last week I was in Washington DC to
attend the Academy of Catholic theology
meeting our general topic was the
Trinity and they asked me to give a
paper so I chose as my topic one of my
great theological heroes st. Irenaeus of
Lyon st. Irenaeus was one of the most
important and one of the earliest of the
Church Fathers he was born probably
around the Year 120 or 125 on the coast
of present-day Turkey was Asia Minor in
those days he was a disciple of Saint
Polycarp who in turn had been a disciple
of John the Evangelist so Irenaeus is
very close to episodic times he wandered
eventually out of the east to Rome and
then up to the ohm in present-day
southern France he became the Bishop of
Lyon after the previous Bishop had been
martyred and most likely Irenaeus
himself was martyred around the Year 200
give me sense at the time he would have
been flourishing and writing at the same
time as the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and
the Emperor Commodus so in the movie
Gladiator that would have been exactly
the era of st. Irenaeus but when I took
as my topic in the paper is what I think
is the master idea in here na s and it's
this God does not need us now I realized
that at first blush can seem rather
off-putting like well that's good news
actually it's remarkably good news and
andy renee is seeing it was a very
important moment in the development of
christian theology keep in mind st.
Irenaeus was living at a time when
classical mythological religion was
invoked he knew all about the Roman gods
and goddesses who desperately needed us
what I mean is they needed our
sacrifices they needed our praise we'll
see the gods who need us eventually will
abuse us they will eventually manipulate
us for their purposes the gods who need
us are the ones who will punish us
arbitrarily who will be very upset when
we don't honor them
sufficiently etc what Irenaeus saw was
the God of the Bible is not like that
the God who made everything out of
nothing does not need anything from the
world and see what that means is that
God's relationship to the world is one
of total love as I've said a million
times and homilies and I've written
about it
love is not primarily a feeling or
emotion we look at it that way we tend
to sentimentalize love but love is an
act of the will to love is to will the
good of the other as other not to draw
the other into my little world which is
what we usually do so I say well I'll be
kind to you that you might be kind to me
I'll be good to you that you might be
just to me in return
well that isn't love that's just
indirect egotism see but the God who
doesn't need anything can only love the
world that means whatever God wills is
for the sake of the world not for his
own sake that's why Irenaeus one of the
first theologians to talk about creation
from nothing well as the same idea
really if God doesn't need anything to
create that means the entire act of
creation is an act of generous love okay
I would argue that all the Irenaeus
theology flows from this basic insight
why does God create not need but God
creates so as to share his love
generously with the world and to give
other things a chance to participate in
his own manner of being he loves the
image of God the artist so God makes the
world the way an artist creates a canvas
with all this variety all this color all
this diversity is like a great mosaic or
great painting or another of his
metaphors like a great Symphony composed
by a composer using all these different
sounds that's how and why God creates to
manifest his beauty and to give the
world a share in his own goodness now at
the summit of God's physical creation is
the human being who like all things is a
reflection of God's goodness
but there's even
or because the human being is given the
opportunity to share in God's manner of
lovely to love God in return and to love
his neighbor does God need this no God
needs nothing does God need our moral
excellence no is God desperately
affected when we don't look no no that's
not the game that's a pagan game God
wants us to love so that we might
participate in his manner of being and
that's why in the fourth book of
Irenaeus great masterpiece called the
avaricious her ASIS
it just means against the heresies he
says this the glory of God is a human
being fully alive and that's the
linchpin that's the cornerstone that's
the hinge for all of Irenaeus theology
the glory of God is not a human being in
submission not a human being doing what
he's told that's more of a pagan idea
the glory of God is a human being fully
alive because God delights in our
sharing in his goodness
we'll see that opens up a whole
different spiritual game that opens up a
whole different spiritual world of how
we learn to relate to God