First: Faith in Christ Jesus may be considered the center of the Christian faith. Evangelism begins by talking about the Lord Jesus ( Kyrios Iesous ), for St. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus” (Rom. 10:9). He also says, “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).
Thomas proclaimed his faith, after he had asked to see Him after the resurrection and touch His wounds with his own hands, when he said, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28). And at the end of the Revelation of John the beloved, the seer proclaims the Church’s longing for the second coming of our Lord Jesus, saying, “Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
Second: This faith impels us into a sincerely loyal personal relationship with Him. Faith chiefly revolves around the sense that all my being — spiritual, psychological, and physical — delights in the divine Savior, our Lord Jesus. This personal faith lifts me to a life shared
303 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 6.5 (NPNF II/7:34) amended.
with the heavenly beings and the saints, as the apostle says, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth [hence, the heavenly beings, humans, and even the devils bow to Him in fear and humility], and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11).
Third: Loyalty to our Lord Jesus opens the gates to all the faithful to delight in the true spirit of fellowship, for there is neither a Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free (Gal. 3:28).
The apostle Paul restored the runaway slave, Onesimus, to his master Philemon, saying, “For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave — a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord” (Philem. 15–16).
The School of Alexandria began as a school for catechumens,304 including those seeking baptism from among both gentiles and Jews. Here they learned the Christian faith, engaging in a program of study to prepare them to receive the sacrament of baptism. The School opened its doors to all, enrolling people of different religions, cultures, social classes, and ages; “So, Christian education began as uniform and universal, without discrimination between classes or conditions, slaves or masters ,”305 and this at a time when slaves were cheap, a commodity to be bought and sold!
The writings of the apostolic Fathers306 testify to the deep concern of the Church from the earliest times for captives, those forced to work in the mines, and for those in prison. Thus, some of the ancient liturgies contain prayers devoted for their sakes. St. Justin307 mentions five kinds of offerings gathered after the liturgy, one of which was to help those in captivity . Aristides308 counts among the virtues of Christians that they deal with slaves as brothers and sisters, and that they work together to liberate those who are imprisoned for the sake of Christ. The scholar Tertullian309 mentions a monthly donation, some of which was distributed to meet the needs of aged slaves, those in the mines, or exile, or in prison for the faith. The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles mention the same matter.310
304 The word “catechumen” comes from the Greek word katekhoumenos , one being instructed; which in turn stems from the word katekhein , to teach orally. In the Church context, a catechumen is one who is preparing to be baptised.
305 Fr. Makary el-Souriany, Ancient and Contemporary Christian Education in the Coptic Church of Egypt , (MRE Thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1955): 3.1, p. 77.
306 See St. Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistle to the Smyrnaeans 6:2 (ANF 1:89) and Epistle to Polycarp 4:3 (ANF 1:95, 99); and The Pastor of Hermas 2.8 (ANF 2:25).
307 St. Justin Martyr, First Apology 67 (ANF 1:186).
308 Aristides, The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher 15 (ANF 10:277).
309 Tertullian, Apology 39 (ANF 3:46).
310 Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 4.1.9 (ANF 7:435).
St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote many treatises on the liberation of slaves, arguing not from the human right to freedom, but from the duty of all humanity to obey one Master, one Lord who enslaves no one, but calls all to freedom.311 And in his homily on the feast of the resurrection of the Lord Christ, he urges masters to free their slaves, as Christ’s resurrection set us free from the slavery of sin: “Now is the prisoner freed, the debtor forgiven, the slave liberated by the good and kindly proclamation of the church … You masters have heard; mark my saying as a sound one; do not slander me to your slaves as praising the day with false rhetoric, take away the pain from oppressed souls as the Lord does the deadness from bodies, transform their disgrace into honour, their oppression into joy, their fear of speaking into openness; bring out the prostrate from their corner as if from their graves, let the beauty of the feast blossom like a flower upon everyone.”312
It is befitting for all humanity to be loyal to Jesus Christ who granted us to be children of the Father through the work of His Holy Spirit in baptism. By this, slavery was abolished; not through a revolt against masters, but through the opening of the gates of faith in the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The Fathers cited
- St. Gregory of Nyssa