This Truth Remains Forever: New Testament Reflections

This Truth Remains Forever: New Testament Reflections

Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I [am] holy.” - 1 Peter 1:14-16

 
In the biblical languages the Hebrew “qodesh” and the Greek “hagios” is understood to designate the qualities of sacredness, transcendence, reverenced, venerated, and consecrated.  The Prince of the Apostles, Peter, reminds us that we who believe in Christ are called to be holy as Christ is Holy.  We should not retreat to the actions of our former days, before we knew Christ; but we must imitate him who is the way, the truth, and the life.  

 
This may seem to be an impossible calling.  How can we poor sinners be like the one who was sinless?  Even though we have unwavering faith, even though we hope for the total reconciliation of all things in Christ, and even though we love in our human imperfect imitation of divine love; how can we ever be worthy of being holy?

 
The Gospel of John tells us: “[Jesus] said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22).  The answer to our dilemma of holiness, is that it is not possible by human willing, but “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:23).  It is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit by whose power Christ rose from the dead, that we can cast off our past lives, and rise to new life.  Our holiness is the holiness of God, from God, given to us by the one whose charismatic procession from the Father, transforms everyone the Spirit touches; making them Christ-like, making them holy.  

 
By the power of the Holy Spirit, water gives us a new birth.  Oil seals us in his power.  Bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.  Sins are confessed and forgiven.  The sick and those near death are anointed with the oil of health and comfort. The love between man and woman is crowned for their journey to the Kingdom.  The ministers of the New Covenant are ordained and entrusted with the celebration of the Holy Mysteries.  This is our holiness, the holiness of the Church; the Father’s gift to us his children. 

 
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Christ’s victory, Christ’s holiness lives in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

—————————————-

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. - Jude 1:20-21

 
Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven. - Saint Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 AD)

Hopefully, one thing that has grown in many of our lives is prayer. Our Lord said, "For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20).

Prayer can take many forms. Prayer can be formal or informal, verbal or silent. It is our abiding in the arms of the Lord, it is our praise before his Throne of Majesty. It is as the late Cardinal George Basil Hume once wrote: “whispering into the ear of God the story of my life I was never able to tell before.”

 
One aspect of prayer might begin from the reality that the Church is a hospital for the soul.  If the Church is such a hospital, then prayer can be seen as therapeutic healing.  As St. Ephrem suggested, prayer suppresses anger, and calms the twin spiritual diseases of pride and envy.  Above all, since prayer is always in the Holy Spirit, prayers raises us into the very life of God, it is a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven.  

It is wrong as some say that our prayers are never answered.  It just may be it is not the answer we want, and in that case we were not praying to the Lord who died on the Cross, but to our make believe Santa Claus.  For at the root of Christian prayer is the death that trampled death.  As St. Timothy wrote, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him”(2 Timothy 2:11).  St. Paul also said to the Romans, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5).  

Prayer is therapeutic because it is about transformation; about the death of our old self and the rising of our new life in Christ.  Prayer is the therapy that heals our fears, doubts, illusions, hurts, and pains of our temporal life.  This healing, which is in and through the Holy Spirit is not the transitory healing that the world offers, but it is a healing that is unto eternal life.  

 
Ultimately, our hurts and fears in life are grounded in our fear of death.  We will do anything, even “sin” to momentarily ease that fear.  Through prayer we realize the truth of the words spoken by St. Paul to the Corinthians, “And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about:“Death is swallowed up in victory.  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”(1 Corinthians 15:54-55)      

——————————-
“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. - 1 Peter 2:22-24

 
Saint Peter here draws upon the writings on the Suffering Servant by the Prophet Isaiah, to produce what many scholars believe was a profession of faith in the apostolic church.  Jesus fulfills the Scriptures, he is the long awaited Messiah.  But he is not a Messiah who will vanquish the enemies of the people by being a super Judas Maccabees, who had freed them from pagan rulers two centuries earlier.  Jesus is the Messiah of whom Isaiah spoke.  The lamb led to slaughter, who did not open his mouth; and the enemy he will defeat is the enemy of all men and women, death.  

 
The earliest depictions of the Crucifixion, as in the Rabbula Gospels of 586 AD, or the fresco of the Cross in the apse of San Clement Church in Rome; stressed the Exaltation of the Cross.  In the Rabbula depiction of the Crucifixion for example, Christ is not slumped on the Cross in death, but is upright with head up, eyes open, symbolizing his victory and the glory that is his and offered to us in the Cross.  In San Clemente as in many early basilica the Cross is bejeweled and often standing on a royal pillow, showing the Triumph of the Cross.  

 
Jesus has triumphed over death by the Victory of the Cross.  As Paul proclaimed: “may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”(Galatians 6:14).  Indeed, by his Cross and Resurrection he has set us free!

——————————-

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?  If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

 
But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.  Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren?  Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works.  Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. - James 2:14-23

 
Unfortunately, ever since the Protestant Reformation the question of justification concerning faith and good works has been distorted from the New Testament context.  The Reformers led by Martin Luther and John Calvin accused the Catholic Church of stressing works over faith, as if one could work their way into heaven.  The Catholic position expressed by the Council of Trent was “fides et bonum laborem,” by faith and good works we are justified.    Some of the Reformers such as Calvin responded by saying that only predestined faith was our justification for salvation, and that works were totally useless.  

 
This debate between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers stemmed from pitting the teachings of Paul against the teachings of James.  But the context in which Paul and James presented their teachings were never taken into consideration.  For Paul was trying to defend the validity of the act of faith in Jesus by Gentiles, against some Jewish Christians  who were trying to force the Gentile converts to be circumcised and obey the Mosaic Law. So Paul stressed to these Gentile converts that through their faith in Christ they were justified, following the Law will not save them.  James on the other hand is speaking to Jewish Christians, and reminding them that because they have faith in Jesus they must also produce good works that express their profession of faith.  

 
So for us the words of Paul and James are true, which is the teaching of the Council of Trent and the Catholic Church; if we have faith then from that faith will flow good works.  If we have faith then from our joy in Christ should come works of love, care, mercy, compassion, and selflessness.  As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we are called to imitate Our Lord. From our faith in Christ, and being filled with the Holy Spirit we must be light in the darkness of this world and work to claim all men and women for Christ.

 
“There is love like a small lamp, which goes out when the oil is consumed; or like a stream which dries up when it doesn't rain. But there is a love that is like a mighty spring gushing up out of the earth; it keeps flowing forever, and is inexhaustible.”  -Isaac of Nineveh c.613-c.700 AD    

————————-

Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever. - 1 John 2:17

We all come to realize hopefully in our lives that the things of this world are always passing.  It reminds of the Allegory of the Cave by the philosopher Plato.  He wrote that most of our lives we are like people facing a wall in a cave, where behind us is a fire and artificial figures are passed along and they form images on the wall from the light of the fire.  Plato said, we even take pride in naming and recognizing the images as their shadow passes in front of us on the cave wall.  Then he said what if someone (like Socrates) was willing to break free of the wall, see that the images are not real and walk out and see reality in the light of the sun.  When he would return to the cave and tell the others they are not seeing the truth, they would chain him and kill him for disturbing their false sense of security in the dark fleeting world of images.  

In a greater sense than Plato or Socrates, Jesus Christ shows us the truth of the Kingdom of God and the fleeting things of this world.  His death however was not just a statement about our ignorance of the truth, but it was a redemption from that ignorance.  His death was not just to show us a path to a greater human knowledge, his death and resurrection bestowed upon us the Holy Spirit of Truth itself, so that divine Truth would dwell within us.

The world entices with passing glory; the Father saves us through the Son and binds us to his eternal life with the Holy Spirit.  This Truth “remains forever.”

- Rev. David A. Fisher