I like to think of our little community here as a safe haven away from politics. And I consider myself mostly apolitical, in the sense that I don't follow politics, or get involved in political debates. But every once in a while I do get kind of bummed out about the state of things and the direction we are heading in this country, which is to say, we are heading away from God and deeper into chaos and confusion. If you're like me, it creates an unsettled feeling that can be hard to shake. But God is good, and more often than not, he gives me what I need through my reading and prayer.
But it has to be said that evil is real. Was it C.S. Lewis who said that the greatest deception of the devil is convincing people he doesn't exist? I can look at all the sin in the world, and most of the time I can chalk it up to one of the seven deadlies. I can say, well, people are greedy, and someone is profiting from that. But then there are those things that have no adequate explanation other than pure evil, and the reality of spiritual warfare and the aggressive agenda of the demonic to create chaos and confusion in our world, with (I believe) the specific goal of destroying the family. There is no simple human explanation for things like child trafficking, the proliferation and celebration of abortion, and the abuse of children that comes in the form of promoting gender confusion - other than the fact that it is just evil.
As many of you know, I've been reading some of the deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament, and I've also been branching out into the apocryphal books, to see how people prayed in that tradition. So yesterday and today in my Lectio Divina, I was reading a prayer of the priest Eleazar, from the book of Third Maccabees. This stuff feels so relevant because the people of God are being treated like strangers in their own land, as the land is being taken over by godless people. If you want to read the whole prayer, it's in 3 Macc 6:2-15, but I'll just give you a couple parts that jumped off the page for me (this is my translation):
Oh, Eternal One, you are omnipotent and almighty
Watch over us, and have mercy on us
We are being deprived of life, treated like traitors
by the illogical irreverence of the immoral...
Now, that alliteration only really works in English, but the meaning of the phrase stands out for me: the illogical irreverence of the immoral
When I see what people say in public, including politicians, and how illogical they are in their hypocrisy, how irreverent they are in their smug rejection of even the reality of God, let alone the Word of God, and how they defend immorality, tooth and nail, with self-righteous rage, I can understand what Eleazar feels as he prays:
All-merciful Protector of all,
who hates irreverence,
come quickly to those of your people
who are insulted and mistreated
by the profane and immoral unbelievers.
Even if our lives have become stained with sin in our exile,
rescue us from the hand of the enemy...
So it made me feel a little better to pray these ancient prayers, and then I ended my prayer time today with the Divine Mercy chaplet, in which the prayer is repeated: For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.
Yes, Lord - Have mercy on us, and on the whole world
Finally, the good news is that we don't have to fix the world. In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshephat prays a similar kind of prayer (they are literally being attacked), and there he actually gets an answer from God (it's 2 Chron 20:15-17, if you want to look it up) - here's my translation:
Do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged
when you have to face this vast multitude
for the battle is not yours, but God's...
It is not for you to fight
Take your positions, and stand firm
and you will see the Father's deliverance.
Do not be afraid
and do not be afraid to go out tomorrow and face them
and the Father will be with you
So we do not have to respond with equal aggression or anger. We do not have to join the shouting match. We do not have to fight to win. We only have to stand firm, and let God do the fighting. Neither fight nor flight, but something in between, like confident conviction. Another good alliteration 😊
I welcome your thoughts, as always!
Here's a short (about a minute) video I took going around the Holy Column in the church of Santa Prassede. This is the column that Jesus was tied to when he was scourged by Pontius Pilate. They don't always have the barrier down, so you usually don't get to see it from all the way around. I wanted to get video of the whole thing all the way around because I ran across a note in an ancient document that said that those who made a pilgrimage (at that time to the Holy Land, since it was still in Jerusalem) could visit the Holy Column, and could see marks left from the hands of Jesus where he gripped it as he was being whipped. I assume that this is pious legend, but I figured since the column has that dark & light marble, maybe there's a place where the dark parts look like hands. I did not see it, but if you do, let me know!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Here is our next set of texts - as we get into John chapter 6, we first encounter Jesus feeding the multitudes - in this case 5,000 families!
Now, as you know, there is also an account o Jesus feeding 4,000, and so you may also know that some scholars might speculate that these are just different versions of the same story that circulated and were handed down orally, until they were written down. Even the fact that both stories occur in the same gospel would not stop that kind of speculation. So I thought the first question I would have to ask was whether the Church fathers thought this was one event or two - BUT (and you see where this is going) I forgot that Jesus himself makes reference to two separate events (in Matthew 16 and in Mark 8) so there is no question for the Church fathers - these are two separate events. So it seems that Jesus performed this sign (miracle) of the feeding of the multitudes on two occasions. It's not just one event told two different ways, and it's also ...
My voice was still recovering from a bad cold, so not sounding my best, but this was a great conversation about pilgrimage, for the Jubilee year - more of this coming in other interviews! (FYI, I think I was the third of three guests that day, so you will have to fast forward to find me)
It seems that one way or another we need to talk about different kinds, or different levels of heresy. What I have been calling heresy vs. heterodoxy, others call heresy on fundamental doctrines vs. heresy on less fundamental doctrines. In other words, Heresy with a capital H (over fundamental doctrines like the Trinity and christology) are the kinds of heresies that move one outside the boundaries of what Christianity is, and that's because the very definition of Christianity is defined according to these fundamental doctrines. To refuse to sign the Creed at the Council of Nicaea in 325, or the Council of Constantinople in 381 - and indeed to reject any of the contents of the Creed today - means that a person is NOT a Christian.
So are the non-chalcedonians, such as the miaphysites (including St. Gregory of Narek, and today's Coptic Christians) - are they heretics? Well, like it is with a lot of things, that depends on your definition of heresy. If you include in your definition of ...
