Bible Study Notes: Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

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Cross, Psalms, St. Gregory Palamas

For those of you who followed this blog over this past Advent Fast, you will already be a bit familiar with St. Gregory Palamas. As much as I adore him, even I have to admit that he can be a bit impenetrable at times; however, his import on the second Sunday of Lent can be easily summarized. In the 14th century, there was a philosopher named Barlaam who claimed that philosophers knew more about God than prophets and that contemplative prayer was a waste of time because God is unknowable. St. Gregory argued against Barlaam’s claim by insisting that all Christians are capable of participating in the uncreated light of God’s divine glory even in this life through the ascetic practices of prayer and fasting (to which I would also add almsgiving). In other words, our own ascetic endeavors during this time of Lent are not in vain.

This week we started contemplating St. Gregory’s import by examining the Gospel Reading (Mark 2:1-2):

• It was noted the importance of the faith of the friends of the paralytic. They didn’t tell him that he should go and see Jesus, they physically took him to Jesus.
• We compared this to the concept of “Come and See” vs. “Go and See.” The former requires that we are actively involved in and present at Church. We are saying “come to the place that I am” rather than “go to that place over there.”
• Note that the factor that Christ highlights is the faith if the friends, not the paralytic. Our faith, our prayers and our presence in Church is vital to the health, not just of ourselves, but of those around us.
• This pericope highlights the reality that the Church is a hospital that heals us both in body and in soul. The friends of the paralytic brought him to the best hospital for the best medicine available to him — Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ.
• Note how the path to get their friend to Christ was not easy. There path was blocked and they had to go to the great effort of lowering him in through the roof — not unlike our ascetic practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
• Finally, note the very first thing Christ heals the paralytic from — his sins. In other words, sin (our separation from God) is the cause of all the world’s problems, diseases, etc.

In discussing the Epistle Reading (Hebrews 1:10-2:3), we focused primarily on St. Paul’s quotation of Psalm 109:1

Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.

and Hebrews 2:1

Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

The first part of Psalm 109:1 states, “The Lord said to my Lord” where the word “Lord” is a title for God. In other words, “God said to my God.” It is one of the explicit OT references to a Trinitarian existence within the Godhead. Thus, the Father is telling the Son these things. One of the verses for the Lauds sung next week (the Veneration of the Holy Cross) is this:

Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of His feet; for He is holy.

In other words, the Church understands that Christ’s footstool is the Cross. Therefore:

• That which we have heard is the Apostolic kerygma — Christ Crucified and Risen.
• We cannot escape crucifixion — without the Cross we cannot have the Resurrection.
• We are anticipating next Sunday (the Veneration of the Holy Cross).
• The easiest way to deny ourselves and pick up our Cross is to pray, fast and give alms (thus tying back to St. Gregory Palamas).

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Bible Study Notes: Sunday of Orthodoxy

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iconoclasm, Iconography, Icons, Kingdom of Heaven

It is the first week of Lent, which means that this Sunday is the Sunday of Orthodoxy — the celebration of the restoration of the icons to the Churches after the end of iconoclasm. This week’s Bible Study was small, short and focused on how the Epistle (Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40) and Gospel (John 1:44-51) Readings speak to the Orthodox Church’s understanding of icons.

We primarily focused on the last verses of each pericope:

And all these [holy ones of the OT], though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. — Heb. 11:39-40

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. — John 1:51

In order to truly appreciate how these two speak to each other, one much look to the Greek of St. John:

ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπ᾽ ἄρτι ὄψεσθε τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνεῳγότα, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναβαίνοντας καὶ καταβαίνοντας ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

A more literal translation looks like this:

Truly, truly I say to you: you will see heaven — the one that has opened — and the angels of God — the ones ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

Note the subtle difference in tense suggested by the participles. Nathaniel cannot see what already is; however, unlike the holy ones of the OT, for whom the heavens were closed because Christ had not yet become incarnate, Nathaniel is capable of seeing these things. He need only put away his attachment to earthly things (as suggested by his political understanding of Christ as merely the King of Israel), open his eyes and see the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven in Christ Himself.

The Orthodox Church understands icons as windows that allow us to glimpse what already is —  heaven is open and angels are descending and ascending upon the Son of man. The reality of the Kingdom of Heaven has entered into the world through our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ and is available in Him. We need only open our eyes to see. Amen.

Bible Study Notes: Forgiveness Sunday

Tags

fasting, forgiveness, Great Lent

This coming Sunday is the last Sunday before we begin Lent. It is called Forgiveness Sunday and we also commemorate Adam’s expulsion from Paradise. In other words we must have these things in mind when we read the Epistle (Romans 13:11-14; 141-4) and Gospel Readings (Matthew 6:14-21):

• All of the themes from the previous weeks since we’ve opened the Triodion: the humility of the Publican, the coming to oneself of the Prodigal Son, and the criteria that God will judge us at the Judgement Seat (“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” —Matthew 25:40)
• The casting out of Adam and Eve from paradise (the consequences of which we are still living with)
• Forgiveness
• The beginning of the Great Fast

The discussion on the Epistle this week centered around the fast and why we do it.

• It allows us to exercise our spiritual muscles by taking something very basic (food) and willingly choosing to deny ourselves those things which in the ancient world took a lot of time to prepare (meat, dairy, fish, oil and wine). By practicing saying “No” to these basic things, it makes us more able to deny ourselves with other aspects of our lives. Ultimately, it strengthens us for when we are tempted with our weaknesses.
• In modern times, the things that in the ancient world took so much time to prepare, take about the same amount of time (and in some cases less) than fast-friendly food. This extra time we are supposed to gain from fasting is to be used for prayer and reading Scripture. For us, this means that we need to find that time in other things than food preparation (TV, internet, etc.).
• Since everyone is on their own unique and unrepeatable path towards Christ, we cannot judge or condemn someone else’s path. For example, someone with diabetes is going to have to fast in a fundamentally different way than someone who is 100% healthy and a pregnant woman shouldn’t be fasting from food at all.
• Despite the fact fasting from meat etc. doesn’t have the same practical outcome that it did in the ancient world, we still maintain these as part of our fast. This is because we not only fast for ourselves, but we fast for others as well. When we choose to keep the fast, we are strengthening our fellow Orthodox Christians to do the same.
• In addition, we all get to practice obedience. We die to ourselves and place the wisdom of the Church (and thus Christ) above our own.

Our discussion of the Gospel Reading was more varied:

• It was pointed out that Christ’s lesson on forgiveness is in context of teaching the Lord’s Prayer. Indeed, the Gospel Reading for Cheesefare Saturday (the day prior to this Sunday) ends with the Lord’s Prayer.
• It was noted that the Gospel Reading teaches about the three basic aspects of our ascetic life during Great Lent: prayer (v. 14-15), fasting (v. 16-18) and almsgiving (v. 19-21).
• The root of the Greek word for “forgive” used by Christ (ἀφῆτε) means “to let go.” In other words, we have to let go of the past in order to move towards our future in the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do not let go of that past, we choose to live in that reality rather than the reality of the Kingdom. Thus,

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.

• A corollary of this is the ability to allow God to forgive us. We must let go of our own sins in order to move forward towards the Kingdom. We must acknowledge them, name them by confessing them, let them go and look forward to the chance to do better next time.
• Great Lent is a time for doing exactly this — it is an opportunity to turn towards God, letting go of sin, letting go of the past and looking forward to striving to better ourselves and get closer to God as Great Lent progresses. May we all take advantage of all our opportunities in this Lent. Amen.