Friday, May 29, 2020

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Pentecost Sunday

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord descended in the cloud and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit upon him, and put Him upon the seventy men of the elders; and when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, although they never did so again. But two men remained in the camp: the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad, and the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those registered but had not come to the tabernacle, yet they prophesied in the camp. So a young man ran and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Then Joshua, the son of Nun, who was near Moses, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Lord Moses, forbid them.” Then Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people might be prophets when the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.” So Moses returned to the camp, both he and the elders of Israel. (Num 11:24–30)

This Spirit descended upon the seventy Elders in the days of Moses. (Now let not the length of the discourse, beloved, produce weariness in you: but may He the very subject of our discourse grant strength to everyone, both to us who speak and to you who listen!) This Spirit, as I was saying, came down upon the seventy Elders in the time of Moses; and this I say to you, that I may now prove, that He knows all things and works as He will. The seventy Elders were chosen: And the Lord came down in a cloud, and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and put it upon the seventy Elders. Not that the Spirit was divided, but that His grace was distributed in proportion to the vessels and the capacity of the recipients. Now there were present sixty-eight, and they prophesied, but Eldad and Modad were not present. therefore that it might be shown that it was not Moses who bestowed the gift, but the Spirit who worked, Eldad and Modad, who though called, had not as yet presented themselves, did also prophesy.

Joshua the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, was amazed; and came to him and said, “Have you heard that Eldad and Modad are prophesying? They were called, and they came not; my lord Moses, forbid them.” “I cannot forbid them,” he says, “for this grace is from Heaven; no, so far am I from forbidding them, that I myself am thankful for it. I think not, however, that you have said this in envy; are you jealous for my sake, because they prophesy, and you do no yet prophesy? Wait for the proper season; and oh that all the Lord’s people may be prophets, whenever the Lord shall give His Spirit upon them!” saying this also prophetically, whenever the Lord shall give; “For as yet then He has not given it; so you do not have it yet.”—Had not then Abraham this, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph? And they of old, did they not have it? No, but the words, “whenever the Lord shall give” evidently mean “give it upon all; as yet indeed the grace is partial, then it shall be given lavishly.” And he secretly alluded to what was to happen among us on the day of Pentecost; for He Himself came down among us. He had however also come down upon many before. For it is written, And Joshua the son of Nun was filled with a spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him. You see the figure everywhere the same in the Old and New Testament;—in the days of Moses, the Spirit was given by laying on of hands; and by laying on of hands Peter also gives the Spirit. And on you also, who are about to be baptized, shall His grace come; yet in what manner I will not say, for I will not anticipate the proper season.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 16.25–26

Friday, May 22, 2020

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Seventh Sunday of Easter

From the Maesta by Duccio
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. (John 17:1–5)

Then one of those who are never weary of hearkening to the Scripture, and seriously pursue the study of Divine doctrines, will ask: Do we say that knowledge is eternal life; and that to know the one true and living God will suffice to give us complete security of expectation, and nothing else be lacking? Then how is faith apart from works dead? And when we speak of faith, we mean the true knowledge of God, and nothing else; for by faith comes knowledge: and the prophet Isaiah bears us witness, who said to some: If you do not believe this, neither will you understand it. And that the writings of the holy men are referring to the knowledge which consists in barren speculations, a thing wholly profitless, I think you will perceive from what follows. For one of the holy disciples said: You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!. What then shall we say to this? How does Christ speak truth, when He says that eternal life is the knowledge of God the Father, the One true God, and (with Him) of the Son? I think, indeed, we must answer that the saying of the Savior is wholly true. For this knowledge is life, travailing as it were in birth of the whole meaning of the mystery, and vouchsafing unto us participation in the mystery of the Eucharist, whereby we are joined unto the living and life-giving Word. And for this reason, I think, Paul says that the Gentiles are made fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of Christ; inasmuch as they partake in His blessed Body and Blood; and our members may in this sense be conceived of, as being members of Christ. This knowledge, then, which also brings to us the Eucharist by the Spirit, is life. For it dwells in our hearts, shaping anew those who receive it into sonship with Him, and molding them into incorruption and piety towards God, through life according to the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, knowing that the knowledge of the One true God brings unto us, and, so to speak, promotes our union with, the blessings of which we have spoken, says that it is eternal life; insomuch as it is the mother and nurse of eternal life, being in its own power and nature pregnant with those things which cause life, and lead unto it.

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John 11.5

Friday, May 15, 2020

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Sixth Sunday of Easter

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Pet 3:18–22)

Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, you were “circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism.” And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth that has grown on it from the carnal mind, as it is written, “You shall wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” On this account, we do not wash at each defilement, as is the fashion of the Jews, but own the baptism of salvation to be one. For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfills the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit is clear: the reason is that in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, that it may never bear fruit unto death; on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit, and having our fruit in holiness; the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life.

Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit 15.35

Friday, May 8, 2020

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Alter of Incense
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.… But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:45, 9–10)

We affirm, two characters of the Christ demonstrated by the prophets, and as many advents of His aforenoted: one, in humility (of course the first), when He has to be led “as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb voiceless before the shearer, so He opened not His mouth,” not even in His aspect comely. For “we have announced,” says the prophet, “concerning Him, (He is) as a little child, as a root in a thirsty land; and there was not in Him attractiveness or glory. And we saw Him, and He had not attractiveness or grace; but His mien was unhonoured, deficient in comparison of the sons of men,” “a man set in the plague, and knowing how to bear infirmity:” to wit as having been set by the Father “for a stone of offense,” and “made a little lower” by Him “than angels,” He pronounces Himself “a worm, and not a man, an ignominy of man, and the refuse of the People.”

Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews 14

The more diligent in prayer are wont to subjoin in their prayers the “Hallelujah,” and such kind of psalms, in the closes of which the company responds. And, of course, every institution is excellent which, for the extolling and honoring of God, aims unitedly to bring Him enriched prayer as a choice victim.

For this is the spiritual victim which has abolished the pristine sacrifices. “To what purpose,” says He, “(bring) Me the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full of holocausts of rams, and I desire not the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who has required these from your hands?” What, then, God has required the Gospel teaches. “An hour will come,” says He, “when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such.” We are the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit, sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,—a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, we ought to escort with the pomp of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God’s altar, to obtain for us all things from God.

Tertullian, On Prayer 27–28

Friday, May 1, 2020

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Fourth Sunday of Easter

For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth;
who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:19–25)

He foretold these things and suffered them; He was nailed to the cross, paying the penalty not for personal sins (for he did not sin, neither was guilt found in his mouth), but paying the debt of our nature. For our nature was in debt after transgressing the laws of its Maker. And since it was in debt and unable to pay, the Creator Himself in His wisdom devised a way of paying the debt; taking human limbs as capital He invested it wisely and justly in paying the debt and freeing human nature.

Those who saw Him nailed to the cross presumed that He was being punished for countless misdeeds and was paying the penalty for personal faults. It was for this reason that the Jews nailed Him between two malefactors, wishing thereby to gain for Him an evil reputation. But the Holy Spirit teaches through the prophet that He was wounded for our iniquities and weakened for our sins. He makes this clearer in what follows: Chastisement for our peace was inflicted on Him and by His bruises, we were healed. We were enemies of God, in that we had offended Him, so chastisement and retribution were due from us.

We did not, however, settle the debt. Our Savior settled it Himself. And by so suffering He bequeathed peace with God to us. What follows makes this clearer: All we like sheep have gone astray; man has lost his way. And so He has been led as a sheep to the slaughter and dumb as a lamb before his shearer. It was fitting for Him to heal like by like, and to recall the other wandering sheep by a sheep. He became a sheep, without being changed into one, or without being altered, or without quitting His own essence. He plainly assumed the nature of a sheep and, just as the ram is the leader of the sheepfold, so He became the leader of His fold and made all the sheep follow Him.

Theodoret of Cyrus, On Divine Providence 10.26, 28–29