August 29, 2005

Nine years ago yesterday, I sat on the top step of my newly-purchased home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, hearing the wind tearing through a huge hole in the roof, lifting and slamming every attic opening, every a/c door -- anything that was connected to the attic.  Terrified, I had watched the wind rip apart every house between me and the beach (about 20 altogether), and I was now seeing the roof of the house next to mine being shredded like confetti.  My heart was pounding almost out of my chest as I hugged the air mattress that I hoped would carry me through the rising storm surge.  I had already seen snakes and raccoons out looking for dry land, and since a tornado had ripped my front door out of its frame, the driest "ground" around was my staircase.  I had the only two-story home in my block, a fact for which I was extremely grateful as I watched the water climb the stairs on which I was sitting.

"O God," I prayed, "if I have to die today, please let me have a heart attack" -- a distinct possibility given the adrenalin racing through my system for the past hour -- "but don't let me have to swim with the snakes, ants, spiders, and other creatures who have been displaced by this flood!"  I measured the door frame with my eyes, calculating how high the water could rise and still permit my escape with a queen-sized air mattress. 

The evening before, I had gone to sleep on that mattress, on loan from a good friend, reading the story of Hagar in the wilderness.  When she fled from her mistress Sarah, Hagar thought she was utterly alone and forsaken; she thought she would surely die.  But in the wilderness, she encountered the Living God, whom she called The Living One who sees me.  Through that encounter, she found direction and courage to return to the house of Abraham until after the birth of her son Ishmael. 

When Ishmael was about 12 years old, he and his mother were again thrust into the wilderness because of conflict and constant strife in the household -- a condition that continues to this day between Arabs and Jews.  This time, Hagar gave the last of her water to her son and then moved away from him some distance so that she would not have to watch him die.  She cried out again to God, and He sent an angel to point out to her a nearby well.  On that occasion, she called God The Living One Who hears me.

After studying the story on the night before August 29, I was emboldened to cry out to God the following morning, "You are the One Who sees me and Who hears me!  You know where I am!  Send help!"  Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, my daughter was watching the disaster from my sister's house in Kentucky.  I had been on the phone with her at 10:00, but said, "I have to go now; the water's coming into the house!"  And I hung up.  Her prayer that morning was, "O God, please send an angel to walk her out of that house!"

Around 1:00 or 2:00 pm (who knew the time?), the storm surge began to recede, carrying with it all the family albums, my children's love notes, birthday cards, and school achievements, along with everything else that could fit through the front door. "Let it go," I said to myself; "let it go."  As the winds began to diminish, around 3:30, a man suddenly appeared at my front door.  "You cannot stay here tonight," he said, "you have no door."  He was right; I had already begun to wonder how I would keep all the wild animals from finding shelter with me during the night.  Then he said, "I can walk you out, because I walked in."  (Weeks later, I was to hear the prayer of my daughter and marvel at his choice of words.)

Looking at the 12-foot wall of debris in front of my house, left by the wind-ripped houses between me and the beach and the contents of everyone's house that had been deposited by the storm surge; looking at the massive downed trees covered with electrical wires, I myself was terrified to set foot outside of the house.  But when he said that he "could walk me out because he had walked in," somehow, I thought I'd be safe with him.  Needless to say, he walked me to safety on the other side of the railroad tracks, where immediately we met a school bus being driven by firemen, who were picking up survivors and taking them to a shelter.

There is much more to the story after that, but for now I want to skip to a week later, when I was sitting in the parlor of a pre-civil-war rectory belonging to the Cathedral in Natchez.  I was safe, and waiting for the arrival of my husband from New Orleans, who had thought for a week that I had died in Mississippi.  As I sat beneath a massive canvas (about 10 feet high), I gazed at the painting of Mary's Assumption into heaven across the room -- and then I became curious as to the subject of the painting behind me.  I turned around and with a shock recognized the subject of the painting -- it was a portrayal of the angel in the wilderness, showing Hagar where the well was located.  In the foreground was her son lying on the ground, dying of thirst! 

Never before nor since have I ever seen a painting of Hagar in the desert; it is simply not a popular subject with artists.  But here, after my ordeal, was a 10-foot painting depicting the very prayer I had prayed the week before as I sat on the steps with my heart pounding out of desperation and fear. 

This morning, as I flipped the page in my Jesus Calling calendar, I read this entry:

There is no place so desolate that you cannot find Me there.  When Hagar fled from her mistress into the wilderness, she thought she was utterly alone and forsaken.  But Hagar encountered Me in that desolate place.  There she addressed Me as "the Living One Who sees me."  Through that encounter with My Presence, she gained courage to return to her mistress. 

 

No set of circumstances could ever isolate you from My loving Presence.  Not only do I see you always; I see you as a redeemed saint, gloriously radiant in My righteousness.  That is why I take great delight in you and rejoice over you with singing!

 

Someone gave me this calendar last Christmas; this is the first August I have read the entry for today.  Only a Divine Mind could possibly have orchestrated the timing of this entry to remind me of that day nine years ago when I cried out to "the One Who sees me, the One Who hears my cry!"  How grateful can I possibly be for all the good God has done for me?  

Freedom!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."

 

One of the greatest witnesses to Jesus Christ in the Gospel is Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus cast seven devils.  In modern parlance, she may have been bi-polar, a victim of abuse, schizophrenic, alcoholic, addicted to drugs or cigarettes, depressed, or unable to relate to other human beings.  She may have been what today we would call "homeless," wandering the streets and living off scraps, sleeping wherever she could find shelter, or out in the open.  Scripture does not say she was a prostitute; that is our conclusion, as it seems to have been the conclusion of the Pharisees.

 

Imagine feeling for the first time in your life a sense of peace and of wholeness, a sense of joy and "normalcy."  Imagine being able to be around other people for the first time without a sense of panic, or of overwhelming fear of rejection.  Imagine being able to smile at another person, or of speaking in a normal way to other people.  Such a sense of being freed from the prison of some kind of mind-and - spirit-control would make any one of us ignore polite convention and cast ourselves at the feet of our Savior, weeping for joy.

 

Mary never left Jesus afterwards; she followed Him; she became the "Apostle to the Apostles" after His Resurrection from the grave.  As Jesus said of her, "She has loved much because she has been forgiven much."  Those of us who have never experienced being freed from seven -- or even from one -- devil will never know the kind of love Mary had for Jesus. 

 

God said of the Israelites in Egypt, "let my people go, that they may worship Me on the holy mountain."  The same is true for us.  As long as we are enslaved by egocentricity, alcohol, mental disease, anger, fear, gluttony, or any number of "chains," we are not free to worship God.  We are literally chained to our sins, even to those which have been passed down to us through family bloodlines.  Some of these things are not our "fault," but we are still chained to them.  Those who have been abused are not the guilty, but they have still been damaged at the cellular level by their experiences.  Anyone who has tried to free him/herself from the effects of sin, whether our own or that of others, knows how impossible it is to climb out of darkness into the marvelous light of freedom and love.  We need a Savior, Someone stronger than the powers of darkness and evil, Someone who has met the enemy and defeated him, Someone who has gone to the gates of hell to ransom those held in darkness and chains. 

 

Those who have been through AA know at the most basic level of their being what it means to be set free from an enemy too strong for them.  They have hated themselves long enough for not being able to control their demons.  But when their "higher Power' reaches down and draws them clear, they, like Mary Magdalene, walk the rest of their days in gratitude, joy, thanksgiving, praise, and "fear" of returning to the darkness. 

 

St. Augustine said, " What am I to myself without You, O Lord, but an agent to my own destruction?"  Jesus Christ is the new Moses, leading His people out of slavery to the freedom of the Promised Land.  We have no power to unchain ourselves, but God says, "I have heard the cry of my people!" and He never fails to send a Redeemer to those who call on His Name!

 



Iran -- Desperate for God

Yesterday, I downloaded the book Iran -- Desperate for God ($6.00 from Amazon) and finished reading it in 2-3 hours.  The book consists of 8 personal stories of Iranian men and women who were desperate for God, despite religiously following all the tenets and practices of Islam all their lives.  One woman was even equivalent to what we would call a "nun" in her dedicated lifestyle from childhood. 

The first story was written (or told to a scribe) by Hamed; his story begins in the 5th grade, with his search for success.  He loved history and reading about people who had succeeded in life.  His parents had told him that if he wanted to follow a religion, he would have to study very hard to see which one was true (they themselves had no religion before the 1980 revolution in Iran).  Even as a child, he began reading about Communist philosophy, because he was searching for truth.

Someone gave Hamed a little book about Jesus when he was ten years old.  It became his favorite book, and he immediately began searching for this God of Jesus Christ.  He read all about the religions of Iran, Japan, India, Lebanon, China, and Brazil so that he could compare them.  Then he started studying space, stars, hypnotism, spirits, and telepathy.  He found emptiness everywhere -- even Lenin, an atheist, swore by "God" when he was cursing.  The one book that Hamed could not get his hands on was a Bible, but he did find a magazine from England called The Good News.  He was able to get the magazine for two years before Iran blocked things like this.  He would tear out passages from the Bible from the magazine and read them over and over again.

He was so desperate for understanding that he went to see one of the mullahs to ask questions.  The ayatollah hated him because Hamed asked this question:  In the Koran, chapter 3, the verse says, "If anybody wants to have salvation and enter heaven, they have to believe in Torah and also in the Bible and in the New Testament."  Hamed asked more questions about Jesus, also from the Koran.  The mullah got very angry and said, "I don't want to argue with you.  Your ideas are not interesting, so I can't talk to you."  and so Hamed had to leave the house.

All the stories in this book are fascinating, especially (to me) those of the women, who were supposed to cover up from head to toe and cry all the time, mourning the dead prophets of Islam.  The more they cried, the holier they were supposed to be.  So, of course, whenever they met Christians who did not cry all the time, but who were joyful, they were intrigued.  The men did not cry, but beat themselves with chains in community worship as a sign of their holiness.

What is most interesting in all 8 stories is how the good news was spread from person to person, how Bibles were cautiously and secretly passed from one person to another, and how good the people felt when they read the Bible.  Even though they knew they could be imprisoned and tortured for possessing a Bible or a religious tract, they still passed them around and carried bibles to one another.  Whenever a visitor came to the house, however, they were careful to cover or hide the Bibles. 

The Christians and those interested in knowing about Jesus had to find ways to meet miles outside of the city, in orchards, on picnics, etc. to share their faith.  In fact, this book so resembles the conditions of the early church as described in the Acts of the Apostles that it is uncanny. 

If anyone wants an inspirational book for $6.00, you probably can't do better than to read Iran--Desperate for God.

Growing in Wisdom -- Part 3

To allow yourself to be God's beloved is to be God's beloved.  To allow yourself to be chosen is to be chosen.  To allow yourself to be blessed is to be blessed.  It is so hard to accept being accepted, especially from God.  It takes a certain kind of humility to surrender to it, and even more to persist in believing it.  .... our usability comes from our willingness to allow ourselves to be chosen in the first place.  What a paradox! (R. Rohr: Things Hidden, p. 168).

 

When men and women have not begun to have the experience of God and of God's spirit who liberates us from the most profound anxieties of life, and from our endless guilt, there is really no point in proclaiming to them the ethical norms of Christianity (Karl Rahner, 1972:  The Shape of the Church to Come).

 

We have been given a God who not only allows us to make mistakes, but who even uses our mistakes in our favor! (R. Rohr:  Things Hidden, p.84).

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To know the Law-- the Word of God -- the instruction, and to fail in keeping the Law, brings us to the humiliation of sin.  We are not the people we imagined ourselves to be; we are not as smart, we are not as good, we are not as loving as we thought. 

 

Paul says in Romans 7, "In my mind, I agree with the law of God, but in my flesh, I still do the things I do not want to do."  To see our own failures is to open ourselves to the mercy of God, who gives strength to the lowly but who resists the proud.  In other words, we win by losing!  Once we know ourselves to be weak, to be "sinners," choosing our own way to our own destruction, we tend to lose our dualistic thinking of "right and wrong," "sinners and saints," etc.  In the presence of failure and grace, we become different people  -- and we, like Jesus, are willing to sit down at table with "the others," the tax collectors and the prostitutes. 

 

Wisdom is not knowledge; it is "another way of knowing."  It can hold two opposing things in balance -- the righteousness of the law and our human failing to obey the law.  Abraham, Moses, David, and Peter all failed God at some point.  They were not so much "faithful" as humbled by their failures.  These are people God can use because they have no illusions of their own power.  A well-grounded person is both humble and confident; he has no need to lord it over others or to control others, for his confidence rests in what God is doing in the situation.

 

One of my favorite authors is Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a humble monastery cook -- but I don't recall which century.  His basic assumption toward life was that if God did not uphold him at every moment, he would automatically make the wrong choice.  Now I can relate to that; if I stop listening for guidance from the Holy Spirit and start listening to my own thoughts and ideas, I can really mess things up!  It is only when I set my face toward God and allow Him to direct both my thoughts and my actions that I begin to see wonders unfold.

 

When I was a child, I began to pray for wisdom; for some reason, I fell in love with wisdom even before I knew what it meant -- and that was a good thing, for if I had realized that wisdom follows failure, even multiple failure, I might have thought twice before asking.  Fortunately, now that I know the grace that follows failure and the confidence in God that follows a lost self-confidence, I am glad that I did ask!



The Sabbath-Rest

It would be very difficult for an atheist to live by the Godlike sea, a perpetual presence.  It is always there, ever present, the mind of God, "reflected in His great earthly mirror."   To whom would an atheist give thanks when he is overwhelmed in gratitude for the gift of the boundless sea, to whom would he give praise?" (The Sea Within, Peter Kreeft. 2006)

 

This morning, as I sat on my front porch with a cup of coffee, I gazed at the endless blue sky with its small puffy clouds drifting past, and thought of this quote from Peter Kreeft.  The trees in front of me arched their branches into the panorama of the blue sky and white clouds; the soft breeze stirred the leafy plants on the porch and the overhanging branches beside the porch----and for a few moments, I felt totally at one with the Creator of heaven and earth and with all of His handiwork.  My spirit merged into the Spirit of God, uniting me with not only the creation I could see in front of me, but with all of my neighbors, who I could not see at the moment.  I felt that for a moment, I had been given an experience of God's own love for all that He had made and done. 

 

No one's sins or virtues, no one's manners or lack thereof, had any bearing on the love and unity I felt with them at that moment; all were united with me in my union with all that exists and with the God from whom they emanated.  For a few moments, I felt the meaning of Sabbath -- a word that means "stopping."   I had nothing to do at that moment but to enter into unity with my Creator and with all of His gifts, human or otherwise.  The peace that rested within me was a peace that I knew we were meant to carry all our days, through all our endeavors, through all of our work on earth. 

 

I knew what Jesus called "the Gift of God," the "kingdom of heaven" on earth.  And I felt sadness for those who could not enter the kingdom even now, for those who had no one to thank for the beauty of all that exists and for the ultimate unity we will all share in heaven.  Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has done great things for me!"  What a gift to be able to repeat her song of praise, her Kaddish, knowing it to be true not only for her, but for me.

 

Stopping for a moment, for an hour, for a day, to enter into praise and thanksgiving would ease all our anxieties and fears, at least for that moment.  And I believe that as we extend those moments of praise, they would drive out permanently all that threatens to overwhelm us in our lives.  The Book of Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4, has much to say about the Sabbath-rest that God has planned for us.  I will quote just a portion:

 

Today, if you hear His voice, do not grow stubborn....a Sabbath rest still awaits the people of God; anyone who enters God's rest, rests from his own work, as God did from his.  Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the old example of unbelief.

 

"Observing the Sabbath" --- truly -- means stopping from our own work, even from our own thoughts, and allowing God to gently and quietly move into our lives with His thoughts and His work.  And where He takes us is so beautiful, so delightful, so restful to the spirit that words cannot describe it.  Nothing we can manufacture by our own efforts can in the least way compare to the work of God -- but if we do not rest for a moment from our own work, we will never see what is right in front of us.

Growing in Wisdom -- Part 2

Law allows us to create some order in a household of screaming kids, but the Law is not an end in itself.  It exists so that real life can take place, so that people can pursue "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  Those who follow the Law perfectly, who make it an end in itself, as did the Apostle Paul before his conversion, find that our natural egocentricity uses religion as a means of gaining respect in the eyes of others.

Paul said in Philippians 3 that he was "faultless" in observing the Law; he was a Pharisee among Pharisees  -- and yet he was a mass murderer, persecuting the followers of Christ and even putting them to death.  "How could such perfect religious observance create hateful and violent men like me?" he asked.

Most of us, however, go in the opposite direction -- instead of observing the Law perfectly, we sooner or later find ourselves doing just the opposite of what we know to be good and just.  We "agree with the Law" in our minds (see Romans 7), but end up doing the very things we promised ourselves we would not do.  And the things we set out to do, we end up not doing at all -- just ask anyone who bought a year's membership to the gym. 

Laws, even the ones we make for ourselves, like eating the right foods and exercising faithfully, only have the power to name the good, but they do not have the power to transform us from our "sinful," lazy, or wasteful ways.  Even those who perfectly obey the Law -- for example, attending church on Sunday -- do not always experience an inner transformation or change of heart.  They still leave church and cut off their neighbors in the parking lot, cursing because they will be late for the Saints game.  So the Law might regulate our external behavior, but not our hearts.

This is the critique of the prophets of Israel.  They charged the people with external observance, but their hearts were far from God.  And the Law gave the observers an excuse to pride themselves over the obvious "sinners," those who did not obey the law in the same way.  Those who found themselves excluded from the synagogue lived in shame.  According to an insight by Anne Rice when she wrote the story of Jesus' childhood, the rulers of the synagogue in Nazareth were hesitant to admit Jesus because His origin was uncertain; in other words, they considered him a "bastard."

Immature religion creates a rigid population that attacks "sinners."  And that is what the prophets railed against:  "I desire mercy, not sacrifice," they spoke in God's name.  But about the only way we grow into mercy and compassion is by first needing it ourselves.  Jesus had no interest in condemning sinners, but in healing and embracing them so that they in turn could heal and embrace others.  Peter was the chief sinner among the apostles; the Lord told him, "When you have turned, strengthen your brothers." 

It is only when we find ourselves "outside the Law," when we recognize our own weakness and tendency to sin, that our hearts begin to change toward others. The Law accomplishes its purpose when we realize that we will never live up to it -- "The written Law brings death, but the Spirit alone brings life" (2 Cor. 3:6).

The Law cannot help us to forgive our enemies, become nonviolent, serve our neighbor with humility, etc.  Only the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us can accomplish that.  Once we recognize our inability to obey the Law of Christ without Him, we know ourselves to be "sinners."  Only then are we ready to have fellowship with God, who sets us free from the law of sin and death that reigns within us.  As soon as we name our own insufficiency, we find God's fullness.  Then we are finally on the path to wisdom.

Growing in Wisdom

Only when the two come together, inner and outer authority, do we have true spiritual wisdom.  We have for too long insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey, and maturing consciousness.  The results for the world and for religion have been disastrous....(from the Introduction to Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr)

 

Socrates, the great teacher, called what he did "midwifery," as he believed he was merely delivering the baby that was already inside the person.  The reason the Scriptures resonate so strongly with the human spirit is that they articulate our deepest hopes and intuitions.  In fact, since the secrets of our hearts are not accessible to us through reasoning, knowledge, or scholarship, the only "way in," so to speak, is the recognition -- the "naming" of the unknowable--- that Scripture gives us.  We recognize with a kind of shock the truths that lie so deep within us that we cannot find them out until there is a guide to Truth, someone or something along the way that points out and "names" what we know to be true, but what we cannot name for ourselves.

 

People who refuse to make the journey inwards are often content with "religion as requirements," a starting point for all of us as spiritual infants and children.  But until we reach the point of knowing "religion as transformation," we will remain in fear of God, of punishment, of hellfire for failing to keep the commandments and the laws.  The laws are made for kindergarteners -- do not slap your neighbor; do not steal his crayons; listen to the directions of the teacher; do not spit in your neighbor's face when you are angry.  I teach 11th grade students; these rules are not for them.  Because they have long ago internalized the "rules," they do not have to be afraid that I will catch them doing something illegal, immoral, or "unclean" in my classroom.  We are able to enjoy one another, to converse freely, to share insights and understandings.  Even if I occasionally see a cell-phone pulled out of a pocket, I trust them to "come along" in a moment -- I do not need to make up a new "rule" to regulate their behavior.  Nor do I need to remind them of the commandments of classroom civility.  We are all here for the same purpose, and they are "enlightened" enough and mature enough at this age to understand for the most part "how things work," and to contribute their own gifts to our common search for wisdom and understanding.

 

None of us arrive at this point except in stages.  I do not expect even a 9th or a 10th grade student to be ready for my classroom, to take up his/her own search for wisdom and truth, aided with all the resources I can bring to the table.  A 10th-grade girl is called a "sophomore" for a reason; that is her stage of life, and nothing more can be asked but that she be at that stage.  Eighth and ninth-grade boys are perhaps the silliest creatures on earth, and I do not expect them to take seriously much about a "spiritual quest."  But sooner or later, we must all give up what St. Paul calls "our childish ways," and begin to grow spiritually, just as we have grown physically and intellectually and emotionally. 

 

It is amazing that the classic divisions of the Jewish Bible -- the TANAK -- parallel the normal development of spiritual consciousness and growth in the human being.  The word TANAK is a composite word that stands for "Torah," "Nevi'im," and "Ketuvim" -- or Law, Prophets, and Wisdom. 

 

We all need to begin with "Law," instruction, teaching, guidance from the outside.  None of us is wise enough to choose our own way from infancy.  Those who are left to their own guidance, without boundaries and teaching, soon become known as "brats," "uncivilized animals," etc.  They are not fit for social interaction, and they do not even develop their own innate talents and skills, but waste away in a field of video-games and mindless drifting.  Tradition, manners, law and order all communicate the rules of civilized and rational behavior:  "This is the way we do it," in our family, in our culture, in our country, etc. 

 

 "Law," as the Jews understand it, is not only rules and regulations, but guidance, instruction, wisdom handed down from God Himself.  He would teach them; they would infect the pagan cultures around them... He had to teach them not to toss their infants into the fire as a sacrifice to pagan gods, for example.  They in turn would by example show the pagan world that Yahweh blesses them, not because of infant sacrifice, but because He loves them.  What the Law does is "hold the boundaries of behavior" so that something more serious and in-depth can happen inside.  I can tell you that when I do have a student who still needs "Law" to regulate his behavior, I can teach him nothing -- he is not ready for any depth of wisdom and understanding. 

 

Robert Frost wrote what appeared to be "free verse" in a very modern and creative way because he adhered to strict guidelines, or boundaries.  He had no respect for "free verse" per se because he called it "playing tennis without a net."  In the same way, if we were to view the work of the 14-year-old Picasso, we would swear it was the work of one of the Old Masters.  There is perfection of human form, of color, of light in his earlier work.  But at some point, because he had so perfected "the Laws" of painting, he was able to break free and to create something from his soul, something no one had ever before seen or done.

 

If we as human beings do not have a solid container, we are not held in place long enough to go deep.  Sooner or later, we will all rebel against the "rules," because there is something in us longing to break free, to grow beyond the boundaries.  But if anyone has watched the tv show Breaking Amish, it should be apparent that even when we "break out," we still struggle against the values of our families, or our culture, of our religion.  The values, the meaning of the law, must be so internalized in us that we know how to break the law.  We must know and respect the rules before we can break them. 

 

I always told my English students that they must be so familiar with the rules of grammar that they know how to break them effectively -- as do professional writers.  Otherwise, they simply show their ignorance of the conventions of writing.

 

Tomorrow, God willing, I will go beyond a discussion of the Law to "the birth of criticism"  -- the Prophets.   There are many today, as there were in ancient Israel, who would be prophets -- rebels, critics, "freedom-fighters," etc.  But the difference between true Prophets, those sent by God, and those who "prophesy" out of their egos, is that the true prophet understands and loves the meaning behind the Law, and knows that "obeying the Law" is never enough until the heart, mind, and spirit is engaged with Truth.  Those who follow the whims of nature, the fantasies of their own minds, or the "charisma" of others will never be prophets.  It would be better for a man to be held in check by the Law all the days of his life than to follow one of these false prophets --- but even then, that is not the life God has dreamed for us, for the Law cannot bring us into fellowship with the One Who gave it.  Such a life would be comparable to a child growing into adulthood still obediently following the "rules" his parents laid down for him as a 5-year-old, never becoming a Person in his own right, and thus never becoming capable of friendship with his elderly parents, who guided him at first with rules, but later with love and affection and shared values. 

 



Letter to Diognetus -- Part 2

Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that you are most interested in learning about the religion of the Christians, and are asking very clear and careful questions about them.....and why has this new race of humans or way of life come into the world we live in now and not before----I gladly welcome this interest of yours.....

So begins the anonymous author of the Letter to Diognetus, written toward the end of the second century or the beginning of the third.  In the last entry, I quoted the writer's description of Christians in their respective cultures.  The author then goes on to compare Christians in the world to the role of the soul in the body:

In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.  The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world.  The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body.  Likewise, Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world.  The soul, which is invisible, is confined in the body, which is visible; in the same way, Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible.

The flesh hates the soul, and wages war against it, even though it has suffered no wrong, because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasures, so also the world hates the Christians, even though it has suffered no wrong, because they set themselves against its pleasures.  The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and its members, and Christians love those who hate them.

The soul is enclosed in the body, but it holds the body together; and though Christians are detained in the world as if in a prison, they in fact hold the world together.  The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling; similarly, Christians live as strangers amidst perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven.

The soul, when poorly treated with respect to food and drink, becomes all the better; and so Christians when punished daily increase more and more.  Such is the important position to which God has appointed them, and it is not right for them to decline it.

For this is, as I have said, no earthly discovery that was committed to them, nor some mortal idea that they consider to be worth guarding so carefully, nor have they been entrusted with the administration of merely human mysteries.  On the contrary, the omnipotent Creator of all, the invisible God himself, established among humans the truth and the holy, incomprehensible, word from heaven and fixed it firmly in their hearts, not, as one might imagine, by sending to people some subordinate, or angel, or ruler or one of those who manage earthly matters......but the Designer and Creator of the universe itself...-- this one he sent to them!
 
....He sent him in gentleness and meekness, as a king might send his son who is a king; he sent him as God; he sent him as a human to humans.  When He sent Him, He did so as one who saves by persuasion, not compulsion, for compulsion is no attribute of God.....Do you not see how they are thrown to wild beasts to make them deny the Lord, and yet are not conquered?  Do you not see that as more of them are punished, the more others increase?  These things do not look like the works of a human; they are the power of God, they are proofs of His Presence....

No one has either seen or recognized him, but he has revealed himself.  And he revealed himself through faith, which is the only means by which it is permitted to see God.

C.S. Lewis writes often about "chronological snobbery," whereby we in the 21st century, inheritors of the 17th-century Enlightenment, believe that we are smarter, wiser, more scientific, etc. than all those who have gone before us.  We believe that the only guide to truth is our own ideas and experiences.  But there is so much wisdom and inspiration to be found in those who have gone before us, if we would only avail ourselves of it.  We cannot read Scripture in a vacuum; if we are to receive the revelation of God, we must be humble enough to read it through the eyes of the early Christians, as well as through our own experience and that of others down through the ages.

Early Christianity

Those of us who have been born into and have grown up with the ideas of Christianity ought at some point begin to read the writings of early Christianity, those that emerged during or shortly after the time of the apostles.  From a multitude of writings, the church eventually selected the "canon" of Scripture, the 4 Gospels, the letters of St. Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Peter and of James and John, and the Book of Revelation. 

However, beyond those sacred Scriptures, there are many letters and eye-witness accounts of the church in the same or the next generation after the apostles, some of whom were disciples of the apostles, some of whom had heard the teachings of the apostles, and many of whom suffered martyrdom for their faith. 

These writings, beyond the doctrine of the Scriptures, provide for us so much wisdom and inspiration that make us realize how much we have missed by taking our religion for granted.  These witnesses to the faith testify with fire and the Holy Spirit to the power and presence of God in their lives, brought to them through faith in Jesus Christ.  To read the eye-witness description of the martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, for example, is to know something few of us have ever experienced --- the strength of faith in Jesus Christ, even in the face of death and the loss of one's own infants.

One of these early letters, written anonymously to a man named Diognetus, tried to explain the "mystery" of Christianity to someone who was "...extremely interested in learning about the religion of the Christians and [who was] asking very clear and careful questions about them."  The letter is fascinating, explaining why Christians do not honor the Roman gods nor follow Jewish customs, inciting the anger of both Jews and Romans against them. 

For us, however, perhaps the most interesting part of the letter comes in Section 5, a section I would like to quote in its entirety, although in two sessions because of its length:

For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom.  For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric life-style.  This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do.

But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.  They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.  Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign.

They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring.  They share their food, but not their wives.  They are "in the flesh," but they do not live "according to the flesh."  They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.  They obey the established laws; indeed in their private lives, the transcend the laws.  They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted.  They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life. 

They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything.  They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor; they are slandered, yet they are vindicated.  They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect.  When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; when they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life.  By the Jews, they are assaulted as foreigners, by the Greeks, they are persecuted, yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility.

Tomorrow, I will give the second part of Section 5, which draws a beautiful parallel between Christians as they are in the world to the soul as it is in the body.