Wonderful exchange

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Antiphon O admirabile commercium (antiphon for Vespers on the octave day of Christmas, Gregorian)

Miraculous exchange (Latin admirabile commercium ), holy exchange ( sacrum commercium ) or happy exchange ( Luther ) is a theological description of the event of redemption that forms the center of Christian faith . It denotes the inner connection of the condescendence , the descent of the Son of God from the glory of heaven, with theosis , the exaltation of fallen man to God.

Concept history

The expression does not appear in the New Testament , but the matter is stated in it many times, most clearly in 2 Corinthians 5.21 EU and 8.9 EU . The earliest evidence in Christian literature can be found in the 2nd century in the Diognetbrief (9, 5): “What a sweet exchange (ὢ τῆς γλυκείας ἀνταλλαγῆς ἀνταλλαγῆς), [...] that the injustice of many would be hidden in one righteous person and the righteousness of one single many sinners justify! "

From the beginning of Christian reflection , the exchange is understood not merely as an exchange of properties , but as an exchange of being : Jesus Christ , the eternal Son of God, empties himself from divine glory and assumes the form of a slave in the world of sin ( Phil 2: 6 –11  EU ), so that man enslaved by sin may come to divine glory. Christ makes himself a “price” in a barter trade, exchanging his own being for that of the sinner - two aspects of the same picture. This is how the word of exchange got its permanent place in the Christmas liturgy :

“Almighty God, on this holy night we offer you our gifts. Accept them and give that through the wonderful exchange we may be made like your Son, in whom our human nature is united with your divine being. We ask for this through him, Christ our Lord. ”( Prayer of gifts at Mass on Holy Night).
“O wonderful exchange! He who created man takes human life and is born of the virgin. Not conceived by any man, he comes into the world and gives us his divine life ”( Vespers antiphon on January 1st).
“In truth, it is worthy and right to thank you, Almighty Father, and to boast of your mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him you create new people and give them eternal honor. For you made a wonderful exchange: your divine word became a mortal person, and we mortal people receive your divine life in Christ. That is why we praise you with all the choirs of angels ... ”(3rd Christmas Preface ).

In addition, the word of exchange was always used when interpreting the death on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. One of the oldest Easter prefations ( Sacramentarium Gelasianum , 5th century) speaks of the fact that he accepts our death “by the law of blissful exchange” ( beati lege commercii ), but that we achieve his resurrection life. In the Easter hymn of praise Exsultet in the liturgy of the Easter Vigil one finds the formulation expressing this exchange

O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis! Ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti!
"O unbelievable love of the father: you gave the son to redeem the servant!"

The passion aspect became central in Martin Luther's theology of the cross , where the beatum commercium means “happy change”, especially in his main Reformation essay Von der Freiheit einer Christenmenschen (1520). From there the motif found its way into Lutheran Passion and Christmas carols ( Dearest of Jesus, what have you done wrong ; Praise be to you, Jesus Christ ; Praise God, you Christians all alike ).

In recent times, especially Hans Urs von Balthasar and Erich Przywara have taken up the motif and gained philosophical dimensions from it.

literature

  • Raymund Schwager : The wonderful exchange. On the history and interpretation of the doctrine of redemption . Kösel, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-466-20279-5
  • Joachim Negel : Devotion to God as "going into the other": Erich Przywara , therein (4) admirabile commercium . In: Ders .: Ambivalent sacrifice. Studies on the symbolism, dialectic and aporetic of a fundamental theological concept . Paderborn (Schöningh) 2005, pp. 138–148
  • Josef Palakeel: Admirabile Commercium . In: Ders .: The Use of Analogy in Theological Discourse. An Investigation in Ecumenical Perspective . Rome 1995, pp. 117-118
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church 526
  • Martin Herz: Sacrum Commercium . 1958

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Negel, p. 140
  2. ^ Diognetbrief, Chapter 9 (German) , Library of the Church Fathers
  3. ↑ Herz, p. 193
  4. ↑ The German version of the Second Easter Preface omits this phrase.
  5. ↑ Chapter 12, including the motif of the mystical wedding ( full text of the font ( memento of October 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  6. ↑ Negel