My Life in Christ ... |3.

Intimacy in our union with Christ

As God's loving-kindness is ineffable and His love for our race surpasses human speech and reason, so too it belongs to the divine goodness alone, for this is "the peace of God which passes all understanding" (Phil. 4:7). Likewise it follows that His union with those whom He loves surpasses every union of which one might conceive, and cannot be compared with any model.

Therefore even Scripture needed many illustrations to be able to express that connection, since one would not suffice. In one place it employs the figures of an inhabitant and a dwelling, in another those of a vine and a branch, here that of a marriage, there that of members and a head. None of those figures is adequate for that union, for it is impossible from these to attain to the exact truth. Above all it is necessary that the union should conform to friendship-yet what could be adequate for divine love?

It would appear that marriage and the concord between head and members especially indicate connection and unity, yet they fall far short of it and are far from manifesting the reality. Marriage does not so join together that those who are united exist and live in each other, as is the case with Christ and the Church. So the divine apostle, speaking of marriage, says, "this is a great mystery," and adds, "I speak of Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5:32), showing that it is not marriage but union with Christ which he sets up for admiration. The members are joined to the head; they are alive because they are joined and die if they are separated. But it appears that the members of Christ are more closely joined to Him than to their own head, and that it is even more by Him that they live than by their concord with it. This is plain from the blessed martyrs, who gladly suffered the one (ie. dismemberment of their bodies) but would not even hear of the other, for they gave up their heads and limbs with pleasure, but could not even by word revolt from Christ.

So I come to that which is strangest. To whom else could one be more closely united than to oneself? Yet this very unity is inferior to that union. For each of the spirits of the blessed ones is identical with himself, yet it is united to the Saviour more than to him. It loves the Saviour more than itself, and of this Paul will bear witness by the saying in which he wishes that he were "anathema from Christ for the sake of the salvation of the Jews" (Rom. 9:13) so that it might redound to His greater glory. But if human love is so great, the divine love is inconceivable. If the wicked can show so great gratitude, what ought to be said of God's goodness? Since the love is so immense, the union in which it has joined those who love must needs so surpass man's understanding that it cannot be likened to any similitude whatever.

My Life in Christ ...

Consists of Union with him.

In short, it is this world which is in travail with that new inner man which is "created after the likeness of God" (Eph 4:24).

When he has been shaped and formed here he is thus born into that perfect world which grows not old. As nature prepares the foetus, while it is in its dark and fluid life, for that life which is in the light, and shapes it, as though according to a model, for the life which it is about to receive, so likewise it happens to the saints. This is what the Apostle Paul said when he wrote to the Galatians, "my little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal 4:19)

However, while the unborn have no perception whatever of this life, the blessed ones have many hints in this present life of things to come. This is the reason. The unborn do not yet possess this life, but it is wholly in the future. In that condition there is no ray of light nor anything else which sustains this life. In our case this is not so, but that future life is, as it were, infused into this present life and mingled with it. For us too that Sun has graciously risen, the heavenly fragrance has been poured forth into the malodorous places, and the Bread of angels has been given even to men.

In this present world, therefore, it is possible for the saints not only to be disposed and prepared for that life, but also even now to live and act in accordance with it.

Paul writes, "lay hold on eternal life" (Tim 6:12), and "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). The divine Ignatius says, "there is water living and speaking in me" (To the Romans, 7:2). Scripture is full of such passages! Beside all these, when He who is the Life promises the saints to be with them for ever, and says, "behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20), what else should one think?

When he had sown the seed of life on the earth (Lk. 8:5) and cast on it the fire (Lk. 12:49) and the sword (Mt. 10:34), He did not forthwith depart and leave it to men to plant and nourish the seed and to kindle the fire and use the sword. He Himself is truly with us and "works in us to will and to do, as the blessed Paul said (Phil 2:12). It is He Himself who kindles and applies the fire, He Himself holds the sword. In short, "neither does the axe boast without him who lifts it" (Is. 10:15). Those from whom the Good One is absent will attain to no good.

Yet the Lord did not promise merely to be present with the saints, but to abide with them-nay more than this, to make His abode in them (Jn 14:23). What then shall I say? Where it is said that He is united with them, it is with such love that He becomes one spirit with them. As Paul says, "he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him" (I Cor 6:17), and "that you may be one body and one spirit, just as you were called" (Eph. 4:4)

Ο Θεός είναι

The Lord is ...

Πιο στοργικός από κάθε φίλο,
Πιο δίκαιος από κάθε κυβερνήτη,
Πιο τρυφερός από κάθε πατέρα,
Πιο πολύ μέλος δικό μας από όσο τα ίδιά μας τα μέλη,
Πιο αναγκαίος σε μας από την ίδια την καρδιά μας.

-- Άγιος Νικόλαος Καβάσιλας