Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20170319

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So, as I explained, the reason why we distribute Holy Communion during the week days of the Great Fast but do not celebrate the Divine Liturgy, is that on the journey of life, which is a journey of personal transformation, we need the help and support of God. Theosis requires a partnership with God. We have to do our part and He, in turn, provides the support, insight, courage and strength to accomplish personal change. In this process of change, our main help is precisely Christ, who makes Himself present to us in Holy Communion. He is the essential food that can keep us spiritually grow.

So our unique tradition calls us to fast from various foods as a means to strengthen our will power to live more and more like Jesus. God then supports us in this effort by being present to us in the Person of Jesus, Who has given us His very Body and Blood to be our spiritual food.

If the Eucharist is incompatible with fasting, one might ask, then why is its celebration still prescribed on Saturdays and Sundays of the Fast and this without “breaking” the fast? The canons of the Church seem here to contradict one another. While some of them forbid fasting on Sundays, some others forbid the breaking of the fast on any of the forty days. This seeming contradiction, however, is apparent only because the two rules which seem to be mutually exclusive refer in fact to two different meanings of the term fasting. To understand this is important because we discover the Eastern Church’s “philosophy of fasting” which is essential for our spiritual effort.

There are two ways of fasting rooted in both Scripture and Tradition and which correspond to two distinct needs of humans. The first one can be termed a total fast for it consists of total abstinence from food and drink. One can define the second one as ascetical fast for it consists mainly in abstinence from certain foods and in substantial reduction of one’s diet. The total fast, by its very nature, is of short duration and is usually limited to one day or even a part of one day. From the very beginning of Christianity, it has been understood as a state of preparation and expectation – a state of spiritual concentration on that which is about to come. This is why we typically have some sort of fast during regular time before we receive Communion. In more recent years that has been mitigated to be only three hours. In older days it was from midnight the day before the reception of Communion. Physical hunger corresponds here to a spiritual expectation of fulfillment, the opening up of our minds and hearts.

Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20170312

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St Gregory Palamas

On this second weekend of the Great Fast, our readings are taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews and Mark’s Gospel. The Church also calls us to remember Gregory Palamas. We remember Gregory because the condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14th century was acclaimed as a second triumph of orthodoxy. For this reason we annually remember him on the second weekend in the Great Fast.

We are reminded of this from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews:

…therefore, we must pay close attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. How shall we escape if we neglect such salvation.

This builds on what we heard in the readings from the First Weekend. We heard this:

…and these all, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised since God has foreseen something better for us (Paul to the Hebrews); and

…you shall see greater things than these…you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John’s Gospel).

The message of these passages is that we who believe in Christ and who prepare ourselves for Pascha, shall see the inauguration of the new age, the fulfillment of all promises, the manifestation of the Kingdom. But we shall only see this if we desire to engage in the effort of personal transformation or Metanoia.

The Gospel story we hear this weekend highlights the desire needed to truly change our lives. It means that we will do whatever is necessary to come into the presence of Christ. It means that: we will pay close attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from our efforts (Paul to the Hebrews).

I truly believe that the Great Fast is given to us by the Church to focus our lives on discerning the meaning and purpose of this earthly life. The entire Church, during this time, reflects on the revelation given to us by God about the meaning and purpose of this earthly existence – on what we are to accomplish during this earthly sojourn. There is a reason why we have been given this human life.

Although we are called to focus on our spiritual development throughout the year, the fact that we intensely focus on the life of Jesus during this time and how He met the challenges of life, supports our efforts to change.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20170312

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As we celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great during the Great Fast, it should become obvious to all that the main difference between this Liturgy and that of John Chrysostom are mainly the prayers that the celebrant offers on behalf of the community. There is one prayer that changes for the faithful, namely the prayer to the Mother of God which occurs in the Anaphora.

Here are the different prayers: the two Prayers of the Faithful before the Great Entrance; the priestly prayers of the Anaphora itself; the bowing prayer said after the Our Father; and the prayer at the end of the Litany of Thanksgiving.

Although I had started sharing the prayers of the Anaphora, I would take time to back-track, at this point, and just share some thoughts about the prayers we offer before the Anaphora. It is my sincere hope that as we pray this Liturgy together our faith may be strengthened.

First, we typically use two different antiphons. The first is actually an adaptation of Psalm 103 (Septuagint version). This is a thanksgiving Psalm of deep, religious sensitivity. It is a simple and beautiful reaction to God’s goodness. Yahweh is a saving God Who forgives man’s sin and blesses him with good things. Perhaps one of the most poignant lines is: As a father cares for his children, so the Lord cares for those who revere Him. I would beg you to listen to the words.

As we pray Basil’s Liturgy, we also use a different second antiphon. For this antiphon we use St. Matthew’s version of the BEATITUDES. We use a very beautiful, haunting refrain between each verse, that is a version of the prayer of the Good Thief: Remember us, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom.

We pray, blessed are the: poor in spirit; the sorrowing; the lowly; those who hunger and thirst for holiness; those who show mercy; the single-hearted; the peace-makers; and those who are persecuted. In effect the Beatitudes tell us that we will be blessed – we will find understanding – when we meet the challenges of life the way that Jesus did, that is meet the challenges with a desire to understand how they can help us to spiritually grow. Jesus met all of the challenges of His life with a peaceful determination to use them to help Him truly become His Father’s son.

Again, I would encourage all to truly think about what it is that we pray and to reflect upon the refrain: Remember us, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom.

More to follow!

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20170312

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The Great Fast is truly a wonderful time to think about God’s call to us to be holy. Why? Because we are more focused on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Although we the life of Jesus is always in our thoughts throughout the entire year, the liturgical life of the Church during the Great Fast is much more focused on how Jesus actually met the challenges of His life – the greatest challenges of His life! We are called to focus on how He lived out the life that was given to Him.

For example, it is reasonable to assume that Jesus knew that if He preached a message of “inclusion” and “love of enemies” to others, that He would necessarily disturb the leaders of His religion. He knew this as a man. And yet, because He knew this to be right, He chose to preach what He did. So at some level He knew that He would “tick-off” the leaders of His faith. He realized, however, that things had to change if people were to have a true relationship with God.

And so He chose to preach the truth, even know He would have to face the consequences. (An aside. All the prophets before Him faced the same thing. They all felt that Israel had to change. All were also killed because they opposed the status quo. Does this sound familiar?). He chose to lead an authentic life, living in accord with His beliefs.

Of course the “call to holiness” is a call to live in accord with our beliefs and not be hypocrites or Pharisees. That was truly a real part of His message. LIVE AS YOU BELIEVE! When you think about it, however, you realize that He said this to people within His own religion. He didn’t push His beliefs down the throats of those who didn’t believe like Him. He only sincerely lived the way He believed. So the call to holiness is a call to truly be the persons we profess to be. Faith is not a game!

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20170312

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I have been sharing thoughts about the Gospel of Mark, considered the first of the Gospels that was formulated from oral and written traditions. We know that both Matthew and Luke based much of their narratives on the Gospel of Mark, although they composed them for particular audiences.

When Mark composes the narrative of Jesus’ death, he makes use of a range of Scriptures that depict God’s righteous servant put to death by evil forces. First and foremost, he interprets Jesus’ death through the lens of Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant”. In certain passages known as “the Songs of the Suffering Servant” (Isaiah 42:1-4, 49:1-7, 50:4-11, 52:13-53:12). Isaiah draws a portrait of God’s faithful servant who is tortured, mocked and killed by the obtuse kings of the world, who do not understand the identity of the one whom they are killing. They also are slow to understand that his death atones for their sins and that after death he will be raised up and exalted by God. (One thing you might do during the Great Fast is pick up your bible and look up these passages in Isaiah).

Mark, who was a practicing Jew, also draws on similar patterns in the Psalms. And he surely had in mind the opening of the Wisdom of Solomon, where “godless men” put “the righteous one” to death because his goodness truly makes their lives uncomfortable and because “he styles himself a child of the Lord” (Wisdom 2:13) and “boasts that God is his Father” (Wisdom 2:16). In this work, the righteous one is not only exalted by God but given immortality as well (Wisdom 2:23).

In general, the most significant background comes from the Wisdom writings. In Catholic tradition, there are seven Jewish Wisdom writings: Proverbs, Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon (Protestant tradition does not include these same writings nor does the Jewish Bible). Each of these works is distinct, yet they share certain significant things in common. They are all set in domestic situations and everyday life. Many of them use a pithy, aphoristic style of speech. They are all focused on how to live a wise and holy life. They all agree that “fear of the Lord” [in the sense of holy awe] is the beginning of wisdom”. Most important, they of them (i.e., Proverbs, Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon) imagine God’s Wisdom as a personified attribute that walks on earth and dwells among human beings. Is this not Who Jesus is?

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20170312

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In the last issue I shared more about Arius, whose teachings were anathematized, in order that my readers might have an accurate idea of what drove the Fathers of the Church to develop the particular belief we hold about the person of Jesus. As much as Arius struggled to maintain the unique status of Jesus, he was still left with a creature, however exalted such a one may be. Can such a creature be worshipped? Can such a creature save humanity from the awful reality of sin? If not, if the Son indeed shares the same divine nature with the Father and the Spirit, how can the Church best think and speak of such a mysterious reality? The Of course one of our greatest Fathers of the Church, Athanasius, had a response to Arius and his position. Athanasius’ response to the Arian position is a deft mixture of biblical exegesis and theological insight. Athanasius insists that Arius’ explanationof the Son’s relationship to the Father is fundamentally flawed. Athanasius argues, that Arius has failed to think through the implications of his assertion that “the Son is from nothing” and “did not exist before He was begotten.” If Arius is correct, how could the Son rightly receive such names as “Son,” “God” and “Wisdom”? If these names do not pertain to the Son by nature, that is, because of what he essentially is, they must be attributed to him because he participates in something beyond himself. Exactly what?

Perhaps, Arius suggests, such names can be attributed because of the Son’s “participation” in the Holy Spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit has communicated to the Son attributes the Son himself does not possess by nature. But does not this participation and communication reverse the order of giving and receiving that Jesus teaches in the Gospel of John? Jesus states that the Spirit “will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). Yes, Athanasius insists, the Son does receive by participation, but this is an eternal, essential participation, one that characterizes the relationship between Father and Son alone. This is the only possibility. We see that the Fathers had a great difficulty in finding ways to present God as “Three-In-One”.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20170312

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The triad of virtues – faith, hope and love – is not only the end and summit of John’s Ladder but also its beginning. John states:

A strong faith is the mother of renunciation!

Unswerving hope is the gateway to detachment!

Genuine love of God is the foundation of exile!

Many people do not understand why faith is a virtue, for faith is usually understood as nothing more than believing in something that cannot be proven. But when we speak of faith as a Christian virtue, we are speaking of something more specific than this. It is not a virtue toi believe, for example, that what so-and-son told me is true or that the weather will be good tomorrow despite the gloomy forecast. Faith, or belief, does not mean gullibility. Unfortunately many think of religious faith in this way. But that kind of faith is far too rudimentary to deserve a place at the top of the ladder of Christian virtues. Faith as “the evidence of things not seen” is the beginning of faith, but not its end.

Faith, like hope and love, truly describes our relationship with God. The reason faith lies at the summit of the Ladder is that it both shapes our relationship with God and, at the same time, is the fruit of that relationship. It is therefore better understood as trust, faithfulness, loyalty and dedication. The more we come to know God, the more we trust in Him and the more we dedicate ourselves to Him. And yet, the greater our faith, the more we grow in the other virtues. We cannot begin to ascend the Ladder without faith, and yet the higher we ascend, the more faith increases.

Unfortunately, many Christians think that our faith is placed in the Church. It must be placed in the Person of our Triune God. The main purpose of the Church is to assist us in building our relationship with God. One of the tasks of this earthly life is to grow in our trust and faith in our God and His great love for us!

Reflections on the Scripture Readings for this Weekend — 20170305

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The first weekend of the Great Fast challenges us with two very interesting readings. The first is from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews and the second is from John’s Gospel about the calling of both Philip and Nathanael. In the Eastern Church this first weekend of the Fast is also known as the triumph of orthodoxy – it commemorates the victory over Iconoclasm and the restoration of the veneration of icons in Constantinople in 843 CE. The connection of this celebration with Lent is purely historical – this event took place on the first weekend of the Great Fast in the ninth century. I truly do believe, however, that we can connect this with the common message from our readings.

The common message in the readings is that our FAITH tells us that God is truly involved in our lives. He is not distant and unconnected. Faith can make a difference. Faith can help us to come to a true understanding of the meaning and purpose of our lives. We are called by God to be people of FAITH. It is the one force that can sustain us on life’s journey.

This same message is conveyed through the Gospel story of Jesus meeting Nathanael. In the story Jesus tells Nathanael that He saw Him sitting under a fig tree before He actually met him. This clearly reinforces the thought that God is very aware of our lives and all of our struggles and successes and is with us, if we only believe. We see this in Nathanael’s response: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel”. God, through His Son Jesus, knows all about us and cares for us, if only we believe. Jesus says to Nathanael, “Do you just believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see much greater things than that!”

How do we connect the message of these readings with the triumph of orthodoxy? When we are people of true FAITH, we become living “icons” of God. We reflect to our world a God Who is with us, loving us and supporting us on the journey of earthly life.

We must always remember that we have FAITH in a Person, namely our Triune God. While we hold sacred various truths about our God, our FAITH is placed in Him. It is critical that we understand that we believe, first of all, in God. Hopefully His Church supports us in our striving to believe and hope in Him and Him alone! We strive to become “living icons” of our God.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160305

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In this article I have been providing information about the Gospel of Mark, considered to be the oldest of the four Gospels and the source of much of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. When we read Mark’s Gospel, we need to be aware that Genesis was always in the background. Mark was always thinking of God as the Creator, whose primary concern is to create, sustain and restore life. His Gospel is filled with reminders of “the beginning.” It is structured around the idea that God desires to lead us back to the original Garden. Indeed of particular importance to Mark is God’s creation of human beings in God’s image. Mark presents Jesus as a NEW ADAM (son of man) and as image of the divinity (son of God). I has also hoping that these comments on the Gospel of Mark might inspire some to read the Gospel during the Great Fast. It could be a very good exercise during the Fast and, as you read the Gospel, you could also read this article.

Mark also connects Jesus to the central prophets of Jewish tradition – Moses and Elijah. In terms of narrative structure, Jesus’ relationship to John the Baptist is patterned after the Elijah-Elisha cycle in the two books of Kings, a cycle which, in its own way, echoes the biblical narrative from Genesis to Kings. The miracles that Mark shows Jesus performing have their connections to Elijah’s raising up a young man from death (1 Kings 17:17-24) , to Elisha’s multiplication of loaves (2 Kings 4:42-44) and to his cleansing of a leper (2 Kings 5:1-14). When Mark shows Jesus in his state of transfigured glory, he shows him in conversation with Moses, the giver of God’s word and with Elijah, the prophet who, according to biblical legend, never died but was taken up to heaven.

Mark also places Jesus in the tradition of the prophets seeking the reform of the Temple. By means of interweaving quotations from Scripture, Mark links Jesus to the warnings of Jeremiah and the vision of Isaiah. He shows Jesus warning that the Temple would be destroyed unless the Temple authorities gave up their idolatrous connections with foreign power and wealth. At the same time, Mark shows Jesus sharing Isaiah’s vision of a sacred space where all peoples will join together in worshipping the one God.

We must always remember that Mark, unlike Luke, was a Jew and was deeply immersed in Judaism and that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160305

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Of all the liturgical rules pertaining to the Great Fast, one is of importance for the understanding of the peculiar Tradition of our Greek-Catholic Church. It is one that has not been universally followed after our union with the Western Catholic Church. It is now becoming much more widely accepted as our Church is more completely embracing our Sacred Tradition. That liturgical rule, simply stated, is that the Divine Eucharistic Liturgy is not to be celebrated on weekdays of the Fast. The ancient rules are clear: under no circumstances is the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated Monday through Friday, during the Great Fast, with one exception: the major Feast of the Annunciation (the feast that celebrates when Mary conceived Jesus at the proclamation of the Archangel Gabriel). Tradition prescribes a special evening service of Communion which has been consecrated on Sunday. It is called the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. This Tradition is based on a fundamental liturgical principle: the incompatibility of the Eucharist with fasting. To truly understand this principle, however, we have to first consider the meaning of the Eucharist.

The Eucharist has always preserved its festal and joyful character. It is the first of all mysteries of Christ’s coming and being present among His followers. So, in a very real sense, it is always the celebration of His Resurrection and is, of course, proof of His Resurrection. We must remember the story of Jesus meeting His disciples on the way to the town of Emmaus. His disciples did not recognize Him except in the “breaking of bread”. When He joined them for dinner, He took bread and broke it and gave it to them. When He did that, they immediately recognized Him.

The Eucharist must be for us, as it was for these disciples, a joy and “burning of heart” knowing that He is with us. So, the celebration of the Divine, Eucharistic Liturgy is always a celebratory occasion (This is also one reasons why we completely end the Divine Liturgy and close the Royal Doors before we serve a Panahyda. The Requiem service is not to be seen as a part of the Liturgy).

Every time the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she is in heaven. One understands then why the Eucharist is incompatible with fasting, for fasting is the main expression of the Church as still in a state of pilgrimage – a state of still making her way to the Heavenly Kingdom. Remember that Christ said that the “sons of the Kingdom” cannot fast while the Bridegroom is with them”. So then why do we distribute Communion on fast days?