Deep in the heart of a shallow cave, The very author of life was born. Beginning his journey to the grave, The small child did not cry or mourn. How can this great marvel be That the invisible Lord of all, Is one whom all can now see, In that babe so small? Behold the seed of death in birth, The seed of salvation amongst sin, and the seed of heaven found on earth. In that child, God is found... Read more
We must transcend ourselves. There are many ways in which we are to do this, but among them, we must stop all our attachments to our thoughts and opinions and the words which we use to express them. We must recognize that, even when they participate in the truth, they have a relative value and are when seen in comparison to the absolute truth. Thus, we must transcend ourselves by overcoming our adherence to our minds; when we cast aside... Read more
Matthew begins his Gospel indicating the relationship of Jesus with King David, and therefore, with Abraham: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1 RSV). Jesus is the seed of Abraham, the messiah of Israel, the savior of the world. Jesus’ human descent is important as it relates the preparatory process by which God worked with humanity to establish the God-man in history. Jesus, as the Word of God, is... Read more
St. Albert the Great, in his reflections upon the eucharist, saw in the story of Joseph in Egypt a symbolic or prophetic prefiguration of what Christ would offer to us in communion. Whereas Joseph, with wheat, was able to save many, including his family, from famine, Jesus is willing to save us all from the barrenness of spiritual famine: For the wheat that is sold in Egypt on Joseph’s authority saves them all from the barrenness of famine. This is... Read more
In the Mystical Theology, Dionysius taught us about our apprehension of the truth, reminding us not only of our limitations in regards to the declaration of the truth, but also that proper engagement of the truth will be had in and through our union with it. Central to his discussion is that the absolute truth, which we name as God (and many other, similar names, related to our notion of divinity), transcends us and so will never be comprehended by... Read more
In his exile, St. John Chrysostom wrote letters to his friend and companion, the deaconess St. Olympia, hoping to inspire her and encourage her in the midst of their common trials and tribulations. She had become despondent, not merely because she had been falsely accused of setting fire to the cathedral, but because it looked like her life’s work, to make the church better, was being destroyed. Chrysostom told her to be of good cheer, to see herself in the... Read more
Jesus, warning his listeners to be ever watchful, ever diligent, to preserve the spirit of the end in their lives, said that the days of the Son of Man, his days, the eschatological era which he set up, will be like the days of Noah: As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day when... Read more
“That’s what the truth teaches. Emotion has nothing to do with it. Who cares if you like it or not. You just have to accept the cold, hard facts. Don’t be a snowflake. Toughen up.” Such is the dark, ugly mentality of so many of us when we talk about the nature of the truth. There is, of course, some validity to such statements. The truth does not depend upon us and our emotional attachment to it – however, the... Read more
Kataphatic theology, when done right, offers up an approximation for the absolute truth by rendering the absolute truth in a conventional form. Due to its relative nature, there can be various levels of approximations which would adequately represent the absolute truth. Nicholas of Cusa, considering the infinite number of approximate representations are possible for the absolute truth gave the example of someone trying to turn a polygon into a circle by adding more and more sides to the polygon. Each... Read more
On the final Sunday of January, 2014, when Pope Francis, with the help of children, released two doves representing peace into the air, those two doves were immediately attacked by a hooded crow and a yellow legged gull. Pope Francis was continuing a tradition when he had children from war torn countries brought to the Vatican to release the doves with him. He wanted to show that despite the war and conflict going on, there is a reason for hope.... Read more
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