The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20150104

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One of the differences between our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic faith and Roman Catholicism, is our sacramental theology – our understanding of how the Mysteries are performed. In our Eastern experience of Christianity, there is no thought of trying to pin-down the exact moment when God, in His loving kindness, transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. The same is not true about Western Catholicism. It believes that the consecration of the Gifts takes place by the repetition of the Words that Jesus used during the Last Supper and recorded in the New Testament. When the AMEN is said at the end of each proclamation of Jesus words, each gift is transformed. This was defined when a sacramental theologian posed the hypothetical situation where a priest might die while proclaiming the words of Jesus. It was necessary to know if the gifts were consecrated or not.

It is the Eastern Church’s understanding that all the Mysteries transpire only by the action of God as Trinity. So, besides praying to the Father and remembering the words of the Son, we must invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the Gifts. This is in agreement with the Eastern Church’s understanding of the Trinity. While the Son is the Word of the Father, the Word has power to transform because of the Spirit. All Three Persons actively participate in the transformation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

You will recall that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon His followers in order to make all of His teaching real and to give to the Church the power to truly worship God. (By the way, in saying this I do not want to imply that one way of thinking is right and the other wrong. They are both right, albeit they are different. I know that this might be difficult to understand since we humans seem to think in absolutes).

I have tried by my priestly actions to give indication of this Eastern way of thinking about the consecration of the bread and wine. After the Epiclesis any bows that I make are more profound in recognition of the Real Presence.

The Epiclesis (also spelled epiclesis from the Ancient Greek: ἐπίκλησις or invocation or calling down from on high) is that part of the Anaphora by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit (or the power of His blessing) upon the Eucharistic bread and wine. It is our belief that Jesus Christ is really present in the elements of the Eucharist and that His presence is not merely symbolic, metaphorical or by his activity alone, ideas common amongst the Radical Reformers in the West and their followers.

The Real Presence is an important concept which I shall try to elucidate in the next issue. It is something we believe!

The Call To Holiness — 20150104

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As I have attempted to indicate, the Call to Holiness is a call to the Spiritual Journey wherein metanoia is a critical factor – that is wherein the changing of our hearts and minds to more closely imitate Jesus Christ is the goal. For the true goal of the spiritual journey is a deep and healthy relationship with God and neighbor. To achieve this goal a person has to give shape           consciously to the pattern of his or her life and strive to transform that pattern with the help of the many obstacles that life presents. This means learning from the challenges of life. The only way that this is really accomplished is with personal discipline.

Personal discipline is the deliberate decision to employ certain patterns of action. All significant          relationships require both spontaneous expressions of love and deliberate planning by the persons involved.

Throughout the history of Christianity, various practices or patterns of living have been recommended to people who have embarked on the spiritual journey. Jesus Himself practiced and suggested prayer, fasting and giving to the poor. Such learned practices, or     disciplines, are intended to help people remember and reinforce the movements of God in their lives. They also help people to begin to think about their spiritual lives and their attempts at imitating Jesus Christ.

In most people’s minds, the meaning of the word discipline is negative: punishment in response to misbehavior. However, in its root meaning, it has the much more positive connotation of being an avenue of learning. In academic circles, people major in certain disciplines, that is certain branches of study. To learn a certain fields of knowledge, takes discipline. The call of John the Baptizer, which was taken up by Jesus after His Baptism, was a call to spiritual   discipline: Change your hearts and minds.

Christian discipline is practiced attention to the management of our lives in light of the commitments we have made, especially the committed attachment to the Lord. We need to learn how to remember and enflesh that committed attachment, whether considering the simple routines of daily life or the more critical and dramatic decisions. Discipline gives rise to the particular practices by which we pay attention to our commitments. They are the means to an end on the spiritual journey. They should not be considered ends in themselves, nor are they a measure of spiritual growth. Love is the only measure of spiritual growth. When we can say that it is our intention to learn how to love all others unconditionally, we can say we are beginning to spiritually grow. It begins with our intentions!

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20150104

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Gospel-of-Matthew-BannerIn the last issue I suggested that the last three sentences of Matthew’s Gospel combine affirmation, imperative and promise. I shared with you the affirmation that is there. The affirmation was that Jesus proclaimed that He had been granted “all authority in heaven and on earth. Then follows the imperative.

Imperative: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” This is commonly known as “the Great Commission” and has been the classic foundation for Christian missionary work, especially since about 1800 and the birth of the modern missionary movement. Its purpose has been to convert the whole world to Christianity.

In Matthew, “nations” has a more limited meaning. In first-century Judaism and Christianity, it meant “Gentiles.” It did not mean then what it means today when we speak of the nations of the world. Rather, Matthew was affirming the validity of the mission to Gentiles, even though Jesus during His earthly life restricted His mission to Jews and told his followers to do likewise. Now, as the gospel ends, the risen Christ authorizes the mission to non-Jews.

 Promise: In the final words of the gospel, the Jesus of Matthew promises his followers: “Remember, I am with you     always, to the end of the age.” The ending returns to a theme announced at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. In his story of Jesus’ birth, he names Jesus as “Emmanuel” (citing Isaiah 7:14) and explains that it means “God is with us” (1:23). Now the risen Christ says the same thing about Himself in first-person language: I am with you always. Jesus is Emmanuel, “God With us” Thus Matthew ends.

The gospel of Matthew does not produce well-balanced parts. Compared to Mark and Luke, Matthew is more obviously artificial, even contrived in its arrangement (recall that it has five parts that parallel the five books of the Torah). This does not imply that Mark and Luke are without any artificiality in their arrangement of the material. Even Mark, who seems to be most naïve and unstudied of the Evangelists, has arranged his narrative in an order other than the simple order of events. Matthew apparently wishes to make it clear that his arrangement is his own. He emphasizes the sayings of Jesus both in discourses and in narratives. This interest in his teaching is in sharp contrast to Mark. The same interest appears in Luke and John is almost entirely a report of the discourses of Jesus.

It is no accident that the words of Jesus are quoted more frequently from Matthew than from any other Gospel. Matthew was deeply interested in Jesus’ teaching.

Learning Our Faith from the Fathers of the Church — 20150104

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As I have shared with you, it is our belief that it was through a Hypostatic Union that God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, is both God and Man. The hypostatic union implies that the Logos made humanity His own in its totality; thus the Second  Person of the Trinity was indeed the subject, or agent, of the   human experiences, or acts, of Jesus. The controversy between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius concerning the term Theotokos, applied to the Virgin Mary, concerned essentially this very problem. Was there, in Jesus, a human person whose mother could have been Mary? Cyril’s answer –   emphatically negative – was, in fact, a Christological option of great importance. In Christ, there was only one Son, the Son of God, and Mary could not have been the Mother of anyone else. She was, therefore, indeed the “Mother of God.” Exactly the same problem arose in connection with the death of Christ. Impassibility and immortality were indeed characteristics of the divine nature. How, then, asked the theologians of Antioch, could the Son of God die? Obviously, the “subject” of Christ’s death was only His humanity. Against this point of view, and following Cyril, the fifth Council (553) affirms: “If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity, let him be anathema.” This conciliar text, which paraphrases 1 Corinthians 2:8 (If they had understood, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory), inspired the hymn “The Only-Begotten Son,” attributed to Emperor Justinian and sung at every Byzantine Eucharistic Liturgy: “One of the Holy Trinity, You were crucified for us.”

Theopaschism – the acceptance of formulae which affirm that the “Son of God died in the flesh” – illustrates how distinct the concepts of hypostasis and nature or essence really are. The distinction is stressed by one of the main Chalcedonian theologians, Leontius of Jerusalem: The Logos is said to have suffered according to the hypostasis, for within His hypostasis He assumed a passible human essence besides His own impassible essence, and what can be asserted of the human essence can be asserted of the hypostasis. What this implies is that the characteristics of the divine essence – impassibility, immutability, etc – are not absolutely binding upon the personal, or hypostatic, existence of God. The affirmation that the Son of God indeed “died in the flesh” reflects, better than any other Christological formula, the boundlessness of God’s love for man, the reality of the “appropriation” by the Logos of fallen and mortal humanity – i.e., the very mystery of salvation.

While this may be difficult to understand, I would encourage you to not give up and wrestle with it.

Getting to Know Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Faith – 20150104

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The word Theophany, in ancient Greek (Θεοφάνεια, Theophaneia) means a vision of God – a historical event that manifested God’s existence. There have been many different theophanies in human history for people who believe there is a God. Judaism recognizes a number of different theophanies in its history.
The feast of Theophany is one of the unique Christian feasts in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church that joins it solidly to Eastern Christianity. All Orthodox and Apostolic Churches celebrate Theophany, the commemoration of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River and God’s manifestation of Himself as Three-In-One and Jesus as the Son of God, This event revealed to humankind that God is a part of His creation. Theophany is the second greatest feast in our Church. It is only surpassed in solemnity by the feast of Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus.

Instead of the feast of Theophany, Western Christianity celebrates Epiphany which literally means in Koine Greek (ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia), that is the striking appearance or manifestation of God. It celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ by remembering principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. This event for Western Christianity is God’s physical manifestation to the Gentiles as Jesus, the Christ.

Although the God of Christianity is One, He is also Three Distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Because He is Three Distinct Persons, He could become incarnate as a human. Theophany is the revelation of this truth and reality!
If you think about this, you will realize how interconnected the belief in God as a Trinity of Persons is to the belief that Jesus is truly God and Man. The two beliefs are inseparable. When you listen to the story about Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan you easily come to the understanding that He is both God and Man. You sense Him experiencing baptism like other humans and also hear the voice of the Father saying that Jesus is His beloved Son. The story then describes a Dove that descends on Him, which represents the Holy Spirit. You also sense, by Jesus’ baptism, that He agreed to continue the message of John the Baptizer who proclaimed: Change your hearts and minds for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
John was recognized as a prophet of Yahweh, the Jewish name for God. Jesus, because He takes up this same message, establishes the fact that He is the same God and that He actually came into the world to humankind understand the meaning and purpose of earthly existence.

Earthly existence, it is reavealed, is only a fraction of eternal life! Earthly life is a school for humans to learn how to become spiritual persons. To be a spiritual person we must learn how to think and act as a child of God – we must learn how to be like Jesus and love others as ourselves so that we can love God.

DAY OF FAST AND ABSTINENCE

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It is a tradition of our Church that the day before Theophany, that is Tuesday January 5th, is a day of strict fast and abstinence: no meat or dairy products should be eaten. While we will celebrate this feast on January 6th and also on Sunday January 10th, we are still encouraged to observe the fast on January 5th. Again, common sense must be used in regard to the strict observance of this tradition. If you are sick or aged then observing this fast should be omitted. If you do not observe the fast, however, you should attempt to make that day special by prayer.

 

December 28, 2014

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OUT OF EGYPT I HAVE CALLED MY SON

Flight Into Egypt

Flight Into Egypt

It should be noted that the Church uses the Gospel of Matthew to relate the story of Jesus’ birth. In Matthew’s account, which differs from Luke’s, Joseph is the central and the active figure. He is also the recipient of God’s revelation which comes to him several times through the appearance of an angel in a dream. The dream motif recurs again in today’s Gospel reading which relates both the departure to and return from Egypt.

In relating this story, Matthew quotes from the prophet Hosesa of the Old Testament: Out of Egypt I have called my son (Hos. 11:1). The original refers to the call of the Exodus. Jesus is presented as re-enacting, in his own life, the career of Israel, for He is the new Israel. Jacob was given the name Israel which means Triumphant with God.

Again in relating this story of the flight into Egypt, Matthew recalls the prophet Jeremiah (31:14). The original text refers to the destruction of the monarchy of North Israel by the Assyrians in 721 BCE.

By structuring his Infancy Narrative the way that he does, Matthew encourages his readers to see Jesus as the New Moses who frees all humankind from the bondage of sin and leads them to the   freedom of God’s Kingdom which truly becomes real when humans live as Jesus lived. The followers of Jesus are the new Israel. The return from Egypt is dated after the death of Herod (4 BCE) Herod’s kingdom was divided by Augustus among three of Herod’s surviving sons, Archelaus (Judea, Samaria, Idumea), Herod Antipas (Galilee and Perea) and Philip (territory East and North of Galilee). At the petition of the Jews, Augustus denied the tile of king to Archelaus and gave him the title of ethnarch. Archelaus’ government was so unsatisfactory that he was deposed and exiled to Gaul in 6 CE. The warning given that was given to Joseph in a dream explains why Jesus, although born in Bethlehem, was reared in Galilee and was known as a Galilean.

Luke, which agrees with Matthew both on Bethlehem and Galilee, explains the relation of the two places in a different way: Joseph and Mary were originally residents of Galilee and were only temporary visitors to Bethlehem when Jesus was born. Bethlehem, House of Bread, was the place where David was crowned king. So Jesus had to be born there. It is important to note that the tragic episode of the Innocents is mentioned in no other literature, canonical or profane.

More will be shared about this in next week’s Bulletin.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20142128

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In the last issue of this article, which was before the feast of Christmas, I had already introduced the Holy, Holy, Holy prayer which takes place near the beginning of the Anaphora. It is the prayer, according to St. John’s Book called Revelations, that the angels are constantly singing before the Throne of God. It is a song of praise! It also conveys the image of us standing in the presence of God and offering Him praise. The Holy Table, as you will recall, is also called the Throne of God in our Eastern Church.

Again, I would encourage you to let your imagination enhance your worship but trying to envision standing before the Throne of God and joining together with all the Cherubim and Seraphim in singing this song of praise.

Once we have offered praise to God, Who is Triune, we then begin a sequence of prayers which are directed first to the Father, then remembering the words of the Son, and finally invoking the Holy Spirit to transform the gifts we have brought (i.e., bread and wine) like Jesus did on the night before He surrendered His life in order to reveal to humankind the truth about human life.

The first prayer after the Holy, Holy, Holy, reminds us that we address the Father together with the angels: with these blessed, power, O loving and kind Master. In this prayer Master refers to the Father. The prayer then indicates that we offer praise to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It also expresses the fact the Father gave Jesus, His only-begotten Son, to the world as a human so that we might learn what we need to know about living and not   perish because we have missed the mark.

At that point the prayer recalls what the Father accomplished by sending the Son into the world: fulfilling the whole divine plan concerning us.

Have you ever wondered what the whole divine plan is concerning us? I think that it is critical that we think about what our ideas are about the divine plan. If we are ever to spiritually grow, we have to think about these things. For now, I would just like to throw out this challenge to my readers: What, in your estimation, is the whole divine plan concerning us human beings? This may require you think about the meaning and purpose of your life on earth! This may require you to think about who you are in God’s Kingdom! This may require that you think seriously about why you were created!

After the prayer provides this statement of why the Father sent the Son into the world, we remember quite distinctly what the Son did on the night before he surrendered Himself for the life of the world. We actually remember, at this point, the words reported by the Gospels that Jesus used.

Mystical Supper

Mystical Supper

Learning Our Faith from the Fathers of the Church — 20142128

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In this article before Christmas, I shared with my readers the debate that the Church Fathers had about finding just the right words to express Who Jesus is. The words they chose are Greek philosophical terms that have a very definite meaning. The main term used to define Jesus as fully and completely God and Man simultaneously, is hypostasis. The fact that the notion of hypostasis is irreducible to the concepts of particular nature, or to the notion of individuality, is   crucially important not only in Christology but also in Trinitarian theology.

Hypostasis is the personal, acting source of natural life; but it is not nature, or life itself. In the hypostasis, the two natures of Christ accomplish a union without confusion. They retain their natural characteristics; but, because they share a common hypostatic life, there is a communication of idioms, which, for example, enables some of Christ’s human actions – words or gestures – to carry consequences which only God could have provoked. The clay made out of His spittle, for example, restores sight to the blind man.

St. John Damascene wrote: Christ is one. Therefore the glory which naturally comes from the divinity has become common to both natures thanks to the identity of hypostasis; and through the flesh, humility has also become common to both nature, but it is the divinity which communicates its privileges to the body, remaining itself outside the passions of the flesh.

While I realize that this might be difficult to understand, I would encourage all of my readers to make an attempt to connect with the logic of the Fathers. I believe it is critical that we believe that Jesus IS both divine and   human and I think it helps if we have some words that we can use to express this. I would add that we should always remember that our concept of God allows for the fact that He could truly accomplish this mystery because it is not illogical. It is not illogical because the Fathers found the words and ideas to express this most important mystery of our faith. We have to always remember that there are many humans who cannot embrace the idea that Jesus was both God and Man and that as God He did not dictate how He lived as man. This is important, I believe, because without this understanding we could never attempt to Live Like Jesus Lived. It is essential to our faith, I believe, that we see Jesus as someone we can imitate. We CAN live like He lived, unconditionally loving others as ourselves and not judging them. The key to our spiritual growth is that we can imitate the MAN Jesus IS and become more like the GOD Jesus IS. That is the whole idea of Theosis, the process wherein we learn how to live more like Jesus lived and become more God-like.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20142128

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A very important word in Eastern Christian spirituality is the word synergy. Eastern Christian theologians use this New Testament Greek word synergy to express the biblical teaching that God does not force His grace upon us, but, rather, guides and strengthens us after we submit to His will. Synergy is derived from the word synergoi, fellow workers with God, used by Paul in First Corinthians (3:9). It comes from two Greek words: syn, meaning with; and ergon, meaning work. We cooperate. God works with us. We work with Him.

St. Isaac the Syrian said: For the Christian no thought, no feeling, no action can come from the Gospel without the help of God’s grace. Man, for his part, brings the desire but God gives the grace, and it is from this mutual activity, or synergy, that Christian personality is born.

It is critical for us to understand that God wants free-will partners. This is precisely why He created us with free will. He created us to be His children, His sons and daughters, not His servants or blind slaves. The only way that love can be truly real is if it is freely given.

Once we come to know God, however, we do become His servants, but we do it willingly, out of love. St. Macarius of Egypt says that the will of man is an essential condition, for without it God does nothing. St. James says (4:8): Draw near unto God and He will draw near unto you. What James means when he says draw near to God, is obedience. Faith begins with obedience, that is freely given. We must   understand, however, that God’s will is that we will freely return His love because we learn how much He loves us. How can we refuse to freely return love when we experience it?

The problem is that we sometimes think that God’s love is only expressed when He rescues us from challenges and problems. God is not an enabler. He calls us to be adult children, that is people who rely on His support but do not expect Him to rescue us from life. If He rescued us, we would never learn to trust in Him.