"What we proclaim"

Doubting Saint Thomas, Béla Iványi-Grünwald

It took years to fully sink in, but eventually the absolutely gobsmacking realization hit them: When his students touched this peasant craftsman and teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, as they probably did thousands of time, they were touching a being who had lived forever. 

They were touching eternity.


If you listen closely, you can almost hear the awestruck wonder of it in the first words of the Apostle John's first letter...







This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched (concerning the word of life— and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).

1st Letter of John 2.1-2

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Severus of Antioch, monk, theologian, and Bishop of Antioch contemplates this...

"Given that this same John also said, “No one has ever seen God,” how can he assure us that the living Word of life has been seen and touched? It is clear that it was in his incarnate and human form that he was visible and touchable. What was not true of him by nature became true of him in that way, for he is one and the same indivisible Word, both visible and invisible, and without diminishing in either respect he became touchable in both his divine-human nature. For he worked his miracles in his divinity and suffered for us in his humanity."

Severus of Antioch (fl. 488–538).
Note: Yes, Severus held some odd views on how God and man came together in Christ, but his comments on John's letter are totally orthodox.

Catena in Epistolas Catholicas, 106
Oxford: Clarendon, 1840, J. A. Cramer, ed.

Christian Copyright

Cyprian of Carthage

It's really too bad that we didn't register 'Christian' and 'Christianity' as trademarks back in ancient Rome (actually, I don't think Rome had the concept yet). Christianity was a thing back then. In other words, Jesus of Nazareth taught certain specific things that he passed on to those who followed him, and told them to tell the world. And we know what those teachings were; they haven't been lost.  

In our time though almost any belief or teaching can be called -- and is called -- "christian" by those inclined to do so.This isn't a new phenomenon, though. Cyprian of Carthage grumbled about it just 200 years after Jesus' time, pointing out that it's rather important to get it right.

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How can a man say that he believes in Christ, who does not do what Christ commanded him to do? Or whence shall he attain to the reward of faith, who will not keep the faith of the commandment? He must of necessity waver and wander, and, caught away by a spirit of error, like dust which is shaken by the wind, be blown about; and he will make no advance in his walk towards salvation, because he does not keep the truth of the way of salvation.

Cyprian of Carthage (200 - 258)
“On the Unity of the Church,”

Bottom Line

Some people think Pope Francis is a marxist, socialist, radical for his idea of restructuring the global economy so that it revolves around human need rather than "the bottom line." This may be true, but he is in good company.

A girl in India

Courtesy of Varun Chatterji

Those who enact unjust policies are as good as dead,
those who are always instituting unfair regulations,
to keep the poor from getting fair treatment,
and to deprive the oppressed among my people of justice,
so they can steal what widows own,
and loot what belongs to orphans.
What will you do on judgment day,
when destruction arrives from a distant place?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?

(Book of the Prophet Isaiah 10.1 - 3, NET)

Real

Photo by Poojagupta21

If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, then he is a liar. Anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has never seen. He gave us a clear command, that all who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.

1st  Letter of John 4.20-21, Voice


Many people prefer to be "spiritual," not "religious," and given religion's reputation there is some justification for that. But there is a true religion. John, Jesus' best friend, says having an inner sense of being spiritual or connected with the infinite isn't quite enough. The authenticity of our relationship with God is tested and proven in the crucible of rugged, real life lived with our fellow humans. God, for all his virtues, is invisible most of the time. Love for an invisible God -- no matter how real inwardly -- can easily delude us, becoming a love for ourselves and an image of God we're comfortable with. Our love for God only becomes visible through our love for the people we meet.

There is a true religion, one that demonstrates its reality. Jesus' little brother once wrote,

Real, true religion from God the Father’s perspective is about caring for the orphans and widows who suffer needlessly and resisting the evil influence of the world.

Letter of James 1.27

"...Radically Unlimited Liberality..."

Karl Barth

Sixth Sunday of Lent

"Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God." 

First Letter of John chapter 4 verses 7 - 10

Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I am letting wise Christians speak on these subjects. This week we have the thoughts of the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth on Christian love.

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What we have here -- in Christian love -- is a movement in which a man turns away from himself. In the continuation love turns wholly to another, to one who is wholly different from the loving subject. Christian love turns to the other purely for the sake of the other. It does not desire it for itself. In Christian love the loving subject gives to the other, the object of love, that which it has, which is its own, which belongs to it. It does so with a radically unlimited liberality.

Karl Barth
Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4 Part 2, p. 733

"...We are not our own"

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Then Jesus said to his followers, “If any of you want to be my follower, you must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me

(Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 verse 24)


Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. Today our guest blogger will be John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who spells out in his pragmatic way what Jesus' challenge to "stop thinking about yourself" really means.

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This [scripture] implies:

1. A thorough conviction that we are not our own, that we are not the proprietors of ourselves or anything we enjoy, that we have no right to dispose of our goods, bodies, souls, or any of the actions or passions of them.

2. A solemn resolution to act suitably to this conviction: Not to live to ourselves, not to pursue our own desires, not to please ourselves, nor to suffer our own will to be any principle of action to us.

 John Wesley
Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week (Preface)

"...Less Rather Than More"

Third Sunday of Lent

"Then Jesus noticed that some of the guests were choosing the best places to sit. So he told this story: 'When someone invites you to a wedding, don't sit in the most important seat. They may have invited someone more important than you. And if you are sitting in the most important seat, they will come to you and say, 'Give this man your seat!' Then you will have to move down to the last place and be embarrassed. 

"'So when someone invites you, go sit in the seat that is not important. Then they will come to you and say, 'Friend, move up here to this better place!' What an honor this will be for you in front of all the other guests. Everyone who makes themselves important will be made humble. But everyone who makes themselves humble will be made important.'" 

(Gospel of Luke chapter 14 verse 7-11, ERV)

Lent is about humbling one's self and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I will let wise Christians speak on these subjects. Out guest blogger today is the well-known author Thomas a Kempis whose book The Imitation of Christ lags only behind the Bible itself in total sales..

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MY CHILD, I will teach you now the way of peace and true liberty. Seek, child, to do the will of others rather than your own. Always choose to have less rather than more. Look always for the last place and seek to be beneath all others. Always wish and pray that the will of God be fully carried out in you. Behold, such will enter into the realm of peace and rest.

Thomas a Kempis (c.1380 – July 25, 1471)

The Imitation of Christ Book 3, Chapter 23

"... the only remedy..."

Second Sunday of Lent

"Then Jesus called the crowd and his followers to him. He said, 'Any of you who want to be my follower must stop thinking about yourself and what you want. You must be willing to carry the cross that is given to you for following me.'"

(Gospel of Mark chapter 8 verse 34 ERV)

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Lent is about humbling one's self, turning from our sin, and taking on the nature of Christ. Each Sunday during this time I'm asking wise followers of Christ speak on these subjects. Last week we heard from King David. Today's guest blogger is François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, a French Archbishop from 300 years ago who has some excellent advice on achieving our goals during this season.

A sickly self-love, full of pity for itself, cannot be touched without screaming. Touch it with the end of your finger and it thinks itself flayed alive. Then add to this sensitiveness the roughness of other people, full of imperfections unknown to themselves, their disgust at our defects (at least as great as ours toward theirs), and you find all the children of Adam tormenting one another: Half of mankind made unhappy by the other half, and rendering them miserable in their turn. 

The only remedy is to come out of one's self in order to find peace. We must renounce ourselves and lose all self-interest that we may no longer have anything to lose, to fear, or to contrive. Then we shall enjoy the true peace reserved for "men of good will," that is for those who have no longer any will but God's, which becomes theirs. Then men will not be able to harm us, they can no longer attack us through our hopes or our fears. Then we are willing to accept everything, and we refuse nothing.

(Francois Fenelon, Spiritual Letters)