The Word made flesh makes man devine

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

Today, December 30, as our Church celebrates the Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas, we are invited to first read and reflect on a passage from the letter of the apostle Paul to the Colossians (1: 15—2:3) entitled “Christ, the head of the Church; Paul the servant of the Church”. Our treasure, which follows, is from a treatise On the Refutation of All Heresies by Saint Hippolytus, priest.

Saint Hippolytus is one of the most important second–third centuries Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Saint Hippolytus is accorded special recognition in Church history: Not only is he the first antipope but he is also the only antipope ever canonized! In its first several centuries, the Church dealt with crises both external and internal. Externally, the Church suffered for nearly 250 years under the violent persecutions of Roman emperors, begun under mad Nero in A.D. 64 and finally stopped under Constantine in 313. Internally, the Church wrestled with heresies, schism, and matters of discipline. One of the main issues of disagreement in those early centuries concerned the treatment of the faithful who committed serious sins or who apostatized during the persecutions.

Saint Hippolytus did not suffer from indecision, and he looked to the Roman pontiff to make a quick and authoritative decision concerning the heresy known as Modalism. Hippolytus wanted Pope Zephyrinus and later his successor, Callistus 1. to rebuke and condemn the Modalists, and grew upset when they failed to do so. Hippolytus was so angered by the election of Callistus as pope that he decided to embark on a path that would impact the Church throughout its history. He claimed that Callistus was unworthy and gathered a group of followers who elected him pope. In so doing Hippolytus opened the door to the concept of the antipope, which would rear its ugly head throughout Church history but most devastatingly during the Great Western Schism of the fourteenth century.

Hippolytus’s schism lasted for nineteen years and through three pontificates. As a rigorist who did not believe that serious sinners should be re-admitted to communion in the Church, he refused to accept the more-merciful approach of Callistus and his successors.

In 235, Thrax was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Germany. Shortly afterwards, he turned his attention to the Church and a persecution erupted that targeted the clergy. The reigning pope, St. Pontian, and the “anti-pope” Hippolytus, were arrested and sent to the mines on the island of Sardinia. Amidst the suffering and hardship of the mines, Hippolytus renounced his schism and papal claim and was reconciled to the Church by Pontian. Both men later succumbed to the harsh conditions, and their remains were transported for burial in Rome, where they were recognized as martyrs and saints of the Church. Hippolytus is considered a martyr of Rome and was given the rank of a priest, not of a bishop, an indication that He was reconciled to the Church before his martyrdom. His unique case provides an example of repentance and reconciliation for those who have separated themselves from the Church.

The Refutation of All Heresies is a precise Christian controversial work of the early third century, whose attribution to Hippolytus of Rome. It catalogues both pagan beliefs and 33 gnostic Christian systems deemed heretical by the author/s and/or compiler/s, making it a major source of information on contemporary opponents of Christian orthodoxy as understood today.

Saint Paul’s letter is addressed to a congregation at Colossae in the Lycus Valley in Asia Minor, east of Ephesus. At the time of writing, Paul had not visited there, the letter says. The community had apparently been established by Epaphras of Colossae. Problems, however, had arisen, brought on by teachers who emphasized Christ’s relation to the universe (cosmos). Their teachings stressed angels; “principalities and powers”, which were connected with astral powers and cultic practices and rules about food and drink and ascetical disciplines. These teachings, Paul insists, detract from the person and work of Christ for salvation as set forth magnificently in a hymnic passage and reiterated throughout the letter. Such teachings are but “shadows”; Christ is “reality”.