Omnia in Christo: Creating a Brighter Catholic Future

Instaurare Omnia in Christo:

Taken from the college’s motto “Instaurare Omnia in Christo,” this section features an essay or excerpt from a recent paper or talk by one of Christendom’s distinguished faculty.

Creating a Brighter Catholic Future and New Order in the Saeculum

BY MATTHEW TSAKANIKAS, STD, AND KEVIN TRACY, PHD

Christendom College’s motto is taken from the Vulgate, Saint Jerome’s translation of the Bible into Latin. It is a partial quotation from a passage in Ephesians 1:10: …instaurare omnia in Christo. English translations of the same words vary: they include “to sum up all things in Christ” and variations of “to restore all things in Christ.” The words are from one of the most theologically rich passages in one of St. Paul’s most theologically developed letters. There may be no better way for a college to dedicate itself to excellence than by centering its mission on words like these. But to communicate the mission, one must explain the meaning of instaurare.

To do that, we turn to the meaning of the Greek word anakephalaiosasthai [a-na-ke-fa-lie-OH-sas-thigh], which Saint Jerome chose to translate as instaurare. The meaning of the Greek word is an important corrective to those who might misunderstand what English translations, such as “restore all things in Christ,” are meant to convey. Like the English word “heading,” the Greek word kephalaion [ke-FA-lie-on], derived from the Greek noun for “head,” means “main point”. The verb kephalaiosasthai means giving the main point(s) of something, or summing it up. With the prefix ana-, which is like the Latin prefix re-, it has the sense of doing something over again. Thus, the verb anakephalaiosasthai means recapitulating, giving a new—usually shorter—version that clearly expresses the main point(s) of the original. That is why St. Paul uses the verb in Romans 13:19 when he, following Our Lord, “sums up” (anakephalaioutai) the commandments with a single phrase, “to love one’s neighbor as oneself.”

In Saint Paul’s usage, anakephalaiosasthai also has a deeper meaning: it connotes bringing all that needs saving into the present by purifying and restoring it inside the healing power of integration with God’s plan in Christ. It means forgiveness, reconciliation, and a new beginning through Christ’s glorious power to bring good even out of evil and past mistakes. “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). All the “main points,” the best things in human history (individual and communal), need to be brought into Christ for their saving and for their proper realization. The process involves shedding the misunderstandings and ignorance of the past and finding a new way forward through Christ. In the Pauline tradition of Saint Irenaeus, recapitulating is about lifting every aspect of creation into a new synthesis through the Incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is about renewing our minds and hearts in Christ (cf. Rom 12:2).

In the tradition of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Christendom’s motto can never mean a retreat to the past. The Thomistic tradition is clear: “all truth is of the Holy Spirit.” In its heart and soul, Christendom’s mission is to recapitulate in the deeper sense of Sts. Paul and Irenaeus, not to retreat into the past. Instaurare cannot mean returning to the past and restoring the cultural makeup of Church and State at the time of Trent (or earlier). It must mean gathering up again the structures and fragments of goodness, gathering up the new discoveries of authenticated knowledge, gathering and summing up all that makes humanity better and producing day by day a new synthesis founded in the mystery of Christ (and love of our neighbor).

Instaurare omnia in Christo means gathering all things in the daily Sacrifice of the Mass and implementing Christendom anew in today’s world. It means drawing the best from today’s and yesterday’s political systems. It means taking the best of today’s sciences and the revealed meaning of the imago dei and directing them lovingly to the development of all of humanity for the glory of Jesus Christ. Christendom is about a daily integration of faith and reason that renews and recapitulates both, as St. Thomas Aquinas did when he showed us “the right way to do theology” (Fides et Ratio #43.3).

Matthew Tsakanikas, STD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theology at Christendom College.

Kevin Tracy, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Classical and Early Christian Studies.

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