On the Night of Nativity

Today, Orthodox Christians Celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord. St. Ephrem the Syrian writes:

Pure is the present night, in which the Pure One appeared, Who came to purify us! Let our hearing be pure, and the sight of our eyes chaste, and the feeling of the heart holy, and the speech of the mouth sincere!

The present night is the night of reconciliation; therefore, let no one be wroth against his brother and offend him!

This night gave peace to the whole world, and so, let no one threaten. This is the night of the Most Meek One; let no one be cruel!

This is the night of the Humble One; let no one be proud!

Now is the day of joy; let us not take revenge for offences! Now is the day of good will; let us not be harsh. On this day of tranquility, let us not become agitated by anger!

Today God came unto sinners; let not the righteous exalt himself over sinners!

Today the Most Rich One became poor for our sake; let the rich man invite the poor to his table!

Today we received a gift which we did not ask for; let us bestow alms to those who cry out to us and beg!

The present day has opened the door of heaven to our prayers; let us also open our door to those who ask of us forgiveness!

Today the Godhead placed upon Himself the seal of humanity, and humanity has been adorned with the seal of the Godhead!*

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*On the Night of the Nativity

Barack Obama and Deification

THE MORNING AFTER Barack Obama won the election, Today Show host Matt Lauer lamented that Mr. Obama is going to have a tough time meeting expectations, because many news agencies have over-hyped him. This is especially true of the New York Times, which Lauer said, had "deified him". In other words, they made him appear god-like. His remarks reminded me of the important Christian doctrine of Deification.

Deification (or Theosis) is the teaching that, through the grace of God and spiritual struggle, we undergo a process in this life of becoming more like God, participating in His life, and as, St. Peter explains, " . . . partakers of divine nature."(1)

St. Irenaeus writes of, “the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, through His transcendent love, became what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.”(2)

St. Athanasius puts it plainly: "God became man that man might become god."(3)

Theosis is "becoming by grace what God is by nature"(4)

In his indispensible Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Vladimir Lossky, writes,

The deification or theosis of the creature will be realized in its fullness only in the age to come, after the resurrection of the dead. This deifying union has, nevertheless, to be fulfilled ever more and more even in this present life, through the transformation of our corruptible and depraved nature and by its adaptation to eternal life.(5)

In another important book, The Orthodox Way, Bishop Kallistos Ware makes some important points:

First, deification is not something reserved for a few select initiates, but something intended for all alike. The Orthodox Church believes that it is is the normal goal for every Christian without exception....

Secondly, the fact that a person is being deified does not mean that she or he ceases to be conscious of sin. On the contrary, deification always presupposes a continued act of repentance....

In the third place, these is nothing esoteric or extraordinary about the methods which we must follow in order to be deified. If someone asks 'How can I become God?' the answer is very simple: go to church, receive the sacraments, regularly, pray to God 'in spirit and in truth', read the Gospels, follow the commandments....

Fourthly, deification is not a solitary but a 'social' process...

Fifthly, love of God and of our fellow humans must be practical. Orthodoxy rejects all forms of Quietism, all types of love which do not issue in action....

Finally, deification presupposes life in the Church, life in the sacraments. Theosis according to the likeness of the Trinity involves a common life, and it is only within the fellowship of the Church that this common life of coinherence can be properly realized. Church and sacraments are the means appointed by God whereby we may acquire the sanctifying Spirit and be transformed into the divine likeness.(6)

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(1)2 Peter 1:4
(2)St. Athanasius, Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface
(3)St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation
(4)Ibid.
(5)Lossky, Vladimir, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 196.
(6)Ware, Kallistos, The Orthodox Way ,pp. 236-238

Mailbag Friday!

A friend writes,

Okay so I'm reading the book of Proverbs so there's going to be a lot of questions coming at ya buddy. Chapter 10 verse 3; can you please explain what this verse means? 'The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked.'

Say hi to the wife and kids.

Thanks Nads,
TWT

Well, obviously I am not qualified to explain what it means but note what St. John Chrysostom writes:

Have I been stripped of every thing,” one says, “and do you bid me keep silent? Have I been shamefully used, and do you exhort me to bear it meekly? And how shall I be able?” Nay, but it is most easy if thou wilt look up unto heaven; if thou wilt behold the beauty that is in sight; and whither God hath promised to receive thee, if thou bear wrong nobly. Do this then; and looking up unto the heaven, think that thou art made like unto Him that sitteth there upon the Cherubim. For He also was injured and He bore it; He was reproached and avenged not Himself; and was beaten, yet He asserted not His cause. Nay, He made return, in the contrary kind, to those who did such things, even in benefits without number; and He commanded us to be imitators of Him.

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Consider that thou camest naked out of thy mother’s womb, and that naked both thou and he that hath done thee wrong shall depart; rather, he for his part, with innumerable wounds, breeding worms. Consider that things present are but for a season; count over the tombs of thine ancestors; acquaint thyself accurately with past events; and thou shalt see that the wrong-doer hath made thee stronger. For his own passion he hath aggravated, his covetousness I mean; but yours, he hath alleviated…

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And besides all this, he hath set you free from cares, agony, envy, informers, trouble, worry, perpetual fear; and the foul mass of evils he hath heaped upon his own head.

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“What then,” saith one, “if I have to struggle with hunger?” Thou endurest this with Paul, who saith, (1 Cor. iv. 10.) “Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked.” But he did it, you will say, “for God’s sake:” do thou it also for God’s sake. For when thou abstainest from avenging, thou dost so for God’s sake.

+++

“But he that wronged me, takes his pleasure with the wealthy.” Nay, rather with the devil. But be you crowned with Paul.

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Therefore fear not hunger, for “The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but He casts away the desire of the wicked.”

There are a couple of points here:

1. Look to the righteous One, sitting upon the Cherubim, who bore many evils and bids us to follow him.

2. Consider the passing nature of this life.

3. Look closely, and see what the person may have inadvertently relieved you from and heaped upon himself.

Roadkill Is Gross

When I'm out on a run and get surprised by a dead animal, I hold my breath, even if it means I may pass out. Nasty.

Think about someone you're angry with. I may think I'm exercising my "right" to stay angry, but all the while I'm desperately holding onto something in my mind that's rotten and foul. St. Maximus the Confessor advises, "Do not befoul your intellect by clinging to thoughts filled with anger and sensual desire. Otherwise you will lose your capacity for pure prayer."(1)

Could anger be the reason we don't reap the benefits of prayer. Could it be why we don't pray more regularly?

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(1) St. Maximos the Confessor, Four Centuries on Love

Fight for Freedom: Happy Fourth!

If we wish to be free -- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending -- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!...Give me liberty or give me death!

-Patrick Henry, March 23, 1774

Man is full of passions, shortcomings, etc., and in order to be freed of them, he must engage in a bloody battle. Once he wins, with God's help, he will receive here in this life the promise of the future marriage with the Lamb, Who was ruthlessly slaughtered by cruel hands accursed by God.

-Elder Ephraim of Mount Athos

Covert Rescue Missions

News agencies across the globe are reporting the dramatic and successful mission to rescue former Columbian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans from captivity. They had been held for five years by a rebel army.

The Independent reports how it went down:

According to the Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos, the rescue saw military intelligence agents infiltrate the guerrillas unit holding 15 hostages and then deceive them. Mr Santos said soldiers posed as members of a fictitious non-government organisation and persuaded the local guerrilla leader that they would fly the hostages by helicopter to a camp to meet with the rebel leader Alfonso Cano. Once surrounded by military commandos, the guerrillas gave up without a fight as the helicopters took the hostages to a military base. "The helicopters picked up the hostages in Guaviare and flew them to freedom. This was an unprecedented operation," said Mr Santos (1).

Sitting my car listening to the story this morning, I thought of the paralell between this event and the great rescue mission Christ accomplished after His Holy Resurrection.

According to St. Gregory of Nyssa,

Christ, being God incarnate, deliberately concealed His divine nature from the devil so that he, mistaking Him for an ordinary man, would not be terrified at the sight of an overwhelming power approaching him. When Christ descended in hell, the devil supposed Him to be a human being, but this was a divine ‘hook’ disguised under a human ‘bait’ that the devil swallowed. By admitting God incarnate into his domain, the devil himself signed his own death warrant: incapable of enduring the divine presence, he was overcome and defeated, and hell was destroyed (2).

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(1) Doyle, Leonard and Lichfield, John. "Hostage free after six-year jungle ordeal". The Independent, July 3, 2008.

(2) Alfeyev, Bishop Hilarion. "Christ the Conqueror of Hell" (citing St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechetical Oration, 23-24)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

My friend Mike Aquilina has a nice post on St. Cyril of Alexandria, which links up to Pope Benedict's remarks on the Saint as well as Mike's.

Mike is the author of The Fathers of the Church. It's a good and very accessible text for those of you who've mentioned to me that you'd like to learn more about the Church Fathers.

Happy Feast. Now, Be Overthrown

Today is the Feast of Nineveh, according to the Coptic Calendar.

Augustine writes,

God destroys sinners not only in anger but also in compassion[.] For sinners are destroyed in two ways: either...the men themselves are punished for their sins, or, like the Ninevites, the men’s sins are destroyed by repentance. God’s prediction, therefore, was fulfilled: the wicked Nineveh was overthrown, and a good Nineveh built up. For its walls and houses remained standing; the city was overthrown in its depraved manners.

-City of God, ch. 24

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In other words, Augsutine encourages me to be like Nineveh: to let the sinful me be destroyed and to crush my sins by repentance.

Why Do We Have Such a Hard Time Being Virtuous?

St. John Chrysostom has a very common sense answer:

"Let us then hear, as many of us as neglect the reading of the Scriptures, to what harm we are subjecting ourselves, to what poverty. For when are we to apply ourselves to the real practice of virtue, who do not so much as know the very laws according to which our practice should be guided?"

– Homily XLVII on the Gospel According to Matthew

Your Money, For Now

Today's reading, according to the Coptic lectionary is Luke 16:1-12 (The Parable of the Steward):

St. Cyril of Alexandria writes (I've added the subheadings):

Entrusted with Wealth
Is there then no way of salvation for the rich, and no means of making them partakers of the hope of the saints? Have they fallen completely from God s grace? Is hell and the fire necessarily prepared for them, such as is the fitting lot of the devil and his angels? Not so: for lo! the Saviour has shown them a means of salvation in this parable. They have been entrusted with worldly wealth by the merciful permission of Almighty God.

Stewards for the Poor
They have been appointed stewards for the poor. But they don't discharge their stewardship rightly, in that they scatter, so to speak, what has been given them from the Lord: for they waste it solely on their pleasures, and purchase temporary honours, not remembering God, Who says, "You shall open wide your mercy unto your brother, even to him who needs you" (Deut 8), nor moreover Christ Himself, the Saviour of us all, Who says," Be merciful, even as your Father is." (Luke 6).

Whoever is in heaven is merciful. But they, as I said, do not take showing mercy to their brethren seriously at all, but concentrate only on their own pride. And this is what accuses them before the Lord of all.

The Net of Death
And of course upon the approach of death they must cease from their stewardship, withdrawing them as it does from human aifairs. For the net of death no man can escape from.

What therefore would Christ have them to do? It is, that while they are yet in this world, if they are unwilling to divide all their wealth among the poor, that at least they should gain friends by a part of it; and numerous witnesses to their charitableness, even those who have received well at their hands: that when their earthly wealth fails them, they may gain a place in their tabernacles.

For it is impossible for love to the poor ever to remain unrewarded. Whether therefore a man give away all his wealth, or but a part, he will certainly benefit his soul.