Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160717

Posted on by

What I have been trying to cover in this article is the idea of God’s role in the writing of the Books of the Bible, both the Old and the New (OT, NT). The Bible does not provide a theory of inspiration and is generally silent on the role of the human factor. The OT, it is true, speaks of God’s command to more than one individual to write a document and thus would seem prima facie to make the prophet purely a transmitter of the divine message, rather than a creative agent. This, however, is probably a device to stress the absolute primacy of God in the communication of the divine message to man; and it would be wrong to formulate from such passages the theory that the human beings who obeyed God’s command to write played an entirely passive role. However, the idea of the human writer’s apparent passivity was not absent from later Christian theories about how the sacred books were written.

We must remember that there are religions and also Christian religious denominations that look at Sacred Writings (e.g., the Koran and the Jewish Torah) as being dictated by God as He is known by the various groups. Christian fundamentalism believes that every word is absolute truth and dictated by God Himself. When you think about the information in the OT in particular, where there is an expressed belief, for example, that God actually created the world in seven days, why, if it was dictated by God, the information would not have been more accurate. It would be highly blasphemous to think that God would have dictated untruth, even if people could not understand what He dictated.

If the Bible itself does not consciously and directly assert that the human writers were genuinely creative, it nevertheless indirectly provides valuable support for such an assertion. The human writers who produced Isaiah, for instance, certainly appear to be literary personalities distinctively different from those who produced Jeremiah; and such distinctiveness of personality can be observed throughout the Bible. This is also very clearly seen in the NT.

The real creativity of the human writers is also suggested in the few scenes that the Bible provides showing the sacred writers at work on their documents. Thus, in the Foreword to Sirah the writer states that he devoted pains and labor to the composition of his book and begs indulgence for any imperfections that may exist.

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20160717

Posted on by

As I shared with you many times before, I believe that what most persons desire and true need is an understanding of the meaning and purpose of their lives. Many people are deluded, I think, in believing that the pursuit of happiness will bring them an understanding of the purpose of this life. Unfortunately, happiness is a fleeting feeling. It does not bring us internal peace. The only thing that will bring us internal peace, tranquility and true contentment, I believe, is to come to a real understanding of the meaning and purpose of our lives.

If you don’t have a real understanding of why you exist right now on earth, I think life can become very desperate. Jean Paul Sarte, an existential philosopher, truly believed that life in this world was absurd. He saw no real meaning and purpose in this earthly existence because he did not connect this earthly life with immortal life.

When you think about the fact that human life is immortal, namely that it goes on for all eternity, you then see that this earthly existence is meant to help us grow spiritually and develop psyches – to actually respond to God plan of providing us various experiences so that we might grow in the likeness of Jesus, the Christ. The goal of life, as God conceived it, was to grow in the likeness of Jesus, the prototype of a human person. He does not force us to love Him. Rather, He gave us a free will and various experiences in life that can, if we accept them as loving opportunities to grow, help me to come to a deeper understanding of His love for us and, therefore, cause us to desire to enter into a deeper union with Him.

True love only begets love! This is also a human truth. If you truly love someone you want others to truly love them also. You tend to share your loved ones with others. When we are selfish and jealous about the people we love, we don’t really love them, we use them to aggrandize ourselves. Because God loves us all, He desires that we love one another.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160717

Posted on by

A certain tradition of interpreting Chalcedon as a factual disavowal of Cyril has existed in the West. In the East, on the contrary, the true Christian faith remained quite definitely Cyrillian. Furthermore, the implications of the Chalcedonian statement about “the preservation of the properties of each nature” were not always fully recognized in the East. For instance, many Byzantine spiritual authors explain such passages as Luke 2:52 (i.e., Jesus progressed in wisdom and maturity) as some pedagogical tactic on the part of Christ rather than as a real change from ignorance to knowledge, from childhood to human adulthood. For them, Christ’s divinity implied omniscience, and his humanity was modified accordingly. But was it then concretely identical with our humanity? This reluctance to admit human ignorance in Christ may have Hellenistic-Evagrian roots, which equated ignorance with sinfulness, and may therefore be anthropologically, and not christologically, motivated. Other Byzantine theologians had no difficult admitting human ignorance in Christ. Their opposition to a Christian heresy of the 6th century, called Aphthartodocetism, which carried Monophysitism(i.e., Christ had but one nature and that divine) to a new extreme, also indicates a perception – both biblical and Chalcedonian – that Christ’s humanity was, indeed, very similar to ours in every way except sin.

It is obvious that the Church struggled greatly to come to the understanding of Who Jesus Is. We truly believe that the Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit since it seems beyond human intellectual ability to have conceived the resulting definition of who we believe to be.

The fullness of humanity in Christ will also be further defined in the theological synthesis of Maximus the Confessor and his doctrine of the two wills, as well as in the affirmation during the period of iconoclasm of Christ’s “depictability.” The christological debates around Chalcedon – just like the trinitarian controversies of the fourth century – illustrate the limitations (actually recognized by the fathers of the Church) inherent in doctrinal definitions and other conceptual formulas.

This is one of the reasons why, as the Eastern Church has done, it is easier to say what God and Jesus are not. Definitions always fall short, even though they are important.

GAINING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FAITH — 20160717

Posted on by

As I suggested in the last issue of this article, perhaps the greatest belief of our faith and Church is with regard to Who God IS. The word Trinity describes our belief that the one God of the universe is comprised of three persons: God the Father, God the Son Who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. It has been the conviction of Christians throughout the centuries that this is what the Bible teaches. The word trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas, meaning three. It doesn’t appear in the Bible. It is a theological label meant to summarize the passages of the Bible, which teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. This labeling is similar to other doctrines such as communion, incarnation, and free will where the word doesn’t appear in the Bible. The early church father Tertullian (c. 155-230), who wrote in Latin, is believed to have first used the term trinity to describe the God of the Bible.

The doctrine of the trinity distinguishes Christianity from other religions including, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Unitarian Universalism. These groups reject the doctrine, in part, because the word trinity isn’t used in the Bible, it doesn’t make philosophical sense to them. They don’t believe that it is compatible with monotheism.

The doctrine of the trinity was first thoroughly and formally articulated in the fourth century in response to perceived distortions of biblical teaching on the subject, but the fundamental beliefs of the doctrine can be seen from the first century. while no systematic presentation of the doctrine can be found in the New Testament, Christians argue that it can be shown that the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son, Jesus Christ, is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, all the while affirming that there is but one God.

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can also be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. The fullest early expression of the concept came, however, with Tertullian, a theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words Trinity and person and explained that the Bible taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in essence – not one in Person. There is no possibility to prove this since it is a mystery and a matter of belief. More to come.

 

 

ACQUIRING THE MIND OF CHRIST — 20160717

Posted on by

I would continue to share with you my thoughts about acquiring the mind of Christ by looking closely at how He prayed. He gave us the OUR FATHER as the preeminent prayer. When we pray it fervently in community we become the PEOPLE OF GOD – we understand that God is our Father and Creator and we begin to reject the idea that He is our Judge. Fathers don’t judge their children, they only attempt to show them how to live.

The petition that appears in the Our Father prayer after Thy will be done simply is on earth as it is in heaven. The will of God both on earth and in heaven is that His children might love one another and that they might hold sacred the creation that surrounds them. God’s will in heaven is that all created things and beings might recognize that He creates them out of love and only wants them to know that He loves them.

I would have you think about the prayers that we say on Theophany when we bless the waters, when we symbolically bless life – that energy that vivifies all of creation. The prayer indicates that all creation responds to God’s love and worships Him. In fact we pray: the sun praises You, our God, the moon worships You, the stars submit to You, the Light obeys you, the Tempests tremble, the springs worship You. All creation responds to God in praise and, of course, in worship.

The one purpose of creation is to worship and bring praise to its Creator, our God. All the angelic hosts bring praise to God in heaven. They Seraphim and the Cherubim stand before God’s Throne constantly singing: Holy, Holy, Holy are You our God.

So we pray that on earth we may do what is done in heaven, namely, offer praise to God. So in this prayer we ask OUR FATHER to grant us the insight and the courage to do what all creation is called to do, namely offer Him worship and praise.

One might immediately think, in hearing this, that God is very ego-centric or solipsistic. On the contrary, God calls us to understand who we are in His Kingdom. When we praise and worship God we come to discover that we are His children, created out of love, and hopefully when we understand how much we are loved, we will do everything in our power to return this love. We do this by trying to live like His children.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160717

Posted on by

Although I have shared the substance of the first six Ecumenical Councils with my readers before, I would reiterate their substance again so that all might have a firm understanding of our faith. Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church embraces these as the foundation of our faith.

First Council of Nicaea (325): affirmed that Jesus is truly God and equal to the Father; repudiated Arianism, and adopted the Nicene Creed.

First Council of Constantinople (381): affirmed that Jesus was perfectly man against the ideas of the Apollinarians; revised the Nicene Creed into its present form which is used in the Eastern and Western Churches; prohibited any further alteration of the Creed without the assent of an Ecumenical Council.

Council of Ephesus (431): affirmed that Jesus is one person against Nestorianism; proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, and also condemned Pelagianism.

Council of Chalcedon (451): affirmed that in Jesus there are two distinct natures in one person that are hypostatically united without confusion, change, division or separation; repudiated Eutychianism and Monophysitism; adopted the Chalcedonian Creed.

Second Council of Constantinople, (553): reaffirmed decisions and doctrines explicated by previous Councils, condemned new Arian, Nestorian, and Monophysite writings.

Third Council of Constantinople, (681): asserted Jesus had both a divine and a human will; repudiated Monothelitism.

It is obvious as you review the content of each of these six Councils that the primary concern of each Council was to come to a true and real understanding of WHO JESUS IS. It was the belief of the early Church that He was special, especially in light of His resurrection from the dead. Although they knew that His teachings were life-giving, they did not have a clear idea of who He is. Thus different bishops and priests began sharing their ideas about who Jesus is. This led to controversy since other bishops and priests didn’t agree with all of the ideas that were being proposed. So controversy broke out. The Emperor, who was considered the head of the Church and the State, called the first Council (Nicaea) to attempt to stop the controversy since it was upsetting the Empire. But, as one controversy was repudiated, another broke out. So for 356 years the Church struggled to find a way to express her faith that Jesus was not only a special human being but that He was God Himself incarnate.

This, of course, led to the next stage of Christian dogma development, namely who is God. I shall continue thoughts about that in the next issue of this Bulletin.

 

 

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160717

Posted on by

After we pray the Creed, which in our Greek-Catholic Church is prayed at every Liturgy, we enter into the most sacred part of our worship, that is the ANAPHORA. This is a Greek work which also entered into the Latin and English vocabularies. It is composed to two Greek root words: ana, which means back, and pherein, which means to bear. So this important section of the Liturgy is to carry us back, in a real sense, to the original event in history when Jesus promised His Apostles that He would be with them all days by declaring that the bread and wine that He offered them was Himself. The ANAPHORA, which is frequently also referred to as the Eucharistic Canon (i.e., the group of prayers which, the Church believes, makes Christ present in a real way in the consecrated gifts of bread and wine) of our Liturgy takes us out of present time and brings us into the presence of Christ. He again promises us that He will be with us if we REMEMBER Him, not only thinking about Him but with faith experiencing Him in the present moment.

The general form of the eucharistic canon is that of the Old Testamental Passover ritual, now fulfilled and perfected in the new and everlasting covenant of God with men in the person and work of Jesus Christ the Messiah, “our Paschal Lamb Who has been sacrificed” (1Cor 4.7; Heb 5–10). Thus the anaphora begins these words: Let us stand aright! Let us stand with fear! Let us attentive to offer the holy oblation in peace. The response to exhortation is: The offering of peace, the sacrifice of praise.

The holy oblation (i.e., something offered or presented to God) is Christ, the Son of God who has become the Son of Man in order to offer Himself to His Father for the life of the world. In His own person Jesus is the perfect peace offering which alone brings God’s reconciling mercy. This is undoubtedly the meaning of the expression an offering of peace which has been a source of confusion for people over the years in all liturgical languages.

In addition to being the perfect peace offering, Jesus is also the only adequate sacrifice of praise which men can offer to God. There is nothing with which men can worthily thank and praise the Creator. Thus God himself provides men with their own most perfect sacrifice of praise.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160717

Posted on by

Ladder of Divine AccentThe 23rd Step on St. John’s Ladder, is entitled PRIDE. Pride begins where vainglory leaves off. Its midpoint comes with the humiliation of our neighbor, the shameless parading of our achievements, complacency, and unwillingness to be found out. It ends with the spurning of God’s help, the exalting of one’s own efforts and a devilish disposition.

Christian spirituality has always taught that pride is the greatest sin of all. It is very difficult for non-Christians, particularly atheists and humanists, to understand why Christians say this. One can be forgiven for thinking that to call pride the greatest sin is an exaggeration. Surely murder is worse! But when we speak of the passions in Christian spirituality, we are not referring to particular actions (these actions are but the consequences of the passions). Pride cannot be pinpointed in any one particular kind of deed. The reason pride is the greatest sin is that it is in fact the root and cause of so many sorrows and atrocities.

We often hear people say, “I don’t need religion to be a good person,” but rarely does anyone consider the question: “What does it mean to be a good person?” Usually the response to thatr question is, “I’ve never killed anyone; I don’t steal.” Well, that does not define a good person; it merely describes someone who truly is not extraordinarily bad.

There are saints who have committed those sins, and not only did they not remain wicked, they became holy. So, for Christianity, to be good does not mean never to have done bad things. Rather, it means to come into union with God through repentance. We have to re-pent to come into union with God, be-cause “No one is good but One, that is, God.

I’m sure that all of my readers have heard the word pride. I wonder what you think about pride. We know that if God has given us particular talents we should not be ashamed of them. What is pride?

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160710

Posted on by

Christ and the Holy ApostlesAs we end this eighth week after the feast of Pentecost, our readings are from the Letter to the Corinthians and Matthew’s Gospel. Paul’s words at the end of the reading are profound: The message of the cross is complete absurdity to those who are headed for ruin, but to us who are experiencing salvation it is the power of God. This is how I thought about these words.

Unless you think about suffering and death as an opportunity to discover the true meaning and purpose of your life, both events are an absolute absurdity. Without putting them into the context of events that can help you grow in our understanding of life, they are horrible experiences and would seem to only express the absurdity of life. Are we humans only here to suffer and then die and drift off into nothingness? That type of thinking, I believe, only promotes hopelessness and despair.

For those seeking salvation, the cross, which is the ultimate symbol of suffering and death, provides hope and insight into the true meaning and purpose of life. These two human experiences are not punishments. They are meant to be instruments of personal growth and change.

Our Gospel reading relates the event when Jesus fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish. The actual scene is different in each of the three Synoptic Gospels. Matthew connects it with the killing of John the Baptizer and the withdrawal of Jesus from Galilee. Further it would have been very unlikely that the crowd would leave home for a day’s journey without carrying some food. Also, after the people all eat, the apostles gathered up twelve baskets of left-overs, one basket for each apostle.

Most scholars believe that the ceremonial with which Jesus blesses and distributes the food prefigures the Eucharist and anticipates the Last Supper. Christ is the spiritual food humans need to live like a child of God.

So, if we truly understand the revelation given to humanity by God through the Person of Jesus, we know that the meaning and purpose of life is to grow in our likeness of Jesus, embracing the various experiences of life as opportunities to spiritually grow and change. The example and teachings of Jesus can serve as the support we need in order to live this way. Indeed just as the Eucharist is the spiritual food that God gives us to live like Jesus, so also are His teachings and example.

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20160710

Posted on by

st-john-the-baptist-iconAs I have tried to suggest, the call to holiness is a call to make every effort to become more like Jesus – to embrace His ways of thinking and acting. This takes faith. This takes a true belief that God created us in His image and the purpose of earthly life is to cooperate with Him in growing in His incarnated likeness, Jesus. Most often this means not acting in accord with our human impulses but asking ourselves What Would Jesus Do?

I realize that this would be simpler if we could actually see and talk with Jesus like His disciples did. The interesting thing is that from the accounts we have, although Jesus was an extremely charismatic man, only a few really chose to follow Him. The Gospels tell us that many more turned away from Him than followed Him. It seems that after His resurrection, many followed His disciples because they shared that He rose from the dead.

So what do we make of this. We know that at least 72 initially followed Him and that He picked 12 out of that number to be His Apostles, those empowered to preach as He did and to cure others. The others became their support group. This means, however, that the actual number that first responded to His message was relatively few and yet, His Apostles managed to attract great numbers to THE WAY – that is the Jesus way of living. So we are in the same situation as those who decided to follow the JESUS WAY because of the preaching of His Apostles. We know from history that those who joined the Christian movement, after Jesus ascended into heaven, became so convinced of the message that they were willing to die rather than deny the truth of the Jesus message. They became convinced of the truth of His message because they saw others truly embracing the message.

So the call to holiness is a call to truly believe that the message of Jesus about how to live this earthly life is true and that living as He lived can bring true meaning and purpose to our lives.