Main news for 20 November 2014

King James Version (en)

2 Thessalonians, Chapter 3, verse 1

¹Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:

NOTES

What is the connection between prayer and witness? The first thing that comes to mind is this: without prayer, without constant communion with God, no...

What is the connection between prayer and witness? The first thing that comes to mind is this: without prayer, without constant communion with God, no witness is possible. There can only be dry theology, theoretical reasoning about God, about Christ, about the Kingdom. One cannot say that such reasoning will necessarily be mistaken; it may be formally not only correct, but even flawless, and yet it will not become witness. And when the matter concerns church life, prayer for those who are witnessing at a given moment is something entirely natural and self-evident.

But this is only one side of the matter. The other is connected with the fact that one can truly witness to the Kingdom only from within the Kingdom itself. Until the witness begins to live by its life, all his witness will still be more a witness to someone else's experience than to his own.

But the Church is precisely nothing other than the Kingdom entering our world. The chief and, in essence, only task of the Church is witness to the Kingdom, and the chief way of such witness is the manifestation of the Kingdom in our transforming but not yet transformed world, the manifestation of its breath, its love, its power. And every witness of each member of the Church becomes, in essence, part of this whole-Church witness. In this case, of course, the matter is not formal belonging to one or another church structure and not formal sanctions. The matter is precisely what the apostle writes about in his letter: the unity of the Kingdom, which manifests itself in the single spiritual space of the Church, which, of course, almost never coincides with the social space of church structures. And since the spiritual space of the Church is one, distances cease to have decisive significance for the Church's spiritual life: the prayer of one church community can become spiritual support for another community whose members, because of circumstances, have to witness especially much.

It is precisely here, as is evident, that the spiritual specificity of the Church appears as, in the words of the same Paul, the "body of Christ": whatever size she may reach, her essential, spiritual unity does not disappear, making possible the flow of spiritual energy from one part of her to another. This process itself becomes a living witness to the reality of the Kingdom, for by the laws of the untransformed world such a thing is impossible. But what is impossible in "this world" becomes possible in the Kingdom.

From the theme of the end of time, Paul turns to the theme of election. At first glance it may appear that...

From the theme of the end of time, Paul turns to the theme of election (13-14). At first glance it may appear that one has nothing to do with the other. Yet on closer examination it becomes clear that this is not so. Speaking of "election for salvation," the apostle undoubtedly follows the view of the Messiah and the people of God commonly accepted in his day in rabbinic circles, a view that held that both the Messiah and the people were conceived by God even before the creation of the world. Of course, in this case the point is not the fate of specific people, which God by no means predetermines, leaving human beings freedom of choice, but only the very fact of the existence of the people of God, destined to appear in the world and play their role in God's design. Paul transfers this idea to the Church, in which he sees the new people of God. Turning to Christ and being joined to the Kingdom, the one who is joined becomes part of the people of God, conceived before the creation of the world, and a participant in the plan that has existed from eternity. But the coming of the Kingdom of God is also part of this plan, whose realization entered a new, decisive stage with the Savior's coming into the world.

The spread of the "word," that is, of witness, is nothing other than the entrance of the Kingdom into the world, because it is through witness that those seeking new life are joined to it. It is no accident that the apostle speaks of the importance of the word being spread and "glorified," and also of the need to be delivered from those who preach the Kingdom insincerely (1-2). In mentioning "glorification," Paul undoubtedly has in mind the presence of God revealed to Moses during the Sinai theophany (Exod 3:1-6) and accompanying the people throughout their history, which later came to be called "the glory of God" or "the glory of Yahweh" (in the Synodal translation, "the glory of the Lord").

Being joined to the Kingdom naturally also implied abiding in the presence of God, that sanctification of the faithful and, through them, of the whole world which previously, before Christ's coming into the world, was possible only in part, but has now become possible in all its fullness. This is God's plan, in which everyone joined to the life of the Kingdom becomes a participant. It is not surprising that the history of the Kingdom and its becoming in our world, transformed but not yet transformed to the end, the spiritual path of each faithful person, and the design of God that determines both, are united into one whole. The Kingdom does not belong to God alone. He shares it with everyone who, in turn, is ready to share his life with Him.

Speaking of Christian life, Paul mentions, among other things, the importance of Tradition (‘traditions’), without which that life would become, if not impossible, then we may suppose considerably more difficult. But for him, ‘traditions’ are inseparable from the experience of personal communion with Christ, who Himself sustains and comforts the faithful. Clearly, for the apostle the two cannot be separated. This is hardly surprising: living Tradition can never be reduced to acquiring its outward forms. That is true of every tradition, including religious tradition, but especially of spiritual tradition. Today we associate tradition primarily with certain texts or rituals, which in a sense can also be considered texts.

But what is a text? It is a system of meanings expressed through some system of signs. To understand a text, it is not enough to read the signs in which it is written; one must also recreate the meanings behind them. Recreate them, precisely, because meanings cannot be read off a medium in the way that signs recorded on it can. To understand a text, one must follow its author's intellectual, and sometimes spiritual, journey.

The word of the Lord of which the apostle writes exists as a text. But for it to be alive, the text must live in the souls of those who can recreate the meanings behind it. In this case, however, besides the human authors there is another Author, without whose participation those meanings cannot be understood. A bearer of Tradition must therefore have experience of communion with this Author. Tradition remains Tradition with a capital T only as long as it exists as meanings reproduced by its bearers, not as forms they copy.

Such Tradition, Tradition with a capital T, truly helps those travelling a spiritual path. Within it, a traveller can always find something that resonates with them, their circumstances and their difficulties. But if Tradition degenerates spiritually and becomes only a collection of outward forms, it is of little use. It may remind someone of something that happened somewhere, sometime, to someone, but it will never become relevant to a person living here and now. It will therefore be useless on the spiritual path too: there as well, all that matters most takes place not in a great and glorious past, but here and now.

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