Overlap

JMJ

I noticed an overlap in the Greek words used in Sunday’s EF and OF readings.

In the OF Gospel Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word…” (John 14:23) Which in Greek is: άν τις γαπ με, τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει. In the EF Epistle, St James says (in one of my favorite passages), Be ye doers of the word… (James 1:22) In Greek, Γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταὶ λόγου. Both fragments have something to say about what we do with the Logos of God, which is Jesus and also is Jesus’ presence, or teaching, or communication.

The English says if we love Jesus we will “keep his word” but the poetry in the Greek is lost to us, since it says “guard my logos” or even “conserve my logos” as if the logos is implanted in us. But it is… We take on the Logos of God, we take on the Mind of Christ, we are members of Christ’s body. But what then? James says we are to be doers of the word but, again we miss the poetry of the Greek, in this case no pun intended: the Greek word for “doer” is “poietai”… poet, artist, or craftsman.

We receive the imprint of our Divine Creator, Christ, the Logos, we guard it within ourselves and we spin it out again in our own acts of creation. We move through the world in the image and likeness of God, continually present and renewed by Grace in the Sacraments. In that image and likeness we participate in the reconciliation of the world to God in Christ. This is our on-going theosis, our salvation as we work it out in the world