Irenaeus of Lyons: When the Foe was Conquered, Adam Received New Life, and the Last Enemy – Death – is Destroyed Thursday, Jan 31 2013

God detested him who had led man astray, but by degrees, and little by little, He showed compassion to him who had been beguiled.

Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, and did not desire that he should continue a sinner forever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable.

But He set a bound to his state of sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.

For this end did He put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, they keeping it up mutually:

He, the sole of whose foot should be bitten, having power also to tread upon the enemy’s head; but the other biting, killing, and impeding the steps of man, until the seed did come appointed to tread down his head.

This seed was born of Mary, of whom the prophet speaks: “Thou shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk; thou shalt trample down the lion and the dragon”—indicating that sin, which was set up and spread out against man, and which rendered him subject to death, should be deprived of its power, along with death, which rules over men;

and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him;

and that He should bind “the dragon, that old serpent” and subject him to the power of man, who had been conquered so that all his might should be trodden down.

Now Adam had been conquered, all life having been taken away from him: wherefore, when the foe was conquered in his turn, Adam received new life; and the last enemy, death, is destroyed, which at the first had taken possession of man.

Therefore, when man has been liberated, “what is written shall come to pass, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?”

This could not be said with justice, if that man, over whom death did first obtain dominion, were not set free. For his salvation is death’s destruction. When therefore the Lord vivifies man, that is, Adam, death is at the same time destroyed.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses, 3,23, 5-7.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: The Loving Kindness of God Thursday, Jun 28 2012

God was long-suffering when man became a defaulter, foreseeing that victory which should be granted to him through the Word.

For, when strength was made perfect in weakness, it showed the kindness and transcendent power of God.

He patiently suffered Jonah to be swallowed by the whale not that he should be swallowed up and perish altogether.

Rather, He did this so that, having been cast out again, Jonah might be the more subject to God, and might glorify Him the more who had conferred upon him such an unhoped-for deliverance;

and that he might bring the Ninevites to a lasting repentance, so that they should be converted to the Lord, who would deliver them from death, having been struck with awe by that portent which had been wrought in Jonah’s case.

The Scripture says of them, “And they returned each from his evil way, and the unrighteousness which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn away His anger from us, and we shall not perish?”

So also, from the beginning, did God permit man to be swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of transgression.

He did so not that man should perish altogether when so engulfed, but He arranged and prepared the plan of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word, through the sign of Jonah.

[...] This was done that man, receiving an unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead, and glorify God, and repeat that word which was uttered in prophecy by Jonah:

“I cried by reason of mine affliction to the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell.”

And it was done so that he might always continue glorifying God, and giving thanks without ceasing, for that salvation which he has derived from Him: “that no flesh should glory in the Lord’s presence.”

[...] For he Satan thus rendered man more ungrateful towards his Creator, obscured the love which God had towards man, and blinded his mind not to perceive what is worthy of God, comparing himself with, and judging himself equal to, God.

This, therefore, was the object of the long-suffering of God: that man,…learning by experience what is the source of his deliverance, may always live in a state of gratitude to the Lord, and that, having obtained from Him the gift of incorruptibility, he might love Him the more.

For “he to whom more is forgiven, loveth more,” and that he may know himself, how mortal and weak he is.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses, 3,20, 1-2.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Restoration of the Image of God Thursday, Apr 26 2012

By the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not merely a part of man, was made in the likeness of God.

Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God.

[...] When the spirit here blended with the soul is united to God’s handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God.

But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image of God in his formation, but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect.

[...] That flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man.

And for this cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians: “Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect; and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now what was his object in praying that these three — that is, soul, body, and spirit — might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and that they should be heirs of one and the same salvation? For this cause also he declares that those are “the perfect” who present unto the Lord the three component parts without offence.

Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith which is directed towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses, 5, 6, 1.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: The Law Was a School of Instruction and a Prophecy of What Was to Come Wednesday, Mar 7 2012

God who stands in need of no one gave communion with himself to those who need him.

[...] By his own hand he gave food in Egypt to those who did not see him. To those who were restless in the desert he gave a law perfectly suited to them.

To those who entered the land of prosperity he gave a worthy inheritance. He killed the fatted calf for those who turned to him as Father, and clothed them with the finest garment.

In so many ways he was training the human race to take part in the harmonious song of salvation.

[...] As the Word passed among all these people he provided help in generous measure for those who were obedient to him, by drawing up a law that was suitable and fitting for every circumstance.

He established a law for the people governing the construction of the tabernacle and the building of the temple, the choice of Levites, the sacrifices, the offerings, the rites of purification and the rest of what belonged to worship.

He himself needs none of these things. He is always filled with all that is good.

Even before Moses existed he had within himself every fragrance of all that is pleasing.

Yet he sought to teach his people, always ready though they were to return to their idols. Through many acts of indulgence he tried to prepare them for perseverance in his service.

He kept calling them to what was primary by means of what was secondary, that is, through foreshadowings to the reality, through things of time to the things of eternity, through things of the flesh to the things of the spirit, through earthly things to the heavenly things.

As he said to Moses: You will fashion all things according to the pattern that you saw on the mountain.

For forty days Moses was engaged in remembering the words of God, the heavenly patterns, the spiritual images, the foreshadowings of what was to come.

Saint Paul says: They drank from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

After speaking of the things that are in the law he continues: All these things happened to them as symbols: they were written to instruct us, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Through foreshadowings of the future they were learning reverence for God and perseverance in his service.

The law was therefore a school of instruction for them, and a prophecy of what was to come.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202):Adversus Haereses, Lib. 4, 14, 2-3; 15, 1; from the Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent @ Crossroads Initiative.  

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Irenaeus of Lyons: As by a Man’s Defeat We Fell into the Bondage of Death, so by a Man’s Victory We Rose Again to Life Thursday, Dec 15 2011

The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being.

His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden.

The good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband.

As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word.

As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve.

Christ gathered all things into one, by gathering them into himself.

He declared war against our enemy, crushed him who at the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and trampled on his head, in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.

The one lying in wait for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin.

This is the seed spoken of by Paul in the letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the  promise was made.

He shows this even more clearly in the same letter when he says: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.

The enemy would not have been defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been born of a woman, because it was through a woman that he had gained mastery over man in the beginning, and set himself up as man’s adversary.

That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, the one who renews in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman was formed.

As by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202):Adversus Haereses, Lib. 5, 19, 1; 20, 2; 21,1, from the Office of Readings for Friday of the Second Week in Advent @ Crossroads Initiative.  

 

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Irenaeus of Lyons: Life – Participation in God – is to See God and Enjoy His Goodness Tuesday, Jun 28 2011

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life.

For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him.

It is impossible to live without life, and the actualization of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.

Men will therefore see God if they are to live; through the vision of God they will become immortal and attain to God himself.

As I have said, this was shown in symbols by the prophets: God will be seen by men who bear his Spirit and are always waiting for his coming. As Moses said in the Book of Deuteronomy: On that day we shall see, for God will speak to man, and man will live.

God is the source of all activity throughout creation. He cannot be seen or described in his own nature and in all his greatness by any of his creatures.

Yet he is certainly not unknown. Through his Word the whole creation learns that there is one God the Father, who holds all things together and gives them there being.

As it is written in the Gospel: No man has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has revealed him.

From the beginning the Son is the one who teaches us about the Father; he is with the Father from the beginning.

He was to reveal to the human race visions of prophecy, the diversity of spiritual gifts, his own ways of ministry, the glorification of the Father, all in due order and harmony, at the appointed time and for our instruction.

[...] The Word became the steward of the Father’s grace for the advantage of men, for whose benefit he made such wonderful arrangements.

He revealed God to men and presented men to God. He safeguarded the invisibility of the Father to prevent man from treating God with contempt and to set before him a constant goal toward which to make progress.

On the other hand, he revealed God to men and made him visible in many ways to prevent man from being totally separated from God and so cease to be.

Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God.

If the revelation of God through creation gives life to all who live upon the earth, much more does the manifestation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202):Adversus Haereses 4.20.5-7, from the Office of Readings for the feast (liturgical memorial) of Saint Irenaeus on June 28 @ Crossroads Initiative.  

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Irenaeus of Lyons: Through the Adoption of Sons God Enabled Man to Love Him with His Whole Heart Tuesday, Mar 22 2011

Israel’s fathers [i.e. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob] were righteous: they had the power of the Decalogue implanted in their hearts and in their souls.

[...] For this reason they did not need to be admonished by written rebukes: they had the righteousness of the law in their hearts.

When this righteousness and love for God had passed into oblivion and had been extinguished in Egypt, God had necessarily to reveal himself through his own voice, out of his great love for men.

He led the people out of Egypt in power, so that man might once again become God’s disciple and follower.

He made them afraid as they listened, to warn them not to hold their Creator in contempt.

He fed them with manna, that they might receive spiritual food…. He commanded them to love himself and trained them to practise righteousness toward their neighbour, so that man might not be unrighteous or unworthy of God.

Through the Decalogue he prepared man for friendship with himself and for harmony with his neighbour. This was to man’s advantage, though God needed nothing from man.

This raised man to glory, for it gave him what he did not have, friendship with God. But it brought no advantage to God, for God did not need man’s love.

Man did not possess the glory of God, nor could he attain it by any other means than through obedience to God.

This is why Moses said to the people: Choose life, that you may live and your descendants too; love the Lord your God, hear his voice and hold fast to him, for this is life for you and length of days.

This was the life that the Lord was preparing man to receive when he spoke in person and gave the words of the Decalogue for all alike to hear.

These words remain with us as well; they were extended and amplified through his coming in the flesh, but not annulled.

God gave to the people separately through Moses the commandments that enslave: these were precepts suited to their instruction or their condemnation.

As Moses said: The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you precepts of righteousness and of judgement.

The precepts that were given them to enslave and to serve as a warning have been cancelled by the new covenant of freedom.

The precepts that belong to man’s nature and to freedom and to all alike have been enlarged and broadened.

Through the adoption of sons God had enabled man so generously and bountifully to know him as Father, to love him with his whole heart, and to follow his Word unfailingly.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses 4.16.2-5:, from the Office of Readings for Friday in the 2nd Week of Lent @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: The Word of God Became the Son of Man to Open the Way for Man to Receive God Sunday, Dec 19 2010

God is man’s glory. Man is the vessel which receives God’s action and all his wisdom and power.

Just as a doctor is judged in his care for the sick, so God is revealed in his conduct with men.

That is Paul’s reason for saying: God has made the whole world prisoner of unbelief that he may have mercy on all.

He was speaking of man, who was disobedient to God, and cast off from immortality, and then found mercy, receiving through the Son of God the adoption he brings.

If man, without being puffed up or boastful, has a right belief regarding created things and their divine Creator, who, having given them being, holds them all in his power, and if man perseveres in God’s love, and in obedience and gratitude to him, he will receive greater glory from him.

It will be a glory which will grow ever brighter until he takes on the likeness of the one who died for him.

He it was who took on the likeness of sinful flesh, to condemn sin and rid the flesh of sin, as now condemned.

He wanted to invite man to take on his likeness, appointing man an imitator of God, establishing man in a way of life in obedience to the Father that would lead to the vision of God, and endowing man with power to receive the Father.

He is the Word of God who dwelt with man and became the Son of Man to open the way for man to receive God, for God to dwell with man, according to the will of the Father.

For this reason the Lord himself gave as the sign of our salvation, the one who was born of the Virgin, Emmanuel.

It was the Lord himself who saved them, for of themselves they had no power to be saved.

For this reason Paul speaks of the weakness of man, and says: I know that no good dwells in my flesh, meaning that the blessing of our salvation comes not from us but from God.

Again, he says: I am a wretched man; who will free me from this body doomed to die? Then he speaks of a liberator, thanks to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah says the same: Hands that are feeble, grow strong! Knees that are weak, take courage! Hearts that are faint, grow strong! Fear not; see, our God is judgment and he will repay. He himself will come and save us.

He means that we could not be saved of ourselves but only with God’s help.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses 3,20, 2-3, from the Office of Readings for December 19^th, @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: Eucharist, Redemption, Resurrection, Eternal Life Monday, Apr 26 2010

If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body.

There can be no blood without veins, flesh and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us.

As the Apostle says: In him, through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.

We are his members and we are nourished by creatures, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall.

He declared that the chalice, which comes from his creation, was his blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood.

He affirmed that the bread, which comes from his creation, was his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body.

When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the word of God, the eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow.

How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life?

Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.

He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones.

He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.

The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things.

The Wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ.

In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father.

Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses 5,2, 2-3: SC 153, 30-38) (from the Office of Readings for Thursday of the Third week of Easter) @ Crossroads Initiative.

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Irenaeus of Lyons: “And the Temple of God was Opened” Saturday, Jan 23 2010

The oblation of the Church, therefore, which the Lord gave instructions to be offered throughout all the world, is accounted with God a pure sacrifice, and is acceptable to Him; not that He stands in need of a sacrifice from us, but that he who offers is himself glorified in what he does offer, if his gift be accepted.

[...] Sacrifices, therefore, do not sanctify a man, for God stands in no need of sacrifice; but it is the conscience of the offerer that sanctifies the sacrifice when it is pure, and thus moves God to accept the offering as from a friend.

[...] For it behoves us to make an oblation to God, and in all things to be found pleasing to God our Maker, in a pure mind, and in faith without hypocrisy, in well-grounded hope, in fervent love, offering the first-fruits of His own created things.

And the Church alone offers this pure oblation to the Creator, offering to Him, with giving of thanks, the things taken from His creation.

[...] For we offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and Spirit.

For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.

[...] As, therefore, He does not stand in need of these services, yet does desire that we should render them for our own benefit, lest we be unfruitful; so did the Word give to the people that very precept as to the making of oblations, although He stood in no need of them, that they might learn to serve God: thus is it, therefore, also His will that we, too, should offer a gift at the altar, frequently and without intermission.

The altar, then, is in heaven for towards that place are our prayers and oblations directe); the temple likewise is there, as John says in the Apocalypse, “And the temple of God was opened” (Rev. 11:19) the tabernacle also: “For, behold,” He says, “the tabernacle of God, in which He will dwell with men.”

Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century AD – c. 202): Adversus Haereses 4,18,1-6.

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