Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

212

Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

A Theology of the Christian Year, continued

growing tendency to historicism in the church’s liturgical sense, where the church of the earliest centuries had held the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ closer together in a single mystery whose evangelistic and eschatological import was brought home to the assembled believers by the Holy Spirit. The Empty Cross . The symbol of the empty cross with the rising sun speaks of the resurrection of Jesus. Often, as is the case with this cross, the INRI (Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews) is displayed at the head of the cross, as are the nails. The permanent contribution of the Easter/ Pentecost season to the method and message of the preacher resides in its insistence on the theological inseparability of Christ and the Spirit. The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, brings to remembrance all that Jesus has said (John 14:26), takes the things of Christ and declares them (16:14), vivifies the flesh which even in the case of the Incarnate Word is of no avail on its own (6:63). When Peter preaches under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, it is Christ crucified and risen that he proclaims, and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is promised to bring the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:14ff., 38). It is only by the Holy Spirit that one can confess “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3), and when the Spirit is given to believers, it is to transform them into the likeness of their Lord (2 Cor. 3:18, cf. Gal. 5:5-6, 13-25). The Spirit enables Christ’s fellow-heirs to call God “Abba” (Rom. 8:14ff.; Gal. 4:6). It is through Christ that we have heard the gospel, become believers, and been sealed with the Holy Spirit as the pledge of our inheritance unto a day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14, 4:30). “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). What is thematically celebrated in “the Great Fifty Days” governs the message and method of all faithful preaching. Beginning locally before the year 1000, the Western church has kept the first Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday. This more “dogmatic” feast can serve at least two purposes: it is a reminder that the work of our salvation “the self-giving incarnation and passion of the Son, his exaltation and continuing intercession, and the mission of the Spirit” is grounded in the eternal mystery of