Acquiring the Mind of Christ — 20160924

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christ_iconSo the Eastern Church sees that the work of Christ, and therefore the Church, is to help humans to develop those positive, Christ-like characteristics that will bring humans to a greater level of communion with the One Who IS Life, God. Holistic healing is thus sought by the Eastern Church with the end of bringing about voluntary and free communion with God. The believer conquers death through participation in God’s Life through the Mysteries (Sacraments) which the Church has been given through the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit. The Church maintains seven powerful rituals which bring humankind into direct communion with God. Three of the seven are ongoing opportunities given to believers to encounter God and enter into ever-deeper communion with Him: Eucharist, Reconciliation (Penance) and Holy Anointing.

Conversely, the Western understanding of all this essentially declares man “not guilty”, and leaves him, unfortunately, unhealed and unchanged. In the mind of the Eastern Church this distorts the message of Christian salvation: to “be partakers of the divine nature.”

The formation of the Anselmian doctrine of Atonement is seen by modern commentators as “a revolution in theology,” beginning “a new epoch in the theology of Atonement.” This new doctrine stemmed from several factors. Foremost, a characteristic influence of the legalistic Roman mindset that was exhibited in Western theologians as early as Tertullian which encourages and supports a juridical conceptualization concerning the truths of the faith. Anselm drew from Tertullian who sees man’s sin as a disturbance in the “divine order of justice,” and makes penance a “satisfaction to the Lord.”

Another strong influence on Anselm was St. Augustine. Not only did Anselm utilize St. Augustine’s concept of “limited Atonement,” but he also used his methods of theological and philosophical experimentation. St. Augustine, as you will recall, what the Western Father who formulated the idea of Original Sin.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160924

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St. Sophia’s Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Kiev, Ukraine

St. Sophia’s Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Kiev, Ukraine

As all are aware, September 1st was the beginning the Church year. Already during this month of September we have celebrated two of the 12 major feasts of our Church: the Birth of the Mother of God (September 8th) and the Exaltation or Elevation of the Holy Cross (September 14th). As I thought about this fact, I decided that it might be very important to share information about the 12 Major Feasts that our Church celebrations. All Eastern Orthodox Churches have the same feasts.

I will be using a paper written by Conrad Rudolph and published by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at UCLA. I found his paper very interesting and, therefore, have decided to share it with my readers, together with my own commentary.

Historians have never properly dealt with the Twelve Great Feasts, which are called the Dodekaortion of the Eastern Church. While some feasts have received much attention, others have been almost totally ignored, thus making an understanding of these feasts as a group difficult. More importantly, Rudolph maintains, scholarship has largely disregarded the historical causes behind the feasts’ existence. Only one scholar, Gregory Dix, who is a scholar of liturgy, tried to approach the subject of the feasts as a whole. It is his belief that the feasts strictly commemorate the historical events in Christ’s life rather than theological doctrine. He began his discussion of the origin and spread of the early Church’s feasts with this comment: “It is one thing to have a knowledge of the course of liturgical history…. It is quite another and a more difficult thing to understand the real motive forces which often underlie such changes.”

It was Rudolph’s hope to explain the real “motive forces” behind the wide-spread acceptance of the feasts adopted after the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381. I believe that Rudolph achieved his goal. He dealt with them as a group in order to show that the original purpose of these feasts was not to commemorate events in Christ’s life, as Dix believed, by rather to put forth theological and, ultimately political propositions in an accessible and convincing form.

The twelve major feasts are: Crucifixion, Resurrection, Pentecost, Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Entrance into Jerusalem, Ascension, Theophany, Nativity, Presentation, Dormition, Annunciation and Transfiguration. Some Churches have the Raising of Lazarus instead of the Exaltation. Our Church actually has 7 additional major Holy Days which I will include.

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20160924

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edrodsui1While I have been presenting ideas about the development of good human relations skills, I am sure that my readers can, if they try, immediately see how these skills can facilitate a more genuine relationship with God. If we develop the skills to sustain truly genuine human relationships, we will have the skills to enter into a genuine relationship with God. As I think about it, this proves the genius of our God. It is only through our human, concrete experiences that we can develop an ability to sustain a genuine relationship with Him, our invisible God.

The next critical skill we must develop in order to sustain genuine relationships is Communication. True communication only occurs when someone understands you, not just when you speak. One of the biggest dangers with communication is that we can work on the assumption that the other person has understood the message we are trying to get across. Poor communication in our relationships can lead to back stabbing and blame, which, in turn, can affect our stress levels, especially when we don’t understand something or feel we have been misled. It has a definite effect on our relationships.

I suspect that most people never think about their their ability to communicate when they think of their relationship with God. And yet, when you think about it, if we desire to have a genuine relationship with God effective communication is essential.

I realize that many may ask how it is possible to truly communicate with God. Effective communication happens when we don’t TALK ALL THE TIME and allow the other person to respond. So in prayer, there should be pauses in personal prayer to allow for God to respond. He will respond by providing a moment of insight or a new thought that comes to you. Of course He only can respond when you anticipate His respond and when you are open to His response.

Learning how to effective communicate with others prepares us to communicate with God!

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160924

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Holy Eucharist IconSince I believe that it is extremely critical for our understanding of our worship, I will be spending several weeks presenting thoughts and ideas about ANAMNESIS.

Anamnesis is a central notion in Catholic and Orthodox liturgy and, to some extent, Christian worship. Liturgical remembrance of God’s action on behalf of and in relationship with humankind in history is both a starting point for worship and flows from worship. As I presented in the last issue, this Greek word is used to convey ‘actualizing’ remembrance of the paschal mystery. Through the actions of the Liturgy, the past is brought into intimate contact with the present, eradicating time and making Christ’s saving actions present to us. It fulfills His promise to be present to all His followers until the end of time. While this word has had various meanings in Greek philosophy, the Christian usage of this term or its significance is found in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25. In consecutive verses, the Greek accusative noun form of ἀνάμνησις, ἀνάμνησιν is used within a command from St. Paul to the Corinthians concerning the bread that has become Christ’s body, and then again concerning the cup of wine transformed into “the new covenant in Christ’s blood” (v 25). Paul reinforces the twofold directive by placing it in the mouth of the Lord himself: “Do this in remembrance of me” (τουτο ποιειτε εἰς την ἐμην ἀνάμνησιν ) (vv 24-25). Without using the term anamnesis again, Paul then further explains Christ’s command to commemorate the Last Supper through a communal meal that is at once an act of anamnesis and of eschatological anticipation. Partakers in this meal are transformed by it as both Christ’s past gift of self and future second coming are brought into the present encounter with the Lord: “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (v 26). This is why we articulate in this prayer Christ’s “second and glorious coming again.”

In 1 Corinthians 11:24-26, anamnesis is connected with covenant; the cup in particular is said to be “the new covenant in Christ’s blood.” This confluence of covenant and anamnesis is not a Christian novelty. Indeed, a strong connection between anamnesis and covenant exists in ancient Israelite tradition and is central to several Old Testament texts. (To be continued)

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of Our Faith — 20160924

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capadociosIn the last issue I shared something about Basil’s early theology and how he impacted the Church’s understanding of certain elements in our doctrine on Jesus and God. Basil’s early theological writings reveal a thinker in constant development. It is important that a person look at some of his early correspondence with Apollinaris of Laodiucea, which is probably to be dated around 360-361. Basil wrote to Apollinaris asking how to interpret homoousios. He also states to Apollinaris that those who oppose any ousia language are motivated by hatred of homoousios, a hatred he does not appear to feel. Thus, Basil’s preference

For Homoousian-sounding language does not occur because of deep antipathy to Nicaea. Rather, it seems to result from concern about the difficulty of understanding homoousios appropriately.

As you see, although the Father sought the appropriate words to express the divine mystery of the Trinity and Incarnation, they struggled with it. Basil had some reservations at first about the words chosen at Nicaea. There are two ways of understanding the problem Basil described in a letter to Apollinaris. On the one hand, Basil might have been expression an anti-Marcellan concern with homoousios. He might have argued that when we speak of ‘light from light’ we must speak clearly of two realities, each ‘light’ being ‘circumscribed’ as an individual reality; homoousios may imply that Father and Son are the same one light.

On the other hand, it has recently been suggested that there is another way of reading Basil’s concern. Homoousios is unacceptable because it implies the existence of two ultimate principles. This worry about the implications of homoousios has a long pedigree in the fourth century: we first encounter it with Arius’ charge that Alexander’s ‘always Father, always Son’ implies the existence of two principles.

What is the problem that Basil was facing? How can there be three separate persons in one being? How do we explain that? It was the same problem that the Church faced when it began dealing with the Incarnation. How can there be two individual beings in one Person.

Although this is a matter of faith, the Fathers struggled to find the appropriate way to express this truth. They found the words to express it but not prove it. The Trinity and the Incarnation are still a true and profound matter of faith.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160924

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Ladder of Divine AccentI have been sharing thoughts about the 25th Step of John’s Ladder, which is HUMILITY. John writes: There is a difference between being humble, striving for humility and praising the humble.

We are tempted to be passive about the virtues. We think of faith, humility, patience, self-control and all other virtues as nothing more than divine gifts – you have them or you don’t. But then there would be no sense in God commanding us to have faith, to be patient, to pray, to forgive. We are all capable of growing in virtue just as we are all capable of falling into sin.

While it is true that God does not give spiritual gifts in equal measure, it is clear that we will have to account for what we have done with the gifts God has given us. A person of meager virtue who has strived harder than another who possesses greater virtue may be the more virtuous in God’s eyes, simply because his virtue was acquired by working for his salvation with the little he had, while the other has complacently relied on God’s gifts. St. John says: Whoever is eager for the peaceful haven of humility will never cease to do all that he can to get there.

The humble are always ignorant of their humility. In the same way, the repentant are always ignorant of their repentance, for only the humble can repent. So we have in the spiritual life a certain paradox: we cannot acquire virtue without repentance, but we cannot repent without virtue.

So how can we acquire humility? St. John tells us the answer is different for each person:

Some: drive out empty pride by thinking of their past misdeeds, for which they are forgiven; remember the passion of Christ and their eternal debt; think of their daily lapses; and others come to posses the mother of graces by what of their continuous temptations, weaknesses and sins are the opportunities to spur them to humility.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160924

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Eastern Eucharistic piety stands in vivid contrast to the late Medieval Latin practice of the veneration of the Host, an expression, on the level of spirituality, of the doctrine of transubstantiation. In the East, no philosophical terminology was applied specifically to the Eucharistic mystery, which was not considered in isolation from the Christological facts: the transfiguration of the body of Christ, the “change” which occurred in it after the resurrection and which, through the power of the Spirit, is also at work in the entire body of the baptized faithful, that is, in the “total” Christ. Thus, to designate the Eucharist, the theologians used terms found in the ancient liturgical texts, such as metabole (change), metarrythmesis (change of order), metastoicheiosis (trans-elementation), metamorphosis (transfiguration). The language is always tentative, imprecise, and applicable not only to the Eucharistic elements as such but also to paschal and eschatological notions, which reflect salvation in Christ of the entire people of God. The Patriarch Nicephorus (early ninth century) wrote “We confess that by the priest’s invocation, by the coming of the Most Holy Spirit, the body and blood of Christ are mystically and invisibly made present … not because the body ceases to be a body, but because it remains so and is preserved as body.” Christ becomes present to us!

Perhaps more important than any speculative argument devised by theologians, the liturgical tradition has preserved the same Christological and ecclesial dimension of the Body, manifested in the Eucharist. The Eucharistic prayers of the community, formulated in the first person plural, so that communion with Christ is not a matter of individual piety but of joining together within his single Body. Second, they are addressed to the Father, by an assembly of baptized persons who, in virtue of their baptism are already “in Christ.” The unbaptized catechumens, (those studying to become a member of the Church), the excommunicated and the penitents do not join in the prayer.

It should be truly remembered that in the early Church, the only persons who were allowed to participate in the Anaphora of the Liturgy were baptized persons. All others had to leave the place of worship before the creed and the act of consecrating the Gifts that represent life. Today, as you know, even un-believers can stay through the entire Divine Liturgy.

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160918

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holycrossAs we complete the 18th week after Pentecost, we also celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (this feast was celebrated on Wednesday the 14th of September).

Our Epistle reading is again taken from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. He writes:

I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I will not treat God’s gracious gift as pointless.

These are such very very insightful words. Paul truly had a sense of Who Jesus Is and how we humans are connected to Him.

Our second reading is taken from Mark’s Gospel (8:34-9:1). In this passage the doctrine of the Cross is shared. Mark writes:

If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps. Whoever would preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will preserve it…. What can a man offer in exchange for his life?

When you listen to these two readings together, truly Paul’s words are a personal expression of his life. To be crucified with Christ, as Paul exclaimed, means that he voluntarily accepted the challenges of life as Jesus did and willingly embraced them as a means of growing in his union with and likeness of Jesus. Paul understood that our life’s challenges are the cross given to us to help us spiritually grow. The way that we respond to our unique cross determines its value in helping us come to the fullness of life.

One might ask, What does Paul mean when he writes that his life is now “a life of faith in the Son of God?” He clearly means that he is not ashamed of the Son of Man and that he freely and voluntarily embraces the Jesus Way of Living. Paul was willing to lose his life for the sake of his belief in Jesus and His message. There was nothing more important to him than to live like Jesus lived. Why? Because he came to believe that Jesus revealed to us the way that God intended humans to live in order to achieve the fullness of life.

What is also a very evident message from both of these readings is this: our response to God’s revelation about how we should live in order to be granted the fullness of life must be a free and voluntary process. Jesus clearly states, “if a person WISHES to come after me.” God never forces us to live in a certain way. He only encourages us to freely respond to His revelation.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160918

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Ladder of Divine AccentThis continues thoughts on the 25th Step of John’s Ladder, HUMILITY. One way to understand humility is that it is a continuous paradox of contrition and joy, the mingling of tears and gratitude. This is why humility overcomes all the passions. Anger, avarice, lust, greed, despondency, hatred, the remembrance of wrongs – all these spring from a deep-seated ingratitude and a blinding love of self. To be humble, on the other hand, is to live in a joyful and peaceful state of real thankfulness. Being the virtue that overwhelms our ego, dissatisfaction and ingratitude, humility dispels all vainglorious pursuits, all anger and resentment. St. John wrote:

As soon as the cluster of holy humility begins to flower within us, we come, after hard work to hate all earthly praise and glory. We rid ourselves of rage and fury; and the more this queen of virtues spreads within our souls through spiritual growth, the more we begin to regard all our good deeds as of no consequence…. Where there is humility there will be no sign of hatred, no species of quarrelsomeness, no whiff of disobedience – unless of course some question of faith arises.

Here St. John reminds us that obedience (which is part and parcel of humility) is not blind subjugation. When obedience means betraying our faith, doing or agreeing to something we know to be wrong, humility does not compel us to obey, but rather gives us the courage to take a stand. For humility is rooted not in cowardice, but in the fear and love of God.

We Christians are always bleating on about humility, yet hardly any of us have it. Perhaps we forget that humility is not merely a virtue to be admired, but one to be strived for. It is all very well praising saints and spiritual fathers for their great humility, but unless we make some effort to acquire humility ourselves, such praise will not get us very far.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160918

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As I shared in the last issue, participation in the Eucharist was defined by the Fathers in Christological terms – as being “in Christ”. Being “in Christ” however, does not involve personal or “hypostatic” identification with the Logos, because the person is that which is always unique. It involves a sharing, through the power of the Spirit, in Christ’s glorified humanity – a humanity that remains fully human even after its glorification.

In debates with iconoclasts, who claimed that Christ was deified in His resurrection and became “indescribable” and therefore impossible to be imaged, Theodore of Studios objected: “If Christ were uncircumscribed after His resurrection, we also, who are one body with Him, would have to be uncircumscribed.”

The iconoclastic controversy directly involved not only the doctrine of the incarnation and, in general, human relations with God, but also and particularly the Eucharistic doctrine. The iconoclasts – and more precisely, Emperor Constantine V – affirmed the Eucharist to be the only legitimate and biblically established image of God. For their true-believing adversaries, as we learned from Theodore of Studios, the Eucharist was, on the contrary, a true and real identification of the faithful with the risen Lord – not simply a vision of his image. In the theological and Christological categories developed by the true-believing spokesmen of the iconoclastic period, the Eucharist was never the object of a vision: only the icons were to be seen. It is this general conception of the Eucharistic assembly that justified the extraordinary development of the iconostasis – the system of icons covering the screen that separates the altar area from the nave of a Byzantine church. The Eucharistic mystery performed behind it is not an object of visual contemplation but a meal, eventually distributed to the faithful, who otherwise communicate with God by contemplating and venerating icons.

As you can tell and as I have been trying to suggest, everything we say that we believe is interconnected. The Fathers looked at all that we believe and saw a real connection between all of our beliefs. They are all about the God in which we believe and how He has manifested Himself to us. One belief leads to another. God is truly Triune because Jesus is both God and Man. The Eucharist and icons are directly connected to these beliefs.