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In researching this morning’s Patristic commentary on Galatians, I cam across St Augustine’s comment that we ‘obey the law spiritually when we act out of love, not fear’, and his reminder that the law is there for our good too. That took me back to some of the recent discussions here about ‘love’ and ‘the law’ where, at times, one might have gained the impression that they were somehow antithetical. It can, it is true, seem that way. Newman described well the type of Christian who is so worried about ‘Judgement’ that he never shares the joy of knowing Christ, so conscious of his sins that he appears to derive no joy from knowing Christ. One of the things often commented upon by anti-Christian polemicists is just that tendency to be concerned with judging others which can come from judging ourselves. Jesus Himself asked how we could love God, whom we did not know, if we did not love our brother whom we did? If we hate ourself, how can we love others? What, after all, is love, save that which emanates from the mystery of the Economy of the Trinity?
The most startling insight of Christianity is not the revelation that God is one, but that He is Three. The Jews, and now the Muslims, hold the first belief; Christians alone hold the latter. When St. John tells us that ‘God is love’, he describes the relationship of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
The only distinction between the persons of the Trinity is their mutual relations. None of the persons exists in respect to Himself alone, but each exists relatively to the other two:
…the “three persons” who exist in God are the reality of word and love in their attachment to each other. They are not substances, personalities in the modern sense, but the relatedness whose pure actuality… does not impair unity of the highest being but fills it out. St Augustine once enshrined this idea in the following formula: “He is not called Father with reference to himself but only in relation to the Son; seen by himself he is simply God.” Here the decisive point comes beautifully to light. “Father” is purely a concept of relationship. Only in being-for the other is he Father; in his own being-in-himself he is simply God. Person is the pure relation of being related, nothing else. Relationship is not something extra added to the person, as it is with us; it only exists at all as relatedness.
….the First Person [the Father] does not beget the Son in the sense of the act of begetting coming on top of the finished Person; it is the act of begetting, of giving oneself, of streaming forth. It is identical with the act of giving.
(Joseph Ratzinger Introduction to Christianity, pp. 131-132; cf. Augustine, ; De Trinitate VII, 1, 2.)
In short, each of the persons of the Trinity lives completely for the others; each is a complete gift of self to the others. The complete self-giving not only constitutes the individual persons of the Trinity, but also their inseparable oneness.
That love, it was which impelled him to take action to help his creatures gone astray so when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman to redeem us and make us sons by adoption. It is the love that overflows from the Trinity which created the universe and ourselves, it is that love which offers us redemption, and it is that same love which also sets out the law to help us. We obey the law because of love, not fear, but that does mean the law does not matter or is somehow opposed to love.
Excellent post, C. Some lovely theology and pastoral advice after the furore over Brexit. This is crucial to motivation, and it is probably the central question which exercises me these days. As you can guess, evangelism is very important to me, but evangelism is meaningless without BOTH love of Christ AND love of man. This provides the fiery zeal that drives the best evangelists. I also am beginning to wonder as a consequence of this, whether some element of devotion, in the Catholic sense of the word, is lacking in my life at present. But I don’t know what it would mean for me to move in that direction. I cannot simply kneel before the tabernacle (for one I don’t think my local RC church is open outside of certain hours).
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I have always found the Rosary a blessing in such times, indeed, at all times.
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I must admit I find myself saying the Ave Maria a lot these days, as well as the Beruchah. Once I realized most of the words were from Luke’s Gospel, it really became less of an issue.
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That was the case for me too. The key is realising it is a deeply scriptural prayer 🙂
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Beads and formula prayers.
Yes. god loves us enough to come to earth and get beaten to death so we can be with him for eternity.
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Yes, “Our Father” is a formula prayer, if you pray it like that – but you don’t, and we don’t pray the hail Mary like that either.
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I believe its 52 or so beads. You figure you will be hear for your much speaking. An alabaster figurine of a female usually helps.
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I am no longer involved here but this is important enough to make a few distinctions about where my past arguments originated. So let me at least clarify what was so grossly misinterpreted in the past.
I think that something is still missing for a better understanding of the relationship between the law and the spirit. First to highlight this, the words from the commentary in the Ignatius Bible is useful:
“Galatians 5:1: yoke of slavery: A image of the Mosaic Law, with its burdensome ceremonial requirements (Acts 15:10). It stands in stark contrast to the freedom of faith in Jesus Christ (Mt. 11:29-30) who alone liberates us from sin and death (Acts 13:38-39; CCC 1972). For Paul, the two are mutually exclusive, since to accept the yoke of the Law as a requirement for salvation is to reject Christ as the sole foundation of our redemption and spiritual life (Gal. 2:21). The Council of Florence (1442) declared that Christians cannot observe the Mosaic ceremonies of the Old Covenant as necessary for salvation without sinning gravely (Session 11). Although it was permitted for Jewish converts to maintain their ancestral traditions in the earliest days of the Church, this grace period ended with the wide dissemination of the gospel. Thereafter neither Jews nor Gentiles could lawfully uphold circumcision, animal sacrifices, or dietary distinctions as legitimate practices in the New Covenant.” [NOTE: the law Paul speaks of are not regarding the moral laws; but the ceremonial Law of the Old Covenant]
Let me skip down to the commentary following as it sets up my point:
“Galatians 5:16-24: Paul alerts readers that a hidden war is waged in the heart of of every Christian. It is a struggle between the Spirit and our flesh, i.e., our fallen nature that inclines us toward evil (Rom. 8:5-8). Unless we follow the Spirit’s lead, the lusts of the flesh (concupiscence) will dominate our lives and enslave us in sin. when we respond to grace, we enable the Spirit to work powerfully in us by clearing out the vices that lead us away from God. Because of our weakness, victory in this struggle is possible but not easy (1 Cor 9:25-27) (CCC 2515-16; 1426; 2744).”
A long introduction for my reply which is simply that we are each made of body and spirit and that the body (the most base part of our nature) rebels and is at war with the spirit (that which was made in the image and likeness of God). Without the grace to overcome the desires of the flesh we are mindful as was Thomas Aquinas of trying to train the ‘dumb ox’ of our rebellious bodily senses and desires. For this reason moral law is helpful in employing the gifts that God has given everyman; prayer, imagination, intelligence, understanding and will, which when put to their right use can use the moral laws to subjugate and habituate the flesh to follow the spirit – now that the spirit has the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome (though with great difficulty) the concupiscence which we fight with all our lives. The moral law is thereby a help to love and our natural ‘fear of God’ might be more accurately stated as ‘awe’ of God our Creator who has laid out those things that are harmful to subjugation of the body to the spirit. With God’s help and grace we do have the ability, if our natural gifts are given over to the spirit which is then led by the Grace given by Christ to all believers. This is the law and the love of God which are not separable but part of the same loving concern that took Him to the Cross in order to win for our salvation.
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All excellent points Dave.
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True. Our flesh and spirit are constantly at war. Oh wretched man that I am….what will become of me.
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Hello C! Haven’t seen you in a while. Hope you are well. I’m tempted to ask how you voted, but I won’t. I just read this lovely article and thought I’d share it here. It may or may not go over well, but alas that has never stopped me before. I hope you enjoy it. It really was happy with the Author’s writing style – clear, succinct and fluid, he carries the tale to us in the modern age well.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/a-tour-of-the-tower
God bless. Ginnyfree.
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Good to bear from you ginny – and thank you for the link to an excellent article.
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