her cultural, political, and national
pretentions [ 21 ]
by keeping to her struggle against Satan epi to
auto. Both Christian unity and dogmatic truth
can come only by a profound understanding of who
the devil is, what his methods are, and how he
is destroyed by God in Christ by the Holy Spirit
epi to auto. All dogma is implied in eucharistic
experience, which in turn is the test of all
heresy. "... our opinion is in accordance with
the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn
establishes our opinion." (Irenaues, Against
Heresies, bk. IV, xviii, 5.) Heretical teachings
concerning Trinity, Christology, Sin, Grace,
Mysteries (sacraments), Ecclesiology, and even
Mariology, etc., are indeed heresies because
they overthrow the soteriological
presuppositions of eucharistic life and thereby
distort the meaning of the corporate life of
love epi to auto in the resurrected flesh of
Chist. The life-giving resurrected flesh of God
is the anchor of faith and selfless love and is
given to the faithful epi to auto by the Spirit
of the Father. At each eucharistic gathering God
gives us His uncreated life-giving energy to
partake through the flesh of Christ and thus
reveals Truth by His Holy Spirit. "For when He,
the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you
into all truth ... for He shall receive of what
is mine (most probably to be interpreted as
reference to His life-giving flesh) and disclose
it unto you." (John 16:12-16.) Dogmatic truth is
an ever-present and existential reality fully
manifested by the Holy Spirit at every
eucharistic gathering. The infallibility of the
Church, expressed in Ecumenical Councils and
elsewhere, is rooted in the very life of love
epi to auto. Infallibility is a moral experience
and so cannot be separated from the life of
selfless love in the mysteries. Only God is
infallible, and this the body of Christ shares
directly and existentially in the corporate
mysteries of unity wherein the very powers of
falsehood and division are destroyed by God
Himself Who by His Spirit forms His Son in those
who believe in love. "For when you assemble
frequently in the same place (epi to auto) the
powers of Satan are destroyed and the
destruction at which he aims is prevented by the
unity of your faith." (Ign. Eph. 13.)
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