Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part VI

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]

“Tu in principio, Domine, terram fundasti” (Heb 1:10)

            In the Epistle to the Hebrews St. Paul speaks splendidly about Christ, about Him who came to us “in these last days” and who “effected man’s purgation from sin.” He, the Word made flesh, is “the brightness of His [God’s] glory and the image of His Substance” and He upholds “all things by the word of His power (1:1-3). The Apostle tells us that God said many stupendous things to Christ (cfr. v.5), among which there is this expression which is most pertinent to our present discussion: “ ‘Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth’” (v.10; Ps 101:26). What we have here is God Himself calling Christ “the beginning” [Latin: in principio; Greek: σὺ κατ’ ἀρχάς].

The Scripture, therefore, repeatedly uses the expression in the beginning in reference to Christ and creation. When God, in His free love, willed to created, He willed the Christ – the Incarnate Word. His primary intention in creating was the Incarnation. Christ is the Beginning; Christ is the first instant of the created universe.[1] And when God set His plan in motion He did so always with Christ in mind as the Beginning of all creation.

We do well do explain here that one can call Christ “the Beginning” of creation in two ways: first, as the temporal beginning (before Him there was no time); second, as the principal or fontal origin of all things (“without Him nothing was made that has been made” Jn 1:3).

  The Beginning without a beginning:

– The first “moment” of creation begins when God wills to create. And behold Christ was always the first creature willed by God, “the Firstborn of every creature,” “the beginning… that in all things He may have the first place” (Col 1:15-18); He was always the first to be predestined – “foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world” (1 Pt 1:20) and in whom all of the elect have been predestined (cfr. Eph 1:3ff). As we shall see later on, Christ says: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made any thing from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made…” (Prov 8:22-23; cfr. Eccl 1:4). Before Christ there was no time, there were no succession of moments; there was only the eternal God. But when God created, Christ was in His mind as the Beginning.

The Beginning in the sense of the Principal or Fountain of all creation[2]

– Exemplary cause because everything was created “unto Him,” with Him in mind as the sublime Model of all of creation, as that perfect creature in so far as He was united substantially to the Divinity in the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who assumed flesh and is thus the One who will recapitulate all things in Himself (cfr. Col 1:20).

– Efficient cause because by the will of God all creatures have been created through Him (cfr. Heb 1:2; Col 1:15,17) and, as the Evangelist says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing that has been made” (Jn 1:3).

– Final cause because we exist for Christ – and not Him for us – as the Apostle states: “All are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:23); and in the same Epistle: “for us there is only… one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him” (1 Cor 8:6). Even if God alone is our final cause, the end for which we exist, we cannot obtain this end except through the mediation of the God-Man who is, consequently, our secondary – but necessary – final cause according to the divine decree: “nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27) because one alone is the “Mediator between God and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus” (1 Tm 2:5). Moreover, Jesus Himself teaches us: I alone am “the way… No one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn 14:6).

At any rate, the decree of the Incarnation and of Christ’s mediation was immutable from the outset. Therefore, the heavens and the earth shall pass away; Christ, on the other hand, will remain “the same” (Heb 1:12); “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today, yes, and forever” (Heb 13:8). Yesterday… because He is that true God and true Man which was the Beginning of God’s creative plan, before the creation of the world and before the predestination of the elect in Him. Today… because He came in these last times, in these days, “today,” in the virginal womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the fulfillment and revelation of the mystery of God hidden in ages past but now revealed in Christ. Forever… because He is the eternal Priest who lives forever to make intercession “before the face of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24) and who is always with His Church “even unto the consummation of the world” (Mt 28:20).

Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part V

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]

The Incarnate Word “ab initio” (1 Jn 1:1-3)

Another useful passage for our discussion, brilliant as it is brief, comes from the first Epistle of St. John. In the “Prologue,” we could say, of his first Epistle there is a strong and clear confirmation of what we have been saying. Here are his words:

“I write of what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and our hands have handled: of the Word of Life. And the Life was made known and we have seen, and now testify and announce to you, the Life Eternal which was with the Father and has appeared to us. What we have seen and have heard we announce to you, in order that you also may have fellowship with us, and that our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

Note well his message: The Evangelist is speaking of the Word of Life who was “from the beginning” [Latin: ab initio; Greek: ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς] and “was with the Father” [apud Patrem]. These expressions are in strict parallel with the Prologue of his Gospel. Yet here it is self-evident that the Word of which he is speaking, that Word which was from the beginning and was before the Father, is Incarnate! This Word has been “heard” with the ears, “seen” with the eyes, and “handled/touched” with the hands. Obviously he is not speaking of the Word in Himself in so far as He is God, as considered apart from the Incarnation in His Divinity. No, he is clearly speaking to us of the Word which “has appeared” and is visible, the Word Incarnate, namely Jesus Christ. Therefore, if John speaks to us of Christ, the Son of man, as the Word “from the beginning” and as “with/before the Father” in his first Epistle, this means that this should be the authentic interpretation of the Prologue of his Gospel where he speaks to us precisely of the Word “in the beginning” who was “with God” [apud Deum].

To be continued…

Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part IV

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]

“Principium, qui et loquor vobis!” (Jn 8:25)

The Evangelist recounts that Jesus, after having forgiven the woman caught in adultery, gave witness to Himself. He even says to them: “if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sin” (Jn 8:24 – the Latin is stronger: si enim non credideritis quia ego sum moriemini in peccato vestro – literally, if you do not believe that I AM you will die in your sin). At this the Pharisees counter by asking: “Who art Thou?” And He responds to them: [I AM…] “The beginning, who also speak unto you” (This is the translation of the Douay-Rheims Bible which most accurately reflects the Greek:  τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅ τι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν  and Latin: Principium, qui et loquor vobis). His response is a profound and mysterious revelation of Himself which has no equal.

Augustine, when He comments on this, says: “They respond… ‘Who art Thou?’ By saying to us: ‘if you do not believe that I AM,’ you have not added who you are. You have to tell us who You are if you want us to believe… ‘I AM,’ He says, ‘The Beginning, who also speak unto you.’ Believe that I am the Beginning, if you do not want to die in your sins.”[1] The Seraphic Doctor states: “Before all else He is the Creator, hence Jesus calls Himself: the Beginning, that is, I am the creative Principal/Beginning; from Him all things have received their existence, as is said in the first Chapter [of John’s Gospel]: ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ from which follows: ‘All things were made through Him’ (1:1,3).”[2]

Therefore, it is Jesus Himself who maintains that He is the creative Beginning/Principal [Latin: Principium – Greek: tèn archèn – τὴν ἀρχὴν]. With this self revelation Christ has consigned to us the key to grasping the most authentic and profound meaning of the Prologue: I, the Word made flesh who am speaking with you, am the Beginning in which everything was created.

Augustine confirms this: “The world was created before man, and therefore man is part of the world. But Christ existed before and the world came after Him. Christ was before the world, but before Christ nothing existed because ‘in the beginning was the Word’; and ‘All things were made through Him’ (Jn 1:1,3).”[3]

For the Jews Jesus was demanding a great act of faith because He was not speaking to them abstractly, or in a metaphysical mode, but rather He was linking Himself concretely with the first words of the Hebrew Scriptures which begins with: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ – “In the beginning God created” (Gen 1:1). That Jesus was referring to the first words of Genesis can also be solidly established from other Gospel passages where, for example, He says: “You search the Scriptures, because in them you think that you have life everlasting. And it is they that bear witness to Me… For if you believed Moses you would believe in Me also, for he wrote of Me” (Jn 5:39,46). And along the road to Emmaus St. Luke recounts: “And beginning then with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things referring to Himself” (Lk 24:27).

The words of Messiah – the Christ – narrated in Psalm 39 are worthy of our reflection. The Messiah says: “In capite libri scriptum est di Me,” that is, “In the head of the book it is written of Me” (v.8). The “head of the book” means the beginning of the Torah or Pentateuch where we read, “In the beginning God created.” From this Psalm and its interpretation in the Scripture itself (cfr. Heb 1:5-10),[4] Christ tells us that the first lines of Genesis spoke of Him.[5]

Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part III

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]

Christ as the Beginning: A doctrinal premise

Before exposing that Christ is the Beginning, we do well to establish a few things so as not to stray from true doctrine.

First and foremost, even if we might beg to differ with the first interpretation of the Prologue reported above whereby the Father is the Beginning, nonetheless, all of the doctrine presented by our Doctors – Cyril, Augustine and Bonaventure – in their commentaries on John must be accepted; namely, that the Word in Himself is eternal, uncreated and divine; that He is in the Father by virtue of the same divine nature and that He is at the same time distinct from the Father in His Person.

Moreover, when we say that Christ is the Beginning we absolutely do not mean that the Word in Himself was created. Nor does this mean that the Word had a human nature before the Incarnation or even before the creation of the world. No, what is meant is that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – willed the Incarnation of the Son first, that is, predestined the Sacred Humanity of Christ to the hypostatic union “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4) and predestined Him as the “firstborn of every creature” and “before all creatures” (Col 1:15,17) in His intention to create. In the divine design Christ was willed as the “Beginning of the creation of God” (Apoc 3:14) and then God willed all of the rest of creation in Christ, through Christ and unto Christ. After this Beginning, that is, after having willed the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Virgin Mary, there begins the execution of God’s design: the creation of the world and, in the end, the full realization of His creative design, the Incarnation itself where God recapitulates or sums up all things under the headship of Christ.

In order to better understand the distinction between intention and execution in the creative plan of God,[1] a teaching very dear to the Subtle Doctor,[2] let us examine the illuminating teaching of Augustine who distinguishes the realization of a project (execution) from the idea to be realized (intention): “If, for example, you must build an edifice, if you must to realize something which is grand, first you conceive the idea in your mind. The idea is already born… Others admire your project and await its wonderful construction; they remain full of admiration before that which they see and love that which they still cannot see: who, in fact, can see an idea? If, therefore, the idea of a man before its grandiose realization can be praised, do you want to measure the greatness of God’s idea which is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the Word of God?”[3] Even if Augustine does not arrive at the idea of God being the Word Incarnate in the beginning, his thought gives us the possibility of distinguishing God’s idea in creating the world from its realization. It is a philosophical principle which goes back to Aristotle: “That which is first in the intention is last in the execution.”[4] Yet the project is the same whether in the intention or the execution.

What this means is that in the mind of God Christ, His creative Masterpiece,[5] existed before as the idea, as the intention, and then in time this was accomplished when the Word became flesh; first there was the predestination of Christ to glory, then the creation of all things in view of Him and through Him which lead to the full realization of that predestination, namely the Incarnation.[6]

I suppose this could be a cause of confusion to think that Christ, “the Beginning,” comes on the scene not only after the temporal beginning of creation, but even towards the end. And yet that is the fact. St. Peter explains: “Foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, He has been manifested in the last times for your sakes” (1 Pt 1:20). Before His manifestation He was always present in the mind of God as the idea, as created Wisdom, as the intention, as the first predestined, the firstborn, the first one willed. Fr. Ruggero Rosini writes on this point: “For us it is difficult to understand how a future action could influence a present action. For God such a difficulty does not exist: for Him everything is in the present. It was not a difficulty for Him, in fact, to preserve Mary from original sin in view of the future merits of Christ’s death. We must believe, therefore, that for Him there is no difficulty in creating ‘everything by means of Christ’ from the beginning of time.”[7]

To facilitate an understanding of this (and in order not to get lost in the labyrinth of profound thoughts which will be presented), it would be a good idea to utilize this this diagram as a type of ‘roadmap’ [I’ll continue to put it at the end of each post]:

To be continued…

Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part II

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean, F.I.

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]

In the beginning God created

It is not by chance that John wishes to begin his Gospel with the same words that begin all of Sacred Scriptures. As a matter of fact, “in the head of the Book” (Ps 39:8) it is written: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1), and so it is that the “alpha” of all of divine revelation is precisely this in the beginning. But John, being the last writer of the Bible, give the “omega” of revelation, namely, “In the beginning was the Word…” (Jn 1:1). “The Alpha and the Omega” of all of God’s revelation, then, is none other than in the beginning God created and in the beginning was the Word. While everyone immediately recognizes John’s explicit reference to Genesis, not everyone goes on to interpret in the same way the in the beginning of these two passages.

We have seen how Cyril, Augustine and Bonaventure in their commentaries on the Prologue interpreted the in the beginning of John’s Gospel as in the Father, in order to say that the Word was eternally and essentially in the Father who is the beginning par excellence. However, when we read the first line of Genesis it is evident that in the beginning cannot be referring to the Father. In fact, if we say “in the Father God created the heavens and the earth” it does not make any sense. This must also hold true for the Prologue of St. John, otherwise it would break the express and tight bond intended by the Evangelist between his Gospel and the narration of the creation of the universe.

The connection is explicit in every fashion because not only does he start with the same words, not only does he speak of “light” and “darkness,” but he even lists seven days. The first day there is the Word who becomes flesh (Jn 1:1-14) and the testimony of John the Baptist (1:6-8,15,19ff.). Then, subtly, the Evangelist says “the next day” (1:29), “the next day” (1:35), “the next day” (1:43), and then “on the third day” (2:1) in order to arrive at the seventh day with the wedding feast at Cana.

Thus we are speaking about a new creation, about water changed into wine, so to speak, where what counts is being “a new creation” (Gal 6:15) and where Jesus proclaims: “Behold, I make all things new” (Apoc 21:5). For us His coming means a “new” creation, whereas for God it is but the full realization of His original design as the Creator who willed, and still wills, that everything be summed up under the headship of Christ (cfr. Col 1:18,20). For us it is water changed into wine, while for God it is the fulfillment of His plan, already foreseen before the ages: He had always willed “the good wine,” but He had conserved it “until now.”

We need to establish, therefore, that, starting with the first line of Genesis, the biblical expression “in the beginning” refers to creation. What follows is that the expression “in the beginning was the Word” does not express the fact that the eternal Word was in the Father, but rather that the Word Incarnate was the Beginning in which all things were created.

It could not be otherwise because the word beginning, bound to the context and meaning found in Genesis – “In the beginning God created” – speaks not only of the fontal origin of being, but also of its temporal beginning. Neither the eternal Father, nor the eternal Word, nor the eternal Spirit – that is the entire eternal Godhead Three-in-One – none of Them can have a beginning, a principio, like creation does. Each Divine Person, being God, is without beginning, ‘startless’ as it were, by very definition and, as we shall see, the Church does not grow weary in professing and teaching that God, by nature – whether the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit – is before the ages, before and outside of time – in a word, eternal. Creation, on the other hand, has a very specific beginning: “In the beginning God created.”

Let us fix our gaze for a moment upon the Church’s solemn teaching upon this point in order to better understand that in the beginning cannot be referring to the Divinity in Itself – neither the Father nor the Word in Himself. Given that before creation there was no such thing as time (the succession of moments), but only the eternal God, it is clear that He is “before every creature.”[1] As a result the Creeds, Councils and Popes of the Church, whenever they speak of God Three and One – whether of the Divine Essence or of the Three Divine Persons (and the Son in a particular way) – never speak of a beginning.[2] To the contrary, they repeat practically ad infinitum that God is without any beginning and before the ages. Here are some examples amongst many which speak specifically of the Divinity of the Son, but can be referred to the Father and the Spirit as well:

–          Pope St. Leo the Great in 449 explains that the divine nature of Christ comes “from the Father before any beginning,”[3] which means that when we speak of the Word in Himself, as God, He is not in the beginning, but before any beginning.

–          Pope Anastasius II in 497 states that the only-begotten Son, “born of the Father according to the Divinity,” is “before all time, without beginning.”[4] He is not in the beginning, therefore, but without beginning.

–          Pope Hormisdas in 521 writes: “The Son was before time.”[5] As such the Word in Himself, as God, is before time, before the beginning, before any age; while the Word made flesh is in time, in the beginning, in these days, while ever remaining the eternal God. This means that if John wished to speak of the Word in Himself in his Prologue and not the Word made flesh, he would have had to write: Before the ages, before all time was the Word. But what he actually wrote was: “In the beginning was the Word.” We will study this more in depth later.

–          The Council of Constantinople in 553 declares in Canon 2: “If anyone does not confess that God the Word has two births, one that is incorporal, outside of time, before the ages from the Father, the other [is the birth] of Him truly in the last days who descended from Heaven and was incarnate of the holy, glorious and always Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and born of her, let him be anathema.”[6] The Church never speaks of the Divinity of Christ in terms of time, while His Sacred Humanity is always described in time.

–          The Council of Toledo VI in 638 explains that the Son comes from the Father “outside of time, before any creature, without beginning, born [generated] and not created.”[7] It is absolutely clear, therefore, that in speaking of the Divinity and the Divine Persons the Church never speaks of time or of a beginning because God is eternal.

St. Cyril explicitly states: “Besides, in speaking of the Only-Begotten it is not possible to think of a beginning in time since He is before all time and exists before the ages… But since the Son is more ancient than the ages, He could not have been generated in time, but He was always in the Father as from a spring…”[8] The fact is that in Genesis, as is also true of John’s Gospel, in the beginning indicates the start of time, the beginning of creation, and God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is completely outside of time, uncreated, without beginning or end, eternal.

In the beginning, therefore, cannot be applied to the Son in Himself as God, let alone the Father or the Holy Spirit, except by way of an accommodation, that is by using the term beginning as a manner of speaking (i.e. the Father is the “beginning” of the Trinity, that is to say the eternal fountain from which the Son eternally proceeds, but to speak in this way one always has to add that the Father is the ‘beginning’ without a beginning[9] and in the end the accommodation is very limited and does not synchronize, as we shall see, with the rest of Sacred Scripture).

However, in Christ, the Word made flesh, there is a created nature united to the divine nature in the Person of the Word and Christ has His beginning in the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4). Behold the key to understanding what is meant by “in the beginning God created” and “in the beginning was the Word.” In both of these passages, as we will see with great clarity, we are speaking of the Word Incarnate, the beginning of creation.[10]

Indeed the expression in the beginning can only be applied to God without accommodation in so far as He is incarnate and becomes the “Son of man,” and this is valid only for Christ because neither the Father nor the Spirit assumed flesh of the Virgin, but only the Son. Hence, when the Evangelist days: “In the beginning was the Word,” it must be understood that he is speaking of the Word become man: Christ was the Beginning.

Moreover, the expression in the beginning cannot be applied to the eternal Word in Himself,  without reference to the Incarnation, because, as St. Cyril says of the eternal Word: “The Son, as a matter of fact, is before the ages, and He Himself is the Creator of the ages; nor can He who has a generation [birth] more ancient than time itself be in any way whatsoever limited by time”.[11]

It is necessary to examine the function of the verb to be in the phrase “in the beginning was the Word.” Its function could be understood in two ways:

First, as a predicate adjective where in the beginning is applied to the Word in the sense of the beginning of creation. In other words, when God created the universe He had the decree of the Incarnation before Him, He beheld Jesus, and as such the beginning of creation and of time itself was the Word Incarnate: nothing was created without Him and without Him there is no temporal beginning.

Second, as a predicate nominative where to be means to be equal to. In this case the Incarnate Word was the “principio,” viz. the creative principle/beginning in which everything was made – not just in the temporal sense, but as the fontal origin, the cause of all things. In a word, following the lead of both of these senses it can safely be said that Christ was both the temporal beginning and the fontal origin of creation: “the beginning of the creation of God” (Apoc 3:14).

Besides, with this interpretation the Prologue becomes more consistent: God always refers to the Divinity (and not sometimes to the Divinity and sometimes to the Father); the Word always refers to Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Son of Mary (and not sometimes the uncreated Word in the Father – without reference to the Incarnation – and other times to the Word made flesh – i.e. John the Baptist is giving witness to the Word Incarnate in v.6ff.).

Christ, the Beginning of Creation – Part I

by Fr. Maximilian M. Dean, F.I.

[To see the full article on one page visit Appendix: Christ the Beginning]
The scope of this little study is to show that the true meaning of the Prologue of St. John, according to Sacred Scripture and Tradition, is this: Christ, the Word made flesh, the God-Man, is the beginning in which God created everything.

In establishing that Jesus Christ was “the Beginning of the creation of God” (Apoc 3:14), that all things were created by means of Him (cfr. Jn 1:3; Heb 1:2-3; Col 1:16), it follows that the teaching of Bl. John Duns Scotus on the absolute primacy of Christ is not only “probable,” according to the expression of St. Thomas Aquinas,[1] but revealed doctrine. The Beginning of God’s creation could never be “occasioned” [2] by any creature or creaturely need. Why? Because if one were to hold that Christ, the summum opus Dei,[3] was “occasioned,” then He would cease to be the Beginning of the creation of God and would rather be reduced to the remedy of the creation of God; He would cease to be the Firstborn of all creatures and would instead become the ‘afterborn,’ that is, the divine ‘afterthought’ resulting from the foreseen consideration of Adam’s sin. And this, as the Subtle Doctor teaches, is “absurd.” [4]

Let us then study more in depth this assertion: Christ is the Beginning.

“In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God
And the Word was God.
He was in the beginning before God”
(Jn 1:1-2)

This is how John starts his Gospel. And as such we are immediately presented with a very interesting argument: is John, in these initial verses, writing about the Divinity in sé, that is, the Divine Essence and the Divine Persons, without reference to the Incarnation? Or rather is he speaking to us about the Word Incarnate with His two natures, divine and human, and Him before God?

The Divinity in Itself: the Father as the beginning, the Word in the Father

Beyond all doubt the more popular interpretation is that John is speaking of the Divinity in Itself by giving a particular emphasis to the eternal Word in Himself without any reference to the Incarnation. St. Bonaventure states that “this book treats of the Word Incarnate, in whom it considers the double nature, human and divine. It is divided in two parts: in the first part it speaks of the Word in Himself; in the second it speaks of Him in so far as He is united to the flesh.” [5] For Bonaventure, as also for St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Augustine (all three of them wrote commentaries on the Gospel of St. John), these first verses do not, of themselves, have any reference to the Incarnation. They speak exclusively of the Divine Essence and the Divine Persons, in particular the second Person who is the eternal Son with/before the Father.

In the midst of innumerable heresies regarding the Trinity and Christ, Cyril and Augustine refer to these words of the Prologue to combat the erroneous doctrine of the heretics on the Divinity of the Word. For all three of them, therefore, in the beginning is a reference to the Father and to the eternal procession of the Word-Son from Him.

Bonaventure states: “Here the beginning par excellence is the Father, hence the meaning is: In the beginning, that is, in the Father, is the Son who is not separated from the Father by essence.”[6] And Augustine: “There is the beginning which does not have a beginning, and this is the Father; there is the beginning which derives from the beginning, and this is the Son.”[7] And Cyril likewise: “God the Father is the beginning, and the Word was in Him by nature.”[8] Therefore, saying that “in the beginning was the Word” means that the eternal Word is essentially in that “eternal Beginning without beginning,”[9] namely in the Father.

The rich explanation of these Doctors is splendid, of this there is no doubt, and the succinct doctrine that follows in their Gospel commentaries is irrefutable because it is doctrine of the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Faith. The holy martyrs of every age and place have given their lives for this Faith and we too desire to profess this Faith until our death. Yet, without denying in the slightest their pure doctrine, there is a difficulty in imposing such an interpretation on these verses of the Evangelist, a difficulty which even comes out in the teachings of these Doctors themselves. For this reason we will now linger upon these first verses of the Gospel, and in particular upon the words “in the beginning.”

Cristo, il Principio del creato – VII parte

P. Maximilian M. Dean, FI

Cristo “creato all’inizio… fin dal principio, dagli inizi della terra” (Prov 8,22-23)

Salomone scrisse: “Il Signore Mi ha creato, il principio[1] della Sua attività, prima di ogni Sua opera, fin d’allora. Dall’eternità sono stata costituita, fin dal principio, dagli inizi della terra… quando Egli fissava i cieli, Io ero lì… quando disponeva le fondamenta della terra, allora Io ero con Lui come architetto ed ero la Sua delizia ogni giorno, Mi rallegravo davanti a Lui in ogni istante; Mi ricreavo sul globo terrestre, ponendo le Mie delizie fra i figli dell’uomo…” (cfr. Prov 8,22-9,6).

I Santi Padri – compresi Agostino e Cirillo – sono unanimi nell’interpretare questo splendido brano come riferimento a Cristo[2]. Citiamo tre altri Dottori della Chiesa come conferma sicura:

– Sant’Ambrogio: “Non meravigliarti se prima dei secoli si dice che [il Verbo] fu fondato, dove leggi che fu predestinato prima del tempo. Che questa espressione, ‘Il Signore Mi ha creato’, si riferisca all’Incarnazione, risulta evidente nei seguenti…[3]”.

– San Girolamo: “E siccome… nei Proverbi di Salomone si parla della Sapienza come il principio creato delle vie di Dio… proclamiamo liberamente che non ci sia pericolo nell’affermare la Sapienza come creata…; le parole ‘Il Signore Mi ha creato…’ si riferiscono al mistero dell’Incarnazione, non alla natura di Dio[4]”.

– Sant’Anselmo: “ ‘Ab initio ante saecula creata sum’. Dall’inizio del mondo e prima dei secoli la Sapienza fu creata nell’essere stata predestinata secondo la Sua umanità[5]”.

Ciò stabilito, la Sapienza di Dio, che è il Dio-Uomo Gesù Cristo[6], fu “costituita, fin dal principio” quando Dio Creatore scelse, nel Suo amore, di comunicare Se stesso ad extra, cioè quando il Suo amore scelse di creare l’universo con l’Incarnazione come cuore e capolavoro[7].

Gesù, Verbo Incarnato, fu presente, fu “lì”, al centro del decreto divino quando Dio onnipotente “fissava i cieli”.

Il Verbo fatto carne fu “con Lui come architetto” poiché tutto fu creato in Cristo, per mezzo di Cristo e in vista di Cristo. Gesù, quindi, anche se è venuto “ultimamente” (Eb 1:2; cfr. 1 Pt 1,20) secondo l’esecuzione del decreto divino, fu lì nell’intenzione divina come Disegno e Modello di tutta la creazione.

Ed ecco, quando Dio creò, aveva Gesù – il Principio del creato – che si rallegrava davanti al Suo sguardo divino. Quando mise in moto il Suo piano e disse quelle parole creatrici, “Sia fatto…”, Cristo si rallegrava, per così dire, in ogni istante, in ciascuno dei sei giorni della creazione. Tutto l’universo, infatti, fu creato per Lui per nessun merito Suo, ma solamente per la generosità pura e semplice del Creatore che liberamente scelse e predestinò l’umanità sacra di Cristo alla massima gloria via l’ipostatica unione. Gesù “ricreava”, dunque, “sul globo terrestre, ponendo” le Sue “delizie fra i figli dell’uomo…”, rallegrandosi di essere scelto come Emanuele, Figlio della Vergine Maria, “il primogenito tra molti fratelli” (Rm 8,19) per glorificare perfettamente Iddio sulla terra (cfr. Gv 17,4).

Da questo si vede facilmente che non c’è nessun problema nell’interpretare i primi versetti di Giovanni in questo senso: che il Verbo sia Cristo, cioè il Verbo Incarnato che è la Sapienza creata dei Proverbi.

Cristo, il Principio del creato – VI parte

P. Maximilian M. Dean, FI

“Tu in principio, Domine, terram fundasti” (Eb 1,10)

Nell’Epistola agli Ebrei, San Paolo parla con parole splendide di Cristo, di Colui che è venuto “ultimamente, in questi giorni” e che ha “compiuto la purificazione dei peccati”. Lui, il Verbo fatto carne, “è irradiazione della… gloria” di Dio “e impronta della Sua Sostanza e sostiene tutto con la potenza della Sua parola” (1,1-3). L’Apostolo racconta che Dio Gli ha detto tante stupende cose (cfr. v.5), fra le quali c’è questa parola molto pertinente all’argomento attuale: “Tu in principio, Signore, hai fondato la terra” (v.10; Salmo 101,26). Ecco che Dio stesso dice a Cristo: “Tu in principio”.

La Scrittura, quindi, ripetutamente usa le parole in principio in riferimento a Cristo e al creato. Dal momento che Dio, nel Suo amore libero, volle creare, volle il Cristo. La Sua intenzione primaria nel creare era l’Incarnazione. Cristo è il Principio, il primo istante dell’universo creato[1]. E quando Dio metteva il Suo disegno in moto, lo faceva sempre “in vista di Lui” come il Principio di tutto il creato.

Conviene spiegare qui che si potrebbe chiamare Cristo “il Principio” della creazione in due sensi: l’inizio temporale (prima di Lui non c’era il tempo) e la causa o sorgente d’origine (“Senza di Lui niente è stato fatto” Gv 1,3).

Il Principio in senso d’inizio:

– Il primo istante del creato inizia quando Dio volle creare. E allora Cristo fu sempre la prima creatura voluta da Dio, “generato prima di ogni creatura” e “prima di tutte le cose… il principio” (Col 1,15-18); fu sempre il primo predestinato “già prima della fondazione del mondo” (1 Pt 1,20) e in cui ha predestinato tutti gli eletti (Cfr. Ef 1,3ss.). Come vedremo, Cristo dice: “Il Signore Mi ha creato all’inizio della Sua attività, prima di ogni Sua opera, fin d’allora. Dall’eternità sono stata costituita, fin dal principio, dagli inizi della terra…” (Prov 8,22-23; cfr. Sir 1,4). Prima di Cristo non ci fu tempo, non ci furono successioni di momenti, ma c’era soltanto Dio eterno. Ma quando Dio creò, Cristo era nella Sua mente come principio.

Il Principio in senso di causa o sorgente[2]:

– Causa esemplare perché tutto è stato creato “in vista di Lui” come Modello sublime di tutto il creato, Creatura perfetta in quanto unita sostanzialmente alla Divinità nella seconda Persona della Santissima Trinità che assunse la carne.

– Causa efficiente perché, per volere di Dio, tutte le creature sono state create per mezzo di Lui (cfr. Eb 1,2; Gv 1,3; Col 1,15.17) e, come dice l’Evangelista, “senza di Lui niente è stato fatto di tutto ciò che esiste” (Gv 1,3).

– Causa finale perché noi esistiamo per Cristo – e non Lui per noi – come dice l’Apostolo: “Tutto è vostro! Ma voi siete di Cristo e Cristo è di Dio” (1 Cor 3,23); e nella medesima Epistola: “per noi c’è […] un solo Signore Gesù Cristo, in virtù del quale esistono tutte le cose e noi esistiamo per Lui” (1 Cor 8,6). Anche se Dio solo è la nostra causa finale, il fine per cui esistiamo, non possiamo ottenere questo fine se non tramite la mediazione del Dio-Uomo che è, di conseguenza, nostro causa finale secondaria, ma necessaria per decreto divino: “Nessuno conosce il Padre se non il Figlio e colui al quale il Figlio Lo voglia rivelare” (Mt 11,27) perché uno solo è “Mediatore fra Dio e gli uomini, l’Uomo Cristo Gesù” (1 Tm 2,5). Di più, Gesù ci insegna: Io solo sono “la via… Nessuno viene al Padre se non per mezzo di Me” (Gv 14,6).

Comunque, il decreto dell’Incarnazione e della mediazione di Cristo fu immutabile fin dall’inizio. Quindi, il cielo e la terra passeranno. Cristo invece rimarrà “lo stesso” (Eb 1,12). “Gesù Cristo è lo stesso ieri, oggi e sempre!” (Eb 13,8). Ieri, poiché è vero Dio e vero Uomo nel piano creatore di Dio in principio, già prima della fondazione del mondo e della predestinazione degli eletti in Lui. Oggi, poiché è venuto ultimamente nella pienezza dei tempi, in questi giorni, “oggi”, nel grembo verginale di Maria Santissima come compimento e rivelazione del mistero di Dio nascosto nei secoli, ma adesso svelatoci in Cristo. Sempre, poiché è il Sacerdote in eterno che incessantemente intercede “al cospetto di Dio in nostro favore” (Eb 9,24) e sta sempre con la Sua Chiesa “tutti i giorni, fino alla fine del mondo” (Mt 28,20).

Cristo, il Principio del creato – V parte

P. Maximilian M. Dean, FI

Il Verbo Incarnato “ab initio” (1 Gv 1,1-3)

Un’altro brano utile per la nostra questione, tanto brillante quanto breve, viene dalla prima Epistola di San Giovanni. Nel suo “prologo” dell’Epistola, si potrebbe dire, c’è una conferma chiara e forte. Ecco le sue parole:

“Ciò che era fin da principio, ciò che noi abbiamo udito, ciò che noi abbiamo veduto con i nostri occhi, ciò che le nostre mani hanno toccato, ossia il Verbo della vita (poiché la vita si è fatta visibile, noi l’abbiamo veduta e di ciò rendiamo testimonianza e vi annunziamo la vita eterna, che era presso il Padre e si è resa visibile a noi), quello che abbiamo veduto e udito, noi Lo annunziamo anche a voi, perché anche voi siate in comunione con noi”

(1 Gv 1,1-3).

Notate bene il messaggio. L’Evangelista parla del “Verbo della vita”, che era “fin da principio” e era “presso il Padre”, facendo un parallelo stretto con il Prologo del suo Vangelo. Ma qui è più che mai evidente che il Verbo di cui si parla, quel Verbo che è fin da principio e presso il Padre, è Incarnato! È stato “udito” con degli orecchi, “veduto” con degli occhi, “toccato” con delle mani. Non sta, ovviamente, parlando del Verbo in Sé, in quanto Dio prescindendo dall’Incarnazione. No, ci parla schiettamente del Verbo fatto “visibile”, il Verbo Incarnato, cioè Gesù Cristo. Dunque, se Giovanni può parlare qui di Cristo, il Figlio dell’uomo, come il Verbo “fin da principio” e “presso il Padre”, significa che questa deve essere la vera interpretazione del Prologo del suo Vangelo dove si parla, appunto, del Verbo che era in principio presso Dio.

continua…

Cristo, il Principio del creato – IV parte

P. Maximilian M. Dean, FI

“In principio: id quod et loquor vobis!”

(Gv 8,25)[1]

L’Evangelista racconta che Gesù, dopo aver perdonato la donna sorpresa in adulterio, dette testimonianza di Se stesso. Arrivò a dire loro: “se infatti non credete che Io Sono, morirete nei vostri peccati”, (Gv 8,24). A ciò i farisei vollero controbattere chiedendo: “Tu chi sei?”. Rispose loro: [Io sono…] “in principio, che vi sta parlando!” (Gv 8,25). Per l’orecchio moderno questa risposta potrebbe sembrare un po’ strana. “Io Sono… in principio”. Ma così si legge sia in latino (ego sum… in principio) che in greco (tèn archèn) e purtroppo le traduzioni moderne la tradiscono interamente[2]. La Sua risposta è una profonda e misteriosa rivelazione di Sé che non ha uguale.

Agostino nel commentarla dice: “Rispondevano… ‘Tu chi sei?’ Dicendo infatti: ‘Se non credete che Io Sono, non hai aggiunto chi sei. Devi dirci chi sei, se vuoi che crediamo… ‘Io Sono’, dice, ‘il Principio che anche parlo con voi’. Credete che Io sono il Principio, se non volete morire nei vostri peccati”[3]. E il Serafico Dottore afferma: “Prima di tutto Egli è Creatore, per cui Gesù chiama Se stesso: il Principio, ossia Io sono il Principio creante; da Lui tutte le cose hanno ricevuto l’essere, come si è detto nel primo capitolo: ‘In principio era il Verbo’, cui segue: ‘Ogni cosa è stata fatta per Lui’.[4]”

Ecco, allora, che Gesù stesso sostenne d’essere il Principio creante e ci consegnò la chiave per capire il senso più autentico e profondo del Prologo: Io, il Verbo fatto carne che parlo con voi, sono il Principio in cui tutto è stato creato.

Agostino infatti afferma: “Il mondo fu creato prima dell’uomo, e quindi l’uomo fa parte del mondo. Ma Cristo era prima e il mondo è venuto dopo. Cristo era prima del mondo, ma prima di Cristo non c’era niente, perché ‘in principio era il Verbo’; e ‘tutte le cose sono state create per mezzo di Lui’ (Gv 1,1.3)”[5].

Per gli ebrei, Gesù stava pretendendo un grande atto di fede perché non parlava loro soltanto astrattamente in modo metafisico, piuttosto collegò Se stesso in concreto con le prime parole delle loro Scritture che iniziano: “In principio Dio creò”. Che Gesù si riferisse al primo passo della Genesi si può ben confermare da altri passi del Vangelo quando, ad esempio, disse: “Voi scrutate le Scritture credendo di avere in esse la vita eterna; ebbene, sono proprio esse che Mi rendono testimonianza… Se credeste infatti a Mosè, credereste anche a Me; perché di Me egli ha scritto” (Gv 5,39.46). E sulla via di Emmaus San Luca ci racconta: “E cominciando da Mosè e da tutti i profeti spiegò loro in tutte le Scritture ciò che si riferiva a Lui” (Lc 24,27).

Le parole di Cristo narrateci nel Salmo 39 meritano la nostra riflessione. Il Messia dice: “In capite libri scriptum est di me”, ossia “nel capo del libro è scritto di Me” (v.8). Il “capo del libro” vuol dire l’inizio del Pentateuco dove si legge “In principio Dio creò”. E così, secondo il Salmo e l’interpretazione di ciò nella Scrittura stessa[6], Cristo disse che le prime righe della Genesi parlavano proprio di Lui[7].

Continua…