Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith — 20140601

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AscensionrSources of the first three centuries do not speak of the feast of the Ascension. Experts in Liturgy are of the opinion that in the first three centuries the celebration of this feast was combined with the feast of Pentecost. It was not until the fourth century that Ascension became an universal feast.

In the Eastern Church, the Ascension is interpreted as the real culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, in that it not only marked the completion of Jesus’ physical presence among his apostles, but consummated the union of God and man when Jesus ascended in his glorified human body to sit at the right hand of God the Father. The Ascension and the Transfiguration both figure prominently in the Eastern Church’s doctrine of Theosis. Christ’s bodily Ascension into heaven is also understood as the final token of His two natures: divine and human.

The narrative of the Ascension is peculiar to Luke and Acts, although other parts of the New Testament may refer to it. Ephesians 4:8–10 may be such a reference, but many interpreters hold that for Paul Resurrection was identical with Ascension. That, they maintain, is why he could speak of the appearance of the risen Christ to him in continuity with the appearances to others (I Corinthians 15:5–8) despite the fact that, in the chronology of the creed, the Ascension intervened between them.

The primitive kerygma recorded in 1 Corinthians, mentions no final leave-taking of the risen Jesus. The early Jerusalem preaching refers to Jesus’ departure only in as far as it is theologically significant and never turns to the material details of when, where, and how that are the indispensable data for the historian. In early preaching, for which the continual presence of the risen Jesus with believers was the all-important datum, may well have considered such details irrelevant. The departure of Jesus did not alter essentially the relation of the believer to his Lord. He had been seen, and He would be seen again – soon they hoped; meanwhile, His invisible presence perdured.

As years lengthened into decades and fervent hope for the Second Coming was tempered by the full realization that no one knew the exact time of the future return, the second generation of Christians desired to know further details about the final visible departure of Jesus.  Luke responded by gleaning from the first-generation preaching and its documentary precipitate such details as he could concerning the when, where, and how of Jesus’ departure. Luke, who is also thought to be the author of ACTS, presents two different versions of the   final departure. It really doesn’t matter. Christ IS with us!

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20140601

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Theophan suggests that we humans naturally tend to become preoccupied with the things that we see and touch. The things of this world become our highest good, although they cannot truly satisfy our feeling of emptiness. Only God can, Theophan says, truly satisfy our feeling of emptiness. This is also why, I believe, that people cannot stand being alone or not having noise going on around them (think about it, people are constantly on their cell phones or listening to the radio. It would appear that most of our society is afraid to be alone with their own thoughts and feelings).

It is clear, Theophan believes, why a man who sets himself up as the main object of his life can never be within himself. He is always focused on things outside of himself: on the things which were created or devised as a result of his own vanity in order to fill his craving. He has fallen away from God who is the fullness of everything. He is empty in himself. The only thing that remains is to spread himself among the endless variety of things and to live through them. So a sinner is thirsty, anxious and troubled about many and various things which are apart from himself and apart from God. That is why the characteristic feature of a sinful life, when one is neglectful of his salvation, is an anxiety and trouble about many things (Luke 10:41).

This is truly the description of what it means to be a sinful person – a person who is unaware of being seduced by the things of this world and not motivated to seek that which can satisfy his feeling of emptiness, namely God. This, of course, is what we must learn during this earthly sojourn. We must learn how to fill our feeling of emptiness with our attention directed toward God Who alone can fill our feelings of emptiness. St August says in his Confessions: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers — 20140601

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In this article I have been sharing the thoughts of the Fathers of the Church about the revelation made to humankind that we have been created in the image and likeness of God. As my readers may have already surmised, even the Fathers had difficulty is trying to understand how humans are made in God’s own image and likeness. Many different ideas surfaced. As I shared in the last    issue, the entire tradition on this point may be    summarized by saying that man is in the image of the Word and that he is the image of God through the mediation of the Word. Of course we all understand that Jesus Christ is the Word of God. We are, therefore, an image of the image.

This general statement includes rather divergent interpretations. For example, the Alexandrians espoused the Philonian concept of an invisible image which they applied to the Word. That this insistence on invisibility ran the risk of minimizing the humanity of Christ was revealed more clearly after the disputes about   salvation. The outcome was the balanced synthesis of Maximus the Confessor, perhaps one of the greatest of the Fathers of the Church.

In addition, the term spiritual has also become better understood over the years, as is indicated by a recent text of a modern theologian: What distinguishes man from the angels is that he is made in the image of the Incarnation. The purely spiritual becomes incarnated and penetrates all of nature through its life-giving energies.

At this point I would encourage my readers to think about their own lives and answer this question: What about me is in the image of God and how am I like God? We need to truly bring these ideas home to ourselves personally if we ever want to really understand them. Think about it. Our faith tells us that WE are made in God’s image and likeness. So what does this mean to us?

Clement of Alexandria was the first to inquire into the origin of this distinction. It is neither Platonic, no matter what Clement believed, nor Stoic, nor Philonian. It is based on Genesis. This idea of man being made in God’s image and likeness is a scriptural idea. The distinction in Hebrew between the two expressions ought not, therefore, to be exaggerated; it is a matter of resembling an image (in our image, after our likeness). The Septuagint (i.e., Greek translation of the Old Testament), however, made these into a coordinate expression, in our image and likeness. The Greek words eikon and homoiosis were introduced here by the translators. I shall explain the ideas that these words introduced in the coming issue. We are made in Christ’s image and likeness.

Called To Holiness — 20140601

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We have been called to holiness through our Initiation into the Church. In fact we   express this quite dramatically during our initiation ritual. We walk around the Tetrapod three times with the person being initiated into the Church and we sing: All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ! Alleluia! Our Alleluia is an exclamation that we truly agree with this statement. So the question is: What does it mean to put on Christ.

First of all, we must understand what the word Christ means. In the ancient Greek, Christos was the word for an anointed person. So if we are to put on Christ, we must become an anointed one of God. How do we do this? By imitating The Christ, who was and is Jesus of Nazareth, the only-begotten of the Father.

How do I imitate Him? By making His way of living my way of living. This entails making sure that my attitudes and behaviors are like His were when He was here on earth.

We already know what His attitudes were and know that attitudes dictate behavior. We recall His attitudes from the four rules of living that He gave us which, I am sure, are engraved on everyone’s mind:

1. Treat others as you would have them treat you.

2.  Love others as you want to be loved.

3.  Don’t judge others so that you won’t be judged.

4.  Forgive others so that you will be forgiven.

These four simple rules sum up the teachings of Jesus and are guides to live as Jesus lived. These four rules of living seem to cover all the circumstances in life that we could possibly imagine. They are the rules that we use to govern our lives. Truly the call to holiness would have us use these four rules in all circumstances to determine our behavior. They make a whole lot of sense. Of course they can be summed up by the one commandment that Jesus gave us: Love God with your whole heart, soul and mind and your neighbor as yourself. These four, however, show us how to accomplish this.

If you look at the life of Jesus, you will see that these four rules always governed His behavior. If we implant these rules deep within our hearts and minds, they will help us govern our behavior and make it possible to more frequently respond with unconditional love to all others, regardless of how they respond to us. They can help us truly become like God.

Learning About the Practices of Our Religion — 20140601

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In the last issue of this article, I tried to suggest that we come to envision our own lives represented by the bread on the paten and the wine in the chalice since they are food and are symbols of life. This means joining ourselves with Jesus in the ultimate act of worship of God, namely offering our lives back to God in Thanksgiving for the gift of life. This is what Jesus precisely did. He told His disciples that the bread and wine (food) represented His life and that His ultimate act of worship was to offer these food elements (life symbols) back to God in Thanksgiving for the gift of human life. Thus Jesus inaugurated an entirely new form of worship. Instead of taking things that belong to us (e.g., lambs, first fruits) and destroying them so that they belong only to God, thus worshiping Him, by His actions Jesus revealed to us that the real form of worship of God is to offer our lives back to Him in thanksgiving for what He has given to us.

But it is important that we remember that it is not Jesus alone Who is to worship God in this manner. All humans are called to worship God in this manner. We accomplish this by joining ourselves to our repetition of the acts of Jesus. Together with Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we offer the food which represents life, back to God. This is the way that we personalize our worship. We do not worship Jesus! We do not just   repeat Jesus’ act of offering His life to the Father! Rather, we JOIN WITH JESUS in offering our lives to God in Thanksgiving! This attitude, I truly believe, changes our entire worship. We worship God together with and like Jesus did. We know that when we have this intention, Jesus IS with us in this offering.

When we adopt this attitude, the prayers that we offer during the Liturgy take on a whole new significance and meaning. They become our words to God in Thanksgiving. Think of these words:

We offer to You, Yours of Your own, in behalf of all and for all.

I believe that we truly make the Divine Liturgy our personal worship of God when we understand that we, together with Jesus, offer our lives to God. This makes about coming to church and    praying as a community something that is radically different. We quickly understand that we cannot do this in the private of our homes but, must be in community. Jesus could have offered His life back to the Father by Himself. He chose to do it together with His disciples so that He might reveal to humankind true worship of the Father in the Spirit. It also increases our awareness that we are together in worship with others.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20140601

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In addition to illustrating Paul’s rhetoric of persuasion, Philemon, his smallest letter, provides a case study of what life in Christ, in Christ-communities which were the new creation, was to be like. The issue was larger than resolving a conflict between Philemon, the master, and Onesimus, the slave. It was whether   slavery was acceptable within life in Christ. Philemon was a Christ-follower who had slaves. Onesimus became a Christ-follower – he was in Christ. Thus the issue is: May a Christian have a slave who has become a Christian.

Paul’s answer is no. A Christian master may not have a Christian slave. That this larger claim underlies his appeal to Philemon is apparent from the language he uses. Receive Onesimus back as “a beloved brother.” That is “new family” language again. And the two are to be brothers “both in the flesh and in the Lord” – indicating not just spiritual equality but equality in the flesh.

It is interesting from our perspective in the 21st Century. We would say that   slavery is wrong whether or not the slave is a Christian. In Paul’s society they had not yet come to that conclusion.

This letter is a concrete application of what Paul wrote about life in Christ in Galatians. If you have been baptized into Christ and clothed yourselves with Christ, there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Life in Christ abolishes the hierarchical relations of conventional culture. Its quality is not only spiritual, but also in the flesh.

We do not know how Philemon acted in response to Paul’s appeal. Did he free Onesimus immediately? Did he grumble and maybe even resist for a while? Though we do not know, early Christian tradition reports that Onesimus eventually became a bishop in Ephesus. He was at some point freed – and this letter may be in the New Testament because of him.

So we see that even one of the primary apostles of Christ did not fully understand the teaching of Jesus, which we now believe insists that all humans are created equal because they share in the same God life-force and, therefore, one cannot be the master over the other.

Many ancient biblical commentators wondered why an ostensibly private letter with little pastoral concern should have been inspired. The fact that it is creates a problem for the social character of inspiration. Paul does not invoke his apostolic authority to demand obedience of Philemon. He writes rather as a prisoner, an old man, and confronts Philemon with a plea of love. Paul did not try to change the existing social structure. Modern Christian thinking is repelled by the idea of slavery. Remember that this outlook is a development and refinement of principles advocated by Paul.

May 25, 2014

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born blindOn this fifth week of our celebration of Easter, I hear, as I reflect on our readings, two different messages: (1) what I must do in order to be saved, and (2) Jesus IS the true source of insight into the meaning and purpose of life. The first message, from ACTS, sets the context for the second message from John’s Gospel.

In ACTS the jailer asks Paul and his companions, what must I do to be saved? Paul’s reply is: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. In the Gospel Jesus cures a man born blind. The following two questions immediately than came to mind: (1) What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? and (2) Why was it important to the Gospel writer to indicate that the man was born blind? These two questions led me to this message.

To believe in Jesus means to embrace His way of living, accepting it as God’s revelation about how I should live my life. It is not sufficient to only believe that Jesus IS God incarnate. God became incarnated as a human being for a reason: to model for us how to live. This earthly existence is given to us in order to help us learn how to be the beings God intended when He created us.

Since God created us in His image and likeness, He gave us free will. This means that we must learn how to love and serve Him and to live like one of His children. He realized, however, that the only way we would be able to learn this is by having a model. Jesus is that model!

Using these thoughts as the context for understanding the Gospel story, I quickly realized why it was important that the man Jesus cured should have been born blind. We are all born blind as to the true meaning and purpose of life. A person does not automatically see the meaning and purpose of life. Life requires that we learn how to live in order to derive the full benefit of this earthly existence. Of course in order to learn how to live, we must first realize that we are born blind and can only come to see the true meaning and purpose of life by imitating Jesus.

In order to imitate Jesus, of course, requires, in almost all instances, that we change the way we think and behave. This is why Jesus stressed the necessity of metanoia, the process of changing our hearts and minds – changing our attitudes and behaviors. We must learn not to live by our natural instincts but by God’s Spirit within us. To truly be a human as God intended when He created us, we must learn how to be spiritual beings.

The most wonderful thing about life is that our Creator does not expect us to learn this on our own. He gave us help by becoming a human and left His Spirit to help us.

It was out of His love for us that He gave us free will so that we can freely love Him. True love must allow the other person to freely return love. That is how He created us. What a wonderful and loving God our God is! Let us rejoice and be glad!

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20140525

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The last issue of this article began to look at Paul’s Letter to Philemon, the shortest of his letters, and never used in the worship of the Eastern Church. This letter illustrates Paul’s exceptional gifts of persuasion as well as the theological foundation of his conviction. As I shared, Paul cleverly addressed the letter to an individual, Philemon, with the realization that it would be read to the community.

Paul’s appeal is this: Have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother –         especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Welcome him as you would welcome me. So Paul did not directly address slavery as something abhorrent to God but just encourages a slave owner to welcome a former slave as a brother. This shows that Paul realized that the true message of Jesus, namely that all humans are brothers, meant that men could not impose slavery on other men and must treat others with love. In loving others, even the least of our brothers, we love God.

Then Paul tells Philemon that if Onesimus has wronged him in any way or owes him anything, Philemon is to charge that to Paul’s account and he will repay it. Paul adds, I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.

In so many ways, Paul makes the teaching and message of Jesus concrete and real in the world in which they lived. The world was one which saw some as slaves and others as masters. This was not the world as God created it. So, in simple, and yet persuasive ways, Paul follows the teachings of Jesus and attempts to change the society in which he lived, making it more into the Kingdom of God.

Paul concludes his appeal by praising Philemon once again: Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.  Who could really resist such a letter, especially if you felt that Paul shared with you a message directly from God.

Paul then adds one more thing: Prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you. The words may suggest that Paul thought he would be set free, but their rhetorical function in the letter is clear: if and when Paul gets out of prison, he will come and see Philemon. Again this is just another encouragement given to Philemon to do what is right with regards to Onesimus. The words suggest affection and also inspection – will Philemon do what Paul has asked him to do with regards to releasing Onesimus from slavery?

The letter is truly a masterpiece of persuasion. Some see it as manipulative and decry it as such. Paul does back Philemon into a corner that he couldn’t get out of without looking really bad.

Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith — 20140525

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It is the contention of many scholars, and mine also, that Byzantium made its real and permanent contribution to the history of mankind in the field of religious thought. Byzantine theology, which is the basis for our particular Catholicism and spirituality, expresses an understanding of God and humankind in a much, more, spiritually-fulfilling way than do the theologies of the Western world (I realize that in saying this I am expressing some prejudice since I have found in Byzantine theology a deeper expression of man’s goodness and a true expression of the real meaning and purpose of life). The continuous attraction of Byzantine art and the very remarkable survival of   Eastern Christianity throughout perhaps the most dramatic of social changes in history, are the best available signs that Byzantium truly did discover something fundamentally true about man’s nature and its relationship to God.

To express this theocentric view of man, Byzantine theologians used the concepts of Theosis, or deification which have their genesis in Greek philosophy.  Indeed, Byzantine theology is nothing but a continuous effort and struggle to express the very tradition of the Church in the living categories of Greek thought, so that Hellenism might be converted to Christ. It is legitimate to ask whether this effort was successful, but it is impossible to deny that it was justified in its basic intent.

The main stream of Byzantine theology uncovers the same vision of man, called to know God, to participate in His life, to be saved, not simply through an extrinsic action of God’s, or through the rational cognition of propositional truths, but by becoming God. This Theosis of man is radically different in Byzantine theology. It is a new expression of life in Christ and in the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is not something that God has done to man without man’s help and cooperation. Salvation, which is coming to a true understanding of the meaning and purpose of life and its relationship to the Creator, is an ongoing activity that God and man accomplish together.

I believe that this theological approach and understanding of the God-man relationship is a much greater and profound acclimation of God’s wisdom and glory. Think about it! God so loves us, His creation, that He freely engages us in a personal process of learning to unconditionally love and be loved. It calls us humans to freely and voluntarily return God’s love for us and totally respects our ability to freely choose to return this love. We are not compelled to love Him. He freely loves us and invites us to return His love.

It is the contention of many scholars, and mine also, that Byzantium made its real and permanent contribution to the history of mankind in the field of religious thought. Byzantine theology, which is the basis for our particular Catholicism and spirituality, expresses an understanding of God and humankind in a much, more, spiritually-fulfilling way than do the theologies of the Western world (I realize that in saying this I am expressing some prejudice since I have found in Byzantine theology a deeper expression of man’s goodness and a true expression of the real meaning and purpose of life). The continuous attraction of Byzantine art and the very remarkable survival of   Eastern Christianity throughout perhaps the most dramatic of social changes in history, are the best available signs that Byzantium truly did discover something fundamentally true about man’s nature and its relationship to God.

To express this theocentric view of man, Byzantine theologians used the concepts of Theosis, or deification which have their genesis in Greek philosophy.  Indeed, Byzantine theology is nothing but a continuous effort and struggle to express the very tradition of the Church in the living categories of Greek thought, so that Hellenism might be converted to Christ. It is legitimate to ask whether this effort was successful, but it is impossible to deny that it was justified in its basic intent.

The main stream of Byzantine theology uncovers the same vision of man, called to know God, to participate in His life, to be saved, not simply through an extrinsic action of God’s, or through the rational cognition of propositional truths, but by becoming God. This Theosis of man is radically different in Byzantine theology. It is a new expression of life in Christ and in the communion of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is not something that God has done to man without man’s help and cooperation. Salvation, which is coming to a true understanding of the meaning and purpose of life and its relationship to the Creator, is an ongoing activity that God and man accomplish together.

I believe that this theological approach and understanding of the God-man relationship is a much greater and profound acclimation of God’s wisdom and glory. Think about it! God so loves us, His creation, that He freely engages us in a personal process of learning to unconditionally love and be loved. It calls us humans to freely and voluntarily return God’s love for us and totally respects our ability to freely choose to return this love. We are not compelled to love Him. He freely loves us and invites us to return His love.    

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20140525

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In this article I have been basing some of my ideas on those shared with us by Theophan the Recluse. He wrote a lot about mankind’s present condition. In our present state of learning how to become spiritual persons, we are easily led astray by the seductive   nature of this material world, especially, I think, in a society like ours where there is always such an abundance of material things. There seems to always be those who want more things and those who desire the things that     others have. Such desires can quickly distract us from the essential task of this present life, namely to become spiritual beings – to become children of God.

It seems that humans become empty without God and can never be satisfied. Without God man tends to be in a hurry and concerned with how and by what means he can fill this emptiness which is inside him. This emptiness, which is formed in humans as a result of not first seeking the Kingdom of God, kindles in human beings an incessant craving that nothing can satisfy. This craving is vague, but constant, claims Theophan. A man, he says, becomes a bottomless abyss. He tries hard to fill this abyss but he cannot. That is why for his whole life he is in sweat, toil and great troubles. He busies himself, says Theophan, with various things in hopes of finding satisfaction for this craving that consumes him. These things occupy his entire attention, all his time, and the whole of his activity.

Consider how consumed our modern society has become with technology. Even older persons spend hours on social media, cell phones and the Internet. It is hard for some people to spend even a minute without being connected to others or filling their lives with noise from televisions and radios. There are so many people who just can’t stand being alone. Tragic! It is probably only when you are alone that you can find God within you!