Читать книгу Called to Community - Thomas Merton - Страница 16

8

A Visible Reality

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A truth, a doctrine, or a religion needs no space for itself. They are disembodied entities. They are heard, learned, and apprehended, and that is all. But the incarnate Son of God needs not only ears or hearts, but living people who will follow him. That is why he called his disciples into a literal, bodily following, and thus made his fellowship with them a visible reality. That fellowship was founded and sustained by Jesus Christ, the incarnate Lord himself. It was the Word made flesh which had called them and created their bodily fellowship with him. Having been called, they could no longer remain in obscurity, for they were the light that must shine, the city set on the hill, which must be seen.

Their fellowship with him was visibly overshadowed by the cross and passion of Jesus Christ. In order that they might enjoy that fellowship with him, the disciples must leave everything else behind and submit to suffering and ­persecution. Yet even in the midst of their persecutions they receive back all they had lost in visible form – brothers, sisters, fields, and houses in his fellowship, the church consisting of Christ’s followers manifest to the whole world as a visible community. Here were bodies that acted, worked, and suffered in fellowship with Jesus. . . .

The fellowship between Jesus and his disciples covered every aspect of their daily life. Within the fellowship of Christ’s disciples the life of each individual was part of the life of the brotherhood. This common life bears living testimony to the concrete humanity of the Son of God. The bodily presence of God demands that for him and with him we should stake our own lives in our daily existence. With all the concreteness of our bodily existence, we belong to him who for our sake took upon himself the human body. In the Christian life the individual disciple and the body of Jesus belong inseparably together.

All this is confirmed in the earliest record of the life of the church in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37). “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” “They that believed were of one heart and soul and . . . had all things in common.” It is instructive to note that fellowship is mentioned between Word and Sacrament. This is no accident, for fellowship always springs from the Word and finds its goal and completion in the Lord’s Supper. The whole common life of the Christian fellowship oscillates between Word and Sacrament, it begins and ends in worship. It looks forward in expectation to the final banquet in the kingdom of God.

When a community has such a source and goal it is a perfect communion of fellowship, in which even material goods fall into their appointed place. In freedom, joy, and the power of the Holy Spirit a pattern of common life is produced where “neither was there among them any that lacked,” where “distribution was made unto each according as anyone had need,” where “not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own.” In the everyday quality of these events we see a perfect picture of that evangelical liberty where there is no need of compulsion. They were indeed “of one heart and soul.” . . .

The first disciples learned the truth of the saying that where their Lord is, there they must also be, and where they are, there also will their Lord be until the world comes to an end. Everything the disciple does is part of the common life of the church of which he is a member. That is why the law, which governs the life of the body of Christ, is that where one member is, there the whole body is also. There is no department of life in which the member may withdraw from the body nor should he desire so to withdraw.

Wherever we are, whatever we do, everything happens “in the body,” in the church, “in Christ.” The Christian is strong or weak “in Christ” (Phil. 4:13; 2 Cor. 13:4), he works and rejoices “in the Lord” (Rom. 16:9, 12; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 4:4), he speaks and admonishes “in Christ” (2 Cor. 2:17; Phil. 2:1), he shows hospitality “in Christ” (Rom. 16:2), he marries “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:39), he is in prison “in the Lord” (Phil. 1:13, 23), he is a slave “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:22). Among Christians the whole range of human relationships is embraced by Christ and the church. . . . When people are baptized into the body of Christ not only is their personal status as regards salvation changed, but so are the relationships of daily life.

The slave Onesimus had run away from his Christian master, Philemon, after grievously wronging him. Now Onesimus has been baptized, and Saint Paul writes to ask Philemon to receive him back again forever, “no longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved . . . both in the flesh and in the Lord” (Philem. 8–21). “In the flesh” a brother, says Paul with emphasis, thus warning Philemon against those misunderstandings to which all “privileged” Christians are liable. Such Christians are prepared to tolerate the society of Christians of lower social standing in church, but outside they give them the cold shoulder.

Instead, Philemon must welcome Onesimus as a brother, nay, as if he were Paul himself, and since Onesimus is his brother, Philemon must not seek repayment for the damage he suffered at his hands. Paul asks Philemon to do this voluntarily, though if necessary he would not shrink from ordering him to do it outright, and says he knows that Philemon will exceed in kindness beyond what is asked of him. Onesimus is a brother in the flesh because he has been baptized. Whether he stays on as a slave or not, the whole relationship between master and slave has been radically changed.

And how had this come to pass? Master and slave are now both members of the body of Christ. Their common life is now a tiny cell in the body of Christ, the church. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male nor female: for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:27–28 asv; cf. Col. 3:11). In the church, people look upon one another no longer as freemen or slaves, as men or women, but as members of Christ’s body. To be sure, this does not mean that the slave is no longer a slave nor the man a man. But it does mean that in the church no one has to be considered in his special capacity, whether he be Jew or Greek, freeman or bondservant. Any such respect of persons must be excluded at all costs. . . . Wherever Christians live together, conversing and dealing with one another, there is the church, there they are in Christ. This is what transforms the whole character of their fellowship. The wife obeys her husband “in the Lord”; by serving his master the slave serves God, and the master knows that he too has a Lord in heaven (Col. 3:18–4:1), but they are all brethren “in the flesh and in the Lord.”

This is how the church invades the life of the world and conquers territory for Christ. For whatever is “in Christ” has ceased to be subject to the world of sin and the law. No law of the world can interfere with this fellowship. The realm of Christian love is subject to Christ, not to the world. The church can never tolerate any limits set to the love and service of the brethren. For where the brother is, there is the body of Christ, and there is his church. And there we must also be. ◆