From: 1 Timothy 3:14-16
The Church is God’s Household
The Mystery of our Religion
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Commentary:
15. This verse contains three very evocative expressions which sum up
the letter’s ecclesiology or theology of the Church.
“The Church of the living God”: St Paul usually uses “church of God”
and (once) “church of Christ” (Rom 16:16), thereby implying continuity
with the “assemblies of Yahweh” in the Old Testament. The Church, in
other words, is the true people of God, founded on the New Covenant,
heir to the ancient promises and trustee of the means of salvation (cf.
“Lumen Gentium”, 9). It is “the church of the living God”, that is, it
receives from him supernatural life (grace) and distributes it to all.
“It pleased God to call men to share in his life and not merely singly,
without any bond between them, but he formed them into a people, in
which his children who had been scattered were gathered together”
Vatican II, “Ad Gentes”, 2).
“The household of God”: in the original Greek the definite article does
not appear, thereby emphasizing the family character of the Church. St
Paul frequently described the Church as God’s family: “you are fellow
citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph
2:19). The expression “household of God” conveys the idea of family
and also the idea of the cohesion of Christians as parts of a holy
building: the children of God, convoked by the will of God, form the
Church, a home and a temple, where God dwells in a fuller way than
he did in the ancient temple of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 8:12-64).
This house or household of God is made up of all the believers; they
are living stones, as it were (1 Pet 2:5); its foundations are the
Apostles (1 Cor 3:11), and Christ himself is its cornerstone
(Mt 21:42); those who hold office in it are not domineering overlords
but conscientious stewards, who should rule with the same dedication
as a father does in his own household (1 Tim 3:4-5, 12).
“Pillar and bulwark of the truth”: those aspects of the building would
have been very meaningful to Christians familiar with the great pillars
of the temple of Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 7:15-52) or the columns of the
huge temple at Ephesus dedicated to the goddess Artemis. They very
graphically convey the idea of the Church’s solidity and permanence in
the role of safeguarding and transmitting the truth, for “the deposit
of revelation [...] must be religiously guarded and courageously
expounded” (”Lumen Gentium”, 25).
“The truth” which the Apostle mentions here is the Revelation God has
communicated to men. It is interesting to note that there are three
closely connected expressions in this chapter: deacons are exhorted
to hold “the mystery of faith” (v. 9); the Church is “the pillar and
bulwark of the truth” (v. 15); and then “the mystery of our religion”
is extolled (v. 16). These are three ways of looking at the Church’s
reason-of-being—Jesus Christ. For our Lord, who is the fullness of
Revelation (cf. Heb 1:2), is the center of our faith: he alone is the
supreme Truth (cf. In 14:6); and because he is the fullest expression
of God’s love for men (making them children of God), he is “the
mystery of our religion” (cf. “Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia”, 19).
16. The “pietatis mysterium”, the mystery of (our) religion, as opposed
to the “mystery of lawlessness” (2:Thess 2:7) which includes the devil
and his activity, refers first and foremost to Christ and his work of
redemption and reconciliation. By describing it as the mystery of
“piety”, the virtue which characterizes parent/children relations, it
includes the idea of God’s paternal love for men, for it is through
Christ that men become children of God.
“It is profoundly significant”, John Paul II comments, “that when Paul
presents this “mysterium pietatis” he simply transcribes, without
making a grammatical link with what he has just written, three lines
of a Christological hymn which—in the opinion of authoritative
scholars—was used in the Greek-speaking Christian communities”
(”Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia”, 20). The introduction itself (”we
confess”: by the confession of all), the rhythmic style, the fact that
no articles are used in the original Greek, and even the vocabulary
— all point to these verses having been taken from an early liturgical
hymn (cf. 1 Cor 14:26; Eph 5:19). It may even have been a kind of
counter to the idolatrous chants of pagan Ephesians: they used to
shout “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:34); St Paul
exclaims, “Great is the mystery of our religion.”
The order of ideas in this confession of faith is typical of the
christological hymns in the New Testament (cf. Phil 2:6-11; Col
1:15-20; Heb 1:3), and probably reflects the oral preaching of the
Apostles which took in the existence of the Word from all eternity,
his incarnation and life on earth; his message of salvation for the
whole world; his passion, death, resurrection and ascension into
heaven. Each of the three parts of this short creed stresses the
paradox of the mystery by using phrases involving contrasts (Semites
were very fond of this device). The first sentence, professing belief in
the Incarnation, uses a very early form of words—”manifested in the
flesh” (cf. 1 Jn 4:2; 2 In 7). Pope John Paul II comments as follows:
“he was made manifest in the reality of human flesh and was
constituted by the Holy Spirit as the Just One who offers himself
for the unjust” (”Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia”, 20).
The second phrase describes how Christ is manifested: the angels
have direct sight of him, men came to know him through preaching.
Christ is manifested to all, for just as he is seen by the angels (that
part of creation nearest to God), so is he revealed to the Gentiles
(whom the Jews regarded as most distanced from God): “he appeared
to the angels, having been made greater than them, and he was
preached to the nations, as the bearer of salvation” (”ibid.”).
The last words profess faith in the glorification of Christ at the
extremes of creation—earth and heaven. On earth he is glorified
because faith in him implies recognizing him as God; and he is
glorified in heaven because the Ascension (which in Pauline teaching
marks the definitive victory of Christ—cf. Phil 2:19-2 and note) is the
definitive glorious revelation of his Person: “he was believed in, in the
world, as the one sent by the Father, and by the same Father he was
assumed into heaven as Lord” (”ibid.”).
And so the “mysterium pietatis” involves the reconciliation—union of
man with God in Christ: he takes our flesh without ceasing to be God;
the nations of the earth will recognize him, as will the angels in heaven,
he dwells in the hearts of men through faith, but his mansion is in
heaven at the Father’s side.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.