An Image and a Prayer

The following is from today’s Office of Readings and Morning Prayer.  There is such tragic imagery in this first sentence by Thomas a Kempis.  Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy...

“I have seen those who once were fed with the bread of angels take comfort in the husks of swine.

There is no holiness where you have withdrawn your hand, O Lord; no profitable wisdom if you cease to rule over it; no helpful strength if you cease to preserve it. If you forsake us, we sink and perish; but if you visit us, we rise up and live again. We are unstable, but you make us firm; we grow cool, but you inflame us.”  (from the Imitation of Christ)

O send forth your light and your truth;

let these be my guide.

Let them bring me to your holy mountain

to the place where you dwell (Psa 43)

And finally, part of a prayer from another morning’s office that is one of my favorites:

Our lives are surrounded with passing things; set our hearts on things of heaven, so that through faith, hope and charity we may come to enjoy the vision of your glory.

Amen!

Ecclesiology

The analysis is pitifully true, but the true Reformed tradition is all but a trickle of backwater in today's Christian Faith. There is one Catholic Church and it continues to stand against the syncretistic slide so prevalent in "popular Christianity."

No Offense?

A friend raises a most pertinent issue here.  I often think of Bonhoeffer's line: When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die. Pop-Christianity seems to have forgotten that. Historic, orthodox Christianity has been, is, and always will be (until the Consummation) offensive to those whose minds and hearts are closed to God's Truth.

Passing on another's blog

Lew is a long-time friend and the one who introduce me to The Liturgy of the Hours.  His reflection here on tradition is wonderful.  Add his blog to your reading list!

A Classic Sermon for the Transfiguration

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration.  I love this occasion in the earthly life of our Lord and the following is wonderful reflection from today's Office of Readings in The Liturgy of the Hours:

It is good for us to be here

From a sermon on the transfiguration of the Lord by Anastasius of Sinai, bishop

Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly mystery. While living among them he had spoken of the kingdom and of his second coming in glory, but to banish from their hearts any possible doubt concerning the kingdom and to confirm their faith in what lay in the future by its prefiguration in the present, he gave them on Mount Tabor a wonderful vision of his glory, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. It was as if he said to them: “As time goes by you may be in danger of losing your faith. To save you from this I tell you now that some standing here listening to me will not taste death until they have seen the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father.” Moreover, in order to assure us that Christ could command such power when he wished, the evangelist continues: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain where they were alone. There, before their eyes, he was transfigured. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Then the disciples saw Moses and Elijah appear, and they were talking to Jesus.

These are the divine wonders we celebrate today; this is the saving revelation given us upon the mountain; this is the festival of Christ that has drawn us here. Let us listen, then, to the sacred voice of God so compellingly calling us from on high, from the summit of the mountain, so that with the Lord’s chosen disciples we may penetrate the deep meaning of these holy mysteries, so far beyond our capacity to express. Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven, and – I speak boldly – it is for us now to follow him with all speed, yearning for the heavenly vision that will give us a share in his radiance, renew our spiritual nature and transform us into his own likeness, making us for ever sharers in his Godhead and raising us to heights as yet undreamed of.

Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: Lord, it is good for us to be here.

It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter. It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here for ever. What greater happiness or higher honour could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?

Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: It is good for us to be here – here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters: Today salvation has come to this house. With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole of the world to come.

Comfortable Christianity

I want to be clear that I say this facetiously:  It is easy to be a great Christian when I am comfortable and everything is convenient.

I’ve thought of this in the context of our society’s obsession with comfort and convenience.  People do not commit road rage when they have the road to themselves.  There is no complaint in the fast food line when an order is given and handed over within the posted “90 Second” goal.  I do not fuss about the weather when it is nearly perfect (to my own tastes) or even when I can stay in air conditioned comfort.  It is easy to be happy when one’s favorite team has won the game.  Parents can be so kind and patient with their children when the kids are constructively engaged.  The whole world can seem to be rightly ordered to a person who is being treated to a multi-course meal at a 5-star establishment.

St Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22,23).  He also tells the Philippians (4:11) I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.  This was written after he had described some of his circumstances to the Corinthians (11:24–27):  Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.

How easy it is to complain when things are not comfortable and convenient!  This is part of the seduction of this world.  The awful thing, though, is that “popular Christianity” does not confront such.  We have the “health and wealth gospel” (which is no gospel at all) enticing people to place their faith on false hopes which are rooted very much in this passing world.  We have congregations trying to attract new people on the basis of the conveniences they offer (easy parking, casual dress, exceptional child care, etc), explicitly owning the idea of “marketing the church.”  St Paul reflected on his initial coming to Corinth by saying, When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God (1Cor 2:1–5).  It seems pop Christianity has decided preaching is now outdated, especially if it proclaims Truth which is “uncomfortable.”

St Teresa of Avila once observed, "Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds."  I face this in myself.  I grew up without air conditioning in my South Carolina home; today I find myself thinking it is a “necessity.”  It surely is NICE, and I am deeply thankful for it (especially as I write this with a 74° dewpoint outside).  Yet, it is when things are not so “nice” that the Christian disciple is able to witness to the indwelling power of Christ.  After confessing his struggle with a certain weakness St Paul told the Corinthians:  Therefore I am content with weakness, with mistreatment, with distress, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ; for when I am powerless, it is then that I am strong (2Cor 12:10).

Jesus said it was easy to love those who love us. The test is how we respond when our circumstances are not comfortable and convenient.  In his second solo Christian album, before his entrance into Catholic Christianity, John Michael Talbot wrote these lyrics in the opening suite of his New Earth recording:

When the fields yield full harvest it’s easy to share, 

And when you’re insured this world’s friendship it’s easy to care.

But when every nation has crumbled to dust, 

Will you still reach to give the Lord’s mercies 

or will you kill if you must?

I do not want to be a “comfortable Christian.”  I am not sure such a thing is ultimately possible.  At some point we must choose to serve ourselves or take up the cross and follow Jesus.  I try to keep in the mind the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Christian who was killed by the Nazis in the closing days of WWII:  “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  And so I pray the words of St Paul to the Galatians (6:14) – May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  That takes us far beyond a “comfortable Christianity.”

St Lawrence of Brindisi

Today the Church remembers St Lawrence of Brindisi, a Capuchin Friar (b. 1559).  We would do well to heed his advice:

....let us keep our last end ever before us.  Let us always remember that we shall die, and recognize the world's deceitfulness; then we shall live holy and upright lives.

Jesus, make me holy!