“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and
the ark of his testament was seen in his temple: and there were lightnings and
voices and thunderings and earthquakes and great hail. And there appeared a
great sign in the heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she being with child cried
out, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.” (Apoc. 11:19-12:1)
This week[1] in our Catholic parish this literary icon of the Church as the Great Sign in Apocalypse 12 was being discussed by many in the light of many diverse ordinary Christians believing that just such an alignment in the constellation of Virgo will appear over Jerusalem on September 23 2017 and its meaning in regards to the future of the Church.[2] Many Protestants are seeing it as a sign connected with the rapture of the Church, many Catholics are seeing its connection with Fatima where Virgin Miriam appeared clothed with the Sun in 1917 and its 100th Anniversary this year. Is this a new form of theological ecclesial ecumenism among the ordinary believers as both devout Protestants and Catholics are associating this Great Sign in the Heavens (Sky) with the Church, Israel and the Virgin Miriam and a time of persecution or chastisement follow by a new springtime or era of peace for the Church and the world? No doubt the theological and clerical elites[3] will ignore such forms of ecclesial ecumenism among the little ones of their flocks much in the way the Pharisees and Sadducees did in Second Temple times until the Temple and religious structures they had built fell down round their ears. The scholarly elites, while bringing much of value, often write much about diversity but often limit that diversity to that which fits their own paradigm of understanding.[4]
Identifying distinct ecclesiological models of
the New or Second Testament period is a subject fraught with assumptions and
speculations. Many theologians have
adopted assumptions about the early Church that are based more on their own (or
their favourite scholar’s) self-created literary theories than on any
scientific or historical evidence.
They speak of imaginary Markan, Lukan, Johannine, Pauline, Petrine etc communities
for which there is no archaeological, historical or philological evidence.
However the Second Testament is full of what Komtov and Lepakhin call literary
or verbal icons of the Church.
These Second Testament icons of the Church draw on the First Testament and
Jewish tradition and literature. It would perhaps be better to refer to Markan,
Lukan etc. icons of the Church rather than Markan, Lukan etc. communities. The Church is a mystery that in its inner
essence can only truly be spoken about and encountered fully in a poetic and
iconic manner using analogical, metaphorical and the symbolic language of
imagery.
In this short essay I will seek to touch on a few elements of the diverse
iconologies of the Church which are in reality united like an onion to its
rings or layers. Where some scholars see contradictions and oppositions
others encounter diverse iconic layers that serve an ecclesiological unity
that sheds light on the mystery that is the Church (Messianic Edah or Kehilla).
The Second Testament period of the Church dates
from its ecclesial beginnings in the Cenacle until the destruction of the
Jewish Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. This Church was a Jewish centred messianic community which also began to have
thriving assemblies made up of Gentile believers. It also drew its Jewish
members from different strands within Second Temple Judaism that brought their
own ideas and insights into the Second Testament Church.
The Hillel and Essene traditions of Pharisaic Judaism were the most influential on the early Church but also the priestly or Temple rituals were also important to many Jews coming into the New Covenant Church especially those from the Sadducee tradition.[17] The Judaisers most likely coming from the Shammai school of the Pharisees into the Messianic community also played a role in the early Church.[18] It would seem that there is some evidence that the Hillel strand of the Jewish Church (centred in Jerusalem headed by a Messianic Davidic Nasi or Abbot) and the Essene strand (centred in Edessa headed by a charismatic prophet or Tzadik) may have developed in separate paths after 70 AD.[19] [20]There were also a strong input of the Hellenist Jews to the early Church.[21] The later Church of the Uncircumcision or Gentiles after 70 AD starting developing in different directions with a more monarchical rule by bishops but still with its roots in Jewish thought and practice.[22] In the 5th century most of the remnants of the Jewish Church assimilated either into the Gentile Church or the Jewish Synagogue where they secretly maintained their Jewish Christian traditions and gradually some of these traditions and ideas were integrated into the Church or Synagogue.[23]
This rich diversity of Jewish thought would act as a Jewish leaven as Yeshua revealed in his parable of the Bread or Challah Woman in Matthew 13:33. This parable is also an ecclesiological icon of the Church (the woman Ecclesia or Kneset Yisrael) which is both eschatological and Eucharistic. The Church is the leaven that is to grow into the fullness of the Kingdom of God throughout time and history. This alludes to Paul’s ecclesial and Eucharistic icon of the Church as the one loaf (challah) we all share (1 Cor. 10:17) and Luke’s iconic story of the breaking of the bread by the risen Messiah on the way to Emmaus.[24] Jewish tradition links the patient waiting for the challah dough to rise with the nurturing of a child in the maternal womb.[25] In 2013 Pope Francis linked the resurrection encounter of the Emmaus way experience with the concept of the maternal womb of mercy in his discussion of a new Biblical ecclesiological paradigm.[26] Thus the three strands or braids of the Messianic challah are the Eucharistic (sacrificial and liturgical), Marian (incarnational and mystical) and Petrine (eschatological and doctrinal) strands of the developing Messianic community which is symbolised by the Bread Woman who is Mother of the Church as the woman in labour and the Woman of Israel (Apoc.12).[27] [28] [29]
There are many other diverse but interconnected
icons of the Church (Ecclesia or Kehilla) found in the Second Testament Scriptures
which all draw on the First Testament and Jewish tradition. It is difficult to
discuss one without linking them to other iconic verses and passages of
Scripture. Some of these literary icons found in the Second Testament are Body
of the Messiah,
the Vineyard,
the Temple of God,
the Rock,
the Sign of Jonah,
the Yesod,
the Chuppah,
the Betrothed Virgin,
Manna eater,
the Light Bearer,
Seed of the Kingdom,
Follower of the Halakah (Way),
a Holy City,
the Olive Tree,
the Great Sign
and many others. All of these Second or New Testament icons of the Church have
a rich heritage in the First Testament Scriptures and People.
The later models of the Church would draw on
these ecclesial Jewish icons and use them for their own understanding of the
nature and mission of the Church. However like in the parable of the seeds some
of these understandings of the Church would bear good fruit and others not,
some would flourish for a season and then wither away.
Avery lists six ecclesiological models of the Church as
Institution, Mystical Communion, Sacrament, Herald, Servant and Community of
Disciples.
All of these models for Church build on some of the Scriptural ecclesiological
literary icons mentioned above. They are adapted to suit the period of history
and the development of doctrine since the time of the Second Testament period.
The Western and Eastern rite Churches have developed these icons and insights
in different ways. This short essay is not able to discuss this in any detail.
One of the icons of the Church which has had
prominence in the Western Church due especially to St Augustine is the icon of
the Church as Holy City or City of God.
This idea has also a Sophiological and Marian dimension and understanding of
the Church which is also found in Eastern rite Christianity especially in
Russian Orthodoxy.
This perceives the Church as both Wisdom and Mother which when understood in a
mystical and spiritual sense bears good fruit in a richness of diversity in
unity but mixed with politics and power can become totalitarian, oppressive,
conformist, uniform, utilitarian and monolithic (rather than universal). The
visible man-made structures of the Church can then appear more like Lilith or
Dame Folly rather than the maternal Lady of Wisdom of which the humble Virgin Miriam
or the Repentant Miriam of Magdala is
the icon or model.
The
pagan Roman governmental model adapted to the Church organisation was one post
Biblical model used by the Churches of the Gentiles in both East and West. This model is the one Avery calls
Institutional. This model may have served the Church well in
the past in some sense, but is it time to revisit the earlier Jewish and
scriptural models of Church governance without compromising the infallible
teachings of faith and morals? Has the Church used the model of the Church as
the rock and pillar and foundation of the truth through the ages in the true
spirit of the Gospel or have we used it to enforce our truth rather than
proclaim and offer it? During the time of the Church of the Gentiles
have we not truly discerned what is truly of the Spirit of the Messiah rather
than the spirit of the world? Has the Church exercised power and authority like
Gentile Lords?
The Gaelic pastoral structure model of the Irish Church was based more directly on the Jewish model of the Second Testament Church with the Abbot or Messianic Nasi (whether lay or clerical) as head of the institutional pastoral side of the Christian communities.[53] The Bishops were an important part of these monastic based communities but under the authority of the Abbot.[54] It wasn’t until the 12th century that Ireland embraced a more diocesan system.[55] An image of the Church drawn from the Song of Songs is the Nut Garden.[56] Can we break the hard shells of power and rigidity, that we have clothed our teachings in, to get to the delicious kernel of truth that the first Pope called Peter as the Son and Sign of Jonah was not a Roman Lord but a Jewish fisherman (with all the human weaknesses and failings) who was persecuted with his flock by the Gentile Lords of Rome who exercised their power over the little ones?[57]
The Church of the Gentiles has often confused
the Church which is the seed or leaven of the Kingdom with the Kingdom of God
(in Matthew called the Kingdom of Heaven) itself.
This has in certain places and times led to an overemphasis on the
institutional and power aspects of the Church rather than the humble messianic
servant of the people of God which is the mystical Body of the Messiah.
The important place of the Holy Spirit and communion in the Divine Life of the
Holy Trinity in animating and breathing life into the Church and its structures
and institutions has in the past been neglected by the scholars of the Latin
Church.
The mystical dimension in both Christianity
and Judaism has often been swamped by a legalistic and rigid emphasis on rules
and laws. Religious rules and laws are meant to be signposts to guide us on the
spiritual and mystical journey into encounter with the Divine. When Torah is
interpreted with the spirit and not the letter then it is perfect and converts
or restores the soul.
One of the Second Testament icons of the Church
is the Chuppah or bridal tent or chamber in which the marriage is consummated.
Yeshua refers to his disciples as children of the Chuppah and to himself as the
Chatan (bridegroom)
which alludes to the Song of Songs and Psalm 19. Psalm 19 also mystically and
conceptually draws on Genesis 1.
This bridegroom in Psalm 19
is identified as the Sun and the bridal tent as the tent or chamber of the sun
and linked by the early Jewish –Christians with the Messiah mentioned in
Malachi as the Sun of righteousness who arises with healing in his wings (the
tent flaps).
Jewish tradition as taught by Breslov Hasidism refer to these “wings
of the sun” as the sun garments or coverings (bridal garments of the Chatan)
which allows God’s glory and Will to be perceived by his creatures. The “wings
of the sun” that brings healing is the teachings of the True Tzaddik (righteous
one). This True Tzaddik thus fashions vessels that allow us to encounter God’s
glory (kavod) and presence (shekhinah) in our lives. Thus
the Chuppah alludes to the Sun Temple (tent or tabernacle) where the Sun
Bridegroom consummates his union with his Bride (who is symbolised by the Moon)
at the midnight hour (see
the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins). At
the moment of consummation the Moon Bride eclipses her Lover the Sun Bridegroom.
This alludes to the darkness and hiddenness of mystery and sacrament.
This
mystical, incarnational and sacramental understanding of the Church has had a
revival today in the teachings of Pope John Paul II on the “theology of the
Body”. Thus the icon of the Church as Chuppah is closely linked to the icons of
the Church as Body of the Messiah and Temple and Tabernacle of the Lord as well
as the Bride of Messiah and Betrothed Virgin.
In this brief essay I
have sought to touch on some of the mystery of the Church from an iconic
ecclesiological perspective drawing in particular on the Jewish roots of the
Church interpreted through a paradigm of diversity in unity. While not always
agreeing with the theological perspectives of Raymond Brown and Richard
McBrien, I concur with them in their understanding that the numerous and
diverse Second Testament iconologies of the Church are one of continuity and
development within the framework of diversity with unity rather than that of
contradictory and competing ecclesiologies as proposed by Kaseman and others.
“The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’…”.
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