Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20170507

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At the beginning of this fourth Paschal Week, that of the Paralytic Man, our readings are again taken from the Acts of the Apostles and St. John’s Gospel. Interestingly enough, both readings report cures of paralysis. In Acts, Peter cures a paralyzed man and in John Jesus cures a paralyzed man. Of course the big difference between the two miracle stories is that Peter cures the man in the NAME OF JESUS. Peter declares, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you! Get up and make your bed.”

With both readings conveying a story about the cure of paralysis, it is easy to get distracted and think that the cure of this malady has some real symbolic meaning. While I believe that this can be one possible interpretation, especially since our Eastern Church calls this the week of the paralytic man, I also think that other meanings can be discerned from these readings.

Consider this. In the story that John presents, Jesus cures the paralytic man on the Sabbath. This is the reason that precipitates controversy with the Jewish leaders. A specific rabbinical law prohibited the carrying of one’s bed on the Sabbath. The complaint of the Jewish leaders is not yet against Jesus, but against the action of the man who had been cured. His justification is implicit in his reply: If Jesus could perform this cure, surely it was proper to obey his command in this matter.

In this section of his Gospel, John uses several visits of Jesus to Jerusalem on the great Jewish feasts as the occasion to show that in Him the aspirations of Judaism, symbolized by these feasts, found a greater significance. This account is but one of a series of “signs” presented by John that manifest Jesus’ role as life-giver.

In Acts Jesus’ role as life-giver is again emphasized with Peter calling upon Jesus’ name to cure the man. There is great power in the very name of Jesus. He is the physical manifestation of God Himself.

One of the messages, therefore, that I derived from these readings is a reiteration of a message I have thought about before, namely that the way of living that Jesus calls us to is truly life-giving and transforming. To live with unconditional love for others, changes your life. To make Jesus’ way of living your personal way of living brings peace, contentment and understanding.

When you embrace the Jesus way of living, which is not based on how others act or respond to up, you experience true freedom – you become your own person. Why? Because you chose how you live, think and act! You don’t allow others to control your life! You don’t allow the events of life to change who you are! That, in my estimation, is true freedom. Jesus showed us how to truly become the persons God intended when He created us.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20170507

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After having shared thoughts about the Gospel of St. Mark, I’ve decided that I would share just some general thoughts about the NEW TESTAMENT (NT) which is our Sacred Book. The book known as the NT is a collection of twenty-seven writings differing in style and content. While some of them adopt the historical narrative form (Gospels and Acts of the Apostles), others are letters or epistles, and the last one (the Book of Revelation) utilizes the prophetic style. Within the epistles differing styles and contents can be distinguished: some respond to very concrete problems (e.g., 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians), Romans is made up of practically an entire treatise and Hebrews, a sermon, while James has more of the aspects of a sapiential work.

This collection makes up the CANON of the writings of the NT. The word “canon” in Greek means “rule,” “norm” or “standard.”. We find ourselves before a group of writings that the Christian Church has considered to be normative or authoritative for knowing the new relation of man and mankind with God, which was inaugurated with Jesus Christ and which we can the NT in contrast with the Old.

In the NT, Sacred Scripture is frequently cited or alluded to by referring to the Old Testament (OT) (Mk 12,24). Often it is designated by the titles of the two great collections that constitute it – “Law” and “Prophets:” (Mt 5:17;11:13); the collection of Psalms is also mentioned three times (Lk 20:42; 24:44; Acts 1:20).

However, the canon of the OT was not yet defined in all its details at the beginning of Christianity. Only at the end of the 1st century was the Hebrew canon fixed at 39 writings; the Greek-speaking Jews accepted into their canon other works composed in their language, and it was this canon that Christians adopted. In spite of all this, the canon was not fully determined, as is shown by the fact that in the NT some works are cited as Scriptures which were afterward not made part of the definitive canon (James 4:5; Jude 14:15).

In adopting the ancient Scriptures, Christians recognized their authority by their relation to the Lord Jesus and to the Spirit. Indeed, there was no thought of a new canon of writings; the word of the Lord Jesus in his earthly life or in his risen life was cited in the same way as the old Scriptures. Living authority was also owed to the guidance of the Spirit and, in virtue of it, St. Paul could characterize as illegitimate every Gospel that differed from his own.

The writings of the apostles or disciples – even the most occasional ones – circulated and were read as a whole in Christian assemblies, as is shown by the concluding formulas of the liturgy. In this way their authority was increasing, even though they were not yet regarded as Scripture on a part with the OT. I shall continue information about the canon.

It is important, I think, that all should understand how the NT was formed.

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20170507

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The call to holiness, as I have attempted to convey in this article, is a call to become an authentic “child of God” – that is a human being who thinks and acts (i.e., lives) like Jesus, a model of what humans were created to be like. God, however, out of His great love for us, made this a personal choice. He made it a personal choice so that those who embraced the Jesus way of living might freely and voluntarily return His love. Jesus is a prime example of a person who freely returned God’s love. He did this as a human being.

The thing that stops most people from freely changing and embracing the Jesus way of living is their fear of change. Most people don’t easily embrace change.

What is funny about humans is that they only seem to embrace change when the pain of continuing to live as they have always lived is so great that they cannot stand it any longer. As a therapist I repeated encountered this phenomenon. People seemed to only come into therapy when they were at their wits end and even then they would resist changing how they lived. The fear of what life might be like if they changed the way they thought and lived, slowed the process of “getting well.” The most interesting thing about life is that change is necessary in order for it to be dynamic instead of static. I would always say to a client, “If the way that you are living brings you pain, then why keep living the same way? If how you are living is ineffective, why keep living the same way?” The fact of the matter is that growth only comes with change. You cannot grow spiritually, physically or psychologically without change.

So the call to holiness, in my estimation, is also a call to change and to embrace change as a way of living. If we let God and life to guide our change, then the only result can be greater contentment and peace. The opening of one’s mind and heart to life and change will, believe me, only bring a deeper understanding of life.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20170507

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Mystical Supper

Building on what I shared in the last issue of this article, I would emphatically state that the kingdom of God is the content of the Christian faith – the goal, the meaning and the content of the Christian life. According to the unanimous witness of all scripture and tradition, it is truly the knowledge of God, love for him, unity with him and life in him. The kingdom of God is unity with God, the source of all life, indeed life itself. It is life eternal: “And this is eternal life, that they know you (John 17:3). It is for this true and eternal life in the fullness of love, unity and knowledge that man was created. So in a real way, the Eucharist provides us with a clear expression of the meaning and the purpose of life. It helps us to understand life as God understands it.

The prophets of the Old Testament (OT) hungered for this kingdom, prayed for it, foretold it. It was the very goal and fulfillment of the entire sacred history of the OT, a history holy not with human sanctity (for it was utterly filled with falls and betrayals) but with the holiness of its being God’s preparation for the coming of his kingdom.

And now, “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The only-begotten Son of God became the Son of man, in order to proclaim and to give to man new life. By his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead Jesus has come into his kingdom: God “made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, for above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things” (Ephesians 1:20-22). Christ reigns, and everyone who believes in him and is born again of water and the Spirit belongs to his kingdom and has him within himself. “Christ is the Lord” – this is the most ancient Christian confession of faith, and for three centuries the world, in the form of the Roman empire persecuted those who spoke these words for their refusal to recognize anyone on earth as lord except the one Lord and one King.

The kingdom of Christ is accepted by faith and is hidden “within us.” The King himself came in the form of a servant and reigned only through the cross. There are no external signs of this kingdom on earth. It is the spiritual kingdom extended into time. And for those who have believed in it and accepted it, the kingdom is already here and now, more obvious than any of the “realities” surrounding us. “The Lord has come, the Lord is coming, the Lord will come again.” This triune meaning of the Aramaic expression maranatha! contains the whole of Christianity’s victorious faith, against which all persecutions have proven impotent.

This can only be true by faith and faith in the presence of God’s Kingdom calls believers to live in a certain way, which is summarized by unconditional love for others. What is your faith? What does this mean to you?

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20170507

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The goal of Eastern Christian spirituality is a mystical life of union with God. The path that leads to this union includes the ascent that leads to this peak. As such, this path is different than the peak; yet it is organically connected to it, in the same way as the ascent of a mountain is to the peak. Only by prolonged effort, by discipline, can the state of perfection and mystical union with God be reached. Efforts that don’t contribute to this crowning, this final moment of ascetic discipline (i.e., the practice characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence for religious reasons – included typically in such discipline in the East is fasting) or to the mystical union with God, seem to be without purpose.

The connection between ascetical discipline and the mystical union with God is also closer than that between the path and the goal. Even though the living of that union is realized at the final end of ascetical efforts, its aura begins in the soul beforehand, along with them.

Christian perfection therefore requires a whole series of efforts until it is attained. The Apostle Paul compares these strivings with the training that athletes employ to get in shape in order to sin. Without referring to the word asceticism, St. Paul used the image of the ancient physical exercises to characterized the efforts made by the Christian to reach perfection. Clement of Alexandria and Origen later introduced the terms of asceticism and ascetic. Little by little in the East they gained a monastic coloring. Monasteries are called askitiria, places for physical training. The askitis (the ascetic) is the monk who strives to obtain perfection by observing all the rules of restraint or temperance through cleansing from the passions. Origen calls zealous Christians ascetics; theyare disciplining themselves to mortify the passions and develop good habits that lead to perfection.

Now the problem seems to be that people in our modern society don’t buy into true self-discipline. There seems to be a sense in our society that self-gratification, which is instantaneous, is what we deserve. Our society seems to disparage such things as voluntary fasting or abstaining from things. And yet history tells us that there is no other way to spiritually grow that by the use of self-discipline.

The goal of Eastern Christian spirituality is a mystical life of union with God. The path that leads to this union includes the ascent that leads to this peak. As such, this path is different than the peak; yet it is organically connected to it, in the same way as the ascent of a mountain is to the peak. Only by prolonged effort, by discipline, can the state of perfection and mystical union with God be reached. Efforts that don’t contribute to this crowning, this final moment of ascetic discipline (i.e., the practice characterized by severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence for religious reasons – included typically in such discipline in the East is fasting) or to the mystical union with God, seem to be without purpose.

The connection between ascetical discipline and the mystical union with God is also closer than that between the path and the goal. Even though the living of that union is realized at the final end of ascetical efforts, its aura begins in the soul beforehand, along with them.

Christian perfection therefore requires a whole series of efforts until it is attained. The Apostle Paul compares these strivings with the training that athletes employ to get in shape in order to sin. Without referring to the word asceticism, St. Paul used the image of the ancient physical exercises to characterized the efforts made by the Christian to reach perfection. Clement of Alexandria and Origen later introduced the terms of asceticism and ascetic. Little by little in the East they gained a monastic coloring. Monasteries are called askitiria, places for physical training. The askitis (the ascetic) is the monk who strives to obtain perfection by observing all the rules of restraint or temperance through cleansing from the passions. Origen calls zealous Christians ascetics; theyare disciplining themselves to mortify the passions and develop good habits that lead to perfection.

Now the problem seems to be that people in our modern society don’t buy into true self-discipline. There seems to be a sense in our society that self-gratification, which is instantaneous, is what we deserve. Our society seems to disparage such things as voluntary fasting or abstaining from things. And yet history tells us that there is no other way to spiritually grow that by the use of self-discipline.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20170507

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As I shared in the last issue of this article, I truly believe, and our Church exhorts us to believe, that in worship we encounter our living God. Through worship, as I shared with you, God makes Himself present and active in our time. Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection constituted the essence of His redemptive work. The narrative of these salvific actions of the Incarnate Son of God formed the oldest part of the Gospel tradition. The solemn celebrations that we just recently experienced again, are centered on these events. The divine services of Great and Holy Week, crafted long ago in continuity with the experience, tradition and faith of the first Christians, help us penetrate and celebrate the mystery of our salvation. The prayers and the ritual of these special services are meant to help us experience, in some way, these salvific acts. Of course in order to experience this we must psychologically and spiritually fully enter into these rituals. This means we must reflect upon what we pray and do.

The prototype of Pascha is the Jewish Passover, the festival of Israel’s deliverance from bondage. Like the Old Testament (OT) Passover, Pascha is truly a festival of deliverance. But its nature is wholly other and unique, of which the Passover is only a prefigurement. Pascha involves the ultimate redemption – deliverance and liberation of all humanity from the malignant power of death – through the death and resurrection of Christ. Pascha is the feast of universal redemption.

Of course a person can only experience this if he has a sense of being in bondage – limited and captive to the things of this world. The fears that we have as humans are a sign of this bondage. God has indeed freed us even from the fear of death.

Our earliest sources for the annual celebration of the Christian Pascha come to us from the second century. The feast, however, must have originated in the apostolic period. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to imagine otherwise. The first Christians were Jews and obviously conscious of the Jewish festal calendar. They truly could not have forgotten that the remarkable and compelling events of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection occurred at a time in which the annual Passover was being observed. These Christians could not have failed to project the events of the passion and the resurrection of Christ on the Jewish festal calendar, nor would they have failed to connect and impose their faith on the annual observance of the Jewish Passover. St. Paul seems to indicate as much when writing to the Corinthians, (1 Cor 5:7-8) “purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

If and when we enter into these celebrations with a desire to become more aware of their true meaning, we will be rewarded with great insight.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20170507

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Athanasius the Great

In continuing Athanasius’ arguments discrediting Arius’ teachings, he reminds his reader that “my Father is still working, and I also am working (Jn 5:17). And had not the Old Testament wisdom literature averred that “when he [God] marked out the foundations of the earth, then I [God’s Wisdom) was beside him, like a mater worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race” (Proverbs 8:29-31).

The logic of worship, then, seems to be plain. If God’s Wisdom and Word creates, as Creator he is worthy of praise and adoration. And if God’s Wisdom and Word is worthy of the Church’s worship, he must be God, though in an ineffable, mysterious fashion.

The Arians felt that Athanasius was moving much too quickly. Did Proverbs 8 really teach what Athanasius was saying? What of Proverbs 8:22? “The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.” Surely if the text spoke of God’s Wisdom as created, it must have a beginning, even if that beginning was somehow before time itself. Here, at least from Athanasius’ perspective we approach the heart of the Arians’ error. Had not the apostle Paul described the Son as “before all things” (Col 1:17). Athanasius reasons that if the Son is “before all things,” the creation of Wisdom mentioned in Proverbs must be pointing to a specific purpose in the “economy” of God, that is, God’s plan for human salvation.

Clearly Athanasius believes that if we compare Scripture with Scripture, Paul with the text of Proverbs, we are driven to discover a different interpretation for Proverbs 8:22 than that of the Arians. Athanasius finds his answer in the rhyme and reason of the incarnation and Christ’s redemption of humanity.

Proverbs 8:22 does speak of God’s Wisdom as created. When did this creation take place? At the time of the incarnation, Athanasius contends, when the Word “put on created flesh.” The Wisdom of God was “created for his works,” in the sense that in the incarnation the Son becomes what we are to save us from what we have become. “If he says that he was ‘created for the works’ it is clear that he means to signify not his substance but the dispensation [incarnation] which happened ‘for his works.’

So we see that the early Church, in attempting to truly understand who Jesus IS, looked to the Scriptures and tried to find an answer there. It is clear, as we consider the arguments on both sides, that this debate evolved out of a real desire to understand Who Jesus IS. It is clear that the Arians didn’t truly believe that Jesus was God Himself incarnate. It is equally clear that the followers of Athanasius embraced the fact that Jesus was and is truly God and truly Man. They were dealing, of course, with a GREAT MYSTERY.

Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20170430

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On this third Paschal Weekend, the Church calls us to remember the Ointment-Bearing Women, those seven women who came to anoint the body of Jesus and carry out the traditional Jewish practices of burial. This remembrance places emphasis on one of the essential activities that true followers of Jesus Christ are called to engage in, namely that of service to others. In imitation of Jesus, followers find ways to integrate service to others into their lives. This is in accord not only with the words of Jesus but also in accord with the way He lived. Jesus told His disciples that anyone who aspires to follow Him must think of being of service to others. We truly begin to imitate Jesus when we make service to others a priority in our lives. You will recall that His entire life was dedicated to helping others. We are called to “follow” Him in this effort.

In the scriptures the seven myrrh-bearing women are named: Mary Magdalene; Mary the mother of James and wife of Clephas; Joanna, the wife of Chusa, who was steward to Herod Antipas; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee; Suzanna; and Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. So that we might not think that service to others is something that only women are called upon to do, the scriptures also name Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemos as the persons who actually took Jesus down from the cross and buried Him. This shows us that men are called upon to also be of service to others.

While it is true that the events that are recalled during the first several weeks after Pascha actually took place in history (i.e., Christ appearing to the apostles and St. Thomas and the Ointment-Bearers going to the grave), it is important to note that they are not presented by the church in chronological order. The women went to the grave two days after the burial of Jesus while Jesus appeared to the gathering of apostles when Thomas was present, almost seven days later. This fact suggests that the church is highlighting several essential things to us by presenting these events in this sequence. The first, of course, is obvious. We are exhorted not to DOUBT the fact of the Lord’s Resurrection. The second is that we be reminded of THE WAY that we are called to live as followers of the Risen Christ. When we focus on service to others, we find that we grow in our ability to love others. Of course we must always remember that we should not expect a positive response from others when we attempt to be of service to them. Jesus and His early followers never expected anything in response to their desire to help others. If we desire to be thanked for our service, then we should not make it a part of our life. Our service must be freely given without any sort of expectation of receiving the gratitude of those helped!

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20170430

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I have been sharing information about the Gospel of Mark in order to provide my readers with an understanding of the four Gospels in general. Too frequently people expect the Gospels to be pure history, only presenting the events in the life of Jesus as they actually happened. It should be remembered that before the Gospels were actually written down, they were stories about Jesus that were shared by small groups of Christians during their Eucharistic meal. Then these stories were gathered and written down in order to be documents of faith that might lead others to truly believe that Jesus came to teach humans how to live. In fact, the early Christians referred to these teachings as THE WAY.

Given Mark’s careful choice of words and also patterns, it is surely no accident that he places the scene of Jesus’ transfiguration exactly in the middle of his Gospel (9:2). The transfiguration of Jesus is Mark’s way of imaging his resurrection. On one side of this scene, Mark shows the ecstatic response of those who see the paralytic rise up from his mat and those who witness a little girl rise up from her deathbed. On the other side, he shows the ecstatic response of the women who have come to realize that Jesus himself has been “raised up.” The scene of Jesus’ transfiguration overshadows both parts of the Gospel, emphasizing god’s creative, transforming, transfiguring power to restore life.

Mark’s Gospel is sometimes called “the Gospel of the Cross,” so it is worth noting that the Lord’s Transfiguration overshadows the cross. Mark arranges events so that the scene of transfiguration follows right after Jesus speaks to his disciples about taking up the cross, and it completes his meaning. Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” Mark does not show Jesus elevating the cross for its own sake, but rather embracing it as a means to Transfiguration. In Mark, the whole teaching of Jesus is:

death-and-resurrection,

cross-and-Transfiguration.

Mark’s Gospel is truly rich in Scripture, theological in purpose, and brilliant in design and invites its readers to become followers of Jesus’ transfiguring wisdom. In practical terms, Mark clearly understands that Jesus taught His followers how to live and think. When you think of the challenges of life as an opportunity to spiritually grow, then life changes – you become transformed. The way that Jesus thought about life, how He thought about others and how He treated them, when embraced, is transformative.

Mark’s Gospel became a model for the two other Synoptic Gospels (i.e., Matthew and Luke). They are documents that are meant to also present Jesus’ transfiguring wisdom – a wisdom that expresses clearly the meaning and purpose of life.

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20170430

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In the very last issue of the Bulletin I challenged my readers to answer the question: What do you understand as the Good News that we say God revealed to us? Each of us, if our religion is to be meaningful, must decide what the Good News is all about. The early Christians were decidedly excited about the Good News – so very excited about it that they were even willing to die rather than to discount it or deny it. Something about the Good News changed them and they courageously professed it openly, even though it meant that they would be persecuted and killed. They witnessed to their belief in the man Jesus in spite of the fact that enemies to their WAY OF LIVING did everything to stamp them out.

We must remember that the early Christians were not surrounded by great numbers of people who, after centuries of thoughtful consideration, believed that this Jesus was and is also God Himself incarnate. There was something about what Jesus taught about how to live that so emboldened them that they were willing to die rather than deny their belief in Jesus.

What was there about this Good News that so gave them this courage and do we feel the same thing about the Good News as they did?

The call to holiness is a call to discover the Good News that God has revealed to us and to allow that Good News to transform, change and transfigure our lives. We see from history that the Good News has the power to change human lives. It happened! Thousands upon thousands of people were changed by it.

The critical question that must be answered today is: Has the Good News lost it’s ability to change human lives or have humans lost their ability to discover the intrinsic value and power of the Good News? I suspect that the Good News is as powerful today as when it was first revealed to humankind. It is modern people who are lacking in their ability to become excited by the Good News and what it reveals. Think about this!