How Do We Know?

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him...Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God --children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God (Jn.1:10 & 12).

How do we know if we have been "born of God," or "born again," in the words of Jesus to Nicodemus?  If we have been baptized, either as infants or as adults, the church tells us that we have been born again of water and of the Holy Spirit.  But I wonder how many people feel, or experience, the truth that they have been born again, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, according to the letter of St. Peter to the Church (1 Pet. 1:23).

How do we know that we are indeed children of the Living God, the Eternal Father of heaven and earth?  He is holy -- but we seldom if ever experience that we ourselves are holy.  In fact, the opposite is most often true.  St. Paul tells us in Romans 7, I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do ---this I keep on doing....it is sin living in me that does it....in my mind I am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

I think most of us can identify with Paul's experience, so it is hard to see ourselves as "children of God."  But St. Peter, along with St. Paul and St. John, has the answer for us.  Peter tells us to "grow up in (our) salvation," because (we) are a "people belonging to God, that (we) might declare the praises of Him who called (us) out of darkness into his wonderful light."  St. Peter further adds in his second letter: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

This is the entire Gospel message:  Through Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed from slavery to the sin nature (as the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt) and set free to full and intimately participate in the divine nature of God.  Indeed, Paul tells us in Romans that "the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit."  I used to wonder about that passage: did it mean that we now have love for God, where we did not formerly have it, or did it mean that God's own love for the world was given to us by the Spirit?  I no longer wonder; it is clear that both meanings are experienced by those who have been "born again" according to the nature and Spirit of God.

What then of the sin nature that seems to rule our lives and that makes us so unlike the Spirit of the Lord?  Reading the first letter of St. John and the 8th chapter of Romans sheds light on our experience.  John tells us that if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from every sin.  John acknowledges that sin dwells in us, but that is not the final answer.  Rather, Jesus purifies us from all unrighteousness: He appeared so that he might take away our sins...No one who lives in him keeps on sinning....The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work (2 Jn. 3:8).  John goes on to tell us that "in this world we are like him....for everyone born of God has overcome the world (1 Jn. 4:17 & 5:4).  

Returning to Romans 8, we find the same theme in Paul, who has just lamented his sin nature in Romans 7:  But now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death....The mind of the sinful man is death; but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.

So this is how we KNOW that we have been born again -- we do not "continue" sinning, because even though we find sin in ourselves according to our old (sin) nature, it no longer controls us.  We do not continue to sin as do those who have not yet been born of God.  For if we confess our sin (1 JN), the Spirit of Jesus in us overcomes that sin and "remits," or sends it away.  We never come to the end of our sin nature, but the perfection of Jesus Christ continues to purify us from every sin as it appears in us.  He does not simply "tell" us to obey His commands; His Spirit in us continues to create in us that NEW Man, created in the Image and Likeness of the Father.  Alleluia! Amen! So be it now and forever!

Pondering the "Fear of the Lord"

Great are the works of the Lord,

to be pondered by all who delight in them....

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

understanding marks all who live by it.

Your praise endures forever! (Ps. 111:1-2, 5-10)

I think that if I were teaching a class in biblical literature today, or if someone came to me asking for instructions in prayer, I might simply give the following assignment:  Look up all the references to "Fear of the Lord" and write them down in a notebook.  For this expression, used so many times in the Bible, has nothing -- or very little--- to do with 'fear' and everything to do with reverence and pondering the works of the Lord, leading to worship, adoration, and bowing down before excellence.

Every single one of the Psalms is an exercise in "pondering the works of the Lord."  There is no other purpose in these ancient songs or hymns than to ponder the works of the Lord.  Unfortunately, the reason people today cannot relate to the Psalms is that we have lost the ability to "ponder" anything at all.  We attempt to "read" the Psalms, and thus we are bored and feel distant from them.  But the Psalms are not "reading" material -- they are hymns of praise, of thanksgiving, of pondering.

I am not a musician, to say the very least.  There is not a musical bone in my body.  I am tone deaf and often wonder what people are talking about when they say someone is "off key."  What is a "key?" I wonder, and how do you tell if someone is off-the-key?"  But this morning, when I awoke, I kept hearing Whitney Houston (I think) singing Aaaaaaat Laaaaaast.....

Even I, with no ear at all for music, can appreciate the absolute beauty of this song --- it slows down my thinking brain and my appetite for "reading further" to satisfy my curiosity for whatever comes next.  I just want to sit and ponder, relish, drink in the music, the sound, the exquisite beauty of the moment expressed in this song.  It makes me "ponder" and experience for myself the moment when "my love has come" -- that for which my whole being has cried out all my life, and for which I am now overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving.  

No wonder the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  One who has discovered reverence, or appreciation of the beauty of divine presence, is not likely to easily let go or to treat lightly what he/she has found, any more than the subject of Whitney Houston's song will lightly dismiss the gift that has just been found.

Psalm 1 tells us, Blessed is the man...whose delight is in the law (instruction, teaching) of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night/ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in due season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.

This opening psalm introduces us to the concept of "pondering the works of the Lord," which leads ultimately to the Fear of the Lord, or reverence for all his works.  Like great music, the psalms invite us to slow down, to forget reading for information, but just to sit and ponder, very much related to sitting under a tree and pondering the clouds.  Like music, the psalms cannot be rushed through; they must be absorbed under the skin, so to speak.  We must hear them, chew on them, relish them as fine wine or delicious desserts.  And when we are willing to do so, the result is praise and thanksgiving for what we see and hear.  The "fear of the Lord" takes root in us:  Aaaaaaat Laaaaaaast, my love has come......, and we bow down in worship.

It is interesting that Psalm 1 tells us the wicked are like chaff that the wind blows away.  They have not 'entered into' the law (teaching, instruction) of the Lord with reverence, and so they are not rooted and grounded, like a tree planted by streams of water.  As a result, they are easily blown away by 'every wind of teaching and doctrine," in the words of the New Testament.

Have we lost our capacity for reverence today?  Are we blown about by every facebook and youtube video so that we have become chaff?  Maybe a little fear of the Lord and reverence for the works of His hands is just what the doctor ordered for modern minds and hearts.

Transformation in Christ

Jesus not only teaches us the Christian life.  He creates it in our souls by the action of His Spirit.. Our life in Him is not a matter of mere ethical goodwill.  It is not a mere moral perfection.  It is an entirely new spiritual reality, an inner transformation  (Thomas Merton: The New Man).

"He who is infinitely above us is also within us."

Without accepting both of the first two chapters of Genesis, mankind holds a partial and incomplete knowledge of God.  The book of Wisdom, chapter 15, says, To know You well is complete righteousness, and Jesus said, This is eternal life, that they might know You, eternal Father, and Him whom Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ (Jn. 17).  

Our image of God determines our righteousness.  To know Him only in part is to distort His Image and His work in us.  The first chapter of Genesis depicts Elohim, the all-powerful and eternal One who creates by His Word and His breath, ordering all things according to His will.  To fully grasp the implications of this chapter, it is important to know the background against which it was formed-- the Babylonian creation myths.  The Jews spent 40 years in captivity to Babylon, where they were exposed to pagan worship of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as to the stories of their gods.  The earth was formed out of vicious battles among the gods, with one god slaying another and splitting the body open to form earth and heaven.  Man was created to serve the gods, as a slave and a thrall.  He was to live in fear of offending the gods, and his worship was sacrifice.

Upon return to Jerusalem, the priests and scribes began to assemble the sacred literature, archives, and court documents.  Having lost their temple, the Word became even more important.  Possibly the first two chapters of Genesis were written at that time, in response to their exposure to the Babylonian culture.  In Genesis 1, we see in place of a warring tribune of gods, a supreme Elohim, the plural form of El -- the almighty God.  Creation takes place not in warfare and bloody conquest, but by the Ruah and the Word -- the mighty wind upon the waters and the spoken Word: Light! Be!

Against this background, man and woman are created as the crown of creation, not as slave to the Almighty, but in His image and likeness, to rule over the works of His hands.  

The second chapter of Genesis may have been the older version of creation.  In this version, we see not the almighty El, but the immanent Yahweh, the personal God, bending down to shape out of the dust of the earth his "adam," his "human," his "man."  (El is a title, like "president or king"; Yahweh is a name, like "Abraham Lincoln."  In this version, Yahweh breathes His own life and spirit into His creation, "and man becomes a living being."

If our God is only El, the Almighty, He commands and we obey.  If we disobey, we fear His power and His wrath.  We quake before His Word.  If our God is only Yahweh, we do not fear (reverence) Him at all, but treat Him as one of us.  To know Him as both El and Yahweh is to know that His power is at the service of His Love for us.  He is with us, and His power works on our behalf, to deliver us from the bondage of sin.  We no longer fear Him in servitude, but only in reverence.  Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, but friends.  Friends influence one another by their lives and spirits, not commanding us, but loving us.

In the same way, Jesus not only asks that we keep His commandments, but His Spirit in us continually works inside us to shape and form us into His image and likeness.  He literally breathes in us to eliminate spiritual poisons and to inhale fresh (spiritual) air to cleanse and purify us.  In Christ, we 'grow up" to a new kind of maturity, a "unity of spirit"  which truly makes us children of God.

If we see Jesus Christ only as Teacher and Moral Commander, we miss His continual and Divine Work in us.  We see ourselves only as falling way short of His Command-- "love one another as I have loved you."  There is no power in us to do what He did, lay down our lives for one another.  If we see Him also as the personal Yahweh, embracing our weakness and bringing it to His own perfection, we are able to obey His commands, not by our own power at work, but by His Spirit working in us as the intimate center of our own personal being.  

Grateful for Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding....

A few years ago, I was speaking with a young man, barely out of his teens, about his girlfriend, who was about to get an abortion.  When I reminded him that it was a baby, a child, that they were about to kill, his response to me was, "That's your opinion."  The implication was that his "opinion" was as valid as mine, that there was no objective reality or truth to be had in this case, and so he was morally free to follow whichever "opinion" was most convenient for them.

In the face of such relativism in today's world, I am most grateful for Truth, a standard which exists outside of ourselves.  When I go to the doctor, I do not want his "opinion," unless it is based on scientific and verifiable data.  My very life depends on his wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the human body and its functions.  When I take my car to the mechanic, I do not want his "opinion," unless he knows what he is talking about -- unless he has true knowledge of the hidden workings of my vehicle, and an understanding of its malfunction in this particular instance.

From the very beginning of Christianity, faith has been based on objective Truth, on the fact that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, has been crucified by the opinions of the world, has resurrected and has been seen by those who believe and accept Him.  Like the doctor and the mechanic, the magisterium, or teaching body of the Church, has dedicated itself to seeking Truth, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the things of God and of Jesus Christ.

Labeled as "fundamentalist" today by the world which has built a dictatorship of relativisim, the doctrine and creed of the Church is rooted in friendship with Christ, which opens mankind up to all that is true and good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth.

In his book God or Nothing, Robert Cardinal Sarah points out that we have built in today's world "...a fraternal Tower of Babel in which everybody has a particle of the truth.  Modern relativism goes so far as to claim that it is the embodiment of liberty.  In this sense, liberty becomes the aggressive obligation to believe that there is no higher truth; in this new Eden, if a man rejects the truth revealed by Christ,  he becomes free.  Life together in society assumes the form of an impassable horizon within which each individual can control his own moral, philosophical, and religious views."

In a recent (May 2018) article by Bishop Robert Barron, he writes about the White House Correspondents Dinner where Michelle Wolf, a comedian, "... crossed over into the territory of the morally appalling when she indulged in this bit of witticism regarding Vice President Mike Pence: 'He thinks abortion is murder, which, first of  all, don't knock it until you've tried it. And when you do try it, really knock it, you know. You gotta get that baby out of there.' ....It might be helpful to remind ourselves what Ms. Wolf is referencing when she speaks of 'knocking that baby out of there.' She means the evisceration, dismemberment, and vivisection of a child."

Barron's comment on the White House Dinner and its speakers is that "When we live in the space beyond good and evil, when morality is construed as entirely the invention of personal freedom, when nothing counts as intrinsically wicked, when any claim to moral authority is automatically shouted-down ---in other words, when we live in the world that Nietzsche made  possible -- then the will of the most powerful necessarily holds sway.  And when something or someone gets in the way of what the powerful want, well then, they just "gotta knock it out of there."

In a world such as this, I am profoundly grateful for the moral compass and teaching authority of the Church, for men and women whose lives are dedicated to the Truth, and who can give a wider and broader perspective on people such as Michelle Wolff, who would shout down and shut down any objection to their "opinion" on what is good for society.  Every Christian has the obligation to pursue Truth through prayer and study.  But often we are inarticulate and voiceless in the dictatorship of relativism; we do not know what to say or even to think.

Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."  As Robert Cardinal Sarah writes, "The job of the theologian consists of entering into the Word of God so as to seek to grasp it rationally, to the extent possible, and to share it with the utmost clarity with the people of his time.....Baptized people have the duty to believe not only with their heart but also with their intellect."  We desperately need the church, with its saints and theologians, to guide our hearts and minds today.  The world seeks to overwhelm our capacity to love and to think clearly with its doctrines of relativism: all things must be accepted as true and good.  But Pope John Paul II's encyclical (1998) opens with these words: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth....Men will then be able to understand that the finest human intellect is nothing without the light from heaven, of which the Father gives us a spark through faith." 

Without the light of faith, mankind stumbles through a profound darkness, not even knowing what it is that makes him stumble.  We were made for communion with God through Jesus Christ, who called Himself The Way and the Truth.  Without that communion, mankind attempts to breathe with only one lung -- reason. And as Cardinal Sarah says, "Without God, man builds his hell on earth."

Thank God for theologians like Bishop Barron and Cardinal Sarah, who can point modern man to the eternal Truth with a lifetime dedicated to wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  Without these modern prophets, the darkness would surely overwhelm us.

The Family of God

...and to all who came to Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the power to become children of God ...born of God (Jn. 1:12)

Last night, I watched The Journey Home on EWTN, a program to which I've become addicted in the past year.  Converts or "reverts" tell their stories of how God's grace led them to the Catholic church or in some cases back to the church of their childhood. 

Last night, Dr. Diego Ospina, born in Columbia and brought to the United States as a small child, told his story.  He lost both his mother and his father when he was a teenager, and he felt at home neither in the United States nor in Columbia.  He could barely speak English, and he was not fully accepted in the United States, but when he went back to Columbia, they said that he did not sound like he was a native --- and they did not accept him either.  

One day, someone watching him play soccer on a playground asked if he wanted to go to college -- and he was offered a scholarship, his only hope of obtaining an education.  In college, he became an All-American player, and soon was offered a contract with a professional club.  Dropping out of college to play professional soccer, he was soon caught up in the life of a pro-player.  But nothing brought him the stability and acceptance he was seeking until he met his future wife, who was a Mormon.  In relief, he joined the Mormon church, married, and started a family.  

Even in the Mormon church, however, he found that there were differences.  In the words of Animal Farm, some "animals were more equal than others."  The Mormon church taught that there were two races created by God, a superior and an inferior race, and he belonged to the inferior race.  He could not attain the next level of priesthood that he sought in the church.  

One day, when his wife returned to her South American roots to visit her family, she was invited to attend a Mass.  There, despite having absolutely no past experience with the Catholic church, she had an experience during Mass with the Blessed Mother.  Returning home, she begged Diego to tell her about his early years as a Catholic in Columbia, before his exodus to America, where he started going to his sister's Pentecostal church. In Columbia, his family had been culturally Catholic, but without depth, although he said that both his mother and his father did pray privately.

He knew almost nothing about what Catholics believed, so he decided to begin studying, as he had studied to become a doctor and then a Mormon.  In studying about the Church, and in beginning to attend Mass with his wife, Ospina found something he had been searching for his entire life -- acceptance.  In the church, he found that he was neither Columbian nor American --he belonged to the family of God; he was Catholic.  The blue-eyed, fair-skinned Americans fully accepted him as "family" in the church; there was no difference between them.

Ospina said on the show that the Church is the family the whole earth is searching for.  When he attends Mass in the small chapel in Ohio with his family, the priest says the same words he says in Columbia--- all those who attend in both places belong to the same family of God, and all receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.  They all have the same flesh and blood binding them together.

St. Paul has a lot to say about belonging to the family of God.  In Romans, he says, A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No,  a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code (2:28-29). 

And again, ...the promise comes by faith...and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring -- not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.  He is the father of us all.  As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." (4:16-17).

In Ephesians:  ...you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone....in him you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. 

In Colossians:  Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

The universal church is the one family of God in which all are accepted and all are equally loved in the Beloved Son.

Scott Hahn's Kids

One reason I stopped writing my blog every day was the feeling that I just could not do justice to the ideas I was trying to express -- I always felt that what came out on paper fell far short of the beauty I saw in my mind.  I felt that other people had already said better what I was trying to say, and I sort of gave up.

This morning, however, I remembered that one of my original motivations for beginning a blog was to pass on to others the beauty of ideas that have inspired me -- that is, in the beginning, I did not aspire to be original, or to say it better, than others have said it.  I simply wanted to share with a wider audience the things that I had found to be true and beautiful and wise.  So, going back to my "first love" and inspiration, today I want to share something that follows on yesterday's entry about the table of the Lord but that is not original with me.

I was reading Scott Hahn's book, First Comes Love: Finding Your Family in the Church and in the Trinity.  I picked it up this morning because it had on the front cover a picture of Rublev 's portrait of the Trinity, my starting point for yesterday's blog.  I had been meditating this morning on Proverbs 8 and 9, where Wisdom, personified as a woman, sets her table and prepares her banquet for all who will come to be fed at her table.  Then I turned to Luke 14, the Parable of the Great Banquet, and I was thinking about writing about sitting at the Table of the Lord.  

As I was thinking about what I wanted to say, however, I clearly heard one word in my mind: READ. So I reached down to the pile of books on the floor beside my chair and found Scott Hahn's book near the bottom of the stack.  When I saw the front cover, I was intrigued and began to page through the book, one that I had started about a year ago but never finished.  Near the end of the book, I came across the perfect explanation for what I had been trying to express by "the Table of the Lord":

Scott Hahn asked himself (p. 164) how the Hahn children know they are Scott's kids and found a whole list of reasons for his children's confidence:
1. They live in his house
2. They are called by his name.
3. They sit at his table
4. They share his flesh and blood -- the family resemblance
5. Their mother is his bride
6. They were always celebrating together-- birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc.
7. They receive instruction and discipline from Scott.  (The next door neighbors or the kids in the next booth at McDonald's do not receive instruction and discipline from him.)
8. They never have to wonder if he will feed them.

Scott Hahn's reflections on the Church as the family of God on the next few pages are worth reading and reflection.  Maybe that will be the subject of another blog, now that I've overcome the thought that I should be original.

Religion or Relationship?

Rublev's Painting of the Trinity

I have written before about Rublev's famous painting of the Trinity.  In this painting, The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are portrayed as angels (Divine Beings) seated at a table.  The Father (left) gestures toward the Son; the Son (center) gestures toward the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit invites the viewer to join the Divine Beings at the table.  In the background, the tree represents the Cross, and the Father's House has an upper story window to watch for the return of the Prodigal Son.  

All of the Old Testament Covenants are invitations to join the Family of God, to "come to the banquet," the Table of the Lord, to sit and eat as Family, not as servants.  In the New Testament, the Final Covenant, the invitation is given to all, and Christ Himself invites us to join Him in His place as Son:  "I do not say I will ask the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you (Jn. 16: 26-27 ....and we will come and make our home in (you)" (Jn. 14:23).

It's not about Religion; it's about relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  If we do not enter into the relationship with the One who loves us, religion is useless, for it serves as a signpost -- this is the Way to the Holy Trinity, to the Family of God.  If we read the signs but do not journey on the Way, we are lost.  If we want to know the Way, it has been given to us.  If we ask, if we seek, if we knock on the door, it will be opened without fail:  

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open to Me, I will come in and sup with him, and him with Me.(Rev. 3:20)  That is, Jesus will sit at our table (we are the host and He the guest), and we will sit at His table (He, the host, and we the guest.)  What more can we ask that that, that we should be the guest of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that They should remove their garments, wash our feet, and serve us at table?

Behold what love the Father has for us, that we should be called the children of God...and that is what we are! (1 John).