The French Dominican, Fr. Yves Congar, would claim that throughout Christian tradition two essential ‘principles’ show themselves over and over again.They are the principle of purity and the principle of plentitude, both of which show themselves so powerfully in today’s reading from Acts (20:28-38).
As Paul prepares to depart the area of Ephesus, he calls together all the leaders of the nascent community.He instructs them:“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers…So be vigilant and remember that for three years, night and day, I unceasingly admonished each of you with tears” (vv.28, 31).Here we see that for three years St. Paul carefully taught the disciples of Christ in the ways of the Lord.Now, after him, the leaders of the community must continue this work of teaching and protecting the seeds of faith within the People of God.Within this is seen that ‘principle of purity’ that exists, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the Church.That principle by with the teachings and ways of our Lord Jesus Christ are honored, guarded, and lived.This principle highlights the treasure, the beauty, the preciousness of the faith we have received and instills deeply within the heart of the Church the desire to ‘add nothing to it and subtract nothing from it.’It is, in other words, the Holy Spirit speaking always to the Church to hold fast to Jesus and let nothing come between us and the purity of the simple truth proclaimed and enacted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord.
Still, there is a second principle, that of plentitude, inherent in gospel living.It is more subtly present in this reading—though it dominates in other ways the whole book of Acts.Why all the tears of the Christians and admonishments from Paul in this reading?They are there because Paul is, after three years, leaving them in order to proclaim the gospel elsewhere.In the simple phrase, “Then they escorted him to the ship” (v. 38), is found this principle of plentitude.The gospel simply must always move out further and penetrate the world more deeply.This principle of plentitude exists in the heart of the Church from which the Holy Spirit ever pushes the disciples of Jesus to move forward with the gospel.It is the reality in the Church that proclaims to us that the gospel of Jesus must be applied to the entirety of our personal lives and is directed at the whole of the world.The gospel of Jesus is a ‘plentitude’, it contains the fullness of all the human heart longs for and everything the world needs to know its fulfillment. The Church can never say, nor the individual Christian, ‘there now, we have done enough with that.’ The gospel simply demands always being allowed to move toward its plentitude, its fullness in all aspects of life and the world.
How do I know that the Living Lord Jesus is living indeed in me?He is living in me because there is within these two movements of the Spirit that always act to keep me tenaciously close to Jesus, ever attentive to his word, his voice in my life and that pushes me, from within, to apply his teaching to every aspect of my life and to always share Jesus with the people around me.The Spirit will always move the Christian and the Church to remain pure in the gospel, which is to say in its eagerness to cling to Jesus.The Spirit, too, will always move the Christian and the Church to a plentitude of faith, which is to say an insistence on seeing all things in the light of Jesus and in bringing Jesus to all things.
I wonder, has our Easter journey made us more conscious of the precious gift that it is to be called a disciple of Jesus (the purity principle)?Has it made us, also, more anxiously concerned about bringing the life with Jesus into all aspects of our lives (the plentitude principle)?