The Total Christ: ‘i’ And ‘thou’ In Saint Augustine

Introduction

The African world thrives on the understanding that reality is interconnected, related and in harmony. A thing exists by belonging and suffers alienation by losing its belongingness. Thus, J. S. Mbiti reflecting the African structure of things would say that “I am because you are, and since you are, therefore, I am”. This is not just a philosophy for the African, it is a reflection of the organic harmony of the human community.

This ancient image of the organic harmony of things was captured by Saint Paul in his letters: “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So, we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:4-5). Writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul adds: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body…” (1 Cor 12:12-13).

The Pauline text from 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 was at the basis of Saint Augustine’s understanding of the Total Christ (Christus Totus). In his interpretation of Saint Paul, he understands Christ as the head of this body (the Church) and we the members or part of the same body. In his commentary on Psalm 142, Sant Augustine emphasizes that the whole is Christ, meaning that the head and body is one Christ. In this sense, Christ becomes complete together with us and finds His complete expansion through us His body.

In sermon 341, there are three dimensions of Augustine’s concept of the Total Christ:

1. that Christ is God, co-eternal with the Father before His incarnation;

2. the second speaks of the post-incarnation, when God in Christ becomes man. As God and man, He becomes the Mediator between God and man;

3. the third, Christ becomes the fulness of the Church, in such a manner that we in Him become perfect human beings by our becoming Him.

In using the concepts of the ‘head’ and ‘body’, Augustine intends to point out the intimate and mystical union that should exist between Christ and the Christian in such a manner that, just as the human person realizes his concrete life through the body, the Christian faith may become manifest through the body: carrying the death of Christ in our bodies (2 Cor 4:10) and honoring God in our bodies (1 Cor 6:20).

Implications of the Total Christ

The implications of this understanding of the Total Christ in Saint Augustine for us include:

1. As Va Bavel writes: “the individual is present in the community, and the community is also thought of as present in the individual. The individual not only represents the community, but also the community represents the individual. Therefore, the individual is conscious that the good or evil that she or he does has effects on the whole group, and also the other way round: that the good or evil of the group has effects on the individual”.

2. There is a strong connection between Christ and the human person, to the point that Christ and the human person become interchangeable. The concept of ‘interchnageability’ is employed with the recognition of the substantial difference between the Savior and the saved, and absence of the fullness of divinity in the saved. It is within this context of our interchageability with Christ that He says: “Whatever you do to the least of these little ones you did it to me” (25:31-46); within the same context Jesus asks Saul: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:4). Thus, Augustine teaches: “We are him, for we are his members; for we are his body; for he is our head; for the whole Christ is head and body” (Sermon 133:8).

3. Since we are Him, in our sufferings as consecrated persons, we do not suffer alone. Saint Augustine refers to it as the ‘Universal passion of Christ’, that is when Christ suffers in our own flesh (Exp. Psalm 62, 2; 61, 4; 142, 3). When we feel deserted, He is deserted in us; when we feel poor, He is poor in us; when we feel sick, He is sick in us; when we feel hungry, He is hungry in us; when we feel thirsty, He is thirsty in us; when we feel depressed, He is depressed in us; when we are persecuted, He is persecuted in us. He has promised: “I will be with you to the end of time’ (Matthew 28:20). This relationship with us in spite of His resurrection and ascension is based on His love for us. while Christ suffer in us, we have the hope that our suffering is not the end. We shall “return to life with Him” (Rom 6:8).

4. If Christ who is the head offered himself up as a sacrifice, we too ought to offer ourselves as a sacrifice with him through the forgiveness of one another; being able to let go of hurt. When we do this, we not only manifest ourselves as a part of this body with Christ as head, but we work concretely towards preserving that body to which we are a part.

Since in Saint Augustine ‘we’ are Christ, and Christ is ‘we’, may God give us the grace to keep our unity alive and dynamic, since we are only one with Him when we preserve the unity between us and Him and with one another. It is only by unity that the ‘total’ Christ lives.