Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160710

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St. Cyril of Alexandria

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Can it be said that the Council of Chalcedon solved the Christological problem? Certainly not. Like all balanced, conceptual formulas, it solved certain problems but created new ones. Actually, the fathers of Chalcedon were conscious of the limited character of all doctrinal definitions, including their own. Not only did they deny any novelty on their part and insist that their only intention was to follow the fathers and the prophets; they also formally declared their inability to exhaust the meaning of the mystery in a verbal form. This is the significance of the famous four negative adverbs included in the definition: “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation”.

In spite of this declared humility of the Chalcedonian fathers, objections to their terminology were voiced immediately. Indeed, on the one hand, by declaring that Christ was to be seen “in two natures,” they were using the word “nature” in a more abstract sense than Cyril did, for whom “nature” designated a concrete reality and was synonymous with hypostasis. On the other hand, by designating the union as “a concurrence” into one person, or hypostasis, they were not making it quite plain that this hypostasis was the preexisting hypostasis of the Son of God (although their Cyrillian expressions hinted in that direction). Finally, Chalcedonian theologians would always be at pains to try to explain how, according to the Cappadocian fathers, God was still one God, although in him there were three hypostases and one nature, whereas, according to Chalcedon, Christ was one hypostasis but in two natures.

These terminological problems clearly show that it is wrong to consider Chalcedon a kind of ultimate finale of the Christological debates. Not only was it widely opposed by large Eastern Christian communities, which still exist today and are labeled (perhaps inaccurately) Monophysties (Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, Syrian Jacobites); but the conceptual and formal terminology used in the definition could not pretend to fulfill any function other than that of a warning or a signpost. In the experience of a deified humanity, proclaimed by Athanasius and Cyril, the authentic, created, human nature and its properties do not disappear but, in a new communion with the divine, are fulfilling their real purpose, given to them at creation.

We must always remember that with Christ we are dealing with a mystery.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160710

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Holy Eucharist IconAt this point in my presentation of our worship of God, I would return again to the actual prayers and actions of our Liturgy with one thought in mind, namely that the Liturgy can be, if we truly participate in it, transformative. In the present way that we serve the Liturgy, the celebrant makes this exhortation after the Great Entrance and before the Creed is prayed, Let us truly love one another so that with one mind we may profess. This is a most profound exhortation and yet it takes up so little time that it is almost impossible for us to truly hear it – to hear it not only with our outer but also our inner ear. For us today it is just one of the exclamations of the Liturgy. But in earlier times this was not so. We know from the liturgical evidence of the ancient church that a kiss of peace was actually performed after this exclamation, and the entire Church, the entire gathering, took part in it. We used to practice this on a regular basis but with the potential for spreading various viruses, we have not practiced this for some time. We do practice it at Pascha, however, and it is my intention to reintroduce it.

St. John Chrysostom wrote, When the time comes for the exhortation of the mutual reception of the peace, we all kiss each other. Late Byzantine practices had eliminated it. The Western Church reintroduced it after Vatican II, albeit at a different point in the Liturgy. The earlier Byzantine practice was most appropriate since it clearly stated something that Jesus taught, namely that we cannot truly worship God if there is no peace between us and our neighbors.

The response to the exhortation clearly states this. What is it that we profess: The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in substance and undivided. This action and prayer is transformative since it reminds us that we cannot love God and hate our neighbor. If we truly mean this when we respond to this exhortation, personal transformation is reinforced.

This rite, the kiss of peace, is not only Eucharistic. It comprises an important and inalienable part of all Christian worship and originally was found in all of the Mysteries that the Church celebrates.

Contrary to the opinion of some, this rite was always a part of the Christian worship and is not a Roman Catholic invention. I will reintroduce it after all read this.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160710

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1507060_848314515197967_2751624803318588973_nTo understand our Greek-Catholic Church I am convinced that you have to understand the meaning of Sacred Tradition. I have been sharing thoughts about what Sacred Tradition is.

Tradition is certainly not something extra to the Bible’s message. On the contrary, Tradition preserves, clarifies and protects Biblical truth. To the Eastern Christian, Tradition is reflected in the Scriptures. Tradition holds sacred what all the Christians before us, especially those in the early Church – the Fathers and Mothers of the Church – understood not only about the New Testament writings but also about all the prayers that were formulated to enhance our worship of God. Tradition includes the entire library of liturgical literature which is ours. As you may know from experience, the liturgical life of our Church is rich with the Church’s understanding of the revelation of God to us about Himself and creation.

Each manifestation of Tradition stands as an intertwining link forged by the join-partnerships of Spirit and Church. It was in this manner that the books of the Bible were recognized, and it is in this manner that false traditions are even now being rejected. The apostles’ knew of faulty traditions which claimed faithfulness to the Tradition, and so warned the first Christians to “hold fast” to the valid traditions which the apostles had left them to follow.

Tradition is also more than just passed-on teaching: it is the Spirit’s operation in and among the Christian Church of the past, present and future. The Spirit is the fountain of Tradition; and in Tradition He is not just teaching but endeavors to reveal Himself. Tradition’s concern, then, is not merely to impart religious fact but to impart the sense and experience of Faith. Its goal is to bring one into a personal relationship with God and those likewise covenanted to Him. The fruit of such a union will not necessarily in-crease one’s academic knowledge of Christian doctrine, but this union will bring about doctrine’s true purpose within the believer: a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Tradition, for example, has keep sacred the idea that the Eucharist – Holy Communion – truly makes Christ present to us. As the Church prayed and struggled to clarify what that really means, She came to the understanding of the Real Presence. As a Traditional Church we hold this to be true. There are many Western denominations that don’t know it to be true in the way that we and Orthodox Christians do. We hold that Tradition and Scripture are the two rules of our Faith.

ACQUIRING THE MIND OF CHRIST — 20160710

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christ_iconAfter we pray in the Our Father for God’s Kingdom to become a true reality in our lives, we pray: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Unfortunately I have found that these words are often mistakenly understood. This petition is at the very center of the prayer and has to be the central desire of Christians. The whole purpose of prayer, the very purpose of man’s life, is to do the will of God. This is what Jesus prayed and did. This is what we, His followers, must pray and do. There is but one purpose in life, namely to strive to grow in the likeness of Jesus, thus leading to Theosis, (deification) and divine sonship with Christ.

The only thing that God demands of us is that we sincerely give ourselves to personal transformation. This is keeping inviolate the image we possess by nature. Clothed thus in the radiant garment of the Spirit, we abide in God and He in us; through grace we become gods and children of God and are illumined by the light of His knowledge.

To pray Thy will be done, according to the spiritual teachers, is a daring and dangerous act. This is so, first of all, because when one prays this he must be ready, like Jesus, to embrace all the challenges that life presents, believing that life will only present those challenges that can help us to spiritually grow.

It is my contention that Thy will be done doesn’t mean that God wills disease, pain and suffering. They are just a part of life, especially as we modern people live it. What God wills is that we make the most of the challenges that life presents, using them to personally change our behaviors and attitudes. God does not will the individual struggles that each of us are confronted with and He surely doesn’t will that the individual challenges be punishments for the way that we behave.

I realize that this may be very difficult for some to truly understand. For centuries we humans have believed that the only way to shape human behavior is through some sort of punishment. I totally reject this idea. God does not act in the ways that we humans do. As a psychologist I also reject the idea that we can only shape human behavior through punishment. It really doesn’t work.

To do God’s will, therefore, is to be a human who strives to be in the likeness of Jesus. Jesus is the true prototype of what humans were created to be. Think about this!

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160710

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st_john_of_theladderI would share a few last thoughts on the 22nd Step of John’s Ladder, VAINGLORY. John remarks that vainglory induces pride in the favored and resentment in those who are slighted. If we always held back on complimenting people but never on criticizing them, we would be creating a very grim world. Just about everyone is vainglorious and prideful to some degree, and we must acknowledge that imperfection in others as well as ourselves. It is far from helpful to assume that everyone should deal with criticism like a saint, when the reality is they are far from attaining the virtue of humility.

Vainglory is to be found not only in the ungodly, but also in the most devout Christians. Sometimes there is no difference between the two. Many of us Christians want exactly the same kind of admiration others desire. But in the most devout we find the worst kind of vainglory: a desire to be admired for our piety. This is where vainglory becomes so tragically deep that we are in danger of rendering repentance nearly impossible. For even what we think of as our repentance is in fact vainglory. Thus we end up living one life in private and another life in public, for our faith is in fact nothing more than a show.

The religious kind of vainglory is worse because it passes itself off as religious devotion, as something virtuous. A vainglorious Christian may observe the fasts of the Church when with other Christians, but at home does not observe them at all; he may appear to pray ardently in church, but at home is lazy about prayer. In other words, vainglory is duplicitous. We act one way with one person, another way with another person, and yet another way when alone. Usually it is when we are alone that we are our true selves, but with others we are forever putting on an act. This is why John writes that vainglory is a loss of simplicity and a hypocritical mode of behavior, and the servant of vainglory leads a double life.

A positive goal is to be oneself in all situations. Your private self should also be your public self.

GAINING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FAITH — 20160710

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theotokosSo how do we as Eastern Christians understand our faith? Although I think it begins with believing Who Jesus Is, I think it also leads us to believing Who God Is. As I look at the history of our faith, I realize that the first great mystery the Church had to deal with was Who Jesus Is. She was not necessarily stimulated to think about Who Jesus Is until certain divergent ideas about Jesus appeared – divergent ideas that She then dealt with and declared heresies. The challenges to the Church were this: When Jesus was on earth, was He just God or just a Man. Some said, and it is important to note that all the heresies were formulated by clergy, He was God and only “like” a human being. Others said that He was Human and only connected to God. The Church, being confronted by these various different ideas of Who Jesus Is, began to wrestle with this idea and, guided by the Holy Spirit, came to the conclusion that Jesus was truly and fully God and truly and fully Man. They also decided that He had only one Personality which joined two distinct natures. They concluded, also, that this was an absolute MYSTERY and that the only way that we can understand it is by faith. Our faith in this truth is, the Church exclaimed, based on a true understanding of what Jesus taught when He was here on earth; how He lived when He was here on earth; and, most importantly, that His resurrection from the dead confirmed that what He taught and how He lived was a true revelation from God about how humans should live in order to accomplish the goal of earthly live, namely to come into ever greater union with God (Theosis).

After the Church decided Who Jesus Is, however, She realized that She had to rethink Who God Is. Although She was convinced that the God Who revealed Himself through Jesus was the same I AM God of Judaism, She realized that He also was different. Thus She grappled with the idea of Who God Is and decided that He is ONE God Who is also Three Distinct Persons (Hypostases). Our belief that God is Triune in Essence, namely a Trinity of Persons, was the direct result of the Church’s understanding that Jesus was ONE PERSON with two distinct natures.

This, I believe, is even a much, more challenging belief. How can ONE BEING be composed of three distinct persons. It’s a mystery! A mystery that only FAITH can embrace!

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160710

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As I shared in the last issue of this article, the phrase God, the author of Scripture, became a standard part of theological vocabulary.

The same cannot be said for its usage in the documents of the Church. Leo IX, Innocent III and the Second Council of Lyons refer to God as the author of the NT and of the OT, but always in the sense of the originator of the two economies of salvation, a point clearly implied in the Greek text of Lyons, in which the relevant word is archegon (founder or establisher). Although the Council of Florence and the Council of Trent juxtapose a reference to God as the author of the OT and the NT with references to the books of the two Testaments, nevertheless their texts would seem to use “author” in reference to God’s work as founder of the two economies, rather than to make a direct statement of his being the literary cause of the biblical books. It is not until Vatican I that we find a clear statement about God as the author of the books of the NT and of the OT. After Vatican I, the phraseology “God the author of the books of Scripture” is used repeatedly in ecclesiastical documents.

It should be noted that these various Councils were only held in the West and did not include the Christian Churches of the East. These thoughts about God as the author of Scripture are seen in a different way in the East.

Although God is the author of Sacred Scripture, it is also true that human beings made their own genuine contribution to the production of the sacred books, a point firmly stated by Pius XII when he remarked that the human writers employ their faculties and powers in the composition of Sacred Scripture. It must be admitted, however, that the emphasis on the human authorship of Scripture is a modern one; earlier theological reflection was limited almost exclusively to the primary and more important fact of the divine ori-gin of Scripture.

That a human factor stands at the origin of Scripture has never been doubted. This is apparent from the desire to attribute, wherever possible, individual sacred books to specific men. The role assigned to the human factor, however, is the question that must be investigated. What was God’s role in the formulation of the NT?

This is the question that we must grapple with. Many say that the humans involved were only scribes.

I wonder what my readers think.

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160703

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jesusheals2blindmenOur readings again this weekend are taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans and St. Matthew’s Gospel. I continue to encourage all of my readers to allow themselves to glean the particular message that God has for them from these readings. I only share my thoughts here as an model that can be used. It is not my intention to suggest that my reflections are the only ones that can be derived from these readings.

In the reading from Romans, Paul shares his thoughts about patience and self-denial. The 15th chapter of his letter has these words:

… we must not be selfish. Each should please his neighbor so as to do him good by building up his spirit…. May God, the source of all patience and encouragement, enable you to live in perfect harmony with one another according to the spirit of Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and voice you may glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The passage assigned from St. Matthew’s Gospel actually presents two miracles of Jesus: the curing of two blind men and the curing of a mute who was possessed by a demon. Scholars tell us that the curing of the two blind men is actually a doublet of the story of the curing of two blind men at Jericho (20:29-34). In both Jesus is addressed as the Son of David. This was a popular Messianic title. In the version of the story heard today, there is an explicit demand for faith. The same is true about the cure of the mute (12:22-24). Matthew repeats these miracles in his Gospel to present a truly comprehensive summary of the saving power of Jesus.

As I reflect upon these two readings, I think about the fact that as a Christian – a follower of Jesus – I am called to actively make God’s Kingdom real by the way that I treat and interact with others. I am called to build up the spirits of others so that they can begin to experience the love of God. As a follower of Jesus I am called to do this. If, however, I allow myself to be blind and mute because of my unconscious attitudes – prejudices or judgments about others – I fail in living up the my call from Christ to build-up His Kingdom. I must always remember that God’s gift to me of faith in Jesus Christ has been given to me in order to assist in building up God’s Kingdom right now. My salvation comes from understanding that I have been called to build God’s Kingdom.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160703

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st_john_of_theladderThis continues the 22nd Step on the Ladder, namely VAINGLORY. I ended the last issue by relating John’s thought that vainglory can truly be present if one is scandalized at the sins of others. He very clearly says that the only sins that we should be scandalized by are our own. Truly sage advice.

St. John does, however, point out that we must have discernment in this matter. We should bear in mind that those who are scandalized are weak Christians. However harsh and judgmental they may be, we should condescend, in the spirit of Christ, to be understanding of their weakness, just as they should truly condescend and be compassionate toward those who are guilty of sins of a different nature. Otherwise we are caught in the grips of vainglory.

The greatest example of Christians who are free of vainglory are the saints known as fools for Christ. These are rare and remarkable saints. They are only known in the Eastern Church. They did not wish to be deemed holy, but instead opted to be condemned as unrighteous. They did not seem to care much about scandalizing their brethren. They broke the mold, overturning the stereotype of saints and all the real conventions of society, especially the religious society. They did not care for social decorum or politeness. They concealed their asceticism, trying to give the impression that they did not observe the fasts of the Church and that they were hypocrites.

These saints were truly as free of vainglory as anyone could possibly imagine! Criticism did not phase them in the slightest, and they fled flattery and compliments like the plague. For vainglory is, as St. John writes, a taking note of criticism, while it is a great achievement to shrug the praise of men off one’s shoulders…. Men of high spirit endure offense nobly and willingly. But only the holy and saintly can pass unscathed through praise. I’m sure that we truly don’t understand this way of living. They were, however, declared saints.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160703

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Mystical Supper

Mystical Supper

It has been said that the Liturgy is the HEART of the Greek-Catholic or Eastern Christian experience, the place where one meets the Lord and learns to abide and live with Him. Not only this; it is through the Liturgy that one finds and works out one’s salvation.

Again I would reiterate my basic contention that salvation consists of truly coming to a real, in-depth understanding of the meaning and purpose of our lives. It is truly in the Liturgy that we understand that life’s journey is an ascension to the Heavenly Father that can only be really accomplished through personal change or transformation. It is only accomplished by becoming more like God, as revealed in the Person of Jesus, the Christ. For Jesus is the proto-archetypal man. He is the model of what humans are called to be.

We have been given this earthly life so that we can use our free will and intellect to become truly spiritual, human beings. Jesus reveals to us not only perfect God, but also perfect man, as man is intended to be, showing us the potential of everyone born into the world.

It is my contention that we can truly discover this in the Liturgy. Why do I say this? Because the Liturgy not only gives us clues about how to live, but also tells us the attitudes and ways of behaving that are necessary if we are to transform ourselves into people who are more like Christ. If we sincerely pray the Liturgy and partake of the transformed gifts that are made present during the Liturgy, we become, in reality, temples of the Holy Spirit. The Liturgy is meant to give us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. Think about it. When we all stand facing the East and sing our prayers, we are like the angels standing before the very Throne of God and offering Him continuous praise. In fact we sing/pray the hymn of the angels when we sing: Holy, Holy, Holy are You, the Lord of Hosts.

As I think about the Liturgy and its power to be transformative, I realize that one of the essential requirements is that we come with an open heart and mind and, not out of obligation, desire to offer praise to our God. It also means that we desire to offer God our thanksgiving for the gift of life and desire to express our thanksgiving by joining with our Brother Jesus and offering our lives back to the Father.

I would encourage you, my readers, to think about this before you come to pray!