When St. Maximos was taken to trial, one of the accusations made against him was that he was an Origenist, an accusation which he absolutely denied: When they had been dismissed to their prison, Menas went to the old man and said in the presence of the officials, “God has struck you and brought you here in order for you to receive whatever you did to others, leading everyone into the doctrines of Origen.” To him the servant of God... Read more
God gives us freedom, and with that freedom, we can (and should) choose to work with God in building up the world, making it better. Where injustice resides, we should work for justice. Where charity is lacking, we must strive for charity. When we do this, we follow after Jesus, who, in the incarnation, gave himself completely to us in his love so that he could build up the world with that love, restoring to it the justice it had... Read more
Don’t spit on my food. That seems like a reasonable request, doesn’t it? Clearly, everyone will follow it, right? We don’t need government stepping in and telling cooks they can’t spit in people’s food, do we? People should be free. People should be able to live their lives without government interference. This seems like something everyone should agree with. No one wants people to spit in their food, and so people will not do it. Right? Of course, the answer... Read more
The love of money, avarice, is a root for all evil, for it takes us away from the foundation of what is good and just, that is, charity. The more we give into greed, the more we cut ourselves off from charity, and so the further we find ourselves from God. Without love, without charity, we are nothing. The love of money, avarice, is the root of all evil, for it takes us away from the foundation of what is... Read more
For the Christian, faith alone, if that is taken to mean belief alone, is imaginative fiction. How can one have faith in Jesus Christ and ignore what he said in the Gospels? Jesus told his followers what to do. Nowhere do we find him telling people to just believe in him and do nothing else. Rather, he tells them to sin no more and to be perfect like the heavenly Father, and if they question what that means, he gives... Read more
The feeding of the five thousand (which really, was more than five thousand, because the five thousand mentioned is only the number of men who were fed, while the women and children, like so often is the case, were left uncounted) indicates the way God works with us. He expects us to do our part; if we do, then he will complement our action with his bountiful grace: When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This... Read more
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the LORD” (Zech. 8:16-17 RSV). COVID19 has not gone away. The first attempt to put it in check failed because the President of the United States, and many of his followers, did... Read more
The tongue, James says, needs to be kept under control, “If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain” (Jas. 1:26 RSV). James’s point is that if we are uncharitable in our speech, if we undermine justice by our speech, we deceive ourselves in thinking we are being faithful to God. Without charity, without love, we have nothing (cf. 1 Cor. 13:1). This is true, not just... Read more
Sadly, one of the tendencies we have as a species is to take something which is good and taint it. We abuse the good as we employ it for some evil ends. This is not to say the good is entirely destroyed by our actions, but it is certainly reduced, as evil corrupts the good by destroying it. What is left of the good needs to be detached from the evil which is using it, but often, that is not... Read more
Who is Jesus Christ? As Christians learned, they might know in their hearts who Jesus is, but taking what they believe and know to be true and rendering it into words is easier said than done. Jesus is God and man. One of the great mysteries of the faith is how he can be both. If we emphasize one nature, the other reality is easily lost. If we try to bring them together, it is easy to confuse them, turning... Read more
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