The Father Makes Known His Son

'Simon Peter said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here!" What on earth are you saying, Peter? If we stay here who will bring to pass the prophecies of the prophets? Who will confirm the words of the heralds? Who will bring to completion the mysteries of the righteous? If we stay here, in whom will these words be fulfilled: "They pierced my hands and my feet"? To whom will the following be applied: "They shared my garments among them, cast lots for my robe"? (Ps 22[21], 17,19; Jn 19,24). Who will bring to pass the declaration of the Psalm: "For food they gave me poison and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink"? (69[68],22; Mt 27,34; Jn 19,29). Who will live out the statement: "Freed among the dead"? (Ps 87,6 Heb.) How will my promises be carried into effect, how will my Church be built?

And again Peter said: "Let us make here three tents : one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah". Sent to build the Church in the world, Peter wants to set up three tents on the mountain. As yet he only sees Christ as a man, he sets him on a level with Moses and Elijah. But Jesus will very soon show him he has no need of a tent. He was the one who, for forty years, set up a covering of cloud for the Fathers while they were dwelling in the wilderness (Ex 40,34).

"But while they were still speaking a bright cloud covered them with its shadow". Now, Simon, do you see this tent set up so effortlessly? This bright and shining tent dispels the heat without consisting of darkness! While the disciples still stood amazed, the Father's voice was heard from the cloud: "This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom is all my delight; listen to him!"... The Father was teaching the disciples that Moses' mission had been fulfilled: from now on they must listen to the Son . On the mountain the Father revealed to the apostles what was still hidden from them: "He who is" reveals "He who is" (Ex 3,14), the Father makes known his Son.'

-Saint Ephrem the Syrian

New Design

I've given in.

I've finally decided to upgrade my blog and give it a new style. This was prompted by my old comment provider, Echo, hiking up the prices of their services. Well, thanks to free market capitalism, I went elsewhere. I now have a new comment provider (which looks to be much better, anyways, and best of all free!), Disqus.

In the process of changing the design, I've also discovered that my blog roll provider is no longer in service! So, it is going to be a while before I have that back up and running.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the design. And yes, to my three readers, I hope to be blogging more frequently in the near future.

Judas And Social Justice

 “What our Lord says to Judas, he says to the world today: You seemingly are very interested in social justice. Why are you not concerned about individual justice? You love your neighbor, why do you not love God? This is the attitude of the world today. We have swung away from a period in which we were concerned with individual sanctification to the neglect of the social order.  Now we have gone to the extreme of being immersed with social justice, civil rights, and so forth, and we are not the least bit concerned about individual justice and the duty of paying honor and glory to God. If you march with a banner, if you protest, then your individual life may be impure, alcoholic, anything you please. That does not matter. Judas is the patron saint of those who divide that universal law of God: Love God and love neighbor.”

-Fulton J. Sheen

Blessings And Curses

Dr. John Bergsma over at The Sacred Page has a great post on today's readings about how the Sermon on the Mount resembles Old Testament covenant documents, such as the book of Deuteronomy. Go check it out!

Why We Need Augustine

“If we need Aristotle, I think, we need Augustine more. Augustine was human enough, brilliant enough to realize that Plato’s search for a true public order, which corresponded to our inner order and to the good, was not an unworthy one. Augustine freed us, moreover, by insisting that this search that, if we be human, we discover in our restless hearts, after we have met both Ramiro de Lorqua and the pursuit of happiness in this world, has its proper and final answer as a gift from God, after the completion of our very lives among the existing cities. Augustine remains someone to whom we can turn. We are probably lucky if, in our studies, in our workings, we learned not to reject prayer and fasting, let alone Augustine.”

-James V. Schall, Another Sort of Learning

When Was The First Epistle Of Clement Written?

I hold in my hands a book whose publication I have been waiting for in anxious anticipation for some time now. That book is Clement and the Early Church of Rome: On the Dating of Clement’s First Epistle to the Corinthians by Msgr. Thomas J. Herron. Msgr. Herron, who worked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, originally wrote this book as his doctoral dissertation at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome back in 1988. This book is truly groundbreaking as Herron persuasively argues for a pre-70 A.D. dating of First Clement. One of the key arguments is the polemic against the Jerusalem Temple, which Clement speaks against as though it were still standing. Had the Temple already been destroyed (which it would have been based on the traditional 96 A.D. dating), that would have furthered Clement’s argument for the superiority of Christianity over and against Judaism. Yet, Clement never even alludes to the destruction of the Temple. Herron’s thesis has many theological and ecclesiastical implications, most notably: the early existence of a normative presbyterate (priesthood) and Roman primacy. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Apostolic Fathers or Church History in general.  

A Tertullian Resolution For The New Year

The New Year of 2011 is well on its way! For those who are still searching for a New Year’s resolution, you may consider a suggestion from the Father of the Church, Tertullian: Patience. 

Why not? Patience IS indeed a virtue and an important one at that. Certainly we all could use a little bit more of it in our lives (especially those, like myself, with two children (soon to be three) at the age of three and under!) to help us grow in our spiritual life. Here’s what Tertullian has to say about the subject:

“Patience outfits faith, guides peace, assists love, equips humility, waits for penitence, seals confession, keeps the flesh in check, preserves the spirit, bridles the tongue, restrains the hands, tramples temptation underfoot, removes what causes us to stumble, brings martyrdom to perfection; it lightens the care of the poor, teaches moderation to the rich, lifts the burdens of the sick, delights the believer, welcomes the unbeliever, commends the servant to his master and his master to God, adorns the women and gives grace to men; patience is loved in children, praised in youth, admired in the elderly. It is beautiful in either sex and at every age of life…Her countenance is tranquil and peaceful, her brow serene…Patience sits on the throne of the most gentle and peaceful Spirit…For where God is there is his progeny, patience. When God’s Spirit descends patience is always at his side.”

-On Patience

Another great idea for the New Year would be to spend each day with the Fathers of the Church. I know of a perfect way to do such a thing!

And Now A Lesson In Eisegesis

A New Testament scholar is proposing the idea that one (or more) of the Magi was a woman!

This just goes to show that you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to. Hence the necessity for an authoritative guide in its interpretation. The irony is that the scholar advancing the theory is a Catholic (not that the Magisterium has spoken authoritatively on the gender of the Magi--who would have thought it would need to?!) The last line of the article suggests that the scholar's ex-(eis)-egesis is influenced by ecumenism. I didn't know that women were a separate denomination!

Christian Truth

As this season of Advent draws near to a close and we eagerly await the coming of Truth Incarnate, Our Lord Jesus Christ, I give to you this beautiful quote of St. Augustine:

"Incomparably more lovely than the Grecian Helen is Christian truth. In her defense, our martyrs have fought against Sodom with more courage than the heroes of Greece displayed against Troy for Helen's sake."

-St. Augustine, Epistula 40.7

Something To Think About This Advent