Your Faith Has Saved You: Some thoughts about reading the Scriptures in a personal manner

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

    We had this same Gospel reading a few weeks ago, but today we find more than enough that is new in the reading to meditate on. The last line of the reading is particularly interesting. The Lord tells the leper, who had been healed, "Go, your faith has saved you." It is more accurate to translate, "Go, the faith that is yours has saved you," but this is awkward, so we do not translate it this way typically. However, we should be cognizant of the difference. It is not merely by some abstract faith that we are saved. It is not sufficient that we simply profess faith in Christ, as if, as long as we do that, we can sit at home, without the Church, without the sacraments, without prayer, without the comprehensive practice of religion. No, on the contrary, the faith (the Catholic Faith) has saved us, and is saving us. When the Lord tells the man in the Gospel that his faith had saved him, He did not mean that the man never had to think about his salvation ever again. He did not mean that it was impossible for the man to contract the disease of leprosy again. No, He meant that the faith (faith in Christ) had saved the man right then, at that moment.

    Salvation is a story, a history, not a one-time event. If we were to believe that salvation was an event, once for all, we would be incapable of understanding the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are a continuous series of falls into sin, and redemptions from sin through God's love. Again and again, God's people fall away from God. God then punishes His people to correct them, and bring them back to the right way. The people turn to God. God heals them and receives them back into His friendship. Progressively, in the course of all these episodes, the people's knowledge of the ways of God deepens, so that the next fall is of a different nature, or in a matter less grave.

    The experience of being saved by our faith is learning to live the history of salvation as our personal history. It is learning to read the Scriptures as if they are about God's dealings with us. The infidelities that are denounced there are our infidelities. The punishments that are described there are our chastisements, which are intended by God to gently bring us back to our relationship with God. When we read the Scriptures, God wants us to understand that we are His chosen one. Each and every one of us is His beloved, whom He desires to bring to Himself.

    The fathers have told us that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. But ignorance of the Scriptures is also ignorance of our relationship to God. We should try to read the Scriptures in this kind of personal way, which will lead us to pray about the text. We are used to reading for information. We should not read the Bible primarily for information. We should read as an entry to prayer, using the Scriptures to begin that dialogue with God that prayer should be. Let the words give birth within us to thoughts and resolutions that relate to our circumstances, so that, through the text, God can reveal to us the sins we must destroy and the virtues we must cultivate with His help. Then, at every moment, God can say to us in our prayer, "Your faith has saved you."

My Maimonides: Notes in the Margin of the Guide for the Perplexed

By any measure, Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed is one of the great philosophical books, particularly in its interpretation of the biblical text according to traditional Aristotelianism.  Maimonides begins the book with the classic distinction between Physics (Ma'aseh Bereshit-- Description of the Creation) and Metaphysics (Ma'aseh Mercabah-- Description of the Chariot).  These same categories he had already expounded in the his earlier magnum opus Mishneh Torah. Metaphysics is apparently referred to as the Description of the Chariot, because of the vision of the chariot in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel.

Maimonides is very insistent that it is the tradition in Judaism that Metaphysics is superior to Physics, and that metaphysical issues and questions hold pride of place over those that are concerned with the origin and construction of the physical world.  At the same time, however, the rabbis are equally insistent that the Description of the Chariot should not be taught to any student, who has not mastered the Description of the Creation.  Further, the student must have distinguished himself by certain intellectual qualities before being initiated into the mysteries of metaphysics.  Both are necessary, but Physics is the only door of Metaphysics, while the purpose of Physics is the discovery (in the original sense of the word) of Metaphysics. 

What makes this perspective so important is the fact that this culture has effectively excluded Metaphysics as an area of possible knowledge.  In today's world, learning about the world (particularly in the modern sciences) leads nowhere but further into the physical world.  Pure science is knowledge for knowledge's sake about the physical world that emphatically does not lead to something greater, something deeper, but constitutes an end in itself.  Gone is the spirit of Aristotle himself, a spirit that, seeing the world of change described by physical science, longed to ascend above the realm of physical science to that that did not change.  Maimonides would certainly look upon modern science as a truncated knowledge.  He would see it as a form of physical science that was obsessed with itself

In the modern world, our culture has become satisfied with the official separation of Physics and Metaphysics.  Much like the "separation of church and state" it has become a dogma as unbending as any geometric law.  Physics and Metaphysics are discreet areas, which are explored by different people.  Increasingly, those whose purview is the physical sciences refuse to even so much as acknowledge the possibility of the existence of anything beyond their field, claiming that the only things that are real are those that can be known empirically through sense perception.

Yet, at the same time that Metaphysics has been discarded, another interesting and counterintuitive thing is happening on the level of culture.  One would think that with this emphasis on empirical knowledge and evidence there would be a growth in the use of reason and in rational argument as a means to arrive at the truth.  Actually, however, the opposite is the case.  As the physical sciences gain complete sway over everything else as the exclusive arbiters of meaning, there is a steady diminution of the ability of our contemporaries to use logic in order to frame rational arguments.  More often than not, they will afford themselves of sentimentalism, arguments based on emotions, and, if these fail to be convincing to their interlocuters, they will resort to ad hominems.  This can be clearly seen in political discourse, where the Left and the Right revile one another with invective and insult, but rational argument is nowhere to be found. 

The disappearance of rational argument in modern discourse might easily be considered related to the disappearance of Metaphysics.  The physical sciences are deemed an end in themselves, and not as a stepping stone to the greater realities that lie beyond the physical universe.  Reason itself, beyond the laboratory quantifications associated with the scientific method, is not considered terribly useful,  After all, "nature is red in tooth and claw." If the physical universe is all that exists, then there is no truth beyond what can be ascertained by physical science.  There are the truths of mathematics.  There is quantity, weight, duration, etc.  There is no virtue, no good.  Further, while there is in the physical sciences an intricate description of forces, there is no concept of Being, and no truth of Being.

An Unexpected Book Recommendation: Scripture Commentary is a Philosophic Feast

Just recently, I decided to try reading the commentary series that is put out by Intervarsity Press under the title of Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.  I must admit that I did not expect to like it, because I feared an overbearing influence of Protestantism on account of the makeup of the editorial board.  Nevertheless, I have found, with few exceptions, that the Fathers have been allowed to speak for themselves.

The commentary that they sent me to start with is the volume on St. Paul's Letter to the Romans.  I confess, there is a great deal of editorial comment concerning "justification by faith alone," which we know for certain is not a component of Christian Faith known to the Fathers of the Church.  On the contrary, the Fathers understood the Faith the same way that historical Christians understand it now; that is, that our salvation is achieved through the sacramental system instituted by Christ. Christ is not Buddha (He did not come to be an ethical teacher.  He came to institute life-giving mysteries.)Besides this, however, the insights that are provided by the various selected Fathers (saints of the Early Church) more than make up for having to wade through the occasional anachronistic Lutheran-based diatribe in defense of sola fides. It will be interesting to see what the volume on the Gospel of St. John will do with the passages regarding the Eucharist, since, it is undeniable, that all of the Fathers believed in sacramental realism as far as the Eucharist is concerned. 

The coordinators of the ACCS project state that what they want to do is assemble a "Christian Talmud," which will proceed through the various Scriptural books verse by verse giving explanatory commentary. The same coordinators also state that they are desiring to produce a book that can and will be used by Christians of all sorts (Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox).

I think that this is a very important project for Christian lay-people, especially, since it opens to them, really for the first time, the riches of the Patristic Age.  Christianity in the Patristic Age is really philosophy in its most undiluted form, since the Fathers of the Church were, for the most part, highly trained in the Greco-Roman philosophy of their day, but, over and above that, they were deeply in love with the Divine Wisdom Himself, Who had become incarnate for our sake. 

Nobody has a greater appreciation for Who Christ Is than the Fathers.  They understood in a very real sense that He is the Logos (the pattern, the model, the principle of comprehensibility for everything in Creation and for the whole of Being).  Each of them had a personal love for Jesus Christ, but that love was cosmic in that they recognized that the Logos is what stands behind the logoi of everything that exists.  To learn about the Logos, study the logoi, they would say, for the Logos Himself engenders the logoi.  Each of the logoi participates in the Logos.  The challenge that presented itself to each of the Fathers as they got out of bed every morning was how to live their lives kata Logon (according to the Logos), which is the same as to say "according to Wisdom," or "according to Reason."

This commentary series is definitely worth a read.  I think it has the potential to bring a lot of people, of various Christian backgrounds, to an appreciate of true philosophy.

Christmas Retrospective: Sunday After Holy Theophany—Christ is a Light That Shines From Within

A GREAT LIGHT: THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

    Yesterday, we considered the way that the Mystery of Baptism is a new Great Flood that destroys the old world of sin and gives us a new life in Christ. Today, in the Gospel reading, we see the Lord beginning His public ministry, accompanied by yet another important image of that new life: the image of light. The areas that the Lord Jesus is seen preaching the Gospel in this passage are described as "sitting in darkness." This phrase is a quote from the Prophecy of Isaiah, who foretold that the people of Zebulon and Naphtali, a people sitting in darkness, would see a great light. He concludes, "Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone."

    The imagery of light is very important in our faith, as it is also in the Holy Scriptures. In the beginning, light was the first of God's creations. The Book of Genesis tells us: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while the Spirit of God swept over the waters. God said, "let there be light!" And there was light. And there was evening, and there was morning: one day." Light has ever been the image of choice for the knowledge of God. Those who know God are said to "walk in light," while those who do not know God are said to "dwell in darkness."

    The Old Testament scriptures put the emphasis on this light of God—the knowledge of God—as a creative force. When this light shines upon Israel, the nation flourishes and is redeemed from the consequences of their sins. In the Prophecy of Isaiah, the prophet exultantly greets the exiles of Israel as they return after seventy years. He says, "Rejoice, O Jerusalem, for your light is come." When this same light shines upon an individual, that person is strengthened and redeemed. In the 26^th Psalm, the Prophet King David says: "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?"

    The New Testament inherits the great tradition of light as the image of the knowledge of God, but, at the same time, this knowledge is changed, deepened and expanded. It is in the pages of the Gospels that we see for the first time the concept of the light that comes from within. The Lord Jesus refers many times to His disciples as the bearers of a light that they hold in themselves. He says to them, "You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men." Further, He tells them, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, then your body will be filled with light."

    So, what is this new knowledge of God that shines from within by the action of the Holy Spirit? The knowledge of God in the Old Testament was reflected in observance of the Law, but when the Lord God became incarnate, for the first time, God could be imitated. We are now able to pattern our lives on the life of the Lord Jesus, and this imitation of our Lord becomes the light that shines forth from us to the whole of the creation. All of us, who are baptized into Christ, have received this light. All of us have the obligation to follow Jesus Christ in our lives. We bring reproach upon Christ and the Church when we fail to live up to the calling, which we have received. What calling? The one that the Holy Apostle refers to: "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." When we fail to become people of prayer, we bring reproach on the Lord and the Church. When we fail to love, we bring reproach on Christ and the Church. A great light has shone on us, but that light must shine from us, if it is to shine on others.

Christmas Retrospective: Holy Theophany—Belonging to the New World Means We Cannot Live As If We Still Have Fellowship with the Old

Brothers and sisters in Christ—

    All the Gospel writers, when they relate the story of the Lord's Baptism in the Jordan River, include the detail that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. We can discover a great deal about the Lord and His compassionate designs for us, if we ask ourselves the simple question, "Why a dove?" After all, we are certain that the Holy Spirit could have appeared like cloud, for example, for that is the form, which we chose, when He overshadowed the Holy Apostles Peter, James and John at the Transfiguration. Why a dove?

    The dove is a frequent symbol in the pages of the Holy Scriptures since Old Testament times. Yet, the symbolism itself seems contradictory to us. On the one hand, the dove is a symbol of innocence, as when the Lord Jesus Himself tells His disciples to become as cunning as serpents, but as meek as doves. At the same time, however, it is also a symbol of foolishness, as in the Book of the Prophet Nahum, where the prophet compares the Israelite tribe of Ephraim to a dove, who was silly enough to have become trapped in a snare. The dove is also a symbol of joy, as in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where the Lord compares the returning exiles to the flocks of doves that gather in the spring. But, on the other hand, the bird is also a symbol of sorrow, as in the Prophecy of Jeremiah, on account of its plaintive cry, which it makes continuously from hidden places in the rocks. Well, knowing all this, what is, then, the symbolism of the dove in this Gospel story. What does it mean? It must mean something, since the Holy Spirit does not record that which has no significance.

    If we go back to the very beginning of human history, we find that there was an old world (that perished in the waters of the Great Flood), and there was then the beginning of the world as we know it today. According to the Scriptures, only eight human beings survived the Great Flood: Noah and his wife, and his three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their wives. On account of sin, the world had become so corrupt that the Lord determined to purify it with water. The rains that caused the universal flood lasted for forty days, but the flood waters stood on the face of the earth for much, much longer. Noah and his family, along with the animals of the earth, within the giant boat known as the "ark," waited for the flood waters to recede. Noah devised a system by which he could determine whether the water had indeed receded and dry land was visible. He began to release birds. First, he released a raven, and then a dove. The dove, at first, could not find any dry land on which to land, so she returned to Noah in the ark, then after another week passed, he released her again. This time, she returned to him with a sprig from an olive tree in her beak. He waited another week, and then he released the dove again. That time, she did not return, and from this Noah understood that the water had receded from the face of the earth.

    Now, in Christ, God has determined once again to purify the world through water. But, this time, only sin will be destroyed in the water, without the cost of human life. The Lord Jesus descends into the water in order to sanctify the water, and make it effective in our salvation. When He comes up from the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove, recognizing Him as belonging to the renewed world. In just the same way, the Holy Spirit descends upon each one of us in our Baptism. The dove returned to Noah in the ark, because she could not find any part of that new world on which to land. When she finally found such a place to stand on the dry ground, she returned no longer. In the same way, the Holy Spirit descends and remains on each one of us, who, through our passage through the waters, belongs to the world renewed in Christ. Throughout Christian history, and up to this day, the part of the church where the people stand during the services is called the "nave," which means "boat" or "ship," because we are saved through water.

    The Holy Spirit has come to rest upon us, because He recognizes us as belonging to the world that has been renewed in the water of this second Great Flood. We cannot live as if we belong to the old world that, for us, has perished in our baptism. On the contrary, we must put away fear and sin from our lives, as befits people who live for God.

Christmas Retrospective: The Sunday After Christmas—What Does It Mean to be Divinely Guided?

    The Gospel passage that we heard today is framed by the account of the two dreams, which were sent to St. Joseph by the angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord appears in a dream to tell St. Joseph to take the Lord Jesus and the Mother of God and flee to Egypt. Later, the Angel of the Lord appears in another dream, and tells Joseph to return to the land of Israel.
    The dreams show that St. Joseph enjoys divine guidance in his governance of the Holy Family, and that he is open to the Word of God, allowing it to guide him through difficult circumstances. In this way, St. Matthew means to evoke memories from Israel's history. The first aspect of Israel's history that we think of when we read this passage is the story of this St. Joseph's namesake, St. Joseph the Patriarch. The elder St. Joseph was given the ability to interpret dreams. His wisdom evolved slowly over time. In the beginning, as a young man of seventeen, he had his first portentous dreams, but he could not interpret them. He angered his brothers, his father and his mother by relating the content of his dreams to them. It was only later that God gave to him the ability to interpret dreams as well. When he is cast into prison in Egypt, he is tasked with interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners. He is gifted by God with a knowledge of the ultimate fate of these other human beings. Finally, he is brought before Pharaoh himself, to interpret a dream that none of the king's magicians had been able to interpret. Because of his great wisdom, Pharaoh promotes him to be his prime minister, to be in charge of food distributions through the land of Egypt.
Joseph, whenever he is called upon to interpret dreams, stresses very strongly that the wisdom comes through divine guidance. Without the guidance that comes from God, nothing could be understood at all.
In a similar way, the Prophet Daniel, during the Babylonian Exile, about 1500 years later, is presented as a new Joseph. Endowed by God with tremendous wisdom, Daniel surpasses the dream abilities of Joseph, when he accepts the challenge presented to him by King Nebuchadnezzar, and tells the king the content of the king's own dream. Daniel, just like Joseph before him is very insistent upon the Lord's role in feats of interpretation. It is the Lord's gift. It has nothing to do with personal intelligence or merit of Daniel himself.
In a similar way, we can benefit from divine guidance (not only in an occasional dream, but always), if our hearts are attuned to hear the counsel of the Lord, just as St. Joseph, Joseph the Patriarch and the Prophet Daniel were. In order to experience the guidance of the Lord in our everyday life, we have to have our hearts on high. Having our hearts on high is what we pledge to do in the Divine Liturgy at the beginning of the Anaphora, when we are invited: "Let us lift up our hearts." To this, we should sincerely and thoughtfully respond, "We have lifted them to the Lord." We have to have hearts that are yearning for the fulfillment of God's promises in His Kingdom, or we will never get there. It is this yearning which we express so often in prayer, by turning our faces to the East (remembering our homeland, the Paradise that is in the East). The Letter to the Hebrews is equally insistent. It says, "Here, we have no lasting city, but we look for that which is to come."
Naturally, it is hard to yearn for something of which we have no concept. For this reason we have to learn from the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church concerning what we are to expect in the Kingdom of God. Then, we need to raise our minds in prayer and meditation to the source of these expectations. When we have our minds on high in this way, we enjoy the kind of divine guidance that we observe in our heroes, the saints, and not just in our dreams, but at every moment. So, first learn what to expect in the Kingdom of God, then raise your mind to it often, think about it and yearn for it.
 

Christmas Retrospective: Christmas Day—What Christ Our Spiritual Food Does For Us

    Brothers and sisters in Christ—

    Today we mystically draw near to the manger of the Lord, to see the Lord, God of all Creation, born among us as a man, having become a little child for our salvation.

    Let us meditate today upon the manger itself, this humble piece of furniture, which we see being used for a purpose for which it was not designed. The manger is a trough that holds the feed of animals, but today, we see God sleeping in it. What sense can we make of all this? What is the meaning of such a sign? We perceive that God's place is on His throne in Heaven, in temples, in the Church itself, but we do not think of God as inhabiting barns and stables. God is everywhere; He fills all things, but today He is present in a different way in the manger. Incarnate, having become man, He inhabits the trough filled with the feed of animals, and, in so doing, He teaches us something essential about His nature as well as about our own.

    Step back and rise above, and see the situation of the manger; notice where it is. The manger is in a stable in Bethlehem of Judea. Bethlehem is the Hebrew Beit-Lechem (The House of Bread). Our God is born in the House of Bread, because He came to become bread for us. He descends from Heaven in order to visit His people, the same people, who once traded Him for the image of a calf that eats grass. He is born in the House of Bread, but He descends to a human race that had become depraved, slaves to their passions, like animals. The God, Who is born in this cave, has become the food of our depraved nature. If we feed at this manger, we will have everlasting life.

    But what is food, and what does it do? First of all, food, as we well know, nourishes. It gives us strength and builds us up. On a corporal level, food plays an essential role in making us into what we should be. Without proper nutrition, we do not reach the stature that we should attain. Secondly, food comforts us, giving stability to our minds. It is notoriously difficult to reason with hungry people, because their minds are filled with uncertainty and doubt. Thirdly, food heals us. Yes, all the most powerful medicines are foods, and even other medicines, that are not foods, depend on proper nutrition for their effectiveness.

    Well, we are being invited to feed at this manger of salvation. Our God has come, in order to become our food. He has done this to nourish us spiritually, so that we reach the spiritual stature, which God created us to have. He wants to comfort us with this spiritual food, by renewing our minds so that we perceive the truth of everything that exists, and know the proper purpose and use of things. He dispels our uncertainty and doubt. Further, he wants more than anything to heal us from our disease and sickness of sin and death.

    Approach, therefore, and feed at the manger of salvation. Receive life from the flesh of the Son of God.

Christmas Retrospective: The Sunday Before Christmas—A Meditation on How We Handle Temptation

The Sunday Before Christmas is called the Sunday of the Holy Fathers. On this day, we commemorate the ancestors of Christ and the other holy people of Israel, who lived after the time that the Law was given to the nation on Mount Sinai. Primarily, the Church holds up two different examples for our admiration and emulation: the Prophet Daniel and the three holy youths, Ananias, Azarias and Mishael.
The Holy Prophet Daniel was one of the early exiles from the land of Israel, when the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar took certain members of the Jewish royal house as captives to Babylon. This first deportation was in 606 B.C. It was followed by the complete deportation of the people to Babylon in 587 B.C. Daniel was made an official in the palace of the King of Babylon, and he exercised that role under the Babylonian Empire, and then under the Persian Empire, until his death in 538 B.C. As an official in the government, Daniel gained a great reputation for wisdom. The source of his wisdom was his close relationship with his God, the God of Israel.
Several times during his tenure in the palace of the kings of Babylon and Persia, the king tried to establish religious unity in his empire by requiring all the citizens to worship his image. Each time, the Jews in the palace were opposed to the plan. Daniel, as a leader of the Jewish exiles, was often punished for his opposition, but, each time, God vindicated him by miraculous means. Twice, once during the reign of the Persian Emperor Darius I, and then again, during the reign of the Emperor Cyrus, the prophet was thrown to the lions. On both occasions, Daniel was not harmed, but when the lions' den was opened sometime later, he was found to be alive and in good health. Once, during Daniel's confinement in the lions' den, God sent the Prophet Habakkuk, all the way from the land of Israel, to give food to Daniel.
The three youths Ananias, Azarias and Mishael were likewise slaves in the palace of the king of Babylon. Like the prophet Daniel, they defied the king's religious policy and refused to worship the king's idols. For this, they were sentenced to be burned to death in a furnace. Nevertheless, when they were thrown into the furnace, God drove the fire out of the furnace, so that the interior of it was cool, while the fire blazed out beyond the limits of the furnace and burned the Babylonians, who were standing nearby. Then, Christ our God joined the three youths in the furnace, and comforted and strengthened them. In the midst of the flames, they sang a song that is still sung in the morning service of our Church.
The message in the life of the Prophet Daniel for us is that we should banish fear from our hearts, as we put our trust in God. As the Lord Jesus' ancestor, King David says in the Psalms: In God I trust, I shall not fear. What can mortal man do to me? Let us resolve to see the hand of God guiding the circumstances of our lives as we strive to do His Will.
The hymns of the Church tell us that the Holy Prophet Daniel "attended lions as if they were sheep." In the same way, let us attend to the puzzling, confusing and even frightening circumstances of our life with complete trust in Him, Who fashioned the world.
The three youths in the furnace teach a different kind of steadfastness. Often, the force of temptation swells within us, and it burns like a fire. The fire of the passions is only quenched by the love of God. Our heart in communion with God is safe from temptation. Even in the midst of the flames of the passions, we can praise God for the beautiful order that He has wrought in Creation, just as the three youths in the furnace did. Temptation arises from created things, so let the love of God quench the temptation. Let us praise God for the things that He has created, even as we reject the temptation. When temptation to anger burns within us like a fire, let us praise God for the natural energy He has given us, in order to overcome obstacles in our lives.
    Let us quench the fires within us with praise, thanking God for what He has wrought. Let us banish fear from our lives, and attend to our various circumstances with trust in God.