«I shall become a Human Being»

Johann Baptist Enderle "Saint Ignatius Leaving Antioch" (1773)

Источник: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

«The glory of God is a living human being».

These beautiful and often quoted words were penned at the end of the second century by St Irenaeus of Lyons, who, in his youth, he had known St Polycarp of Smyrna, who in turn had known the Apostle John.
They are remarkable words indeed.
Yet what do they mean?
Who or what is a “living human being”?

 Going back a few years, to a period with a living memory of Christ and the apostles, St Ignatius of Antioch made a similarly striking statement. While being taken under guard to Rome to be martyred for his faith, he wrote to the Christians in that city, imploring them not to interfere with his coming trials.

While journeying slowly but surely towards a gruesome martyrdom, he nevertheless embraces his fate with joy, exclaiming:

“It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to be king over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for our sake.
I desire him who rose for us.
Birth-pangs are upon me.
Suffer me, my brethren; hinder me not from living, do not wish me to die. …
Suffer me to receive the pure light;
when I shall have arrived there, I shall become a human being (anthrōpos).
Suffer me to follow the example of the passion of my God.”

“Do not wish me to die” … by finding a way to get me out of my coming martyrdom!

“Do not hinder me from living” … by stopping me from being martyred!

Compared to our usual patterns of speech, life and death are here reversed.
His martyrdom is his birth, …
and it will be a birth in which he will become a “human being”
—a human being in the stature of Christ, the “perfect human being”
or the “new human being,” as the martyr refers to “the faithful martyr,
the firstborn of the dead” (Rev 1:5),
“the Pioneer of our salvation” (Heb 2:10).

These are dramatic words and, as we will see, very profound.

Death, here, is a defining moment:
not the end, but the beginning; not disappearance, but revelation.

As St Ignatius also pointed out to the Romans:

“Now that Christ is with the Father, he is more visible than he was before.”

That is, when Christ walked amongst us in the flesh, we never really understood who he was;
now that he has passed through his Passion and is with the Father,
now we finally “see” who he is.

Продолжение: Knowing Christ