Living in communion with one another

This is an email thread among several of us that started Feb. 9.  It considers the implications of being called together to live in communion.  Our study of the Theology of the Body stimulated some thinking about this matter.  A part of the email thread is copied here.

+++++++++++++++ Initial email, Feb. 9, 2012 +++++++++++++++

Dear Friends,

As we continue our explorations of the Theology of the Body, I wish to offer a few thoughts triggered by the readings for this morning.

As Jesus was teaching the mostly skeptical Jews in Jerusalem, we read in John 8:30-32,

As he was saying these things, many believed in him.  Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

These are familiar words.  The words from v. 32 (the truth will make you free) are inscribed around the compass rose that is the symbol of the worldwide Anglican communion.  Yet there is much that can be learned from these few simple words of Jesus.  
The same root word for truth occurs 3 times in vs. 31-32, so it must be significant.  But notice how the truth is not a static thing, but dynamic.  It is for the future (will know...will make), but depends on something we do now, namely "if you continue..."  The word for "continue" has the sense of keep on, abide, dwell, be present.  We have to continuously keep in the word of Jesus.  It has to be embodied in our minds and hearts, in our being, in the way we live.  That enables us to truly--in reality-- keep on being his disciples, the ones who keep on learning from him.  Jesus does not speak in the singular.  It is a body of believers he is speaking to.  Truth implies relationship, communion.  We learn together.  And as we learn we come to know.  Knowing is very important to Jesus.  We learn to know who he is, for he IS the truth (as we learn elsewhere), and He makes us free.  Free to do what?  To continue in his word, to be his followers, free from continually missing the mark (sinning, as the context makes clear), to live the truth individually and as the body of his followers.  And, as we learn elsewhere, Jesus prays that his followers be sanctified in the truth, in unity, "that the world may know you have sent me. (John 17:14-21).

"Continue in my word..."  God's word is something that comes up over and over again in scripture, from beginning to end.  God spoke in Genesis.  Jesus is the Word made flesh.  We read the scriptures as his word.  Knowing his Word is important, and in scripture, knowing has very rich dimensions.  Knowing is only meaningful when it is embodied in a living being.  The Holy Spirit allows his word to come alive in our hearts, to allow us to embody the word.  We live out the word with our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Our bodies make the word that is within present to others.

So as I begin to see scripture through the lens of the Theology of the Body, some of it begins to make sense in new ways.  If any of you get insights from scripture please feel free to share them.

Blessings,

Paul

+++++++++++++++ First reply +++++++++++++++

Hi Paul (et al), 

Well….since you asked!!!   I guess I did realize something yesterday that seems pertinent to our ToB discussion. Here’s some thoughts I typed up about it.

The fundamental difference between Christians and non-Christians is that non-Christians have a worldview of scarcity—they want. Christians realize that they already have everything abundantly: God has given us “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” (2 Pet 1:3) “Seek first the kingdom and all these things shall be added to you.” So, we can now “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:18)  because we have it all, in fact more than enough. Even suffering is a gift from God to live into Christ. No more want. That was the original sin—Adam and Eve wanted more, but God had given them abundantly everything they needed. (What helped me to understand this scarcity/abundance issue was pages 5-8 of the introduction of this book.)

Do we live our days wanting more or being  content and thankful that “God has given us abundantly more than what we could even ask or imagine in Christ Jesus?” I think the practice that best helps us to conform our lives to this truth is a “thank you prayer.” Fifty or more times a day saying “thank you” to the Lord both recalls us to our hearts and minds His love and power but also recognizes that He has given us more than we need.

This has huge ramifications for ToB stuff. If we want, we turn to our fellow creatures to fill that want, be it to use them to fill some perceived need we have that isn’t being met or to bring us pleasure. In contrast, we can give the gift of love that Christ has given to us (the fourth type of power, the power of love that Tory preached about). If we love others we don’t look for ourselves in them—we know who we are in Christ—we perceive something different and become curious. In the contemplation on them in love, "knowing" them, the perceiving person is transformed into the perceived person (as per Moltmann). From my professor William Daniel, “We humans are mutually constituting persons who receive our identity from one another, which deeply relates to how we engage one another economically. Do I relate to you as a matter of use? If so, I relate to you not as a Christian but as a capitalist or something of the like. Do I relate to you as God relates to me? In other words, do I forgive as I am forgiven, for I will be forgiven as I forgive, says Christ?” We are to be instrumental in bringing one another into being and to be brought into being by others. In this perceiving action we give the gift of constituting another’s identity. The motivation for this action is for the community of what is perceived in a shared world. It’s an openness and hunger for more of God that can only be found in the group adventure that is the Church. Christ did not give His life to His Bride out of His need or for His pleasure. Christ relates to His Church in His emptying of Himself for her to become one with her in the Holy Spirit, which according to Augustine, is the love between the Father and the Son.

So Paul, or anyone else who has made it to the bottom of these confusing ramblings, I do think that the truth is understood together as you say, Paul, which is what St. Paul says to the Colossians in 2:1-4  


For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So, does this sound right? And, thanks for sharing!

Julie

+++++++++++++++ Second reply +++++++++++++++

Julie,

Thanks for the response.  I liked it, and it triggered another thought about "the economy."  For there are two ways of thinking about this term  One is the ordinary everyday sense you mention.  One of the first things I learned in Economics 101 in college was the fundamental truth "Economic resources are scarce" and all else follows about how such scarce resources are developed and allocated.

But Christians have another older way to think about "the economy," for the Fathers frequently spoke about God's economy (Greek oikonomia), the "economy of salvation."    It was very trinitarian, and looks at how God's plan for the redemption of his creation is ordered between creation and new creation.  Trinitarian because we can only understand God as revealed through his economy as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is an upside down economy, quite different from that of the world, and it is full of abundance and grace to those who live in it.  It is far grander than any "economy" the world has ever known.  All human beings now are living in relation to this economy, either inside it or outside it, and it defines who we are and the possibilities for how we live and how we can be saved. If anyone wishes to receive the fulness of blessing in God's economy, he can only do so by becoming a part of God's people, his body, the church, and learning to walk in the ways of Jesus.  Salvation is never just individual.   Jesus provides a unique access point for entering into the economy.

We all have desires.  Are our embodied desires oriented towards God and the abundance of his economy or towards self and the scarcity of the world's economy?

Maybe this is just another way of getting at what you said, but I think the concept of the economy of salvation is a very powerful and fruitful one, another thing we can remember and re-appropriate from our Christian past.  The Theology of the Body is about living in the economy, and I am confident JP II would have been quite familiar with the idea.  I don't know if he ever made explicit use of it in the ToB.

Blessings,

Paul