Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160221

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St Gregory Palamas

St Gregory Palamas

Although we remember our Father among the saints Gregory Palamas on the second weekend of the Great Fast, our Gospel reading recounts the curing of the paralytic man at Capernaum, Jesus’ home after He left Nazareth. This story may refer to a single incident in Jesus’ ministry, or it may have been conflated from a miracle story and a pronouncement story by the association of forgiveness of sins with faith.

One of the difficulties with this story is the presentation of the Messianic secret. It does not seem that Jesus would have disclosed this and so it is a comment that the early Church combined with this story after His resurrection. Scholars believe it was probably added to highlight the significance of Jesus’ words. His words are healing to those who believe.

There is no doubt that the paralytic man and his friends were people who came to believe in Jesus and His teaching. They went to considerable trouble to come into Jesus’ presence. They thoroughly believed that Jesus could heal the man’s paralysis.

One of the things that I noted as I read this story was the love that the paralytic man’s friends had for him. They willingly went to great lengths – they actually climbed up on the roof of the house where Jesus was and lowered the man into the house – to bring their friend into Jesus’ presence. So faith in Jesus and love for one’s fellowman are the foundation of this story.

This story is coupled with St. Paul’s exhortation to faithfulness which is found in his letter to the Hebrews. He exhorts us to attend to what we have heard, namely that belief in the teachings of Jesus and faithful adherence to these teachings can,   indeed, heal all of our discontent with life’s challenges. Indeed, as we think about Jesus and His teaching, we realize that the way He taught us to live brings the fullness of life which none of life’s challenges can destroy. If our spirit’s are paralyzed by the challenges of life, His way of living can bring healing. Of course we have to believe and have to, like the friends of the paralytic man, take chances and actually actualize our beliefs.

When you stop to think about it, today’s readings are wonderful in that they provide the encouragement needed to engage in the primary task of the Great Lent, namely personal transformation and change.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160221

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Mystical Supper

Mystical Supper

Although I thought I had shared all I wanted to share about Anamneis, it seems that I was fooling myself, I came across a very good article, author unknown, about the subject. There are parts of it that I would like to share.

In a fundamental sense worship is a corporate activity; it is social in structure within which people are embedded into a particular kind of society. The opening words of the liturgy gather those present in the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and bring us into His Kingdom – a Kingdom that we believe actually exists right now when we live in peace and love with our brothers and sisters. The congregation is led in an act of incorporating intercessions since we communally pray for peace and for one another’s intentions. The Gospel is proclaimed and the creed is recited, after we acknowledge that we cannot profess belief in our Triune God if we do not love one another. The gathered community then shares in the gifts that have been transformed into the very Body and Blood of Jesus and then, after giving thanks, goes forth to make additional attempts to make God’s Kingdom real in the world in which we live.

Participation forms a corporate identity grounded in the remembrance of a particular story. To engage with the concept of anamnesis is to more fully understand the nature of the relationship between the Church’s worship and its life and witness as the body of Christ in and for the world. It is the Eucharist that lies at the heart of the Church’s mission.

The Church’s mission is to witness to the realness of God and the very existence of His Kingdom right now which can only be achieved with people unconditionally love one another.

The Church is a community that gathers for anamnesis, and is in a   profound sense formed and shaped by it. The sacraments form a focal point for this ongoing process: initiating new members into the Church and then sustaining, challenging and nourishing them within it. This is perhaps most evident in the Eucharist, and most fully developed in the sense of remembrance and anticipation at its heart. As we worship, we need to be cognizant of this fact and then to fully embrace it.

CALLED TO HOLINESS – 20160221

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The call to holiness is a call to a deeper union with God through the Person of the Son in the Holy Spirit. Union with Jesus is the first goal of the Christian life. As we know, union with God can only be achieved through union with Jesus because Jesus is God’s manifestation of Himself. This is the primary way in which a Christian experiences spiritual growth, for it is in Christ that we have been given every spiritual blessing, and it is through Christ that we have been adopted as God’s own children. While God has given to us all that is important, we can make use of His gifts only to the extent to which we are one with Christ, for all of these gifts are given to us “in Him”. When we live in Him, we can learn to see, appreciate, understand and use the gifts God gives to us completely, and thus we are free to grow spiritually.

Therefore, faithful Christians spend much time and energy trying to come close to Christ. We read the Scriptures, we pray alone and in groups, we study, we try to conform our lives to His Gospel, we yield to His Spirit’s gifts. When we do all these things simultaneously depending on His grace and love, we are living good Christian lives.

Why, then, do many faithful Christians not find the total freedom and joy that the Gospel promises to one who follows its way? Presuming that these unfulfilled Christians are sincere in their walk with Christ and are not kidding themselves into believing that they are doing more than they really are, there is yet one more thing that is requires. Sometimes it happens spontaneously to a person as he or she lives the Christian life outlined above; but more often than not, it needs to begin with a definite choice on the part of the Christian who seeks the abundant life that Jesus promises. That one thing is inner healing, especially healing of memories.

I will share some additional thoughts about this in the coming issues of the Bulletin.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160221

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deisisAs St. John, the most theological of the evangelists, instructs us, “God is love”. And so the criterion of whether we are truly following the Way of Christ is love; but not just any love – divine Love which is unconditional. Christ Himself exhorts us to love even our enemies, which is humanly speaking impossible. But by this exhortation, He reveals to us the all-embracing character of His love – of how He is; and how we must exist, if we would be like Him and with Him.

The Fathers teach us that the root of all evil is pride. Pride is a sinful self-centeredness. It is the refusal to relate to those who are different than us and a refusal to embrace them because they are not like us. Herein lies the difficulty. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. This means that we must love ourselves because God loves us. It does not mean, however, that we love ourselves MORE THAN others or love ourselves because we think that we are better than others.

This is the human struggle. If we hate who we are, hate ourselves, then we are unable to love others since we have no understanding of what love is. This is why we need to be grounded in Christ Who loved Himself because He was loved by the Father and therefore was able to love even His enemies.

This takes a great deal of self-reflection and understanding. We must come to know ourselves as God knows us and not take pride in who we are but, rather, love ourselves because we were created by God in His image and with the potential to be like Him as He revealed Himself to us in the Person of Jesus.

Again, it all goes back to understanding that we are who we are because of God’s love. We deserve to be loved not only by ourselves but also be others because God created us as loveable and competent beings. He is the Creator. He chose to make us who we are so that we might render to Him all glory and praise.

One of the common weaknesses that we find in human nature, as was expressed in the story of Adam and Eve, is that we humans can easily be seduced into thinking that any greatness that is ours is somehow due to us because we have somehow achieved it.

I know that this will take a little thought. It is not always easy to keep a balance in respect to how we feel about ourselves. While we must love ourselves, we must love ourselves because God loves us and is sharing His life with us. Finding the balance between pride and self-deprecation is extremely important.

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160221

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jesusbridegroomAs I shared in the last issue of this article, one of the general, liturgical principles of our Church is that the celebration of the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy, is incompatible with fasting. The Divine Liturgy is not penitential in nature. It is meant to be a joyful event, a true celebration of the Heavenly Banquet wherein God is present in the Person of Jesus Christ. The New Testament relates that Jesus said to the disciples of John the Baptizer when they came to Him and asked: Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?, Jesus said: The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Because of this notion, Sacred Tradition prohibits the serving of the Divine Liturgy during times of fasting. The joyful nature of the Divine Liturgy has been preserved in the East since it is, first of all, the sacrament of the coming and presence of Christ which, for the Church, is proof of His Resurrection. The Eucharist is the same coming and presence of Christ as He appeared to the disciples in the locked room after His Resurrection. So it is a joyous event.

The question then must be asked is: Why, then, is Holy Communion still distributed during the fast period? Does this contradict this general principle?

The answer that the Eastern Church gives is that it does not contradict this principle but, rather, relates to a second aspect of our understanding of the Eucharist, namely that it is given to us by God to help us sustain our spiritual life – it is food for our soul. God has chosen to give us Christ to help us actualize our inborn potential to truly become like Him – to grow in our likeness of God as seen in the human Person Jesus. To be redundant, it, the Eucharist, provides us with the nourishment that we need in order to continue in our efforts to change and progress in our becoming like Jesus.

When I have talked about Theosis, I have said that we need God’s help to actualize our potential to be like Jesus. The Eucharist is that help that God gives us. We cannot grow in our likeness of Jesus – in the actualization of our potential to be like God – if we don’t have God’s help. The Eucharist is God’s help.

So it is especially appropriate that we have access to the Eucharist during a time like the Great Fast.

 

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160221

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the_four_evangelistsThat MARK is the source for Matthew and Luke is the most generally held theory today, among non-Catholic and Catholic scholars alike. This literary priority of Mark seems almost to be a fixed tenet of the critics.

The Gospel of Mark is certainly independent of Matthew and Luke. If Mark abridged Matthew, as some critics hold, how can the countless additions be explained. The narratives of Mark are far more lively than those of Matthew’s stylized form.

There is no decisive evidence of any borrowing or dependence between Matthew and Luke. When Matthew or Luke do not follow Mark, they disagree with regard to the arrangement of their common materials and the mode of expression. If Matthew had written with Luke before him, how can we explain the omission of so much fine material? There must be another explanation for any agreement that is evidenced.

The question of whether or not Luke and Matthew depend on Mark is greatly discussed. The dependence of Luke on Mark is generally accepted. However, the nature and extend of the dependence is disputed. The problem arises with the doublets found in Luke, i.e., the same episode appears in Luke twice, once in a section where Luke is following Mark, and again in a section where Luke has independent material. Such a phenomenon posits another source somewhat parallel to Mark. Both Matthew and Luke omit details that appear in Mark. Thus a simple dependence of Luke on Mark is insufficient as an explanation. This raised a theory, generally abandoned today, of a proto-Mark, that is Luke did not have the canonical Mark but a more primitive form.

That Matthew depended on Mark is widely affirmed but also disputed vehemently. The hypothesis of Matthew’s priority has never been totally excluded from criticism.

The priority of Mark is generally accepted by scholars today. It seems to answer best the questions raised and is surely a fine working hypothesis. Concerning the dependencies of Matthew and Luke on Mark, there has not been a truly satisfactory proposal to solve the problems involved. The dependence of Luke on Mark is to be maintained. The dependence of Matthew on Mark is to be maintained, but with more reserve.

Why, you may ask, do I spend so much time on sharing these thoughts about the scriptures. I do so that you might be informed Christians and not take what some fundamentalist Christians say about the Gospels. They usually speak with great certainty.

The Spirituality of the Christian East — 20160221

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Ladder of Divine AccentThe thirteenth step on St. John’s Ladder deals with TEDIUM. Tedium, as John defines it, is a paralysis of the soul, a slackness of the mind, a neglect of religious exercise, a hostility to vows taken. It is an approval of worldly things. It is a voice claiming that God has no mercy and no love for men and women. It is a laziness and weakness in prayer, an indifference to the requirement for obedience.

St. John has pointed out that the passions are not to be eliminated but, rather, redirected. Although way before his time in this thought, in more recent years psychologists have confirmed this approach set forth by St. John. Although many may find it difficult to understand, anger, envy, lust, hatred are not in themselves bad; properly directed and controlled, they can bring us closer to God. The only exception, John believes, is TEDIUM. This is the only passion, if it can be called a passion, that cannot be redirected or turned to good, because it is not so much a passion as an absence of passion.

What exactly is tedium? It is not mere laziness. It is not simply a physical passion. It is in fact a spiritual slothfulness and indifference. John astutely points out that this kind of laziness comes upon us only in the context of our spiritual life, and it can often take on the appearance of diligence, activity and busyness.

Simply put, tedium is putting spiritual life on the back burner and subjecting it to convenience. We simply do not consider it as important as other things. We do not often apply the same of urgency and priority to prayer and worship as we do to other things in life. And yet, when all is said and done, the only really important task in life is our personal salvation!

Making the Great Fast Real

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Make this a week when you reconnect with old friends, those who you haven’t seen in a while and, especially, those who you may have had a disagreement with. This week is all about building, maintaining and establishing loving relationships with others. The goal is to build your ability to unconditionally love others. ALSO, create a prayer list, especially adding those with whom you may have a disagreement. Also a list of the deceased and then use it at the Divine Liturgy.

Prayer changes things!

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160214

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Holy-NapkinOn this first weekend of the Great Fast we hear Paul’s words to the Hebrews about FAITH. After he enumerates the faith of many good men that came before Jesus he says: let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith.

Jesus is truly the one who serves as a model of how to live this earthly life. The Jesus WAY of living helps us to grow in our likeness of Him. Jesus is our Savior and Lord because of how He lived. His WAY of living is the way that God intends all humans to live. It is the way of achieving a participation in the life of God Himself.

Our Gospel story shares the calling of PHILIP the Apostle. When Jesus saw him coming He remarked that Philip was indeed a true Israelite (i.e., who prevails with God) because he had no guile.

It is important to note that in the New Testament Christians are thought of as the New Israel – the new people who prevail with God. The name truly signifies a commitment to doing everything possible to be God’s People.

A second thought came to mind when thinking of the words of Jesus about Philip. I wonder whether any of my readers ever thought about what exactly Jesus meant when He said that Philip was a person without guile. A person who has guile is one who is deceitful and cunning – is the kind of person who uses clever and dishonest methods to achieve something. Usually this means doing everything possible to get what you want.

As I look around our world today, I find that guilefulness is rampant. It seems that it is acceptable to do anything you have to in order to achieve what you want. It usually means being dishonest and deceitful.

So why does the Church share this story on the first weekend of the Great Fast? I believe the Great Fast is meant to help us to become people without guile – people who lead authentic and honest lives and refuse to do things that are dishonest in order to achieve what we want. To be a saint, you have to be a person without guile.

So as we begin this Great Fast, we examine our consciences and lives and assess whether we are people without guile. If we find that we are not, that we are at times dishonest in order to achieve what we want or to deceive people into thinking we are better than we are, then we need to make the elimination of guilefulness as one of the goals of this Great Fast. An honest examination of our lives is called for during the Great Fast. The goal is an honest and true assessment of who we are.

Take this coming week to honestly assess your life.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160214

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St Gregory Palamas

St Gregory Palamas

St. Gregory also teaches, along with all the great Fathers of the Church, that the vision of Christ in glory – our salvation – is synonymous with the mystery of the precious and life-giving Cross. And this is true precisely because the Cross reveals to us the WAY of Jesus, the only way to salvation and to:

  • the cleansing of the passions and the cultivation of the virtues,
  • the illumination of the mind, heart and soul,
  • the sanctification of the body,
  • the vision of God, and
  • the perfect union with God.

For the vision of Christ in glory is given only when we arrive at the foot of the Cross, in imitation of Christ’s own self-empting, in His descent from on high down to the nethermost parts of the earth. This inevitably involves repentance (metanoia) a profound and continuous change of the part of the human person, without which it is impossible to become Christlike, since His perfection has no end.

I realize that it is difficult for many to even conceive of the fact that they need to be involved in continuous change. Why? Because it is difficult, I believe, for any of us to see the things that we have to change in our lives. I believe one reason why personal change must be continuous is that each and every day we are challenged by events and people around us to think and act is ways that are not Christlike.

What all this means, in practical terms, is each time we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, each time we are tempted to think or act according to the way of the world, and every time that we resist this impulse for the love of Christ, asking for His help and mercy, we are taking up our cross – we are striving to change our way of life in accordance with Christ’s commandments and example. When we resist the impulse to be like others in our society instead of like Christ, we are beginning to repent.

The fact is that if we wish to be with Christ, then we must become like Him. This is the mystery of the adoption of sons and daughters, of which the great Paul speaks, which is offered to each and every one of us. We can never be God. Only God is divine by nature, but as St. Maximos says, “the person who has been deified by grace will be, in every respect, as God is, except for His very essence. This means that we have been created to contain the very Life of the Holy Trinity. That is what is meant by being created in the image of God: to have the God-given capacity of containing and living the divine life.

In truth, it is all a matter of raising our awareness of the reality that we are the temples of God’s own Spirit.