Almighty God, help me, as I prepare to celebrate Your birth as a human and Your revelation as our Triune God during the Baptism of Jesus by John, to realize that my life is a gift from You, given, not in years, but a day at a time. Today is the day the You have made for me and You may have planned it to be the most important day of my life. Yesterday is gone, never to return. I must not worry about it but leave it in Your hands. Tomorrow and all that it holds is Your secret and its coming is not assured. Only today is mine. My God, each day, arranged by You with infinite wisdom and goodness, is Your gift, Your act of love for me. In thanksgiving I offer You the gift of my life every day – my prayers, works, joys and sufferings. I humbly ask you to accept my thanks and ask Your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
O Heavenly Father, help me to prepare myself to celebrate the coming theophanic feasts that herald Your Incarnation in the Person of Jesus. In these feasts You truly revealed Yourself as Trinity and Your great love for humankind. Open my mind and heart to understand that You have revealed to me and my brothers and sisters that You are with us. Help me to prepare myself so that I may truly experience your presence in my life and in my world as I celebrate these feasts. I ask your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the man who fell in with the robbers?
The answer came,
“The one who treated him with compassion.”
Jesus said to him, “Then go and do the same.”
The Good Samaritan
In today’s Gospel, we hear one of the best known parables of Jesus. It seems that even non-Christians are aware of this parable and the message it has for the followers of Jesus. The theme of the parable is discipleship, which is supposed to be one of the hallmarks of Christianity. It highlights very succinctly what should be, in Jesus’ estimation, the conduct of a real disciple – the behavior of a follower. It is the conduct of the wise and the prudent (not just of those learned in the Law) and of the little ones.
While this parable appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, the spokesman is different in each version. He is a Pharisee in Matthew’s Gospel, a Scribe in Mark’s Gospel and a Lawyer in Luke’s Gospel. In Mark and Matthew the spokesman inquires about the great commandment in the Law. In Luke, where the Gentile-Christian audience is not overly concerned about the Law, the spokesman asks about eternal life. Because Luke changed the opening setting, Jesus’ answer makes little sense. It has to be understood in the background of the Marcan context.
The Lawyer would have the neighbor of the commandment further defined so that he would be sure of eternal life.
Jesus’ answer in the parable involves an extreme example: He compares the failure of a representative of the religious leaders (Pharisee) and an assistant in the Temple (Levite) with the unselfishness of the hated Samaritan. By doing this Jesus highlights the unlimited nature of the duty of love. In the course of the parable, he (Samaritan) who possesses the secret of eternal life turns out to be this stranger without the lawyer’s learning and concern for security and with without the dignity and status of the priestly and Levitical condition. His love was spontaneous and did not have to inquire into the Law; it was disinterested, kindly, personal and effective. It was truly compassionate.
Compassion is defined as: feeling for another’s sorrow or hardship that leads to help; and being Compassionate means: desiring to relieve another’s suffering and sympathetic to the pain of others. We are called, as followers of Jesus, to become compassionate people, showing the same compassion to others that we know that God shows to all humans and us. This is one of the basic challenges of Christianity.
Let us truly become compassionate people
Almighty God, help me to sincerely prepare myself to celebrate the coming Winter Feasts. I join with my sisters and brothers in offering this prayer as we begin this fast: Rejoice O Bethlehem and be ready O Ephrata! Behold, the Virgin is on her way to give birth to the Great Shepherd she carries in her womb. May we, who believe in Jesus as God Incarnate, open our hearts and minds so that we may truly celebrate God With Us. May we not get caught up in a materialistic observance of this wondrous feast. I ask Your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
In the last issue of this article, I tried to present the position of Ephesus (431) about the Person of Christ. As you know, the Church struggled for centuries to find the right and appropriate way to express the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus, the Christ. The Church struggled to express how God could be simultaneously equally and totally both God and man. This is the mystery that the Church struggled with. The Eastern Church came up with ways to express how Jesus simultaneously was both God and man. The asymmetry of Eastern theology reflects an idea which Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria stressed so strongly: only God can save, while humanity can only cooperate with the saving acts and will of God. However, in the patristic concept of man, theocentricity is a natural character of humanity; thus asymmetry does not prevent the fact that Christ was fully and actively man.
I would ask you who are reading this: What is our opinion and description of Jesus, the Christ? How do you explain the fact that Jesus was, and is, both God and man?
It is critical, I believe, that we understand that Jesus was wholly and fully both God and man so that we might have Jesus as an example of how to live. This means, of course, that Jesus, as God, did not control Jesus, as man. He went through the learning process as all humans do. He endured all the things of His life as humans do. Because of this, Jesus can be a model for us to imitate. He had no particular advantage in handling and accepting the struggles of life because He was also God. This is hard for most people to understand, comprehend and accept. In the history of the Church we see that the followers of Jesus struggled with this. We have to remember that all the major heresies were formulated by bishops and priests, not laymen.
In the Church Fathers, who were mainly members of the Eastern Church, the human nature of Christ is not personalized into a separate human hypostasis. This means that the concept or idea of hypostasis is not an expression of natural existence, either in God or in man, but it designates personal existence. This, I know, may seem extremely confusing. This is due to the fact that the union of the two natures in Jesus is a mystery and this is why it took the Church so long to come up with a definition of who Jesus is. Post-Chalcedonian Christology postulates that Christ was fully man and also that He was a human individual, but it rejects the Nestorian view that He was a human hypostasis, or person. In Christ, the union of the two natures is hypostatic: they “concur into one person and one hypostasis” while, at the same time, are completely distinct. That which is to come will, hopefully, make this a little clearer
In the last issue of this article I suggested that one form of prayer that we might use is memorized prayer (i.e., those prayers that we learned very early in our lives). There are, however, other types of prayer. Spontaneous Prayer is a second type of prayer. Spontaneous prayer is the natural response of the heart to the presence of God. It may arise as a result of perceiving God’s hand in nature or in some event in our lives. Often it arises from the need for help in a situation. This is a spontaneous reaching out to God in our own simple words or even in pregnant silence. It can be the result of reading and reflection on the New Testament or some other spiritual book or even some event in life.
The danger with spontaneous prayer is that it can become too restricted, limited primarily to our own needs or the needs of those close to us. It often takes the form of petitioning God for something that we want or think we need. As a result we may skip over our need to be thankful, to praise God and to ask for forgiveness. We may even confuse reading and reflecting on the meaning of Scripture with praying. Then the method which should lead into prayer becomes the object of our activity. To overcome this danger, we must open our hearts and minds to see the larger picture of God’s world and of God’s love. In this way we can talk to God about the needs and the concerns of all God’s people.
Another real danger with spontaneous prayer is, since it typically can be based on our expression of need, that we may become disappointed with God if He doesn’t answer our prayer in the way that we want. There is nothing wrong with using this type of prayer as a means of discussing the various challenges of our lives with God but not expecting Him to rescue us from these challenges. Frequently when I talk to God about my life’s struggles, without asking Him to rescue me, I find that I gain greater insight and strength to deal with the struggles. Prayer is the conversation we have with God to form a relationship with Him.
As I have tried to express in past issues of this article, the Call to Holiness is truly a Call to Take a Journey – A Journey With God. A truly Vibrant Parish or Christian Community is one that constantly issues this call to its members, always reminding them that Life’s Journey is an ascension to the Heavenly Father, accomplished through personal transformation.
One might ask: How is personal transformation really accomplished? Personal transformation is achieved by deepening our relationship with God. This is only accomplished by making our relationships with others genuine and sincere. There is an absolute connection between our relationships with other humans and our relationship with God. The two are inseparable since God makes Himself known to us through others. How we treat the least of our brothers is how we treat God.
Universal Call to Holiness
Last week I shared with those who worshipped with me, a saying which a friend sent to me. I felt the saying was absolutely powerful. I would share that again. It is: If you do not find God in the next person you meet, it’s a waste of time looking for Him further. There is absolutely so much truth in this statement! We should not fool ourselves to think that we can have a good relationship with God and hate even one of our brothers or sisters.
I know that many may find this statement difficult to accept. Many want to believe that we can truly love others but still hate a few. When I allow myself to hate even one other person I diminish my ability to truly love! The truth of the matter is that when I allow myself to hate others or be prejudiced against others, I only diminish my ability and have very little impact on those toward whom my negative feelings are directed.
I have often wondered why people allow themselves to have negative thoughts and feelings about other people, even those they believe have hurt them. Negative thoughts and feelings only sour one’s own soul, heart and mind. That is why Jesus demonstrated how to unconditionally love even those who caused Him pain and took His human life.
The Call to Holiness and to Journey with God includes a call to unconditional love for others. The reward is a deeper relationship with God and greater interior peace. It is, of course, a personal choice.
It is my hope and prayer that the communities I serve will hear this call!
We continue to look at the books of the New Testament (NT) in the chronological order in which they were written. The next book we must consider is the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew was written a decade or two after Mark, in the 80s or perhaps early 90s. Along with John, it is one of two gospels named after a disciple of Jesus. According to chapter 9 verse 9 of this Gospel, Matthew was a tax collector before Jesus called him to be a disciple. Mark and Luke tell the same story, but name the tax collector “Levi”. They could be different names for the same person. The name Matthew also appears in all the lists of the twelve disciples in the gospels and Acts.
For centuries, it has been taken for granted that this gospel was written by this Matthew, and thus by an eyewitness of the historical life of Jesus. And not just any eyewitness, but one of the inner circle of twelve.
Mainstream modern scholarship does not think this to be likely. Recall that names were assigned to the gospels only in the second century. The gospel of Matthew does not claim to be written by Matthew, one of the twelve disciples. Moreover, its date in the last decades of the first century makes it unlikely that it was written by somebody who knew the historical Jesus. Finally, the author used Mark as his major source. Would an eyewitness have done this? Would an eyewitness use a source written by somebody who was not an eyewitness?
Ultimately, however, who the author was does not matter, for all we can know can only be inferred from the way the author puts the story of Jesus together. For all practical purposes we call this Matthew’s Gospel.
In an important sense, Matthew is an expanded version of Mark. Matthew used 90 percent of Mark (about 600 of Mark’s 678 verses) in his 1,071 verses. To Mark he added birth stories (48 verses) and about 400 verses mostly of Jesus’ teaching. About 200 of those come from the manuscript “Q”, the collection of Jesus’ teaching shared with Luke. The rest are mostly sayings and parables not found in the other gospels. These include parts of the Sermon on the Mount and parables like the weeds, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great value, and the unmerciful servant and the workers in the vineyard.
Matthew’s gospel in its present form was written in a Jewish milieu, probably after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. There is also the anti-Pharisee and anti-scribe polemic in Matthew which indicates a fairly complete rift between Christians and official Judaism. By the year 85 CE Christians were unwelcome in Jewish synagogues. Matthew calls them “their synagogues” to distinguish Jewish from Christian worship. If you can, start reading Matthew’s Gospel.
In getting to know our Greek-Catholic faith better, it is important that we consider two important events that our Church celebrates during the month of November. The first is the beginning of the Nativity Fast, a period of abstinence and penance in preparation for two theophanic feasts: the Nativity of Christ (Christmas) and the Baptism of Christ (Theopany). It differs from Advent in two very significant respects: it runs for 40 days instead of four weeks and thematically focuses on the proclamation and glorification of the Incarnation of God. Advent focuses on the two comings (or advents) of Jesus, namely His birth and His Second Coming. It is called Philip’s Fast since it traditionally begins on the day following the feast of St. Philip the Apostle (November 14). So it is observed from November 15 to December 24 inclusively. While it is more difficult to observe because of Thanksgiving, I would encourage all who are reading this to make this period special in some way. This year I would like to offer a new program:
St. Philip the Apostle
A Prayer a Day for St. Philip’s Fast
I will be offering a prayer in the Bulletin for each day of the Fast to be included with any efforts you might make with abstinence or penance. You can think of abstinence as being the same as that of the Great Fast. I feel that this would be a minimal effort that can make the Nativity Fast special for us.
The second major event during November is the feast of the Entrance of Mary into the Temple. Our communal celebration will be on the weekend after the feast.
The Entrance of Mary
The chief aim of the Marian feasts is to set before us the majesty, dignity and the holiness of the Most pure Virgin Mary and her role in the redemption of the human race. This is done so that we might be inspired to imitate her.
This feast is one of the 12 major feasts of our Church. Allusions are made to this feast in the fifth century. It took, however, several hundred years before it was universally observed in the East. The Sinai Gospel of the eighth century mentions this feast. Tradition has it that she was presented to the Temple at the age of three because her parents, who were old and without children, offered thanks to God for granting them the gift of Mary
.
We praise the Mother of God!
I know that in some ways the article has been a little disjointed. I have tried to present some historical information together with some thoughts about the meaning of the Liturgy. I will be taking a slightly different approach during the coming weeks. Hopefully it will all begin to make sense. Some information may be a repetition of information I have already presented but which I feel is critical for a true understanding of the Liturgy.
Mystical Supper
For example I would stress again that the word church does not mean a place or building but, a gathering or an assembly. To assemble as a church meant, in the minds of the early Christians, to constitute a gathering whose purpose was to reveal, to realize, the Church.
This gathering is eucharistic – its end and fulfillment lies in its being the setting wherein the “Lord’s supper” is made present in time – wherein the eucharistic breaking of bread takes place. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he reproaches them for partaking of a meal other than the Lord’s supper in their gathering, or assembling for the purpose other than the eucharistic breaking of bread. He did this because it seems that the meals were getting out of hand (i.e., people were drinking too much) and did not focus on the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper. In the very beginning of the Jesus movement the breaking of bread always took place during a meal in imitation of the Last Supper that Jesus shared with His friends.
From the very beginning we can see an obvious, undoubted tri-unity of the assembly, the eucharist and the Church, to which the whole early tradition of the Church unanimously testifies. The fundamental task of liturgical theology consists, therefore, in uncovering the meaning and essence of this unity.
This task is all the more urgent in that, while this tri-unity was self-evident to the early Church, it has been diminished, many believe, in the consciousness of contemporary Christianity. Too frequently the eucharist is regarded and defined as one of the sacraments, but not as the sacrament of the assembly. Thus it is important that we attempt to return to the original meaning of the Liturgy, namely as the sacrament of the assembly and, hence, the sacrament of the Church. We must think of the Liturgy as the communal worship of us, the local expression of the Church. The Liturgy gives expression to our belief in our communion with our God and our fellowmen. We are truly Church when we join together in communal prayer. The Liturgy is not an act of various individuals but the act of the Church – the assembly of believers in Jesus Christ and the presence of God in our lives.
Think about how you feel when we gather together to pray the Liturgy.