Roman legionaires, oaths and the obedience of Faith

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent

In the Gospel, Mary says, “How can this be, since I do not know man?” One of the mysteries of scripture is Mary’s Perpetual Virginity. Catholics believe in the Resurrection, grace, the sacraments and God’s answer to prayers, but we still balk at doctrines that seem to defy the realities of the natural world. Friends, it all defies the reality of the natural world as atheists see nature.

The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. Lk. 1

So, the Annunciation, Mary, ever-virgin, said yes, ‘fiat,’ to God in a message delivered by an angel – the mysterious preparation for Christmas. It is a mystery, as if material reality, as we understand it, is only a veil obscuring the vision of the fundamentally real, the face of God.

The most fundamental question is, “Why does anything exist at all?” If everything we know goes in and out of existence, doesn’t it logically follow that given an infinite period of time that everything would go out of existence at the same time?  The answer of scripture is that God always was, always is and always will be. He is existence itself. Physicists have their understanding of the laws of nature, God has his. He is the Creator who has always had a plan. He has prepared us since the beginning of time for this revelation. The prophets that have spoken in the first reading each of the Sundays of Advent are part of that plan.
The Messiah: Son of David
Joseph is a descendant of the almost, but not quite, defunct royal family of Israel. Mary, a virgin, was betrothed in a marriage that was not yet consummated, to Joseph of the house of David. This is the Year of St. Joseph, so talking about him and his family is a good way to enter into the mystery revealed in the Old Testament. Luke emphasizes Joseph’s family because his adoption of Jesus, a son raised up by God, fulfills the ancient prophecy to King David.

Nathan’s prophesied to King David, as recounted in 2 Sam. 7, that God will “raise up an heir, sprung from your loins” and David’s throne will be eternal. Gabriel's message to Mary, has four standout elements -

• Number one, that Mary's child will be great.
• Number two, that the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, a messianic allusion.
• Number three, he will be called Son of the Most High.
• And number four, of his kingdom there will be no end.

Now those four elements: his greatness, the throne, his identity as son of God and his everlasting kingdom track Nathan’s prophecy to David in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel 7, the first reading for this Sunday. 2 Samuel is not the only place that prophecy is made. It appears in the Torah in Genesis 49:10 and Numbers 22-24 and other places.
For instance, the prophecy also appears in Psalm 89 today.  

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”
“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.’
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm.” Psalm 89

That Israel expected a Messiah is clear in the Old Testament; that is why we read it throughout the year. That the disciples believed Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family, was part of God’s plan to reveal himself to us, is also clear in the New Testament.

St. Paul and the Mystery
For St. Paul, the word Gospel (evangelion) is synonymous with the word “mystery.” Paul preached about the ‘mysterion’ which is where the English word “mystery, meaning “something hidden or concealed” is derived, like God’s plan made known in the prophets. In Latin the word used to translate ‘mysterion’ is the word ‘sacramentum,’ from which we take ‘sacrament.’ [Greek] μυστήριον (mystērion), [Latin] sacramentum: Mk.4:11,Rom.11:25, Rom.16:25,1Cor. 2:11, 1Cor.4:1, 1Cor.13:2,1Cor.14:2, 1Cor.15:51, Eph.1:9, Eph.6:19, Col. 1:26, Col. 2:2,  2Thess.2:7, 1Tim.2:7, 1Tim.3:9, Rev.17:5.

The ‘sacramentum militaie’  (military sacrament) was used with recruits into the Roman army who swore an oath of allegiance and received a mark (such as a tattoo or a brand) and a new name. (See Roman coin to left- two soldiers swearing the oath) The Roman Legions had their sacramentum, and the Church had its sacramentum.  Sacramentum also carried legal connotations associated with funds held in a legal case under a sworn oath. Christianity so dominated the Roman Empire that we no longer think of the military and legal meanings of sacrament for Romans. The Christians understood whose kingdom they lived in and whose kingdom they were passing through.
 The Christian idea of mysterion or sacramentum connotes something secret being revealed, an oath, a mark. This meaning is rooted in New Testament usage:

• “He answered them, ‘The mystery of kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables’” Mk. 4:11
• “The mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to His holy ones.” Col. 1:26

The sense of the Greek word mysterion changes from something hidden to something being revealed. It is the word behind ‘apocalypsis,’ literally a veil being pulled back.  The mystery of God, a material veil is pulled back, revealing the New Covenant through Jesus and the sacraments.  In Latin and Greek there is a direct relationship between covenants, sacraments and oaths that in turn become initiation into the Church replacing cirumcision.

St. Paul, when calling the Romans to repentance, is preparing them for the mystery revealed in the conception, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, Son of David, Son of God.

...the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is “now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations...” (Romans 16:25b-26a)  

The mission of the Messiah aims higher than the military defeat of the Roman Empire, cleansing of the temple and political peace of the people of Israel. God’s enemy is sin. The promised land is very different than the Middle East as it is.  

The Church’s mission, as commanded by Christ and now revealed is to go out ...to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith... Rom 16

We know it as the Great Commission. Jesus says:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you... (Matthew 28:19-20a)

In Romans 16:25 Paul also says, “...according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages... (Romans 16:25b)   The actual word there in Greek, sigaō—it actually means “silent” for ages. Jesus is born in silence, in a stable. Remember our hymn, ‘Silent Night’? In the Catholic bible, the part non-Catholic Christians call the apocrypha, the book, Wisdom of Solomon 18:6 says
 

For while gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven,
from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed...
(Wisdom 18:14-15b)

Vatican I, 1869-70, in response to the disbelief of that time and place, reminded the world that Christianity is not a man-made construct, but is founded on Divine Revelation. One of the primary motives for believing that Christian faith is true is Old Testament prophecy, the writings that anticipate Jesus’ identity and mission. Material reality is something other than a machine, a system of interactions based on physics and chemistry. The Council Fathers of Vatican I wrote in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, chapter 3
 

In order that the “obedience” of our faith should be “consonant with reason” [cf. Rom. 12:1], God has willed that to the internal aids of the Holy Spirit there should be joined external proofs of His revelation, namely: divine facts, especially miracles and prophecies which, because they clearly show forth the omnipotence and infinite knowledge of God, are most certain signs of a divine revelation, and are suited to the intelligence of all. Wherefore, not only Moses and the prophets, but especially Christ the Lord Himself, produced many genuine miracles and prophecies; and we read concerning the apostles: “But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal and confirming the word with signs that followed” [Mark 16:20]. And again, it is written.“And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place” [2 Pet. 1:19].

With the internal assistance of the Holy Spirit, God has given us external motives of credibility for believing in the truth of Christianity — including miracles and prophecy, both of which testify to the supernatural nature of the Christian faith to its divinely revealed nature.   St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote in the century following the Resurrection, “Now the virginity of Mary and her giving birth were hidden from the ruler of this age (that refers to Satan) as was also the death of the Lord—three mysteries to be loudly proclaimed, yet which were accomplished in the silence of God.” Ponder that this Christmas when you hear, “Silent Night.”