Sunday, May 19, 2013
For Pentecost: Ignatius of Laodicea on the Holy Spirit
“Without the Holy Spirit, God is distant, Christ is merely a historical figure, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is just an organization, authority is domination, mission is propaganda, liturgy is only nostalgia, and the work of Christians is slave labor. But with the Holy Spirit, Christ is risen and present, the Gospel is a living force, the Church is a communion in the life of the Trinity, authority is a service that sets the people free, mission is Pentecost, the liturgy is memory and anticipation, and the labor of Christians is divinized.”
-- Ignatius of Laodicea, Bishop, 390 CE
HT: Brian Prior, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, who read it in his sermon at my parish (St. Stephen the Martyr) today
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/05/for-pentecost-ignatius-of-laodicea-on-the-holy-spirit.html
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I wonder if this isn't in fact from the address of Ignatios IV to the WCC Assembly in Uppsala in 1968? A revised version was published in the Ecumenical Review, April 1990. Here's the relevant quote:
"This Pascal Event, which happened once and for all time, how does it become our own today? Through him who was its artisan from the beginning and will always be so: the Holy Spirit. He himself is this New Thing at work in the world. He is the Presence of God-with-us "bearing witness with our spirit" (Rom. 8:16). Without him God is far away. Christ belongs to the past, and the Gospel is a dead letter, the church is merely an organization, authority is domination, mission is propaganda, worship is an evocation, and Christian action is a slave-morality.
But in him, in an indissoluble synergy, the universe is lifted up and groans and travails to bring forth the kingdom, the human being is struggling against "the flesh", the Risen Christ is here, the gospel is a life-giving force, the church means communion with the Trinity, authority is a liberating service, mission is like Pentecost, the liturgy is both a commemoration and an anticipation, and human action becomes more godlike."