beautiful very very early christian father remember last time you already know that we started the course we talk some about history what is history and possible different dimensions of history outer history inner history secular history and maybe a his
jerry the deepest level and super cute and personal here it gets very very tricky to and then we started with clement of rome you are know the type of rome and that various themes with his funeral ledger to the corinthians humility and respect he refers to christ's humility is called them
to be united and that very problematic creative community and this characterizing the roman church and the church client just and kind of pilgrim church is just done the edge of these etc
so today on to ignatius ignatius of antioch second bishop of antioch never the church of antioch it's always good to try to know when we are
time by surface and where we are too kind of concretize it antioch that second grade church of christendom after jerusalem there was the jewish community in jerusalem and then christianity broke the bonds and would beyond and antioch is the first creature to the gentiles so in a certain since our mother
church and remember it's a church were subpar work so long with barnabas it's a church the acts of the apostles is worth a seconds were first called christians so it's a beautiful church and ignatius is the second bishop there we don't have any of these writings acts
except these seven letters
we know have very little about him
except as this last period he was condemned to die under the emperor trajan
and we know that emperor trajan's rule was from ninety eight to one seventeen so sometime accurate is being led by roman soldiers to rome for his martyrdom he'll be fed to the lions in the coliseum or in one of the amphitheaters so we know
pretty much as route and we know the specific communities to which he wrote these seven letters as he was journey the representatives at the local christian communities met him encouraged him and he was very moved by this and he sat down and shut it off measures to their churches to take back with them and of the
he's we have seven to six local churches and then to a polycarp the personal letter to the great bishop polycarp
hello the apostle john says your name so we have all these and your ass is a disciple of polycarp so we have all these beautiful polycarp as a friend of ignatius we have all these beautiful italians to him that phrase which i think it's one of the beautiful parts of early church this continuity eats
so he compose these letters for basic the said these letters that are very profound the interrelated a hope we'll see this one is everything centered on christ what he's been called the profound christ mysticism of ignatius here it seems to me she's very very rare
element for us second is a theme that i related to this of martyrdom the tremendous importance of martyrdom third nations some was of said he sort of walker she's so fixed on martyrdom and he wants to die he wants to be chewed up by the lions so he goes on and on like this in situ
a weird will have to deal with that then a strong urgings to unity to the christians are being taken up to climate again and to guarantee this unity community especially with a bishop also with priests and deacons is very strong on unity
so use with which is particularly worried one is the jude eyes or is he refers to them people who say it's the law it's the old testament little too old testament visits the scriptures were still before the canon of the new testament scriptures it's the law it's these things it save us and is battling with them
and then that a da cities and misses the other great heresy
how many know what does citizens
there's a
how was it includes but i don't for some of would it include to tell what does it relate i know i know for example that
they don't believe in christ assumed a flight yeah
and therefore they would very much they helped us to be much that's right it always linked up of they were scandalized by the idea of the transcendent immutable eternal god suffering so if christ is god and christ is on the cross how do you deal with this it's a relief
russ heresy as is a the judea icing approach this is a this is important were doing history of christian spirituality so many the heresies work of the spiritualities and these were people to very seriously that god is not one who suffers and christ is
god therefore the syllogism seems to go to a deeply so the flesh of jesus is just an appearance of flesh that's where the greek dog came to see you just seems flesh she just seems to suffer on the cross he just seems human in that sense at this
this a ignatius battles against is fiercely and he battles against the jude eyesores for the full doctrine of christ so it's all tied in
and thus he insists on the bishops and priests and the unity we've got to hold our unity and know what the scriptures he and there weren't creeds written and there would all these other so the way to fortify the christian community against all these christological errors foot
was to insist on the continuity with the pastures
precisely to guarantee our continuity with the christ mr you see to start a juridical external thing blind obedience just for blind obedience but it's to safeguard arcs full experience of christ to saves us against the judah risers who said it's not so much christ but it's the law
and against the da citizen it says it's not so much christ as we understand it fully continent but it's step the secret wisdom of god it's communicated to our elite group so these are for themes now the last friday a deeper into them to the point of
didn't get cool that's cool no one christ centered to martyrdom three unity of christians and forth beware of heresies that did diminish the full salvific mystery of christ
ah
there were through
for many years much polemic about the authenticity of the letters we have the letters in various forms it longer forms it shorter forms in greek end up syriac all sorts of things and scholars have debated which is the authentic form etc now the price of bread and had particular problems with these letters because the
bishop is such strong figure the priest and deacon and some protestant said this must be later writings the earliest church couldn't have been so into bishop fact this is a later kind of catholic development so the protestants and system a classic early word of god which is pure grace which is pure and then
then as things degenerate you get bishops and diocese is and these are kind of of things institutionalization so they said this is a clear mock of and advanced institutionalization therefore it's later
up now there were longer forms of the letters which indeed our later so much of they were right and been suspicious of much much later institutionalism was read back into ignatius he attacked on so we're living in a very kind of grace period at the church when we're able to
ooh scientific research to get to the real documents as ignatius wrote them who's the same problem of climate we have the one letter of climate and there's all the pseudo claimant well climate was so buried and rob a pseudo stuff it was hard to have a real picture of the of the real climate now through rigorous scholarship
have we've gotten to the first corinthians later so with ignatius we've gotten back to the the real thing
it was a great anglican scholar light for to establish the authenticity of the greek brief
texted eighteen eighty five
one of the real giants lightfoot ah so let's rush right into the christ mysticism ah here he synthesizes a pauline current of christ mysticism or themes like being in christ dying with christ the indwelling of
christ in us and hand nine thebes about christ is our life christ is our light so this is beautiful
ah what we have indignation is a meditating over the word of god and putting things together it very lift of profound ways so that's one of the beauties of the fathers of if our spiritual is or based on scripture than the fathers aren't getting away from that they're meditating upon this and
putting things together in very different ways one of the basic themes in ignatius as that of the imitation of christ to come up again and again throughout the centuries imitate christ up cost the great term catholic interesting scholar says this is the central theme in nickname
shes he says in philippians is that are to and seven to to be imitators of jesus christ as he was of his father
this is a beginning a trinitarian thing though the spirit doesn't come in that much with him but always christ in the father christ is the imitation of the father we are the imitation of christ
so there's already gives us this sense that it's not a kind of external imitation a kind of api of gestures and things and wearing a long white toga and pings it's the deepest sort of of being in the image of or a conforming to the archetype as it were to use them
greek language and he relates immediately this of imitation to the most difficult medical and that is sort of sharing and hardships sufferings prosecutions in a letter to the ephesians paragraph ten who says that has try to imitate the lord by seeing
which of us can put up best with ill usage privation or contempt so that in this way none of the doubles reads may take root among us but we may rest in jesus christ in all sanctity and discipline of body and soul beautiful these two elements
all sanctity so we won't be rooted in christ that's what he means by imitation and the kind of proof of the pretty is to imitate christ also in perrin to undergo sufferings and then he very quickly really to the whole theme of martyrdom christ died on the cross he didn't die
nec
an old age death bed or something and cat so imitation of christ should make us open to this level and he he's being read in chains by these very tough to a brutish roman soldiers to his martyrdom so obviously is all focused on this and so that's why the theme
comes up again and again some of the object to begin it is to fix stuff theme of martyrdom but again the letter these are letters to let vintage you tends to be very country very personal and very of that moment so obviously if he's led he's being paid to the fight a woman he's meditating on this he's tried to reply
how he fits into this mystery of been led to be food to the lions and he's coming up with very christian arguments and of course it comes up again and again but
so imitation as imitation of christ's patient death
he says in a letter to the romans were he's trying to plead with them to not intervene with a fire high authorities to get him off the hook but to let him go all the way to order dumps he says leave me to imitate the human limitation lead me to imitate the patient of my god
if democrats goes a very interesting things is how can we understand this you people read the deep christian
knowledge gnosis in you will understand this with something that can't help her book will do or of sewage a stick arguments but if you're in crushed to understand leave me to imitate the patient of my god if any of you has god within himself with that man understand my longings and feel for me
forces by which i am constrained
so i think this is very explicitly mystical is will come up again and again not in the sense of trees of avalon or a and lines and mystical prayer or methods to get into mystical purposes a whole experience coming out of wouldn't call mystical deeply the
found experienced so the whole theme of margin than slowing right out of the theme of centrality of christ
ah and he sees his past scully christ is died thus passing from death to life than those he is cold
here and now as i write in the fullness of life i am yearning for death with all the patient of a lover beautiful he's not morbid and this is such an ugly life etc know it's a lover going to the bridegroom then he gets very mystical heritage earthly bodies have been crucified in me
there is left no spark of desire for been date things but only a murmur of living water it whispers within me come to the father there is no pleasure for me in any meets the parish or in the delights of this life i am vain for the bread of god even the flesh of jesus christ who is the seat of david
for my drink i create that blood of years which is love imperishable
so here's all sorts of themes subtracting of christ he's more focused on christ and that's what explains it all he's lover going to the bridegroom and he wants to be the flesh of christ here against the disick thing because this becomes a shadow
have some kind of divine revelations and now he wants his flesh of christ and his drink of christ which is love for a eucharistic this gets very exclusive and other places but that's a very profound and the living waters it whisper within me here's an implicit new ontology so
waters whisper within me through the patient death of christ to go to the father in the recent crimes to it's very trinitarian very very profound
ah
and he can do this again because of his belief in the fullness of christ mystery christ was died and also rose again in the flesh and that's why he neither despises his flesh nor fears for it but lives in the freedom of the christian so this anti parasitic is strictly related to the
his dedication of the fullness of christ mystery
he said
a grumbling against the docetaxel
for my part i know and believe that he was an actual human flesh even after his resurrection this is a very research will stuff for a flush it down to earth when he appeared to peter and his companions he said to them take hold of be touch me see that i am no bodiless phantom
they touched him then and there and believed for they had had contact with the flesh and blood reality of him
that was how they came by their contempt for death and proved themselves superior to it paradoxically precisely this flesh and blood reality
freeze them to be more spiritual than these very spiritualized of angeles stick of to set up pupils moreover he ate and drank with him after he was risen i can the natural man even though he was spiritual
thus it is only in the name of jesus christ and for the sake of sharing in his sufferings that i could face all this is very i'm very profound the linker between that fleshy incarnational dimension of christianity and the full freedom of the children of god to face death
than anything because christ rose in the flesh in our flesh has an eternal destiny i don't have to deny it's reality and pretend it's not there i don't have to worshipping some sort of hedonistic way i know to be transformed in christ
for he the perfect man gives me strength to do so so to very rich christology and therefore a very rich spirituality and he attacks these to set it wanted to be very very spiritual people precisely for having such a a a thin kind of a ghostly
spirituality at the end we'll see this again and again as he attacks the judah answers in their legalism is not living the joy or even current crisis so it's totally cristo centric and pascoe and as he says that's the only way you're going to understand where he said it is only in the name of jesus christ and for the sea
of is sharing his sufferings that i could face on this
cardinal the shave canada once said that we should soon live our life that it makes sense to ourselves also to others only the light of christ that's the only interpretive principle that makes sense of it and i think that signatures if if an agnostic or atheist picks us up you'll be
the amazed by the courage and the focus but i think she was troubled by this of kind of a death wish to look at
and categories or something
so
the journey and pascoe image comes up again and again how does he understand then what his journey and he's turning to his death but he's turning to the father he plugs into this very profound central our schedule theme of exodus journey pilgrimage passover which
his first in exodus is taken up onto the old testament i think we service and taken up in the new testament and answers ways applied to christ christ is always on his journey to the father so this these phrases that come up again and again and again in one way or another this journey
i must implore you to do no such a timely kindness can access to the romans not intercede for him pray leave me to be a meal for the beasts for his day you can provide my way to god
he sees this murdered them then as as passage
paragraph four romans and paragraph pub
five he goes on
with every horrid diabolical torment come upon me provided only that i can win my way to jesus christ this basic basic very profound as comes up again and again and again
when the living waters murmuring within me come to the father so a dynamic of exodus spirituality then as we've seen it is specifically eucharistic he's trying to understand what happened to him and he sees that he himself will become and some way the host
ah they these lions will provide me the way to my god i am his wheat ground find by the lion's teeth to be made purists bread for christ this is when the classic lines in ignatius and this is real theology of and
existential surfaces your spiritual that is he is
and some of defines theology his faith seeking understanding so here he sent is very concrete situation and he believes a crisis or now is seeking to understand and he sees it in the light of christ sees it like the eucharist
so he becomes the eucharistic offering to the father in christ
and this is very profoundly it'll be taken up again later in the fathers at as is lovely meditation on in the eucharist the body of christ as their on the altar but the real body of christ about which the father's concerns his accustomed is we would be nourished by the body of christ we become
i'm body of christ we become post so up at school with stuff
so rooted in christ and precisely in his being not simply in his doing also and is doing but especially just in words ah this is a thing that comes up it's very powerful but his actions and in is being in the deepest deepest level in his
silence
ah in his letter to the ephesians paragraph eighty
three contemplative stuff as the tree is known by its fruits so they who claim to belong to christ i was coming back to this question are known by their actions for this work of ours does not consist of just making professions but in a faith that is both practical and lasting
deed is better to keep quiet and be
going to make fluid professions and not be
he was very deep of seasons no doubt it is a fine thing to instruct others but only if the speaker practices what he preaches one such teacher capital t there is he who speak a word and it was done here is the father speaking from all eternity the one word
that creates all things
by his silences was well worthy of a father
a man was truly mastered the utterance of jesus will also be able to apprehend his silence and thus reach the fort spiritual maturity so that his own words and the force of actions and his silence is the significance of speech very poetic and eloquent
ah
him to silence nothing is hidden from lord even our most secret thoughts are ever present to him whatever we do that let it be done as though he himself were dwelling within us as though we were his temples and he within as their god for in fact that is literally the case
and proportions we rightly love him so to become to war on soaps god is as this god created all things in eternal silence redeemed all in the one word was christ we are rooted in christ in his actions and in is very mischievous wait in his silence
there's that famous phrase of sunshine of the cross gods from the one word from all eternity and that word he spoke in silent sauce
here he has been basilar long by these soldiers and scratching off letters and things and he's living in a very deep level
ah were fixed in christ this is an image that comes up up elsewhere in his letter to the smear games at the very beginning paragraph one
in the church should sneer no glory be to jesus christ the divine one was gifted you with such wisdom gnosis this is the real wisdom i have seen how in movably settled in fate you are nailed body and soul as it were to the cross of our lord jesus christ and rooted and grounded by love
in his blood
so it's very spiritual but also very concrete
earthy nailed to the cross rooted in his blood
he wrote the firmest convictions about our lord be leaving him to be truly of david's lied in his manhood the son of god by divine will power so he always insists on his fullness of the christ mystery man fully man flesh and blood and gods and god and thus all the rest comes but it is
in so far as were rooted in christ grounded in christ than all the rest problems
i'm often when ignatius was studied nor to hasten theology the emit merely went to his theology the church and how important where bishops in his church this was the whole polemic between the roman catholics and protestants and it's still going down and certain with but this isn't his central concern to to a
throw out a theory of bishops
the central thing is this lived experience of christ thus martyrdom thus not accept those who are dividing the you to view a church where again the to dinosaurs and disease and thus unity and thus the bishop and as decrease in the deacon
work for unity
ah theme of in christ he will come to the father trinitarian he's got thus a whole christology when she wants to be a full christology and then he's got a whole anthropology that is a theory of the human person that comes out of that we also are pure spirit and also
flesh and blood he says these two six they just kind of theirs they have such as spiritual ethereal christ in the indulges to kind of fade away themselves
the very reason you are given at this
he gives up
jumping for works he gives a whole theology also of our ministry to others because were visible we've got to kind of a sacramental function in the church as crested christ was made flesh to truly minister to every dimension of the human person so also re so this is this full anthropology of of transcendence
spirit and also body also flesh
the very reason you are given a body as well as a soul is to help you to gain the favor of this outward and visible world the same time you must also pray for insight into the invisible world as well so that you may touch short of nothing the whole tracery of the spirit may use here's or if reference to the spirit
in the sense of totality is lifting up bodies transforming body
critical times like these did you as the bark needs the helmsman with a storm tossed mariner a haven of men are ever to find their way to god is a very broth theology the location of the christian we've got to guide humanity through these rough times
from ignatius will be going onto a lovely our early patristic document the letter to diabetes which is also in this collection in a beautiful beautiful thing he also as the author reverend pinch mysterious has quite a beautiful theology at the christians function for humanity
and that's why we're given a body ah

he stresses that were in point than other vital choice life or death all things must come to an end and there are two alternatives before us they are life and death
the unbelievers carry the stamp of the world on the faithful loker the stamp of god the father through jesus christ
yes we are ready and willing to die in conformity with his passion his life has guided us all these trinitarian theme the theme of imitation of christ thus peep at least prepared for martyrdom
oh and this of in imitation of christ
ah
where he talks about the decedent's is kind of fading into in reality
and suffer he did this is it get to the church and smear in of second paragraph suffer he did this is always against them and indeed just as he did rarely did raise himself again his patient was no unreal illusion
asian this is very explicit from spawning words as some skeptics are claim were all unreality themselves very interested in there claiming a crisis pure theory of spirit they become and reality the fate of those wrecks
shes were match their belief for one day they would similarly become phantoms without substance themselves very profound is going on here about to link up between our concept of christ and our concept of ourselves and what happens to herself if we've got a christ who not really
man not really flesh and blood not really suffered and died for us then we ourselves are no longer fully human beings
pascal has a powerful phrase those who want to be lifted up of both humanity in some kind of angelic level and applauded the beasts sensitive paradox between of spirituality and
anthropological destiny with any
these docetaxel keeps pounding against them they lacked any sense of love christ in his body who suffered and minister do
or something and think for that reason it's heretical you think this isn't the christian life
ah
it is faith and love it or everything and these miss kennedy for all else but look at the men who had those perverted notions about the grace of jesus christ which would come down to us and see how contrary to the mind of god they are they have no care for love no thought for the widow and orphan
none at all for the afflicted a captive the hungry or thirsty
this is a powerful criterion for the authenticity of a spirituality to people just kind of fade away disinterested in problems of the poor widow et cetera the proceedings to because they're so spiritual and those are just really matters any hits him with another thing or absent lack of sacrum
it'll since there are so spiritual and ethereal that they have no need of the material sacramental order they even absent themselves from the eucharist and the public pros because it will not admit that the eucharist is the same so body of our savior jesus christ separate for our so
hymns which the father and his goodness afterwards raised up again
consequently they reject god's good gifts thus they are due to their dispute asians you would have done better to learn charity
they were ever to know any resurrection
repugnant stuff it's love it opens our eyes to the resurrection patient to a sacraments to social
and the lack of newbury there's big debate whether the city curacy is on one side is fighting them and the jew dies or the other nice fighting them and the scholars debate with the to heresies or one do you have to dig judah ising to six scholars right
caesar one or one but it was like what about a seventy page essay system that it's one heresy it sort of interesting but the to go together in curious ways or they can be distinct we should not care with he's fighting on two fronts or fighting one thing
no
since

misheard the big at all well this is a tiny puncture wound
ha ha
this is very debate it cause the protest group think one scholar says they were related to the a scenes the judaic it seems he took over a little of christianity so he sees them as a kind of austere acidic monastic
top judaic it seems who then got into the to setting thing to avoid the scandal of ya of a suffering on the cross this is one theory we don't really know we know that there are several of these churches and for ignatius they represent the big threat to christian life
for the widespread right right it's in i think all of his letters this comes up and get and get in the letter to the philippians it especially he focuses explicit way on the jude eyesores than the others we read some i wanted to stop the so many things go through by him and i'm really
but one of those texts which sounded like it could have been against the to acidic or the jude eyes are so you have this big but certainly there were widespread and certainly there were seen as the threat to the early christian community by ignatius a first form of gnosticism if you like
and it's for that the
i'm in dwelling a beautiful beautiful pauline concept he calls christians god very bearers christ bearers temple bearers and we read that thing we're about we are as it were temples and did we are really very beautiful
ephesians fifteen
ah wouldn't be done as though he himself were dwelling within us and indeed
he lived this literally is the case of the whole theme of in drawing important to the gospels of salvation history or consummated in christ these are all themes we could dump look at
course he doesn't have remember written gospels he doesn't have a new testament around in the open so there's still all oral tradition and maybe first written documents but not not all put together in the word of god there were letters of paul around there were the gospel surround trade debated by scholars whether he
i had a
what matters of paul and what gospels and all that read about when he refers to the gospel it's particularly the spoken word announced but was it would we call the old testament around and to create a sense of crib
here is a hitting against the of jude iseries they refused to be persuaded by the profits or the law of moses or even in our own times by the gospel still less by the personal suffering is so many of our own people since they apply the same sort of argument to ourselves
use against the judah answers he says their own scriptures won't open their eyes to what's happening that is it's all being fulfilled now been christ they refuse to be persuaded by the profits in law or the gospel or even our sufferings this is very moving that is if it's the one gospel it's can
he new a now in the witness of the martyrs and these two guys there's won't even accept that
for him it's all the law of but we have implicitly or here a whole theology of salvation history ongoing and he'll be right in there in the middle and it's all fulfilled in christ
ah
unbelievers care the stamp in the world of while the fateful you already saw this them weather like love that stamp of god through jesus christ
born a
even the lives that they're they're talking about these two geysers of their divinely inspired profits were instinct with jesus christ this is beautiful later fathers would say that the new testament is already hidden in the old accustomed say and the old is
explicit in the new
have you could transmit fatima
no testament in ah yes and then we million veteran locked at the new testament is hidden in the old the old and new patent is made evident hear you saying that the profits are instinct with jesus christ so he wants to meet these two years in their own ground take your law take your profits christ
is there but they don't use a whole
very beginning of the second century and already a full doctrine implicitly of the kristic dimension of a spiritual rating in the old testament it did the only reason they were persecuted the prophets is because they were inspired by his grades christ so that they might convince future unbelievers of the exist
since one soul god was revealed himself in his son jesus christ word of his own from silence proceeding beautiful when all that he was he did gladden the heart of the one who sent him
we're gonna be song from silence proceeding or
that about the silence again
so all theology of salvation history fulfilled in christ
oh
and thus a full eucharistic theology you can write immense tones on ignatius when you want to win everyone's to write his doctorate you will be able to do just on the eucharistic theology in ignatius
and we've already seen some of these eucharistic themes in him but in eucharist is very very important because of the visible concrete earthly christ now this is the function of the clergy to celebrate the eucharist you see how it all fits in and
function of eucharist is to make the past or mystery of christ prison which is everything for us so it's again not just an arbitrary legalism obey obey that's but it's this deep inner christ life it's present in christ dead and risen present person eucharist
and thus the importance of up the church
make sure that no step affecting the church has ever taken by anyone without the bishop sanction the sole eucharist you should consider valid is one that is celebrated by the bishop himself or by some person authorized by you
where are the bishop is to be seen let all his people be just as word jesus christ is present we have the worldwide church this is another famous frames with a bishop is there's the people of god just as where christ is there is the
catholic church nor is it permissible to conduct baptisms or love feasts a campaign without the bishop
so that's how it all ties together
i must be another embarrassment of protestants only not the are one hundred that's right that emphasis on euros
or indeed indeed that strong sacramental aspect now princess lutherans are recovering the eucharist and mini are but this has been a weakness in i think they're recognizing this
the sensuality the eucharist and thus the centrality of priest and bishop because who's going to guarantee this celebration
we'll see about that he has a in his letter to rome so there's lots of things here it's a very technical debate what does he mean by bishop hear that is he'll use the phrase were still using it today the dangers that we read back and so we see this
a man with a major and he's living it is a episcopal palace and he's got all the priests under him etc your beams various scholars if you get essays written on what is the bishop in his church
ah
is it the later monarchical bishop with the whole diocese and priests and parishes it's clearly not
so it's debated some have argued
that the bishop is kind of the local what we call a to quite a local community
a city community for instance the bishop of corinth would be that presider of that community so he says that workers should have the bishop presiding or someone he appoints so that is recognized but it's recognized as a kind of an exception it if you gotta eucharist the one who will be so
so we want to be careful we don't to easily read later models some have argued that there's no concept of what will we would call it an archbishop wood lots of bishops under him for a bishop with lots of clergy under him but it's more the local community also there's no reference to base this there's no reference to the
yep stoic succession in ignatius this is true he doesn't justify bishops because of the passing on of hands you simply says the represent christ
so it's a whole disgusting and that all the cards shirt on our site but most of them are and it's a this is what is enriching the ecumenical dialogue today rediscovering the fathers and working through what scholars on both sides are saying happily we've gotten beyond the point of a specific one
non-catholic reading of ignatius and clement and erroneous and then a lutheran reading and a methodist reading we've got scholars sharing their work and collaborating etc but certainly these are very key for these things
so the ecclesial significance lives of rush into that are
which is simply to think about here to this man has been dragged off to be fair to the lions he's trying to save his own individual soul and he's so concerned about the churches and he sold consoled by the churches had come into it's a very ecclesial spirituality can you imagine yourself right before death worrying about how the church in
new york is doing and how the church and texas is doing and trying to extort them to live in love and he's he's a bishop all the way since it he never goes off into an individualistic thing but he's it's profoundly ecclesial and the importance of intercessory prayer he says if i'm saying
saved it's because of your prayers
therefore to set the seal of perfection on your work
oh hear you sing saying grace which i am now praying to be given in fullest measure so that with the help of your prayers i may make my way to him here again is is passable image therefore to set the seal of perfection on your work i am your work and seen both here in her after the most fitting i'm sorry is the dog
he's been talking about that the purse for him now he's going on to the relation of this church with another church
when it's gotten its act together through the intercession send prayers of this church therefore to set the seal of perfection and your work of reconciliation regarding the set church both your director would be good if you would do much honor to god if your church were to appoint someone to go as his ambassador to syria
a we dram solicitations on the restoration of peace there on the recovery of their numbers and on the re-establishment as a corporate body again oasis of ecclesial concern and the concern of one church for another we've talked about local churches church being used in the plural so here you're talking
to the church
of smear in a saying be very concerned for the church and syria for my thought is that it would be well worth your while to send a letter by one of your people joining them giving glory to god for the tranquillity has granted them
and for the fact that through your prayers this communion of one church with another
which is primarily a spiritual communion
up a good it seems that the tyrannical structures of episcopal synods and archbishops these haven't yet emerged but there's you just assumed that if you're in contact with a bishop you're in good shape and that bishop will be in communion with every other bishop except he does know he acknowledge note that there are problems of
splitting apart and reconciliations the ecumenical endeavor has been an eternal endeavor right from the very beginning we sometimes have a very simplistic view of the church was actually one up to ten fifty four and a first split with the east and then absolutely one in the west of all sixty years has been a constant split off says
some heresy reconciliation negotiation re-discovery of a unity nodejs it so through your prayers that they may come to safe harbor at last
since you are spiritually quite mature pray for them
chris sort of buttering develop but he's also noting diverse levels of profundity of spirituality and precisely those most advanced you'd be most committed to working for the unity the reconciliation of the brethren
ah so one community concerned with another lifts up the other
ah now unity is the most important thing for the churches in this regard again not a juridical unity and elder march in lockstep but the spiritual community in the one mystery of christ in his letter to polycarp he says up here is trying to another bishop be charge you
two years when bishop charging another this beautiful
reciprocal exhortation that be charge you to press on even more strenuously in your course you're given the past whole thing in all the grace with which you are clothed and to call your people to salvation you've thought especially to unity there's nothing more important than this
so unity comes up again and again and again ah
and it's a unity in christ not a unity in the law here he finds the judah eyesores
ha
our unity isn't one christ the one eucharist in the one bishop not in the law and not in some nasty a spirituality make certain therefore that all of you to one common eucharist for there is but one body of our lord jesus christ but one cup of union with his blood and one single altar of sacrifice
i even also there is but one bishop with his clergy and deacons so this is republic there's one christ therefore this one eucharist therefore for there's one episcopacy now we share in that union you see it's a spiritual communion ultimately with god
and then he goes out to attack the judaism's prime cleaving for refuge to the one gospel message as though to the incarnate christ into the apostles this is beautiful
it's a gospel that suits me it's christ that says mr one numerous thus not the law
i'm all the same if anyone should make use of the scriptures that is the old testament to propound jupp judaism to you to not listen to him when he goes into an amusing the better to talk of christianity from a man who is circumcised than of judaism from one who is not
here seems to be some sort of curious reference to gentile uncircumcised but has become legal risks who sort of income more jude ising than the jude eyes ears this can happen and he sang i'd rather talk to a jews become fully a christian into one of these people who spending over backwards to be
be more legalistic than the others though in my judgment both of them alike
but mr comes out if they feel to preach jesus christ are no more than tombstones and graves of the dead if they weren't if they fail to preach jesus christ there's the one a life-giving message which is the gospel by the way are protestant brethren site all these things for them innovations and central
already the gospel it is christ it gives life etc
so to avoid the sort of thing and thus be loyal to your bishops and clergy and deacons
that was the preaching the spirit itself be imitators of jesus christ as he was of his father hears the a semen came again an imitation but at the deepest level we imitate christ again as he imitates the father
loyalty to the bishop and a priest and deacon he has that all three here in what relation again it's debated by scholars we can too easily read back our categories but there are here
the same time over essential it is that you should never act independently of the bishop has evidently you do what you must also be no less submissive to your clergy and regard them as apostles of jesus christ our hope curiously he doesn't relate the bishops to the apostles
it's he relates the clergy this has been noted
in whom we shall one day be found if our lives are in him the deacons to serve the mysteries of jesus christ i must be man university approved in every way etc
the ultimate motive of disunity again is christological
we want to maintain our communion with christ the same way as the lord was wholly one with the father here is the ultimate his theology of unity one of my students did a term paper on unity in ignatius same way as alert was holding one with the father and never acted independently of him
either in person or through the apostles
so you yourselves must never act independently of your bishop and clergy
will account persuade yourselves in his right to proper to follow your own private judgment have a single service of prayer which everyone attends one united supplication one mine one fall in love and innocent joy films it's a very joyful unity because it's communion in christ with father
services the ultimate level of it of
your obedience to your bishop as though he were jesus christ shows me plainly enough that yours is no worldly manner of life
but is that way of jesus christ himself again the team of imitate christ therefore be united with your bishop so it's not a worldly saluting and i need a leader and i need an authority figures how many the condition that he did it's in so far as christ is in us and we know
that a communion that gnosis does spontaneously we are committed to church unity and to our communion with the bishop
ah responsibilities than towards the bishop towards the priests torso deacons and responsible lisa the bishops and priests deacons to the people is very of eloquent also on this one
ah he rents to polycarp vs six letters to six local churches and one letter to a bishop much as any bishop did great polycarp which is very beautiful in a he's very first paragraph he says make yourself the support of all and sundry first he had this exhortation to give thought especially to
unity for there is nothing more important than this so here's a bishop boots to reinforce unity now as you going to do it by screaming a baby your baby
how make yourself the support of all and sundry as the lord is to you beautiful how we always comes back to the christological ground of this craze support you you support the faithful
and continue to bear lovingly with them all as you were doing at present
spend your time in constant prayer
pig for ever larger gifts wisdom is quite a beautiful exhortation be watchful and and sleeping in spirit this could be a kind of a program for monks also a dress yourself to people personally
as it is the way of god himself and profound stuff not just up
commands from an a high you personally but a people and a kind of a one to one basis
and carry the infirmities of them all on your own shoulders
some parents have said that had all bishops always acted us we might not have had some the you carry the informative suit them all on your own soldiers and which of these records a real possibility by the way and exhortations to the abbot was not to rule over the strong but to a supporting carry the week and and
each of the good shepherd who bears the lamb as a good champion of christ ought to do the heavier the labour the richer the reward so this is the other side of the coin quality of
a pastoral so it's not the military model of arbitrary authority and power and the other simply senior sir and that's that ship to have a tight army it's it's something very very profound and it's tied it with the way christ and x with his sheep
so
and then you can do a whole thing on earth known as primary ignatius long as
let him who can absorb this to high position is no excuse for pride
here he says of it is faith and love that are everything at this these must come before our loans
oh so
the decisiveness of love especially for those on high and
then finally
primacy of rome he would sense in what way
ah his beautiful letter to the room something here are very special is happening
ha
curiously he makes no reference to the bishop of rome and this is puzzled of scholars ah
again from the colony of the church of god it rome from calling in the church of god and corn
all of this i've gotten into one category and cut into climate clarity
let's get ignatius to it's make a comment from one to them
it's very confusing
don't make a mistake critique
from ignatius
who's other name is therefore scarred bearer to her was found mercy and the greatness of all find father and jesus christ himself to the church beloved and enlightened in her love
praises wrong and not for great privileges not for the a privilege but for this is love
oh jesus christ by the will of him we'll solve things to the church holding chief place in the territory's in the district of rome here's something special about
all the territory's around rome this church has a special function there so something here is a scholarly footnoted etc worthy of god worthy of honor etc for most in love this is a phrase that has caused much to flow and much debate and discuss
ocean
as much in the father's it isn't that crystal clear what he's getting at you've got a kind of a minimalist interpretation what a yes getting at here and a maximalist the minimalist is the good protestant one who says he's praising this christian community in rome that they have lots of charity that of the it would that this huh
continued through the centuries the serpent roman says what do we mean by love you this is a kind of mystical category sums up the whole of christian the christian mystery
there's a roman catholic scholar thiel th ideally who argues that the totality of supernatural life in christ is implemented in through his love
thus when he's talked about foremost in love it's kind of a theological category of foremost in the fullness of of the crush mystery
thus our ignatius would recognize in sprays the authority to guide in matters pertaining to the essence of christianity since fields argument and how do you prove that one or the other it's getting to very scholarly research on how the category but is used in the writings of ignatius
does he ever the elsewhere pump it full of a kind of theological lung power significance or you see talk about a virtue of love as we would normally mean also christian cigarettes that so it is very very technical but something very beautiful it's happened there and then there's certainly much more pray
he's here for rome that prevent the other churches
and you have been a source of instruction to others he says up in one of the first paragraphs a paragraph three here's a media me a scholarly footnote all of these phrases then a stir up all sorts of discussion in the churches and this
this is or the richness of patristic scholarship we have a common ground here now we have to understand and once it can be proved that it means to wonder the other or that is significant
ah foremost of love i think that does remain significant up i was at a kind of top level ecumenical discussion in rome
and one of the men of the
secretary for christian unity was saying what will be the primacy of rome in coming great united gathering of sister churches and he he was quoting an orthodox patriarch said in our principles
first among equals that's the functional wrong and that primacy is a primacy of honor the this is a famous orthodox formula for of dealing with rome primacy of honor and this
i represented the secretary to this isn't quite it certainly isn't new testament language new testament languages and talk about primacy of honor
christ says to the last place etc but if anything this is very beautiful think kind of primacy of load with all that means it's also a commitment in a burden
has rome always a given this impression to it's faithful of a kind of our first of all the primacy in love but it's a with all that love means remembering first corinthians thirteen etc
but we'll see if we get along pardon if i don't die before this on are some of the medieval popes in the worst periods of the projected war a kind of imperial images
when
well but it is a key and this sort of thing could be a key to answer to the ecumenical
are getting together some the significance of poor charm and twenty third for instance for the orthodox for the anglicans for the product is sod there some kind of very special thanks