bearing blog

The Christian life (100-150 AD).

Lest you think, based on the previous post, that everything posted at the Holy Whapping is silly, check out this wonderful post from Drew that highlights a contemporary (that is, a second-century) description of the similarities and differences between the lives of the early Christians and the lives of their fellows.

Oldest living institution.

Yesterday a friend asked me, "Is it true what I heard the other day, that the Catholic Church is the oldest still-running human institution?" I said yes --- yeah, there's older religions, but you can't say that any of them are institutions per se.  If the Temple in Israel was still standing, you'd have one, but it's not.

I thought of that today when Amy Welborn highlighted an article about the Didache, an important teaching document of the early Church.  Some parts of this document might date to as early as 48 A. D. --- the parts about liturgy --- and most scholars date it between 60 AD and 110 AD.  I wrote a post about it  last year, when I was working through some of the early Church documents.   

The entire Didache may be read here.  It's quite short.  Among other things it presents a picture of liturgy in the early Church.  An older Christian who was attending Masses and baptisms when the Didache was set down to describe them, might have been the child that Jesus drew onto his lap in the Gospel:  after all, the latest estimated date of the Didache is only 71 years after the Crucifixion, and parts of it might only date to 19 years after the Crucifixion.  That liturgy is still recognizable today in the Mass.   We are today the same body who produced that document, and the style and the flavor is as present to me now as that I would sense in a pastoral letter promulgated yesterday.

Open up that Amazon Wish List.

Mike Aquilina lists his Top 20 books about the early Church.

Classroom simulation.

"Mrs. Anonymous Teacherperson," religion teacher in a Catholic high school, describes a creative classroom simulation to drive home the importance of the "which gospels are canonical" question.

Amy Welborn in Rome.

This week Amy Welborn is trying to give a flavor of her recent visit to Rome with her husband and kids.  It's all good --- go to her blog and read some of the entries.  They're not just a travelogue, but commentary on pilgrimage, and also some great posts on traveling with a teen, a toddler, and a baby. 

Here's a link to one about the Coliseum, and another to one about the Capuchin Crypt, which reminds me how much I love all that is, well, corporeal about Catholicism.

Cyril of Jerusalem.

Part of a series.

Cyril of Jerusalem (315-386) wrote around 347 a series of Catecheses for adults preparing to be received into the Church.   The whole series of Catecheses is very interesting to read.  What caught my eye was the description and instruction in the Liturgy of the Eucharist at Mass that appears in Lecture 23.

It begins with a description of the rite of hand-washing, then the kiss or sign of peace, then the familiar call and response:  "Let us give thanks unto the Lord,"  "It is meet and right."  (Today in English we respond "It is right to give him thanks and praise.")    The "Holy, Holy, Holy" hymn is sung. 

Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual Hymns, we beseech the merciful God to send forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before Him; that He may make the Bread the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ; for whatsoever the Holy Ghost has touched, is surely sanctified and changed.

Prayers are said, again following a familiar pattern:

for the common peace of the Churches, for the welfare of the world; for kings; for soldiers and allies; for the sick; for the afflicted; and, in a word, for all who stand in need of succour we all pray and offer this sacrifice.

Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition. Then on behalf also of the Holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is set forth.

The "Our Father" follows.  Cyril expounds at length on each petition of that "Prayer which the Saviour delivered to His own disciples."  Then Communion:

After this ye hear the chanter inviting you with a sacred melody to the communion of the Holy Mysteries, and saying, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Trust not the judgment to thy bodily palate no, but to faith unfaltering; for they who taste are bidden to taste, not bread and wine, but the anti-typical Body and Blood of Christ.

In approaching therefore, come not with thy wrists extended, or thy fingers spread; but make thy left hand a throne for the right, as for that which is to receive a King. And having hollowed thy palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen. So then after having carefully hollowed thine eyes by the touch of the Holy Body, partake of it; giving heed lest thou lose any portion thereof; for whatever thou losest, is evidently a loss to thee as it were from one of thine own members. For tell me, if any one gave thee grains of gold, wouldest thou not hold them with all carefulness, being on thy guard against losing any of them, and suffering loss? Wilt thou not then much more carefully keep watch, that not a crumb fall from thee of what is more precious than gold and precious stones?

Then after thou hast partaken of the Body of Christ, draw near also to the Cup of His Blood; not stretching forth thine hands, but bending, and saying with an air of worship and reverence, Amen, hallow thyself by partaking also of the Blood of Christ. And while the moisture is still upon thy lips, touch it with thine hands, and hallow thine eyes and brow and the other organs of sense. Then wait for the prayer, and give thanks unto God, who hath accounted thee worthy of so great mysteries.

It is almost astonishing to see how little the Mass, with the underlying beliefs in it, has changed in the 1,658 years that separate us from Cyril's pen.   So much is the same, in the crucial core of the Eucharist, that almost any Catholic can respond with confidence and gratitude to Cyril's closing admonition:

Hold fast these traditions undefiled and, keep yourselves free from offence. Sever not yourselves from the Communion; deprive not yourselves, through the pollution of sins, of these Holy and Spiritual Mysteries.

We are not severed, and we do hold these traditions fast.  At least, what's good enough for 347 is good enough for me.

And the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:--To whom be glory and honour and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.

St. John Chrysostom.

Part of a series.

"I can worship God better outside in nature than in a building."

I have heard that line before, spoken by non-churchgoing folks.  It has never struck me as a good excuse (not that anyone owes me an excuse); indoor worship doesn't exclude outdoor worship, and I wonder how much worshipping the speaker does outdoors at all.  Why not just say "No, I don't go to church, I don't like it?"  At least it would be honest.

Today's one-sentence selection tells why community worship is an important part of a balanced spiritual diet.

You cannot pray at home as at church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.

The writer is John Chrysostom (347-407), whose nickname ("Golden-Mouthed") reflects his reputation as a brilliant public speaker and preacher.   He wrote prolifically, and I hope to excerpt some more of his work.

The sentence doesn't denigrate the prayers offered in the home, alone or among family.  Family and private prayer in the home is good.  But it does point out two special qualities of worship in church.  Neither is conferred by the building.

The first quality is rooted in the people gathered there for the purpose of worship.  That gathering is an act of worship in and of itself, because it exists solely as a worship community (unlike the family or the indvidual).

The second quality comes from the ordained priests, who ordinarily preside at worship in church and are absent from private or family worship.  As this passage demonstrates, the Church has always understood the ordained priest as a special representative.   He "has something to offer" that most of the Christians do not, by virtue of his office and the sacrament of Orders he has received.   

Private prayer is valuable; but corporate worship and sacramental worship are needed, too.

Lactantius.

Part of a series.

Lactantius (260-340), professor of rhetoric, converted during the persecutions.  He has been called the "Christian Cicero."

Today's piece is from Chapter II of his Of the Manner In Which the Persecutors Died.  It is a sort of summary of the beginnings of the Christian church, plus a description of contemporary speculation about the fate of Nero.

In the latter days of the Emperor Tiberius, in the consulship of Ruberius Geminus and Fufius Geminus, and on the tenth of the kalends of April, as I find it written, Jesus Christ was crucified by the Jews.

After He had risen again on the third day, He gathered together His apostles, whom fear, at the time of His being laid hold on, had put to flight; and while He sojourned with them forty days, He opened their hearts, interpreted to them the Scripture, which hitherto had been wrapped up in obscurity, ordained and fitted them for the preaching of His word and doctrine, and regulated all things concerning the institutions of the New Testament; and this having been accomplished, a cloud and whirlwind enveloped Him, and caught Him up from the sight of men unto heaven.

His apostles were at that time eleven in number, to whom were added Matthias, in the room of the traitor Judas, and afterwards Paul. Then were they dispersed throughout all the earth to preach the Gospel, as the Lord their Master had commanded them; and during twenty-five years, and until the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Nero, they occupied themselves in laying the foundations of the Church in every province and city.

And while Nero reigned, the Apostle Peter came to Rome, and, through the power of God committed unto him, wrought certain miracles, and, by turning many to the true religion, built up a faithful and stedfast temple unto the Lord. When Nero heard of those things, and observed that not only in Rome, but in every other place, a great multitude revolted daily from the worship of idols, and, condemning their old ways, went over to the new religion, he, an execrable and pernicious tyrant, sprung forward to raze the heavenly temple and destroy the true faith.

He it was who first persecuted the servants of God; he crucified Peter, and slew Paul: nor did he escape with impunity; for God looked on the affliction of His people; and therefore the tyrant, bereaved of authority, and precipitated from the height of empire, suddenly disappeared, and even the burial-place of that noxious wild beast was nowhere to be seen.

This has led some persons of extravagant imagination to suppose that, having been conveyed to a distant region, he is still reserved alive; and to him they apply the Sibylline verses concerning "The fugitive, who slew his own mother, being to come from the uttermost boundaries of the earth;" as if he who was the first should also be the last persecutor, and thus prove the forerunner of Antichrist!

But we ought not to believe those who, affirming that the two prophets Enoch and Elias have been translated into some remote place that they might attend our Lord when He shall come to judgment, also fancy that Nero is to appear hereafter as the forerunner of the devil, when he shall come to lay waste the earth and overthrow mankind.

So some people thought that Nero was sort of miraculously preserved, and would return as the Antichrist!  That lends some credence to the idea that the "number of the beast" is meant to be code for the emperor Nero. 

Not everyone believes today that Peter came to Rome and was martyred there.   But the early Church did, as recorded by the early Christian writers; Lactantius is only one example.   He's only a few generations removed from Peter and the other apostles.  Why not rely on this oral tradition?

Justin Martyr.

Part of a series.

Justin Martyr (100-165) is also called Justin the Philosopher, at least by Encyclopedia.com, and if you scan through the several works that are reliably attributed to him, as well as others that are plausible but not certainly his, it is easy to see why.  His work is full of references to Greek culture, mythology, and literature.

The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Justin Martyr the best-authenticated Christian writer of the second century. 

Here's a bit from Chapters 109 and 110 of the Dialogue with Trypho,   in which Justin quotes Micah 4:1-7 and then explains it.

This is as follows:

"And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the mountains; it shall be exalted above the hills, arid people shall flow unto it.

"And many nations shall go, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and they shall enlighten us in His way, and we shall walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

"And He shall judge among many peoples, and shall rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

"And each man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree; and there shall be none to terrify: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will assemble her that is afflicted, and gather her that is driven out, and whom I had plagued;

and I shall make her that is afflicted a remnant, and her that is oppressed a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, and even for ever."

And when I had finished these words, I continued: "Now I am aware that your teachers, sirs, admit the whole of the words of this passage to refer to Christ; and I am likewise aware that they maintain He has not yet come; or if they say that He has come, they assert that it is not known who He is; but when He shall become manifest and glorious, then it shall be known who He is. And then, they say, the events mentioned in this passage shall happen, just as if there was no fruit as yet from the words of the prophecy.

O unreasoning men! understanding not what has been proved by all these passages, that two advents of Christ have been announced: the one, in which He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified;

but the other, in which He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of Jacob and God of Israel;

and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,--our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage,--and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified;

and sitting each under his vine, i.e., each man possessing his own married wife. For you are aware that the prophetic word says, 'And his wife shall be like a fruitful vine.

Justin's point:  Prophecies of the Messiah that point to a coming into glory are not inconsistent with the ignoble death of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, because a second advent is expected.  The prophecy of swords and ploughshares and so on has already come to pass, because already in the mid-second century, people of multiple nations --- including those historically at war --- have heard the Good News and come to believe, becoming unified in Christ.

Here comes a passage that moves me.

Now it is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us who have believed in Jesus over all the world. For it is plain that, though beheaded, and crucified, and thrown to wild beasts, and chains, and fire, and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession; but the more such things happen, the more do others and in larger numbers become faithful, and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus.

It's true:  the persecutions of the early Church were great, and they began with the Apostles themselves.   All met ugly deaths at the hands of people who hated their message.

It would not be truthful to say that I converted because of the witness of the martyrs --- I did not learn about them until much later --- but truly, no other body of facts strengthens my faith more in times of doubt than the historical knowledge of what happened to Peter (crucified under Nero), Andrew (crucified), James son of Zebedee (killed by Herod Agrippa I), Jude Thaddeus (martyred in Persia), Philip (martyred in Phrygia), Bartholomew a.k.a. Nathanael (flayed in Armenia), Paul (beheaded at Rome), etc.   Going to your death because you insist that your story is true is, in my opinion, a pretty strong argument against your having made it up, no matter what the reason is for your alleged fabrication.

Justin seems to think that Christianity's survival of the martyrdoms is also evidence of Divine blessing.

For Just as if one should cut away the fruit-bearing parts of a vine, it grows up again, and yields other branches flourishing and fruitful; even so the same thing happens with us. For the vine planted by God and Christ the Saviour is His people.

But the rest of the prophecy shall be fulfilled at His second coming. For the expression, 'He that is afflicted [and driven out],' i.e., from the world, [implies] that, so far as you and all other men have it in your power, each Christian has been driven out not only from his own property, but even from the whole world; for you permit no Christian to live. But you say that the same fate has befallen your own nation. Now, if you have been cast out after defeat in battle, you have suffered such treatment justly indeed, as all the Scriptures bear witness; but we, though we have done no such [evil acts] after we knew the truth of God, are testified to by God, that, together with the most righteous, and only spotless and sinless Christ, we are taken away out of the earth. For Isaiah cries, 'Behold how the righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and righteous men are taken away, and no man considers it.'

In case you didn't guess from the name, Justin was martyred too.  Marcus Aurelius's handiwork.

Tertullian vs. C. S. Lewis.

Part of a series.

Today I wonder:  Is it better for Christians to emphasize that God is exceedingly merciful and generous and might allow everyone to be saved, or is it better for us to emphasize that the only way we know to salvation is narrow?

I've been going roughly from earlier to later writers in this series on the early Christians, but I'm jumping ahead to Tertullian (160-230) today, because I came across a passage just this afternoon I wanted to discuss.   From his On the Resurrection of the Flesh:

Now such remarks have I wished to advance in defence of the flesh, from a general view of the condition of our human nature. Let us now consider its special relation to Christianity, and see how vast a privilege before God has been conferred on this poor and worthless substance.

It would suffice to say, indeed, that there is not a soul that can at all procure salvation, except it believe whilst it is in the flesh, so true is it that the flesh is the very condition on which salvation hinges. And since the soul is, in consequence of its salvation, chosen to the service of God, it is the flesh which actually renders it capable of such service.

The flesh, indeed, is washed, in order that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated; the flesh is signed (with the cross), that the soul too may be fortified; the flesh is shadowed with the imposition of hands, that the soul also maybe illuminated by the Spirit; the flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul likewise may fatten on its God. They cannot then be separated in their recompense, when they are united in their service.

Those sacrifices, moreover, which are acceptable to God --- I mean conflicts of the soul, fastings, and abstinences, and the humiliations which are annexed to such duty --- it is the flesh which performs again and again to its own especial suffering. Virginity, likewise, and widowhood, and the modest restraint in secret on the marriage-bed, and the one only adoption of it, are fragrant offerings to God paid out of the good services of the flesh.

Lovely bit of writing, isn't it?  Well, what caught my eye (technically, ear, since I heard it on Mark Shea's bit on Relevant Radio) today was the bit I've highlighted in bold/underline. 

The reason I took notice of it is that I just finished re-reading, for probably the fifth or sixth time, C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.   In this short work, a narrator "dreams" that he accompanies a tour bus ride out of a dreary Hell into the foothills of Heaven. There blessed spirits come to meet the grumbling, suspicious travelers and attempt (mostly unsuccessfully) to convince them to stay and journey deeper into Heaven with them. 

Lewis's main point is really that Hell is something we actively choose rather than something chosen for us.  Still, this and other works make it clear that he considered it possible that God gives souls a chance to choose after death.  Tertullian, on the other hand, emphatically insists that we must make our choice "whilst in the flesh."  And so did most Christian writers throughout history, if I'm not mistaken.  But Lewis isn't the only one I've heard venture a guess:  maybe we get a chance after death, when everything is much clearer.

I think we all want to believe in, and speak about, a God who gives humans every imaginable chance of salvation.  I know I want to believe in that myself!  It is so very hard to love a God who seems capricious and punitive.  And it is so hard to convince unbelievers that a God of that sort is worth believing in.  We want to paint Him in the best possible light.  And we want to paint ourselves and our Church in the best light too:  If we say our God might not accept this person as he thinks and behaves, then we fear we will be seen as not accepting the same person.  So for these and other reasons, we project the most generous conditions of salvation that we can out to the world.

So, take this simple formula as an example:  Outside the Church there is no salvation.    Well, that used to mean something quite straightforward:  You've gotta be a baptized Christian, preferably a Catholic, to make it to heaven!  Nowadays we don't say that.  We say things like:  Well, we don't know for sure that you have to be explicitly a member of the Church to be saved.  All we know is that salvation comes through the Church; if you are saved it is due to the saving work of Jesus Christ through the Church, whether you know it or not.  God can save whoever he wants, after all. 

This sounds good.  It makes God sound nicer than the old interpretation did.  I hope that it leads more people to feel a welcome that leads them to become believers.

Still, though, might it be safer to believe that the gates of salvation are narrower than that?  I am not sure.   We have actual promises of Christ in the Gospels that if we participate in the life of the Church as faithful members, we will be saved.  There  are no other kinds of promises.  The possibility that non-Christians can be saved somehow is left open, yes.  But there are no other kinds of promises. 

I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.   (John 3:5)

I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  (John 6:53)

Tough call.  When you get down to it, all kinds of possibilities are open, but we only know of one Way that is certain.

And it's a tough call, too, when it comes to that whole "can-you-choose-after-death" question, the one that Lewis struggles with in TGD.  I heard a priest speculating in a homily once --- to his credit, he did make it clear that it was only speculation --- that perhaps we all get a moment of perfect clarity in the instant after our deaths, and it is with that perfect clarity that we are given the moment to choose God or not-God.  He wanted to believe in a God that would give everyone equal opportunity to say Yes or No. 

Lewis didn't come up with the main idea in TGD; the refrigerium, or excursion from Hell, is an old idea.  And he tries to reconcile Protestant and Catholic notions to it, uniting it with ideas of Purgatory and even of predestination, by appealing to the idea that in eternity a particular moment "contains all moments," all choices.  But in any case, Lewis's vision is far more liberal than Tertullian's.  If Lewis is right, then we have a chance to move the pieces after the game is over; if Tertullian is right, we do not.  Yet Lewis is likely to convert more people of the modern mindset; does Tertullian have any appeal at all anymore?

What is the solution?  Maybe it is simply that we project the generous version of events to the world, and then hold ourselves and each other --- all of us already within the Church --- to the higher standard.  Bait-and-switch?  I don't know.   But once we become aware of the kinds of demands that Jesus makes of us in the Gospels, and once we believe He is who He says He is, can we really take any chances?