God Reigns With Equity

March 1, 2024 By Henry Karlson

Petar Milošević: Pantocrator – Nativity Of The Theotokos Church, Bitola, North Macedonia / Wikimedia Commons

Each and every human person shares with each other the one and the same human nature; by nature, they are not only equal, they are meant to united together as one. Sin undermines that natural unity. It has humanity divide up against itself, turning persons into individuals who are no longer equal to each other, and the more they sin, the more such individuals will find themselves divided against each other, with some of them being obtaining more than their just and fair share of the goods meant to be shared by all humanity, with others obtaining far less, indeed, many not obtaining the basic necessities all humans need to survive. That is, many people suffer grievously so that those who have obtained more than their fair share of the goods of the earth can continue to possess them and enjoy them at their own leisure. Justice indicates that in such a situation, those who have more should give to those who do not have what they need so that such grave imbalances should be rectified. Justice, therefore, promotes equity, which is why, in the eschatological kingdom of God, where true justice is preserved, God reigns in and with equity: “Your divine throne endures for ever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity” (Ps. 45:6 RSV).

We should learn from God’s reign, embracing the dictates of equity, seeing it is the fruit of divine wisdom, the wisdom which we should act upon ourselves:

For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul (Prov. 2:6-10 RSV).

Inequity denies justice, and when justice is denied, what transcends justice, charity, will also be denied. Christians should not be critical of the expectations of equity; indeed, they should embrace it, for if they do so, they show their love for Christ, the Bridegroom: “Therefore, because the height of perfection consists in charity, and charity allows nothing of iniquity—and where there is no iniquity, there surely is equity—it is rightly said to be Equity that loves the Bridegroom.”[1]

The Christian tradition consistently tells us to promote equity. Indeed, to resist equity is to support its opposite, inequity, which is sin, and with it, the harm which sin causes in the world (dividing up and destroying humanity instead of building it up and bringing it together as one). We should defend the rights of anyone, including ourselves, when we discern some grave injustice, some grave inequity, in the world:

It is sufficient for such a merely formal equity that each man defends his rights. But if I defend only my own it shows that I am not concerned for the rights as such but only because they are mine: that is, I am defending myself, my own interests. And if everyone stands up only for himself and what is his, common rights and social equity are nothing more than an abstract notion, justice becomes simply the theoretical balance of various, particular forces. Now in fact our idea of justice goes beyond this abstraction; we have a lively moral perception of it which radically modifies the principle and quality of our actions; it causes us to defend the person and rights of others as well as of ourself. And then it becomes clear that right and equity are in themselves worth something to us. [2]

This is why we are given the example of the Good Samaritan. By showing us what we should be like with our neighbor, Jesus tells us the practical expectations love places upon us:

This charity, however, reckons all men as neighbours. For on that account the Saviour rebuked someone, who thought that the obligation to behave neighbourly did not apply to a righteous soul in regard to one who was sunk in wickedness; and for that same reason He made up the parable that tells how a certain man fell among robbers, as he was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and blames the priest and the Levite, who passed by when they saw the man half-dead, but approves the Samaritan who showed mercy. [3]

We must find those who are poor, those who suffer hatred, those have been unjustly pushed down, and work to bring them relief. We must undermine the systemic structure of sin, and the systems which put it in place (i.e., systematic structures of sin), realizing such systems are all founded upon and seek to preserve inequity in the world. Certainly, we must realize that things will not be perfect in the world, that we cannot produce a utopia, that only in the eschaton, will equity be fully realized (and transcended). But, on the other hand, our work for equity will be taken up by God and used in the establishment of the eschaton, which is why such work, even if it is not perfected in our lifetime, is important:

The things that you refer to as works of piety and mercy are necessary in this age, as long as iniquity continues to dominate. Their practice would not be called for even here were there not an overwhelming number of poor, needy, and sick people, which is the result of the wickedness of men who have seized for their own use – but not used – those things that were bestowed upon all by the Creator of all. As long as such iniquity is rampant in this world, then, this behavior will be necessary and beneficial to the one who practices it, crowning a good disposition and a pious will with the reward of an eternal legacy. But this will cease in the world to come, where equity will rule and when there will no longer exist the inequity that made these things obligatory. Then everyone will pass over from this multiform or practical activity to the contemplation of divine things in perpetual purity of heart. [4]

We must not use the fact that only in the eschaton will God’s equitable reign be realized as an excuse to ignore our work for justice. That is, we should not embrace some sort of quietist error thinking we should abandon the world and all that is in it, engaging our own personal holiness while letting inequity thrive:

In view of this one should consider whether they act justly who, removing themselves from all occupations and devoting themselves to spiritual pursuits, do nothing for human society, and, preferring their own desires to the advantage of all, disregard the common good by choosing a welcome freedom. For, to be unwilling to help the afflicted when you can, to wish to enjoy restful quiet without regard for the common good is surely not equity. Those who respect this equity of all life for the good of all and, as though born for another, guard and love one another’s salvation. [5]

To be sure, there are many ways we can go about working for justice, promoting the welfare of the dispossessed. Some of us will do so through a more contemplative form of life, but it is important to recognize, against quietism, that even those called to contemplation must not engage it selfishly, thinking only about ourselves and our own contemplative work. Traditionally, contemplatives have been involved in all kinds of labor while embracing a life of contemplation, and in and with that labor, they have been found doing work which helps promotes justice in the world. This is why many contemplative resources remind contemplatives not to ignore the needs of those who come to them for help, but to offer them hospitality, and to speak on their behalf if the situation requires it.

Christians, therefore, must embrace equity, recognizing its role in executing justice in the world. They should understand, as Scripture points out, God reigns with equity, and so to reject equity, is to reject God’s reign, that is, to go against God and so embrace sin.

[1] Origen, “The Song of Songs: Commentary” in Origen: The Song of Songs, Commentary And Homilies. Trans. R.P. Lawson (New York: Newman Press, 1956), 89.

[2] Vladimir Solovyey, God, Man & The Church. The Spiritual Foundations Of Life. Trans. Donald Attwater (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), 38.

[3] Origen, “The Song of Songs: Commentary,” 33-4.

[4] John Cassian, The Conferences. Trans. Boniface Ramsey, OP (New York: Newman Press, 1997), 49 [First Conference;; Abba Moses].

[5] Julianus Pomerius, The Contemplative Life. Trans. Mary Josephine Suelzer, PhD (Westminster, MD: The Newman Bookshop, 1947), 155-6.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

Often, Christians Are The Ones Who Undermine Human Rights

February 28, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

badlyricpolice from Portland: Human Rights / Wikimedia Commons

The state should protect the common good, and with it, human rights, including the rights of those who are not citizens of the state. Human rights are universal, meaning, they transcend borders. This was, in part, one of the ideas which the founders of the United States employed to justify their independence from Great Britain; they believed that their rights had be violated, and to protect them, they had to cut ties from England. While it is good to see the notion of human rights beginning to be established at the foundation of the United States, sadly, many of those who talked about such rights ignored them when it came to others, such as slaves or Native Americans. They believed in universal rights, but they believed they were not given to everyone; that is, those who have them, have them without restriction, while those who do not, can be restricted in all kinds of ways. This continues to be an ideological position many hold today. They think they have rights which cannot be rejected, but they can and do reject the rights of others. We can see this in the way some talk about the right to own and use arms, a right which many find questionable; they think nothing can and should stop them from owning guns or their right to use it if they ever believe they need to (even if the need is not there), while they are among the first to deny the rights of people to migrate and seek a place of refuge for themselves and their families. This is why it is important, when talking about rights, it must be made clear not only what those rights are, but who has them. We cannot assume that everyone believes rights are universal, applicable to everyone, even if they say words which suggest they believe in universal human rights, because they often can and do find ways to undermine those rights for others, like the Founding Fathers of the United States did when they upheld slavery or thought many rights, like the right to vote, was related to the possession of property and not human dignity.

While the question of how those rights are made known, and even, the question of what makes something a right, is not to be ignored, we must not assume that if people agree on the source(s) for human rights, they agree on what those rights are, or even for whom they apply. White Supremacists can and often do say rights are God-given, but they will say that God has made them superior, so they alone possess all rights, and everyone else has less or no rights, depending up various qualifications (such as the purity of their racial makeup). Atheists, on the other hand, can have a logical rational which they use to explain why people should be given rights, and in all practical purposes, promote the common good, making them morally superior to White Supremacists who believe God made them superior and to be in control. This is why, in civil society, the question of the source of human rights, while important, often can get in the way of promoting human rights. Christians, dealing with the question, should not assume atheists will lead to their dissolution even as they should not assume belief in God will lead to the promotion of the dignity of all human persons and the rights that dignity should entail.

We should not get sidetracked and stuck in and with philosophical and theological questions when practical concerns are at stake. Jesus, in his parable of the Good Samaritan, as well as in his presentation of the Last Judgment, demonstrated this point: in both situations, what is important is not the religious faith of the person, but the deeds they do. The Good Samaritan represented how we should be in the world, and, to Jesus’ audience, it would have been understood that though the Samaritan was fundamentally wrong in his beliefs, he was shown to be in the right in his actions, demonstrating such beliefs are not necessary for someone to follow the basic principles God wants us to engage. With the Last Judgment, it was not one’s religious adherence, but what one does, which will be judged, and those who live a life of charity will be shown to be working with and for Jesus, even if they did not know it.

Christians need to work with all those who promote human dignity and use that to understand universal rights, and contend against those who would limit those rights and abuse them, turning them to be a thing accorded to a privileged few (like seen coming from White Supremacy), especially if those few believe among those rights are their own domination and power over everyone else (i.e., some sort of manifest destiny). Christians need to make sure everyone, including non-Christians, including people who are not citizens of the country they find themselves in, are shown basic human dignity so that their rights are not violated. Sadly, with the rise of a new Christian Nationalism, Christians often are the ones who stand in the way of the realization of those rights.

Marsilio Ficino, in talking about laws, can also be used to represent the ways in which rights are understood and preserved:

Human laws are accepted from the outset or, once accepted, are kept in being in these ways only: through arguments from common custom based on human and natural principles; through some dictatorial authority or the force of arms; or through ease and convenience of living and the allurements of pleasure. [1]

Christians should understand that non-Christians can and will often accept all kinds of natural principles (philosophical reasonings) to support human rights and their promotion. Of course, like with many Christians, many non-Christians will promote human rights for selfish reasons, seeing that their own personal welfare is protected by the acceptance of such rights, and so will give them to others so that they can have them as well. Sadly, it seems many Christians have abandoned natural principles and instead come to promote the notion that might makes right, and this can be used as one explanation for the rise of Christian Nationalism, as they are being told their might has been given to them by God, and it gives them the right to enforce their ideologies, and anyone who stands in their way, can be and should be seen as so dangerous, whatever human rights they might have had, are to be ignored.

Vatican II should have helped pave the way for Catholics to look for and take practical concerns seriously, instead of circling back to some apologetical point for Christian integralism (and therefore, Christian Nationalism). Catholics, indeed, Christians can and should recognize they have disagreements with non-Christians on various fundamentals, but they can and will agree on other fundamentals, allowing them to promote the common good together. Christians should not even be afraid of atheists who do not believe that rights are God-given because atheists can and still will follow the basic principles which Christians believe should be used to determine them and their applicability (principles which Christian can believe are instilled in each and every person, believer or non-believer alike, which is why they can and will come to have such agreements):

While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue. Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some state authorities make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice to the fundamental rights of the human person. The Church calls for the active liberty of believers to build up in this world God’s temple too. She courteously invites atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an open mind.[2]

Vatican II gives examples of the rights which people, from different backgrounds, and religious faiths have come to accept:

At the same time, however, there is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to activity in accord with the upright norm of one’s own conscience, to protection of privacy and rightful freedom even in matters religious.[3]

Many of these rights are being routinely being denied by nationalists, Christian or otherwise, in the United States to those who are not citizens of the United States. Once the rights are denied, then even helping migrants can become illegal, which is what we see happening in various states, like Texas, where Christian charities are being sued because they are giving basic necessities to migrants. Sadly, it is often those who proclaim themselves Christian, if not also a Christian Nationalists, who are undermining basic human rights, all the while proclaiming human rights are given by God, leading to the question if they actually think those they deny such rights to are actually human (and, to be clear, this is not a made-up concern, as history shows many Christians have questioned the humanity of various other humans).

Human rights are important. Human dignity is important. Human rights flow from human dignity. Secular society can and will promote human dignity, but it will not require everyone to agree as to the source and foundation of that dignity. It is more important to work with that dignity and promote it than it is to theorize on it, even as, Jesus said in the parable of the Last Judgment, it is those who did the work of love whom God knows, not those who claimed to follow God in thoughts and words by acted against the principles of love. Christian tradition has long recognized that human rights are indeed God-given, but it has also recognized non-Christians will also accept those rights, in various way, but especially in the way God has formed the conscience in every human person, so that they can and do have a good foundation they use to promote universal human rights. What is important for society is not the epistemological, ontological, or theological grounds for human rights, but results. Those who act out of love and promote human dignity, no matter their background, should work together, even as those who undermine such dignity should be resisted, no matter their religious faith. For, as Walter Kasper has said, those who work for the good of each other will come in solidarity, promoting justice in the world, a justice which expects everyone to respect each other:

Freedom that is conscious of its own dignity will always respect the freedom of others. It will be in solidarity with their freedom, and will stand up for it. Freedom, therefore, is not “freedom from others,” but “freedom with and for” others. Freedom is realized in justice, which gives everyone his or her due. Freedom concretely presupposes that everyone else will respect their own freedom. It presupposes thereby a system of justice, that is, at the same time, a regulated system of freedom. [4]

This is exactly what the promotion of human rights and dignity entails: freedom, true freedom for all, not just for some, as exemplified by the work for justice in the world, a justice which cannot be established if people are trying to find ways to fight each other instead of unite and work together for the common good.

[1] Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Volume 4 (Liber v). trans. by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1988), 3 [Letter 1: To His Friends].

[2] Guadium et spes. Vatican translation. ¶20.

[3] Guadium et spes, ¶26.

[4] Walter Kasper, Mercy. Trans. William Madges (New York: Paulist Press, 2013), 200-1.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Sin, Mercy, Grace, And Reparations

February 21, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Lawrence OP: The New Adam Raises The Old Adam. Detail Of A Window In King’s College Chapel, Cambridge / flickr

Christianity is a religion of mercy and grace, but such mercy and grace would be worthless if it were not also a religion of truth and justice. The truth matters. Justice matters. Mercy and grace only make sense if we recognize that satisfaction must be made for injustices. Neither would be needed if we are not to be held responsible for what we do, that is, for our sin. Both are necessary once we understand the harm we have done goes beyond what we can fix all by ourselves. We would be stuck, without a way out, without hope for things to be better, if we could not receive mercy and grace. Mercy and grace are offered as ways to help us deal with the consequences of injustices, to make sure that all the harm we have caused does not get the last say.

What we should realize is that when we receive mercy and grace we are still expected to repent and change our ways, that is, to reform ourselves. Grace is not being given so that people can continue doing whatever evil they did in the past with the presumption that grace will take care of all their problems. Grace is not cheap. We have been warned that we will have to deal with the harm we done to others, or to the world as a whole: “Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny” (Matt. 5:25-26 RSV). The accuser will be those who we have wronged; the judge is the just judge, Jesus, whom we will encounter in the last judgment, and who will make sure we will deal with all our sins:

But if someone does not obey the unspoken will of the Holy Spirit and shows himself to be resistant, doubtless a man of this sort, after his departure from this life, must be offered to the Son of God, who is judge of the living and the dead, by whom he is handed over to that officer, that is, to the angel of torments, to be thrown into the prison of Gehenna. From there he will not be released until he pays back even the last penny, that is, discharges the entire penalty of the debt down to the last sin. [1]

We are offered grace so that through it, we can turn our lives around, and after doing so, have the means to fix what we have damaged in the world. Grace perfects nature; what lies beyond our ability to repair can be accomplished by grace, but if we neglect what we can do by ourselves, we will find grace remains inactive. This is why we can’t treat grace as the solution to everything and think we have nothing to do ourselves. We have been told differently. We have been told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (cf. Philip. 2:12). We will have to pay back the last penny.

All of this is true, not only for each and one of us on a personal level, but for humanity as a collective whole. Injustices in the past, such as slavery, must be rectified, not just by the cessation of the evil activity, but by overturning the harm it has caused. Sin has a social dimension to it, and so it requires social solutions. Just as there is to be no cheap grace in regards personal sins, there is no cheap grace in relation to social sins. Mercy and grace can be and should still be involved in the equation, but they should not be used to ignore our own responsibilities.

Christianity, in its understanding of the fall of humanity, demonstrates the social impact of sin and how it can and will affect later generations. Original sin is, as it were, the spiritual climate change which affects the human race. We are born into a world conditioned by the sins of the past. Original sin should not be seen as coming from a one-time event; rather, it is a reflection of humanity and the fall of humanity and the sins of humanity as they collectively affect human history.

Social sin, and the responsibility connected to it, will be with us til the end of the world, whereupon it will receive judgment by Christ:

But we are wretched sinners, yes, and our putrid works follow after us as well. These works are indelibly written in the book of fates [cf. Rev. 20:13], yet their impact extends beyond the borders of this human life. They enter into the fates of all human beings, in the history of all humanity, and upon each one of us hangs the fate of the entire world. We must pull back neither from participation nor from responsibility, and until the end of human history our works will endure. For this reason the Dread Judgment will occur simultaneously over all humanity, and each has lived the life of all humanity, each of the sons of Adam is the entire, ancient Adam. [2]

Trying to ignore social responsibility to sin, trying to say some evil done in the past is not our present responsibility is based upon a false understanding of humanity and human history. It tries to have every person turned into an individual cut off from everyone else, no longer influenced by or affected by each other. It falls for the error of sin itself, for sin tries to break down what should be united. We are not meant to be an island cut off from everyone else. We are meant to join be one, sharing with each other all that we are.

Christianity teaches us we are all interconnected, and we all bear responsibility for our collective sins, including those done before us, a collective sin represented as “The Old Adam,” while the transcendence we are to find ourselves drawn to is that found in “The New Adam” Jesus Christ, where we find ourselves one with Jesus, working with him to repair the harm done by the “Old Adam”:

With the incarnation of the divine Logos in the person of Jesus Christ came the “spiritual man,” the second Adam. By the “natural man,” the first Adam, is not to be understood only one particular person among others but a personality synthesizing the whole of mankind according to nature, and the second Adam likewise is not only this individual but at the same time a universal being who sums up in himself the whole of reborn mankind; Christ is the spiritual centre of a universal organism in the real of eternal divine existence. [3]

Only by accepting our responsibility will we be able to move forward. Only by joining in with the work of Christ can grace come to its fulfillment and establish true, perfect justice within us. But if we resist, if we try to say Jesus does everything and we are to do nothing, if we try to be hedonistic quietists who think the only thing we need to do is accept grace and it will take care of us, we have not yet fully embraced the New Adam, meaning, we are still within the Old Adam, bearing all the responsibility of collective human sin.

This is why it is very anti-Christians to ignore communal sin. It ignores the way humanity is presented in Scripture, either in relation to sin and its shared inheritance of sin in Adam, or in the way of humanity is to come together in the New Adam and through him, find salvation. If we join in with Christ, then we will work with Christ to fix the harm that we have caused due to sin. This is why Paul talks about sharing in the sufferings of Christ:

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Cor. 1:5-7 RSV):

Paul recognized he had a role to play, a role which he had in relation to his unity with Christ, a role which likewise we are all called to have, one which looks for and works for the benefit of all as a part of the Christian way of life. Ignoring this, looking out for ourselves at the expense of others, only show us how much we remain attached to the Old Adam. The more we are drawn into Christ, the more we are drawn beyond the Old Adam, the more we will look for injustices which have been neglected, or have not sufficiently been dealt with, and engage them, realizing that is what is expected of us. We are to do far more than simply stop sinning, we are to embrace the way of love and the virtue it brings, a way which will have us, like Christ, seek to repair the harm sin has done to the world. If we are not willing to make amends, if we try to deny reparations for the sins which have yet to be satisfied, personally or collectively, we have not truly cut ourselves from sin, and so risk, through our attachment, experiencing what will happen at the condemnation of sin in the last judgment, because we will have tied ourselves not to justice, but to sin itself.

[1] St. Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermons and Tractates on Matthew. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck (New York: Newman Press, 2018), 199 [Tractate 22].

[2] Sergius Bulgakov. Spiritual Diary. Trans. Mark Roosien and Roberto J. De La Noval (Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2022), 149-50 [10/23.V.1925].

[3] Vladimir Solovyey, God, Man & The Church. The Spiritual Foundations Of Life. Trans. Donald Attwater (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 2016), 68.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Hating Hate

February 20, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Christ teaches that humanity is called to be one, to share with each other their hopes and fears, their triumphs and troubles (cf. Jn. 17:21). Sin has divided us up, warring against each other with hate, while Christ, overcoming sin, works to bring us back together and realize our essential unity in and through love. When we resist this, we resist Christ, and so fall back into the pattern of hate and sin. This is why, throughout our lives, we must not only be reminded that Christ told us to love our neighbor, but also, we should keep in mind the example he gave of that love (the Good Samaritan). For, by listening to Christ and what he says about how we should treat our neighbor, we are given the exhortation we need to keep ourselves focused and stay on the path of salvation all the way to the end (where we find ourselves truly united with everyone and God in a great and glorious bond of love). When we seek to overcome both the temptation for sin, and the harm which sin has already caused us, we must never forget that he told us we should take care of and love our neighbor and that our salvation is found in our adhering to that love. When we are selfish and promote our own private good at the expense of our neighbor, giving ourselves excuse after excuse to do so, we fall back into sin, and risk finding ourselves bound to what happens to all that is connected with sin in the eschaton (that is, thrown into the lake of fire).

The struggle against sin must be a struggle against unlove; to purify ourselves from the stain of sin, we must purify ourselves from all selfishness and realize what it means to become one with everyone. Asceticism, therefore, is not to be seen as some sort of selfish abandonment of the world for the sake of personal spiritual gain. If an ascetic approached asceticism in such a manner, they might be able to do many remarkable things, things which will make them look very pious on the outside, but their discipline will fall very short from what God wants from them. This is why it was important for many spiritual elders to remind monks and nuns their duties to their neighbors:

The elders used to say that each one ought to assume responsibility for his neighbour’s situation; to suffer with him in everything, to rejoice and to weep with him. One should have the same sentiments as though wearing the same body and be afflicted as though one suffered affliction oneself, as it is written: “We are a single body in Christ” [Rom 12:5] and “The multitude of believers had but one heart and a single soul” [Acts 4:32].[1]

This is true, not just for monks and nuns, but for everyone. Our spiritual discipline will be deficient if we ignore our neighbor. We will not build ourselves up right because we will not be united with others, with the whole body of Christ. Often, spiritual elders remind us of this truth with paradoxical conventions. We must embrace love, not hate, but in a way, that can mean, we must hate hate, that is, we must hate sin:

One of the fathers said: “Unless you hate, you cannot love. If you hate sin, you do what is righteous, as it is written: ‘Turn away from evil and do the thing that is good’ [Ps 36:27]. But in all these things it is the intention that is required everywhere. Adam transgressed the commandment of God while he was in Paradise, while Job, sitting on the dunghill, maintained self-control. God only requires a good intention in a man and that he be ever in fear of him.”[2]

To understand paradoxes, we must look to and discern what it is they intend us not only to learn, but to do. The intention behind hating sin is to turn away from all sin, to turn away from the path of sin, the path of unlove, and therefore, to turn away from hate itself. The elder said we should hate sin to indicate that sin is something we should completely reject from the fullness of our being. The elder is using hate to fight against itself, to use hate to self-destruction, so that in the end, when we hate hate, we destroy hate, leaving only love in the aftermath (similar to the way Christ embraces death to destroy death from within). And, once we understand this, we can understand other similar paradoxes, such as the notion we should never tolerate intolerance. The key is the intention behind the words. The paradox comes from the apparent self-contradiction involved in what was said, and yet, that apparent self-contradiction is the point: we are expected to think and ponder, to look beyond mere words and grasp the greater truth which transcends them, to see how that greater truth will always be beyond what could be said.

When we are told to fear God, we must not allow such words make us think of God as some sort of powerful overlord who seeks every excuse to punish us, but rather, we should think of such fear to be the kind of fear people have when they are in awe of someone, when they love them and do not want to disappoint them because of that love. It is, in this way, another way to talk about the great, transcendent love we should have for God, but if we take words simply, if we have not broken through conventions by paradoxical riddles, we will likely misapply what is intended here.

We should approach the world in and through the lens of love, we should approach God in and through the lens of love, and therefore, we should approach spiritual wisdom with that lens, using it to help is interpret such wisdom and the paradoxes which are found in and with it. Love can and will embrace a kind of fear, the fear of disappointing the beloved, or, when talking about our relationship with our neighbor, it is the fear we have of causing them needless suffering. It will inform our intention, and will make us act accordingly, sometimes, doing things which will surprise others, such as when a monk is said to have sold off a copy of the Gospel so that the poor can be fed:

An elder said that one of the bothers possessed only a Gospel. This he sold and gave the proceeds to feed the poor, making this memorable statement: “I have sold the verse itself which says: ‘Sell what you have and give to the poor’ [Mt 19:21].”[3]

The monk saw the irony involved in the situation, but also, he saw how he executed it and in this way, he lived out the Gospel, even, perhaps, can be said to have truly acquired it, which is much more important than merely possessing a book, reading it, and not doing what is said in it. Let his understanding here inspire us as we consider what love should have us do for our neighbor. Let us hate hate so that we can truly have that love, and have it as the foundation of all that we should do.

[1] John Wortley, trans., The Anonymous Sayings Of The Desert Fathers: A Select Edition And Complete English Translation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 249 [N389/18.44].

[2] John Wortley, trans., The Anonymous Sayings Of The Desert Fathers: A Select Edition And Complete English Translation, 245[N378/11.125].

[3] John Wortley, trans., The Anonymous Sayings Of The Desert Fathers: A Select Edition And Complete English Translation, 251 [N392/6,6].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

We Must Reject Putin and Trump’s False Peace

February 14, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Kremlin.ru: Putin and Trump / Wikimedia Commons

Christians are called to work for and promote peace, for Christ is the Prince of Peace (cf. Isa. 9:6). True peace is established in and through the elimination of every evil so that we can then find ourselves advancing towards the greatest good. This is why, as St. Albert the Great explained, it is established by Christ: “To the next, one must reply that peace consists in the removal of evil, and this is caused by the Passion. And there is peace in advancing toward the God who glorifies, and this is caused by the Resurrection.”[1] The full realization of this will be experienced in the eschatological kingdom of God, where, indeed, every evil will have been rejected, and all the harm which it has caused has been healed. Christians can and should experience a part of that kingdom now, to realize not only that they have a share in it, but they that have a role promoting its realization. They are to do this by acting on their experience and using it as they act in history, working, as much as they can, to have eschatological peace realized in history itself. Certainly, they should know that there will be no lasting, perfect peace, no utopia, until the end of time, which is why they should not embrace some false peace trying to make it as if it were something other than it is. Nonetheless, having such an understanding of history, they should not use it to excuse themselves from their duty; rather, it should serve as the basis by which they continue to work for peace in every generation, even as they should be working for and promoting the needs of the poor until the end of the world.

To promote peace, Christians must promote what brings it about, truth and justice. They must not confuse the lack of temporal conflict with peace, especially since such lack of conflict often comes through appeasement with evil, allowing evil to thrive and do whatever it wants. We cannot sacrifice justice for the sake of a false peace. We cannot help warmongers build up their power and resources, calling the lull between conflicts, a time of peace, when it is clear, with the build up to war, and the injustices committed by such warmongers, evil thrives. There can be and will be many ways to resist evil, to resist warmongers, and each must be done in relation to the circumstances at hand. If they can be weakened and contained, and the people they would hurt, given help, so that the warmonger can be taken out without bloodshed, and replaced by someone who will help heal the damage they have done, we should support and promote that. But if they are gaining strength, if they are actively involved in conflicts, if not outright wars, all geared for their own private benefit, hurting and killing countless numbers of people in the process, all while threatening to do even more if they are not stopped, doing nothing, cannot be seen as working for peace. For, the result of such inactivity will be more, and worse war, with more death and destruction which could have been and should have been prevented. This is why calling such inaction peace is a lie, and it is the kind of lie which God, in Scripture, spoke against, when false prophets were encouraging a similar kind of false peace:

My hand will be against the prophets who see delusive visions and who give lying divinations; they shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD. Because, yea, because they have misled my people, saying, `Peace,’ when there is no peace; and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets daub it with whitewash; say to those who daub it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, great hailstones will fall, and a stormy wind break out; (Ezek. 13:9-11 RSV).

Micah, similarly says:

Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin (Micah. 3:5-8 RSV).

In Jeremiah, we find some of the false prophets promoting a false peace by saying it will help bring healing to the world, but in actuality, as the perquisites for peace are denied, so there will be no peace, and no lasting healing: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, `Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11 RSV).

This is why we must be careful when we hear people speak about how things were peaceful during Trump’s administration. Such a claim is based upon a lie. Not only did Trump circumvent the justice needed for peace, conflicts continued to exist in the world, including ones which the United States took part. Similarly, this is why we must reject as utterly ridiculous the claim that if Russia is allowed to take over Ukraine, that is, if Ukraine is made to surrender, there would be peace. Russia is not only interested in Ukraine, but in the building up of a great empire, and that will require it to invade many more countries in the future. Trump, in his constant appeasement and support of Putin, helped Putin’s war efforts, giving Russia the time it needed to prepare to invade Ukraine. Getting ready to invade other countries is far from peaceful, which is why the time in which such preparation is going on is not a time of peace. And now, Trump has made it clear, if he were president, he would be encouraging Putin’s war efforts, not only approving his takeover of Ukraine, but outright invasion of other countries, including those in NATO, as Tom Nichols reported in The Atlantic:

Trump issued this unhinged threat while telling one of his “sir” stories, a rhetorical device in which some unnamed interlocutor shows Trump great deference while humbly seeking his advice. He described a meeting, ostensibly when he was in office, in which he responded to an ally about NATO funding.

One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, “Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?” I said, “You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?” He said, “Yes, let’s say that happened.” “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.”[2]

Trump is not interested in peace. He is not interested in protecting the allies of the United States, allies who helped the United States when the United States was attacked on 9-11. He is interested in protecting and supporting Putin, using whatever excuse he can muster to justify his support. This led him to give the insane statement which reads as if he wanted to turn NATO into a protection racket where, if he does not get what he wants from them, he will encourage Russia to invade them and do what it wants with them. Putin, likewise, gave up the game when talking to Tucker Carlson by saying he was justified for invading Ukraine similar to the way he deemed Hitler was justified in invading Poland. It led Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski to denounce Putin, as Aila Slisco indicated in Newsweek:

During Putin’s controversial interview with conservative U.S. pundit Tucker Carlson, which was released online Thursday, the Russian president argued that Poland was to blame for Hitler’s decision to invade, claiming the Warsaw “went too far” by balking at the annexation of part of its territory.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski suggested in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday that Putin was “paranoid” and called it “shocking” that Carlson “enabled” the Russian president by giving him a platform to spread his false claims and rhetoric.

Sikorski said that it was “not the first time” that “dictator” Putin had made the claim about World War II, while also noting that Hitler was joined in invading Poland by the Soviet Union, which was an ally to Nazi Germany for nearly the first two years of the war.[3]

It is clear, Putin was trying to represent himself as a man of peace forced into action, hoping to have Tucker Carlson’s listeners take in and accept the propaganda he was offering. It is clear, moreover, that he knows many of them are ready to believe it, as many Republicans have made it clear, they think Putin should be appeased instead of resisted. They want to create a picture of Putin which ignores what he has said and done. They want us to ignore his clear indication that he plans to takeover of many independent countries. Like Hitler, it seems, he thinks he can fool people in thinking those he invades are the ones at fault. His response is the same as that of a bully, and bullies blame their victims, telling them, “You made me do it.” This is who Trump wants to back and support. Putin does not intend to stop his war effort, but rather, hopes he can have Ukraine surrender so he can start his next invasion. There will be no peace if Ukraine surrenders; there will be a slaughter in the Ukraine, as Putin will punish those who resisted him, and there will be more, and worse wars, wars which Trump has made it clear that he will support and encourage. And, while it might appear far-fetched, Russian television, which is often used to seed ideas and prepare Russians for Putin’s future efforts, have suggested America is also a target in those future invasions, with not only Alaska, but California being on Russia’s radar, as Aleks Phillips explained in Newsweek:

According to a translation by Anton Gerashchenko, a former Ukrainian internal affairs minister, in a television program on Monday evening, Tigran Keosayan—who is married to state broadcaster Russia Today’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan—said during a discussion of the issue: “By the way, part of the California coastline was once Russian too. Yes. Are we going to get it?”[4]

Christians must promote peace, but to do that, they must promote a true peace, one founded upon justice and mercy. Settling for injustice, giving in to warmongers, letting warmongers take what they want and do whatever they want to the people they conquer without resistance, does nothing to establish true peace. It only promotes its false simulacra, one which leads to great devastation in the world. Proclaiming those who promote injustice and terror, or those who would turn peace into a protection racket, as peacemakers are doing the same thing as the false prophets God denounced did in pre-Christian times. They are promoting peace by appeasement, and have no problems with the injustices such appeasement brings. What comes next, as what came next in times of old, will demonstrate the falsehood of such peace, as multitudes will be sacrificed in order to have the illusion of a lack of conflict in the world. Neither Putin nor Trump represents peace, even if they claim do to so, for, they represent the kind of person Ficino wrote about: “Secondly, they look forward to being masters, and men of peace, only when they are engaged in controlling great numbers of men and events.” [5] The peace they want is the peace of the iron rod, the peace in which their every whim is fulfilled by the people; they promise they will bring peace, but they only promise it, again, if people abandon justice and are willing to sacrifice the greater good, and countless people, to bring it about. Whatever the people receive for such a sacrifice will be short lived, as the one they tried to appease will not find themselves satisfied for long, and then, they will make new demands and use them to justify whatever actions they choose to take to get what they want. This is exactly what Putin has already done with Ukraine – he breached the peace because he did not get what he wanted, though the peace was not really there, as he was working up and establishing the means by which he could begin his invasion. Giving up Ukraine now will not stop him. It will embolden him. Right now, he can be stopped. But if the United States puts into power someone who will support and help him in his war efforts, that might no longer be the case.

[1] St. Albert the Great, On Resurrection. Trans. Irven M. Resnick and Franklin T. Harkins (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2020), 138.

[2] Tom Nichols, “Trump Encourages Putin To Attack NATO Members” in The Atlantic (2-10-2024).

[3] Aila Slisco, “Poland Angrily Responds to Putin’s Claims About Hitler and World War II” in Newsweek (2-9-2024).

[4] Aleks Phillips, “Russian TV Eyes California After Alaska Claim” in Newsweek (1-30-2024).

[5] Marsilio Ficino, The Letters of Marsilio Ficino. Volume 5 (Liber VI). trans. by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1994), 57 [Letter 36: To Francesco Soderini].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Engaging St. Moses The Black’s Instructions

February 13, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Fundación La Buena Noticia: St Moses The Ethiopian/ Wikimedia Commons

St. Moses the Ethopian, once he escaped all forms of slavery which afflicted him, the first being that which was imposed upon him from outside himself, the second, the one which he imposed upon himself through giving in to inordinate desires, he was able to become one of the greatest, one of the most profound, monks of his era. He learned more than enough discipline through the harsh, abusive treatment which he received as a slave, but once he was no longer a slave, he became a robber, one who was not so concerned about such discipline, as he let his worst passions control him and lead him astray. But he found that the life as robber was difficult, and he got himself in trouble, which is why he fled from authorities and hid at a monastery; it was there, he found a new calling in life, one where he was not only to become a Christian, but a monk.

Once Moses learned he had to change his ways, he took on a new way of life, once which allowed him overturn the slavery to his passions and use all he had learned, even as a slave, to follow Christ. The harsh discipline he received before, while it was evil, probably made it easier for him to follow the discipline expected from the desert fathers. What was difficult was for him to accept mercy, that is, though he could and would find it easy to show others mercy, he still needed to recognize he could be and would be given it himself. He had to learn all that he had done in the past did not define him and who he was. He had to accept that he could and would be able to become someone better. This is why, though he did not think he should let his past undermine his progress, he also thought he could not forget his own past, accept mercy for himself, and then begin to judge and condemn others. This wisdom applies to all Christians, as they should all realize, as they have received mercy, so they should be merciful to others. But it was extremely important for monks to embrace this, because those who were becoming monks at this time came from all kinds of backgrounds, some who were rich, some who were poor, some who had a natural inclination to virtue all their lives, but many who, like him, had a history of embracing all kinds of vices before becoming a monk. He knew that their background should not define them and who there were in the community, but he also understood that once someone became a member of a monastic community, their inclinations and old habits would not die easily, and so the rest of the community should treat them with mercy as they strived for perfection. This meant, monks should be humble, and in their humility, never judge others “The monk must die to his neighbour and never judge him at all, in any way whatever.”[1] They should all accept their own humble status in life, realizing that they are working out their salvation with fear and trembling, working to deal with their own sins instead of that of others:

If the monk does not think in his heart that he is a sinner, God will not hear him. The brother said, ‘What does this mean, to think in his heart that he is a sinner?’ Then the old man said, ‘When someone is occupied with his own faults, he does not see those of his neighbour.’[2]

Moses learned that as a monk, he should put into practice all the radical exhortations of Christ, including, and especially Christ’s pacifism. Jesus said that Christians should not seek revenge upon others, that they should strive for peace, undermining any and all pretense for violence. This is why Christ told them to turn the other cheek. Monks, because they are seeking after spiritual perfection, cannot ignore these exhortations, for any justification for violence counters the humility expected of monks. They must learn how to live in such a way they do no harm: “The monk must die to everything before leaving the body, in order not to harm anyone.” [3] This was something dear to him, for, before his conversion to the Christian faith, before his embrace of monasticism, he had embraced the way of violence and death, and he saw how it did not give him the peace and satisfaction he desired. He knew the justifications people could give for violence, and that the more people accepted those justifications for themselves, the more they became desensitized to it, and the more likely they would then embrace the path of violence and see nothing wrong with it. They would become bloodthirsty. Christians, even those who are not called to be monks, should heed the wisdom of Moses’ approach, making sure they do what they can to live out their faith by acting upon the words they use in prayer:

If a man’s deeds are not in harmony with his prayer, he labours in vain. The brother said, ‘What is this harmony between practice and prayer?’ The old man said, ‘We should no longer do those things against which we pray. For when a man gives up his own will, then God is reconciled with him and accepts his prayers.’ The brother asked, ’In all the affliction which the monk gives himself, what helps him?’ The old man said: ‘It is written, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”’ (Ps. 46.1).[4]

Thus, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we should take into consideration what we pray, and do what we can to manifest that prayer in our actions. We ask to be forgiven, acknowledging we are likewise to forgive others, That means, we must do what we can to be merciful to others, to truly live out our words. Similarly, we pray for God’s kingdom to be manifest on earth as it is in heaven, but again, that means we should strive to make the presence of the kingdom of God known on earth by our actions, with all its justice, all its grace, all its mercy, all its love, being the foundation for our work for justice in the world. Finally, we should be doing what we can to eliminate the temptation in our life to ignore the way of God’s kingdom and love by watching over ourselves and working to purify ourselves from those passions which would undermine the way of love:

The old man was asked, ‘What is the good of the fasts and watchings which a man imposes on himself?’ and he replied, ‘They make the soul humble. For it is written, “Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins” (Ps. 25.18). So if the soul gives itself all this hardship, God will have mercy on it.’[5]

Humility, Moses learned, was key, for by it, we recognize we need God’s help, we welcome it, and we accept the way that help is to be received. We likewise accept what God tells us upon reception of that help, that is, we are to share with others what we have been given, and to treat them as we have been treated by God, lest we find what we have been given is taken from us. It can be extremely difficult for us to embrace humility, but the more we struggle against pride, vainglory and the like, the more God will show us mercy and help us overturn such inordinate passions and the habits they have formed in us, and then, once we have overturned them, then, even if we do not become a monk like Moses, we will begin to see what he saw, and preach mercy and grace for all, even as he did.

[1] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. trans. Benedicta Ward (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 141 [Instructions of Abba Moses #1].

[2] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 141 [Instructions of Abba Moses #3].

[3] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 141 [Instructions of Abba Moses #2].

[4] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 141-2 [Instructions of Abba Moses #4].

[5] The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 142 [Instructions of Abba Moses #5].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Divine Forgiveness

February 11, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Gandalf’s Gallery: Kergoat’s Forgiveness / flickr

Alexander Pope gave us the famous dictum, “To err is human; to forgive is divine.” One of the central elements of the Christian faith is its teaching on forgiveness. First, it reveals to us that God’s love is so great, God is willing to and able to forgive us, no matter what we have done. There is nothing which is unforgiveable so long as we embrace and accept forgiveness. But then it tells us, once we have been forgiven, we are expected to embrace forgiveness so much we make it a way of our being so that we not only receive it, but share it with others. We must truly take forgiveness to heart.

Everyone makes mistakes. Every does wrong. But those mistakes, those errors, the evils which we do, do not have to define us. With God’s forgiveness, and the grace which comes from it, we will change. We will become the person we are intended to be instead of the fallen, selfish individual who looks at all things in light of unenlightened self-interest. So long as we view the world in that fallen mode of being, with and through such unenlightened self-interest, we will be unwilling to forgive others. Certainly, sometimes it is easy to grant such forgiveness, while at other times, it will be extremely difficult. Indeed, if it were not for the grace we were granted, we would find it impossible. However, since forgiveness is granted to us by God, Pope is correct, and it is divine, as it is revealed as being one of the uncreated energies of God. When we truly attune ourselves to it, we will find the forgiveness we have accepted will transform us and help us become more and more like God; the more we take it in, the more we will find ourselves participating in the divine life as it relates to us, and so, we will find that such participation will grant us the ability to do what we would otherwise not be able to do, and grant forgiveness to everyone. Thus, with the grace we are given in our own forgiveness, we find it becomes possible to share forgiveness with others; when we deny forgiveness, however, we cut ourselves off from the uncreated energy of God’s forgiveness, and so cut ourselves off from the grace we need for our own forgiveness and our own perfection.

We need to learn to let go and forgive. This is not to say we should forget what was done and act as if nothing happened. That is not what forgiveness is about. All actions have consequences which must be dealt with and engaged. We must make sure whatever justice was lost can be and will be restored. What we need to realize is that it is impossible to do so if we let bitterness rule over our lives. We must, therefore, accept the role of forgiveness and mercy in connection with justice, and we must realize justice must be restorative not retributive, for all retribution does is makes things worse.

Forgiveness, therefore, is an important element in the Christian faith. We need forgiveness from God, but we also need it from others, even as others need it from us. We are in the world together. We need to find a way to embrace universal forgiveness. We also need to recognize when we go astray, we should do what we can to make amends for what we have done. We must do what we can to reform, and one of the most important ways we can do that, is to embrace mercy as a way of life. The more we embrace mercy and the forgiveness it offers, the more we will find ourselves transformed by it, becoming more and more like God, and so more and more like the person God wants us to be, a person who can and will have a share in the divine life itself. To do that, we must stop being judgmental, stop looking to others to judge and condemn them. When we render such judgment and condemn someone, we show we do not really forgive them, and if we are unwilling to forgive, we cut ourselves off from the uncreated energy of God’s forgiveness, risking that we will not experience the grace of forgiveness ourselves: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14-15 RSV). Sin does not have to have the final say, but if we are unwilling to accept the way of mercy, we let it have the final say over us; then, we will experience the end God has in store for sin and all that is attached to it.

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14 RSV). We are to put on Jesus, that is, to find ourselves united with him. Jesus is the light of the world. He offers the world God’s love, and so, if we put him on, if we act in relation to our union with him, we will not let ourselves be turned towards the darkness of hate which knows no mercy. We will be charitable towards others. We will not put our own likes and dislikes above them. We will not force everyone to satisfy our inordinate “fleshy” desires. We will recognize people will be at different positions in their lives than we are, and to deal with that, we will try to make sure everyone gets the help they need instead of discouraging them with our condemnation, which is why Paul said:

As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand (Rom 14:1-4 RSV).

We should embrace God, what is divine, and do what we can to be more like God. God is merciful. God is loving. God is kind. God offers forgiveness to all. We should be likewise. And, to be sure, while this is for the good of others, it is also for our own good. By forgiving others like God, we open ourselves to God, freeing ourselves to participate in uncreated energies of God and all the glory they can bring to us.

To err is human, especially when we think of humanity apart from God; to forgive is divine, but thanks to the incarnation, forgiveness is an aspect of the divinity which we can partake of and share in. We are called to do just that. The more we embrace the path of mercy and grace, the more forgiving we are, the more we reveal how much we have partaken of the uncreated divine energies of God and become like God. We will show we treasure God for, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21 RSV). If we treasure God and the divine life, we will treasure mercy and forgiveness, and others will see the fruit of it in our lives. If we, on the other hand, hold onto bitterness and resentment, we will be far from God and we will show our treasure is not with God, but ourselves.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

When We Fast, We Should Do So With The Right Intention

February 4, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Lawrence OP: Fasting — Detail From A window In Holy Trinity church, Stratford-upon-Avon / flickr

Fasting can be an invaluable tool. It helps us learn how to discipline ourselves. But, it should not be made into something it is not. It is only a tool. We must not think that if someone fasts they are holy. Someone can fast and still commit all kinds of great evil. We can fast and still be murderers. We can fast and still show cruelty to the poor and needy. We can fast while making a mockery out of Christian charity. Fasting is meant to help us reform our lives, but for it to do so, we must have proper intentions connected with our fast. We must use it as a tool to help us truly seek after the greater good. We should use fasting as a tool for self-inspection, helping us come to know ourselves better. The way we understand how we deal with hunger and its impulses should be able to help us discern how to overcome our inordinate passions. It is not the fast, therefore, which is important, but what we do with it, which is why Paul rightfully said: “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Cor. 8:8-9 RSV).

We should care for those in need. When they are hungry, we should offer them food. When they need a place to stay, we should help them find one. Thus, we must avoid gluttony, not just because we grow needlessly fat and unhealthy if we overeat, but because we recognize the way our overeating leads us to use more than our fair share of the food available to us, and what we take beyond our need, is directly or indirectly taken from those in extreme need. This is how we should understand all material goods. They should be distributed justly so that all can have what they need instead of having a few who find a way to possess them and control them for their own private gain. Gluttony circumvents such justice; it suggests to us that our pleasures are worth more than the livelihood of the poor; this is why gluttony is a deadly sin, because it really has us lose sight of the justice and charity which we should follow.

Fasting as a tool helps us reexamine our engagement with food, making us realize that we should be charitable towards others instead of taking as much as we want and become a stumbling block to those who are weak or in need. “Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother’s falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall” (1 Cor. 8:13 RSV). In the context of the passage, Paul meant that if someone was offered meat which had been sacrificed to an idol, though there was nothing essentially wrong in doing eating it, because it might upset others who view such food as being contaminated by its association with idolatry, it is best to reject it (unless, of course, the person was in extreme need and it was the only way they could get the food they need). What is important for us is not the exact situation Paul was talking about, but the wisdom he used, the prudence he used to make his conclusion, for when we understand that, we can and should apply it in other situations. Simply put, we should avoid causing others to stumble.

If our over-consumption of food causes our brother and sisters in Christ, or indeed, brothers and sisters in humanity, to stumble, either because they suffer from hunger, or because they know people suffering from hunger and they become upset by our inordinate use of food, we should cut back on what we eat. In doing so, we show we care about others, but when we avoid doing so, we cut ourselves off from the charity we should possess. Fasting, when engaged for that purpose, can help us transform our lives, but if it is just done for some legalistic reason, without actually engaging the spirit of the fast, it does not commend us to God. Jesus reveals what causes us to find ourselves approved by God in his description of the Last Judgment: being concerned about and helping the needy and the oppressed. Fasting can help us get in that spirit, showing us what it is like to be hungry and in need, so that we can have greater compassion with those in need. If we let the spirit of charity grow in us, we will act upon it, and then, when we come face to face with God in our judgment, we will hear God say, “Well-done good and faithful servant.” If, on the other hand, we fast for the sake of the appearance of piety, and so, if we ignore the dictates of charity, we risk causing ourselves greater harm and indeed, finding ourselves not “known” by God. That is, by ignoring the needs of the people, ignoring the expectations of justice and charity, God is likewise ignored by us:

And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt. 25:40-46 RSV).

As we come to the time of the Great Fast, let us remember its purpose. It is not to just starve ourselves. It is not to look good in front of others. It is about personal reform, learning how to develop ourselves so we end up being concerned about our neighbor and look for ways which we can truly help them. Each one of us, of course, will do so in different fashions; some have material wealth and will be able to put it to good use, but others, without such resources, will fulfill the expectations of charity by showing the poor and oppressed the love and care they need. When we do so, we are not only honoring them, but also God, for the image and likeness of God is in them, and if we don’t do so, then when we dishonor them, we dishonor God for the exact same reason. What good is it for us to become hungry and lose our soul? Let us find a hunger for holiness, and through it, develop the love and charity we should have.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

“God’s Army” At The Border

February 2, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

All one has to do is look at the border between Mexico and the United States, and the way so many Christians treat the border, to see how perverted the Christian faith has become in the United States. Instead of looking for a way to help migrants and refugees, who come to the border in extreme need, many Christians want to do whatever they can to hurt them, to make them pay for trying to come into the United States and find a better way of life for themselves. This is because these Christians follow a perverted form of Christianity, Christian Nationalism, a form which idolizes borders and power; they see foreigners trying to make their way to the United States to live in it as an affront to them and their supremacy in the world. An example of such Christian Nationalism can be seen coming from a group of truckers calling themselves, “God’s Army”:

In response to an intensifying standoff between state officials and the federal government over border security, a group calling itself “God’s Army” said it would lead a convoy of up to 40,000 trucks from Virginia to the southern border this week and end with a Feb. 3 rally in Eagle Pass, Texas. With its stated goal to “Take Our Border Back,” the convoy’s organizers paint a portrait of an America besieged by dark, evil forces. God, they say, has charged Christians with halting an invasion of immigrants that is “poisoning the blood” of the country.[1]

Christian Nationalism takes the name of Christ, the name of Christian, but clearly follows principles of the anti-Christ, establishing an anti-Christian Christianity. They might be Christian because they have been baptized and believe Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the World, but they do not listen to Christ or what the Christian tradition teaches: indeed, they do the exact opposite. Instead of looking to the world beyond borders, seeing there is neither Jew nor Gentile, American nor non-American, in Jesus, they seek for a “pure blood” where “Americans” (but only those living in and from the United States) are superior to all others, a superiority given to them by God which should not be deluded by inferiors (foreigners from other countries).

It is easy to present a variety of verses from Christian Scripture which run contrary to such a nationalistic ideology. “The LORD watches over the sojourners, he upholds the widow and the fatherless; but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin” (Ps. 146:9 RSV). “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34 RSV). “‘Cursed be he who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, `Amen’” (Deut. 27:19 RSV). “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy each to his brother, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart” (Zech. 7:9-10 RSV). “Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality” (Rom. 12:13 RSV). The whole story of the Exodus from Egypt and what happened to the people of Israel on their way to Israel demonstrates the way God works for sojourners, for migrants, which is why God told them that as they benefited from such help, the people of Israel should give it to others: “Love the sojourner therefore; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19 RSV). Those who now reside in the United States come from families who migrated there, and so should realize what God told Israel applies to them. Christian Nationalism circumvents this; instead of following God and God’s compassion for foreigners, they follow the example of Sodom and Gomorrah and their lack of hospitality to foreigners. Lot was deemed righteous and was saved because he went looking for strangers, for foreigners, to help them, and it is his example Christians have routinely been told to follow: “Call to mind Lot and you will discover that it was not the strangers who sought for him, but he who looked for strangers and this was pursuing hospitality.” [2]

Mercy to the poor, mercy to those in need, such as refugees and migrants, is what is expected of the Christian, indeed, Jesus indicated their salvation in part depended upon it (cf. Matt. 25:40;45), which is why St. Leo the Great preached:

But, since our souls do not attain to salvation by fasting alone, let us supplement our fasting with acts of mercy toward the poor. Let us spend on virtue what we withhold from pleasure. Let abstinence on the part of someone fasting become nourishment for the poor. Let us put our efforts to the defense of widows, the advantage of orphans, the consolation or mourners, the reconciliation of rivals. Take in the stranger, relieve the oppressed, clothe the naked, care for the sick – in such a way that whoever of us will offer from honest labor a “sacrifice” of compassion to God the Maker of all good things, they might deserve to receive from him as a reward the kingdom of heaven. [3]

Just as Lot was saved, in part, because of the good which he did, in part, because of Abraham and Abraham’s hospitality and the way it allowed Abraham to ask for God’s help, our active work helping those in need, such as migrants and refugees, will go a long way in making satisfaction for our own sins:

The follower of the active life, by harboring the stranger, clothing the naked, governing the subject, redeeming the captive, protecting him who is oppressed by violence, is continually cleansing himself from all his sins and enriching his life with the fruit of good works.[4]

The true Christian spirit about what is happening at the border should be one of compassion, looking for the best way to help those who come to it in need. Their response should not be one of violence brought about by hate, or one which tries to separate themselves with some barrier, like a wall, or a convoy of trucks, from those who come to them.

Sadly, so many politicians claiming to be Christian are fermenting hate towards foreigners; they use the Christian name, and are believed to represent the Christian faith because they have the means to get their voice heard. They are adversely affecting the whole political scene, as their influence is making it so people must respond to them, appeasing them and their followers. Perhaps this is why even those who should know and do better are slowly succumbing to the political pressure, and are starting to use some of the same rhetoric, such as when President Biden said he would close the border as a part of the deal he is making with Republicans. To be sure, what he intends to do is temporary and limited, and so much better than what his opponents would do if they had power, but it still represents a dangerous precedent coming from Biden. It is another shift towards the extreme right-wing ideological perspective, even though, of course, it is clear that many Christian Nationalists and their allies will not be satisfied unless all foreigners are deported, and the border is completely and permanently closed. If they got their wish, it could easily ruin the United States as it would disrupt the supply chain even worse than what happened during the pandemic. What is the moral thing to do, showing compassion to the foreigner, to the migrant, to the refugee, which includes making sure the border is not completely closed so they have no chance to find refuge in the United States, is also the proper thing to do if one cares about the United States and its continued well-being. Those who want to put in place strict laws, and close off the United States from the rest of the world, have not learned the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is, you can’t keep selfishly to yourself independent from everyone else, glorifying yourself in your own supremacy, without having everything collapse all around you. Sadly, the same Christians who have not learned this lesson often like to talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, not realizing it is their own ideological perspective which is condemned in Scripture

The border between the United States and Mexico, like all borders, has some value, as it helps delineate the boundaries of the United States. The border, however, should be understood as a tool, not an end in and of itself. Those coming to it should be showed compassion and helped. Christians should follow the example of Lot who met with those who came to the gate of his city to make sure they were cared for instead of being mistreated. Christians should make it clear, those Christians who stand against foreigners, those who want to mistreat them, those who like to talk about nationalism, though they might be Christian, do not represent the teachings of Christ. When Christians calling themselves “God’s Army” go to the border to cause problems, Christians need denounce them, making it clear that such Christian Nationalism is a heresy.

[1] Doug Pagitt, “I’m A Pastor Headed To The Southern Border To Challenge The So-Called ‘God’s Army’” in MSNBC (1-30-2024).

[2] Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans: Books 6-10. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 2002), 214-5.

[3] St Leo the Great, Sermons. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland CSJB and Agnes Josephine Conway SSJ (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1996), 54 [Sermon 13].

[4] Julianus Pomerius, The Contemplative Life. Trans. Mary Josephine Suelzer, PhD (Westminster, MD: The Newman Bookshop, 1947), 32.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

God’s Universal Love

January 26, 2024 By Henry Karlson

0 Comments

No photographer listed: Love And The Cross / picpick

God’s all-deifying love is for all. God desires to share it with everyone, for God is love. If there were someone God did not love, then God’s love would be conditional, making it something which is not essential to God. There can be and will be nothing lacking in God’s love for creation, for there is nothing which is lacking in God. Where there is any deficiency in love, it is in us and our reception of God’s love.

God’s deifying grace is such that it seeks to take us where we are at and to help us transcend ourselves, so that we can transcend our own deficiency, such as our sin, and join in and participate in God’s perfection. It helps us transcend our own natural potential so that in and through it, we become more and more like God, not just in regards God’s immortality, but in regards love itself. Angels, are said, in some sense, to be closer to God than us, because they presently reflect more of God’s qualities than we do. But it will not always be that way, as St. Isaac of Nineveh explained: with grace, we will find acquiring those qualities or attributes:

All these things that the superior creation of the angels has received, whether in nature or in honor beyond our present nature, are more than what <is found> in our creation. In the world to come all the things that belong to them, he will give to us in full, without any diminution, or lacking in anything that they have received, making the second part of creation not inferior to the first part – that is, those who are spiritual beings now. Rather, that spiritual state and immortality, the state of not eating and not being subject to the passions, with the interiority of the mysteries, the lofty place of the abode, along with everything else, which now, in accordance with what has pleased him, he has given them in the first place, but finally will perfect us in all that belongs to them, without doing injustice to the one part of creation with respect to the other. Far from it! His love toward us and towards the angels is a single <love>, and <his love> that is towards sinners is just like that that is towards the righteous: the taking from us by our Lord <at the incarnation> is testimony <to this>. There is a great necessity for the things that are deficient with us, in that by their means all the dispensations of God are carried out, being beneficial to us and to the angels, <for> he is going to establish us in the beyond above those things. [1]

We currently understand all of this in a limited fashion, as it is very difficult for us to truly understand what unchangeable love is like in and of itself. We have difficulty loving those who slight us, so we find it difficult to understand how God’s love remains for those who challenge or reject that love. Intellectually, we might appreciate that God can and does love all things, and because of divine simplicity, that love must in a sense be said to be the same for all. But we still find it difficult to understand, in reality, how that love is shared with all, and how it is given equally to all, when it seems different people, indeed, different thing interact with it in ways which appear unique.

God is love. God is one. That love is one. It is from that love God created the world, and it is with that same love God sustains the world in time, and it is also through that same love, God seeks to perfect creation, and finally, it is that love which opens up to creation, to give it deifying grace so that it can and will participate in the divine life itself. Likewise, it is God’s love which led to the incarnation. God’s all-embracing love had the divine Logos assume a created nature, so that what was “inferior” and “outside of God” could find themselves experiencing in and participating in what was “superior” to them.

Due to the way we understand being, and the wide range of potentiality in being, so that there is a “great chain of being” reflecting the various potentialities of being, we find it difficult to understand how all those different kinds of being can be and will be loved equally and made equal in eternity. We like to look at the cosmos and its variations in relation to potency, and the different levels of potency creating a hierarchy of being – that is, we do not look at it in the realm of grace which is able to lift all things up beyond their potency, and in doing so, we like to think of ourselves as superior to other beings, even as we find ourselves inferior to others. This line of thought is troubling, because it can and does lead to sin, and with it, abandoning the grace we need to transcend our natural potency. This is what we learn through discussions of the fall of Satan: Satan rebelled against God, and became the enemy of mankind, when Satan understood the way God’s love extended to what Satan believed was inferior so that what was inferior could be made Satan’s equal. To avoid Satan’s pitfall, we should recognize God’s all-deifying grace, and not get angry when we hear sinners, or anyone we believe is our inferior, receives God’s love the same as us. We should not be jealous or envious of the way others experience God’s love, especially if they seem to possess more of it, because God’s love is universal and will work to help lift us up, to transform us from within, and level all things out. If we are jealous or envious of others, we risk becoming like Satan, rebelling against love, cutting ourselves off from its reward as long as we do so. Jealousy and envy and similar such passions cut us off from God’s love because we are too attached to ourselves to receive it. It is best we look to the example of God in the incarnation, where God shows love is self-emptying, willing to engage all, to save all, so that we learn how we are to be when we want to embrace and engage that love: “Adam, coveting the honor of angels, lost the dignity of his own nature; Jesus, taking on the condition of our infirmity, placed among the inhabitants of heaven those for whom he descended into hell.” [2]

God’s all-embracing love searches throughout creation for those who can and will receive that love. It offers them itself, so that in and with that love, those who accept it can be lifted up and share in the divine life, the life of love. In that life, there is no sense of superiors or inferiors, because no one looks to and holds themselves with self-attachment to judge others, and without such judgment, there will be no jealousy, no envy, but only universal love, with everyone sharing in God’s love, and rejoicing together in that love.

[1] St. Isaac of Nineveh, Headings on Spiritual Knowledge (The Second Part, Chapters 1-3). Trans. Sebastian Brock (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2022),216 [Chapter 3; Fourth Discourse].

[2] St Leo the Great, Sermons. Trans. Jane Patricia Freeland CSJB and Agnes Josephine Conway SSJ (Washington, DC: CUA Press, 1996), 103 [Sermon 25].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!