Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20140824

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I have been sharing information in this article about the Gospel of Mark. As I shared with you, Mark’s Gospel begins with the baptism of Jesus by John. The gospel does not portray Jesus as publicly proclaiming his identity as Son of God or Messiah. It also does not have stories of the risen Jesus appearing to his followers. Instead his gospel ends with the story of women finding Jesus’ tomb empty and the promise that his followers will see him in Galilee. Appearance stories are found in Matthew, Luke and John but not in Mark.

How does Mark tell the story of Jesus Christ? He beings the story with a short prologue to the public activity of Jesus and then narrates it in the threefold pattern of Galilee, journey to Jerusalem, and final week, including crucifixion and resurrection.

The gospel of Mark is invaluable for grasping the essential characteristics of Jesus’ public ministry. The gospels of Matthew and Luke are better understood in the light of the data provided by Mark because of their direct dependence on him. Like the other evangelists, Mark, in addressing himself to Christian readers, places his gospel within the framework of Christian tradition on the identity of Jesus which developed during the course of the apostolic teaching. In Mark’s day, the title Christ had already become part of Jesus’ proper name; for the Gentile Christian it had the religious implication of savior or redeemer rather than Messiah, which would be meaningless to all but Jews. Data in the gospel clearly indicate that it was intended for Gentile Christian readers, or at least readers unfamiliar with Jewish customs. The date of composition is around 70 CE.

Mark’s gospel begins with a prologue which is belief.

The Prologue

The first verse is the title of the gospel: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It affirms that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah, the one promised to Israel, that he is the Son of God and that his story is good news.

One of Mark’s central themes is the Way. Italicized words emphasize way imagery: “I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. The words echo language from ancient Israel’s experience of exile in Babylon six centuries earlier. Mark’s story of Jesus is about the way, the way of the Lord, the way of Jesus and what it means to follow that way.

We must remember that neither Mark nor the early Christian community had come to know Jesus in the way that we do, which has been formed by the Council of Nicaea (325). To be a savior or redeemer had an entirely different meaning to the early Christian community

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20140824

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I sincerely believe that Eastern spirituality has much to offer humankind. I also truly believe, however, that whether we are aware of it or not, our thinking about spirituality has been highly influenced by the western world which seems to either emphasize the depravity of human beings from birth or totally disregards the need for personal transformation or change and stresses that faith is the only real prerequisite for salvation. It is all based on the notion that we humans inherit the mistakes of the very first parents of humanity and so we must work to overcome some basic deficiencies. It denies the fact that God created us humans in such a way that it requires us to learn by a method of trial and error. The first humans were not created perfect and, because of some mistake, caused all of us to be imperfect. We were created, according to Eastern spirituality, in such a manner that life allows us to grow. It suggests that God did know what He was doing when He created us with free will so that when we voluntarily embrace personal change and transformation, we may feel that we are cooperating with God.

God, in my understanding, is like good parents who supports their children in learning how to live a decent and good life. Good parents don’t try to force good behavior by the threat of punishment, realizing that this approach will never allow the child to internalize the reasons needed to support decent, right-living.
The Eastern Church espouses a spirituality which tells us that God created us as we are so that we can voluntarily embrace a program of personal transformation and, as a result, attain our greatest potential.

Theosis, the Eastern Church’s approach to spirituality, suggests that true spiritual growth is achieved when we fully realize that God is calling us to personal transformation and we, with His help, embrace this idea of personal change.
The personal change that we are called to integrate into our lives is a change in how we think and behave. It is based on a vision of our human condition and a God Who truly loves us.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20140824

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The Divine Liturgy is meant to facilitate our encounter with God. While we are led to do this by remembering what Jesus did while He was here on earth, the reason we do this is so that we might have a present encounter with him. In remembering we do not take a mythic trip into the past, nor do we drag the past into the present by repeating the primordial even in mythic drama. For the events we are dealing with are not myths but history. As such they are once and for all. There was one exodus from Egypt and one resurrection of Christ, and we can neither repeat them nor return to them. But that is not to say they are dead, static, over and done with. They created and manifested and remain the bearers of a new and permanent quality of existence called salvation, initiating a permanent dialectic of call and response between God and his people. The events that began and first signaled this divine wooing of humankind may be past, but the reality is ever present, for the promises, Scripture tells us, were made to you and to your descendants, forever. The Divine Liturgy present this challenge to each new generation, that it too may respond in faith and love to the call.
So in memorializing the past event we do not return to it nor recreate it in the present. The past even is the efficacious sign of God’s eternal saving activity, and as past it is contingent. The reality it initiates and signifies, however, is neither past nor contingent but ever present in God, and through faith to us, at every moment of our lives. And if the past event is both permanent cause and contingent historical sign of salvation, the ritual memorial is the present efficacious sign of the same eternal reality. The ritual moment, then, is a synthesis of past, present, and future, as is always true in God’s time.
What the New Testament (NT) adds to this is the startling message that God’s time has been fulfilled in Christ. So NT time is not some distinctive theory of time, but the fullness of time. What distinguishes it is its completeness; what is inaugurated is not some new philosophy of time, but a new quality of life.
Because all this is true, it is imperative that we truly sense the meaning of the words, ritual and symbols that we use when we celebrate the Liturgy. They are the means that we use to encounter God in the present moment – an encounter which has the power to bring about our salvation. Salvation, remember, means coming to know God and the one He sent, Jesus Christ. Salvation also means the establishment of communion with God and others.
Since the Liturgy is meant to truly bring us into communion with God and others, we partake of transformed bread and wine that is symbolic of true union.

Learning Our Faith from the Fathers of the Church — 20140824

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For the entire patristic and Byzantine tradition, knowledge of God implies participation in God and includes not only intellectual knowledge but the experience of being in union with God. In the monastic tradition of Macarius, this idea of participation is inseparable from the idea of freedom and of consciousness. A true Christian knows God through a free and conscious experience – a sense of a true friendship with God.

The image and likeness of God in man implies not only an openness of man toward God, but also a function and task of man in the whole of creation. Man is to bear witness to God in creation and, as revealed by God through Jesus, is to be the steward of God’s creation.

Against Origen, the Fathers unanimously affirmed that man is a unity of soul and body. The soul is not just a separate entity trapped within the body. Human beings are made up of both spiritual and physical elements which form a whole. Just as Jesus is both totally and completely God and man, so humans are completely soul and body and together these two elements equal the human person. According to Maximus, body and soul are complementary and cannot exist separately. If primarily directed against the Origenistic idea of the pre-existence of souls (this idea is directly connected with Plato’s idea of the existence of archetypes that are separate from creation), this affirmation raises the issue of the soul’s survival after death. This survival is not denied, of course, but neither is it understood as a liberation from the body, in the Platonic sense. (You will recall that Plato believed that the soul was trapped in the body and just waited to be liberated). The separation of body and soul at death is as contrary to nature as death itself, and the ultimate and eternal survival of the soul is possible only if the whole man is raised from death at the resurrection. Yet the soul’s immortality is not only directed toward the actual resurrection of the whole man; it is also conditioned by the soul’s relationship to God. The dual nature of man is not simply a static juxtaposition of two heterogeneous elements, a mortal body and an immortal soul: it reflects a   dynamic function of man between God and creation. Maximus seems to stress the independence of body and soul, not primarily in order to maintain the immortality of the soul in spite of its relationship to the body, but in order to   underline the creative will of God as the only constitutive fact for both, as well as for their unity. Man is truly man because he is the image of God, and the divine factor in man concerns not only his spiritual aspect but man as a whole being, soul and body. It is God’s infinite power that makes this possible. We remember that Jesus, even in death, remained Jesus the God-man. Death did not separate the divine and the human. A Mystery!

Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith — 20140824

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One of the unique aspects of our Church is our liturgical year – a cycle that consists of Sundays, weekdays, the feasts of our Lord, the Mother of God, the saints and the periods of fasting and forbidden times. We call the liturgical year Church Year because it contains the Church Calendar. In the Eastern Church the Church Year differs from the civil calendar in that it does not begin the New Year with the first of January as does the civil year, but begins it with the first day of September, which is called the Beginning of the Indiction.
The word indiction comes from the Latin word indictio, which literally means appeal, institution, proclamation, and announcement. An indiction was an edict of the Roman Emperors used to determine the land tax throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine the Great established it as the first day of September.
The Fathers of Nicea (325) adopted the first of September as the opening of the New Church Year and this day has been observed in the Eastern Church to the present time (On the Julian and Gregorian calendars).
The Church Year is so arranged that its central place is occupied by our Divine Savior. Around Him are gathered all the angels and saints. Every week, on the day which she has called the Lord’s Day, the Church deeps the memory of the Lord’s resurrection, which she also celebrates once a year, together with His blessed passion. This day is called Easter or the Great Day or Pascha!
Within a cycle of a year, moreover, the Church unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and the coming of the Lord.
The Most Pure Mother of God, who has been accorded the most prominent place after Christ in the work of redemption, also stands nearest to Christ in the Church Year. This is evident in the various feasts in her honor.
Around the persons of Christ and Mary we see the grand choir of the Church Triumphant, that is all the saints of the Old and New Testaments. It should be noted that the Eastern Church has a different calendar of saints than the Western Church.
The Church also commemorates her children who have departed into eternity and are not formally recognized as saints. For this reason there are special days throughout the year that are called Souls Days, on which she offers prayers and special memorial services for the departed.
Our Church Year is a mighty hymn of honor and glory to God. It resembles a great spiritual book that teaches us in a practical manner how to praise, love and serve God. The Church desire that the cycle of the Church Year be for us an ever-present preacher and teacher of God’s love for all humankind. It is designed to help us remember (Anamnesis) all God has revealed to us through Jesus Christ!

Beheading of John the Baptizer

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St John the Baptist

St John the Baptist

This Friday we remember the beheading of John. None of the sources give an exact date, it was probably in the years 28-29 CE after he was imprisoned by Herod and at the behest of Herodias his brother’s wife whom he took to be his mistress. According to Josephus, his death took place at the fortress of Macherus. He was one of Jesus’ cousins.

Called To Holiness — 20140824

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In spite of all my personal introspection and experience in dealing with others, I still don’t know if I understand why we humans find it so very difficult to change the way we think. We hang on to old ways of thinking, even if that thinking results in personal, emotional pain. I know that in my own life I have, for years, hung on to old ways of thinking until I finally decided that I would be happier if I adopted new ways of thinking. So my comments come from personal experience. I know of what I speak when I say that the journey to personal transformation can be difficult.

The question I have often asked myself is: What will be different in my life if I give up my old ways of thinking? The answer I seem to always come up with is that I will be happier and more content with life!

This leads me to a brief consideration of the various ways of thinking that I might have to change if I want to truly enter into personal transformation. I suspect there are many more than those I have personally identified during the writing of these comments.

  • When difficult things happen in my life, they are not a punishment from God for something that I have done wrong. (In speaking with someone recently about the recent flooding in our area, the person shared with me her thought that God was probably very angry with us and therefore sent the flood. Old Testament thinking, to be sure, but not reality).

When difficult things happen in my life they are not either bad or good. They are opportunities for me to change. Even illness is not a punishment but, rather, an opportunity to change my thinking and behaviors

  • No one can make me feel the way that I do. My feelings are always my own personal reaction to what people may say or do to me. It is always true that I may not understand why I react like I do. It has to do with the way that I think.
  • Life is neither fair or unfair. Life is just life. It is all a matter of my own personal thinking. While I may not like what life presents me as a challenge, if I understand that the challenges of life are uniquely designed to help me grow in the ways that I need to grow, then I will not see the events of life as either fair or unfair.

These are just a few of my thoughts. The call to holiness, as I have shared before, is a call to personal transformation and personal change. The type of change that is involved is, most importantly, a change in the way we think about God, life, ourselves and others. The Jesus way of thinking and living is summed up in four simple rules which, I know, all of my readers know by heart. God didn’t make life any more complicated by sending Jesus, He simplified it!

Sunday August 17, 2014

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When you are insulted, respond with a blessing!

When hardship comes your way, bear it patiently

pantocrator

As I have repeatedly suggested, the Church, deeply aware of God’s revelation through Jesus, strives to help us learn how to live during this present earthly existence so we might advance in our union with God. The purpose of this present existence is to learn how to be truly human, that is a person who lives like Jesus lived.

To live like Jesus lived requires that we honestly assess our attitudes of mind. They are, as you know, the foundation of all of our behaviors.

When you honestly analyze the teachings of Jesus you come to see that He focused all of His teaching on helping others begin to have a better image of themselves and a more positive image of their fellowmen, even their enemies. He did this mainly by the way He treated all others, even those that His society classified as outcasts and enemies. He positively responded to all others who came to Him in need of healing and comfort. Consider how He treated the possessed, the leprous, the Samaritans and Romans, the blind, crippled and even the adulterous. He treated all with respect and, of course, with unconditional love. He truly judged no one. He demonstrated how one should live in accord with the four basic rules of right-living (I presume that all of my readers are, by this time, quite aware of these basic four rules).

We find, as we search the Gospels, that Jesus only chastised those who displayed hypocritical behavior, that is who, by their words, pretended to be religious but, by their behaviors, were hateful, judgmental, and critical of others.

As I think about today’s Gospel miracle story of how Jesus cured the possessed boy, I am struck by the fact that this story can have a much deeper meaning. Think about this!

First, the possessed boy did not bring about his condition by any acts of his own. His possession, I think, reflected the attitudes of his society. The attitudes were quite frequently negative and hate-filled.

Second, the apostles were unable to cure the boy. They had not yet sufficiently changed their way of thinking to bring this about.

Last, Jesus reminded all that in order to change and not be possessed by the attitudes of society, you have to have faith and belief in God’s presence in your life and be convinced of His love. The way to build one’s faith and awareness of God’s love, Jesus suggests, is by prayer and fasting. When we consciously pray and fast, we indicate that we want our faith to grow and we want to change our attitudes so that they are more and more like those that Jesus modeled when on earth.

Saint of the Week — 20140817

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St. Thaddeus

St. Thaddeus

St. Thaddeus, one of the 70 apostles, was born in Edessa. He was first a disciple of John the Baptizer. After his baptism by John he remained in Palestine and, after John’s death, became a follower of Jesus. He was one of the 70 apostles that Jesus sent out to preach the Good News in the cities of Palestine. After Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus, he started preaching the Gospel in Mesopotamia, Syria and Persia and helped build up the Church in these regions. He ordained priests in Edessa, converted many to Christianity and built up the church there. He also went to Beirut to preach and founded a church. His feast is this coming Thursday.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20140817

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In the last installment of this article I introduced the Gospel of Mark, the next chronological piece written for the New Testament (NT). If you have been following this article, you know that seven books, all written by St. Paul and now included in the NT, were written before any of the four Gospels were written. These seven books in chronological order are:

First Thessalonians
Galatians
First Corinthians
Philemon
Philippians
Second Corinthians
Romans

Mark’s story of Jesus is challenging to read as the first gospel – as if the other gospels didn’t exist and this is our first encounter with the story of Jesus. It requires imagining that we haven’t already heard about Jesus from the other gospels, from Christian preaching and teaching and from what is taken for granted about Jesus in Christian and popular culture.

Mark’s story is striking because of what it does include and what it does not include. What does Mark’s Gospel leave out? Mark has no stories of  Jesus’ birth or early years. It begins with Jesus as an adult going to a wilderness prophet named John and being baptized by him.  Although Mark includes some of Jesus’ teaching, there is much that is not present. In particular, the collection of teachings (about 200 verses) shared by Matthew and Luke from a common manuscript (“Q”), do not appear in Mark – perhaps because Mark knew they had already been put into  writing and thus felt no need to include them in his narrative.

The Lord’s Prayer is not in Mark. It is found in different versions in Matthew, Luke and the apostolic document called the Didache, a late first century writing not included in the NT.

Gospel-of-Mark-Graphic

Many of Jesus’ best-known parables are not in Mark. Missing are:

The Good Samaritan
The Prodigal Son (Luke
The Unmerciful Servant
The Vineyard Workers
The Sheep and Goats (Matthew)
The Talents and Lost Sheep(Matthew & Luke)

 

The best-know parables in Mark’s Gospel are:

The Sower and the Seed
The Wicked Vineyard Tenants

Further, Mark does not   portray Jesus as publicly proclaiming his identity as Son of God or Messiah. Of course Mark affirms that Jesus is both, but he does not present the titles as part of the message of Jesus Himself. Something which makes much more sense. Two affirmations of Jesus’ exceptional status are cast in private settings and not a part of Jesus’ public teaching. According to Mark, Jesus is Messiah and Son of God but this was a secret during Jesus’ lifetime, known as the Messianic Secret.