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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 6/6/2002 10:18 AM (GMT -6) |   |
Christ's faith, given to us, becoming our
faith and our desire, the faith by which, in
the words of St. Paul, "Christ may dwell in
your hearts.. . that being rooted and
grounded in love (we) may be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height"
(Eph. 3:17-18).
St. Paul defines [us/the church]as having
in us Christ's mind, i.e. His faith,
His love, His desire
the presence in her[/us/the church]
of Christ's faith, of Him Himself as perfect
faith, perfect love, perfect desire.
she [the church] believes that
which He believes, loves that which He
loves, desires that which He desires.
And He is not only the "object" of her
faith, but the "subject" of her entire life.
===========================
Faith....more than an idea!
===========================
The above is from the portion below, from Alexander Schmemann's Of Water and the Spirit It mentions a difference between two kinds of faith: "the former is a response to God's call ... the latter is the very reality of that to which the call summons." Happy reading.
(pp. 67-68)
If the Orthodox Church remained alien to the
long Western debate on infant versus adult
Baptism, it is because she, in the first
place, never accepted the reduction of faith
to "personal faith" alone which made that
debate inevitable. From the Orthodox point
of view, the essential question about faith
in its relationship to the sacrament is:
what faith, and even more precisely,
whose faith? And the equally essential
answer to this question is: it is
Christ's faith, given to us, becoming our
faith and our desire, the faith by which, in
the words of St. Paul, "Christ may dwell in
your hearts.. . that being rooted and
grounded in love (we) may be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height"
(Eph. 3:17-18). There is a difference—
not only in degree but also in essence—
between the faith which converts an
unbeliever or a non-Christian to Christ, and
the faith which constitutes the very life of
the Church and of her members and which
St. Paul defines as having in us Christ's
mind, i.e. His faith, His love, His desire
. Both are gifts of God. But the former
is a response to God's call while the latter
is the very reality of that to which the
call summons. The Galilean fisherman
who, upon being called, leaves his nets and
follows Jesus does it on faith; he already
believes in the One Who called him, but he
does not yet know and possess the faith of
the One Who called him. It is his
personal faith in Christ which brings the
catechumen to the Church; it is the Church
that will instruct him in and bestow upon
him Christ's faith by which she lives.
Our faith in Christ, Christ's faith in us:
the one is the fulfillment of the other, is
given to us so that we may have the other.
But when we speak of the Church's faith—the
one by which she lives, which truly is her
very life—we speak of the presence in her
of Christ's faith, of Him Himself as perfect
faith, perfect love, perfect desire. And
the Church is life because she is Christ's
life in us, because she believes that
which He believes, loves that which He
loves, desires that which He desires.
And He is not only the "object" of her
faith, but the "subject" of her entire life.
That faith is "assurance" divine.
Edited by - PotOnWheel on 06/20/2002 10:30:33 PM | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 6/20/2002 5:38 PM (GMT -6) | | Not just intellectual data.
Not just a rule of things that one must believe. (a replacement law)
"Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, 'Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.'" (Matthew 19:13-14)
It is said that the little child that Jesus had on his lap when he said this was St. Ignatios. | | Back to Top | | |
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