Some Finals Thoughts and a New Beginning

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Psalm 1, Psalms, St. Athanasius, St. Hilary

This is the fourth year that I have posted everyday on the writings of one of the Fathers for the 40 days of the Nativity Fast. This is the first year that I really enjoyed myself. Not that I found Sts. Leo the Great, Gregory Palamas or Ambrose of Milan any less enlightening than St. Hilary of Poitiers, but, rather, I believe I have found a format that best suits me for doing a project like this. Going through every paragraph of St. Hilary’s Homily on the First Psalm and analyzing it made the discipline of writing every day less of a chore than my past attempts at this. Rather, it was something I was able to look forward to.

In addition, St. Hilary was enlightening, challenging and not a little surprising. His exegesis on judgement was not something I expected, but was a fresh (ironic word, I know, for something written almost 1600 years ago) and encouraging vision of Judgement Seat. Not to mention, he is on solid Scriptural ground when he makes his point.

The other dramatic interpretation that St. Hilary makes (and one I find very useful) is his insistence that the speaker of the Psalm is the Prophet and the person he is speaking to is us. The image of the blessed and happy man meditating upon the Law day and night contrasted with both the ungodly and the sinner is an excellent introduction to the Psalms.

Indeed, it is an encouragement for those of us who are sinners. For, what better way to introduce ourselves to the Law and the path of righteousness than by reading the Psaltery? I reiterate, according to the Orthodox Christian monastic rule, the entire Psaltery is read every week and during Great Lent it is read twice a week.

This repetition brings familiarity. And since, as St. Athanasius in his Letter to Marcellinus points out, the Psaltery has everything else that we find in the rest of Scripture: History, God’s commands and Prophecy. In addition (and this is not the first or last time I will use this quote), Athanasius states:

among all the books, the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with [other parts of Scripture], it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given.

In other words, it is very easy to see ourselves, our current situation and our emotions all within the Psaltery and within the framework of the rest of Scripture.

Thus, the Psaltery is one of our main tools when it comes to helping us meditate upon the Law day and night by making our entire life a prayer. If we constantly refer and compare our life to the Psalms, into which we can see ourselves, our situation and our emotional state, we are meditating upon the Law day and night. We step onto the path to become that blessed and happy man.

To that end, I will continue with this format and with St. Hilary, who has left us with homilies on Psalm 53(54) and Psalm 130 (131), although I will ease up on the pace. I realize this is the same promise I made last year (and failed to keep); however, I have found that this format is very easy for me to keep up with. Therefore, I feel confident that there will be at least one new post per week from me over the course of the next year.

I will begin with Psalm 130(131). It is one of the shorter Psalms in the Psaltery and therefore won’t overwhelm anyone (especially me). Besides, Psalm 53(54) is a good meditation for approaching Great Lent. Since we are about to embark upon a season of celebration, it felt out of place.

So, pray for me, pray that St. Hilary intercedes and may we all have a blessed Christmas. Amen.

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Conclusion

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Christmas, Eucharist, Image and Likeness, Psalm 1, St. Hilary, Worship

St. Hilary concludes his Homily on the First Psalm:

God certainly was not ignorant of the faith of Abraham, which He had already reckoned to him for righteousness when he believed about the birth of Isaac: but now because he had given a signal instance of his fear in offering his son, he is at last known, approved, rendered worthy of being not unknown. It is in this way then that God both knows and knows not—Adam the sinner is not known, and Abraham the faithful is known, is worthy, that is, of being known by God Who surely knows all things. The way of the righteous, therefore, who are not to be judged is known by God: and this is why sinners, who are to be judged, are set far from their counsel; while the ungodly shall not rise again to judgment, because their way has perished, and they have already been judged by Him Who said: ‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment unto the Son’ (John 5:22), our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Hilary’s use of the verb to know in terms of Abraham demonstrates that he is playing with various forms of the word and that this translation has been forced to strictly use the verb as to know in order to have it make any sense in English. God knew of Abraham prior to the incident in Genesis 22. God had made promises to Abraham. Having been the recipient of a promise, however, does not make one righteous. All we need do is look upon the history of the Hebrews to see how often God’s chosen people failed at being a righteous people. God knew (recognized) Abraham’s righteousness when the angel had to stay Abraham’s hand.

St. Hilary’s choice for examples here is interesting. Adam as the sinner recalls his role within creation — to tend and expand the garden. Abraham as the righteous is willing to sacrifice his son for the sake of the nations. Our Lord, God and Savior is both the Last Adam — He who fulfills Adam’s original purpose — and is the Son who is sacrificed for the salvation of the nations.

For those of us who are sinners and are on the path to having to face the judgement seat, the reality that Christ is the Last Adam, the Sacrificial Lamb and the Judge offers some amount of hope. It clearly demonstrates that it is not God’s intention to doom His creation to destruction, but rather that we be fulfilled in Him and that He is willing to go to the extreme of the humiliation and death of the Cross for each and every one of us, who (to continue to play with the verb to know) He knew of as God when He marched to Golgotha. If this were a worldly court of Law, Christ would have to recuse Himself because of a conflict of interest.

Indeed, Christ has given us every tool that we need in order to come out of the darkness and seek the path of righteousness. Everything that the Church offers — prayer, fasting, almsgiving, worship, sacrament, liturgy, the cloud of witnesses and (especially) His Body and His Blood — are ways for us to strive for the recognition by God as righteous. As indicated by the huge number of saints revealed to us, this recognition is far from impossible. Indeed, the miracles worked through the saints reveal that it is possible even while we still walk this earth in our fallen form.

However, as St. Hilary has striven to prove, it all comes down to us and our free will. This is a path that we must choose. As the Feast of the Nativity quickly approaches, we have an opportunity to step onto this path by putting away the pressures of the world to make this Great Feast about us, the presents we give, how many presents we receive and how awesome our feast day table is. Instead, let us all focus upon the meal that God has laid out upon His table and the great pains that He went through in order to give it to us.

Let us approach in awe as God, the Creator of all things, is held in the arms of a Virgin Girl named Mary; that through the reordering of all things she is His mother the Theotokos; and that when we approach and partake of this Great Feast set upon God’s Table — His Body and His Blood — that we, too, can not only be embraced by the Virgin Maid as the Body of Christ, but by the Father as His children. Amen.

Sacrifice

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Abraham, Adam, Faith, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues to play with and illustrate the verb to know:

Now God shews clearly in the cases of Adam and Abraham that He does not know sinners, but does know believers. For it was said to Adam when he had sinned: ‘Adam, where art thou?’ (Gen 3:9). Not because God knew not that the man whom He still had in the garden was there still, but to shew, by his being asked where he was, that he was unworthy of God’s knowledge by the fact of having sinned. But Abraham, after being for a long time unknown—the word of God came to him when he was seventy years of age—was, upon his proving himself faithful to the Lord, admitted to intimacy with God by the following act of high condescension: ‘Now I know that thou fearest the Lord thy God, and for My sake thou hast not spared thy dearly loved son’ (Gen 22:12).

To reiterate, the verb to know that St. Hilary is quoting from 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 is ἐπιγινωσκέτω which is more accurately translated as let him recognize. Thus, when He asks Adam where He is, it is not due to the fact that He does not know where He is, but rather that He no longer recognizes Him as a righteous man. Adam, having sinned, moved away from God — thus, God frames the question in terms of location.

In contrast, God knows (recognizes) in Abraham a truly deep faith because (like Himself) He is willing to sacrifice his only-begotten son by Sarah. It would be good also to examine here the verb to fear. At its root in Hebrew is the verb to tremble with a connotation of to feel reverence or to hold in respect.

In Greek, the root of the word terror is τέρας, which means monster; however, like the Hebrew, there is a connotation of wonder. The presence of the τέρας is always accompanied by an act of power, to which one has a sense of wonder and awe.

Thus, the fear that Abraham displays by being willing to sacrifice his son is born of a deep respect and honor of God, by whom Abraham is awed and is filled with wonder. Also implied is a great deal of trust. What God asks of him makes little sense, because Isaac has been promised to be the seed through which Abraham will father the nations and yet God asks for Isaac’s life.

Abraham so trusts, so honors and so respects God that he does not stay his hand until the intervention of an angel. What God does not allow Abraham do to — sacrifice his only-begotten for the sake of the nations — God Himself does in and through His Only-Begotten Son — our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, God recognizes in Abraham righteousness — a willingness to sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

Recognition

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judgement, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary now applies the comparison of Psalm 1:6 and 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 to the righteous:

Thus he shews that those are known of God who know the things of God: they are to come to be known when they know, that is, when they attain to the honour of being known through the merit of their known godliness, in order that the knowledge may be seen to be a growth on the part of him who is known, and not a growth on the part of one who knows not.

In others words (remembering our analysis of the word know from yesterday), the righteous spend their life becoming intimately familiar with God and His ways (they know God). As such, they can recognize God as He acts throughout His creation and His will for His creation. As such, (again, using the criteria of judgement chosen by the righteous) God will recognize them as righteous. Judgement, therefore will not to be necessary and they will attain the honor and glory set aside for them by God.

Knowledge

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Image and Likeness, judgement, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary now speaks of the distinction between the righteous, the sinner and the ungodly:

The source of this distinction lies in the following words: ‘For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.’ Sinners do not come near the counsel of the righteous for this reason, that the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Now He knows, not by an advance from ignorance to knowledge, but because He condescends to know. For there is no play of human emotions in God that He should know or not know anything. The blessed Apostle Paul declared how we were known of God when he said: ‘If any man among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are of the Lord: but if any man does not know, he is not known’ (1Cor 14:37-38).

The translation of St. Hilary that I have been using is from The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers edited by Philip Schaff in the 19th century. Thus, its use of English is a bit dated and its translation can also be a bit inaccurate. Such is the case with this last quotation by St. Hilary of 1 Corinthians 14:37-38. It is therefore good to look at the Greek original.

Specifically, I am interested in the three uses of the word know:

• In the first instance, the phrase let him take knowledge translates ἐπιγινωσκέτω which more accurately means let him recognize.
• In the second case, the phrase does not know translates ἀγνοεῖ which is more accurately translated as be ignorant.
• The same is true of the third case which uses the translation he is not known for ἀγνοεῖται which is more accurately translated as let him be ignorant.

All of these differ from the LXX Greek translation of the First Psalm which uses γινώσκει which is translated (the Lord) knows.

To be fair, the Greek word for knowledge (γνῶσις) is the root of all of these words. So, St. Hilary’s comparison is not as far fetched as it might at first appear. Thus, in translating all of this to English, Schaff et al. probably were interested in having a direct parallel between Psalm 1:6 and 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 rather than the indirect one used by St. Hilary because, whereas it works in Greek, it does not work at all in English.

For our purposes, however, using the more accurate understanding of the original Greek in 1 Corinthians is far more useful. To illustrate this, let us take a look at the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, specifically verses 44-46:

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.

The goats are ignorant of the image and likeness of God within their fellow human beings (the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the naked, the prisoner and the stranger) and therefore did not recognize Christ within them. Therefore, using the criteria of judgement that they have chosen — they refused to become knowledgable of God and therefore did not recognize Him — God will refuse to recognize them and they will go away to eternal punishment.

This, then, demonstrates St. Hilary’s comparison of Psalm 1:6 with 1 Corinthians 14:37-38. Sinners live in ignorance of God (do not know Him) because they love darkness instead of the light. Therefore, they do not recognize (know) the righteous and their counsel. In the end, God will not recognize them (know them) among the righteous and they will be judged.

Counsel of the Righteous

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Psalm 1, saints, St. Hilary

Having interpreted John 3:18-19, St. Hilary demonstrates how the Prophet in the First Psalm anticipates these words of Christ:

It is precisely the scheme and system thus laid down in the Gospel that the Prophet has followed, when he says: ‘Therefore the ungodly shall not rise again in the Judgement, nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous.’ He leaves no judgment for the ungodly, because they have been judged already; on the other hand, he has refused to sinners, who as we shewed in our former discourse are to be distinguished from the ungodly, the counsel of the righteous, because they are to be judged. For ungodliness causes the former to be judged beforehand, but sin keeps the latter to be judged hereafter. Thus ungodliness having already been judged is not admitted to the judgment of sinners, while again sinners, who, are yet to be judged, are deemed unworthy of enjoying the counsel of the righteous, who will not be judged.

To review:

• The righteous have no need to be judged (which is why the blessed and happy man seeks and has their counsel).
• The ungodly have already been judged, because of their refusal to allow God in their lives.
• The sinner (who I have called the ambiguous) love darkness. As a result, they will be judged. One of the reasons for this future is that they have chosen to reject the counsel of the righteous and are therefore unworthy of this counsel.

Thus, we are called to follow in the footsteps of the saints, who have been revealed to us as the righteous who have no need to be judged. If we take their counsel by reading about their lives, reading the words that they have left for us and then applying their words and actions to our own lives, we are choosing to be in the counsel of the righteous. As such, we live in hope of being counted among them.

Judgement

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judgement, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues his analysis of John 3:18-19:

These, then, are they whom the judgment awaits which unbelievers have already had passed upon them and believers do not need: because they have loved darkness more than light; not that they did not love the light too, but because their love of darkness is the more active. For when two loves are matched in rivalry, one always wins the preference; and their judgment arises from the fact that, though they loved Christ, they yet loved darkness more. These then will be judged; they are neither exempted from judgment like the godly, nor have they already been judged like the ungodly; but judgment awaits them for the love which they have deliberately preferred.

This, then, is a warning (and a hope): if we continue to be one of the ambiguous and love the darkness enough to regularly let it draw us away from Christ, we will be judged. There is hope, however. Christ came precisely to give us the tools and the strength to avoid the Judgement Seat.

If we dedicate our lives to Light and Truth, if we take advantage of the tools offered by Christ’s Church — worship, prayer, fasting, almsgiving and (especially) His Body and Blood — we begin down a path that leads us to be among the righteous. If we emulate the blessed and happy man of the First Psalm, we live in hope that our love of Light and Truth will guide us to a criteria of judgement we choose for others — forgiveness.

The Ambiguous

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death, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues his examination of John 3:18-19:

He that believes, says Christ, is not judged. And is there any need to judge a believer? Judgment arises out of ambiguity, and where ambiguity ceases, there is no call for trial and judgment. Hence not even unbelievers need be judged, because there is no doubt about their being unbelievers; but after exempting believers and unbelievers alike from judgment, the Lord added a case for judgment and human agents upon whom it must be exercised. For some there are who stand midway between the godly and the ungodly, having affinities to both, but strictly belonging to neither class, because they have come to be what they are by a combination of the two. They may not be assigned to the ranks of belief, because there is in them a certain infusion of unbelief; they may not be ranged with unbelief, because they are not without a certain portion of belief. For many are kept within the pale of the church by the fear of God; yet they are tempted all the while to worldly faults by the allurements of the world. They pray, because they are afraid; they sin, because it is their will. The fair hope of future life makes them call themselves Christians; the allurements of present pleasure make them act like heathen. They do not abide in ungodliness, because they hold the name of God in honour; they are not godly because they follow after things contrary to godliness. And they cannot help loving those things best which can never enable them to be what they call themselves, because their desire to do such works is stronger than their desire to be true to their name. And this is why the Lord, after saying that believers would not be judged and that unbelievers had been judged already, added that This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.

So, judgement is appropriate for cases of ambiguity — for those who do not find themselves firmly in the camp of the righteous or in the camp of the ungodly. Unfortunately, the ambiguity that St. Hilary describes applies to the vast majority of us.

We give honor to God and try to place Him at the center of our lives, but are in love with the allurements of the world that draw us away from God. This why gathering as the Church as often as possible was the norm in the ancient world — drawing near to God helps us overcome our failings, encourages us to allow God to give us strength to overcome and to rely on our fellow Christians to pick us up when we fall. Most importantly, it allows us to see the overwhelming love of God and His Church as a hospital where we go to be healed.

Note St. Hilary describes the ambiguous: they are afraid. It is akin to those of us who are ill with something serious, but we don’t know what it is. The symptoms are not quite what we should expect from normal colds or flus. Something tells us that this time it is serious. Yet, we are afraid to tell our doctor for fear of hearing how bad it really is. We will go for regular check-ups, for the routine illnesses, but we don’t tell our doctor about the symptom that really matters.

The irony is that knowing is so much better than not knowing — even when the news is really bad. I’ve seen this in cancer patients all the time — especially with things like aggressive brain cancer. Yes, the news is bad. Yes, the disease is likely going to kill you (sometimes in months or weeks). However, the knowledge of what it is allows the cancer patient to decide what to do next. Instead of being reactive — worrying about what this strange symptom is — the cancer patient can be pro-active. They get to focus on what is next and they get to choose on how to proceed: chemo? hospice? travel while there is still strength? take care of all the little things left undone? repair relationships left fallow for years? The knowledge of having cancer is actually empowering.

So, too, is it with a relationship with God. When we come to understand the affliction that we are under — sin and death — and come to terms with it, it empowers us to be proactive. God offers us the tools with which to fight the affliction, to give us the strength to power through and (ultimately) to overcome.

Cancer patients (even those who refuse treatment) learn to live in hope. They hope for one more day to see and do all the things that they need to do. So, too, can we the ambiguous. What is wonderful is that our hope is Christ.

Stumbling Stones

Tags

exegesis, Holy Spirit, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary now begins an analysis of John 3:18-19:

The terms of this utterance of the Lord are disturbing to inattentive hearers and careless, hasty readers. For by saying: ‘He that believeth on Me shall not be judged,’ He exempts believers, and by adding: ‘But he that believeth not hath been judged already,’ He excludes unbelievers, from judgment. If, then, He has thus exempted believers and debarred unbelievers, allowing the chance of judgment neither to one class nor the other, how can He be considered consistent when he adds thirdly: ‘And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light?’ For there can apparently be no place left for judgment, since neither believers nor unbelievers are to be judged. Such no doubt will be the conclusion drawn by inattentive hearers and hasty readers. The utterance, however, has an appropriate meaning and a rational interpretation of its own.

St. Hilary reminds us that Scripture cannot be understood if we do not spend time with it. A hasty reading will inevitably result in a careless understanding which will lead to error.

When I was in seminary, one of my professors would use an analogy to describe a healthy means of studying Scripture. In Raesfeld, Germany sidewalks have what are known as stumbling stones — brass bricks offset from the sidewalk so that when anyone walks over them, the walker is forced to look down and see them. Thus they are encouraged to look down at the names of holocaust victims inscribed in each brass brick.

When we read Scripture, there will be things that catch our attention — things that are beautiful, that excite us, that confuse, that make us angry, that trouble us or a slew of different reactions and emotions. When this happens, it is akin to those stumbling stones. The Holy Spirit is reaching out and tripping us, forcing us to look down at a particular verse or phrase or word. It is these things that we, therefore, should pay attention to because the Holy Spirit is leading us to dig deeper.

Such is the case here with John 3:18-19. As St. Hilary points out, there is an apparent contradiction. One one hand, there is no judgement for either the righteous or the ungodly. There is no need to judge the righteous and the ungodly have already been judged. So why does Christ go on to talk about judgment as light in a world where men loved darkness?

The Holy Spirit has reached out, tripped us and forced us to look down. We must now dig deeper.

The Judgement Seat

Tags

Image and Likeness, judgement, Lord's Prayer, Psalm 1, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues his meditation upon the punishment of the ungodly:

And the Prophet, seeing that the change of their solid substance into dust will deprive them of all share in the boon of fruit to be bestowed upon the happy man in season by the tree, has accordingly added: Therefore the ungodly shall not rise again in the Judgment. The fact that they shall not rise again does not convey sentence of annihilation upon these men, for indeed they will exist as dust; it is the resurrection to Judgment that is denied them. Non-existence will not enable them to miss the pain of punishment; for while that which will be non-existent would escape punishment, they, on the other hand, will exist to be punished, for they will be dust. Now to become dust, whether by being dried to dust or ground to dust, involves not loss of the state of existence, but a change of state. But the fact that they will not rise again to Judgment makes it clear that they have lost, not the power to rise, but the privilege of rising to Judgment. Now what we are to understand by the privilege of rising again and being judged is declared by the Lord in the Gospels where He says: He that believeth on Me is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light (John 3:18, 19).

This paragraph is another example of why I love reading the Fathers. This paragraph is fascinating (and not a little challenging).

Orthodox Christianity insists that there will be a general resurrection — regardless of who you are, what faith you espoused or what you did in this life you will rise from the dead at the second coming of Christ to come before the Judgment Seat. We see this in Matthew 25 with the parable of the sheep and the goats.

So what St. Hilary describes here seems to fly in the face of this Orthodox teaching, and yet, it, too, is based upon Christian dogma and Scripture (see yesterday’s post). The key to understanding the apparent contradiction is found in St. Hilary’s quotation of John 3:18-19:

He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Note how judgement is referred to in the past tense. Those who believe are not condemned. Those who do not believe have already been condemned.

In other words, this is another example of God working with our free will. When we face the Judgement Seat, we will be judged, not by the standards that have been dictated from on high, but rather by our own criteria. If we forgive, so shall we be forgiven.

Thus, when the ungodly face the Judgement Seat (having denied God as the source of life) then they have condemned themselves to becoming dust — to living with the ultimate consequence of denying God in their lives.

Note that in the Divine Liturgy, the faithful are exhorted to dare call the heavenly God Father with confidence and without fear of condemnation as they proclaim:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Pay attention to that third line. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking for the Second Coming of Christ. Also note how we ask God to use our own criteria at the Judgement Seat — forgive us as we forgive others.

In other words, (if we are living a life like the blessed man of Psalm 1) we should not fear the Judgement Seat, but rather welcome it.