The Carpenter’s son (Sunday XIX of Ordered time)

We continue this weekend with a discourse on the divine providence, because of the readings we have been given. The first reading tells of the prophet Elijah, in flight from the wicked queen of Israel, Jezebel, who wished to have him killed; in distress and on the way to the mountain upon which Moses received the ten commandments, the prophet now is fed miraculously by an angelic figure.

“…when Achab told Jezabel of what Elias had done, how he had put all her prophets to the sword, she sent Elias a message, ‘The gods punish me as I deserve, and more, if by this time tomorrow I have not sent thee the way yonder prophets went.’ Whereupon he took fright, and set out upon a journey of his own devising; made his way to Bersabee in Juda, and left his servant to wait there, while he himself went on, a whole day’s journey, into the desert. Betaking himself there, and sitting down under a juniper tree, he prayed to have done with life. ‘I can bear no more, Lord,’ he said; ‘put an end to my life; I have no better right to live than my fathers.’ With that, he lay down and fell asleep under the juniper tree; but all at once an angel of the Lord roused him, bidding him awake and eat. Then he found, close to where his head lay, a girdle-cake and a pitcher of water; so he ate and drank and lay down to sleep again. But once more the angel of the Lord roused him; ‘Awake and eat,’ said he, ‘thou hast a journey before thee that will tax thy strength.’ So he rose up, and ate and drank; strengthened by that food he went on for forty days and forty nights, till he reached God’s own mountain, Horeb.”

Third book of the Kings, 19: 1-8 [link]

We have also been working the last few Sunday through the sixth chapter of the Gospel of S. John, which is crucial for our understanding of the Holy Eucharist and Holy Communion, for much of its content is reproduced by the Church in the Catechism for that Sacrament. So, to recap the gospel stories of the last few weeks, Christ first manages to feed five thousand men (not counting the women and the children) with five loaves and two fish, the enormity of which miracle causes a large crowd to chase after Him, hoping for a repeat of that miracle, by which they would be able to prove Him to be the great Prophet-king they were expecting to appear, the successor of King David whom they called Messiah. Just before His great exposition of the theology of the Holy Eucharist, Christ sends the Apostles across the sea of Galilee, into a massive storm that they cannot battle, and then walks across the water to them. When he gets to their boat, it’s smooth sailing to Capharnaum, on the western shore of the sea.

Both these miracles are significant to our understanding of Holy Communion – for the miraculous feeding establishes the ability of God to look after our physical bodies while we seek our spiritual food, and the calming of the storm suggest that if we receive and keep our Lord in the boat (through Holy Communion) we should be able to weather any storm that this life may send us. But these stories are also meant by the Evangelist S. John to introduce the rest of the chapter, in which Christ tells a crowd of Jews favourable to Him that they would have to eat Him somehow, to have the life of God flowing through them; the uncomfortable sequel to this doctrine of Christ is that many of His disciples leave His side, just as so very many Christians have abandoned communion with the Apostolic Church in the last five hundred years over the exact same subject. So, let’s have a quick look at the gospel for this weekend.

“The Jews were by now complaining of His saying, ‘I am Myself the bread which has come down from heaven.’ ‘Is not this Jesus,’ they said, ‘the son of Joseph, whose father and mother are well known to us? What does he mean by saying, I have come down from heaven?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not whisper thus to one another. Nobody can come to Me without being attracted towards Me by the Father who sent Me, so that I can raise him up at the last day. It is written in the book of the prophets, And they shall all have the Lord for their teacher; everyone who listens to the Father and learns, comes to Me. (Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him Who comes from God; He alone has seen the Father.) Believe me when I tell you this; the man who has faith in Me enjoys eternal life. It is I Who am the bread of life. Your fathers, who ate manna in the desert, died nonetheless; the Bread which comes down from heaven is such that he who eats of it never dies. I Myself am the living Bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live for ever. And now, what is this bread which I am to give? It is My flesh, given for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews fell to disputing with one another, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?‘ Whereupon Jesus said to them, ‘Believe Me when I tell you this; you can have no life in yourselves, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. The man who eats My flesh and drinks My blood enjoys eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is real food, My blood is real drink.'”

Gospel of S. John, 6: 41-56 [link]

The fickle crowd of followers is already smarting because Christ had said that they should have to eat Him to have life. Some of them are from Nazareth, and once again we hear them say, Hey, that’s the Carpenter’s son! What’s so special about Him? But He replies at once that He the Carpenter’s son is the only way to the Father, the only means of resurrection from death. He is the only One Who, coming from the Father, knows about the Father and can therefore communicate knowledge of the Father to those who want it. And, even then, that knowledge is insufficient, for the other necessity for eternal life is an actual eating of the Bread of life. Not any manna in the desert – which Moses fed the Israelites with – or any miraculous banquet of bread and fish – such as they had just had on the Eastern side of the sea of Galilee. No, He says that it is He Who is the living Bread, through Whose flesh the eternal life of God is imparted to the men and women who commune with Him – who receive Him in Holy Communion.

Do we perhaps see the reason for the Incarnation, for God’s becoming man? He had to, in order to raise men and women up from death, through Holy Communion. So, as in the actual practice of the Church, we come to belief in Christ as the way to the Father, make a statement of that belief in the Creed, and then receive Holy Communion, to complete the deal. And we do this every time we come to Holy Mass. Why then aren’t more Catholics with us at Mass?

“No base talk must cross your lips; only what will serve to build up the faith, and bring a grace to those who are listening; do not distress God’s holy Spirit, whose seal you bear until the day of your redemption comes. There must be no trace of bitterness among you, of passion, resentment, quarrelling, insulting talk, or spite of any kind; be kind and tender to one another, each of you generous to all, as God in Christ has been generous to you. As God’s favoured children, you must be like Him. Order your lives in charity, upon the model of that charity which Christ shewed to us, when He gave Himself up on our behalf, a sacrifice breathing out fragrance as He offered it to God. As for debauchery, and impurity of every kind, and covetousness, there must be no whisper of it among you; it would ill become saints; no indecent behaviour, no ribaldry or smartness in talk; that is not your business, your business is to give thanks to God. This you must know well enough, that nobody can claim a share in Christ’s kingdom, God’s kingdom, if he is debauched, or impure, or has that love of money which makes a man an idolater.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Ephesians, 4: 29 – 5: 6 [link]

Once more, S. Paul tells us in our second reading that, once we have achieved this nearness to God (in HC), our behaviour must reflect it, through an extremity of charity to both God and man, so that we become icons of the love of God for mankind. Look at that list of sins and vices S. Paul has drawn up for us. Consider that we are made temples of the Holy Spirit in our baptism, and then you can see why Paul thinks we shouldn’t grieve the Spirit of God Who live within us. Even quarrelling and insults are intolerable to the Holy Spirit.

That must be what Christ meant in the Gospel of S. Matthew when He said, Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

Reading through the Book of Proverbs

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onward to Ecclesiastes →

Pictured above is the interior of one of the greatest churches we ever built, the great Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, now unfortunately desecrated multiple times and (as I understand) functioning as a mosque. Hagia Sophia is Greek for Sancta Sapientia in Latin, or Holy Wisdom in English. That church was built to honour the Wisdom of God (of which human wisdom is only a shadow) and it was built appropriately with the greatest skill available in the sixth century to an enormous size. Even today, this gigantic structure is extraordinary to behold and would not be easy to replicate. So much has the Church honoured divine Wisdom in every age.

The first book proper of the Wisdom literature in Holy Scripture (the book of Psalms contains much material that would be classified as Wisdom material, as also does the Torah) is the book of Proverbs. Other books in this series would include the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and large portions of Ecclesiasticus. We know of the repute King Solomon had given to wisdom, as given by the books of the Kings and the Chronicles; the introduction to this book introduces its content as the proverbs of Solomon himself, although there are shorter sections towards the end that are given to other authors, Agur son of Jacé (chapter thirty) and King Lamuel (chapter thirty-one). The book itself begins with nine chapters extolling divine Wisdom, which mankind is meant to possess and make his own, before the proverbs begin properly. And there is the value of tradition, so often despised in our present culture in the West:

“True wisdom is founded on the fear of the Lord; who but a fool would despise such wisdom, and the lessons she teaches? Heed well, my son, thy father’s warnings, nor make light of thy mother’s teaching; no richer heirloom, crown or necklace, can be thine. Turn a deaf ear, my son, to the blandishments of evil-doers that would make thee of their company.”

Proverbs, 1: 7-9

This continues for some few pages, always about children taking lessons from their parents, accepting advice from their elders. Here’s a rather famous bid from chapter six:

“Keep true, my son, to the charge thy father gives thee, nor make light of thy mother’s teaching; wear them ever close to thy heart, hang them like a locket upon thy breast; be these, when thou walkest abroad, thy company, when thou liest asleep, thy safeguard, in waking hours, thy counsellors. That charge is a lamp to guide thee, that teaching a light to beckon thee; the warnings correction gave thee are a road leading to life.”

Proverbs, 6: 20-23

Similar language is used elsewhere in the Bible with respect to the divine Law, so demonstrates the importance of tradition to the Hebrew and Jewish (and by extension, the Christian) communities. There follows these lines and across chapter seven a warning against the temptress that threatens always to seduce and draw the young and inexperienced away from the prudent counsel of their elders. Meanwhile, divine Wisdom is waiting to be had, precious above all else, bringing justice in her wake:

“And, all the while, the Wisdom that grants discernment is crying aloud, is never silent; there she stands, on some high vantage-point by the public way, where the roads meet, or at the city’s approach, close beside the gates, making proclamation. To every man, high and low, her voice calls: ‘Here is better counsel for the simpleton; O foolish hearts, take warning! Listen to me, I have matters of high moment to unfold, a plain message to deliver. A tongue that speaks truth, lips that scorn impiety; here all is sound doctrine, no shifts, no evasions here. No discerning heart, no well-stored mind, but will own it right and just. Here is counsel, here is instruction, better worth the winning than silver or the finest gold; wisdom is more to be coveted than any jewel; there is no beauty that can be matched with hers.“

Proverbs, 8: 1-11

A little later comes the more well-known extract that is often used by the Church in reference to Christ, as the Divine Word that existed from all eternity with the Father, as given by the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John:

“The Lord made me his when first he went about his work, at the birth of time, before his creation began. Long, long ago, before earth was fashioned, I held my course. Already I lay in the womb, when the depths were not yet in being, when no springs of water had yet broken; when I was born, the mountains had not yet sunk on their firm foundations, and there were no hills; not yet had he made the earth, or the rivers, or the solid framework of the world. I was there when he built the heavens, when he fenced in the waters with a vault inviolable, when he fixed the sky overhead, and levelled the fountain-springs of the deep. I was there when he enclosed the sea within its confines, forbidding the waters to transgress their assigned limits, when he poised the foundations of the world, I was at his side, a master-workman, my delight increasing with each day, as I made play before him all the while; made play in this world of dust, with the sons of Adam for my play-fellows.”

Proverbs 8: 22-31

You could imagine this as being in the minds of the Church Fathers who established and defended the Christian creed containing the words, through Him all things were made… And now come the actual proverbs, which are many and not well-organised. There are general themes, such as honesty and the reward for dishonesty (silence is preferably to false talk):

“Lying lips that hide malice, foolish lips that spread slander, what a world of sin there is in talking! Where least is said, most prudence is. Silver refined is the just man’s every word, and trash the sinner’s every thought. The just man’s talk plays the shepherd to many, while the fool dies of his own starved heart.”

Proverbs, 10: 18-21

“Honesty shuns the false word; the sinner disappointment gives and gets. The upright heart is protected by its own innocence; guilt trips the heel of the wrong-doer.”

Proverbs, 13: 5-6

“Better a penny honestly come by than great revenues ill gotten. Heart of man must plan his course, but his steps will fall as the Lord guides them. Speaks king, speaks oracle; never a word amiss. Scale and balance are emblems of the Lord’s own justice; no weight in the merchant’s wallet but is of divine fashioning.”

Proverbs, 16: 8-11 

“Out comes bribe from bosom, and the godless man turns justice aside from its course.”

Proverbs, 17: 23

And the value of a good and virtuous wife, the basis of a successful household:

“Crowned is his brow, who wins a vigorous wife; sooner let thy bones rot than marry one who shames thee.”

Proverbs, 12: 4

“It is by woman’s wisdom a home thrives; a foolish wife pulls it down about her ears.”

Proverbs, 14:1 

“A good wife found is treasure found; the Lord is filling thy cup with happiness. (A good wife cast away is treasure cast away; leave to fools, and godless fools, the adulterous embrace.)”

Proverbs, 18: 22 

“Protected by her own industry and good repute, she greets the morrow with a smile. Ripe wisdom governs her speech, but it is kindly instruction she gives. She keeps watch over all that goes on in her house, not content to go through life eating and sleeping. That is why her children are the first to call her blessed, her husband is loud in her praise: Unrivalled art thou among all the women that have enriched their homes.” 

Proverbs, 31: 25-29

And that hard work helps avoid idleness, an evil to be mocked:

“A just man cares for the safety of the beasts he owns; the wicked are heartless through and through. Till field and fill belly; idle pursuits are but foolishness. (Sit long enjoying thy wine, and there is no strong fortress will win thee renown.)”

Proverbs, 12: 10-11

“Idleness finds ever a hedge of thorns in its path; the man of duty walks on unhampered.”

Proverbs, 15:19 

“Love not thy sleep, or poverty will overtake thee unawares; the open eye means a full belly.”

Proverbs, 20: 13 

“‘What, go abroad?’ says Sloth; ‘there is a lion there; trust me, a lion’s dam loose in the street.’ Sloth turns about, but keeps his bed, true as the door to its hinge. With folded hands the sluggard sits by, too idle to put hand to mouth. Wiser than seven sages is the sluggard in his own thought.” 

Proverbs, 26: 13-16

And that children must be disciplined through corporal punishment for their own good, if they be without wisdom:

“Chasten thy son still, nor despair of his amendment; still let the death of him be far from thy thoughts.”

Proverbs, 19: 18

“Boyhood’s mind is loaded with a pack of folly, that needs the rod of correction to shift it.”

Proverbs, 22: 15 

“Wisdom comes of reproof, comes of the rod; leave a child to go its own way, and a mother’s care is wasted. Thrive the godless, there will be wrongs a many; but the just will yet see them put down. A son well schooled is rest well earned; great joy thou shalt have of him.”

Proverbs, 29: 15-17 

Good Christian behaviour finds its source in the Wisdom literature of the Hebrews. Hence, in this book will have been found prudential decisions on a variety of human behaviours, from the basics of Christian charity (19: 17) to the use of wine and strong drink (20: 1 and 23: 31), to the cultivation of a good reputation (22: 1). Compare Proverbs 13: 7 (some are rich that have nothing) to Christ’s parable of the rich man with a barn full of good things, who will the next day be called from this life; while Proverbs 14:7 presents the human reality that wealth never lacks friends. And compare Proverbs 24: 1 (not for thee to emulate wrong-doers) to Christ’s command that we turn the other cheek. And compare Proverbs 25: 21-22 (hungers thy enemy? here is thy chance; feed him) with Christ’s famous command that we love even our enemies. Wisdom literature was ready fodder for the rabbinic movement of the late Jewish period in the practical application of the Torah, a tradition in which Christ Himself stood as Teacher of the Law. And, of course, the Will of God and His favour trumps every attempt by human beings at obtaining prudent counsel:

“Wisdom is none, prudence is none, counsel is none that can be matched against the Lord’s Will; well armed thy horse may be on the eve of battle, but the Lord sends victory.”

Proverbs, 21: 30-31
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onward to Ecclesiastes →

Reading through the Book of Job

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Now, however, let’s get through the excellent book of Job, so useful to those of us who suffer greatly and without remedy, and find it difficult to understand why the good God doesn’t arrive with some relief at the very least, or even complete healing? Doesn’t God wish our happiness at all times? Well, the theme of the book seems to be that suffering and personal calamity can be rather arbitrary, rather than (as the ancient mind was accustomed to think) representing God’s vengeance descending to punish somebody for his or her sins or, indeed, the sins of his or her parents, grandparents, etc. To set up the scene, the book of Job presents the character of Job as specifically Just in the Hebrew sense – one who obeys the Law of God in every respect, and actually goes a step further and attempts to make satisfaction not only for his own personal sins, but for the sins of his children. He strained therefore to keep his family safe spiritually, and always at one with God. And then, when his integrity and his faith were called into question – as lasting only as long as he is prosperous and enjoys divine blessing – God decides to test Job and prove his love. And Job’s first reaction is quite famous; having lost all his possessions and his children, he is patient.

“Then rose up Job, and rent his garments about him; and he shaved his head bare, and fell down to earth to do reverence. ‘Naked I came,’ said he, ‘when I left my mother’s womb, and whence I came, naked I must go. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; nothing is here befallen but what was the Lord’s Will; blessed be the Name of the Lord.‘ In all this, Job guarded his lips well, nor challenged with human folly God’s wisdom.”

Job, 1: 20-22

But this was before Job lost his health and could hardly sit up for pain. Then, in great despair, he still defended God before his own wife:

“Little comfort his own wife gave him; ‘What,’ she said, ‘still maintaining thy innocence? Better thou shouldst renounce God, and have done with living.’ ‘Spoken like a foolish wife,’ Job answered. ‘What, should we accept the good fortune God sends us, and not the ill?‘ So well, even now, did Job guard his lips.”

Job, 2: 9-10

For, you see, of one thing Job was certain – he had committed no sin against the Law of God and did not therefore deserve any punishment. Like his friends, who now visited him – Eliphaz the Themanite, Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite – Job still saw all suffering as retribution from God for sins committed. These friends of his seem determined, therefore, to convict Job of sin or at least to get him to confess that he has sinned. This repeated onslaught, that travels across almost the whole book, finally breaks Job’s patient suffering – feeling forced to defend his innocence, he starts to question the justice of God Himself, in inflicting punishment with no provocation. He ends up attempting to, in the words of the Englishman C. S. Lewis, put God in the dock. Let’s summarise the position of Eliphaz the Themanite:

“‘No more we hear now of that fear of God, that life perfectly lived, which once gave thee confidence, gave thee strength to endure! And, sure enough, ruin never fell yet on the innocent; never yet was an upright soul lost to memory. The men that traffic in wrong-doing, that sow a crop of mischief they themselves must reap at last, these I have seen undone; one breath, one blast of the divine anger withers them quite, and they are gone.”

Job, 4: 6-9

It’s an odd thing to say: that those innocent of wrong-doing have never suffered ruin. Really? Which community was he living in? It does go on and on a bit. Job responds by asking the three to convict him of sin, even in the midst of his wretchedness. If he had been guilty of wrongdoing, Job asks rhetorically, why wouldn’t God simply forgive him, a poor little nothing in the grand scheme of things…? Then Baldad the Suhite jumps in and his position is not unlike that of Eliphaz – Job must be guilty of sin, he must make satisfaction, and God will bless him once more, as before.

“‘Can sentence undeserved come from God, unjust award from the Almighty? What if these children of thine committed some fault, and He allowed justice to take its course? For thyself, thou hast but to keep early tryst with God, make thy plea to His omnipotence. Then, if thou comest before Him innocent and upright, He will give thee audience betimes; He will establish thee in thy possessions again, as one that enjoys His favour. A poor thing thy old prosperity will seem, matched with the abundance He gives thee now.'”

Job, 8: 3-7

And Job retorts that he knows all of that, as one who has ever feared God and worked hard to remain innocent and upright. Job now begins to challenge God’s justice, as applied to his particular case. At this point (chapter nine), he doesn’t feel ready to challenge God’s judgement/condemnation, but he wishes to protest the severity of the sentence; he says that the suffering imposed is far in excess of any sin he may have committed. So, what says Sophar the Naamathite? Well, you know it…

“‘Ready to speak should be ready to listen; glibness will not make an innocent man of thee. Must all keep silence till thou hast done; shall none make answer to thy raillery? Still thou wilt have it that all thy dealings are upright, that thy heart, as God sees it, is pure. Would He but speak one word in thy ear, make thee His confidant! Would He but reveal to thee the secrets of His Wisdom, in its ordered variety! Then wouldst thou learn that the penalty He is exacting of thee is less, far less, than thy sins deserve.'”

Job, 11: 2-6

Well, poor Job. He still knows that he has done nothing that warrants punishment according to the Law of God. At this point now, he again calls God forth to defend either Job, or to defend the infliction of suffering upon Job as a punishment. For how is it that an innocent man must suffer when wicked men live in great comfort?

“‘…a man such as I will still cry upon God, and have Him answer the summons; the simplicity of the upright was ever a laughing-stock, and indeed, it is but a rushlight, despised by shrewd and prosperous folk, but it waits its turn. Meanwhile, see how well the robbers store their houses, braving God’s anger, and yet in all things He lets them have their way! Dost thou doubt it? The very beasts will tell thee, the birds in air will be thy counsellors; the secret is known in every cranny of the earth, the fish in the sea will make it known to thee; none doubts, I tell thee, that all this is the Lord’s doing…'”

Job, 12: 4-9

Yes, indeed, God permits evil and the comforts of wicked men. The Bible often mentions this. The question posed here is whether God can be questioned about this as being a matter of His execution of justice. If God permits injustice to exist, is God Himself unjust? Job wants God to answer for this situation, and to answer personally (chapter thirteen). Now, the three visitors, who had at first tried to convict Job of sin, begin to treat Job’s daring to call God to account for injustice. Job calls them out for tossing words around, and not bothering to share or assist with his grief.

“But Job answered: ‘Old tales and cold comfort; you are all alike. Words are but wind; there is no end to them, and they cost thee nothing. Believe me, I could do as well, were you in my case, talk the language of consolation, and mock you all the while, speak of encouragement; my lips should tremble with a show of pity. But here is grief words cannot assuage, nor silence banish; grief that bows me down till my whole frame is lifeless; these furrowed cheeks are the witness of it. And now a false accuser dares me to my face and baits me!”

Job, 16: 1-9

That false accuser is the one Scripture calls Satan. Job is still protesting his innocence and seems to be annoyed that his friends will not accept his claim. He still wants an answer from God for the injustice of his condition. Chapter nineteen is a wonderfully long Leave me alone to his friends, and yet they persist. Eliphaz would have Job repent and fall in with seemingly unjust punishments for sins Job must acknowledge, even if he is convinced that he is innocent (chapter twenty-two). Their position is given altogether by Baldad in the short:

“Then answered Baldad the Suhite: ‘Ay, but what power, ay, but what terrors He wields, who reigns peacefully, there in high heaven! He, the Lord of countless armies, He, whose light dazzles every eye! And shall man, born of woman, win his suit, prove his innocence, when he is matched with God? Dim shews the moon, tarnished the stars, under His eye; and what is man but waste and worm in his presence?“

Job, 25

So, should we be permitted to question God in the matter of undeserved suffering? We now have Job’s final address, calling upon God to account for his suffering.

“‘As sure as He is a living God, He, the Omnipotent, who so refuses me justice, who makes my lot in life so bitter; while life is in me, while He still grants me breath, never shall these lips justify the wrong, never this tongue utter the lie! Gain your point with me you shall not; I will die sooner than abandon my plea of innocence. That claim, once made, I will not forgo; not one act in all my life bids conscience reproach me. Count him a knave that is my enemy, every detractor of mine a friend of wrong!'”

Job, 27: 2-7

Chapter twenty-eight is a discourse on divine Wisdom, and the joy of acquiring it/her, such as we have already had from the Wisdom of Solomon and parts of Ecclesiasticus. But the most compelling part of this final discourse of Job’s is his self-defence, as he describes his works of mercy in detail (chapter thirty-one). This then is how he ends:

“‘O that my cause might be tried; that He, the Almighty, would grant my request, that He, my judge, would write my record down; how proudly I would bear it with me, shoulder-high, wear it as a crown! I would proclaim it wherever I went, fit for a king’s eyes to read. Can these lands of mine bear testimony against me, can their furrows tell a sad tale of harvests enjoyed, and no price paid for them, of labourers cruelly treated? Then thistles for wheat, thorns for barley may it yield me.“

Job, 31: 35-40

I still don’t think that Job has ever yet committed any act of disrespect toward the God he loves. He remains faithful, in spite of everything. What he does of course is declare that he is innocent (which he is, as per the story), that his reduced condition is an unfair and unjust reward for his life of virtue, and he asks Almighty God to account for this by defending this treatment of Job. Job knows that all things happen because God permits them, so God is ultimately responsible for Job’s state in life, and Job wants to know why he has suffered so much. Daring he is, but has he committed a sin? The suddenly-introduced Eliu the Buzite son of Barachel certainly thinks he has. Appearing out of nowhere in chapter thirty-two, Eliu condemns the three friends of Job as not having treated Job’s arguments well, or his challenge to God. Eliu seems to me to be the voice of the Old Testament when he says that Job cannot expect to match himself against God in any type of court scene.

“‘But there is no substance in thy plea; I tell thee, man cannot be matched with God. What, wouldst thou complain that He does not meet these charges of thine? Know, then, that God warns us once, but does not repeat His warning. Sometimes in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they lie abed, He speaks words of revelation, to teach them the lesson they need. This is one means by which He will turn a man away from his designs, purge him of his pride; and so the grave is disappointed, the sword misses its prey.'”

Job, 33: 12-18

So, all imposed suffering is instructive, to save men from a spiritual death. This was the lesson given us by the writers of the chronicles and by the prophets, especially during and after the exile of the Judaites to Babylon. So, Job, however innocent he may be, must be able to draw instruction from this episode of his life, rather than plead his innocence before God. Again, see this:

“‘Listen to me, then, discerning hearts! From God, the Almighty, far removed is all wickedness, is every thought of wrong; He treats men only as they deserve, giving due reward to each. What, should Almighty God pervert justice by condemning the innocent? Is the care of the wide earth entrusted to some other; is not the Maker of the world Himself the world’s judge? He has but to turn His thought towards men, reclaiming the spirit He once breathed into them, and all life would fail everywhere; mankind would return to its dust.'”

Job, 34: 10-15

Eliu is uncovering here the flaw in Job’s approach – that he is calling God to account – and Eliu calls this blasphemy. The rest of his address is a glorification of Almighty God. But chapter thirty-eight is what we’ve all been waiting for, for God appears in a whirlwind to answer Job’s summons. Job seems to still be in the divine favour, for God calls him out for his daring, but still does show up in all His Majesty. God in a lengthy discourse declares that Job doesn’t have the big picture, because he is not intimately involved in the working of the Creation, as God is. God repeats what Eliu already has – that no mortal man dares match himself with God and survive the ordeal. And Job promptly returns to his humble patience at the beginning of the book:

“All this the Lord said to Job, and added besides, ‘What is this? One that would match himself with God, so easily put down! Nay, God thou didst challenge, God thou must refute.‘ And thus Job made the Lord answer: ‘So vain a pleader, I have no suit to make; finger on lip I will listen. Once and again I have spoken the word I would fain unsay; more I dare not.'”

Job, 39: 31-35

Job’s is finally the triumph, for he is vindicated in his innocence, and by God Himself, as he had requested, when accused of sin by his three friends. He is convicted only of his foolishness in calling God to account, but his humble retraction has made satisfaction. His friends (but not Eliu) are condemned for speaking badly about God, probably about the way divine Justice is administered. The books ends with Job being restored to prosperity in family and possessions. And like other similar books, like Tobit and Judith, he lives happily ever after, to long life.

And that is the book of Job.

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Reading through the Book of Esther

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The book of Esther contains a charming and, to be honest, a little frightening story about a devastating pogrom against the Jewish exiles in Mesopotamia, and throughout the vast Persian empire, probably also including the valiant band of returnees to Juda and Jerusalem, who were in the process of restoring the City and the Temple there. What is charming is the story of the Jewess Esther, Mordecai’s kinswoman (cousin), who finds herself selected to replace the Persian high queen Vasthi, and so able to influence the king himself, at a moment that was crucial for the survival of her people the Jews. Thus did Esther become one of the greatest of the heroines of the Hebrew nation, and the inspiration behind the most colourful of the festivals in the Jewish calendar – Purim – in about February time. What is frightening is the vengeance demanded by even Esther (which is a little surprising even for the Persian king, her husband) against the enemy of the Jewish people, the Macedonian Aman (aka. Haman), and his entire family, following which the Jews take revenge upon their enemies, killing thousands all over the Persian empire. 

Anyway, here are a few clips. The first chapter is about the removal of the old queen Vasthi, who had refused to appear at the order of the king, who wanted to show her off to his visitors. The second chapter introduces Mardochaeus (aka. Mordecai) and his kinswoman Edissa (aka. Esther). She was acquired by the king to replace Vasthi, and he was yet unware that she belonged to the Hebrew nation. Meanwhile, Mardochaeus, as Esther’s protector, hung about outside the gates of the royal palace, where he was able to find out about an insurrection against the king, possibly instigated by Aman himself, who by this time had squirmed his way into being the chief advisor to the king. 

“And it was while Mardochaeus haunted the palace gates that two of the royal chamberlains, Bagathan and Thares, door-keepers both at the palace entry, grew disaffected, and would have made a murderous attack on the king’s person. Mardochaeus came to hear of it, and told queen Esther; she, naming him as her informant, told her husband. The charge was investigated, and found true; the two conspirators were hanged, and the circumstance was put on record, being entered in the king’s own archives.“

Esther, 2: 21-23

Mardochaeus was noted for his loyalty to the king, but nothing more is done in his regard. The third chapter tells of the ascendancy of Aman son of Amadathi, who must have been planning to use this to overthrow the king. The loyal Mardochaeus was something of a spanner in the works and had to be gotten rid of. Aside from his straightforwardness, Mardochaeus also refused to bend knee to anybody but the eternal God. And Aman liked to be genuflected to, apparently. And thus began his attack on all Jews, for refusing to thus give divine worship to earthly powers.

“Aman, when he heard their story, and proved the truth of it for himself, that Mardochaeus would neither bow nor bend, fell into a great passion of rage; and, hearing that he was a Jew, he would not be content with laying hands on Mardochaeus only; the whole race, throughout all Assuerus’ dominions, should be brought to ruin for it. It was in the twelfth year of the reign, in Nisan, the first month of it, that the lot (which the Hebrews call Pur) was cast into the urn in Aman’s presence, to determine the day and month when he would make an end of the Jews; and the month chosen was the twelfth month, Adar.”

Esther, 3: 5-7

And here we seen the origins of the festival of Purim, for Aman had decided by pur (lot, plural purim) when the Jews would be exterminated. And, using his high position, he managed to get the royal seal on his genocidal warrant. In chapter four, Esther discovers that imminent disaster threatens her people and Mardochaeus warns her that she even would not be exempt from the measures to be taken. Meanwhile nobody could see the king without being invited by him. Esther now mustered all her courage for a surprise visit, which would mean almost certain death for her. Fortunately, she had uncommon charm.

“The third day came, and Esther put on her royal robes; and, so clad, made her appearance before the king’s palace, within the royal (that is, the inner) court. There sat the king on his throne, in the palace council chamber, facing the main door; he saw Esther, his queen, standing there without, and the sight of her won his heart. Out went the golden sceptre he bore, and as she drew near to kiss the tip of it, ‘Why, Esther,’ said he, ‘what is thy errand? Ask me for half my kingdom, and it is thine.’ ‘My lord king,’ she answered, ‘do me the honour of dining with me to-day; I have a feast prepared; and bring Aman with thee.’ The king, without more ado, had Aman summoned to wait, there and then, on Esther’s pleasure; and both of them went to the feast she had prepared.”

Esther, 5: 1-5

At this point, Esther was probably bent already upon the destruction of Aman, but she had to be very careful indeed, for he was high in the estimation of the king. And she knew her own place. She had evidently planned to draw both the king and Aman into a position of comfort before making her plea for the Jews. It was at the second feast she had arranged for the two that she dropped the bombshell. But, in his false sense of security, Aman prepared to harass the man he hated, the man who could spoil his plans:

“‘More,’ [Aman] said; ‘it was but this day queen Esther gave the king a banquet, and would have me and none other for his fellow-guest; to-morrow I must dine with her again, with the king present.’ ‘All this is mine,’ he said, ‘and all this is nothing to me, while I yet see Mardochaeus sitting there at the palace gate.’ But they had a remedy for this, his wife Zares and those friends of his. ‘Have a gallows made, fifty cubits high, so that tomorrow thou canst bid the king have Mardochaeus hanged on it. Then thou mayst go light-hearted enough, to feast with the king.’ This counsel Aman liked well, and he gave his men orders to have a high gallows in readiness.”

Esther, 5: 12-14

Unfortunately for him, that very night, by some divine power, the king was reminded of Mardochaeus’ spirit of loyalty to him and he realised that the man had not been rewarded for it. In a wonderful display of Old Testament humour, Aman, as the second in command, was given the task of rewarding the man that he had shortly before been planning to have hung. Still humiliated by this, he was carried off to Esther’s second feast, where he met his doom.

“The king rose angrily from his place, left the banqueting-room, and went out to walk in the garden, among his trees. With that, Aman rose too, intent on winning his pardon from queen Esther; doubt he might not that the king was bent on his undoing. Thus minded, he fell sprawling across the couch on which Esther lay; and so the king found him, when he returned from garden to banqueting-room. ‘What,’ cried he, ‘will he ravish the queen before my eyes, and in my own house?’ And before the words were out of his mouth Aman was gagged and blindfold. And now Harbona, one of the chamberlains in attendance on the king’s person, came forward; ‘What of the gallows,’ said he, ‘fifty cubits high, that stands there by Aman’s house, ready for Mardochaeus, that saved the king’s life?’ ‘Let Aman himself hang on it,’ said the king. So Aman was hanged on the gallows he had raised for Mardochaeus; and with that, the king’s angry mood was appeased.”

Esther, 7: 7-10

Unfortunately, the measures set in place by Aman could not be rescinded by the king. Rather, because of the laws of the Persian people, they had to be remedied. Instead of calling off the attack on the Jews, the king empowered them to defend themselves against their attackers (chapter eight). The date set by Aman, arranged by lot, now arrived: the thirteenth day of Adar (last month of the Hebrew year). The Jews, now armed for battle, for two days put the fear of God into their enemies. Meanwhile, Mardochaeus, newly honoured by the king for his forgotten loyalty, established the feast of Purim.

“So Mardochaeus wrote to all the king’s Jewish subjects, near and far, setting all this out and bidding them observe both the fourteenth and the fifteenth, year by year, as the days of Jewry’s vengeance, when weeping and lament gave place to mirth and gladness. There was to be feasting on both days, and on both days rejoicing; dainties should be exchanged, and gifts made to the poor. So the will they then had and the orders Mardochaeus sent became a yearly rite; to recall how Amadathi’s son, Aman the Agagite, thought to vent his enmity against the Jews by murderously destroying them, and how he consulted Pur, the lot; how Esther sought audience with the king, praying for a royal decree that should thwart his design, and make his malice fall on his own head; and how Aman and his sons went to the gallows. This feast has ever been known as the feast of Purim, because of Aman’s lot-taking.”

Esther, 9: 20-26

And that is the story of Esther. The rest of the book, in my Knox translation, contains fragmentary texts that have been collected from various versions of the book of Esther. The Greek version of the Septuagint, which comes from a different Hebrew tradition than the versions known to the Jews, contains more material, which has been passed on to us through the Latin translations. Thus, chapter ten tells of a dream Mardochaeus had early on, which foretold the success of Esther. Chapter thirteen reproduces an edict of the king that condemned the Jews and the prayer of Mardochaeus on behalf of his people. Chapter fourteen contains Esther’s own prayer for her people, which sounds very much like sections of Baruch. The final chapter is the king’s edict cancelling the attack on the Jews and restoring their freedom to them.

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Reading through the second letter of S. Peter

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It’s the feast day of the Transfiguration! So, let’s get through the second letter of the Apostle Saint Peter, sent much later in his ministry as bishop of Rome, for he hints at his upcoming death. The Apostle here demonstrates a high theology of grace, the benefit on the Church of her embracing the God-Man, whose humanity is the channel for all of us of the immense bounty of God’s grace, which manifests in us a life of virtue:

“See how all the gifts that make for life and holiness in us belong to His divine power; come to us through fuller knowledge of Him, whose own glory and sovereignty have drawn us to Himself! Through Him God has bestowed on us high and treasured promises; you are to share the divine nature, with the world’s corruption, the world’s passions, left behind. And you too have to contribute every effort on your own part, crowning your faith with virtue, and virtue with enlightenment, and enlightenment with continence, and continence with endurance, and endurance with holiness, and holiness with brotherly love, and brotherly love with charity.”

II Peter, 1: 3-7

The graces we receive and the virtues they produce in turn enable us to grow in our knowledge of Christ and of God. The first part of the letter is therefore a rousing call to the life of virtue. Very touching here, as the Apostle speaks of his life now coming to an end, is his memory of the glory of Christ, that he and the two sons of Zebedee had witnessed on the mountain at the Transfiguration. This is the voice of the Apostles as witnesses, when they tell us what they saw and heard and that we cannot see and hear ourselves.

“We were not crediting fables of man’s invention, when we preached to you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about His coming; we had been eye-witnesses of His exaltation. Such honour, such glory was bestowed on Him by God the Father, that a voice came to Him out of the splendour which dazzles human eyes; ‘This,’ it said, ‘is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; to Him, then, listen.’ We, His companions on the holy mountain, heard that voice coming from heaven, and now the word of the prophets gives us more confidence than ever. It is with good reason that you are paying so much attention to that word; it will go on shining, like a lamp in some darkened room, until the dawn breaks, and the day-star rises in your hearts.”

II Peter, 1: 16-19

Yes, indeed, the Apostolic account of the Transfiguration is one of the most memorable accounts in the Gospels. Following this claim of true Apostolic witness, the Apostle reminds us that there exists false witness as well, men who claim to know more about Christ than His own Apostles. We’re all too familiar with people today who claim to know better than Holy Church what Christ would think about this, that and the other. Thus, the Apostle says:

“So, among you, there will be false teachers, covertly introducing pernicious ways of thought, and denying the Master who redeemed them, to their own speedy undoing. Many will embrace their wanton creeds, and bring the way of truth into disrepute, trading on your credulity with lying stories for their own ends. Long since, the warrant for their doom is in full vigour; destruction is on the watch for them. God did not spare the angels who fell into sin; he thrust them down to hell, chained them there in the abyss, to await their sentence in torment.”

II Peter, 2: 1-4

God allows even His angels to rebel against Him and their punishment is instantaneous. What then of the men who dare the same type of rebellion? Or try to justify sinful lifestyles, while sneering at the teaching of the Church, which they do not understand.

“Such men, like dumb creatures that are born to be trapped and destroyed, sneer at what they cannot understand, and will soon perish in their own corruption; they will have the reward their wickedness has deserved. To live in luxury while the day lasts is all their pleasure; what a stain they are, what a disfigurement, when they revel in the luxury of their own banquets, as they fare sumptuously at your side! Their eyes feast on adultery, insatiable of sin; and they know how to win wavering souls to their purpose, so skilled is all their accursed brood at gaining its own ends.“

II Peter, 2: 12-14

The Apostle is speaking here not generally about worldly men, but particularly about Christians who, having been baptised, have fallen back upon their old lives. Here’s some language that we would be less likely than Saint Peter to use of Catholics who have fallen away from the Faith:

“That they should have been rescued, by acknowledging our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, from the world’s pollution, and then been entangled and overpowered by it a second time, means that their last state is worse than the first. Better for them, never to have found their way to justification, than to have found it, and then turned their backs on the holy law once handed down to them. What has happened to them proves the truth of the proverb, The dog is back at his own vomit again. Wash the sow, and you find her wallowing in the mire.”

II Peter, 2: 20-22

The use of the words ‘their last sate is worse than the first’ takes us back to the horrifying picture Christ Himself in the gospels drew of the exorcised soul that was re-inhabited by the devil that had once possessed it, but this time he has brought some of his fellows.

“‘The unclean spirit, which has possessed a man and then goes out of him, walks about the desert looking for a resting-place, and finds none; and it says, I will go back to my own dwelling, from which I came out. And it comes back, to find that dwelling empty, and swept out, and neatly set in order. Thereupon, it goes away, and brings in seven other spirits more wicked than itself to bear it company, and together they enter in and settle down there; so that the last state of that man is worse than the first.‘”

Gospel of S. Matthew, 12: 43-45

At the end, the Apostle deals with the accusation that the Church does not know the exact moment of the return of Christ, and the associated mockery. He states that time means nothing to God, and suggests perhaps that the question of when and how should not concern us as much as should the certainty of the arrival of that dreadful Day of the Lord and the perfection that we should struggle to acquire in the waiting.

“But one thing, beloved, you must keep in mind, that with the Lord a day counts as a thousand years, and a thousand years count as a day. The Lord is not being dilatory over His promise, as some think; He is only giving you more time, because His will is that all of you should attain repentance, not that some should be lost. But the day of the Lord is coming, and when it comes, it will be upon you like a thief. The heavens will vanish in a whirlwind, the elements will be scorched up and dissolve, earth, and all earth’s achievements, will burn away. All so transitory; and what men you ought to be! How unworldly in your life, how reverent towards God, as you wait, and wait eagerly, for the day of the Lord to come, for the heavens to shrivel up in fire, and the elements to melt in its heat!“

II Peter, 3: 8-12

And that is a good point to end. The letter is a call to virtue and to adherence to the Church, and so to work towards acquiring the promises made to her by Christ.

May the holy Apostle S. Peter pray for us.

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Reading through the Gospel of S. John

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This Gospel is my favourite of the four, if I am allowed to pick a favourite. It is unlike the others because its very construction is unique. It provides a more personal description of Christ, which is appropriate, for it was written by the Apostle who called himself the Beloved Disciple (of Christ). He undoubtedly enjoyed a special relationship with the God-man, and we know from the Old Testament that God does indeed have favourites. If Saint John had enjoyed a special closeness to Christ, he would have had a deeper insight into the mysteries of the Faith. And there’s certainly evidence of that in the Gospel and in the first letter of Saint John also. But let’s jump into the Gospel…

Traditionally, Saint John wrote his gospel long after the others had, and he intended his effort to be supplemental to the other gospels. This is why he adds much new material, even eye-witness testimony from one who was there and witnessed everything. Additionally, Saint John was already reacting, at the end of the first century, to Christian heresies about the natural of the Person of Christ made by such people as Cerinthus and the Ebionites, who were very strong in the region of Ephesus, where John was, and who denied the divinity of Christ and the virgin birth. We see hints of this gnostic challenge to the Church in the first letter of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy, and John (being an eyewitness to and intimate with Christ) was the perfect person to refute the heretics; from him we get the wonderful hymn at the top of his Gospel:

“At the beginning of time the Word already was; and God had the Word abiding with Him, and the Word was God. He abode, at the beginning of time, with God. It was through Him that all things came into being, and without Him came nothing that has come to be. In Him there was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, a darkness which was not able to master it. A man appeared, sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, so that through him all men might learn to believe. He was not the Light; he was sent to bear witness to the light.

There is One who enlightens every soul born into the world; He was the true Light. He, through whom the world was made, was in the world, and the world treated Him as a stranger. He came to what was His own, and they who were His own gave Him no welcome. But all those who did welcome Him, He empowered to become the children of God, all those who believe in His Name; their birth came, not from human stock, not from nature’s will or man’s, but from God.

And the Word was made flesh, and came to dwell among us; and we had sight of His glory, glory such as belongs to the Father’s only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth.”

Gospel of S. John, 1: 1-14

‘We had sight of His glory…‘ There is that sentiment of providing eye-witness testimony throughout this Gospel, and rightly so. At the very end of the Gospel, John signs it off, saying, ‘It is the same disciple that bears witness of all this and has written the story of it; and we know well that his witness is truthful.’ (Gospel of S. John, 21:24) The rest of this post contains some of the unique elements of Saint John’s Gospel, which give a better picture of Christ than the other Gospels. But, before that, John describes Saint John the Baptist as something of a mystic: not only did he see the vision of the Holy Spirit coming down upon Christ at His baptism, but he had been told by God Himself that he would see that vision and so be able to identify Christ.

“Next day, John saw Jesus coming towards him; and he said, ‘Look, this is the Lamb of God; look, this is He Who takes away the sin of the world. It is of Him that I said, One is coming after me who takes rank before me; He was when I was not. I myself did not know who he was, although the very reason why I have come, with my baptism of water, is to make him known to Israel.’ John also bore witness thus, ‘I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and resting upon him. Till then, I did not know him; but then I remembered what I had been told by the God who sent me to baptize with water. He told me, ‘The man who will baptize with the Holy Spirit is the man on whom thou wilt see the Spirit come down and rest.’ Now I have seen Him, and have borne my witness that this is the Son of God.'”

Gospel of S. John, 1: 29-34

That is not made as clear by the other Gospels. John the Evangelist certainly got the story from Saint Andrew, who was originally a disciple of John the Baptist, and is a part of this narrative in the first chapter. In chapter two, John also tells us of the story of the Wedding at Cana – one of the great epiphanies of Christ – which is followed almost immediately by the expulsion of the businessmen in the Temple and the great prediction that would reappear in Christ’s trial for blasphemy much later on: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.’ The next few chapters speak of the growing number of Christ’s disciples, and also the increasing difficulty the Jewish people had with Christian doctrine. In chapter three, Christ has a dialogue with the Pharisee Saint Nicodemus about baptism and about the true mission of the Messiah: 

“The Father loves His Son, and so has given everything into His hands; and he who believes in the Son possesses eternal life, whereas he who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life; God’s displeasure hangs over him continually.“

Gospel of S. John, 3: 35-36

This is the original description of the Christian doctrine of salvation, which is often mentioned by Saint Paul in his letters – that the figure of the Messiah is central to the whole concept of being saved. With the other Gospels, it could be claimed that Christ never directly claims to be the Messiah. Not with Saint John, though, for in the next chapter, about the conversion of a whole community of Samaritans, He makes a complete disclosure.

“‘Believe me, woman,’ Jesus said to her, ‘the time is coming when you will not go to this mountain, nor yet to Jerusalem, to worship the Father. You worship you cannot tell what, we worship knowing what it is we worship; salvation, after all, is to come from the Jews; but the time is coming, nay, has already come, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; such men as these the Father claims for His worshippers. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ ‘Yes,’ said the woman, ‘I know that Messias (that is, the Christ) is to come; and when he comes, he will tell us everything.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I, who speak to thee, am the Christ.’“

Gospel of S. John, 4: 21-26

It becomes even more clear in the next chapter, when a cripple is healed on the Sabbath, when Jews are forbidden to work, and Christ has a chance to defend His work of mercy:

“And Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has never ceased working, and I too must be at work.’ This made the Jews more determined than ever to make away with Him, that He not only broke the sabbath, but spoke of God as His own Father, thereby treating Himself as equal to God. And Jesus answered them thus: ‘Believe me when I tell you this, The Son cannot do anything at His own pleasure, He can only do what He sees His Father doing; what the Father does is what the Son does in His turn. The Father loves the Son, and discloses to Him all that He Himself does. And He has greater doings yet to disclose to Him, for your astonishment; just as the Father bids the dead rise up and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomsoever He will. So it is with judgement; the Father, instead of passing judgement on any man Himself, has left all judgement to the Son, so that all may reverence the Son just as they reverence the Father; to deny reverence to the Son is to deny reverence to the Father Who has sent Him. Believe me when I tell you this, the man who listens to My words, and puts his trust in Him who sent Me, enjoys eternal life; he does not meet with rejection, he has passed over already from death to life.”

Gospel of S. John, 5: 17-24

So they understood well, and very early, that He was making the blasphemous claim to be God Himself, the Holy One in their midst. And He predicts the raising of Saint Lazarus, which would so terrify them later on. Chapter six, following, begins the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, as still taught by the Church, prefacing it with the miracle of the feeding of the multitude. Even then there were protestors (good Jews, undoubtedly) against the doctrine, and He let them go their way. It’s worth repeating the whole thing in full:

“But Jesus told them, ‘It is I who am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will never be hungry, he who has faith in Me will never know thirst. (But you, as I have told you, though you have seen me, do not believe in me.) All that the Father has entrusted to Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me I will never cast out. It is the will of Him who sent Me, not My own will, that I have come down from heaven to do; and He who sent Me would have Me keep without loss, and raise up at the last day, all He has entrusted to Me. Yes, this is the will of Him who sent Me, that all those who believe in the Son when they see Him should enjoy eternal life; I am to raise them up at the last day.’ The Jews were by now complaining of His saying, I am myself the bread which has come down from heaven. ‘Is not this Jesus,’ they said, ‘the son of Joseph, whose father and mother are well known to us? What does he mean by saying, I have come down from heaven?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not whisper thus to one another. Nobody can come to Me without being attracted towards Me by the Father who sent Me, so that I can raise him up at the last day. It is written in the book of the prophets, And they shall all have the Lord for their teacher; everyone who listens to the Father and learns, comes to Me. (Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him Who comes from God; He alone has seen the Father.) Believe me when I tell you this; the man who has faith in me enjoys eternal life. It is I who am the bread of life. Your fathers, who ate manna in the desert, died none the less; the bread which comes down from heaven is such that he who eats of it never dies. I Myself am the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live for ever. And now, what is this bread which I am to give? It is My flesh, given for the life of the world. Then the Jews fell to disputing with one another, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ Whereupon Jesus said to them, ‘Believe me when I tell you this; you can have no life in yourselves, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. The man who eats My flesh and drinks My blood enjoys eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is real food, My blood is real drink. He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, lives continually in Me, and I in him. As I live because of the Father, the living Father who has sent Me, so he who eats Me will live, in his turn, because of Me. Such is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not as it was with your fathers, who ate manna and died none the less; the man who eats this bread will live eternally.’ He said all this while He was teaching in the synagogue, at Capharnaum. And there were many of His disciples who said, when they heard it, ‘This is strange talk, who can be expected to listen to it?’ But Jesus, inwardly aware that His disciples were complaining over it, said to them, ‘Does this try your faith? What will you make of it, if you see the Son of Man ascending to the place where He was before? Only the spirit gives life; the flesh is of no avail; and the words I have been speaking to you are spirit, and life. But there are some, even among you, who do not believe.’ Jesus knew from the first which were those who did not believe, and which of them was to betray Him. And he went on to say, ‘That is what I meant when I told you that nobody can come to Me unless he has received the gift from My Father. After this, many of His disciples went back to their old ways, and walked no more in His company.“

Gospel of S. John, 6: 35-67

Talk about repetition! How many times did He repeat that the Bread is He, that He is the Bread? Five times? It was that hard, and it’s just as hard today, and has caused hopeless division in the Church in modern times. John seems to suggest that even the Apostle Judas did not believe it here, and it may be wondered if he ever did. The chapter ends with a very sad Jesus asking the Apostles if they wanted to leave, too. All of them must have been shaken by the sermon, too, but as at Caesarea Philippi, it is the impetuous Saint Peter who made profession and declared that there was nowhere else to go. From chapter seven, and it is probable that it was since he had chased the businessmen out of the Temple (and so questioned the authority of the Sadducees in Jerusalem), there clearly emerges that there was a plot against His life. The people themselves were afraid to make allegiance to Him, because of the probable retribution they would face from the religious authorities, who could (at least) maliciously banish them from the synagogues (Gospel of S. John, 9:22) and perhaps even from the Temple – Saint John calls this motive a fear of the Jews. The further dialogues with the Pharisees strengthen the case for blasphemy, as Christ now claims to be far older even than the patriarch Abraham.

“And the Jews said to Him, ‘Now we are certain that thou art possessed. What of Abraham and the prophets? They are dead; and thou sayest that a man will never taste death to all eternity, if he is true to thy word. Art thou greater than our father Abraham? He is dead, and the prophets are dead. What dost thou claim to be?’ ‘If I should speak in My own honour,’ Jesus answered, ‘such honour goes for nothing. Honour must come to Me from My Father, from Him Whom you claim as your God; although you cannot recognize Him. But I have knowledge of Him; if I should say I have not, I should be what you are, a liar. Yes, I have knowledge of Him, and I am true to His word. As for your father Abraham, his heart was proud to see the day of My coming; he saw, and rejoiced to see it.’ Then the Jews asked Him, ‘Hast thou seen Abraham, thou, who art not yet fifty years old?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Believe Me, before ever Abraham came to be, I AM.“

Gospel of John, 8: 52-58

And the miracles did continue on, all this time. Chapter nine is a long, long retelling of a old story of the man born blind, who recovered his sight marvellously, and was probably one of the earliest Christians, able to tell his story to such people who would record it – like Saint John, here. And once more, Christ reveals His identity to this poor man, now banished from the synagogue. Where could he go now, to fulfil his religious duties?

“And they cast him out from their presence. When Jesus heard that they had so cast him out, He went to find him, and asked him, ‘Dost thou believe in the Son of God?’ ‘Tell me who He is, Lord,’ he answered,’ so that I can believe in Him.’ ‘He is One Whom thou hast seen,’ Jesus told him. ‘It is He Who is speaking to thee.’ Then he said, ‘I do believe, Lord, and fell down to worship Him.’ Hereupon Jesus said, ‘I have come into this world so that a sentence may fall upon it, that those who are blind should see, and those who see should become blind.’“

Gospel of S. John, 9: 34-41

In chapter ten, Christ calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and reinforces the blasphemy claim again by declaring that He and the Father are one, and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him. And this after they asked Him to state clearly that He was the Christ. Pathetically, they kept picking up stones to stone Him for blasphemy, and each time He slipped away. It didn’t help their desire to kill Him that He now raised Lazarus to life, and the spectacular nature of the miracle, which took place on the fourth day after the man died, caused even more conversions to the Christian movement and confounded the attempts of the religious authorities to side-line Christ (Gospel of S. John, 12: 17-19). Everything was now building up towards the formal charge and the trial. Now the Sadducees, the Temple priests themselves, plotted his execution.

“So the chief priests and Pharisees summoned a council; ‘What are we about?’ they said. ‘This man is performing many miracles, and if we leave him to his own devices, he will find credit everywhere. Then the Romans will come, and make an end of our city and our race.’ And one of them, Caiphas, who held the high priesthood in that year, said to them, ‘You have no perception at all; you do not reflect that it is best for us if one man is put to death for the sake of the people, to save a whole nation from destruction.’ It was not of his own impulse that he said this; holding the high priesthood as he did in that year, he was able to prophesy that Jesus was to die for the sake of the nation; and not only for that nation’s sake, but so as to bring together into one all God’s children, scattered far and wide. From that day forward, then, they plotted his death…”

Gospel of S. John, 11: 47-53

Christ now entered into Jerusalem, and began to teach openly in the Temple, and a thunderous Voice from the sky declares for Him. Thereupon, He declares the prophesied and long-awaited prophetic Day of the Lord:

“‘And now My soul is distressed. What am I to say? I will say, Father, save me from undergoing this hour of trial; and yet, I have only reached this hour of trial that I might undergo it. Father, make Thy name known.’ And at this, a Voice came from heaven, ‘I have made it known, and will yet make it known.’ Thereupon the multitude which stood listening declared that it had thundered; but some of them said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘It was for your sake, not for Mine, that this utterance was made. Sentence is now being passed on this world; now is the time when the prince of this world is to be cast out. Yes, if only I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract all men to Myself.'”

Gospel of S. John, 12: 27-32

For several chapters now, John focuses on the Last Supper, which stretches from chapter thirteen, to beyond chapter seventeen, and includes the office of humility called the Washing of the Feet and the desertion of Judas (chapter 13), the identification and the ministry of the Holy Spirit (chapter 14), the command of love within the Church (‘love one another as I have loved you‘) that Saint John never ceased to preach until his death (chapter 15), the final farewell (chapter 16), and what I consider to be part of the ordination prayer of Christ the High-priest for the first priests of the Church (chapter 17). The narrative of the dreadful torture and death are quickly covered in chapters eighteen and nineteen, with another autobiographical and personal signature from the Apostle S. John:

“And so the soldiers came and broke the legs both of the one and of the other that were crucified with Him; but when they came to Jesus, and found Him already dead, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers opened His side with a spear; and immediately blood and water flowed out. He who saw it has borne his witness; and his witness is worthy of trust. He tells what he knows to be the truth, that you, like him, may learn to believe. This was so ordained to fulfil what is written, ‘You shall not break a single bone of His.’ And again, another passage in scripture says, ‘They will look upon the Man whom they have pierced.”

Gospel of S. John, 19: 32-37

We learn to believe through the eye-witness testimony of the Apostles and others, ordinary and practical men who saw extraordinary things that they could find not credit properly. This same phrase reappears when John arrives at the Tomb with Peter, to find the clothes that had covered the body, and probably the marks that had been left behind. Now, think of the Turin shroud.

“Upon this, Peter and the other disciple [whom Jesus loved] both set out, and made their way to the Tomb; they began running side by side, but the other disciple outran Peter, and reached the tomb first. He looked in and saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Simon Peter, coming up after him, went into the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there, and also the veil which had been put over Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths, but still wrapped round and round in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and saw this, and learned to believe.”

Gospel of S. John, 20: 3-8

Peter’s dignity as first of the Apostles required that he enter the tomb first, but it is evidently John who believed in the resurrection before Peter. Saint Mary Magdalene and the Apostle Saint Thomas became the centre of the resurrection narrative because of testimonies such as John gives in this chapter twenty of his Gospel, she for her extraordinary love and grief, rewarded with the first appearance of the risen Christ, he for his initial and rather scientific disbelief, rewarded with a blessing to bestow upon Christians of later ages:

“Thomas answered, ‘Thou art my Lord and my God.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Thou hast learned to believe, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have learned to believe.'”

Gospel of S. John, 20: 28-29

This chapter (and indeed all of this Gospel) is then about learning the believe, and this last line is the reason for John writing his Gospel at all – that those who have not seen may yet learn to believe. The final chapter is a rather surreal return to the Sea of Galilee and the story of another miraculous catch of fish, with a connection to the Eucharist (Christ brought the bread once more, as in chapter 6, and miraculously provided the fish), and then the triple requirement of Saint Peter to declare his love for Christ, Whom he had thrice denied to his shame during the Passion. And there I shall conclude this supremely long post, with portions of my favourite Gospel. And here’s a nice picture of the Beloved Disciple reclining upon the breast of his Master. 

“Jesus had one disciple, whom He loved, who was now sitting with his head against Jesus’ breast…“

Gospel of S. John, 13: 23
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Hand to the plough, but looking back… (Sunday XVIII of Ordered time)

Let’s identify in our readings this weekend not only the miraculous provision of food for the elect people of God, but also the preparation that was required for them to receive it. This was not an easy story at all, miracle or not, and it still isn’t an easy lesson to learn. Let me make the comparison I usually make with the Israelites emerging from Egypt. The usual picture we get from this procession into the desert under the guidance of Moses and Aaron is that the people were free – free!! – from slavery. But… were they really free? The comparison is this: when we Christians, especially as adult converts, prepare for baptism or reception into full communion by rejecting the world and the devil and all their empty promises, etc., we are in a very real way coming out of Egypt. The comparison is made in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

And what is the great temptation of the first few months and years after baptism or reception, or indeed throughout our lives as Christians? You see it in the first reading this weekend; the temptation is to go back to our vomit, to return to the physical comforts of Egypt, unable to deal with the stringency of the rule of God in the community of the Church. Those of us old enough to remember will know that Catholic life was even more demanding before the 1960s. The more demanding the Church is, the more tempting it is to return to the world. ‘Why can we not return to Egypt, instead of suffering with God in the desert? Why can we not rely on the provision of human society, instead of placing our trust on a divine providence that may never come.’ But will it come? This is a matter of faith, and it is the strength of that faith that draws forth a miracle. But even the miracle is a test.

“It was now the fifteenth day of the second month since they had left Egypt, and the Israelites, one and all, there in the desert, were loud in their complaints against Moses and Aaron. ‘It would have been better,’ they told them, ‘if the Lord had struck us dead in the land of Egypt, where we sat down to bowls of meat, and had more bread than we needed to content us. Was it well done to bring us out into this desert, and starve our whole company to death?’ But the Lord said to Moses, ‘I mean to rain down bread upon you from heaven. It will be for the people to go out and gather enough for their needs day by day; and so I shall have a test, whether they are ready to follow my orders or not.'”

Book of Exodus 16: 1-4 [link]

In this first reading from Exodus, the people who don’t yet know the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must be taught faith, and they’re not learning the lesson very well. If you read through the Exodus narrative, they keep on grumbling against God, against Moses, against Aaron, against their apparently foolish mistake in leaving Egypt behind. In this state of trembling between belief and unbelief, God arrives with a sigh and the bread falls from heaven. Filled up again, will they now seek to follow His direction for them? We see a continuation of this story in the gospel reading, where the same God is now standing as a man in the place of Moses, and He has a mind to further the teaching of Moses.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Believe Me, if you are looking for Me now, it is not because of the miracles you have seen; it is because you were fed with the loaves, and had your fill. You should not work to earn food which perishes in the using. Work to earn food which affords, continually, eternal life, such food as the Son of Man will give you; God, the Father, has authorised Him.’ ‘What shall we do, then,’ they asked Him, ‘so as to work in God’s service?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the service God asks of you, to believe in the Man whom He has sent.’ So they said to Him, ‘Why then, what miracle canst Thou do? We must see it before we trust Thee; what canst Thou effect? Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as the scripture says, He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Believe Me when I tell you this; the bread that comes from heaven is not what Moses gave you. The real bread from heaven is given only by My Father. God’s gift of bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the whole world.’ ‘Then, Lord,’ they said, ‘give us this bread all the while.’ But Jesus told them, ‘It is I Who am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will never be hungry, he who has faith in Me will never know thirst.”

Gospel of S. John, 6: 26-35 [link]

At the beginning of this chapter six of the gospel of S. John, five thousand hungry men were fed with a few loaves and fishes, not unlike when the bread fell from heaven for Moses and his people. Like the Israelites of old, the Jews of the gospel have their minds fixed on the needs of this world – bread and fish, and water. He Who had earlier told them to seek first the Kingdom of God and righteousness, and everything else will arrive in due course – He Who had said this now asks them to look beyond the physical needs of their bodies to their spiritual good – to the food that comes from heaven that feeds not their bodies but their souls.

But they cannot see that far. ‘Moses gave us the bread from heaven,’ they say, ‘what can you do?,’ forgetting in a way that He had just fed at least five thousand of them with practically nothing. And He says to them, What you need is Me! The Gospel of S. John says this over and over again. God Incarnate says to pharisees and scribes and herodians and Romans, What you need is Me! Obey my commandments, show that you love me, here I am, I am yours, take life which is yours to be had… This chapter six of the Gospel of S. John, is the invitation to Holy Communion. I AM the real food, God says, the true bread, and you who eat of me will live eternally, for the life of God flows through me, and you shall have that life.

And S. Paul will tell us in our second reading what the result of Holy Communion should be: we cannot return to Egypt, to live the type of aimless life of the unbelievers, we must give up the old way of life, set aside the old self which is so easily corrupted especially with bodily impurity, we must be constant renewed and reconverted to God, walking boldly into the desert, for He will not let us die there.

“This, then, is my message to you; I call upon you in the Lord’s name not to live like the Gentiles, who make vain fancies their rule of life. Their minds are clouded with darkness; the hardness of their hearts breeds in them an ignorance, which estranges them from the divine life; and so, in despair, they have given themselves up to incontinence, to selfish habits of impurity. This is not the lesson you have learned in making Christ your study, if you have really listened to Him. If true knowledge is to be found in Jesus, you will have learned in His school that you must be quit, now, of the old self whose way of life you remember, the self that wasted its aim on false dreams. There must be a renewal in the inner life of your minds; you must be clothed in the new self, which is created in God’s image, justified and sanctified through the truth.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Ephesians: 4: 17-24 [link]

Reading through the Book of the Judges

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onward to Ruth →

An immediate problem faced by readers of the book of Judges is that, despite its traditional position after Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers, the people in the book of Judges do not seem to have moral guidance. And some of the stories contained in this narrative are horrendous, the atrocities they contain are astonishing. It could be that the Mosaic religion being still in a formative stage had not quite built the system of instruction it would later have, or indeed generated the charismatic figures of prophets and kings. Even the sacred author, writing probably at a much later time, apologises in many places for the evils described by saying several times that:

“This was in the days before any king ruled in Israel, when men lived by the best light they had.”

Judges, 21: 24

Obviously coming from a different tradition, and one that sought to glorify the Israelite hero Iosue/Joshua, the book of Joshua had made very quick work of the settlement of the Holy Land, accomplished in Joshua’s own life-time and divided out among the tribes by himself and the high-priest Eleazar. But now, in the book of Judges, we are given a rather different sequence of events. Many of those great bloodbaths of Joshua have not quite occurred and the tribes are often portrayed as either not able to take over the lands that have been assigned to them or are living in some type of peaceful coexistence with the inhabitants of the land. Anyhow, the land is taken, but much more slowly than in the book of Joshua. The Canaanite residents in the book of Judges are truly a force to reckon with, and in the places where coexistence became necessary, this is noted in a negative manner by the author of the book of Judges and portrayed as a sort-of ongoing temptation and test by God of the Israelites’ fidelity to Him.

“And now the Lord’s angel removed from Galgal to the place that is called Lamentation. And his message was, ‘I have taken you away from Egypt, and brought you to this land in fulfilment of the promise I made to your fathers, an oath irrevocable. But you, too, had your part to play; you were to make no terms with the men who dwelt in it, you were to overthrow every altar of theirs. How is it that you have disobeyed My command? With good reason I have spared them utter destruction, so that there may be enemies at your side, and gods of the enemy, ready to compass your downfall.’ And all the sons of Israel wept aloud at the angel’s message; that is why the place was called Lamentation.”

Judges, 2: 1-4

And the rest of the book is a narrative of the people repeatedly falling into the trap of idolatry, worked through their association and intermarriage with the enemies at their side, and when they fell in worship before the gods of the enemy, their downfall was certain. And each time they called for assistance and God was able to raise up warrior captains (rulers or judges of the people), both men and women, who could lead armies composed of men from various combinations of the twelve tribes, to deliver portions of the Israelite people from subjugation to various tribes and princes.

So, when the Mesopotamians invaded under Chusan-Rasathaim, Othoniel son of Cenez was the great hero. And when Eglon of Moab attacked with the aid of the Ammonites and the Amelecites, Aod son of Gera (a Benjaminite), rose to the occasion. Other judges quickly followed: Samgar son of Anath, Debbora wife of Lapidoth, Gedeon son of Ioas, Abimelech son of Gedeon, Thola son of Phua, Iair the Galaadite, and Iephte son of Galaad. It seems meaningless to name all these judges, whom we hardly ever hear off at Mass or in Bible study. But we must understand that these were popular heroes of the Hebrew nation, to which our Lord, His Mother and the Holy Apostles belonged. It’s worth recognising at least a few of the names, such as the prophetess Debbora and her song of victory, and Gedeon, who raided and destroyed a vast camp of Madianites with only three hundred men and a bag of tactics. And then after Abesan of Bethlehem, Ahialon of Zabulon and Abdon son of Illel of Pharathon, we come to the legendary Nazarite, Samson son of Manue the Danite, who judged Israel for twenty years and whom primary school children could tell us about in great detail.

The last part of the book is a type of appendix that tells firstly of the origins of the Danite religion in the north of the Holy Land (a syncretist religion that seems to have included the national religion of Israel, with origins in chapters seventeen and eighteen) and the near destruction of the tribe of Benjamin for sexual immorality and murder. Both of these, as mentioned above, are apologised for by the writer of Judges as an unfortunate state of events that existed before there was a king to unite the tribes of Israel, at a time when the people didn’t have a common catechism and acted according to their own local wisdom.

“It was in Rohob their city lay, and the men of Dan rebuilt it to make their home in it, calling it Dan, after their ancestor that was Israel’s son, and Lais no longer. And there they set up the image; the tribe of Dan had its own priests down to the day when it went into exile, descended from Moses’ son Gersam, and his son Jonathan. All the time God’s house was at Silo, there in Dan stood Michas’ image. So it was in the old days, before a king ruled in Israel.”

Judges, 18: 28-31

The tabernacle was at Silo (aka. Shiloh) and the priests of Aaron’s family (the only ones permitted by the Law of Moses) officiated there, but the Danites had acquired an order of priests of Moses’ family, giving worship to an idol. Interesting. The book ends with the terrible civil war that was raised against the tribe of Benjamin by all the others, who had been horrified by the abuse and murder of a woman, who happened to be the wife of a Levite from the territory of Bethlehem-Juda (chapters nineteen to twenty-one). Thousands seem to have died in the battle, until only six hundred men of Benjamin remained, every other member of that tribe being ruthlessly destroyed. The end of the book is the ugly search for wives for the six hundred, so that the tribe might have a chance to survive after all. I’d rather pass over that now and get over to the book of Ruth, which tells of the immediate generations before the advent of King David. If this was ‘the best light men had,’ it was an evil time. But at least we received the heroic stories, such as of Samson. Here he is, killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass in a recent film:

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onward to Ruth →

Reading through the Book of Joshua

← back to Deuteronomy
onward to Judges →

This book is a history of the original settlement of the Holy Land by the Israelites, and is interesting in the similarities it has to the more recent settlement of the Holy Land by the Jews, followed by the establishment of the Zionist State of Israel. If today we hear loud cries of ‘Colonialism!’ and ‘Genocide!’ and ‘Settlers!,’ well, what must the Canaanites of old have thought when the Israelites arrived in their hundreds of thousands from Egypt, followed by extraordinary stories of the God of heaven working miracles on their behalf? The difference in approach is clear: Joshua had arrived from the great power of Egypt with a formidable number of men, arranged as a proper army, and must have struck fear into the hearts of the settled peoples; whereas the modern State of Israel did begin with small and peaceful colonies of Jews who had to unite together and create a military guard when surrounding tribes of Arabs began to grow in envy of their prosperity.

Following on from the Book of Deuteronomy, Joshua (a contraction of Yehoshua, which also contracts in the Greek to Yesous, anglicised as Jesus) was the new captain of the people, inheriting the job from Moses, who had died on the wrong side of the Jordan river, in the hills of Moab. Joshua began by planning the overthrow and destruction of the ancient city of Jericho from the camp in Setim in Moab, sending out spies, who were assisted by the treachery of the prostitute Rachab, who hid them in her home while they were being searched for and later signalled for the beginning of the Hebrew attack. Now, Joshua acquired the respect of the people by repeating on a smaller scale the great miracle of Egypt – the crossing of the Red Sea. Here, Joshua led the people through the river Jordan on a dry bank, as the waters piled up to the north (image above). There was already a lot of formal ritual in this passage of the river, for the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant were to stand in mid-stream until after the people had passed over, the hundreds of thousands of them. Representatives from every tribe were to witness the majesty of this miracle and, in a further ritual element, new representatives from each tribe were to collect twelve large rocks from where the priests stood in the river, one each, to commemorate the crossing.

The crossing took place just before the Passover celebration that year, and the Israelites camped at Galgal, not far from Jericho, where the Abrahamic commitment to the physical circumcision of the men was renewed (it had fallen into general neglect during the wandering in the wilderness). After the Pasch, began the great ritual attack on Jericho. For six days, trumpets would sound and the army once circled the city, which was now in a state of siege. On the seventh day, they went around seven times and, with a great trumpeting and a shouting of the people, the walls of the city came down.

The rest of the conquest narrative covers a series of bloodbaths, as several Canaanite towns apparently had their populations removed and slaughtered. We must keep in mind that this book is more of a Jewish hagiography of Joshua than a proper history, and although it demonstrates apparent genocides, later narratives show the presence of tribes of Canaanites living in harmony with the Israelites, and periodically causing them to descend into paganism and idolatry.

Long ago, in the book of Numbers, more than forty years before in the timeline, Moses had sent scouts into the Holy Land from Seir in the south, among other things to measure the strength of the people living there. They had come back with a discouraging message:

“Forty days had passed before they returned from their survey, after traversing the whole country, to find Moses and Aaron and all the people of Israel still in the desert of Pharan, by Cades. To these and to the whole multitude they made their report, and shewed them what fruit the land yielded. And this was the story they told: ‘When we reached the land where our errand lay, we found it indeed a land all milk and honey, as this fruit will prove to you; but it is a powerful race that dwells in it, with strong walled cities; such were the sons of Enac, whom we saw there. The south is occupied by Amelec, the mountain parts by Hethites, Jebusites and Amorrhites; by the sea, and round the Jordan river, the Chanaanites are in possession.'”

Numbers, 13: 26-30

The result of this had been the great sedition against Moses that had ended with the curse of God on the people, that they should not see the Holy Land, but should die in the wilderness, only their children entering in. Hence, they wandered for forty years. Moses and Joshua, receiving the command of God, had obviously realised that the Holy Land was already well-populated and that the residents would have to be dispossessed, in an almost complete replacement. To prevent recurring wars as that people attempted to recover the land, these people would have to be exterminated. Hence the series of horrendous bloodbaths, as cities were taken and entire populations destroyed with their belongings. Only one of the local tribes, the Gabaonites, was shrewd enough to negotiate peace with Joshua. The other Canaanite kings formed alliances against him. From the ruins of Jericho, and their camp at Galgal, there were new attacks on a series of cities: starting at Hai (near Bethel), which was burnt to the ground, a rescue of the Gabaonites led to the conquest of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jerimoth, Lachis and Eglon, as those kings had allied against Gabaon. Thus, as the sun and moon poetically ceased their movement in the heavens, Joshua and his army destroyed almost all resistance in the middle country and the hill-country of what would soon become the territory of the tribes of Judah and Simeon. 

In quick succession, Maceda, Lebna, Lachis, Gazer, Eglon, Hebron and Dabir were emptied of people, and the Israelite army returned to their camp at Galgal. This was all in the south country. A second alliance of the Canaanite kings in the north country followed, and a great army, with cavalry and chariots, was destroyed by the Israelites at Merom, giving Joshua all that we would call Galilee and the plain of Jezreel, even the mountains around Hermon and the lower part of the Lebanon range. The book tells that thirty one kings in total were slaughtered and their domains taken. The rest of the book tells of the partitioning of this territory among the tribes, according to the desires of God and of Moses. The united army was now disassembled and the rest of the conquest would thenceforth be managed locally, for pockets of resistance remained, such as of the Philistine and Gessurite country to the south-west and Maarites and Giblites in the north-west, and the Jebusites in the hill-country of Judah. The Israelite camp had moved from Galgal to Silo for the partitioning of the land and, by the end of the book, had arrived at Sichem in the mid-country. 

The book ends with the death of Joshua at 110, the last general captain of united Israel until the monarchy was instituted with King Saul. He was buried in the city of of Thamnath-Saraa, where he had himself chose to live in for his last days. The bones of the patriarch Joseph, which had been brought from Egypt, were buried at the new religious centre (for the tabernacle was there located) at Sichem. Meanwhile, the second high-priest, Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died and was buried at a place called Gabaath in the country of Ephraim.

And that is the book of Joshua, if anything a lesson in geography, with some memorable ritual/liturgical elements, such as the one for the bringing down of city walls. And the great slaughters, to demonstrate to the Israelites/Hebrews/Jews of all time that this was their country, God fighting to win it for them.

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onward to Judges →

Reading through the letter (of S. Paul) to the Hebrews

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onward to James →

Almost twenty years ago, the Holy Father Benedict XVI named 2009-2010 as a Year of Priests, which was crucial for its time, because it created a great enthusiasm among young gentlemen, and for a time the seminaries began to fill up, and the priesthood received a renewed focus especially on social media. After the ongoing disclosure of serious abuses (from 2002 onwards) committed against young people and children by priests around the world, the Holy Father’s critics thought it out of place to celebrate the priesthood for a year, but he who has done more than other modern popes to remedy the problem of safeguarding in parishes and dioceses worldwide knew that the ideal of the priesthood needed to be placed before the eyes of the Church again. And it was marvellous. The ideal of priesthood is none other than Our Lord Himself, and the above icon was reproduced in many ways and used from 2009.

And that leads us to the letter to the Hebrews, which is a demonstration of Christ as high-priest. Until a few decades ago, we had no trouble attributing this wonderful letter to Saint Paul, because the last bit of it is so obviously Saint Paul. But this is stylistically different from most of the letter, and scholarly consensus now denies Paul authorship of this letter. The result is most evident in our modern lectionaries used at Mass since 1969, where S. Paul’s name is now removed from references to this letter. We’ve perhaps taken scientific means of textual analysis a little too seriously. But for the purposes of this reading, I’ll assume what the vast majority of Catholics – Saints and scholars – have always assumed and say that Saint Paul could very well assume different forms and address different audiences in his letters, changing his manner of composition. I have a very good impression of this great Christian pharisee and scholar and I wouldn’t put it past him to be capable of this. I called this letter wonderful because it addresses a Hebrew audience and is concerned with making a very particular argument. And in this short essay, I’ll try to reproduce that. The letter begins famously enough.

“In old days, God spoke to our fathers in many ways and by many means, through the prophets; now at last in these times He has spoken to us with a Son to speak for Him; a Son, whom He has appointed to inherit all things, just as it was through Him that He created this world of time; a Son, who is the radiance of His Father’s splendour, and the full expression of His being; all creation depends, for its support, on His enabling word. Now, making atonement for our sins, He has taken His place on high, at the right hand of God’s majesty, superior to the angels in that measure in which the Name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

Hebrews, 1: 1-4

The fathers mentioned here are the Hebrew patriarchs and the generations that followed them and we have a wonderful initial picture of Christ in His new glory after the Cross, which gave Him a particular place in His humanity, and a Name that is higher even than the angels. In the second chapter, the Apostle says that the first covenant (given through Moses) was given by angelic means, but the second covenant (that of Christ) has been given by the Lord Himself, without mediation, and sealed with the obvious gifts of the Holy Spirit. And that gives it a greater weight.

“The Old Law, which only had angels for its spokesmen, was none the less valid; every transgression of it, every refusal to listen to it, incurred just retribution; and what excuse shall we have, if we pay no heed to such a message of salvation as has been given to us? One which was delivered in the first instance by the Lord Himself, and has been guaranteed to us by those who heard it from his own lips? One which God Himself has attested by signs and portents, manifesting His power so variously, and distributing the gifts of His Holy Spirit wherever He would?”

Hebrews, 2: 2-4

The Apostle then interprets Psalm 8 as referring to this exaltation of the human nature of Christ, made only little less than the angels but exalted beyond them because of His sacrifice. And this suffering He endured for our sake is His crown and gives Him the ability to assist us in our own suffering, because together with His Incarnation as a human being it gave Him the function of high-priesthood for all humanity. Being human allows Him to be our high-priest. Chapter three honours Christ as the Founder of the Church, and the Apostle now uses Psalm 94(95) to call his Hebrew audience to firm allegiance to Christ. Do not harden your hearts, he says.

“Take care, brethren, that there is no heart among you so warped by unbelief as to desert the living God. Each day, while the word Today has still a meaning, strengthen your own resolution, to make sure that none of you grows hardened; sin has such power to cheat us. We have been given a share in Christ, but only on condition that we keep unshaken to the end the principle by which we are grounded in Him. That is the meaning of the words, ‘If you hear His voice speaking to you this day, do not harden your hearts, as they were hardened once when you provoked Me…'”

Hebrews, 3: 12-15

Those who had provoked God in the desert centuries ago (according to Psalm 94(95)) had done so by rejecting Moses and the Old Law, which had been given by angels; the price of rejecting a covenant given by the Lord Himself in person would be higher. As at every time in the history of the Church, there would have been wavering Christians of the Hebrew tradition who would be tempted to fall away from Christ and back into an earlier observance. This is their warning: deserting Christ is not an act to be treated lightly, it would be giving up the rest that God promises in Psalm 94(95). This is what chapter four begins with. That chapter ends with a possible reason for Christians of Saint Paul’s time falling away from the Church – persecution and social humiliation. 

“We can claim a great High Priest, and One Who has passed right up through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. It is not as if our High Priest was incapable of feeling for us in our humiliations; He has been through every trial, fashioned as we are, only sinless. Let us come boldly, then, before the throne of grace, to meet with mercy, and win that grace which will help us in our needs.”

Hebrews, 4: 14-16

To Hebrew (Jewish) Christians of that time, such humiliations came from the Greeks and the Romans, but especially from non-Christian Jews. Chapter five describes further the function of the Jewish high-priest, and how well Christ fulfils that function in the Church – because of His humanity, which makes Him our representative, except for His sinlessness (which just means that He sacrifices for us only, not for Himself and for us, as the usual high-priests did).

“The purpose for which any high priest is chosen from among his fellow men, and made a representative of men in their dealings with God, is to offer gifts and sacrifices in expiation of their sins. He is qualified for this by being able to feel for them when they are ignorant and make mistakes, since he, too, is all beset with humiliations, and, for that reason, must needs present sin-offerings for himself, just as he does for the people. His vocation comes from God, as Aaron’s did; nobody can take on himself such a privilege as this. So it is with Christ. He did not raise Himself to the dignity of the high priesthood; it was God that raised Him to it, when He said, ‘Thou art My Son, I have begotten Thee this day…'”

Hebrews, 5: 1-5

Chapter five ends with a bit of a scolding to those whose faith was weak and faltering and chapter six continues with theme of apostasy – Christians leaving the Church. 

“We can do nothing for those who have received, once for all, their enlightenment, who have tasted the heavenly gift, partaken of the Holy Spirit, known, too, God’s word of comfort, and the powers that belong to a future life, and then fallen away. They cannot attain repentance through a second renewal. Would they crucify the Son of God a second time, hold him up to mockery a second time, for their own ends? No, a piece of ground which has drunk in, again and again, the showers which fell upon it, has God’s blessing on it, if it yields a crop answering the needs of those who tilled it; if it bears thorns and thistles, it has lost its value; a curse hangs over it, and it will feed the bonfire at last.”

Hebrews, 6: 4-8

Scary. It speaks of final and obdurate apostasy. The Apostle now presents as a model of faithfulness the patriarch Abraham, who accepted in the absence of visible circumstances (he and his wife were barren) the promise of God that he would be the father of many tribes of people. And just as God made that promise to Abraham in distant centuries, He also made an oath to Christ our high-priest in Psalm 109(110), and through Him to the Church. This must be the ground of our own faith. Chapter seven suggests that Christ’s priesthood precedes the Levitical priesthood of the Hebrews (established through Moses), because of its connection to Melchisedech, the priest who was associated with the patriarch Abraham. Christ anyway, being like King David of the tribe of Juda, was not of the traditional hereditary Levitical priesthood, which was connected to the tribe of Levi. Christ’s priesthood is of a different and more ancient Order.

“Now, there could be no need for a fresh priest to arise, accredited with Melchisedech’s priesthood, not with Aaron’s, if the Levitical priesthood had brought fulfilment. And it is on the Levitical priesthood that the Law given to God’s people is founded. When the priesthood is altered, the Law, necessarily, is altered with it. After all, He to whom the prophecy relates belonged to a different tribe, which never produced a man to stand at the altar; our Lord took His origin from Juda, that is certain, and Moses in speaking of this tribe, said nothing about priests. And something further becomes evident, when a fresh priest arises to fulfil the type of Melchisedech, appointed, not to obey the Law, with its outward observances, but in the power of an unending life…“

Hebrews, 7:11-16

Christ’s priesthood has therefore abrogated the Hebrew priesthood, returning things to an older system represented by the priest-king Melchisedech. And together with it, the Old Law associated with the Levitical priesthood has passed away to allow a more ancient Law to be restored, possibly that of the beginning of Genesis. This has echoes of Christ’s teaching on marriage and divorce, which He had said was more primitive than Moses’ dispensations. The rest of chapter seven speaks of the temporary nature of the Old Covenant and its inevitable replacement with Christ’s New Covenant. Chapter eight begins an analogy of Christ the high-priest interceding for the Church with the Hebrew high-priest interceding for the Hebrews. The Hebrew system, with tabernacle and Temple, was based on a heavenly model that Moses had seen on the mountain. And Christ has taken the religion of the tabernacle and Temple back to what Moses had seen of heaven. The type created on earth had now reached its end.

“This High Priest of ours is one who has taken His seat in heaven, on the right hand of that throne where God sits in majesty, ministering, now, in the sanctuary, in that true tabernacle which the Lord, not man, has set up. After all, if it is the very function of a priest to offer gift and sacrifice, he too must needs have an offering to make. Whereas, if he were still on earth, he would be no priest at all; there are priests already, to offer the gifts which the law demands, men who devote their service to the type and the shadow of what has its true being in heaven. (That is why Moses, when he was building the tabernacle, received the warning, Be sure to make everything in accordance with the pattern that was shewn to thee on the mountain.)“

Hebrews, 8: 1-5

The letter was certainly written before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. If Saint Paul had survived that, he would have altered this passage with a greater certainty of the passing away of both the old religion and the Old Law, properly replaced with the Christian religion and Law, as given by the rest of chapter eight. Chapter nine has a fuller description of elements of the Hebrew religious rites of the Jerusalem Temple and how the Christian ritual supersede and transcend them. 

“The sanctuary into which Jesus has entered is not one made by human hands, is not some adumbration of the truth; He has entered heaven itself, where He now appears in God’s sight on our behalf. Nor does He make a repeated offering of Himself, as the High Priest, when He enters the sanctuary, makes a yearly offering of the blood that is not His own. If that were so, He must have suffered again and again, ever since the world was created; as it is, He has been revealed once for all, at the moment when history reached its fulfilment, annulling our sin by His sacrifice. Man’s destiny is to die once for all; nothing remains after that but judgement; and Christ was offered once for all, to drain the cup of a world’s sins; when we see Him again, sin will play its part no longer, He will be bringing salvation to those who await His coming.”

Hebrews, 9: 24-28

If we keep in mind that this was written for a Hebrew/Jewish audience, we would understand why the Apostle goes into such detail about the abrogation of the Old Law, replaced with the Law of Christ. He uses Psalm 39(40) to demonstrate the inevitability of the end of the animal sacrifices of the Old Law. 

“No, what these offerings bring with them, year by year, is only the remembrance of sins; that sins should be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats is impossible. As Christ comes into the world, He says, ‘No sacrifice, no offering was thy demand; thou hast endowed me, instead, with a body. Thou hast not found any pleasure in burnt-sacrifices, in sacrifices for sin. See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of me, where the book lies unrolled; to do thy will, O my God.‘ First He says, ‘Thou didst not demand victim or offering, the burnt-sacrifice, the sacrifice for sin, nor hast thou found any pleasure in them; in anything, that is, which the law has to offer, and then:—I said, See, my God, I am coming to do thy will.’ He must clear the ground first, so as to build up afterwards. In accordance with this divine will we have been sanctified by an offering made once for all, the body of Jesus Christ.”

Hebrews, 10: 3-10

He had to clear the ground of animal sacrifices to make His own great sacrifice. Given this Sacrifice, we cannot remain forever in wilful sin, but must persevere in the observance of purity and await the promises associated with the following of the commandments of Christ. Perseverance in the faith seems to be the goal of this exhortation by the Apostle.

“Do not throw away that confidence of yours, with its rich hope of reward; you still need endurance, if you are to attain the prize God has promised to those who do His will. Only a brief moment, now, before He Who is coming will be here; He will not linger on the way. It is faith that brings life to the man whom I accept as justified; if he shrinks back, he shall win no favour with me. Not for us to shrink away, and be lost; it is for us to have faith, and save our souls.“

Hebrews, 10: 35-39

Perseverance in faith. Chapter eleven summons up the faith of Abel, the faith of Enoch, the faith of Noah, the faith of Abraham and Sara, the faith of Isaac and Jacob, the faith of Moses, the faith of Israel under the Judges, the faith of Samuel and David, the faith of the Hebrew prophets.  All these believed without seeing the end of their faith, a faith they suffered for and accomplished marvels with; we Christians know that end – it is Christ and the Church.

“Theirs was the faith which subdued kingdoms, which served the cause of right, which made promises come true. They shut the mouths of lions, they quenched raging fire, swords were drawn on them, and they escaped. How strong they became, who till then were weak, what courage they shewed in battle, how they routed invading armies! There were women, too, who recovered their dead children, brought back to life. Others, looking forward to a better resurrection still, would not purchase their freedom on the rack. And others experienced mockery and scourging, chains, too, and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were cut in pieces, they were tortured, they were put to the sword; they wandered about, dressed in sheepskins and goatskins, amidst want, and distress, and ill-usage; men whom the world was unworthy to contain, living a hunted life in deserts and on mountain-sides, in rock-fastnesses and caverns underground. One and all gave proof of their faith, yet they never saw the promise fulfilled; for us, God had something better in store. We were needed, to make the history of their lives complete.“

Hebrews, 11: 33-40

And in such fashion as the great men and women of the Old Testament worked wonders, suffered and died for the faith they had, so must we be prepared to do for the Christian faith, keeping Christ always before us. This is the flow of chapter twelve, which also gives us our heavenly goal – no longer the glory of God on Mount Horeb and the trumpet blasts of unseen angels, but something greater. 

“The scene of your approach now is mount Sion, is the heavenly Jerusalem, city of the living God; here are gathered thousands upon thousands of angels, here is the assembly of those first-born sons whose names are written in heaven, here is God sitting in judgement on all men, here are the spirits of just men, now made perfect; here is Jesus, the spokesman of the new covenant, and the sprinkling of his blood, which has better things to say than Abel’s had.”

Hebrews, 12: 22-24

The rest of the letter, chapter thirteen, is a short exhortation to Christian virtue, a final exhortation against apostasy. If I were to summarise the whole letter, I would use these words: the authority of the Son of God, Christ our Lord, who took on our lowly human nature and through His great sacrifice was raised higher even than the angelic natures, is an authority that cannot be rejected for it has replaced the authority of the Hebrew priesthood, abrogating it and restoring a more ancient system – one that is based in heaven, with Christ ministering as priest there; Christ’s Sacrifice gave Him a particular high-priestly role of service to His fellow human beings, and brought to an end both the Old Law and the Old religion of the Hebrews; with the one great Sacrifice of Christ completed, all Christians need do is persevere in faith and in keeping the commandments of Christ, until He arrives in glory. We have great models of faith in the Old Testament to inspire us and Christ Himself stands before us, beckoning us towards the heavenly Jerusalem and the eternal worship of the one God. I shall end this essay with Paul’s usual words of farewell. He obviously wrote these words in Rome, and mentions his favourite spiritual son, Saint Timothy.

“I entreat you, brethren, bear patiently with all these words of warning; it is but a brief letter I am sending you. You must know that our brother Timothy has been set at liberty; if he comes soon, I will bring him with me when I visit you. Greet all those who are in authority, and all the saints. The brethren from Italy send you their greetings. Grace be with you all, Amen.“

Hebrews, 13: 22-25
← back to Philemon
onward to James →

Reading through the Prophecy of Malachi (aka. Malachias)

← back to Zecharyah
onward to first Maccabees →

Moving on to the end of the long list of prophetic books, I have arrived at Malachy’s short work, which was a later prophecy of the second Temple period, after the return from exile in Babylon. This is the pre-eminent Messianic prophecy. In the very first chapter, we hear of the malignancy of the Hebrew priesthood, whose sacrifices were never quite worthy of God. After all, God even declares that a purer sacrifice is being offered him by the gentiles. In this, the Church sees herself, for although Jewish in structure, she is now almost entirely gentile in the hearts that populate her:

“To you, priests, that care so little for My renown. Ask you what care was lacking, when the bread you offer at My altar is defiled, ask you what despite you have done Me, when you write down the Lord’s table a thing of little moment? What, no harm done, when victim you offer in sacrifice is blind? No harm done, when it is lame or diseased? Pray you, says the Lord of hosts, make such a gift to the governor yonder, will he be content? Will he make favourites of you? Ay, says the Lord of hosts, the guilt is yours. To the divine presence betake you, and sue for pardon; which of you finds favour with him? Never a man of you but must be paid to shut door, light altar-fire; no friends of Mine, says the Lord of hosts, no gifts will I take from such as you. No corner of the world, from sun’s rise to sun’s setting, where the renown of Me is not heard among the Gentiles, where sacrifice is not done, and pure offering made in My honour; so revered is My Name, says the Lord of hosts, there among the Gentiles…“

Malachias, 1: 7-11

The sacrifice of the Gentiles coming a few centuries in the future is, of course, the One Sacrifice of Christ. The condemnation of the priests continues into chapter two, which condemns them for not teaching the people well, which had resulted in old evils returning to the restored community after the exile. The great evil mentioned here seems to be the dismissing or divorcing of Hebrew wives in order to make room for foreign wives from other religions, which as we know from Ezra and Nehemiah was a major preoccupation of the enforcers of the Law of Moses in the restored Jewish community. 

“Faithfully they handed on tradition, the lie never on their lips; safe and straight was the path they trod at my side, and kept many from wrong-doing. No utterance like a priest’s for learning; from no other lips men will expect true guidance; is he not a messenger to them from the Lord of hosts? That path you have forsaken; through your ill teaching, how many a foothold lost! Nay, says the Lord of hosts, you have annulled My covenant with Levi altogether. What wonder if I have made you a laughing-stock, a thing contemptible in all men’s sight, priests that so ill kept my command, gave award so partially? [Have we not all one Father, did not one God create us all? No room, then, for brother to despise brother, and unmake the covenant by which our fathers lived.] Here is great wrong in Juda, here are foul deeds done by Israel and Jerusalem! Juda, that was once content to be set apart for the Lord, has profaned that holy estate, has taken wives that worship a god he knew not.“

Malachias, 2: 6-10

We must remember that the great and ongoing problem in the Old Testament was idolatry; the law against taking foreign wives was not simply about ‘watering down’ the blood of the patriarch Abraham but also about allowing idolatry to thrive within the Holy Land and among the families of the Chosen People. And now we come to the prediction of the Messiah, and the Herald of the Messiah, even Eliyas (Elijah).

“See where I am sending an angel of Mine, to make the way ready for My coming! All at once the Lord will visit His temple; that Lord, so longed for, welcome herald of a divine covenant. Ay, says the Lord of hosts, He is coming; but who can bear the thought of that advent? Who will stand with head erect at His appearing? He will put men to a test fierce as the crucible, searching as the lye that fullers use. From His judgement-seat, He will refine that silver of his and cleanse it from dross; like silver or gold, the sons of Levi must be refined in the crucible, ere they can offer the Lord sacrifice duly performed. Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings of Juda and Jerusalem, as He did long since, in the forgotten years. Come I to hold assize, not slow to arraign the sorcerer, the adulterer, the forsworn, all of you that deny hired man his wages, widow and orphan redress, the alien his right, fearing no vengeance from the Lord of hosts.“

Malachias, 3: 1-5

All of this judgement and redress is designed to answer the call for justice, which is given at the end of this chapter, for good and honest people wondered (as they do today) why good people suffer and bad people thrive. And did Christ not indeed answer this question amply, with His emphasis on charity and care of the poor and the downtrodden, and finally by His joining the suffering poor and being downtrodden Himself?

“Complain you did: ‘Who serves God serves Him for nothing; what reward is ours for keeping command of His, attending with sad mien the Lord of hosts? Here are proud folk more to be envied than we, ill-doers that yet thrive, abusers of His patience that escape all harm!‘ So they used to talk among themselves, His true worshippers, till at last the Lord gave them heed and hearing; and now He would have a record kept in His presence of all that so worshipped Him, all that prized His renown.”

Malachias, 3: 14-16

And then comes the wonderful ending of this book – all about the Day of the Lord – when evil will be finally condemned and the Just will find reward. Little would Malachy have known that that dread Seat of Judgement would be a wooden cross. 

“Trust me, a day is coming that shall scorch like a furnace; stubble they shall be before it, says the Lord of hosts, all the proud, all the wrong-doers, caught and set alight, and neither root nor branch left them. But to you that honour My Name there shall be a sunrise of restoration, swift-winged, bearing redress; light-hearted as frisking calves at stall you shall go out to meet it, ay, and trample on your godless enemy, ashes, now, to be spurned under foot, on that day when the Lord of hosts declares Himself at last. Yours to keep the law ever in mind, statute and award I gave to assembled Israel through Moses, that was My servant. And before ever that day comes, great day and terrible, I will send Elias to be your prophet; he it is shall reconcile heart of father to son, heart of son to father; else the whole of earth should be forfeit to My vengeance.”

Malachias, 4
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onward to first Maccabees →

The desert experience (Sunday XVII of Ordered time)

“After this, Jesus retired across the sea of Galilee, or Tiberias, and there was a great multitude following Him; they had seen the miracles He performed over the sick. So Jesus went up on to the hill-side, and there sat down with His disciples. It was nearly the time of the Jews’ great feast, the paschal feast. And now, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a great multitude had gathered round Him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Whence are we to buy bread for these folk to eat?’ In saying this, He was putting him to the test; He Himself knew well enough what He meant to do. Philip answered Him, ‘Two hundred silver pieces would not buy enough bread for them, even to give each a little.’ One of His disciples (it was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother) said to Him, ‘There is a boy here, who has five barley loaves and two fishes; but what is that among so many?‘ Then Jesus said, ‘Make the men sit down.’ There was no lack of grass where they were; so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. And Jesus took the loaves, and gave thanks, and distributed them to the company, and a share of the fishes too, as much as they had a mind for. Then, when they had all had enough, He told His disciples, ‘Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing may be wasted.’ And when they gathered them up, they filled twelve baskets with the broken pieces left over by those who had eaten. When they saw the miracle Jesus had done, these men began to say, ‘Beyond doubt, this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Knowing, then, that they meant to come and carry Him off, so as to make a king of Him, Jesus once again withdrew on to the hill-side all alone.”

Gospel of S. John, 6: 1-15 [link]

It’s good, every now and then, to be brought back around to the greatest gift that the Church has possessed from the very beginning: the divine sustenance, the true bread from heaven, the most Holy Eucharist. To make all the necessary connections this weekend, I shall once more return to the garden of Eden, and the origins of the race of men. In the beginning, as demonstrated by the book of Genesis, mankind lived in perfect harmony with the mind of God, in perfect dependence upon the divine providence. This was ruptured by the sin of our first parents, a sin of pride and disobedience which basically told God that we could live independently of Him, that we could do it on our own, that we could be gods like Him. When the Christian Church began to lift her head in the midst of the Roman Empire, one of the first of the criminal charges levelled against her was impiety – impiety towards the general idea of human religions. The Church had dared to say that she relied not upon human beings like Caesar (for he was no god, as no secular authority can be) and human societies like the Roman society (sufficiency built on collaboration among people). Rather, the Church would place all her hopes upon the God Who loves her.

The Church thus rejected the temptation of the serpent in the garden, and rejects it constantly, and so places her many hearts within the Sacred Heart, reliant entirely upon Him. This devout attitude was foreshadowed in the work of the great men and women of both the Old Testament period and the New, whom we call Saints. We see one of these Saints, the prophet Elisha (here Eliseus), also multiplying bread in the first reading today.

“Once, too, a man came from Baal-Salisa, bringing with him twenty barley loaves, his first-fruit offering, and nothing besides except some fresh grain in his wallet. Eliseus would have a meal set before the company, and when his servant asked how this would suffice for a hundred mouths, he said again, ‘Set it before the company for their meal; they shall eat, the Lord says, and leave some over.’ And when he set it before them, eat they did and leave they did; so the Lord’s promise was fulfilled.”

The fourth (or second) book of Kings, 4: 42-44 [link]

All these miracles of feeding multitudes of people in the desert are meant to call to the general mind of the people the miraculous feeding of the Israelites with manna when they had emerged from slavery in Egypt. I should again mention (as I often do) the general principle that the biblical processions into the desert imply: the drawing of the people from the sufficiency of the cities and towns and into the scarcity of the desert, the drawing of the people from the security of human provision to the insecurity of dependence upon God. Note again that slavery in Egypt was more comfortable than life in the desert; this is obvious from the multiple time Moses had to prevent the Israelites from running back to Egypt for reasons of discomfort.

We are meant to learn a lesson from these stories. None of us would think it prudent today to walk for any amount of time into, say, the Sahara desert and expect to be fed miraculously. But the Church has her own means of leading her children into the desert, and has in the past commanded very severe seasonal fasts, such as the present Lenten sacrifices but more tedious, and also several more. Our Latin church has softened considerably since the middle of the twentieth century, but other Eastern churches still have rigorous rules of fasting and abstinence. It is the constant advice of the Saints we honour that it is by giving up the comforts of this world and our dependence upon them that we find divine sustenance, that we find the Union with God that is the goal of our Christian existence.

This is why most of the Saints in the history of the Church (who were not martyred for the Faith) have come from the numerous Religious Orders, which have codified into their statutes and codes the rules of fasting and abstinence that have led men and women into the desert with Christ, where He has fed them miraculously. We could also suggest that it is partly because of the laxity in religious practice of the Church in the last several decades that the Church has been increasingly secularised, and that the Religious Orders have lost thousands of members and are many of these Orders are dying.

Basically, it could be said that we are as a community now back in Egypt, enslaved with the passions of the world of our time, waiting for another Moses to call us to travel three days in the desert to find God again. We must find a measure of detachment from the things of this world, so that we may soar heavenward. This is truly a martyrdom: to deny ourselves physical and material comforts so that our only true possession becomes God Himself. The great martyrs of the Church took this shedding of possessions to its logical extreme, giving even their very lives. Not all of us will find that strength of mind, that strength of devotion. But we must nevertheless move forward into the desert again, as a community, as a church, guided by the Successor of S. Peter.

The second reading speaks of this unity of Christians in our procession of faith, a unity that is characterised by mutual charity (our love for each other), generosity of heart, with one and the same hope, united in love to the Holy One, God our Lord, Who is Father of all, and to Whom be glory for endless ages.

“Here, then, is one who wears chains in the Lord’s service, pleading with you to live as befits men called to such a vocation as yours. You must be always humble, always gentle; patient, too, in bearing with one another’s faults, as charity bids; eager to preserve that unity the Spirit gives you, whose bond is peace. You are one body, with a single Spirit; each of you, when he was called, called in the same hope; with the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism; with the same God, the same Father, all of us, who is above all beings, pervades all things, and lives in all of us.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Ephesians, 4: 1-6 [link]

Reading through the letter of S. Paul to Philemon

← back to Titus
onward to Hebrews →

Coming to the end of the Pauline corpus of the New Testament, i.e. the set of letters that we have in the New Testament that are traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, the second to last (or the last, if as scholars tend to do today you discount the letter to the Hebrews) is the rather short letter to Philemon. The main characters here are Philemon, a Christian householder, and Onesimus, a servant of Philemon’s who seems to have displeased his master and fled away from him, and found his way to the side of Paul, who (he may have expected) would send just this type of message back to Philemon. Paul begins by commending Philemon for his charitable work, and then makes this charity the basis of his main request: that Onesimus be pardoned for whatever he had done. Paul calls Onesimus ‘the child of my imprisonment,’ for he has probably received the slave into the Christian religion while himself suffering one of his frequent periods of imprisonment.

“I prefer to appeal to this charity of thine. Who is it that writes to thee? Paul, an old man now, and in these days the prisoner, too, of Jesus Christ; and I am appealing to thee on behalf of Onesimus, the child of my imprisonment. He did thee an ill service once; now, both to thee and to myself, he can be serviceable, and I am sending him back to thee; make him welcome, for my heart goes with him.”

Philemon, 9-12

So Philemon is requested that he accept back his servant, and to forgive all, for Onesimus is now more than a slave/servant; he is also a Christian and so a brother in Christ. 

“Do not think of him any longer as a slave; he is something more than a slave, a well loved brother, to me in a special way; much more, then, to thee, now that both nature and Christ make him thy own.”

Philemon 16

Paul promises to settle any debts that Onesimus may have with Philemon on his own account. If anything, this short letter demonstrates the Christian fellowship of those of different social strata, here between freemen and their slaves, something that we may recognise from other letters that deal with good Christian behaviour in the milieu of the ancient world, where the order of slaves and slave-owners was very much taken as a given and was yet beyond reform. Churchmen like Paul would have had to beg in this fashion for the welfare of slaves.

And the letter demonstrates the heart of the Apostle Saint Paul, trying his best to obtain a good result for one of his dear sons.

← back to Titus
onward to Hebrews →

Reading through the Book of Nechemyah (aka. Nehemiah, and II Esdras)

← back to Ezra
onward to Tobias →

So, we’re back at the tail-end of the sixth century before Christ, and Jewish companies are returning to Juda and Jerusalem from exile all over the Persian empire, but especially from Babylon. We looked at some of these groups in the book of Ezra, and the second Temple had been erected and the city revived. Nevertheless, because of the opposition of the local Persian government of the satraps, the defences of the City had not been restored, especially the great walls that had been levelled in 587 BC, when the City was overrun by the Chaldeans. Enter Nechemyah, a Jew who was high in the favour of the Persian emperor, and was convinced that it was he who would restore Jerusalem’s defences.

The second book of Esdras (aka. Nehemiah) was originally appended to the first book (aka. Ezra), and covers the time period from the initial return of the Jewish exiles from Babylonia under the successor of King David called Zorobabel (an ancestor of Christ) to a much later time, when Nehemiah (the Jewish cup-bearer to the Persian king in Babylonia) was appointed temporarily to be governor of Juda. As Zorobabel and the high-priest Josue had restored the Temple with resistance from the local government, although to a far poorer level than Solomon’s magnum opus, Nehemias was able against much opposition to restore the walls of Jerusalem, which had lain in ruin for almost a century. With the walls restored, self-confidence returned to the people, and the book of Nehemias ends with a great festival.

Second Esdras begins and ends as a type of dear-diary of the governor Nehemiah, with some later addition of long lists of names of the leading men of the time, both chieftains and tribal leaders, and priests and levites serving the Temple. All of this was intended to establish continuity between the new community of Jews returned from exile and the old Hebrew community before the kingdom of Juda was destroyed by the neo-Babylonian empire. Nehemias introduces himself and his deep pain at discovering, decades after the first Jews returned to Jerusalem and Juda, that they had fallen into dissipation, and the Law of Moses was once more being ignored. But, first and crucially, the Holy City still had no walls and so was defenceless to attack.

“I was visited by a kinsman of mine, Hanani, who brought with him certain travellers just come from Juda. So I asked them how it went with Jerusalem, and with the Jews still left there, survivors of the exiles who returned. Survivors there are, said they, in various parts of the province, left over from the days of the exile. But they are in great distress, and count for nothing; Jerusalem is but broken walls and charred gates. For a long time after hearing this news I kept my house, all tears and lament; I fasted, and sought audience with the God of heaven in prayer.“

II Esdras, 1: 2-4

The atmosphere of insecurity resulting from the absence of walls on a city in those days, and likely frequent raids by wandering tribes, must have left the people in a constant state of fear and agitation. Nehemiah said his prayer and then used his position of influence with the Persian king to establish himself as governor of Juda, and so able to confound the enemies of the Jewish people, who had stopped them from rebuilding the City’s defences. 

“‘What wouldst thou have of me?’ the king asked. And I, first praying to the God of heaven, made answer thus, ‘Did I but stand so high in the royal favour, my request would be that thou wouldst send me to Judaea, to this city where my father lies buried, and give me leave to rebuild it.’ No question had the king to ask, or his consort that was there beside him, but how long my journey would last? When did I think to return? So the king was content to let me go, and it was for me to name the time of my absence. Then I said, ‘May it please the king’s grace to entrust me with letters for the governors of the country beyond Euphrates, bidding them see me safe on my way to Judaea; a letter, moreover, to Asaph, the ranger of the royal forest, bidding him supply me with timber for coping the gates of the temple palace and the city walls, and roofing my own house besides.’ All this, by God’s favour, the king granted me.“

II Esdras, 2: 4-8

With such papers and permissions, Nehemiah had all the confidence he needed and would brook no further opposition. Having scouted the walls himself on his arrival, he mustered all the strength of the people to rebuild the walls in sections. Some of the enemies of the people are named here:

“When word came to Sanaballat the Horonite, and Tobias the Slave, that was of Ammon’s breed, and Gosem the Arabian, all was mockery and disdain; ‘Here are fine doings!’ they said. ‘Are you for rebelling against the king’s majesty?’ But I had my answer ready for them: ‘The Master we serve is the God of heaven; He will be our helper. Leave us to set about our task of building; for you there is no right of possession, no privilege, no citizenship here at Jerusalem.’“

II Esdras, 2: 19-20

Nothing could be clearer: the Jews had returned to the land they belonged to. These others had no rights of possession and no privilege in Jerusalem – no claim at all. Chapter three is a description of the rebuilding of the walls. The reaction of the three mentioned above is first utter derision and then dismay at Nehemiah’s success (chapter four). Nehemiah himself, shaking off his dignity as governor by royal right, joined in the work of labour, colourfully describing the state of alert that the builders were in, justly fearing an attack from their enemies in the midst of the building work.

“And so, when word came to our enemies that we had been forewarned, God threw all their plot into confusion. Back we went to our several posts at the wall; and thenceforward the warriors among us were divided into two companies; one of these remained at work, while behind them, under the clan chiefs of Juda, the rest stood arrayed for battle, with lance and shield, bow and breastplate. And even while they were at work, built they or loaded or carried loads, it was one hand to work with, and one closing still on a javelin; nor was there ever a workman but must build with his sword girt at his side. And the men that blew the trumpets were close beside me…”

II Esdras, 4: 15-18

In chapter five, Nehemiah deals with issues of justice and equity, for rich Jews were exploiting poor Jews in the new colonial setting (colonies of Jews living among the ‘people of the land’). For tasks like this, apparently condoned by the Jewish leaders and by the Temple priests, Nehemiah had to exercise all his authority as imperial governor, as well as his growing religious authority as ruler of the people. It makes me wonder what happened to Zorobabel and the Davidic succession. In chapter six, we hear of treacherous attempts on Nehemiah’s life by the above-mentioned enemies. Nehemiah provides us with a wonderful description of the origins of the synagogue services that would quickly develop from this point and that would eventually inspire part of Holy Mass in the liturgy of the Christian church, as readings of Scripture and homiletics. 

“And there in the open space before the Water-gate he proclaimed the law, before men and women and such younger folk as could take it in, from daybreak to noon, and all listened attentively while the reading went on. A wooden pulpit had been erected to carry the sound better, and at this the scribe Esdras stood; with him were Mathathias, Semeia, Ania, Uria, Helcia and Maasia on his right, Phadaia, Misael, Melchia, Hasum, Hasbadana, Zacharia and Mosollam on his left. Esdras was plainly seen, as he opened the book, by all the people underneath. When he had opened it, all rose; and when he blessed the name of the Lord, the great God, all lifted their hands and answered, Amen, amen; and with that they bowed down and worshipped with their faces close to the ground. Then the Levites came forward, Josue, Bani, Serebia, Jamin, Accub, Sebthai, Odia, Maasia, Celita, Azarias, Jozabed, Hanan and Phalaia; these enjoined silence on the people, as they stood there in their places for the reading of the law. And they read out the book of the law, clear and plain to give the sense of it, so that all could understand the reading. And now the governor, Nehemias, with Esdras, priest and scribe, and these Levites who interpreted to the people what was read, must needs remind them that it was a feast-day set apart to the Lord; there must be no lamenting and weeping; already the whole multitude were in tears, as they listened to the words of the law. ‘Go home,’ said Nehemias, ‘and regale yourselves with rich meat and honeyed wine, sharing your good things with those who have none. There must be no sadness on this day, the Lord’s feast-day. To rejoice in the Lord, there lies our strength.’ The Levites, too, called for silence everywhere; ‘Peace there,’ no lamenting, ‘they said, this is a day of rejoicing.’ So all the throng dispersed, to eat and drink and share their good things with glad hearts, the message of the law made plain to them.”

II Esdras, 8: 3-12

In this extract, the priest-scribe Esdras (aka. Ezra) emerges again. He must be the same Esdras as in the book of first Esdras, the priest who fought for the execution of the Law of Moses in the new circumstances of the returned exiles. Here he continues this work, with the support of the new governor. In the early centuries of the Church, deacons had similar roles of crowd control and creative exposition of the Law to the Levites in this picture. Deacons even today value the explanation of Scripture to the people as primary to their vocation and mission. The ceremony described above is associated with the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, as given at the top of the chapter, which mentions the ‘seventh month.’ Chapter eight ends with the practice of living in tents, associated with the feast of Tabernacles, also held during the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar (September time). Chapter nine presents a long account of the history of the salvation of the people, starting with their liberation from Egypt, all this forming part of a new covenant that the people make with God, promising to keep faithful to the Law in all its many observances, including especially not associating with non-Jews. Chapter ten lists the signatories of the covenant document Nehemiah had had prepared (with the assistance of scribe Esdras), and describes the restoration of the several liturgical offices of the Temple cult, instituted by King David and King Solomon, and the remuneration of the Levites and Aaronites, whose liturgical role prevented them from earning their living elsewise. 

One of the problems given by this book is the insufficient numbers of returning Jews. Either a small number only had been permitted to return to Juda by the Persians or, which is more likely, the Jews who had been for decades exiled from Juda had become comfortable in their exile and did not wish to return to the insecurities of the Holy Land when the opportunity had finally arrived. And here, with the original extent of the walls rebuilt and the City of Jerusalem thus enclosed, it became more obvious that the small number of Jews could not populate the City easily. Nehemiah sought to get more people into the City and the ‘common folk,’ who may have preferred the countryside, had to be pulled in.

“The rulers must needs have their dwelling in Jerusalem; the common folk had their residence assigned by lot, every tenth man going to live in the holy city, while the other nine remained in the country parts; whoever offered of his own free will to be a Jerusalem-dweller earned the blessings of his fellow-citizens. And these were the leading men of the colony that lived at Jerusalem, leaving the rest, the people at large, the priests, the Levites, the Nathinaeans, and the line of Solomon’s servants, to occupy the country parts, each in the cities allotted to them.”

II Esdras, 11: 1-3

So, this book is about the restoration of the City walls, and that city defences, which gave the Jews a better chance to defend themselves. This and the recommitment to the Law in the great liturgical service of chapter eight and the covenant of chapter nine, were designed to bring prosperity back to the people, and we may assume that the community grew in strength after these events. But the leadership of the people in this period of restoration was always wanting. After the establishment of the twin responsibilities of governor and high-priest given by, for example, Zacharias, we hear of Nehemiah’s discovery of the unremedied security problems at the beginning of this book and then his trouble with restoring social justice in chapter five, and now the end of the book describes how, despite the attempts of the priest-scribe Esdras, given at the end of I Esdras, there was still intermarriage and mixed marriages in existence among the Jews. Chapter thirteen is all about controlling and eliminating the association of the Jews with the tribes surrounding them; this is the same way I Esdras also ended. This began with the prohibitions of the Law of Moses, but continued on to the illogic of the growing dispute with the Samaritans and the opposition of Jew and Gentile that marks even the New Testament, and still persists today. Nehemiah, for his several efforts, expects to be rewarded by God.

“Thus it was mine to rid Israel of the alien-born, to marshal priests and Levites for their due service, to plan the offering of wood at appointed times, and of the first-fruits. Not unremembered, my God, be all this, not unrewarded.“

II Esdras, 13: 30-31
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onward to Tobias →

Reading through S. Paul’s letter to S. Titus

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onward to Philemon →

Saint Titus, who is often grouped together with Saint Timothy, the bishop of Ephesus, was Saint Paul’s representative on the island of Crete. Titus was a disciple and companion of Saint Paul, and became the first bishop of Crete, during which ministry he must have received this letter from his old teacher. We know from Paul’s letters that Titus, besides being his companion, ran various errands for him as a sort of apostolic legate and diplomat, notably to the Church in Corinth. But here, in the letter, Titus is addressed as the bishop of Crete, with instructions to establish a body of clergy.

“If I left thee behind me in Crete, it was to put all in order, where order is still needed. It is for thee to appoint presbyters, as I enjoined, in each city, always looking for a man who is beyond reproach, faithful to one wife; one whose children hold the faith, not accused of reckless living, not wanting in obedience. A bishop, after all, since he is the steward of God’s house, must needs be beyond reproach. He must not be an obstinate or quarrelsome man, one who drinks deep, or comes to blows, or is grasping over money. He must be hospitable, kindly, discreet, upright, unworldly and continent. He must hold firmly to the truths which have tradition for their warrant; able, therefore, to encourage sound doctrine, and to shew the wayward their error.”

Titus, 1: 5-9

There was not much of a difference between priests and bishops in those days and Paul equates them here; differences were to emerge later on. Obviously the candidate for their common priesthood had to be prudent, well-behaved at all times, an example to the world, constant in faith and a lover of tradition, therefore able to correct those in error. Paul is particularly upon the warpath against certain Jewish-Christian teachers, who were intent on judaising gentile Christians, by insisting on circumcision, dietary regulations, and Jewish purity laws etc. for them, against the teaching of the Apostles.

“Be strict, then, in taking them to task, so that they may be soundly established in the faith, instead of paying attention to these Jewish fables, these rules laid down for them by human teachers who will not look steadily at the truth. As if anything could be unclean for those who have clean hearts! But for these men, defiled as they are by want of faith, everything is unclean; defilement has entered their very thought, their very consciences.”

Titus, 1: 13-15

Saint Paul’s advice for lay Catholics is similar to what we can be seen in the letters to Saint Timothy: they are to be sober, modest, temperate, teaching others by good example. Titus himself is to be their model and example in virtuous living, so that the enemies of the Church may find no ammunition against Christians. The call to holiness, to good living, to justice, etc. is universal and not simply to the Jews; so the Church is to show example, and so increase her number through encouragement and correction.

“The grace of God, our Saviour, has dawned on all men alike, schooling us to forgo irreverent thoughts and worldly appetites, and to live, in this present world, a life of order, of justice, and of holiness. We were to look forward, blessed in our hope, to the day when there will be a new dawn of glory, the glory of the great God, the glory of our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, to ransom us from all our guilt, a people set apart for Himself, ambitious of noble deeds. Be this thy message, lending all authority to thy encouragement and thy reproof. Let no man lightly esteem thee.”

Titus, 2: 11-15

The last third of the letter speaks of Christians being good citizens in the non-Christian society they find themselves in, joining honourable service, treating fellow-citizens with courtesy and with great patience, remembering that not long ago (before their conversions) they had partaken of the same errors. Through their good behaviour, the world would benefit. Those who refuse to be corrected are to be warned once, then twice and then completely ignored for it. That sounds pastoral enough for a bishop.

“Give a heretic one warning, then a second, and after that avoid his company; his is a perverse nature, thou mayest be sure, and his fault has been admitted on his own confession.”

Titus, 3: 10-11
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onward to Philemon →

Reading through the Book of Ezra (aka. Esdras I)

← back to second Chronicles
onward to Nehemiah →

Reading through the book of Haggai, we discovered a prophet who encouraged the Successor of David and the Successor of Zadoc the priest to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, when the Jews had arrived in Juda from exile in Babylon at the end of the sixth century BC, and had done their best to secure their homeland until the Roman period. The beginning of this restoration took place under the Persian king Cyrus II, who had permitted the Jews to return and had established the Successor of David, Zorobabel, as the ethnic governor of the province across the river that had Jerusalem as its centre. As we are told by also by the prophet Zacharias, this government was closely associated with the Temple high-priesthood, in the person of the first high-priest after the return, Josue son of Josedec. Two crowns, Zacharias had said. 

But where does Ezra come in? It seems clear that the return of Jewish groups from Babylonia to the Holy Land took place not all at once, but in multiple expeditions, every one authorised by the Persian authorities, whose documents were carefully carried over to function as securities. Often enough the Persian satraps, who governed the territory ‘west of the river (Euphrates)’ on behalf of the Persian emperor, reacted to these permissions and securities with anger and disbelief, probably dreading the reestablishment of a Jewish state, which would threaten the status quo of the time. If that sounds familiar, something similar to the harassment the Jews in the Holy Land suffered in Ezra’s day occurred in the twentieth century also; but in our day, the Jews were able to better defend themselves. However, to go back, Ezra would have led one expedition of people, some time after the arrival of Zorobabel and the high-priest Josue, who are not mentioned again in the Ezra narrative. Then, much later, Nehemiah would arrive to rebuild the defences of the Holy City. But that comes in a future post.

The book of Ezra, or I Esdras, begins with the command of the Persian emperor Cyrus (likely the one at the end of the book of Daniel) that the Jews may return and rebuild. Clan chieftains immediately prepare to leave, carrying with them priests and Levites, for the restoration of the Temple cult. By the command of the emperor, they also carried with them much gold and silver for the enrichment of the City and Temple and the old sacred vessels and appurtenances of the Temple which had been carried away into Babylonia seventy years earlier. All this was carefully recorded by the priests who received them into the Temple vault in Jerusalem:

“…now, at the orders of the Persian king Cyrus, Mithridates son of Gezabar must bring them out again, and give full account of them to Sassabasar, chief of the tribe of Juda. And this was the count made: gold trays thirty, and silver trays a thousand, knives twenty-nine, cups of gold thirty… baser cups of silver four hundred and ten… and a thousand other appurtenances; in all, of gold and silver appurtenances, five thousand four hundred. All these were taken back to Jerusalem by Sassabasar and the exiles who returned with him from Babylon.“

I Esdras, 1: 8-11

The second chapter gives lengthy lists of the families and leading men who returned to Jerusalem, some of them wealthy enough to make further donations to the Temple cult of their own funds. They also travelled with herds of animals, some transport animals, other designated for the sacrificial offerings at the restored Temple. Chapter three now introduce the successor of David as a principal of the clan chiefs, and alongside him the high-priest Josue as a principal of the levitical families. The great focus on genealogies demonstrates how important it was for the returning exiles that their local governor be of the dynasty of King David, their high-priest of the family of Zadoc, and their priests be of the house and family of Aaron the brother of Moses. There is also mention of the hostility of the neighbouring tribes, who initially prevented the rebuilding of the Temple, so that the regular sacrifices were made on an open-air altar, without the security of Temple and Temple precincts. Anyway, and at once, the Jews re-established the religious cycle of seasons and again observed the feast of Tabernacles.

“No more they dared to do, with hostile nations threatening them all around, than erect God’s altar on its ruined base; here, morning and evening, burnt-sacrifice was offered, and with that daily offering, with the due observance of each day as it came, they held the feast of Tent-dwelling. After that, burnt-sacrifice went on uninterruptedly, on the feast days set apart for the Lord, and on other days, too, when gifts were brought to the Lord out of devotion.”

I Esdras, 3: 3-5

Even in the midst of the refounding of the Temple and the re-establishment of the sacred rites, we hear the laments of the older men, who remembered the Temple that had been destroyed seventy years ago – this new one was probably far smaller and certainly far poorer than the one Solomon had built at the height of the power, wealth and acclaim of the Israelite kingdoms. So, joy was mixed with misery:

“Among the priests and Levites and chiefs of clans there were many older men who had seen the earlier temple when it stood built there. In their eyes, that was the Temple, and they cried aloud in lament, while these others shouted and huzza’d for joy. Shouts of folk rejoicing, and cries of folk lamenting, none could tell them apart; it was all a confused uproar of men’s voices, that echoed far away.”

I Esdras, 3: 12-13

All this was quickly brought to a halt by the regional government of the satraps who, as mentioned above, were surprised and annoyed with the attempt to restore Jerusalem. They were able to apply to a successor of Cyrus the Persian, Artaxerxes, and convince him that the Jews were a seditious people (chapter four) and that a new Jerusalem would create political problems. And so, the rebuilding programme was put on hold for several years, until a more favourable emperor, Darius, appeared. Then, the prophets Aggaeus and Zacharias began to push again for the rebuilding of the Temple. Chapter five presents the suit that the Jews in Jerusalem made to the emperor Darius, who promptly (chapter six) discovered Cyrus’ archived permissions for the restoration of Jerusalem and renewed the order. And so, in about 520 BC, the second Temple appeared on Mount Moriah:

“As for the elders of the Jews, they built on, and all went favourably; true prophets were Aggaeus and Zacharias son of Addo; higher and higher the fabric rose, with the God of Israel for its speed, with Cyrus for its speed, and Darius, (and Artaxerxes), kings of Persia. It was on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of king Darius, that they finished God’s house; great joy had priest and Levite, great joy had all the returned exiles, as they consecrated God’s house together.”

I Esdras, 6: 14-16

Adar was the last month of the year (roughly February), so the Temple was finished in time for the Passover in the first month, as the sixth chapter carefully documents. And all of that sets the scene for the Ezra (aka. Esdras) narrative, which begins by giving this respected priest and scribe (copier of the Torah) a genealogical line that establishes him as Levite and of the family of Aaron:

“This Esdras was descended through Saraias, Helcias, Sellum, Sadoc, Achitob, Amarias, Azarias, Maraioth, Zarahias, Ozi, Bocci, Abisue, Phinees and Eleazar from Aaron, that was the first priest of all. He was a scribe, well versed in the law given to Israel by the Lord God through Moses; and now he came from Babylon armed, under God’s favour, with all the powers he had asked from the king. Some of the common folk made the journey to Jerusalem with him, as well as priests, Levites, singers, door-keepers and Nathinaeans. This was in the seventh year of king Artaxerxes;”

I Esdras, 7: 1-7

If this Artaxerxes is the one whose rule began in 465 BC, Ezra arrived when the second Temple had long been standing. He too carried papers from the Persian king, commanding that the Temple cult be supported by the regional Persian government in Juda – Ezra also carried substantial amounts of gold and silver for the Temple vault (chapter seven), such as caused him to fear for the security of his group. But he shied away from requesting an armed escort, for he wanted to demonstrate the power of divine protection.

“There, by the Ahava river, I proclaimed a fast; we would do penance, and ask of the Lord our God a safe journey for ourselves, for the children who went with us, and for all that was ours. I would have asked the king for an escort of horsemen to defend us from attack, but shame withheld me; had we not boasted in the king’s presence that our God graciously protected all who had recourse to Him, that only faithless servants of his brought down on themselves the constraining power of his vengeance? So fast we did, to win the favour we asked of God, and all went well.”

I Esdras, 8: 21-23

The rest of chapter eight is about the arrival of this second group in Jerusalem and the carefully documented enrichment of the Temple. The rest of this book is concerned with the genealogical purity of the returned Jewish community. As commanded by the Law of Moses, the Jews should not have contracted marriage with non-Jews, and Ezra as scribe was aware not only of this law, but also of the quickly-discovered fact that many of the Jews had done just that in the decades since the first arrivals and the establishment of the Temple. Ezra was concerned that this would bring down renewed wrath upon the people:

“When all this was done, a complaint was brought to me by the chieftains, against priest and Levite and common folk alike. They had not kept themselves apart from the old inhabitants of the land, Chanaanite, Hethite, Pherezite, Jebusite, Ammonite, Moabite, Egyptian and Amorrhite, or from their detestable practices; foreign wives and daughters-in-law had contaminated the sacred stock of Israel, and the chief blame for this lay with the rulers and magistrates themselves. At this news I tore cloak and tunic both, plucked hair from head and beard, and sat there lamenting. Such as feared God’s warnings, defied by these restored exiles, rallied to my side; and still I sat lamenting until the time came for the evening sacrifice. Then, at the time of the evening sacrifice, I rose up from my posture of grief; cloak and tunic still torn about me, I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God. And thus I prayed: ‘O my God, I am all confusion, I am ashamed to lift my eyes towards thee; so deep, head-deep, are we sunk in the flood of our wrong-doing, so high, heaven-high, mounts the tale of our transgressions…'”

I Esdras, 9: 3-6

Clearly, ‘purity of stock’ had been an all-consuming concern among the diminished and exiled population, who were fearful of vanishing away into the nations. Intermarriage always waters down social customs and causes a breakdown of particular communities, and this would have been observed by the exiled communities – what we would today call the Jewish diaspora. But for those who had returned to Juda, that had ceased to be important, and the newer arrivals from the exile, like Ezra, were shocked by the existence of multiple cases of intermarriage. Chapter nine continues Ezra’s fearful prayer that this situation of intermarriage not bring further destruction. The final chapter records his success at getting the Jews to put away their foreign wives and families. And that’s the end of the book.

“Meet together they did, all the men of Juda and Benjamin, within the three days prescribed (that is, on the twentieth day of the ninth month), at Jerusalem. There they sat, a whole people, in the open space before the house of God, their spirits cowed by guilt, and by the rain that was falling. And the priest Esdras rose up and spoke to them. ‘There is guilt among you,’ he said; ‘by mating with aliens you have made the reckoning against Israel heavier yet. Confess your fault to the Lord God of your fathers, and obey His will; separate yourselves from the peoples that live around you, from the foreign wives you have married.’ At that, the whole multitude gave a loud cry, ‘At thy bidding it shall be done!'”

I Esdras, 10: 9-12

Note that he commanded them not only to leave their Gentile (non-Jewish) wives but to separate themselves from the peoples that lived about them. And just here, we see the origin of the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans were an indigenous people who had arisen from intermarriage between Israelites and non-Israelites, and who worshipped the Eternal God in the way that this had been done before the destruction of the Israelite kingdoms. However, they were now judged, post-Ezra, as being not Jewish, and so to be treated as pariahs by the Jews, who could alone be the heirs of the promise made to Abraham. We must note here that Our Lord Jesus Christ was particularly friendly to the Samaritans in the Gospel stories, when other Jews would have nothing to do with them, and that the Samaritans are among the first of the Gentile tribes to enter into the Church of Christ.

“And when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me some to drink.’ (His disciples were away in the city at this time, buying food.) Whereupon the Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘How is it that thou, who art a Jew, dost ask me, a Samaritan, to give thee drink?’ (The Jews, you must know, have no dealings with the Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If thou knewest what it is God gives, and Who this is that is saying to thee, Give me drink, it would have been for thee to ask Him instead, and He would have given thee living water.'”

Gospel of S. John, 4: 7-10

“…Philip came and preached to them about God’s kingdom. Then they found faith and were baptised, men and women alike, in the Name of Jesus Christ; and Simon, who had found faith and been baptised with the rest, kept close to Philip’s side; he was astonished by the great miracles and signs he saw happening. And now the Apostles at Jerusalem, hearing that Samaria had received the word of God, sent Peter and John to visit them. So these two came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, who had not, as yet, come down on any of them; they had received nothing so far except baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then the Apostles began to lay their hands on them, so that the Holy Spirit was given them…”

The Acts of the Apostles, 8: 12-17
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onward to Nehemiah →

Reading through the prophecy of Haggai (aka. Aggaeus)

← back to Zephanyah
onward to Zacharyah →

Anybody following these posts is familiar with the historical fact of the calamity that struck Jerusalem in 587 BC, when after several sieges the Holy City fell at last to the Chaldean hordes arriving from Babylon in Mesopotamia, and was utterly destroyed. The prophet Jeremiah, still alive as the City was levelled to the ground, promised the people that after seventy years rebuilding would commence. I have now reached the first of the Hebrew prophets who addressed the small band of Judaites (returning exiles from Babylon, also now called Jews) who had returned to Juda and Jerusalem seventy years later, to rebuild the Holy City and the Temple.

To this poor remnant of a once large people came the prophet Aggaeus (or Haggai) and, in this rather short remnant of his prophecies to the successor of David, Zorobbabel son of Salathiel, and to the Sadocite high-priest, Josue son of Josedec, he urges that the Temple be rebuilt. This would be the second Temple of Jerusalem (the first being Solomon’s), which would be later greatly enlarged and endowed by the Idumaean King Herod the Great, only to itself be destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. But here’s the beginning of that building, and it must be built! Or there is no blessing

“‘Listen,’ the Lord said to them through the prophet Aggaeus, ‘is it not too early yet for you to have roofs over your heads, and My Temple in ruins?’ Think well on it, says the Lord of hosts; here is much sown, and little reaped, nor eating brings you a full belly, nor wine a merry heart; such clothes you wear as leave you shivering, such wages win as leak out at purse’s bottom! Think well on it, says the Lord of hosts; up to the hill-side with you, fetch timber and restore My Temple, if content Me you will, the Lord says, if honour Me you will! So much attempted, so little attained; store you brought into your houses withered at My breath; would you know the reason for it? says the Lord of hosts. Because to your own houses you run helter-skelter, and My Temple in ruins!”

Aggaeus, 1: 3-9

The sad reality of this second Temple, now built at much less expense than the first and by so few people, and with no note about any of them being skilled artisans and craftsmen, was that their effort was nothing to compare with the glory of Solomon’s Temple. Herod’s time was still centuries in the coming and the people would have to make do with a poorer homage to the God of Heaven. Commiserations arrive through the prophet:

“To Zorobabel, and Josue, and all the people with them His word was: ‘Tell me, those of you who saw this house in its former brightness, what make you of it now? It is no better in your eyes than a very nothing. Take heart, Zorobabel; Josue, son of Josedec, take heart! And you, too, people of the land, the Lord of hosts bids you put heart into the work; is not He, the Lord of hosts, at your side?… the promise I gave when you escaped from Egypt; My own spirit shall be among you, do not be afraid.’ ‘A little while now,’ the Lord of hosts says, ‘and I mean to set heaven and earth, sea and dry land rocking; stirred all the nations shall be, hither shall come the prize the whole world treasures, and I will fill this Temple with the brightness of My presence,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘Silver or gold, what matters it?’ the Lord of hosts says. ‘Both are mine! Bright this new Temple shall be,’ He tells you, ‘as never the first was; here,’ He tells you, ‘His blessing shall rest.'”

Aggaeus, 2: 3-10

Encouragement indeed! This poor little building will nevertheless see a great thing. There is a the little Messianic prophecy hidden in the line that says that, when the nations (the Gentiles) have been stirred, the Prize that the whole world treasures, basically the Expected of the Nations, will arrive at the Temple Himself and the Temple will suddenly be filled with the brightness of the Presence of God. This text may be familiar from the liturgy of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple, on the second day of February. The people must have noted woefully that their poor effort did not have the silver and gold that their elders remembered of the Temple that had been destroyed seventy years previously. But God says, through Aggaeus, that gold and silver matters nothing to Him, for His blessing is of far greater value than those. Likewise, the meanest and humblest little church building in the world is therefore glorified by the sacramental presence of the Holy One.

There’s little else worth noting in this tiny Book of Haggai, except perhaps that this Zorobabel son of Salathiel is the last recorded descendant of King David that we have in the Old Testament. The rest of the descent is provided by the Apostle S. Matthew at the top of his Gospel. Note that Jechonias is another name for Joachin son of Joachim, who had been imprisoned in Babylon about ten years before Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 BC.

“And after the removal to Babylon, Jechonias was the father of Salathiel, Salathiel of Zorobabel, Zorobabel of Abiud, Abiud of Eliacim, Eliacim of Azor, Azor of Sadoc, Sadoc of Achim, Achim of Eliud, Eliud of Eleazar, Eleazar of Mathan, Mathan of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary; it was of her that Jesus was born, Who is called Christ.”

Gospel of S. Matthew, 1: 12-16

To this Zorobabel, ancestor of our Lord in the flesh, Aggaeus the prophet gives God’s solemn blessing:

“…royal thrones shall be overturned, and the power of Gentile kingdoms brought to nothing; overthrown they lie, chariot and charioteer, down come horse and rider, friend turning his sword against friend; but thou, son of Salathiel, says the Lord of hosts, thou, Zorobabel, art My servant still; on that day I will take thee to My side, keep thee there, close as signet-ring; it is a divine choice that has fallen on thee, says the Lord of hosts.”

Aggaeus, 2: 23-24
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onward to Zacharyah →

Reading through the second letter of S. Paul to S. Timothy

← back to first Timothy
onward to Titus →

Paul comes off brilliantly in this letter to Saint Timothy, the second one to that bishop of Ephesus that we have in the New Testament. This is certainly my favourite of all his surviving letters for its brevity and its completeness as a note of encouragement and instruction to Saint Timothy, his beloved disciple and son, whom he had himself ordained to the priesthood (laying on of hands).

“I keep the memory of thy tears, and long to see thee again, so as to have my fill of joy when I receive fresh proof of thy sincere faith. That faith dwelt in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice, before thee; I am fully persuaded that it dwells in thee too. That is why I would remind thee to fan the flame of that special grace which God kindled in thee, when my hands were laid upon thee.”

II Timothy, 1: 4-6

It is rather nice that Paul has kept in touch with Timothy’s family in Galatia, and remembers his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois by name. But Paul is here, at the end of his life, now being abandoned by people he trusted, especially following his imprisonment in Rome, which he constantly mentions in this letter. It must have been the result of fear of the brutality of the Romans that caused Paul’s supporters to flee. Or perhaps the old Jewish disgust for the Gentiles (non-Jews) Paul was bringing into the Church. But Paul’s faith in God remains strong, and he writes sadly about those he trusted but who had become unfriendly. 

“This is what I have to suffer as the result; but I am not put to the blush. He, to whom I have given my confidence, is no stranger to me, and I am fully persuaded that He has the means to keep my pledge safe, until that day comes. With all the faith and love thou hast in Christ Jesus, keep to the pattern of sound doctrine thou hast learned from my lips. By the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, be true to thy high trust. In Asia, as thou knowest, all have treated me coldly, Phigellus and Hermogenes among them.”

II Timothy, 1: 12-15

These were his first churches, in Asia, and it is sad that they no longer respected him. But his message continued to be a difficult one and the early Church was passing through a painful infancy, as the catholicity of the Church was still being established and there were rival (non-Apostolic) Christian teachers with different messages, busy causing confusion. Paul had mentioned such troubles in the other letter to Timothy that we have and in other letters we have, such as to the Galatians, and the second letter to the Corinthians. Paul warns Timothy to remain true to the Faith and to be prepared to suffer for it.

“Then, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus, take thy share of hardship. Thou art God’s soldier, and the soldier on service, if he would please the captain who enlisted him, will refuse to be entangled in the business of daily life; the athlete will win no crown, if he does not observe the rules of the contest; the first share in the harvest goes to the labourer who has toiled for it. Grasp the sense of what I am saying; the Lord will give thee quick insight wherever it is needed. Fix thy mind on Jesus Christ, sprung from the race of David, who has risen from the dead; that is the gospel I preach…”

II Timothy, 2: 3-8

Obviously, these rival teachers (see, for example, the ebionites) were challenging basic Christian teaching. Paul says that he himself has suffered for the Faith, and is prepared to do so until the end. Preach, he says, but don’t argue with many words, certainly without sophism; his message is simple, simply stated, and to be accepted on faith. He mentions another strange teaching that was also current among the Thessalonians: that the final resurrection of the dead has already come about. 

“Bring this back to men’s thoughts, pleading with them earnestly in the Lord’s name; there must be no wordy disputes, such as can only unsettle the minds of those who are listening. Aim first at winning God’s approval, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed of his work, one who knows how to handle the claims of the truth like a master. Keep thy distance from those who are bringing in a fashion of meaningless talk; they will go far to establish neglect of God, and their influence eats in like a cancer. Such are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have missed the true mark, by contending that the resurrection has come about already, to the overthrow of the faith in some minds.”

II Timothy, 2: 14

Timothy is to avoid the disputes and concentrate on a life of virtue and fellowship with Christians worshipping God with pure hearts. Rather than quarrelling, we are to be kindly and tolerant, making corrections gently and allowing God to mend the hearts of those who remain belligerent. Then he gives us a wonderful description of our own times, or rather of dissolute human society of all times. 

“Men will be in love with self, in love with money, boastful, proud, abusive; without reverence for their parents, without gratitude, without scruple, without love, without peace; slanderers, incontinent, strangers to pity and to kindness; treacherous, reckless, full of vain conceit, thinking rather of their pleasures than of God. They will preserve all the outward form of religion, although they have long been strangers to its meaning. From these, too, turn away. They count among their number the men that will make their way into house after house, captivating weak women whose consciences are burdened by sin; women swayed by shifting passions, who are for ever inquiring, yet never attain to recognition of the truth.”

II Timothy, 3: 2-7

Before this ongoing dissolution, how is a bishop to behave? He is to hold firm to the doctrine handed down by the Apostles, the religion he was schooled in from his youth, probably at school and especially with respect to Holy Scripture. 

“It is for thee to hold fast by the doctrine handed on to thee, the charge committed to thee; thou knowest well, from whom that tradition came; thou canst remember the holy learning thou hast been taught from childhood upwards. This will train thee up for salvation, through the faith which rests in Christ Jesus. Everything in the scripture has been divinely inspired, and has its uses; to instruct us, to expose our errors, to correct our faults, to educate us in holy living; so God’s servant will become a master of his craft, and each noble task that comes will find him ready for it.”

II Timothy, 3: 14-17

So, Timothy is to ceaselessly preach the Gospel, whether or not it is welcome to society, patiently drawing people to the Christian life. Meanwhile, society will appoint preachers and teachers that say the things that people want to hear. Paul’s work is now over (he is very near his martyrdom, this probably being his last letter), but Timothy will have to follow his model and suffer for the Gospel, and for the Church.

“It is for thee to be on the watch, to accept every hardship, to employ thyself in preaching the gospel, and perform every duty of thy office, keeping a sober mind. As for me, my blood already flows in sacrifice; the time has nearly come when I can go free. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have redeemed my pledge; I look forward to the prize that is waiting for me, the prize I have earned.”

II Timothy, 4: 5-8

But Paul is not quite done. He still has to suffer a cold prison and he calls for his warm cloak. He wants to continue to read and he calls for his books. He wants to see his friends one last time, and only Luke visits him continuously; so he calls for Mark. He sends his greetings to Prisca and Aquila, whom he had left in Ephesus. He wants to see Timothy himself again. And he sends greetings from the Roman Christians, mentioning Pudens (whose home in Rome can still be visited, for a church was built over it) and Linus (one of the first popes).

It’s a great letter. May Saint Paul pray for us, who suffer in different ways what he once did.

← back to first Timothy
onward to Titus →

‘Woe to the shepherds!’ (Sunday XVI of Ordered time)

We’ve come past the Sunday readings about prophecy in the last few weeks to a condemnation of false prophets and bad shepherds. There will always be false prophets and bad shepherds. There is a hint in the readings of the last few Sundays of professional prophet yes-men, who were basically secularised and happy to support the reigning political power, giving that power a seemingly divine assent. When this either counters the Law of God plainly, or fails to condemn injustice and idolatry when this is the ordinary experience of the people, then the false shepherds are guilty of leading the sheep astray. And whether or not we like to think of it, most people are like sheep, following various shepherds, be they politicians, thinkers or (in our days) celebrities of various types, even sporting celebrities.

And the true shepherds of the Church in the last sixty or seventy years have let us down severely. The several abuse scandals involving priests and Religious and the thousands of victims who have suffered are the result in only one part of a more general failure of the teaching and judicial authority of the Church, and also (by the way) of the secular government. So all these readings from the depths of Israelite history are very relevant to us. And when we hear the Hebrew prophet cry out, Woe to the shepherds!, don’t let us think that the warning was for a decadent society of the sixth century before Christ, which dared to claim that they were the people of God. The temptation to corruption is always present; the serpent from the garden is always curled around new trees, whispering into our ears that we don’t need God, that we can be gods on our own, that we are who we make ourselves, and so on.

“‘Out upon them,’ the Lord says, ‘the shepherds who ravage and disperse My flock, sheep of My own pasturing!’ This is the Lord’s word to the shepherds that guide His people: ‘You are the men who have dispersed My flock, driven it to and fro, and made no account of it; account you must give it Me,’ says the Lord, Israel’s God, ‘for all you have done amiss. Then will I reassemble all that is left of My flock, scattered over so many lands, and restore them to their old pasture-ground, to increase and grow numerous there; shepherds I mean to give them that will do shepherd’s work; fears and alarms shall be none to daunt them, and none shall be missing from their full count,’ the Lord says. ‘Nay, a time is coming,’ the Lord says, ‘when I will raise up, from the stock of David, a faithful scion at last. The land shall have a king to reign over it, and reign over it wisely, giving just sentence and due award. When that time comes, Juda shall find deliverance, none shall disturb Israel’s rest; and the name given to this king shall be, The Lord vindicates us.'”

Prophecy of Jeremiah, 23: 1-6 [link]

But the good news is that, when human shepherds fail, the Good Shepherd arrives. In the prophecy of Ezekiel (chapter 34) this is precisely what happens, and in this weekend’s first reading (above) the prophet Jeremiah, after condemning the Temple priesthood in the face of the looming destruction of the City and the people, also speaks of the arrival of the Good Shepherd, and in the distant future, Jeremiah sees the Virtuous Branch (‘faithful scion of the stock‘ above) of the line of David. The Hebrew word-root for ‘branch’ or ‘stock’ was ‘n-z-r,’ and in a small town in the Galilee a most pious family of the House of David would in a few hundred years take root. From them would come the Blessed Virgin and Christ the King, practising honesty and integrity. ‘Integrity’ is the opposite of hypocrisy, and involves speaking and acting according to one’s inner life of virtue. Part of that integrity in the shepherd is hard-work and dedication to the life of the sheep, and in the gospel story this weekend we find the seminary for Christian shepherds.

“And now the Apostles came together again in the presence of Jesus, and told Him of all they had done, and all the teaching they had given. And He said to them, ‘Come away into a quiet place by yourselves, and rest a little.’ For there were many coming and going, and they scarcely had leisure even to eat. So they took ship, and went to a lonely place by themselves. But many saw them going, or came to know of it; gathering from all the cities, they hurried to the place by land, and were there before them. So, when He disembarked, Jesus saw a great multitude there, and took pity on them, since they were like sheep that have no shepherd, and began to give them long instruction.”

Gospel of S. Mark, 6: 30-34 [link]

The men are exhausted, and Christ asks them to come away with Him for a bit of a retreat on the non-Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. But, in a bit of New Testament humour, even as they sailed from west to east, they could see the crowds of people they had left behind running around on the north shore to receive them on the other side. And, exhausted as they were, Christ and His Twelve recognised that where the Jerusalem priesthood had again failed they were to provide guidance according to the Law of God.

Let us pray always for our priests and bishops, because they are caught up continually in the cultures they live within and in the West today, that is a culture of anti-religion, anti-Christianity and secularism. It is inevitable that some priests should fall away in exhaustion and loneliness from the life of virtue they were called to, and bring ruin in their wake. Pray that our priests and bishops may be icons of the Good Shepherd, so that looking through them, we should see Him. And so, in accordance with the psalm we have at Mass this weekend, our bishops and priests may also guide us along the right path, be true to His Name and to their calling, causing us to fear no evil in the most desperate places, for we should be able to find the crook and the staff of the Good Shepherd in every circumstance, and it will be a comfort to us.

“The Lord is my Shepherd; how can I lack anything?
He gives me a resting-place where there is green pasture,
leads me out to the cool water’s brink,
refreshed and content.
As in honour pledged, by sure paths He leads me;
dark be the valley about my path,
hurt I fear none while He is with me;
Thy rod, Thy crook are my comfort.
Envious my foes watch,
while Thou dost spread a banquet for me;
richly Thou dost anoint my head with oil,
well filled my cup.
All my life Thy loving favour pursues me;
through the long years
the Lord’s house shall be my dwelling-place.”

Psalm 22(23) [link]

Reading through the prophecy of Sophonias (aka. Zefaniah)

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onward to Haggai →

At the tail-end of the Hebrew Bible, in the collection of the ‘minor’ prophecies, is the rather short prophecy of Sophonias, the prophet of the Remnant, the royal prophet of the family of David. Sophonias was apparently working in the reign of the good King Josias of Juda and ministering to the southern Judaite kingdom. In the midst of the brief prosperity of Juda under Josias, the prophet predicts the coming doom when the king will have gone to his final rest. It’s all, again, rather sad, for the king’s grandfather Manasses and his father Amon had apparently and inevitably brought divine vengeance upon the people. It was now a matter of time before the southern kingdom of Juda would be destroyed for its persisting idolatry.

“‘Fall to I must, and weed yonder plot of ground,’ the Lord says; rid it,’ says He, ‘of man and beast, of bird in air and fish under water; and down shall the godless come too, never a man left alive upon it. All Juda, all the citizens of Jerusalem, shall feel the stroke. Not a trace shall they leave behind, yonder gods of the country-side, acolyte and priest of theirs not a memory; forgotten, all that worship the host of heaven from the roof-tops, all that worship… take they their oaths to the Lord, or swear they by Melchom; forgotten, all that turn their backs on the Lord, and will neither seek nor search for Him.”

Sophonias, 1: 2-6

The doom of the neo-Babylonian empire erupting from Mesopotamia would encompass the whole of the Holy Land, reaching down into the south-west, to the coastal Gaza strip, which will eventually only hold the remnants of the Israelites, the majority of them being carried away into distant exile.

“Gaza and Ascalon to rack and ruin left, Azotus stormed ere the day is out, root and branch destroyed is Accaron! Out upon the forfeited race that holds yonder strip of coast-land; the Lord’s doom is on it, the little Chanaan of the Philistines; wasted it shall be, and never a man to dwell in it. There on the coast-land shepherds shall lie at ease, there shall be folds for flocks; and who shall dwell there? The remnant that is left of Juda’s race; there they shall find pasturage, take their rest, when evening comes, in the ruins of Ascalon, when the Lord their God brings them relief, restores their fortunes again.”

Sophonias, 2: 4-7

The prophet foretells the utter destruction of all the petty kingdoms in the region, and even of mighty Assyria herself, Nineve being left ‘forlorn, a trackless desert’ before the onslaught of this new Babylonian ascendancy. It seems as if the death sentence is already read, and we can probably already see that in the second book of Chronicles, where the sins of King Manasses are given as so manifestly abhorrent that there was no mercy left for Juda. All that is now left for the remnant of the people that will be left is to patiently suffer the destruction to come and await the restoration in the future. And this is where the book starts to sound a little Messianic:

“Hope, then, is none, till the day, long hence, when I will stand revealed; what gathering, then, of the nations, all kingdoms joined in one! And upon these, My doom is, vengeance shall fall, fierce anger of Mine shall fall; the whole earth shall be consumed with the fire of My slighted love. And after that, all the peoples of the world shall have pure lips, invoking one and all the Lord’s name, straining at a single yoke in the Lord’s service. From far away, beyond Ethiop rivers, My suppliants shall come to Me, sons of My exiled people the bloodless offering shall bring. No need, then, to blush for wayward thoughts that defied Me; gone from thy midst the high-sounding boast; no room, in that mountain sanctuary of Mine, for pride henceforward; a poor folk and a friendless I will leave in thy confines, but one that puts its trust in the Lord’s name.”

Sophonias, 3: 8-12

A purification of the people was therefore at hand, and this Remnant that is so often mentioned are those people who had placed their trust in God and not fallen into idolatry; they would survive the great tragedy to come. And thus the book ends on a note of encouragement. ‘Courage,’ says Sophonias, ‘for forgiveness will also come, for Emmanuel (God in our midst) will deliver you.’

“Break into song, fair Sion, all Israel cry aloud; here is joy and triumph, Jerusalem, for thy royal heart. Thy doom the Lord has revoked, thy enemy repulsed; the Lord, there in the midst of thee, Israel’s King! Peril for thee henceforth is none. Such is the message yonder day shall bring to Jerusalem: Courage, Sion! What means it, the unnerved hand? Thou hast one in the midst of thee, the Lord thy God, Whose strength shall deliver thee. Joy and pride of His thou shalt be henceforward; silent till now in His love for thee, He will greet thee with cries of gladness.”

Sophonias, 3: 14-17
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onward to Haggai →

Reading through the first letter of S. Paul to S. Timothy

← back to second Thessalonians
onward to second Timothy →

This most touching letter of Saint Paul to one of his first bishops, after Saint Timothy had been given the care of the See of Ephesus, provides a short series of counsels for an infant church, establishing basic practices and providing counsel to the new bishop and the priests under him. I should begin with Paul’s greeting to Timothy as to his own son, for although Timothy already was a Christian in Galatia when Paul met him, he became a close follower of Paul and his disciple even, and so there developed the father-son relationship of the priest to his people and later the bishop to his priests – a relationship that Paul cherished until his death. 

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the appointment of God our Saviour, and of Jesus Christ who is our hope, to Timothy, my own son in the faith; Grace be thine, and mercy, and peace, from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, as thou fulfillest the charge I gave thee, when I passed on into Macedonia, to stay behind at Ephesus.”

I Timothy, 1: 1-3

Paul had learnt, probably from a preceding letter of Timothy’s, that some gnostic elements had entered the Ephesian church, for he mentions the arrival of strange doctrines, legends and an obsession with genealogy, which seems to have been rivalling Christian doctrine, which was based on charity, sincerity and a purity of heart. 

“There are some who have missed this mark, branching off into vain speculations; who now claim to be expounding the law, without understanding the meaning of their own words, or the subject on which they pronounce so positively.”

I Timothy, 1: 6-7

That suggests to me Christians who thought they could interpret and speculate on the Law of Moses on their own, without any understanding of that Law or the guidance of the Apostles and their appointed elders. And in so far as they found themselves at odds with a Pharisee like Paul, even the Paul who had been given a particular mission to non-Jewish Christians, they were probably mistaken. And Paul had apostolic authority to fight against the corruptions with even corrective punishments, as he seems to have done in two particular instances. Being made over to Satan was likely a reference to what we today call excommunication. 

“This charge, then, I give into thy hands, my son Timothy, remembering how prophecy singled thee out, long ago. Serve, as it bade thee, in this honourable warfare, with faith and a good conscience to aid thee. Some, through refusing this duty, have made shipwreck of the faith; among them, Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan, till they are cured of their blasphemy.”

I Timothy 1, 18-20

Prophecy singled Timothy out? Probably one or more Christian prophets of the early church had indicated that this rather young man would be a potential priest and even bishop. One of his chief duties as bishop would be to organise communal prayer for all mankind, but especially the government, which was the guarantor of peace.

“This, first of all, I ask; that petition, prayer, entreaty and thanksgiving should be offered for all mankind, especially for kings and others in high station, so that we can live a calm and tranquil life, as dutifully and decently as we may. Such prayer is our duty, it is what God, our Saviour, expects of us, since it is his will that all men should be saved, and be led to recognize the truth; there is only one God, and only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is a man, like them, and gave himself as a ransom for them all. At the appointed time, he bore his witness, and of that witness I am the chosen herald, sent as an apostle (I make no false claims, I am only recalling the truth) to be a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles. It is my wish that prayer should everywhere be offered by the men; they are to lift up hands that are sanctified, free from all anger and dispute.”

I Timothy, 2: 1-8

There follow the now-controversial instructions about women dressing modestly in church, and keeping silence there, of women accepting a continual role of student/learner in the congregation. We might compare that requirement to that of many orthodox synagogues even today; I have seen it observed in one of those. Chapter three is a description of the ideal bishop/priest and the ideal deacon, according to Paul. In those days, there was no great difference between bishops and priests; that developed later. Paul then warns again about what I’m sure are more gnostic ideas. He counters by saying that the gifts of God, given for the enjoyment of mankind, are not to be rejected. 

“We are expressly told by inspiration that, in later days, there will be some who abandon the faith, listening to false inspirations, and doctrines taught by the devils. They will be deceived by the pretensions of impostors, whose conscience is hardened as if by a searing-iron. Such teachers bid them abstain from marriage, and from certain kinds of food, although God has made these for the grateful enjoyment of those whom faith has enabled to recognize the truth. All is good that God has made, nothing is to be rejected; only we must be thankful to Him when we partake of it, then it is hallowed for our use by God’s blessing and the prayer which brings it.”

I Timothy, 4: 1-5

And that is followed by a call to holiness, which is not beyond the reach of any of us, for which we must be prepared to suffer, hoping in God our Saviour. And then, here’s some wonderful personal instruction to the young bishop/priest, now called to be an ‘elder’ – one capable of giving instruction to the community in general:

“Do not let anyone think the less of thee for thy youthfulness; make thyself a model of speech and behaviour for the faithful, all love, all faith, all purity. Reading, preaching, instruction, let these be thy constant care while I am absent. A special grace has been entrusted to thee; prophecy awarded it, and the imposition of the presbyters’ hands went with it; do not let it suffer from neglect. Let this be thy study, these thy employments, so that all may see how well thou doest. Two things claim thy attention, thyself and the teaching of the faith; spend thy care on them; so wilt thou and those who listen to thee achieve salvation.”

I Timothy, 4: 12-16

That first bit sounds a little like, They will all call you Father and don’t let that bother you. And there also is our great ministry after the celebration of Holy Mass: reading, preaching and instruction. Paul even mentions Timothy’s priestly ordination (the imposition of hands), and asks him to look after both himself and the cultivation of the faith of the community. Chapter five contains practical advice about the administration of the goods of the Church, particularly with regard to the ministry of the care of widows and the remuneration of the priests in Timothy’s care, even warning that Timothy not ordain men as priests inordinately, and to be careful with whom he ordained, because there might be faults concealed. For the blame of bad priests is shared with the ordaining bishop, something we are reminded of every day.

“As for the imposition of hands, do not bestow it inconsiderately, and so share the blame for the sins of others. Keep thyself clear of fault. (No, do not confine thyself to water any longer; take a little wine to relieve thy stomach, and thy frequent attacks of illness.) Some men have faults that are plain to view, so that they invite question; with others, discovery follows upon the heels of enquiry; so it is, too, with their merits; some are plain to view, and where they are not, they cannot long remain hidden.”

I Timothy, 5: 22-25

The end of the letter contains a final set of warnings about good behaviour among Christian slaves (treat your masters well), the avoidance of vain preachers teaching their own ideas rather than the Christian Faith (the only result can be jealousy, quarrelling, recriminations and base suspicions), and the management of wealth (’empty-handed we came into the world, and empty-handed, beyond question, we must leave it’). From here we get the famous adage ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’

“Warn those who are rich in this present world not to think highly of themselves, not to repose their hopes in the riches that may fail us, but in the living God, who bestows on us so richly all that we enjoy. Let them do good, enrich their lives with charitable deeds, always ready to give, and to share the common burden, laying down a sure foundation for themselves in time to come, so as to have life which is true life within their grasp.”

I Timothy, 6: 17-19

And that is where he ends. Wouldn’t it have been great to have the full set of letters sent between him and Timothy – the whole conversation? As it is, the second letter to Timothy that we have in our Bibles is, I believe, much later in its composition, sent at a point where Paul was at the very end of his life. And I shall get around to that in a few days.

← back to second Thessalonians
onward to second Timothy →

Reading through the prophecy of Habacuc

← back to Nahum
onward to Zephanyah →

Today’s post is about the prophecy of Habacuc, another of the twelve minor prophets and a book that can be easily compassed in an hour. Poor Habacuc, being a good man, was spiritually oppressed by the wickedness around him in Judaite society – tyranny and robbery, legalism and contention, he says, and contravention of the venerable Law of Moses, evil men achieving their own ends at the expense of the innocent. This could be a complaint in our times also, for human nature doesn’t change, and corruption and injustice is always around.

“Must I nothing see but wrong and affliction; turn where I will, nothing but robbery and oppression; pleading at law everywhere, everywhere contention raising its head? What marvel if the old teachings are torn up, and redress is never to be found? Innocence by knavery circumvented still, and false award given!”

Habacuc, 1: 3-4

The reference to ‘old teachings’ I take to refer to derivations of the Law of Moses, and that seems to place Habacuc in history between the fall of the Assyrian kingdom that Nahum anticipated, and the growth in power of the neo-Babylonian empire that was centred in Mesopotamia by Chaldeans emerging from the north of Syria. A terrible people these Chaldeans, Habacuc says, but still merely an instrument of almighty God, likely to perish even as they proudly claim victory. And God would use them to humble His own people Israel, just as they had humbled several other nations and peoples in their conquest of the Holy Land.

“A grim nation and a terrible; no right they acknowledge, no title, but what themselves bestow. Not leopard so lithe as horse of theirs, not wolf at evening so fast; wide the sweep of their horsemen, that close in, close in from afar, flying like vultures hungry for their prey. Plunderers all; eager as the sirocco their onset, whirling away, like sand-storm, their captives. Here be men that hold kings in contempt, make princes their sport; no fortress but is a child’s game to such as these; let them but make a heap of dust, it is theirs. Veers wind, and he is gone; see him fall down and ascribe the victory to his god! But Thou, Lord, my God and all my worship, Thou art from eternity! And wilt Thou see us perish? Warrant of Thine they hold, take their strength from Thee, only to make known Thy justice, Thy chastening power!”

Habacuc, 1: 7-11

And now God declares that the just and honest will have built upon rock (sounds like a Gospel parable, this one), whereas those who doubt live in a toxic atmosphere, deceived as a drinker is deceived by strong drink, and as a tyrant (as the Chaldeans) is is deceived by false dreams of glory. These last will inevitably have fallen to the lowest depths, in their crime, rapine and usury, for Israelite or Chaldean, their victims cry out against them:

“Ill-gotten gains thou wouldst amass to deck that house of thine; make it an eyrie, too high for envious hands to reach? Nay, with this undoing of many peoples thou hast done thy own house despite, thy own life is forfeit; stone from ruined wall cries out against thee, and beam from gaping roof echoes the cry. City thou wouldst found, city’s walls build up, with deeds of bloodshed and of wrong? What, has not the Lord of hosts uttered His doom, toil of nations shall feed the fire, and all their labour be spent for nothing? It is the Lord’s glory men must learn to know, that shall cover the earth, flooding over it like the waters of the sea.”

Habacuc, 2: 9-14

Injustices do not bring glory to the one inflicting them, but shame and vengeance from the Just One. From Him they will receive sentence, with no help provided by their idols of wood and stone.

“And thy prayer was, stock and stone should wake up and come to thy aid, senseless things that cannot signify their will; nay, breath in their bodies have none, for all they are tricked out with gold and silver! And all the while, the Lord is in His holy temple. Keep silence, earth, before Him.”

Habacuc 2: 19-20

This last line is a prelude to the wonderfully poetic majesty with which Habacuc describes the advent of the vengeful God, arriving to right wrongs, an arrival that is reminiscent of those described by other prophets, and by David’s psalm 17(18).

“There stood He, and scanned the earth; at His look, the nations were adread; melted were the everlasting mountains, bowed were the ancient hills, His own immemorial pathway, as He journeyed… Earth is torn into ravines; the mountains tremble at the sight. Fierce falls the rain-storm, the depths beneath us roar aloud, the heights beckon from above; sun and moon linger in their dwelling-place; so bright Thy arrows volley, with such sheen of lightning glances Thy spear…

“And all this would be to the end of restoring the fortunes of Israel, duly disciplined and again faithful to God, to the ruin of the wicked and those who oppress the poor. The great vision of God in this little bit of poetry from chapter three ends with a lovely profession of faith – though all resources were to fail and life be at its last ebb, the prophet will continue to sing praises of God. As should we.

“What though the fig-tree never bud, the vine yield no fruit, the olive fail, the fields bear no harvest; what though our folds stand empty of sheep, our byres of cattle? Still will I make my boast in the Lord, triumph in the deliverance God sends me. The Lord, the ruler of all, is my Stronghold; He will bring me safely on my way, safe as the hind whose feet echo already on the hills.”

Habacuc, 3: 6, 9-11; 17-19
← back to Nahum
onward to Zephanyah →

Reading through the second letter of S. Paul to the Thessalonians

← back to first Thessalonians
onward to first Timothy →

Nearing the end of the preserved body of Saint Paul’s letters, we have the second letter to the Corinthians; this one’s again rather short, so let’s get right down to it. This is a follow-up to my little post on the first letter to the Thessalonians, which letter was slightly longer. The heart of this rather short letter is chapter two, which demonstrates two things about the Thessalonian Christians: that they expected the end of the world to be imminent, and that some of them had gone as far in this expectation as to leave off working, so that Paul had to scold them for it. 

I think we would recognise that a people that is terrified of something are easily led by frauds, people promising them deliverance. So, Paul warns his little flock, because the spirit of antichrist is at large. This antichrist constantly challenges the Christian message, in particular that God became incarnate as a particular man, in a particular time, and that that man died and rose from the dead. Here, Paul calls antichrist a rebel, who glorifies himself above the Holy One.

“Do not be terrified out of your senses all at once, and thrown into confusion, by any spiritual utterance, any message or letter purporting to come from us, which suggests that the day of the Lord is close at hand. Do not let anyone find the means of leading you astray. The apostasy must come first; the champion of wickedness must appear first, destined to inherit perdition. This is the rebel who is to lift up his head above every divine name, above all that men hold in reverence, till at last he enthrones himself in God’s temple, and proclaims himself as God.”

II Thessalonians, 2: 2-4

He speaks of apostasy, which seems to suggest that before the end of the world, there would be a Christian who would rebel against the Apostles – or their successors – to place himself above even the name of Christ, and call himself a god. How interesting. Paul goes on to say that this rebel must show himself first, before being destroyed by Christ. Before being destroyed, the rebel would use the power of the devil to produce signs and wonders, and so deceive other Christians. This would be permitted by God Himself, as a test:

“He will come, when he comes, with all Satan’s influence to aid him; there will be no lack of power, of counterfeit signs and wonders; and his wickedness will deceive the souls that are doomed, to punish them for refusing that fellowship in the truth which would have saved them. That is why God is letting loose among them a deceiving influence, so that they give credit to falsehood; he will single out for judgement all those who refused credence to the truth, and took their pleasure in wrong-doing.”

II Thessalonians, 2: 9-11

But Christians should stand firm by the traditions given them by the Apostles, and so weather the storm to come, together, supporting each other. Meanwhile, there was that problem about the people not working, and living as vagabonds:

“Only, brethren, we charge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to have nothing to do with any brother who lives a vagabond life, contrary to the tradition which we handed on; you do not need to be reminded how, on our visit, we set you an example to be imitated; we were no vagabonds ourselves. We would not even be indebted to you for our daily bread, we earned it in weariness and toil, working with our hands, night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you; not that we are obliged to do so, but as a model for your own behaviour; you were to follow our example. The charge we gave you on our visit was that the man who refuses to work must be left to starve. And now we are told that there are those among you who live in idleness, neglecting their own business to mind other people’s. We charge all such, we appeal to them in the Lord Jesus Christ, to earn their bread by going on calmly with their work.”

II Thessalonians, 3: 6-12

Vagabonds, please follow the example of Saint Paul, a hard worker, tirelessly running between the churches, supporting himself by the work of his own hands. I don’t think he really meant that anybody should starve. But he had to combat an idleness that seems to have settled upon some people. And he had to be severe.

Anyway, that’s about it.

← back to first Thessalonians
onward to first Timothy →

Reading through the prophecy of Nahum

← back to Micah
onward to Habacuc →

This will not take very long, for this is a short book. As I must have said in previous posts, there are twelve ‘minor’ prophets, contrasted in the length of their work that we have preserved to the major prophets, Isaias, Jeremias and Ezechiel. The language they use, though, is very similar to that of the major prophets, with whom they were often concurrent, such as Isaias and Osee (Hosea). Nahum the Elcesite is a prophet of the Justice of God, perhaps, for he begins with the words of divine vengeance, for God may forgive, but He does not necessarily forget, and punishment for the unrepentant sinner is inevitable, even if delayed. And it’s not here a vengeance directed at the People of God (for the Judaites were in favour with God during the reign of good King Ezechias) but against a foreign nation that had dared to insult the name of Almighty God. This had been done spectacularly by the Assyrian commander Sennacherib, as he approached Jerusalem in his pride (see IV Kings, chapter 18). Most of this book is then about the destruction of the Assyrian capital of Nineve, far to the north of Jerusalem and even Damascus.

“Here is one of thy number devising rebellion against the Lord, folly’s counsellor. But thus the Lord says: ‘Are they in full muster? At least there are over-many of them; they must be shorn of their strength. It will pass; once chastened is chastened enough, and now I mean to shatter that yoke of his that lies on thy back, tear thy chains asunder…'”

Nahum, 1: 11-13

The calamity approaching Nineveh may be seen therefore as retribution and divine justice for the attack on Juda, when Sennacherib (on his way to challenge Egypt) had besieged and taken Lachis, the greatest Judaite fortress town apart from Jerusalem. He would have taken Jerusalem too, if he hadn’t received bad news from Nineve and rushed back home, only to be slain there in a family dispute. Shortly afterwards, this power in the north would end and be replaced in its ascendancy by the neo-Babylonian power emerging from Mesopotamia. 

“Alas, for warriors of Nineve gone into exile, for maids of hers led away, that sigh and moan like ring-doves in the bitterness of their heart! Nineve, welcome sight as pools of water to the fugitive; stay, stay! But never a one looks back. Out with silver, out with gold of hers; store is here of costly stuff beyond price or reckoning! Roof to cellar rifled and ransacked! Sore hearts are here, and knees that knock together, loins that go labouring, and pale cheeks. Lair of lion, and nursery of his whelps, what trace is left of thee, once so secure a retreat, his haunt and theirs?“

Nahum, 2: 7-11

It does seem that this whole book is a letter to King Sennacherib, and it ends with a round condemnation upon him personally, for the destruction he and his predecessors had wrought on so many nations of people.

“Forgotten, the high lords, forgotten, the princelings, as they had been locusts, and brood of locusts, that cling to yonder hedge-row in the chill of morning, and are gone, once the sun is up, who knows whither? Gone to their rest thy marshals, king of Assyria; thy vassals lie silent in the dust; out on the hills the common folk take refuge, with none to muster them. Wound of thine there is no hiding, hurt of thine is grievous; nor any shall hear the tidings of it but shall clap their hands over thee, so long thy tyrannous yoke has rested on so many.“

Nahum, 3: 17-19
← back to Micah
onward to Habacuc →

Where prophets come from (Sunday XV of Ordered time)

We had a sentiment of prophecy in our readings last weekend, when it seemed evident that prophets are always sent, whether or not people listen to them. The directions of the Creator for right human living arrive in every time, whether or not the worlds receives them well. In our readings this weekend, we discover the humble origins of the prophets of Holy Scripture, and then we must think to ourselves where the prophets of today are to come from. In our first reading, we find the prophet Amos, one of the first (chronologically speaking) of the prophets whose records we have in our Old Testaments.

“…a message came to Jeroboam, king of Israel, from Amasias that was priest at Bethel. ‘Here is Amos,’ said he, ‘raising revolt against thee in the realm of Israel; there is no room in all the land for such talk as his; Jeroboam to die at the sword’s point, Israel to be banished from its native country!’ And this was his counsel to Amos, ‘Sir prophet, get thee gone; in Juda take refuge if thou wilt, and there earn thy living by prophecy. Prophesy here in Bethel thou mayst not, where the king’s chapel is, and the king’s court.’ ‘What,’ said Amos, ‘I a prophet? Nay, not that, nor a prophet’s son neither; I am one that minds cattle, one that nips the sycamore-trees; I was but tending sheep when the Lord took me into His service. It was the Lord bade me go and prophesy to His people of Israel. He has a message for thee: Thou wilt have no prophesying against Israel, no word dropped against Bethaven? Here, then, is the divine doom pronounced on thee: Wife of thine, here in the city streets, shall be dishonoured; sons and daughters of thine shall die at the sword’s point; lands of thine shall feel the measuring-rope. And for thyself, on unhallowed soil death awaits thee, when Israel is banished, as banished it needs must be, from the land of its birth.'”

Prophecy of Amos, 7: 10-17 [link]

In Amos’ time, the united kingdom of David and Solomon had been knifed down the middle and the more prosperous half – the northern kingdom, called Israel – had immediately fallen into idolatry and syncretism. Amos was sent by the Holy One from the southern kingdom of Judah, where the Temple still shone like a beacon in Jerusalem, to draw the people of the northern kingdom back to the religion of their ancestors. Or else, death and destruction awaited the people, as above. But in our reading today, the priest Amazyah (Amasias in the Greek) of the new religion in the Bethel attempts to evict Amos and send him home. Amazyah was probably a professional prophet and yes-man, one of those who told the northern king – here Jeroboam – what he wanted to hear. Amos replies, to say that he is himself not a professional, rather he is a shepherd and a sycamore-dresser, and it was through an ordinary worker of the land that the Holy One wished to speak.

There is a similar message in the gospel story we have today. The Twelve were a particular group of men chosen to draw the people to Christ, the Holy One now standing among them in the flesh. We know the professions of many of these Twelve – the leaders were almost all fishermen, and at least one of them was a former tax-collector, and the Lord Himself was a carpenter. Even if the profession of tax-collector was greatly despised, these were all ordinary Jews, and working people. They were not residents of Jerusalem, who had the ear of the Roman procurator, or the regional rulers, or even of the Temple priests. But here, Christ sends them out with the authority of the God of Israel, to the point of their being able to chase out devils that were tormenting poor souls.

“And now He called the Twelve to Him, and began sending them out, two and two, giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And He gave them instructions to take a staff for their journey and nothing more; no wallet, no bread, no money for their purses; to be shod with sandals, and not to wear a second coat. ‘You are to lodge,’ He told them, ‘in the house you first enter, until you leave the place. And wherever they give you no welcome and no hearing, shake off the dust from beneath your feet in witness against them.’ So they went out and preached, bidding men repent; they cast out many devils, and many who were sick they anointed with oil, and healed them.”

Gospel of S. Mark, 6: 7-13 [link]

That staff or walking stick sounds a little like a symbol of authority. Now here’s an interesting detail: He tells them not to take provisions for their preaching journeys: no bread, no haversack, etc. Just as He had once sent Amos out with nothing, He now sends these Twelve out with no product of their own work. How shall we read that?

Consider that at the very beginning, in Adam and Eve, we were properly dependent upon the Holy One. Then came pride, disobedience, and humanity seizing after independence from God. We thought we could be gods, too, and that was the original temptation of the serpent in the garden. In men like Noah and Abraham, God found a humanity that accepted the reality of human existence and was willing to submit to Him again, to live in dependence upon divine providence. ‘Go where I tell you,’ said God to Abraham, and Abraham said, ‘Very well, lead the way, my fate is in Your hands.’ Every prophet in later times also gave his or her life to God, and the prophet of God lives by the providence of God. We know from the stories of the Old Testament that men like Elijah were often destitute and fugitives, but they were brought food by birds and animals, and they found water by striking rocks in the desert by the divine command. The very origin story of Israel is a story of God drawing His chosen people out of prosperity in Egypt and into a wilderness, where their entire existence was entirely dependent upon Him.

The Twelve would also find the means of survival through the hospitality God would find them, or otherwise through divine providence. And if they didn’t receive the hospitality that heaven demanded, and were treated as Amos was, they would give the Jewish ultimatum of shaking the dust off their feet. In our own times, the message of the gospel is not welcome and we are not always received well. Ask a street preacher, and you will learn how many people are willing to even stop. And neither are the priests of Christ always welcome, and there must be a lot of shaking of dust off feet in some places. But, by the grace of God, we are not without support and sustenance, thanks to the generosity of the people of our parishes. Just as the Twelve were not permitted to carry sustenance, we too are forbidden by the Church authority to pursue any trade and support ourselves thereby, although most of us are well capable of doing so, as S. Paul once did in order to not trouble his young churches with donations to his mission.

And, speaking of S. Paul, let’s have a look at our rather long second reading this weekend, in which that early Christian prophet sings about the blessing that Christ has brought upon His Church, about the election of Christians to be holy and spotless and children of God by adoption, about the forgiveness we have received as a gift through the Blood of Christ, which makes us God’s own, stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit…

“Blessed be that God,
that Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who has blessed us, in Christ,
with every spiritual blessing, higher than heaven itself.
He has chosen us out, in Christ,
before the foundation of the world,
to be saints, to be blameless in His sight, for love of Him;
marking us out beforehand (so His will decreed)
to be His adopted children through Jesus Christ.
Thus He would manifest the splendour of that grace
by which He has taken us into His favour
in the person of His beloved Son.
It is in Him and through His blood
that we enjoy redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
So rich is God’s grace, that has overflowed upon us
in a full stream of wisdom and discernment,
to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will.
It was His loving design, centred in Christ,
to give history its fulfilment
by resuming everything in Him,
all that is in heaven, all that is on earth,
summed up in Him.
In Him it was our lot to be called,
singled out beforehand to suit His purpose
(for it is He who is at work everywhere,
carrying out the designs of His will);
we were to manifest His glory,
we who were the first to set our hope in Christ;
in Him you too were called,
when you listened to the preaching of the truth,
that gospel which is your salvation.
In Him you too learned to believe,
and had the seal set on your faith
by the promised gift of the Holy Spirit;
a pledge of the inheritance which is ours,
to redeem it for us and bring us into possession of it,
and so manifest God’s glory.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Ephesians, 1: 3-14 [link]

Reading through the first letter of S. Paul to the Thessalonians

← back to Colossians
onward to second Thessalonians →

On a typical map, we can see the geographical position of Thessalonika or Salonika, a natural port and harbour, and in a central position in the Greek mainland – a crucial city today, as it was in the days of Saint Paul. There was undoubtedly a large Jewish population there, with a synagogue and everything else. Paul was now part of a small missionary group with his tireless helper from Asia Minor, Timothy, who would later become bishop of Ephesus. And the third signatory of the letter is another missionary, Silvanus. The letter begins with Paul’s usual statement of affection for the new church he has built and nurtured through constant correspondence. Paul is gratified that they have been faithful to the teaching he had given them, and they have become co-workers with him in the evangelical mission:

“Our preaching to you did not depend upon mere argument; power was there, and the influence of the Holy Spirit, and an effect of full conviction; you can testify what we were to you and what we did for you. And on your side, you followed our example, the Lord’s example. There was great persecution, and yet you welcomed our message, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit; and now you have become a model to all the believers throughout Macedonia and Achaia.”

I Thessalonians, 1: 5-7

And they had sheltered Paul and his fellow apostles, whom they had thus found to be upright and humble men, who did not abuse the rights they had within the Church as Apostles. They had even conducted their own businesses, so as not to place any financial pressures on the young Thessalonian church; we know that this was Paul’s practice anyway, since he continued to work as a tent-maker during his missionary years.

“We never used the language of flattery, you will bear us out in that; nor was it, God knows, an excuse for enriching ourselves; we have never asked for human praise, yours or another’s, although, as apostles of Christ, we might have made heavy demands on you. No, you found us innocent as babes in your company; no nursing mother ever cherished her children more; in our great longing for you, we desired nothing better than to offer you our own lives, as well as God’s gospel, so greatly had we learned to love you. Brethren, you can remember how we toiled and laboured, all the time we were preaching God’s gospel to you, working day and night so as not to burden you with expense.”

I Thessalonians, 2: 5-9

It seems that Paul had always been torn between the desire to remain with the churches he had built for some prolonged period, or at least visit them frequently, and the desire to forge onwards to the creation of newer churches. But their freedom was frequently impeded by the circumstances, for Paul says at the end of this second chapter that he had planned a journey to Salonika, but ‘more than once Satan has put obstacles in our way.’ When such things happened, Paul would send somebody else out instead, and he mentions here that he sent Timothy instead to them, for pastoral support, bringing a full report back to Father Paul:

“That was my reason for sending him, when I could bear it no longer, to make sure of your faith; it might be that the tempter of souls had been tempting you, and that all our labour would go for nothing. Now that Timothy has come back to us from seeing you, and told us about your faith and love, and the kind remembrance you have of us all the while, longing for our company as we long for yours, your faith has brought us comfort, brethren, amidst all our difficulties and trials. If only you stand firm in the Lord, it brings fresh life to us.”

I Thessalonians, 3: 5-8

The security of the churches brought great comfort to Paul’s mind; he certainly had a fatherly concern for these people and for their personal holiness, although he had only recently met them, for he oftentimes claimed to have begotten them for God and called them his ‘little children.’ Chapter four contains the moral lessons of this letter, which is directed primarily towards adultery and fornication, which may have been a particular concern in Thessalonika.

“What God asks of you is that you should sanctify yourselves, and keep clear of fornication. Each of you must learn to control his own body, as something holy and held in honour, not yielding to the promptings of passion, as the heathen do in their ignorance of God. None of you is to be exorbitant, and take advantage of his brother, in his business dealings. For all such wrong-doing God exacts punishment; we have told you so already, in solemn warning. The life to which God has called us is not one of incontinence, it is a life of holiness, and to despise it is to despise, not man, but God, the God who has implanted his Holy Spirit in us.”

I Thessalonians, 4: 3-8

Even that mention of taking advantage of another in his business dealings is sometimes seen as indicating adultery with another man’s wife. There also seems to have been overmuch concern about the fate of those who had died, with much profuse lamentation, leading to Paul’s celebrated account of the ‘rapture,’ when God will claim His own; this section does not have to be taken literally, word for word, as many seem to do, although it does seem as if those who have died before the final coming of Christ will rise to their reward before those who will be living on that day:

“Make no mistake, brethren, about those who have gone to their rest; you are not to lament over them, as the rest of the world does, with no hope to live by. We believe, after all, that Jesus underwent death and rose again; just so, when Jesus comes back, God will bring back those who have found rest through him. This we can tell you as a message from the Lord himself; those of us who are still left alive to greet the Lord’s coming will not reach the goal before those who have gone to their rest. No, the Lord himself will come down from heaven to summon us, with an archangel crying aloud and the trumpet of God sounding; and first of all the dead will rise up, those who died in Christ. Only after that shall we, who are still left alive, be taken up into the clouds, be swept away to meet Christ in the air, and they will bear us company. And so we shall be with the Lord for ever.”

I Thessalonians, 4: 12-16

And Paul repeats the common Christian warning that would later be carefully placed into the Gospels for us: Christ will return suddenly, without warning, so we’d best be ready! Sleepers awake, etc.

“…the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It is just when men are saying, ‘All quiet, all safe,’ that doom will fall upon them suddenly, like the pangs that come to a woman in travail, and there will be no escape from it. Whereas you, brethren, are not living in the darkness, for the day to take you by surprise, like a thief; no, you are all born to the light, born to the day; we do not belong to the night and its darkness. We must not sleep on, then, like the rest of the world, we must watch and keep sober; night is the sleeper’s time for sleeping, the drunkard’s time for drinking; we must keep sober, like men of the daylight.”

I Thessalonians, 5: 2-8

Meanwhile, Christians are to esteem in particular the clergy among them, their spiritual directors, and generally support one another in the faith, being singular in patience.

“Go on, then, encouraging one another and building up one another’s faith. Brethren, we would ask you to pay deference to those who work among you, those who have charge of you in the Lord, and give you directions; make it a rule of charity to hold them in special esteem, in honour of the duty they perform, and maintain unity with them. And, brethren, let us make this appeal to you; warn the vagabonds, encourage the faint-hearted, support the waverers, be patient towards all.”

I Thessalonians, 5: 11-14

The rest of the letter consists of one line instructions that we would even today make to one another: do the best for your neighbour, always be joyful, keep praying, thank God always, may He bless and sanctify you, pray for the bishops, etc.

And that, with some things passed over, is the substance of the first letter to the Thessalonians.

← back to Colossians
onward to second Thessalonians →

Reading through the prophecy of Micah (aka. Michaeas)

← back to Jonah
onward to Nahum →

These short books of the ‘minor’ prophets have a common theme: idolatry has wrested the promise of the Holy Land from the tribes of Israel, and God is utterly fed up with them. But the prophets tend to end on a hopeful note: the terror to come is now inevitable, but one day the people will be restored. Michaeas was a Judaite prophet and a contemporary of the greater and more famous Judaite prophet Isaias, and he used some of the same texts that Isaias used, and I’ll put some of that in this post. It’s all beautiful material, mostly statements of faith. And Michaeas has his own character, different from Amos and Hosea, who went before him. Let’s begin with the great accusation against primarily the northern kingdom of Israel, which had introduced Egyptian-style pagan worship under the very first king Jeroboam I. This was inevitably carried down as a contagion into the southern kingdom of Juda, leading to the fall of those people too into idolatry. 

“See, where the Lord comes out from His dwelling-place; and, as He makes His way down, the topmost peaks of earth for His stairway, melt hills at His touch, melt valleys like wax before the fire, like water over the steep rocks flowing away! Alas, what betokens it? What but Jacob’s going astray, what but guilt of Israel’s line? Head and front of Jacob’s sinning Samaria needs must be, sure as Jerusalem is Juda’s place of pilgrimage. In ruin Samaria shall lie, a heap of stones in the open country-side, a terrace for vineyards; all down yonder valley I will drag the stones of her, till her very foundations are laid bare. Shattered all those idols must be, burnt to ashes the gauds she wears; never an image but shall be left forlorn; all shall go the way of a harlot’s wages, that were a harlot’s wages from the first.”

Michaeas, 1: 3-7

The talk of the harlot is meant to say, as with Amos, that God has taken the aspect of a jilted husband, whose wife (Israel) is prostituting herself to the Chanaanite gods – that is, she has joined to her worship of the one God a simultaneous worship of other deities. The people have been hedging their bets in their pursuit of well-being and prosperity, trying to please a variety of gods. And, naturally, with the new theologies of the gentile religions come different moral philosophies, so that the people had fallen away further and further from the righteousness desired by God in the Torah (love God, love your neighbour). In return for this, they will face God’s wrath:

“Out upon you, that lie awake over dreams of mischief, schemes of ill, and are up at dawn of day to execute them, soon as your godless hands find opportunity! Covet they house or lands, house or lands by robbery become theirs; ever their oppression comes between a man and his home, a man and his inheritance. And I, too, the Lord says, am devising mischief, mischief against the whole clan of you; never think to shake it off from your necks and walk proudly as of old; ill days are coming.”

Michaeas, 2: 1-3

And, of course, the court prophets that surround the Israelite king only foretell good things for the kingdom, for the People of God. God is with them, etc. Prophets like Michaeas are troublesome for their foretelling doom to come upon the people. After a round condemnation in chapter two, Michaeas gives a nice slap in the face to such yes-men and false prophets.

“And this message the Lord has for prophets that guide My people amiss, prophets that must have their mouths filled ere they will cry, ‘All’s well;’ sop thou must give them, else thou shalt be their sworn enemy. Visions would you see, all shall be night around you, search you the skies, you shall search in the dark; never a prophet but his sun is set, his day turned into twilight! Seers that see nothing, baffled diviners, acknowledge they, finger on lip, word from God is none. But here stands one that is full of the Lord’s spirit; vigour it lends me, and discernment, and boldness, fault of Jacob to denounce, guilt of Israel to proclaim.”

Michaeas, 3: 5-8

That last sentence is the voice of Michaeas, perhaps as full of the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were on Pentecost day. He proceeds to scold the kings and princes of both Juda and Samaria for their injustice, the judges for their corruption, all the while claiming to be protected by God, on account of His promises to the Patriarchs and to Moses. And the great Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem would fall too, the prophet moaned. And then he uses identical verses to the great prophet Isaias, proclaiming the eventual restoration of the promise to King David and the arrival of the Gentile people into the ancient promise. This portion is comparable – if not identical – to the second chapter of the book of Isaias:

“The Temple hill! One day it shall stand there, highest of all the mountain-heights, overtopping the peaks of them, and the nations will flock there together. A multitude of peoples will make their way to it, crying, ‘Come, let us climb up to the Lord’s mountain-peak, to the house where the God of Jacob dwells; He shall teach us the right way, we will walk in the paths He has chosen.’ The Lord’s command shall go out from Sion, His word from Jerusalem; over thronging peoples He shall sit in judgement, give award to great nations from far away. Sword they will fashion into ploughshare and spear into pruning-hook; no room there shall be for nation to levy war against nation, and train itself in arms. At ease you shall sit, each of you with his own vine, his own fig-tree to give him shade, and none to raise the alarm; such blessing the Lord of hosts pronounces on you. Let other nations go their own way, each with the name of its own god to rally it; ours to march under His divine name, who is our God for ever and for evermore! ‘When that time comes,’ the Lord says, ‘I will gather them in again and take them to Myself, flock of Mine that go limping and straggling, ever since I brought calamity on them; lame shall yet be a stock to breed from, and way-worn shall grow into a sturdy race; here in Sion they shall dwell, and the Lord be King over them, for ever henceforward. And thou, the watch-tower of that flock, cloud-capped fastness where the lady Sion reigns, power shall come back to thee as of old, once more Jerusalem shall be a queen.'”

Michaeas, 4: 1-8

What a beautiful dream! Peace and prosperity, atonement with God and the glory of Jerusalem: food for the Messianic expectations of the future. But alas, great turmoil should precede it, and all on account of the infidelity of princes and people. And then, hidden in chapter five is this little gem used by Saint Matthew in his Gospel (Gospel of Matthew, 2: 6).

“Bethlehem-Ephrata! Least do they reckon thee among all the clans of Juda? Nay, it is from thee I look to find a prince that shall rule over Israel. Whence comes he? From the first beginning, from ages untold! Marvel not, then, if the Lord abandons His people for a time, until she who is in travail has brought forth her child; others there are, brethren of his, that must be restored to the citizenship of Israel. Enabled by the Lord his God, confident in that mighty protection, stands he, our shepherd, and safely folds his flock; fame of him now reaches to the world’s end; who else should be its hope of recovery?”

Michaeas, 5: 2-5

Who indeed will restore the nation but He Who is to come, the Desired of the nations? Here we begin to see the origins of the concepts of the Messiah as Shepherd, Prince, King, etc. These are used later by Christ to describe His own ministry to the people. But again, this is far in the future. Ruin must come first. But first, the people must have their chance to stand trial: what God had wanted was religion accompanied by morality, and what He got was superficial religion (animal sacrifices) and wickedness:

“Listen to this message I have from the Lord: Up, and to the mountains make thy complaint, let the hill-sides echo with thy voice! Listen they must, yonder sturdy bastions of earth, while the Lord impleads His people; Israel stands upon its trial now. Tell me, My people, what have I done, that thou shouldst be a-weary of Me? Answer Me. Was it ill done, to rescue thee from Egypt, set thee free from a slave’s prison, send Moses and Aaron and Mary to guide thee on thy way? Bethink thee, what designs had Balach, king of Moab, and how Balaam the son of Beor answered him … from Setim to Galgala; and canst thou doubt, then, the faithfulness of the Lord’s friendship? How best may I humble myself before the Lord, that is God most high? What offering shall I bring? Calf, think you, of a year old, for my burnt-sacrifice? Fall rams by the thousand, fattened buck-goats by the ten thousand, will the Lord be better pleased? Shall gift of first-born for wrong-doing atone, body’s fruit for soul’s assoiling? Nay, son of Adam, what need to ask? Best of all it is, and this above all the Lord demands of thee, right thou shouldst do, and ruth love, and carry thyself humbly in the presence of thy God.”

Michaeas, 6: 1-8

Again, there are echoes here of Psalms 49(50) and 50(51). God doesn’t desire simply animal sacrifices; what He wants is a humble and a contrite heart, and the sacred rites of religion are tokens of that. Having one without the other leads to hypocrisy. And then the beautiful ending of Micah’s prophecy – the ingathering of the people – when all will be made new again. It makes even me feel hopeful for our own dismal days.

“With that staff of thine gather thy people in, the flock that is thy very own, scattered now in the forest glades, with rich plenty all around them; Basan and Galaad for their pasture-grounds, as in the days of old. Now for such wondrous evidences of power as marked thy rescuing of them from Egypt! Here is a sight to make the Gentiles hold their valour cheap, stand there dumb; ay, and why not deaf too? Let them lick the dust, serpent-fashion, crawl out from their homes, like scared reptiles, in terror of the Lord our God; much cause they shall have to fear Him. Was there ever such a God, so ready to forgive sins, to overlook faults, among the scattered remnant of His chosen race? He will exact vengeance no more; He loves to pardon. He will relent, and have mercy on us, quashing our guilt, burying our sins away sea-deep. Thou wilt keep Thy promise to Jacob, shew mercy to Abraham, Thy promised mercies of long ago.”

Michaeas, 7: 14-20
← back to Jonah
onward to Nahum →

Reading through S. Paul’s letter to the Colossians

← back to Philippians
onward to first Thessalonians →

This is a rather short letter and thankfully without any sign of the politics that had arisen in several of the other churches of the time, such as those of the Galatians and the Corinthians, because of other Christian missionaries presenting a rivalry to Paul’s message with their attempts to initiate the new gentile Christians into Judaism. But the ghost of that problem still haunts even this letter, for Paul in the second chapter reminds the people that physical circumcision is not necessary for those who are spiritually circumcised. Colossae (of Phrygia in Asia Minor) was not a church built by Paul, although he seems to have corresponded with her by letter. He seems to have been familiar with the Christians there, for he mentions a Colossian catechist (and possible priest) called Epaphras who had spoken to Paul about the Colossians.

We could begin with the nice little christological prayer-poem that is inserted in the first chapter, which provides a short catechesis about the Person of Christ:

“Our prayer is, that you may be filled with that closer knowledge of God’s Will which brings all wisdom and all spiritual insight with it. May you live as befits His servants, waiting continually on His pleasure; may the closer knowledge of God bring you fruitfulness and growth in all good. May you be inspired, as His glorious power can inspire you, with full strength to be patient and to endure; to endure joyfully, thanking God our Father for making us fit to share the light which saints inherit, for rescuing us from the power of darkness, and transferring us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. In the Son of God, in His blood, we find the redemption that sets us free from our sins. He is the true likeness of the God we cannot see; His is that first birth which precedes every act of creation. Yes, in Him all created things took their being, heavenly and earthly, visible and invisible; what are thrones and dominions, what are princedoms and powers? They were all created through Him and in Him; He takes precedency of all, and in Him all subsist. He too is that Head whose body is the Church; it begins with Him, since His was the first birth out of death; thus in every way the primacy was to become His. It was God’s good pleasure to let all completeness dwell in Him, and through Him to win back all things, whether on earth or in heaven, into union with Himself, making peace with them through His blood, shed on the cross.“

Colossians, 1: 9-20

All of this means incorporation into Christ and through Christ into God; it implies that we must be thoroughly grounded in the Faith. And Paul mentions the rather Catholic idea of ‘offering up’ our sufferings to God. If Paul can do that, then so can we: 

“Even as I write, I am glad of my sufferings on your behalf, as, in this mortal frame of mine, I help to pay off the debt which the afflictions of Christ still leave to be paid, for the sake of His body, the Church.”

Colossians, 1: 24

And all this in the first chapter is Paul’s statement of faith, and his proclamation of Christ, the prelude to his demand for perfection among the Christians, to the ordering of their lives according to the traditions they had received. The Faith is rather simple, he says, and they shouldn’t allow it to be complicated by the sophisms of human traditions. At this point, Paul plays the poet again, as he describes how the Church has moved beyond the practices of the Law of Moses – physical circumcision, the liturgical festivals of the Hebrews, etc. are all superceded by Christ and so are now meaningless:

“In Christ the whole plenitude of Deity is embodied, and dwells in Him, and it is in Him that you find your completion; He is the fountain head from which all dominion and power proceed. In Him you have been circumcised with a circumcision that was not man’s handiwork. It was effected, not by despoiling the natural body, but by Christ’s circumcision; you, by baptism, have been united with His burial, united, too, with His resurrection, through your faith in that exercise of power by which God raised Him from the dead. And in giving life to Him, He gave life to you too, when you lay dead in your sins, with nature all uncircumcised in you. He condoned all your sins; cancelled the deed which excluded us, the decree made to our prejudice, swept it out of the way, by nailing it to the cross; and the dominions and powers he robbed of their prey, put them to an open shame, led them away in triumph, through Him. So no one must be allowed to take you to task over what you eat or drink, or in the matter of observing feasts, and new moons, and sabbath days; all these were but shadows cast by future events, the reality is found in Christ.“

Colossians, 2: 9-15

God, in Christ, has cancelled out many of the demands of the Hebrew Law, which Law had excluded the non-Jewish gentiles from the promises that He had made to mankind; the overriding of several of the commandments of the Law and allowing the excluded to approach the holiness of God had robbed the dominions and powers (read ‘devils’) of these gentiles souls. Do note that he’s not referring to the moral law of the Hebrews, because the requirement of charity towards God and towards man that is intrinsic to the Christian observance at the heart of the Gospel continues. That means the Ten Commandments and all associated with them and the charity/love that governs them remain, but the exclusivity with traditions like circumcision is done away with.

So, let whoever wants to continue to observe the Jewish feasts and fasts, the various minutiae of the prescriptions of the Law of Moses and so on, but the Colossian Christians are to allow such things to be imposed upon them. The Christian is risen with Christ, above these earthly-minded customs and traditions, and they must also be beyond the sins that were so common to the pagan society surrounding them, instead putting on Christ as a garment, taking on His character, giving birth to a unity that transcends race and kind:

“You must deaden, then, those passions in you which belong to earth, fornication and impurity, lust and evil desire, and that love of money which is an idolatry. These are what bring down God’s vengeance on the unbelievers, and such was your own behaviour, too, while you lived among them. Now it is your turn to have done with it all, resentment, anger, spite, insults, foul-mouthed utterance; and do not tell lies at one another’s expense. You must be quit of the old self, and the habits that went with it; you must be clothed in the new self, that is being refitted all the time for closer knowledge, so that the image of the God who created it is its pattern. Here is no more Gentile and Jew, no more circumcised and uncircumcised; no one is barbarian, or Scythian, no one is slave or free man; there is nothing but Christ in any of us. You are God’s chosen people, holy and well beloved; the livery you wear must be tender compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; you must bear with one another’s faults, be generous to each other, where somebody has given grounds for complaint; the Lord’s generosity to you must be the model of yours. And, to crown all this, charity; that is the bond which makes us perfect.”

Colossians 3: 5-14

Also in chapter three come the instructions to families, to spouses and children, that are so much a part of catechesis even today, but are controversial in current society, because of the language used in the relationship between spouses. But the Church was always far ahead of its time in the mutual affection that she demanded of Christians spouses. Mutual affection. Husbands, love your wives; wives, love your husbands… and then, there is the instruction for slaves and masters. Faced with a slavery-based social situation, such as that of the time, Paul was asking his Christians to be the most virtuous, most diligent that they could be in their secular tasks.

“Wives must be submissive to their husbands, as the service of the Lord demands; and you, husbands, treat your wives lovingly, do not grow harsh with them. Children must be obedient to their parents in every way; it is a gracious sign of serving the Lord; and you, parents, must not rouse your children to resentment, or you will break their spirits. You who are slaves, give your human masters full obedience, not with that show of service which tries to win human favour, but single-mindedly, in fear of the Lord. Work at all your tasks with a will, reminding yourselves that you are doing it for the Lord, not for men; and you may be sure that the Lord will give the portion he has allotted you in return”

Colossians 3: 18-24

Far from approving of slavery then, Paul was simply acknowledging an existing social structure and moving the centre of interest towards Christ, and this is a rather christo-centric letter from the beginning to the end. Paul ends this section by saying that, after everybody has behaved well, he will be rewarded appropriately by God, for God has no human preferences when he deals out judgement for good and evil. Meanwhile, we are to be prayerful, thankful in prayer, awaiting opportunities to spread the Gospel, while being prudent and respectful about it: 

“Be prudent in your behaviour towards those who are not of your company; it is an opportunity you must eagerly grasp. Your manner of speaking must always be gracious, with an edge of liveliness, ready to give each questioner the right answer.”

Colossians 4: 5-6

The last part of the letter draws various influential characters of the Church of that time together in a delightful way. There is Tychicus, who was mentioned also in the letter to the Ephesians; there is Onesimus, who was that slave of Philemon, regarding whom Paul wrote that short letter to Philemon; there is John Mark, cousin of Saint Barnabas, whom we know as Saint Mark, the author of one of our Gospels; and there is Saint Luke, here called the Physician, close friend of Paul’s and known to us through his Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles.

And that’s the end of this review.

← back to Philippians
onward to first Thessalonians →

‘Whether or not they listen…’ (Sunday XIV of Ordered time)

I have switched the word ‘ordinary’ permanently to ‘ordered’ on the website, when referring to the green Sundays of this part of the year. That’s the real intimation of the word, as I see it: the Sundays counting down to the end of the year and the season of Advent.

This weekend, we have very much about the nature of prophecy in the life of the sacred people. Prophecy is nothing but the communication of the mind of God to a people who cannot easily receive it; the prophet consequently becomes a mediator between the Holy One and the people He wishes to communicate with. Prophecy has very much to do with correcting the usual course of human life, by urging people to reconsecrate it repeatedly to the Holy One, by reorienting it towards Him. The essence of the perennial nature of the prophecy contained within Scripture and of its applicability to our lives is that human nature doesn’t change and human society as a whole (rather than progressing according to a common understanding) keeps oscillating between success and failure, and between good behaviour and bad behaviour. This cyclic nature in the life of human society is marvellously demonstrated in the life of the Hebrew nation in the Old Testament, and its extension in the life of the Christian Church in the last two millennia.

“And at His words, a divine force mastered me, raising me to my feet, so that I could listen to Him. ‘Son of man,’ He told me, ‘I am sending thee on an errand to the men of Israel, this heathen brood that has rebelled and forsaken Me; see how My covenant has been violated by the fathers yesterday, the children to-day! To brazen-faced folk and hard-hearted thy errand is, and still from the Lord God a message thou must deliver, hear they or deny thee hearing; rebels all, at least they shall know that they have had a prophet in their midst.”

Prophecy of Ezechiel, 2: 2-5 [link]

The prophet Ezechiel was a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah, about 600 years before Christ, but while Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem, trying hard to convince the king of Juda and the authorities of the Temple to repent and return to the observance of the Law of God, and to trust in His providence, Ezechiel had been carried away with thousands of Hebrews to Mesopotamia and had to deal with the same obstinacy and intransigence there in the Exile. Prophets in both the Old Testament and in our own times have to raise their voice and call the people back to faith and trust in God, but the bottom line of our first reading this weekend remains: the majority of the people will not listen and will continue on down the path to utter destruction, but that will not be for the lack of prophets. They shall know that that man or that woman had stood among them and had been right all along, but had been ignored. Society’s downfall is wrought by its members, after they despised the correction sent them.

So, then, who is a prophet? In our own context, a prophet is not necessarily a cleric, a priest or a bishop. Nor is the role of a prophet a designated place of honour within the community. We are all prophetic souls – this gift was given to us at baptism – and we are meant to carry the mind of God from Scripture and Tradition and bring its to bear on whosoever may benefit from it, enshrining His law in the hearts of our family members, our friends, and in the wider society. This requires a particular nearness to God, which includes a life of intense and dedicated prayer and devotion. And it requires a very strong dose of humility, for the prophet works to glorify God and not himself or herself.

The most well-known prophets in the recent history of the Church have often been cloistered nuns like S. Margaret Marie Alocoque and S. Thérèse of Lisieux, or Religious Sisters like S. Maria Faustyna Kowalska – and their ministries, originating in the quiet of devout souls, have deeply changed and fuelled the general life of devotion of the Latin Church. Great bishops and priests like S. Alphonsus Liguori, Padre Pio and the media priest Monsignor Fulton Sheen have become household names among Catholics and impressed and encouraged us with their lives of holiness and words of wisdom. But during their own lifetimes, they were often ignored, and their message to some degree despised.

It’s even harder when the prophet tries to work among his or her own people and within the community he or she emerged from. It’s a little like the story in the gospel, where the Holy One couldn’t even work miracles in His own town, because nobody could trust their carpenter’s son to perform the works of God, or indeed to be a prophet from God.

“Then He left the place, and withdrew to His own country-side, His disciples following Him. Here, when the sabbath came, He began teaching in the synagogue, and many were astonished when they heard Him; ‘How did He come by all this?’ they asked. ‘What is the meaning of this wisdom that has been given Him, of all these wonderful works that are done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Do not His sisters live here near us?’ And they had no confidence in Him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘It is only in his own country, in his own home, and among his own kindred, that a prophet goes unhonoured.’ Nor could He do any wonderful works there, except that He laid His hands on a few who were sick, and cured them; He was astonished at their unbelief.”

Gospel of S. Mark, 6: 1-6 [link]

This may be the reason why bishops don’t always assign priests to the parishes they were born in, or grew up in, or both. It is easier for those who have known the prophet before the divine call was received to belittle him or her, and to discount the message – our Lord suffered this just as before him Jeremiah and Ezechiel did. But, although the people disregard the prophet, they will know that they didn’t lack that prophet, and the movement that follows the prophet will not let them forget.

But, from the perspective of the prophet, getting the message about is the priority, and not any glory the prophet may receive from the effort made. Pride is to be avoided entirely, and we see this theme in the second reading this weekend, where S. Paul says that he was tempted to pride because of the extraordinary generosity the Holy One had shown him, until he received the mysterious thorn in his flesh (a ‘sting’ in the translation below) to humiliate him. There is always great speculation about what this thorn was (some sort of physical deformity or disability, maybe), but it was certainly something that would have reduced Paul in the eyes of the superificial and of those who expect great Saints never to suffer. ‘Oh, he’s got that wretched deformity, God would never treat his prophets like that, he’s probably nothing.’

But we know that the greatest of the Saints suffered greatly, but that God was glorified in their suffering, and that when they struggled the most to bring His words to the Church they shone like little torches with the light that was His.

“I can only tell you that this man, with his spirit in his body, or with his spirit apart from his body, God knows which, not I, was carried up into Paradise, and heard mysteries which man is not allowed to utter. That is the man about whom I will boast; I will not boast about myself, except to tell you of my humiliations. It would not be vanity, if I had a mind to boast about such a man as that; I should only be telling the truth. But I will spare you the telling of it; I have no mind that anybody should think of me except as he sees me, as he hears me talking to him. And indeed, for fear that these surpassing revelations should make me proud, I was given a sting to distress my outward nature, an angel of Satan sent to rebuff me. Three times it made me entreat the Lord to rid me of it; but He told me, ‘My grace is enough for thee; My strength finds its full scope in thy weakness.’ More than ever, then, I delight to boast of the weaknesses that humiliate me, so that the strength of Christ may enshrine itself in me. I am well content with these humiliations of mine, with the insults, the hardships, the persecutions, the times of difficulty I undergo for Christ; when I am weakest, then I am strongest of all.“

Second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 12: 3-10 [link]

Reading through the Prophecy of Jonah

← back to Obadiah
onward to Micah →

The book of Jonas tells the famous tale of the successful mission of a Hebrew prophet from Juda to the Assyrians of the city of Nineve. The name ‘Yona’ is literally ‘dove,’ and we can see that, while the prophet sought peace, the Holy One had a significant mission for him: the conversion of a gentile nation centred on one of the greatest cities of the ancient world. This is significant for the Church, which has always been a community of Jews and Gentiles, and the book of Jonas joins the body of Hebrew prophecy that demonstrated that the God of the Hebrews has a general concern for all the tribes of mankind, and not only His preferred nation of Israel.

Jonas runs from the mission at first, fleeing westward by ship. He is promptly arrested by a storm and chucked overboard by the crew of the ship, who have realised that he is the reason for the storm threatening their lives and property. Tossed in the sea, Jonas is swallowed by a large sea-creature. This story was strikingly used by Christ to describe His own three days in the tomb before His Resurrection (Gospel of S. Matthew, 12: 39-41), so that we could call Jonas’ prayer from the belly of the beast to be Christ’s own prayer from His tomb on Holy Saturday. 

“Call I on the Lord in my peril, redress He grants me; from the very womb of the grave call I, Thou art listening to me! Here in the depths of the sea’s heart Thou wouldst cast me away, with the flood all about me, eddy of Thine, wave of Thine, sweeping over me, till it seemed as if I were shut out from Thy regard: yet life Thou grantest me; I shall gaze on Thy holy temple once again. Around me the deadly waters close, the depths engulf me, the weeds are wrapped about my head; mountain caverns I must plumb, the very bars of earth my unrelenting prison; and still, O Lord my God, Thou wilt raise me, living, from the tomb. Daunted this heart, yet still of the Lord I would bethink me; prayer of mine should reach Him, far away in His holy Temple! Let fools that court false worship all hope of pardon forgo; mine to do sacrifice in Thy honour, vows made and paid to the Lord, my Deliverer!“

Jonas, 2: 3-10

Here, all at once, we have a message of faith in the midst of a seemingly complete abandonment and a typically Hebrew condemnation of idolatry. Just for this prayer I would treasure this short book above the other smaller books of prophecy in its vicinity in the Bible. After being spat out by the sea-beast, Jonas completed his word of prophecy to the Ninevites and, surprisingly, they hearkened to the voice of this foreign prophet and took on the ancient forms of penitence. This third chapter is very suitable for the Christian season of Lent:

“With that, the Ninevites shewed faith in God, rich and poor alike, proclaiming a fast and putting on sackcloth; nay, the king of Nineve himself, when word of it reached him, came down from his throne, cast his robe aside, put on sackcloth, and sat down humbly in the dust. And a cry was raised in Nineve, at the bidding of the king and his nobles, ‘A fast for man and beast, for herd and flock; no food is to be eaten, no water drunk; let man and beast go covered with sackcloth; cry out lustily to the Lord, and forsake, each of you, his sinful life, his wrongful deeds! God may yet relent and pardon, forgo His avenging anger and spare our lives.'”

Jonas, 3: 5-9

Naturally, God relents before this public show of repentance and foregoes His plans for the destruction of that city. Meanwhile, Jonas had climbed a hill to watch the destruction of the city, and is not impressed to find that nothing will happen. He had taken refuge under a favoured tree from the hot Assyrian sun, and the tree immediately withered away. Thus did God wish to show Jonas in his chagrin at losing his sunshade, that God’s love for the Ninevites – this gentile people – was far greater than Jonas’ love for his favoured tree.

“‘Why,’ said the Lord, ‘what anger is this over an ivy-plant?’ ‘Deadly angry am I,’ Jonas answered, ‘and no marvel either.’ ‘Great pity thou hast,’ the Lord said, ‘for yonder ivy-plant, that was not of thy growing, and no toil cost thee; a plant that springs in a night, and in a night must wither! And what of Nineve? Here is a great city, with a hundred and twenty thousand folk in it, and none of them can tell right from left, all these cattle, too; and may I not spare Nineve?‘”

Jonas, 4: 9-11

And that is the Book of Jonas, a well-known and beloved story – given Christ’s use of it – but also surprisingly revelatory of God’s care of not one single people and nation, but for a whole world of peoples.

← back to Obadiah
onward to Micah →

Reading through S. Paul’s letter to the Philippians

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Philippi was one of the great cities of Roman Macedonia in Saint Paul’s time, sitting, as you can see by zooming in and out of the Google Map above, on the ancient Via Egnatia, the Roman Road joining Greek Kavalla on the Aegian Sea to Albanian Durres on the Adriatic. Philippi was a Roman colony, placed under Italian law and governed by military officers, the Jewish presence there being minimal. Saint Luke describes Paul’s entry into Philippi in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in a first-person account, for Luke was a companion of Paul at that time, alongside Timothy and Silas. How did a wandering Jewish group create a small Christian church (the first in Europe!) in a short time, and in the absence of a pre-existing local Jewish community? They preached to the ladies:

“Thence we reached Philippi, which is a Roman colony and the chief city in that part of Macedonia; in this city we remained for some days, conferring together. On the sabbath day we went out beyond the city gates, by the river side, a meeting-place, we were told, for prayer; and we sat down and preached to the women who had assembled there. One of those who were listening was a woman called Lydia, a purple-seller from the city of Thyatira, and a worshipper of the true God; and the Lord opened her heart, so that she was attentive to Paul’s preaching. She was baptized, with all her household; and she was urgent with us; ‘Now you have decided that I have faith in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come to my house and lodge there; and she would take no denial.'”

Acts of the Apostles, 16: 12-15

And, obviously they created a seed community in the home of the Roman matron Lydia, who seems to have had part in the lucrative Phoenician market in purple dye. We discover later in the chapter that the Apostle couldn’t stay very long in Philippi, for he left almost immediately for Thessalonika. However, he undoubtedly kept in touch with the Philippians with correspondence, only one part of which we have reserved for us in our bibles in the Letter to the Philippians. I’m going to point out a few nice parts of the letter. First, Paul says that he is glad of any way in which Christ is proclaimed, whether as part of a work of charity, or even through Paul himself suffering, such as by being arrested and imprisoned!

“I hasten to assure you, brethren, that my circumstances [of imprisonment] here have only had the effect of spreading the gospel further; so widely has my imprisonment become known, in Christ’s honour, throughout the praetorium and to all the world beyond. And most of the brethren, deriving fresh confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment, are making bold to preach God’s word with more freedom than ever. Some of them, it is true, for no better reason than rivalry or jealousy; but there are others who really proclaim Christ out of good will. Some, I mean, are moved by charity, because they recognise that I am here to defend the gospel, others by party spirit, proclaiming Christ from wrong motives, just because they hope to make my chains gall me worse. What matter, so long as either way, for private ends or in all honesty, Christ is proclaimed?“

Philippians, 1: 12-18

Priorities! ‘For me, life is Christ,’ Paul declares, ‘and death is a prize to be won!’ He wants to reach past death for the joy of eternal life with God, but he dearly loves the people of his churches, and he moans that his heart is torn in two: he wants to die to be united with the Holy One, but he wants to live for the good of the churches. That is once more the heart of the father: a life lived for the sake of his children.

“I am hemmed in on both sides. I long to have done with it, and be with Christ, a better thing, much more than a better thing; and yet, for your sakes, that I should wait in the body is more urgent still. I am certain of that, and I do not doubt that I shall wait, and wait upon you all, to the happy furtherance of your faith.”

Philippians, 1: 23-25

Now, remember when Christ said in the Gospels that we should be like little children in order that we acquire eternal life. Paul says a little bit more here, and it is startlingly relevant to us even today: 

“Beloved, you have always shewn yourselves obedient; and now that I am at a distance, not less but much more than when I am present, you must work to earn your salvation, in anxious fear. Both the will to do it and the accomplishment of that will are something which God accomplishes in you, to carry out his loving purpose. Do all that lies in you, never complaining, never hesitating, to shew yourselves innocent and single-minded, God’s children, bringing no reproach on his name. You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, and among such people you shine out, beacons to the world, upholding the message of life. Thus, when the day of Christ comes, I shall be able to boast of a life not spent in vain, of labours not vainly undergone.”

Philippians, 2: 12-16

Paul has elsewhere (in the letters we have) said that he has begotten these new Christians in Christ. So he calls himself their father, and addresses them commonly as beloved children. He urges them to follow his example, which is a useful idea, since they do not have the spiritual and moral tradition and heritage of the Jews. By copying Paul, they acquire it gradually:

“No, brethren, I do not claim to have the mastery already, but this at least I do; forgetting what I have left behind, intent on what lies before me, I press on with the goal in view, eager for the prize, God’s heavenly summons in Christ Jesus. All of us who are fully grounded must be of this mind, and God will make it known to you, if you are of a different mind at present. Meanwhile, let us all be of the same mind, all follow the same rule, according to the progress we have made. Be content, brethren, to follow my example, and mark well those who live by the pattern we have given them…”

Philippians, 3: 13-17

Humble, dear Paul says that he is not perfect, doesn’t have the mastery, but he’s struggling along like everybody else. We know that this is not the first letter or the only letter Paul wrote to the Philippians, because he ends with a salutation to two ladies other than Lydia, whom we know from the Acts of the Apostles. He names Evodia and Syntyche. He is very affectionate in his recommendations of the Philippian Epaphroditus who had probably brought him a letter from Philippi and would now carry this letter of ours back home with him. Paul is also affectionate about his priest Timothy, whom he has promised to send to visit the Philippian church. Timothy would later become bishop of Ephesus, across the Aegian in Asia Minor. I shall end this post with a characteristic and beautiful Pauline exhortation to virtue:

“And now, brethren, all that rings true, all that commands reverence, and all that makes for right; all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is gracious in the telling; virtue and merit, wherever virtue and merit are found—let this be the argument of your thoughts. The lessons I taught you, the traditions I handed on to you, all you have heard and seen of my way of living—let this be your rule of conduct. Then the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians, 4: 8-9
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Reading through Ecclesiasticus (aka. ben Sirach)

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Today’s summary is on the book of Ecclesiasticus, an important bridge between the Old and the New Testaments that was excluded from by the rabbis from the Hebrew Bible in the centuries after the Resurrection, perhaps because it was considered too Christian. Sadly, protestant rebels did the same in the sixteenth century, probably trying to conform to the post-Christian Hebrew Bible, so that many of our English-language bibles include this in their appendix of ‘apocrypha,’ if they include it at all.

Ecclesiasticus is a rather long Wisdom book, seeking to teach young people the Jewish religion. Therefore, I have often pictured its origins either in the synagogues of the Jewish diaspora, or in the tradition of the elders in Jerusalem, and developed during those mostly quiet centuries between the restoration of the Temple in the fifth century BC and the cruel rule of the Syrian king, Antiochus IV Ephiphanes, whose wickedness prompted the turmoil of the Maccabean rebellion and the change of fortunes that followed that. But, in the quiet period, Judaism was able to flourish and teaching systems were produced that would eventually result in the spread of the synagogue system that was in evidence in the days of Christ in every Jewish community in the Holy Land and beyond.

So, then. This is a type of textbook for the instruction of youngsters. Let’s run through the whole. This book has a preface, providing an introduction and a reason for the book’s existence:

“…my own grandfather, Jesus, who had devoted himself to the careful study of the law, the prophets, and our other ancestral records, had a mind to put something in writing himself that should bear on this philosophical tradition, to claim the attention of eager students who had already mastered it, and to encourage their observance of the Law.“

Ecclesiasticus, prologue

The name ‘Jesus’ is the anglicisation of the Greek ‘Ihsous,’ which is the Hebrew ‘Yehoshua,’ which is also anglicised to ‘Joshua.’ Nowthen, as the first chapter begins properly, the basics of the study of wisdom and philosophy is given:

“All wisdom has one source; it dwelt with the Lord God before ever time began. Sand thou mayst count, or the rain-drops, or the days of the world’s abiding; heaven-height thou mayst measure, or the wide earth, or the depth of the world beneath, ere God’s wisdom thou canst trace to her origin, that was before all. First she is of all created things; time never was when the riddle of thought went unread. (What is wisdom’s fount? God’s word above. What is her course? His eternal commandments.) Buried her roots beyond all search, wise her counsels beyond all knowing; too high her teaching to be plainly revealed, too manifold her movements to be understood. There is but one God, high creator of all things; sitting on His throne to govern us, a great King, worthy of all dread; He it was that created her, through His Holy Spirit. His eye took in the whole range of her being; and He has poured her out upon all His creation, upon all living things, upon all the souls that love Him, in the measure of His gift to each. To fear the Lord is man’s pride and boast, is joy, is a prize proudly worn…“

Ecclesiasticus, 1: 1-11

This is one of the basic elements of the Wisdom tradition of the Jews, which we have inherited – that reverence for God comes before everything else. That’s what the ‘fear of the Lord’ is primarily – reverence and devotion to the Creator. That last bit (which I have highlighted) is an ideal reading for the days of Pentecost – the great festival of the Spirit of God and of Holy Wisdom. The first part of the book is a general introduction to divine Wisdom and an encouragement to the book’s audience to acquire this Wisdom, in humility and submission to God.

“My son, if thy mind is to enter the Lord’s service, wait there in His presence, with honesty of purpose and with awe, and prepare thyself to be put to the test. Submissive be thy heart, and ready to bear all; to wise advice lend a ready ear, and be never hasty when ill times befall thee. Wait for God, cling to God and wait for Him; at the end of it, thy life shall blossom anew. Accept all that comes to thee, patient in sorrow, humiliation long enduring; for gold and silver the crucible, it is in the furnace of humiliation men shew themselves worthy of His acceptance. Trust in Him, and he will lift thee to thy feet again; go straight on thy way, and fix in him thy hope; hold fast thy fear of him, and in that fear to old age come thou. All you that fear the Lord, wait patiently for His mercies; lose sight of Him, and you shall fall by the way.”

Ecclesiasticus, 2: 1-7

One of the reasons I like Ecclesiasticus so very much is that it is practically Christian. Having been written not long before the time of Christ, it (or the Wisdom tradition of which it is an exemplar) obviously influenced the Apostles and other early Christians very strongly and there are echoes of Ecclesiasticus in the letters we have in the New Testament, in particular the so-called Catholic Epistles of the Apostles James, Jude and Peter. So, there is honesty of purpose, extreme trust in God and the willingness to suffer for the sake of God, etc. – characteristics of the peace-loving Church of the Apostolic and patristic times. God/Christ always before us, and a great derision for sinful attitudes, especially dishonesty and maliciousness. The third chapter has a beautiful recommendation for the care of one’s parents, specifically one’s father in his strength and in his old age and dissipation. This is the expansion of the fourth commandment that every Christian requires.

“As thou wouldst have joy of thy own children, as thou wouldst be heard when thou fallest to praying, honour thy father still. A father honoured is long life won; a father well obeyed is a mother’s heart comforted. None that fears the Lord but honours the parents who gave him life, slave to master owes no greater service. Thy father honour, in deed and in word and in all manner of forbearance; so thou shalt have his blessing, a blessing that will endure to thy life’s end. What is the buttress of a man’s house? A father’s blessing. What tears up the foundations of it? A mother’s curse. Never make a boast of thy father’s ill name; what, should his discredit be thy renown? Nay, for a father’s good repute or ill, a son must go proudly, or hang his head. My son, when thy father grows old, take him to thyself; long as he lives, never be thou the cause of his repining. Grow he feeble of wit, make allowance for him, nor in thy manhood’s vigour despise him. The kindness shewn to thy father will not go forgotten; favour it shall bring thee in acquittal of thy mother’s guilt. Faithfully it shall be made good to thee, nor shalt thou be forgotten when the time of affliction comes; like ice in summer the record of thy sins shall melt away. Tarnished his name, that leaves his father forsaken; God’s curse rest on him, that earns a mother’s ill-will.”

Ecclesiasticus, 3: 6-18

Now, again, we have the heart of Jewish philosophy – love of God and love of neighbour (the most vulnerable of whom are widows and orphans) – mixed in with the call to humility.

“To the common sort of men give friendly welcome; before an elder abate thy pride; and to a man of eminence bow meekly thy head. If a poor man would speak to thee, lend him thy ear without grudging; give him his due, and let him have patient and friendly answer. If he is wronged by oppression, redress thou needs must win him, nor be vexed by his importunity. When thou sittest in judgement, be a father to the orphans, a husband to the widow that bore them; so the most High an obedient son shall reckon thee, and shew thee more than a mother’s kindness.“

Ecclesiasticus, 4: 7-11

Almost every chapter in Ecclesiasticus has a new bit of relevant advice buried in a more general soup of Jewish Wisdom. For example, now there is a call to silence and listening that hearkens back to the Book of Proverb’s saying that the fool in keeping silence shows himself to be wise and discerning.

“True answer and wise answer none can give but he who listens patiently, and learns all. If discernment thou hast, give thy neighbour his answer; if none, tongue held is best, or some ill-advised word will shame thee; speech uttered was ever the wise man’s passport to fame, the fool’s undoing. Never win the name of back-biter, by thy own tongue entrapped into shame. A thief must blush and do penance, a hypocrite men will mark and avoid; the back-biter earns indignation and enmity and disgrace all at once.”

Ecclesiasticus, 5: 13-17

So, now, I shall fast-forward a little, or this post could be endless. Chapter six speaks of gentleness and true friendship. Chapter seven deals with human relationships of rich/poor, king/subject, brother/brother, husband/wife, father/children, children/parents. It’s all about duty, and even the duty of the general population to the priests is mentioned. Chapter eight begins a slew of proverbs, not unlike the book of Proverbs itself. Such as the warning to not write biographies until the subject is in the grave:

“Never call a man happy until he is dead; his true epitaph is written in his children.“

Ecclesiasticus, 11: 30

Chapter thirteen is about the rich and the poor and presents the warning to the poor to not mix with the rich, who would only aim to further impoverish them, while growing fat off it. Or anyhow to use them and then chuck them away.

“A heavy burden thou art shouldering, if thou wouldst consort with thy betters; not for thee the company of the rich. Pot and kettle are ill matched; it is the pot breaks when they come together; rich man, that has seized all he can, frets and fumes for more; poor man robbed may not so much as speak.”

Ecclesiasticus, 13: 2-4

Chapter fourteen and fifteen take up again the glories of divine Wisdom and the protection she offers to those who honestly seek her. Wisdom is given as contained in the precepts of God. From chapter sixteen, we return to the subject of the fear of God, the reverence due to God’s majesty, especially as revealed to the Hebrews at the beginning of their history with the faithful patriarch Abraham and his nephew Lot, and then with the Law-giver Moses. 

“Their eyes should see Him in visible majesty, their ears catch the echo of His majestic voice. Keep your hands clear, He told them, of all wrong-doing, and gave each man a duty towards his neighbour. Ever before His eyes their doings are; nothing is hidden from His scrutiny. To every Gentile people He has given a ruler of its own; Israel alone is exempt, marked down as God’s patrimony. Clear as the sun their acts shew under His eye; over their lives, untiring His scrutiny. Sin they as they will, His covenant is still on record; no misdeed of theirs but He is the witness of it.“

Ecclesiasticus, 17: 11-17

As we can see, the writer of the book has gone beyond the short-lived kingships of Israel, returning to the older view of Israel as God’s patrimony, to be ruled over by God Himself. The chapter ends magnificently:

“Think not man is the centre of all things; no son of Adam is immortal, for all the delight men take in their sinful follies. Nought brighter than the sun, and yet its brightness shall fail; nought darker than the secret designs of flesh and blood, yet all shall be brought to light. God, that marshals the armies of high heaven, and man, all dust and ashes!“

Ecclesiasticus, 17: 29-31

Is there not an echo of that in the Gospels, where Christ declares that what is spoken of in secret will be one day shouted from the rooftops, when the secrets of men’s hearts will one day be revealed? Chapter eighteen speaks of the passing of fortunes and how quickly such can take place, urging readers to work well in times of plenty, remembering that times of drought may be around the corner. With chapter nineteen there begins another collection of proverbs. There is a nice little condemnation of the exploitation of the poor in chapter twenty-one. Keep in mind that reserving the justly-earned pay of the workman is still considered by the Church to be one of the sins that cries out to Heaven for vengeance.

“Browbeat and oppress the poor, thy own wealth shall dwindle; riches that are grown too great the proud cannot long enjoy; pride shrivels wealth. Swiftly comes their doom, because the poor man’s plea reached their ears, but never their hearts. Where reproof is unregarded, there goes the sinner; no God-fearing man but will come to a better mind. To the glib speaker, fame comes from far and wide; only the wise man knows the slips of his own heart. Wouldst thou build thy fortunes on earnings that are none of thine? As well mightest thou lay in stones for winter fuel.“

Ecclesiasticus, 21: 5-9

This has echoes of Psalm 9 (or Psalms 9 and 10, if you use the Jewish/protestant numbering), where the wicked lie in wait for the poor, eager to trap and despoil them – but the Holy One will have the last word. But, acquiring Wisdom is knowing one’s imperfections and making amends for them. The proverbs continue into chapter twenty-three, where the writer prays for custody of the lips, not just keeping oneself from oath-taking, but also from lewd language and even rash speech made in anger. Again, this recommendation of silence is taken up in the New Testament, such as in the letter of S. James.

“Oaths a many, sins a many; punishment shall be still at thy doors. Forswear thyself, thou shalt be held to account for it; forget the oath, it is at thy double peril; and though it were lightly taken, thou shalt find no excuse in that; plague shall light on all thou hast, in amends for it. Sin of speech there is, too, that has death for its counterpart; God send it be not found in Jacob’s chosen race; from men of tender conscience every such thought is far away, not theirs to wallow in evil-doing. Beware of habituating thy tongue to lewd talk; therein is matter of offence. Not thine to bring shame on father and mother. There are great ones all around thee; what if thyself God should disregard, when thou art in their company? Then shall this ill custom of thine strike thee dumb and bring thee to great dishonour; thou wilt wish thou hadst never been, and rue the day of thy birth. Let a man grow into a habit of railing speech, all his days there is no amending him.“

Ecclesiasticus, 23: 12-20

Chapter twenty-four takes up the song of divine Wisdom once more in a beautiful passage, comparable with chapter eight of the book of Proverbs. After this comes the description of the plight of the man who suffers the ill-will of his wife, whom this translation calls a ‘scold.’ It is curious that there is never mention of the plight of the long-suffering wife, who has a nasty husband. I could turn both ways the words presented here…

“Better climb sandy cliff with the feet of old age, than be a peace-loving man mated with a scold. Let not thy eye be caught by a woman’s beauty; not for her beauty desire her; think of woman’s rage, her shamelessness, the dishonour she can do thee, how hard it goes with a man if his wife will have the uppermost. Crushed spirits, a clouded brow, a heavy heart, all this is an ill woman’s work; faint hand and flagging knee betoken one unblessed in his marriage.”

Ecclesiasticus, 25: 27-32

But there follows praise for the faithful wife, and this could also go both ways: happy the woman with a faithful husband, etc.

“Happy the man that has a faithful wife; his span of days is doubled. A wife industrious is the joy of her husband, and crowns all his years with peace. He best thrives that best wives; where men fear God, this is the reward of their service, good cheer given to rich and poor alike; day in, day out, never a mournful look.”

Ecclesiasticus, 26: 1-4

There follows now another stream of proverbs, again with the common themes of prudent conversation, false friendships, making return on loans, performing acts of charity towards those who cannot make return (virtue its own reward?), disciplining one’s children for their own good, tempering one’s appetite, the prudent consumption of alcohol, etc. Then, chapter thirty-three returns to the subject of the fear of God, part of the ongoing pattern of the book, which wheels between this and the glory of divine Wisdom, peppering the spaces between with proverbs. Here, we find a meditation on the order of relationships between people, an order seemingly placed there by God:

“To some He would assign high dignity; others should be lost in the common rabble of days. So it is that all men are built of the same clay; son of Adam is son of earth; yet the Lord, in the plenitude of His wisdom, has marked them off from one another, not giving the same destiny to each. For some, His blessing; he will advance them, will set them apart and claim them as His own. For some, His ban; he will bring them low, and single them out no more. Clay we are in the potter’s hands; it is for Him who made us to dispose of us; clay is what potter wills it to be, and we are in our Maker’s hands, to be dealt with at His pleasure. Evil matched with good, life matched with death, sinner matched with man of piety; so everywhere in God’s works thou wilt find pairs matched, one against the other.“

Ecclesiasticus, 33: 10-15

This, we may notice, is the conclusion of Job, who could not understand his afflictions, for he knew himself to be in God’s favour. His friends were convinced that he had sinned and so merited punishment. But Job discovered that God disposes as God pleases, and we may not dare to defend our own innocence before God – this is also a conclusion of Ecclesiasticus. In chapter thirty-five, we find the great honour given to the perfect observance of the Law, as part of the requirement for divine worship, something lost on many self-confessed Christians today. Christ no less than Moses required that his people keep His commandments and so remain in His love. Keeping the Law of God is giving Him due reverence and worship.

“Live true to the Law, and thou hast richly endowed the altar. Let this be thy welcome-offering, to heed God’s word and keep clear of all wickedness; this thy sacrifice of amends for wrong done, of atonement for fault, to shun wrong-doing. Bloodless offering wouldst thou make, give thanks; victim wouldst thou immolate, shew mercy. Wickedness and wrong-doing to shun is to win God’s favour, and pardon for thy faults. Yet do not appear in the Lord’s presence empty-handed; due observance must be paid, because God has commanded it. If thy heart is right, thy offering shall enrich the altar; its fragrance shall reach the presence of the most High; a just man’s sacrifice the Lord accepts, and will not pass over his claim to be remembered.”

Ecclesiasticus, 35: 1-9

Chapter thirty six provides us with the cry of Israel to God to retain the nation in His favour, a passage that has found expression in the liturgy of the Church, which of course inherits the old promises made to Israel. Here there is some hope that the Gentiles may learn to fear God also and acclaim His wonders, especially those who actively persecuted the Jews when they had a chance. But this was always Israel’s hope, although the later Jews rejected Christ and the Church for bringing this hope to fruition on different terms.

“God of all men, have mercy on us; look down, and let us see the smile of Thy favour. Teach them to fear Thee, those other nations that have never looked to find Thee; let them learn to recognize Thee as the only God, and to acclaim Thy wonders. Lift up Thy hand, to shew these aliens Thy power; let us see them, as they have seen us, humbled before Thee; let them learn, as we have learnt, that there is no other God but Thou. Shew new marvels, and portents stranger still; win renown for that strength, that valiant arm of Thine; rouse Thyself to vengeance, give Thy anger free play; away with the oppressors, down with Thy enemies! Hasten on the time, do not forget Thy purpose; make them acclaim Thy wonders. Let none of them escape their doom, the oppressors of Thy people; let there be a raging fire ready to devour them; heavy let the blow fall on the heads of those tyrants, that no other power will recognize but their own. Gather anew all the tribes of Jacob; be it theirs to know that Thou alone art God, to acclaim Thy wonders; make them Thy loved possession as of old. Have compassion on the people that is called by Thy own Name, on Israel, owned Thy first-born; have compassion on Jerusalem, the city Thou hast set apart for Thy resting-place; fill Sion’s walls, fill the hearts of Thy people, with wonders beyond all telling come true, with Thy glory made manifest.”

Ecclesiasticus, 36: 1-16

Coming towards the end of the book, following another handful of proverbs, we find the commendation of medical professionals – physicians – in chapter thirty-eight. It’s nice to see this treatment of a vital human science, which includes a knowledge of natural remedies.

“Deny not a physician his due for thy need’s sake; his task is of divine appointment, since from God all healing comes, and kings themselves must needs bring gifts to him. High rank his skill gives him; of great men he is the honoured guest. Medicines the most High has made for us out of earth’s bounty, and shall prudence shrink from the use of them? Were not the waters of Mara made wholesome by the touch of wood? Well for us men, that the secret virtue of such remedies has been revealed; skill the most High would impart to us, and for His marvels win renown. Thus it is that the physician cures our pain, and the apothecary makes, not only perfumes to charm the sense, but unguents remedial; so inexhaustible is God’s creation, such health comes of His gift, all the world over. Son, when thou fallest sick, do not neglect thy own needs; pray to the Lord, and thou shalt win recovery.”

Ecclesiasticus, 38, 1-9

The chapter goes on to engineers, fabricators and artisans, all of whose professions are superceded by that of the professional sage or wise man (or philosopher), who samples the world and learns through his experience of human behaviour, becoming a master of the traditions of the nation and summoned as an expert even to the councils of princes. All this magnification of the wise man is in chapter thirty-nine. On the contrary, workmen…

“All these look to their own hands for a living, skilful each in his own craft; and without them, there is no building up a commonwealth. For them no travels abroad, no journeyings from home; they will not pass beyond their bounds to swell the assembly, or to sit in the judgement-seat. Not theirs to understand the law’s awards, not theirs to impart learning or to give judgement; they will not be known for uttering wise sayings. Theirs it is to support this unchanging world of God’s creation; they ply their craft and ask for nothing better; … lending themselves freely and making their study in the law of the most High.“

Ecclesiasticus, 38: 35-39

Now, after a few more proverbs, chapter forty-three brings us a meditation upon the sun, the moon and creation in general, all of them held in being by the Creator Himself, Who is within them.

“Say we as much as we will, of what needs to be said our words come short; be this the sum of all our saying, He is in all things. To what end is all our boasting? He, the Almighty, is high above all that He has made; He, the Lord, is terrible, and great beyond compare, and His power is wonderful. Glorify Him as best you may, glory is still lacking, such is the marvel of His greatness; praise Him and extol Him as you will, He is beyond all praising; summon all your strength, the better to exalt His name, untiring still, and you shall not reach your goal.”

Ecclesiasticus, 43: 29-34

Again the call to worship, to do what we can when we cannot do enough. From this panegyric, the writer now comes to a summary of the history of the heroes of Israel. So, chapter forty-four tells us of Enoch and the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Chapter forty-five tells us of Moses and Aaron, and the Aaronic priesthood, and finally of King David. This introduces the twin authorities of the Jewish community in the time of the writer of Ecclesiasticus: the government of the descendants of David and their eventual successors and the ongoing high-priesthood of the family of Aaron. Chapter forty-six tells us of Josue (aka. Joshua) and Caleb, both defenders of Moses against his detractors, and then of Samuel, the last of the Judges of Israel and a great prophet. Chapter forty-seven tells of King David and the prophet Nathan, who had been David’s counsellor, and then of King Solomon, a great king who had fallen into dissipation in later life, and then of the unfortunate Roboam son of Solomon, who oversaw the schism of the kingdom left him by his father, and of the wicked Jeroboam, who introduced an Egyptian religion into the northern kingdom of Israel and doomed that people to centuries of idolatry. Chapter forty-eight tells us of the prophet Elias (aka. Elijah) and his successor, the prophet Eliseus (aka. Elisha), and then of the prophet Isaias, who had acted as counsellor to the good king Ezechias (aka. Hezekiah) of Juda. Chapter forty-nine tells of the good king Josias of Juda and of the prophet Ezechiel, who worked among the exiled Hebrews in Babylonia, and then of the successor of David, Zorobabel, who had led one of several return journeys of exiled Jews back to Juda and Jerusalem. Zorobabel, with the high-priest Josue son of Josedec, had rebuilt Jerusalem and restored the Temple, after decades of utter ruin. Note is also made here of Nehemias, the Jewish governor of Juda who had rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and so restored to her citizens security after many decades. 

Chapter fifty introduces a high-priest of the Temple called Simon son of Onias, who cannot be identified with certainty, but must have been a memorable name in the time of the writing of this book, some two or three hundred years before Christ. This chapter is worth mentioning because of its eulogy of this priest Simon, the words of which have been used by the Church in her liturgies for the feast days of Saints who were confessor bishops and sometimes for the high Masses offered by bishops, in the famous antiphon Ecce sacerdos magnus. This chapter is also the end of the book, the last chapter being separate, and perhaps added later on. So, I shall put in the last lines, which are practically a signature of the author.

“The lessons of discernment and of true knowledge in this book contained were written down by Jesus, the son of Sirach, of Jerusalem; his heart ever a fountain of true wisdom. Blessed is he who lingers in these pleasant haunts, and treasures the memory of them; wisdom he shall never lack; and if by these precepts he live, nothing shall avail to daunt him; God’s beacon-light shews the track he shall tread.”

Ecclesiasticus, 50: 29-31

The last chapter of the book is a prayer composed by this wise man Joshua ben Sirach, who authored the book. It is worth reading in its entirety, but here’s a nice extract to end this post with, for it speaks of the quest for Wisdom, and the prayer would have been that of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, and every honest Christian soul in the history of the Church who has sought union with the Holy One, to Whom be praise and glory now and forever more.

“Further and further yet I travelled, thanks be to the God that all wisdom bestows. Good use to make of her was all my love and longing; never was that hope disappointed. Hardily I strove to win her, put force on myself to keep her rule; I stretched out my hands towards heaven, and grieved for the want of her. Kept I but true to the search for her, I found and recognized her still. Long since trained by her discipline, I shall never be left forsaken. Much heart-burning I had in the quest for her, but a rich dowry she brought me. Never shall this tongue, with utterance divinely rewarded, be negligent of praise.”

Ecclesiasticus, 51: 23-30
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onward to Isaiah →

Reading through the letter of S. Paul to the Ephesians

← back to Galatians
onward to Philippians →

The Church in Ephesos (west of Asia Minor, just across the Aegean from Macedonia and Achaia) was always a good egg in the first century, apparently. In the last book of the Bible, she received a good report from Christ Himself for her discernment with regard to the Apostolic authority:

“To the angel of the church at Ephesus write thus: A message to thee from Him who bears the seven stars in his right hand, and walks amidst the seven golden candlesticks: ‘I know of all thy doings, all thy toil and endurance; how little patience thou hast with wickedness, how thou hast made trial of such as usurp the name of Apostle, and found them false. Yes, thou endurest, and all thou hast borne for the love of My name has not made thee despair. Yet there is one charge I make against thee; of losing the charity that was thine at first. Remember the height from which thou hast fallen, and repent, and go back to the old ways; or else I will come to visit thee, and, when I find thee still unrepentant, will remove thy candlestick from its place.”

Apocalypse, 2: 1-5

Yes, there is that one thing about losing charity; but Ephesos did not fall into the trap of disunity when multiple preachers arrived in the new, non-Jewish churches to challenge the Apostolic teaching and attempt to judaise these Christians (as did the Corinthians). Probably as a result, unlike the letters to the churches of the Corinthians and the Galatians, there isn’t a great deal of scolding in this letter. Only lots of… catechism! There is some wonderful material here. The very introduction presents material for a hymn:

“Blessed be that God, that Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, in Christ, with every spiritual blessing, higher than heaven itself. He has chosen us out, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be saints, to be blameless in His sight, for love of Him; marking us out beforehand (so His Will decreed) to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ. Thus He would manifest the splendour of that grace by which He has taken us into His favour in the person of His beloved Son. It is in Him and through His Blood that we enjoy redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. So rich is God’s grace, that has overflowed upon us in a full stream of wisdom and discernment, to make known to us the hidden purpose of His Will. It was His loving design, centred in Christ, to give history its fulfilment by resuming everything in Him, all that is in heaven, all that is on earth, summed up in Him.”

Ephesians, 1: 3-10

I couldn’t possibly produce a good sample of this letter for a short article/post. The first two chapters alone are thick with Christian doctrine. Here’s another short Christian catechism: free grace and mercy unmerited!

“How rich God is in mercy, with what an excess of love He loved us! Our sins had made dead men of us, and He, in giving life to Christ, gave life to us too; it is His grace that has saved you; raised us up too, enthroned us too above the heavens, in Christ Jesus. He would have all future ages see, in that clemency which He shewed us in Christ Jesus, the surpassing richness of His grace. Yes, it was grace that saved you, with faith for its instrument; it did not come from yourselves, it was God’s gift, not from any action of yours, or there would be room for pride. No, we are His design; God has created us in Christ Jesus, pledged to such good actions as He has prepared beforehand, to be the employment of our lives.”

Ephesians, 2: 4-10

This is another effort of Saint Paul’s to draw the largely non-Jewish Christians into the Jewish matrix of the Church, trying to demonstrate that the outward signs of belonging to the old religion, such as circumcision, are often merely superficial. What actually matters is that their nature as outlaws (non-Jewish) has been undone by the work of God, so that they are not foreigners in the Church of Jewish Christians, but fellow citizens and members of God’s household!

“So he came, and His message was of peace for you who were far off, peace for those who were near; far off or near, united in the same Spirit, we have access through Him to the Father. You are no longer exiles, then, or aliens; the saints are your fellow citizens, you belong to God’s household. Apostles and prophets are the foundation on which you were built, and the chief corner-stone of it is Jesus Christ Himself. In Him the whole fabric is bound together, as it grows into a temple, dedicated to the Lord; in Him you too are being built in with the rest, so that God may find in you a dwelling-place for His Spirit.”

Ephesians, 2: 17-22

Chapter three is a long prayer of Paul’s, on his knees, asking that the Ephesians grow continually in love. I could picture him actually dropping to his knees as his secretary scribbled all of this down furiously: 

“With this in mind, then, I fall on my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Father from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth takes its title. May He, out of the rich treasury of His glory, strengthen you through His Spirit with a power that reaches your innermost being. May Christ find a dwelling-place, through faith, in your hearts; may your lives be rooted in love, founded on love. May you and all the saints be enabled to measure, in all its breadth and length and height and depth, the love of Christ, to know what passes knowledge. May you be filled with all the completion God has to give.”

Ephesians, 3: 14-19

Chapter four gives us a corporate picture of the Church that is familiar from other letters of Saint Paul: we are all one, but at the same time we have different functions within that body, and we have to work together to achieve maturity, and so be able to discern truth from falsity, with a spirit of charity.

“But each of us has received his own special grace, dealt out to him by Christ’s gift… Some He has appointed to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, or pastors, or teachers. They are to order the lives of the faithful, minister to their needs, build up the frame of Christ’s body, until we all realize our common unity through faith in the Son of God, and fuller knowledge of Him. So we shall reach perfect manhood, that maturity which is proportioned to the completed growth of Christ; we are no longer to be children, no longer to be like storm-tossed sailors, driven before the wind of each new doctrine that human subtlety, human skill in fabricating lies, may propound. We are to follow the truth, in a spirit of charity, and so grow up, in everything, into a due proportion with Christ, Who is our head.”

Ephesians, 4: 7, 11-15

To achieve this maturity, Christians would have to let go of their old, pre-baptismal habits, and be clothed in Christ.

“If true knowledge is to be found in Jesus, you will have learned in His school that you must be quit, now, of the old self whose way of life you remember, the self that wasted its aim on false dreams. There must be a renewal in the inner life of your minds; you must be clothed in the new self, which is created in God’s image, justified and sanctified through the truth. Away with falsehood, then; let everyone speak out the truth to his neighbour; membership of the body binds us to one another.”

Ephesians, 4: 21-25

That begins a discourse on good behaviour, for our inward conversions should result in an edifying, outward manifestation. This is very similar to other references to faith as being of no use if unaccompanied by good works. A good Christian should be well-behaved, not because he or she is following the dictates of a law, but because he or she has put on Christ and is in harmony with the Will of God, through grace. 

“Once you were all darkness; now, in the Lord, you are all daylight. You must live as men native to the light; where the light has its effect, all is goodness, and holiness, and truth; your lives must be the manifestation of God’s will. As for the thankless deeds men do in the dark, you must not take any part in them; rather, your conduct must be a rebuke to them; their secret actions are too shameful even to bear speaking of. It is the light that rebukes such things and shews them up for what they are; only light shews up. That is the meaning of the words, ‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.'”

Ephesians, 5: 8-14

And that brings us to the most famous part of this letter, where Paul demonstrates the equality of men and women in marriage, a message that would have sounded extremely odd in his time. Husbands, love your wives!

“You who are husbands must shew love to your wives, as Christ shewed love to the Church when He gave Himself up on its behalf. He would hallow it, purify it by bathing it in the water to which His word gave life; He would summon it into His own presence, the Church in all its beauty, no stain, no wrinkle, no such disfigurement; it was to be holy, it was to be spotless. And that is how husband ought to love wife, as if she were his own body; in loving his wife, a man is but loving himself. It is unheard of, that a man should bear ill-will to his own flesh and blood; no, he keeps it fed and warmed; and so it is with Christ and His Church; we are limbs of His body; flesh and bone, we belong to Him.”

Ephesians, 5: 25-30

There is a little bit following about everybody dwelling virtuously in his or her own station: children, honour your parents (be virtuous children), parents, do not rile your children (be virtuous parents), slaves, honour your masters (be virtuous slaves), masters, deal well with your slaves (be virtuous masters). All this, while remembering that all of them, all of us, have a Master up above who doesn’t value these social structures that the Church dwelling in human society has to work with. And that’s quite the end of it. The last picture is a call to arms against the cunning of the enemy of our souls, and I shall end with this:

“You must wear all the weapons in God’s armoury, if you would find strength to resist the cunning of the devil. It is not against flesh and blood that we enter the lists; we have to do with princedoms and powers, with those who have mastery of the world in these dark days, with malign influences in an order higher than ours. Take up all God’s armour, then; so you will be able to stand your ground when the evil time comes, and be found still on your feet, when all the task is over. Stand fast, your loins girt with truth, the breastplate of justice fitted on, and your feet shod in readiness to publish the gospel of peace. With all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fire-tipped arrows of your wicked enemy; make the helmet of salvation your own, and the sword of the spirit, God’s word.”

Ephesians, 6: 11-17
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onward to Philippians →

Feast day of the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul

It’s always interesting when a feast day comes along that outranks the Sunday and takes its place, and although the calendar date for the feast day of S. Peter and S. Paul was actually this last Saturday, the 29th, it has been moved by the bishops to the Sunday. This must be to save us from attending church on two consecutive days (what horror!), for this great feast day is also a holy day of obligation. Why is this feast day so very important for us, and why are both these great Saints bundled together on a single day?

Well, the answer must be that this great Church of ours very early on was centred in Rome. This was an accident of history, for in the time of our Lord and the Apostles, Rome was the centre of the civilised world, a beating heart with an arterial road network that ran around the Mediterranean, and reaching from the Levant to far in the north of Britain, and waterways that reached even further, across the Indian Ocean. If you and I were apostles and evangelists of the time, rejected by the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem and looking for a likely centre of operations for the growing number of Christians, we would naturally look towards Rome, where there was already a significant Jewish diaspora.

So, S. Peter first moved into north Syria, becoming the first bishop of Antioch, but then inevitably was drawn to Rome. S. Paul was more of a missionary priest than a sedentary bishop, but even he wrote at least one letter to the Roman Church and then, being a citizen of Rome, directed his steps towards his capital city. Both of them died there, and their relics were carefully preserved by the Roman Christians, whose spiritual descendants we are. Over the centuries, no matter how far we have been geographically from the Holy City of Rome, our eyes have wandered over to the tombs of the Apostles, our ears have strained for news of the Successor of Peter, the ground of our unity, whom we have called the Holy Father. It’s not too long ago that Rome ceased to be an economic and political centre of the world, but for the Catholic heart it is ever the religious centre of our existence in this world.

But let’s have a quick look at the personal characters of these two men that we honour today. I am myself partial to S. Paul, rather than S. Peter. Paul was an orthodox Jew and a Pharisee, which as he himself declares he never ceased to be after his life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Rather, Paul became an orthodox Jewish-Christian and a Christian Pharisee. A Pharisee was a Jew who was intent upon ritual purity before God, and the good Pharisee instead of being a hypocrite (as were the bad Pharisees of the gospel stories) practised what he or she preached. And so we see, in the Acts of the Apostles, how the immense intellect and extraordinary stamina of the good Pharisee Paul was turned in an instant from the pursuit and destruction of the Christians to becoming one of their greatest champions, a fatherly figure to them and a prodigious founder of local churches. If we had more such Pauls today, we would change the world very quickly.

S. Peter on the other hand, is more a figure of authority in the same Acts of the Apostles and in the gospels, clearly an authority over the other eleven original Apostles. There is that same air of fatherhood, but of the whole Christian Church, in those two general letters we have of his in the New Testament. From the gospel story, we know Peter to be faithful and pious, but also impulsive in his words and deeds, but in him Christ found reliability. The Lord would have known at once that this man, even if he fell, would rise up again in humility and become a strong foundation for the Church about him, clergy and laity, to become a rock of stability and love in a world of change and cruelty. And so He built the Church on the steadfastness of Peter, and with the energy of Paul. Thus do we have had unity alongside mission, peace together with growth, to communicate throughout the world an infectious love that will endure all things.

Reading through the book of Ruth

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onward to the first Kings →

This is another short post for one of the shortest books in the Hebrew Bible. It’s purpose is to demonstrate the geneology of the great king of Israel, David of Bethlehem, following after the more general adventures of the national tribes in their possession of the Holy Land in the books of Iosue/Joshua and Judges. This is important for us Christians because the genealogy of David is the genealogy of the God-man Christ. We’d last seen that line begin with Iuda, the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob, in the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis. There we discovered a story of incest, which resulted in Iuda having two sons by his daughter-in-law Thamar: Phares and Zara.

The story of the book of Ruth is of a man of Bethlehem living in Ephraim (a little to the north) called Elimelech, who had land in Bethlehem of Juda. In a time of famine, he fled with his wife Noemi over the Jordan to Moab, which today is contained by the modern state of Jordan. While there, Elimelech’s two sons took Moabite wives, and ten years later, died without children. This demonstrates that in the early centuries, there was no strict prohibition on marrying outside the tribes of Israel, and so there would have been a significant foreign inheritance among the Israelites. Much later, King David would rely upon this link to Moab to protect his immediate family from possible attacks of King Saul. However, for the moment… the father, Elimelech, also passed away, and so all the men-folk were gone, at a time when men were the social and economic support for the women-folk.

The question of inheritance now raised its head, as Noemi prepared to return to Bethlehem to dispose of the property of her husband and live the rest of her life alone. She tried to dismiss her Moabite daughters-in-law to return to their parents, but one of the two – Ruth – was very attached to her mother-in-law, and refused to leave her side. Now, Noemi contrived to find a future for Ruth. When Ruth happened to meet a landlord Booz, while looking for food, Noemi revealed to her that Booz was related distantly to her husband Elimelech and that he might be able to give her the children her own husband couldn’t. This was a requirement of the Law of Moses: that kinsfolk take to wife the widows of their dead relations who had not conceived sons to inherit land and property; the kinsman would provide the widow with those children on behalf of her dead husband. The rest of the book is about Booz dealing with the inheritance laws, in order to take Ruth as his wife, and give posterity both to her and through her to her mother-in-law Noemi. This take place through an odd custom involving a shoe:

“So now Booz said to the rival claimant, ‘Untie thy shoe;’ and as soon as he had done so, made appeal to the elders and to all that were present. ‘You are witnesses,’ he said, ‘this day, that I have reclaimed all the possessions of Elimelech, Chelion and Mahalon by purchase from Noemi: and moreover, that I have taken Mahalon’s widow, Ruth the Moabitess, to wife. I mean to hand on the dead man’s property to heirs of his own, so that his name may never be lost to his family, his kindred and his people. Of all this, you are witnesses.’ So the elders made answer, and all that were present made answer, ‘We bear witness of it. Take thy bride home, and may the Lord make her as fruitful as Rachel and Lia, that gave a posterity to Israel. May Ephrata know her worth, and Bethlehem tell her praises…'”

Ruth, 4:8-11

And then we find the continued line from Juda to King David. As I said earlier, it is also part of the line of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is: And now we come to the line of Obed: Juda → Phares → Esron → Aram → Aminadab → Nahasson → Salmon → Booz → Obed → Jesse → David. Now we can continue on to the legend of Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel. Judges were vicars of God, Who was the real king of Israel. In the continuation of the story, Samuel is chosen by God to judge the people and eventually to anoint a king for them. The kingdom(s) of Israel were not to last for very long, for God Himself would return one day to be the king of Israel, and he would elect new judges again to rule the people. We would call the judges of that latter day Apostles and bishops.

← back to Judges
onward to the first Kings →

Reading through the Prophecy of Obadyah (aka. Abdias)

← back to Amos
onward to Jonah →

This is a very short one, for it is a single-page prophecy. Already, the prophet Malachias (Malachy) had condemned Edom and the Edomites, descendants of Esau son of Isaac the patriarch, in a most final manner. Edom – the Hebrew colour red – was the name given to the twin brother of the patiarch Jacob, because he was covered with red fur from birth, and after Jacob’s inheritance of the promises made to Abraham, the tribes of Esau departed to live in the south country, east of the Negev desert, called Seir. Their history was one of constant rivalry with the tribes of Jacob, who were called Israel.

“…as not Esau brother to Jacob? Yet to Jacob I proved Myself a friend, the Lord says, no friend to Esau; I have made a waste of yonder mountain-side, of all his lands a dragon-haunted desert. ‘Ay, but,’ says Edom, ‘what if we have fallen on evil days? Give us time to repair the ruins!’ Trust me, says the Lord of hosts, as fast as they build, I will pull down; land of rebellion men shall call it, brood the Lord hates, and for ever.“

Prophecy of Malachias, 1: 2-4

Abdias continues with this denunciation of Edom, who are here presented as a proud nation and one that had attacked Israel whenever they had the chance to do so, and had probably rejoiced in the destruction of the Israelite kingdoms and of Jerusalem herself by the Chaldeans. They had not attempted to help Juda when the attack from Babylonia arrived, and may even have collaborated in a general looting of what was left of Jerusalem after the Chaldeans had been and left.

“What wonder if hopes of thine come to nothing, name of thine perish eternally, that didst assail thy own brother, with murderous wrong? Hast thou forgotten the day when thou stoodest aloof, while the enemy disarmed his ranks, while aliens thronged through yonder gates, and parcelled out Jerusalem by lot, thyself making common cause with them? What, look on idly, when fortune turns against that brother of thine; nay, triumph over Juda’s fall, boast of his calamity? He overthrown, and thou wouldst find thy way in at the gates of My own city; he overthrown, and thou wouldst rejoice at his discomfiture; he overthrown, and thou wouldst offer him battle?”

Abdias, 10-13

The rest of this short prophecy foretells a restoration of the tribes of Juda and Benjamin, with Jews returning home from far away, and an utter destruction of nations like Edom and Philistia, who had rejoiced in the destruction of Juda.

← back to Amos
onward to Jonah →

Reading through the letter of S. Paul to the Galatians

← back to second Corinthians
onward to Ephesians →

Dear Saint Paul, travelling miles everywhere to preach the Gospel to everybody who would listen, and there always followed in his wake other preachers who tried to get the new Christians to become judaised, taking on superficial symbols of Jewish belonging. This meant primarily circumcision, which resulted in the full obligation of these men and women to the complex of commandments given to the Hebrews through Moses. For unwitting Christian initiates, this was far more than they had bargained for when they accepted faith in Christ, and the Apostles and their bishop-priests finally declared that this was unnecessary for them, as is clear in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. But that required a significant input from missionary priests like S. Paul and S. Barnabas, and Paul presents his argument in this letter.

The Galatians were residents of the central part of Asia Minor, around the cities of Iconium and Lystra, and were culturally Greek. Paul had visited them multiple times, of course, and Saint Luke makes some narration of his adventures in that region, such as when the inhabitants of Lystra witness a miracle of Paul’s and, in a comic moment, take Saint Barnabas and him to be Zeus/Jupiter and Hermes/Mercury, respectively. That above all tells us that Barnabas was a good-looking bloke with a commanding progress, and that Paul couldn’t stop talking (about Christ).

“There was a lame man sitting at Lystra, crippled from birth, so that he had never walked, who listened to Paul’s preaching; and Paul, looking closely at him, and seeing that there was saving faith in him, said aloud, ‘Stand upright on thy feet;’ whereupon he sprang up, and began to walk. The multitudes, seeing what Paul had done, cried out in the Lycaonian dialect, ‘It is the gods, who have come down to us in human shape.’ They called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mercury, because he was the chief speaker; and the priest of Jupiter, Defender of the City, brought out bulls and wreaths to the gates, eager, like the multitude, to do sacrifice. The Apostles tore their garments when they heard of it; and both Barnabas and Paul ran out among the multitude, crying aloud: ‘Sirs, why are you doing all this? We too are mortal men like yourselves; the whole burden of our preaching is that you must turn away from follies like this to the worship of the living God, who made sky and earth and sea and all that is in them.'”

Acts of the Apostles, 14: 7-14

How horrifying for Paul, a Jew and a Pharisee, to find himself being worshipped as a god. But, coming back to the theme of this letter to these recent converts in Galatia, Paul is anxious to tell his new Christians that they don’t have to become Jews, that is, they don’t have to embrace circumcision and so take on the full burden of the Law of Moses. He wished them to know that what he has taught them about the freedom of the Gospel from the slavery to the Law that Jews suffered was not his own teaching or that of another man or men, but had been given him by Christ Himself:

“Let me tell you this, brethren; the Gospel I preached to you is not a thing of man’s dictation; it was not from man that I inherited or learned it, it came to me by a revelation from Jesus Christ. You have been told how I bore myself in my Jewish days, how I persecuted God’s Church beyond measure and tried to destroy it, going further in my zeal as a Jew than many of my own age and race, so fierce a champion was I of the traditions handed down by my forefathers. And then, He who had set me apart from the day of my birth, and called me by His grace, saw fit to make His Son known in me, so that I could preach His Gospel among the Gentiles.”

Galatians, 1: 11-16

Not only was his message from Christ, but he was a Jew and a Jew zealous for the traditions handed down by his forefathers. And, yet he had received the Christian Gospel and acquired the freedom of that Gospel. He had shared that freedom with his new Christians in Gentile lands, and now he had discovered that those same Christians were trying to become Jews, in effect abandoning the freedom he had preached to them and enslaving themselves to the Law of Moses. He had even defended the freedom of the Christian from the Law against Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles! It would have been rare for Peter himself to be accused of the superficiality and hypocrisy Christ had condemned in the bad Pharisees of the gospel.

“Afterwards, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him openly; he stood self-condemned. He had been eating with the Gentiles, until we were visited by certain delegates from James; but when these came, he began to draw back and hold himself aloof, overawed by the supporters of circumcision. The rest of the Jews were no less false to their principles; Barnabas himself was carried away by their insincerity. So, when I found that they were not following the true path of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, Since thou, who art a born Jew, dost follow the Gentile, not the Jewish way of life, by what right dost thou bind the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Galatians, 2: 11-14

So Peter had succumbed to a type of insincerity, in his attempt to put on Jewish customs before the envoys of the extremely orthodox Jewish-Christian bishop of Jerusalem, Saint James, who is said to have been a life-long Nazirite (like Saint John the Baptist). So, were they, the new Christians in Galatia, to challenge Paul in casting doubt on that freedom, by running after circumcision? He continues by demonstrating that the patriarch Abraham was justified by his personal faith, long before the advent of the Law of Moses. Abraham enjoyed a freedom that the Hebrews lost when Moses came down from mount Horeb, and gave them the Law. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy to demonstrate the burden of attempting to observe every single piece of the Law, what the evangelists in the Gospels called ‘every dot and iota of the Law.’ And even that, he says, does not in itself make us acceptable to God:

“Remember how Abraham put his faith in God, and it was reckoned virtue in him. You must recognize, then, that Abraham’s real children are the children of his faith. There is a passage in Scripture which, long beforehand, brings to Abraham the good news, ‘Through thee all the nations shall be blessed;’ and that passage looks forward to God’s justification of the Gentiles by faith. It is those, then, who take their stand on faith that share the blessing Abraham’s faithfulness won. Those who take their stand on observance of the law are all under a curse; ‘Cursed be everyone (we read) who does not persist in carrying out all that this book of the law prescribes.’ And indeed, that the law cannot make a man acceptable to God is clear enough; It is faith, we are told, that brings life to the just man;”

Galatians, 3: 6-11

So, why did the Law arrive at all? Why would God have wished a particular people to be so disciplined? That’s the key. Discipline. The Law was itself not life-giving. But by clearly distinguishing right from wrong, life from death, the Law was taking up the role of a schoolmaster, preparing the people for the Offspring of Abraham, Christ, Who would indeed bring life and the promises (made to Abraham) home to the people. 

“Doubtless, if a law had been given that was capable of imparting life to us, it would have been for the Law to bring us justification. But in fact Scripture represents us as all under the bondage of sin; it was faith in Jesus Christ that was to impart the promised blessing to all those who believe in him. Until faith came, we were all being kept in bondage to the law, waiting for the faith that was one day to be revealed. So that the law was our tutor, bringing us to Christ, to find in faith our justification. When faith comes, then we are no longer under the rule of a tutor; through faith in Christ Jesus you are all now God’s sons.”

Galatians, 3: 21-26

So, would the Galatians like to enter under the tutelage of the Law or be free as the sons of God in Christ? No! For God has sent His very Spirit into our hearts, crying out within us, ‘Abba Father!’ We are not slaves, but sons. Why should we want to take up the superficial observances of the Jews? ‘Oh, my little children…,’ cries Father Paul in distress:

“My little children, I am in travail over you afresh, until I can see Christ’s image formed in you! I wish I were at your side now, and could speak to you in a different tone; I am bewildered at you. Tell me, you who are so eager to have the Law for your master, have you never read the Law?“

Galatians, 4: 19-21

Paul now proceeds to tell his readers that the Law (in the book of Genesis) is represented by Agar, the Egyptian maidservant of Sara Abraham’s wife. Agar and her son Ishma-El were bonded slaves, whereas Sarah’s son Isaac was the free son who was to inherit the promises of Abraham his father. This story speaks more to the Jewish heart than ours, and so to Paul and his Jewish hearers. We are to avoid a spiritual bondage to the Law, and live the freedom of Isaac rather than the servitude of Ishmael.

“The word of Paul is your warrant for this; if you are for being circumcised, Christ is of no value to you at all. Once again I would warn anyone who is accepting circumcision that he thereby engages himself to keep all the precepts of the Law. You who look to the Law for your justification have cancelled your bond with Christ, you have forfeited grace. All our hope of justification lies in the spirit; it rests on our faith; once we are in Christ, circumcision means nothing, and the want of it means nothing; the faith that finds its expression in love is all that matters.”

Galatians, 5: 2-6

At the same time, the freedom of the Christian gospel cannot give Christians a licence for behaving immorally. That’s the last warning. Paul doesn’t mean that the Christian’s freedom from the observances of the Law mean an absolute freedom from the moral demands of the Law. Rather, the Christian Gospel presents the heart of the Law – charity – which rules moral behaviour:

“Only, do not let this freedom give a foothold to corrupt nature; you must be servants still, serving one another in a spirit of charity. After all, the whole of the law is summed up in one phrase, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;’ if you are always backbiting and worrying each other, it is to be feared you will wear each other out in the end. Let me say this; learn to live and move in the spirit; then there is no danger of your giving way to the impulses of corrupt nature. The impulses of nature and the impulses of the spirit are at war with one another; either is clean contrary to the other, and that is why you cannot do all that your will approves. It is by letting the spirit lead you that you free yourselves from the yoke of the Law. It is easy to see what effects proceed from corrupt nature; they are such things as adultery, impurity, incontinence, luxury, idolatry, witchcraft, feuds, quarrels, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, dissensions, factions, spite, murder, drunkenness, and debauchery. I warn you, as I have warned you before, that those who live in such a way will not inherit God’s kingdom.”

Galatians, 5: 13-21

This is why we still have and need catechisms, to demonstrate how the love of Christ and the charitable heart are to exist and be lived out by Christians in every specific era of the Church’s life. As everything in the worlds changes, and technology continues to develop and progress, there remains the corrupt nature of the human heart, which must be schooled and instructed on the morality of the Law and the Will of the Holy One for the men and women that He so loves.

And that’s it! Peace to all, and don’t worry Father Paul so much again…

“Peace and pardon to all those who follow this rule, to God’s true Israel. Spare me, all of you, any further anxieties; already I bear the scars of the Lord Jesus printed on my body. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

Galatians, 6: 16-18
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onward to Ephesians →

Reading through the Prophecy of Amos

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onward to Obadiah →

Here’s one of the first of the Hebrew prophets whose prophecies have been preserved. Aside from a few condemnations of the unfaithfulness of the people of the southern kingdom of Juda, this book is directed squarely at the northern kingdom of Israel and the syncretist king Jeroboam II of Israel. The united kingdom of David and Solomon was of course fractured soon after the death of Solomon, and the northern kingdom had promptly fallen into serious idolatry and syncretism, which it never recovered from. However, Amos seems to speak of Israel in general, as all the twelve tribes, including Juda, and has a clear idea of who the God of Israel is, the God Who judges all of the children of the patriarch Jacob, and where His chosen seat is: not in Samaria, Beth-El or Shiloh, but…

“Here tells Amos, one of the shepherd folk at Thecue, what visions he had concerning Israel. In Juda, Ozias was then reigning, in Israel, Jeroboam son of Joas, and it was two years before the earthquake. Loud as roaring of lion, said he, the Lord will speak in thunder from His citadel at Jerusalem; forlorn they lie, yonder pastures the shepherds loved once, the heights of Carmel all shrivelled away.”

Amos, 1: 1-2

Carmel was the mountain range to the north-west of the Holy Land, roughly parallel in latitude with the Sea of Galilee, where the prophet Elijah had made his home (which is why the Carmelite Order count him as the first of the Saints of that Order). Like much of the prophecy against the practices of the northern kingdom of Israel, this book is a lengthy condemnation of idolatry and a call to repentance and reconsecration to the one God, and a condemnation of the injustice and immorality that accompanied the fall of the nation from God’s grace:

“Ground in the dust, the poor man’s rights, shouldered aside, the claim of the unbefriended! See where father and son, to My name’s dishonour, bed with one maid! See where they lie feasting beside the altar, at the very shrine of their God, no cloak there but is some borrower’s pledge, no stoup of wine but is some debtor’s forfeit! Was it for such men as these I exterminated the Amorrhites, a race tall as the cedar, hardy as the oak, root and fruit of them doomed to destruction? These are the men I rescued from Egypt, guided them, all those forty years, through the wilderness, to make the domain of the Amorrhites theirs!”

Amos, 2: 7-10

Thus does God repent even of removing the Amorrhite people from the Holy Land, in order that the Israelites would possess it for their own. But the Israelites had fallen into idolatry, using a mixture of Egyptian and Amorrhite religions, together with the religion of the God of Israel (basically, syncretism). The complaints about immorality continue and God promises that such behaviour is begging for social distress to fall upon Israel, and siege by oppressive powers:

“Raise a cry from the house-tops, there in Azotus, there in Egypt’s land: To the hills about Samaria betake you, and look deep into the heart of her, what turbulent doings are there, what wrongs men suffer! In yonder palaces, the Lord says, that are store-houses of oppression and rapine, honest doing is all forgot. This doom, then, the Lord God utters: Distress and siege for such a land as this! All thy fastnesses shall be dismantled, all thy palaces spoiled.“

Amos, 3: 9-11

Amos is foretelling a terrible destruction for Israel, which we know occurred not long after. Within twenty years of the end of the reign of king Jeroboam II of Israel, the northern kingdom was permanently ended, and hundreds of thousands of people were transplanted from their homeland and moved far into Assyria. Why? Because they had fallen away from their only true Protector:

“you would not come back to Me, when ruin threatened, swift as the divine stroke that ruined Sodom and Gomorrha, and you yourselves were like a brand saved from the burning. Now I have worse, Israel, in store for thee; when that worse comes, prepare thou must, Israel, to meet thy God. He is here, that fashioned the hills and made the winds; He is here, that gives man warning of His designs, that turns dawn into darkness, and sets His feet on the highest heights of earth; the Lord God of hosts is the Name of Him.“

Amos, 4: 11-13

And soon comes a rather strong condemnation of the superficiality in religion, which is wonderfully reminiscent of Psalm 49(50)’s similar condemnation: 

“And for you, that day brings darkness, not the light you craved for; no radiance haunts about it, only gloom. Oh, but I am sick and tired of them, your solemn feasts; incense that goes up from your assemblies I can breathe no longer! Burnt-sacrifice still? Bloodless offerings still? Nay, I will have none of them; fat be the victims you slay in welcome, I care not. O to be rid of the singing, the harp’s music, that dins My ear!… And like waters rolling in full tide, like a perennial stream, right and justice shall abound …”

Amos, 5: 20-24

Religious rites are empty and futile, if there is no evidence of God’s grace working within the hearts of men, if there is no sense of justice and righteousness in society. Such was the meaning also of the apostle Saint James and the constant warning of the Catholic Church, that faith without works is dead. It had got to the point where Israel was making military conquests and claiming that they had thus succeeded because of their own personal quality (as the Chosen people of God?). But they continued in immorality, and now destruction was nigh:

“A word from the Lord, and all shall be a gaping ruin, palace and cottage both. Strange, if yonder mountain-crags men should climb on horseback, or plough with oxen! Stranger still, that people of Mine should poison the springs of right and justice, all wormwood now! And still you boast over some conquest of little worth; ‘To what greatness,’ you say, ‘valour of ours has brought us!’ Trust Me, men of Israel, the Lord God of hosts says, I mean to embroil you with such an enemy as shall crush the life out of you, from Emath pass to the brook that bounds the desert.”

Amos, 6: 12-15

A prophet who foretells doom is never welcome, and in chapter seven Amos tells of the opposition he received from the priest Amasias in Beth-El, who tried to have him kicked out of the kingdom and back to Juda. That suggests that the shepherd Amos preached at Bethel, and fell afoul of the professional prophets, especially when they were probably all yes-men to the corrupted kings. But there was no getting rid of the dreadful tidings, when even God’s voice would finally vanish from among the people. The sentence is final:

“‘A time is coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘when there shall be great lack in the land, yet neither dearth nor drought. Hunger? Ay, they shall hunger for some message from the Lord, yet go they from eastern to western sea, go they from north to south, making search for it everywhere, message from the Lord they shall have none. Thirst, ay, they shall thirst, fair maid and brave warrior both. Fools, that by the shame of Samaria take their oaths, pin their faith to Dan’s worship or Bersabee pilgrimage! Here is fall there is no amending.'”

Amos, 8: 11-14

Dan’s worship was the Egyptian religion established at Bethel and Dan by the first king of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam I. It had persisted until the end of that kingdom, in spite of the office of great prophets like Elijah and Elisha. And finally, God declares that the exceptionalism of Israel as His Chosen People was connected to the observance of His Commandments – and that meant justice and righteousness. And the basis of those, as we know, is self-sacrificing love. This voice has sounded throughout the Old Testament so far: God has given every people their own home, but His choice of Israel was always bound by faithfulness to Him, and the guilt of infidelity could not fall away. But the promise remained. Punished they would be and the kingdom of Israel destroyed, but a remnant would be preserved and the house of Jacob would be rebuilt one day.

“‘Ethiop or Israelite, what care I?’ the Lord says. ‘God that brought you here from Egypt was God that brought the Philistines from Caphtor, brought the Syrians from Cir! Divine regard that watches ever this kingdom, marks ever its guilt; I will blot it out, believe me, from the face of the earth. And blot out the name of Jacob altogether? Nay, not that, the Lord says.”

Amos, 9: 7-8

Oh, no, not that… because God is faithful. The book ends with a line of comfort. The punishment would not last forever, and the people would return.

“I will bring back My people of Israel from its exile, to rebuild ruined cities and dwell there, plant vineyards and drink of them, till gardens and eat the fruits of them. Firm root they shall take in their native soil, never again to be torn away from the home I have given them, says the Lord, thy own God.“

Amos, 9: 14-15
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onward to Obadiah →

Reading through the second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians

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onward to Galatians →

I’m on medical rest for the moment, so I’ve decided to put out these little summaries of the books of Scripture on an almost-daily basis, until I’ve done them all. You should find the ones I’ve already done here. Then I’ll start to put on bits of the Catechism and basic prayer.

Today, we have the second letter of Saint Paul that we have to the infant Church in Corinth, the great sea-port of ancient Achaia. The circumstances are a little different from those of the first letter, which dealt with several practical and pastoral problems. But the tension created by Christian preachers rivalling Paul remains, and Paul now seems to be more irritated by the opposition to him of a faction of the Corinthian church, and this shows throughout the letter, which ends in Paul protesting for his authority as an Apostle. Calling himself an Apostle allowed Paul to give himself the episcopal authority that derives from the Twelve, an authority that derives from Paul’s ordination either at Jerusalem or at Antioch, or at both places. But let’s run through some highlights…

Once upon a time, the Lawgiver Moses came down the mountain in Sinai, having received the Word of God, his face so brilliant that the people couldn’t look upon him and he had to veil his face for some time. So, indeed, is the case with the glory of the Christian Gospel:

“We know how that sentence of death, engraved in writing upon stone, was promulgated to men in a dazzling cloud, so that the people of Israel could not look Moses in the face, for the brightness of it, although that brightness soon passed away. How much more dazzling, then, must be the brightness in which the spiritual law is promulgated to them! If there is a splendour in the proclamation of our guilt, there must be more splendour yet in the proclamation of our acquittal; and indeed, what once seemed resplendent seems by comparison resplendent no longer, so much does the greater splendour outshine it.”

II Corinthians, 3: 7-10

Some of the members of the Corinthian church, probably egged on by the rival preachers, seem to have accused Paul of cowardice in his preaching, maybe because he speaks of mysteries and veils. Is he sure of what he’s saying? Does he even know what he’s talking about?

“Always we, alive as we are, are being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested in this mortal nature of ours. So death makes itself felt in us, and life in you. I spoke my mind, says the scripture, with full confidence, and we too speak our minds with full confidence, sharing that same spirit of faith, and knowing that He who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too, and summon us, like you, before Him. It is all for your sakes, so that grace made manifold in many lives may increase the sum of gratitude which is offered to God’s glory. No, we do not play the coward; though the outward part of our nature is being worn down, our inner life is refreshed from day to day. This light and momentary affliction brings with it a reward multiplied every way, loading us with everlasting glory; if only we will fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what we can see. What we can see, lasts but for a moment; what is unseen is eternal.”

II Corinthians, 4: 11-18

Here’s an encapsulation of the Christian message: Christ died for us and rose again, we too as dead men have risen to live with His life, not ours. It follows that Christians live with a supernatural life, as new creatures, this transformation and reconciliation with God being effected through Christ and through the ministry of the Apostles. The Christian Apostles are then Christ’s ambassadors, the means by which Christians are drawn from the darkness and made into the Holiness of God.

“…if one Man died on behalf of all, then all thereby became dead men; Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life, but with His life who died for us and has risen again; and therefore, henceforward, we do not think of anybody in a merely human fashion; even if we used to think of Christ in a human fashion, we do so no longer; it follows, in fact, that when a man becomes a new creature in Christ, his old life has disappeared, everything has become new about him. This, as always, is God’s doing; it is He who, through Christ, has reconciled us to Himself, and allowed us to minister this reconciliation of His to others. Yes, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, establishing in our hearts His message of reconciliation, instead of holding men to account for their sins. We are Christ’s ambassadors, then, and God appeals to you through us; we entreat you in Christ’s name, make your peace with God. Christ never knew sin, and God made Him into sin for us, so that in Him we might be turned into the Holiness of God.”

II Corinthians, 5:14-21

Saint Paul continues to wax lyrical about the ministry of the Apostles, the forerunners of the bishops and priests of the Church. It is rather beautiful, and inspirational for the missionaries and clergy of our own time. In some places, like sub-Saharan Africa, this is all still a real experience of the priests in active ministry.

“…as God’s ministers, we must do everything to make ourselves acceptable. We have to shew great patience, in times of affliction, of need, of difficulty; under the lash, in prison, in the midst of tumult; when we are tired out, sleepless, and fasting. We have to be pure-minded, enlightened, forgiving and gracious to others; we have to rely on the Holy Spirit, on unaffected love, on the truth of our message, on the power of God. To right and to left we must be armed with innocence; now honoured, now slighted, now traduced, now flattered. They call us deceivers, and we tell the truth; unknown, and we are fully acknowledged; dying men, and see, we live; punished, yes, but not doomed to die; sad men, that rejoice continually; beggars, that bring riches to many; disinherited, and the world is ours.”

II Corinthians, 6:4-10

I imagine that Paul – being a rather kindly sort, if with a fiery temper – would not have very often pulled rank as an Apostle and as one given a commission directly by God. But he comes very near in this case, and there does seem to be a significant challenge made to his authority by some of the members of this church community that he himself had built. So, we find some rather severe language towards the end of this letter, when he speaks of his next visitation to them. It seems that episcopal right was about to be brought down upon certain persons:

“Wait and see what happens when we meet. There may be someone who takes credit to himself for being the champion of Christ; if so, let him reflect further that we belong to Christ’s cause no less than himself; and indeed, I might boast of the powers I have, powers which the Lord has given me so as to build up your faith, not so as to crush your spirits, and I should not be put in the wrong. It must not be thought that I try to overawe you when I write. ‘His letters,’ some people say, ‘are powerful and carry weight, but his presence in person lacks dignity, he is but a poor orator.’ I warn those who speak thus that, when we visit you, our actions will not belie the impression which our letters make when we are at a distance. It is not for us to intrude, or challenge comparison with others who claim credit for themselves; we are content to go by our own measure, to compare ourselves with our own standard of achievement. Yes, we may boast, but our boasting will not be disproportionate; it will be in proportion to the province which God has assigned to us, one which reaches as far as you.”

II Corinthians, 10: 7-13

Paul, who had done no less than the greatest of the Apostles (and he’s probably thinking of the Twelve themselves here), had claimed no support from the Church in Achaia, although he was entitled to it, according to the Gospel. He had arrived among them without money and had been supported by Greek Christians in Macedonia. Paul’s authority over the Corinthian church does not come from such a thing as return on charitable support; it comes rather from his fatherhood of this community, which he has fashioned into a bride of Christ. However, other Christian preachers (his rivals) have taken money from the Corinthians. Putting on false appearances, they have sought to distance the Corinthians from Paul, whose one boast is this very Corinthian church:

“I was penniless when I visited you, but I would not cripple any of you with expenses; the brethren came from Macedonia to relieve my necessities; I would not, and I will not, put any burden on you. As the truth of Christ lives in me, no one in all the country of Achaia shall silence this boast of mine. Why is that? Because I have no love for you? God knows I have. No, I shall continue to do as I have done, so as to cut away the ground from those who would gladly boast that they are no different from myself. Such men are false apostles, dishonest workmen, that pass for apostles of Christ. And no wonder; Satan himself can pass for an angel of light, and his servants have no difficulty in passing for servants of holiness; but their end will be what their life has deserved. Once more I appeal to you, let none of you think me vain; or, if it must be so, give me a hearing in spite of my vanity, and let me boast a little in my turn. When I boast with such confidence, I am not delivering a message to you from God; it is part of my vanity if you will. If so many others boast of their natural advantages, I must be allowed to boast too. You find it easy to be patient with the vanity of others, you who are so full of good sense. Why, you let other people tyrannize over you, prey upon you, take advantage of you, vaunt their power over you, browbeat you!”

II Corinthians, 11: 9-20

Paul says that he can easily overawe the people with his mystical experiences, but that he would prefer to rejoice in his humiliations than enjoy the glory that attaches to him from God’s special favour. We do get a brief account of those mystical experiences and visions, which demonstrate great favours shown Paul by the Holy One: 

“I can only tell you that this man, with his spirit in his body, or with his spirit apart from his body, God knows which, not I, was carried up into Paradise, and heard mysteries which man is not allowed to utter. That is the man about whom I will boast; I will not boast about myself, except to tell you of my humiliations. It would not be vanity, if I had a mind to boast about such a man as that; I should only be telling the truth. But I will spare you the telling of it; I have no mind that anybody should think of me except as he sees me, as he hears me talking to him. And indeed, for fear that these surpassing revelations should make me proud, I was given a sting to distress my outward nature, an angel of Satan sent to rebuff me. Three times it made me entreat the Lord to rid me of it; but He told me, ‘My grace is enough for thee; My strength finds its full scope in thy weakness.’ More than ever, then, I delight to boast of the weaknesses that humiliate me, so that the strength of Christ may enshrine itself in me. I am well content with these humiliations of mine, with the insults, the hardships, the persecutions, the times of difficulty I undergo for Christ; when I am weakest, then I am strongest of all.”

II Corinthians, 12: 3-10

There is a great deal more besides, such as the discussion on the management of the second collections after Mass (chapter eight and chapter nine). You will agree that all this makes Paul so very human, so very natural, and indeed very relatable to us. His very affection for the people who have begun to accuse him of dishonesty and attack his authority is wonderful to see. When he speaks of all he has undergone for love of the churches in various places – “…in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people, in danger from the Gentiles; danger in cities; danger in the wilderness, danger in the sea, danger among false brethren… met with toil and weariness, so often been sleepless, hungry and thirsty; so often denied myself food, gone cold and naked…” – you begin to wonder how many others of the Apostles covered as many miles as Paul did to build up the churches he had established all over the Greco-Roman world. And for all that, he fears that when he gets to Corinth, he will be rejected.

“I have the fear that perhaps, when I reach you, I shall find in you unwelcome hosts, and you in me an unwelcome visitor; that there will be dissension, rivalry, ill humour, factiousness, backbiting, gossip, self-conceit, disharmony. I have the fear that on this new visit God has humiliation in store for me when we meet; that I shall have tears to shed over many of you, sinners of old and still unrepentant, with a tale of impure, adulterous, and wanton living.”

II Corinthians, 12: 20-21

No bishop wishes to punish anybody, or to any way wield his apostolic authority over a people that despises him. He prefers rather, that people grow in perfection, becoming what God meant them to be, and that they live in peace:

“The powers we have are used in support of the truth, not against it; and we are best pleased when we have no power against you, and you are powerful yourselves. That is what we pray for, your perfection. I write this in absence, in the hope that, when I come, I may not have to deal severely with you, in the exercise of that authority which the Lord has given me to build up your faith, not to crush your spirits.”

II Corinthians, 13: 8-10

I’m certain, with the appreciation of his kind heart that I have acquired, that Paul did not finally bring crushing ecclesiastical sanctions upon these rebel Christians. I think it unlikely.

← back to first Corinthians
onward to Galatians →

Reading through the Prophecy of Hosea (aka. Osee)

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onward to Joel →

The prophecy of Hosea is about the love of a husband for his adulterous wife. Hosea had a rather long ministry, overlapping with Amos during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel and reaching past the reigns of King Achaz and King Ezechias of Juda, reaching almost to the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. His themes are those of Amos – condemnation of the immorality and idolatry of the Israelite clans, and the imminent destruction that is to result from their infidelity to God. Let’s get right on with it…

To demonstrate the attitude of God to Israel, which nation He had married at Mount Sinai and who was now prostituting herself to foreign gods of the Canaanite countryside, Osee makes a parable of himself and marries an unfaithful woman, by whom he has several children with symbolic names.

“When first the divine voice made itself heard through Osee, this was the command given him: ‘Wanton wed thou, wantons breed thou; in a wanton land thou dwellest, that keeps troth with its Lord never.’ So it was he came to marry Gomer, a daughter of Debelaim. When he got her with child, and she bore him a son, ‘This one,’ the Lord told him, ‘thou art to call Jezrahel; at Jezrahel the blood was spilt for which, ere long, Jehu’s line must be punished, and Israel have kings no more; in Jezrahel valley, My doom is, bow of Israel shall be broken.’ And next, she was brought to bed of a daughter; of whom the Lord said, ‘Unbefriended call her, in token that I will befriend Israel no longer, heed them no longer. To Juda I will be a friend yet, not with bow or sword of theirs delivering them, not in battle, with horse or horseman to give aid, but by the power of the Lord their God only.’ Unbefriended, then, was the name of her; and after she was weaned, once more Gomer conceived, and had a son. This time the command was, ‘Call him Strange-folk; no longer shall you be my people, or I be your…'”

Osee, 1: 2-9

And the parable develops further. Infidelity will lose the people the Promised Land. But the forced exile of the people is also an instructive action, for it is meant to draw them away from opulence and the trust in the things of this world, to draw them back into the wilderness, as when they had left Egypt long ago (see also Osee, 12: 9-10, where the people are given to learn their lesson anew in the desert, given by prophets like unto Moses). And there, in the wilderness, they would find themselves once more depending on God alone.

“And now I mean to revoke the gift; no harvest for her, no vintage; I will give wool and flax a holiday, that once laboured to cover her shame; no gallant of hers but shall see and mock at it; such is My Will, and none shall thwart Me. Gone the days of rejoicing, the days of solemnity; gone is new moon, and sabbath, and festival; vine and fig-tree blighted, whose fruit, she told herself, was but the hire those lovers paid; all shall be woodland, for the wild beasts to ravage as they will. Penance she must do for that hey-day of idolatry, when the incense smoked, and out she went, all rings and necklaces, to meet her lovers, the gods of the country-side, and for Me, the Lord says, never a thought! It is but love’s stratagem, thus to lead her out into the wilderness; once there, it shall be all words of comfort.”

Osee, 2: 9-14

Yes, out there, dispossessed and living exiled in a foreign land, comfort would be given the people through the prophets. And chapter four brings a curse upon self-serving priests, just as Michaeas had scolded the false prophets.

“Ruin for thee, sir priest, this day, and, come night, the prophet shall share thy ruin; name of the mother that bore thee shall perish, as, through thy fault, this people of mine perishes for want of knowledge. Knowledge wouldst thou spurn, and shall not I spurn thy priesthood; my law wouldst thou forget, and shall race of thine be spared oblivion? Priests a many, and sins to match their number; shall that title bring glory any longer, and not reproach? Fault if Israel committed, guilt if Israel incurred, it was but the meat and drink such priests craved for. Priest, now, shall fare no better than people; he shall pay for his ill living, reap what his false aims deserve; greed, that remained still unsated, wantonness, that could never have enough. Ah, faithless guardians, that you should play your Lord false! That dalliance, and wine, and revelry, should so steal away your wits!”

Osee, 4: 5-11

The priests had joined in with the collective worship of false gods, and they had profited from it, as false guardians of the people. Chapter five seems to reference the long-term Syrian aggression of Israel, that wasted away the strength of the armies of both Israel and Judah, leaving them practically defenceless against the Assyrian hordes arriving from Nineveh. The prophet wants the kings to acknowledge that they cannot survive through diplomacy with foreign nations. Their help is in the Name of the Lord, their God, and they still have a chance – a brief and momentary chance – to turn back to Him.

“Dead men to-day and to-morrow, on the third day He will raise us up again, to live in His presence anew. Acknowledge we, cease we never to acknowledge the Lord, He will reveal Himself, sure as the dawn, come back to us, sure as the rains of winter and spring come back to the earth. What way will serve with you, men of Ephraim? Juda, what way will serve? Ruth of yours is but momentary, fades like the early mist, like morning dew.”

Osee, 6: 3-4

Chapter seven further mocks the attempts of the people to seek political and military support from other countries, even Egypt, a country which they had left as freed slaves centuries ago. And then they finally turn back when sorely oppressed, looking for God, but alas! it’s too late. And anyway, there’s no indication even then that they had given up the other religions; their devotion was apparently (from other books and from the narrative in Kings; see Osee, 10:2, where they are called half loyal, half false) to multiple gods, one of which was the true God. The sentence has been drawn.

“The trumpet to thy mouth! Eagle’s wings threatening the Lord’s domain! Conscious of faith forsworn, of My law defied, to Me Israel cries out, ‘My God!’ cries out, ‘We acknowledge thee!’ Estranged, poor Israel, from the good that was his, and the enemy pressing hard upon him. Kings a many, and with no warrant from me; princes a many, that were none of My choosing; idols a many, of their own gold and silver minted; here is cause enough for their undoing. Cast calf, Samaria, is yonder calf of thine; for this burning affront, it shall be long ere thou canst find acquittal. Israel gave birth to it, this calf of Samaria, that came of man’s fashioning, and god is none; it shall be beaten fine as filigree. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind; empty stook is empty bin, and here if grain is any, alien folk shall have the eating of it!”

Osee, 8: 1-7

That reference to a cast metal calf in Samaria refers to the Egyptian religion that the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, Ieroboam I, had introduced there centuries before. And here is something we don’t realise about sin and punishment and death: God doesn’t wish to punish, He doesn’t find any joy in punishment and in human suffering. But punishment and suffering are the natural result of sin and infidelity. And God finds Himself helpless before man’s spiral into sin and its wages, death. Even with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, fidelity is still required: we must still believe in the mystery of the Son of God, and follow His commandments. And if we refused to, we couldn’t be dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. Christ Himself would say something similar to what is said here:

“Can My people be reconciled with me? All hangs in doubt, until at last I put a yoke on all alike, never to be taken away from them. What, Ephraim, must I abandon thee? Must I keep Israel under watch and ward? Can I let thee go the way of Adama, share the doom of Seboim? All at once My heart misgives me, and from its embers pity revives. How should I wreak My vengeance, of Ephraim take full toll? God am I, not a man in the midst of you, the Holy One, that may not enter those city walls…”

Osee, 11: 7-9

The lament of the prophet continues until the end, where the voice of hope continues to linger. It’s all rather dismal, and helps us enter into the mind of the prophet, who in his dismay watches an idolatrous nation lolling around in comfort and, with his far-vision, is able to see the dread retribution coming. But God will bring return to His people, when they have found contrition of heart, separated from all the worldly powers they had put their trust in, and when they have put away the idols at last and stood once more naked and weak, but trustful, before the face of the Holy One Who loves them. 

“Come back, men of Israel, with a plea ready on your lips: ‘Pardon all our guilt, and take the best we have in return; the praises we utter shall be our victims now. No longer we will find refuge in Assyrian help, mount our men on horses from Egypt; no longer will we give the name of gods to the things our own hands have made; thou art the friend of the friendless who trust in thee.’ I will bring healing to their crushed spirits; in free mercy I will give them back My love; My vengeance has passed them by. I will be morning dew, to make Israel grow as the lilies grow, strike roots deep as the forest of Lebanon. Those branches shall spread, it shall become fair as the olive, fragrant as Lebanon cedar.“

Osee 14: 3-7
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Trusting divine Providence (Sunday XII of Ordered time)

Our readings this weekend speak of our trust in the providence of God, Who (we might say) always has the bigger picture, and knows therefore what is best at all times. He says so much to the patriarch Job in our first reading today. In the story of Job, this venerable old man had lost his family and his fortune in a series of cataclysmic events, and had finally lost his own health. Sitting in misery, he had called up to heaven that he was innocent of all wrongdoing and had practically put God in the dock, demanding that He, God, defend the attack upon Job. So came the Most High in this tempest in our reading, to put Job in his place and convince him that he should suffer patiently.

“Then, from the midst of a whirlwind, the Lord gave Job his answer: ‘Here is one that must ever be clouding the truth of things with words ill considered! Strip, then, and enter the lists; it is My turn to ask questions now, thine to answer them. From what vantage-point wast thou watching, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, whence comes this sure knowledge of thine? Tell Me, since thou art so wise, was it thou or I designed earth’s plan, measuring it out with the line? How came its base to stand so firm; who laid its corner-stone? To Me, that day, all the morning stars sang together, all the powers of heaven uttered their joyful praise. Was it thou or I shut in the sea behind bars? No sooner had it broken forth from the womb than I dressed it in swaddling-clothes of dark mist, set it within bounds of My own choosing, made fast with bolt and bar; Thus far thou shalt come, said I, and no further; here let thy swelling waves spend their force.'”

Book of Job, 38: 1-11 [link]

That is a poetic narration of the Creation story, with the Holy One calling all things out of nothing, and all of them singing to him with joy. He is in control of all things, and the end of the story is Job being given a new family and new fortune, for the whole of the earlier episode had been a test of his patience in suffering. So God provides, but He expects us to trust at the same time, and even in suffering, that He will bring all things to a good end. In the Gospel story, Christ and the Apostles are sailing west across the sea of Galilee. And He sleeps in the boat.

“That day, when evening came on, He said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ So they let the multitude go, and took Him with them, just as He was, on the boat; there were other boats too with Him. And a great storm of wind arose, and drove the waves into the boat, so that the boat could hold no more. Meanwhile, He was in the stern, asleep on the pillow there; and they roused Him, crying, ‘Master, art Thou unconcerned? We are sinking.’ So He rose up, and checked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’ And the wind dropped, and there was deep calm. Then He said to them, ‘Why are you faint-hearted? Have you still no faith?’ And they were overcome with awe; ‘Why, Who is this,’ they said to one another, ‘Who is obeyed even by the winds and the sea?'”

Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 35-40 [link]

Let’s compare this with the Job story: when Job was in the midst of great suffering, it seemed as if God was asleep, or at least unaware of his pain. As Job suffered, here the Apostles struggled to keep the boat on course and above water. Just as Job called up to heaven in despair, the Apostles now call for the Holy One, asleep in the stern. ‘Master! Do you not care that we are going down??’ Christ awakes and God descends to Job in a tempest. As Job’s suffering ended in an instant, now the storm dies away in Galilee. And the rebuke of the Holy One is the same. To Job He had declared that He could see far further than Job; His Apostles He accuses of unfaith and fear even in His presence. Trust in God’s providence is lacking in both places, as so often it is lacking in our own hearts. The story of the Bible and of the history of the Church is of men and women often failing in their trust in God, and then of finding it again. Repeatedly.

All of us mortal beings are subject to suffering and despair. The best of us accept it and carry on with our duties, as best we can. We may even rage against the Holy One, as Job did. We may call out in anguish, as the Apostles in the boat did. But we shall still know that it is He Who sustains all things, is aware of our predicament, and will eventually bring His purposes to fruition. Toil and suffering will one day end, the storm will abate, and we shall look about us in wonder and say, ‘Who can this be, that even the very wind and the sea obey Him? That all that we feared has fallen to its knees before Him?’

How can we maintain this trust in Him? S. Paul tells us in the second reading that the love of the Holy One overwhelms us. In this month of the Sacred Heart, we should keep that constantly in mind. Paul says that since Christ has died of love for us, so we should live our lives not for ourselves, but for His sake. What does that mean in the context of providence and trust? Surely that we must try to live without care, as Christ asked us to do in the Gospel when He said that we must seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and everything else will be added on by Him. We seek the kingdom of God – with its pursuit of virtue – and set aside the cares of this world, for God may be trusted to look after our families, our worldly needs, and our very health. The Christian sees the world in a different way to everybody else, for he or she sees the world in the light of the Resurrection, and therefore knows very well that beyond suffering and death there is new life. So, Paul says that for all who are in Christ, there is a new creation, the old having passed away. And the Christian life is lived continually in trust in the providence of God.

“With us, Christ’s love is a compelling motive, and this is the conviction we have reached; if one Man died on behalf of all, then all thereby became dead men; Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life, but with His life Who died for us and has risen again; and therefore, henceforward, we do not think of anybody in a merely human fashion; even if we used to think of Christ in a human fashion, we do so no longer, it follows, in fact, that when a man becomes a new creature in Christ, his old life has disappeared, everything has become new about him.”

Second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 5: 14-17 [link]

Reading through the first letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians

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onward to second Corinthians →

This is one of the most popular of the preserved letters of S. Paul, so let’s try and draw a quick summary. Like most big Greco-Roman towns of the first century, Corinth had a large Jewish community, living among almost any number of other religions and philosophy, for this small city was about as metropolitan as could be at the time. One of the most prosperous cities, because of its canal connecting the Adriatic with the Aegean. So there was the usual mix of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in the young church, living on different social levels. Saint Paul himself formed this local church at Corinth as its Apostle and, in this letter, touchingly calls Corinthian Christians his little children in his famous description of the Christian apostle (succeeded later by bishops and priests, to which it also therefore applies):

“As it is, it seems as if God had destined us, His apostles, to be in the lowest place of all, like men under sentence of death; such a spectacle do we present to the whole creation, men and angels alike. We are fools for Christ’s sake, you are so wise; we are so helpless, you so stout of heart; you are held in honour, while we are despised. Still, as I write, we go hungry and thirsty and naked; we are mishandled, we have no home to settle in, we are hard put to it, working with our own hands. Men revile us, and we answer with a blessing, persecute us, and we make the best of it, speak ill of us, and we fall to entreaty. We are still the world’s refuse; everybody thinks himself well rid of us. I am not writing this to shame you; you are my dearly loved children, and I would bring you to a better mind. Yes, you may have ten thousand schoolmasters in Christ, but not more than one father; it was I that begot you in Jesus Christ, when I preached the Gospel to you. Follow my example, then, I entreat you, as I follow Christ’s.”

I Corinthians, 4: 9-16

The painful reality of the Corinthian Church lay in its division within itself. In a situation reminiscent of today’s post-1970s, highly-politicised Church, the Corinthians had apparently selected their favourite apostles (Apollos was an Alexandrian Christian and Cephas, or Rock, was the Apostle Saint Peter himself) and had developed a party system. Paul is naturally annoyed at them and encourages Unity in a lengthy first part of the letter; this must have been the principle defect he wanted to remedy with his letter: 

“Only I entreat you, brethren, as you love the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, use, all of you, the same language. There must be no divisions among you; you must be restored to unity of mind and purpose. The account I have of you, my brethren, from Chloe’s household, is that there are dissensions among you; each of you, I mean, has a cry of his own, I am for Paul, I am for Apollo, I am for Cephas, I am for Christ. What, has Christ been divided up? Was it Paul that was crucified for you? Was it in Paul’s name that you were baptised? Thank God I did not baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius; so that no one can say it was in my name you were baptised.”

I Corinthians, 1: 10-15

The solution to disunity is emphasising Christ and the unity of God, so that even Paul’s own teaching is presented in chapter two as having its grounding in revelation given by the Spirit of God. He still sees his dearly beloved children as novices in the Faith, requiring baby food, and this immaturity in faith is evident above all in their disunity:

“And when I preached to you, I had to approach you as men with natural, not with spiritual thoughts. You were little children in Christ’s nursery, and I gave you milk, not meat; you were not strong enough for it. You are not strong enough for it even now; nature still lives in you. Do not these rivalries, these dissensions among you shew that nature is still alive, that you are guided by human standards? When one of you says, ‘I am for Paul,’ and another, ‘I am for Apollo,’ are not these human thoughts? Why, what is Apollo, what is Paul? Only the ministers of the God in whom your faith rests, who have brought that faith to each of you in the measure God granted. It was for me to plant the seed, for Apollo to water it, but it was God who gave the increase.”

I Corinthians, 3: 1-6

Who are the ministers of Christ, that they should be named in this way, and given schools of wisdom? They are merely planting and keeping, working in succession to each other, with a common ministry. As S. John the Baptist had long before said, the priests should decrease as Christ increase. They are to be trustworthy and must not exceed their personal missions. The question of unity has vexed Paul very much and he has sent his young deputy, Timothy, on a visitation and for instruction:

“That is why I have sent Timothy to you, a faithful and dearly loved son of mine in the Lord; he will remind you of the path I tread in Christ Jesus, the lessons I give to all churches alike.”

I Corinthians 4: 17

Now comes a brief theology of the body in which Paul, in the best Hebrew tradition, condemns incest and then fornication, those committing these crimes being punished with excommunication from the body Catholic. This discussion of the integrity of the human body within human relationships develops gradually into a description of the body of the Church as the body of Christ. Following on from his delivery on the unity of the Church, Paul criticises the tendency of the Corinthians to litigate against one another using the secular courts. Why can’t they settle their cases domestically, ecumenically and within the Church?

“You would do better to appoint the most insignificant of your own number as judges, when you have these common quarrels to decide. That I say to humble you. What, have you really not a single man among you wise enough to decide a claim brought by his own brother? Must two brethren go to law over it, and before a profane court? And indeed, it is a defect in you at the best of times, that you should have quarrels among you at all. How is it that you do not prefer to put up with wrong, prefer to suffer loss?”

I Corinthians, 6: 4-7

The condemnation of debauchery that this sits in the midst of is an affront to the Holy Spirit, whose temples our bodies are. Here’s a general theme Paul uses in his letters: that Christ has purchased us with His self-sacrifice, so our bodies are not ours to commit acts of debauchery with. In what feels to me like an interval, Paul now dips into some practical matters with answers to questions they have made to him in the preceding letter. He recommends virginity in strong words, throughout chapter seven, because that enables Christians souls to dedicate and consecrate themselves to God in prayer. This is a position the Church has ever maintained, although it hasn’t been treated adequately in the last sixty or seventy years. This carelessness, together with family planning and increasing secularisation of the Church, has gutted vocations to the priesthood and Religious life in recent decades.

“I would have you free from concern. He who is unmarried is concerned with God’s claim, asking how he is to please God; whereas the married man is concerned with the world’s claim, asking how he is to please his wife; and thus he is at issue with himself. So a woman who is free of wedlock, or a virgin, is concerned with the Lord’s claim, intent on holiness, bodily and spiritual; whereas the married woman is concerned with the world’s claim, asking how she is to please her husband.”

I Corinthians, 7: 32-34

There is the usual treatment of food that has been offered to idols, which caused much trouble among Jewish and Jewish-Christian communities in such environments as Corinth, this food being forbidden by the Law of Moses. Paul is anxious that, although Christianity frees us from the Law, the Law may still be a matter of conscience to some Jewish Christians. His principle is then that we make way, whenever necessary, for those whose consciences bother them in this respect.

“…it is not what we eat that gives us our standing in God’s sight; we gain nothing by eating, lose nothing by abstaining; it is for you to see that the liberty you allow yourselves does not prove a snare to doubtful consciences. If any of them sees one who is better instructed sitting down to eat in the temple of a false god, will not his conscience, all uneasy as it is, be emboldened to approve of eating idolatrously? And thus, through thy enlightenment, the doubting soul will be lost; thy brother, for whose sake Christ died. When you thus sin against your brethren, by injuring their doubtful consciences, you sin against Christ. Why then, if a mouthful of food is an occasion of sin to my brother, I will abstain from flesh meat perpetually, rather than be the occasion of my brother’s sin.“

I Corinthians, 8: 8-13

That said, we are still to avoid idolatry, for there cannot be more than one God, so that the pagan gods represent evil spirits. This is the topic of chapter ten, which also relates to keeping the body from debauchery, for observing pagan cults is incompatible with assisting at the Eucharistic sacrifice:

“I mean that when the heathen offer sacrifice they are really offering it to evil spirits and not to a God at all. I have no mind to see you associating yourselves with evil spirits. To drink the Lord’s cup, and yet to drink the cup of evil spirits, to share the Lord’s feast, and to share the feast of evil spirits, is impossible for you.”

I Corinthians, 10: 20-21

While covering several points of discipline in chapter (covering heads in the solemn assembly, equality among the social classes and parties in the solemn assembly), Paul now provides the first description ever of the eucharistic prayer of the Mass (the Gospels are all still years from being written), and strongly devises that the Sacrament be received in a suitable state of soul:

“The tradition which I received from the Lord, and handed on to you, is that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was being betrayed, took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My Body, given up for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me.’ And so with the cup, when supper was ended, ‘This cup,’ He said, ‘is the new testament, in My Blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, for a commemoration of me.’ So it is the Lord’s death that you are heralding, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, until He comes. And therefore, if anyone eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily, he will be held to account for the Lord’s Body and Blood. A man must examine himself first, and then eat of that bread and drink of that cup; he is eating and drinking damnation to himself if he eats and drinks unworthily, not recognizing the Lord’s Body for what it is.”

I Corinthians, 11: 23-29

Then comes the descriptions of charismatic gifts in the early church, allowing various people to preach, teach, administer, heal, prophesy, interpret, speak in tongues, etc. Each to his own, Paul says; do not vie with each other for the gifts that God gives variously to different people. All of us, with our many gifts, are to work together like cogs in a great machine:

“The body, after all, consists not of one organ but of many; if the foot should say, I am not the hand, and therefore I do not belong to the body, does it belong to the body any the less for that? If the ear should say, I am not the eye, and therefore I do not belong to the body, does it belong to the body any the less for that? Where would the power of hearing be, if the body were all eye? Or the power of smell, if the body were all ear? As it is, God has given each one of them its own position in the body, as he would. If the whole were one single organ, what would become of the body? Instead of that, we have a multitude of organs, and one body.”

I Corinthians, 12: 14-20

If everybody wants to work as healers or speak in tongues, say, the body would be all ear, or all eye… Instead of aching for these extraordinary gifts, Paul counsels that we seek, above all, charity, which he says will outlast every other marvellous gift. 

“Charity is patient, is kind; charity feels no envy; charity is never perverse or proud, never insolent; does not claim its rights, cannot be provoked, does not brood over an injury; takes no pleasure in wrong-doing, but rejoices at the victory of truth, sustains, believes, hopes, endures, to the last. The time will come when we shall outgrow prophecy, when speaking with tongues will come to an end, when knowledge will be swept away; we shall never have finished with charity.”

I Corinthians, 13: 4-8

But while these spiritual gifts, or charisms, persisted in the early church, there was bound to be disorder in their practice, and Paul seeks in chapter 14 to develop a hierarchy of wonderful gifts. To summarise this long discourse, he prefers gifts that build up the faith of Christians, especially the gift of prophecy, and he prefers them to more personal gifts, like the ability to speak in tongues, for if this were to be a ministry in the church, it would need interpretation, which must have been hard to find. Grow up, Paul seems to say, for this desire to demonstrate marvellous abilities is rather childish.

“Since you have set your hearts on spiritual gifts, ask for them in abundant measure, but only so as to strengthen the faith of the church; the man who can speak in a strange tongue should pray for the power to interpret it. If I use a strange tongue when I offer prayer, my spirit is praying, but my mind reaps no advantage from it. What, then, is my drift? Why, I mean to use mind as well as spirit when I offer prayer, use mind as well as spirit when I sing psalms. If thou dost pronounce a blessing in this spiritual fashion, how can one who takes his place among the uninstructed say Amen to thy thanksgiving? He cannot tell what thou art saying. Thou, true enough, art duly giving thanks, but the other’s faith is not strengthened. Thank God, I can speak any of the tongues you use; but in the church, I would rather speak five words which my mind utters, for your instruction, than ten thousand in a strange tongue. Brethren, do not be content to think childish thoughts; keep the innocence of children, with the thoughts of grown men.”

I Corinthians, 14: 12-20

This post is already far too long, so I’ll terminate this summary of the letter with Paul’s act of faith and witness as an apostle, which precedes his long defence of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body, the denial of which is the denial of Christ, Christianity and any chance of salvation. That you can find in the rest of chapter fifteen. But this below is the beginning of it, and may we hold constantly to this apostolic core of the Faith, and hand it on through the generations and as far as we can:

“The chief message I handed on to you, as it was handed on to me, was that Christ, as the scriptures had foretold, died for our sins; that He was buried, and then, as the scriptures had foretold, rose again on the third day. That He was seen by Cephas, then by the eleven apostles, and afterwards by more than five hundred of the brethren at once, most of whom are alive at this day, though some have gone to their rest. Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles; and last of all, I too saw Him, like the last child, that comes to birth unexpectedly.”

I Corinthians, 15: 3-8
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onward to second Corinthians →

The King of hearts (Sunday XI of Ordered time)

This last weekend’s readings allow us to reflect on what the Church is. Especially in this month of June, a whole month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of our Lord, I like to say that He is the King of hearts. This was something the Temple priests and the scribes of His day – the religious leaders of the people – could not manage: they could command people from the judgement seat of Moses, and the Jews would obey them religiously, but they could not command the love of the people, nor could they be necessarily loved by them. It was something the Roman authority of His day could not manage either: the procurator Pontius Pilate could command a tax collection and a respect for the emperor in distant Rome, but he had to be protected by the army and supported by the corrupt local kings of the Herod dynasty. And the priests hated Christ for His popularity and contrived the fatal accusations against him for envy. And then the Roman procurator asked Him if He was a king. ‘My kingdom is not as a kingdom of this world,’ He replied, ‘or I would have an army around me to protect me, as you Pontius do.’

No – His kingdom is at least in part living in this world, but not of this world, for He rules the hearts of the men and women whom He calls His children, and they love Him as few human rulers could claim their subjects love them. In our first reading this weekend, the prophet Ezekiel (six hundred years before Christ) uses parables to describe this kingdom of love – the Church – that He sees in vision, in the distant future.

“And here is a message from the Lord God: ‘Pith of the tall cedar I will take and set it firm, young branch from its crest of branches I will snap off, and plant it on a mountain that stands high above the rest. High in the hill-country of Israel I will plant it, and there it shall grow into a great cedar-tree; no bird on the wing but shall find rest under its shade, nestle among its branches; till all the forest learns its lesson, that I, the Lord, bring high tree low, raise low tree high, wither the burgeoning trunk, give life to the barren. What the Lord promises, the Lord fulfils.'”

Prophecy of Ezekiel, 17: 22-24 [link]

The Church is not a human-created society; as the prophet says, she was taken from atop a cedar. This could refer to the Aramaic tribe that Abraham came from, but it could be from everywhere, any tree, for the point is that God sovereignly chooses any tribe He likes. But however it may be, the branch is planted upon the high mountain of Israel – and so is Jewish in its foundation – and becomes a shelter not just for Jewish birds, but for birds from every tribe of mankind. Although her foundations are Jewish, the men and women who crowd around the throne of Christ are of every kind. And, the Holy One adds, every community of men and women will know that it is He who builds some trees and ruins others, chooses some communities for life and others for death, as He pleases. Shall we grumble if He chooses first the Hebrew nation for His own, in order through the Jewish Church He may later permit people every tribe to shelter under her branches?

Now let’s have a look at the other parables, our Lord’s own from the gospel reading. We claim to know the science of vegetable growth in our days – we know how plants grow, we have time-lapse videos to demonstrate how a plant emerges from a seed. But there is still a mystery there, for why should any one seed grow this way rather than that? Why should a plant emerge from a seed at all? Just as 2000 years ago, we still only know by human science that if we establish the right conditions, a seed will produce a shoot, then a ear, and then the full grain, which we need for our sustenance. Why this should be is beside the point, and the farmer simply gets to work at the harvest to bring produce.

“And He said to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like this; it is as if a man should sow a crop in his land, and then go to sleep and wake again, night after night, day after day, while the crop sprouts and grows, without any knowledge of his. So, of its own accord, the ground yields increase, first the blade, then the ear, then the perfect grain in the ear; and when the fruit appears, then it is time for him to put in the sickle, because now the harvest is ripe.'”

Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 26-29 [link]

And, similarly, the Church is an absolute mystery, not something to be understood certainly by professors of the social studies who see her as a mere human community, nor even by the most erudite theologian, for our theologians themselves would admit that they can learn only so much about the deepest mysteries. And the life that flows through the Church is not of this world, and her sacramental system (and especially Holy Communion), while either glorified by Catholics or mocked by others, simply works. So, for generations, the priests have thrown seed, and have lost no time when the crop is ready at harvest. How it works is not as significant as the beautiful souls that arrive as a result. The second parable of our Lord speaks of how a large mustard tree comes from a tiny seed.

“And He said, ‘What likeness can we find for the kingdom of God? To what image are we to compare it? To a grain of mustard seed; when this is sown in the earth, no seed on earth is so little; but, once sown, it shoots up and grows taller than any garden herb, putting out great branches, so that all the birds can come and settle under its shade.”

Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 30-32 [link]

Similarly, a whispered story of Christ, or a hastily narrated anecdote from the Life of a Saint, can act as a mustard seed, and before you know it there is a local Catholic community, with a parish hall and perhaps a school. Again, as with Ezekiel’s parable, every kind of bird arrives for shelter. And so, let’s see what S. Paul has to tell us in our second reading today, and relate it to this image of the Church, this community of love. Remember that the Jewish word ‘heart’ refers less to a biological pumping mechanism as to who we are, each one of us, and that the King of hearts calls all truly free hearts irresistibly to Himself. What I mean by ‘truly free hearts’ is hearts that are utterly detached from the things of this world. This detachment Paul calls being ‘at home with the Lord,’ and the attachment to the things of this world he calls ‘at home in the body.’ Paul calls our existence in this world an exile, because it is distant from our true home, which is nearness to the Sacred Heart – what we call ‘heaven.’ But here in exile, or there at home and in glory, the Apostle says that we are intent upon pleasing Him Whom our hearts love, to Whom be glory and praise forever.

“We take heart, then, continually, since we recognise that our spirits are exiled from the Lord’s presence so long as they are at home in the body, with faith, instead of a clear view, to guide our steps. We take heart, I say, and have a mind rather to be exiled from the body, and at home with the Lord; to that end, at home or in exile, our ambition is to win his favour.”

Second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 5: [link]

Reading through the second book of the Maccabees

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onward to Matthew →

Find my summary of the first book of the Maccabees here.

The second book of the Machabees is more properly a book of the Machabees – the followers of Judas Machabeus (‘the hammer’), the son of the priest Mattathias of Modin. The first book had rushed past Judas in a way, after marking his fall in battle, and given much more time to his brothers Jonathan (who was established as warrior high-priest) and Simon (who was established as prince high-priest). That book wished to demonstrate the history of the princely dynasty that Simon would establish and that would hold its own for about a century until the arrival of the Roman legions. The second book is more of a history of the Jewish warrior Judas, who was able to build up the religiously-observant Jews and defend them against the secular Jews, who had allied themselves to the powerful Greek empire capitalled at Antioch-in-Syria. And there are wonderful mystical elements, where the author describes celestial armies fighting alongside the Jews. 

The second book of the Machabees gives us a better introduction to the tyranny of the Greek king of Syria, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Before this, however, there is an obscure narrative about the prophet Jeremias, given to be a guardian of a ‘sacred fire,’ hiding away the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle on Mount Nebo before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans in 587 BC. 

“You shall also find it set down in the dispositions made by the prophet Jeremias, that he bade the exiles rescue the sacred fire, in the manner aforesaid. Strict charge he gave them, the Lord’s commandments they should keep ever in mind, nor let false gods, all gold and silver and fine array, steal away their hearts; with much else to confirm them in their regard for the law. And here, in this same document, the story was told, how a divine oracle came to Jeremias, and he must needs go out, with tabernacle and ark to bear him company, to the very mountain Moses climbed long ago, when he had sight of God’s domain. A cave Jeremias found there, in which he set down tabernacle and ark and incense-altar, and stopped up the entrance behind him. There were some that followed; no time they lost in coming up to mark the spot, but find it they could not.”

II Machabees, 2: 1-6

This event is important because of its historical link between the old Temple of Solomon and the newer Temple that had been raised seventy years later, and which was about to be profaned by Antiochus and would require a rededication by the Machabees. After the return of the Jews from exile in the fifth century BC, the Persians had established a double rule in Juda, through the leadership of both the appointed governor and the high-priest of the Jerusalem Temple, as Zacharias describes. With time, the high-priest seems to have become very powerful indeed, and his was a highly-coveted position. The book now tells how this situation was the beginning of the troubles under Antiochus IV.

“Yet one citizen there was, Simon the Benjamite, the Temple governor, that had lawless schemes afoot, do the high priest what he would to gainsay him. And at last, when overcome Onias he might not, what did he? To Apollonius he betook himself, the son of Tharseas, that was then in charge of Coelesyria and Phoenice, and gave him great news indeed; here was the treasury at Jerusalem stocked with treasures innumerable, here was vast public wealth, unclaimed by the needs of the altar, and nothing prevented but it should fall into the king’s hands. No sooner did Apollonius find himself in the royal presence than he told the story of the rumoured treasure; and at that, the king sent for Heliodorus, that had charge of his affairs, and despatched him with orders to fetch the said money away.”

II Machabees, 3: 4-7

This Heliodorus soon appeared at Jerusalem in force to collect on this fabled treasure, and it was explained to him by the high-priest Onias that he had been misled by the malicious Simon. But he persisted until he was brutally repulsed by a band of extraordinary and heavenly warriors. 

“What saw they? A horse, royally caparisoned, that charged upon Heliodorus and struck him down with its fore-feet; terrible of aspect its rider was, and his armour seemed all of gold. Two other warriors they saw, how strong of limb, how dazzling of mien, how bravely clad! These stood about Heliodorus and fell to scourging him, this side and that, blow after blow, without respite. With the suddenness of his fall to the ground, darkness had closed about him; hastily they caught him up and carried him out in his litter; a helpless burden now, that entered yonder treasury with such a rabble of tipstaves and halberdiers! Here was proof of God’s power most manifest.”

II Machabees, 3: 25-28

The wretched Simon continued to plot against Onias, and finally the ill-will he generated against Onias bore fruit and he was ousted by a kinsman called Jason, who even purchased the office of high-priest, pledging to be pro-Greek and to guide his people into being more progressive and moving with the times – into becoming Greek, that is.

“And here was a brother Onias had, called Jason, that coveted the office of high priest. This Jason went to the new king, and made him an offer of three hundred and sixty talents of silver out of its revenue, besides eighty from other incomings. Let leave be granted him to set up a game-place for the training of youth, and enrol the men of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch, he would give his bond for a hundred and fifty more. To this the king assented; high priest he became, and straightway set about perverting his fellow-countrymen to the Gentile way of living.”

II Machabees, 4: 7-10

However, three years later, Jason too was ousted, and by another kinsman from the same wretched family – a man called Menelaus, who outbidded Jason in purchasing the office, although he initially did not fulfil his promise. 

“Three years later, Jason would send to the king certain moneys, together with a report on affairs of moment; and for this errand he chose Menelaus, brother to that Simon we have before mentioned. Access thus gained to the king’s person, Menelaus was careful to flatter his self-conceit; then, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver, diverted the high-priestly succession to himself. Back he came to Jerusalem, with the royal warrant to maintain him, yet all unworthy, with a tyrant’s cruel heart, more wild beast than high priest. Thus was Jason supplanted, that had supplanted his own brother, and was driven to take refuge in the Ammonite country; as for Menelaus, he got the office he coveted, but never a penny paid the king of all he had promised, however urgent Sostratus might be, that was in command of the citadel.”

II Machabees, 4: 23-27

It was this Menelaus that contrived the execution of the rightful high-priest Onias, his own kinsman, and then set about looting the Temple treasury. He persisted in his office through the period of the rise of Judas and of his greatest successes. Chapter five describes the struggle between Jason and Menelaus for the high-priesthood and Jason’s exile and death in Egypt. When Antiochus IV decided to put fear into the hearts of the Jews and prevent any rebellion against him, he was assisted by Menelaus in the desecration and looting of the Temple.

“As for the Jewish folk, he left viceroys of his own to harry them; in Jerusalem Philip, that was a Phrygian born, and outdid his own master in cruelty; at Garizim Andronicus and Menelaus, heaviest burden of all for the folk to bear. But he would do worse by the Jews yet; or why did he send out Apollonius, the arch-enemy, and a force of twenty-two thousand, to cut off manhood in its flower, women and children to sell for slaves? This Apollonius, when he reached Jerusalem, was all professions of friendship, and nothing did until the sabbath came round, when the Jews kept holiday. Then he put his men under arms, and butchered all that went out to keep festival; to and fro he went about the streets, with armed fellows at his heels, and made a great massacre. Meanwhile Judas Machabaeus, and nine others with him, went out into the desert, where they lived like wild beasts on the mountain-side; better lodge there with herbs for food, than be party to the general defilement.“

II Machabees, 5: 22-27

And that is our first introduction to Judas, not mentioning the origin of the rebellion of the Machabees in the revolt of the priest Mattathias, Judas’ father, given in the first book of Machabees. Chapters six and seven further describe the outrages performed on innocent Jewish civilians, such as the attack on the holy man Eleazar, and the horrible murder of a family of seven sons before the eyes of their mother, who was finally herself killed. The last of the seven brothers boldly challenged the king before his torture and death, providing a summary of the teaching of the Old Testament:

“‘To the king’s law I own no allegiance; rule I live by is the law we had through Moses. Arch-enemy of the Jewish race, thinkest thou to escape from God’s hand? Grievously if we suffer, grievously we have sinned; chides He for a little, the Lord our God, He does but school, does but correct us; to us, His worshippers, He will be reconciled again. But thou, miserable wretch, viler on earth is none, wouldst thou vent thy rage on those worshippers of His, and flatter thyself with vain hopes none the less? Trust me, thou shalt yet abide His judgement, who is God almighty and all-seeing. Brief pains, that under His warrant have seised my brethren of eternal life! And shalt not thou, by His sentence, pay the deserved penalty of thy pride? As my brethren, so I for our country’s laws both soul and body forfeit; my prayer is, God will early relent towards this nation, while thou dost learn, under the lash of His torments, that He alone is God. And may the divine anger, that has justly fallen on our race, with me and these others be laid to rest!'”

II Machabees, 7: 30-38

This story, horrible that it is, is extraordinarily like to the stories of Christian martyrs, and for a long time until recently, the Church has honoured these Old Testament Saints and Martyrs with a feast day at the beginning of August. But now the tide was turning, for Judas rose with all his might and cunning and challenged the vast armies of the Syrian Greeks with small numbers of warriors and guerrilla tactics in the Judaean hills, and with great success. While Antiochus IV now fell ill and died in foreign lands, unable to tame the Jews as he wished, Judas and his men were able to recover Jerusalem and the Temple. While the new king Antiochus V placed governors in the territory of Judaea who continued to harrass the Jewish people, Judas and his family expanded their territory by attacking Edomite forts south of Juda, and pushing back against attacks from the old Ammonite territories in the East. When a Greek called Lysias descended upon Juda from Antioch, he discovered a brave and well-equipped army opposing him and decided to offer friendship instead of ill-will. 

“‘King Antiochus, to the elders and people of the Jews, all health! Thrive you as well as ourselves, we are well content. Menelaus has brought us word, you would fain have free intercourse with the men of your race who dwell in these parts; and we hereby grant safe conduct to all of you that would travel here, up to the thirtieth day of Xanthicus … That the Jewish folk may eat what food they will, use what laws they will, according to their ancient custom; and if aught has been done amiss through inadvertence, none of them, for that cause, shall be molested. We are sending Menelaus besides, to give a charge to you.'”

II Machabees, 11: 27-32

Peace having been concluded with the Syrians, Judas managed to establish diplomatic relations with the rising power of Rome, which was pushing against the Greek kingdoms from the west and would soon be a possible source of security for the Jews. Chapter twelve tells of Judas’ fights against the majority-Gentile cities on the Mediterranean coast who had victimised the Jewish people and promised to do more hurt to them – Joppe, Jamnia, Casphin and Ephron are mentioned, all of them humbled to the dust. It is here, as Judas lost men of his company, that we discover the late Jewish practice of not only burying the dead, but praying for the repose of their souls and offering sacrifices for them at the Temple (with the final resurrection in mind!), a tradition that has been preserved in the Church through the witness of the Apostles. 

“Then he would have contribution made; a sum of twelve thousand silver pieces he levied, and sent it to Jerusalem, to have sacrifice made there for the guilt of their dead companions. Was not this well done and piously? Here was a man kept the resurrection ever in mind; he had done fondly and foolishly indeed, to pray for the dead, if these might rise no more, that once were fallen! And these had made a godly end; could he doubt, a rich recompense awaited them? A holy and wholesome thought it is to pray for the dead, for their guilt’s undoing.“

II Machabees, 12: 43-46

Now, chapter thirteen tells of the arrival of Antiochus V with a great army and his manager Lysias and the wretched Menelaus. Here, Menelaus fell out of favour with the king and lost his life and the Jews putting on a stout defence managed to hold the attack away Jerusalem until the Syrian army was forced to return to the north, to the humiliation of Antioch V and to the consternation of the Gentile cities on the coast, like Ptolemais (of which Judas now became governor, albeit for a short time), who had hoped that the Jewish insurgency would finally meet its end.

“Thus did he try conclusions with Judas, and had the worst of it; news came to him besides that Philip, whom he had left in charge at Antioch, was levying revolt against him. So, in great consternation of mind, he must needs throw himself on the mercy of the Jews, submitting under oath to the just terms they imposed on him. In token of this reconciliation, he offered sacrifice, paying the Temple much reverence and offering gifts there; as for Machabaeus, the king made a friend of him, and appointed him both governor and commander of all the territory from Ptolemais to the Gerrenes. When he reached Ptolemais, he found the citizens much incensed over this treaty made, and angrily averring the terms of it would never be kept; until at last Lysias must go up to an open stage, and give his reasons; whereby he calmed the indignation of the people, and so returned to Antioch. Such was the king’s march upon Judaea, and such his homecoming.”

II Machabeus, 13: 23-26

Now comes the end of the book, and a new king Demetrius I Soter, who was encouraged to put down the Machabean rebellion by a man called Alcimus, who again coveted the position of high-priest of the Temple and suggested vast returns to the king if the Machabean obstacle were removed. Demetrius promptly sent his general Nicanor to take care of this. Judas encouraged his men with the stories of God’s assistance of the Hebrews in times past, and told them an interesting dream/vision that he had once had concerning the good high-priest Onias, who had been recently murdered, and the prophet Jeremias, who had been the guardian of the ‘sacred fire’ at the beginning of the book and practically hands Judas the blessing of victory in battle. If this book aggrandises Judas Machabeus, this story is a master-stroke. 

“A dream of his he told them, most worthy of credence, that brought comfort to one and all. And what saw he? Onias, that had once been high priest, appeared to him; an excellent good man this, modest of mien, courteous, well-spoken, and from his boyhood schooled in all the virtues. With hands outstretched, he stood there praying for the Jewish folk. Then he was ware of another, a man of great age and reverence, nothing about him but was most worshipful; who this might be, Onias told him forthwith: ‘Here is one that loves our brethren, the people of Israel, well; one that for Israel and for every stone of the holy city prays much; God’s prophet Jeremias.’ And with that, Jeremias reached forward to Judas, and gave him a golden sword; This holy sword take thou, he said, God’s gift; this wielding, all the enemies of my people Israel thou shalt lay low.“

II Machabees, 15: 11-16

Now we have a very Arthurian sword-in-stone scenario, and with this encouragement, the Machabees made a generous assault upon the assembled companies of the Greeks and were extremely successful, of course. And here the book ends, with a wonderful comparison of good writing mixed with poor to good wine mixed with water for good effect:

“Such was the history of Nicanor; and since that time the city has been in Jewish possession. Here, then, I will make an end of writing; if it has been done workmanly, and in historian’s fashion, none better pleased than I; if it is of little merit, I must be humoured none the less. Nothing but wine to take, nothing but water, thy health forbids; vary thy drinking, and thou shalt find content. So it is with reading; if the book be too nicely polished at every point, it grows wearisome. So here we will have done with it.“

II Machabees, 15: 38-40
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Reading through the first book of the Maccabees

Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay

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I saw a recent post on social media asking if it was worth reading the books of the Maccabees, and I thought I’d put out a short summary of my own reading of them. This post is on the first book of the Maccabees. For some reason, when the rabbis reconfigured Judaism after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in AD 70, they decided to exclude several books from the Hebrew Bible that were well known to Jewish communities beforehand. This included these histories of the Maccabees. Following this lead probably, the protestant rebels in the sixteenth century took up the book list that was established by the rabbinate. The Church, on the other hand, has retained a fuller list from the old Greek Bible called the Septuagint, which is what the Christ and the Apostles would have been familiar with. The Septuagint is the source of the Greek Old Testament used in the Eastern churches, and the Latin Old Testament that, in its vulgate form, was until the profusion of vernacular bibles the Old Testament of the Western church.

Here is my summary of the first book of the Machabees, that wonderful heroic tale of the family of the priest of Modin, Mattathias (a name identical to Mattityah, which anglicises to Matthew in the New Testament), who dared in the face of utter destruction to stand up to the tyranny of the Greek dynastic rule in northern Syria, which was one part of the great empire that had been established by the Macedonian general, Alexander the Great, in roughly 333 BC. As part of his empire-building procedure, Alexander had promoted Greek culture throughout his new possessions, from Egypt to Persia and the Indus valley. After Alexander died at an unexpectedly early age, his territories were divided between three of his generals. Of the various divisions, we are chiefly concerned here with the power in the north-Syrian town of Antioch, where the Seleucid dynasty appeared, and the new power in the old lands of Egypt, where the Ptolemaic dynasty now appeared – it was between these two that the unfortunate Jewish community was pushed and pulled between. The book itself describes the creation of these:

“So reigned Alexander for twelve years, and so died. And what of these courtiers turned princes, each with a province of his own? Be sure they put on royal crowns, they and their sons after them, and so the world went from bad to worse. Burgeoned then from the stock of Antiochus a poisoned growth, another Antiochus, he that was called the Illustrious. He had been formerly a hostage at Rome, but now, in the hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Grecian empire, he came into his kingdom.”

I Machabees, 1: 8-11

These Greek powers continued with Alexander’s promotion of Greek culture, but at least the Seleucids were particularly aggressive, and this aggression came up against the well-defined Hebrew and Jewish nationhood and religion. As with all political movements, the advance of Greek customs in Judaea had created two rivalling factions – the Jews who wished to remain with their ancestral customs and religion and the Jews who wished to ‘move with the world.’ The latter quickly fell into dissipation and began establishing Grecian elements within civic society. 

“In his day there were godless talkers abroad in Israel, that did not want for a hearing; ‘Come,’ said they, ‘let us make terms with the heathen that dwell about us! Ever since we forswore their company, nought but trouble has come our way. What would you?’ Such talk gained credit, and some were at pains to ask for the royal warrant; whereupon leave was given them, Gentile usages they should follow if they would. With that, they must have a game-place at Jerusalem, after the Gentile fashion, ay, and go uncircumcised; forgotten, their loyalty to the holy covenant, they must throw in their lot with the heathen, and become the slaves of impiety.“

I Machabees, 1: 12-16

And so the scene was set for the new culture to be imposed by force of law, and the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes set about promptly to destroy the Jewish religion in his territories. The first part of the book is about the utter desolation of Jerusalem and Judaea that resulted, as the ‘progressive’ party of the Jews took to Greek customs and the Temple and priesthood were devastated. But there was, as there always is, a ‘conservative’ party and these threw in their lot with the priest Mattathias and his sons, who led a revolt against Antioch and fled for protection to the wilderness of Judaea, from where they began guerrilla warfare against the Greeks. The martial work was left to the more warlike of the sons of Mattathias, Judas, who was called Machabeus, ‘the hammer.’ He and his brothers were therefore the Machabees and the book is their story: how they fortified cities and defended the people against the petty tyranny of the Seleucids. These wicked men went so far as to cunningly massacre the Jews on the Sabbath, because they knew that the Jews would not fight on the Sabbath. The Machabees had to work around that:

“Thus, because it was a sabbath day when the attack was made, these men perished, and their wives and children and cattle with them; a thousand human lives lost. Great grief it was to Mattathias and his company when they heard what had befallen them; and now there was high debate raised: ‘Do we as our brethren did, forbear we to give battle for our lives and loyalties, and they will soon make an end of us!’ Then and there it was resolved, if any should attack them on the sabbath day, to engage him, else they should be put to death all of them, like those brethren of theirs in the covert of the hills. Now it was that the Assidaeans rallied to their side, a party that was of great consequence in Israel, lovers of the Law one and all…”

I Machabees, 2: 38-42

In this battle of the cultures, it was necessary for self-preservation to abandon even the Sabbath rule. In the absence of the advice of an actual prophet of the eternal God, the Machabees made several adjustments to create what would seem to be an emergency state of life for the people, when they were under threat. This was apparently acceptable to the ultra-orthodox sect of the Assidaeans (the Chasidim), who joined sides with the Machabees, as above. The entire Machabean enterprise – which consisted of the rule over the Jewish people by this family of priests – was itself an emergency set-up and it seems obvious from the narrative that it was originally meant to persist only until the Will of God was made manifest through a prophet, such as in times past. Chapter three tells of the ascendancy of Judas as the defender of the people and the revenge of Antiochus IV, who sent a vast army against the Jews. Following a rousing speech, Judas managed the impossible – the destruction of a massive army with a few thousand men. 

“But Judas cried to his fellows, ‘What, would you be daunted by the numbers of them? Would you give ground before their attack? Bethink you, what a host it was Pharao sent in pursuit of our fathers, there by the Red Sea, and they escaped none the less. Now, as then, besiege we heaven with our cries; will not the Lord have mercy? Will He not remember the covenant He had with our fathers, and rout, this day, yonder army at our coming? No doubt shall the world have thenceforward, but there is One claims Israel for His own, and grants her deliverance.’ And now the heathen folk caught sight of them as they advanced to the attack, and left their lines to give battle. Thereupon Judas’ men sounded with the trumpet, and the two armies met. Routed the Gentiles were, sure enough, and took to their heels across the open country, sword of the pursuer ever catching the hindmost. All the way to Gezeron they were chased, and on into the plains by Idumaea, Azotus and Jamnia, with a loss of three thousand men.”

I Machabees, 4: 8-15

And thus, they were able to retake Jerusalem and to restore the sacramental rites of the Temple, after a full rededication ceremony. This is the origin of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, which is celebrated in about mid-December.

“On the twenty-fifth of Casleu, the ninth month, in the hundred and forty-eighth year, they rose before daybreak, and offered sacrifice, as the law bade, on the new altar they had set up. This was the very month, the very day, when it had been polluted by the Gentiles; now, on the same day of the same month, it was dedicated anew, with singing of hymns, and music of harp, zither and cymbals. Thereupon all the people fell down face to earth, to adore and praise, high as heaven, the author of their felicity; and for eight days together they celebrated the altar’s renewal, burned victim and brought welcome-offering with glad and grateful hearts. They decked the front wall of the temple, at this time, with gold crowns and escutcheons, consecrated the gates and the priest’s lodging anew, and furnished it with doors; and all the while there was great rejoicing among the people; as for the taunts of the heathen, they were heard no more. No wonder if Judas and his brethren, with the whole assembly of Israel, made a decree that this feast should be kept year by year for eight days together, the feast-day of the altar’s dedication. Came that season, from the twenty-fifth day of Casleu onwards, all was to be rejoicing and holiday.“

I Machabees, 4: 52-59

I don’t mean to run through every detail of the book. Just to demonstrate the power of this heroic narrative, which would have been told and retold and would have been a part of the formation of Christ at Nazareth, less than two hundred years later. The generals Apollonius and Gorgias having failed to quell the rebellion, what should the Greeks do but pile on with armies, men, horses and elephants? It was inevitable that, despite his extraordinary success and military prowess, Judas would fall. Chapter five tells of how the three Machabean brothers, Judas, Jonathan and Simon, joined forces to chase out the Jews who were of the party of the pro-Hellenisation from the territory of Judaea. They were opposed by pro-Greek cities to the north – Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon – and from across the Jordan to the east – the old enemy Ammon – and from the south-west, Philistia. Even as they worked to restore Judaea, Antiochus IV died far away in Babylonia. His son Antiochus V Eupator attempted another retaking of Jerusalem, but had to give up the siege to return to Antioch to quell another rebellion. It was the next king, Demetrius I Soter (all these were Seleucid kings of the Greek dynasty, capitalled at Antioch in northern Syria), who having usurped the throne from Antiochus V began the offensive against Jerusalem anew, intending to establish a pro-Greek high-priest at the Temple, after ending the Machabean revolt. Judas knew of the danger and chapter eight tells us about the first diplomatic covenant of the Jews with the rising power of Rome, which was beginning to challenge the Greek kingdoms in the Levant. Notwithstanding this, Demetrius I piled armies upon the Jews and Judas was beaten and died in battle. The rule of the people now passed to his brother Jonathan, who proved to be a mighty warrior too.

“And now all that had loved Judas rallied to Jonathan instead; ‘Since thy brother’s death,’ they told him, ‘none is left to take the field against our enemies as he did, this Bacchides and all else that bear a grudge against our race. There is but one way of it; this day we have chosen thee to be our ruler, our chieftain, to fight our battles for us.’ So, from that day forward, Jonathan took command, in succession to his brother Judas.“

I Machabees, 9: 28-31

The Seleucid general Bacchides now turned his sights upon Jonathan. The rest of the chapter is about Jonathan’s struggle against Bacchides, as the pro-Greek high-priest set up by Bacchides began to have his way with Jerusalem. Bacchides repulsed, Jonathan was able to establish his position as the leader and general of the Jews, from his seat not at Jerusalem, but at Machmas, slightly to the north. The next political hiccup was the arrival of a new rival to Demetrius at the port of Ptolemais in about 150 BC, Alexander Balas, who claimed the loyalty of the Syrian armies and was able for a few years to take up the Seleucid throne. Both he and Demetrius had tried to acquire the loyalty of Jonathan, who had become a significant power in Judaea. Also into the fray had come the Greek king of Egypt, Ptolemy, who pretended to ally with Alexander and then with Demetrius II Nicator after him, intending himself to have both the Syrian territories and his own Egyptian territories. Within a short time, both Alexander and Ptolemy were dead, and Demetrius II was still at Antioch. Jonathan, as given by chapter twelve, now restablished relations with the Romans, who were quickly advancing eastwards, and also with the Spartans, the independent and martial Greek nation that claimed descent from the patriarch Abraham. Unfortunately, Jonathan now fell into a trap set for him by the Greek general Tryphon at Ptolemais; Tryphon wished to acquire the throne at Antioch and thought Jonathan a significant challenge to his enterprise. Simon, the least war-like of the Maccabean brothers, now reluctantly took up the mantle of leadership, for the sake of the people. 

“And what did Simon, when he heard that Tryphon had levied a strong force, for Juda’s invasion and overthrow? Here was all the people in a great taking of fear; so he made his way to Jerusalem and there gathered them to meet him. And thus, to put heart into them, he spoke: ‘Need is none to tell you what battles we have fought, what dangers endured, I and my brethren and all my father’s kin, law and sanctuary to defend. In that cause, and for the love of Israel, my brothers have died, one and all, till I only am left; never be it said of me, in the hour of peril I held life dear, more precious than theirs! Nay, come the whole world against us, to glut its malice with our ruin, race and sanctuary, wives and children of ours shall find me their champion yet.’ At these words, the spirit of the whole people revived; loud came their answer, ‘Brother of Judas and Jonathan, thine to lead us now! Thine to sustain our cause; and never word of thine shall go unheeded!'”

I Machabees, 13: 1-9

The book doesn’t tell us of the end of the wicked Tryphon, who eventually escaped by ship from the Seleucid empire, but it is at this point that Simon became the head of a dynasty of priest-rulers, the Hashmonean dynasty (called after Simon, Shmona), establishing Jewish sovereignty for the first time since the destruction of the Davidic dynasty centuries before, albeit by the permission of the over-king in Antioch. The Hasmonean dynasty survived the Roman conquest of the land, and was only extinguished properly by the Idumaean King Herod the Great – that killer of the innocents in Christ’s infancy.

“When king Demetrius answered the request, he wrote in these terms following. ‘King Demetrius to the high priest Simon, the friend of kings, and to all the elders and people of the Jews, greeting. Crown of gold and robe of scarlet you sent us were faithfully delivered. Great favour we mean to shew you, by sending word to the king’s officers to respect the remissions granted you. The decrees we made concerning you are yet in force; and, for the strongholds you have built, they shall be yours. Fault of yours in the past, witting or unwitting, is condoned; coronation tax you owed, and all other tribute that was due from Jerusalem, is due no longer. Fit be they for such enrolment, Jews shall be enrolled in our armies, and ever between us and you let there be peace!’ Thus, in the hundred and seventieth year, Israel was free of the Gentile yoke at last; and this style the people began to use, were it private bond or public instrument they indited, In the first year of Simon’s high priesthood, chief paramount and governor of the Jews.“

I Machabees, 13: 35-42

Demetrius himself was shortly arrested and imprisoned by the king of the Medes and the Persians, and we hear no more of him. Simultaneously, Simon grew from strength to strength, a ruler in his own right of Judaea, with claims on cities on the Mediterranean coast, such as Joppe (near today’s Tel-Aviv). He reestablished the diplomatic relations with Rome and Sparta, who both gave him assurances of their protection, which must have helped the Jews to no end, until the Romans themselves arrived finally in the Levant in 65 BC, with the general Pompey at their head. For the security and prosperity that followed the initial acts of diplomacy however, Simon was honoured by his nation. 

“Here were the Jews, priests and people both, agreed that he should rule them, granting him the high priesthood by right inalienable, until true prophet they should have once more. Their ruler he should be, and guardian of their temple; appoint officer and magistrate, master of ordnance and captain of garrison, and have charge of the sanctuary besides. Him all must obey, in his name deeds be drawn up, all the country through; of purple and gold should be his vesture. Of the rest, both priests and people, none should retrench these privileges, nor gainsay Simon’s will, nor convoke assembly in the country without him; garment of purple, buckle of gold none should wear; nor any man defy or void this edict, but at his peril. The people’s pleasure it was to ennoble Simon after this sort; and Simon, he would not say them nay; high priest, and of priests and people leader, governor and champion, he would be henceforward. So they had the decree inscribed on tablets of bronze, and set up plain to view in the temple precincts; and a copy of it they put by in the treasury, in the safe keeping of Simon and his heirs.”

I Machabees, 14: 41-49

Here we notice the temporary nature of the Machabean situation. Every good Jew knew that the people should be ruled by a Messianic king of the family of King David, and that the high-priesthood was to be separated from this political rule. But until the advent of the Messiah, it seems that they wished to entrench the Hashmonean dynasty. This would end finally with the arrival of the Idumean king Herod on the scene. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to end on a happy note, for Demetrius’ son Antioch soon arrived with his own claims and challenged Simon and the Jews’ claim to the land of Judaea, to which Simon made quick reply:

“…to which Simon made this answer: ‘Other men’s fief seized we never, nor other men’s rights detain; here be lands that were our fathers’ once, by enemies of ours for some while wrongfully held; opportunity given us, should we not claim the patrimony we had lost? As for thy talk of Joppe and Gazara, these were cities did much mischief to people and land of ours; for the worth of them, thou shalt have a hundred talents if thou wilt.’ Never a word said Athenobius, but went back to the king very ill pleased, and told him what answer was given; of Simon’s court, too, and of all else he had seen. Antiochus was in a great taking of anger…”

I Machabees, 15: 33-36

Simon was by this time an old man, and he prepared his sons for their role in protecting the rights of the Jews. He could see that the challenges from the Greeks would continue to come, despite the promised protection from the Romans. Inevitably, Simon also was betrayed, and by a certain Ptolemy son of Abobus, possibly a successor of that pro-Greek high-priest Alcimus, who had been propped up briefly in Jerusalem and wished to wrest the position of the Hashmonean family from them. The book ends with this great betrayal and murder of a hero of the people and two of his sons, Judas and Mattathias. The remaining son, John Hyrcanus I, took up the role of priest-ruler, himself a great hero of the people.

“…a messenger had reached John at Gazara, telling him his father and brothers were dead, and himself too marked down for slaughter; whereupon he took alarm in good earnest; their murderous errand known, he seized his executioners and made an end of them. What else John did, and how fought he, brave deeds done, and strong walls built, and all his history, you may read in the annals of his time, that were kept faithfully since the day when he succeeded his father as high priest.“

I Machabees, 16: 21-24
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Making all things new again (Sunday X of Ordinary time)

We have slipped back into ‘ordinary’ time, after the great festivals of our holy religion. The word ‘ordinary’ used here is something of a misuse of the Latin in the books; a better word is ‘ordered,’ to more accurately describe the sequenced Sundays that begin at Sunday X today and end just before Advent with Sunday XXXIV, when the liturgical colour used is green. 

Our first reading today is from the story of the fall of mankind in the third chapter of Genesis. Notice how the deception of the serpent works out… The serpent had said to Eve our mother that if she were to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of right and wrong, she would become like God, have His own ability to judge. But, as our reading tells us, man and woman lost their innocence and became aware at once of lust and concupiscence.

“And now they heard the voice of the Lord God, as He walked in the garden in the cool of the evening; whereupon Adam and his wife hid themselves in the garden, among the trees. And the Lord God called to Adam; ‘Where art thou?’ He asked. ‘I heard Thy voice,’ Adam said, ‘in the garden, and I was afraid, because of my nakedness, so I hid myself.’ And the answer came, ‘Why, who told thee of thy nakedness? Or hadst thou eaten of the tree, whose fruit I forbade thee to eat?’ ‘The woman,’ said Adam, ‘whom Thou gavest me to be my companion, she it was who offered me fruit from the tree, and so I came to eat it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What made thee do this?’ ‘The serpent,’ she said, ‘beguiled me, and so I came to eat.’ And the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘For this work of thine, thou, alone among all the cattle and all the wild beasts, shalt bear a curse; thou shalt crawl on thy belly and eat dust all thy life long. And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels.”

Book of Genesis, 3: 8-15 [link]

This ending is marvellous in its prediction that salvation would come from a woman, and that it is her child that would finally end the domination of the serpent over the hearts of mankind – the domination that had been established here. The innocence and purity Adam and Eve had had was a gift that preserved peace and harmony with the will of God, without distractions. It was no use really for Adam or Eve to play a blame game in their sin of pride and disobedience – there are now consequences for everybody involved. Now they had been torn away from the will of God and, their peace destroyed, they sought to hide from Him. And we have hidden from him more-or-less, ever since.

Do you remember those pictures we sometimes see of Christ at the door, sometimes carrying a lamp, knocking at the door? There’s the famous Holman Hunt called the Light of the World in Oxford, for example. That’s a picture of God, now made visible in Christ, still calling from the Garden, ‘Where are you?’ When we, a sinful humanity, call back in desperation, ‘We are afraid because we are naked, so we are hiding,’ then as He clothed Adam and Eve with skins, so will He cover us by offering us the rituals of purity, which He gave to the Hebrews in the form of a complex of laws, and which He has given to us through the Church as a system of Sacraments. When we repent of our sins and seek in all sincerity the salvation promised to us by Christ, He clothes us over again and prepares us to traverse the wickedness of this world we still inhabit, which is a consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve. And He promises us that He will one day make all things new again, when we arrive at the fulness of redemption which we spoke about in the psalm today. S. Paul talks about this happy future also in the second reading, when He says that we shall be raised back to life from the sickness and death which were a result of the sin of Adam and Eve.

“I spoke my mind, says the scripture, with full confidence, and we too speak our minds with full confidence, sharing that same spirit of faith, and knowing that He Who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too, and summon us, like you, before Him. It is all for your sakes, so that grace made manifold in many lives may increase the sum of gratitude which is offered to God’s glory. No, we do not play the coward; though the outward part of our nature is being worn down, our inner life is refreshed from day to day. This light and momentary affliction brings with it a reward multiplied every way, loading us with everlasting glory; if only we will fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what we can see. What we can see, lasts but for a moment; what is unseen is eternal.”

The second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 4: 13-18 [link]

Paul’s ‘inner man’ or ‘inner life’ is the heart we turn back towards God, who renews it daily, even as we renew our commitment to God and to our baptisms daily. Meanwhile, the ‘outer man’ – our mortal forms – falls into decay, through sickness and physical distress. Paul wishes us to keep our eyes fixed upon the glorious future – our eternal lives – when the consequences of human sin are ended and all is made new once more.

The gospel message takes us back to the villain of the whole story – the serpent in the garden – who seeks to end our good resolutions and to keep us mired in sin rather than soaring towards union with God. The serpent in the gospel story is master of Jewish authorities who refuse to acknowledge the work of Christ as divine acts. Remember that sickness and death are the result of sin. Well, here is Christ walking around bringing repentance from sin and actually ending sickness and death. This is an early phase of the work of regeneration that Paul talks about in the second reading. But the enemies of our Lord declare that He is on the side of the serpent, and healing by the power of the serpent. Christ is very restrained as He responds to this blasphemy, which calls the Holy Spirit of God an evil spirit.

“…now they came into a house, and once more the multitude gathered so that they had no room even to sit and eat. When word came to those who were nearest Him, they went out to restrain Him; they said, ‘He must be mad.’ And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub; it is through the prince of the devils that He casts the devils out.’ So He called them to Him, and spoke to them in parables; ‘How can it be Satan who casts Satan out? Why, if a kingdom is at war with itself, that kingdom cannot stand firm, and if a household is at war with itself, that household cannot stand firm; if Satan, then, has risen up in arms against Satan, he is at war with himself; he cannot stand firm; his end has come. No one can enter into a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, without first making the strong man his prisoner; then he can plunder his house at will. Believe me, there is pardon for all the other sins of mankind and the blasphemies they utter; but if a man blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, there is no pardon for him in all eternity; he is guilty of a sin which is eternal.’ This was because they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’“

Gospel of S. Mark, 3: 20-30 [link]

An interesting feature of this story from S. Mark is that even those nearest to our Lord, perhaps even His near relations – his mother and cousins, who are mentioned later on – are attempting to restrain Him, perhaps thinking that He is carrying things too far in His opposition to the Jewish order. They have yet to see the greater picture: the Creator of all things was standing at the door knocking, not as a serpent attempting to destroy the destiny of mankind, but the very God Who first established that destiny and aims to restore it by His holy will. And with no distractions of this world, not even from family! His hearers try to derail His message even here, reminding Him of His humanity; for His Mother and His cousins are standing outside asking for Him. But there is something greater than a mere man here. 

And everybody who responds in love and unites himself and herself to His will is His brother, and sister, and mother – part of His family. His body. His Church.

The Sacrament of Love (Corpus Christi Sunday)

It was not too long ago that this last Thursday was everywhere the feast day of the body of Christ (in Latin, Corpus Christi) and the first day of July was the feast day of the blood of Christ. But these days, the two have been lumped together into one feast day on the Thursday, and often enough local conferences of bishops delay the observance of the feast day until the following Sunday. It can be rather annoying in our media age to watch Rome and Jerusalem celebrating the feast day on Thursday, but here we are now on the Sunday.

Today’s celebration is of the greatest gift given us by our Lord. Remember how many times during the Last Supper discourses He promised to not leave His children as orphans after His Passion, Resurrection and Ascension.

“I will not leave you friendless; I am coming to you. It is only a little while now, before the world is to see Me no more; but you can see Me, because I live on, and you too will have life. When that day comes, you will learn for yourselves that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. The man who loves Me is the man who keeps the commandments he has from Me; and he who loves Me will win My Father’s love, and I too will love him, and will reveal Myself to him.”

Gospel of S. John, 14: 18-21 [link]

And then just before His Ascension, He promised to be with us always, yes (He said), to the end of time. How did He propose to do that? Well, we’re looking at it, or rather at Him, every Mass that we attend. That is the first thing I wanted to say about Corpus Christi: it is about the actual, physical presence before us of the Lord, daily, in so far as we are able to either attend daily Mass or visit the parish church and remain for however long before the tabernacle. The Church therefore recommends to us that we spend some time every week in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament – a sort of visitor to a beloved Friend.

The second thing I wanted to mention about Corpus Christi is its celebration of eternal life. Memorably, while our Lord was preaching in the Galilee, He once said to a crowd of His Jewish followers that they would have to eat Him, in order to live eternally. The life of the Father flows through Me, He said, and it will flow through you too, if you eat My flesh and drink My blood.

“‘I Myself am the living Bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he shall live for ever. And now, what is this bread which I am to give? It is My flesh, given for the life of the world.’ Then the Jews fell to disputing with one another, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ Whereupon Jesus said to them, ‘Believe Me when I tell you this; you can have no life in yourselves, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. The man who eats My flesh and drinks My blood enjoys eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is real food, My blood is real drink. He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, lives continually in Me, and I in him. As I live because of the Father, the living Father who has sent Me, so he who eats Me will live, in his turn, because of Me.'”

Gospel of S. John, 6: 51-58 [link]

Do you see how this reception of Holy Communion becomes the condition of eternal rest and heaven, and union with the Holy One at the end of our lives. This condition itself has a condition, and we hear of this in our first reading, from Exodus. The condition of the condition is obedience to the commandments of God. If we show our love for Christ by doing our best to follow the commandments He gave us, then He will come to us in Holy Communion and we shall have that eternal life He promised us. This He said to the Apostles at the Last Supper (see the first quote, above).

“After this Moses took half of the blood, and set it aside in bowls; the other half he poured out on the altar. Then he took up the book in which the covenant was inscribed, and read it aloud to the people. ‘We will do all the Lord has bidden us,’ said they; ‘we promise obedience;’ and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, crying out, Here is the blood of the covenant which the Lord makes with you, in accordance with all these words of his.”

Book of Exodus, 24: 6-8 [link]

This union with God and eternal life is our end, the highest blessing we can hope for. As the second reading says this weekend, Christ as High-priest is the mediator of all blessings to come, flooding them upon us through the medium of His humanity, His Body and Blood. This was the whole point of the Incarnation of Christ – His taking on our humanity and becoming one of us. As the Fathers of the Church used to say, God became man in order than man may become divine. This humanity of His is the means by which we are divinised and so returned to the state of our first parents, Adam and Eve, before their great sin. If only the serpent who accomplished their ruin back then were not still around, surrounding us with temptations.

But despite that, we should be as the Saints we know and love: we should be in a constant state of repentance and seeking the grace of God through the Sacraments of the Church, and especially Holy Communion – following every occasional fall into sin with a greater soaring towards the heavenly places. This is the Christian life: a sequence of falling over and getting up again, but always (if it please God) making progress in virtue, always edging closer to eternal life. And all this became possible when the Lord at His Last Supper, with His priests around Him, took the bread and the wine up and said, This is My Body, this is My Blood, the Blood of the covenant, by which heaven is now open to the children of Adam, by which the eternal life that Adam and Even once forfeited is now available once more to their children, My children, Whom I love, and for Whom I now give My life. 

“Meanwhile, Christ has taken His place as our high priest, to win us blessings that still lie in the future. He makes use of a greater, a more complete tabernacle, which human hands never fashioned; it does not belong to this order of creation at all. It is His own blood, not the blood of goats and calves, that has enabled him to enter, once for all, into the sanctuary; the ransom He has won lasts for ever. The blood of bulls and goats, the ashes of a heifer sprinkled over men defiled, have power to hallow them for every purpose of outward purification; and shall not the Blood of Christ, Who offered Himself, through the Holy Spirit, as a victim unblemished in God’s sight, purify our consciences, and set them free from lifeless observances, to serve the living God? Thus, through His intervention, a new covenant has been bequeathed to us; a death must follow, to atone for all our transgressions under the old covenant, and then the destined heirs were to obtain, for ever, their promised inheritance.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Hebrews, 9: 11-15 [link]

Reading through the book of Judith

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This is another folk-story (like the book of Tobit) with so many names of people and places changed that the historical situation cannot be matched to historical documentation and stands apart from any historical situation. If you happen to be using a protestant Bible, you may not have this book in (unless you have an appendix of what they call ‘apocrypha’); it was taken out from common use first by the Jewish rabbinate when they established their arrangement of books of the Hebrew Bible, and then by the protestants in the sixteenth century. The Catholics and Orthodox retain it from the ancient lists, and it was a book well known to Jews in the first century.

The Book speaks of an Assyrian king called Nabuchodonosor – the historical character of that name who destroyed the kingdom of Juda is long in the past when this story opens, and the Assyrian empire itself is long dead – attacking the second-Temple period of the restored Juda. This second Nabuchodonosor, who has no basis in the historical record, and puffed up by his success in war, sends a general called Holofernes to subdue resisting nations. And the Jews in the hills of Juda have dared to arm themselves and fortify their cities against these ‘Assyrians.’ The threat is great, as even the guerrilla tactics of the Jews in their hill country could be overwhelmed by the hordes that Holofernes has brought. As Holofernes plans how to subdue the Jews, he is advised by the Ammonite premier Achior that the eternal God protects the Jews and that any attack must first weaken the Jewish religion or is doomed to fail. He is promptly scorned by the Assyrians, who worship their king Nabuchodonosor:

“At these words of Achior’s, Holofernes’ lords were full of indignation, and thought to make an end of him. ‘What talk is this?’ they said to one another. ‘Can the men of Israel, without arms, without valour, without skill in war, hold out against king Nabuchodonosor and his troops? Scale we yonder heights, to prove Achior a liar, and when we have mastered the defenders, let Achior be put to the sword with the rest. Let us prove to the whole world that Nabuchodonosor rules it, and other god there is none.'”

Judith, 5: 26-29

And so these besieged the unhistorical Jewish city of Bethulia and cut off the water supply to the town (chapter seven), succeeding in destroying the courage of its citizens. Then a young widow called Judith, who first made walking around with a large scimitar and a severed head look heroic, stood up to the fearful leaders of the city and made a long act of faith.

“You, brethren, are among the elders of the people; their lives are in your charge. Yours to hearten them, by reminding them what trials our fathers underwent, to shew whether they were God’s worshippers indeed; how Abraham was put to the proof, tested by long endurance, before he became God’s friend; how Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and all who won God’s favour, must be loyal to Him under great affliction first. And what of those others, who could not hold out, submitting to the divine will, under these trials; who bore themselves impatiently, and did the Lord despite by complaining against Him? These were the men the destroying angel slew, the men who fell a prey to serpents. It is our turn to suffer now, and never a word said in remonstrance; think we the Lord’s rod too light a punishment for our sins, believe we that He is punishing us as His servants, to chasten, not to destroy.“

Judith, 8: 21-27

Interesting indeed. Here is both a theology of suffering well and remaining faithful to God and a theology of suffering and punishment for sin as instructive to the people rather than intended to destroy them. Both of these play well into Church teaching. Judith proceeded to dress herself up and use her striking beauty to beguile the Assyrian soldiery and the general Holofernes himself. The next few chapters demonstrates how Judith cleverly planned her escape from the enemy camp by establishing a routine of daily prayer, so nobody would stop her from leaving the camp. Having beheaded the Assyrian general, she brought the head back to Bethulia, to massive acclaim and became a heroine. The high-priest visited from Jerusalem to acclaim her along with the people, using words that the Church today uses for the Blessed Virgin. 

“And now the high priest Joacim came to Bethulia, with all that were his fellow elders at Jerusalem, asking to see Judith; and when she answered his summons, all with one voice began to extol her; ‘Thou art the boast of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the pride of our people; thou hast played a man’s part, and kept thy courage high. Not unrewarded thy love of chastity, that wouldst never take a second husband in thy widowhood; the Lord gave thee firmness of resolve, and thy name shall be ever blessed.’ And to that all the people said Amen.”

Judith, 15: 9-12

And that’s about all I want to say about Judith. She lived to a ripe old age, always known as a heroine, and was greatly mourned at her death. There’s her wonderful final hymn, which is very like the song of Moses after the passage through the Red Sea. And this post may end on that high-note.

“Strike up, tambour, and cymbals beat in the Lord’s honour, sound a fresh song of praise; high enthrone Him, call aloud upon His Name! What power divine crushes the enemy, but the Lord’s great Name? Here in the midst of His people He lies encamped; come what enemy may, He grants deliverance. Came the Assyrian from the northern hills in his great strength, the valleys choked with his marching columns, the mountain glens black with his horses; to send fire through our country-side, put our warriors to the sword, mark down our children for slavery, our maidens for spoil. Great despite the Lord Almighty did him, that he should fall into a woman’s power for his death-blow. Not by warriors’ hands the tyrant fell; not giants smote him, not heroes of the old time barred his path; it was Judith, Merari’s daughter, Judith’s fair face that was his undoing. Laid aside, now, her widow’s weeds; festal her array must be; a feast waits for the sons of Israel. Ointment, there, for her cheeks, a band for her straying locks, a robe new-wrought to ensnare him! Her very sandals thralled his eyes; he lay there, his heart beauty’s prisoner, while the sharp steel pierced his neck through.”

Judith, 16: 2-11
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Love is three, and Love is one (Trinity Sunday)

I shouldn’t try to explain in ten minutes the greatest mystery that is present to us in our religious tradition. Ever since the Holy One revealed Himself to us as somehow three while being one, those who hate the Church have ridiculed our embrace of this mystery of the Trinity. Of old, great masters of theology such as S. Hilary of Poitiers, S. Augustine of Hippo and S. Thomas Aquinas have written long essays on the nature of God, but I’m going to mention instead a basic description of the Trinity which I have copied at the bottom of this post, and bring up some of the points it makes. I refer to what we call the Athanasian Creed, which most Catholics have now forgotten, but those of us who may have an Anglican or similar protestant tradition may remember. It is also called the Quicumque, which is its first word in the Latin. ‘Quicumque’ means whosoever, and the author of this creed declares that whosoever professes this ancient statement of belief may alone be saved. The summary is this: that the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity are individual Persons, not in anyway mixed with each other, one in Their divine and eternal Essence, uncreated and beyond understanding, even on the part of the angels who live in Their presence. One God, one almighty God. But there is the Father, the Son Who is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son. Only one Father, only one Son, only one Holy Spirit, each of them coequal in dignity to the other two.

The Athanasian Creed then continues in the manner of the other creeds we use regularly in describing the entry into time and history of the second Person of the Trinity as a human being, our eternal High-priest and LJC. So, we have a picture of the Ancient of Days, one in three and three in one, and we may look through our readings this weekend. In our first reading, from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses declares before the Israelites the astonishing fact that the Creator of all things has made Himself known personally to this assembled people, and adopted them as His own.

“‘Search the history of the days that went before thee, far back as the time when God made man on the earth, wide as earth’s end from earth’s end; is there any other record of such happenings? That a people should hear the voice of God speaking out of the heart of the flames, as thou didst, and live to tell of it? That God should intervene, and single out for Himself one nation above all the rest; that He should try men’s hearts with portent and with marvel, fight against them with constraining force, with open display of His strength, with plagues terrible to see? All this the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, and your own eyes have witnessed it; proof to you that this Lord is God, that no other can compare with Him.'”

Book of Deuteronomy, 4: 32-35

In fact, God had chosen for Himself that mixture of tribes and extracted it from the clutches of the Egyptians and so of the world, and contrived to marry Himself to this people in some extraordinary way. On the condition of their observing the commandments of God, they would belong to Him as no other people, and He would belong to them. And that election and marriage is the subject of our psalm response at Mass this weekend: happy the people God has chosen as His own. How much does God love that people? That question takes us to the second half of the Athanasian Creed. He loved them so much that He became one of them, He became a Jew, and obeying all the commandments that He Himself had given to them, He established His holy Church from them, and made it the principle of salvation, by which He would draw into His embrace all the tribes of the earth. The gospel reading tells us how that is accomplished: through baptism in the names of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, and through instruction about God and about the commandments He had given first through Moses and then through Christ.

“Jesus came near and spoke to them; ‘All authority in heaven and on earth,’ He said, ‘has been given to Me; you, therefore, must go out, making disciples of all nations, and baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all the commandments which I have given you. And behold I am with you all through the days that are coming, until the consummation of the world.'”

Gospel of S. Matthew, 28: 18-20

So, then, are we to observe these commandments by means of our own strength and determination? Perhaps, we could try to do that, but the rebellion in our hearts will always present obstacles. We feel this every time we are faced with temptations to say and do things we know can harm ourselves and other people somehow. And so, Christ promised us and delivered to us the gift of the Holy Spirit, as given in our second reading today. In the heart of the sinner (that is, you and me) the Holy Spirit of God cries Abba. Father, He calls from within us, hallowed be Your Name, may You be forever blessed, Your Will accomplished, give us the sustenance we need and forgive us our sins, for You are ours, and we are Yours, now and forever.

“Those who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are all God’s sons; the Spirit you have now received is not, as of old, a spirit of slavery, to govern you by fear; it is the Spirit of adoption, which makes us cry out, Abba, Father.”

Letter of S. Paul to the Romans, 8: 14-15

Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved,
before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith; 
which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled,
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. 

And the catholic faith is this:
That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
For there is one person of the Father,
another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Spirit. 
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
is all one,
the glory equal,
the majesty coeternal. 

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. 
The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. 
The Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. 
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. 
And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal. 
As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible,
but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. 

So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. 
And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty. 
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; 
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. 
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; 
And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord. 
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity
to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; 
So are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say,
There are three Gods or three Lords. 

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. 
The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten. 
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son;
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. 
So there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons;
one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. 

And in this Trinity none is afore or after another;
none is greater or less than another. 
But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal. 
So that in all things, as aforesaid,
the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. 
He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity. 

Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation
that he also believe rightly
the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
For the right faith is that we believe and confess
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. 
God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds;
and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. 
Perfect God and perfect man,
of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. 
Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead,
and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood. 
Who, although He is God and man,
yet He is not two, but one Christ. 
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh,
but by taking of that manhood into God. 
One altogether, not by confusion of substance,
but by unity of person. 
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man,
so God and man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell,
rose again the third day from the dead; 
He ascended into heaven,
He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty; 
From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies; 
and shall give account of their own works. 
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting
and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the Catholic faith,
which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
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