Learning Our Faith from the Fathers of the Church — 20141019

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Byzantine Christology (i.e., study of Christ) has always been dominated by the categories of thought and the terminology of the great controversies of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries about the person and identity of Jesus Christ. These controversies involved conceptual problems, as well as the theological basis of life. n the mind of Eastern Christians, the entire content of the Christian faith depends upon the way in which the question Who is Jesus Christ? Is answered.

The first five ecumenical councils, which issued specific definitions on the relationship between the divine and the human natures in Christ, have at times been viewed as a pendulant development: from the emphasis on the divinity of Christ, at Ephesus (431); to the reaffirmation of His full humanity, at Chalcedon (451); then back to His divinity, with the acceptance of Cyril’s idea of Theopaschism, at Constantinople (553); followed by a new awareness of His human energy or will, again at Constantinople (680), and of His human quality of describability in the anti-iconoclastic definition of Nicaea in (787). Still, the opinion is often expressed in Western theological literature that Byzantine Christology is crypto-Monophysite, and offered as an explanation for the lack of concern among Eastern Christians for man in his secular or social creativity.

To affirm that God became man and that His humanity possesses all the characteristics proper to human nature, implies that the Incarnation is a cosmic event. Man was created as the master of the cosmos and called by the creator to draw all creation to God. His failure to do so was a cosmic catastrophe, which could be repaired only by the creator Himself.

Moreover, the fact of the Incarnation implies that the bond between God and man, which has been expressed in the Biblical concept of image and likeness, is unbreakable. The restoration of creation is a new creation, but it does not establish a new pattern, so far as man is concerned; it reinstates man in his original divine glory among creatures and in his original responsibility for the world. It reaffirms that man is truly man when he participates in the life of God; that he is not autonomous, either in relation to God, or in relation to the world; that true human life can never be secular. In Jesus Christ, God and man are one; in Him, therefore, God becomes accessible not by superseding or eliminating the humanum, but by realizing and manifesting humanity in its purest and most authentic form.

Jesus is the revelation of how humans should live. Jesus is the revelation of the union between God and man. Jesus is the ultimate model of how humans should live in order to spiritually grow!

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Religious procession to be held in Lviv on occasion of the UGCC’s legalization anniversary

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary since the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church left the underground, a religious procession will be held in Lviv on October 19, 2014.

The Archeparchy of Lviv says that the procession will be held to “commemorate this momentous event, and to raise prayers to Merciful God for the gift of peace and freedom for the peoples of the world.”

The procession will start at 15.00 at the Church of St Michael the Archangel (str. Vynnychenka 22 m. Lviv), the Information Department of the UGCC has reported.

RISU information: At the beginning of the Second World War the UGCC had 2387parishes and 3.6 million faithful, 2352 diocesan priests, 31 men’s monasteries and 121 woman’s convents and monastic houses. The Theological Academy and three seminaries, where 480 students were enrolled, acted under the auspices of the Church.

After the failure of the attempt to force the bishops to deny communion with Rome, on March 9-10, 1946, the Soviet authorities gathered under the pain of death 216 priests at the Cathedral of St. George (the spiritual heart of the Western Ukraine), where the so-called “Synod of Lviv” took place. The meeting abolished the Union of the Council of Brest, in which the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church officially entered into the church communion with the Holy See. In the same meeting the Church was forcibly annexed to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Punitive authorities arrested and deported to labor camps hundreds of priests, monks, nuns and faithful laymen, often with their wives and children. Between 1946 and 1989 the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church was the largest outlawed church in the world. At the same time it was the largest structure of public opposition to the Soviet system in the USSR.

Despite severe persecution, the Church continued to live underground as a carefully worked out system of secret seminaries, monasteries, parishes and youth groups until it was legalized on December 1, 1989.

http://risu.org.ua/en/index/all_news/catholics/ugcc/57910/

October 12, 2014

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The Lord was moved with pity upon seeing the widowed mother and said to her “Do not cry.”

hijo-viuda-naim-02Today’s Gospel story relates just one the typical random acts of kindness that Jesus did during His lifetime. He made a habit of responding with love to those He sensed were in some need. Luke’s Gospel clearly presents this miracle as such an act. It states that Jesus, seeing the widowed woman’s grief, took it upon Himself to do something to lessen her grief. He brought her son back to life so that she would not be alone and without a source of support.

Key to understanding this miracle story is the fact that the woman was a widow and the young man who died was her only son and her only support. In the time of Jesus widowed women who did not have a male child to support her became an outcast and/or even homeless. Women were not allow to go outside the home and find a job to support themselves.

While this miracle story only appears in Luke’s Gospel, it shows the evangelist’s special delight in portraying Jesus not only as overwhelmed with pity at the sight of tragedy but also turning with kindly regard toward women. At the time of Jesus a it was against cultural mores for a Jewish man to approach an unknown woman in public, let alone console her. Jesus had the courage of His convictions and did   not allow societal rules to eliminate His random act of kindness. There is nothing to suggest that the woman even knew who Jesus was or that Jesus new her. Naim was two to three hours by foot SE of Nazareth and about eight to nine hours SW of Capernaum.

This narrative possesses the charm, color and pathos of an excellent story: two large crowds meet, approaching from different directions; the silence with which Jesus touches the bier and stops   the funeral procession; the thundering message, calmly spoken, bringing the dead young man back to life.

The word Lord is used here for the first of many times in Luke. This word is the Greek translation for the divine name, Yahweh. It is very appropriately used on this occasion when Jesus appears clothed with that exalted power over life and death by which He becomes the object of His follower’s faith and worship.

What message can we derive from this story that will help us live our present lives in a more spiritual manner? First, we see how Jesus performed random acts of kindness to bear witness the God’s love. We can and must imitate His behavior if we wish to follow Him. Second, we see how Jesus didn’t allow social mores to prohibit Him from being kind to others. We can make sure that we never allow society’s values to keep us from being kind to others. And last, we see how Jesus knew the value of supporting others who are in need. We can make sure that we imitate this behavior!

Called To Holiness — 20141012

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As I have suggested, the call to holiness begins with an awareness of the longing we have for meaning and purpose. It is an unrecognized hunger or need that we       experience but don’t necessarily recognize. It comes from deep within us.

People’s efforts to meet their deepest needs, to satisfy their deepest hungers, can be compared to a journey. It is a gradual movement from being isolated and alienated to being in communion with themselves, with other people and with God. They become more and more whole. They resolve more and more of the conflict of values within themselves. They gradually come to value, prize and care for God and neighbor as much as for themselves.

Jesus told a story that helps clarify what this journey is all about:

A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ’Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me.’ So the father divided up the property. Some days later this younger son collected all his belongings and went off to a distant land, where he squandered his money on dissolute living.

In other words, the young man wanted to control his own life. He thought he knew what was best for him. He thought he knew what would make him happy. He isolated himself and alienated himself from his father. Then something happened.

After he had spent everything, a great famine broke out in that country and he was in dire need. So he attached himself to one of the propertied class of the place, who sent him to his form to take care of the pigs. He longed to fill his belly with the husks that were fodder for the pigs but no one made a more to give him anything.

Now, he was alienated not only from his father but also from himself and everyone else. He reached a crisis, and he began to dialogue within himself. He came to his senses and realized the reality of where he was and of what he had done. He assessed the situation and saw that there was nothing there for him. His spiritual journey began.

Coming to his senses at last, he said: ‘How many hired hands at my father’s place have more than enough to eat, while here I am starving! I will break away and return to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands.

Coming to this realization must have been difficult for that young man. This parable is so powerful. Think about it!

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20141012

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As I suggested in the last issue of this article, Eastern theology doesn’t spend time placing sinful acts into categories. Sin is sin. Therefore, a better way to look at sin would be the following: Are my actions, my thoughts, my attitudes, my material goods or any other thing controlling me or am I in control of them? What is even more sinful is when I fail to recognize that I am being controlled by other things!

The emphasis in the spirituality of the East is placed on spiritual growth by engaging in a variety of practices that can change our minds and hearts. The focus is not really on the elimination of sin but, rather, on the development of virtue and achieving union with God. If one is focused on these things, sin disappears.

Fathers of the first Six Ecumenical Councils

Fathers of the first Six Ecumenical Councils

It seems in the West the emphasis is on eliminating sin in order to escape eternal punishment. In the East it is all about achieving union with God, Theosis. Think about it. If you become truly focused on increasing your union with God, sin will not be a part of your life. Eastern theology does not focus so much on guilt as on mortality as the main problem of humanity. This is in concert with the Eastern Church’s understanding of man. He is not born depraved because of the sin of Adam. Rather he is born mortal and the purpose of life is to be joined to God and realize immortality. The human condition in the next life is not primarily a matter of justice, reward and punishment. God’s aim is rather to fulfill the purpose for which he created human beings, namely, to participate in His, God’s, life. This earthly life is for growth and development for this eternal communion. From this perspective it   becomes understandable that according to Irenaeus, God originally intended that humans would enter into Theosis through a natural process of growth. This process would have involved an education in love, a free collaboration with God.

Since the ultimate goal of earthly life is to become divinized, that is becoming Christ-like in our thought life and behavior, the Church encourages us to virtue, knowing that if we focus on virtue sin will not be a part of our life!

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20141012

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Picture3It was only in the fourteenth century that the altar area (i.e., sanctuary) came to be distinguished from the nave by what we now call the iconastasis. Earlier church buildings had a series of columns and or panels that served to distinguish and separate the nave from the sanctuary. Images representing Christ, Mary, angels and saints were attached to these columns or carved into these panels.

Two icons particularly associated with the altar area were Christ Pantocrator and the Virgin. Also popular was the deeis: Christ Pantocrator with the Virgin and John the Baptizer in supplication on either side.

This chancel (altar area) barrier began to be transformed in the fifteenth century into what is now regarded as the typical iconostasis. The icons of Christ and the Mother of God achieved a traditional position on the iconastasis, to the south and the north respectively of the Royal Doors. The Annunciation found a place on the Royal Doors, symbolizing the role of the Annunciation in salvation history. God’s incarnation has radically changed human history.

As one might guess, the Church then developed a whole understanding of the symbolism of the iconastasis. Although some see it as a separation of the altar area from the nave and a place where only ordained clergy can go, it has a much greater symbolism and truly supports the entire liturgical drama.

As we know, the various areas of the church building took on specific meaning. The vestibule symbolizes life before faith. The nave symbolizes the kingdom of God on earth. The altar area symbolizes the kingdom to come. Like the Temple of Israel, the altar area is seen as the Holy of Holies, the area symbolizing God’s heavenly kingdom and the place where God’s meets and interacts with His people (very similar to the Jewish Temple)

When we observe the movement of the Liturgy, we see that all things come from heaven into the world only to lead the faithful, symbolically, back to heaven. For example, the Word of God, the Gospel, is brought from heaven into the world in order to lead us symbolically back to heaven. The symbolism is that if we follow the teachings of Christ contained in the Gospels, we will be led back to heaven.

So too the entrance with the gifts of bread and wine, symbols of human life. They are brought, during the Great Entrance, from the area representing heaven into the world. But the procession does not stop in the nave. Rather, the gifts are then carried back into the altar area, heaven. All life is from God and, in the end, returns to God. Together with Jesus we offer thanks to God for the life that has been given us.

Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith — 20141012

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In the last issue of this article, we had already reached the point in history of the Reformation in the West, Martin Luther’s break with the Roman Church. At first the clergy of Rus were loyal to Orthodoxy, that is to Constantinople, rather than to the Polish Catholic monarch. Persecution of the Orthodox population, however, grew and, under pressure of the Polish authorities, the clergy of the Ruthenian Church (Rus) agreed in 1595 to the Union of Brest. By this agreement, the Ruthenian Church broke from union with the Patriarchate of Constantinople and united with the Catholic Church under the authority of the ruler Sigismund III Vasa, in exchange for ending the persecution. The union was not accepted by all the members of the Greek Church in these lands, and marked the creation of two separate Churches, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in both Ukraine and Belarus. Due to the resulting violence, the Metropolitan of the Kievan Greek-Catholic Church left Kiev early in the 17th century and settled in Navahrudak (i.e., present-day Belarus and Vilnius in Lithuania).

The final step in the full development of a particular Ukrainihagiasophialastan Greek-Catholic Church was effected by the development of the Ruthenian language (i.e., that created by Cyril and Methodius), into separate Rusyn, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages around 1600 to 1800. With the Orthodox Church being largely suppressed during the two centuries of Polish rule, the Greek-Catholic influence on the Ukrainian population was so great that in several oblasts hardly anyone remained Orthodox.

After the partition of Poland, the formerly Greek-Catholic territory was divided between Russia and Austria. The portion which came under Russian rule included Volhynia and Podolia. In the easternmost areas of Podolia the population quickly returned to Orthodoxy. Initially, Russian authorities were tolerant of the Greek-Catholic Church, allowing it to function without restraint. This situation changed abruptly following Russia’s successful suppression of the 1831 Polish uprising, aimed at overthrowing Russian control of the Polish territories. As the uprising was supported by the Greek-Catholic Church, a crackdown on the Church occurred immediately and the Church was driven into the underground. The parishes in Volhynia were forced to revert to  Orthodoxy, including the 1833 transfer of the famous Pochaiv Lavra. In 1839 the Synod of Polotsk, under the leadership of Bishop Semashko, the Greek-Catholic Church was dissolved in the Russian Empire and its properties were transferred to the Orthodox, state church.

Learning Our Faith from the Fathers of the Church — 20141012

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In order to maintain a fully balanced   view of Byzantine Mariology (beliefs about Mary, the Mother of God), it is necessary to keep in mind the Christological framework of the veneration of Mary in Byzantium. The absence of any formal doctrinal definition on Mariology allowed poets, orators and writers of liturgical texts the freedom to formulate an abundance of prayers to Mary. They also always had available in hundreds of copies the writings of the greatest of all Byzantine patristic authorities, Chrysostom, who found it possible to   ascribe to Mary not only “original sin,” but also “agitation,” “trouble,” and, even, “love of honor.” No one, of course, would have dared to accuse the great Chrysostom of impiety. So the Byzantine Church, wisely preserving a scale of   theological values which always gave precedence to the basic fundamental truths of the Gospel, abstained from enforcing any dogmatic formulation concerning Mary, except that she was truly and really the Mother of God, a term and concept that came from one of the first Ecumenical Councils. No doubt, this striking title, made necessary by the logic of Cyrillian Christology (St Cyrill of Alexandria), justified her daily liturgical   acclamation as “more honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim”.

weepingmotherofgodofthesignatnovgorodWhat greater honor could be rendered to a human being? This is why we, to this day, only address Mary with this one title, Mother of God.

We see that in the Western Church there has been a proliferation of titles given to the Mother of God. In the Eastern Church there has been descriptors give to Mary, such as greater than the Seraphim, but she has never been given a title other than the Mother of God.

The Eastern Church does believe that the Virgin Mary is an image, as St. Maximos the Confessor says, of the Christian goal of becoming Christ-like, of theosis. Just as the Theotokos gave birth to Christ in a bodily way, so we must, St. Maximos tells us, give birth to Christ in an unbodily or spiritual way. In so doing, we imitate her practical spiritual life, including the purity and humility by which she formed her free will into perfect obedience to the Will of God.

Mary is, perhaps, the most important model we have of what it truly means to be the type of human being God intended when he created humanity. It is important that we don’t rob her of her humanity. If we do, she no longer is a model that we can imitate. Just as the Church found it very important to assert that Jesus was truly a human person, so too the Eastern Church finds it important that we don’t make Mary so different from us that we cannot use her as a model of how we should live. Like her, let us say yes to God’s will.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20141012

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Drawing upon the scholarship of Marcus Borg, I have shared with you that when you consider the chronological order of the books of the New Testament (NT) seven of Paul’s Letters were written before the   Gospel of Mark. Mark was the first Gospel written. After Mark’s Gospel, the next letter to be written was that of James, known as the brother of the Lord and the first leader (bishop) of Christianity in the city of Jerusalem.

The dating and authorship of James are inextricably intertwined. The author identifies himself as James. For centuries, Christian tradition took it for grant that the author was James. According to Acts and Paul, James was the leader or head of the Christian community in Jerusalem. He was executed in the early 60s.

If this letter was written by this same James, the letter must have been written before the early 60s, thus making it earlier than any of the gospels. Indeed, some scholars argue that it could have been written in the 40s or 50s, which would make it as early or even earlier than the letters of Paul – perhaps the earliest document in the NT.

But the majority of mainstream scholars do not think the author was James, the brother of Jesus. The author does not say so, but describes himself simply as James, a servant of God and of the lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, his use of Greek language and grammar is really quite sophisticated – not impossible for a brother of Jesus from the peasant class whose native language was Aramaic, but at least somewhat unlikely.

If the author was not the brother of Jesus, then its date becomes wide open. There is no scholarly consensus. Estimates range from the 70s or 80s to as late as the early 100s. Borg places it in the 70s or 80s, later than Mark, but before Matthew, because much of James seems like early tradition. It echoes sayings of Jesus included in Matthew and Luke, but never exactly. It is likely that the author knew the teachings of Jesus from the oral tradition or from “Q” (i.e., that first manuscript of the sayings of Jesus) and not from Matthew or Luke.

Though called a letter, James does not have the typical characteristics of a letter. It was not sent to a particular Christ-community as the letters of Paul were. Rather, it was written to the twelve tribes (a traditional designation for the Jewish people) in the Diaspora (i.e., Jews living outside the homeland). Moreover, it lacks the tradition closing of a letter.

Despite it being written to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora, its audience was not Jews in general, but Christian Jews who had become followers of Jesus. That James is a Christian Jewish document is suggested not only by its content, but also by a detail in Chapter 2:2. Why not look this up and read it.