Mystery of Mysteries

When the earliest Fathers of the Church first considered the means that brought them closer to God – the mysteries of the Church – they did not find it necessary to enumerate or systematize them. They were committed to living, rather than simply explaining, the mystery of the life of the Church, the Body of Christ. Nonetheless, from the sixth century on, it became increasingly necessary to offer some kind of reflection on the nature of the mysteries of the Church. Various members of the Church began to propose lists of sacraments. These lists varied to a surprising degree in number and content. According to Kallistos Ware, in his book The Orthodox Church:

Before [the seventeenth century], Orthodox writers vary considerably as to the number of sacraments: John of Damascus speaks of two; Dionysius the Areopagite of six; Joasaph, Metropolitan of Ephesus (fifteenth century), of ten; and those Byzantine theologians who in fact speak of seven sacraments differ as to the items which they include in their list (275).

Perhaps reflecting the fluidity of the prevalent understanding of sacrament, these lists were not at first intended as exhaustive, but only as informative and spiritually nourishing. Eventually, first in the West, many members of the Church came to believe that there are seven, and only seven, sacraments. Even among those who accepted this number, however, there was not always agreement on which sacraments were included in the list. There are a number of rites that were once frequently included among the mysteries of the Church that few now think of in those terms. There are both uses and limitations of dogmatically enumerating the sacraments.

A Christian Understanding of Earthquakes

In all their anger directed toward Pat Robertson’s comments about the earthquake in Haiti, what many fellow Christians have missed is that he is not simply wrong, but has distorted a truth:

Sin is the cause of death.

What Robertson has done, in declaring a particular sin the cause of a particular disaster, is neglect the communal nature of this causality. What he should realize is that the sin that brings about all the suffering and death in the world is his sin - and it is my sin - and it is your sin. It is Adam’s sin.

“…Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned...” (Romans 5:12).

Robertson will die too, and his death will not be different from the deaths taking place in Haiti – it too will be the result of sin – his sin, my sin, your sin.

Just as all us sinners bear together the guilt of our Lord’s suffering and death upon the Cross, so do we share the blame for all suffering and death. God did not want us to suffer and die. We humans, as a people, have brought it upon ourselves – the natural consequence of acting against our created nature – a nature created in the image and likeness of God and ultimately directed toward union with Him.

We should not think that their greater misfortune indicates their greater sin. Indeed, the opposite is often the case - it is often the saints who suffer more greatly.

Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ Himself suffered a torturous death. “And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold… the earth shook, and the rocks were split…” (Matthew 27: 50-51). Those who witnessed this earthquake did not take it as a sign that Jesus was a great sinner. Rather, those who “saw the earthquake and what took place… were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this is the Son of God!’” (Matthew 27: 54)

One is Holy

Everyone is bad. Everyone is good. Everyone is a sinner. Everyone is a saint.

Each person bears the image of God, the only One Who is Good, in their being.
Each person bears the falleness of Man, that loss of likeness to God, and has all demons within.

Restoration of likeness to God is achieved only in union with Jesus Christ, the God-Man, brought about by grace, available to all. In this moment of union and only in this moment (may it be eternal), one is good and only good.

There is a moment in the Divine Liturgy that well expresses these truths. Just after the bread and wine have been changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, the priest elevates the Eucharist and proclaims, "Holy Things to Holy People." To which the people respond, "One is Holy, One is Lord, Jesus Christ." Thereby the people acknowledge their own holiness in the Lord's, outside of which there is no holiness.

The people are holy to the extent that they are one with the one Body of Christ. About to receive communion with Him in the Eucharist, they are truly holy, as the priest proclaims. Without the Eucharist, the Body of Christ, there is no holiness, no goodness, no life within, as they acknowledge. Our Lord said, "He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him" (Jn 6:56).

Our enemies are images of God

Thou shalt not hate.
Okay.
God is Love.
Okay.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Okay.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Okay.

Many times, we escape our Christian duty to love our neighbors as ourselves by reasoning that we don’t have to like our neighbor – which, maybe, is true – we just have to love them. We don’t have to have warm feelings about everyone. It’s not our feelings that count – feelings change – emotional states are not as significant as moral states. So goes our reasoning.

Above all, we should love God. It is only in loving God that we can love our neighbors and our enemies. Love is self-sacrifice for the sake of the beloved.

But should we like God? – not just love Him, but like Him? We cheapen love if we say no. A child understands that “liking” is less than “loving.” Love is the important thing. Love is the commandment. But can we love whom we dislike? Does love have liking as it’s foundation?

Whether or not it is necessary, it is Good to like God - to nurture warm feelings and not just give Him some abstract love – to give Him personal affection. It is important to have affection for God. It may even be necessary.

And if it is necessary to have affection for God, then it is necessary to have affection for our enemies. Affection – warm feelings – for those who hate us. Why? – because our enemies are images of God.

Our enemies are images of God. Our enemies are images of God.

Ascension Thursday

There is a sadness in this day. The Paschal season is over - no longer do we sing “Christ is Risen.” There is a sadness in this day. The plaschanitza is removed from the Holy Table and put away until next year. There is a sadness in this day. Our Lord has left us staring at the sky.

The Ascension
A page from the Bamberg Apocalypse
MS A. II. 42

“O Lord and Giver of Life, when the apostles saw you ascending upon the clouds,a great sadness over came them; they shed burning tears and exclaimed: O our Master, do not leave us orphans; we are your servants whom you loved so tenderly. Since you are most wonderful, send down upon us your all–holy Spirit to enlighten our souls, as you promised.”

– a sticheron of the Ascension

But there is a joy in this day. Christ our Lord has ascended into heaven amid shouts of joy and trumpet blasts. The greatness of this day cannot be overstated. Not only are we saved by Christ’s Incarnation, not only by His death and Resurrection, but also by His Ascension. God became Man so that Man might become God. God took on our human nature. He died in His human nature. He rose in His human nature. And now He ascends in His human nature. Without the Ascension, our human natures do not go to Heaven. It is only in Christ that we are united to God and it is only in Christ’s ascension that our humanity has hope of Heaven.

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23).

Christian worship is spiritual worship. “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth,” Jesus continued to say to the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:24). No longer do we worship God on the mountain, as do the Samaritans, or in the Temple, as did the Jews, by sacrificing animals – a fleshly and bloody sacrifice. Our sacrifice is a spiritual sacrifice, an unbloody sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise.

We are spirits, images of God, Who is Spirit. We must worship God, Who is Spirit, in the temples of our own spirits, souls and bodies.

Jesus Christ - the Son of God - is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6). To worship the Father in Spirit and Truth is to worship the Triune God. It is to worship God the Father in the Holy Spirit and in God the Son.

True worship is worship of the Trinity.

Reunion

Only when the Catholics acknowledge that the Orthodox are orthodox and the Orthodox acknowledge that the Catholics are catholic, will the Catholics be Orthodox and the Orthodox be Catholic.