but very much you know
those sensible of authority here talking about authority which are talks about we use the royal we are it's totally one person whose writings by we never issued notice never name's himself i inclement bishop of rome writing you he simply talks about from the colony of the church in rome to occur
calling the church of god and corinth
how can he talks about me and we are
exhorts you and we urge you et cetera and with real authority and there's moments with this authority comes through like in paragraph of to nine he says
but if there are those who refuse to heed the declarations he capital h has made through our lips that did not doubt the gravity of his guilt and the apparel in which they involve themselves
ah
so there is this affirmative anything said right up the holy spirit what he's written here
so you will afford us great joy and happiness if you will lead to heart but we have written through the holy spirit so there's a real sense of authority here were within the first century and someone of real authority in rome is writing to the church and corn in the name
of the church of rome and saying these things so of i think this is important of the papacy was not something dreamed up in the twelfth century
and this is why this missing link is so decisive if you've been taught about the pope you've got the famous texans scripture that weren't peters there you're dealing with peter and protestants used to say what that's peter and maybe even jesus wanted to primacy of peter in the first living apostles but that isn't handed down
the here we've got clement on ordained by peter was talking about we and we inspired by the spirit and you'd better do what we see it so that can
exalted and live spiritually also this is great joy of being in communion with this bishop of rome
oh on the other hand we have to be careful to do history seriously so to not re back into the first century some categories we have so we shouldn't imagine him they're seated with this tiara and surrounded by monsignor already and sort of writing a kind of it
cyclical as we would imagine it today here he's i'm hoping you will respond to the appeal for peace and harmony which we have made in this letter
so here is appealing and in the name of the would have got that not only the word of god will see but also simply kind of natural wisdom to is always bad and if you've seen in nature and cities or anything but he argues a whole case this has no appeal to you this is the word of god
this is human wisdom get your act to get stop this divisiveness so you can minimize what's happening here i'm all for the history of the church we have one church that's writing to another because it's slightly concerned about something or another this is typical of of the sister church method
sisters are concerned about others and if you think your sister is not behaving as she should you sit down you write a letter to her
that doesn't mean you think you've women's but some sort of absolute monarch over her if you appeal to her since the christian faith through good since we are so paul is constantly paul is paula pope but he's constantly intervening him much more vigorous way to corn and clematis so you can argue
a maximalist case your you can argue a minimalist but the letter does exist it's very decisive very important and a as question says customs a very great guns patristic scholar catherine this is the first letter of which we know with real certitude the author we know the day
date within that limits of his pontificate and and we know to whom it's addressed and the stock streaming or put you're dealing with a letter you don't know who wrote it or if you don't know to whom it's written that makes problems for understanding what's in that letter
we it still debated to whom was to what kind of community was literally the hebrews written or the letter first peter for instance now until when we get a breakthrough through met there it was written to that specific community that time with those problems and it will understand bucks more so to know it's
reading to corinth he's riding around ninety six and this is this of rather a prestigious our bishop of rome and them
questions comments
it certainly a story about how somebody i can over that they said with a commended they think he was a little time to put up with said
a will that
i don't know that
here's a similar nhs
there's also a traditions like that origin claims that this clement
his deployment mentioned in one of the letters
ah in philippians four three the author refers to a certain
clement but there's no proof that so you get all sorts of traditions it could be
ah it's interesting the way the letter begins
ah you remember
literally the church of god which is transiently sojourning in rome to the colony of the church of god at corinth called and sanctified by the will of god to our lord jesus christ all grace and peace to so he doesn't say i am a pope clement the first i am i
citing you and ordering you to do this otherwise six said the church year is writing to your church so here we already have this sister church the allergy which is there in every pauline letter to
church as we use the term as the universal catholic church workers very rarely contract to be noted that in return it refers especially to the local church the church in corinth through the church should philip vi or the church in jerusalem or the church in court or whatever
and this is the dia local churches which are then in communion the one where the other from union of faith in of sacrament and these clusters of churches together constitute the universal church so here i get unity in diversity
should we talk of one church or me to return once per trolley or mini it's the same thing up there are many churches and st paul normally use his church in the sense of plural this church has opposed to that church
and you can bring it right down to the building but church here as opposed to the church in in salinas or something up or you can have about p one church and you need both these carriers and here is talk about these two churches
it's and this is decisive again for our ecumenical hopes
because it's gives you the possibility of pluralism of history heritage experience etc
which a simple theology at one spirituality or one church or just doesn't permit and simply yeah
sort of closes a door a priori to when the possibility of reunion it just the only possibility is individual conversions
so the church of god which is trenchantly so journey in rome
it's a particular flavor here of this spring time church it's living in a kind of a marginal
precarious life on its journey to the real key in which is heaven
of this is a kind of ecclesiology it's spiritually quite beautiful and so you also quite monastic were run the move ravager so we're not saying down huge foundations to build up these men's institutions know we're here for a while we're here and you're there and we're all going to the same fatherland and this
sun
so there again we don't want to read too much of a kind of a sixteenth century part of theory in his of people palace
right into a some bishop in his episcopal palace often current he's were little community center
clement was probably rating from a house for instance writing on a table like this this sort of thing so the church was not this huge institution but it was as this little colony on the move that could really be observed the sat upon any time by the
which we call here
prosecutions
so some they're already been talking about spirituality
increase your spirituality here
he's concerned about the church in corinth he's not writing to one person how's your prayer life doing he's worried about the ecclesial life there that's to visit and it can't possibly be service because a whole nature christian by is unity is harmony is communion so you people are really messing it up as far as you're living the christ's life
so it's a very deep spirituality that's not at all individualistic but it's radically ecclesial and this might bother us as we approach from a a very of aeromedical interest and this seems there was this doesn't say it into my spiritual life it's interesting historical document and my agree
add that piece a poop around literally cetera but it doesn't really help me my prayer life or and my meditation well if we can get into a can different experiences of christ here it's certainly implicitly again in a letter form to but they're living and increase your spirituality whether be more solid to
more community where but always it's in the church that we experienced christ we'd have a foretaste of the kingdom and he stresses as we
experience the love of god
the precipice of christian roman cetera
so it clean your spirituality is a community
ah there's quite a bit of natural wisdom here he uses every kind of argument he can muster to get these people get their act together again and he's a look at nature and nature's very harmonious feature as its act together and it's magnificent
and at the cosmos rude in order to harmony and center when he says look at the whole political thing
oh if you'll think of the history of wrong or the in history of athens how many cities have fallen because they fought among themselves
envy and jealousy of even overthrown great cities and uprooted mighty nations so he's not afraid of using all sorts of what we've come natural wisdom to there's much scripture but not just scripture this is interesting he thinks that the christian should learn from all of history uc
that there's a lesson for us even in our most profoundly supernatural ecclesial life simply from looking at nature or simply from looking at
the politics if the daily newspaper if you like so this is interesting also in its implications on everything can teach us now this is scandalized some that this is a summer said this is a going down hill from st paul says i found nothing but christ and him crucified
so paul argues for unity and harmony as he doesn't his letter to core it it's a body of christ cetera but there's also this human wisdom in the new testament there's a whole western tradition of the old so it's also argues this is death but there's also some ten implications for spirituality here can we learn
and from simply human wisdom from the lessons of history from just nature about us credit with seniors
so when have been for it but time
he also knows his greek philosophy and as will get this much more explicit in later fathers
people like the is the first and him and original first
bring in elements together with christian
i think you're thinking or clement of alexandria clement of alexandria is sometimes more plato but he is there's little touches of it here but in clement of alexandria who is what
couple of centuries and later on her
but we'll see that the whole issue certain issues come up again and again in all through the history patients for sure what is the relation of the christian and the world or the christian the city or the cushion human values for the christian and philosophy
and you'll get the father's i'm seeing everything
from
we'll he just a new climate of alexander's and first we can really help us to live more fully our christian faith in our christian spirituality to someone like tatooine will say what has athens to do with jerusalem of philosophy or the school of heresies etc that he himself into a heretical but
if you've got the model of absent opposition were christians are for we have nothing to do with the world nothing to do with human philosophy with human wisdom with creation because we're focused on the word of god not the word been the word a minister realm yes it's faults it's a very best distracting it's then you your inherited him which she asked
implicitly again he's not working this out exclusive he has implicitly the idea that we can learn from human experience it's exquisitely human
ah other games humility is very strong as a whole theology of humanity here and it's rooted to of christ which is very beautiful he says you can't put yourself in opposition your bishop lynch would be spreading around and doing something christians must be more because jesus
was humble so here he has the one sir archetype of our christian spirituality of our increase your life and very and that's jesus
paragraph sixteen christ belongs to the lowly of heart and not to those who would exalt themselves over his flock the coming of our lord jesus christ the scepter of god's majesty place with this paradox of
manchester was no pump of pride and haughtiness as it could so well have been but in self abasement even as the holy spirit and declared of him this is a beam to come up again and again in the early funds it's beautiful theme the gentleness the humanity of jesus and therefore christian
humility and gentleness and i think it's pretty beautiful term speech life
the common theme is this danger this of pride because it puts us ultimately out of communion with jesus out of commute him therefore with our salvation
there's no miracles mentioned here there's no ecstatic profits running around there's no special gifts of the holy spirit mentioned here it's a kind of a comb her ecclesial life it's already have settled down in a certain sense on institutionalize there's no evidence of a
focusing on an imminent second coming here as will get in some of the other writings
so as one scholar said it's a church settled down in the world going about its task soberly discreetly advisedly
ah
and worried and concerned at other churches to the same and not get off in wild fights central
ah there's some beautiful things here already the forties to the heavenly life
how bless it how marvelous are the gifts of god my friends some of them indeed already lie within our comprehension for instance the life that knows no death the shining splendor of righteousness the truth it is frame control the fate that is perfect assurance the holy
enos of chastity
but what of the things prepared for those who wait who but the creator and father of eternity the most hauling himself knows the greatness and beauty of these
let us then strain every nerve to be found among those waited patients for him so that we too may have a share his promise gifts so i think this is very pure spirituality of we already have the for taste and therefore straining forward to the fullness of life this is all pure possible here
for

the whole thing on a row and scrape and beautiful
it's a whole thing on salvation history
but he talked about the whole history of salvation he goes through abraham and the prophets and bose's and david and trying to convince them to be humble of heart now it is not we alone who have been made better men by the self effacement and humbled submissiveness of all these famous personages but jr
generations of our predecessors as well and indeed everyone who has ever received the utterance of god in fear and truth so here's a great vision of this whole salvation history because right back into the old testament in through christ in to the new testament and the martyrs etc the first first people who are
i'm courageously are resisting
oppression and we all benefit by this and live from this we and everyone else would receive the word of god so he sees himself in a context he's not out doing his own individual thing it's the whole history of salvation is teaching him
we had mentioned a bit about what's our model of people authority this is what up
stressing
rauner in not singer have a book on people plants from the pope declare something it's not something that just popped into his head or that he has is a direct line of to heaven or something it's something that's been in the history of the church has been in a theology it's been in the lives of christians he
perceives it he perceives in august critics is important so he surrounded by all the bishops were a record a firms as a kind of of the mouth of the mind of the church
so you need someone to articulate and give focus to what the whole church police and that is the papacy or that is the council but again it's not as if it's kind of arbitrary individualistic an absolute monarchy model which is quite different he louis the fourteenth he doesn't care what is a p
yeah subjects believe you decrease today that everyone's going to pay double the taxes and they have to recency on so
what we've got here is clements speaking out of the whole history of salvation and saying look this is words have and trying to focuses in such a strong way from the corinthians it they'll convert them basically to salvage history not to him
but to salvation history which means communion which means harmony and humility etc
is that tough
i'm a whole theology here the body of christ returned back
and it is that by that very wage your friends we find our own salvation even jesus christ the high priest by whom are gives her offered and the protector by whom are pupil mrs aided
ah through him we can look up to the highest heaven and see as in a glass the peerless perfection of the face of god this is beautiful we see god the father through christ this is this trinitarian dynamic that we don't go around but we go in christ true him the eyes of our
our hearts are open is a very beautiful
and are dim and clouded understanding unfolds like a flower to the light for through him the lord permits us to taste the wisdom of eternity
beautiful of experience language here so people say this isn't spirituality graphic videos may think you can even be meditated in contemplative prayer permits us to taste the wisdom of eternity is clearly presupposes a who have lived and experienced chemicals yeah this is all climate this is
chapter thirty six is
ah take the body as an instance the head is nothing without a feat nor the feed anything without the head even the smallest of our physical members are necessary invaluable to the whole
in christ jesus then let this corporate body of ours be likewise maintained intact with each of us giving way to his neighbors in proportion to our spiritual gifts this is this whole thing of diversity and unity of each gives way to the other according to the guy
gifts here there's no monopoly of is everyone who is welcome everyone
submitted benedict to that one point is everyone obey everyone else of so it's is kind of global community
a authority which is focused our were very clearly for him especially in a authority of the one bishop who then what is he do again not the arbitrary but he who coordinates all these you have so that the symphony is her so that the body
as function of that sweater
it's all about
ah he has an interesting images for spirituality for instance warfare this is quite popular for the fathers of the desert in chapter thirty seven right above this he says so now my friends that has gone resolutely with our warfare under his unerring directions christ he could have been to serve our own commanders in the field and a prompt
and orderly obedience with which they go about their duties here again he goes back to just human experience using the army as a model just as he goes the body model which is the same model in paul pulled out so this is serene working with with human experience as a
as sources of inside for us when we read about these in on the word saw so these are just a few phase of her those takes somebody
ah
paragraph forty eight and forty nine
betsy
we must fall on her knees before the master and implore him with tears graciously departments and bring us back again to the honorable and virtuous way of others who love one another this is what he's calling them back to to fam will give you a ticket february for that is the gateway of righteousness the open
eight to life
why is he angry about this disobedience because it's kind of humiliating than the christian army isn't all lined up into know because the gateway to life is this love is this being brothers one to another as it is written open me the greater good of righteousness that i may go in praise the lord this
is the gate to more so the gate here for him is are loving one another
he goes up there is true christian love in a man let him carry out the precepts of christ who can describe the constraining power of a love for god
smelling focuses on love as a kind of the of power which will carry us forward its majesty and it's beauty who can adequately express no tongue can tell the heights to which love can uplift us love binds is fast to god love casts a veil over soon
innumerable there are no limits to loves endurance love knows no division here he's gone from this if you like perpendicular to have to of horizontal love love knows no divisions prompts know discord all the works of love or done it perfect fellowship koinonia
which is as beautiful word of it was it love at all god's chosen saints were made perfect so rich theology of love as our spirituality it will transform and sanctify us and love of god moved to britain for without love nothing is pleasing to him and then he goes
over the whole of his salvation and it was in love that the lord drew us to himself because we love you us see then your friends what a great and wondrous thing lobbyists it's perfection is beyond all words we get into kind of a mysterious apathetic thing
clip really love in a mentor but here you get up kind of threw him to love which records first corinthians thirteen the him of love in in paul's it's amazing how these themes come up again in a good so again it's not just a juridical concerns and we've got to have a fish unit
he here but it's because are very salvation is a koinonia is said communion
and then we should be willing to make any sacrifice to safeguard this levin even if i have to go away and leave the brethren of i should be willing to do it oh
is there any man of noble mine among you a man who is compassionate a man who is overflowing with love then let such a wouldn't say if it is i when the cause of any disorder friction or division among you i will remove myself i will go away anywhere you wish and i will do anything the congregation says
the authority of the congregation you see and the kind of the ultimate criterion of the love of the congregation only let there be peace between christ's flock and they're appointed clergy
even among the heathen they say numerous kings and rulers many books orphan his natural wisdom as we flows back and forth between exclude exquisitely supernatural motivation and then back to the natural so these are some elements
didn't i just took note and then we could go on to ignatius i think we can stop here at bathtub just as kind of a method i would suggest to try to pick out pretty