St John's Chapel

Fr Martin's writes an article each week for the St John's Messenger

August 12, 2001

The Need to Begin

These days, being a faithful Christian is no easy task. By reason of our ecclesiastical institution's obsessions with strange doctrines and new mores, we are often persecuted and thwarted in our efforts to embrace traditional Christianity. It seems so natural to become filled with despair. What we hate ends up defining us too much. Far from radiating and mirroring the truth that is under assault, we manifest depression and despair -- all the while forgetting that our outward and visible ways deter others from seeking Christ and finding His truth.

So we must remind ourselves that we are members of Christ. If we are so upset with what has happened to the church, then our burden is to show forth all the more what He has done for our souls. With the psalmist we must exclaim, "Come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul!" (Psalm 66.16). If He has not yet done for our souls what we believe that He can do, then it is high time to open up to His grace and embrace the operation of His mercies -- the grace that is freely given us in Christ to make us mirrors of His wisdom, His charity, and His power; to make us recognizable as friends of Christ and the adopted children of Heaven.

We shall be judged on whether or not our faith in Christ has taken root, grown, and flowered with a spiritual beauty that bears witness to the Lord. Rooted and grounded, founded and nourished by the mercies of Heaven, we must become "little Christs," as C.S. Lewis was fond of saying.

Our souls are lost, our spirits confused, and our minds overwhelmed by the world and the church that surrounds us and provokes us. Our solace is this: God is not dead but alive, not distant but near. Already within our souls we have the source of all truth, the comfort of all confusion. In the words that tell the story of our faith, that old story of God's love and glory, are the seeds of hope that will enable us to endure all affliction, all persecution, and all pain. What we possess in the sanctuary of our souls, no man can take from us. You and I alone have the capacity to ignore or forget these words, committing them to the dustbin of oblivion, the ash-heap of spiritual death. Let us determine, therefore, to remember them.

What we remember is the remnant of the Word, and words of God remains in our souls. Indeed, the Word has uttered many words; there is too much to ponder. We may feel overwhelmed and confused by all the words of the Word which dwell within us. To help us to remember that "the Lord hath done great things for us already" (Psalm 126.4), we need direction and guidance, a summary to focus the mind's eye upon God's mercy and wisdom. It is there already in our souls, in the short and easy form of the Apostles' Creed -- words pointing to the Word, words reminding us of the Word and that old story of God's love and His glory.

Probably we learned and studied it to enter into the embrace of God's holy church. We must learn it again. We must begin again as newborn spiritual babes yearning for the milk of the Gospel, because we have forgotten "what the Lord has done for us already."

So we begin with the words "I believe in God the Father Almighty..." We have said the words a million times, sometimes in vain repetition, sometimes with half-hearted faith. But we have rehearsed them often enough, and they reside in our souls. These words have been uttered through the mouth, but have they taken root in the heart? We say that we believe, but our faith seems dead. Yet, if we clear away the noise and business of the world, if we enter the silence of the soul's inner sanctum where we may open up to their meaning and take possession of their content, these words will lead us to remember and rediscover what the Word of God has done for us already. †

August 19, 2001

"I Believe"

First we say "I believe." We have turned inward in hope of regeneration, renewal, and restoration; we have desired that God's presence should awaken in our souls. Now, for us to say "I believe" means we trust and have hopeful confidence that the source of our regeneration and renewal is unseen with earthly eyes. It is also unheard with earthly ears, and therefore can only be known by means of faith.

We use the word "believe" because it points to that spiritual dimension which can be grasped only as what is far beyond our earthly power to create. Belief, unlike knowledge, shows that strength to know and experience is not achieved in a fleshly manner. What the mind does not know from human experience, it holds in faith or belief. You and I begin with belief because we seek to know and have what transcends all human life.

Belief acknowledges that the power, the love, and the wisdom, which can save us, are radically beyond us and not generated by human nature. Belief appears in the heart and the mind that are humble enough to realize that what we have in the soul must be given to us. We can have it only if we know that we possess a great gift not produced by our natural powers. Belief, unlike knowledge, reveals an inner trust or confidence in what comes down to us from above. We begin with faith.

Yet when we have come to know what faith or belief seeks, even then we must return to faith and belief because we know only in part and see "through a glass darkly." When we say that we "believe," our humility admits that we need God and that though He is a God who we neither grasp fully nor embrace totally, we can possess what He chooses to bestow upon us in the gift of His grace.

What we are given as the object of our belief we have said so many times: "I believe in the God the Father Almighty." This is what has been given as the foundation of our faith. Before we can remember what the Word of God in Christ has done for us, we must lift up our minds to the presence of the Almighty who directs the work of the Word in the world and in our souls. "God is a spirit," and our souls must come into the realm of the Spirit where His Word is spoken to us. You and I must seek to be grounded in the object of our mind's belief. As we contemplate these words, our humility deepens while our confidence grows.

"I believe in God the Father Almighty." What we believe in is the source and cause of all perfect life and endless joy. First we believe in God, in pure and perfect goodness, and in the only Being who generates virtue and truth. Our souls have been confused and our spirits weakened, but if we are humble enough to utter these words in the inner man, we find new strength and confidence. We believe in God, and so our souls are grounded in the source of all truth and life. For our God is our Father, the Author of all truth, the Begetter of all joy.

In our souls we remember that God our Father has bestowed the gift of His presence upon us. He has come out of Himself and visited our souls with the belief in His presence and the promise of His comfort. Our Father has come to place the gift of Himself in our tired, weary, and dispirited souls. There, He begins to implant in our souls a reality that is far beyond our knowledge and yet so near to our faith. Though He is beyond our comprehension, He is lovingly close to humble belief. And He comes as Father to sow the seeds of His Word in our souls. †

August 26, 2001

"I Believe in God the Father"

God is "Almighty." With Him there is no limitation to what He can do for our souls. The might and strength of our human condition can do nothing to secure us in lasting joy and truth. What the power of man can never do, the "Almighty" desires to do for your soul and mine. He will quicken and enliven our minds to the remembrance of what He has done for us already. He alone can do this, for He alone is Almighty.

What we remember now is that this Almighty God, our heavenly Father, is the "Maker of Heaven and Earth." He has made all things, you and me, all creatures, and all creation. And He promises to make all things new -- to create you and me all over again. He desires to have us remember who He is and that who He is alone can offer rebirth to our sin-diseased souls. He has made the world that we know and experience. Now He will remake us as we remember what He has done for our souls and how, through faith, this memory will reawaken the inner man to the quickening presence and healing wisdom of our heavenly Father.

Thus far you and I have traveled a great distance away from despair and into hope. Belief has been born in humilty, and our belief has reminded us that God is our Father and that He is Almighty. In remembering that the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth longs to refashion us, and that He alone can effect the change that we need in order to become friends of God, we are moved by confidence.

What we remember in the few words we have considered is what can secure us in that truth which is awesome to behold. That truth is contained in your soul and mine because we have remembered in a few words that the gift of God's overwhelming presence is with us. What we remember is now present to us, and so the first seedlings of faith have been replanted in our souls. These seeds of faith will grow because they have been planted in humble needy souls who have recast themselves upon the power and wisdom of the Lord.

Remember and ponder these first few words of the Apostles' Creed. Be moved to wonder and to thanksgiving before God's perfect, unchanging and everlasting desire to manifest Himself to us. In remembering who God is, our faith finds lasting security in the source and generator of that which can never be taken away from us. The soil of the soul has been cultivated and prepared for remembering even more of what the Lord hath done for us already. What the Lord hath done for us already is to remind us of His abiding presence and merciful love. And the seed is beginning to sprout. †

Setember 9, 2001

"Who Was Conceived by the Holy Ghost"

Being human, you and I have lived with inner confusion and in darkness; we have felt removed from God and alienated from His Divine Presence. We have lived in the prison house of sin and have been shackled by our wickednesses. All of us have known the faraway God who has not seemed to care about our souls' inner turmoils and pains.

To be sure, He sustains the creation we see in the world around us, yet we long for more. In our hearts and souls we yearn for a deeper intimacy and closeness. We pray for a love that will truly change us and release us from our misery. Lasting and satisfying love is what we seek. By our own merits and according to our own efforts we know the Creator and Sustainer, but we feel His absence from us. Our belief must recall the next words of the Creed.

"Who was Conceived by the Holy Ghost and Born of the Virgin Mary." We believe not only in a Father and Son who have created and preserved all things from a distance; our Lord Jesus Christ was also conceived by the Holy Ghost and born in this world. Faith and belief call us to remember that "the Lord hath done great things for us already." He has not left us comfortless. In remembering that the Son came into this world, our faith recalls the merciful care and compassion of God Almighty. When we remember that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," we come into the presence of that healing power which will befriend us and change us.

Jesus Christ our Lord was born from above and descended into the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Lord the Word united Himself to our humanity in the Virgin's womb and so began the process of restoring us to God the Father. His Divinity took flesh upon Himself, in the womb of Mary, in order to greet us and help us in our own human condition and on our level. Because we had lost our spiritual wits, the Lord took flesh to reintroduce us to His Father, beginning on an earthly plane.

What we could not have known spiritually by reason of our sins, He will make known to us first through His earthly mission. The Word takes on flesh, has a face, speaks with a human mouth, and heals with human hands. Jesus calls the Apostles and us with an earthly voice in an earthly space. Because we could no longer see and know God spiritually, God will come into our midst and communicate to us in an earthly manner. We could not hope to see spiritually again until we saw God first in Jesus, God in man, and God living and speaking through our own human medium.

So we remember with grateful hearts that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We recall the love of our heavenly Father, whose only-begotten Son was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. We thank God that He brought heaven down to us in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus is conceived by the Spirit of God. We believe in that God who united Heaven to earth, Divinity to humanity in the earthly existence of Jesus Christ. Through His humanity Jesus would show us that Divinity that moved, defined and enlivened His life offered for us.

God offers Himself to us as a gift in Jesus. The Father gives us His truth and His wisdom; His power and love in the earthly pilgrimage of the Son of God. We remember this and our faith grows stronger. Our confidence increases as we focus our souls' attention upon the miracle of God's love and mercy. The gift of God's manifestation of Himself in Jesus bolsters our faith that begins to understand how the Divine desires to move and enlighten humanity. We begin to remember that God's way, embraced by Jesus, can become our way and our truth also. In Jesus, a way back to God is found once again. †

September 20, 2001

The Seed Begins to Sprout

As we have said, the Lord wishes to refashion us according to His image and likeness. God wants us to be like Himself, that we might be close to Him and able to identify with His will and His way. We become like Him when we rediscover that we can be His sons and His daughters. You and I can become the children of God. We can be made incorporate in the mystical and familial body of His being. We are able to become like Him by meditating upon the next article of our Christian belief.

"I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord." We are capable of being made into the children of God because of the work and mission of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In Jesus, we are called to be born again, born anew from above, born in the spirit. Our faith in Jesus Christ plants the seed of sonship in our souls. Through humble belief in Jesus Christ, you and I become part of God's familial life, that intimate heavenly reality which the Father shares with the Son from before the beginning of all time and creation.

By saying that we believe in the Son, we acknowledge that we desire to participate in that which God begets and generates. Our faith admits that we long to be a part of God's domestic reality; we long to be at home in His heaven. Belief yearns for the tranquil truth and perpetual peace which the Father generates in the Person of the Son.

God the Son is the Word, wisdom, and truth that the Father eternally spawns in pure love and desire. The Divine Son of God is the second Person of the Trinity, who as the Father's wisdom and truth and Word eternally reflects and images the Almighty Father. God the Son, in whom we believe, is He through whom all things were created and are sustained.

Through the Son, through the wisdom and truth and Word, all things were made and are preserved by the Father. In saying that we believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, we express confidence in the everlasting Word that defines and enlivens all things. In faith, you and I become certain that this world has meaning and worth in the mind and life of God.

The seeds of our faith are now more clearly defined. We believe not merely in a faraway God, unknowable and unknown. Instead we believe in a God whose wisdom and power are manifested in all that He has created. The traces of God's handiwork and craftsmanship are everywhere evident on a living earth full of vibrant creatures. Through the Word -- the Son, God defines and moves all of creation. Our belief is made stronger in the Word that gives life to all creatures. Our confidence grows as we have renewed trust in that wisdom which has created and sustains you and me. †

October 7, 2001

"Suffered Under Pontius Pilate"

This week we return to our meditation upon the words of the Apostles' Creed, in order to remember that "The Lord hath done great things for us already." The word which we must ponder with renewed enthusiasm is the word "suffer." In this word we recall that love which moved our Lord to suffer on our behalf. Literally, He took on what we could not bear in ourselves. In suffering, He assumed or carried the burden and weight of human sin and wickedness.

Though He did not sin, He endured the effects of evil and thus the outcome of all sin, which is death. He submitted to the effects of human wickedness for the purposes of God the Father's will and love. His human nature would undergo all manner of suffering for all of us, and yet the fire of love and care, the Divine energy within Him, would never die.

On a purely philosophical level, God does not suffer. He undergoes no changes to His divine nature; He is not affected or moved by anything at all. If He were to change or undergo any kind of alteration, then He would not be God. But in a different way, God is able like none other to suffer and endure all things. God can withstand and resist any force in this universe without being changed or hurt in any way. Nothing can stop the Divine Life of God Almighty. Nothing can kill God. God is not and could never be dead. His Life is Life and His Being is Being.

And God (His Life and Being) was, in Christ, reconciling all things to Himself. God the Father lived in Jesus Christ. He moved and shaped Him; His will directed and governed every aspect of the human visitation of our Saviour. The Divine will and desire constantly animated the life of Christ and moved Him to suffer for you and for me. God in Christ can endure all things, all manner of suffering for our sakes; because in the end, His wisdom, power and love will not die but will live and persist eternally.

What enables the humanity of Jesus Christ to submit to the Divine command to suffer is the hope and the confidence that the Father's will and way shall overcome all manner of evil and wickedness in the universe. Jesus so trusts in His Father's way and so cleaves to the hope that Divine love and truth will conquer, that He submits Himself to passion and affliction. He will be spat on, mocked and derided, whipped and stripped, nailed to a tree and will die, and yet the persistent love and power and wisdom of His Father will raise Him up and restore to Him human nature.

He "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried." God in Christ submitted Himself to His own law; He suffered the consequences of His own decree that sin should end in death and that sin should yield and produce death. He suffered for you and for me that we might have renewed hope and confidence in the power and strength of the Lord God Almighty.

And yet there is another aspect to this suffering. If we remember what He has done for us, we must remind ourselves that He suffers alongside us each and every day of our lives. He promises to be with us and to live in us. If we believe this, then we have confidence in a love that stands by our side and helps us to suffer and to undergo all manner of hurt for the truth's sake.

If we know that our friend Jesus Christ is with us and in us, then we also realize that we are not alone and that Divine Love can strengthen us in times of pain and misery. Our Saviour has suffered once for all for the sins of the whole world and even now infuses us with the hope that nothing shall conquer His reign of love and truth. †

October 14, 2001

"The Third Day He Rose Again From the Dead"

Our Saviour suffered once for all for the sins of the whole world, and even now infuses us with that hope that nothing shall conquer His reign of love and truth. You and I are remembering that "the Lord hath done great things for us already," and so are beginning to realize the immense and tremendous love that our Lord God has for us. This week we recall that the Lord has not left us comfortless, but has returned to us in order to continue His offer of friendship and fellowship.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is not a tragedy. The story does not end with the death of a hero in a contradiction that might have been otherwise had another choice been made. The death of our Lord was an act of pure love in obedience to our Heavenly Father. In His death, love and compassion, other-directedness and sacrifice were everywhere alive.

The love of Jesus for our Heavenly Father, His steady and constant passion for the power and truth of God's will, and His faithfulness to Heaven's commands lifted Him on to the cross. As St. Paul says, "Charity (love) suffereth long and is kind, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things" (I Cor. 13).

Charity or love endures and bears all manner of threats to itself, and if the possessor of it is arrested by its truth, then its fire shall not be quenched. His unseverable attachmentto his Father's governance would lift Him up beyond and out of the realm of death. The love and truth of the Divine Father would not die, but raise Jesus up and continue to move both Him and the whole world.

Jesus rose anew and afresh the third day from the dead. His obedience to the Father and His humble willingness to be moved exclusively by Heaven's laws and desires issue forth in His resurrectionfrom death. This is no resuscitation, as in the case of Lazarus. Resurrection is far more profound, with further-reaching consequences.

The body is not merely revived, but transformed and spiritualized. His human nature has been wholly changed and restored to perfect unity with the spirit because of His prior life of obedience and humility. Human nature has reached its perfection in Christ because it has proved its allegiance to the everlasting truths and directives of heaven. Human nature, the carnal condition, is now fully at one with the spirit of humility and obedience.

Because Christ so loved the Father and since He so depended upon Him, human nature has been transhumanized. The sting of death is eliminated. Death is swallowed up in victory. The death of the self has issued forth in true life. Dying to self means coming alive to the other. The Son of God dies to Himself and the Father's eternal love and power resurface for all to see in the resurrected Christ. He carries about proof and witness of that selfless love that has defined Him all along. The lasting meaning of the Father's truth and love is that it cannot die, but promises to change and transform.

Human nature, in Christ, has been changed, refined, and restored to heaven's primal intentions. The Divine nature of God took on and bore all things. The "very God" in Christ endured mocking, deriding, whipping, stripping, and death. Now the human nature in Christ can take on and bear all things Divine for eternity. In the restored humanity of Christ, every man is now equipped to bear and enjoy all happiness, peace, wisdom and righteousness forever.

We remember with thanksgiving that "the Lord hath done great things for us already." We must with thanksgiving contemplate the precious love of God Almighty, which we find in the life of our Saviour. Remember our Saviour's devotion to you and to me. As Shakespeare said in Sonnet CXVI, "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove."

Love is not harmed or hindered in its mission when evil tries to assault it. Love is not thrown off course when the devil tries to shake it. Our Lord's love for us is constant and steadfast. It is secure in the Divine Will of the Father. Nothing can shake it. Death did not destroy it. Our Lord rose from the dead as love in Him persevered in its chase after you and me. This love destroys despair and death.

This love calls you and me to the dance of life which shall never end, if we but accept the invitation to fix our eyes on its beauty. The love of God in Christ for you and for me is permanent. If we remember this we shall fall in love with a love that will carry us up, out of sin and death, into never-ending righteousness and life. †

October 28, 2001

"He Ascended Into Heaven"

Where is Jesus Christ? Many people complain that He is nowhere to be found. Others, even believers, complain that He is comfortably ensconced in heaven's perfection and safety. Because they cannot see Him with earthly eyes or hear Him with fleshly ears, they either resent His absence or deny His supernatural existence altogether. On each side, frustration abounds and despair sets in.

But we have been reminding ourselves that "the Lord hath done great things for us already." Though we see Him no longer with our natural vision, our supernatural (i.e. God-given) capacity to remember and know His presence hopes for His return to us in a different way. Jesus our Lord and Saviour came to visit us on an earthly plane, that we might be restored to our Father on a spiritual one.

He came down from heaven, brought its perfect principles and primal motive power to human nature, and then through His earthly life and pure sacrifice restored man's nature to God's kingdom. The Incarnate One lived a life of pure sacrifice, died for doing so, rose in defiance of sin and death's illusory power, and ascended to the Father. But He ascended with a promise for His disciples, for you and for me. "I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." (John16:5-7)

True life is spiritual. You and I are called to "seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." That vitality which must move and define us is to be found in the spiritual kingdom of God's life and wisdom and power.

What governed Jesus' human nature was His divine nature. In the end, the Person of Jesus Christ was completely reconciled to the realm that moved His external and visible earthly mission. Death could not extinguish the wisdom and strength emanating and descending from His Father into His being. Sin and resentment could never snap the chord of His reciprocal love and desire returned to His Father in adoring gratefulness.

No earthly power or created willfulness could sever Christ's humanity from the transcendent Divinity that animated him all along. As Von Balthasar has reminded us, Jesus' Ascension "is the return to the starting point of His mission." The Word returns to His home, the "natural" dwelling place that generated Him from the start.

Yet with the Ascension, the Word returns to His heavenly abode with human nature redeemed. The whole of Christ's mission of transforming love is taken up into the Father's presence. In Christ, our manhood is returned to its freely-willed dependence on the Father's wisdom. Our human nature is, in Christ, intimately one with the Divine Presence of our Heavenly Father. You and I have access to the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him, we can live and move and have that being that our Father wills for us.

A few years back I remember going to a rather progressive church service in Boston. It had come time for "the peace" and one enthusiastic, beaming young radical woman was making the rounds, intent upon shaking up and hugging everyone in sight. I quickly concealed myself behind a statue of St. Hilda of Whitby -- hoping to avoid a forced encounter. (I admit to having been a coward.) But one old dowager was not so pusillanimous. The young gal made a lunge towards the dignified old lady, and was cut down by a harsh rebuke.

The old lady bellowed out, "Touch me not! I am not yet ascended to my Father!" The young girl was confused, bewildered, and perhaps crushed at the refusal of her caresses. The old lady piped up again, "Did you hear me? Peace, Peace, there is no peace until after this service in the church hall! And even then, you may not hug me! You make shake my hand." The point was made. All hugging and huddling ceased. The priest's mouth was agape; like little children the worshippers returned to their seats.

The old gal had made a significant point. The source of our comfort, expectations, hopes, and illumination is God who is in heaven. You and I must not seek to "touch the flesh," hoping to derive physical comforts and natural satisfactions from that realm. We must seek to touch Jesus with our souls, in the sanctuary of our spirits, finding there His friendship and wisdom. The earthly life must be transformed and changed, transfigured, so that we see and know all things, all of reality, as spiritual.

Jesus in the flesh, with a body, MUST depart from us. We cannot depend upon His earthly presence, His physical nearness, for our faith and hope and love. Jesus in body must go away, that we might have Him, and that more fully, in spirit and in truth. Earthly sightings of Jesus must be replaced with faith's knowledge of His presence at the right hand of God.

That presence, that spiritual nearness, is offered to us as our true home and native land. Because Jesus is with the Father, we have a place prepared for us. In Jesus, heaven is not only His unique dwelling place, but ours also. If we live and move and have our being in Jesus, then heaven's hearth will warm our souls and divine wisdom will govern our lives. "Let us in heart and mind thither ascend and with Him continually dwell." †

November 4, 2001

"And Sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty"

Christ has ascended to the right hand of God the Father Almighty's glory. The hope for our closeness to God, our longed-for place in the presence of God's heart is complete. In Christ "we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous." He has returned our manhood, our human nature, to the realm of Heaven and to the everlasting care of our Eternal Father. Our humanity and all that "pertains to the perfection of man's nature" has been reconciled and reunited to God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So where does that leave us? Christ has ascended; He has returned to that power and wisdom and strength whence He came. The Word descended from heaven and was made flesh, and now the enfleshed Word returns to heaven. Is this merely an external and historical event for us? Is this something outside of our present experience, and alien to us?

I hope we know that the salvific work of Christ was offered so that we might no longer be aliens and strangers with God. Through the friendship and love of Christ you and I are invited into lasting Communion with our Heavenly Father. If Christ is our Head, then we must welcome His wisdom and His truth. Think of Him as our brains or the mind of His body, the church. He, as our governing force and principle, longs to enliven and quicken our mortal souls and bodies into His service and truth.

We must strive to interpenetrate the Son's world of loving consumption with the Father's will and way. Yet in order to be at unity with our Heavenly Father, with Christ as our moving wisdom, we must enter into that obedience and humility which are everlastingly offered by Jesus to Him. Jesus' obedience and humility are prerequisite spiritual virtues that must precede our reception of Christ's illuminating understanding. In Jesus we can find a lasting and unbreakable bond of good will and self-denial, which is reciprocally filled with the Father's peace and truth.

"We have access to the Father through Jesus Christ the righteous." What fills Jesus is the Father's response to His obedience and humility. Jesus is filled with all truth because He loves the truth and wisdom of His Father more than Himself.

Christ sits on the right hand of the Almighty. You and I are called to meditate on the meaning of this truth. Mostly, we ought to see His obedience and humility. We ought to see that He is arrested by the Father's presence, consumed with His wisdom and gripped by His love. These principles and virtues can be reproduced in us if we "in heart and mind, thither ascend" where Christ continually dwells. Put another way; let us listen to the verse of Sir Philip Sidney:

Leave me, O love which reachest but to dust;
And thou, my mind, aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never takest rust,
Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings . . .

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;
Which breaks the clouds and opens forth in light,
That doth both shine and give us light to see.

O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out to death,
And think how evil becometh him to slide,
Who seeketh heav'n, and comes of heav'nly breath,
Then farewell, world; the uttermost I see;
Eternal Love, maintain thy life in me.

~ Sir Philip Sidney: Leave Me, O Love

November 11, 2001

What Is Man?

The Psalmist asks this universal question, "What is man that thou art mindful of him: and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Here, our ancient poet is thinking about perhaps one of the most oft-asked questions in the history of the world. What is man? How does he fit into the universe? How is he like other creatures, and in what ways does he differ? Who or what is he meant to be? What is his purpose and end in life? All of these questions have been asked from the beginning of time.

The answer is found in the history of what we call civilization. The question was expressed artistically and philosophically in ancient Egypt. One embodiment is found in that old hybrid monument to be seen near the pyramids of Giza: the Sphinx. As most of you know, the Sphinx sports the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. The chimerical creature is an outward and visible expression of man's spiritual and philosophical dilemma and condition.

Ancient man knew himself to be a mixture of nature, humanity and divinity. In the Sphinx, nature or animal life is represented in the lion. Man is a creature of physical needs, instincts, and passions. He is part animal or beast and so is driven by forces of the body and its sensations. He must eat and drink, reproduce and sleep. And yet man is not merely an animal. Man has a mind and reason and so can bring order to nature, govern her motions and tame her passions. Both the outside world of nature's movements and changes and the inner world of the body's urgings and passions can be subdued and ordered to higher ends.

Man is more than a brute beast without understanding. The lions of the world and the animal in man can be bridled and mastered by the human mind. For the Ancients, man was provided with a mind in order to govern and rule nature. So the human head of the Sphinx represents that humanity that is above nature and beneath the heavens. Man confronts nature, yokes her and uses her provisions to fulfill his natural needs; he irrigates canals and builds boats, he lays down roads and discovers the wheel, and he digs up the earth and plants gardens. He subjects growing to the hospitality or hostility of nature and channels all of the outside world into the service of his needs and desires.

Nature can be tamed and yet nature is not invented by the mind of man. Ancient man knows that he neither creates nor sustains that world that he encounters outside of himself. A world of plenty, abundance and serviceability awaits him. He opens his eyes on the morning of creation to find a cosmos full of life and energy that he did not cause.

Man does not make the earth and the plants growing therein; man has never enkindled the fiery warmth of the sun, which chases away the cold and generates life; man cannot call up the cleansing and nutritive power of the rains. Ancient man may be above nature, but he is above what he neither makes nor preserves. Someone else has made the world and commands it to offer itself for the sustenance of man.

If all of the permanent fixtures of the cosmos, if all of the established energies, creations, and patterns of life are not made or sustained by man, then the universe belongs to others. There is ordered nature and this has been given and is conserved by a being or beings other than humans. Set against motion and change, flux and chaotic energy are the hidden permanencies that man can perceive and know. They were put in place, not by man, but by the gods.

Man is indebted to powers and patterns in nature which are the gifts of the gods to the children of men. He can see and perceive the hand and power of the gods in the universe; he can soar with and eagle's wings as his soul encounters the powers of the heavens behind the world that serves him. The mind can see the permanent things in nature, and so is lifted into the presence of the gods.

The angels or the gods and the creations in nature are all greater than man. Take away the sun and the world ceases to exist. Take away the gods and there would be no sun. Take away man and nothing happens. Life goes on. Man is a strange creature who is caught between nature and the gods, between the earth and the heavens. He is part beast and part god,but being both and neither he is torn and often confused. Ancient man was honest about this dilemma, and thanks to his candid analysis of his own predicament, we have something that is born called "civilization".

Modern man has much to learn from the ancients. Our problem is that we have almost wholly forgotten the gods and the permanent things and have used our wills to become more beastly than the brute beasts. Spending a little time with the Ancients reminds us that though we are often dragged down by the beastly elements in our natures; we have been given wings to fly into the presence of the gods and to know how kind they can be to the children of men. Who knows, if we study the Ancients, we must even rediscover how grateful we ought to be for those permanent things which free up the soul to contemplate the truth. †

November 18, 2001

Today we gather for our Canvass Lunch in the Parish Hall. We come together to thank our Almighty and Everlasting Father for spiritual life so freely given to us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. We remember that our faith is not a quality of soul for individuals who believe in God but need not go to church. Instead, our faith is a common bond that breathes virtue through us as we strive to love one another and to live in the peace of Christ. Our faith is commonly embraced and commonly expressed as our church grows and our energy accumulates.

Faith generates new life. The faith that we have in our Saviour can break down the mountains of sin and wickedness and carry us into the valleys of righteousness and pure holiness. Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and will conquer all of the ugly and alien interruptions that seek to uproot our spiritual foundations. Before us on the road of our pilgrimage is Jesus our Saviour, holding out His embracing arms saying as much as "Come, keep coming, you are moving, keep your eyes on me."

Jesus is before us and so we must keep our focus, our mind's gaze on His magnificent virtue and truth. On both sides of the road toward holiness we shall find mockers and deriders, hecklers, and malicious men who cannot bear our spiritual journey. They cannot bear to think that we are moving toward the glorious city of Zion. But we are on the move.

In today's Collect we pray to our Lord who is "our refuge and strength . . . and the author of all godliness." In God alone is found the strength and power to conquer our sins and to embrace regenerated life. God only is our refuge, our shelter from the storms and torrents of this changing and unpredictable life. He is our protector and defender against the insidious assaults of Satan. In His spiritual sanctuary and heavenly haven you and I are clothed with the robes of godliness.

Godliness is the goodness and wisdom of the Lord that, if we are arrayed in its finery, will grant us those mercies that fit us for battle against the evil one. Our Collect for today focuses our attention not on what we can do for God, but more importantly, what He can do effectually for us. God alone works righteousness and true holiness. Without the refuge, strength and godliness of the Almighty we are nothing, as good as chaff on the threshing floor of life.

We are marching toward Zion. We are marching because you all have kept the fires burning at St. John's through the changes and chances of many turbulent years. You have stood firm on the matter of the Prayer Book and would not be moved. Father Politzer guided your souls toward the Master and kept you in that line that leads to Jesus. When you erred and strayed, when you took your eyes off of Jesus, he gave you a good spiritual smack, and back you were in the line, focusing on the Saviour. Father Politzer and all of you made it possible for us to keep marching to the beat of our traditional Episcopalian drum.

I am honored to be your rector. Today I thank God for all of you and pray that our faith may grow and spill over into the world that surrounds us. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, not become discouraged by the devil's gnats and fleas, and march ahead. We do so in utter humility. We do so because with St. Augustine we long to know of nothing but "God and the soul."

And know this, others will come to join our happy band of pilgrims. They will hear of our spiritual desires and of our mystical journey together, and they will come into our midst. They will bring many spiritual gifts that we lack and need. We need their gifts, and I hope that they will need ours. Great possibilities lie ahead of us. Let us keep on marching with our eyes on Jesus. God bless you all. †

December 9, 2001

Waiting for God

The Christian life is really all about "waiting for God." As fallen men who now honestly the need for the Grace of the Lord, Christians know themselves to be utterly dependent upon the moving wisdom and presence of the Lord in their lives. For the Christian, life without God is not life at all. Christians know that true and perfect life is God's everlasting possession, and that He lovingly desires to impart it to His earthly children.

All of us, in our saner spiritual moments, know that we wait for God's will and way to take root in our lives and change us into new heavenly sanctified entities. The problem is that some people never seem to move beyond the phase of waiting for God. They want some sign or wonder, some miracle or some supernatural intervention in their lives. Many people wait all of their lives to witness some extraordinary event that will compel and generate faith and belief. Unless they see, they will not believe, and so they spend all of their days waiting and waiting.

Others are waiting for God in the sense of some future bliss and joy that will be awarded them when their breath fails and their hearts stop beating. To this group of people, "waiting for God" is a distant and future condition of life that is radically unlike what they experience here and now.

For both kinds of people, "waiting for God" indicates an expectation for something that can never be known and experienced on this side of the cosmic curtain. But for earnest Christians, "waiting for God" is a habit of life that moves through phases of possession and expectation, having the merits of race and eagerly longing to have more.

"Waiting for God" really means living a life that depends upon the Lord's constant coming and visiting, His descending healing and helping that is offered through the whole of a lifetime. "Waiting for God" is an ongoing custom of Christian life that never ends until one is at long last eternally filled with the everlasting presence of God's kingdom and heaven. "Waiting for God" is a pilgrimage through which the human mind becomes more and more accustomed to dependence upon Divine mercy and strength.

As the Christian soul journeys into the presence of God, the spirit "waits for God" as a necessary condition of true and abundant life. At this present time you and I find ourselves in the season of Advent. Advent is all about "waiting for God." In the cycle of the church's year you and I wait for the celebration of Christ's Holy Nativity. Our souls prepare for the yearly coming of Christ by relearning the need for longing and desiring God's response to the age-old problem of man's alienation from the Father of Lights.

In this season we find ourselves, like the prophets of old, praying to the Lord that He might fill our souls and bodies with the knowledge of God's love, and wisdom and strength. And while the old prophets prayed for the Lord's eventual visitation to the earth, we pray that we may remember that our Lord not only visited the earth but left us with a way to rise above the earth and live eternally with Him, starting here and now.

Our "waiting for God" is fuller and deeper precisely because we wait for a spiritual consummation that has already been achieved in the life of Christ and His sending of the Holy Ghost. Our "waiting for God" is now inward and spiritual and not outward and visible. We need no further miracles and signs, wonders and supernatural feats to prove our faith. We wait for a deeper and more lasting inner union with our Saviour.

Our Saviour has already opened up the kingdom to all believers through His life of pure sacrifice and charity. The miracle has happened; the sign has been given. The wonders of His life and death, resurrection and ascension are all that we need to sustain us on our inward journey. Our "waiting for God" in Advent involves reconditioning the soul to humility and contrition, to repentance and hopeful yearning. At this time in the Church's year you and I are called to "wait for God" in eager anticipation of birth, a new birth, Christ's birth in your soul and mine. †

December 16, 2001

We have spoken in the past about Christianity as a pilgrimage beginning here and now. We remember that heaven is not a distant and future reality but is the present source of life -- the inspiration for change and transformation and the cause of all joy and peace in believing. Those who put off heaven for tomorrow fail to realize that the same heaven that moved and defined the life of Christ can be ours also. Christ desires to make His strength, wisdom, and love ours; not tomorrow, but today.

The old theologians tell us that the habit of a status viatores is a foundational building block for the Christian life. Status means a condition, a state or a disposition; viatores means traveler, wayfarer, pilgrim or one who is moving toward a desired destination. So status viatores is the state or condition of one who is on the way or moving toward an end. The phrase aptly describes the normative precondition for the Christian's life. A follower of Christ is one who journeys after his earthly end, which is everlasting life. The meaning of the end is to enjoy the presence of the Lord forever.

The pilgrim knows that he is on the way toward the kingdom and that what attracts him and stirs him is the truth and beauty of the Lord. What he sees before him on the road is the guiding hand of a loving Lord. The pilgrim knows that he has not reached his end. He is merely "on the way" still, and "passing through." He knows that he has not reached heaven, for he encounters many hurdles to jump and snares to avoid along the pilgrim path.

He realizes that without the vision of the Lord and the strength of the Lord's grace, he cannot resist the temptations and continue ahead. At times he is overwhelmed by what he considers to be an insufficient amount of help and comfort from the Lord. The Lord seems removed and distant. And yet the Lord's apparent absence and hiddenness generates a deeper dependence upon his strength and might. The soul is weak and knows itself to be without the wherewithal to combat the temptations and provocations that come its way. So the soul cries out all the more for the presence and muscle of the Lord.

Part of what the pilgrim experiences in the status viatores is the inadequacy of any created thing to lend strength and meaning to the pilgrim's quest and journey. The honest pilgrim discovers that what surrounds him in the earth is intellectually unsatisfying and spiritually unmoving. The negative side of pilgrimage opens the journeyman's eyes to a creation that in the end can never satisfy nor inspire.

Yet sadly there are many people who are contented with creation and what surrounds them. They think that they have arrived and are not "on the way." They rest happily with what surrounds them and supports them. They are not stirred to pilgrimage and could care less about the kingdom of God. They have settled for nothingness and non-being. They have no conception of being in status viatores. For all practical purposes they are not moving in a spiritual manner at all. Their souls are still, and their spirits have ceased to breathe in the air of heaven. They are unmoved by Christ and His kingdom.

Let us strive together to remember that we are in a status viatores. Let us recall that we are meant to keep moving spiritually and that we are always "on the way." You and I are pilgrims, and so we must realize that our end is God's everlasting presence and that the means to the end are His grace and mercy. We look forward into His beauty and truth and are stirred to keep journeying by His promised presence.

This Advent, let us take the negative and positive moments of Christian pilgrimage as moments to draw nearer to the Lord who is our desired end, and the means to it. We are all "on the way," and the more we realize it, the sooner we will be relieved by that strength which is lent to us by our loving Lord who draws us to Himself. †

The Saint John's Messenger: 2001