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Office Of Readings | Week 4, Tuesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | The First Fruits Of Resurrection In Christ
‘In Christ are the first-fruits of the Resurrection.’
In this reading from Against the Heresies, Saint Irenaeus sets out a compact and carefully reasoned account of the Incarnation and its saving purpose. His focus is on the unity between Christ and humanity, and on the resurrection as the fulfilment of that unity.
Irenaeus begins with the central claim that the Word of God became truly human in order to unite humanity to himself. Salvation is described not merely as forgiveness but as participation. Humanity could not overcome corruption and death by its own power; it required union with one who was himself free from corruption. This union, Irenaeus argues, could only take place if the Son of God truly became what we are. By assuming mortal and corruptible human nature, Christ made it possible for that nature to be transformed by his own immortality.
This transformation is described in terms of adoption. Through union with Christ, human beings receive sonship, sharing in the relationship that belongs properly to the Son. The Incarnation is therefore not incidental but necessary: without Christ’s real human birth from Mary, this exchange between mortality and immortality could not occur.
Irenaeus then turns to the biblical sign of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. What humanity could not have imagined, God freely gave. Christ descends in order to seek what was lost, using the image of the shepherd retrieving his own sheep. Humanity belongs to Christ because it is his creation, and salvation is presented as a recovery rather than a replacement. Christ’s ascent into heaven completes this work: he brings the restored human race before the Father and entrusts it to him.
The resurrection is the decisive moment in this process. Christ is described as the first-fruits of the resurrection of humanity. His rising is not an isolated event but the beginning of a larger reality. Using the image of the body, Irenaeus explains that the whole human race, as members united to Christ the head, will share in the same destiny. Diversity is not abolished: each member has its proper place, and the many rooms of the Father’s house correspond to the many members of the body.
The reading concludes with a reflection on God’s patience. Human weakness and disobedience were not outside God’s foresight. Rather, they became the setting in which divine strength and kindness were revealed. The victory achieved through the Word shows that God’s power works not by force but through restoration, leading humanity from weakness into life.
A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Irenaeus Against The Heresies | The First Fruits Of Resurrection In Christ
The Word of God became man, the Son of God became the Son of Man, in order to unite man with himself and make him, by adoption, a son of God. Only by being united to one who is himself immune could we be preserved from corruption and death, and how else could this union have been achieved if he had not first become what we are? How else could what is corruptible and mortal in us have been swallowed up in his incorruptibility and immortality, to enable us to receive adoptive sonship? Therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, the Word of the Father, is also the son of man; he became the son of man by a human birth from Mary, a member of the human race.
The Lord himself has given us a sign here below and in the heights of heaven, a sign that man did not ask for because he never dreamt that such a thing would be possible. A virgin was with a child and she bore a son who is called Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us.’ He came down to the earth here below in search of the sheep that was lost, the sheep that was in fact his own creature, and then ascended into the heights of heaven to offer to the Father and entrust to his care the human race that he had found again. The Lord himself became the first-fruits of the resurrection of mankind, and when its time of punishment for disobedience is over the rest of the body, to which the whole human race belongs, will rise from the grave as the head has done. By God’s aid it will grow and be strengthened in all its joints and ligaments, each member having its own proper place in the body. There are many rooms in the Father’s house because the body has many members.
God bore with man patiently when he fell because he foresaw the victory that would be his through the Word. Weakness allowed strength its full play, and so revealed God’s kindness and great power.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
God of life and mercy,
you sent your Word to become one of us
so that we might share in your life.
We thank you for the mystery of the Incarnation,
in which our mortal nature
was taken up and healed in Christ.
Strengthen our hope in the resurrection,
begun in him and promised to us.
Unite us more deeply to your Son,
that we may live as children by adoption
and grow into the fullness of life you desire for us.
Give us patience in weakness
and trust in your transforming power.
Through Jesus Christ,
the first-fruits of the resurrection,
who lives and reigns for ever.
Amen
Glossary Of Christian Terms
Word of God | The Son of God, through whom all things were made
Incarnation | The Son of God becoming truly human
Adoptive sonship | Sharing in the relationship of the Son with the Father
Corruption | The tendency of human nature towards decay and death
Immortality | Life that is not subject to death
Emmanuel | A name meaning ‘God with us’
First-fruits | The first part of a harvest, guaranteeing what will follow
Resurrection | The rising of the body to new life
Head and body | An image for Christ and humanity united to him
Ascension | Christ’s return to the Father in glory
Human race | Humanity considered as one body
Patience of God | God’s forbearance and enduring mercy
Divine strength | God’s power at work in salvation
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