Sunday June 29, 2014

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On this third weekend after the feast of Pentecost, we also celebrate the feast of the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul. These two Apostles stand out in Christian history because of the roles that they played in   the establishment of the Jesus movement as a new religion. Paul, even more than Peter, saw that the teachings of Jesus offered a new image of God and suggested a new approach to the worship of God. This new approach resulted a in a new religion. I say this because religions are centered around a particular form of worship of God which is linked to our image of God.

The Christian image of God is that He is loving and calls us, His children, to return His love. The Christian image of God is that He is in communion with His creation. Therefore the rituals of our  eligion are centered around the idea of communion with God. It is the primary focus of our Christian worship.   

In addition to a particular image of God, religions are also built around particular ideas about human life. Paul expresses one image of life which, I believe, is deeply embedded in our Christian faith. Paul states in his letter to the Romans, which we use as our Epistle reading for today:

We know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope. And this hope will not leave us disappointed, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We do well to consider Paul’s idea of human life. He does not see the challenges of life as punishments but as opportunities to grow in our mental attitudes.

When we pair Paul’s words with the words of today’s Gospel, we see the attitude about life that Christianity supports and encourages. Matthew writes:

Which of you by worrying can add a moment to his life-span. Learn a lesson from the way the wild flowers grow… Enough, the, of worrying about tomorrow. Let tomorrow take care of itself.

What absolutely sage advice. Life will present all forms of challenge. Challenges are a part of life. They are opportunities meant to grow in our understanding of the meaning and purpose of life. It takes work, however, to develop such an attitude about life’s challenges. We humans do not like change and the challenges of life force us to change. We can, of course, refuse to change which usually results in suffering and mental anguish.

If, however, we adopt the attitude that life is designed to constantly engage us in personal change, then the challenges of life are not so difficult and we know that they can truly lead us to a deeper understanding of the meaning and purpose of life. It is all up to us and how we approach life’s events. If we believe our God loves us and that nothing in life is meant to hurt us or destroy us, then all the events of life are moments of grace. Life presents the challenges that each of us need to change and grow.

Called To Holiness — 20140629

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As I expressed in the last issue of this article, the call to holiness is also a call to be church. I further suggested that to be church also means to be community. I would now like to suggest that to be church means to be in communion with God and others. I would like to share some more thoughts about

CHURCH AS COMMUNION.

CaptureThe image of the Church as communion has the value of connecting truths about the church in a fruitful and harmonious manner. I would offer this definition of the Church as Communion. It is the one that the Catholic Church has set forth in its Adult Catechism.

The Church as Communion is our loving fellowship and union with Jesus and other baptized Christians in the Church, the Body of Christ, which has its source and summit in the celebration of the Eucharist by which we are joined in divine love to the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What is implicit in this definition is the fact that we must be in communion with others so that we can be in communion with the Holy Trinity. The Church brings God’s creation together: God + Others + Us = Church. We cannot truly be in communion with God if we are not in communion with others, especially those who are baptized and believe as we do. The Church, the Body of Christ, is the assembly of people gathered into her by Baptism, and their participation in the Eucharist which opens our minds and hearts to the Trinity, which is a loving communion of divine persons. In this communion of the Church, the members are called to love God, others, and self and so to be a communal witness of the love by which Christ saved the world. By divine love, we are joined to the communion of the Trinity.

At the center of the Gospel message is God’s desire to share the communion of Trinitarian life with us. Jesus came to invite everyone to participate in the loving communion that Father, Son and Spirit have with each other. All creation is meant to show us the Trinity’s plan of love for us. Everything Jesus did points to this goal.

Does this mean that we only have to love those who are Christian? Absolutely not. We join in community with those who are Christian to gain the strength and courage to unconditionally love all others. The problem is that if people do not believe as we do they may not be aware of the real necessity to be in communion with others. This does not exempt us, however, from being in communion with all.

Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith — 20140629

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On the 29th of June our Church celebrates the feast of The Holy, Illustrious and Ever-praised Major Apostles, Peter and Paul. Both Peter and Paul are distinguished for their character, their zealous apostolic labors and their willingness to come to consensus with regards to the true focus of the Church.

As we all know, Paul did not belong to the original group of the twelve picked by Jesus. He was, however, an educated man and his superhuman sacrifices for the sake of the Church were recognized by all, especially Peter. So when Paul challenged Peter and the others about the practice of making all converts become adherents to Judaism through the ritual of initiation, his challenge was thoughtfully met by Peter who agreed with Paul and directed, as the leader of the twelve, that the Good News that Jesus preached was not merely a reformation of Judaism. It was through Paul’s courageous action of confronting the way the other Apostles interpreted the Jesus message and Peter’s willingness to listen and concede that Paul was right, allowed the Church, as we know it, to be born!

If you have been following my Bulletin article on the New Testament, you are aware that Paul’s interpretation of the    Jesus message became the foundation for the Church’s understanding of God’s   revelation to humankind through the Person of Jesus and also the Gospels.

St. Peter died in Rome between the years 64 or 67 CE during Emperor Nero’s reign. St John Chrysostom gives June 29th as the day of his death. St. Paul, according to tradition, died in Rome by the sword June 29th, between 65 or 67 CE.

The cult of Peter and Paul began from the very moment of their death because of the significance of their labors. Their tombs in Rome were well known and all Christians revered them. It was in the fourth century that their cult became universal in both the Eastern and Western Churches. In Constantinople, Constantine the Great built a magnificent church in honor of the Twelve Apostles. He himself was later buried there.

The oldest church calendars already had the feast of these Apostles. Originally, not all the Churches observed their memory at the same time. The Calendar of Furius Philocalus, from the middle of the fourth century, has the commemoration of Peter and Paul on the 29th of June.

On June 30th the Eastern Church celebrates the memory of all the Apostles. It is Chrysostom who, in a sermon on this feasts, relates the cities where some of the Apostles preached: Peter (Rome); Paul (the world); Andrew (Hellas); Thomas (Ethiopia); Mark (Alexandria); Philip (Hierapolis); Bartholomew (Lycaonia); and John (Ephesus). He also indicated that Luke and Matthew wrote the Gospels.

Today let us thank God for the Apostles

Learning About the Practices of Our Religion — 20140629

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In the last issue of this article I began sharing with you how St John Chrysostom explains the meaning of the Divine Liturgy. He actually used several different ways. The first way is based on the belief that all the events in the life of Jesus were, in actuality, prefigured in the Old Testament (e.g., Jesus’ resurrection is the same as the Exodus and Jesus is the new Moses). Therefore the Divine Liturgy has to reflect this also.    

The second way that John used was allegory. This allegorical interpretation of the Liturgy seems to have originated in the region of Antioch, an important early site of Christianity. Theodore of Mopsuestia gave us the first allegorical explanation of the Liturgy in his Catechetical Homilies. For him the Liturgy is the image of heavenly realities and the memorial of the historical life of Jesus. John used both approaches as a means of encouraging Christians to become truly involved in the Liturgy. It is not meant to be simply observed. It is a series of ritual actions which are meant to involve a whole community in the worship of God.

mysticalsuperI would hasten to point out that perhaps it does not really matter how we interpret the meaning of the Divine Liturgy if we   realize that it is more important for us to see the Liturgy as our personal way to join with Jesus and others in offering glory, honor and worship to God. The true value of the Liturgy comes when we see that it is our symbolic way of offering our very lives, as Jesus did, to God in thanksgiving for the very gift of life. This is based on the fact that the Church came to realize that what Jesus revealed was a new way of offering praise and worship to God that is by the offering of self, symbolically, to God. The offering of self, represented by that which supports life, namely food, was instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper.

Prior to Jesus’ actions, people thought that the way to worship God was to take something they owned (typically it had to be the best of whatever they owned) and then destroy so that no one by God might possess it. There wasn’t the thought that they could symbolically offer themselves to God in thanksgiving for the gift of life. This was probably due to the fact that they did not think that human life was, in some mysterious and mystical way, a sharing in God’s own life.

In order to truly accomplish the worship of God through the Divine Liturgy, we must personally find a way to think about the Divine Liturgy so that we are a part of it. This is why I have repeatedly encouraged people of thinking about the bread and wine (food) as representing them, together with Jesus. Remember, we worship the Father as Jesus did. This attitude and way of thinking brings us into union-with (communion) with God. The Liturgy then reminds us that when we think this way, God returns life to us with His blessings.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20140629

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The next Pauline letter that needs to be considered in a chronological presentation of the “books” of the New Testament (NT) is his letter to the Romans. It is his longest letter and distinctive in many ways. Only his First Corinthians is a serious rival. Romans is his only letter to people he did not know. Although he ended up dying in Rome, he was never there during his long and glorious ministry. Unlike Paul’s other letters, it does not deal with highly specific issues. It is probably his last letter. Though a small minority of scholars think that the prison letters (Philippians, Philemon and Colossians) are later, most think Romans is the last of the universally agreed upon seven genuine Pauline letters. He is thought to have written his    letter to the Romans from Corinth around the year 58 CE, just before he began what became his final journey to Jerusalem,   arrest, imprisonment, and eventual execution in Rome itself. It should be remembered that he was not arrested in Rome but, after his arrest in Jerusalem, he was taken to Rome because he was a Roman citizen and, therefore, had to be tried and sentenced in Rome.

So Romans is not about interacting with a community he had founded or with which he had a continuing relationship. Rather, its main purpose was to introduce himself to a group of Christ-followers whom he planned to visit and from whom he hoped to receive support for a mission to Spain. He did so by telling them about his theology – his understanding of Jesus’ teachings and God’s revelation. In this letter he presents the significance of Jesus as he understood Him and its meaning for thinking about God, transformation and the new life in Christ.

The letter to the Romans thus has an additional distinction. It is Paul’s most theological letter and the most important of his letters in the history of Christian thought. In the late fourth century St. Augustine purports to have been converted by a passage in Romans. The basic tenet of Protestantism, that is namely justification by faith alone, is said to have been drawn from Paul’s letter to the Romans.

The implication of Paul’s exposition of justification by faith rather than by the law is that the divine plan of salvation works itself out on a broad theological plane to include the whole of humanity despite the differences in the content of the given religious system to which a human culture is heir. Romans contains a powerful exposition of the doctrine of the supremacy of Christ and of faith in him as the source of salvation. It is an implicit plea to the Christians of Rome to hold fast to that faith. They are to resist any pressure put on them to accept a doctrine of salvation through works of the law. At the same time they are not to exaggerate Christian freedom through repudiation of law itself. The traditional understanding is that faith, with good works, brings salvation.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20140629

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I have shared with you, my readers, that Theophan believed that a sinner (i.e., a person who is not concerned about God or their spiritual) is in the same position as a man who is submerged in deep sleep. Just as such a man cannot awake himself or get up if some danger approaches – he needs someone else to come and awaken him – so also one who is submerged in the sleep of sin cannot come to his senses and collect himself. He cannot rise up if God’s grace will not come to his assistance.

According to God’s infinite mercy, as revealed to us through Jesus, God’s grace is available for everyone. It comes around to everyone and appeals in a distinct way to each person.

This comparison of sinners to sleepers gives us points for a comprehensive examination of conversion to God. Theophan gives this example: One who is asleep first wakes up, then gets out of bed and, finally, makes up his mind to go do something. So also a sinner who turns towards God and repents: first he wakes up from the sleep of sin, then he comes to some determination to change, and finally he clothes himself in strength for a new life through the Church’s sacraments. The parable of the prodigal son articulates these moments. First, the prodigal came to himself – he came to his senses.  Then he said, I will arise and go – he decided to change his life. Then, he arose and went to his father and said, I have sinned and do not deserve to be called your son. This was his repentance. The father responded by clothing him in his best robe (indicating forgiveness), putting a ring on his finger (indicating the son’s nobility), and then throwing a banquet, indicating union-with (communion) with the father.

All of us, says the Gospel, are sinners except Jesus Christ. This means that all of us need to change the way that we think so that we can live more like Jesus Christ. A sinner is one who allows his natural    tendency to be distracted by this world and not focus on God and salvation.

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers — 20140629

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In the last issue of this article, I began sharing Maximus the Confessor’s ideas about Theosis or Divinization. Maximus maintained that God will recognize and divinize His own, that is, those who willfully employ their true nature. He maintained that an intense yearning for relationship with the Creator, as well as an ability to fulfill it, is bestowed upon the human race by God Himself, Whoever moves His creation toward its end in Himself. Maximus states that God sets in us an insatiable    desire for Himself and transposes willing humanity to divinization.

To know God, according to Maximus, means to seek His face without ceasing, to attain progressively to the divine vision which penetrates the darkness which is a part of this natural world. A part of our earthly experience is to come to see God as He presents Himself to us.

For Maximus, the union of God and the believer is fulfilled while preserving the differences between the two distinct natures, analogous to the sustained integrity of the two natures as found in the Person of Jesus, the Christ. Hence, although created in the image of God, human nature has yet to be fulfilled through the union of natures realized in God incarnate, Jesus. Maximus states:

For he did not come to debase the nature which he himself, as God and Word, had made, but he came that the nature might be thoroughly deified which, with the good pleasure of the Father and the co-operation of the Spirit, he willed to unite to himself in one and the same person.

It is my hope that my readers will sense the great difference between this Eastern understanding of mankind and that maintained in the Western world.

Divine essence, in the Eastern approach, remains inaccessible but humanity is able to rise above nature into a new mode of existence, that is, the human being inherits by grace that which belongs to God by nature.

Maximus understands divinization as involving the human constitution in its entirety. In the final act of homecoming, both soul and body will be granted resurrection, that is, the psychosomatic whole of the human being will be reinstated in its relationship with God. Maximus does not pose an absorption into God’s essence, but communion in divine energy, that is a transfiguration of mankind’s energy that is in tune with divine energy – mankind will come to see the world and human nature as God created it. If we were to translate this into simpler terms, humans will come to understand the true meaning and purpose of human life and how God’s Spirit – God’s energy – works within human nature to bring human beings to union with God through a true understanding of life. These thoughts are not necessarily easy to understand.     Reflect upon them.

Our Summer Celebration — 20140629

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I would, in advance, give a big

SHOUT OUT OF THANKS

to all those who made our   Annual Parish Picnic a truly enjoyable event. In particular I would like to recognize our

PARISH LIFE COUNCIL

for all the things that it does to promote the well-being and unity of our parish. Without these dedicated members our fellowship would not be as strong as it is. So I hope that all who attend our Picnic will take the opportunity to thank our Council Members.

A big thanks is also given to all those who donated salads. Your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated. What a beautiful beginning to summer.image354

Sunday June 22, 2014

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Picture1On the first weekend after Pentecost we were reminded that we, who call  ourselves Christians, are called to be saints, that is people who are willing to embrace the Jesus way of living. Then, on this second weekend after Pentecost, we are reminded of the calling of the first Apostles – Andrew, James and John – as a way of encouraging us to follow Jesus. Think about their response to Jesus’ call. It was immediate! They literally dropped what they were doing and      followed Him without any hesitation. They placed their trust in Jesus despite the fact that they had no idea what following Him would mean to their lives. There was something about Jesus that attracted them. He gave them hope! His words helped them find the meaning and purpose of their lives.

We also know from Gospels that they, in turn, invited others to likewise follow Jesus. For example, Andrew immediately asked his brother Peter to follow Jesus. Peter listened to his brother and trusted that Andrew would not lead him astray. The result, of course, was spectacular. Peter became the leader of the followers of Jesus.

What, you might ask, does all this have to do with us? Jesus isn’t living in our world today and we are not directly called by Him!

From the Gospels we also have this wonderful quote from Jesus to Thomas: Blest are they who have not seen and have believed. We have the witness of thousands of people – saints – who have followed the way of Jesus. They call us just like Andrew called Peter. We have the witness of countless martyrs who   believed so strongly in the message of Jesus that they were willing to die before denying their belief in Him. They call us. That should tell us something.

We have the New Testament and the writings of the Fathers of our Church that also bear witness to the power of the Jesus message. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who, over the course of the last 2,000 years, have embraced the Christian way of life.

I truly believe that if we are honest, we know that the way of living espoused by our modern society does not bring insight into the meaning and purpose of our earthly existence and doesn’t bring personal peace. The way of living our modern world promotes only brings fear and disillusionment. It cannot bring the peace for which, if we are honest, we so deeply desire and hope.

Called To Holiness — 20140622

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Our call to holiness, I truly believe, also includes a call to be church. So what does it mean to be church.

The Church has been defined as a holy mystery because of her origin in the Holy Trinity and her mission to be the Sacrament of Salvation, that is the sign and instrument of God’s plan to unite all under Christ. We believe that the Holy Trinity brought the church into being. The Father called the Church into existence. The Son established the Church. The Holy Spirit filled the Church with power and wisdom. The Holy Trinity abides with the Church always, creatively and providentially. The Church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, brings Christ’s

Salvation to the world. She is the instrument of God’s universal call to holiness. At the same time, the Church is made up of a sinful people. Yet despite the personal sinfulness of her members, the Church remains holy by the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit who permeates her.

As I have shared with my readers, we are sinful   because we do not clearly see the meaning and purpose of this present life and are only growing in our awareness of who God is and who we are. This presently earthly existence is meant to help us grow in our awareness and understanding of life.

The word Church is a translation of biblical words: the Hebrew word qahal, and the Greek word ekklesia, both of which mean gathering of people or community for worship.

The word church means the people gathered by God into one faith community. There are two essential words in this definition: community and faith. This immediately raises the question: What constitutes a community?

The word community means: a group of  people sharing common interests and working together to achieve common goals and/or objectives. People join in community, typically, in order to receive help and support as they face the challenges of life. To be a true member of any community, a person must be willing to reciprocate – must likewise be willing to help and support others in accord with their abilities.

In thinking about the message of Jesus, we realize that God revealed through Jesus, that living in community is absolutely essential for learning the Jesus Way of Living. The Church, the gathering of believers, becomes one of two essential schools of learning how to live as a human, as a child of God.