Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957

[Continued from yesterday]

We have spoken throughout of the Divine Commonwealth. That phrase represents Paul’s “ecclesia of God.” It is a community of loving persons, who bear one another’s burdens, who seek to build up one another in love, who “have the same thoughts in relation to one another that they have in their communion with Christ.” It is all this because it is the living embodiment of Christ’s own Spirit. This is a high and mystical doctrine, but a doctrine which has no meaning apart from loving fellowship in real life. A company of people who celebrate a solemn sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, and all the time are moved by selfish passions—rivalry, competition, mutual contempt—is not for Paul a Church or Divine Commonwealth at all, no matter how lofty their faith or how deep their mystical experience; for all these things may “puff up;” love alone “builds up.”

In the very act, therefore, of attaining its liberty to exist, the Divine Commonwealth has transcended the great divisions of men. In principle, it has transcended them all, and by seriously living out that which its association means, it is on the way to comprehending the whole race. Short of that its development can never stop. This is the revealing of the sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting.

... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 144-145 (see the book; see also 1 Cor. 8:1; Rom. 8:22; 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 1:10; 11:33; Phil. 2:5; more at Bearing, Burden, Church, Communion, Community, Contempt, Fellowship, God, Love, Mystic, People, Revelation, Sacrament, Selfish, Spirit)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 07/27/18

Fun stuff

Tweet this      

     CQOD is now available to include on your personal home page, blog, or church web site—perfect for a sidebar.
     To display CQOD on your web site, updating daily, copy the line below and paste directly into the position that CQOD should appear:

     <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cqod.com/js/"></script>

     To display this particular quotation on your web site, copy the line below and paste directly into the position that CQOD should appear:

     <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cqod.com/js/index-09-07-05.js"></script>

     For more information, see CQOD Web Home

    Previous day’s CQOD (Dodd)
    Following day’s CQOD (Augustine)
    This month’s CQODs

 
    CQOD for today
    CQOD on the go!
 
    Use our double opt-in listserve to receive CQOD by email
 
    CQOD daily index
    All monthly archives
    What’s New on CQOD
    Author index
    Title index
    Poetry index
    Scripture index
    Subject index
    Search CQOD (or see below)
    CQOD Blog
 
     CQOD RSS
 
     Facebook CQOD Fan Page  
     Follow CQOD on Twitter  
     Follow CQOD on Instagram     About CQOD
    CQOD on the Web
    CQOD FAQ
    CQOD Liturgical Calendar
 
    Mere Christianity: a conversation
    Simple Songs for Psalms
    Quotations Bible Study
    Essays Archive
    Bookworms
    Spotlights
 
    Publications:
    Jonah: a miracle play
    Ruth: a play
 
    Also visit these organizations:
    Arab Vision
    Crescendo
    Oratorium
    More devotionals
 
    Search CQOD: