Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the First Sunday in Advent

Give heed, O You who shepherd Israel;
Reveal Yourself, O You who lead Joseph like a flock,
Who sit upon the cherubim.
Raise up Your power
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,
And come for our salvation.
O God, convert us,
And reveal Your face, and we shall be saved.
O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your servant?
Will You feed us the bread of tears,
And will You give us as drink tears in measure?
You made us an offense to our neighbors,
And our enemies sneered at us.
O Lord God, convert us,
And reveal Your face, and we shall be saved. (Ps 80:1–7 LXX)

The coming of Christ the Lord is demanded with great longing, so that He may appear to be most clearly signified by what He does.… So the address is rightly made to the king of heaven and earth who rules Israel, under whose control all things were created and are administered.… But since the Lord still remained within the cloak of His majesty, the psalmist asks that He should appear in the blessing of the holy incarnation, so that He may strengthen His faithful with the most unswerving belief. Observe that the texture of this verse contains a triple invocation to show that the holy Trinity performs together all things.

The psalmist begs that the Lord appear before them with spiritual might, in other words, that as had been promised through the prophets He should be born of the Jewish nation. But since these names in the usual fashion of divine Scripture are clearly not idly inserted, we must investigate most eagerly their meanings. Ephraim means “fruitfulness,” Benjamin “son of the right hand,” and Manasseh “forgetful.” Clearly these attributes lie within the Lord Savior. He was fruitful when after His body had lain slaughtered for a time He rose to the everlasting kingdom of heaven. He is the “Son of the right hand,” that is, Son of the almighty Father. “Forgetful” points to when He was oblivious of the injuries done to Him, when set on the cross He prayed for the Jewish people. So the psalmist entreated that the Lord come with these powers, and he was in no doubt that He would manifest them.

Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms 79.2–3

A Plea for Upright Prayer

King David, more than most, had a handle on what it meant for circumstances to sideways. Initially, he set about his duties without fanfare—protecting the flock, facing down Goliath, direct service to King Saul—yet was notable in carrying them out because he sought the Lord’s recognition rather than his own and was rewarded with skepticism, jealousy, and false accusation; later, he would sin greatly reaping long-term consequences that fractured both his family and nation. Whether the adverse circumstances were unwarranted or self-inflicted, David refused to seek retribution on his oppressors (1 Sam 24:1–7; 1 Sam 26:7–12; 2 Sam 16:5–11). In all that occurred, David’s overwhelming concern was to stand before God in prayer and worship with clean hands and heart.

O Lord, I have cried to You; hear me;
Give heed to the voice of my supplication when I cry to You.
Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. (Ps 141:1–2)

The priestly presentation of incense and sacrifice was no casual matter. Both items were prepared according to strict guidelines and offered in a specific manner within the framework of a divinely prescribed liturgy.

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth,
A door of enclosure about my lips.
Incline not my heart to evil words,
To make excuses in sins
With men who work lawlessness;
And I will not join with their choice ones. (Ps 141:3–4)

David wished to give the same care to his simplest of worshipful actions as he calls on the Lord to maintain his integrity, opening himself for scrutiny.

The righteous man shall correct me
With mercy, and he shall reprove me;
But let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head,
For my prayer shall be intense in the presence of their pleasures.(Ps 141:5)

God-fearing people do not disdain correction but accept it with humility: they recognize their personal failings and welcome correction from like-minded individuals. This same righteous one conversely eschews any honor or affirmation from miscreants because the prayers will run counter, even condemnatory, to those who relish their sinful desires.

Their judges are swallowed up by the rock;
They shall hear my words, for they are pleasant.
As a clod of ground is dashed to pieces on the earth,
So our bones were scattered beside the grave.
For my eyes, O Lord, O Lord, are toward You;
In You I hope; take not my soul away.
Keep me from the snares they set for me,
And from the stumbling blocks of those who work lawlessness.
Sinners shall fall into their own net;
I am alone, until I escape. (Ps 141:6–10)

David ends by demonstrating the difference between the lawless and righteous, calling on the Lord to keep him true and steadfast in the way of escape.

I can be brutal when pent-up frustrations finally overflow. More than once, I have spewed forth richly deserved speech or print to address someone’s thinking. (There are a great many foolish, ignorant, or evil people out there.) This is certainly true during our election cycle with its rollercoaster of emotions as political viewpoints are voiced or squelched, especially if said election has serious allegations of widespread fraud—and all this after enduring months of tension from viral and natural disasters. When circumstances come at us like this, we need something to stop and remember. There is a God who knows and understands our adversity because He endured it; but at the same time, He is still holy and expects us to be the same and come before Him in holiness.

Ask yourself: Do I have the same attitude as David when coming before the Lord?

Receiving a Good Conscience

Consider a window in a house. The dirtier it is, the more marred it is, the less light that comes in, and the more distorted is the view out. The clearer and cleaner the window, the more the light that floods in and the clearer is the view of the outside world. That is what our conscience is like. An unclean conscience, a bad conscience, does not let the light of God shine into our hearts so that our perception of God and the world around us is darkened and distorted. A clear conscience lets the light of God shine into our hearts so that we see the goodness of God and his world more clearly. With light comes sight.

The purpose of Christ’s human life, death, resurrection, and ascension is to give us a good conscience. He delivers that to each of us personally through baptism. Thus St. Peter declares:

Baptism … now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1 Pet 3:21–22)

Here Peter tells us four things about God’s gift to us of a good conscience.

First, Peter identifies our salvation with the gift from God of a good conscience and associates both of these with the sacrament of baptism. Yet even though baptism is something that happens at one time and in one place, it is not finished once the ceremony is over, just as marriage does not end after the ceremony has been completed. It is not just a past event; it is also a present endowment. It results in an ongoing relationship, a new state with increasing benefits that we receive every Sunday in the divine service. It does that here and now. So Peter declares that baptism now saves us by giving us a good conscience.

Second, when Peter says that baptism now saves us, he adds that this happens through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have a good conscience through his resurrection as well as his ascension. Jesus gives us a good conscience because he is both enthroned as King with God the Father and present with us in the divine service. He is our mediator. He intercedes for us with the Father and brings the Father’s gifts to us. He bridges heaven and earth and thus gives us access to heaven here on earth in the divine service.

Third, Peter contrasts two kinds of cleansing. We are all familiar with the first kind of cleansing by washing with water. Whenever we are dirty we remove the dirt from our bodies by taking a bath. But that is not what happens when we are washed with water in baptism. That washing provides us with a different kind of cleansing: a spiritual cleansing from sin. That happens whenever we appeal to God the Father for a good conscience by confessing our sins and asking for cleansing from the stain of sin. Baptism gives us the right to come to God for cleansing; it gives us a permanent pass, a free ticket to use that bathhouse again and again. We do not receive a good conscience as a permanent possession once for all time on the day of baptism but keep on receiving it as a gift from God the Father. This means that every divine service is an appeal to God for a good conscience.

Fourth, in the Greek, Peter speaks about an appeal to God of a good conscience. He, most likely, intends that to be taken in two ways. When we go to church we not only appeal to God for a good conscience but also appeal to God with a good conscience. The good conscience that we receive from God makes us fit for God, open and receptive to him. It adjusts us to him, like a TV set that is attuned to the same frequency as the transmitter. Once we have a good conscience, we have access to God’s grace (Rom 5:1–2). We can confidently approach God the Father and ask Him for what we need, the things that he has promised to give us.

We, therefore, participate in the divine service in order to receive the gift of a clear conscience. That is why God wants us to go to church. We cannot get that anywhere else on earth, but only there, fully from God, as he provides it for us. Yet that is not all! He gives us a clear conscience so that we can receive him and his heavenly gifts for our life here on earth. That is the purpose of a good conscience. God cleanses it so that we can serve him together with the angels and all the saints in the heavenly sanctuary.

John W. Kleinig, LOGIA 26-3: 8–9

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Last Sunday of the Year

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting 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 take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt 25:31–46)

Having been given the faith, the righteous say, “Lord, when did see you hungry and fed you, thirsty, and gave you something to drink, naked and clothed you?” Other things also follow. What then, my most beloved? Does our Lord hunger and thirst? Is he who himself made everything in heaven and on earth, who feeds angels in heaven and every nation and race on earth, who needs nothing of an earthly character, as he is unfailing in his own nature, is this one naked? It is incredible to believe such a thing. Yet what must be confessed is easy to believe. For the Lord hungers not in his own nature but in his saints; the Lord thirsts not in his own nature but in his poor. The Lord who clothes everyone is not naked in his own nature but in his servants. The Lord who is able to heal all sicknesses and has already destroyed death itself is not diseased in his own nature but in his servants. Our Lord, the one who can liberate every person, is not in prison in his own nature but in his saints. Therefore, you see, my most beloved, that the saints are not alone. They suffer all these things because of the Lord. In the same way, because of the saints the Lord suffers all these things with them.…

You see, my beloved, there is no excuse for it. They knew what they had to do in this world. But greed and ill-will prevented them, so they laid up for themselves not treasures for the future but the world of the dead. Neither were they condemned because of the active wrong they did, nor did the Lord say to them, Depart from me, you wicked, because you committed murder or adultery or theft. But instead: because I was hungry and thirsty in my servants, and you did not minister to me. If those who did no wrong are thus condemned, what must be said of those who do the works of the devil? Will not the prophecy of blessed David come upon them: “The wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous?” Not that they will not rise, but that neither in judgment [nor in] the congregation of the righteous do they deserve to enter. They will stand, however, so that from punishment they may enter into punishment. “And they will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Whatever will be is everlasting. Sinners will have everlasting punishment; and the righteous, everlasting life.

Epiphanius, Interpretation of the Gospels 38

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. (Matt 25:14–19)

The man who is the landowner is actually the Creator and Lord of all. The Word compares the time the landowner spends away from home in the parable to either the ascension of Christ into heaven or at any rate to the unseen and invisible character of the divine nature. Now one must conceive of the property of God as those in each country and city who believe in Him. He calls His servants those who according to the times Christ crowns with the glory of the priesthood. For the holy Paul writes, “No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God.” He hands over [His property] to those who are under Him, to each giving a spiritual gift so that he might have character and aptitude. We think that this distribution of the talents is not supplied to the household servants in equal measure because each is quite different from the other in their understanding. Immediately they head out for their labors, He says, directly indicating to us here that apart from the procrastination of one they are fit to carry out the work of God. Surely those who are bound by fear and laziness will end up in the worst evils. For he buried, Jesus says, the talent given to him in the earth. He kept the gift hidden, making it unprofitable for others and useless for himself. For that very reason the talent is taken away from him and will be given to the one who is already rich. The Spirit has departed from such as these and the gift of the divine gifts. But to those who are industrious an even more lavish gift will be presented.

Cyril of Alexandria, Fragment 283

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

O God, make haste to deliver me.
May those who seek my soul be dishonored and shamed;

May those who plot evils against me be turned back and disgraced;
May those be turned back immediately
Who shame me, saying, “Well done! Well done!”
May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You,
And let those who love Your salvation always say,
“Let God be magnified.”
But I am poor and needy;
O God, help me.
You are my helper and my deliverer, O Lord; do not delay. (Ps 70)

The second section prays that all who love the Lord Christ should rejoice and be glad. For persecutors, confusion and shame are sought; for the devoted, exultation and abiding joy. As the Lord says in the gospel: And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. But the psalmist inserts this mode of rejoicing appropriately, for by saying in You he confesses that the joy which boasts in human presumption is transitory. Joined to this is: All who seek You, O Lord. They do not seek You by their own powers, but are sought out by Your fatherly love. You gazed from heaven and sought that the human race might seek You; for the Lord came to us that we might deserve to return to Him. But those who seek the Lord are advised for their welfare on what they ought to say. They must say always: The Lord be magnified. Always indicates continuing time, because we must never cease praising the Lord. So that the meaning may become clearer to us, the order of words should be: “Let them who love your salvation always say: The Lord be magnified.” We should realize that the word magnified has been adopted from human practice, for it is he who is extolled with praises and grows in men’s good opinions who is magnified. But God experiences no increase, for He is known to be Fullness in its unique and inexpressible totality. He cannot grow from any external source, for He continually gives growth to all created things. But we profit from magnifying Him, and our awareness ever increases when with pious hearts we offer praises to God.

Cassiodorus, Exposition on the Psalms