“… you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion,
Who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Tm 3:14-16)
Recently, in fact on September 20, I came across this wonderful but theologically highly condensed text from one of the pastoral letters of Saint Paul (it was the Mass reading). The apostle reminds Timothy of how to behave in the Church, pillar and foundation of truth and he goes on to speak of the great mystery of the Incarnation. Looking for further initial clarification, I went to Aquinas’ commentary to the corpus Paulinus (the letters of the Apostle Paul). What I found, after leaving aside the detailed outline, was a gem of theological practical advice and great devotion to the Incarnate Word (probably not what you expect to hear from the title I used above).
Our Spiritual “Behavior”
First of all, to hear that Timothy needs to know how he has to behave in the household of God, is a reminder of our spiritual “behavior” in God’s Church. Aquinas tells us that Paul is commending or praising the Church because: a) it is the Church of the living God, and b) because of her unity, reason why she is a pillar of truth. As the Greek term ekklesía suggests, the church is an assembly of people “called out of”: out of darkness, out of sin, out of or from among many nations so as to become a new people. And those who have been called are assembled for God; as Christ said: that they also may be one in us (Jo 17: 21). To “behave properly” in this place amounts to more than just good manners and dress codes: it means to be spiritually alive, as Psalm 93: 5 says: holiness becomes (or befits) your house, O Lord. To do so, we should, first, be holy, and second, act holy so as to avoid any resemblance of hypocrisy.
Joy in the Truth
Speaking about the truth of the Church, which is the truth of salvation, makes Aquinas say that the truth is the perfection of the intellect, and he quotes Saint Augustine: our happiness is nothing less than joy in the truth. Because the Church is the assembly of God and gives knowledge of the truth, we ought to be in it. And in fact, through God’s grace, we are.
I wanted to keep going with the second part of the argumentation. I said that the biblical text is highly condensed. For that reason, I will leave it here, and if my memory serves me well, I will resume the topic in my next contribution. For the time being, let us dwell on the beauty of this text, pray with it in our hands, do lectio divina, or simply thank God for being members of his household and for showing the Truth to us.
God bless you all.
Author: The Contribution of Cornelio Fabro to Fundamental Theology. Reason and Faith: ://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9315-2
Poesía Sacra, Quemar las Naves, and Desde Fossanova, IVE Press: ://ivepress.org/
