A very crucial issue in the church today is how we are to understand our identity. There are two predominant movements in this direction. First an exacerbated individualism with a discourse that each person must navigate the sea of predominant ideas and create their own identity from within themselves. In this sense, it defines that our feelings constitute our true “self” and to be “authentic” it is necessary to always express them. On the other hand, living in polarized societies, we are forced to define our identity by identifying with one of the poles, antagonistic to each other. There is not much room for independent thought and we are forced to “position ourselves” with one of the two extremes. If we question the veracity of the extreme, we will find ourselves "cancelled" or in the dungeon of the discriminated ones, being the target of gunfire from both sides.
For C. S. Lewis, the solution to the lethal consequences of solitary individualism and mass ideological collectivism is the Christian life. The Christian is called not to individualism but to membership in the mystical body of Christ. A consideration of the differences between the secular collective and the mystical body is therefore the first step to understanding how Christianity, without being individualistic, can yet counteract worldly collectivism.
Lewis says that the word “member” is a term of Christian origin, but that, in society, it has been emptied of its biblical meaning. The current use of “member of a class or a club” refers to equal units within a homogeneous group, and is almost the opposite of the Pauline meaning, which according to Lewis has the idea of “organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another, things differing not only in structure and function but also in dignity”. The differences reinforce individuality and generate true organic unity.
The community we enter through baptism is not a collective but a body.
The community we enter through baptism is not a collective but a body, in which the head is so unlike its members that they share no predicate with Jesus except by analogy. As creatures we are united with the Creator, as mortals with the immortal, as redeemed sinners with the sinless Redeemer. The life we derive from our union with him must be the dominant factor in our daily lives and is, in fact, what establishes our true identity. As Jesus said:
"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
Lewis affirms: "The sacrifice of selfish privacy which is daily demanded of us is daily repaid a hundredfold in the true growth of personality which the life of the body encourages. Obedience is the road to freedom, humility the road to pleasure, unity the road to personality."
The Christian life defends our personal identity from a worldly collectivism not by isolation, but by giving us, in the mystical body, the status of an organ, which is cosmic, eternal, and shares the immortality of the head. But Lewis is careful to emphasize that this glorious achievement is not granted to us as “individuals per se,” but rather by sharing it with the Christ and that it is only achieved through the daily renunciation of the natural “self.” Thus, Christianity resolves the antithesis between worldly individualism and collectivism, with an eternal and inviolable personality. According to Lewis, “It sets its face relentlessly against our natural individualism; on the other hand, it gives back to those who abandon individualism an eternal possession of their own personal being, even of their bodies”.
True identity is given to us as we daily assume our place in the life of the whole Church.
Lewis defends the idea that “personal identity” is not a point from which we start and that we will develop it from the inside out. Individuality as the world understands it is “just a parody, a shadow of it”. True identity is given to us as we daily assume our place in the life of the whole Church, in the “structure of the eternal cosmos for which we were designed”. We are like a block of marble being carved, or like metal being shaped, but even now we have a sense of the shape we are being crafted into.
Our individual value and identity are not in us, we receive them through union in Christ. There is no point in trying to look for a place in God's living temple that suits our characteristics. We will only have our true identity when we are shaped to occupy the place prepared for us, a long time ago. “We shall be true and everlasting and really divine persons only in Heaven, just as we are, even now, coloured bodies only in the light”, when we become the pillar in the temple of God, which is described in Rev..3.12: "The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God… and my own new name."
Then, Lewis writes, “as organs in the Body of Christ, as stones and pillars in the temple, we are assured of our eternal self-identity and shall live to remember the galaxies as an old tale.”
Originally published in Portuguese by Ultimato Online and this English version for the Global Member Care Network. Republished with author's permission.
José Rosifran C Macedo. Presbyterian pastor, M.A in New Testament from Biblical Theological Seminary, USA; missionary of the AMEM / WEC Brazil since 1983. He and his wife, Alicia, were the directors of Missionary Training College, WEC Brazil's training seminary for cross-cultural workers, for 12 years, and WEC Brazil directors for 9 years. They organized the member care department and the Missionary Kids (MK) care for WEC Brazil. Since 2009, they have been coordinators of Philhos, the MK care department for the Brazilian Association of Crosscultural Missions, AMTB. Rosifran is the author of "Protecting What is Precious", a manual for the safety and protection of cross-cultural workers. He is the coordinator of AMTB Security, a member of the AMTB board, and the representative of Brazil on the Global Member Care Network board.
