Zacchaeus – A Change of Heart

Jesus said, “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.”  (Mark 7:20-23)

One of the therapeutic goals of the incarnation is the healing of the human heart.  As Christ noted the heart is where all evil comes from.  Christ came to heal the heart and restore it to God – to give peace to all humans on earth.

The peace which Christ brings to us is reconciliation with God, but it is not withdrawal into oneself.  We are to share God’s peace with our fellow humans.  Olivier Clement writes:

“Nevertheless, this peace is not a withdrawal into oneself.  Man is called to share in the very life of the Trinity.”  (quoted in FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 348)

The Gospel lesson of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) is a lesson about repentance that brings about reconciliation with God.  Thus Zacchaeus’ repentance brings him peace with God, but also reconciliation with his fellow humans/believers – he promises to restore fourfold what he has falsely taken from others and to give half his wealth to the poor.  (But note the reaction of the crowd to Zacchaeus, they show no signs of willingness to be reconciled to him, even though Christ has declared that salvation came to Zacchaeus).  Zacchaeus has found peace with God through Christ.   As a result Zacchaeus also desires peace with his neighbors and fellow believers in God – he desires to be reconciled t them whereas before he was not concerned about his relationship to them or of them to him.  Again Clement says:

“The key text here is the Beatitude about the peacemakers, those who work to make peace – who ‘shall be called sons of God,’ adopted in the Son, therefore literally ‘deified.’   Thus, the disciples of Jesus are ‘to be at peace with one another’ and with all men.”  (FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 348)

Jesus says to all:  Today salvation has come to his house.  Zacchaeus is no longer at enmity with God, but has come to be at peace with God accepting God’s lordship and rule.

“The peace of Christ comes to birth in man’s heart, it flows forth, becomes responsible and creative love, acquires a social dimension.”  (FOR THE PEACE FROM ABOVE, p 350)

The Gospel lesson of the repentant Zacchaeus tells us that the time of Great Lent, our time of repentance, is but a few weeks away.   Great Lent is a time for us to imitate Zacchaeus, to bring about this change of heart, to come to peace with God, and to bring the peace of God to our hearts so that we become peacemakers with others.  Salvation – peace with God – is given to us so that we might learn how to live with all people.

A Visit to San Diego

While the Almighty Creator took a day of rest after the first 6 days of creating, and declared that Sabbath rest to be holy, some of us humans failing to imitate God imagine that we can keep working without any Sabbath rest.  It is a self imposed slavery to one’s own sense of getting things done.   Wisdom says: imitate God!

San Diego Sunrise

Though I don’t do it often enough, I was able to take a few days of rest, going to San Diego. It was for me a photo-safari to a city which I had never previously visited.

The California Tower in Balboa Park

The Spanish and Mexican culture can be seen in the architecture around the city.  Balboa Park is a magnificent park, maybe one of the best city parks I’ve ever seen.

Colonnade in Balboa Park

It was “winter” – at least Southern California style – and during my days there were two “winter” storms which hit, one which brought in 1/4″ of rain!  Of course that was stretched out over a day, so the clouds hung on and it was “chilly.”

Orangutan expressing dismay at the rain

Many of the animals at the San Diego Zoo were taken off display due to the inclement weather.  Even some of the rain forest animals showed displeasure at the rain.  Apparently they have adapted to the normally sunny skies.

Two rain forest orangutans keeping the rain off

Despite the rain, I found many of the residents to be very friendly and to show a welcoming smile.

Signs of the rain were obvious – rain drops clinging to leaves and plants. I had to record this for those who say it never rains in southern California.

I also visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and took one of the safaris which I found totally enjoyable.   But though the SD Safari Park has more different species, and has some big cats, I will say that I think Ohio’s The Wilds is even better for a safari (see my blog A Safari to the Wilds).

Where does a full grown male lion sleep?

Of course I went to see some sunsets over the Pacific Ocean.

Torrey Pines State Nature Reserve

I wasn’t disappointed, though the winter storms did rain on my hopes a bit.

La Jolla

Thanks be to God for the great beauty He has placed on this planet.

Oceanside Pier

I did manage to take a whale watching tour as well, and that is about the end of my tale… tail.

Grey whale tail

You can view a set of my Favorite San Diego Photos.  Once you get to that page, just click on the “Slide Show” button above the thumbnail photos and you will be able to view a slide show of the full sized photos.

You can find links to all my San Diego Photos at San Diego Collection.  Click on any one of the thumb nail photos to enter the listed set of photos, then click on the “Slide show” button.

You can find a list of my other photo blogs with links to them at MY PHOTO BLOGS.

Psalm 74:16 – In Praise of the God of Creation

In praise of God, the Creator of the world, Psalm 74:16 extols:

Yours is the day, and Yours is the night;

You created the light and the sun.

 (Psalm 74:16)

Yours is the day,

and Yours is the night;

You created the light

and the sun.

 (Psalm 74:16)

You can find a list of my other photo blogs with links to them at MY PHOTO BLOGS.

Free Will and Tradition

3 Holy Hierarchs

“But I must explain myself a little more clearly. A good many men do not draw their conclusions from the very nature of reality, but merely consider the way men have lived before them; and so they fall completely short of an accurate judgment about reality, and they take, as their criterion of what is good, irrational custom instead of sober reason. Hence they force their way into political office and power, they make a good deal of merely external show since they are unaware of the fact that all this will come to an end after this life. For custom is no sure guarantee for the future, for very often this may lead us to the goats and not to the flock of sheep. My meaning will become clear if you will consider the words of the Gospel. If you consider that which is proper to man, that is, his reason, you will despise the force of custom as irrational, and you will never choose as good that which brings no advantage to the soul. We must not then seriously consider the footprints of those who have gone before us like so many cattle leaving their trace upon the world. For what is best to choose is not clear from sense phenomena – nor shall it be until we depart from this life; then we will know whom we have followed. The man then who merely follows in the tracks of those who have lived before, and takes the custom of this world as his guide in life, and does not distinguish good from evil on the basis of actual reality, very often makes a mistake, and in the day of that just Judgment he becomes a goat instead of a sheep.” (Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory, pg. 161)

Joshua and Jesus

“And afterward Joshua read all the words of the law, blessings and curses, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.”  (Joshua 8:34-35)

Jean Danielou in his book FROM SHADOWS TO REALITY: STUDIES IN THE BIBLICAL TYPOLOGY OF THE FATHERS notes that for Origen (The most prolific biblical commentator and theologian of the 3rd Century –  some of his teachings were condemned in later centuries by the Church as heresy) there is a typology in the Joshua 8:34-35 passage.   This typology if very obvious in the Septuagint which refers to Joshua as Jesus, using the same name that is applied to the Christ:

“Joshua reading the law is the type of Jesus explaining the Law and the Prophets to his disciples at Emmaus, and it brings home to us that we understand the Law only when Jesus himself explains it and we find him in it: ‘I think that when Moses is read to us, the veil of the letter is lifted by the grace of the Lord and we begin to understand that the Law is spiritual…’” (p 282).

Origen understands Joshua’s “reading” not as simply reading aloud but as explaining the meaning of the text for the people to enable them to actually keep Torah.   Reading Torah – explaining its meaning and offering help for keeping Torah - was the didactic purpose of rabbis.  The conflict of Jesus as rabbi with the other rabbis comes over Christ’s interpretation of Torah.  [Jesus asks the teachers of Torah:  "have you not read...?  (Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31).   He is not asking them about reading aloud, but rather is asking 'how do you understand and what do you teach about the text....?"].   Christ is ‘reading’ to His disciples Torah whenever He teaches them.   Origen accepts the typology  already common in his day which sees Joshua being a type of Christ:

Jesus and Moses

“Jesus it is who reads the Law, when he reveals the secrets of the Law.  We, who belong to the Catholic Church, do not reject the Law of Moses, but receive it if and when it is Jesus who reads it to us. For it is only if Jesus reads the Law in such wise that through his reading we grasp its spiritual significance, that we  correctly understand the law.  Do not think they have grasped the meaning who could say: ‘Was not our heart burning within us when he opened to us the Scriptures, and, beginning at Moses and the Prophets and expounding them all show that they wrote of him.’ … By linking Joshua’s reading of the Law with Jesus’ reading to the disciples of Emmaus, Origen … emphasizes the profound continuity of the Old Testament, the Gospel and of the interior Christ who instructs each disciple.”

It is Jesus who reveals to us the meaning of the Old Testament texts.  We cannot understand the Old Testament apart from Christ.  To be faithful disciples of Jesus we must read His Gospel teachings Christologically and Christocentrically.    Those denominations and scholars who advocate reading literally the Old Testament without any reference to Christ are in fact emptying the Old Testament Scriptures of their full power.  We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and should use it!

St. Paul with Old Testament Teachers of the Law

Baptismal Waters are the Jordan River

During any Baptismal Serivice or during the Great Blessing of Water in the Orthodox Church we pray that the waters before us – and any water we are blessing – might become imbued with the blessing of the Jordan.   We pray that the waters in our church might become those of the Jordan River.

This petition in prayer is based upon an ancient Christian idea about what the Jordan River really is (and here we again see how theology takes us beyond any literalist thinking into the realm of poetic theological reality).   St. Gregory of Nyssa writes about the River Jordan (the reference to Jesus Son of Nave is to Joshua Son of Nun.  Jesus Son of Nave is how Joshua is called in the Septuagint and thus the Patristic writers readily saw Joshua as a type of Christ.  In our English translations of the bible we lose this typological reference because we use the name Joshua):

“For indeed the river of grace flows everywhere.  It does not rise in Palestine to disappear in some nearby sea: it spreads over the whole earth and flows into Paradise, flowing in the opposite direction to those four rivers which come from Paradise, and bringing in things far more precious than those which come forth.   …  Imitate Jesus, the son of Nave.  Bear the Gospel, as he bore the ark.  Leave behind the desert, that is, sin: cross the Jordan, and hasten to the life according to the commands of Christ; hasten to that land which brings forth fruits of joy, where flow, as was promised, milk and honey.  Overturn Jericho, your former way of life, and do not let it be built up again.  All these things are types for us, all prefigure truths which are now revealed…”

Jean Danielou commenting on the above quote of St. Gregory writes:

But there is another interesting point in St. Gregory of Nyssa.  The Jordan is shown in a new light.  It is no longer through as the river which flows into the Dead Sea, but as a mythical river, which encircles the whole world and is contrasted with the mythical rivers of Paradise.  We are brought up against the junction of the idea of the Jordan as the source of Baptism . . . the idea found in all Christian ligurgies that all baptismal water is the Jordan … Jordan, as the frontier between the world of the sense and the spiritual world…”   (Jean Danielou, FROM SHADOWS TO REALITY: STUDIES IN THE BIBLICAL TYPOLOGY OF THE FATHERS, pp  271-272)

Thus our Orthodox liturgical prayer preserves an idea that was common in the ancient Church.  When we pray over water to bless it in the Church we are praying that the water, and thus ourselves, might be lifted beyond this world into the world as God intended it to be.   This means freeing our thinking from the limits of literalism into the truth of theology. For theology reveals to us the spiritual world which is ever present on earth, yet often hidden from our eyes.

Post-Apostolic Writings on Virtue

In the generation of Christians which followed the first apostles, we can find some of the ethical teachings and concern which were emphasized by these new converts to Christianity.

The Didache (1^st C  AD) teaches:

“Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practise no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide. See that you do no covet anything your neighbor possesses, and never be guilty or perjury, false witness, slander or malice. Do not equivocate in thought or speech, for a double tongue is a deadly snare…you must resist any temptation to hypocrisy, spitefulness, or superiority. You are to have no malicious designs on a neighbor.”

In the Epistle of Barnabas (2^nd C AD) we are taught:

“ Practise singleness of heart,  and a richness of the spirit….Abhor anything that is displeasing to God, and hold every form of hypocrisy in detestation. Be sure that you never depart from the commandments of the Lord. Do not exaggerate for your own importance, but be modest at all points, and never claim credit for yourself. Cherish no ill-natured designs upon your neighbor. Forbid yourself any appearance of presumption. Commit no fornication, adultery, or unnatural vice…Never be in two minds…Love your neighbor more than yourself. Never do away with an unborn child.” (Frances Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture, pg.132)

The Lord Protects Infants

The Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (2012)

The LORD preserves the simple;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

(Psalms 116:6)

St. John Chrysostom  in his commentary on the Psalms notes that some in his day believed that in the above verse “the simple”  refers to “ fetuses not yet emerged from the womb.”  (St. John Chrysostom COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS  Vol 2, pp 95-96)  This interpretation was aided by the fact that the version of the Psalms he used was read as

“The Lord protects infants;

I was brought low and he saved me.” 

Chrysostom notes that infants and children do not have the skills necessary to survive in this world and all would parish if not for the care of their parents, and the provision of God who loves them.   Chrysostom notes that it is not enough for us to feed and nourish children, they must be protected from animal predators and problems.  That is when he makes his comment that some think Psalm 116:6 refers to fetuses – children are totally dependent on the protection of their parents and of God for they are totally incapable of protecting themselves from all the harmful forces in the world including the abortionist.

The Lord loves the simple, including the infant and the unborn child.  Like God, we are to preserve the life of those that cannot defend themselves.

To view a most wonderful video about the formation of human life in the womb go to From Conception to Birth.

The Humanity of God

“Bulgakov chose to follow the formulation, ‘the humanity of God’ (Bogochelovechestvo), a theological perception dear to the Russian tradition. First expressed by Soloviev, it insists on the material, historical, in short the human qualities of God’s work. God’s humanization in the Incarnation has as its goal the corresponding divinization of humanity, our becoming ‘very similar,’ our becoming like God. The saying attributed to Athanasius the Great is: ‘God became human so that humans could become God-like.’ Turn it around, Bulgakov in effect said, and wonder what it might mean for God to become human. What would this mean to God? What would it mean for us human beings? This bold claim is the theological foundation for any understanding of holiness.” (Michael Plekon, Hidden Holiness, pg. 45)

Archbishop Seraphim to Stand Trial

Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that suspended Archbishop Seraphim of Canada will stand trial for sexual abuse.   Mike McIntyre of the Free Press reports:

“A high-ranking former orthodox archbishop has been ordered to stand trial on historical Manitoba sex-abuse charges.

Seraphim Storheim appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday for the conclusion of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed. A court-ordered ban prevents specific details from being published.

Provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack ruled the Crown had met the standard of proof required to move the case along. The case will return to court in March for the setting of a trial date.

Storheim has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing two teenaged boys while he was a priest in Winnipeg 30 years ago. He remains free on bail with several conditions, including having no contact with children.”

You can read the entire story at  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Former-archbishop-to-stand-trial-for-sex-abuse-137687378.html