LogosTalk: St Paul's Universality

As I previously mentioned on this list, I have been reading through the writings of St. Paul. Though St. Paul wrote much more, and expressed many opinions that *differ,* from that quoted below, it is in the following verses that one might find a certain spiritual *universality.*

Cushioned amongst these verses, there are references to Christ specifically. In these (and perhaps others I chose not to include), I suspect, one might find Teilhard's link with St. Paul in regard to the Cosmic Christ. In turn, others who choose to employ other imagery will surely have little trouble seeing the universally applicable spiritual wisdom advanced in these verses.

As for myself, I can "read" easily the idea of the Logos-Pneuma into these particular thoughts of St. Paul. And I can see, too, the *birthing* of the historical extension of the Greek Logos into Christianity's "Incarnation of the Logos," the Cosmic Christ.

Quoting St. Paul:

• "To a God Unknown"...For the God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands; nor does he receive man's service as if he were in need of it. Rather, it is he who gives to all life and breath and everything else. From one stock he made every nation of mankind to dwell on the face of the earth. It is he who set limits to their epochs and fixed the boundaries of their regions. They were to seek God, yes to grope for him and perhaps eventually to find him--though he is not really far from any one of us. In him we live and move and have our being..."for we too are his offspring." [Acts. 17: 23-28]
  
  
• Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God's eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized through the things he has made. [Romans. 1: 20]
  
  
• ...it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; it is those who keep it who will be declared just. When Gentiles who do not have the law keep it as by instinct, these men although without the law serve as a law for themselves. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts. [Romans. 2: 13-15]
  
  
• ...this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our ears through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. [Romans. 5: 5]
  
  
• All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God...The Spirit himself gives witness with our spirit that we are children of God. [Romans. 8: 14, 16]
  
  
• Christ is the end of the law. Through him, justice comes to everyone who believes. [Romans. 10: 4]
  
  
• Just as each of us has one body with many members, and not all the members have the same function, so too we, through many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. [Romans. 12: 4-6]
  
  
• Each should please his neighbor so as to do him good by building up his spirit. [Romans. 15: 2]
  
  
• I preach Jesus Christ, the gospel which reveals the mystery hidden for many ages but now manifested through the writings of the prophets, and at the command of the eternal God, made known to all the Gentiles that they may believe and obey--to him, the God who alone is wise, may glory be given through Jesus Christ unto endless ages. [1 Corinthians. 16: 25-27]
  
  
• There is, to be sure, a certain wisdom which we express among the spiritually mature...What we utter is God's wisdom: a mysterious, a hidden wisdom. God planned it before all ages for our glory...Yet God has revealed this wisdom to us through the Spirit. The Spirit scrutinizes all matters, even the deep things of God. Who, for example, knows a man's innermost self but the man's own spirit within him? Similarly, no one knows what lies at the depths of God but the Spirit of God. The Spirit we have received is not the world's spirit but God's Spirit, helping us to recognize the gifts he has given us. [1 Corinthians. 2: 6-7, 10-12]
  
  
• Are you not aware that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? [1 Corinthians. 3: 16]
  
  
• The earth and its fullness are the Lord's. [1 Corinthians. 10: 26]
  
  
• There are different gifts but the same Spirit; there are different ministries but the same Lord; there are different works but the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one the Spirit gives wisdom in discourse, to another the power to express knowledge. Through the Spirit another is given the gift of healing, and still another miraculous powers. Prophecy is given to one; to another power to distinguish one spirit from another. One receives the gift of tongues, another that of interpreting the tongues. But it is one and the same Spirit who produces all these gifts, distributing them to each as he wills. [1 Corinthians. 12: 4-11]
  
  
• The body is one and has many members, but all the members, many though they are, are one body; and so it is with Christ. It was in one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, were baptized into one body. All of us have been given to drink of the one Spirit. [1 Corinthians. 12: 12-13]
  
  
• The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing on the Lord's glory with unveiled faces, are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image by the Lord who is the Spirit. [2 Corinthians. 3: 17-18]
  
  
• ...remember that you have been called to live in freedom--but not a freedom that gives free rein to the flesh. Out of love, place yourselves at one another's service. The whole law has found its fulfillment in this one saying: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Galatians. 5: 13-14]
  
  
• ...the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity. [Galatians. 5: 22]
  
  
• There is but one body and one Spirit, just as there is but one hope given all of you by your call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and works through all, and is in all. [Ephesians. 4: 4-6]
  
  
• It is he who gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in roles of service for the faithful to build up the body of Christ...Through him the whole body grows, and with the proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament, builds itself up in love. [Ephesians. 4: 11-13, 16]
  
  
• There was a time when you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Well, then, live as children of light. Light produces every kind of goodness and justice and truth. [Ephesians. 5: 8-9]
  
  
• ...your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, or worthy of praise. [Philippians. 4: 8]
  
  
• He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creatures. In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, principalities or powers; all were created through him, and for him. He is before all else that is. In him everything continues in being. [Colossians. 1: 15-17]
  
  
• ...put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator. There is no Greek or Jew here, circumcised or uncircumcised, foreigner, Scythian, slave, or freeman. Rather, Christ is everything in all of you. [Colossians. 3: 10-11]
  
  
• Do not stifle the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test everything; retain what is good. [1 Thessalonians. 5: 19-21]
  
  (Note: the above verse references came from the following: THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York)