Friday, 29 May 2015

The Most Holy Trinity (Year B)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

       

Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney 
mob: 0417 279 437;
email: mdelaney@netspace.net.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297;
email: alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310 
Office Hours:  Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday 10am-3pm
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au 
FaceBook: Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: podomatic.com/mikedelaney
Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Parish Magazine:  mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Secretary: Annie Davies/Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair:  Mary Davies

Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.



Weekday Masses 2nd – 6th June 2015
Tuesday:       9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday:  9:30am - Latrobe              
Thursday:     12noon - Devonport
Friday:          9:30am - Ulverstone
Saturday:      9:00am - Ulverstone
                             
Next 6th & 7th June 2015
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin & Devonport
Sunday Mass:   8:30am Port Sorell      LWC   
                       9:00am  Ulverstone
                      10:30am Devonport
                      11:00am Sheffield                                         
                        5:00pm Latrobe

Eucharistic Adoration:
Devonport:  Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport:  Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of each month.

Prayer Groups:
Charismatic Renewal – Devonport Emmaus House Thursdays commencing 7.30pm
Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House Wednesdays 7pm. 

Ministry Rosters 6th & 7th June 2015

Devonport:
Readers Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann
10:30am:  J Phillips, P Piccolo, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil: 
M Doyle, M Heazlewood, S Innes, M Gerrand, P Shelverton, M Kenney
10:30am: B Peters, F Sly, J Carter, E Petts,
B Schrader
Cleaners   5th June M.W.C 
12th May: P & T Douglas
Piety Shop 6th June:  R McBain 7th June: D French 
Flowers: M O’Brien-Evans

Ulverstone:
Reader: D Prior Ministers of Communion: M Murray, J Pisarskis
Cleaners: B & V McCall, G Doyle Flowers: M Bryan 
Hospitality: Philipino Community

Penguin:
Greeters: J Garnsey, S Ewing Commentator: J Barker 
Readers:  Y Downes, T Clayton
Procession: S Ewing, J Barker 
Ministers of Communion: T Clayton, E Nickols
Liturgy:  Sulphur Creek C Setting Up: M Murray
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols

Latrobe:
Reader: P Cotterell Ministers of Communion: I Campbell, B Ritchie Procession: Cotterell Family   Music: Hermie & Co

Port Sorell:
Readers: V Duff, G Duff Ministers of Communion: T Jeffries, B Lee Cleaners/Flowers/Prepare: G Wylie


Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Kath Smith, Nellie Widger, Michelle Nickols, Lorraine Duncan, Karen Aiken, Alyssa Otten, Merlyn Veracruz, Sr Carmel Hall, Meg Collings, Bettye Cox, Phillip Sheehan, Margaret Hoult, Shirley Sexton & …



Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Nanette O'Brien, Lorraine Keen, Beryl Purton, Joseph Sallese, Bridget Stone, Paul Sulzberger, Tas Glover, Sylvia Street, Daisy Murray, Daphne Walker, Dee Tachery, Nell Heatley, Jean Clare, Pauline Burns, Fr Jim Stephens, Noelene Britton and Betty Martin.

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:  
27th  May – 2nd June – Dalton Smith, Mary Marlow, Robert & Frances Roberts, Graeme Garland, Bernard Stubbs, Vera Tolson, Mary Hyland, Rita Beach, Johanna Smink, Lois Dudfield, Cheryl Robinson, Helen Armsby, Sr Josie Berry, Murray Haines, Kath Bennell, Miss Barbara O’Rourke and Paul Streat.  
May they rest in peace

Scripture Readings
This Week - Trinity Sunday
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34. 39-40
Responsorial Psalm:
(R.) Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.
Second Reading: Galatians 5:16-25 
Gospel Acclamation: 
Alleluia, alleluia! Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: to God who is, who was, and who is to come. Alleluia!

GOSPEL:  Matthew 28:16-20

PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL: 
The apostolic mission of the Church is contained in these last instructions of Jesus. The glorified Christ wields power on earth just as in heaven. His disciples are sent forth to wield this power in his name by baptising and forming Christians. Our mission is universal - to ALL peoples - and however long and laborious spreading the Good News may be, the Risen Jesus promises to be active and present with us always.
I read the passage once or twice so that I can envisage the scene. Perhaps I can put myself there, beside the disciples, looking and listening to Jesus. How do I feel at seeing him again?
Do I really believe he is still sending ME forth every day to do his work by the way I live my Christian life?
How do I carry out that work here and now in my situation with all my limitations?
I speak with Jesus. He knows my limitations but also my strengths - which are gifts from him.
I ask him to let me show forth something of his compassion, his concern for others, his forgiveness, his generosity and his total trust in his Father’s love and goodness.
I pray with gratitude and confidence that he will keep his promise to be with me always.


Readings Next Week: The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
(Corpus Christi)
First Reading: Exodus 24:3-8
 Second Reading: Hebrews 9:11-15
Gospel: Mark 14:12-16, 22-26



Congratulations to Mick & Judy Bourke
 on the occasion of their 50th Wedding Anniversary
 5th June, 2015 



We Welcome and congratulate Patrick Cornell & Anarchy Watts
 who are joining the community of God’s family this weekend. 


Fr MIKE'S WEEKLY RAMBLINGS:

Was speaking to a few people recently and the question was raised whether the ReFrame program and Rebuilt are the same. The simple answer is no they just happen to be two processes that have come to my attention about the same time.

 - ReFrame is a 10 week program looking at finding ways for Christians to try to connect their faith and their work life and comes from Regent College, part of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. 
- Rebuilt is the story of a Catholic Parish in Baltimore, Maryland and how they worked to re imagine their Parish when it looked like it might be headed for extinction. 

 Ultimately both have as their premise the growth in faith of the person so that they become disciples but by very different means.

This weekend there are two books (one with +Adrian and one with me) for people to add a prayer or petition to be included next weekend in the Corpus Christi procession to be held in Hobart. The books will need to be posted by Wednesday so if you have any prayer you wish to be included then please ensure they are either added today or at the Parish Office by midday Wednesday.

I received a phone call from Fr Alex on Wednesday morning wishing to thank people for their prayers and support at this time and hoping that we are all well. I told him that it was getting colder and that he would notice the difference when he returned – hopefully that won’t put him off.

Fr John Girdauskas sent an email several weeks ago asking me to include a note in the newsletter thanking parishioners for their prayers and support after the death of his father – it is included today with apologies to Fr John for the delay.  

Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your homes




PENTECOST CHILDREN’S MASS – THANK YOU:
A special thank you to all those who helped celebrate Pentecost at the Children’s Mass last Sunday.   It was a joyous expression of thanksgiving and witness of The Holy Spirit in our community.  Thanks Fr Mike for your special involvement of the children.  There are many many people to thank (I’m sure I’ll miss someone but we’ll give it a go):  Kamil Douglas and his ministry students for the reflection they creatively put together.   Our Sacramental candidates for their reading and help with the offertory.  Felicity Sly for the cuppa afterwards.  Katie Ryan for making all the delicious cupcakes.  The following people for their help with the craft activities after Mass:  Melissa Marshall, Katie Ryan, Karyn Kingshott, Laine Davis, Rod Linhart, Elizabeth Cox and Sally Riley.  And, of course, a special thank you to all the families for coming along. 


KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS:
Meeting THIS SUNDAY 31st May, Emmaus House commencing with a meal at 6pm, interested men welcome. Apologies for the wrong date last week. Merv Tippett, Secretary.


BAPTISMAL PREPARATION SESSION:   Tuesday 2nd June 7:30pm at Parish House, 90 Stewart Street, Devonport. This session is for families who are thinking of baptism, have booked a baptism, wanting to know more about baptism or for those who are expecting a child.



REFRAME:  is a film based discipleship resource that explores how to connect faith with all of life. A small group will be starting the first of ten 90 minute sessions at Emmaus House, Devonport next Friday 5th June at 9am. These sessions will run fortnightly. Enquiries Tony Ryan 6424:1508


ST MARY'S CHURCH PENGUIN:
All welcome after 6pm Vigil Mass, Saturday 13th June to soup and sandwich night.
Please bring a plate of sandwiches or a dessert to share.



menALIVE Weekend for men
On 27th /28th June Meander Valley Parish is holding a men’s weekend. Thousands of Catholic men have been inspired and encouraged by these weekends across Australia. Presented and run by any experienced MenAlive team from Hobart. Interesting talks, discussions, reflection and fellowship. Registration forms available in Church foyers. For more information please phone John Barton 6393:2221(after hours).

MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE - WILLIAM ST, FORTH
“From Struggle to Hope”- Grief and Loss across the Life Span - Presented by Marea Richardson
Change and transition, loss and suffering are as much a part of our life as the seasons of the year, and therefore must serve some purpose. Saturday 27th June       10.00am – 3.00pm     Bookings essential.  Cost: $35.00 Phone 6428:3095 email: mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au


PLANNED GIVING PROGRAMME:
New envelopes are being distributed during June. If you are not already part of this programme and would like to join, or do not wish to continue giving, please contact the Parish office. Please note the new envelopes should not be used until July.


THANKYOU:
Catharina Girdauskas together with Elizabeth, Fr John, Teresa, Judy and Louise, wish to express thanks and appreciation to all those parishioners from the Mersey Leven Parish, who sent condolences at the time of the death and funeral of Joseph Girdauskas.  Many parishioners from Mersey Leven have kindly made contact during this sad time and we are most grateful for your kindness, thoughts and prayers.  


FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:
Round 8 – Geelong won by 77 points. Winners; Alana Reed, Shirley Sheehan, S Johnstone.




Thursday Nights OLOL Hall D’port. Eyes down 7.30pm –
Callers 4th June Jon Halley & Alan Luxton


NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:

WALK WITH CHRIST
HOBART CITY SUNDAY 7TH JUNE 1:15pm to 3:15 pm

Celebrate the Feast of Body and Blood of Christ by walking with Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament through the city of Hobart. Commencing from St Joseph's Church (Harrington St) at 1.15pm, walk with us to St Mary's Cathedral for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament concluding with Benediction at 3:00pm. Experience our rich Catholic heritage, in solidarity with Catholics all over the world, and through the ages, by bearing public witness to our Lord and Saviour present in the Eucharist. If you are unable to walk the distance, join us at the Cathedral at 2:00pm for the arrival of the procession, prayers and the Adoration. There will be a 'cuppa' afterwards. Can't join us in person? Prayer intentions written in the 'Book of Life' in your parish will be taken on the procession and presented at the Cathedral.  


Evangelii Gaudium

“We human beings are not only the beneficiaries but also the stewards of other creatures. Thanks to our bodies, God has joined us closely to the world around us that we can feel the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment, and the extinction of the species as a painful disfigurement.”

-        Par. 215  from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis, Nov. 24, 2013



Saint of the Week – St Justin, Martyr (June 1)

Justin Martyr, also known as St Justin (100 – 165 AD), was an early Christian apologist, and is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century. He was martyred, alongside some of his students, and is considered a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church.


Most of his works are lost, but two apologies and a dialogue survive. The First Apology, his most well known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian life, and provides various ethical and philosophical arguments to convince the Roman emperor, Antoninus, to abandon the persecution of the fledgling sect. Further, he also makes the theologically-innovative suggestion that the ‘seeds of Christianity’ (manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ's incarnation. This notion allows him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was well studied, as unknowing Christians.


Words of Wisdom

“It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a central loyalty life is unfinished.”

-        Fulton J. Sheen, Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary







Meme of the week


Look, even the Holy Father does it!





_____________________________

INORDINATE ATTACHMENTS – MORAL FLAW OR STRUGGLE WITH DIVINE
ENERGY?

The renowned spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, made no secret about the fact that he was emotionally over-sensitive and that he suffered, sometimes to the point of clinical depression, from emotional obsessions. At times, he, a vowed celibate, was simply overpowered by the feeling of being in love with someone who was hopelessly unavailable that he became psychologically paralyzed and needed professional help.

Yet, given Nouwen’s moral honesty and the transparency of his life, one would hardly ascribe this to him as a moral flaw, however emotionally-crippling it was at times. He simply could not help himself sometimes, such was his emotional sensitivity.

Almost all sensitive people suffer something similar, though perhaps not as acute as what afflicted Henri Nouwen. Moreover these kinds of emotional obsessions affect our whole lives, including our moral and religious lives. What we do in the pain and paralysis of obsession rarely does us proud and is often far from a free act. In the grip of an emotional obsession we cannot think freely, pray freely, decide things freely, and we are prone to act out compulsively in ways that are not moral. What is the morality of our actions then?

Classical spiritual writers speak of something they term “inordinate attachments”, and, for them, these “inordinate attachments” are a moral fault, something we need to control by willpower. However what they mean by “inordinate attachments” covers a wide range of things. In their view, we can be inordinately attached to our pride, to our appearance, to money, to power, to pleasure, to comfort, to possessions, to sex, and to an endless list of other things. They saw this as the opposite of the virtue of detachment.  And, since its opposite is a virtue, “inordinate attachment” is, for classical spirituality, a vice, a moral and spiritual flaw.

There is a lot to be said positively for this view. Normally, lack of detachment is a moral flaw. But, perhaps there is an exception. An inordinate attachment can also be an emotional obsession with another person and this muddies the moral issue. Obsessions, generally, are not freely-chosen, nor are they often within the power of the will to control, at least inside the emotions. As our old catechisms and moral theology books used to correctly teach: We are responsible for our actions but we are not responsible for how we feel. Our emotions are like wild horses; they roam where they will and are not easily domesticated and harnessed.

Hence, I believe, the notion of “inordinate attachments”, as expressed in classical spirituality, needs to be nuanced by series of other concepts which, while still carrying the same warning labels, carry something more. For example, today we speak of “obsessions”, and we all know how powerful and crippling these can be. You cannot simply wish or will your way free of an obsession. But is that a moral flaw?

Sometimes too we speak of “being possessed by demons” and that also has a variety of meanings.  We can be possessed by a power beyond us that overpowers our will, be that the devil himself or some overpowering addiction such as alcohol or drugs. Most of us are not overpowered, but each of us battles with his or her own demons and the line between obsession and possession is sometimes thin.

Moreover, today archetypal psychologists speak of something they call “daimons”, that is, they believe that what explains our actions are not just nature and nurture, but also powerful “angels” and “demons” inside us, that relentlessly haunt our bodies and minds and leave us chronically obsessed and driven. But these “daimons”  are also very often at the root of our creativity and that is why we often see (in the phraseology of Michael Higgins) “tortured genius” in many high-achievers, romantics, people with artistic temperaments, and people like Van Gogh and Nouwen, who, under the pressure of an obsession, cut off an ear or check themselves into a clinic.

What is the point of highlighting this?  A deeper understanding of ourselves and others, is the point. We should not be so mystified by what happens sometimes in our world and inside us.  We are wild, obsessed, complex creatures, and that complexity does not take its root, first of all, in what is evil inside us. Rather it is rooted in what is deepest inside us, namely, the image and likeness of God. We are infinite spirits journeying in a finite world. Obsessions come with the territory. In ancient myths, gods and goddesses often fell helplessly in love with human beings, but the ancients believed that this was a place where the divine and human met. And that still happens: The divine in us sometimes too falls hopelessly in love with another human being. This, of course, does not give us an excuse to act out as we would like on those feelings, but it does tell us that this is more an encounter between the divine and the human than it is a moral flaw.

_______________________________


The Patristic Period
A Series by Fr Richard Rohr. Sign up for the emails here.

As I shared last week, the desert fathers and mothers focused more on the how than the what. Their spirituality was very practical: virtue and prayer-based. This week we'll look at a parallel tradition, the Patristic Period, that emphasized the what--the rational, philosophical, and theological foundations for the young Christian religion. This period stretches from around AD 100 (the end of the Apostolic Age) to either AD 451 (with the Council of Chalcedon) or as late as the 8th century (Second Council of Nicaea).

The word patristic comes from the Latin and Greek pater, father. The fathers of the early church were primarily "Eastern" in that they lived in the Middle East and Asia, which are East relative to Europe. We must admit that because women were often not allowed education--much less influence--in this patriarchal period of history and religion, it is mostly men that we are referring to here. (I am sorry to say, today's Church and culture are still not congruent with either Jesus' or Paul's attitudes toward women, which were both far ahead of their cultural stage and training.)

Alexandria in Egypt was a primary center for learning and culture across many fields--philosophy, art, medicine, literature, and science--during the Hellenistic and Roman periods (310 BC - AD 330). The library in Alexandria was probably the largest in the ancient world. Greek, Eastern, Jewish, and Christian thought intersected in this environment, bringing together diverse perspectives and many saints and scholars.

One of the key teachers of the Alexandrian school, Origen (AD 184-254), is considered to be the first Christian theologian. Many of his ideas, particularly apocatastasis ("universal restoration"), were largely misunderstood and thus declared heretical in the 6th century. The Alexandrian interactive/dynamic/mystical understanding of Jesus' human and divine natures (developed by Athanasius, Cyril, and Bishop Dioscorus) became dominant for a while but was later rejected at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), which insisted on Jesus having two very distinct natures, which then became hard to reconnect on any practical level--in him and then in us!

Building on the Alexandrian school's work, the Cappadocian Fathers (in what is now Turkey) further advanced early Christian theology with their doctrine on the Trinity. The three theologian saints, Basil the Great (330-379), his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa (c. 332-395), and Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389), sought to give Christianity a solid scholarly status, on par with Greek philosophy of the time. They developed an intellectual rationale for Christianity's central goal: humanity's healing and loving union with God.

We'll explore these early Eastern theologians' views on Christ, Trinity, theosis, universal salvation, and hesychasm (prayer of rest) throughout the remainder of this week.

References:
I highly recommend Amos Smith's study of the Alexandrian mystics, Healing the Divide: Recovering Christianity's Mystic Roots (Resource Publications: Eugene, Oregon, 2013), for which I wrote the Afterword.

Christ is Everyman and Everywoman

Many passages in the New Testament give a cosmic meaning to Jesus as the Eternal Christ (Colossians 1, Ephesians 1, John 1), but the Eastern fathers of the Church were the first (and last) to make this into a full theology until Bonaventure and Duns Scotus in the 13th century and Teilhard de Chardin in the 20th century. This theology of Christ was never developed in the West, which is why it seems like a new idea to most Catholics and Protestants. 

Many of the Alexandrian school saw Jesus as a dynamic and living ("interactive") union of human and divine in one person. They saw Christ as the living icon of the eternal union of matter and Spirit in all of creation. Jesus was fully human, just as he was fully divine at the same time, but dualistic thinkers find that impossible to process, so they usually just choose one side or the other (Jesus is divine and we are human, missing the major point of putting them together!). Matter and Spirit must be found to be inseparable in Christ before we have the courage and insight to acknowledge and honor the same in ourselves and in the entire universe. Jesus is the Archetype of Everything.

One of my favorite Orthodox scholars, Olivier Clement, helps explain the Eastern fathers' understanding of Christ with some profound statements of his own:
"How could humanity on earth, enslaved by death, recover its wholeness? It was necessary to give to dead flesh the ability to share in the life-giving power of God. He, though he is Life by nature, took a body subject to decay in order to destroy in it the power of death and transform it into life. As iron when it is brought in contact with fire immediately begins to share its colour, so the flesh when it has received the life-giving Word into itself is set free from corruption. Thus he put on our flesh to set it free from death."[1] 

"The whole of humanity, 'forms, so to speak, a single living being.' In Christ we form a single body, we are all 'members of one another.' For the one flesh of humanity and of the earth 'brought into contact' in Christ 'with the fire' of his divinity, is henceforward secretly and sacramentally deified."[2]
Unfortunately, at the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), this view--the single, unified nature of Christ--was rejected for the "orthodox" belief, held to this day by most Christian denominations, that emphasizes two distinct natures in Jesus instead of one new synthesis. Sometimes what seems like orthodoxy is, in fact, a well-hidden heresy!

Perhaps quantum physics can help us reclaim what we've lost because our dualistic minds couldn't understand or experience the living paradox that Jesus represents. Now science is confirming there is no clear division between matter and spirit. Everything is interpenetrating. As Franciscan scientist and theologian Ilia Delio says, "We are in the universe and the universe is in us." Christ's very nature mirrors this universal reality, that we are all one, just as he is one within himself. The Church formally believed in "The Indwelling Spirit" (e.g., Romans 5:5, John 14:17), but for most Christians no dynamic or practical theology of the Holy Spirit was ever developed. S/he remained the forgotten person of the Blessed Trinity, and God remained external and foreign to the human experience.

See my week of meditations, "Jesus: The Christ," for more on this theme.
[1] Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New City Press: 2013),47.
[2] Ibid., 46.

Trinity

Just as some Eastern fathers saw Christ's human/divine nature as one dynamic unity, so they also saw the Trinity as an Infinite Dynamic Flow. The Western Church tended to have a more static view of both Christ and the Trinity--theologically "correct" but largely irrelevant for real life, more a mathematical conundrum than invitation to new consciousness.

In our attempts to explain the Trinitarian mystery, the Western Church overemphasized the individual "names" Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but not so much the quality of the relationships between them, which is where all the power and meaning lies! You can make all the names feminine, masculine, or neither, if you prefer neutral words. Each naming will have both its strengths and limitations because we are dealing with metaphor and unknowability. So do not spend too much time arguing about gender. The real and essential point is how the three "persons" relate to one another--infinite outpouring and infinite receiving. 

The Mystery of God as Trinity invites us into full participation with God, a flow, a relationship, a waterwheel of always outpouring love. Trinity basically says that God is a verb much more than a noun. Some Christian mystics taught that all of creation is being taken back into this flow of eternal life, almost as if we are a "Fourth Person" of the Eternal Flow of God or, as Jesus put it, "so that where I am you also may be" (John 14:3).[1]

The Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century first developed this theology, though they readily admit the Trinity is a wonderful mystery that can never fully be understood with the rational mind, but can only be known through love, prayer, and suffering. Any serious contemplation of God as Trinity was made-to-order to undercut the dualistic mind. This view of Trinity invites us to interactively experience God as transpersonal ("Father"), personal ("Christ"), and impersonal ("Holy Spirit")--all being true in different stages of life.

The Cappadocian teaching did move to the West, as we find Catholic mystics are invariably Trinitarian--though it was never the mainline doctrine. Richard of St. Victor, who died in Paris in 1173, still reflects this early theology. He taught at great length that for God to be truth, God had to be one; for God to be love, God had to be two; and for God to be joy, God had to be three![2] Any true Trinitarian theology will always offer the soul endless creativity, an utterly open horizon, and delicious food for the soul. Trinitarian thinkers do not seem to have much interest in things like hell, punishment, or any notion of earning or losing. They are only overwhelmed by infinite abundance and flow (e.g., Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux). 

Our supposed logic has to break down before we can comprehend the nature of the universe and the bare beginnings of the nature of God. Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist who was a major contributor to quantum physics and nuclear fission, said the universe is "not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think." Look at any of the Hubble telescope pictures to get a taste for this strangeness. We now know that 95% of the universe is "dark energy"--even though we can't define it--and that there are 200 billion other impossibly immense galaxies! Stars and planets now seem uncountable.

The doctrine of the Trinity is saying the same thing: God is not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think. Perhaps much of the weakness of the first 2,000 years of reflection on most of our doctrines and dogmas is that we've tried to understand them with a logical or rational mind instead of through love, prayer, and participation itself. This is how God brilliantly remains in charge of the whole process. In the end, only lovers seem to know what is going on inside of God. To all others, God remains an impossible, distant, and uninteresting secret, just like the stars and planets.[3]

[1] Richard Rohr, The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity (Center for Action and Contemplation), CD, DVD, MP3 download.
[2] Richard of St. Victor, Book Three of the Trinity (Paulist Press: 1979).
[3] Rohr, The Shape of God.

Theosis

The Orthodox doctrine of theosis, according to John Paul II, is perhaps the greatest gift of the Eastern Church to the West, but one that has largely been ignored or even denied.[1] The Eastern fathers of the Church believed that we could experience real and transformative union with God. This is in fact the supreme goal of human life and the very meaning of salvation--not only later, but now and later. Theosis refers to the shared deification or divinization of creation, particularly with the human soul where it can happen consciously and lovingly.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus (330-390) emphasized that deification does not mean we become God, but that we do objectively participate in God's nature. We are created to share in the life-flow of Trinity. Salvation isn't about replacing our human nature with a fully divine nature, but growing within our very earthiness and embodiedness to live more and more in the ways of love and grace, so that it comes "naturally" to us and is our deepest nature. This does not mean we are humanly or perfectly whole or psychologically unwounded, but it has to do with an objective identity in God that we can always call upon and return to without fail. Some doctrine of divinization is the basis for any reliable hope and any continual growth.

Remember what I shared last week about stages and states. Divinized people live in a grateful state of their undeserved union with God, but that does not always mean their stage of human development is without very real limits and faults. This is a distinction that the West, with its dualistic mind, seemed unable to make.

This is how a few ancients and contemporaries understand theosis:
  1. Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373): "The Son of God became man that we might become god.... [It is] becoming by grace what God is by nature." Athanasius is almost directly quoting St. Irenaeus (125-203) who taught the same.
  2. Maximus the Confessor (580-662): "The saints become that which can never belong to the power of nature alone, since nature possesses no faculty capable of perceiving what surpasses it."[2]
  3. Olivier Clement (1921-2009), an Orthodox scholar: "The purpose of the incarnation is to establish full communion between God and humanity so that in Christ humanity may find adoption and immortality, often called 'deification' by the Fathers: not by emptying out our human nature but by fulfilling it in the divine life, since only in God is human nature truly itself."[3]
  4. J. A. McGuckin, an Orthodox scholar: "In speaking of fullness of communion as the 'true life' of the creature, deification language shows that the restoration of communion is at root one and the same movement and motive of the God who seeks to disburse the gift of the fullness of life to his rational creatures."[4]


Full salvation is finally universal belonging and universal connecting. Our word for that is "heaven."

[1] Pope John Paul II, Orientale Lumen: Apostolic Letter on the Eastern Churches (1995).
[2] Maximus the Confessor as quoted by John Meyendorff, St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: 1974), 39.
[3] Olivier Clement, The Roots of Christian Mysticism (New City Press: 2013), 37.
[4] J.A. McGuckin, The Strategic Adaptation of Deification in the Cappadocians, appearing in Michael Christensen, et al. eds., Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Tradition, (Baker Academic: 2007), 96. (Partakers of the Divine Nature book is the best summary I have read on the subject of theosis.)

Universal Restoration

The shape of creation must somehow mirror and reveal the shape of the Creator. We must have a God at least as big as the universe, or else our view of God becomes irrelevant, constricted, more harmful than helpful. The Christian image of a torturous hell, and God as a petty tyrant, has not helped us to know, trust, or love God in any way. God ends up being less loving than most people we know. At this point in history most Christians have been preconditioned by a cheap story line of retributive justice, and no one told them about the much more profound Biblical notion of restorative justice. Those attracted to the common idea of hell operate out of a scarcity model, where there is not enough Divine Love to transform, awaken, and save. The dualistic mind is literally incapable of thinking any notion of infinity, limitlessness, or eternity.

The common view of hell is based not on any deep dive into Scripture but on Dante's Divine Comedy--great poetry, but not good theology. The Divine Comedy portrays a threatening, quid pro quo God, not an inviting, alluring, or loving God. The word "hell" is not mentioned in the first five books of the Bible. Paul and John never once use the word. And most of the Eastern fathers never believed in a literal hell, nor did many Western mystics. "Oh, I believe there is a hell," said Teresa of Avila to the Inquisitorial priests, but then is reported to have whispered to a nun nearby, "It's just that no one is there!"

Many Eastern fathers such as Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome, Peter Chrysologus, Maximus the Confessor, and Gregory of Nazianzus taught some form of apocatastasis or "universal restoration" (Acts 3:21). Origen writes: "An end or consummation is clearly an indication that things are perfected and consummated. . . . The end of the world and the consummation will come when every soul shall be visited with the penalties due for its sins. This time, when everyone shall pay what he owes, is known to God alone. We believe, however, that the goodness of God through Christ will restore his entire creation to one end, even his enemies being conquered and subdued."[1]

Morwenna Ludlow describes Gregory of Nyssa's two arguments for universal salvation as: "a fundamental belief in the impermanence of evil in the face of God's love and a conviction that God's plan for humanity is intended to be fulfilled in every single human being. These beliefs are identified with 1 Corinthians 15:28 and Genesis 1:26 in particular, but are derived from what Gregory sees as the direction of Scripture as a whole."[2]

You can't be more loving than God; it's not possible. If you understand God as Trinity--the fountain fullness of outflowing love, relationship itself--there is no theological possibility of any hatred or vengeance in God. Divinity, which is revealed as Love Itself, will always eventually win. God does not lose (John 6:37-39). We are all saved totally by mercy. God fills in all the gaps. Reincarnation or a "geographic" hell or purgatory are unnecessary (though this does not mean there is no place or time for change or growth).

Knowing this ahead of time gives you courage, so you don't need to live out of fear, but from an endlessly available love. To the degree you have experienced intimacy with God, you won't be afraid of death because you're experiencing the first tastes and promises of heaven already now. Love, grace, and mercy are given undeservedly here, so why would they not be given later too? Do we have two different gods? One who forgives and teaches with a 70 x 7 policy before death, but then counts and punishes every jot and tittle afterward? It just does not work! As Jesus puts it, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living--for to him everyone is alive" (Luke 20:38). In other words, growth, change, and opportunity never cease.[3]

[1] G.A. Butterworth, trans., On First Principles (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: 1973), 52.
[2] Morwenna Ludlow, Universal Salvation: Eschatology in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa and Karl Rahner (Oxford University Press: 2000).
[3] Richard Rohr, Hell, no! (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), CD, MP3 download.

Responding to Vengeful Scriptures 

As we explored yesterday, hell is not what we've pictured it to be but simply a much-needed metaphor (found in most religions) for the ultimate tragedy of not choosing life and love. If all will be saved by the unconditional victory of God, then why does Jesus tell stories that show harsh judgment, casting the rejected into "outer darkness" and "eternal punishment," in places like Matthew 25:46? Ending an important parable with this final damning line seems to undo all the mercy and forgiveness Jesus demonstrates throughout the rest of his life and teaching. Let me explain how I see it.

Clear-headed dualistic thinking must precede any further movement into non-dual or mystical consciousness, especially about issues that people want to avoid, as in this case. Note that Jesus reserves his most damning and dualistic statements for issues of social justice where humanity and power is most resistant: "You cannot serve both God and Mammon" (Matthew 6:24); "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24); or the dichotomy in Matthew 25 between sheep (who feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned) and goats (who don't). The context is important. Jesus' foundational and even dualistic bias is against false power and in favor of the powerless--and yet it still has had very little effect in Christian history. If you do not make such points absolutely clear (and even if you do, as Jesus did), history shows that humans will almost always compromise on issues of justice, money, and inclusion. Let's bring it home: the United States always has all the money it needs for war, armaments, and military bases, but never enough for good schools, low cost housing, universal health care, or the humane care of immigrants. No wonder Jesus dared to be dualistic and damning first! Our capacity for blindness here seems infinite.

But the problem with such dualistic statements is that any call to change is aimed at the lowest level of motivation--threat and fear--even vengeful and eternal threats. This does not create loving people, but fearful people, which is an entirely different game. The New Testament passages about Gehenna (Jerusalem's smoldering dump), Sheol (the place of the dead, with no intimation of punishment), and "eternal punishment" are mostly found in Matthew and seem to be his way of making dramatic and contrasting statements about issues of ultimate significance, which does call the reader to choice and decision. The trouble is that the threat in the last line becomes the lasting memory and message instead of the primary invitation and promise of the whole previous text. The real message of the parable is a call to a transformed mind and heart. Matthew, as an effective communicator, dramatically contrasts eternal life with eternal death and surely had no idea that we'd take it so literally, morphing his words into the medieval notion of God as an eternal torturer. This view is clearly anti-Gospel. Even the conservative Pope John Paul II said that heaven and hell were not geographical places, but primarily states of consciousness--which are in themselves very real and lasting.[1] 

Perhaps upon reading passages such as Matthew 25 or the vengeful Psalms calling for God's wrath, we might do well to follow the Eastern Orthodox Saint Silouan's advice [2]:
"I remember a conversation between [Staretz Silouan] and a certain hermit, who declared with evident satisfaction, 'God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire.'
"Obviously upset, the Staretz said, 'Tell me, supposing you went to paradise, and there looked down and saw somebody burning in hell-fire--would you feel happy?'
"'It can't be helped. It would be their own fault,' said the hermit.   
"The Staretz answered him with a sorrowful countenance:
"'Love could not bear that,' he said. 'We must pray for all.'"

[1] Pope John Paul II, General Audience (June 28, 1999).
[2] Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Inner Kingdom, Vol. 1 of the Collected Works (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: 2004), 48.




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