Guerric of Igny: If Anyone is Nailed to the Cross with Christ He is Altogether Wise, Righteous, Holy and Free Tuesday, Mar 26 2013

It seems to me that during these days when we are solemnly observing the annual commemoration of our Lord’s passion and crucifixion, I cannot speak to you on a more appropriate subject than that of Jesus Christ himself, and him crucified.

Even at another season of the year it would be hard to find a worthier theme. Could you hear anything more salutary or occupy your minds with anything more profitable?

Surely nothing can so sweetly stir the hearts of the faithful or exert so wholesome an influence on their lives; nothing has such power to cut off their sins, root out their vices, nourish and strengthen their virtues, as the remembrance of Jesus crucified.

To those who have reached maturity Saint Paul may preach about the hidden wisdom of God; but to me, whose shortcomings are visible to all, let him speak of the crucified Christ, who indeed seems mere foolishness to those who are on the road to perdition, but is the power and the wisdom of God to those who are on the way to salvation.

For me this is the highest and noblest philosophy, in the light of which all worldly and human wisdom is of no account.

How perfect I might think myself, how advanced in wisdom, if only I could qualify as a true disciple of Jesus crucified, for God has made him not only our wisdom but also our righteousness, our holiness and our freedom!

If anyone is nailed to the Cross with Christ he is altogether wise, righteous, holy and free.

Wise, because he has been raised with Christ above the earth, and now seeks and understands the things of heaven;

righteous, because sin has been put to death in him and he is no longer enslaved to it;

holy, because he has offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to him;

free, because the Son of God has redeemed him, and in freedom of spirit he can now boldly repeat the Son’s confident words: The prince of this world is on his way, but he has no claim on me.

Truly there is mercy and fullness of redemption with our crucified Lord. So completely has he redeemed Israel from all its iniquity that it is now acquitted of any accusation that the prince of this world could make against it.

The Lord has redeemed his people from the land of the foe and gathered them from far-off lands. Let them be of one mind with their teacher, Saint Paul, in declaring: God forbid that 1 should boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Guerric of Igny (c.1070/80-1157): Sermon 2, On the Palm Branches, 1 (PL 185:130-131); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday in Holy Week, Year 1.

Leave a Response »

 

Gregory of Sinai: The Kingdom of Heaven as the Liturgy of the Deified Thursday, Dec 20 2012

The kingdom of heaven is like the tabernacle which was built by God, and which He disclosed to Moses as a pattern (cf. Exodus 25:40); for it too has an outer and an inner sanctuary.

Into the first will enter all who are priests of grace. But into the second – which is noetic [of the illuminated intellect] – will enter only those who in this life have attained the divine darkness of theological wisdom and there as true hierarchs have celebrated the triadic liturgy, entering into the tabernacle that Jesus Himself has set up, where He acts as their consecrator and chief Hierarch before the Trinity, and illumines them ever more richly with His own splendour.

By “many dwelling-places” (John 14:2) the Saviour meant the differing stages of spiritual ascent and states of development in the other world; for although the kingdom of heaven is one, there are many different levels within it.

That is to say, there is place for both heavenly and earthy men (cf. 1 Cor. 15:48) according to their virtue, their knowledge and the degree of deification that they have attained. “For there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory” (1 Cor. 15:41); and yet all of them shine in a single divine firmament.

You partake of angelic life and attain an incorruptible and hence almost bodiless state when you have cleansed your intellect through tears, have through the power of the Spirit resurrected your soul even in this life, and with the help of the Logos [i.e. Christ the Word] have made your flesh – your natural human form of clay – a resplendent and fiery image of divine beauty.

[...] The land of the gentle (Ps. 37: 11) is the kingdom of heaven. Or else it is the theandric [fully divine and fully human] state of the Son, which we have attained or are in the process of attaining, having through grace been reborn as sons of God into the new life of the resurrection.

Or again, the holy land is our human nature when it has been divinized or…the land granted as an inheritance (cf. Numbers 34:13) to those who are truly saints, the untroubled and divine serenity and the peace that transcends the intellect (cf. Phil. 4:7) – the land wherein the righteous dwell quietly and unmolested.

The promised land is dispassion, from which spiritual joy flows like milk and honey (cf. Exod. 13:5). The saints in heaven hold inner converse together, communicating mystically through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Gregory of Sinai (1260s–1346): On Commandments and Doctrines, chs 43-45, 47-49, Text from G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (trans. and eds.) The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (Faber & Faber, London & Boston: 1979ff), pp. 220-221.

Leave a Response »

 

Isaac the Syrian: What Wisdom Is God’s! And How Filled With Life! Tuesday, Dec 11 2012

If zeal had been appropriate for putting humanity right, why did God the Word clothe Himself in the body in order to bring the world back to His Father using gentleness and humility?

And why was He stretched out on the Cross for the sake of sinners, handing over His sacred body to suffering on behalf of the world?

I myself say that God did all this for no other reason, except to make known to the world the love that He has, His aim being that we, as a result of our greater love arising from an awareness of this, might be captivated by His love when He provided the occasion of this manifestation of the kingdom of heaven’s mighty power – which consists in love – by means of the death of His Son.

[...] [The Incarnation and the death on the Cross happened] not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but solely in order that the world might become aware of the love which God has for His creation.

Had all this astounding affair taken place solely for the purpose of forgiveness of sin, it would have been sufficient to redeem us by some other means.

What objection would there have been if He had done what He did by means of an ordinary death?

But He did not make His death at all an ordinary one – in order that you might realize the nature of this mystery.

Rather, He tasted death in the cruel suffering of the Cross.

What need was there for the outrage done to Him and the spitting?

Just death would have been sufficient for our redemption – and in particular His death, without any of these other things which took place.

What wisdom is God’s! And how filled with life!

Now you can understand and realize why the coming of our Lord took place with all the events that followed it, even to the extent of His telling the purpose quite clearly out of His own holy mouth:

“To such an extent did God love the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” – referring to the Incarnation and the renewal He brought about.

[...] When the entire extent of creation had abandoned and forgotten God and had perfected themselves in every kind of wickedness…He came down to their abode and lived among them in their body just as one of them, and with a love exalted beyond knowledge or description by any created being,

He begged them to turn back to Himself, showing them concerning the glorious establishment of the world to come, having intended before all worlds to introduce felicity such as this for creation.

Isaac the Syrian (c. 630 – c. 700): Quoted in Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev: The Incarnation of the Word and the deification of man according to St Isaac of Nineveh.

Leave a Response »

 

Rabanus Maurus: From the Desert of the World to the Kingdom where Christ Reigns Wednesday, Nov 7 2012

God calls the Israelites an upright people, a race without re­proach, descended from the seed of the patriarchs and ever a worshipper of the one true God, whether oppressed by the Egyptians and other nations, or freed from them by the leadership of Moses and Aaron.

They were raised aloft by the wonders of God, at the crossing of the Red Sea, a cloud covering them by day and a pillar of fire shining over them by night; and God worked other miracles abundantly for them in the desert besides.

The Lord mysteriously frees his chosen ones from the hands of their persecutors, terrifying their enemies by a blinding flash of miracles.

He gives his servants wisdom of a kind not to be resisted or gainsaid by any adversary.

Wherefore they stand fearless in the presence of the kings and potentates of this world, speaking the word of God with confi­dence.

And, through the sufferings of martyrs, they attain to the rewards of the kingdom of heaven, where they sing praises forever to their king and saviour.

His wisdom has opened the mouths of the dumb and made eloquent tongues of babes.

Clear it is that, apart from God’s gift of wisdom, the mind of man cannot think anything out aright, or speak to any great purpose.

Wherefore from him alone is sound understanding to be sought, or the faculty of talking good sense; for from him, through him, and in him are all things.

He entrusted their concerns to the hands of his holy Prophet Moses. They made their journey through the desert places where no man dwelt; and in the secret places did they find their lodging.

The ancient people set out from Egypt led by Moses and went through the desert, pitching their tents in uninhabitable places, as the Pentateuch relates.

So also nowadays the people follow – the Christians follow, that is to say – the lead of the prophecy, to make their way in the desert of this world, whereby they are to reach their homeland, in the heavenly kingdom, where Christ reigns.

This is what Saint Peter the Apostle revealed, when he said: We have a surer prophetic utterance which you would do well to heed, as it were a lantern lit in a dark place till the day shall dawn and the morning star rise in your hearts.

Rabanus Maurus (c.780-856): Commentary on Wisdom, 2, 7 (PL 109:718-719); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Tuesday of Week 31 in Ordinary Time, Year 2

Leave a Response »

 

Humbert of Romans: A Heart Dedicated Unto God Saturday, Nov 3 2012

Cast from your hearts idle thoughts, unworthy affections, bad intentions, violent actions, useless sadness, self-centered love and individual feelings.

Before the eyes of God be fearful of such thoughts, which you would blush to carry into action before human eyes.

Each of you should strive to have a heart that is like a garden abloom with trees of virtues, like a storeroom filled with the perfumes of holy affections, like a flower giving off a heavenly dew, like a box enclosing within it a marvellous treasure, like a fountain always flowing with streams of devotion, like a mirror depicting the image of God.

O happy heart which shows itself to be a throne on which God may sit, a chamber in which

God may rest, a seal on which the likeness of God is impressed, a cellar filled with God’s own vintage, a book in which God’s memories are written, gold which God moulds to any form.

Each of you should strive again and again to have a heart dedicated to God, discerning in its thoughts, wary in temptation, free of anger, separated from judgments, pining with longing for eternity, wounded with love, shining in intellect, careful in works, raised up by contemplation, concerned about the good, cut to pieces by sorrow for sin, holy in its manner of life, guarded by fear, adorned with grace.

Finally, brothers, let us strive most eagerly to turn away from sin with our whole heart by avoiding faults; let us turn to the Lord with our whole heart by doing penance.

Let us seek the Lord with our whole heart by begging pardon; let us cling to the Lord with our whole heart loving God above all things; let us serve the Lord with our whole heart with our praise; with our whole heart let us follow the path of the Lord by our pursuit.

We really owe all this to the Lord who gives our heart countless gifts.

The Lord illumines our hearts with wisdom, governs them with goodness, feeds them with delights, draws them with beauty, changes them with power, makes them one with love, allures them with promises, teaches them with harsh blows, shakes them with threats, and softens them with blessings.

Our most delightful God looks into our hearts by proving them, speaks by informing them, touches by stirring them, visits in consoling them, gives life by justifying them, and opens them by shedding light on them.

For all these gifts it behoves us to thank God tirelessly.

Humbert of Romans (c.1200-1277): From the letter On Regular Observance, from the Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours for the Order of Preachers, feast of St Martin de Porres.

One Response »

 

Richard of St Victor: The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Treasure Hidden in a Field Sunday, Oct 21 2012

Does it go beyond comprehension that the kingdom of God is within us?

Behold, you say, the kingdom of heaven is within us but is gold within us in a similar way?

Why not, I say. So! Have you forgotten that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field?

Behold, from what source an abundance of gold abounds abundantly to you.  You have it at hand.  Dig it up, if you will.

Go quickly, sell what you have, purchase this field, and seek the hidden treasure.

Whatever in the world you crave, whatever in the world you hesitate to part with, expend it freely for freedom of the heart.

After purchasing the field, dig in the depths of it, exulting no doubt like persons who dig up a treasure and rejoice greatly when they have discovered a sepulcher.

It is necessary to seek this treasure in the depths because wisdom is drawn from a hidden place.

But wretched me; from what source does gold come to me for the gilding, the crown, and the propitiatory? [Propitiatory – i.e. the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple, sprinkled with blood for purification.]

I do not have silver and gold, and from what and how can these things be made?

By what art, I ask, can I procure this gold for myself?

I am not able to dig; I blush to beg.  I know what I shall do.

I shall go quickly to my Father, the Father of mercies from whom comes every good gift and every perfect gift, because He who gives copiously to everyone and does not reproach them is rich toward all.

And so I pour out my prayer in His presence; I announce before Him my poverty and lack of gold; and I shall say to Him: “Lord, you know my lack of wisdom; my property is like as nothing before you; give me understanding, Lord, and I have gold and am rich.

“Since I am weak, guard my soul and I shall have a propitiatory of the sort I crave”.

O how great an abundance of gold existed for him who was able to sing the truth: “I have understood more than all who teach me.  I have understood more than the elders because I have sought your commandments” (Ps. 118:99-100).

O what kind of propitiatory he had who sang confidently before the Lord: “You have protected me from the assembly of the wicked, from the multitude of those working iniquity” (Ps. 63:3).

Richard of St Victor (d. 1173): The Mystical Ark, bk. 3, ch. 5,translated by Grover A. Zinn, Paulist Press @ Lectionary Central.

Leave a Response »

 

Maximus the Confessor: The Lamp Set upon the Lamp Stand – Jesus Christ – the True Light from the Father Wednesday, Oct 17 2012

The lamp set upon the lamp stand is Jesus Christ, the true light from the Father, the light that enlightens every man who comes into the world.

In taking our own flesh he has become, and is rightly called, a lamp, for he is the connatural wisdom and word of the Father.

He is proclaimed in the Church of God in accordance with orthodox faith, and he is lifted up and resplendent among the nations through the lives of those who live virtuously in observance of the commandments.

So he gives light to all in the house (that is, in this world), just as he himself, God the Word, says: No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

Clearly he is calling himself the lamp, he who was by nature God, and became flesh according to God’s saving purpose.

[...] Lamp-like indeed, he alone dispelled the gloom of ignorance and the darkness of evil and became the way of salvation for all men.

Through virtue and knowledge, he leads to the Father those who are resolved to walk by him, who is the way of righteousness, in obedience to the divine commandments.

He has designated holy Church the lamp stand, over which the word of God sheds light through preaching, and illumines with the rays of truth whoever is in this house which is the world, and fills the minds of all men with divine knowledge.

This word is most unwilling to be kept under a bushel; it wills to be set in a high place, upon the sublime beauty of the Church.

For while the word was hidden under the bushel, that is, under the letter of the law, it deprived all men of eternal light.

For then it could not give spiritual contemplation to men striving to strip themselves of a sensuality that is illusory, capable only of deceit, and able to perceive only decadent bodies like their own.

[...] For the letter, when it is not spiritually understood, bears a carnal sense only, which restricts its expression and does not allow the real force of what is written to reach the hearer’s mind.

Let us, then, not light the lamp by contemplation and action, only to put it under a bushel…lest we be condemned for restricting by the letter the incomprehensible power of wisdom.

Rather let us place it upon the lamp stand of holy Church, on the heights of true contemplation, where it may kindle for all men the light of divine teaching.

Maximus the Confessor (580-662):Questions to Thalassius, 3 (PG 90, 667-670) from the Office of Readings (liturgy of the hours) for Wednesday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time @ Crossroads Initiative.

Leave a Response »

 

Rabanus Maurus: Christ is the Wisdom of God Sunday, Oct 14 2012

All wisdom is from the Lord and it is his own forever.

The beginning of this book, then, speaks of the eternal Wisdom of God which was with the Father before all ages.

So also St John’s Gospel which opens thus: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All wisdom is from the Lord because Christ, who is the source of life and the light which illumines every man coming into this world, was born of God the Father; and all things were made through him and without him was made nothing that was made.

But whoever lacks the light of this wisdom is walking in the dark, not knowing where he is going because the darkness has dimmed his sight.

Whatever opposes this wisdom should be dubbed ‘folly’.

So St Paul says, The wisdom of this world is folly with God. And again, To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God since it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be.

[...] Before all other things wisdom was created; who can probe her?

[...] If nobody can count the sand of the sea or the raindrops or the days of eternity…, how can anyone probe the wisdom of God which exists without beginning and without end and abides forever, at once indescribable and immeasurable?

For the power of God and the wisdom of God – Christ, that is – was always with the Father and, as the Father is without beginning, so is the Son without beginning.

Before all things wisdom was created and shrewd under­standing is everlasting. The Fathers understand this text, as well as the one from Proverbs, The Lord created me at the beginning of his ways,as referring to the Lord’s incarnation.

Just as the Son in his divine nature was born of the Father before all ages, so before all ages he was predestined in the plan of the Father to become incarnate in time for the salvation of the human race.

The word ‘created’ refers to his human not his divine nature, although, because of the unity of person, the Son is sometimes said to be generated, sometimes created.

He is therefore the beginning of God’s ways (he himself said, I am the way) who rose from the dead and made a pathway for the Church to the kingdom of God and eternal life.

Rabanus Maurus (c.780-856): Commentary on Sirach, 1, 1-2 (PL 109:765-766); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Sunday of Week 27 in Ordinary Time, Year 2

Leave a Response »

 

Bernard of Clairvaux: God’s Wisdom Frees Us from the Turmoil of Desires and the Discord of Thoughts Monday, Oct 8 2012

How precious is the wisdom by which we know God and despise the world!

The one who has found it is indeed blessed, if he holds fast to it.

What will he give to possess it? Give obedience as its price, and you will receive wisdom in return.

Scripture tells us: Do you desire wisdom? Keep the commandments and God will give it to you.

If you want to be wise, be obedient. Obedience has no will of its own: it is at the service of another’s will, subject to another’s command.

Embrace it, then, with all the yearning of your heart, with all the effort of your body. Embrace, I repeat, the blessing of obedience, drawing near by obedience to the light of wisdom.

Scripture says: Draw near to him and be enlightened. Draw near, that is, by means of obedience, for there is no approach more direct or secure, and be enlightened by wisdom.

The man who does not know God does not know where he is going, but walks in darkness and dashes his foot against a stone.

Wisdom is light, the true light that shines on every person coming into this world, not the one who is wise with the wisdom of this world, but the one who is not of the world though in the world.

This is the new self of one who has turned away from the sinful and slothful ways of his former self, and strives to walk in newness of life, knowing that damnation is not for those who walk in the way of the Spirit, but in the way of sinful nature.

As long as you follow your own will, you cannot escape turmoil within you, even though at times you seem to escape turmoil outside you.

This turmoil of self-will cannot end until the desires of your sinful nature are changed, and God becomes for you a source of delight.

Sinners enlightened by wisdom are said to be freed from turmoil because, once they taste the goodness of the Lord, they are freed from their sin.

From that time they worship the Creator, not the creature, and when they leave self-will behind they are freed from their feverish turmoil.

While at last they get rid of the turmoil of desires and the discord of thoughts, they experience peace in their inmost heart, and God takes up his dwelling within them: his dwelling-place is in peace.

Where God is, there is joy; where God is, there is calm; where God is, there is happiness.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153): Epiphany Sermons, 7, from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Tuesday of the 27^th Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2.

2 Responses »

 

Rabanus Maurus: The Lord Is Just in All His Ways and Kind in All His Doings Tuesday, Sep 11 2012

(Commenting on Esther 4:1-16)

Mordecai, hearing that the death of the Jews was planned by imperial decree, put on mourning and, in bitterness of soul and cries of anguish, went to the entrance of the palace.

When the leaders of the Church hear of the persecution which the rulers of this world plan to bring upon the innocent servants of Christ, they display to heaven with tears and compunction of heart their press­ing needs..

[...] Now, should someone ask how it can be reconciled with being the most just of kings that he should inflict trials upon the innocent, let him know that this is not out of a wish to do evil, but the consequence of some supreme purpose.

For the wisdom of God which overcomes all evil, and reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well, does all that it wills in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the deep.

By a just decision it comes about that his faithful servants are given into the hands of their persecutors, either to expiate their sins, or reform their way of living, or even to increase their merits and double their reward.

For, as the Prophet bears witness: The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings. He is near to all who call upon him. In truth, he fulfils the desire of those who fear him, and he hears their cry and saves them.

For, when Satan asked it, the Lord did not give Job into his hands that he might perish but that, with his help, he might conquer this most wicked enemy, and so win for himself the palm of victory, and leave a just punishment to his enemy for his malice.

The Apostle Paul was given a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him, that power might be made perfect in weakness.

Nor should we pass over in silence the fact that it is said that Mordecai could not enter the king’s palace wearing sackcloth, but merely came to the entrance to the palace. For no one can enter the palace of the heavenly kingdom in the corruption of this present life.

But, in the meanwhile, everyone before the actual day of his death should knock at the gate of the kingdom by bodily mortification and compunction of heart, and thus at the hour of death enter the Lord’s paradise in joy.

Rabanus Maurus (c.780-856): Commentary on Esther, 7 (PL 109:654);from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Tuesday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time, Year 2

Leave a Response »