Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160605

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Picture1I have been sharing the fact that our Church is a Church that embraces Sacred Tradition in a very big way. Tradition is the ministry of the Holy Spirit among God’s people, ever trying to make clear the truths which Jesus and His Apostles taught: truths regarding such things as God’s Triune existence, the Divinity of the Son and the Spirit, the two natures of Christ, and the interpretation of the prophecies of the Old Testament (OT) which pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. This final point is most important. Although the OT had a very different meaning to the Jews, whose sacred book the OT is, we truly believe that the OT pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. Obviously there is no way that we can prove this. If we were to ask any Jewish person about the interpretation of the prophecies in the OT, they would never come up with the answer that Jesus was the Messiah. As Christians, and as members of our Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church, we believe that the OT prophesies truly point to Jesus as the one and true Messiah.

The seeds of all doctrines are assuredly in the Scriptures, but the people of God need the Revealing Spirit to know how to recognize what is planted there. Tradition gives us such an insight. Without it, the heretics can claim that their ideas are of the Spirit, quoting from the same Bible as we use. Tradition guides us in knowing how to sustain the Truth.

Sacred Tradition not only stands firmly in agreement with the Scriptures – both the Old and New Testaments – it teaches Christians how to correctly interpret them – how to handle “accurately the word of truth.”

Tradition is the way that the Church has, from its inception, truly understood Scripture and made manifest by the way it is used. It is not something which obscures the Scriptures with needless useless interpretations and real complications. On the contrary, Tradition helps us to recognize the Word of God in the Bible.  Without Tradition, we would be like the Ethiopian eunuch who tried to understand Isaiah 53 without Phillip’s interpretation. Like the eunuch, our perplexity would resign us to say: “How can I understand unless someone guides me? Tradition is our guide. It is shown in the way that we use Scripture within out Divine Services.

Think about this!

ACQUIRING THE MIND OF CHRIST — 20160605

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christ_iconI am sure that most people never take the time to stop and think about how they think. Most people don’t recognize that there are thoughts that constantly go through their minds of which they are totally unaware. The thoughts that go through our heads are the attitudes we have about God, life, others and ourselves. And these thoughts dictate our behaviors. To be very honest, most of our behaviors are dictated by our unconscious thoughts and attitudes which have their foundation in childhood and are based on family attitudes. Most of us never take the time to really assess what our thoughts and attitudes are about a whole lot of things. Because they are unconscious they are a real part of us. Most people feel that to question their deepest thoughts and attitudes is somehow wrong. They are a part of us and, of course, the family into which we were born. It is disloyal to even question them. They become what we believe – our natural faith.

Of course that is why Jesus usually asked the people He dealt with about their faith. What do you really believe. For example, if you believe that people can’t be trusted and that people are generally self-serving, then you can never unconditionally love others.

Further, if you believe that God just wants you to keep the commandments, then you never think about anything else in your life. As long as you don’t break a commandment, you are safe.

However, just keeping the commandments is not acquiring the “mind of Christ.” Christ challenged the people of His time to think in a different way.  He challenged them to “love their neighbors” whether or not they ascribed to the Jewish faith. We know that the Jewish faith I am sure that most people never take the time to stop and think about how they think. Most people don’t recognize that there are thoughts that constantly go through their minds of which they are totally unaware. The thoughts that go through our heads are the attitudes we have about God, life, others and ourselves. And these thoughts dictate our behaviors. To be very honest, most of our behaviors are dictated by our unconscious thoughts and attitudes which have their foundation in childhood and are based on family attitudes. Most of us never take the time to really assess what our thoughts and attitudes are about a whole lot of things. Because they are unconscious they are a real part of us. Most people feel that to question their deepest thoughts and attitudes is somehow wrong. They are a part of us and, of course, the family into which we were born. It is disloyal to even question them. They become what we believe – our natural faith.

Of course that is why Jesus usually asked the people He dealt with about their faith. What do you really believe. For example, if you believe that people can’t be trusted and that people are generally self-serving, then you can never unconditionally love others.

Further, if you believe that God just wants you to keep the commandments, then you never think about anything else in your life. As long as you don’t break a commandment, you are safe.

However, just keeping the commandments is not acquiring the “mind of Christ.” Christ challenged the people of His time to think in a different way.  He challenged them to “love their neighbors” whether or not they ascribed to the Jewish faith. We know that the Jewish faith

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160605

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deisisAs we move into this time after Pentecost, the assigned readings seem to give simple advice on how to live and the attitudes we must have if we are to gain the fullness of life. For the most part, our readings until the beginning of the new Church Year, will be taken from Paul’s Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians and Galatians. Our Gospel readings will be taken from Matthew’s Narrative.

In the readings assigned for this weekend we hear this sage advice from St. Paul:

We know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope.

 and this from St. Matthew:

No man can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other or be attentive to one and despise the other. You cannot give yourself to God and money.

The advice contained in St. Mathew’s Gospel is contained in his sixth chapter and seems to be an adaptation of the general wisdom gleaned from the teachings of Jesus, albeit Matthew does not directly attributed it to Him.

I don’t know about you, but I feel that the advice given to us through these two readings is quite profound and, if embraced, can truly help us to more effectively live this life. Think about the advice!

First, St. Paul casts the challenges of life, especially the difficult ones, as a means by which life builds our endurance. He then suggests that it is only when we build this endurance that we can begin to truly hope. I must admit that I totally agree with Paul in this respect. It is only when we face the very difficult challenges of life that we finally can come to understand the meaning of life and be filled with hope.

The second piece of sage advice, found in Matthew’s Gospel says “yes” to me on so very many different levels. I truly believe that you cannot serve two masters: God and this world. I think you have to make a choice. This world suggests all sorts of things to us. Most of them are truly not in accord with Jesus’ revelation – in what God has revealed to us about living this earthly life.

This advice calls us to decide what we truly believe about life and to either accept the things of this world or the things of God’s Kingdom. We all have to make a decision. Do we truly want to be a part of God’s Kingdom or not?

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160529

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callAs we worship today, we think about the sequence of events, as presented in the Gospels, that the Church places before us. The feast of Pentecost that we just celebrated, reveled to us that God has infused His Spirit into us to give us the strength and courage to work to become like Jesus.

After that celebration, we celebrated ALL SAINTS, which clearly revealed to us that the purpose of this earthly life is to help us become a saint, that is a person who has voluntarily chosen to do all in his/her power to become more like Jesus during this life on earth. Now today, we hear of the call that God has given to us to become His disciples, namely people who bear witness to His great love for humankind. Our Gospel this weekend relates the call of the First Disciples.

Our Epistle reading this weekend, which is taken from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, directly reveals to us that, because we are witnesses during this lifetime to God’s great love, that there is an “interior law” written in our hearts that calls us to be God’s disciples in our present world. True salvation is based on our free response to this call. God never forces us to respond to this call. Nevertheless the call is given to each of us.

As I think about these readings, I wonder how many of us really understand that we have been called to be God’s disciples – followers of Jesus and to be witnesses to this truth. I wonder whether we sense that there is an “interior law” within us that calls us to be authentic humans, that is humans who reflect God’s intent when He created us. And how can we become authentic humans? By attempting to become like Jesus, the archetype of how humans should live and be. I know that to think like this is a challenge. Our modern world does everything in its power to distract us from life’s primary purpose, namely to bring glory and honor to our Heavenly Father, our Maker and our God. Do you realize that this is your primary purpose?

One of the things that happens when we become too absorbed in living this earthly life is that we fail to realize the purpose of our life here on earth. We are here to make God’s Kingdom real. We are here to witness to the goodness of God. This is accomplished by being like Jesus.

It is my hope that my reflections might help you to whole heartedly seek to imitate Jesus, Our Lord and Our God.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160529

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

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

In the last issue I opened a topic which is very important if we want to understand our Church: SACRED TRADITION or, as it is sometimes called Apostolic Tradition. It is comprised of four things: (1) our reception of God’s Message, (2) our communion with the Author of that message, the Holy Spirit, (3) our union with Christ, and (4) through Him, our union with His members, the Church. These living    relationships are the only context of Tradition.

SACRED TRADITION will constantly preserve, protect and illuminate the Biblical Tradition. In fact, because it truly recognizes the absurdity of trying to divide God’s revelation into two parts, the Church should make no distinction between Tradition and the Biblical Canon. God’s Word is God’s Word; whether it is spoken, heard, acted upon or expressed in worship. Just as the Truth of the Holy Spirit will never contradict Himself by presenting other opposing truths, TRADITION will never challenge the teaching of the Scriptures.

The Eastern minded Christian sees how the Bible in the hands of the Spirit-led Church can be a measuring rod able to gauge false traditions from True Tradition. In fact, this is one of the roles which the Bible must perform. To the Church, the Bible is the unique canon of truth or rule of faith. This means that all tradition (i.e., the unfolding of the biblical revelation within the life of the Church) must, in some way, be measured against scripture and judged in terms of it.

Again, Scripture is nothing more than a written testimony to and a product of Tradition. The Bible as a real instrument of the Spirit must harmonize with anything which similarly claims its birth from Tradition. Like two tuning forks set to the same note, the written record of Tradition must reverberate its tone with any other valid expression of Tradition, whether Creed, sermon, teaching or anything else. If something is our of pitch with Scripture, it is not of Tradition. For this reason Tradition could never produce any other heretical body of teaching.

Sacred Tradition also takes into consideration any differences that may, perhaps, come from the differing theological positions of the Eastern and Western Churches (e.g., inclusion of the filioque in the Creed) which is different. Both versions still maintain our belief in the Holy Trinity.

GAINING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FAITH — 20160529

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capadociosAs I shared, our faith believes that while God provides all that is necessary for human salvation and personal transformation, we must accept and apply these gifts. The mutual cooperation, and the personal relationship that it brings about, is called synergy by Byzantines Christians. Byzantines maintain the operating principle that grace and human endeavor must be functioning concurrently. The one cannot be understood without the other. St. Gregory of Nyssa, one of the three Cappadocian Fathers who have greatly influenced our Church, explained this principle in these words: “When good works and the Spirit’s grace come together at the same time in the same soul, together they are able to fill it with blessed life.” The synergy that results from this cooperative work of God and man, is the source of human salvation. We can only achieve our salvation in cooperation with God. The wonderful aspect of this is that God ALWAYS extends His help since He created us to be the Temples of His Own Spirit. God wants us to achieve salvation which, as St. John tells us, is to know God and Jesus Christ, God’s human manifestation.

This is not to say that Byzantine spirituality is an overly activist spirituality. On the contrary, it takes very seriously the Biblical mandate to “be still and know that I am God.” Byzantine theology admonishes the individual to strive for apathia, or spiritual tranquility. Apathia is marked, to a certain degree, by the absence or unreasoned passion, that is, inordinate appetite for certain things, or obsession. Obsessions include psychological states that we might not think of as passions, such as boredom and, as noted specifically by St. John Climacus, indifference (if you have been following the last article in this Bulletin on the Spirituality of the Christian East, you have already come across this same thought).

I truly believe that this spiritual tranquility is absolutely essential if we are to understand our belief, especially our belief in Jesus as God’s Incarnation and, therefore, the reality that Jesus is fully God and fully Man. This spiritual tranquility opens our hearts and minds to the acceptance of this mystery. It also opens our hearts and minds to the fact that personal salvation is a cooperative effort between God and us. It also opens our hearts and minds to the fact that salvation involves becoming like Jesus.  

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160529

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The idea of God-inspired Scripture was not one of the primordial themes of Israelite religion. This is understandably so for this religion originated among people who at first had no knowledge of writing and who existed for a long time under general conditions unfavorable to literacy production. Nevertheless in the course of time, the religion of Israel did become centered in the collection of books that Christians now call the Old Testament (OT). In spite of the centrality it acquired in Judaism, the OT does not itself contain a doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. Although the OT certainly and emphatically refers to the divine action of God upon the minds of the prophets, this influence was phrased in terms of the oral proclamation of a message that God had communicated to them. It is true that the OT sometimes records God’s commanding a prophet to write, and that Isaiah referred to his own written prophecy as “the book of the Lord” but, of themselves, none of these expressions would seem to indicate anything more than the prophet’s consciousness of a pressing duty to write. There is no indication of a divine influence upon the prophetic writer that would make it appear as if God were the author of such writing. Moreover,  the divine action upon men, which, at least in emphatic instances, is described in some such phrase as “The spirit of the Lord came upon…,” is limited to the areas of action and of speaking and does not extend in the OT to the area of writing or even of thinking. Seemingly, then, the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, as it is understood in the Church today, is not mirrored in the writing of the OT. To be sure, it is not denied there, but neither is it affirmed.

Nevertheless, later on, the belief that divine inspiration was the origin of Scripture appeared among the Jews. This doctrine, while extra-scriptural, is reflected in the Bible to the extent that we already read in later sections of the OT about the Jewish “sacred books.” It would seem that the psychological thrust toward this doctrine sprang from Josiah’s adoption of the “book of the covenant” and therefore became an irreversible dynamic from the time when Ezra read to the people from the “book of the law of Moses” as something that “the Lord had commanded to Israel.”

More to follow!

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20160529

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As I suggested in the last transfigurationissue of this article, the call to holiness is a “call” to become a “spiritual person” – to develop a Christ-focused spirituality. Spirituality has become linked in some minds with a positive emotional response to something divine, so if you get your response saying the Jesus Prayer and I get mine by whale watching, this is all right, because it all works on some level.  It is perhaps one    of the greatest spiritual tragedies of the last thirty years that many Christians have assumed that to become involved in real spirituality, to experience something authentic, they have to go outside their own religious tradition. In our modern world it seems that people are drawn to Eastern, non-Christian religions. One of the modern favorites is Buddhism. Why? Because they haven’t been taught that the Christian tradition, both Eastern and Western, have similar approaches to spirituality. Given the lack of a clear, coherent teaching on spirituality, is it no wonder many faithful find it confusing. The result has been a tendency to color outside the lines, even for those who claim the name Christian. That is one of the real reasons I have been attempting to share thoughts about the call to holiness that God has given us and that our Church openly proclaims. We have been called to be “spiritual” persons, that is people who are keenly aware of the spiritual dimension of their lives and who are committed to developing a personal spirituality.

Spirituality is the word that properly refers to the devotional practices that help us put the teachings of Jesus Christ into day-to-day use as we seek to learn God’s will and then do it. Spirituality has a very practical purpose that has nothing to do with releasing our inner mystic; spirituality means the hard work of saving our souls and transforming the world. Genuine Christian spirituality has the purpose of keeping us focused, rooting us in the kind of incarnational religion that so many believing Christians seem to have wandered away from.

ACQUIRING THE MIND OF CHRIST — 20160529

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christ_iconTo acquire the mind of Christ one has to take the time to seriously reflect on the teachings of Jesus and then make a strong commitment to live in accord with these teachings. Many Christian people, because they feel that His teachings are too challenging and consider them impossible to embrace, attempt to water down His teachings. They find excuses for not loving their neighbors as themselves and, most assuredly, not loving their enemies. It seems that their thinking becomes much like the thinking of our modern society that seems to espouse the philosophy of “kill first or be killed.” This type of thinking really doesn’t fit into the Jesus way of thinking.

I’m sure many will say that to think and live like Jesus is very scary, especially in our modern world where it seems only the strong will survive. Modern times are not, however, very different from those when Jesus lived. Despite the pressure from His own people not to upset things by challenging the status quo, Jesus taught that “those who live by the sword will die by the sword” and that “we must love our neighbors and enemies” in order to truly be children of God.

Living in accord with the teachings of Jesus can be, and probably will be, challenging. It will probably mean not buying into the thinking of our modern society which promotes anything but love of neighbors and enemies. It may be difficult, and probably will be, to reject the modern world’s preoccupation with pleasure and instant gratification and the philosophy of looking out for NUMBER ONE, namely yourself. But living like Jesus is possible if you believe that He is God Incarnate and that revealed the right way to live as a spiritual, human person.

I do believe that many people tend to keep playing a tape in their minds that says, living like Jesus is impossible for me. This then becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you think something is impossible you can be sure that you will never achieve it. What we must say to ourselves is this: the Jesus way of living is the way God wants me to live. I therefore choose to do all in my power to live like Jesus, knowing that God will help me. It is a matter of really believing that God has truly revealed to us how to live in order to fulfill the reason why we have been created.

Like all prophets, Jesus believed He had to live in a certain way in order to fulfill His Father’s wishes.  

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160529

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Holy Eucharist IconIn order to understand the Divine Liturgy, one must also consider the ways of liturgical development. If you compare later developments (the way we celebrate the Liturgy today) to Justin’s original order of the Eucharist service, you see that liturgical evolution has respected this primitive outline that was presented in last week’s article. I shared with you the four basic periods identified in the development of our Liturgy. What is really apparent in the third period, the period of the unification of rites, is a filling in of the basic common outline of the Eucharist at the three “soft points”: (1) before the readings, (2) between the Word’s service and then the Eucharistic prayer (Anaphora), and (3) at the communion and dismissal that follow this prayer. It should be noted that in the primitive liturgy these are the three points of action without words: (1) entrance into church, (2) kiss of peace and transfer of gifts, and (3) the fraction, communion and dismissal rites. What could be more natural than to develop these three ceremonial actions with chants and add to them suitable prayers? For one of the most common phenomena in later liturgical development is the steadfast refusal to let a gesture speak for itself.

This evolutionary process often took the form of a permanent addition to the service rites which added an exclusively local scope to the festive rites of a particular time and place. When added to the Eucharistic rite as permanent integral parts, they inevitably lost their original connection to the religious topography of their place of origin – and hence their original scope and meaning — and assumed a life      independent of their past. This too has been a common occurrence in liturgical history. It is especially noticeable in the rites derived from certain prominent cities like Rome, Jerusalem and Constantinople, the three most important centers of liturgical diffusion in the period after Chalcedon (451). Remember, the Liturgy was performed in a different manner in each of these cities.

As ceremonial and text rush in to fill the vacuum at the three action points of the liturgy, thus overlaying the primitive shape with a “second stratum,” a contrary movement of the Liturgy is provoked. The liturgy, thus filled out, appears overburdened and must be cut back. And so another evolution then took place.

General Characteristics of Byzantine Liturgy