LIFE IN CHRIST: chap. 2, part 2

Lent with Fr Harton

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CHAPTER 2: MEMBERS OF CHRIST (part 2)

As on the question of sonship S. John and S. Paul gave us two complementary conceptions of “adoption” and “new birth,” through which we can at least begin to grasp the heavenly truth, so on this question do they give us two symbols which together form a whole, and again S. John gives us the teaching of our Lord. The Johannine and Pauline symbols constantly overlap and we shall pass from one to the other, but we may legitimately mix symbols, or at any rate hold them in juxtaposition, though we may not do the like with metaphors, for a symbol is more than a metaphor. A metaphor is illustrative merely, and is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable; a symbol is a description of a spiritual fact in terms of a material one, an epistemological necessity, and, since a spiritual truth transcends material, two or more symbols are often necessary to enable us to grasp it, and even then there is something over. Let no one be alarmed, therefore, if we find it necessary to pass from the symbol of the vine to that of the body and back again with a seeming indifference.