The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160117

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Mystical Supper

Mystical Supper

When we start the Divine Liturgy we declare the beginning and the end of what we do together, namely make the Kingdom of Heaven present. In the Divine Liturgy the Church makes an ascent to the Table of the Lord in His Kingdom. The Christian faith, from the very beginning, confessed precisely the reality that the gifts of bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ – changed into the very body and very blood of Christ. There was never any confusion of this reality with just symbolism. The Church, from the earliest times, sensed the real presence of the body and blood of Christ on the Holy Table.

We must, when considering the Divine Liturgy, look at it as a whole. It is the ritual that not only transforms gifts to make Christ truly present, but also transforms individual persons to make the Church – the Body of Christ – truly present. We must consider not only what our prayer does to the gifts but also what it does to us.

If a person truly attempts to participate in the Divine Liturgy to the best of their ability – to immerse     himself into the prayers and actions of the Divine Liturgy and their meaning – something happens, something truly changes. We become the Church! We become followers of Jesus!

I truly believe that this requires, however, that we do not attend the Divine Liturgy out of obligation! We cannot become true followers of Jesus if we feel compelled to do so under the threat of punishment. Rather, the Divine Liturgy is our opportunity to join with others – the Church – in making a real ascent to the Table of the Lord in His Kingdom. It allows us to begin to understand the true meaning and   purpose of life, which is to voluntarily transform ourselves into children of God – becoming true brothers and   sisters of Jesus, the Christ.

Think about it! When we join with Jesus in offering our lives back to the Father in thanksgiving for life, life takes on a new meaning and our relationship with Jesus and others becomes real.

One of the difficult things is to come to a real understanding of Who Jesus IS and how He relates to us. We have a tendency to only think of Him as a part of the Holy Trinity. This can cloud our relationship. While it is a complex thought that Jesus is God and Man, it is an important thought.

Smart and Stupid Ways to Think About God — 20160117

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The original source from which I took my ideas for this article suggest that we “must admit, when it comes to thinking about God, that we’re all a   little stupid. If you look around you will find that the world is filled with stupid ideas about God and new ones seem to crop up every day.

However, the road to the smart ways of thinking about God is not always smooth or easy. Needless to say, for an invisible God proof can’t be as simple as See God. In fact, it’s actually quite the reverse. When it comes to God, believing is seeing. This may sound like a cosmic Catch-22, but when you think about it, it makes sense. We never discovered the atom until we began to believe it could exist. We never discovered bacteria until we began to believe that illness has a scientific explanation. For discovering and exploring the hidden, more subtle realities beneath the surface of things, believing is seeing. Or at least the beginning of seeing. And it’s really no different when we think about discovering God.

But let’s face it, it isn’t easy to think about God when your human. Like it or not, we’re severely limited by our human nature. We can think about God, or anything, only in human terms. We can create only human ideas about God. We can relate to Him only through concepts, theories and pictures. We can describe God only by human language and through experience. This, of course, limits our ability to embrace smart ways to think about God.

So, of course, there’s plenty of room for contamination. There’s a lot of opportunity to superimpose our view of ourselves on top of God, a lot of opportunity to accidently fashion God after ourselves. (This is find to be especially true when people think about God’s justice and mercy).

Alas, we’re stuck. There’s no way we can ever think about God that will not make Him appear human to some extent. Even if we conceive of Him as some great disembodied force, we can still only conceive of a “force” as we understand it in human terms – such as lightning, electromagnetism, and other such forces. But we need not apologize for that. After all, we are what we are. Still, we are bound to make a few human mistakes.

To err is definitely human. But somewhere you’ve got to draw the line. There are some ways to think about God, as human as they are, that are simply false.

Take a little time to think about how you think about and image God!

Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for This Weekend — 20160110

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TheophanyOn this weekend after the glorious and great feast of, our scripture readings are taken from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians and the Gospel of Matthew. I think that one has to truly pause and reflect upon these two readings in order to receive a unified message.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he suggests that the goal of the Church is to provide the support needed to “build up the body of Christ” in such a way that all members may become “one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son”. He then continues by saying: “let us profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head” since it is only through the support of Christ that members can be firmly joined together.

In Matthew’s Gospel there is a recounting of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus continues the theme that John the Baptizer proclaimed: “Reform your lives! The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Coupled with this statement of the theme of Jesus’ ministry, Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah suggesting that Jesus proclaimed the message that brought “light” or understanding to a “people living in darkness.” He   further quotes the words of Isaiah by saying that “on those who inhabit a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.” Jesus brought to mankind a way of understanding and thinking about life that shredded the darkness of ignorance. His message shone the “light of knowledge” on the mystery of the meaning and purpose of life. It is this knowledge – this way of looking   at life – that has brought salvation to all those who embrace the Jesus way of thinking. This doesn’t mean, however, that God has chosen only one way for mankind to come to the truth about human life. It is the way, however, that life has chosen to reveal to us the truth about life.

Again it is important that we realize that God has chosen to work in many different ways. For me personally, the gift of faith and belief in Jesus Christ is a precious gift. It makes much more sense, to me, than other ways. Therefore I am deeply thankful to God for having shared this approach with me.

I believe that this is the approach we must adopt. Belief in Jesus Christ IS a gift. Just as in the time of Jesus, some were able to believe and others were not. Belief in a God Who came into the world to provide us with an   insight into the meaning and purpose of life is a GIFT. The only response is to be thankful for the gift. This gift really doesn’t say that He loves us more but confirms that He does love us.

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God — 20160110

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vestmentsIn the last issue of this article, I began to share thoughts on how the very vestments of the priest links him to the assembly. I shared the meaning of the stikharion and the epitrakhilion. Such is also the case with the epimanikia (cuffs): the priest’s hands, with which he blesses and performs the service, are no longer his own but the hands of Christ. The belt has always been a sign of obedience, preparedness, brotherhood and, of course, service. The priest does not take himself to the “high places” on his own authority; he “is not greater than his master.” Rather, he is sent to this ministry by his master, whom he follows and by whose grace he serves. Finally, the phelonion (chasuble) represents the glory of the Church as the new creation, the joy, truth and beauty of the new life, that is the prefiguration of the kingdom of God and the King who forever “reigns; he is robed in majesty”

When we assemble as the Church we are clothed in the garments of the new creation. The priest, who truly represents the assembly, is the one who symbolizes this by the vestments that he wears during the services.

If assembling as the Church is, in the most profound sense of the term, the beginning of the Eucharistic       celebration, its first and fundamental condition, then its end and completion is the Church’s entrance into heaven, her fulfillment at the table of Christ, in his kingdom. It is imperative to indicate and to confess that this as the sacrament’s end, purpose and fulfillment immediately after confessing the assembly as the Church as its beginning because this end also reveals the unity of the eucharist, its order and essence as movement and ascent – as, above all and before all, the sacrament of the kingdom of God. And it is no accident, of course, that in its present form the liturgy begins with the solemn blessing of the Kingdom. We begin the Divine Liturgy with the very solemn proclamation: Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. The total assembly responses to this beginning proclamation with a resounding AMEN, which is the Hebrew-Aramaic word for SO BE IT! We jointly declare that what we do together is make present God’s own Kingdom.                 WOW!

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20160110

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St Gregory Palamas

St Gregory Palamas

One of the very important Eastern Fathers of the Church who is key in the interpretation of Holy Scripture, is St. Gregory Palamas. It was in 1334, while on Mt Athos, in his third year at the hermitage of St. Sabbas, that Palamas experienced a vision in which he was encouraged to share the wisdom bestowed upon him from on high. It seems that he was carrying a vessel overflowing with milk when suddenly it turned into the finest of wines. The wine emitted such a strong fragrance that it brought great joy to his soul. A youth appeared and rebuked him for not sharing the wine with others and for allowing it to go to waste, for this wine, as he explained, was inexhaustible. The angel then warned Gregory, reminding him of the parable of the talents. As he later related to his friend and disciple     Dorotheus, Palamas understood this vision to mean that the time would come when he would be called upon to transfer his teaching from the simple plane of the ethical (the milk) to the higher plane of the dogmatic word (the wine), which leads to the Kingdom of heaven. Thus at the age of thirty-eight Gregory began to write his Encomium for St. Peter the Athonite, and, at about the same time, he also began to compose what is without doubt the most famous of all his works, Homily 53, “On the Entry of the Mother of God into the Holy of Holies”, in which the Theotokos is presented as the archetype of the hesychastic way of life, the way of “stillness” – a mystical way of prayer centered around the Jesus Prayer.

The teaching of Saint Gregory and his fellow Hesychasts of the 14th century was based on the understanding that man, the greatest of all God’s creatures, had been called to enter into direct and unmediated communion with God even from this present life. The chief manner by which this is achieved is through the grace of God and noetic (relating to the activity of the intellect) prayer, that is, through the Prayer of the Heart, also known as the Jesus Prayer. For the Hesychasts, true theology, true knowledge of God, is given not to those whose minds have been exercised in lofty concepts about God, but to those who, through prayer and ascetic striving in accordance with the commandments of Christ, have been made worthy to behold the vision of Christ in glory, to those who have seen God face to face and who share in His very

CALLED TO HOLINESS — 20160110

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One of the first things we need to do in order to find our True Self is to admit that our imaginations need cleansing, that they are filled with all kinds of images that do us no good whatsoever and that often lead us into spiritual destruction instead of into spiritual growth.

The second thing we need to do is want to let go of those images. We need to be able to approach Jesus and say   honestly and simply, “I do not desire these thoughts nor do I desire the pleasure I have in the past derived from them. The pleasure I desire is You, and the thoughts and images I want for my imagination are Your thoughts and images. Then I will be happy as You are happy, for I will be living in my true self.”

But if we cannot honestly say these things, all is not lost! We do not need to turn away until we have collected enough courage to give up these images. Rather, we turn even the situation into a prayer. Since all desires for good things are themselves gifts from God, we pray for the desire to admit that our imaginations need cleansing, we pray for the desire to let go of these former sources of illicit pleasure –     pleasure that has hurt us much more than helped us. No matter what inner state in which we find ourselves in life, we can use that state as a springboard to prayer just by turning to God, Who is happy to   accept us in the state in which we find ourselves.

Now I realize that many will claim that their imaginations do not need cleansing and that they don’t realize that they have images which are harmful to them. Even the pleasure of getting even with someone who has offended us is an image which we have incorporated into our imaginations – albeit not deliberately or consciously. We have very little control over our unconscious minds and what gets stored in them.                   Think about this!

Further Thoughts About the WAY of Jesus — 20160110

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deisisI think that in order to understand the WAY of Jesus, we have to reflect upon WHO Jesus is! We cannot avoid this question because the answer to it determines our interpretation of the Gospels. One way to describe who Jesus is by analyzing the names given to Him by others or by Himself. Another way is by noting His words and works.

When the men of His own time tried to express who Jesus was they, as we might guess, identified Him with one of the figures associated with the current Messianic expectations of the Jewish people. Some thought that He was John the Baptizer, others that He was Elijah, and still others that He was “one of the prophets.” John had been beheaded by Herod Antipas, but “all hold that John was a prophet”, “a righteous and holy man” before the Messiah appeared. According to Old Testament tradition, two me, Enoch and Elijah, did not die. Enoch walked with God, and without experience death God “took him”. Elijah “went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” This tradition encouraged the belief that Elijah would return, and would be sent “before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” Jesus was also identified with the prophet who was promised for the last days, when God would raise up a prophet like Moses, “the prototype of the true prophet.” Thus, either men thought that Jesus was that prophet, or       identified Him with John raise from the dead, or with Elijah. He was not recognized as the Messiah, but as one sign that the Messianic age was about to come. Thus is it is the Islam has the belief that Jesus is truly a prophet who came to prepare the way for the true Messiah.

“But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked the Twelve. The emphasis here is upon “you”, the disciples who were the inside circle of His followers. And Peter, as the leader of the group, answered and confessed, “You are the Christ”, that is, you are the expected deliverer. This confession at Caesarea Philippi represents the watershed in the Gospel record of the public ministry of Jesus. At this point those who were close to Him saw in Jesus much more than those who were outside, for they called Him the Christ. But this title alone was not sufficient to describe the person and work of Jesus. Without rejecting His identification with the Messianic king of the popular Jewish hopes, Jesus started by teaching the true nature of His Messiahship. He transformed who the Messiah is.

 

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church — 20160110

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holywisdomI think that in order to understand our Greek-Catholic Church we must know how it differs from the Roman-Catholic Church, realizing that the historical context within which each Church developed has influenced it. Before a Westernized Christian can hope to understand the Eastern view of the Faith, he must first take a look at the historical trends and events that have shaped the theology of the Western Church. It must always be   remembered that the Church is a human organization and is therefore rightly influenced by the societies in which it exists. This is precisely why there is a difference between Eastern and Western Christianity. While one understanding is not right and the other wrong, they are different and equally right. I realize that this flies in the face of what most people have come to believe, namely that there is only one true interpretation of the Catholic Faith. The true understanding of the Catholic Faith is that it is very diverse in its understanding of the   major doctrines of the faith and that the power of the Catholic Faith is that it embraces various interpretations and that the various interpretations, as long as they don’t contradict each other, are equally true.

I do not believe that it is necessary to give an exhaustive summary of Western thought, but I do believe that it is important to outline some of the most significant events that have helped shape the average American Christian’s perspectives. Undoubtedly, the best snapshot of these currents could be taken within the Reformation period.

Historians have referred to the Reformation (some say the Protestant Revolution) as the most profound   spiritual revolution ever experienced by a people in so short a period of time.” Perhaps this is true, but not every aspect of this revolution was a response to the Spirit. Given the dominant blackness of the times and the general persistent dissatisfaction of people, no one should ignore the sociological, political and economic factors that played an important role in the movement. These factors did not always inspire the people to make clear, well thought out responses to their predicament; they provoked hasty, impulsive reactions, as well.

I will be looking at these reactions and their causes during the coming weeks. It should be remembered that Eastern Christianity never experienced the Reformation first hand. Thus one of the sources of these differences.

Smart and Stupid Ways to Think About God — 20160110

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Picture1Before the St. Philip’s Fast, I was sharing smart and stupid ways to think about God. I had ended on the 10th stupid way. I would present today the 10th smart way to think about God. The 10th way is to think about GOD AS ALL.

If this Beginning Who is Living, Who is the Creator, and the Creator of Creators, Who has a Plan, is both     Personal and Real, Who brings Fulfillment, and who is Forever still sounds a bit complicated, let’s simplify it. With the biggest, littlest word of all: ALL.

God is All. That’s All there is. There’s nothing else. God is IT. The Total. The Big Sum. Or, if you want to get fancy, the Infinite Monad, as one philosopher dubbed Him.

God is All. How’s that for simplification! But, wrap your head around “All,” and you might want to go back to chopping God into pieces. After all, little pieces are a helluva lot easier to digest.

Because All means just that: All. It means there is nothing that could be or exist without God. It means that all time, all space, all laws of nature, all natural phenomena, all physiological activities, all societies, all politics, all psychological phenomena, all life, all non-life, all thoughts, all emotions, all relationships – they’re all-included in this All. Indeed there are so many aspects to God, we seem to have complicated matters even more. We seem to have obliterated the distinction between God and Creation completely – not an uncommon problem among theologians.

However, there is one other three-letter word that goes hand in hand with All, which can keep us from spreading God so think we dissolve Him into pantheism. Turn Him into Mom Nature. That word is One.

God is One. Singular. Solo. Unique. God is the one ground for everything there is, and the one purpose. This is the understanding that the ancient Hebrews brought the world: God IS One. And it became the foundation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Reality may appear diverse, even disparate. But in reality, it is all part of this one singular force, this One       Consciousness that we call God.

God’s Consciousness manifests differently at different point on the evolutionary scale. Rocks appear     unconscious, because they are stuck on the bottom. Plants appear more conscious, because they are higher up. Animals begin to manifest the rudiments of true consciousness. AND THEN THERE ARE HUMANS

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20160110

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st-timothy1After having considered 2 Timothy, the next pastoral letter attributed to Paul that must be considered is the letter to TITUS. Like Timothy, Titus was an important associate of Paul. According to Galatians 2:3, he was a Gentile convert, probably a God-lover who was with Paul in Jerusalem in the late 40s or 50s. In the second letter to the Corinthians, he was an important mediator in Paul’s conflicted relationship with the Christ-community in Corinth in the mid-50s.

In the letter, Titus is on Crete, the largest of the Greek islands. The reason is that the putative author Paul had left Titus there so that he “should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town”. The letter is about the need for order and the appointment of authorized leaders – in short, it is about institutionalization.

The author negatively stereotypes the inhabitants of Crete: “’Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’ That testimony is true”. So, Titus is told, “Teach what is consistent with sound doctrine”

The letter to Titus combines characteristics of 1 and 2 Timothy. The author calls Titus “my child,” just as he did Timothy, and thus passes Paul’s mantle to a later generation. It is concerned with “sound doctrine”. Like 1 Timothy, it is practical and   pastoral. It includes a list of special qualifications for bishops and directions for what to teach older men and older women, younger women and younger me, and slaves.

Slaves are “to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior.” If the counsel is directed to Christian slaves of non-Christian masters, it makes sense. But if the text presupposes that there are Christian masters of Christian slaves, it is very different from the radical Paul of the seven genuine letters.

Finally, like 2 Timothy, the letter commissions Titus to continue what Paul has been doing. It is about Paul’s legacy perhaps a half century after his death.

According to 2 Corinthians, Titus was with Paul on his third missionary journey; there is, however, no mention of him in Acts. Besides being the bearer of Paul’s severe letter to the Corinthians, he had the responsibility of taking up the collection in Corinth for the Christian community of Jerusalem.

The letter is only three chapters long. Why not read it?