Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20170528

Posted on by

Gregory of Nazianzus, a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople and an eminent theologian, is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. As a classically trained orator and philosopher, he infused Hellenism into the early church, firmly establishing a paradigm for all subsequent Byzantine theologians and church officials.

Gregory made a significant impact on the shape of Trinitarian theology among both Greek and Latin-speaking theologians. He is truly remembered as the “Trinitarian Theologian”. Much of his theological work continues to influence modern theologians, especially in regard to the relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity. Along with his brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers. From the very outset of his orations, Gregory warns his audience that they and he are attempting a high and holy task. Theology, while employing the mind, also involves the heart. A pure heart, one grounded in the worship of the Church and a life of prayer, will produce clear and fruitful theological reflection. A murky heart and a dark mind, on the other hand, will produce a sick, thorny theology; it will offer no nourishment, only harm.

Gregory counsels that, because of this intimate connection between mind and heart, those who choose to write on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit “ought to be, as far as may be, pure, in order that light may be apprehended by light.” Theologians who would unfold Scripture can do so safely and sanely only if they themselves have been “molded” and shaped by it. Only then can they “enter upon theological questions, setting at the head thereof the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit … one in diversity, diverse in unity, wherein is a marvel.”

He also asserts that not only is a pure heart a prerequisite necessary for thinking well about God, he also warns us that we must remember that there are definite limits to theological perception and true understanding. Alluding to Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai, Gregory describes himself as drawing “aside the curtain of the cloud,” only to withdraw.

I shall be sharing more from
St. Gregory of Nazianzus.

FROM OUR DEACON CANDIDATE — 20170528

Posted on by

TOPIC: SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
By Len Mier
QUESTION: How have I seen God’s baffling and unsettling wisdom at work in my own life experience?
ESSAY 2
The whole notion of God’s wisdom at work in my life is something I struggle with almost daily. For the most part it boils down to accepting the world not as I want it to be or how I want those things outside of my direct control to influence my being.
I am coming to realize, after much and soul searching, that God is not testing me or my love of Him. In God’s wisdom I get what I need, not what I necessarily want.
I can only draw from my own life experiences to see the baffling wisdom of God at work. After being morbidly obese for years, God gave me the strength to go through the trials that go along with bariatric surgery. I initially thought that in God’s wisdom I would never have to deal with major health issues once I lost the excess weight. But God’s wisdom did not give me what I wanted, to be without any major health issue. He gave me what I needed. He placed before me a trial that was not to test me, but to challenge me to accept this life as He wants me to experience life. It is what we do with these challenges that gives us insight into what God’s wisdom is. God challenges me to keep the Gospel message even if I don’t see for myself what the outcome of life may be. The challenge is to trust that God knows more about me than I know about myself.

***************
Again, the challenge I would give my readers is to think about this very same question and formulate your answer. There are not any right or wrong answers to these questions but only your response. Usually it takes a little reflection and thought. How is God’s wisdom at work in your life?
I know that God’s Wisdom led me to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. I never had a thought of being a priest in the Ukrainian Church. But life’s very unique circumstances led me here. I now consider this fact as one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. I had no experience with the Eastern Church. I sincerely believe that the Eastern Church has been my salvation. I don’t know where I would be, as I think about it today, if I hadn’t come into our Church.
I wonder what your experience of life has been? I wonder whether you see your life as truly an expression of Divine Providence, God helping you to become all that you can possibly be. I think that it is important to think in this manner – it brings the fullness of life and personal salvation.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20170528

Posted on by

In the last issue of this article, I began sharing the “criteria” for not only the preservation of early writings but also the acceptance of these writings as inspired and part of the canon of the New Testament (NT). I already shared two reasons.

Third, conformity with the rule of faith was a criterion. Doubts about its millenarianism caused suspicion with regards REVELATION and an gospel attributed to Peter was rejected on doctrinal grounds.

Fourth, to what extent did chance play a role in preservation? Some would argue from a theory of inspiration that chance could have had no role: God would not have inspired a work and then allowed it to be lost. But this argument presumes that every inspired work had to have permanent value. Could not the task for which God inspired a particular work have been accomplished when it was received? A good example may have been the lost letter of Paul that pronounced judgment on an individual at Corinth. Moreover, the argument presumes that God always protects against human vicissitudes the works he has motivated – a presumption that is not verified in the history of Israel and of the Church. Consequently, many scholars do believe that chance had a role in the preservation of less important works, like Philemon, when more important works were lost (i.e., part of the Corinthian correspondence; Matthew’s logia of Jesus in Aramaic).

All of the NT works were probably written before 125 CE; the dates for their collection into fixed groups are much harder to specify. Now some thoughts about the Paul’s writings.
Most of the Pauline letters and epistles were written as instruction and encouragement to churches that Paul himself had evangelized (Romans is an exception).

In the early 50’s 1-2 Thessalonians were written and in the late 50’s the Great Letters (Galatians, 1-2 Corinthians, Romans and perhaps also Philemon). In the early 60’s there were the Captivity Letters (Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians). Traditionally, the Pastoral Letters (1-2 Timothy, Titus) have been dated in the mid-60’s. In all, there were 13 letters or epistles attributed to Paul.

As I am sure all of my readers are aware, all of the writings of Paul pre-date the Gospels and seem to be a foundation upon which much of later Christian writing was based. Out of the 27 books of the NT, 14 are attributed to Paul. More about this to come.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20170528

Posted on by

Since the Council of Nicaea I is the foundational Council of the Christian Church, I thought that I would take this opportunity to provide information about the actions of the Council.

Doctrinal issues were the Council’s first concern. Arian-minded bishops proposed a formula of faith (contents not extant) that was indignantly rejected by the vast majority. Then Eusebius of Caesarea proposed the baptismal creed of his own Church, the oldest eastern creed now know. Its orthodoxy gained it general approval, but a majority of the bishops insisted on certain additions that would counter the Arian errors more clearly and explicitly. The first directly contradicted the Arian affirmation that the Son, not genuinely begotten, did not proceed from the very essence, or nature, of the Father, but only by the Father’s will, like other creatures. The second addition confronted Arius’ statement that the Son is not so by nature, but is “made” by the Father. The third addition comprised the most significant word of the creed, the sword of division for decades after the Council.

Not a biblical word, homoousios appears for the first time in Gnostic literature. Since in strict generation the son has the same nature as his father. The Arians denied this of the Word with understandable logic because they denied His generation. The use of this Greek work affirms that the Word is God as the Father is God, and this because He is the Father’s true son. And if this affirmation is linked with the first article of the creed, “on God Father,” it is clear that the Nicene Creed proclaims numerical identity of the Father’s nature and the Son’s. The creed does no more than mention the Third Person, for the divinity of the Spirit was not at issue.

The Nicene Creed was the first dogmatic definition of the Christian Church and through the ages has served as a test of orthodoxy. Almost all of the expressions used in the creed are scriptural, with the addition of certain words that are philosophical in origin. Indeed the meaning of Scripture is made clear in the light of tradition. The Son’s divinity in its strict sense is defined.

Recall that this Council was held in 325 CE. There was still not a clear idea of the Trinity since the idea of Who Jesus Is was still being debated. The idea of God being “Father” came from the fact that Jesus referred to Him as Father – “Abba.”

Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20170521

Posted on by

This is the second to the last weekend before the end of the Paschal Season. On Thursday of this coming week, May 25th, we will celebrate the feast of the Ascension of our Lord – which marks the 40th day after the Resurrection. Next week we will remember the Fathers of the Nicaea Council which began the work of the Church in declaring Jesus as both God and Man. This Council took place ion 325 CE in the city of Nicaea.

It took the Church a number of centuries to actually recognize that Jesus, who performed so many wondrous works and who also appeared to His followers after His death, that He was God who became incarnate (i.e., became a human being) in order to reveal to humans the true meaning and purpose of life.

In today’s Gospel we hear John attributing these words to Jesus: “I am the light of the world.” Indeed, Jesus gives life to this world. He reveals to us the meaning and purpose of life.

What is the meaning and purpose of life? To use all the challenges of life as opportunities to truly trust in God, our Heavenly Father. Perhaps the greatest revelation Jesus made to mankind is that God is actually our FATHER – our Abba.

The Epistle confirms this. The young girl who was a clairvoyant, declares that Paul and his companions, who were professed followers of Jesus, the Christ, were servants of the “most high God.” People who are followers of Jesus are the servants of the Most High God, our Heavenly Father. If you follow Jesus, you know that you see God as your Heavenly Father and you realize that it is God’s own Spirit which causes you to declare this to be true. We only come to know God because God Himself gives us the help to be able to recognize this truth.

I think that the Epistle tells us of the unique ways that God chooses to reveal Himself to us. We should never think that we know how God chooses to reveal Himself to us. He always does it in very unique ways. We must be open to accepting the way that He chooses to reveal Himself. We know this to be true. If we are open to His revelation of Himself, He will do it in ways that we least expect. This. I feel, is the loving way that He makes Him-self known to us. If we open our hearts and mind to Him, we will find that He reveals Himself in ways that we never anticipate.

We should always remember that God loves us and makes every attempt to reveal Himself to us so that we may know that we are loved and that this life is only a vehicle to bring us to a deeper relationship with Him! Because He gave us free will, He will never force us to recognize Him. This is because He desires our free response to His love.

Let us not be blind to the many opportunities we are given to come to know Him. Let us embrace His gift of love.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

Posted on by

We are called, like the early Church, to rejoice in the event of the Resurrection. The new and principal day of worship of the Christians was the first day of the Jewish week (i.e., the day in which the Lord was raised from the dead). They assembled on that day to celebrate the Eucharist, through which they proclaimed the Lord’s death and confessed his resurrection. That is what we actually do in the Divine Liturgy. Eventually they gave this day a Christian name, the Day of the Lord. It would be hard to imagine that the Christians of the first century would not have projected and connected in some new and significant way their weekly celebration of the sacred events of Christ’s death and resurrection on the annual observance of the Passover. Truly, Christ is the new MOSES who has led humans out of bondage and captivity to the mores and customs of society to the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

As I shared in the last Bulletin, a part of the early Church began to celebrate the feast of the Resurrection on the 14 of Nisan, while all the other churches observed Pascha on the Sunday after the 14 of Nisan, emphasizing the resurrection. These two ways of computing the date of Pascha gave rise to the Paschal controversies of the second century. At the beginning of the third century, these disputes were settled in favor of the Sunday observance of Pascha. However, difficulties with inadequate calendars continued to plague the local churches, until the issue was finally resolved by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. The Fathers of the Council decreed that henceforth Pascha was to be celebrated on the first Sunday, after the first full moon of the spring equinox. The Council, also, determined that the date would be calculated in accordance with the Alexandrian calendar. Most of the Christian Orthodox world and some of the Eastern Catholics still maintain this tradition (This past year the calendars were uniform and all Christians celebrated Pascha on the same day).

In the early Church, according to local custom, the celebration of Pascha was preceded by a one or two day fast. In a letter written to Pope Victor regarding the Paschal disputes, Irenaeus makes mention of the fasting practices that were being observed in his time by various local churches. He wrote, “for the controversy is not only concerning the day, but also concerning the very manner of the fast. For some think that they should fast one day, others two, yet others more; some moreover, count their day as consisting of forty hours day and night. And this variety in its observance has not originated in our time but along before in that of our ancestors.

It is clear from this testimony that fasting had become an integral element of the Paschal observance from the apostolic period. It probably came about as a result of the words of the Lord, “can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20170521

Posted on by

While I know that this article has seemingly wandered around many different important topics, nevertheless it is all about trying to help my readers come to a deeper understanding of what it means to celebrate the Holy Eucharist – the Divine Liturgy. As I have tried to express, it means making the Divine Liturgy truly your personal way of offering worship of God. I have suggested that the Divine Liturgy is the worship of God the Father with the Son in the Holy Spirit. It is the ritual that allows me and you to join ourselves with Jesus Christ in offering to God the Father our very lives in deep and complete THANKSGIVING for the very gift of life. Our Liturgy is not the worship of Jesus Christ, in my estimation, but, rather the worship of God the Father, the Creator and Lord, with the Son in the Holy Spirit. This means that I join with Jesus in offering my very life to the Father in thanksgiving for His loving sharing of His very life with me.

This, I know, requires some thought! Our worship is not meant to be ignorant and unintelligible. We are called to intellectually and willfully enter into a ritual that expresses our willingness to offer our very lives back to God in deep and sincere thanksgiving. Of course, as you might guess, this means that we have to be thankful for the lives that have been given to us and to call upon our faith to help us understand that the life each of us experiences is given to us in order that we might spiritually grow and truly be-come sons and daughters of our most high God, in the deepest and truest sense of the word.

What does it means to be a child of God? It means being someone who sees this earthly life as an opportunity to grow in our likeness of Jesus, the Christ and our Savior and Lord. It means that we must desire to change and become more like Him every day.
As we see in the ritual movement of the Liturgy, if we desire to follow Jesus and become like Him, we are lead back to the very Throne of God (i.e., the altar in western conception). The Gospels and the Gifts, which are sent from Heaven, lead us back to the very Throne of God. So the Liturgy is one of the true vehicles God has given us, through Jesus, to lead us back to Him.

If we willingly and voluntarily desire to return to Him, we are conveyed there by His loving help. He never blocks our insight into closer relationship with Him. It is all a manner of choice.

So I would ask my readers, Do you truly want to enter into deeper union with God, the creator and source of your life? If you do, then join with Jesus in offering your praise and worship to the Father by offering your very life back to Him in thanksgiving for the gift of life.

That is the focus and the foundation for our Divine Liturgy. It is the ritual expression of joining ourselves with Jesus, our Savior and Brother, in offering our very selves – lives – to our God in humble and sincere. thanksgiving

FROM OUR DEACON CANDIDATE –20170521

Posted on by

As I am sure everyone knows, Len Mier of St. Michael’s Parish is studying at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh to become a deacon. He must spend two weeks at the seminary during the summer and then complete a number of assignments through the entire year. I have imposed on him to share his work.

TOPIC: SYNOTPIC GOSPELS

Assignment: Essay that responds to this question
QUESTION: How does Mark’s account of the trial of Jesus challenge the way I think about God and what it means for Jesus to be God’s Son?
ESSAY 1
I think this is the most unsettling of the questions posed. Mark, in the trial narrative, gives me as the reader Jesus’ identification of Himself: “I AM”. It takes a lot to process this image presented.

The statement that Jesus identifies Himself and says that within him lies the fullness of life. He is united with the Divine life from which all creation springs. This awesome statement, in God rests everything, and at the present time. How his statement is not acknowledged by those who have him on trial is troublesome to me. Their only response is to condemn him because they do not understand.

As the “I AM” Jesus no longer worried about what he taught or the time with his disciples; his past was no longer relevant. Jesus also placed His trust and dependence with the Father, he had no need to worry about what was to come. He lived in the moment as was able to show me how to live. But his absolute trust Jesus showed what it meant to be the Son of the Father.

Although I can say that I am, it has little resemblance to Jesus’ profound statement. In His “I AM” He tells the world that He is as the Father is. His statement is made for me to realize that once I strip away all the world around myself, I must think about God in very basic terms. To think of God as eternally present and with me, I am challenged to live in the present moment if I am to live with God. Doing this is a challenging way to think about God. When I strip away the things of the past and not worry about the future, I will just be in God. If I have faith in being, in God, I live in the moment and Go’s will become clear.

***************
I would challenge my readers to think about this very same question to which Len had to respond. If you don’t remember what Mark wrote about the trial, go to Mark 15:55-64 and read the account. The response is not to do a critical analysis of the text but to provide your own emotional and spiritual response.
The High Priest asked Jesus: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?” Jesus said, “I AM, and you will see me sitting at the right hand of God, and returning to earth in the clouds of heaven”.
As you think about Jesus’ response, what does that mean to you? The Jews had a deep sense of what they expected the Messiah to be. Do you think of Jesus as your Messiah?
The High Priest also asked Him: “Are you the Son of God?“ What does that mean to you? How do you think the early Christians would have responded to this question? The same as us?

A POTPOURRI OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS — 20170521

Posted on by

I have decided that this article would be dedicated to a variety of topics during the coming weeks. The first week I would like to share some thoughts about PRAYER.

Prayer is the search for God. It is also an encounter with God, and, going beyond this encounter, it can result in communion with God. It is an activity, a state and also a situation, that is a situation both with respect to God and to the created world. It arises from the awareness that the world in which we live is not simply two dimensional, imprisoned in the categories of time and space. Prayer is born of the discovery that the world has depths; that we are not only surrounded by visible things but also by invisible things. And this invisible world is both the presence of God and our own deepest truth. Visible and invisible are simultaneously present. They complete each other in a mysterious way – the presence of eternity in time and the future in the present and also the presence of each temporal moment in eternity, past, present and future all-at-once. Living only in the visible world is living on the surface. It ignores or sets aside not only the existence of God but the depths of created being. It is condemning ourselves to perceiving only the world’s surface. But if we look deeper we discover at the heart of things a point of balance which is their finality.

Indeed the heart of man is open to the invisible. Not the invisible of psychology but the invisible infinite, God’s creative word, God Himself.
St. John Chrysostom said “When you discover the door of your heart you discover the gate of heaven.”

So prayer is the relationship between man the visible and the invisible. This is why we can say that prayer is a search, an exploration of this invisible world which God alone knows and He alone can reveal to us.

All this can be said because when we actually decide to pray, we decide that an invisible world exists and that within that invisible world there is a Being which is beyond all comprehension. Prayer is the declaration we make to ourselves about the existence of an invisible Being Who is the source of all creation.

Further, Christianity says that this Being not only is the source of all things and keeps all things in existence, but this Being chose, out of love for His creation, to join Himself intimately to His creation – to become a human.

God, we believe, chose to become a human being so that He might share with us (1) the true meaning and purpose of this visible existence and (2) the way to live in order to gain all of the benefits of living in this visible world. Having created us with “free will,” He could only attempt to “show us”, through the Person of Jesus, how to make the most of our existence within this visible world. He could not force us to live in any particular manner. He could only reveal a way of living that can result in gaining the fullness of life and understand why we are here

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20170521

Posted on by

In the last issue I suggested that the call to holiness is a call to embrace a way of living that allows you to unconditionally love others. One of the primary tasks of this present life is to learn how to live in this manner. Since God absolutely and unconditionally loves us, as the heirs to His kingdom we are called to learn how to love others more completely and without any real “conditions”. It seems that we humans have a  great tendency to put conditions on our love for others. In doing this we don’t realize how very much we limit our lives. I would ask this question: How is your life limited if  you unconditionally love others? When we strive to make unconditional love the way of  living, we expand our ability to experience the fullness of life. When we don’t, we severely limit our ability to experience the fullness of life and love.

Jesus clearly revealed to us that the fullness of life is experienced in the process of  extending unconditional love to others. We clearly see this in His suffering and death. It as precisely His willingness to unconditionally love that won Him resurrection from the  dead. If we attempt to learn how to love even when hatred is directed at us, we begin to truly experience the fullness of life – we begin to truly experience what it means to be a child of God – we begin to understand how much God loves us. We must always remember that we cannot experience God’s unconditional love for us if we are unwilling  or unable to extend this same kind of love to others. In simple terms, we can only receive what we are willing to give.

Humans frequently fool themselves into thinking that they can limit their love for others and yet, at the same time, experience the complete love of God. So, it would seem that if we truly want to experience God’s love, we have to be willing to love others.

Humans also frequently fail to realize that if I limit my ability to love anyone, I diminish my actual capacity to love. Which means that I can only give “diminished” love to those
that I may truly desire to love.