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by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon One of the major ideas---and perhaps the culminating idea---in the second chapter of Ephesians is the unity of gentiles with Jews to form a single people for God. These two, formerly estranged, have been united, Paul says, through the blood of Christ: “He himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation . . . that He might reconcile them both to God in one body … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Docetism, one of the earliest Christological heresies, derived its name from the Greek verb dokein---to "seem." This name was descriptive: It indicated the teaching that God's Son only "seemed" to be a human being. His presence on the earth, though real in itself, was conveyed by way of a revelatory appearance, not connected with His being. His humanity was a kindly illusion. According to this opinion, the Son of God … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon The permanence of the soul, its continued life after death, was not in contention among the early Christians. Indeed, thanks in part to Plato, some form of belief in a spiritual afterlife was quite in fashion in the Greco-Roman culture where the Apostles proclaimed the Gospel. The Apostle Paul, for his part, certainly anticipated an afterlife immediately following death. This persuasion prompted him to "desire to … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Discussing the earliest theology of the Resurrection, we are restricted mainly to the sermons and discourses in the Acts of the Apostles. The theological horizon is broadened considerably, however, when we turn to the Church's first literary theologian, St. Paul. His epistles, composed over a dozen or so years and addressed to a variety of pastoral circumstances, demonstrate how the power and purpose of the … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon A progressive scheme of images is developed through the first three psalms: First, the Man (Psalm 1), then the Messiah (Psalm 2), and finally the Suffering Servant (Psalm 3). Since this triadic pattern of reference runs throughout the Psalter, one may regard these three psalms as the book's proper "introduction." They form the tripod on which the Psalter stands. First, the Man: Psalm 1 is not a prayer in … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon From Jerome to Luther and on to modern times, translators of Holy Scripture have lamented the difficulty of their task. It would not surprise me to learn, indeed, that even the great Alexandrian Seventy---if only we had their diaries and private correspondence---also recorded complaints on this point. A major problem---especially acute when the "receiving" language embodies a culture not yet shaped by the … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon When Flavius Josephus misrepresented the faith of the Pharisees---claiming they believed in the transmigration of the soul, instead of the resurrection of the body---he did so to avoid ridicule from contemporary Greco-Roman pagans. Although the latter differed among themselves with respect to an after-life, none were disposed to take seriously a belief that the dead would really rise. Even the most broadminded of … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon From the beginning, the proclamation of the Gospel has always involved a claim that the full weight of universal human wisdom declares to be impossible: the resurrection of a man who had been dead in his grave for a couple of days---as distinct from the resuscitation of someone apparently dead This claim, without which there is no Gospel, is the primary component of the "folly" mentioned by the Apostle Paul as … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Although the Apostle Peter enthusiastically confessed the identity of Jesus, he was much slower in accepting the message of the Cross. In fact, when Jesus first spoke of his coming Passion, Peter's immediate response was, "Far be it from you, Lord; this shall not happen to you!" So Jesus, having declared Peter "blessed" for his profession of faith, was obliged---within the span of just a few verses---to tell … [Read more...]
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon When we speak of excruciating pain, we do well to look at the etymology of that adjective: ex cruce, "out of the cross." It is nearly impossible to exaggerate what the Savior suffered on the cross. Whether the cause of Jesus' death was asphyxiation, or hypercarbia, or hypovolemic shock, or heart failure, or exsanguination, or total physical exhaustion brought on by tetanic contractions throughout his entire … [Read more...]
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