Christian Eloquence... (06E-Sa)

   Tomorrow (Saturday's) daily Mass reading had a word that caught my attention:



Apollos is in the center, between Epaphroditus, Sosthenes,
(Apollos), Cephas, and Caesar

A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus.  He was an authority on the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.  (Acts 18: 24-25)

 

   Apollos, who is referred to in Corinthians as a contemporary of Paul, and perhaps even a 'competitor', was an eloquent speaker.  The word "eloquent" popped out at me, and as I thought about it, the only other place I could think of the use of the word "eloquent" might have been 1 Cor 13: 1, but on looking through a couple of common English translations (and then the Greek NT), no, it's not there.  "Eloquent" comes from the Latin e- (or ex-), meaning 'out of', and then loquitur which means to speak in a formal, rhetorical way (contrasted to dicere which simply means "to say").  And so, what's the Greek underneath that?  Logios, which, curiously, means "wordy".  There's some translations that give it maybe a less hostile shading (Apollos being, for instance, a "man of letters"), but the simple meaning is that he was a "wordy man".  This is a common affliction among preachers, is it not?  For what it's worth, I would count myself in company of 'wordy' folks quite often.

  It is said in the reading that he knew the baptism of John, which is the baptism of forgiveness--of being cleansed of sin in order to appear blameless before God, but there was something missing... the reading goes on to explain that he didn't know the "whole story", and the husband-wife team of Priscilla and Aquila took him aside to explain "the Way" more thoroughly.  From there, his preaching was ever more effective, "vigorously refut[ing] the Jews in public, establishing from the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus"  (Acts 18: 28).

   We don't know precisely what was said, but we have a clue.  The baptism of John was to be completed and perfected by the new Sacrament established by Christ.  Christian baptism not only cleanses of sin, but inserts the new Christian into the life of grace in the Spirit... thus, it is a baptism of water and the spirit (cf John 3: 5).  Apollos had, apparently, only received this baptism, and through Aquila and Priscilla, he would come to know the Lord more intimately in the order of grace.  It would be this knowledge of the Lord... not just the wisdom of this world and of scholarly literature, but the divine wisdom of being intercalated into the dynamism of divine love, that would bring a new energy and dynamism to the missionary work Apollos would carry out going forward.

   And so there are a few things to learn here: 1) the importance and necessity of Godly wisdom as the perfection of mere human wisdom, 2) the invitation to continue learning and growing in the Chrstian life, even when it seems we 'have it down', and 3) the primacy of having an intimate spiritual relationship with Christ (especially when engaged in ministry).

 

   Augustine offers a chapter on this very insight in his De doctrina christiana (Book IV, Chapter 5), where he asserts that Wisdom is more important than eloquence to the Christian teacher (emphases my own):

 

But as some men employ these [methods of speaking] coarsely, inelegantly, and frigidly, while others use them with acuteness, elegance, and spirit, the work that I am speaking of ought to be undertaken by one who can argue and speak with wisdom, if not with eloquence, and with profit to his hearers, even though he profit them less than he would if he could speak with eloquence too. But we must beware of the man who abounds in eloquent nonsense, and so much the more if the hearer is pleased with what is not worth listening to, and thinks that because the speaker is eloquent what he says must be true. And this opinion is held even by those who think that the art of rhetoric should be taught: for they confess that "though wisdom without eloquence is of little service to states, yet eloquence without wisdom is frequently a positive injury, and is of service never." If, then, the men who teach the principles of eloquence have been forced by truth to confess this in the very books which treat of eloquence, though they were ignorant of the true, that is, the heavenly wisdom which comes down from the Father of Lights, how much more ought we to feel it who are the sons and the ministers of this higher wisdom! Now a man speaks with more or less wisdom just as he has made more or less progress in the knowledge of Scripture; I do not mean by reading them much and committing them to memory, but by understanding them aright and carefully searching into their meaning. For there are who read and yet neglect them; they read to remember the words, but are careless about knowing the meaning. It is plain we must set far above these the men who are not so retentive of the words, but see with the eyes of the heart into the heart of Scripture. Better than either of these, however, is the man who, when he wishes, can repeat the words, and at the same time correctly apprehends their meaning.

   Now it is especially necessary for the man who is bound to speak wisely, even though he cannot speak eloquently, to retain in memory the words of Scripture. For the more he discerns the poverty of his own speech, the more he ought to draw on the riches of Scripture, so that what he says in his own words he may prove by the words of Scripture; and he himself, though small and weak in his own words, may gain strength and power from the confirming testimony of great men. For his proof gives pleasure when he cannot please by his mode of speech. But if a man desire to speak not only with wisdom, but with eloquence also (and assuredly he will prove of greater service if he can do both), I would rather send him to read, and listen to, and exercise himself in imitating, eloquent men, than advise him to spend time with the teachers of rhetoric; especially if the men he reads and listens to are justly praised as having spoken, or as being accustomed to speak, not only with eloquence, but with wisdom also. For eloquent speakers are heard with pleasure; wise speakers with profit. And, therefore, Scripture does not say that the multitude of the eloquent, but "the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world."¹ And as we must often swallow wholesome bitters, so we must always avoid unwholesome sweets. But what is better than wholesome sweetness or sweet wholesomeness? For the sweeter we try to make such things, the easier it is to make their wholesomeness serviceable. And so there are writers of the Church who have expounded the Holy Scriptures, not only with wisdom, but with eloquence as well; and there is not more time for the reading of these than is sufficient for those who are studious and at leisure to exhaust them.

 

  There's several important points to be discerned here about the necessity of God's wisdom in the Christian teacher's speech, but the most important thing is the primacy of Scriptures as an aid to both wisdom and eloquence and the perfection of Christian preaching.  Wisdom comes by a living relationship with God.

   It's the Living Word, the Wisdom of God that Apollos encountered in the small domestic church in Ephesus, which prepared him to be an even greater preacher in his later travels.  That's the Word that we encounter as we read Sacred Scriptures in our own devotion and ongoing formation.  That's the Word that is even more perfectly entrusted to our hearts through the proclamation of the Word and preaching of sacred ministers in our churches.  It is the Word that reveals the intense intimacy of the Eucharist we share every time we celebrate the Sacred Liturgy.