One of the worst forms of Christianity is Christian Nationalism. To follow its principles, Christians must deny many aspects of Scripture and the Christian tradition. It is a form of idolatry, as it idolizes nations, or particular races, perhaps even genders, viewing some as superior to all others, and in doing so, grant them more rights than everyone else. Those who are not of the favored class, whatever it is, are not only denied help when it is needed, they... Read more
The book of Jonah demonstrates the difference between human conceptions of justice and how it influences the way people believe God’s justice should be like with the way God actually acts and promotes justice. We tend to expect retributive not restorative justice, while God always acts for the greater good, helping to restore, with mercy and grace, the justice or goodness which humans have denied. This difference is played out with Jonah; he thought his purpose was merely to condemn... Read more
Christ is Born! Glorify Him! We can become so used to historical, or even, dogmatic facts, that we confuse their rote memorization and the acceptance of them as fact as the same thing as understanding them and believing all they imply. This has led us to lose sight of the questions which can arise, for we tend to reduce everything to the simplified fact, saying if you accept the fact, you accept the truth and all that we believe is... Read more
Before Christmas, the Byzantine tradition has us reflect upon all the holy men and women who came before Christ and consider how their lives helped shape the context in which Jesus, the incarnate God-man, was born. Likewise, it would have us look to his family line, to see how, throughout it, we find men and women whose engagement with God led to all kinds of graces being shared into the world, graces which were also accumulated in the family line... Read more
It is quite common for monastic communities, Christian or otherwise, to test strangers who want to join their community. They want to make sure any would-be monk would be able to follow the strict discipline expected by those within the community. There are many ways this test can be done. Sometimes, the would-be monk is insulted, with some reason or another given as to why they are not fit to join the community. This is done, not because they have... Read more
The modern ecumenical movement has brought about great insight into the Christian past as it has learned how often Christians became divided against each other, not because of any real, substantial dogmatic reasons, but because they failed to follow Christ’s expectation for them to be people who showed the world the way of love. Christ said the world should know they are Christians by their love; instead, animosity, distrust, and the pursuit of power and influence, led Christians to fight... Read more
While asceticism is meant to help spiritual seekers transcend normal, day to day, “worldly” experiences, it was and remains impossible for anyone, including the greatest ascetics, to live their lives completely independent from the world. Everyone will be affected by what happens in it. Everyone has basic needs which must be met, needs which include (but are not limited to): food, shelter, and clothing. No one can satisfy all their needs by themselves. We need each other, not only to... Read more
Christ came into the world to make it, and everyone in it, better. He does not do so through force, but through love. Just as God created an other, allowing the other to have freedom and self-determination, so in the recreation established by Christ, God continues to give us room to make choices for ourselves. Such freedom must not be misconstrued as being without boundaries or limitations, but within the domain which has been established for creation. We have been... Read more
After the Angelus on December 10th, Pope Francis spoke on the Seventy-Fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, at the time of its creation, promoted a new way of engaging the world, one in which human dignity and the rights which is accorded with it should be promoted and defended. Religious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, and freedom from undue want, are basic rights which should be granted to everyone. In the last seventy-five years,... Read more
We must not confuse what we have apprehended of the truth and turned into some sort of fact, even dogmatic fact, as being the same thing as the truth in itself. It is, at best, a conventional expression of the truth. We can designate it as a conventional, or relative, truth so long as its conventional status is kept in mind and that the absolute truth itself is understood as being something other than our apprehension. When someone equivocates between... Read more
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